Politics Election category, Page 82
Oklahoma proposal requires parents to provide immigration status when enrolling students
OKLAHOMA CITY — Parents enrolling children in Oklahoma public schools will be required to provide proof of their child’s U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status under a proposal rule approved Tuesday by the State Board of Education. The board voted unanimously to approve the rule aimed at helping President Donald...
Immigration officers are operating with a new sense of mission. Now, ‘nobody gets a free pass’
SILVER SPRING, Md. — A week into Donald Trump’s second presidency and his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, federal officers are operating with a new sense of mission, knowing that “nobody gets a free pass anymore.” A dozen officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement gathered before dawn Monday...
Trump fills his government with billionaires after running on a working-class message
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump’s brash populism has always involved incongruence: the billionaire businessman-politician stirring the passions of millions who, regardless of the U.S. economy’s trajectory, could never afford to live in his Manhattan skyscraper or visit his club in south Florida. His second White House is looking a lot...
Trump’s tariff threat worked on Colombia, but his plans for Canada and Mexico carry higher stakes
WASHINGTON — Having already forced Colombia to accept deportees by threatening a 25% tariff, President Donald Trump is readying the same move against Canada and Mexico as soon as Saturday. But this time, the stakes are higher and many economists surveying the possible damage doubt Trump would be comfortable with...
U.S. places dozens of senior aid officials on leave, citing possible resistance to Trump orders
WASHINGTON — At least 56 senior officials in the top U.S. aid and development agency were placed on leave Monday amid an investigation into an alleged effort to thwart President Donald Trump’s orders. A current official and a former official at the U.S. Agency for International Development confirmed the reason...
John Fetterman nearly doubles his approval rating among Republicans, according to a recent analysis
Sen. John Fetterman, D.-Pa., has nearly doubled his approval rating among Republicans while continuing to bolster his job performance rating among all Pennsylvania voters, according to an analysis from Morning Consult published recently. The analysis points to how the Democratic senator’s frequent outreach to the GOP — enough to help...
Scott Bessent easily confirmed as Trump’s Treasury secretary
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, despite criticism levied by Democrats for his handling of self-employment taxes tied to ownership of his hedge fund Key Square Group. Bessent is poised to be a key player as Congress faces down more than $4...
Trump Justice Department says it has fired employees involved in prosecutions of the president
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said that it had fired more than a dozen employees who worked on criminal prosecutions of President Donald Trump, moving rapidly to pursue retribution against lawyers involved in the investigations and signaling an early willingness to take action favorable to the president’s personal interests. The...
CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately, upending expectations of an extended withdrawal
NEW YORK — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all agency staff who...
Trump says inflation isn’t his No. 1 issue. So what will happen to consumer prices?
WASHINGTON — Two months ago, in his first network television interview after the election, Donald Trump said he owed his victory to Americans’ anger over immigration and inflation, specifically the rising cost of groceries. “When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and...
Battlegrounds Pennsylvania, Wisconsin back in the spotlight with high-stakes court elections
HARRISBURG — Republicans put Pennsylvania and Wisconsin back in the win column in the 2024 presidential race, and they’re hoping that momentum carries over to contests this year that will determine whether their state Supreme Courts retain left-leaning majorities or flip to conservative control. The outcome can be pivotal in...
White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown
BOGOTA, Colombia — The White House claimed victory in a showdown with Colombia over accepting flights of deported migrants from the U.S. on Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and other sanctions on the longtime U.S. partner. Long close partners in anti-narcotics efforts, the U.S....
Trump’s Palestinian refugee idea falls flat with Jordan and confounds a Senate ally
DORAL, Fla. — President Donald Trump’s push to have Egypt and Jordan take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees from besieged Gaza fell flat with those countries’ governments and left a key congressional ally in Washington perplexed on Sunday. Fighting that broke out in the territory after ruling Hamas attacked...
Trump leans into his pledge to eliminate taxes on tips at a Las Vegas rally
LAS VEGAS — President Donald Trump came to Las Vegas on Saturday to crow about his campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips, signaling to allies in Congress the importance of the policy but stopping well short of offering details for making the slogan a reality. Instead, Trump spent most...
Loyalty tests and MAGA checks: Inside the Trump White House’s intense screening of job-seekers
WASHINGTON — Job-seekers hoping to join the new Trump administration are facing a series of intense loyalty tests, with White House screening teams fanning out to government agencies to check for “Make America Great Again” bona fides and carefully parsing applicants’ politics and social media posts. President Donald Trump has...
Trump uses mass firing to remove independent inspectors general at a series of agencies
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has fired about 17 independent inspectors general at government agencies, a sweeping action to remove oversight of his new administration that some members of Congress are suggesting violated federal oversight laws. The dismissals began Friday night and were effective immediately, according to two people familiar...
Senate confirms Noem as Trump’s homeland security secretary
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on Saturday, putting the South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and President Donald Trump’s plans to clamp down on illegal immigration. Republicans kept the Senate working Saturday to install the...
He’s emboldened, he’s organized and he’s still Trump: Takeaways from the president’s opening days
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s first week in office isn’t over yet, but already it offers signals about how his next four years in the White House may unfold. Some takeaways from the earliest days of his second term: He’s emboldened like never before Within hours of being sworn in,...
Federal agencies begin removing DEI guidance from websites in Trump crackdown
WASHINGTON — Federal agencies have begun removing resources for underrepresented Americans from their webpages following President Donald Trump’s executive order cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Agencies also have been cancelling staff trainings and shuttering diversity offices to comply with the order from Trump, who has called for...
Who is Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop who upset Trump during an inaugural prayer service?
WASHINGTON — The Right Rev. Mariann Budde made headlines this week after she angered President Donald Trump with her sermon during an inaugural prayer service. It was not the first time the cleric has publicly disagreed with Trump, but it became a striking moment in what is usually a staid...
The legal weed debate is starting up again in Pa.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — No one in the Pennsylvania Capitol is prepared to say if this is the year the state will legalize marijuana. But that hasn’t...
Pete Hegseth told senator he paid $50,000 to woman who accused him of 2017 sex assault
WASHINGTON — Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, according to answers he provided to a senator during his confirmation process that The Associated Press has obtained. The written answers were provided to Massachusetts Democratic...
Head of West Virginia gun lobby appointed to replace lawmaker-elect arrested for making threats
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The president of West Virginia’s largest gun-lobbying group has been appointed to fill the seat of a lawmaker-elect who was ousted while confined to his house on charges related to terroristic threats against his colleagues. Ian Masters, a Gerrardstown lawyer and president of the West Virginia Citizens...
FEMA faces shakeup under Trump while it wrestles with disasters on both coasts
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is preparing to reshape the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been on the frontlines of responding to recent wildfires in California and last year’s hurricane in North Carolina. He spoke at length about the issue with congressional Republican leaders on Tuesday, discussing whether the...
Trump orders release of JFK, RFK and MLK assassination records
DALLAS — President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which has fueled conspiracy theories for decades. The executive order Trump signed Thursday also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of...
