May 1, 2025 – Donald Trump presidency news

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Iran should not be afraid of having nuclear inspectors on military sites under a potential new deal with the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.

Rubio said Iran had “a path forward” if it agrees not to enrich uranium. The US would instead allow it to import the vital component in nuclear fuel for nuclear power, he said.

But Rubio said Iran would also need to allow nuclear inspectors on sites in the country, including military facilities.

“If you really want to prevent a nuclear program and you are not building a nuclear weapon, then you should open all of your facilities,” Rubio told Fox host Sean Hannity.

“Iran likes to say they are not interested in nuclear weapons, they like to say all they want is a peaceful nuclear energy then they should not be afraid of inspections by inspectors of any kind — including Americans,” Rubio said.

Delayed talks: The next round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran has been postponed for logistical and technical reasons, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump may need to reassess efforts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia if the US doesn’t see a breakthrough “very soon.”

Rubio argued that if no agreement was reached soon, there were other issues that Trump could focus on instead.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a unilateral three-day ceasefire in Ukraine from May 8 to May 11. In response, the Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated calls for a permanent ceasefire.

The US Army has established a second military zone along the southern Texas border where soldiers can detain migrants before handing them over to US Customs and Border Protection.

The zone, called the El Paso National Defense Area, is now part of the Army’s Fort Bliss and is in addition to the previously established New Mexico National Defense Area, US Northern Command announced today.

President Donald Trump mandated that the US military step up its presence along the southern border on his first day in office, and thousands of additional active duty US troops have been ordered there as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing military mission at the border.

In April, the Defense Department took jurisdiction over certain federal lands along the US-Mexico border for military purposes including border wall construction and installing detection and monitoring equipment.

Multiple migrants have already been arrested after crossing into the New Mexico National Defense Area.

Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of US Northern Command, said in a release today that the establishment of a second area “increases our operational reach and effectiveness in denying illegal activity along the southern border.”

The National Defense Areas are treated as extensions of military installations for security purposes, allowing troops to conduct crowd control measures, cursory searches of trespassers, and temporarily detain them until they are handed off to law enforcement.

President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s commencement remarks at the University of Alabama tonight bore a sharply political tone as he touted his accomplishments and offered as many jabs at his perceived enemies as lessons for the class of 2025.

The crowd of graduates, their families and Alabama alumni responded overwhelmingly throughout the speech, cheering the president louder than former football coach Nick Saban, who introduced Trump.

Trump waded into culture war issues and highlighted what he sees as wins from his first 100 days in office, receiving raucous applause as he vowed to “always protect women’s sports.” He touted his administration’s efforts to crack down on immigration and lower the price of eggs and energy and increase military recruitment. And he vowed that Americans will be seeing the results of his tariff policies “pretty soon.”

The president acknowledged the graduates’ “difficult senior year” of high school during the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that many of them came to Tuscaloosa for “freedom” as he praised the state’s leaders for choosing “liberty over lockdowns.”

“You are the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” he told the class, who stood for the entirety of his speech, calling it an “exciting time for our nation – a period of both extraordinary change and incredible potential and what will be unbelievable growth.”

He repeatedly criticized former President Joe Biden and what he described as a “failed establishment.”

“The last four years were not that good for our country, but don’t let that scare you, it was an aberration… we were run by people who didn’t have a clue,” he said to laughter, later lambasting the “Biden economy” as he touted progress against inflation.

Trump then asked the audience if they’d like to hear his wisdom for the graduates.

“That’s got to be more interesting than all of the other stuff – which was slightly political,” he said.

Trump offered advice for graduates at the University of Alabama that was in line with his economic vision to spark a renaissance in American manufacturing, including through tariffs he’s levied on US trading partners.

At a commencement ceremony at the University of Alabama, Trump encouraged business majors to ditch the spreadsheets and get manufacturing jobs, despite the differences in skill sets.

“I challenge you not merely to use your talents for financial speculation but to apply your great skills that you’ve learned and had to forging the steel and pouring the concrete,” he said, referring to building “new American factories, plants, shipyards and even cities.”

The Trump administration says a goal of his sweeping tariffs is to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, but that’s easier said than done.

“Don’t just build a strong portfolio. Build a very, very strong America,” he said.

He also shouted out other majors. Engineers are needed to build “the world’s tallest buildings, design the fastest airplanes, build the greatest cars.”

As for the journalism majors: “Must be honest, I’m not sure I like them.” But he said Alabama majors can take the field “down a new track.”

Department of Government Efficiency Head and Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Fox News in an interview that aired today that DOGE’s work will be a long-term effort to cut wasteful spending, while members of his team hinted at future deferred resignation offers for the federal workforce.

During an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Musk said his DOGE project was “a long-term enterprise — because if we take our eye off the ball, the waste and fraud will come roaring back.”

“Well, I think some of the things — we are trying to have it be such that the funding is removed so the grants are gone. If there’s a lot of work required to restart the waste and fraud. And that will at least slow it down,” he said.

Fox News was invited to sit in on a made-for-TV meeting of the DOGE team, where handpicked members of Musk’s team — some of whom have raised eyebrows for their lack of experience, questionable backgrounds and concerns around their security clearances — made a series of claims about federal spending, many of which have been debunked or lacked context.

But one member of the team hinted that DOGE would offer secondary and tertiary buyout options for federal workers.

Vice President JD Vance speaks with Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview from Charleston, South Carolina, on Thursday,.

Vice President JD Vance sought to cast the ousting of national security adviser Mike Waltz as a promotion to be US ambassador to the United Nations, blaming the media for framing his departure from the top national security post as a firing.

Vance said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s job is “safe” when asked if there are further changes coming to the president’s senior echelon of officials, and in particular if Hegseth’s job is secure. “We’ve got total faith in Pete,” he said.

And pressed on whether the move was a direct result of Waltz’s actions in a Signal chat with top Trump administration national security officials, Vance said, “No, it’s not.”

He broadly characterized the situation as Waltz going into the National Security Council at the beginning of the administration, firing people they felt were disloyal, and bringing in “the right collection of people to actually make the National Security Council function.”

Vance went on to say, “Of course. Yeah. We fight for all our nominees,” when asked whether Trump plans to fight for Waltz during a Senate confirmation process.

President Donald Trump looks on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

The Defense Department inspector general investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss military strikes against the Houthis has been expanded to include a second Signal group chat, a US official said today.

The official confirmed the investigation, which was launched in early April, is now looking at the second Signal conversation reported last month, which included Hegseth’s wife, lawyer and brother.

Investigators are also looking at how information about military strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was transferred from Hegseth’s secure communication system to Signal, the official said.

Hegseth and Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell have denied that any classified information was shared. Acting Pentagon Inspector General Steven Stebbins said at the time the investigation was launched that they were looking into whether Hegseth and other DOD personnel “complied with DOD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook holds an iPhone during an announcement of new products on the Apple campus Tuesday, September 12, 2023.

Tariffs could add $900 million to Apple’s costs in its fiscal third quarter, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s second quarter earnings call today.

Most of Apple’s iPhone supply chain is based in China, which has been the largest target of President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz. But the administration said in April that smartphones are exempt from reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports, which would have brought the total tariff rate on iPhones made in the region to at least 145%. Instead, smartphones face a minimum 20% tariff.

Apple has shifted some iPhone production to India, and Cook said he expects “the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin.”

The Trump administration is eager to get Apple to bring iPhone production to the US and has frequently touted a recently announced $500 billion investment by the tech giant as a victory.

But that commitment is geared toward building server facilities to support Apple Intelligence and an academy for training businesses on manufacturing techniques, not iPhone production.

During the earnings call, Cook said Apple plans to source more than 19 billion chips from “a dozen states” this calendar year.

Several active-duty transgender service members are urging the Supreme Court to reject President Donald Trump’s request to begin enforcement of a ban on participation in the US military by transgender Americans.

The ban was put on hold by lower courts, and the administration filed an emergency appeal to the high court last week seeking to enforce the prohibition while the legal challenges unfold.

But in a filing this afternoon, seven active-duty trans service members and an individual who wants to join the military told the justices that permitting the Pentagon to enforce the policy would result in the immediate discharge of thousands of service members, “thereby ending distinguished careers and gouging holes in military units.”

During Trump’s first term, the Supreme Court allowed the president to enforce a similar ban that also faced several legal challenges. Biden later reversed the Pentagon policy.

An attempt to distinguish between the two policies was key to the challengers’ filing. The older one, they said, was more permissive because under it, “no active duty servicemember who had already transitioned would be separated from service or have their healthcare denied.”

But the ban currently before the Supreme Court “compels the expulsion of every transgender servicemember” and is premised on “animus-laden language” about transgender people, which they said would not allow it to ultimately survive legal scrutiny.

“The Mattis Policy had no such rancorous, demeaning rhetoric,” the group told the justices, referring to the first term ban.

Two lower courts have ruled that the new policy represents an unconstitutional form of sex discrimination, including in the case pending before the justices.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks during a television interview at the White House on Thursday.

President Donald Trump said today that he would nominate Mike Waltz to serve as United Nations ambassador, shifting from his role as national security adviser.

The shakeup comes after widespread reports that Trump planned to oust him from his national security post earlier in the day. A White House official later told CNN Trump informed Waltz of the changes this morning.

Waltz has been on shaky ground and lost most of his influence in the West Wing after he inadvertently added the editor in chief of The Atlantic to a group chat about military strikes in March.

Here’s what happened:

CNN’s Elise Hammond, Kaitlan Collins, Kit Maher, Alison Main, Manu Raju, Casey Riddle, Jeff Zeleny, Fadel Allassan, Donald Judd, Jennifer Hansler and Simone Pathe contributed to this post.

In this Wednesday photo, Mike Waltz checks his mobile phone while attending a cabinet meeting held by President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC.

Ousted national security adviser Mike Waltz was captured in a photograph from yesterday’s Cabinet meeting appearing to browse Signal, the encrypted messaging app on which he inadvertently added a journalist to a chat where senior administration officials were discussing military strike plans.

In the photo by Reuters photographer Evelyn Hockstein, Waltz — who was removed as national security adviser today — appears to be browsing messages, including those with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, envoy Steve Witkoff and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Trump said today he was nominating Waltz to be US ambassador to the United Nations and naming Rubio interim national security adviser.

White House director of communications Steven Cheung responded to circulation of the Reuters photo on social media by writing on X, “Signal is an approved app that is loaded onto our government phones.”

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in March that Waltz had added him to the Signal chat on which Trump’s Cabinet sent detailed operational plans and other likely highly classified information about US military strikes on Yemen.

But Trump has also downplayed the issue. Asked this past weekend if he still had confidence in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after further reporting that the secretary used the app to share detailed plans about the military operation in an additional chat with his wife, lawyer, and brother, Trump said, “I don’t view Signal as important. I think it’s fake news, really. I don’t view it as important.”

This post has been updated with comment from the White House communications director.

The US Supreme Court is seen on April 7 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump’s administration urged the Supreme Court today to unwind deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans that have been temporarily left in place by a lower federal court.

The crux of the issue: Earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decided to end a form of humanitarian relief known as Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants. Challenges to this decision claim it is a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which mandates specific procedures for federal agencies when implementing policy changes. They also argued that Noem’s decision was motivated by racial and political bias.

What did the lower courts do:

Now, the Trump administration has made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, saying the lower court’s order “contravenes fundamental executive branch prerogatives and indefinitely delays sensitive policy decisions in an area of immigration policy that Congress recognized must be flexible, fast-paced, and discretionary.”

The appeal is the 11th emergency case involving Trump’s second term to make its way to the Supreme Court. The justices are also considering appeals dealing with the firing of board members at independent agencies, an effort to bar transgender service members and a case dealing with immigrations the administration is attempting to remove under the Alien Enemies Act.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Devan Cole contributed to this report.

Economic indicators released this week revealed the US economy is slowing down in the first quarter of 2025, but President Donald Trump and his administration are expressing confidence in his agenda.

The administration has unnerved consumers and businesses with a chaotic tariff spree over the past several months, escalating trade tensions with China. Most economists say Trump’s monumental bid to reshape global trade is likely to send inflation climbing in the US — and could even trigger a recession.

Here is what some of the numbers are saying:

The Justice Department announced two additional lawsuits today against states planning to go after fossil fuel companies in court over their contributions to climate change.

Those suits, filed in New York and Vermont, add to claims made this morning against Michigan and Hawaii. The Justice Department is claiming that all four states would violate the Clean Air Act, which directs the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate hazardous pollutants from power plants, should they try to sue the fossil fuel companies.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded in a statement:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference held at the ICE-Enforcement and Removal Operation office on Thursday, in Miramar, Florida.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touted a “historic” and “first-of-its-kind” four-day operation that led to the arrest of 1,120 undocumented people at a news conference today.

The arrests, part of a multi-agency crackdown called “Operation Tidal Wave” were the “largest number in a single state in one week in ICE’s history,” according to a news release from ICE.

In all, more than 200 state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies across Florida have entered into collaboration agreements with ICE, and more than 70 others have agreements pending, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.

What we know about people arrested: About 63% had existing criminal arrests or convictions and most people were from Latin America, the agency said. The top three countries of origin were Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras.

Criticism: This collaboration is “further weaponizing of what should really be apolitical state agencies to do the bidding of this out-of-control, power hungry, headlines obsessed governor,” said Florida Immigrant Coalition spokesperson Thomas Kennedy.

He called for ICE to release the names of those arrested and told CNN he doubts the government’s claims.

“They’re using that same discretionary [language] of ‘suspected criminal gang activity,’” said Kennedy. “Have these people committed a crime or not?”

The people arrested are in ICE custody awaiting “due process before an immigration judge or pending travel arrangements for removal,” according to ICE. CNN has reached out to the agency for additional details regarding next steps for those arrested.

Outgoing national security adviser Mike Waltz said he’s “deeply honored” to continue serving President Donald Trump after the president announced today that he’d be nominating Waltz to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations.

“I’m deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation,” Waltz wrote on X.

Remember: Waltz had lost most of his influence in the West Wing in the wake of a scandal stemming from him inadvertently adding a journalist to a messaging app group chat about highly sensitive military strikes.

Demonstrators march during a May Day protest in Los Angeles, on Thursday.

Crowds of protesters marched through downtown Los Angeles today, with several carrying signs urging the government to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the US.

Organizers from the ’50501’ movement, short for 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement – in response to the Trump administration’s flurry of moves over its first 100 days, announced protests across the country, CNN previously reported.

May 1 marks May Day, which shares a date with International Workers’ Day and is often a day for protests and civil action for labor rights.

Protesters hold up various signs and banners demanding Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be brought back to the US during a protest on Thursday, in Los Angeles.

In New York City, the first May Day protest of the day was a mix of several different causes, with chants of “Free Palestine,” signs calling for the freedom of Mahmoud Khalil, and more typical worker rights signs like, “Trump: Hands Off Our Unions.”

Many signs also called for ICE to get “out of our communities,” and to stop the Trump administration’s emphasis on deportations.

People gather at New York Public Library after marching during a May Day rally on Thursday.

The group of roughly 150 or so marched a little over 20 blocks from their starting point in Union Square to the New York Public Library, where the rally concluded near the iconic lions on its front entrance steps.

President Donald Trump informed his outgoing national security adviser Michael Waltz that he was removing him from his role and nominating him as the US ambassador to the United Nations this morning, a White House official tells CNN.

Hours later, Trump announced the move on Truth Social, as well as that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would serve in the national security adviser role on an interim basis.