Trump defense announcement to be on ‘Golden Dome’ missile system that will cost billions – Reuters
The 3pm announcement will be Trump declaring that he has selected the path forward for his “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, a US official has told Reuters.
The vice chief of space operations, US space force general Michael Guetlein is expected to be at the event where the official, who declined to be named, said that it is likely he will be named as the lead on the controversial project.
Trump’s missile defense shield idea to protect the US from long-range strikes is estimated to cost billions of dollars, CNN reported yesterday, and the Pentagon submitted small, medium and large options to the White House for developing the Golden Dome.
Per CNN’s report, Trump had been expected to announce “his preferred option – and its price point – in the coming days, a decision that will ultimately chart a path forward for funding, developing and implementing the space-based missile defense system over the next several years”.
A whopping “$25bn has been carved out in next year’s defense budget for the system, but the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the US could have to spend more than $500bn – over the course of 20 years – to develop a viable Golden Dome.
“The project will also present a bonanza for private contractors as the government won’t be able to build it alone, with companies including Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the running for highly lucrative contracts related to the system.”
Key events
Here is the clip of Democratic senator Tim Kaine clashing with secretary of state Marco Rubio over the Trump administration’s highly controversial move to admit 49 white South Africans to the US as “refugees”.
And here’s my colleage Robert Tait’s story:
Marco Rubio says number of US visas he has revoked is probably in the thousands
Secretary of state Marco Rubio told the Senate foreign relations committee that the number of visas he has revoked was “probably in the thousands,” adding that he believed there was still more to do.
I don’t know the latest count, but we probably have more to do. A visa is not a right, it’s a privilege.
Kristi Noem fails to state correct definition of habeas corpus
Earlier this morning, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem couldn’t correctly state what habeas corpus is when pressed to define the concept by senator Maggie Hassan.
Asked what habeas corpus is, Noem claimed it’s “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to –”.
As Hassan stated, habeas corpus is the principle that the government must provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.
Noem went on to say she supported the constitutional right of the president to suspend habeas corpus but, as Hassan points out, that has never been done without the approval of Congress.
Here’s the very painful clip.
HASSAN: What is habeas corpus?
NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country
HASSAN: That’s incorrect pic.twitter.com/ozRVVfdSoP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 20, 2025
Fired federal workers stage sit-in on House-side Capitol steps
In an effort to pressure members of Congress to do more to reign in Doge’s “harmful and illegal cuts to federal programs”, a group of fired federal workers are sitting in on the House-side steps of the US Capitol.
According to the Fork Off Coalition, the group includes “federal employees illegally terminated by Doge; contractors on cancelled federal contracts; and other workers harmed by Doge”.
‘The days of woke are over’: Trump defends McIver charges
Earlier this morning, Donald Trump defended the justice department’s decision to charge Democratic representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers earlier this month.
McIver faces a felony assault charge over a physical confrontation with Ice officials outside a migrant detention facility in New Jersey.
Pushing back on Democratic accusations that the Trump administration is pursuing charges for political purposes, the president alleged to reporters on Capitol Hill that McIver was “out of control”.
He added:
Those days are over. The days of woke are over. That woman – I have no idea who she is – was out of control. The days of that crap are over. We’re going to have law and order.
Politico writes: “The criminal complaint filed in US district court in Newark alleges McIver ‘slammed her forearm’ into one agent and ‘forcibly’ grabbed him. The Democratic congressmember is also accused of using ‘each of her forearms to forcibly strike’ another officer, according to the complaint, which includes multiple photos from video cameras worn by officers, as well as others mounted outside the facility.”
McIver and other Democratic politicians went to the Delany Hall detection center in Newark to protest its use to house migrants, accusing the private prison company operating the facility of lacking the proper permits.
McIver has said she was the one who was assaulted by law enforcement as they arrested Newark mayor Ras Baraka.
Marco Rubio defends Trump administration’s admission of white Afrikaners as ‘refugees’
Robert Tait
Secretary of state Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s controversial decision to admit 49 white Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees after Hillary Clinton’s former running mate, Tim Kaine, claimed they were getting preferential treatment because of their skin colour.
Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, challenged Rubio to justify prioritising the Afrikaners while cancelling long-standing refugee programmes for other groups that have been more documented as victims of conflict or persecution.
The clash between the two men was Rubio’s most combative exchange in his first appearance before the Senate foreign relations committee since his unanimous approval by senators in confirmation hearing in January.
“Right now, the US refugee program allows a special program for Afrikaner farmers, the first group of whom arrived at Dulles Airport in Virginia not long ago, while shutting off the refugee program for everyone else,” said Kaine.
Do you think Afrikaner farmers are the most persecuted group in the world?
In response, Rubio said:
I think those 49 people that came surely felt they were persecuted, and they’ve passed every sort of check mark that had to be checked off in terms of meeting their requirements for that. They live in a country where farms are taken, the land is taken on a racial basis.
Trump has falsely asserted that white farmers in South Africa are undergoing a “genocide”.
Kaine asked why Afrikaners were more important than the Uyghurs or Rohingyas, who have faced intense persecution in China and Myanmar respectively, and also cited the cases of political dissidents in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as Afghans under the Taliban.
“The problem we face there is the volume problem,” Rubio said.
If you look at all the persecuted people of the world, it’s millions of people. They can’t all come here.
Asked why Afrikaners were a special case, he said:
Because it’s a small subset, it’s a new issue, and the president identified it as a problem and wanted to use it as an example. But that’s different from having these refugee programs that were basically spending money to put people up in communities and accommodate them, and it was acting as a magnet to millions of people.
Kaine called the claims of persecution against Afrikaner farmers “completely specious” and pointed to the existence of Afrikaner ministers in South Africa’s coalition government, including the minister for agriculture.
He also contrasted the current refugee designation of Afrikaners to the absence of such a programme for the country’s Black majority during the Apartheid era.
“There never has been a special programme for Africans to come in as refugees to the United States,” Kaine said, pointing out that special categories were allowed for people being persecuted for religious reasons under communist regimes. “[But] we’ve never allowed a special program to allow Africans into the United States in an expedited refugee status until now, Afrikaner farmers living in a nation governed by a government of national unity that includes the main Afrikaner party.”
Referring to the US statutory standard of recognising a refugee claim as being a “well-justified fear of persecution”, Kaine asked:
Should that be applied in an evenhanded way? For example, should we say if you’re persecuted, on the grounds of your religion, we’ll let you in if you’re a Christian but not a Muslim?
Rubio replied that US foreign policy did not require evenhandedness, adding:
The United States has a right to allow into this country and prioritise allowance of who they want to allow to come in. We’re going to prioritise people coming into our country on the basis of what’s in the interests of this country. That’s a small number of people that are coming.
Kaine responded: “So you have a different standard based on the color of somebody’s skin. Would that be acceptable?”
Rubio replied:
You’re the one talking about the colour of their skin, not me.
Dharna Noor
Trump’s budget cancels billions of dollars in infrastructure investments, environmental programs, research grants, and renewable energy. Maine representative Chellie Marie Pingree on Tuesday said this would amount to “effectively gutting this critical this critical sector”.
“This disregards the climate change concerns that we have,” she said to interior secretary Doug Burgum at a House committee hearing.
Scientists have long warned that world leaders must urgently phase out fossil fuels and boost green technology to avert the worse possible consequences of the climate crisis. But Burgum said that is not the threat the Trump administration is worried about.
“The existential threats that this administrations is focusing on are: Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon, and we can’t lose the AI arms race to China,” he said. “That’s the number one and number two. And if we solve those two things, then we, then we will, we will have plenty of time to solve any issues related to, you know, potential temperature change.
Oklahoma’s Tom Cole, the chair of the committee, claimed Biden’s “misnamed inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan” both “ignited the worst inflation outburst in 40 years.” These policies likely resulted in Trump’s re-election, he claimed.
But research shows that inflation dropped after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and that it enjoys widespread support.
Trump administration ‘making mockery’ of US refugee process by granting asylum to Afrikaners, says senator Chris Van Hollen
Faisal Ali
US senator Chris Van Hollen has accused the Trump administration of “making a mockery” of the US refugee process, turning it into a system of “global apartheid” by granting asylum status to white Afrikaners, while turning away refugees from war-torn countries, including Sudan, where he said a genocide is currently unfolding.
The first group of 59 Afrikaners began arriving in the US last week after Trump claimed the Afrikaners were victims of “unjust racial discrimination” and granted them asylum status. The move comes as the US has lifted legal protections in the US for refugees from many war torn countries.
Speaking in a Senate foreign relations committee hearing, Van Hollen, a Democrat, said he had voted to confirm Marco Rubio because he believed the secretary of state would defend democracy and human rights abroad — but said that he had “done the opposite”.
Van Hollen contrasted the decision by the Trump administration to dismantle the majority of USAID’s foreign assistance programs with the decision to allow Afrikaners to claim asylum in the US, calling it “despicable”.
You try to block the admission of people who have already been approved as refugees, while making bogus claims to justify such status to Afrikaners. You’ve made a mockery of our country’s refugee process turning it into a system of global apartheid.
Senate confirms Charles Kushner – father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared – as ambassador to France
Michael Sainato
Charles Kushner, the father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, has secured US Senate confirmation to serve as the nation’s ambassador to France.
The elder Kushner’s confirmation late on Monday came a little more than four years after Trump, during his first presidency, pardoned him from his conviction on charges of tax evasion and other federal crimes.
Cory Booker of New Jersey was the only Democratic senator to vote in support of the nomination. His vote came after Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump – his wife and the president’s daughter – held a fundraiser for Booker as he successfully ran for the Senate in 2013.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defected from her fellow Senate Republicans to vote against Charles Kushner’s appointment to the French ambassadorship, though that did not impede him from being confirmed by a 51-45 vote.
Kushner had been asked about his crimes during his confirmation hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee.
He pleaded guilty in 2005 to 18 charges that included tax evasion, retaliating against a federal witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. The witness tampering charge involved his hiring a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with federal authorities. Kushner arranged to secretly record the encounter between the sex worker and his brother-in-law and then send the footage to his sister, the other man’s wife.
Trump pardoned Kushner for those crimes in December 2020 after Joe Biden had defeated him in that year’s election.
“My misjudgment and mistake was over 20 years ago,” Kushner said. “Since then, I’ve been pardoned by President Trump. But I don’t sit here before you today and tell you I’m a perfect person. I am not a perfect person. I made a very very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake.”
The United States has expressed to the United Arab Emirates and other countries that they are turning the conflict in Sudan into a proxy war, secretary of state Marco Rubio told the Senate foreign relations committee earlier.
Rubio also said that Washington wanted to appoint a special envoy for Sudan but needed to find the right person.
RFK Jr says ‘Make America Health Again’ report coming out on Thursday
Robert F Kennedy Jr said earlier that the MAHA commission report Donald Trump tasked him producing would come out on Thursday.
Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission to “Make America Healthy Again,” during Kennedy’s swearing in ceremony on 13 February and tasked it with investigating chronic illness and delivering an action plan to fight childhood diseases, starting with a report due within 100 days.
“You’ll see the report. It’s going to be released on Thursday. Everybody will see the report,” Kennedy told the Senate appropriations committee hearing in response to questions about the contents of the report and its impact on agriculture.
Trump appears to have failed to get Republican holdouts behind his tax bill
Earlier today, Donald Trump pressed Republicans in Congress to unite behind his sweeping tax-cut bill, but – despite his very optimistic front – apparently failed to convince a handful of holdouts who could still block a package that encompasses much of his domestic agenda.
In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Trump bluntly warned Republicans in the House of Representatives not to press for further changes to the sprawling bill, which would cut taxes and tighten eligibility for the Medicaid health program.
He strongly cautioned against further plans to make it more difficult for people to access Medicaid, a program for low-income Americans. One person in the room told Reuters Trump told the holdouts:
Don’t fuck around with Medicaid.
He also discouraged Republicans from seeking further carve-outs for state and local tax payments (SALT) – a niche issue that is especially important for moderate Republicans in high-tax states like California and New York.
But Trump failed to convince some lawmakers who are pushing for those provisions.
“The president I don’t think convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is,” said Republican representative Andy Harris of Maryland, who leads the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and has been pushing for further Medicaid cuts.
Republican representative Mike Lawler, a New York moderate who is pushing to raise limits on deductions for state and local tax payments, likewise said Trump did not change his mind.
As it stands right now, I do not support the bill.
After the meeting, Trump predicted the package would ultimately pass the House, which Republicans control by a narrow majority of 220-213. “It was a meeting of love,” he said. He did not address Harris’ concerns.
Freedom Caucus members have been pushing for new work requirements on some Medicaid recipients to kick in earlier than is planned for 2029. But centrists have fought to protect the program, warning that steep cuts could imperil their majority in the 2026 congressional elections.
Trump said afterward the bill would eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid but would not cause people to lose coverage.
Trump is pressing for every House Republican to vote for the bill, according to a White House official. As he arrived at the Capitol, Trump said Republican lawmakers who vote against it could “possibly” face a primary challenge in next year’s congressional elections.
