Qatar defends provide of airplane present to Trump as ‘a normal thing between allies’ – US politics stay

The Kennedy Middle introduced its lineup on Monday, which incorporates performances of “Chicago,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Back to the Future: The Musical.” The choices for youths features a theatrical model of the cartoon hit “Bluey”, reviews the Related Press (AP).

The middle beforehand deserted per week’s value of July occasions celebrating LGBTQ+ rights as a part of this summer season’s World Pleasure pageant in Washington.

The White Home has additional moved to cancel hundreds of thousands in beforehand awarded federal humanities grants to arts and tradition teams. And Donald Trump’s price range framework has proposed eliminating the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities altogether.

In response to the AP, Trump informed the Kennedy Middle dinner that congressional Republicans have pushed for greater than $250m for repairs and upkeep on the Kennedy Middle, and mentioned that, over the previous decade, “tremendous amounts of money” was spent there. “I don’t know where they spent it,” he mentioned. “They certainly didn’t spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.”

Richard Grenell, a Trump envoy for particular missions who’s interim head of the Kennedy Middle, mentioned a earlier price range included “$26m in phantom revenue.” He prompt the conduct might be a prison matter for prosecutors and that legal professional common Pam Bondi, along with being on the middle’s board, heard the main points at a gathering earlier on Monday.

“She heard the details, and this is unacceptable,” Grenell mentioned.

Trump mentioned the middle would elevate funds however added of the constructing’s state that it’s “falling apart”. He mentioned earlier “programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda” and featured “some very inappropriate shows” together with a “Marxist anti-police performance” and “Lesbian-only Shakespeare”.

“Who thinks of these ideas, really?” Trump cried, drawing loud laughs from these current, reviews the AP.

President Donald Trump hosted the Kennedy Middle’s management on the White Home on Monday evening, reinforcing how a lot consideration he’s devoting to remaking a premier cultural heart as half of a bigger effort to overtake the social and ideological dynamics of the nationwide arts scene.

In response to the Related Press (AP), the assembly of the middle’s board within the state eating room adopted Trump firing its earlier members and saying in February that he would function the board’s chair. The brand new board, which unanimously authorised Trump as its chair, is stocked with loyalists.

They embody White Home chief of employees Susie Wiles; legal professional common Pam Bondi; Usha Vance, the spouse of vice-president JD Vance; and Lee Greenwood, whose track “God Bless the USA,” performs at Trump rallies in addition to many official occasions, together with throughout his journey to the Center East final week. Trump referred to as it a “hot board.”

“We’re gonna turn it around,” Trump informed dinner attendees of the middle. He mentioned of operating the board, “When I said, ‘I’ll do this,’ I hadn’t been there” and joked, “That’s the last time I’ll take a job without looking at it”.

Trump has referred to as the middle’s previous programming “woke” and “terrible,” whereas extra broadly searching for to slash federal funding for the humanities – complaining that an excessive amount of programming promotes leftist ideology and political correctness. In his view, molding the Kennedy Middle to his personal liking can go a good distance towards creating a brand new arts and social tradition nationwide, reviews the AP.

Lauren Gambino

US consultant LaMonica McIver, a Democrat, was charged with assaulting federal brokers after a conflict exterior an immigration detention heart in New Jersey, the state’s federal prosecutor introduced on Monday.

Alina Habba, interim US legal professional, mentioned in a submit on social media that McIver was dealing with expenses “for assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” when she visited the detention heart together with two different Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation on 9 Could.

“No one is above the law – politicians or otherwise,” Habba mentioned in an announcement. “It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.”

McIver on Monday accused federal regulation enforcement of escalating the scenario, saying that it was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) brokers who “created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation”.

“The charges against me are purely political – they mischaracterise and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalise and deter legislative oversight,” she mentioned.

On the similar time, Habba introduced her workplace was dismissing a misdemeanor trespassing cost towards Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, whose arrest instigated the conflict with federal brokers.

Demand Justice launches advert marketing campaign to focus on Trump’s assaults on the rule of regulation

Sam Levine

The left-learning advocacy group Demand Justice plans to undetake a six-figure promoting effort as a part of a brand new marketing campaign to focus on Donald Trump’s continued assaults on the rule of regulation.

The adverting marketing campaign, which can embody on-line and print advertisements in nationwide publications is a part of a multi-pronged effort referred to as “Justice Under Siege” will embody polling, analysis, and academic initiatives targeted on how the Trump administration is attacking the rule of regulation, a basic pillar of American society

“Since his inauguration, President Trump has repeatedly defied lawful court orders on issues ranging from illegally firing thousands of public servants to deporting lawful US residents without due process,” Maggie Jo Buchanan, the group’s govt director, mentioned in an announcement.

We’ll systematically doc and expose this sample of assaults on the rule of regulation, which is made much more alarming by congressional Republicans who aren’t simply letting Trump get away with it, however actively taking part via threats to defund courts, legislative stunts to remove the power of the judiciary to examine Trump’s overreach, and baseless impeachment efforts towards judges whose rulings they disagree with.

The group has beforehand focused main regulation corporations who capitulated to Trump with posters round Washington DC close to the places of work of the corporations within the US capitol.

Since taking workplace in January, Trump’s assaults on the rule of regulation have been brazen and unrelenting.

He has brazenly defied courtroom orders halting deportations, referred to as for a federal decide who dominated towards him to be impeached, issued govt orders punishing regulation corporations related to political rivals, and used the ability of his workplace to revoke the safety clearance and examine officers who spoke out towards him.

There have additionally been an alarming rise in threats and harassment towards federal judges in latest months because the president has escalated his assaults.

There was little pushback from Republicans to Trump’s actions. Chief Justice John Roberts spoke out in protection of judges in March, saying:

For greater than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment isn’t an acceptable response to disagreement regarding a judicial choice. The conventional appellate course of exists for that goal.

Decide Ketanji Brown Jackson, the most recent member of the courtroom and one among its liberal members, mentioned this monththat the assaults on judges “are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity.”

Qatar’s provide to provide Donald Trump a $400m Boeing 747 airplane is a “normal thing that happens between allies,” prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has mentioned at an financial discussion board held in Doha.

Al Thani dismissed considerations about Qatar making an attempt to purchase affect with its key ally, after the Senate Democratic chief Chuck Schumer launched a invoice on Monday that will forestall any international plane working as Air Drive One amid moral and safety considerations.

“I hope that the United States looks to Qatar as a reliable partner in diplomacy that is not trying to buy influence,” Al Thani mentioned.

Trump has shrugged off worries, saying it will be “stupid” to show down the beneficiant provide. He mentioned the Boeing 747-8 would finally be donated to his presidential library – a repository housing analysis supplies from his administration, and that he had no plans to make use of it for private causes after leaving workplace.

White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned on Monday that the plane “will be accepted according to all legal and ethical obligations.”

“Retrofitting the Qatari plane would cost billions and could never even truly eliminate all catastrophic risks,” Schumer mentioned on X.

The invoice would forestall the US from spending taxpayer {dollars} to retrofit a foreign-owned airplane for presidential use.

“There’s absolutely no amount of modifications that can guarantee it will be secure,” Schumer added.

In different developments:

• Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have held a uncommon cellphone name, which the US chief described as “excellent”, however the Kremlin refused to comply with a ceasefire within the struggle with Ukraine, regardless of strain from Washington and European allies.

• Donald Trump lashed out at celebrities who endorsed Kamala Harris in late evening and early morning screeds on Monday, saying he would examine them to see in the event that they had been paid for the endorsements – repeating a typical chorus on the proper concerning the star-studded record of Harris supporters.

• A minimum of 50 Venezuelan males despatched by the Trump administration to a jail in El Salvador had entered the US legally, in accordance with a evaluate by the Cato Institute. Printed by the libertarian thinktank on Monday, the report analyzed the accessible immigration information for under a portion of the lads who had been deported to El Salvador’s infamous Terrorism Confinement Middle (Cecot), and focuses on the circumstances the place data might be discovered.

• Donald Trump’s administration can finish authorized protections which have shielded about 350,000 Venezuelans from potential deportation, the supreme courtroom dominated on Monday. America’s highest courtroom granted a request by Kristi Noem, the homeland safety secretary, to revoke momentary protected standing (TPS) for the Venezuelans whereas an attraction proceeds in a decrease courtroom.

• US consultant LaMonica McIver, a Democrat, was charged with assaulting federal brokers after a conflict exterior an immigration detention heart in New Jersey, the state’s federal prosecutor introduced on Monday.

• The previous FBI director James Comey has disregarded criticism a couple of photograph of seashells he posted on social media, saying it’s “crazy” to suppose the messaged was meant as a menace towards Donald Trump. “I posted it on my Instagram account and thought nothing more of it, until I heard … that people were saying it was some sort of a call for assassination, which is crazy,” Comey mentioned in interview on MSNBC.

• The Columbia College pupil Mohsen Mahdawi, who was launched solely weeks in the past from federal detention, has crossed the commencement stage to cheers from his fellow graduates. The Palestinian activist was arrested by immigration authorities in Colchester, Vermont, whereas attending a naturalization interview.

• Donald Trump has signed into regulation the Take It Down Act, a measure that imposes penalties for on-line sexual exploitation that Melania Trump helped usher via Congress.