Our live coverage has ended. Scroll through the posts below to see how the day unfolded.
The wife of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told Fox News tonight that the President is “compassionate” and “knows how important it is that my husband gets home to be a father to our daughters.”
Earlier in the day, the President suggested to reporters that he is thinking about commuting Blagojevich’s sentence. He was convicted on public corruption charges in 2011 and sentenced to a 14-year federal prison term.
Patti Blagojevich said on Fox News that her husband and the rest of their family “are all so grateful that the President is thinking of us.”
She added that “we know that President Trump is a kind man, he’s compassionate, he has always been kind to my family. He knows how important it is that my husband gets home to be a father to our daughters, that we can’t help but to be hopeful.”
President Trump is not looking only at well-known figures for pardons and commutations, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters today.
Earlier today, Trump announced that he is pardoning conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and considering such actions for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Martha Stewart.
But Gidley dismissed the idea that Stewart and Blagojevich were under consideration because of their celebrity, saying, “Look, there are plenty of people the President is looking at right now under the pardon process.” He said the President pardoned D’Souza because he “thought it was a grave injustice.”
Asked on Air Force One why the President was looking at them and not others on the list of possible pardons, Gidley said, “He’s thinking about all of those people.”
He continued: “One of the things he mentioned also is that Jack Johnson, the former heavyweight champion, was one of the ones that really impacted him. It was a great disservice done to him. The President felt as though it was a wrong that needed to be righted. And he has the power, under the Constitution, to right that wrong – and that’s what he did.”
Trump granted a posthumous pardon to Johnson last week on the advice of actor Sylvester Stallone.
President Trump met with families, injured students and law enforcement officials to offer his condolences following a shooting at Santa Fe High School that claimed the lives of 10 people.
The President and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also “discussed ways to improve school and community safety” during the private meeting at Ellington Field, the White House said.
The White House called the meeting “very impactful.”
“I don’t want to get into the private meeting as it relates to the grieving families that experienced such a horrific tragedy. But it was very impactful,” White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley said.
President Trump has pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions on multiple occasions over the last 14 months to overturn his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, according to a source familiar with the President’s demands.
He made the request several times, each to no avail. This is in addition to the first request from Trump while in Mar-a-Lago.
The story was first reported by Axios.
Why we’re talking about Sessions
In the past year, Trump has publicly referred to his attorney general as “beleaguered” and even referred to Sessions in February as “Mr. Magoo” behind closed doors, according to The Washington Post.
Trump tweeted yesterday that he regretted choosing Jeff Sessions as attorney general.
French President Emmanuel Macron will speak over the phone with President Trump tonight about US tariffs, Macron said in a statement. The statement noted that Macron “regrets the US decision to confirm tariffs in steel and aluminum.”
Macron said that he will convey his “convictions” to Trump during the phone call tonight.
“I prefer to say things directly and not through the press; and I will tell him what I told you, which are my convictions that he knows already,” Macron said.
Canada said it would enact tariffs on $12.8 billion in US exports, effective July 1, to retaliate against Trump’s action.
“Let me be clear,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after the Trump administration imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union. “These tariffs are totally unacceptable.”
Foreign minister Chrystia Freeland called it “the strongest trade action Canada has taken in the post-war era.”
Getting rid of the exemptions for Canada and Mexico could also complicate ongoing negotiations on NAFTA.
The NAFTA talks were one factor in the administration’s decision to grant exemptions to Canada and Mexico from the steel and aluminum tariffs. But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters Thursday that those talks “are taking longer than we hoped.”
Canada was the largest exporter of steel to the United States by value last year, according to data from Wood Mackenzie. Mexico was the third largest, behind South Korea.
The Dow dropped to 252 points, or 1%, after the Trump administration announced steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
The S&P 500 also fell 0.7% and Nasdaq declined slightly.
US markets still posted their best month since January, despite the new tariffs.
The Chamber of Commerce estimates that President Trump’s trade policies may put as many as 2.6 million American jobs at risk.
In a memo to the business organization’s board of directors, which was obtained by CNNMoney, Chamber president Tom Donohue broke out possible job losses from the administration’s tariff plans and from a threatened US withdrawal from NAFTA. The memo cited outside studies for job loss estimates.
The memo reads…
Here’s how the possible job losses break down, according to the Chamber:
President Trump announced earlier today that he was pardoning Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative author and filmmaker who pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2014.
D’Souza was indicted earlier that year on charges that he illegally used straw donors to contribute to Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long in New York in 2012.
Moments ago, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood issued a statement denouncing Trump’s pardon.
She continued:
Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer, Len Goodman, just issued a statement following reports that President Trump is thinking about commuting the former Illinois governor’s sentence for corruption.
Read Goodman’s full statement:
Donald Trump’s pardon of conservative author Dinesh D’Souza on Thursday came with little explanation from the President other than this, via Twitter: “He was treated very unfairly by our government!”
The D’Souza pardon is all of a piece with two other presidential pardons made by Trump during his first 16 months in office. D’Souza, former Bush White House aide Scooter Libby and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio were all seen, by some elements within the conservative movement/Trump’s base, as martyrs – people unfairly persecuted by some combination of out-of-control Democrats and the “deep state.”
In all three of these cases, Trump chose not to consult with the Justice Department’s Office of Pardon Authority – making the call on his own. (A president is not required by law to huddle with the Office of Pardon Authority.)
The message Trump appears to be sending: If you are being unfairly prosecuted or persecuted by the deep state within the Justice Department/FBI, I have sympathy for you. I am willing to use my pardon power to absolve you. I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again.
Why might that message be relevant, you ask? Ask Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort.
President Trump told reporters he may pardon Martha Stewart and commute the prison sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Trump’s help isn’t the only thing the two have in common: They also both appeared on various incarnations of the President’s reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”
Blagojevich was a contestant on the “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010. The taping of the show came between when he was charged with and convicted of corruption. During the show, he even professed his innocence.
Stewart hosted her own edition of the show, with the businesswoman filling Trump’s seat in the boardroom, in 2005.
Trump wasn’t a fan. In a 2006 letter, Trump told Stewart, “Your performance was terrible in that the show lacked mood, temperament and just about everything a show needs for success.”
“I knew it would fail as soon as I first saw it,” he added, “and your low ratings bore me out.”
Patti Blagojevich, the wife of Rod Blagojevich, says President Trump’s comments that he may commute the ex-governor’s prison sentence has given her and her family hope.
The statement continued: “From the beginning, we’ve eagerly awaited the day when Rod could come back home where he belongs, and we continue to pray our family will be made whole again soon.”
Trump today said he’s considering commuting the prison sentence of Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois who is serving a 14-year prison term for corruption.
Why he’s in prison:
President Trump has officially signed the paperwork to pardon Dinesh D’Souza, according to a White House official.
Trump does not know D’Souza, and the two men have never met, but he began considering pardoning D’Souza several weeks ago, first mentioning his name to other White House officials in the last two weeks.
Several figures personally lobbied Trump to consider pardoning D’Souza, per a source familiar with the negotiations, including Sen. Ted Cruz, who notably is with the President in Texas today.
Cruz tweeted “Bravo!” when the news broke.
President Trump said today that he is considering pardoning Martha Stewart, who served a five-month term between 2004 and 2005 for lying and obstructing justice in a 2001 stock sale.
But unlike Dinesh D’Souza, Stewart is not an outspoken supporter of the President or his policies. In fact, just before the 2016 election, Stewart made it clear she wouldn’t be voting for a “totally unprepared” Trump.
Here’s what she told CNN:
Stewart and Trump do have one thing in common, however: James Comey. The FBI director, who Trump famously fired, was the lead prosecutor in Stewart’s trial.
President Trump told reporters Thursday that he is considering pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Both Stewart and Blagojevich were stars with Trump on NBC’s “The Apprentice” franchise.
The President’s comments came hours after he pardoned the conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.
Last week, Trump also pardoned the deceased boxer Jack Johnson.
President Trump is traveling today to Houston, Texas, where he’ll meet with the victims of the Santa Fe High School shooting, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.
Santa Fe High School students returned to school Tuesday for the first time since a gunman killed 10 people and wounded 13 others on the Texas campus on May 18.
Suspect Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, admitted he didn’t shoot people he liked and meant to kill the ones he did target, a probable cause affidavit said.
He is accused of capital murder of multiple people and aggravated assault on a public servant.
