Trump doubles down on expanding deportations in America’s biggest cities
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his goal to conduct mass deportations in some of the country’s biggest cities, specifically those run by Democrats.
As he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the G7 summit in Alberta on Monday, Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement should turn its attention to New York and Chicago in addition to Los Angeles.
“I want them to focus on the cities because the cities are where you really have what’s called ‘sanctuary cities,'” Trump told reporters. “And that’s where the people are.”
The comments came after Trump’s lengthy social media post on Sunday in which said he was ordering ICE to do “all in their power” to oversee the largest mass deportation program in history.
“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities,” Trump wrote.
The president said those cities are “the core of the Democrat Power Center” and accused Democrats of using illegal immigration to influence elections — despite the fact that noncitizens can’t vote in federal or state elections and instances where it occurs are rare. He also claimed without evidence that illegal immigrants were being used to “grow the Welfare State.”
“To ICE, FBI, DEA, ATF, the Patriots at Pentagon and the State Department, you have my unwavering support. Now go, GET THE JOB DONE!” Trump wrote in the post.
Trump’s determination on deportations follows protests in LA and in other areas around the country last week to his administration’s immigration crackdown. This past Saturday, immigration was one focus of nationwide “No Kings Day” demonstrations against Trump and his policies that drew thousands of people.
Amid the pushback, Trump last week shifted his stance on undocumented immigrants who work in the farming and hospitality industries.
Trump acknowledged on social media that his “aggressive policy” was “taking very good, long time workers away.” The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed they received new guidance to pause most raids on farms, restaurants and hotels.
“Our farmers are being hurt badly, they have good workers that have worked for them for 20 years. They are not citizens, but turned out to be great. We will do something about that,” Trump said at a White House event last week.
Such comments undercut what he and his top officials have said would be a focus on the “worst of the worst” violent or criminal offenders in their deportation efforts.
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at around 10 a.m. ET on Monday, as the White House continues its push for an end to Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine after last week’s peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey.
“The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote in a post to his conservative social media website on Saturday.
“I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and then, with President Zelenskyy, various members of NATO,” Trump added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at Monday morning’s briefing the public can expect to hear from President Trump or the White House following the calls.
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott pressed Leavitt if Trump will set a new deadline for peace talks during his conversation with Putin, but Leavitt said she wouldn’t get ahead of Trump on any specific timeline.
“His goal is to see a ceasefire and to see this conflict come to an end, and he’s grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict,” she said.
Leavitt also said she believed Trump “would certainly be open” to meeting with Putin but “let’s see how this call goes today.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to journalists on Monday that the call would take place at 5 p.m. Moscow time — 10 a.m. ET — the state-run Tass news agency reported.
“The conversation is important given the talks that took place in Istanbul,” Peskov said, as quoted by Tass. “We have already said everything we could about the talks, what the main positional points are,” he said. “We will wait and give the best possible message based on the results of the conversation.”
Renewed direct contact with Putin — the last publicly known direct phone call between the two presidents took place in February — comes after Trump’s hopes for peace talks progress in Istanbul were scuppered, Putin having declined to attend despite Zelenskyy’s invitation to do so.
The Istanbul talks were the first known meeting between representatives of Moscow and Kyiv since spring 2022, when the Turkish city hosted the final round of unsuccessful peace negotiations to end Russia’s unfolding invasion.
Once it became clear Putin would not attend, Trump told reporters of the peace effort, “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay?”
“And obviously he wasn’t going to go,” Trump added. “He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we’re going to have to get it solved, because too many people are dying.”
Trump’s repeated threats of further sanctions on Russia have so far failed to precipitate any notable shift in Moscow’s war goals — which, according to public statements by officials, still include Ukraine’s ceding of four regions — which Russian forces do not fully control — plus Crimea, as well as a permanent block on Kyiv’s accession to NATO.
Putin said Sunday that any peace deal with Ukraine should “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis” and “guarantee Russia’s security.”
Kyiv and its European backers are still pushing for a full 30-day ceasefire, during which time they say peace negotiations can take place. Moscow has thus far refused to support the proposal, suggesting that all Western military aid to Ukraine would have to stop as part of any ceasefire.
Contacts between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials continued after the end of the talks in Istanbul. On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Rubio welcomed a prisoner exchange agreement reached during the Istanbul meeting and emphasized Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire.
Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy at the Vatican on Saturday, following Pope Leo XIV’s offer to host a bilateral meeting.
After the meeting, Zelenskyy wrote on X that he had “reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible.”
“We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange,” Zelenskyy continued. “Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday wrote on X that the Istanbul meeting highlighted a “stark difference” between Moscow and Kyiv. “Ukraine is forward-looking, focused on the full and immediate ceasefire to kickstart the real peace process.”
“To the contrary, Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the ceasefire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the same absurd demands as three years ago,” the foreign minister said.
“This is yet another reason why pressure on Russia must be increased,” Sybiha added. “Moscow must now understand the consequences of impeding the peace process.”
Meanwhile, long-range strikes by both sides continued. On Sunday night into Monday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 112 drones into the country, 76 of which were shot down or jammed. Damage was reported in five regions of Ukraine, the air force said in a post to Telegram.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday morning that its forces had downed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Joe Biden’s office announced on Sunday that he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.
Biden’s office also said the cancer had metastasized, spreading to his bones.
Although some people were left wondering why the cancer was caught only after reaching a Gleason score of 9, oncology experts told ABC News that it’s not uncommon for older prostate cancer patients to receive a diagnosis after the disease has advanced or spread.
“Prostate cancer is something that we always hope screening will identify early, when the cancer is all still inside the prostate,” Dr. Alicia Morgans, a genitourinary medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a member of the board of directors of the no-profit Zero Prostate Cancer, told ABC News.
“Even if we screen everybody perfectly, there will never be 100% detection of prostate cancer because, in truth, cancer does not follow a rule book,” Morgans continued. “And just because we are trying to catch it early doesn’t mean it necessarily is present when we screen.”
PSA levels may not have been checked
One screening test for prostate cancer involves a blood test that measures the level of prostate-specific antigens, which are proteins made by cells in the prostate gland.
Although there is no cutoff level that clearly indicates the presence of cancer, many doctors use a cutoff of 4 nanograms per milliliter to recommend further tests with a urologist, according to the American Cancer Society.
For an advanced form of cancer like Biden’s, a recent PSA test would have likely shown elevated levels.
However, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends against PSA-based screening for men age 70 and older due to harms such as false positives leading to more tests or a diagnosis of problems that would not have caused symptoms or death.
Morgans said it’s unclear what the former president and his doctor discussed regarding screening, but it’s plausible that he did not undergo PSA screening.
“It is absolutely possible that President Biden, like so many men over that age, have decided to stop doing PSA screening because they’ve decided that it is not consistent with their overall health goals and wishes, and that is completely reasonable,” Morgans said.
Cancer could have grown rapidly
Morgans said some men in their 70s and 80s do still undergo PSA screening for prostate cancer based on conversations with their primary care physicians and what’s right for them.
Even so, it’s possible that the results were normal — either due to a false negative or because their cancer was not present at the time, she said.
“Prostate cancer can develop between screening tests,” Morgans said. “It doesn’t necessarily grow super slowly. It can develop between screenings, and it can be aggressive when it does develop; that doesn’t mean it’s not treatable.”
Screening results could have been borderline
Dr. Alan Bryce, chief clinical officer for City of Hope Cancer Center Phoenix, said there may be some patients who receive PSA screening results showing borderline-high results who decide not to pursue further testing.
“There are absolutely scenarios where that conversation happens with a patient or their family member,” Bryce told ABC News. “All of them might say, ‘You know what? Given where we’re at in life, we’re not that worried about this. Let’s go ahead and wait another year.'”
Bryce, a medical oncologist specializing in prostate and testicular cancers, added that shared decision-making is important when it comes to deciding if a patient wants to pursue prostate cancer screening — and if they want to test further following test results that are abnormal.
“As physicians, we present patients with options and recommendations but, at the end of the day, it’s still the patient’s decision,” he said. “So, it’s entirely possible that a conversation happens and the patient decides they don’t want to proceed with further workup. Maybe they don’t want to do a scan, maybe they don’t want to do a biopsy.”
No symptoms present
Advanced prostate cancer can present symptoms such as a weak urination stream; needing to urinate more often; erectile dysfunction; fatigue; weight loss; loss of bladder or bowel control; and pain in the ribs, hips and spine when the cancer had spread to the bones, according to the ACS.
Morgans said just because a patient has advanced prostate cancer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will exhibit symptoms.
“I would say that it’s more common than not that people sit in my office and tell me, ‘You know, I don’t have any symptoms. I don’t understand how I have this cancer. I certainly don’t understand how it could have spread outside of my prostate,'” Morgans said. “It is very common for people to be completely asymptomatic.”
Bryce added that some symptoms, such as difficulty urinating or a weak urination stream, may be due to an enlarged prostate, which is common in older men.
“It is entirely normal that in older men, there is a degree of urinary obstruction that just happens with age,” he said. “It’s entirely possible that a man just has normal symptoms associated with aging and nothing about it stands out as being related to a cancerous process.”
(WASHINGTON) — Doug Emhoff, the former second gentleman of the United States, said on Tuesday that he had been dismissed from the board of trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Emhoff was dismissed from the board by President Donald Trump’s administration, which has the power to appoint and remove members.
“President Trump looks forward to appointing new individuals who will not only continue to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, but who are also steadfast supporters of the State of Israel,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News.
According to the museum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which serves as the board of trustees of the museum, has 55 president-appointed members, as well as members from the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the departments of Education, Interior and State.
Emhoff was appointed in January to the council by then-President Joe Biden.
“Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff said in a statement to ABC News.
“To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous,” he continued, “and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”
The dismissal of Emhoff from the board is the latest example of Trump removing people from what were traditionally nonpartisan roles appointed by presidents and other officials.
In February, Trump announced he would be removing board members from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — and also installed himself as chair.
The New York Times was the first to report that a number of board members — including Emhoff — had been dismissed from the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which the White House confirmed to ABC News.
Emhoff, who is Jewish and has talked extensively about the Holocaust and antisemitism, has previously spoken in support of Israel, and he supported Biden’s efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Israel-Hamas war.
In remarks to Jewish supporters on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, he framed then-Vice President Kamala Harris as “somebody who knows our community, will continue to support us and Israel, and make sure that just the world is free of hate, including antisemitism.”
The Holocaust Memorial Museum gave a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, saying, “At this time of high antisemitism and Holocaust distortion and denial, the Museum is gratified that our visitation is robust and demand for Holocaust education is increasing.”
“We look forward to continuing to advance our vitally important mission as we work with the Trump Administration,” the statement continued.
