Politics Election category, Page 43
White House voices support for Hegseth as a new Signal chat revelation stirs fresh Pentagon turmoil
WASHINGTON — The White House expressed support Monday for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following media reports that he shared sensitive military details in another Signal messaging chat, this time with his wife and brother. Neither the White House nor Hegseth denied that he had shared such information in a second...
Trump draft proposes radical reshaping of State Department
A draft Trump administration executive order circulating among U.S. diplomats proposes a radical reduction to and restructuring of the State Department, according to a copy of the document seen by Bloomberg. The changes, if implemented, would be one of the biggest reorganizations of the Department since its founding in 1789....
250 years after America went to war for independence, a divided nation battles over its legacy
LEXINGTON, Mass. — Thousands of people came to this Massachusetts town Saturday just before dawn to witness a reenactment of how the American Revolution began 250 years ago, with the blast of gunshot and a trail of colonial spin. Starting with Saturday’s anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord,...
Some Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump are now embraced as heroes and candidates for office
JACKSON, Mich. — Ryan Kelley thought he had a good shot at becoming Michigan’s governor in 2022. That is, until he was charged with misdemeanors for participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. His campaign sputtered and he finished fourth out of five candidates in the Republican...
Judge orders Trump administration to tell fired workers they were not let go for poor performance
SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. district judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the Trump administration to provide probationary workers fired en masse a written statement saying they were not terminated for performance reasons, but as part of a government-wide termination. Judge William Alsup is overseeing a lawsuit brought by...
The people who represent you in D.C. and Harrisburg are allowed to keep their calendars secret
This story originally appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from the Spotlight PA State College bureau. Sign up at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown. STATE COLLEGE — Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, multiple protests have been held outside U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson’s...
Trump floats U.S.-Europe meeting as Vance visits Italy for 2nd day of talks on tariffs
ROME (AP) — A back-to-back round of U.S.-Italy talks on tariffs shifted to Rome on Friday as U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with Premier Giorgia Meloni and the White House suggested a broader U.S.-Europe summit was under consideration. “I’ve been missing you,” Meloni jokingly told Vance as he entered...
Rubio says U.S. will drop Ukraine-Russia peace efforts if no progress within days
PARIS — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting. He spoke in Paris after...
Supreme Court keeps hold on Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship but sets May arguments
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday kept on hold President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship but agreed to hear arguments on the issue in May. Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally has been halted nationwide by...
Trump administration takes aim at Harvard’s international students and tax-exempt status
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has escalated its ongoing battle with Harvard, threatening to revoke the university’s ability to host international students as the president called for withdrawing Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The Department of Homeland Security ordered Harvard late Tuesday to turn over “detailed records” of its foreign student...
Trump suggests he can remove Fed Chair Powell, saying he’s ‘not happy’ with him over interest rates
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday for not cutting interest rates and said he could fire him if he wanted to, renewing a threat from his first term that could cause a major legal showdown over the issue of the central bank’s longstanding...
Conor Lamb and Lindsay Powell ‘stand in’ for Fetterman and McCormick at Swissvale town hall
More than 200 people filled a Swissvale church basement Wednesday night for a town hall featuring what organizers called two stand-ins for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick. One of the stand-ins, former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, told TribLive prior to taking the stage that he felt the...
Trump administration plans to end IRS Direct File program for free tax filing, AP sources say
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program, an electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free, according to two people familiar with the decision. The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy,...
How war, money and the quest for discovery entwined U.S. government and universities
NEW YORK — The showdown between the Trump administration and Harvard University is spotlighting bare-knuckled politics and big dollar figures. But in the battle of the moment, it’s easy to lose sight of a decades-long alliance between the U.S. government and the nation’s most prominent universities, forged to fight a...
White House to launch new media policy restricting wire services’ access to the president
Fresh from a courtroom loss over The Associated Press’ access to the presidency, the White House on Tuesday put forward a new media policy that sharply curtails access to Donald Trump by news agencies that serve media outlets around the world. It was the latest attempt by the new administration...
Biden alleges Trump has ‘taken a hatchet’ to Social Security in 1st post-presidency speech
CHICAGO — Former President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday that President Donald Trump has “taken a hatchet” to Social Security, weighing in on a critical issue for millions of Americans as the 82-year-old Democrat briefly returned to the national stage. Biden, who has largely avoided speaking publicly since leaving the...
Trump says he’s joining Bessent and Lutnick for trade negotiations with Japanese at the White House
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he’s joining some of his top economic advisers on Wednesday for negotiations at the White House over tariffs and trade with a top Japanese official who is traveling to Washington for the talks. The Republican president said in a post on his social media...
China’s economy grows at 5.4% annual pace in January-March quarter
BANGKOK — China’s economy expanded at a 5.4% annual pace in January-March, supported by strong exports ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s rapid increases in tariffs on Chinese exports, the government said Wednesday. Analysts are forecasting that the world’s second largest economy will slow significantly in coming months, however, as...
IRS agent who investigated Hunter Biden expected to be named IRS acting chief
CHICAGO — An IRS whistleblower who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Biden’s taxes is expected to be promoted to IRS acting commissioner, two sources familiar with the plan tell The Associated Press. Gary Shapley, an IRS employee who testified to Congress as Republicans reviewed the business dealings of Joe...
Marjorie Taylor Greene laughs off protests to deliver pro-Trump message at Georgia town hall
ACWORTH, Ga. — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene came to a town hall in suburban Atlanta on Tuesday night to deliver a full-throated support of President Donald Trump, and she wasn’t letting the protesters faze her — not even the one who was wrestled to the ground by police and...
Pentagon senior adviser Dan Caldwell ousted during investigation into leaks
WASHINGTON — Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been placed on administrative leave and was escorted out of the Pentagon by security on Tuesday, two defense officials said. The officials said Caldwell’s sudden downfall was tied to an investigation into unauthorized disclosure of department information....
Pittsburgh’s public media respond to White House attacks on PBS, NPR
The White House’s threat to pull funding from public television and radio has sparked concern among Pittsburgh-area public media leaders, who say the move could seriously impact local communities. The White House is expected to ask Congress to cut two years’ worth of funding that goes to PBS, NPR and...
Arson at Pa. Governor’s Residence universally condemned
Western Pennsylvania’s elected officials and others joined their colleagues across the state and country in condemning Sunday morning’s arson at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence. Here’s a roundup of the comments: “We should all be shocked at the reported act of arson at the residence of Gov. Josh Shapiro and his...
Key security questions remain unanswered in arson at Governor’s Residence
It remained unclear how a man evaded security to firebomb the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence in an attack that has been decried by elected officials and religious leaders. But the attack is merely the latest in what appears to be a rising tide of violence against elected officials. Recent incidents include...
Trump’s commerce secretary says new electronics tariff exemptions are temporary, chip tariffs comingVideo
NASHVILLE — Tariff exemptions announced Friday on electronics such as smartphones and laptops are only a temporary reprieve until the Trump administration develops a new tariff approach specific to the semiconductor industry, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday. “They’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs but they’re included in the...
