Trump says he will meet Putin in Hungary after ‘productive’ call – live | Trump administration

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Lauren Gambino

The United States is “on a trajectory” toward authoritarian rule, according to a stark new intelligence-style assessment by former US intelligence and national security officials, who warn that democratic backsliding is accelerating under the Trump administration – and may soon become entrenched without organized resistance.

The report, titled Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: Assessment of Democratic Decline, was released on Thursday by the Steady State, a network of more than 340 former officers of the CIA, NSA, state department, and other national-security agencies.

“These are people who have seen these indicators develop in countries that shifted dramatically away from democracy towards authoritarianism,” Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior intelligence official who spent two decades at the NSA, told reporters on Thursday. “And we’re seeing those things happening in our country today.”

The analysts conclude with “moderate to high confidence” that the US is moving toward what scholars call “competitive authoritarianism”, a system in which elections and courts continue to function, but are “systematically manipulated” to consolidate executive power and weaken checks and balances. According to the assessment, these trends are increasingly visible in the US, as part of a broader effort by Donald Trump in his second term to “ensure loyalty and ideological conformity” across the federal government.

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US admiral leading forces in Latin America to retire early, Hegseth says

Amid escalating tensions with Venezuela, and US military strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean, the US admiral who commands military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of this year, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth announced on social media.

The admiral, Alvin Holsey, just took over the US military’s Southern Command late last year for a position that normally lasts three years.

A source told Reuters that there had been tension between him and Hegseth and questions about whether he would be fired in the days leading up to the announcement.

The New York Times reports that an unnamed US official said that Holsey “had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.”

Hegseth, in his social media post, did not disclose the reason for Holsey’s plan “to retire at year’s end.”

Hegseth’s post noted that Holsey began his career “through the NROTC program at Morehouse College in 1988.” Morehouse is a private, historically black college in Atlanta.

In February, Donald Trump abruptly fired the air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff, sidelining a history-making Black fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to purge the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.

In 2021, Holsey recorded a public service announcement urging Black Americans to take the covid-19 vaccine.

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Updated at 16.27 EDT

Trump on his social media site said he’s “outraged” by a vote planned on Friday by the International Maritime Organization to impose a global fee on the carbon emissions produced by container ships.

“The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

He added: “We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR, the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams. Stand with the United States, and vote NO in London tomorrow!”

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The US Chamber of Commerce is suing the Trump administration over the $100,000 fee imposed on H-1B visa petitions.

The country’s biggest business lobbying group argues that the new fee is unlawful because it overrides provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that govern the H-1B program, including the requirement that fees be based on the costs incurred by the government in processing visas.

Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s chief policy officer, said in a statement:

“The new $100,000 visa fee will make it cost-prohibitive for US employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program, which was created by Congress expressly to ensure that American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their operations here in the U.S.”

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Updated at 15.39 EDT

University of Pennsylvania rejects White House funding compact

The University of Pennsylvania has become the latest educational institution to reject the White House’s proposed preferential funding compact, according to an email to the University community.

“Earlier today, I informed the US Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact,” President J Larry Jameson wrote in a message to the Penn community Thursday, adding that his university did provide feedback to the department on the proposal.

The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is a proposed agreement from the Trump administration that would impose restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limits on international student enrolment.

Penn’s refusal makes it the third of the nine institutions that had initially been offered the deal to publicly turn it down. No institution has agreed to sign the compact so far.

Brown University announced it had rejected the offer Wednesday, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) did the same last Friday. After MIT’s rejection, the Trump administration said the compact was open to all colleges and universities that want to sign it.

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Updated at 15.40 EDT

Democrats block defense spending bill as shutdown tensions rise and bipartisan trust deteriorates

Senate Democrats blocked debate on a defense appropriations bill on the floor earlier this afternoon, which was seen as a test for whether regular individual bipartisan funding bills can gain any traction despite the shutdown, now dragging into its third week.

The bill, which passed out of committee with strong bipartisan support earlier this year, needed 60 votes to advance, but the final vote was 50 to 44. Several Democrats including Jeanne Shaheen voted to advance the bill.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer objected to considering the bill without also voting on the annual labor, health and human services appropriations bill.

“Right now, the only thing that is on the floor is just the defense bill. (John) Thune needs unanimous consent to add anything else to it. We don’t even know if he’ll get that,” Schumer told reporters earlier ahead of the vote.

It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people, in terms of healthcare, in terms of housing, in terms of safety.

Senate majority leader John Thune expressed frustration that they couldn’t take that first step and said the optics were bad for the Democrats.

If they want to stop the defense bill, I don’t think it’s very good optics for them. Particularly since this is just getting on it, and they would have multiple opportunities after this to block it if they want to.

“I believe it is critical that the Senate and Congress return to a bipartisan appropriations approach and try to begin rebuilding trust,” Shaheen said in a statement after voting. “This vote would allow us to consider Senate appropriations bills which were passed out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.”

The other Democratic senators who voted with Republicans were Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman. Majority leader John Thune changed his vote to “no” so that procedurally he can bring the bill up for consideration again.

Cortez Masto and Fetterman have previously voted for the GOP’s House-passed bill to reopen the government while Shaheen has been at the heart of talks with GOP colleagues about finding a way to end the shutdown.

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Updated at 15.00 EDT

Kremlin says Putin told Trump supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine would harm peace chances and US-Russia ties

Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump in their phone call today that supplying US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would harm the peace process and damage US-Russia ties, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

As I said earlier, this comes a day before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump at the White House tomorrow in which he is set to push for more US military support, including the crucial long-range offensive missiles.

Ushakov said the planned new summit between the two presidents will be preceded by a phone call between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in the coming days.

The Putin-Trump call took place at Russia’s initiative, Ushakov added.

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Trump warns Hamas not to kill people in Gaza or ‘we will have no choice but to go in and kill them’

In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump has just said:

If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.

It comes after Hamas fighters have been captured on video in recent days ramping up their presence and reasserting the group’s authority by executing members of rival groups on the streets of Gaza.

This is Trump’s clearest indication on the matter yet, after giving mixed messages in recent days, initially saying the violence “didn’t bother me much” as Hamas was clearing up “gangs”. Yesterday he appeared to concede that it could be “gangs plus” when asked if there was a possibility that Hamas was killing innocent civilians.

“They will disarm, and if they don’t do so, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump also said yesterday, though, as with the statement today, he hasn’t specified how he would follow through on his threat.

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Updated at 14.41 EDT

A reminder that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to the White House tomorrow to push for more US military support, including potential long-range offensive missiles. He will no doubt be nervous by Trump’s positive tone following his call with Putin.

Trump has said he could supply the long-range weapons to Ukraine if Putin fails to come to the negotiating table. In its latest barrage, Russia launched more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv has ramped up its own attacks on Russian targets, including an oil refinery in the Saratov region today.

Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s energy and power facilities for consecutive winters as the war drags into its fourth year.

In the latest warnings to Russia, Trump said yesterday that Indian PM Narendra Modi had pledged to stop buying oil from Russia, and that the administration would push China to do the same. India has not confirmed any such commitment, though Reuters reported some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction.

US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that Washington would “impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression” unless the war ends.

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Updated at 14.37 EDT

The last time Trump and Putin met in person was in Alaska in August, which failed to produce a peace agreement but as my colleague Justin McCurry wrote at the time was “a PR victory for Putin”.

Trump not only allowed Putin to speak to reporters first and gave the Russian president – who is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes – a ride in his presidential limousine “the Beast”, he came away from the summit repeating key Moscow talking points including Putin’s maximalist position that a ceasefire must be preceded by a comprehensive peace agreement that addresses the so-called “root causes” of the war. Trump – romanced by Putin’s talk of stolen elections and mail-in voting – alarmingly came away talking about “land-swapping”, where Ukraine would have to cede its land occupied by Russia including parts of the Donbas region.

You will remember that it was all so alarming that Volodymyr Zelenskyy flanked by European leaders rallying behind Ukraine flew swiftly to Washington to remind Trump that Putin was the aggressor and that Kyiv should not have to give up any territory.

With that in mind, we will no doubt learn more of Trump’s current position tomorrow when he meets with Zelenskyy.

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Updated at 14.36 EDT

Trump says he will meet Putin again in Budapest after ‘productive’ call

Donald Trump has said that his call with Vladimir Putin – which lasted more than two hours – was “good and productive” and that they agreed to convene a meeting of high-level staff, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, next week in an undetermined location.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he and Putin would then also meet again in Budapest “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end”. Trump said he would be discussing the call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House tomorrow, but he believed “great progress was made” today.

Trump also said he believed “the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine”. He said Putin thanked Melania Trump “for her involvement with children … and said that this will continue” and that the two leaders had also discussed trade between Russia and the US for when the war is over.

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Updated at 14.04 EDT

Trump set to announce plan to make IVF more accessible – report

Donald Trump plans to announce a policy proposal this afternoon to make IVF more accessible, the New York Times is reporting, citing several administration officials.

A White House official familiar with the matter told the NYT that the administration “will issue guidance on what it is calling an employer benefit option to encourage employers to offer IVF and broader infertility coverage directly to workers, in the same way they would with vision or dental coverage”.

The NYT’s report adds: “It is unclear whether the new guidance will substantively affect how many employers will choose to offer such benefits. IVF typically costs $15,000 to $20,000 for a single cycle. The White House will not be providing any subsidies for employers that offer the coverage, and there will be no mandate that they participate.”

IVF is an issue that Trump repeatedly promised to address on the campaign trail but one that also highlights tensions within his support base. The NYT notes that today’s announcement follows months of deliberations in the Trump administration and meetings with leading proponents of IVF as well as Christian conservatives, who have moral and ethical concerns with the procedure.

Trump issued an executive order soon after taking office promising to lower costs and make the procedure more accessible, but no specifics were given and a report promised by May hasn’t materialised.

We’ll bring you more detail on the announcement as we get it later today.

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Updated at 13.26 EDT

Senator Mitch McConnell, 83, had a fall this morning on the way to vote in the Senate.

A video shows volunteers from the Sunrise Movement asking the Kentucky Republican questions about Ice and deportations when he fell to the ground. He can be seen reaching for his security detail’s arm as he falls and the two men quickly help him back to his feet. McConnell then turns back to wave and smile before walking off holding on to his detail’s arms.

McConnell, who has fallen several times in the last year, is set to retire in January 2027.

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Updated at 13.06 EDT

Schumer says Thune hasn’t offered him any proposal to end the shutdown

On that subject, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer also just told reporters this morning that majority leader John Thune hasn’t offered him a proposal that would end the government shutdown.

“Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point,” Schumer told reporters during a press conference with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, contradicting House speaker Mike Johnson’s earlier claim that Thune “offered to Chuck Schumer a vote on Obamacare subsidies, and Schumer said no”.

Johnson had also said that Schumer wanted “a guaranteed outcome”, which is in line with Jeffries’ sentiments in my last post. Thune had earlier said he could guarantee a vote but not that it would pass.

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Updated at 12.55 EDT

Jeffries says GOP ‘can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer’ and ACA commitments must be ‘ironclad’ to end shutdown

Earlier this morning, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said Senate majority leader John Thune’s offer of a vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies wasn’t firm enough to move Democrats to end the government shutdown.

Thune has said he is willing to guarantee a vote on extending the ObamaCare subsidies extensions, though he said reforms to the program were needed and he couldn’t assure the outcome of the vote.

“I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass. I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote,” he had told MSNBC earlier.

Jeffries later told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he hadn’t confirmed that Thune had an “actual offer” and that GOP leaders “can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer”.

“We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of healthcare, the cost of living and affordability,” he said, pointing to a pattern of Republicans attempting to repeal ACA subsidies “more than 70 different times since 2010”.

GOP commitments to extending ACA subsidies must be “ironclad”, Jeffries added.

“We need this corrected for the American people,” he said, as opposed to holding “some vote without an assured outcome”. He added:

For so many people, their healthcare is running toward a cliff, and if we don’t fix this, it’s going to go right over it.

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Updated at 13.05 EDT

Prosecutors expected to ask grand jury to indict Trump critic John Bolton

Hugo Lowell

Federal prosecutors are expected to ask a grand jury on Thursday afternoon to indict John Bolton, the former national security adviser in Donald Trump’s first term, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Details of what prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Maryland will seek remains unknown, but previous case activity, including the search warrant for Bolton’s home, has pointed at charges related to mishandling classified information.

Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has said the former national security adviser did nothing inappropriate with classified records.

The potential indictment against Bolton comes at a particularly fraught moment for the justice department, which has been rocked by extraordinary pressure from Trump to expand a vendetta campaign to pursue criminal cases against his political enemies.

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Trump says he’s speaking with Putin, will disclose details of the call

Donald Trump has said he’s currently speaking with Russian president Vladimir Putin on the phone.

“The conversation is ongoing, a lengthy one, and I will report the contents, as will President Putin, at its conclusion,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

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Ahead of the demonstrations across the country this weekend, dubbed ‘No Kings’ in protest of the Trump administration, leaders of the movement are addressing questions from the press.

Organizers estimate there will be more than 2,500 local demonstrations throughout the US. “We do not expect there to be any need for the National Guard to be deployed, but if the Trump administration attempts to do that as a way to intimidate peaceful protests, we are prepared for that,” they added.

Leaders of the coalition also said that they don’t anticipate anything other than a peaceful protest, and don’t currently have any information that would suggest any outside agitator groups are planning to disrupt the coordinated demonstrations.

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Senate fails to pass funding bill to reopen government for 10th time

The Senate has rejected a House-passed funding bill that would reopen the federal government, which has been shutdown for 16 days.

In a 51-45 vote, this is the tenth time that the continuing resolution has failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to clear the upper chamber.

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Updated at 11.51 EDT