Trump pardons Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery – US politics reside

US inventory index futures jumped on Tuesday after president Donald Trump rolled again his menace of steep tariffs towards the EU and tensions between the USA and the European bloc cooled as merchants returned after the Memorial Day break.

On Sunday, Trump backed off from his menace to impose 50% tariffs on EU imports subsequent month, restoring a 9 July deadline to permit for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc to provide a deal, Reuters reported.

He had mentioned on Friday that he was recommending a 50% tariff efficient June 1, expressing frustration that commerce negotiations with the EU weren’t shifting rapidly sufficient.

“However, we’re still in the dark as to whether talks will lead anywhere, despite EU preference of a deal over escalation,” Rabobank analysts mentioned in a observe.

Asian and European markets have been blended after rising on Monday, though strikes in US property have been extra pronounced as merchants returned after the lengthy weekend.

The US’ Golden Dome challenge undermines the foundations of strategic stability because it includes the creation of a worldwide missile defence system, Russian international ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova mentioned on Tuesday.

The $175-billion challenge, proposed by US president Donald Trump, is geared toward blocking threats from China and Russia.

Moscow and Washington are additionally persevering with to work on one other prisoner swap between their two international locations, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov mentioned on Tuesday.

Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin mentioned a doable prisoner trade involving 9 folks from all sides throughout a cellphone name final week.

Holidaymakers in international locations hit the toughest by Donald Trump’s commerce tariffs are taking the US off their record for journeys overseas, in line with on-line journey reserving information.

Findings from the resort search web site Trivago additionally counsel that UK and US travellers are more and more selecting home holidays amid issues over an unsure financial system.

The corporate has seen double-digit proportion declines in bookings to the US from travellers based mostly in Japan, Canada and Mexico. The latter two international locations have been the primary on Trump’s tariff hitlist when he introduced tariffs of 25% on 1 February.

Canadians specifically have been incensed at Trump’s repeated strategies that its northern neighbour could be higher off annexed because the 51st state of the US.

In keeping with Trivago’s findings, which have been shared with PA Media, demand amongst Germans was additionally “down heavily”, with resort bookings within the US exhibiting a single-digit proportion decline.

Germany is the biggest financial system within the EU, which Trump has repeatedly threatened with elevated tariffs, most just lately saying on Sunday he had “paused” a 50% tax he meant to introduce subsequent month.

Donald Trump honored the sacrifices of US navy veterans within the conventional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington nationwide cemetery, but in addition peppered his tackle on Monday with partisan political asides whereas speaking up his personal plans and achievements.

The US president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen troopers and gave accounts of battlefield braveness as custom dictates, from ready remarks, after saluting alongside his vice-president, JD Vance and protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, who each served in Iraq.

However Trump additionally veered off into rally-style private boasting and temporary partisan assaults in the course of the solemn occasion.

“Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. That valor gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth,” he mentioned of these killed in navy service.

Then he went on: “A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through.”

The president continued with an anti-immigration assertion that chimes with his agenda, although with out instantly mentioning his predecessor, Democratic president Joe Biden who served between Trump’s first time period and the Republican’s return to the White Home this January.

“Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked. People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss,” Trump mentioned.

It was a nod to his Reality Social platform on Monday morning the place he posted a tirade towards judges who maintain up his deportation goals, mainly due to his ignoring due course of obligations, as “monsters” and once more attacked undocumented immigrants, utilizing sweeping disparagements.

Hiya and welcome to the US politics reside weblog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I can be bringing you all the most recent information strains over the approaching hours.

We begin with the information that Donald Trump has issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted final yr of federal bribery prices.

Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report back to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal jail.

Jenkins was convicted by a jury in December 2024 for accepting greater than $75,000 in bribes in trade for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.

In a Reality Social put up on Monday, Trump wrote:

Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his spouse Patricia, and their household have been dragged by means of HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.

He mentioned Jenkins was a “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” and a “wonderful person”, including:

He’ll NOT be going to jail tomorrow, however as a substitute can have an exquisite and productive life.

Extra on that as we get it in the present day. In the meantime, in different information:

• Donald Trump used the standard presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington nationwide cemetery to speak up his personal plans and achievements. The president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen troopers but in addition veered off into rally-style private boasting and temporary partisan assaults in the course of the solemn occasion.

• EU leaders expressed hopes for a fast deal to resolve the commerce battle with the US after Trump introduced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc till 9 July. The US president mentioned on Sunday he would pause the border tax attributable to be imposed on 1 June, which he had introduced two days earlier, after what he known as a “very nice call” with European Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen.

• Trump issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted final yr of federal bribery prices. Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper county, Virginia, was set to report back to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal jail for accepting greater than $75,000 in bribes in trade for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.

• Trump additionally mentioned he’s contemplating taking an extra $3bn of grant cash away from Harvard College and giving it to commerce faculties throughout the US. Former president of Harvard and present professor Drew Gilpin Faust warned that American freedoms and democracy have been in danger.

• Trump urged Russian chief Vladimir Putin had “gone crazy” after Moscow launched its third consecutive evening of large drone strikes towards Ukraine, killing no less than six folks. In a Reality Social put up on Sunday, Trump railed towards Putin whereas additionally criticising the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction towards Russia.

• Former congressman Charles Rangel of New York died on Monday on the age of 94. An outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent almost 5 many years on Capitol Hill, Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus and the primary African American to chair the highly effective Home methods and means committee.

• The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine on the White Home throughout Joe Biden’s time period, and the leak of the supreme courtroom’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade in 2022. The FBI can even examine pipe bombs found at Democratic and Republican get together headquarters earlier than the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

• The Trump household media firm plans to lift about $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies similar to bitcoin, in line with a Monetary Instances report. The Trump Media & Know-how Group, which is behind the Reality Social app and managed by the president’s household, goals to lift $2bn in recent fairness and one other $1bn through a convertible bond, the paper mentioned, citing sources.