Federal judge blocks Trump’s EO on birthright citizenship after SCOTUS ruling
Win McNamee/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in New Hampshire has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its executive order on birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante certified a challenge on Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union as a class action lawsuit and granted a preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit, which was filed last month in New Hampshire was brought on behalf of pregnant immigrants, two immigrant parents and their infants.
“This ruling is a huge victory and will help protect the citizenship of all children born in the United States, as the Constitution intended,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrant’s Rights Project, who argued the case. “We are fighting to ensure President Trump doesn’t trample on the citizenship rights of one single child.”
Judge Laplante’s order includes a seven-day stay to allow the Trump administration to appeal.
(WASHINGTON) — In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar — a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News.
The gift is expected to be announced next week, when Trump visits Qatar on the first foreign trip of his second term, according to sources familiar with the plans.
Trump toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as “a flying palace,” while it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February.
The highly unusual — unprecedented — arrangement is sure to raise questions about whether it is legal for the Trump administration, and ultimately, the Trump presidential library foundation, to accept such a valuable gift from a foreign power.
Anticipating those questions, sources told ABC News that lawyers for the White House counsel’s office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library, and that it does not violate laws against bribery or the Constitution’s prohibition (the emoluments clause) of any U.S. government official accepting gifts “from any King, Prince or foreign State.”
Sources told ABC News that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump’s top White House lawyer David Warrington concluded it would be “legally permissible” for the donation of the aircraft to be conditioned on transferring its ownership to Trump’s presidential library before the end of his term, according to sources familiar with their determination.
The sources said Bondi provided a legal memorandum addressed to the White House counsel’s office last week after Warrington asked her for advice on the legality of the Pentagon accepting such a donation.
The White House and DOJ didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. A spokesperson for the Qatari embassy did not respond to ABC’s inquiries.
The plane will initially be transferred to the United States Air Force, which will modify the 13-year-old aircraft to meet the U.S. military specifications required for any aircraft used to transport the president of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the proposed arrangement said.
The plane will then be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation no later than Jan. 1, 2029, and any costs relating to its transfer will be paid for by the U.S. Air Force, the sources told ABC News.
According to aviation industry experts, the estimated value of the aircraft Trump will inherit is about $400 million, and that’s without the additional communications security equipment the Air Force will need to add to properly secure and outfit the plane in order to safely transport the commander in chief.
As the Wall Street Journal first reported, the aviation company L3Harris has already been commissioned to overhaul the plane to meet the requirements of a presidential jet.
Both the White House and DOJ concluded that because the gift is not conditioned on any official act, it does not constitute bribery, the sources said. Bondi’s legal analysis also says it does not run afoul of the Constitution’s prohibition on foreign gifts because the plane is not being given to an individual, but rather to the United States Air Force and, eventually, to the presidential library foundation, the sources said.
The primary aircraft used in the current Air Force One fleet includes two aging Boeing 747-200 jumbo jets that have been operational since 1990. The Air Force contract with Boeing to replace those aircraft has been riddled with delays and cost overruns.
The original contract was signed in 2018, but as of last year, Boeing anticipated the aircraft would not be ready until 2029, after Trump leaves office.
The president has expressed deep frustration with the delays, tasking Elon Musk to work with Boeing and the Air Force to speed up the process. Those efforts have been modestly successful. Boeing’s most recent estimated delivery date is now 2027, but Trump has made it clear he wants a new plane this year.
(WASHINGTON) — Following his closed-door meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO Summit on Wednesday, President Donald Trump didn’t rule out sending Ukraine monetary and defense aid as he voiced frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During his press conference at the conclusion of his trip to The Hague, Netherlands, Trump signaled a willingness to provide Ukraine with additional aid and sell or send Patriot air-defense missiles to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
“They do want to have the anti-missile, missiles,” Trump said of Ukraine. “As they call them the Patriots, and we’re going to see if we can make some available.”
Trump’s openness comes as Zelenskyy told ABC News earlier this month the United States diverted anti-drone weapons, previously promised to Ukraine under a Biden administration agreement, to the Middle East.
“You know, they’re very hard to get. We need them to. We were supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective, 100% effective. Hard to believe how effective,” Trump said.
“As far as money going, we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of spirit,” Trump added.
Trump also appeared to shift his tone when describing his conversation with Zelenskyy, a relationship marked by many pivots.
“He was very nice, actually. You know, we had little rough times sometimes. He was uh – couldn’t have been nicer. I think he’d like to see an end to this. I do,” he said of Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy offered similar praise of Trump, calling their meeting “long and substantive” while affirming he told him Ukraine is ready to buy more U.S. weapons.
“With the President, we discussed the protection of our people — first and foremost, the purchase of American air defense systems to cover our cities, our people, churches, and infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American arms manufacturers. Europe can help as well,” Zelenskyy said. “We also talked about possible joint drone production. We can strengthen each other.”
During his press conference, Trump added Zelenskyy was fighting a “brave” and “tough” battle while putting pressure on Putin to show more willingness to end the conflict.
“Look. Vladimir Putin really has to end that war. People are dying at levels that people haven’t seen for a long time.”
Then, when pressed on why he wasn’t able to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine quickly as he adamantly claimed while on the campaign trail, Trump again pointed the blame towards Putin.
“It’s more difficult than people wouldn’t have any idea,” Trump said.
“Vladimir Putin has been more difficult. Frankly, I had some problems with Zelenskyy. You may have read about him, and it’s been more difficult than other wars.”
Trump’s public praise of Zelenskyy marks a shift in tone for the President, who has had public battles with the leader of Ukraine.
Most notably in February, a public Oval Office spat between the two officials led to a scrapped bilateral mineral deal, which wasn’t finalized for two months until the pair sat down together on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral.
Then, in recent weeks, as Trump focused on negotiating an agreement between Iran and Israel, he left last week’s G7 Summit in Canada early, skipping out on a bilateral with Ukraine.
However, after their meeting on Wednesday, Trump displayed more compassion for the situation in Ukraine in a moment highlighted by his exchange with a Ukrainian reporter who said her husband was a Ukrainian soldier while she and her children fled to Warsaw for safety.
“Wow, that’s rough stuff, right? That’s tough,” Trump said, asking the reporter many personal questions before answering her policy question.
“That’s very good question. And I wish you a lot of luck. I mean, I can see it’s very upsetting to you. So say hello to your husband. Okay?” Trump said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump lashed out Friday against ex-FBI director James Comey over an Instagram post that contained an image that top Trump officials claimed was a threat.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, Comey showed a photo of “8647” written in seashells in sand, with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Some far-right allies of President Trump, including Laura Loomer, have alleged that Comey is calling for violence against President Trump.
To “86” something, however, has fairly broad interpretations as a slang term — and can simply mean to nix or “get rid”of’ something.
Comey says he figured the message was political, but didn’t realize it called for violence against Trump.
“It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind,” Comey said in another post on Instagram.
Trump, however, told Fox News Friday that he wasn’t buying Comey’s explanation.
“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination,” the president said.
Trump fired Comey in his first administration and the president claimed Comey still had an axe to grind.
“Well, he apologized because he was hit — he’s a very bad guy,” Trump said.
The president did not take a position on whether or not Comey should be investigated, but deferred to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday in an X post that the U.S. Secret Service is looking into Comey’s post.
“Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” she said.
