We’re wrapping up our live coverage of the second Trump administration, but we’ll be back on Wednesday. Here is a summary of today’s developments:
Donald Trump claimed victory on the economy after 12 months back in office on Tuesday, declaring it to be the “greatest first year in history” as many Americans express alarm over the cost of living. In a stream-of-consciousness speech at the Detroit Economic Club, the US president delivered his gold-tinted view of how the economy has fared on his watch. Prices were down, he claimed, despite official data showing otherwise, and productivity was “smashing expectations”. More here.
Trump gave someone the middle finger, reportedly responding to shouts admonishing him as a “pedophile protector” as he toured a Michigan Ford plant. The celebrity news and gossip site TMZ shared a short video featuring the US president’s flustered response to someone heckling off-screen, during which he appears to issue the hand gesture. Trump spent Tuesday afternoon touring Ford’s River Rouge complex in Dearborn before giving a speech at the Detroit Economic Club. More here.
Trump has told Iranians to keep protesting and said help was on the way, in the clearest sign yet that the US president may be preparing for military action against Tehran. “Iranian Patriots, keep protesting – take over your institutions!!! … help is on its way,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, a day after the White House press secretary said airstrikes were among “many, many options” the US president was considering. More here.
The Trump administration is terminating temporary protected status (TPS) for Somalis living in the United States, giving hundreds of people two months to leave the country or face deportation. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said in a statement that conditions in the east African country had improved sufficiently and that Somalis no longer qualified for the designation under federal law. More here.
Greenland’s prime minister has said “we choose Denmark” before high-stakes talks at the White House as Trump seeks to take control of the Arctic territory. Amid rising tensions over the US president’s push, Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Tuesday told a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, that the island would not be owned or governed by Washington. More here.
Bill and Hillary Clinton announced they would not comply with a subpoena demanding congressional testimony about their relationships to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, while launching an extraordinary attack on Republicans and Donald Trump. The Republican-led House oversight committee in August subpoenaed the former president and first lady after its chair, James Comer, announced the panel would review the government’s handling of Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by what was determined to be suicide while awaiting trial in 2019. More here.
Progressives in the US Congress on Tuesday vowed to oppose legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unless it included significant reforms to immigration enforcement, amid a widening roar among Democrats following the killing of a US citizen in Minnesota last week. The declaration by the Democratic-aligned Congressional Progressive caucus comes as the Senate and House of Representatives race to meet an end-of-the-month deadline to approve a series of funding bills or risk a partial government shutdown. More here.
Donald Trump has defended his administration’s increasingly violent immigration crackdown, describing the 37-year-old woman killed by federal agents as likely a “wonderful person” whose “tough” actions justified a lethal response.
Trump’s comments, made during an interview with CBS News after his visit to a Ford factory in Detroit, came amid rising tensions between federal and local officials in Minneapolis after an ICE agent shot dead Renee Good at the wheel of her SUV on a residential street in Minneapolis last week.
The killing set off nationwide protests and, led to the resignations of a half-dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota, who objected to the justice department’s handling of the investigation into the killing.
In the interview, the CBS anchor, Tony Dokoupil, said he had spoken to Good’s father, a strong Trump supporter who was “heartbroken” over his daughter’s death, about the administration’s characterization of Good as a domestic terrorist. Asked what he would say to the father, Trump said: “I would bet you that she, under normal circumstances, was a very solid, wonderful person. But, you know, her actions were pretty tough.”
Trump, the vice-president JD Vance and homeland security secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly said the agent was acting in self-defense. “There are a couple versions of that tape that are very, very bad,” Trump told CBS, and made the claim that videos capturing the shooting from various angles “can be viewed two ways”.
Video analysis of the footage shows that Good’s vehicle was turning away from the officer as he opens fire.
Here’s the full story:
The House moved forward with Trump-backed legislation to roll back regulations for showerheads.
Supporters of the bill, which passed 226–197, would eliminate regulations and give consumers more choice by allowing greater water flow from showerheads.
Democrats argue the changes could lead to higher utility bills and increased environmental harm.
Federal energy law has outlined appliance standards that determine new showerheads shouldn’t pour out more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute (9.5 liters). The Obama administration refined the restrictions and applied those limits to the water that comes out of the entire showerhead, even ones with several nozzles. Trump relaxed that rule to allow each nozzle of a showerhead spray as much as 2.5 gallons during his first term. The Biden administration reversed Trump’s action in 2021.
“If they want a nozzle that dribbles on their head, well then go get one of those. If you want something that slices an orange, well then go get one of those. That should be your choice as a consumer,” said GOP representative Russell Fry, sponsor of the bill.
The bill will now head to the Senate.
Multiple Americans detained in Venezuela have been released, says Trump administration
Multiple Americans who were detained in Venezuela have been released, the Trump administration said Tuesday.
The release of detained Americans in Venezuela was welcomed as an “important state in the right direction,” a spokesperson for the state department said.
“We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela,” the spokesperson said. “This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.”
Updated
Earlier, we reported that Donald Trump gave someone the middle finger, appearing to respond to shouts calling him a “pedophile protector.” My colleague Gabrielle Canon reports more details:
Trump spent Tuesday afternoon touring Ford’s River Rouge complex in Dearborn, before giving a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
White House communications director Steven Cheung didn’t confirm whether Trump flashed his middle finger, but said in a statement issued to the Guardian that he gave an “appropriate and unambiguous response” when “a lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage”.
In the roughly 15-second clip, a person can be heard yelling from the floor of the Ford plant while Trump looks down from a railing. TMZ claims Trump yelled obscenities before giving the finger.
A spokesperson for Ford told TMZ they were generally proud of how their employees represented the company and that it was a “great event”. But, they added, they don’t condone “anyone saying anything inappropriate” in their facilities. “When that happens, we have a process to deal with it but we don’t get into specific personnel matters,” they said.
The yelling, and the president’s reaction to it, comes as the Trump administration faces increasing pressure to release the so-called Epstein files, documents expected to expose the dealings of the disgraced financier and sex trafficker in greater detail.
Here’s the full report:
Several faculty groups have denounced the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain information about Jewish professors, staff and students at the University of Pennsylvania – including personal emails, phone numbers and home addresses – as government abuse with “ominous historical overtones”.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is demanding the university turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the Penn community as part of the administration’s stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses. But some Jewish faculty and staff have condemned the government’s demand as “a visceral threat to the safety of those who would find themselves identified because compiling and turning over to the government ‘lists of Jews’ conjures a terrifying history”, according to a press release put out by the groups’ lawyers.
The EEOC sued Penn in November over the university’s refusal to fully comply with its demands. On Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors’ national and Penn chapters, the university’s Jewish Law Students Association and its Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty, and the American Academy of Jewish Research filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the case.
Read the full story:
Progressives in the US Congress on Tuesday vowed to oppose legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unless it included significant reforms to immigration enforcement following the killing of a US citizen in Minnesota last week.
The declaration by the Democratic-aligned Congressional Progressive caucus comes as the Senate and House of Representatives race to meet an end-of-the-month deadline to approve a series of funding bills or risk a partial government shutdown.
The debate over DHS funding has been rocked by last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent after the Trump administration ordered a surge of federal officers into the city amid its push for mass deportations.
Read the full story:
The AP reports that the justice department says it currently sees no basis to open a criminal civil rights investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis last week, citing a senior official.
The department’s Civil Rights Division was told last week that it would not be involved in the inquiry even though an FBI investigation is ongoing, according to officials who spoke with the news wire.
On Tuesday, deputy attorney general Todd Blanche told CNN that “there is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”
A video released by TMZ shows President Donald Trump raising the middle finger during an appearance at a Ford plant in Detroit today, where he appears to be responding to a worker in the crowd yelling at him.
Trump was touring the Ford F-150 plant ahead of a speech at the Detroit Economic Club when someone began shouting at him from the floor, the video shows. The full remark is unclear, though the TMZ video appears to capture the words “pedophile protector.” Trump is shown returning an insult.
White House communications director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.”
The worker’s remarks appear to reference Trump’s past association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil asked President Donald Trump what message he would send the father of Renee Nicole Good, the woman who was fatally shot in Minneapolis by a federal agent last week. Her father is a “big supporter” of Trump, according to Dokoupil.
“I want to say to the father that I love all our people. They can be on the other side,” Trump said during an interview with CBS News.
“I would bet you that she under normal circumstances, she was a very solid, wonderful person, but her actions were pretty tough,” he added.
President Donald Trump called Jerome Powell a “lousy Fed chairman” during an interview with Tony Dokoupil on CBS Evening News.
“He’s either corrupt or incompetent,” Trump added.
When asked whether the justice department’s investigation into Powell was retaliation, he said, “I can’t help what it looks like.”
The Trump administration designated three Muslim Brotherhood chapters as “terrorist” groups, claiming they “pose a threat to the United States” and provided “material support to Hamas,” according to a statement by the state department.
The state department designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”, and also labeled the group’s leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”
The treasury department also designated the Egyptian and Jordanian chapters in the latter category, accusing them of supporting Hamas.
Foreign nationals who are representatives or members of a designated organization are barred from entering the United States and may be subject to deportation, according to US law. The treasury department can require US financial institutions to freeze the group’s assets and block any transactions involving funds or property under their control.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that the justice department’s investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell could push inflation and interest rates higher, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Dimon said that “anything that chips away” at the central bank’s independence “is not a good idea.”
“I want to say that I don’t agree with everything the Fed has done,” Dimon said. “I do have enormous respect for Jay Powell the man.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is carrying out what it calls its “largest DHS operation in history,” deploying hundreds of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on top of the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, CBS News reports.
A DHS official told the news outlet that there are currently 800 CBP agents and 2,000 Ice officials in the Minneapolis area as tensions have risen in recent days.
“This is the largest DHS operation in history,” the official told CBS News.
On Tuesday, students in Minnesota held walkouts to protest ongoing Ice operations, while federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritants at activists in other parts of the state, the Associated Press reports.
The surge comes on the same day several federal prosecutors in the state and Washington DC resigned in protest over the justice department’s decision not to hold a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis.
My colleague Lucy Campbell just shared an excerpt from CBS’s interview with Donald Trump, slated to be aired later today, in our dedicated Iran live blog:
Donald Trump has said the United States would take “very strong action” if the Iranian government starts hanging protesters, but did not elaborate on what those actions would be.
“I haven’t heard about the hanging. If they hang them, you’re going to see some things ... We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” Trump told CBS News in Dearborn, Michigan.
Trump said he was aware a “pretty substantial number” of people have been killed over the more than two weeks of demonstrations, and reiterated that “there’s a lot of help on the way” for Iranian citizens in “different forms” including economic assistance.
He also mentioned the US airstrikes last year targeting three of Iran’s nuclear facilities to CBS News, though he didn’t give any further specifics.
When asked what his end game is in Iran, the US president said:
The end game is to win. I like winning.
And asked what “winning” means, he reeled off a list of military operations from his first and second terms, adding:
We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen. And you know, if they want to have protests, that’s one thing, when they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging — we’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not going to work out good.
Updated
Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, reacted to Donald Trump’s claims on the economy earlier today in Michigan, including that inflation has been “defeated” and that “grocery prices are starting to go rapidly down,” despite data showing US consumer prices rose 2.7% annually in December.
“Under Donald Trump’s failed economic policies, Michiganders are seeing their paychecks get tighter, and jobs disappear. And today, Trump tried to gaslight Michigan families once again — but they weren’t fooled — because new polling shows that Donald Trump is disastrously unpopular in Michigan,” Martin said.
He added: “While Donald Trump keeps choosing billionaires and gilded ballrooms over the needs of hardworking Michigan families, Democrats won’t stop fighting to lower families’ costs and keep health care prices in check.”
Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, responded to a lawsuit filed by senator Mark Kelly yesterday seeking to block the secretary’s attempt to strip the military veteran of his rank and pension in retaliation for speaking out against the Trump administration.
“‘Captain’ Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account,” Hegseth said Tuesday in a post on X, reposting Kelly’s remarks about the lawsuit. “Thats why he’s so worried and cranky.”
Updated
Here's a recap of the day so far
In a winding speech in Detroit, billed to tout the Trump administration’s affordability achievements, the president veered off-course on several occasions. Throughout his remarks he threatened to “reverse citizenship of any naturalized immigrant who is convicted of defrauding our citizens”, falsely claimed that grocery prices and rent are down, bemoaned the embattled Fed chair, reaffirmed to protesting Iranians that “help is on its way”, and said that he would stop federal funding to sanctuary cities.
Oversight committee chair James Comer said that he will move to hold former president Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify as part of the ongoing investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case. This comes after legal representatives for both Bill and Hillary Clinton sent an eight-page letter to Comer notifying him that they would not comply with the subpoenas compelling them to appear before the committee to deliver in-person testimony.
Prior to journeying to Detroit, Donald Trump has told the people of Minnesota to “FEAR NOT”, as a “DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING” to the North Star state. In a post on Truth Social, the president slammed the ongoing protests against federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good last week.
The US supreme court on Tuesday appeared poised to uphold laws banning transgender girls and women from competing in female sports in two conservative states, in a landmark legal battle that could carry profound implications for trans rights across US society. During oral arguments on two cases of trans students who sued over Republican-supported laws in West Virginia and Idaho that barred them from girls sports, one member of the court’s conservative majority after another voiced skepticism about the students’ cases.
According to the latest data by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), about 800,000 fewer people have enrolled in Affordable Care Act healthcare plans compared to this time last year. This comes as the threat of spikes in monthly premiums looms – short of Congress passing legislation to extend Covid-era subsidies.
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It’s important to note that there are fairly narrow criteria when it comes to the process of “denaturalization”.
For example, a person would have been found guilty of committing fraud while applying to become a citizen. Namely, if they concealed that they were part of a terrorist organization, or totalitarian party.
A Somali-born US citizen who has committed financial or welfare fraud, would be subject to the same due process as any American, and – if convicted – they would be subject to fines or prison time.
Their citizenship, however, would not be revoked.
Updated
Trump threatens to revoke citizenship of naturalized immigrants convicted of fraud
In his winding speech today, Donald Trump threatened to “reverse citizenship of any naturalized immigrant from Somalia or anywhere else who is convicted of defrauding our citizens”.
He spent a portion of his remarks in Detroit today heaping invective on the Somali community throughout the country, particularly in Minnesota and Maine.
The president repeated xenophobic remarks about Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar – who came to the US as a refugee from Somalia when she was 12, and became a US citizen at 17.
“She lives in Somalia. They don’t have a government, they don’t have a military, they don’t have police, they don’t have anything. All they have is murder and robbing ships,” Trump said today. “She comes here and she tells us about our constitution … I guess she’s she’s a total scam artist.”
A reminder that earlier today, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it would be ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali immigrants.
Trump says that states with sanctuary cities will no longer receive federal funding
The president said today that, starting 1 February, the federal government will not make payments “to sanctuary cities or states having sanctuary cities” because they do “everything possible to protect criminals at the expense of American citizens”.
Last year, a judge temporarily blocked the administration from withholding federal funds to sanctuary cities, calling the move unconstitutional and a “coercive threat”.
Trump falsely claims grocery prices and rent are going down
Trump touted that “grocery prices are starting to go rapidly down” and “rent is down”.
Both statements are untrue. According to the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the cost of food was up 0.7% in December, while the cost of “shelter” rose by 0.4%.
Updated
The president said today that he would be open to foreign automakers setting up factories in the US.
“Let China come in, let Japan come in,” he said. “They’ll be building plants, but they’re using our labor.”
“I’ve canceled all meetings with the Iranian officials, until the senseless killing of protesters stops,” Trump said today. “I say to them, help is on its way. You saw that I put tariffs on anybody doing business with Iran – just went into effect today.”
Trump chides Republican lawmakers who broke from party
In a meandering address, the president spent time calling out moderate Republican lawmakers who have broken from the party recently, while noting that Democrats “stick together”.
“They don’t have a Rand Paul that votes against everything. I got him elected twice. He was stone cold loser,” the president said of the Kentucky senator who co-sponsored a war powers resolution that would curb the Trump administration’s ability to conduct further military operations in Venezuela without approval from Congress. “And you have Lisa Murkowski, and you have Susan Collins – disasters.”
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Trump called Jerome Powell – the now embattled Fed chair – a “real stiff” in his opening remarks today. The president didn’t disparage Powell further, saying “that’s for another day”.
Instead, he repeated a familiar lament: his unhappiness with the Federal Reserve for not slashing interest rates.
“I want somebody that when the market is doing great, interest rates can go down because our country becomes stronger,” Trump said while talking about Powell’s replacement after his term ends in May.
On Venezuela, the president said that “winning is a good thing” when referring to the strikes on Caracas and the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
“We’re going to work with Venezuela. We’ll make that country very strong again. We’ll get oil prices down even further,” Trump said.
Trump giving remarks in Detroit on affordability
Donald Trump has just started his speech to the Detroit Economic Club. He kicked off his remarks by recounting his 2024 election victory, and what he sees as the crowning achievements of his first year back in office.
“Now after less than 12 months in office, I’m back in Michigan to report to you on the strongest and fastest economic turnaround in our country’s history,” he said. A reminder that the latest inflation data released today showed that the price of goods rose 2.7% in the past year. This remains significantly above the Federal Reserve’s target for 2%.
Trump, however, claimed that inflation was “defeated” in his speech today.
800,000 fewer people enroll in Obamacare coverage as premium spikes set to kick-in
According to the latest data by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), about 800,000 fewer people have enrolled in Affordable Care Act healthcare plans compared to this time last year. This comes as the threat of spikes in monthly premiums looms – short of Congress passing legislation to extend Covid-era subsidies.
A reminder that while the House has passed a bill that would extend Obamacare tax credits for three years, that same legislation previously failed in the Senate. Lawmakers in the upper chamber are now trying to introduce an alternative, shorter extension with more restrictions.
Updated
The US aircraft that carried out the first airstrike on a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean was reportedly disguised as a civilian plane – a possible war crime.
The New York Times reported that the aircraft had been painted to obscure its military identity, and its munitions were hidden inside its fuselage rather than visible under its wings.
The 2 September attack on a small boat last year killed 11 Venezuelans, including two survivors from the first strike who were clinging to wreckage in the water when they were bombed a second time. The Venezuelan government denied that the dead men had been gang members, and Washington presented no proof they were involved in drug smuggling.
The Trump administration went on to kill more than 120 people in 35 separate attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, in what it said was a counter-narcotics campaign in the run-up to this month’s direct attack on Venezuela.
The Pentagon has justified the killings on the grounds that the US is at war with drug trafficking cartels. Most international legal experts reject that and say the attacks amount to murder.
For the full story, click here:
Four of the leaders of a crucial division in the US justice department have resigned in protest over a decision not to investigate the recent fatal shooting of an unarmed US citizen by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis – even as the FBI presses ahead with an inquiry into the victim instead.
The lawyers left the civil rights division, which has a criminal investigations unit that investigates the use of force by police officers, according to MS Now, citing three people it said were briefed about the departures.
It follows a decision by Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration-aligned assistant attorney general for civil rights, not to investigate the 7 January killing of Renee Nicole Good by Jonathan Ross, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, as would be usual in the case of a shooting by law enforcement.
Dhillon told the unit the week before that it would not be involved in any investigation, Reuters reported a source as saying.
A justice department spokesperson confirmed the resignations in a statement to the Guardian but denied they were related to the Minneapolis shooting.
For the full story, click here:
Several senators have introduced a bill to ban sitting presidents from naming buildings after themselves.
On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, Angela Alsobrooks put forth the Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego (SERVE) Act. Co-sponors of the bill include Cory Booker, Adam Schiff, Ron Wyden, Chuck Schumer and Ben Ray Lujan.
Speaking about the bill, Sanders said: “It’s no secret that president Trump is undermining democracy and moving this country toward authoritarianism. Part of that strategy is to create the myth of the ‘Great Leader’ by naming public buildings after himself… For Trump to put his name on federal buildings is arrogant and it is illegal. We must put an end to this narcissism — and that’s what this bill does,” he added.
Echoing Sanders, Van Hollen said: “Donald Trump doesn’t get to slap his name on any public institution he chooses. We don’t have kings or dictators in America, and this legislation stops him or any future sitting president from creating monuments to glorify themselves – because these landmarks belong to the people, not to self-worshipers.”
The SERVE Act would:
Prohibit the naming or renaming of any federal building, land, or other asset in the name of a sitting president;
Prohibit the use of federal funds to do so; and
Ensure this applies retroactively to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace by returning any federal assets named for the current sitting president to the name given under United States Code.
Senior Trump aide: US action on Greenland could come within 'weeks or months'
Thomas Dans, Donald Trump’s Artic commissioner, has said that US action on Greenland could come within “weeks or months.”
Speaking to USA Today, Dans said: “This is a train route with multiple stops,” adding: “Things could move on an express basis, skip the local stops and go direct to the main station. That’s where president Trump wants to move it − at high speed.”
He went on to say: “We need to get the people of Greenland on board… Things can happen quickly from a transactional standpoint…[but there will be] a process to gain trust and support of the Greenlandic people and this will require time and effort from the US side.”
Trump has long expressed interest in Greenland, first publicly floating the idea of acquiring the territory in 2019 during his first presidency. The proposal met swift opposition from Danish and Greenlandic leaders.
Meanwhile, Greenlanders have repeatedly expressed their refusal to be part of the US, with 85% of the population rejecting the idea, according to a 2025 poll. Polling shows only 7% of Americans support the idea of a US military invasion of the territory.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters aboard Air Force One today that Donald Trump used some of his flight time to fine tune the speech that he’ll deliver in Detroit later today.
These remarks are still set to be about the economy, but Leavitt said that there will likely be a mention of Iran in the speech.
CBS News to interview Trump as he touts affordability message in Detroit
Tony Dokoupil, who began last week as anchor of the CBS Evening News, is interviewing President Donald Trump in Detroit on Tuesday for a segment that will appear on this evening’s edition of the show.
The interview will be conducted after Trump tours a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters aboard Air Force One that Trump will be doing the interview as a “pull-aside” after the tour. Trump will do the interview before he speaks at the Detroit Economic Club.
The timing for Trump’s trip works out perfectly for Dokoupil and the Evening News, which will be broadcast from Detroit on Tuesday as part of a tour of cities around the country.
Dokoupil’s broadcasts – and statements on social media – have been closely scrutinized since he began anchoring the show, with the host coming in for criticism when some viewers have argued that he has not sufficiently challenged members of the Trump administration. He faced particular blowback for an interview with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about the U.S. incursion into Venezuela.
In that context, Dokoupil’s interview of Trump will be closely watched and scrutinized on Tuesday evening.
Updated
The US government will end temporary protected status (TPS) for Somali nationals living in the country, a move that will require hundreds of people to leave within months.
Homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said the Trump administration’s decision was driven by improvements in country conditions and US national interests.
“Temporary means temporary. Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” she said in a statement. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”
According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data, 705 Somali nationals currently hold TPS. Their status will expire on 17 March.
Following the news that the Clintons have refused to comply with the subpoenas issued by the House oversight committee, the spokesperson for Democrats on the committee said that they support the Bill Clinton’s calls on Donald Trump to direct attorney general Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files and “any material including the former president”.
“Cooperating with Congress is important and the Committee should continue working with President Clinton’s team to obtain any information that might be relevant to our investigation,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Supreme court arguments continue in challenges to trans athletes sports bans
A reminder that my colleague, Lucy Campbell, is helming our coverage of arguments at the supreme court today.
Two cases are before the justices, concerning trans students who sued over the Republican-backed laws in Idaho and West Virginia, that stopped them from participating in girls athletic programs.
At issue is whether these state bans violate the US constitution’s 14th amendment, which ensures the law applies equally to all, or Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination.
Earlier, justice Neil Gorsuch chimed in with a big question about whether transgender people should be considered a legally protected class.
Gorsuch, a member of the court’s conservative majority, is one of the most closely watched justices in this case. He wrote a key 2020 decision upholding workplace discrimination protections for transgender people, but in 2025 joined the majority in allowing states to ban certain healthcare for transgender youth.
Alan Hurst, Idaho’s solicitor general arguing in defense of the state’s ban, replied saying that he did not question there has been “some discrimination against transgender people, significant discrimination” in the US, but said it did not compare with that historically faced by Black people and women.
House Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar responded to the news that the Clintons have refused to testify in front of the House oversight committee. A move that resulted in chair James Comer announcing a plan to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress.
“This is the same group that said for months they didn’t want to release Epstein files and that nothing was there, and so now they want to embrace this and score political points with testimony,” Aguilar said of his GOP colleagues. “Bringing people in for testimony, that’s just something that House Republicans want to do to take our eye off the ball.”
As Donald Trump made his journey to Detroit today, he spoke briefly with reporters about the justice department’s investigation into Fed chair Jerome Powell.
“Well, he’s billions of dollars over budget,” the president said of central bank’s renovation that Powell is accused mismanaging and lying to Congress about. “So, he either is incompetent, or he is crooked. I don’t know what he is, but he certainly doesn’t do a very good job.”
Earlier today, Mike Johnson told reporters that “there’s no declaration of war pending for Greenland”.
“It’s just not a thing,” he added. “I don’t anticipate any boots on the ground anywhere, anytime soon.”
This comes as vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio will meet with foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland in Washington on Wednesday.
Later this week, Democratic senator Chris Coons will lead a congressional delegation to Copenhagen to meet with Danish officials, as Donald Trump escalates his calls to annex Greenland.
“Greenland has strategic significance to us and also to other countries around the world. So we need to play that very seriously,” Johnson said today, repeating the administration’s claim that the US is racing against Russia and China for acquisition of the semi-autonomous territory.
Comer moves to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress
Oversight committee chair James Comer said that he will move to hold former president Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify as part of the ongoing investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case. Speaking to reporters, the Republican lawmaker from Kentucky said that he will begin the proceedings during the committee’s markup period next week.
This comes legal representatives for both Bill and Hillary Clinton sent an eight-page letter to Comer notifying him that they would not comply with the subpoenas compelling them to appear before the committee to deliver in-person testimony.
“To my knowledge, former president Clinton has never answered questions about Epstein, and we just had questions,” Comer said today. “I think anyone would admit they spent a lot of time together while Bill Clinton was president and post-presidency.”
Depending on the type of contempt citation, Clinton could either be forced to comply with the subpoena by a federal court, or even face prosecution by the justice department.
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Johnson says he will 'reserve judgment' on criminal investigation into Powell
Speaking to reporters today, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson repeated his claims that the criminal probe of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is a “serious allegation”.
“If there’s a credible allegation or concern someone’s lied to Congress, then the DoJ should investigate,” Johnson said. “Across the board, no matter who it is, no one is immune from that. If he’s innocent, as he says, then that will come out in the investigation, and all of us need to reserve judgment and wait for that to happen.”
This comes after a chorus of GOP lawmakers rebuked the investigation into Powell, and warned against any attempt to curb the central bank’s independence.
Clintons refuse to testify before oversight committee’s on Epstein investigation
Former president Bill Clinton, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton have refused to testify before the House oversight committee, as part of the ongoing investigation into the handling of Jeffrey Epstein’s case.
The Clintons were due to testify today and tomorrow, but in an eight-page letter – first obtained by the New York Times – their lawyers told the committee’s Republican chair, James Comer, that they would not be testifying.
Their counsel called the subpoenas compelling the Clintons to appear in-person as “nothing more than a ploy to attempt to embarrass political rivals” of Donald Trump, calling them “invalid and legally unenforceable”.
They add that the former president and secretary of state have received “very different treatment” from other witnesses.
‘Help is on the way’: Trump urges Iranians to keep protesting against government
In a post to Truth Social, the US president, Donald Trump, has said:
Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
It is not clear what Trump means by “help is on its way” but the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told journalists yesterday that airstrikes were among the “many, many options” that the president was considering, though she added that diplomacy “was always the first option”.
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Greenland PM says territory would 'choose Denmark over the US'
A reminder that my colleague, Jakub Krupa, is covering the latest at our dedicated Europe live blog.
He just reported on the remarks by Greenland’s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. Who, standing alongside Denmark’s leader – Mette Frederiksen – said that that Greenland is not for sale, and insists that if the territory was to choose, it would “choose Denmark over the US”.
“One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the US,” he said. “We choose the Greenland we know today, which is a part of the Kingdon of Denmark.”
Follow along here:
Trump warns of ‘reckoning and retribution’ in Minnesota amid anti-ICE protests
Prior to journeying to Detroit, Donald Trump has told the people of Minnesota to “FEAR NOT”, as a “DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING” to the North Star state.
In a post on Truth Social, the president slammed the ongoing protests against federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good last week.
“Do the people of Minnesota really want to live in a community in which there are thousands of already convicted murderers, drug dealers and addicts, rapists, violent released and escaped prisoners,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. “All the patriots of ICE want to do is remove them from your neighborhood and send them back to the prisons and mental institutions from where they came, most in foreign Countries who illegally entered the USA though Sleepy Joe Biden’s HORRIBLE Open Border’s Policy.”
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One quick note. We’ll hear from House Republicans and Democrats today.
At 10am ET, speaker Mike Johnson will hold his weekly press conference with other GOP lawmakers. Then, at 10:45am ET, we’ll hear from minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic House members.
We’ll bring you the latest from both, particularly as more Republicans buck the ongoing criminal investigation in Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
New inflation data shows that prices rose by 0.3 % in December
The latest inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that consumer prices rose 0.3 % in December and were up 2.7 % from the year prior.
It still is a far cry from the Federal Reserve’s desired 2 %, but ultimately remains constant with November’s rate. But data collection for that report was muddied due to the record-breaking US government shutdown.
A reminder that my colleagues are tracking the latest in our dedicated business blog:
Linked to the administration’s focus on affordability, we’ll have a key marker on how Americans are coping with the cost of good shortly, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its latest inflation report.
Trump to tout manufacturing message in Detroit
Donald Trump is heading to Detroit, Michigan today, where he’ll tour a Ford factory in Dearborn.
The president will deliver remarks to the Detroit Economic Club at 2pm ET, to continue his “affordability” tour, where he’s expected to tout the administration’s commitment to revitalising manufacturing and keeping costs down.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets under way.
US supreme court to hear trans athletes cases that could erode key protections
The top court is considering the rights of transgender youth athletes on Tuesday in a major hearing on state laws banning trans girls from girls sports teams.
Oral arguments center on two cases of trans students who sued over the Republican-backed laws in Idaho and West Virginia prohibiting them from participating in girls athletic programs.
The cases could have far-reaching implications for civil rights, with a ruling against the athletes potentially eroding a range of protections for trans youth and LGBTQ+ people more broadly.
In West Virginia v BPJ, 15-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson challenged the state’s 2021 law banning her from track.
In the second case, Little v Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a trans college student pursuing track, sued to overturn Idaho’s first-in-the-nation 2020 law categorically banning trans women and girls from women’s sports teams.
Twenty-seven states have now restricted trans youth access to school sports – most with laws targeting trans girls, but some applying to all trans youth.
Powell has been unflinching in the face of Trump’s attacks
Surrounded by a group of staunch loyalists, Trump has met little resistance in enacting his economic policies – except when it came to interest rates.
The White House’s campaign to get the Fed to lower rates has fallen on deaf ears, and Trump has directed most of his ire onto Powell. From vitriolic social media posts to handwritten missives in thick marker, Trump has called the man he first chose to lead the Fed “a stupid person”, and floated firing him multiple times.
Powell has been unflinching in the face of these attacks. At press conferences, he politely declines to answer any question he considers political. The most he’s given away was when Trump paid a visit to active construction at the Fed’s headquarters last summer, as allies of the president attempted to stir controversy surrounding the project. Addressing reporters side by side, Powell grew visibly frustrated as Trump misreported the cost of renovations.
After a long season of restraint, it is an unprecedented criminal investigation – reportedly focused on those renovations – which appears to have pushed Powell over the edge.
In his statement on Sunday, Powell for the first time outlined the extraordinary campaign that the White House has undertaken to push the Fed to lower rates – an incredible violation of the central bank’s independence.
World's central banks offer ‘full solidarity’ to Powell
Eleven central bank leaders have issued an extraordinary joint statement offering “full solidarity” to the US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, in the face of the latest threat to his independence from Trump’s White House.
“The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability,” the statement said.
Trump has repeatedly criticised Powell, whom he appointed in 2018, for failing to cut interest rates fast enough. The Fed has cut interest rates three times since last summer, but Trump has urged it to move faster, and personally attacked Powell as a “numbskull”.
The bank’s governors pay testament to Powell’s “integrity” and “unwavering commitment to the public interest”, calling him a “respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him”.
Powell is due to step down as chair of the Fed board in May, and Trump is expected to announce his successor in the coming weeks.
Former US Fed chairs Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen condemned the threat to Powell on Monday, saying the move could have “highly negative consequences”.
“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly,” their statement said.
The US Fed Chair released his own video on Sunday to announce that he was facing investigation by federal prosecutors and that the Federal Reserve had been served with subpoenas.
Powell is being investigated over costly renovations of Federal Reserve buildings – which he says is a politically-motivated pretext.
“This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress’s oversight role; the Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts.
The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.
Vance and Rubio to meet Danish and Greenland FMs tomorrow
Vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio will meet the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland on Wednesday, the Danish foreign minister said on Tuesday, amid Trump’s push to take control of the Arctic island.
Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt had requested the meeting after Trump last week stepped up threats to take over Greenland, an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark.
Trump first floated the idea of the US taking over Greenland in 2019 during his first term in office and ramped up pressure last week after his administration kidnapped and removed the Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro.
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Top central banks defend Fed's Powell
Eleven of the world’s top central bankers have released a statement of support for Fed chair Jerome Powell, after the US Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into him which he argued was politically driven.
In an unprecedented move, top central bank chiefs including the Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey, and Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank, have backed Powell, and warned against undermining central bank independence.
The heads of the Swedish, Denmark, Swiss, Australian, Canadian, South Korean, and Brazilian central banks have also signed, as have two top officials at the Bank of International Settlements (known as the “central bank for central banks”). Others may yet sign the letter.
The bank chiefs say:
We stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H. Powell.
The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability.
Chair Powell has served with integrity, focused on his mandate and an unwavering commitment to the public interest. To us, he is a respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him.
The letter is signed by:
Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank on behalf of the ECB Governing Council
Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England
Erik Thedéen, Governor of Sveriges Riksbank
Christian Kettel Thomsen, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Danmarks Nationalbank
Martin Schlegel, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank
Michele Bullock, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada
Chang Yong Rhee, Governor of the Bank of Korea
Gabriel Galípolo, Governor of the Banco Central do Brasil
François Villeroy de Galhau, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements
Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements
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China condemns new Iran-linked tariff
China has threatened to retaliate against Donald Trump for the new 25% tariffs on any countries doing business with Iran.
Trump, who is still reviewing a range of military options against the Iranian regime, said the new tariffs would be “effective immediately”, without providing further details about whether there would be any exemptions, including for countries that only trade humanitarian goods such as medicines.
More than 140 countries still trade with Iran, according to the World Bank, but sometimes only in minuscule amounts.
China though is by far Iran’s biggest trading partner, buying 77% of its oil exports in 2024, according to the data firm Kpler. It has just ended a tariff war with Trump.
Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said Beijing would “take all necessary measures” to safeguard its rights and interests.
Liu wrote on X: “Tariff wars and trade wars have no winners, and coercion and pressure cannot solve problems. Protectionism harms the interests of all parties.”
Other countries that trade heavily with Iran are India, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea have just completed free trade deals with the US after a bruising confrontation over tariffs. Both countries ended up with a baseline 15% tariff, but now find themselves back in a potential crisis.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our US politics live blog.
Donald Trump has announced a 25% tariff on any countries doing trade with Iran – which at first glance would appear to apply to China, India, United Arab Emirates and Turkey among others.
This is the first concrete action from the US president who on the weekend had said he was considering taking “very strong” military action against Tehran for its deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
Yesterday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that although diplomacy remained Trump’s “first option”, he was “unafraid to use the lethal force and might of the United States military if and when he deems that necessary”.
Elsewhere, central banks around the world have rallied around Fed chairman Jerome Powell, long criticised by Trump for refusing to lower interest rates and now facing federal investigation. The banks have issued a statement in recent hours calling for the independence of the Fed in setting monetary policy to be protected.
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Trump warns of ‘complete mess’ if supreme court rejects tariffs
Trump’s wider policy of imposing tariffs through executive order is under legal pressure as the US supreme court is considering striking down a broad swathe of the president’s existing tariffs.
Donald Trump has said “it would be a complete mess” if the US supreme court were to strike them down.
In a lengthy post on social media, the US president said “WE’RE SCREWED” if the supreme court rules against the tariffs. The decision is expected as soon as Wednesday. It is a crucial legal test of his controversial economic strategy and his power.
Trump said it would be difficult to reverse the tariffs as businesses and countries could claim refunds, saying “it would take many years to figure out what number we are talking about and even, who, when, and where, to pay”. He added: “It would be a complete mess, and almost impossible for our Country to pay.”
In November, the supreme court appeared sceptical of the legal basis of the Trump administration’s sweeping global tariff regime when justices questioned the president’s authority to impose the levies. Justices heard oral arguments on the legality of Trump’s tariffs.
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