Oval Office

Oct. 23 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are to meet and discuss trade and other matters during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Busan, South Korea.

Trump is scheduled to leave the United States on Friday, with stops planned in Malaysia and Japan ahead of the APEC conference that has a leaders meeting scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov.1.

He and Xi agreed to meet on Oct. 30, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Thursday.

The planned meeting comes after Trump announced he would impose 100% tariffs on top of existing tariffs on all Chinese-made goods in retaliation for China’s earlier announcement of global restrictions on the use of rare earth minerals.

China dominates the world’s rare earth minerals market and intends to restrict their export and require companies to sign licensing agreements to use them, no matter where those firms might be headquartered.

“We’ll make a deal on everything,” Trump told media while at the Oval Office on Wednesday.

The in-person meeting would be the first between the two since 2019 and could include discussions regarding the war in Ukraine.

Trump said Xi would “like to see that war end,” Politico reported.

The president also anticipates discussing a variety of issues with the Chinese leader, including nuclear power, China’s reliance on Russian oil and trade.

The bilateral summit will be a “pretty long meeting” to enable the two world leaders to “work out a lot of our questions and our doubts,” Trump said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

Trump will depart the United States late Friday night and arrive in Malaysia on Sunday morning, local time.

“President Trump will participate in a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Malaysia in the afternoon, and then we will attend the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] leaders’ working dinner that evening,” Leavitt said.

The president will depart Malaysia on Monday morning and arrive in Tokyo to meet with new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is the first woman to be elected to the position.

Following his meeting with Takaichi, Trump will continue to Busan, South Korea, to hold a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ahead of his meeting with Xi.

The president will return to the United States after meeting with the Chinese president, Leavitt said.

Oct. 17 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump began discussing Ukraine‘s defense against Russia Friday afternoon at the White House.

The two presidents are meeting to discuss a possible allocation of long-range Tomahawk missiles and other weapons to help Ukraine in its defense against Russia, according to NBC News.

Trump also is expected to discuss his Thursday phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin while meeting with Zelensky.

The White House visit is Zelensky’s third since Trump became president in January and is the first to discuss the possible deployment of weaponry capable of striking deep inside Russia and targeting that nation’s energy infrastructure, The HIll reported.

Trump and Putin agreed to a tentative summit in Budapest, Hungary, sometime in the near future.

Zelensky said Moscow was “rushing” to resume negotiations after Trump suggested Monday that he was thinking of sending the ball into Russia’s court by threatening to send Ukraine the missiles unless the war was brought to a conclusion.

“We hope that the momentum of curbing terror and war, which worked in the Middle East, will help end the Russian war against Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X.

“Putin is definitely not braver than Hamas or any other terrorist. The language of force and justice will definitely work against Russia as well. We already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue, just hearing about ‘Tomahawks,'” he added.

However, Trump appeared to back away from the Tomahawk issue following a call with Putin on Thursday, saying he had concerns about running down U.S. stocks.

“We need them too … so I don’t know what we can do about that,” Trump said.

The lunchtime Oval Office meeting comes a day after Trump hailed “great progress” made during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Delegations from both sides were due to meet next week to prepare for a summit between the two leaders in Hungary.

The contact, the first direct communication with Putin since August, was initiated by Moscow, two days after Trump said he was considering supplying Kyiv with Tomahawk missiles.

The missiles have a 1,500-mile range, which would enable Ukraine to strike Moscow and St. Petersburg.

On Thursday, Zelensky met with representatives of U.S. defense and energy companies, including Raytheon, which makes the Tomahawks, and Lockheed Martin.

He said they discussed ramping up the supply of air defense systems, the Patriot missile system in particular, Raytheon’s production capacity, cooperation to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense and long-range capabilities, and the prospects for Ukrainian-American joint production.

Ukraine’s energy resilience was the main topic of discussion with the energy firms in the face of an increasing Russian tactical focus on hitting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

“Now, as Russia is betting on terror against our energy sector and carrying out daily strikes, we are working to ensure Ukraine’s resilience,” Zelensky said.

WASHINGTON — President Trump is showing little urgency to broker a compromise that would end the government shutdown, even as Democrats insist no breakthrough is possible without his direct involvement.

Three weeks in, Congress is at a standstill. The House hasn’t been in session for a month, and senators left Washington on Thursday frustrated by the lack of progress. Republican leaders are refusing to negotiate until a short-term funding bill to reopen the government is passed, while Democrats say they won’t agree without guarantees on extending health insurance subsidies.

For now, Trump appears content to stay on the sidelines.

He spent the week celebrating an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal he led, hosted a remembrance event for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and refocused attention on the Russia-Ukraine war. Meanwhile, his administration has been managing the shutdown in unconventional ways, continuing to pay the troops while laying off other federal employees.

Asked Thursday whether he was willing to deploy his dealmaking background on the shutdown, Trump seemed uninterested.

“Well, look, I mean, all we want to do is just extend. We don’t want anything, we just want to extend, live with the deal they had,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. Later Thursday, he criticized Democratic health care demands as “crazy,” adding, “We’re just not going to do it.”

Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Democrats must first vote to reopen the government, “then we can have serious conversations about health care.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune echoed that approach before leaving for the weekend, saying Trump is “ready to weigh in and sit down with the Democrats or whomever, once the government opens up.”

Thune said he’d also be willing to talk, but only after the shutdown ends.

“I am willing to sit down with Democrats,” Thune posted on social media Friday.

“But there’s one condition: End the Schumer Shutdown. I will not negotiate under hostage conditions, nor will I pay a ransom,” he added.

Frustration is beginning to surface among rank-and-file Republicans, with bipartisan conversations breaking out on the Senate floor as members look for ways to move things forward. Still, even those Republicans admit little happens in Congress without Trump’s direction.

Leaving the Capitol on Thursday, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, “We’re not making much headway this week.” For things to progress, Murkowski acknowledged Trump may need to get more involved: “I think he’s an important part of it.”

“I think there are some folks in his administration that are kind of liking the fact that Congress really has no role right now,” she added. “I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all.”

Trump has not been slowed by the shutdown

While Congress has been paralyzed by the shutdown, Trump has moved rapidly to enact his vision of the federal government.

He has called budget chief Russ Vought the “grim reaper,” and Vought has taken the opportunity to withhold billions of dollars for infrastructure projects and lay off thousands of federal workers, signaling that workforce reductions could become even more drastic.

At the same time, the administration has acted unilaterally to fund Trump’s priorities, including paying the military this week, easing pressure on what could have been one of the main deadlines to end the shutdown.

Some of these moves, particularly the layoffs and funding shifts, have been criticized as illegal and are facing court challenges. A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the administration from firing workers during the shutdown, ruling that the cuts appeared politically motivated and were carried out without sufficient justification.

And with Congress focused on the funding fight, lawmakers have had little time to debate other issues.

In the House, Johnson has said the House won’t return until Democrats approve the funding bill and has refused to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. Democrats say the move is to prevent her from becoming the 218th signature on a discharge petition aimed at forcing a vote on releasing documents related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

So far, the shutdown has shown little impact on public opinion.

An AP-NORC poll released Thursday found that 3 in 10 U.S. adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of the Democratic Party, similar to an AP-NORC poll from September. Four in 10 have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of the Republican Party, largely unchanged from last month.

Democrats want Trump at the table. Republicans would rather he stay out

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have said Republicans have shown little seriousness in negotiating an end to the shutdown.

“Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point,” Schumer said Thursday.

Frustrated with congressional leaders, Democrats are increasingly looking to Trump.

At a CNN town hall Wednesday night featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, both repeatedly called for the president’s involvement when asked why negotiations had stalled.

“President Trump is not talking. That is the problem,” Sanders said.

Ocasio-Cortez added that Trump should more regularly “be having congressional leaders in the White House.”

Democrats’ focus on Trump reflects both his leadership style — which allows little to happen in Congress without his approval — and the reality that any funding bill needs the president’s signature to become law.

This time, however, Republican leaders who control the House and Senate are resisting any push for Trump to intervene.

“You can’t negotiate when somebody’s got a hostage,” said South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who added that Trump getting involved would allow Democrats to try the same tactic in future legislative fights.

Trump has largely followed that guidance. After previously saying he would be open to negotiating with Democrats on health insurance subsidies, he walked it back after Republican leaders suggested he misspoke.

And that’s unlikely to change for now. Trump has no plans to personally intervene to broker a deal with Democrats, according to a senior White House official granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. The official added that the only stopgap funding bill that Democrats can expect is the one already on the table.

“The President is happy to have a conversation about health care policy, but he will not do so while the Democrats are holding the American people hostage,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Thursday.

A product of the Congress Trump has molded

In his second term, Trump has taken a top-down approach, leaving little in Congress to move without his approval.

“What’s obvious to me is that Mike Johnson and John Thune don’t do much without Donald Trump telling them what to do,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

His hold is particularly strong in the GOP-led House, where Speaker Mike Johnson effectivelyowes his job to Trump, and relies on his influence to power through difficult legislative fights.

When Republicans have withheld votes on Trump’s priorities in Congress, he’s called them on the phone or summoned them to his office to directly sway them. When that doesn’t work, he has vowed to unseat them in the next election. It’s led many Democrats to believe the only path to an agreement runs through the White House and not through the speaker’s office.

Democrats also want assurances from the White House that they won’t backtrack on an agreement. The White House earlier this year cut out the legislative branch entirely with a $4.9 billion cut to foreign aid in August through a legally dubious process known as a “pocket rescission.” And before he even took office late last year, Trump and ally Elon Musk blew up a bipartisan funding agreement that both parties had negotiated.

“I think we need to see ink on paper. I think we need to see legislation. I think we need to see votes,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “I don’t accept pinky promises. That’s not the business that I’m in.”

Both parties also see little reason to fold under public pressure, believing they are winning the messaging battle.

“Everybody thinks they’re winning,” Murkowski said. “Nobody is winning when everybody’s losing. And that’s what’s happening right now. The American public is losing.”

Cappelletti and Kim write for the Associated Press. AP writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Oct. 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced a deal Thursday between his administration and a pharmaceutical company that could reduce the cost of some fertility medications.

Administration officials say the deal between the government and EMD Serono will help millions of U.S. women who have trouble conceiving afford the cost of medications that could help.

“In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for couples to have babies, raise children and start the families they’ve always dreamed about,” Trump said during his Oval Office announcement.

The president said during the announcement that EMD Serono, the world’s largest fertility drug manufacturer, has agreed to provide discounts for the drugs it sells in the United States, including Gonal-f, which is used to treat infertility by men and women.

A fertility drug cycle typically costs between $5,000 and $6,000, the administration said, and only about 30% of families have access to employer insurance that will cover the treatment. Women trying to conceive can require different amounts of the drug.

Trump said his administration is working with employers to make it easier for them to offer supplemental insurance coverage for fertility treatments.

“As a result of these actions, the per-cycle cost of drugs used in IVF will fall by an estimated 73% for American consumers, and the numbers are going to actually be very substantially higher as time goes by when it really kicks in,” Trump continued during the announcement.

Trump blamed inflated fertility drug prices as a reason for the high cost of IVF treatment, and claimed the cost for the procedure is 700% times more expensive in the United States than in the rest of the world.

Seroni said in its statement that IVF patients will be able to buy Gonal-f at an 84% discount.

Oct. 10 (UPI) — Israeli forces in Gaza began pulling back to pre-agreed positions Friday in line with the terms of the cease-fire and hostage release agreement requiring a partial withdrawal within 24 hours of the Israeli cabinet signing off on the deal.

The Israel Defense Forces posted a video on X of troops preparing to pull out and military vehicles moving under the cover of darkness.

“Southern Command in the midst of adjusting operational positions in Gaza,” it said, but warned that troops were still deployed in the area and would counter any threats that emerged.

IDF Radio said the IDF projected that its forces would have withdrawn to the agreed positions by noon local time.

The BBC said troops had started to pull out from the north-western areas of Gaza City while local residents in other locations reported similar maneuvers.

However, Israeli armor remained in place in locations from which forces were due to withdraw under the first phase of the plan, including the coastal road and parts of Khan Yunis in the south where Israeli air strikes were reported overnight.

Artillery and gunfire were also heard near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.

The cease-fire was supposed to take effect immediately after being approved by the Israeli government in the early hours of Friday, local time.

The three-phase pullout mandates IDF troops permanently withdraw to a so-called “yellow line” in U.S. President Donald Trump‘s peace plan that will leave Israel in control of about 53% of the Palestinian enclave within 24 hours of Israeli government approval of the deal, which came just before 2 a.m.

For its part, Hamas is required to hand back 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be living, by noon on Monday, while at the same time Israel will release 1,700 Palestinians held in its prisons.

Flows of humanitarian aid was also due to recommence with all restrictions lifted immediately.

U.S. officials said the Pentagon was redeploying a force of as many as 200 troops from other Middle East missions to Israel to lead a multinational force to monitor the truce.

They stressed their presence would be in a coordinating role only and that there would be no U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it stood by ready to assist in the hostage-prisoner swap, including reuniting families with the remains of their loved ones, as it had done in previous deals over the past two years since the Oct. 7 attacks.

The NGO said in a news release that its teams were prepared to deliver and safely distribute lifesaving aid to those who needed it most in Gaza.

The United Nations said it was standing ready to get to work implementing a 60-day plan 60-day comprehensive plan to deliver critical aid, including hundreds of thousands tons of food, medicine and other supplies.

“Our plan, detailed and tested, is in place. Our supplies, 170,000 metric tons, are in place. And our team, courageous and expert and determined, are in place,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher told a news conference in New York.

“We will aim to increase the pipeline of supplies to hundreds of trucks every day. We will scale up the provision of food across Gaza to reach 2.1 million people who need food aid and around 500,000 people who need nutrition.

Famine must be reversed in areas where it has taken hold and prevented in others. So we will be distributing in-kind rations. We’ll be supporting bakeries, community kitchens. We’ll be supporting herders and fishers in restoring their livelihoods,” said Fletcher, who also serves as the Office of Humanitarian Affairs’ emergency relief coordinator.

About 200,000 families would also receive cash payouts to use to shop at public markets to cover their basic food needs.

Meanwhile, Israel was preparing to welcome Trump, who was expected to travel to Jerusalem on Sunday to address the Knesset. Hostage families also want him to come and speak in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, which has been unofficially dubbed “Hostage Square.”

Speaking in the Oval office on Thursday, Trump said that he hoped to be in Israel for when the hostages were released “on Monday or Tuesday.

However, Israeli media were reporting that Trump’s visit will be short, with the president scheduled to fly out of Israel again late Sunday.

Oct. 6 (UPI) — President Donald Trump told reporters Monday he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act to send National Guard troops into Portland, one day after a federal judge blocked the administration’s mobilization for a second time.

Trump planned to send 200 National Guard troops from California to Oregon to prevent protesters from confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the Oregon city, where he claimed there was a “criminal insurrection.”

“You look at what’s happening with Portland over the years, it’s a burning hell hole,” Trump told reporters, who had gathered in the Oval Office at the White House. “And then you have a judge that lost her way that tries to pretend that there’s no problem.”

“I’d do it if it was necessary. So far, it hasn’t been necessary. But we have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” Trump said. “If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that. I mean, I want to make sure people aren’t killed.”

The Insurrection Act is a federal law, enacted in 1807, that allows the president to deploy the U.S. military to stop what the president considers to be a “criminal insurrection” against the United States.

On Sunday night, U.S. Judge Karin Immergut issued an order to block the administration from sending any National Guard troops to Portland, accusing the feds of circumventing her previous order.

Immergut wrote that the protests outside of Portland’s ICE facility did not pose a risk of rebellion, which made the deployment of federal troops illegal.

“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote. The U.S. Justice Department has appealed the judge’s earlier ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the Trump administration has been dealing with a “legal insurrection against the laws and Constitution of the United States.”

“We need to have district courts in this country that see themselves as being under the laws and Constitution and not being able to take for themselves powers that are reserved solely for the president,” Miller added.

Trump has used the National Guard to address what he deems to be uncontrolled crime in other cities, including in Washington, D.C., where a deployment in August reduced violent crime by 49% and carjackings by 83%, according to data from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

The White House is also targeting Chicago for troop deployment. The city and the state of Illinois sued the administration Monday, claiming deployment of the National Guard would “infringe on Illinois’ sovereignty and right to self-governance.”

Oct. 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said the Department of Education has reached a potential deal to settle a months-long battle with Harvard University over federal funding.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon “is finishing up the final details” of the plan, Trump said during an unrelated executive order signing Tuesday in the Oval Office.

She has “a good chance of getting that closed,” he said.

The plan would have Harvard University pay $500 million and require the school to open trade schools and teach artificial intelligence.

“They’ll be teaching people how to do AI and lots of other things, engines, lots of things,” Trump said, adding that the school would run a “series of trade schools.”

Harvard did not immediately respond to Politico and CNN‘s requests for a comment on the matter.

Trump and Harvard have been locked in a legal battle after the president attempted to withhold more than $2 billion in funding and block Harvard from admitting international students after taking issue with students’ anti-Israel protests over the war in Gaza. The administration accused Harvard of failing to crack down on anti-Semitism.

Earlier this month, U.S. Judge Allison Burroughs of the District of Massachusetts restored the funding — in the form of grants and contracts — in response to a lawsuit brought by the university and employee groups. The lawsuit accused Trump of leveraging the funding “to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard.”

Among the programs affected by the block in funding were research in science and medicine, including on radiation exposure, ALS diagnostics and tuberculosis treatment.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights launched a process that could see Harvard ineligible for federal funding on Title VI grounds.

Sept. 29 (UPI) — The chances of a government shutdown increased on Monday after congressional leaders from both parties, during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, weren’t able to agree on a stopgap funding bill less than 48 hours before the deadline.

Without the funding bill signed by Trump, the government will run out of money, starting after midnight Wednesday.

Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both serving New York, have said they won’t support any stopgap bill unless it protects healthcare programs. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dajota, both Republicans, don’t want to restore recent Medicaid cuts, and it omits an extension of the currently enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits scheduled to expire.

The congressional leaders spoke separately with reporters outside the White House. Trump didn’t comment, including on Truth Social.

Schumer told reporters outside the White House’s West Wing that “there are still large differences between us.”

He added: “Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input.”

On Sept. 19, the House passed a seven-week stopgap funding bill that Senate Democrats rejected earlier this month.

“That is never how we’ve done this before,” Schumer said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused Democrats of “hostage taking” in their demands

“Republicans are united,” Thune said. House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump. The House has passed a clean funding resolution to fund the government until November the 21st. It’s clean, it’s bipartisan, and it is short-term, but it gives us enough time to finish the appropriations process, which is the way we should be funding the government.”

He held up a copy of the bill, saying: “This is sitting right now at the Senate desk. We could pick it up and pass it tonight, pick it up and pass it tomorrow before the government shuts down, and then we don’t have the government shut down. It is totally up to the Democrats, because right now, they are the only thing standing between the American people and the government shutting down.”

Thume said the Senate will vote on the House’s continuing resolution before negotiating a full-year appropriations bill. They have a 53-47 majority, but 60 votes are needed for passage.

Last week, a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget sent to federal agencies said there will be mass firings without stopgap funding. The OMB asked the federal agencies to identify programs that would lose funding and have no other sources of funding.

Essential services, including Social Security and Medicare payments, and mail delivery, will continue, though new applications, loans and some regulatory functions can face delays. Air travel and law enforcement also remain in place.

Essential workers and those sent home won’t get paid initially, but they all will get the money when the government reopens.

Vice President JD Vance said the nation is headed into a shutdown “because the Democrats won’t do the right thing.”

“Look the principle at stake here is very simple,” Vance said. “We have disagreements about tax policy, you don’t shut that government down. We have disagreements about healthcare policy, but you don’t shut the government down. You don’t use your policy disagreements as leverage to not pay our troops and not have essentials for services.”

Vance took a more conciliatory tone than the Republicans, saying he favors further discussing the Democrats’ demand. “They had some ideas that I actually thought were reasonable, and they had some ideas that the President thought was reasonable,” he told reporters. “What’s not reasonable is to hold those ideas as leverage and to shut down the government unless we give you everything you want.”

Democrats are concerned about increased healthcare premiums and closure of rural hospitals. On July 4, Trump signed the legislation that is called “the Big Beautiful Spending Bill” of tax and spending policies.

“By his face and by the way he looked, I think he heard about them for the first time,” Schumer said, noting he told Trump some families could see monthly premiums for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, will rise $400 if enhanced subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year.

The Democrats warn that many rural hospitals would close in the next year because of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.

Republicans also rejected a stopgap bill to last seven to 10 days.

Republicans have differed on how to handle subsidies to help healthcare, including rural hospitals.

Trump continues to criticize Democrats, including a joint news conference with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu before the meeting with congressional leaders.

“They’re going to have to do some things because their ideas are not very good ones,” he said. “They’re very bad for our country, so we’ll see how that works out.”

The meeting was Trump’s first with top Democrats since he became president again on Jan. 20. Trump canceled a meeting scheduled for last week at the request of Johnson and Thune.

The meeting was announced late Saturday.

“I want to thank President Trump for the strong, solid leadership,” Johnson said. “He listened to the arguments and they just wouldn’t acknowledge the simple facts. If the Democrats make the decisions to shut the government down, the consequences are on them.”

Jeffries said, though “significant and meaningful differences remain,” they had a “frank and direct discussion” in the Oval Office.

The last U.S. government shutdown was 35 days, starting on Dec. 22, 2018, and ending on Jan. 25, 2019, when Trump was first president. Trump demanded $5.7 billion in federal funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border at that time.

Sept. 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump will meet Monday with the top four congressional leaders in a bid to avert a potential government shutdown.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced in a news release late Saturday that Trump had agreed to meet with them in the Oval Office of the White House ahead of an Oct. 1 deadline to pass a spending bill that would avoid a government shutdown.

“As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” the top Democratic lawmakers said in the joint statement.

“We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, both Republicans, will join them at the White House, NBC News and CBS News reported.

The announcement of the meeting came after Trump cancelled a planned meeting last week with the Democratic lawmakers at the request of Johnson and Thune.

Congress has been deadlocked for weeks. Republicans are pushing to keep the government open with a short-term spending bill that would extend funding into November. Their bill would not restore recent Medicaid cuts, and it omits an extension of the currently enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits scheduled to expire.

Democrats, led by Schumer and Jeffries, have said they won’t support any stopgap bill unless it protects healthcare programs. They argue that those healthcare protections must be included in any emergency funding deal, not delayed for later talks.

“They want all this stuff. They don’t change. They haven’t learned from the biggest beating they’ve ever taken,” Trump previously said about meeting with Schumer and Jeffries. “I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have an impact.”

So far, both sides have tested their positions with failed votes. On Sept. 19, the House passed the Republican plan to fund the government through Nov. 21, but the Senate rejected it. Republicans hold a slim majority of 53 seats and need Democratic support to get the 60 votes required to pass a funding bill.

Democrats have tried to advance their own version that included the healthcare protections, but that measure also failed to clear the Senate.

The standoff has raised fears of a repeat of past shutdowns, which disrupted federal services and cost the government billions of dollars.

Sept. 25 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss a potential arms deal, lifting sanctions against Turkey and Middle East peace while meeting on Thursday.

Trump and Erdogan are meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, which will include discussions regarding Erdogan’s desire to purchase F-16 and F-35 fighter aircraft and Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, they told media before their closed-door meeting.

“We do a lot of trade with Turkey, and we’re going to do some more,” Trump told media.

He said a deal for F-16s is likely and a deal for F-35s and the Patriot missiles could be made.

“I think he’ll be successful,” Trump said of Erdogan’s effort to secure a deal for F-35 fighters.

Turkey also wants to buy 200 commercial aircraft, the BBC reported.

The presidents said they are friends and highly respectful of one another, which should make it easier to reach agreements on the many issues that they will discuss.

They also will discuss matters in Gaza and the Middle East, potential assistance for the Greek Orthodox Church and ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump said he wants Turkey to stop buying Russian oil and is prepared to lift existing sanctions against Turkey for that nation’s past purchase of Russian arms.

The president also said they will discuss tariffs and securing the release of remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

Trump said about 20 hostages likely are living and estimated about 38 likely are dead, many of them young boys.

Following his meeting with Erdogan, the president also is scheduled to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday.

U.S. and Pakistani officials in July secured a trade agreement to lower tariffs between the two nations.

The U.S. also agreed to help Pakistan develop its oil reserves.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has abruptly canceled this week’s planned meeting with congressional Democratic leaders, refusing to negotiate over their demands to shore up health care funds as part of a deal to prevent a potential federal government shutdown.

In a lengthy Tuesday social media post, Trump rejected the sit-down the White House had agreed to the day before. It would have been the first time the Republican president met with the Democratic Party’s leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, since his return to the White House.

“I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump wrote in the post.

The president complained the Democrats “are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States” unless the Republicans agree to more funding on health care for various groups of people he has criticized. Trump did not close the door on a future sit-down with the Democratic leaders, but he warned of a “long and brutal slog” ahead unless Democrats dropped their demands to salvage health care funds.

Earlier Tuesday, Schumer and Jeffries had issued a joint statement saying that after “weeks of Republican stonewalling” the president had agreed to meet in the Oval Office. But after the Republican president canceled the meeting, the Democratic leaders accused him of throwing a tantrum and running away. Jeffries posted on X that “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

“Donald Trump just cancelled a high stakes meeting in the Oval Office with myself and Leader Schumer,” Jeffries wrote on X. “The extremists want to shut down the government because they are unwilling to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating America.”

In a post on X directed at Trump, Schumer said Democrats will sit down and discuss health care “when you’re finished ranting.”

Schumer said Trump “is running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there” and would “rather throw a tantrum than do his job.”

With Congress at a stalemate, the government is headed toward a federal shutdown next week, Oct. 1, if the House and the Senate are unable to approve the legislation needed to fund offices and services into the new fiscal year. Lawmakers left town amid the logjam, and they are not due back until Sept. 29.

Trump has been unafraid of shutting down the government and, during his first term, was president over the nation’s longest federal closure, during the 2018-19 holiday season, when he was pushing Congress to provide funds for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The president insisted over the weekend that essential services, including for veterans, would remain open.

Republicans, who have the majority in both the House and the Senate, have been trying to avoid a shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson led passage late last week of a temporary funding measure, which would have kept government offices running into November while talks get underway.

That’s the typical way to buy time during funding fights, but the measure failed in the Senate. Democrats refused to support the stopgap bill because it did not include their priorities of health care funds. A Democratic proposal, with the health care money restored, was defeated by Senate Republicans.

Schumer and Jeffries have demanded a meeting with Trump to work out a compromise, but the Republican president has been reluctant to enter talks and instructed GOP leaders on Capitol Hill not to negotiate with the Democrats.

Thursday’s scheduled meeting would have potentially set up a showdown at the White House, reminiscent of the 2018 funding fight when Trump led an explosive public session with Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Democrats are working to protect health care programs. The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year.

Republicans have said the Democrats’ demands to reverse the Medicaid changes are a nonstarter, but they have also said there is time to address the health insurance subsidy issue in the months ahead.

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.

Sept. 5 (UPI) — President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Friday directing the Department of Defense to revert to its old title of Department of War and for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s title to be changed to Secretary of War.

The order makes clear the name change was aimed at emphasizing the armed services’ dynamic offensive capabilities with the aim of “projecting power and resolve,” as well as their role in defending the United States and its interests.

“The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities,” the text of the order states.

It adds that the change would “sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests.”

“The United States military is the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world, and the president believes this department should have a name that reflects its unmatched power and readiness to protect national interests,” the White House added in a fact sheet.

However, the Pentagon, which replaced the George Washington-era War Department in 1947, will only be able to use the new title as a secondary name for now because formally creating new cabinet-level departments is a power reserved to Congress — although the administration can make the switch for official communications.

The order does direct Hegseth to bring forward legislative and executive actions to formalize the renaming in law, however, Trump has expressed confidence that the process wouldn’t prove an obstacle.

“We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along, if we need that. I don’t think we even need that,” he said.

Anticipation that a name change could be imminent has been stoked by Trump, who has sought to link the name used to the United States’ record in the theater of war, noting that the country prevailed in two world wars under the “War Department.”

“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week.

A post from Hegseth on X late Thursday simply read: “DEPARTMENT OF WAR.”

However, the administration has been mute on the potential costs associated with the rebrand, when and if it is made permanent, amid reports that implementing the changes to emblems, email addresses, uniforms, at U.S. bases and around the world and across hundreds of related agencies could run to $1 billion.

The department was called the War Department from 1789 to 1947, when Congress enacted legislation merging it with the navy and air force to become the National Military Establishment.

Congress created the civilian-led Department of Defense two years later via an amendment to the National Security Act.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — A man has been arrested near the White House for setting an American flag on fire shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to prosecute acts of flag “desecration.”

The Secret Service confirmed the arrest in a statement to Newsweek, stating the suspect was detained in Lafayette Park for “igniting an object” at about 6:15 p.m. EDT Monday.

The suspect was turned over to U.S. Park Police, which told NBC News that the person had violated a statute that bans fires in public parks.

In a video of the incident published on social media by The Bulwark news organization, the suspect identified himself as a 20-year combat veteran who said he was burning the flag “as a protest to that illegal fascist president that sits in that House.”

The arrest came hours after Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to “prioritize” enforcing the nation’s criminal and civil law “against acts of American flag desecration.”

The order does not explicitly make American flag burning illegal, which the Supreme Court has ruled is protected by the Constitution, but says that burning “this representation of America may incite violence and riot.”

During the signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump claimed American flags are being burned “all over the country.”

He also mentioned the 5-4 Supreme Court decision of 1989 that found flag burning is a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment, but seemingly disregarded it, stating people “go crazy” when a flag is burned.

“If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy. You can do other things. You can burn this piece of paper,” he said, gesturing toward a piece of paper on his desk.

“But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we’ve never seen before. People go crazy in both ways. There are some that are going crazy for doing it. There are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.”

Trump signed the executive order as some 2,000 National Guardsmen have been deployed to Washington, D.C.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Friday that his next targets for crime crackdowns would be Chicago and New York.

“After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” he added. “Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor [Brandon Johnson]. Grossly incompetent and we’ll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this. And it won’t even be tough.”

Trump said there were “African American ladies, beautiful ladies,” urging him to intervene in Chicago, a city that has long struggled with gun violence. He indicated his administration would focus next on Chicago and then others, such as New York City.

He threatened using the “regular military,” an escalation from federal takeovers of police and deploying the National Guard.

“I really am honored that the National Guard has done such an incredible job working with the police,” Trump said during a press conference. “And we haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do if we have to.”

He said he could keep National Guard members in the city “as long as I want” by declaring a national emergency. More than 1,900 National Guard troops from multiple states, including West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana and Tennessee, as well as the District of Columbia, have been mobilized in the district, according to Joint Task Force-DC.

Trump also took aim at D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and threatened to do more than just seize control of the police force.

“I’m tired of listening to these people say how safe it was before we got here. It was unsafe. It was horrible. And Mayor Bowser better get her act straight, or she won’t be mayor very long because we’ll take it over with the federal government running like it’s supposed to be run,” Trump said.

Trump dismissed polling that showed most city residents disapprove of the deployment of federal troops, calling it “fake news” and claiming that residents of Chicago and cities are begging for a similar crackdown where they live.

It was not immediately clear how a federal crackdown in Chicago would transpire. The District of Columbia is not a part of any state and has restrictions on its ability to self-govern, so the president has the ability to effectively federalize its police force. Other cities and states do not have similar status.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday during a White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and said he will arrange a bilateral meeting between the two, within the next two weeks.

The call came during Monday’s negotiations between Zelensky, Trump and European leaders, who had gathered to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump said the future meeting would be followed by a trilateral meeting, involving the United States. On Monday night, the White House posted an Oval Office photo of Trump on the phone with Putin, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance looked on.

Trump said Vance, Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would be involved in coordinating the meeting between Putin and Zelensky.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he “had a very good meeting with distinguished guests,” which included Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as much of the European delegation and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“I called President Putin and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” Trump said. “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years.”

Trump met with Zelensky earlier Monday afternoon to signal that the United States would provide Ukraine with “very good protection.”

“The security guarantees would be provided by the various European countries, with a coordination with the United States of America,” Trump said. “Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.”

Macron called the U.S. commitment for Ukrainian security guarantees the “first and most important” outcome of Monday’s talks.

“Today, it was agreed that we will work with the United States of America on the content of these security guarantees and the cooperation that each party is prepared to provide,” Macron said, adding that any meeting would have to take place under a cease-fire.

“Call it a truce or a cease-fire, but we cannot hold discussions under bombs,” Macron added.

Trump told Zelensky at the start of the meeting: “I have a feeling you and President Putin are going to work something out. Ultimately, this is a decision that can only be made by President Zelensky and by the people of Ukraine working also together in agreement with President Putin. And I just think that very good things are going to come of it.”

By the end of the day, Zelensky told reporters he is ready for “any format” of a meeting with Putin and said he would also participate in a trilateral meeting if there is progress in the first one.

“I believe unconditionally we should meet and think about the further development of this path of the war,” he said.

Zelensky told reporters that the security guarantees included plans for Ukraine to purchase $90 billion in American weapons through European funding.

Zelensky also said he and Trump had a long discussion about a map in the Oval Office, showing Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. Rutte said Ukrainian territory was not discussed during the broader Monday meetings.

Zelensky arrived around 1 p.m. EDT on Monday along with several EU leaders. Trump and Zelensky sat in the Oval Office, mirroring their meeting earlier this year.

This time, they avoided the dramatic shouting match from six months ago in the same space.

During the February exchange, Trump and Vance accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward the United States and the Trump administration.

Zelensky was much more complimentary during Monday’s meeting, immediately thanking Trump for his efforts to stop Russia’s war.

Vance, who was in the Oval Office, said nothing this time.

The meeting came after Trump’s summit with Putin on Friday in Alaska.

European Council leaders are scheduled to meet via videoconference Tuesday to discuss the meeting. The council’s president, Antonio Costa, called the conference, he announced on X Monday.

“I have convened a video conference of the members of the European Council for tomorrow at 1 p.m. CEST, for a debriefing of today’s meetings in Washington, D.C., about Ukraine,” Costa wrote. “Together with the U.S., the EU will continue working towards a lasting peace that safeguards Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests.”

European leaders, including Rutte, Starmer, Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied Zelensky to Washington for the talks.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a $100 billion investment plan to shift the tech company’s supply chain to the United States after earlier this year pledging $500 billion over four years.

The final assembly of Apple’s major products, including the iPhone, iPad and MacBook, will continue to take place in China and India, Cook said in the Oval Office of the White House. In 2024, Apple generated $390 billion in revenue with 51% from iPhone sales.

This announcement comes as Apple, other countries and foreign nations are bracing for further impact from tariffs. Most reciprocal tariffs take place on Friday with some already in place and a 10% on most trading partners since April.

Ahead of a threatened 100% tariffs on foreign chips and semiconductors, Cook describes an increase in production of those items in the United States.

Trump and Cook announced the launch of the American Manufacturing Program to boost the supply chain to the United States. Apple is working with Corning, Coherent, GlobalWafers America, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments, Samsung and Broadcom.

“I’m glad to be here with you today, and I’m very proud to say that today, we’re committing an additional $100 billion to the United States,” Cook told Trump during their White House event.

In the United States, Apple will manufacture the glass covers on all iPhones and Apple Watch devices sold worldwide. Corning, which has made glass products for more than 60 years, will dedicate its entire facility in Harrodsburg, Ky., to the Apple products under a $2.5 billion commitment.

Cook gave Trump some glass made at the plant.

“Apple will massively increase spending on its domestic supply chain for the iPhone, and will build the largest and most sophisticated smart glass production line in the world,” Trump said.

Other changes are in the works.

“Apple will also build a 250,000-square-foot server manufacturing facility in Houston, and invest billions of dollars to construct data centers across the country from North Carolina to Iowa to Oregon,” Trump said.

Apple earlier said the Houston server plant will open next year.

In its plan to invest $500 billion in the United States, the company will open a manufacturing academy in Detroit and source rare earth — critical for electronics such as smartphones and TVs — from U.S.-based supplier MP Materials.

Most Apple items are exempt from tariffs, though the company had an $800 million payout in the last quarter from duties and predicts another $1.5 billion in the next three months.

The United States and China are negotiating on a deal with 30% now charged. India has been informed the duty will be 50%.

“Tim Cook is known to be the supply chain genius of technology,” Ted Mortonson, technology sector strategist at financial services company Baird, told CNN. “And I think his whole supply chain team is well aware … before it happens, what the Trump administration is thinking and not thinking.”

With a threatened 100% tariff on all computer chips imported into the United States, Cook said Apple will produce more than 19 billion chips for its products this year in 24 factories in 12 states.

“I’m proud to say that Apple is leading the creation of an end-to-end silicon supply chain right here in America, from design to equipment to wafer production to fabrication to packaging,” Cook said during the event.

Trump on Wednesday said the government is “going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors … But the good news for companies like Apple is, if you’re building in the United States, or have committed to build, without question, committed to build in the United States, there will be no charge.”

Trump had hoped for Apple products to be built in the United States, posting on May 23 on Truth Social: “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”

He changed his tune on Wednesday.

“So I don’t know when it shows up, but there are a lot of factories and a lot of plants that are either under construction or soon we’ll be starting construction,” he said. “So can’t tell you exactly when, but I want to be around in about a year from now and two years from now, because we’re going to see an explosion, I think.”

Ahead of the meeting, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to CNN: “President Trump’s America First economic agenda has secured trillions of dollars in investments that support American jobs and bolster American businesses. Today’s announcement with Apple is another win for our manufacturing industry that will simultaneously help reshore the production of critical components to protect America’s economic and national security.”

Apple shares closed Wednesday with a 5.09% gain to close at $213.25 in it biggest single-day increase this year. Apple shares reached a record $247.10 on Feb. 24 and was down to $172.42 on April 8, before Trump announced a 90-day pause of reciprocal tariffs.

Apple has a market capitalization of $3.17 trillion. At one time, Apple had the biggest amount in the United States, but now it is third behind two other tech companies, Nvidia leads with $4.02 trillion and Microsoft at $3.73 trillion.

Donald Trump has now thoroughly sullied the office of the presidency.

I’m not talking about the Oval Office, with its new, gaudy gilt trappings that seem to spread by the day, as if the famously nocturnal president multitasks there while others sleep, tapping out his nasty late-night social media screeds between applying more layers of the gold leaf fit for a king. Those golden geegaws are simply Trump’s literal stain on the Oval Office.

I’m talking about the figurative taint: What Trump does and says there by day, in full view of the media cameras, reporters and fawning retainers invited for his performances. With that behavior he besmirches not just the actual Oval Office but the very idea of the office of the president of the United States.

Who can forget, as much as one would like to, Trump’s bullying humiliation of Ukraine’s war-hero President Volodymyr Zelensky in February, and, in May, his premeditated attack on President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, with false claims of that nation’s genocide against white Afrikaner farmers?

But Trump’s performative power play on Tuesday arguably tops them all for shame. Alas, this time his target — President Obama — wasn’t present to push back. The bully wouldn’t dare get in Obama’s face, knowing his predecessor’s counterpunch against the lies could be a knockout. (In Obama’s presence, in fact, Trump is all cringey banter and bonhomie, as at Jimmy Carter’s funeral earlier this year, when the other former presidents snubbed him.)

The word “unprecedented” is used a lot, justifiably, to describe Trump’s actions, but never was it more apt: The sitting president baselessly alleged that the former president was “treasonous” — a crime punishable by death — and all but ordered his law-enforcement minions to arrest, prosecute and imprison the man.

(Apparently Trump, convicted fraudster and adjudicated sexual abuser, forgot that last year — to avoid pre-election trials tied to his alleged crimes involving Jan. 6 and classified documents — he’d persuaded a deferential Supreme Court to give presidents virtual immunity from criminal prosecution. Narcissist that he is, perhaps Trump thinks the egregious ruling only applied to him, not to Obama and every other president past and future.)

“He’s guilty. This was treason,” Trump pronounced of Obama, falsely reviving conspiracies that the then-president and his inner circle lied about Russia’s pro-Trump meddling in the 2016 campaign as a way of undermining Trump’s legitimacy. But for eight years, Vladimir Putin’s 2016 election interference has been a well-established fact, documented by multiple investigations, including one led by then-Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who’s now Trump’s secretary of State.

As Trump fulminated against Obama, seated beside him in the Oval Office’s familiar wingback chairs was yet another foreign dignitary, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., making him just the latest witness to how fully Trump has extinguished the United States’ beacon as a global exemplar of democratic norms and peaceful transfers of power.

Yes, Trump’s rant against Obama as well as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats was yet another of his manic attempts over the past three weeks to distract from the morass of his handling of what’s known as the Jeffrey Epstein files — files in which his name appears, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The administration’s refusal to release federal records of the pedophilia and sex-trafficking investigation of the late billionaire and Trump friend — despite past promises from Trump, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Patel deputy Dan Bongino — is a mess of their own making, and the first to draw condemnation from Trump’s otherwise loyal base. That’s what’s so unnerved the president.

And yes, we should avoid taking the bait of Trump’s distractions.

But… For a president in power to falsely allege that a former president is a traitor, and to suggest that his lickspittles at the Justice Department and FBI should act against that former president, is a distraction that must command Americans’ attention.

Certainly Obama, who’s long frustrated Democrats by his reticence about criticizing Trump, thinks so. On Tuesday he had a spokesman issue a stinger of a statement.

“Out of respect for the office of the presidency,” it began, “our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.” It pointedly alluded to Rubio’s supportive and bipartisan 2020 report to mock the “bizarre allegations” Trump is lodging.

The basis of Trump’s claims of Obama’s treason is a report released Friday by his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the conspiracy-minded former Democratic congresswoman. Not coincidentally, Gabbard lately has been desperate to get back in Trump’s good graces, having fallen from favor in recent months. Her report, along with her criminal referral to the Justice Department against Obama and others, seems to have done the trick, at least for now. Trump is singing her praises.

Gabbard outlined what she calls a “treasonous conspiracy” by Obama and Democrats to bury findings that Russia did nothing to alter the 2016 result — Trump’s victory — and to promote the “hoax” that Trump owed his election to Russia. But Obama and his aides repeatedly assured Americans that Russia did not manipulate the actual 2016 vote by hacking election machinery. Instead, Obama and his team consistently held, along with subsequent investigators, that Russia’s interference was limited to an internet-based campaign of trolls and bots promoting Trump and denigrating Clinton to U.S. voters. They never claimed that meddling determined the election outcome.

Here’s the irony: Trump is building a false case against Obama to distract his restive base from the very real case involving his pal and fellow playboy Epstein, one in which he may or may not be implicated in wrongdoing, and from his failure to bring Epstein’s elite accomplices to justice. Yet by doing so, Trump is again setting up his followers for disappointment and disillusionment. Because there is no Obama case, and so no “justice” for the salivating base.

It’s a sordid quandary that Trump deserves. Too bad he’s brought it into the presidency.

Bluesky: @jackiecalmes
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July 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said a deal has been made with almost all the Republican House members who sank a procedural vote on his cryptocurrency bills Tuesday.

“I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 congressmen/women necessary to pass the Genius Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the rule,” Trump said via Truth Social Tuesday.

“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was at the meeting via telephone, and looks forward to taking the vote as early as possible,” he added.

Two of the bills in question are the aforementioned Genius Act, which would regulate stablecoins and the Clarity Act, which would set rules to decide if an asset is to be regulated as either a security by the Securities and Exchange Commission or as a commodity supervised by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The third bill would stop the creation of a central bank digital currency by the Federal Reserve.

It is unclear what guarantees Trump made to lock in the 11 switched votes of support for the procedural rule.

“I’m thankful for President Trump getting involved tonight,” posted Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to X Tuesday, who then declared that the Genius Act will pass when the new vote happens Wednesday.

Shares of stablecoin companies Circle and Coinbase had both dropped Tuesday upon the failure of the procedural vote, as did shares of the digital asset firm MARA Holdings, but all three had upward-heading premarket numbers Wednesday.

June 18 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed members of the Italian Juventus Club World Cup team to the Oval Office as he spoke about a range of topics, including transgender athletes.

The team, which includes Americans Timothy Weah and Weston McKennie, appeared in the White House before playing Al Ain of the United Arab Emrites at Washington, D.C.’s, Audi Field on Wednesday night. Thirty-two teams are competing from last Saturday to July 13 in the United States.

Also on hand were FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Juventus club executives, former player Giorgio Chiellini and head coach Igor Tudor.

They stood behind the president.

Trump turned around and asked them: “Could a woman make your team, fellas.”

They smiled nervously and didn’t respond.

Juventus’ general manager Damien Comolli finally said: “We have a very good women’s team.” They are the reigning Serie A champions.

“But they should be playing with women,” Trump said as Comolli looked at the floor and chose not to answer.

“But they should be playing with women,” Trump replied. “He’s being very diplomatic.”

Transgender athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympics, including soccer, since 2004 if they meet the eligibility criteria set by their sport’s International Federation. It wasn’t until 2021 that the first openly transgender athletes competed in the Games.

Trump’s executive order that bans transgender participants from women’s sports directs the Secretary of State’s office to pressure the International Olympic to amend standards governing Olympic sporting events “to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”

During the signing ceremony in February, Trump said he wants the International Olympic Committee to “change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject” ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Of the more than 500,000 NCAA athletes, only about 40 are known to be transgender, according to Anna Baeth, director of research at research at Athlete Ally, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ equality in sports.

The NCAA later adhered to Trump’s executive order.

Trans people appear to have no advantage in sports, according to an October 2023 review of 2017 research published in the journal Sports Medicine.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Tennessee state law banning gender-affirming care for minors can stand.

June 7 (UPI) — China has agreed to fast-track approvals for the shipment of rare earth minerals to the United States and some European Union nations.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke Thursday about easing trade tensions.

On Saturday, China’s Minister Seceary Wang Wentao said his nation is “willing to establish a green channel for qualified applications to speed up approval.” Details weren’t given, including the speed of the process and which EU nations are included.

China controls 90% of the global processing of rare earth minerals. Major deposits also are found in the United States, Australia and Russia. Smaller amounts are in Canada, India, South Africa and Southeast Asia.

Rare earth minerals are in the Earth’s crust, making them difficult to extract. They include lanthanide, scandium and yttrium, all on the Periodic Table of Elements. Some major minerals that contain rare earth elements are bastnasite, monazite, loparite and laterite clays.

The first rare-earth mineral was discovered in 1787 — gadolinite, a black mineral composed of cerium, yttrium, iron, silicon and other elements.

U.S. needs rare earth minerals

The minerals are critical to American industries and defense, including use in cars and fighter jets. Batteries contain the minerals

Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday “there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of rare Earth products.”

On April 29, the United States and Ukraine created a Reconstruction Investment Fund that includes rare earth mineral rights in the European nation. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were originally set to sign the minerals deal on Feb. 28, but the plan was scrapped after a tense exchange between them in the Oval Office in which Trump accused him of “gambling with World War III.”

The United States wants access to more than 20 raw materials in Ukraine, including some non-minerals, such as oil and natural gas, as well as titanium, lithium, graphite and manganese.

The Chinese commerce ministry confirmed some applications have been approved without specifying industries covered.

Some Chinese suppliers have recently received six-month export licenses, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said Friday, but it noted that there is a backlog of license applications.

In a survey of member companies conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China late week, 75% say their stock would run out within three months, CNN reported.

Jens Eskelund, the chamber president, said member companies were “still struggling” with the situation.

“I hadn’t realized just how important this rare earth card was before. Now the U.S. side is clearly anxious and eager to resolve this issue,” he said a video on Thursday. “But of course, we’ll link this issue to others — the U.S. is restricting China on chips and jet engines, then China certainly has every reason to make use of this card.

“As for whether China will change its rare earth export control policy, that probably still needs to be negotiated in more detail,” Jin added.

Trump said Xi and himself “straightened out” some points related to rare earth magnets, calling it “very complex stuff.”

The U.S. federal government said China had reneged on its promise made in Geneva on May 12.

Delegations from Beijing and Washington plan to meet in Great Britain on Monday for trade negotiations.

At the height of tariff war, China had imposed export restrictions on some minerals on April 4. Trump two days planned a 120% “reciprocal” tax on top of 25% levy on Chinese goods.

But one week later it paused the bigger tariffs, including on other countries for 90 days.

European nations’ needs

China’s commerce ministry pledged to address the EU’s concerns and establish a “green channel” for eligible applications to expedite approvals. He went to Brussels, Belgium, earlier this week and met with European Union’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic.

It’s a problem for China and the EU.

Sefcovic said the pause was slowing deliveries for manufacturers of a wide range of items from cars to washing machines.

Wang urged the EU to “take effective measures to facilitate, safeguard and promote compliant trade of high-tech products to China.”

On Friday, the European Chamber, a Beijing lobby group, warned progress had “not been sufficient” to prevent severe supply chain disruptions for many companies.