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Trump Inauguration 2025
Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump for continued American military aid in exchange for developing Ukraine's mineral industry, which could provide a valuable source of the rare earth elements that are essential for many kinds of technology. Trump said he wanted such a deal earlier this month, and it was initially proposed last fall by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv's hand in future negotiations with Moscow. We really have this big potential in the territory which we control, Andrii Yermak, chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. We are interested to work, to develop, with our partners, first of all, with the United States. Here is a look at Ukraine's rare earth industry and how a deal might come together: What are rare earth elements? Rare earth elements are a set of 17 elements that are essential in many kinds of consumer technology, inclu
The US Agency for International Development has lost almost all ability to track $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian aid after the Trump administration's foreign funding freeze and idling of staff, a government watchdog warned Monday. The new administration's rapid dismantling of USAID has left oversight of the humanitarian aid largely nonoperational, the inspector general's office for USAID said. That includes the agency's greatly reduced ability to ensure no aid falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones, the watchdog said. The Trump administration on Monday told The Associated Press that it had taken USAID off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades. The eviction comes as a court temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have pulled all but a fraction of workers off the job worldwide. USAID's eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by
Greenland's parliament passed a bill Tuesday that bans political parties from receiving contributions from foreign or anonymous contributors after President Donald Trump expressed his wish that the United States take over the vast and mineral-rich Arctic island that belongs to Denmark. The bill is aimed at protecting Greenland's political integrity" and will take effect immediately, according to a translation of a parliamentary document in Danish outlining the measure. The bill must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland and the current situation where representatives of an allied great power have expressed interest in taking over and controlling Greenland, the document said. Before taking office for his second term on January 20, Trump said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of Greenland, calling it vital to US national security. His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland last month and told citizens: We're going to treat
One of the next moves in President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's sweeping effort to fire government employees and curtail operations is using the agency that manages thousands of federal employee worksites around the country to cut down on office space. Last week, regional managers for the General Services Administration, or GSA, received a message from the agency's Washington headquarters to begin terminating leases on all of the roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide, according to an email shared with The Associated Press by a GSA employee. The order seems to contradict Trump's own return-to-office mandate for federal employees, adding confusion to what was already a scramble by the GSA to find workspace, internet connections and office building security credentials for employees who had been working remotely for years. But it may reflect the Trump administration's belief that it won't need as many offices due to its efforts to fire employees or encourage them to resign. Here's
FBI agents who participated in investigations related to President Donald Trump have sued over Justice Department efforts to develop a list of employees involved in those inquiries that they fear could be a precursor to mass firings. The class-action complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, seeks an immediate halt to the Justice Development's plans to compile a list of investigators who participated in probes of the Jan 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol as well as Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The lawsuit notes that Trump on the campaign trail "repeatedly stated that he would personify the vengeance' or the retribution, for those whom he called "political hostages, for their actions during the Jan 6 attack. The agents contend the very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate FBI agents and other personnel and to discourage them from reporting any
A group of families with transgender children filed a lawsuit Tuesday over President Donald Trump's executive order to halt federal support for gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19. PFLAG, a national group for family of LGBTQ+ people; and GLMA, a doctors organisation, are also plaintiffs in the court challenge in US District Court in Baltimore. It comes one week after Trump signed an order calling for the federal government to stop funding the medical care through federal government-run health insurance programs including Medicaid and TRICARE. Kristen Chapman, the mother of one of the plaintiffs in the case, said her family moved to Richmond, Virginia, from Tennessee in 2023 because of a ban on gender-affirming care in their home state. Her 17-year-old daughter, Willow, had an initial appointment scheduled for last week with a new provider who would accept Medicaid. But Trump signed his order the day before and the hospital said it could not provide care.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that El Salvador's offer to accept and jail violent American criminals raises clear legal issues but described it as very generous and said President Donald Trump would make a decision on whether to move forward with it. Rubio reached an unusual agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele a day earlier that the Central American country would accept US deportees of any nationality, including American citizens and legal residents who are imprisoned for violent crimes. There are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution, Rubio said at a news conference Tuesday in San Jose with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves. But it's a very generous offer. No one's ever made an offer like that and to outsource, at a fraction of the cost, at least some of the most dangerous and violent criminals that we have in the United States. But obviously, the administration will have to make a decision. Rubio discussed immigration with Chaves a .
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he isn't ruling out deploying U.S. troops to support reconstruction of Gaza and he envisions long-term U.S. ownership of a redevelopment of the territory. We'll do what is necessary, Trump said about the possibility of deploying troops to fill any security vacuum. If it's necessary, we'll do that. The comments came after Trump said he wants the U.S. to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, Trump said a start of a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump added the U.S. would level destroyed buildings and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. The comments came after Trump earlier suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-t
When President Donald Trump froze foreign assistance for 90 days, he argued that such a drastic step was needed to eliminate waste and block what he derides as woke spending that doesn't align with American interests. Experts say the suspension has another, far more serious consequence: emboldening authoritarian strongmen. Wrapped into the billions the US spends annually on foreign aid more than any other nation are hundreds of grants for grassroots groups dedicated to fighting for democracy in authoritarian countries around the world. Among the groups that won't be receiving critical funding is an organisation that trained poll workers to detect fraud in Venezuela's recent presidential vote, pro-democracy activists in Cuba and China and a group of Belarusian exiles behind a campaign to block the country's strongman from winning a sham election. Cutting funding to these essential efforts sends the wrong signal to dictatorships and undermines the brave individuals fighting for ...
President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are set to meet Tuesday as the Israeli prime minister faces competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and the 15-month conflict to end. Trump is guarded about the long-term prospects for the truce, even as he takes credit for pressuring Hamas and Israel into the hostage and ceasefire agreement that went into effect the day before he returned to office last month. I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold," Trump told reporters Monday. The leaders' talks are expected to touch on a long-sought Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization deal and concerns about Iran's nuclear program, but hammering out the second phase of the hostage deal will be at the top of the agenda. Netanyahu's arrival in Washington for the first foreign leader visit of Trump's second term comes as the prime minister's popular support is .