White House withdraws David Weldon’s nomination to be Trump’s CDC director, sources say

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin telling him to make a deal now to end the war in Ukraine, threatening economic consequences if he doesn’t.

“It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’ NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” Trump wrote in a new social media post.

Trump indicated that if a deal isn’t made quickly, he would place high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia.

“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump said.

Trump then threatened that it can be done “the easy way, or the hard way.”

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday night, Trump indicated he’d be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin in person.

“I’ll be meeting with President Putin,” Trump said, but didn’t say when that might happen.

Trump also indicated that Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy was willing to come to the negotiating table, but is unsure if Putin would, too.

“He told me he wants to make a deal. He wants to make — Zelenskyy wants to make a deal. I don’t know if Putin does,” Trump said.

During the ABC News debate in September, Trump claimed he would settle the war between Russia and Ukraine before he got into office.

At one point, he had also signaled that the war would be over within 24 hours of becoming president.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed, without evidence, that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration — under Democratic presidents — were partly to blame for the tragic plane and helicopter collision in Washington on Wednesday night.

The air disaster occurred as an American Airlines passenger jet approaching Reagan Washington National Airport collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight.

“I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room, referring to the policies, even as the investigation into what happened is just getting underway.

“I had to say that it’s terrible,” he said, citing what he called a story about a group within the FAA that had “determined that the [FAA] workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. This was in the Obama administration, just prior to my getting there, and we took care of African Americans, Hispanic Americans.”

But when a reporter pressed him, saying that similar language on DEI policies existed on the FAA’s website under Trump’s entire first term, Trump shot back, “I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy and then Biden came in and he changed it. And then when I came in two days, three days ago, I said, a new order, bringing it to the highest level of intelligence.”

When asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce whether he was saying the crash was the result of diversity hiring, Trump said, “we don’t know” what caused the crash, adding investigators are still looking into that. “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a higher, much higher standard than anybody else.”

Even as he made unfounded claims about the FAA’s diversity initiatives being a factor in the disaster, he then said the Army helicopter crew could be at fault — and claimed he wasn’t blaming the air traffic controller who communicated with the helicopter.

When asked how he could come to the conclusion that FAA diversity policies had something to do with the disaster, he said, “Because I have common sense, OK, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”

Trump called Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary in the Biden administration, “bulls—,” and said he had “run [the Department of Transportation] right into the ground with his diversity.”

“Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” Buttigieg responded in a statement on X. “We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

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Republican Rep. Mike Lawler argued Sunday that Rep. Mike Johnson should be reelected as speaker of the House despite Republican infighting on whether he should keep the position after how he handled a spending bill that prevented a government shutdown last week.

“Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when [former Rep.] Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics,” the New York lawmaker told ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

“With that said, removing Mike Johnson would equally be as stupid. The fact is that these folks are playing with fire, and if they think they’re somehow going to get a more conservative speaker, they’re kidding themselves,” he said, pointing out that Johnson was successful in keeping a Republican majority in the House.

Republicans are expected to hold 219 seats when the new Congress convenes on Friday. Electing the speaker of the House will be the first order of business, and the House cannot move on to other business until that happens. If all Democrats are present and vote against Johnson, the Louisiana Republican can only afford to lose one Republican vote. One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, has already said he will not support Johnson while other GOP hardliners have yet to commit to backing him.

“I’m not going to bend to their will,” Lawler said of his hardline colleagues. “So if they think somehow that they are going to end up in a stronger position by removing Mike Johnson, they’re not.”

Republicans have also been feuding over H-1B work visas, which allow highly skilled foreign workers into the Unites States to fill specialty occupations.

Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, support increasing the amount of the visas awarded annually, arguing they will bring more talent into the country. But other Trump supporters say those job opportunities should be for Americans.

In a post on X this week, Musk said “OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy criticized the American workforce, writing on X that “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.”

After Musk went after critics of his position in a series of X posts, writing at one point, “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called him a “toddler.”

Lawler voiced his support for the H-1B program, telling Karl that it is critical to the economy.

“As President Trump said, it’s a program he’s used over the years for his businesses, and it’s something that has obviously been beneficial to our economy,” he said. “The United States has been built on immigration and it is vital to the continued growth within our economy.”

Pressed by Karl about why some Trump supporters are strongly against the visas, Lawler expressed his desire for Americans to fill needed jobs, “but the fact is, India is producing a significant number more of engineers than we are. So it’s both a function of fixing our education system and having a legal immigration system that works.”

“You cannot have no immigration at all. It will cripple the economy long-term,” he said.

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