Harvard calls Trump’s proclamation to block foreign students from attending university ‘illegal retaliatory step’
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(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Harvard University is calling President Donald Trump’s proclamation to block foreign students from attending the university another “illegal retaliatory step.”
“This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” Harvard said in a statement. “Harvard will continue to protect its international students.”
Trump signed the proclamation on Wednesday afternoon, invoking the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the entry of noncitizens from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard for at least six months. Trump argued the institution is “no longer a trustworthy steward” of international students.
The proclamation also directed the secretary of state to consider revoking the visas of foreign students already in the U.S. to study at Harvard.
“I have determined that the entry of the class of foreign nationals described above is detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” the proclamation said.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security tried to revoke Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program — which allows the school to sponsor foreign students – but a federal judge issued a temporary order blocking the move.
Trump justified the sudden move Wednesday by claiming Harvard has refused to provide information about international students, has “extensive entanglements with foreign countries,” and has discriminated in their admissions practices. The proclamation also claimed crime rates have “drastically risen” at the school and requires the government to probe the potential misconduct of foreign students.
“These concerns have compelled the Federal Government to conclude that Harvard University is no longer a trustworthy steward of international student and exchange visitor programs,” the proclamation said.
(WASHINGTON) — The House and Senate’s classified briefing on the Iran-Israel conflict has been postponed, multiple sources familiar confirmed.
The Senate’s briefing was delayed from Tuesday until Thursday to allow for additional briefers to attend, sources told ABC News. It’s not yet clear who those additional briefers would be.
The House’s classified briefing set for Tuesday afternoon has been postponed and it’s not yet clear when it will be rescheduled.
Sources told ABC News that the briefers who were expected to speak included Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman John Caine, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg.
When the meetings occur, it’s expected that lawmakers, especially Democrats, will be looking for answers and evidence at the briefings from the administration — specifically why Trump said there was an imminent threat and carried out U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend.
Their meetings come after several lawmakers on Capitol Hill argued the military action was unconstitutional. There are several bipartisan resolutions that could receive a vote in coming days that may put some lawmakers in uncomfortable positions as they consider whether Trump ignored the role of Congress in striking Tehran.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna introduced a War Powers Resolution last week to rebuke the president’s decision to launch strikes. As Massie continued to rail against Trump and his role in the conflict, the president lashed out at the Kentucky Republican, saying he was “not MAGA” and threatened to campaign for Massie’s Republican primary opponent in the next election.
Massie has now softened his approach, telling reporters at the Capitol on Monday that he’s now considering pulling the bipartisan War Powers Resolution.
“If the ceasefire holds, and we’re not engaged in hostilities, then it’s a moot point. I wouldn’t need to bring it to the floor,” Massie said.
Massie also added that he is open to patching things up with the president: “I’d like a ceasefire between me and President Trump. If I can get the same deal, after his bunker busters he dropped on me.”
Trump on Monday announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire, after more than a week of fighting following Israel’s strikes — and subsequent U.S. attacks — on Iran’s nuclear program. Hours after the ceasefire took effect, Israel said Iran violated it — which Iran denies.
Trump expressed anger at both Israel and Iran, accusing both of violating the ceasefire agreement shortly after it began.
“I’m not happy with Israel. OK, when I say now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either,” Trump said to reporters Tuesday morning.
Speaker Mike Johnson said late Monday that he expects the House briefing to have a different “tone” in the light of the ceasefire.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — After a marathon three days of debate and drama, Senate Republicans on Tuesday wrangled just enough votes to pass President Donald Trump’s major tax and immigration bill.
The Senate deadlocked 50-50 before Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.
“Wow,” Trump said as he learned of the news in real time while touring a new migrant detention center in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” He said he would return to Washington soon to celebrate.
Senate Democrats, though, managed to deal a final symbolic blow just ahead of final passage by having the title of his signature “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” stricken as violating reconciliation rules.
Headwinds likely in House
The legislation now heads back to the House for final approval — but it’s likely to face some headwinds there.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is operating with a razor-thin Republican majority. He can afford only three defections if all members are voting and present.
Already, some GOP fiscal hawks are expressing dismay at Senate changes to the bill that previously passed the House by a single vote.
Overall, the Senate version includes roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts, new funding for border security and fulfills some of Trump’s campaign pledges such as no taxes on tips and overtime.
It also guts Biden-era clean energy initiatives; slashes entitlement health programs like Medicaid and SNAP, which are intended to help the nation’s most vulnerable Americans; and includes a plan to lift the cap on the state and local tax deduction, currently set at $10,000, to $40,000.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate bill would add roughly $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years — roughly $1 trillion more than the version passed by the House back in May.
The CBO also found that 11.8 million people could go uninsured over the next decade due to cuts in Medicaid, which emerged as a critical issue among several of the Senate Republican holdouts.
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said he is “not inclined to vote” for the legislation as amended, though Roy has repeatedly threatened to withhold support on previous critical vote only to ultimately side with the president.
Roy said “the overall deficit number is not good” in the bill the Senate passed, suggesting it violates the House’s budget framework.
“It’s front-loaded versus back-loaded, as we all know. I think it got worse. I think SALT got worse. It got more expensive,” he added.
House leaders, though, are vowing to plow ahead to take up the bill as expeditiously as possible to meet the president’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law. House Republicans are ready to finish the job,” Johnson and other GOP leaders said in a statement just after Senate passage.
Next steps and possible timing
The first step will be to have the House Rules Committee convene early Tuesday afternoon to markup the bill and set parameters for floor debate and consideration of the bill.
Once the bill clears the Rules Committee, it will head to the House floor for a debate and a vote on the rule, which could occur as early as Wednesday morning.
Finally, the House will then move to a vote on final passage. It remains unclear when the House will hold a final vote, though it would be the last step before the bill is sent to President Trump’s desk.
Republican Rep. Andy Harris, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News on Tuesday that the Senate bill is “not ready for prime time.”
“We’ll get there eventually, but I don’t think it’s going to be in the next couple days,” Harris said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, celebrating after ushering the bill through his own divided conference, noted the difficulty House Republicans might have in passing the package as it now heads their way, but said he delivered them a “strong product.”
“I think we took what they sent us and strengthened and improved upon it. And so I’m hopeful that now, when it gets sent over there, as they deliberate about how they want to handle it, they’ll find the goals that are necessary to pass it,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol.
Trump told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce he believed the legislation would have an “easier” time in the House.
“There is something for everyone,” the president said when asked for his message to Republican holdouts. “And I think it’s going to go very nicely in the House. Actually, I think it will be easier in the House than it was in the Senate.”
ABC News’ Isabella Murray, Mariam Khan and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — In June 2024, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and his aides were at a Virginia military base where the service was putting on one of its live-action shows for kids and families.
The event — a decades-long tradition known as the “Twilight Tattoo” — was a spectacle. Soldiers from ceremonial units reenact the history of the Army, complete with Revolutionary War garb, music, theatrical vignettes and military pageantry, all meant to serve as a kind of salute to Army soldiers and their families.
George and his top communications adviser, Col. Dave Butler, were attending with several media executives, when one of them leaned over.
“This would make great television,” the executive said, according to Butler.
George and his staff had already been talking about how to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday. Maybe, they thought, the National Park Service would let them host one of their live-action shows on the National Mall, the officials thought.
After President Donald Trump took office and the June 14 birthday was getting closer, the Army began to toss around more ideas. One idea was to add tanks or other iconic Army equipment to an exhibit parked on the National Mall where tourists could learn about the Army’s history of fighting the nation’s wars.
Butler said he doesn’t remember who first broached the idea of turning the Army’s show into a parade. But once the idea was floated, no one seemed to push back.
By June, the Army had a plan of what they would include: 6,700 soldiers, 150 vehicles, including dozens of tanks, 50 aircraft flying overhead including World War II-era planes and high-tech weaponry like rocket launchers.
Trump, a former media executive himself, seemed game to the idea. One official involved in the planning described it like “knocking on an unlocked door.”
“We wanted to reintroduce this nation’s Army to the American people,” Butler said. “To do that, we thought we needed to be in their living rooms and on their phones. We needed something that would catch the national eye.”
Criticism over cost
As the Army prepares for its birthday parade in downtown Washington on Saturday, not everyone is on board. About 6 in 10 Americans say that Saturday’s parade is “not a good use” of government money, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The White House has not released an estimate of the parade’s cost, with only the Army’s portion of moving troops and equipment expected to cost up to $45 million. Security is expected to add significantly to the price tag.
Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Army veteran who deployed with the Illinois National Guard during the Iraq War, said the money would be better spent on helping troops pay for essentials like child care.
“Donald Trump’s birthday parade has nothing to do with celebrating the Army’s 250th birthday — it’s to stroke his own ego and make taxpayers foot the bill,” said Duckworth.
Duckworth and other Trump critics also note a military parade is often associated with countries like Russia and North Korea, where dictators march its soldiers and equipment through their streets. Advocates are organizing protests in cities other than Washington — dubbed the “No Kings” protests.
Trump, who turns 79 on Saturday, said he wants a military parade to show how great the country is. The president first pushed the idea in 2017 after attending the Bastille Day parade and celebration in France, saying he wanted to “try and top it.” That effort was canceled after price estimates topped $90 million.
When asked Thursday what he hopes the public will remember about the American parade, Trump said, “How great our country is, very simple, and how strong our military is.”
“We have the strongest military in the world,” he added.
According to Army officials involved in the planning effort, including Butler, the White House helped the Army plan the birthday celebration as an event focused on the Army’s service to the nation.
There are no plans currently, for example, to sing the president happy birthday. The president also is not expected to speak, leaving much of the festivities to the soldiers.
According to the schedule, Trump will watch the tanks and soldiers march down Constitution Avenue from a viewing stand near the White House. Toward the end of the event, he will receive a flag from a soldier who will parachute on to the White House Ellipse. After that, the president will give the oath of enlistment to some 250 soldiers.
The event concludes with fireworks over the Tidal Basin.
Still, there are some of Trump’s fingerprints on the event. In the final days leading up to the event, the White House made an unusual request. Trump, they said, wanted the Air Force to bring its fighter jets to the Army’s party. If weather allows, the Thunderbirds will now do a flyover.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly defended the move to let the Air Force participate in the Army’s birthday parade.
“The President wants the Army Birthday Parade to feature the strength, talent, and creativity of all our military servicemembers,” she said in a statement. “The Thunderbirds flyover will inspire patriotism and awe for all who attend!”
