SmartNews

'Never did!' Trump backtracks and insists he has 'no intention' to oust Fed chair

President Donald Trump backed off a threat he has escalated for weeks on Tuesday, telling reporters he doesn't have any plans to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, according to the Wall Street Journal.

When reporters in the Oval Office asked Trump whether he plans to do so, he replied, “None whatsoever."

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'Should horrify you': Lawyer slams Trump DHS's response to 'disappeared' migrant

The Trump administration responded Tuesday to a New York Times report that raised troubling questions about the whereabouts of a Venezuelan migrant in U.S. custody.

But even the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to clear up the confusion surrounding Ricardo Prada Vasquez, who friends say “simply disappeared,” sent alarm bells ringing for American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

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'Tesla’s the Hindenburg': Elon Musk's company mocked amid 'devastating' profit losses

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla Motors posted its long-anticipated earnings report — and it painted a dire picture of the company, with net revenue plunging by three-quarters. Experts attributed a large part of the drop to people simply rejecting the brand, as Musk has become close with President Donald Trump and headed up his Department of Government Efficiency task force to dismantle the federal civil service.

Commenters on social media, including both Musk's own X platform and the alternative Bluesky platform, had a field day with the news.

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'He's been on a rampage': 'Paranoid' Trump official reportedly 'suspicious of everyone'

CNN Pentagon correspondent Natasha Bertrand said that all of the information leaking out of the Department of Defense has left Secretary Pete Hegseth "paranoid."

Host Jake Tapper for Tuesday's episode of "The Lead" described Hegseth's latest scandal in which he "shared sensitive, possibly classified pending military strike plans on Signal group chats" that included his family members.

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'Neutered by its own cowardice': Ex-Trump White House lawyer blasts Congress on MSNBC

Former White House Counsel Ty Cobb, who served during President Donald Trump's first term, scorned the U.S. House and Senate on Tuesday, calling lawmakers chickens.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on "Deadline White House," Cobb addressed the recent resignations of three assistant U.S. attorneys in the Southern District of New York after they refused to admit wrongdoing in the case involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

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'We will not confess wrongdoing': DOJ prosecutors quit in scathing resignation letter

Some of the prosecutors who worked on the case involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the interim U.S. Attorney over the case. Now they're resigning.

In a letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Celia V. Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach and Derek Wikstrom resigned, saying that they refused to abandon their principles, Politico legal reporter Erica Orden posted.

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‘Don’t call me sweetheart’: Fox News host snaps during tense exchange with union leader

Fox News’ Martha MacCallum found herself calling out American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in a fiery on-air clash Tuesday.

The feisty interview exchange touched off almost immediately after Weingarten appeared on Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" to discuss a Supreme Court case the conservative justices took up earlier in the day, involving censorship rights over LGBTQ+ materials in public schools to religious parents.

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'Blow after blow': Survivors of red state hurricane hit by 'devastating' fresh cuts

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have imperiled hurricane recovery efforts in western North Carolina.

Hurricane Helene devastated the Swannanoa River Valley nearly seven months ago, killing 43 people and destroying homes and businesses in the area. Now Kennedy axed a CDC team that was headed to the region to lead intensive door-to-door efforts to find out what residents need, just days before they were set to arrive, reported CNN.

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GOP mulls using AI to sidestep governor's veto power after 400-year funding trick: report

Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature are scrambling to come up with ideas on how to limit Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' unusually expansive veto powers — including possibly by crafting their budget bills using artificial intelligence models, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Tuesday.

This comes after Evers used a bizarre quirk of his office's veto powers to transform a two-year school funding increase he felt was too restrictive into a funding increase each year for 402 years.

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'SCOTUS never said that!' Trump admin smacked down after new flub

Lawfare reporter Anna Bower needled the Justice Department on Tuesday afternoon after a filing misattributed a quote from a lower court judge to the Supreme Court.

The lawyer representing Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland father whom the government admitted it sent to El Salvador in error, called out the Justice Department for failing to comply with a judge's discovery order.

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New Tesla figures show massive profit loss amid nationwide backlash to Elon Musk

Elon Musk's affiliation with President Donald Trump has led to huge first-quarter profit loss for his electric vehicle company, Tesla, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported that Tesla's "net income slid 71% in the first quarter, as the company struggled to overcome competitive pressure overseas and a reputational hit from Chief Executive Elon Musk’s polarizing role in the Trump administration."

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'Took away my visa': Foreign leader makes bizarre accusation against Trump admin

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a member of the left-wing M-19 Democratic Alliance, claimed during a nationally-televised broadcast that he can't travel to the United States anymore because he believed the Trump administration revoked his visa.

The Monday night broadcast was described as a Cabinet Meeting "presented as a 'presidential address,'" during which Petro made the "offhand remark," according to The City Paper Bogotá.

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'Lives at risk': Trump's HHS to defund suicide hotline program for LGBTQ youth

The Department of Health and Human Services, under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was expected to cut funding for a suicide prevention program for LGBTQ+ youth by October.

The department intended to slash $40 billion in discretionary spending, The Washington Post first revealed last week. A draft document later showed that all funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services would be eliminated under the plan.

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