Trump says Bill Pulte will ‘execute the immediate downsizing’ of intelligence community in temporary role
As Donald Trump presses on with his contentious plan to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence on 19 June, he has reiterated that he has asked Pulte “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies”.
In a post on Truth Social moments ago (despite being due at a bill signing), the president added: “At the same time, I am looking for a permanent ODNI Nominee with experience in National Security.”
He went on: “I am asking Congress to send me a short-term extension of FISA to provide time for the selection and confirmation of a permanent Head of the Agency.”
Democratic lawmakers have said Pulte’s appointment would scuttle a bipartisan agreement to renew section 702 of Fisa (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), which is due to expire on Friday.
“The Radical Left Dumocrats are trying to take our National Security hostage because of unrelated issues,” Trump wrote.
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Key events
Democrats rally round Platner in Maine as Trump reaffirms grip on GOP after primaries
David Smith
Progressives rallied around Graham Platner after his primary victory in Maine yesterday while Donald Trump again exerted his grip on the GOP by helping to defeat a politician who had pushed for the release of the Epstein files.
Primary elections were held in four states – Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina – before November’s midterms to decide control of both chambers of Congress. The results offered mixed signals about the direction of the two parties.
The marquee race was a Senate primary election in Maine, where Platner won 72% of the vote, defeating the state governor, Janet Mills, who had suspended her campaign but remained on the ballot, and third-placed David Costello, based on early results reported by Reuters.
The result sets up a bruising general election battle against the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, which is likely to be tight, and could help decide control of the Senate.
Graham Platner wins Maine Democratic Senate primary – video
Other elections offered fresh evidence of the issues shaping the wider political landscape. South Carolina served up another test of Trump’s enduring influence over the Republican party. The president enjoyed a comfortable victory through his ally Lindsey Graham, who secured renomination to the Senate without being forced into a runoff.
In the primary for governor, the congresswoman Nancy Mace became the latest casualty of Trump’s efforts to topple Republicans, after she demanded the release of the government’s Epstein files.
But Trump’s preferred candidate, the state’s lieutenant governor, Pamela Evette, failed to secure an outright majority and must now face Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general, in a runoff election this month.
The longtime South Carolina congressman James Clyburn easily fended off a little-known primary challenger. Two Republicans are still competing for the chance to face Clyburn but he is expected to be the overwhelming favourite in the general election.
In Nevada, Democrats selected the state’s attorney general, Aaron Ford, as their nominee for governor, setting up what is expected to be one of the country’s most competitive statewide contests. Ford defeated the Washoe county commissioner, Alexis Hill, after largely ignoring his primary opponent and focusing instead on the Republican governor, Joe Lombardo.
Nevada also produced one of the most important congressional contests of the cycle. Republicans nominated Marty O’Donnell, a Trump-endorsed composer best known for creating the soundtrack to the hugely successful Halo video game franchise, to challenge the Democratic congresswoman Susie Lee in the state’s highly competitive third congressional district.
Teresa Benitez-Thompson won the Democratic primary in Nevada’s second district. Benitez-Thompson, a former assembly leader, faces an uphill battle. Republicans outnumber Democrats by 70,000 in the district that covers Reno and rural northern Nevada.
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Updated at 14.07 EDT
Trump says he thinks AI companies will agree to ‘giving back’ to the public
Also in the Oval Office earlier, Donald Trump said he expects top artificial intelligence companies to agree to “giving back” to the public, an apparent reference to a possible government stake in the firms.
“I’m going to have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly, and we’re talking about giving back something to the public, and if we do that, the public will become very rich,” Trump told reporters. “I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular.”
An agreement to give the US government equity stakes could have a massive impact on the government’s finances. OpenAI – which is targeting a valuation of up to $1tn – in April publicly proposed creating a “public wealth fund” to invest in AI companies, according to a company statement. Proceeds from the fund would be “distributed directly to citizens”, according to the company.
The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has expressed support for the idea of creating a US sovereign wealth fund by taking 50% stock in AI companies. Trump said last week that his team was looking into the idea.
But beyond Washington, concern is growing among Americans about AI negatively affecting their lives, from fears that the rise of AI could put them out of work to the environmental impacts of nationwide datacenter projects.
With Reuters.
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Updated at 13.49 EDT
Here’s my colleague Marina Dunbar’s report on Donald Trump signing the nearly $70bn immigration enforcement package into law today, after the House narrowly passed the legislation, ensuring funding for ICE and border patrol activities through the rest of his presidency.
“This morning, I’m thrilled to sign the Secure America Act to immediately and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of my term,” Trump said during the signing in the Oval Office. “We’ll give the heroes of ICE and border patrol – and that’s what they are, they’re heroes – the support and resources they need to defend our borders, protect our homeland and to keep America safe.”
Donald Trump signs the Secure America Act in the Oval Office, allocating $70bn for his aggressive immigration enforcement agenda through 2029. Photograph: ABACA/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 13.27 EDT
Trump says ‘people have wanted to downsize’ intelligence community for a while
When asked about his earlier comment that he had asked Bill Pulte, whom he plans to install as acting director of national intelligence on 19 June, “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies”, Donald Trump stood by his social media post.
“People have wanted to downsize for a while,” Trump said. “Many people don’t want it at all. A lot of people thought it was a duplication.”
Trump’s choice of Pulte as the country’s top intelligence official has prompted widespread concern over his complete lack of national security experience. The president defended his choice on Wednesday, telling reporters: “Smart people are smart people. I always say I’d rather have smart than experienced, but experience is good too.”
He said he hoped reporters would give Pulte an “easy run”, as “he’s very busy”.
“He doesn’t need stupid people saying, ‘Why didn’t you get a higher mark at a certain college?’” Trump said. “Because he’s highly educated, he was a great student, he’s great at everything he’s done. How come he got a B-plus? See, they’ll go after him for getting a B-plus instead of an A, but the other guy can be a thug.”
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Updated at 13.02 EDT
Trump calls Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner ‘an outright pig’
Donald Trump answered a question on Wednesday about Adam Hamawy, the army doctor who has secured the Democratic nomination to represent New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, with a comment about Graham Platner, who has secured the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in Maine.
“I actually think the one in Maine is worse because he’s just an outright pig,” Trump said Wednesday. “I watched him a couple of times. He’s like a pig, that’s what he reminds me of.”
Platner’s campaign overcame a mountain of personal controveries ranging from alleged “toxic” behavior towards women to a tattoo recognised as a Nazi symbol. Read more here:
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Trump also claims that the agreement is “fully negotiated” and it’s a “meaningful paper” that Iran just needs to sign.
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Asked if he is thinking of attacking Iranian power plants and bridges (see my earlier post here on Fox News’s report), Trump replies: “Well, I’m not going to say that to you, but I can do that.”
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Updated at 12.05 EDT
Trump says US is ‘going to hit them hard today’ as Iran ‘keeps tapping us along’ on deal
Trump has now gone straight to questions. Right off the bat, he’s asked what he meant when he said Iran “will have to pay the price” for taking too long to reach a deal.
The president responds:
double quotation markWell, we’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard.
Asked if that means resuming bombing, Trump adds: “Yeah, well based on the helicopter, I assume we have the right to do that.”
He says Tehran should sign the deal and says “they keep tapping us along”, before the US army Apache helicopter went down near the strait of Hormuz.
Trump accused Iran of shooting down the aircraft, and the US military subsequently launched several hours of strikes on Iranian targets, including air defences and radar sites, near the Gulf. Iran responded with strikes targeting US bases in the region.
“So, we’ll see what happens. But we hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” Trump added. “And we’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.”
Trump claims that Iran has already agreed to not obtaining a nuclear weapon, but the agreement still needs to be signed. (A reminder that Iran had previously agreed to this under the 2015 deal signed with the Obama administration, which Trump tore up three years later.)
He then attacks the Iranian team and president as “very stupid”.
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Updated at 12.06 EDT
Trump went on for some time about his ongoing renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and said it will be completed by 4 July.
double quotation markWe sandblasted the surface, we fumigated it. We took out 11 dumpsters, big dumpsters full of garbage. It was all garbage. Some of the garbage was there for years. It was all disgusting. It smelled … We rinsed it out, and we gave it a beautiful surface and then we put a swimming pool topping, but industrial strength, industrial-strength tanks, lots of other things.
“Everybody’s looking at that reflecting pool,” he added. “We use the dark blue, it’s called American flag blue.”
He still hasn’t signed the bill, by the way. Stay with us.
Workers continue to clean and prepare the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as it is filled with water on Tuesday. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 11.51 EDT
And Trump has arrived at the signing.
He begins by crediting the House speaker, Mike Johnson, for “doing a fantastic job” for getting the bill through the House with such a slim majority.
He then goes on a very lengthy tangent about all the amazing swimming pools he’s built in his property career and all the fountains they’re restoring in DC. Hopefully we’ll get to the signing and questions soon.
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Updated at 11.35 EDT
Trump says Bill Pulte will ‘execute the immediate downsizing’ of intelligence community in temporary role
As Donald Trump presses on with his contentious plan to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence on 19 June, he has reiterated that he has asked Pulte “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies”.
In a post on Truth Social moments ago (despite being due at a bill signing), the president added: “At the same time, I am looking for a permanent ODNI Nominee with experience in National Security.”
He went on: “I am asking Congress to send me a short-term extension of FISA to provide time for the selection and confirmation of a permanent Head of the Agency.”
Democratic lawmakers have said Pulte’s appointment would scuttle a bipartisan agreement to renew section 702 of Fisa (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), which is due to expire on Friday.
“The Radical Left Dumocrats are trying to take our National Security hostage because of unrelated issues,” Trump wrote.
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Bill Gates tells House ‘I have never victimized anyone’ in Epstein testimony
In his opening statement to the House oversight committee, which was shared on his website, Bill Gates said:
double quotation markAt the outset, I want to state very clearly: I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct. I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.
Gates said he was introduced to Epstein in 2011 “through people I trusted in my professional and philanthropic work”, and that he “claimed he could raise billions of dollars for global health”. But by 2014, he found this to be “a dead-end” and told Epstein their association would go no further.
Gates goes on to say that Epstein later tried to use knowledge of his extramarital affairs as leverage “to pressure me to re-engage with him”.
double quotation markIt was after this that I learned Epstein had become aware of sensitive information about my personal life, including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage. These affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family.
As the public can now see, based on what has been released in the files, Epstein was working to use information about my infidelities – in addition to many lies that he layered on top – to pressure me to re-engage with him. He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda.
Gates expressed regret at meeting with Epstein, calling it “a grave error of judgment”.
double quotation markI recall being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues, but I did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed. I accepted the introduction without applying the scrutiny I should have.
I should never have met with Epstein in the first place. Based on what I know now, I understand that even if he had delivered the new donors he promised, it would not have justified associating with him.
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Updated at 13.06 EDT
As Chris notes, the bill’s passage yesterday was a victory for the House speaker, Mike Johnson, who is managing a historically slim Republican majority, and for Donald Trump, whose bid to create a nearly $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund that would pay out his allies almost derailed the legislation as it made its way through Congress.
Shortly before the act’s passage in the House, GOP lawmakers voted down an attempt by Democrats to insert language that would have blocked the government from issuing payouts to anyone convicted of assaulting a police officer during the January 6 insurrection. And as the bill was being considered by the Senate last week, a small group of Republicans also sought to find bipartisan compromise on an amendment that would bar the so-called “anti-weaponization” fund, without success.
The proposal nonetheless remains an issue for some congressional Republicans, even though the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, told a House committee last week that the proposal was dead in the water. In an interview broadcast on Sunday, the president again refused to rule out its creation.
The spending legislation was also delayed by uproar over a similarly politically toxic attempt to include $1bn for security improvements related to the ballroom Trump is building at the White House. Senate Republicans eventually agreed to remove those funds, after the chamber’s parliamentarian ruled it could not be included if the measure was to pass using the budget reconciliation procedure to circumvent the Democratic filibuster.
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Updated at 11.25 EDT
Chris Stein
House Republicans’ approval of the bill yesterday, which will fund through the duration of his term the agencies leading Trump’s immigration crackdown, ended a months-long standoff with Democrats that at one point shuttered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Secure America Act passed in a 214-212 vote that was largely along party lines, with Kevin Kiley, an independent who aligns with the Republicans, joining all Democrats in voting no.
The Senate approved the measure last week, which allocates $38bn to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), $26bn to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and $5bn more to the DHS through September 2029. The legislation now awaits Trump’s signature this morning.
The bill ends a blockade of funding for the agencies, which Democrats announced in January after federal agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis amid an intensive campaign billed as rooting out undocumented immigrants. Their boycott – and fruitless effort to negotiate reforms to federal immigration enforcement operations – halted passage of a measure that authorized spending by the entirety of DHS, forcing it to shut down for 75 days from mid-February.
The department reopened at the end of April after Democrats agreed to support legislation that paid for all of its operations excluding ICE and CBP, while Republicans then moved to approve funding for those agencies through the duration of Trump’s presidency, saying it was necessary to prevent Democrats from shutting down DHS again.
House Democrats unanimously opposed the bill, with Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, saying it would “waste $70 billion in taxpayer money to give a blank check to ICE without any guardrails, any oversight, any accountability”.
Republicans countered by accusing Democrats of trying to “defund the police” and allow undocumented immigrants to enter the country.
Here’s Chris’s report from yesterday:
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Updated at 10.43 EDT
Trump to sign $70bn immigration enforcement funding package into law
Donald Trump is due this morning to sign the Secure America Act – the GOP’s $70bn bill that will fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029 – into law, after the House narrowly passed the bill yesterday.
There is a livestream here if you’d like to follow the signing. Trump often makes remarks and/or takes questions at these events, and I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
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Updated at 11.14 EDT
