Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Trump says he’ll meet with Putin on Ukraine war “as soon as we can,” amid low hopes for Ukraine-Russia talks

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates — President Trump said Friday that he’s moving to set up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as he can, after Putin opted to skip peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey.

“I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he wrapped a four-day visit to the Middle East. Later, he told reporters on Air Force One, setting off on the journey back to Washington, that he might call Putin soon.

“He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it or maybe not,” Mr. Trump said. “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”

President Trump attends the U.S.-UAE Business Council in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 16, 2025.

Waleed Zein/Anadolu/Getty


The president reiterated that he wasn’t surprised by Putin’s decision to skip the talks taking place Friday in Turkey. Putin didn’t want to go because he’s not there, Mr. Trump said. 

Meetings between Ukrainian and Russian delegations did get underway in Istanbul Friday, but there was little expectation of any breakthrough as Putin sent a lower-level delegation, drawing accusations from Ukraine and its European partners that Moscow wasn’t really interested in a negotiated resolution to the war.

Mr. Trump said he would hold a meeting with Putin, “as soon as we can set it up.”

“I would actually leave here and go,” he said, noting that his daughter Tiffany just gave birth to her first child. “I do want to see my beautiful grandson.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to take part in the talks as Mr. Trump pressed for the leaders to find a solution to the war, ongoing since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But Putin spurned the call to meet face-to-face with Zelenskyy.

Mr. Trump has pressed both sides to quickly come to an agreement to end the war. Zelenskyy has agreed to an American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, but Russia has not signed on and has continued to strike at targets inside Ukraine.

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a plastic tableware business damaged by a Russian drone attack, May 15, 2025, in Velyka Chernechchyna, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine.

Oleksandr Oleksiienko/Kordon.Media/Global Images Ukraine/Getty


“He didn’t go, and I understand that,” Mr. Trump said Friday of Putin’s decision to skip the talks in Istanbul. “We’re going to get it done. We got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.”

The U.S. president told reporters on Thursday that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.

“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” Mr. Trump said. “But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”

Speaking to reporters in Moscow on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any meeting between Putin and Mr. Trump would have to be “well prepared” for, but he said such an encounter was indeed necessary in Russia’s view, as “a serious conversation on international issues is needed, including the Ukrainian crisis.”

Should the talks in Istanbul fail to make any progress, Zelenskyy said Friday that there should be a “strong reaction,” as it would be clear, in his view, that Russia does not have any interest in ending the war.

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Dem Rep. Ramirez: Trump Administration ‘Targeted’ Newark Mayor

Representative Delia Ramirez (D-IL) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight” that the Trump administration targeted Newark, NJ, Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested at the Delaney Hall Detention Center.

Host Michael Steele asked, “Congresswoman, based off of your understanding of what you’ve learned about this case, and certainly what the mayor has offered publicly, do you — have you come to a conclusion, or are you coming to a conclusion, that he was targeted, as the mayor said?”

Ramirez said, “He was absolutely targeted. The idea that Secretary Noem would come before our Homeland Security Committee hearing and attempt to turn it around on him and on members of Congress that sit in that committee is despicable.”

She continued, “I mean, he came to do oversight on a facility. He was told to leave and otherwise they’d arrest him. He left and they closed the gate and then opened the gate after talking to who knows who, and then came back and arrested him.”

Ramirez added, “They’re wanting to make sure that the American people know that they’re willing to go after anyone. This is about fear. This is what authoritarians do, fascists do. They go after judges, members of Congress, and mayors of their own city.”

Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN



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Trump says U.S. will set tariff rates for most nations within weeks

Walmart raising prices amid tariff uncertainty



Walmart plans to raise prices as tariff uncertainty looms over upcoming holidays

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President Trump on Friday said his administration will send letters that inform other nations of the tariff rates the U.S. will impose on imports, adding that “it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us.”

“[W]e have, at the same time, 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you’re not able to see that many countries,” Mr. Trump said during a Friday business roundtable between the U.S. and United Arab Emirates. 

Mr. Trump said the letters will be sent by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, adding that the rates “would be very fair, but we’ll be telling people what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States.”

The Trump administration has been negotiating with the U.K., China and other major trading partners in recent weeks over his April 2 tariffs, which set historically high duties on imported goods for almost every country on the globe. 

U.S. companies such as Walmart and Target, along with many small businesses, pay the tariffs on imports — not the nations that produce the goods — and those companies typically pass off the costs to American consumers in the form of higher prices. 

—This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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Walmart Executives Warn of Imminent Price Increases Despite Lowered Tariffs

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CNN’s Honig: Comey Post ‘Not a Criminally Chargeable Threat’

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Thursday on CNN’s “The Source” that former FBI Director James Comey’s social media post about President Donald Trump that featured a photo of seashells arranged to read, “86 47,” was not criminally chargeable.

Kaitlan Collins said, “Listen to what the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – just to give you a sense of what administration officials are saying – what she just said tonight.”

Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “Do you believe Comey should be in jail?”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said, “I do. Any other person with a position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him up to be.”

Honig said, “That’s ridiculous. I mean, look, I am no fan of Jim Comey’s. I’ve been very critical of a lot of the things he’s done. I think posting this was extremely reckless, to use a phrase that he once used, and stupid. He has acknowledged that. He took it down. He said, I should not have posted this. This is not criminal. This is not a criminally chargeable threat against the president. It’s political speech. It’s way too broad. It’s stupid, it’s reckless. It’s not criminal. That’s just hyperbole that you’re hearing from the cabinet members there.”

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James Comey under investigation for posting — and deleting —

Former FBI Director James Comey has provoked an outcry from the Trump administration after he briefly posted a photo to Instagram that federal officials alleged was a call for violence against President Trump — a claim Comey pushed back on.

The image shared by Comey — a longtime Trump foe — showed seashells in sand arranged to form the numbers “86 47,” according to screenshots shared by Trump administration officials. 

He did not make his meaning clear, but administration officials and some of his supporters interpreted the numbers as referring to Mr. Trump’s status as the 47th president and the slang term “eighty-six,” which has often been used to mean “eject” or “remove.”

Comey later deleted the image. In a follow-up Instagram post Thursday night, Comey wrote that he “posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

CBS News has reached out to Comey’s attorneys for comment. 

Noem says post is under investigation

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X that the issue is under investigation. She said Comey “just called for the assassination” of Mr. Trump, and added her agency and the Secret Service are “investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”

Current FBI Director Kash Patel said in a separate statement that, “We are aware of the recent tweet by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director (Sean) Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”

A Secret Service spokesperson told CBS News in a statement it “vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees. We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich wrote in his own social media post Comey’s message “can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States,” and said it is “being taken seriously.”

Comey and Trump have sparred for years. Comey served as FBI director from 2013 until he was fired by Mr. Trump in 2017, during the president’s first White House term.

That firing ultimately set into motion Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin. Mr. Trump has repeatedly denounced those allegations as a “hoax.”

For his part, Comey has been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump since his firing, calling him “morally unfit” to be president in a 2018 interview.

Mr. Trump was the target of two assassination attempts during his presidential campaign last year. During a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Mr. Trump, grazing his ear with a bullet. One rally attendee was killed and two more were wounded.

On Sept. 14, a man was arrested on allegations he attempted to assassinate Mr. Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach by aiming a rifle through shrubbery.

What does “86 47” mean?

It’s unclear what Comey meant with his Instagram post, but according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to “eighty-six” means to “throw out” or “get rid of” something. 

It originates from 1930s soda counter slang, which meant that an item was sold out, Merriam-Webster says. The term can also refer to people: To “Eighty-six” an inebriated bar patron is to kick them out or refuse service to them, the dictionary said.



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What to know about the birthright citizenship Supreme Court case



What to know about the birthright citizenship Supreme Court case – CBS News










































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The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case involving two major issues: birthright citizenship and the scope of national injunctions. Jan Crawford has the latest.

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Maritime Experts and Green Activists Scramble to Stop Trump’s Pioneering Deep Sea Mining Effort

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April that sought to protect America’s “leadership in deep sea science and technology” by authorizing mineral exploration on the ocean floor.

The post Maritime Experts and Green Activists Scramble to Stop Trump’s Pioneering Deep Sea Mining Effort appeared first on Breitbart.

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Army anniversary parade on Trump’s birthday could cost up to $45 million

A military parade to mark the Army’s anniversary next month — coinciding with President Trump’s birthday — is estimated to cost between $25 million and $45 million, an Army spokesperson told CBS News.

The parade in Washington, D.C., is expected to include over 100 vehicles and thousands of soldiers who will be housed in federal buildings. It could also involve 50 helicopters, prompting “extensive coordination” with the Federal Aviation Administration, the spokesperson said.

The event will take place as part of the Army’s 250th anniversary celebrations on June 14 — the same day as Mr. Trump’s 79th birthday.

Reports about a possible military parade began circulating last month. Initial plans obtained by the Associated Press two weeks ago called for more than 6,600 soldiers, seven bands and 150 vehicles, including tanks as well as Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles — though at the time, the Army said the plans had not been finalized.

Mr. Trump confirmed the plans earlier this month: “We’re going to have a big, beautiful parade,” the president told NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

The president also said the event isn’t tied to his birthday. When asked about the price tag, Mr. Trump said it would be “peanuts compared to the value of doing it.”

“We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we’re going to celebrate it,” Mr. Trump told NBC News.

The plans have drawn some criticism from Democrats. Earlier this month, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee called the plan wasteful, writing in a statement, “The egotist-in-chief wants taxpayers to foot the bill for a military parade on his birthday.”

Mr. Trump’s interest in the pageantry of a military parade dates back years. During a 2017 visit to France during his first term, the president praised the country’s annual Bastille Day parade and suggested “we’re going to have to try and top it” on the Fourth of July.

A year later, the administration began drawing up plans for a parade to recognize Veterans’ Day. But after reports circulated that the event could cost as much as $92 million — and some Democratic lawmakers blasted the idea as “self-aggrandizing” — Mr. Trump postponed the event and blamed local elected officials for driving up the price.

“The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it,” Mr. Trump posted on X, then known as Twitter, in 2018.

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Harvard president takes pay cut as university attempts to cover frozen funds

Harvard is clearly starting to feel the effect of going toe-to-toe with the Trump administration.

The Ivy League university has notified its researchers and students that they will dip into their saving accounts to help cover the gap caused by frozen research funding withheld after the school refused to bow before the whims of the federal government — and the school’s president is apparently taking a voluntary pay cut.

“Although we cannot absorb the entire cost of the suspended or canceled federal funds, we will mobilize financial resources to support critical research activity for a transitional period as we continue to work with our researchers to identify alternative funding sources,” Harvard President Alan Garber and Provost John Manning wrote in a joint letter addressed to members of the university community.

Garber will take a voluntary 25% pay cut during the upcoming fiscal year, according to a spokesperson for the university. Garber’s current salary is not publicly available information.

The university will also “dedicate $250 million of central funding to complement School-based resources and strategies to support research affected by these recent suspensions and cancellations” to help defray grant funding lost after the school chose against complying with President Donald Trump’s attempts to coerce the school into compliance with his demands they abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and do more to combat antisemitism on campus.

Their fight has already cost them.

According to the university, the federal government has frozen more than $2 billion in research funding meant for use by Harvard scientists. In just the last week, Garber and Manning wrote, “The University has received a large number of grant terminations from the federal government, stopping lifesaving research and, in some cases, losing years of important work.”

In a letter sent by Trump’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism to the university on Tuesday, the administration informed Harvard that another $450 million in grants were on the chopping block because the school has allegedly become a “breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination.”

“This is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it’s not academic freedom; it’s institutional disenfranchisement,” the letter reads.

According to the task force, “There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus” at present, where they claim administrators are “prioritizing appeasement over accountability,” and as such have “forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support.”

“As a result, eight federal agencies across the government are announcing the termination of approximately $450 million in grants to Harvard, which is in addition to the $2.2 billion that was terminated last week,” they wrote.

The most recent grant terminations come after the school, on Monday, informed Education Secretary Linda McMahon that the university is not willing to “surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear of unfounded retaliation by the federal government,” especially while progress toward admittedly necessary reforms takes place.

Garber acknowledged the university has some work to do in order to “combat antisemitism and other bigotry through policy and discipline reforms, academic investments, community support initiatives, and educational programs,” but said that their efforts are being “undermined and threatened by the federal government’s overreach into the constitutional freedoms of private universities and its continuing disregard of Harvard’s compliance with the law.”

Earlier this week, Harvard amended a lawsuit they’ve filed against the Trump administration to include the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism’s apparent determination to strip Harvard of grant funding.

“On May 13, 2025, the Federal Task Force issued a press release claiming ‘Harvard University has repeatedly failed to confront the pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment plaguing its campus,’ and stating that ‘[t]he Task Force fully supports the Trump Administration’s multi-agency move to cut funding to Harvard, demonstrating the entire Administration’s commitment to eradicating discrimination on Harvard’s campus,’” the amended suit informs the court.

According to the suit, the Trump administration is deliberately ignoring the “meaningful reforms” the school has taken to “eliminate antisemitism and other forms of hate” seen on campus.

U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, have condemned the Trump administration’s war on Harvard as an unconstitutional and authoritarian overreach.

“The Trump administration is demonstrating astonishing disregard for not only the students, faculty, and staff that these cuts impact, but also for the general public who benefit from scientific breakthroughs and the global standing of the United States,” they said in a joint statement.

Herald wire services contributed.

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