Summary of today's news
Thanks for following along with us on this busy day of news.
Trump signed a series of new executive orders and memorandums, taking action on a range of issues including social security fraud, federal contracts and the import of critical minerals.
Earlier in the day we learned the Trump administration is “looking into” the legality of deporting American citizens to El Salvador if they commit violent crimes, a view the president reiterated in an interview on Fox News today.
The White House also said Harvard “should apologize for antisemitism on its campus” as Trump threatened to remove the university’s tax-exempt status. Trump said the school “should be taxed as a political entity” after it refused to cave in to pressure from his administration to adhere to a list of demands including banning face masks, closing its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Trump responded by cutting $2.3bn in federal grants to the university. Barack Obama and Yale faculty members have praised Harvard for setting an example for other higher education institutions to reject federal overreach into its governance practices.
Here’s what else we’ve covered:
A federal judge ruled today that Trump could not bar the federal government from working with Susman Godfrey, the law firm that won a $787bn settlement from Fox News for a voting machine maker over lies aired about the 2020 election.
The Associated Press has still not been allowed in the White House press pool even after a judge overturned a ban from Trump blocking the news agency.
The justice department will have to prove it tried to comply with a federal judge’s order to facilitate the release of Kilmar Ábrego García from a Salvadorian prison, after the Trump administration claimed it was powerless to force the return of the accidentally deported refugee who had legally lived in the US for nearly 25 years.
In a memorandum, Trump increased pressure on fraud prosecutor programs to ensure undocumented immigrants aren’t receiving Social Security funds.
Former president Joe Biden dedicated his first major speech since leaving the White House to the importance of social security.
Following Biden’s speech on the importance of Social Security, a person running the Social Security Administration social media accounts posted a thread accusing the former president of lying.
Protesters repeatedly disrupted Marjorie Taylor Greene’s town hall in a deeply conservative corner of Georgia on Tuesday evening, but the rightwing congresswoman appeared unfazed and amused by the interruptions.
“Bye!” Greene said repeatedly as protesters were escorted out of the room by police.
As ever, Greene mounted an ardent defense of Donald Trump, touting to constituents his plans to cut taxes and downsize the federal government while parrying questions about whether his administration would slice safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Police were kept busy, removing protesters who interrupted Greene as she spoke, including one who, after the congresswoman praised how the Trump administration was bringing the full weight of federal law enforcement against undocumented immigrants, yelled, “How about the KKK?”
“The protest is outside, thank you very much,” Greene said, as an officer led the woman away. A local broadcaster reported that at least three people were removed, with police using a taser on one person.
Greene is one of only a small number of House Republicans who are holding town halls during the ongoing two-week district work period for lawmakers. The party’s campaign arm has reportedly urged lawmakers not to hold the events, after several were met with constituents angry over Trump’s policies.
Updated
