Trump indicators government order opening detention camp at Guantanamo Bay for 30,000 migrants: Live updates

Private school vouchers and other school choice initiatives would expand under an order coming from President Donald Trump telling government agencies to repurpose federal dollars.

The Education Department is being told to use discretionary money to prioritize school choice programs and give states new guidance on how they can use federal money to support K-12 voucher programs.

The executive order that he plans to sign Wednesday could free up some pockets of federal money to be used on school choice, but it is not clear how far he could move the needle with federal money alone. The vast majority of school funding comes from state and local sources, and school choice policies are generally the purview of state governments.

Read on…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met with his Canadian counterpart ahead of a looming weekend threat from President Donald Trump to impose massive tariffs on imports from Canada.

Rubio and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly held talks at the State Department on Wednesday amid concerns and counterthreats from Canadian officials over the potential 25% tariffs that could be announced on Saturday.

Neither Rubio nor Joly spoke as they posed for photographs before their meeting and they ignored questions from journalists.

The Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s a key role to help President Donald Trump fulfill his pledge to roll back major environmental regulations, including those aimed at slowing climate change and encouraging use of electric vehicles.

The vote was 56-42 in Zeldin’s favor.

Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, is a longtime Trump ally. He has pledged to be a good steward of the environment and support career staff at EPA, but has declined to commit to specific policies. Trump led efforts to dismantle more than 100 environmental protections during his first term and has promised to do so again.

Donald Trump has signed a new executive order on “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” which orders the creation of an “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” within 90 days and outlines threats to federal funding.

It also re-establishes “the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission” to promote “patriotic education.”

That is defined by:

(i) an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles;

(ii) a clear examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history;

(iii) the concept that commitment to America’s aspirations is beneficial and justified; and

(iv) the concept that celebration of America’s greatness and history is proper.

President Donald Trump has signed the expected executive order, titled: “Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Capacity”

The text reads:

I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

The official image, printed in black-and-white and shot by Belgian photographer Régine Mahaux, features the 54-year-old woman standing over a reflective desk while dressed in a finely-tailored Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket, an unbuttoned white undershirt, and suit pants.

According to Vogue, the entire shot — clothing, set, and pose included — looked as if it were taken for her husband President Donald Trump’s former reality show, which ran from 2004 to 2017.

Kaleigh Werner reports.

Mike Bedigan is following this developing story…

Sec. of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan spoke with press on the North Driveway of the White House and answered questions about President Donald Trump’s announcement about a migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Homan said: “What you probably don’t know, is there’s already a migrant center there, it’s been there for decades. So we’re just going to expand upon that existing migrant center.”

He added that ICE would run it. “ICE has the highest detention standards in the industry,” he said, whether federal, state, or local. “So every facility, including GITMO will have the highest standards.”

Noem said this is something the White House is working on, “to use resources that we currently have.”

“We’re going after these guys,” she added.

“We’re already doing it,” Noem said. “We’re building it out.”

In answer to a question about civilian oversight, Noem said “Civilian oversight would be the same as current civilian oversight in federal government today.”

“We had an election in November that clearly says the American people don’t want these criminal and dangerous individuals on our streets anymore,” she said.

“The law applies to everybody” — American citizens, people who come to the country illegally, Noem said. “You will be held accountable for breaking our laws.”

Both referred to Guantanamo Bay as being for “the worst of the worst.”

On the cost, Noem said they were working on it with reconciliation and congressional appropriators.

Political pundits have weighed in on Trump’s new White House press secretary hire following her first official press debut on Tuesday.

Karoline Leavitt, a 27-year-old mother of one, and the youngest press secretary to take up the role in White House history made her first official statements to the media Tuesday, giving the rundown on everything from Trump’s staunch immigration policies to Biden’s presidency.

Madeline Sherratt reports.