Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can cancel the temporary protected status (TPS) for thousands of Haitians and Syrians.
Writing for the 6-3 majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that courts cannot override the federal government’s determination about TPS status.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department notified a federal judge Thursday night the Kennedy Center will delay implementation of its board’s resolution honoring President Donald Trump for more than a month.
In a filing late Thursday, the DOJ said the effort to add Trump’s name to the facade and plaza will “not be effectuated before October 8, 2026.”
The Trump administration’s filing came following a two-hour hearing Thursday during which U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper urged the center to delay its plans to give him more time to consider his decision.
The hearing Thursday featured the lead attorney for Ohio Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who sits on the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees as an ex-officio member, repeatedly accusing the Kennedy Center board of thumbing its nose at the court by voting to honor Trump after Cooper ordered his name off the building in a decision earlier this year.
“I don’t say this lightly,” said attorney Nathaniel Zelinsky. “We view this as outright defiance.”
“Are they attempting a renaming?” Zelinsky asked. “Absolutely, yes. They are doing the same thing they were told they couldn’t do before.”
Cooper did not signal at the hearing that he necessarily agreed. Nor did he leap at the chance to issue an order stopping the board from immediately moving forward with its plans to honor Trump as the man who “renovated and restored” the center.
Instead, he used the hearing to probe both sides on the legality of the board’s move earlier this month to again add Trump’s name to the famed cultural institution.
Cooper seemed to grapple with whether the renaming of the plaza after Trump violates a 1983 law blocking “additional memorials” in the center’s “public areas.”
“Could a plaza just outside the building be considered the ‘public area’ of the building?” Cooper asked Zelinsky.
Zelinsky pointed to the Justice Department’s most recent filing in the case, in which administration lawyers said the board’s intent was to rename “the complex” after Trump.
But the administration’s lawyer insisted the Kennedy Center would continue to exist as a memorial to John F. Kennedy.
“There is no renaming here,” said Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers. “The board has not taken any action to rename.”
Mayers also said there was “no evidence” that the move to add Trump’s name back onto the building is imminent, even as he said it was “clear that recognizing the president will help address both the financial and structural issues” he said the center faces.
Cooper shrugged off the bluster of the Trump administration’s most recent filing, which suggested the performing arts center could face demolition in the event he issued an order permanently blocking President Donald Trump’s push to renovate the facility with additions intended to recognize Trump personally.
“That may be great atmospherics,” Cooper told Mayers. “But I gotta say, the first four of five pages of your brief seem to be a non-sequitur. We’re here to discuss whether the board’s resolution was consistent with my order and consistent with the statutes.”
Cooper said he’ll need to take some time to “give the issues the attention they deserve” and asked the DOJ to delay any plans to give him time to rule.
Cooper suggested he might impose an order keeping the status quo if center management didn’t go along.
Zelinsky had asked the judge to act more urgently, pointing to the “overnight” move to add Trump’s name to the center following a similar vote by the board earlier this year.
“They don’t contest that the last time they did this, they ruined the marble,” Zelinsky said. “Talk about an irreparable injury! They’ve drilled into it and they’re going to be poised to do that again.”
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Democrats are urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop the Trump administration’s proposed changes to Head Start, calling the reforms to the early childcare and education program illegal and “antithetical” to the mission of Head Start.
Head Start, the largest federal childcare program, aims to ensure that more than 700,000 kids receive a high-quality pre-school education for students ages 3-5 and improve welfare outcomes for children and their families. The reforms transfer federal oversight to state programs.
In a letter led by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, a bicameral coalition of lawmakers accuse the federal health department of proposing to “gut” the program by rolling back 90% of its performance standards and it asks Kennedy to withdraw the changes outlined in the agency’s recent announcement.
But the new administrative changes could diminish program quality, reduce disciplinary standards, eliminate jobs for educators and healthcare providers and weaken protections for students with disabilities and unhoused families, according to the letter that was first obtained by ABC News.
“This proposed rule is a brazen attempt to dismantle Head Start without regard for the hundreds of thousands of young children and working-class families who depend on these programs and services every year,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Kennedy’s office on Wednesday.
In addition to Sanders, who serves as the ranking member on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Education Committee ranking member Bobby Scott and more than 150 other Democrats signed onto the letter.
The lawmakers allege that the proposed changes violate the Head Start Act — the law that authorizes the eligibility and standards for the program — and illegally eliminate the program’s core components of giving vulnerable students and families a boost in life. For more than 60 years, the program has provided early childhood education, health, nutrition and family support services to low-income children and families.
Head Start has undergone major revisions under previous administrations, including the largest reduction in funded Head Start slots in program history.
Since FY16, Head Start enrollment has declined from over 1 million children to 771,121 in FY25, according to government data. The National Head Start Association supports the government’s intent to reduce unnecessary burden on Head Start programs and educators but the organization said the proposed rule exceeds its deregulatory approach.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services contended that any Head Start program that likes its current performance standards under the federal government’s previous guidance is welcome to maintain those standards.
“Head Start teachers and staff are exceptional professionals who have in many cases dedicated their lives to serving children and families,” the spokesperson wrote. “It is a shame that some elected leaders in Washington do not trust Head Start directors, teachers, and parents to make wise decisions for the children they serve but instead believe Washington must tell all 1,600 Head Start centers across the U.S. exactly how they have to run their programs.”
Early childhood advocates stress that new regulations requiring English-only instruction, caps on administrative spending, and shifts in health screenings could also harm future Head Start participants.
Wednesday’s letter comes as the 60-day open comment period for the changes ends. Kennedy’s uncle, Sargent Shriver, founded the program in 1965. The secretary has said that the reforms will remove unnecessary bureaucracy for hundreds of thousands of American families to renew the “promise of Head Start for the next generation” by allowing local Head Start centers more authority over their programs.
In their letter, the lawmakers scolded the proposal saying Kennedy “made a commitment to Congress to ‘preserve’ Head Start,” during his confirmation hearings — “yet this proposed rule is the latest attempt by the Administration to deteriorate and ultimately eliminate the program by gutting the core standards and services that have long-defined and ensured its success.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s goal to make the largest revision to federal childcare policy in decades aligns with current administration priorities. If implemented, the new regulations would empower parents, implement the new federal dietary guidelines and physical activity standards, shift early childhood governing authority to the states, and eliminate duplicative layers of compliance, according to the health department. The department also awarded over $200 million to Head Start for nutrition, facilities, and other services last month.
For now, as federal funding remains intact and programs are still operating, Head Start proponents told ABC News that fewer federal regulations should not mean fewer results for its families.
Bernadine Futrell, who served as the Biden administration’s Head Start director, told ABC News that the program is life saving and provides critical services.
“It’s more than early learning,” Futrell told ABC News, adding “It is an early childhood program. It’s focusing on brain development, health and nutrition, healthy habits, financial literacy, economic mobility for parents, and it’s a two-generational approach – where it’s not just a child being served; it’s the entire family that is moving to another level.”
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(NEW YORK) — Former President Barack Obama is sharing his thoughts on President Donald Trump’s handling of Iran, saying recently that he is skeptical that real progress will be made.
Obama spoke with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts on Saturday, one day prior to Trump’s announcement that the United States and Iran had reached a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the U.S. naval blockade.
The exact points of the deal remain unclear. A senior administration official told reporters Friday that it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lead to “the dismantling” of Iran’s nuclear program and the U.S. getting Iran’s highly enriched
The expected deal comes eight years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from a previous nuclear agreement with Iran – led by the Obama administration in 2015 – that Trump described at the time of withdrawal as the “worst deal ever.”
In the interview Saturday, ahead of the new deal being announced, Obama told Roberts that he was “doubtful” any deal with Iran put forward by the Trump administration would be “significantly different” from the 2015 deal that his administration put in place.
“It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place and had worked for, for a long stretch of time before we, the United States, pulled out of it,” Obama told Roberts in the interview, which took place at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Obama also expressed hope that the fighting in the region would come to an end and urged policymakers to prioritize diplomacy over military action.
“I’m hopeful that bombing stops and ordinary people are no longer suffering as a consequence of the war,” he continued. “Then in retrospect it’s a reminder that on a lot of difficult foreign policy problems — the notion that we can just bully our way or bomb our way to solutions — may sometimes seem appealing, but the fact of the matter is that taking the time to explore diplomacy and exhaust the possibilities of coming up with deals that don’t solve 100% of the problem but solve 80%, 90% of the problem while avoiding the necessity of going to war.”
“You’d think we would’ve learned that lesson by now,” he continued. “But it seems like every so often we have to relearn that lesson again.”
Trump first announced “major combat operations” against Iran on Feb. 28, with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
After an initial ceasefire and unsuccessful U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan in April, negotiations continued as the ceasefire was extended.
Following Trump’s June 14 announcement on social media that a new deal had been reached, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed the deal had been finalized and said it would be signed in Switzerland on Friday.
“All of our positions and important issues are included in the draft understanding,” Gharibabadi said in a statement to Iranian state media.
Tune into “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, June 17, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on ABC for more of Robin Roberts’ interview with former President Barack Obama.
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