Stephen Miller emerges as top contender for Trump’s next national security adviser – report
Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, is gathering momentum inside the White House as a top candidate to be the next national security adviser, five sources familiar with the situation have told Axios.
The White House deputy chief of staff and architect of Trump’s intense and highly controversial immigration crackdown, is one of the president’s longest-serving and most trusted aides.
He is also already the administration’s homeland security adviser and is an aggressive defender of the administration’s legal push for immediate deportations of unauthorized immigrants without court hearings.
One source told Axios that Miller might not want the job “if it takes him away from his true love: immigration policy”. Another said: “If Stephen wants the job, it’s hard to see why Trump wouldn’t say yes.” Axios couldn’t reach Miller for comment.
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Woman in Florida deported to Cuba says she was forced to leave baby daughter
Joanna Walters
A mother deported to Cuba reportedly had to hand over her 17-month-old daughter to a lawyer while her husband, a US citizen, stood outside unable to say goodbye.
Heidy Sánchez was told she was being detained for deportation to Cuba when she turned up at her scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) check-in appointment in Tampa, Florida, last week.
She was told her child, who has health problems and is still breastfeeding, had to stay in the US but could visit her in Cuba, NBC reported.
The Trump administration is embroiled in controversy for removing children who are US citizens from the United States with a parent when the adult is deported. In this case, the child was reportedly not allowed to leave with her mother even though it was what both parents said they wanted.
The administration’s anti-immigration crackdown has put many people in a difficult position because they risk being summarily detained and deported when turning up for routine Ice check-ins. Many people have followed this process without issue for years, and do not have a criminal record – but failing to turn up can bring an order for forcible removal from the US.
“They never gave me the option to take my daughter,” Sánchez told NBC.
Trump administration considering labeling some suspected cartel and gang members inside the US as ‘enemy combatants’ – report
The Trump administration is exploring whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the US as “enemy combatants” as a possible way to detain them more easily and limit their ability to challenge their imprisonment, multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations have told CNN.
One of the sources told CNN the administration was only considering ways to use the label against suspected members of the eight groups Trump has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, including Tren de Aragua and MS-13.
“This hinges on the idea that they are designated terrorists,” this person said.
Legal experts told CNN that applying the enemy combatant label to migrants deemed terrorists would not be the easy solution some Trump officials think it could be. There would be no legal basis for it in the first place, they said, because the “enemy combatant” designation has only ever applied to the Taliban, al Qaeda, and associated forces.
Steve Vladeck, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and CNN legal analyst, said:
It’s taking two distinct topics in national security law and hoping no one knows they are distinct. You can’t just bend them together without recognizing their myriad substantive differences … there is no good faith legal argument here.
Stephen Miller emerges as top contender for Trump’s next national security adviser – report
Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, is gathering momentum inside the White House as a top candidate to be the next national security adviser, five sources familiar with the situation have told Axios.
The White House deputy chief of staff and architect of Trump’s intense and highly controversial immigration crackdown, is one of the president’s longest-serving and most trusted aides.
He is also already the administration’s homeland security adviser and is an aggressive defender of the administration’s legal push for immediate deportations of unauthorized immigrants without court hearings.
One source told Axios that Miller might not want the job “if it takes him away from his true love: immigration policy”. Another said: “If Stephen wants the job, it’s hard to see why Trump wouldn’t say yes.” Axios couldn’t reach Miller for comment.
‘In tatters’: major cuts have left US weather forecasting more damaged than previously known as hurricane season nears
The National Weather Service (NWS) is in worse shape than previously known due to a combination of layoffs, early retirements and preexisting vacancies, CNN reports.
As what could be a destructive hurricane season approaches, several current and former agency meteorologists told CNN they are concerned forecasts and life-saving warnings are not going to be issued in time.
Responsible for protecting life and property from severe weather impacts, the NWS is headed into hurricane season with 30 of its 122 weather forecast offices lacking their most experienced official, known as the meteorologist-in-charge. These include offices that cover major population centers such as New York City, Cleveland, Houston and Tampa.
One area highlighted in CNN’s report is Houston, where it found there is not a single manager in place at the hurricane-prone Houston-Galveston forecast office, according to a Noaa staff member who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. That office was the main source of information during Hurricane Harvey, which killed at least 68 people and flooded large parts of the Houston metro area in 2017.
Trump’s budget proposal includes $3.2 bn for World Bank’s fund for poorest countries but slashes foreign aid by $49bn
In his skinny budget released earlier Donald Trump asked Congress to approve $3.2bn in contributions to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which provides low- or zero-interest loans to the world’s poorest countries, per Reuters.
International finance experts hailed the sum, to be paid over three years, as a welcome surprise, given recent worries that Trump could skip making any contribution to IDA.
Former president Joe Biden had pledged to contribute $4bn, but that money has not yet been transferred. The new amount is lower, but will still help the World Bank get close to its goal of raising $100bn for IDA by leveraging countries’ contributions, sources familiar with the process told Reuters. The final decision rests with Congress.
Asked if the Trump administration would stick to the $4bn pledge, treasury secretary Scott Bessent had indicated that the sum would be decided in the budget, and that much depended on World Bank president Ajay Banga and the head of the International Monetary Fund getting back to basics.
However, the bigger picture reveals the budget proposal unveiled by Trump on Friday cuts foreign aid by $49bn, a senior official with the office of management and budget told reporters.
Documents released by the White House showed a cut of $555m in funds for the African Development Bank and the African Development Fund, which was “not currently aligned to Administration priorities”.
On the inclusion of the $3.2bn for IDA, the document said: “This fulfills the President’s promise to no longer dole out foreign aid dollars with no return on investment for the American people.” It added that other donors and institutions should take on more of the costs.
Top Washington lawyer launches new firm to defend officials targeted by Trump
A prominent lawyer in Washington who defended Hunter Biden against criminal charges has created a new law firm to represent former government officials and others targeted by the Trump administration, Reuters reports.
Abbe Lowell left his large law firm Winston & Strawn to launch Lowell & Associates, which will defend clients including individuals, institutions and others that are “facing politicized investigations, civil and administrative actions”, the firm said in a Friday statement.
The new firm also includes two former lawyers at Skadden Arps who quit over its response to Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting the legal profession.
Skadden is one of nine firms that cut deals with the administration to avoid the president’s crackdown on the legal industry. Four other firms have sued to block Trump’s orders, which restricted their business over the president’s claims that they had “weaponized” the legal system against him or his allies.
One of the ex-Skadden lawyers, Rachel Cohen, said there is a need for attorneys “willing to stand up to the government when it oversteps”. Two other lawyers are also joining the new firm from Winston & Strawn.
Lowell is representing New York attorney general Letitia James after the Trump administration referred her to the Justice Department for allegedly falsifying real estate records. James has denied the allegations.
The new firm said it is also representing clients fighting the cancellation of grant funding by the so-called “department of government efficiency” and the federal government.
Lowell represented Hunter Biden, former president Joe Biden’s son, against criminal gun and tax changes before he was pardoned in December. His clients have also included former US senator Bob Menendez, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
The new firm comes amid a broader effort to mount and sustain legal challenges to the Trump administration. There are more than 200 lawsuits opposing key Trump policy initiatives, including efforts to curtail transgender and immigrant rights, and eliminating agency and grant funding.
Four Senate Democrats have asked an inspector general to investigate whether Donald Trump pressured the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke Harvard’s non-profit status.
A letter to Heather Hill, the acting treasury inspector general for tax administration, reads:
It is both illegal and unconstitutional for the IRS to take direction from the President to target schools, hospitals, churches, or any other tax-exempt entities as retribution for using their free speech rights.
The letter was signed by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and senators Ron Wyden, Edward J Markey and Elizabeth Warren. It continues:
It is further unconscionable that the IRS would become a weapon of the Trump Administration to extort its perceived enemies, but the actions of the President and his operatives have now made this fear a reality.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has described Donald Trump’s new budget proposal as a “betrayal of working people from a morally bankrupt president”.
“Trump’s days of pretending to be a populist are over,” Schumer said in a post on X.
His policies are nothing short of an all out assault on hardworking Americans. As he guts healthcare, slashes education, and hollows out programs families rely on – he’s bankrolling tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.
It’s not just fiscally irresponsible, it’s a betrayal of working people from a morally bankrupt president.
Canadian PM Mark Carney to meet Trump in Washington on Tuesday
Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Mark Carney, has confirmed he will be meeting with Donald Trump at the White House next week.
Carney, speaking at his first news conference since his election victory on Monday, said he will travel to Washington on Tuesday.
The Canadian leader said he had a “very constructive” call with Trump this week where they agreed to meet next week.
“My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada,” Carney said, adding:
Our old relationship, based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future and where we in Canada will move on.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is bringing back some of the 100 recently fired staffers who process document requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
Staffers across several parts of the agency were notified of the decision on Thursday, Associated Press reports. The employees include those who work in the centers for drugs, tobacco and other product areas.
In recent days, the FDA has missed multiple court-ordered deadlines to hand over documents to parties suing the agency, which can result in hefty fines.
The missed deadlines prompted the decision to bring back FOIA staffers, according to the news agency.
Peter Stone
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has taken radical steps to target his political foes, back a harsh agenda against undocumented immigrants and help business allies – steps which underscore its politicization under the attorney general Pam Bondi and undermine the rule of law, say ex-prosecutors and legal experts.
Some even say that the department has in effect become Trump’s “personal law firm”.
Since taking office a second time, Trump has relied on staunch loyalist Bondi and an elite group of justice department lawyers to investigate critics from his first administration plus political opponents and curb prosecutions of US business bribery overseas.
Ex-prosecutors point to how Bondi and the department’s top lawyers have halted some major prosecutions, fired or forced out lawyers who didn’t meet Maga litmus tests, and were instructed by Trump to investigate a key Democratic fundraising vehicle as examples of how Trump and Bondi have politicized the justice department.
The transformation of the Department of Justice under Bondi has put a premium for staff on “personal loyalty” to Trump, say ex-prosecutors, which has damaged the rule of law and provoked multiple rebukes from courts and the resignations or firings of veteran prosecutors.
Trump proposes $163bn cut to non-defense spending in federal budget blueprint for fiscal year 2026
Donald Trump unveiled his budget proposal blueprint – or “skinny budget” – for the 2026 fiscal year, which would include a $163bn cut to federal spending, eliminating more than a fifth of the non-military spending excluding mandatory programs, according to a release by the office of management and budget (OMB).
The proposed budget would raise defense spending by 13% and homeland security spending by nearly 65% compared with 2025 enacted levels, according to the office. Non-defense spending would be reduced by roughly 23%, the lowest level since 2017. It is thus very much in line with the second Trump administration’s efforts to drastically shrink the size of the federal government through staffing cuts and office closures, and its aggressive anti-immigration agenda.
Russ Vought, OMB director, said in the statement:
At this critical moment, we need a historic Budget—one that ends the funding of our decline, puts Americans first, and delivers unprecedented support to our military and homeland security.
The “skinny budget” is a summary of budget proposals that presidents often release in their first term, followed later on by the traditional full budget books that include all spending and revenue projections. It isn’t binding and it is down to Congress to craft legislation, but per Politico “it gives Hill leaders a loose roadmap of Trump’s budget request as they gear up to move on the fiscal 2026 appropriations process”.
Per NPR: “While it is Congress’ job to appropriate money, the president is required by law to send lawmakers a budget proposal each year. The proposal is not binding – it is more of a list of the president’s policy priorities, with price tags attached.
“Congress does not have to abide by what a president wants. But this particular budget may be more meaningful than usual, precisely because this Congress has not been inclined to ignore President Trump’s wishes.”
NPR also notes that the cuts proposed this morning are for spending that Congress authorizes each year – which does not include spending on safety nets like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
But the blueprint does come at a time when congressional Republicans are fighting to bridge internal divisions over proposed cuts in federal spending in order to pay for Trump’s landmark tax-cut bill. As Politico notes: “The fate of the megabill, at this point, appears to hinge almost entirely on the Medicaid question: Are deep cuts to Medicaid something to be avoided? Or are they the whole point of pursuing the legislation? That clash is playing out in both public and private as lawmakers race to stamp Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ before Memorial Day.”
Executive order to cut funding for public broadcasters is ‘unlawful’, says PBS head
PBS said Trump’s executive order instructing it to cease funding to NPR and PBS is “unlawful” as it is not subject to president’s authority and is “exploring all options”.
Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO, said:
The President’s blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years. We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.
Trump signed the order late on Thursday, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting, his latest move to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other federal agencies to “cease Federal funding” for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations.
The CPB, which funnels public funding to the two services, said that it is not a federal executive agency subject to Trump’s orders. The president earlier this week said he was firing three of the five remaining CPB board members – threatening its ability to do any work – and was immediately sued by the CPB to stop it.
The vast majority of public money for the services goes directly to its hundreds of local stations, which operate on a combination of government funding, donations and philanthropic grants. Stations in smaller markets are particularly dependent on the public money and most threatened by the cuts of the sort Trump is proposing.
In a statement, CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison, said:
CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.
In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors…’ 47 U.S.C. § 398(c).
Canadian PM Mark Carney to meet Donald Trump at White House next week – report
Canada’s newly-elected prime minister Mark Carney is set to meet Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Bloomberg News (paywall) is reporting, amid rising tensions over Trump’s tariff war and annexation threats to Canada.
Shortly after his election last week, Carney said that when they did meet he the US president would speak “like two sovereign nations”. Carney’s victory was largely propelled by Trump’s repeated – and seemingly earnest – suggestions about annexing Canada and making it the 51st US state. In his victory speech Carney said:
President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never – that will never, ever happen.
In an interview with the BBC the day after his win, Carney said his country deserves and expects respect from the US and will only enter trade and security talks with Trump “on our terms”. He added that he would only visit Washington when there was a “serious discussion to be had” that respected Canada’s sovereignty.
Talks with Trump would be “on our terms, not on their terms,” he said, adding:
There is a partnership to be had, an economic and security partnership … It’s going to be a very different one than we’ve had in the past.
Canada was the “biggest client for more than 40 states” in the US, Carney noted:
We deserve respect. We expect respect and I’m sure we’ll get it in due course again, and then we can have these discussions.
Trump says US economy in ‘transition’ and again urges Fed to cut rates
Trump said the US economy is in a “transition stage”, citing strong employment and his tariff plan while reiterating his call for the US Federal Reserve to lower its interest rate. It followed the release of data that showed US job growth slowed marginally for April.
He wrote on Truth Social:
Gasoline just broke $1.98 a Gallon, lowest in years, groceries (and eggs!) down, energy down, mortgage rates down, employment strong, and much more good news, as Billions of Dollars pour in from Tariffs. Just like I said, and we’re only in a TRANSITION STAGE, just getting started!!! Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!! DJT
Trump says he wants to rename Veterans Day as ‘Victory Day for World War I’ and 8 May as ‘Victory Day for World War II’
Speaking of the military, last night Trump said he wanted to rename 11 November – Veterans Day – as ‘Victory Day for World War I’ and rename 8 May as ‘Victory Day for World War II’.
The 8 May date – not currently a federal holiday and Trump wasn’t clear if he wanted it to become one – is an interesting choice for a US president to mark victory in the second world war. While 8 May is indeed marked as Victory Day in Europe as Trump points out (for Russia it’s 9 May), American soldiers famously continued fighting Japan in the Pacific theatre for another three months after the war was declared over on the western front against Nazi Germany. Japan did not formally surrender until 2 September 1945.
There’s also no doubt that Trump’s claim that the US “did more than any other country, by far, in producing a victorious result” will not sit well with former allied powers who suffered heavy losses and casualties as well as considerable damage from German bombing.
Veterans Day, meanwhile, started out as a commemoration of the armistice on 11 November 1918, not as a celebration of American “victory” as Trump is framing it. The scope of the holiday was later widened to honor all US veterans, including of modern wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Trump’s post makes no mention of those conflicts.
Here’s the post from Truth Social:
Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II. I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I. We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!
Army plans for a potential parade coinciding with Trump’s birthday call for 6,600 soldiers – report
Detailed army plans for a potential military parade on Donald Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, the Associated Press reports.
The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated 29 and 30 April and have not been publicly released. They represent the army’s most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element – a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed.
The army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on 14 June.
While the slides do not include any price estimates, it would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size. Costs would include the movement of military vehicles, equipment, aircraft and troops from across the country to Washington and the need to feed and house thousands of service members.
High costs halted Trump’s push for a parade in his first term, and the tanks and other heavy vehicles that are part of the army’s latest plans have raised concerns from city officials about damage to roads.
Asked about plans for a parade, army spokesperson Steve Warren said Thursday that no final decisions have been made.
Others familiar with the documents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been finalized, said they represent the army’s plans as it prepares for any White House approval of the parade. The White House did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment.
