Trump hosts UK’s Keir Starmer for Ukraine talks amid disagreement over security guarantees
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is hosting United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House on Thursday.
The two leaders will hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office shortly after noon ET before a press conference in the East Room slated for 2 p.m. ET.
Senior administration officials told reporters that much of the conversations between Trump and Starmer will focus on a peaceful resolution for the Russia-Ukraine war.
The meeting comes after Europe was left out of talks between the U.S. and Russia on how to end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, which recently stretched into its fourth year.
Trump has since said Europe will have to bear primary responsibility for any security guarantees for Ukraine, as nations such as France and the United Kingdom urge the U.S. to support peacekeeping efforts post-conflict.
“Well, I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump said at his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s in, you know, we’re talking about Europe is the next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”
Trump also implied the mineral resource deal between the U.S. and Ukraine would be “automatic security,” because the U.S. will be investing in the nation and that would serve as a barrier to Russia.
Starmer has said he will ensure the United Kingdom is a “leading country” in European nations stepping up to support Ukraine, but said there needs to be a U.S. “backstop” to deter Putin.
“I don’t believe it will be a guarantee if there isn’t the U.S. backstop behind those security guarantees,” Starmer said after European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris on Ukraine last week as Trump officials gathered with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia.
Administration officials said the U.S. has been in constant contact with European partners and providing updates on negotiations regarding an agreement to end the war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Ukraine is working to win a U.S. security agreement as part of the proposed minerals deal, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Ukraine is working to win a U.S. security agreement as part of the proposed minerals deal, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“I would say that there’s a balance between the size of the force needed and the strength of the diplomacy that backstops that, that secures it,” an official said.
“If that conflict level, as we want, is dialed down to a functional ceasefire, they would have fewer concerns … So the type of force depends very much on the political self settlement that is made to end the war,” the official continued. “And I think that trade off is what the leaders today, part of what the leaders today are going to be discussing.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives on Friday votes to elect a speaker for the new Congress.
Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who ascended to the leadership post in 2023 after the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy, has secured President-elect Donald Trump’s support as he seeks reelection.
But Johnson’s handling of the government funding fight just before Christmas angered some of the GOP’s right flank. Depending on attendance, Johnson may only be able to lose one Republican vote.
What happens if the House can’t elect a speaker
The House can’t conduct any business without a speaker, including swearing in members.
If the chamber can’t come to an agreement before Monday, the certification of Trump’s 2024 election victory could be thrown into chaos.
The House and Senate will convene on Jan. 6 for a joint session of Congress for a finalization of the results of the presidential race, a constitutionally mandated responsibility for lawmakers.
Johnson insists he’s not making deals for the gavel
Despite days of closed-door meetings with Republican holdouts, Johnson insists he’s not cutting any deals to win them over.
“My simple message to my colleagues is make suggestions about process and improvements. We are open to that at all times. But I don’t make deals with anyone,” he said.
“There’s no quid pro quo here,” Johnson added. “I don’t do anything in exchange for a vote other than commit to make this institution work as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
In the previous Congress, McCarthy was forced to meet Republican hardliner demands to be elected speaker after a four-day voting process. One of those demands — a lower threshold to bring a motion to vacate — led to his downfall just seven months later when he was forced out of leadership by a small group of GOP members.
Johnson’s message to GOP: ‘We don’t have time for drama’
Johnson had a simple message for his conference ahead of the vote.
“We don’t have time for drama,” Johnson told reporters.
Johnson said he was speaking with members and urging them to be unified so they can quickly get to work on Trump’s agenda.
“This election is not just about one person. It’s about moving forward with the America First agenda. A mandate was given by the American people — the electorate — President Trump got 77 million votes. The House Republicans got almost 75 million. Thats a record number. They are expecting us to get to work,” Johnson added.
What Johnson is thinking
Johnson expressed confidence in winning the speaker vote as he entered the Capitol on Friday.
Asked by ABC News if he will be successful in the first round, he replied: “I think so.”
But privately, House leadership sources say they’re also preparing for the very real possibility of a bruising floor fight, going multiple rounds of voting.
In 2023, it took McCarthy 15 rounds of voting and several concessions to be elected speaker.
Johnson has been adamant he won’t make any backroom deals to keep his job. And moderate Republicans have been publicly cautioning Johnson against giving too much away to the further-right undecided votes.
-ABC News’ Jay O’Brien
Trump wishes Johnson luck
Trump is doubling down on his support for Johnson, and said a victory for Johnson would be a “big win for the Republican Party.”
“Good luck today for Speaker Mike Johnson, a fine man of great ability, who is very close to having 100% support,” Trump wrote in an early morning post on his social media platform.
“A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!! – A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!”
How the House speaker vote works
The House will meet at 11:00 a.m. for legislative business and then officially convene for the start of the 119th Congress at 12:00 p.m.
At noon, there will be a quorum call to determine how many members are present and voting. With the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the House, Johnson needs almost every Republican vote to win.
The election for speaker is expected to take place between 12:45 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Read more about what will happen on the first day of the new Congress here.
Johnson’s future uncertain as he fights for reelection
Johnson has publicly expressed confidence that he will retain the speaker’s gavel, but spent the final day before the vote on Capitol Hill meeting with Republican holdouts.
Several House Freedom Caucus members were spotted at his office, many leaving the hourslong meeting dodging questions from reporters. The few who did speak said they thought they were making progress but none had committed to voting for Johnson.
Meanwhile, Trump’s team and the president-elect himself were working behind the scenes this week to strike a deal with one GOP hardliner in particular — Rep. Chip Roy of Texas — sources told ABC News.
(Photo by Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In an unprecedented move both Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral, were fired from their posts by President Donald Trump, marking the first time that two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been dismissed from their senior military roles.
As a retired military officer, Caine will be brought back onto active duty and will have to be confirmed by the Senate in order to assume the role of the president’s senior military adviser and the nation’s top military officer.
Caine retired after serving 34 years in the Air Force where he served as an F-16 pilot, the assistant commanding general at Joint Special Operations Command, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s associate director for military affairs.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump announced on his Truth Social account. “He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.”
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brown became the president’s top military adviser in October 2023 and was to complete a four-year term at the end of September 2027. He was the second African American to serve in the role and Franchetti was the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top admiral.
The role of chairman is intended to be apolitical and by design the chairman’s four-year term overlaps presidential election years meaning someone serving in the role could serve in two different presidential administrations.
Trump as president has the authority to remove generals and senior officers from their positions and reassign them, but if forced out of a role, officers may not find another opening available to them.
“Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote. “General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
“During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate,” said Trump, repeating praise of the three-star general that he had placed since his first term after meeting him during a tour of U.S. military troops in Iraq.
“It was done in record-setting time, a matter of weeks,” said Trump. “Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”
“Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden,” said Trump. “But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military.”
Defense officials told ABC News that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called both Brown and Franchetti to advise them that they were being removed from their posts. At the time both Brown and Franchetti were traveling outside of Washington, Brown having completed a tour of U.S. military troops on the southern border with Mexico, and on his way to California to link up with Franchetti where both of them were to participate in a conference.
Hegseth later said in a statement that he would request nominations to replace Franchetti; Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s Vice Chief of Staff; and the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Earlier this week both Brown and Franchetti appeared on a list of generals and admirals provided by the Trump administration to Congressional Republicans that Hegseth was considering firing or removing from their positions.
“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him,” said Hegseth in a statement issued after Trump’s announcement.
“The outgoing Chairman, Gen. Charles ‘CQ’ Brown, Jr., USAF, has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service,” said Hegseth. ‘I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country.
“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” he added.
In a statement provided to ABC News Slife said “The President and Secretary of Defense deserve to have generals they trust and the force deserves to have generals who have credibility with our elected and appointed officials.”
“While I’m disappointed to leave under these circumstances, I wouldn’t want the outcome to be any different,” said Slife. “I wish the President, the Secretary, and the Airmen of the USAF the very best as they serve our nation in challenging times.”
The removal of some of the nation’s most senior military officers drew criticism from a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Our military has accepted the principle of civilian control of the military for 236 years. What may seem like an arcane principle to most Americans, is essential to the healthy civil-military relations that drive effective national security decision-making,” retired Gen. George Casey, a former Army Chief of Staff told ABC News in a statement.
“Firing officers for following the directives of the previous civilian leadership of the Department of Defense will undermine that principle and is completely unnecessary. Change the policy, not the people,” he added.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee thanked Brown “for his decades of honorable service to our nation” and expressed confidence that “Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he was “troubled by the nature of these dismissals” and said they appear “to be part of a broader, premeditated campaign by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to purge talented officers for politically charged reasons, which would undermine the professionalism of our military and send a chilling message through the ranks.”
Brown was nominated to be the first Black chief of staff for the Air Force by Trump during his first term, in early 2020.
However, he received criticism from Hegseth in the leadup to his confirmation as defense secretary, as well as from Trump following his 2024 election win.
Both Brown and Franchetti’s names appeared on a list circulating through Republican offices in Congress of top Pentagon officials that Hegseth was said to be considering having removed from their posts.
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said in a November appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show.”
“But any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI woke s— has got to go,” he continued. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it. That’s the only litmus test we care about.”
“We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to C.Q.,” he wrote in his book “War on Warriors.” “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it really doesn’t much matter.”
Hegseth also called into question Franchetti’s qualifications to be the Navy’s top Admiral.
In the same book he wrote: “If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray.”
(NEW YORK) — More officials are joining the call for embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams to leave office after several federal prosecutors resignedThursday in protest from the Justice Department when asked to dismiss the mayor’s bribery case.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado became the highest-ranking New York state official to call for Adams’ resignation Thursday evening. Delgado echoed the concerns from many Democrats, saying Adams has become too close with President Donald Trump and Monday’s request to dismiss the charges have raised further questions about the mayor’s interests.
“New York City deserves a Mayor accountable to the people, not beholden to the President. Mayor Adams should step down,” the lieutenant governor said in a post on X.
The post came hours after what several former and current federal justice officials dubbed the “Thursday afternoon massacre,” when six people involved with the case resigned and pushed back against the U.S. attorney general’s office.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigned Thursday over the Justice Department’s request to end the federal bribery case against the mayor.
The Justice Department planned to remove the prosecutors handling the mayor’s case and reassign it to the Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.
However, as soon the Public Integrity Section was informed it would be taking over, John Keller, the acting head of the unit, and his boss, Kevin Driscoll, the most senior career official in the criminal division, resigned along with three other members of the unit, according to multiple sources.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, called the Department of Justice’s moves “unbelievably unprecedented” during an interview on MSNBC Thursday night.
“This is not supposed to happen in our system of justice,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Hochul, however, declined to discuss the possibility of removing the mayor.
“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious. But I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction, like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she said. “I have to do it smart, what’s right, and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime ally of Adams, said in a statement Tuesday that he was convening with other Black clergy to discuss the situation but he already raised concerns about the mayor’s allegiances.
“President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Sharpton said.
Four prominent New York City Black clergy members — the Revs. Johnnie Green, Kevin McCall, Carl L. Washington and Adolphus Lacey — wrote a letter Wednesday calling on the mayor not to run for reelection this year.
“Eric Adams had every right to prove his innocence and many of us were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but that’s not what has happened,” they wrote.
Adams, a former NYPD officer and Democrat who previously registered as a Republican, was accused by federal prosecutors of taking lavish flights and hotel stays from Turkish businessmen and officials for more than a decade.
He and his staff members also allegedly received straw campaign donations to become eligible for New York City’s matching funds program for his campaigns, according to the criminal indictment that was issued in September.
In exchange, Adams allegedly used his power as Brooklyn borough president and later as mayor to give the foreign conspirators preferential treatment for various projects and proposals, including permits for the Turkish consulate despite fire safety concerns, the indictment said.
Adams pleaded not guilty, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed without any basis that he was being politically targeted by the Biden administration, even though the probe covers many years before Biden was in office.
Adams’ primary opponents have called for him to step down since the indictment, as have other New York Democrats, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The mayor, however, appeared on “Fox and Friends” on Friday with Trump “border czar” Thomas Homan and reiterated he was not only staying in office but he would run for reelection as a Democrat. The deadline to change parties is Friday.
“People had me gone months ago, but, you know what, I’m sitting on your couch,” Adams told the hosts.
The mayor remained silent during the interview when Homan discussed Trump’s deportation policy and called on Hochul to resign for not cooperating with the federal office.
Adams, however, did light up and smile when the “border czar” discussed their partnership. The mayor announced Thursday the city would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Rikers Island jail, a major shift in the city’s policies.
“If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch,” Homan said with a laugh. “I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'”
Sassoon prosecutor warned in a letter that the close relationship between the Trump administration and Adams crossed a line.
In her letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon repeatedly suggested Justice Department leadership, including Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, was explicitly aware of a quid pro quo that was suggested by Adams’ attorneys.
Sassoon alleged Adams’ vocal support of Trump’s immigration policies would be boosted by dismissing the indictment against him.
Sassoon’s letter detailed a January meeting with Bove and counsel for the mayor, where she says Adams’ attorneys put forward “what amounted to a quid pro quo,” after which Bove “admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”
“Although Mr. Bove disclaimed any intention to exchange leniency in this case for Adams’s assistance in enforcing federal law, that is the nature of the bargain laid bare in Mr. Bove’s memo,” Sassoon wrote in her letter.
Bove accused Sassoon of insubordination and rejected her claims. Trump told reporters Thursday he was not involved with the Justice Department decisions this week and claimed the SDNY prosecutor was fired, although he did not name her.
Adams also denied the allegations Friday.
“It took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. Come on, this is silly,” he told the “Fox and Friends” hosts.
The dismissal, which is without prejudice, meaning it can be brought again, specifically after the November election, according to Bove’s request, has yet to be formally filed in court or reviewed by a judge.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, Aaron Katersky and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
