Trump insists he’s ‘not joking’ about a third term and hints at ‘methods’ despite constitutional limits: Live updates

The logistics of rebuilding Gaza are complex — and will take years, perhaps even decades, experts tell Holly Baxter

Just a week after The Atlantic revealed its editor-in-chief had been added to a Signal group chat with other Trump administration officials, the White House says the “case has been closed.”

“As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned. There have been steps made to ensure something like that can never happen again and we’re moving forward,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The National Safety Transportation Board said it would investigate a near-incident that occurred near the Reagan National Airport on Friday.

Shortly after Delta Flight 2983 took off on Friday afternoon, its system alerted of a nearby jet setting off an alert from the collision avoidance system.

The Delta flight had a close call with an Air Force T-38 Talon jet – four of which were doing a flyover of Arlington National Cemetery.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to answer a question about the criteria the administration is using to determine whether an immigrant is a member of the Tren de Argua gang and blamed media outlets for being sympathetic to deported migrants.

In a heated exchange on Monday afternoon, Leavitt pushed back on The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg when asking about the criteria – which was revealed in a court document.

“You can get classified by simply having certain symbols in your tattoos and waring certain streetwear brands, that alone is enough to get someone classified as TdA and sent to El Salvador,” Feinberg said.

Leavitt denied the allegation and criticized mainstream media for “trying to cover for” members of the TdA gang.

“Shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals, Leavitt said.

Donald Trump’s tariff czar Peter Navarro insisted that with “Liberation Day” approaching, the president’s sweeping round of tariffs on foreign goods shouldn’t be seen as an import tax but rather the “biggest tax cut in American history.”

“The message is that tariffs are tax cuts, tariffs are jobs, tariffs for national security, tariffs are great for America, tariffs will make America great again,” the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing declared on Fox News Sunday.

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After nearly all of the US Institute of Peace staff were fired on Friday, Judge Beryl Howell is scheduling a status conference over a lawsuit that seeks to block DOGE from gutting the quasi-government agency.

Earlier this month, the judge scolded the Trump administration for “using the force of guns and threats by DOGE against American citizens” to shutter USIP, the Reagan-era organization with a mandate from Congress to help resolve international conflicts.

Howell did not grant a restraining order to prevent what plaintiffs described as a hostile “takeover” of the agency’s building, but she railed against DOGE for trying to “strong arm” and threaten security guards with criminal investigations when Elon Musk’s team tried to get into its headquarters.

“I mean, this conduct of using law enforcement, threatening criminal investigations, using arms of law enforcement … probably terrorizing employees and staff at the institute, when there are so many other lawful ways to accomplish the goals … why?” she said. “Just because DOGE is in a rush?”

Howell will hold a hearing on Tuesday morning.

China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.

The comments came after the three countries held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the Asian export powers brace against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China, and China is also interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, said in a post on Weibo.

Such is the Trump Tower-sized self-conceit of Donald J Trump that for weeks – if not months – he could not see what virtually the whole of the rest of the world could: Vladimir Putin was playing him like a cheap violin, writes The Independent’s Associate Editor, Sean O’Grady.

Trump, seemingly mesmerized by the Russian leader, gave his friend everything he wanted: dominance in Ukraine, aside from a carve-out for US mineral interests; a Russian zone of influence in Europe; the abandonment of NATO and other allies.

All of that in return for the Russians scaling back their nuclear arsenal and giving the Americans a free run at acquiring Greenland and Canada (even if they are not Russia’s to give away and won’t ever happen).

That looked to be the kind of grand bargain Trump was looking for, but Putin overplayed his hand.

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The White House Correspondents Association condemned the Trump administration’s attempts to regulate which news outlets may access Donald Trump and the White House, calling its recent attempt to change seating in the briefing room a “wrong-headed effort.”

Following reports that the White House plans to shake up seating assignment in the briefing room – seemingly to give newer media, which may favor the president more access while pushing outlets they disapprove of further back.

The move would upend a precedent that the WHCA, an organization independent from the administration, chooses seating assignments based on the outlet’s audience.

Prominent seats are coveted because it is easier to catch the press secretary and ask tougher questions. Correspondents from larger and widely circulated news organizations typically get those seats.

“If the White House pushes forward, it will become even more clear that the administration is seeking to cynically seize control of the system through which the independent press organizes itself, so that it is easier to exact punishment on outlets over their coverage,” the WHCA said in a press release on Monday.

It is unclear what the new seating chart will look like or if the White House plans to remove some bigger news outlets from seats.

Donald Trump has again thrown support behind Randy Fine, the GOP candidate for Tuesday's special election to represent Florida's 6th Congressional District.

The Florida state Representative is battling for the seat left open by embattled National Security adviser Mike Waltz in what critics deem a pivotal test of the president’s first two months in office.

“​Randy Fine has my Complete and Total Endorsement!,” the president said on X on Monday, in a post recycled from his Truth Social last week.

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