Trump makes gaffe throughout press convention with Japan’s PM; mocks Time after Musk revealed on cowl: Live

Donald Trump has terminated “multiple individuals,” including the chairman, from the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center.

The president said in a Truth Social post that they “do not “share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”

He has appointed himself chairman.

District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., granted a “limited” temporary restraining order Friday that blocks the Trump administration from placing roughly 2,200 USAID workers on administrative leave, hours before the administration was set to send them packing at midnight.

Unions representing nearly 2,000 USAID employees filed a lawsuit against Trump and administration officials Thursday night following an unprecedented attack against the global aid agency, which supports dozens of life-saving missions in more than 100 countries.

Alex Woodward has been following the story.

Donald Trump mistakenly referred to Nippon Steel as Nissan, the Japanese automaker, during a press conference with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House this afternoon.

The president announced that Japan’s Nippon Steel would not buy U.S. Steel as planned but would instead invest in the company. This dramatically reshaped the $15 billion merger bid that had been in negotiation for more than a year.

Trump did not give additional details but said “[Nippon Steel] is going to be doing something very exciting about U.S. Steel. They’ll be looking at an investment rather than a purchase.”

The president said he would be meeting with the head of the Japanese company next week and would be involved “to mediate and arbitrate.”

Previously, Trump said: “I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan.”

In separate remarks on Friday, Trump told reporters he had not changed his mind about his opposition to the deal.

United Steelworkers President David McCall said the union, which opposes the deal, has had no contact with either company or the administration regarding Nippon’s investment in U.S. Steel.

“Our concerns regarding Nippon’s continued interest in U.S. Steel remain unchanged,” he said in a statement.

A $14.9 billion bid for the American company was blocked last month, by former President Joe Biden.

On Thursday, Trump met U.S. Steel Chief Executive David Burritt at the White House to discuss the deal.

With reporting from Reuters

The Pentagon will send approximately 1,500 more active-duty soldiers to the southern border to support Trump’s expanding crackdown on immigration, a U.S. official said Friday. This would eventually increase the total to about 3,600 active-duty troops at the border, where they are expected to set up concertina wire barriers and provide transportation, intelligence, and other assistance to the Border Patrol.

The official stated that the order to deploy a logistics brigade from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina had been approved. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployment has not yet been publicly announced.

The Pentagon has been working swiftly to implement Trump’s executive orders. The first 1,600 active-duty troops are already stationed at the border, and nearly 500 more from the 10th Mountain Division will be arriving in the coming days. Some of the 500 Marines directed to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have already reached their destination to prepare for an influx of migrants.

With reporting from the Associated Press

A judge in Washington, D.C., overseeing a lawsuit from government workers’ unions, is temporarily blocking the Trump administration from firing 2,200 USAID workers who were going to be placed on leave at midnight tonight.

An extremely skeptical District Judge Carl Nichols will grant a “limited” temporary restraining order that blocks the administration from moving ahead with that purge, but he seemed to be enormously frustrated with government lawyers.

“Frankly, there’s essentially zero harm to the government” in pausing its plans to place hundreds of workers on leave, he said.

Nichols could also possibly force Secretary of State Marco Rubio to recall the 500 workers who were already let go.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting South Africa, a White House official told Reuters on Friday, saying the order will tackle human rights issues in the African nation.

Trump has threatened to withdraw funding from the country. On Sunday, he claimed without evidence that “South Africa is confiscating land” and that “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa defended South Africa’s land policy in response to Trump’s threat, stating that the government had not confiscated any land and that the policy was intended to ensure equitable public access to land.

Donald Trump postponed a call with Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulin due to schedule changes.

Mulino has accused the U.S. of spreading “lies and falsehoods” with claims that its vessels would be able to pass through the Panama Canal without paying.

He also rejected accusations that China now controls the canal. Trump has said he wants to take the canal back for the U.S.

Here’s the latest:

Reuters reports that one of the people working with billionaire Elon Musk in his efforts to overhaul the U.S. government is a Berkeley-educated computer scientist who has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online.

Gavin Kliger is listed on LinkedIn as “Special Advisor to the Director” at the Office of Personnel Management, which has been spearheading Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce.

A USAID email address in his name was copied on a message sent to agency staffers on Monday, which Reuters reviewed. The message urged them to stay home while the agency was shut down.

Kliger is one of about a dozen men identified by Reuters and other news outlets who have been recruited by Musk and his DOGE office to reshape the federal government. Reuters could not determine the importance of Kliger’s role at OPM.

In social media posts between October 2024 and January, Kliger has voiced controversial views and reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.

Another DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, quit on Thursday amid questions from The Wall Street Journal about links to a deleted social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.

Musk has since said he would reinstate him after Vice President JD Vance weighed in with support for Elez.