(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he’s nominating Michael Waltz to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security adviser.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations,” Trump wrote on his conservative social media platform. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
“In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department,” Trump continued. “Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Sources had told ABC News earlier Thursday that Waltz was expected to leave his post.
The move came as President Trump has been increasingly frustrated by Waltz after he came under intense scrutiny for inadvertently adding a reporter to a Signal chat with top Trump officials discussing a U.S. military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Waltz was present at Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where he offered praise for the president’s leadership and strength on the world stage during his first 100 days in office.
Trump publicly defended Waltz in the aftermath of the March Signal mishap, telling NBC News the day after details came to light in an article by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that Waltz “has learned a lesson and is a good man.”
Trump was asked further about Waltz’s future by The Atlantic in an April 24 interview. He said Waltz was “fine” despite being “beat up” after accidentally adding Goldberg to the group chat.
Trump also said in that interview that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who also came under fire for the Signal fiasco, was “safe.”
“I think we learned: Maybe don’t use Signal, okay?” Trump said about the controversy. “If you want to know the truth. I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal, although it’s been used by a lot of people. But, whatever it is, whoever has it, whoever owns it, I wouldn’t want to use it.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A Trump-appointed federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration from detaining, transferring or removing Venezuelans targeted for deportation under the Alien Enemies Act in the Southern District of Texas — ruling that the administration’s invocation of the AEA “exceeds the scope” of the law.
The ruling marks the first time a federal judge has declared President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act unlawful, with the judge rebuking the president’s claim that Tren de Aragua is invading the United States.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Fernandez Rodriguez only applies to AEA-based deportations and does not prevent the government from detaining or seeking the deportation of the individuals under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
In a 36-page opinion, Judge Rodriguez concluded that Trump’s March 15 invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is “unlawful” and “exceeds the scope” of the centuries-old wartime law that allows the president to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process during an invasion or predatory incursion.
“The President cannot summarily declare that a foreign nation or government has threatened or perpetrated an invasion or predatory incursion of the United States, followed by the identification of the alien enemies subject to detention or removal,” Judge Rodriguez wrote.
While the judge declined to weigh in on whether Tren de Aragua represents a foreign nation or government, he concluded that the Trump administration fell short of proving the violent gang was engaging in an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” as required by the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump’s proclamation had alleged that Tren de Aragua was a “hybrid criminal state” invading the United States. Though Trump’s proclamation claimed that Tren de Aragua members “harmed lives” in the U.S., it did not provide any evidence to suggest the gang did so in an “organized armed attack,” according to Judge Rodriguez.
“The Proclamation makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation. Thus, the Proclamation’s language cannot be read as describing conduct that falls within the meaning of ‘invasion’ for purposes of the AEA,” he wrote.
Judge Rodriguez also pushed back against the Trump administration’s claim that the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act should not be reviewed by courts — a claim the DOJ lawyers have asserted in courthouses across the country as they fight a series of challenges to Trump’s use AEA.
“Allowing the President to unilaterally define the conditions when he may invoke the AEA, and then summarily declare that those conditions exist, would remove all limitations to the Executive Branch’s authority under the AEA, and would strip the courts of their traditional role of interpreting Congressional statutes to determine whether a government official has exceeded the statute’s scope. The law does not support such a position,” he wrote.
While other judges have temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, most have done so on an emergency basis without weighing in on the “merits” or lawfulness of the proclamation. Judge Rodriguez’s lengthy order marks the first time a federal judge has plainly declared the proclamation unlawful and blocked him from using it to deport noncitizens.
The Trump administration touched off a legal battle in March when it invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged that “many” of the men deported on March 15 lack criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a subsequent 5-4 decision, lifted an injunction issued by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that had halted deportations under the AEA — but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal in the district where they were detained.
(DENVER) — A U.S. Army soldier stationed in Colorado was arrested on federal drug charges, authorities said Thursday.
Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, a soldier at Fort Carson, was arrested Wednesday evening, the FBI in Denver said.
He faces federal charges related to the distribution of cocaine, the FBI said.
The soldier was taken into custody with the assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and Fort Carson officials, the FBI said.
“We will continue to cooperate with all agencies involved,” a Fort Carson official said in a statement on Thursday.
The DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division said it is conducting a joint investigation with the FBI and Army Criminal Investigation Division.
No additional information on the case has been released.
Fort Carson is located south of Colorado Springs.
It is unclear if the arrest is related to a federal raid of an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs over the weekend.
The DEA said it detained more than 200 people — including members of the military — at an unlicensed nightclub in Colorado Springs early Sunday.
Among them, 114 illegal migrants were taken into custody, with most from Central and South America, officials said.
A Fort Carson spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that 17 service members, including 16 assigned to Fort Carson, were identified at the scene during the nightclub raid and were allowed to leave on their own.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. military’s standards for investigating sexual assault claims will remain unchanged, a senior official told reporters on Thursday, as it launches a separate department-wide review into how discrimination claims are handled in general.
The promise also comes as the Defense Department faces a potential loss of personnel available to process sexual assault cases due to efforts by the Trump administration to trim staff across government.
“At the end of the day, the standard of proof remains the same with regard to any sexual harassment complaint,” said Dr. Nathan Galbreath, director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.
“To that end, all complaints are reviewed, the evidence is analyzed, and a legal officer often opines on whether or not action can be taken,” Galbreath told reporters in a briefing call on tracking sexual assault cases in the military.
Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called on service secretaries to review equal opportunity programs to ensure discrimination complaints weren’t being “weaponized” by disgruntled employees. The military tracks sexual harassment complaints through its equal opportunity personnel.
In his April 23 directive, Hegseth specifically called on secretaries to ensure “complaints that are unsubstantiated by actionable, credible evidence are timely dismissed.” He called it the “no more walking on eggshells policy.”
“Too often, at the Defense Department, there are complaints made that for certain reasons that can’t be verified that end people’s careers,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X.
“Some individuals use these programs in bad faith to retaliate against superiors or peers. I hear that all the time,” he said of general discrimination complaints.
When it comes to sexual assault, unfounded claims are extraordinarily rare. According to the military, 1% of cases involve evidence that either exonerates the person accused or shows the crime did not occur.
When asked if Hegseth’s latest mandate will raise the standard of proof for sexual assault victims, Galbreath said “no.”
President Donald Trump also asked the Pentagon to review regulations that are potentially burdensome and streamline operations, an effort that resulted in offers to employees for early retirement as well as hiring freezes across the department.
Galbreath and other officials told reporters Thursday that they aren’t sure exactly how the military’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program will be affected just yet.
When a recent hiring freeze went into effect, there were about 300 sexual assault prevention jobs put on hold, said Dr. Andra Tharp, director of the Defense Department’s office of command climate and well-being integration.
“We’re really trying to get our arms around total impacts of that,” she said.
Tharp said she is encouraging the services to seek hiring exemptions for sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates.
Galbreath said that 100% of victim services remain available now and that sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates are stationed at every military installation around the world.
The number of sexual assaults reported across the military fell by nearly 4% last year, according to data released by the department.
The report is the first full-year account since the Pentagon put in place new prosecution procedures that empower independent lawyers, rather than military commanders. The changes were called for by lawmakers who said not enough was being done to encourage personnel to report assault.
“Even though we’d like to see the number of reports increase, I’m still very satisfied that our military members know that they can come forward,” and “get the help that they need to recover,” said Galbreath.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration will not renew Biden-era grants worth $1 billion that were aimed at boosting mental health services in schools, a Department of Education spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
“These grants are intended to improve American students’ mental health by funding additional mental health professionals in schools and on campuses,” Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madison Biedermann wrote in a statement to ABC News. “Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help.”
The decision comes as the Trump administration takes sweeping action to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and alleged racial discrimination practices in schools. However, multiple courts have blocked efforts to ensure schools certify compliance with the administration’s demands.
The department said the grant programs were not advancing administration priorities. Conservative activist Christopher Rufo lauded the administration’s decision to discontinue the programs, alleging they intend to advance “left-wing racialism and discrimination.”
“No more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health,” Rufo wrote in a post on X.
But American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called it a “direct attack” on the safety and well-being of children.
“They may not have agreed on everything, but Congress secured $1 billion in bipartisan mental health grants to help kids better understand themselves and the world around them,” Weingarten wrote in a statement. “The benefits were obvious. Now, with the stroke of a pen, that halting progress has been wiped away, even as the president and his allies insist that improving mental health is the only way to fix the gun violence epidemic.”
The grants were allocated under President Joe Biden’s signature Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The BSCA, an anti-gun violence law signed after the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, used “historic funding” to add more mental health services to schools over five years, according to former White House officials.
ABC News previously reported on the Biden administration prioritizing mental health services in schools during a youth crisis prompted by interrupted learning time and social isolation from the coronavirus pandemic.
The former president had indicated his goal was to double the number of school-based practitioners, including social workers, psychologists and counselors.
Dr. Tish Brookins, a certified social worker in Jefferson County, Kentucky, told ABC News that the Trump administration’s decision could result in “missed opportunities, deepened trauma, and diminished futures” for students across the country.
“This cut undermines every effort we’ve made to build safe, responsive, and equitable schools,” Brookins wrote in a statement.
“Mental health support in schools is not a luxury. It is a necessity,” she added.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz is expected to leave his post, sources familiar with the decision told ABC News Thursday.
This move comes as President Trump has been increasingly frustrated by Waltz after he came under intense scrutiny for inadvertently adding a reporter to a Signal chat with top Trump officials discussing a U.S. military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The White House and Waltz have not commented on the moves. Sources cautioned the move is not final until Trump announces it.
The president is expected to announce the changes soon, according to sources.
Waltz was present at Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where he offered praise for the president’s leadership and strength on the world stage during his first 100 days in office.
Trump publicly defended Waltz in the aftermath of the March Signal mishap, telling NBC News the day after details came to light in an article by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that Waltz “has learned a lesson and is a good man.”
Trump was asked further about Waltz’s future by The Atlantic in an April 24 interview. He said Waltz was “fine” despite being “beat up” after accidentally adding Goldberg to the group chat.
Trump also said in that interview that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who also came under fire for the Signal fiasco, was “safe.”
“I think we learned: Maybe don’t use Signal, okay?” Trump said about the controversy. “If you want to know the truth. I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal, although it’s been used by a lot of people. But, whatever it is, whoever has it, whoever owns it, I wouldn’t want to use it.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Years after the 2020 election and in the wake of a landmark $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News is continuing to fight back against a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by voting machine company Smartmatic.
Fox wrote a clear message in a new court filing on Wednesday: “Smartmatic is not Dominion.”
“Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic was mired in a decade of business failure due to inadequate technology, missing certifications, and involvement in multiple highly controversial elections,” the filing states. “Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic was founded by Venezuelans and was embroiled in claims of fraud in Venezuelan and Filipino elections well before any controversy arose over the 2020 Presidential Election.”
The filing from attorneys representing Fox Corp, Fox News, and some talent on Wednesday came in support of the motion for summary judgment, in which their attorneys urged the court that Smartmatic’s suit is nothing more than a “meritless cash grab” from what they say is “failing company.”
In its 12-page filing, Fox laid out a litany of what it said were Smartmatic’s “ongoing reputational problems” in an effort to give credit to some of the claims made on its air about the company in the wake of the 2020 election. They say that “none of it was defamatory.”
“In the wake of the hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election, Fox News hosts fairly and accurately reported on remarkable and newsworthy allegations that the President and his lawyers were making about election integrity during the short interval between Election Day and the date the results were certified, while court challenges were playing out around the country,” the filing from the network said.
In its own filing on Wednesday, Smartmatic claimed that Fox News “deliberately deceived its audience” when it reported claims of fraud surrounding Smartmatic after the 2020 election — and claimed that the top officials at the company, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, “knew President Trump lost the 2020 election” and “mocked” him in private.
“That is what they knew, said, and did behind closed doors,” a filing in support of Smartmatic’s motion for summary judgment claimed. “In public, Fox News told its audience the opposite.”
In a statement, Smartmatic’s attorney Erik Connolly said, “Fox is running the same playbook as other abusers, trying to sully the victim.”
“Fox cannot justify its month-long smear campaign against Smartmatic. Everyone from the Murdochs to the show producers knew they were pushing baseless claims,” Connolly said. “So, Fox is piling new lies on top of its old ones to try to persuade shareholders that its financial exposure is less than the $780 million paid to Dominion. It is not. It is much more. Fox will be held accountable. Fox’s motion is a distraction, not a defense.”
The filing from Smartmatic says Fox “from top to bottom” knew “with absolute certainty” that Smartmatic did not rig the 2020 election, but that they “systematically promoted the inflammatory and false narrative” anyway.
“The Murdochs and their executives believed this was a story that President Trump’s supporters wanted to hear, so that is what Fox News told them even though no one believed it to be true,” the filing states.
Smartmatic labeled Fox News as having done a “pivot”– in which they remained in “neutral ground” on the 2020 election until they decided to “lean into election fraud claims” after it faced backlash for calling Arizona for Joe Biden.
“Fox News’ ‘pivot’ was designed to boost ratings, which it did. Good for Fox. It devastated Smartmatic,” the voting machine company’s filing says.
Smartmatic’s filing includes some threats it says it received in the wake of the election. The company claims that its “prospects and reputation have been destroyed.” Smartmatic claims they are now “fighting to survive,” suffering billions in value that “have forever been lost” and that over 100 employees have lost their jobs.
The motions for summary judgement from both sides remained redacted until further notice.
Smartmatic sued Fox and other defendants in 2021, claiming they “knowingly and intentionally” lied about them in the wake of the 2020 election regarding claims of fraud, causing them to lose business.
Instead, Fox claims that Smartmatic “saw a litigation lottery ticket in Fox News’s coverage of the 2020 election.”
“Smartmatic seized on those allegations as a financial lifeline,” Fox News’ filing states. “It manufactured a defamation lawsuit claiming to be a highly reputable company worth more than $2.7 billion and poised to win dozens of contracts in the U.S. and around the world.”
Fox further claimed that they were covering “the biggest story at the time” by covering Trump and his attorney’s claims about Smartmatic, and that there is “no evidence” to support Smartmatic’s claims of lost contracts.
Fox also says that did not air defamatory statements about Smartmatic with actual malice — but rather they were merely trying to “accurately convey what the President was claiming (and still claims.)”
“That is not defamatory,” Fox News says.
In seeking summary judgement, Smartmatic added Wednesday that there is only one “crucial question” that the jury should answer: “How much should Rupert and Lachlan’s media empire pay for promoting an intentional falsehood that destroyed a voting technology company and eroded public trump in American democracy itself?”
Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion in April 2023 on the eve of trial over similar allegations that Fox pushed false claims of fraud about the voting system company.
In the settlement, Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million and acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
A 9/11 responder with life-threatening pancreatic cancer was told this week that he couldn’t start chemotherapy. Two others with new cancer diagnoses were also denied treatment, according to Dr. David Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department and director of its World Trade Center Health Program.
“We postponed chemotherapy for a firefighter this week, hoping this could be fixed,” Prezant said “He’s too young for Medicare, and this delay may cost him his life.”
All three patients were part of the federally funded World Trade Center Health Program — a system created to care for those who risked their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. But the program has come to a standstill, Prezant said.
“We have been directed not to process any new certifications,” an internal email that was shared with ABC News said.
To receive care through the program, a responder or survivor must first enroll and then have their illness formally certified by the federal program as being related to 9/11 exposure.
Certification is a separate and critical step. Clinics must submit medical evidence, such as biopsy results or lung scans — and only after the program approves it can treatment move forward or compensation claims be filed.
Without someone in place to authorize these certifications, patients with newly diagnosed conditions are stuck waiting.
Prezant said the secure federal website used to track approvals had removed the certification tab entirely.
In addition to its freeze on certifying illnesses, the program can no longer enroll new members or approve life-saving treatments like chemotherapy, lung transplants or stem cell therapy.
The crisis, Prezant said, is the result of a breakdown on multiple fronts: severe staffing cuts, and budget shortfalls worsened by inflation.
Sixteen of the program’s doctors, nurses and support staff were laid off in early April — depleting the program by approximately 20%.
This month’s layoffs followed a previous round of cuts in February — but those were reversed after bipartisan backlash. It hasn’t yet been established if any of the newly terminated employees were part of the original group.
Either way, the decision once again left the program critically understaffed, according to clinic leaders and advocacy groups.
To make matters worse, the World Trade Center Health Program’s longtime leader, Dr. John Howard, was also removed in February — and then rehired after bipartisan backlash. But according to Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, an advocacy group, it’s still unclear whether he was actually reinstated to his legal role as administrator.
“It appears that Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) was not properly reinstated as Administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, as the Health and Human Services Department told the NY Republican Members of Congress which they announced on April 5,” the group said in a statement on its website.
Howard’s unresolved status is preventing the program from functioning, the statement added.
Clinics were allowed to begin treating patients under “initial approvals,” Prezant said, while waiting for formal certification from the federal program. But that emergency workaround was shut down this week, Prezant explained.
The process of certification requires submitting medical evidence — like biopsy results or lung scans — and a signature from the program’s administrator, which has not been possible, “a clear sign that Dr. Howard hasn’t been fully reinstated,” according to Prezant.
Without formal certification, treatment for new conditions cannot proceed, Prezant emphasized.
Funding problems are also interrupting the program’s ability to function.
The program now serves more than 150,000 people nationwide, up from about 76,000 in 2015, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A bipartisan bill, HR 1410, was introduced in February to close the funding gap as enrollment surged, but it remains stalled in Congress.
“We don’t decide who qualifies,” said Prezant, noting that eligibility rules and certification decisions are set by the federal program under the Zadroga Act. “That protects the system from fraud — and it works.”
He pointed to FDNY data showing that five years after a cancer diagnosis, 86% of program patients are still alive — compared to just 66% among those diagnosed in New York State who are not enrolled in the program.
Now, according to Prezant and others, patients in all 50 states who rely on care from the program are being turned away without clear answers about when, or if, the system will be restored.
“No one is asking for anything more than what was promised under the law,” Prezant said, referring to the Zagroda Act’s commitment to provide lifelong medical care and monitoring for 9/11 responders and survivors whose illnesses are linked to their exposure. “We just want the federal government to honor that promise before more lives are lost.”
ABC reached out to HHS for a response but did not hear back. In a statement sent earlier this week, an agency spokesperson said, “The Program continues to accept and review new enrollment applications and certification requests.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who has stayed largely out of the political limelight since leaving office, sharply criticized President Donald Trump – her opponent in the 2024 presidential election – over tariffs, government cuts, and the direction his administration is taking the country, during remarks on Wednesday in San Francisco.
Her remarks, delivered at the 20th anniversary celebration for Emerge, an organization that supports Democratic women running for office, came as the Trump administration celebrates its accomplishments in its first 100 days – a date Harris acknowledged.
“Now I know tonight’s event happens to coincide with 100 days after the inauguration, and I’ll leave it to others to give a full accounting of what’s happened so far,” Harris told the audience.
“But I will say this, instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals,” she said.
Harris has had few public appearances since departing the White House and has limited her political activity, but on Wednesday night, she called out Trump by name.
“We all know President Trump, his administration and their allies are counting on the notion that fear can be contagious. They are counting on the notion that, if they can make some people afraid, it will have a chilling effect on others,” Harris said.
“But what they’re overlooking, what they’ve overlooked, is that fear isn’t the only thing that’s contagious. Courage is contagious,” Harris said to raucous cheers.
Harris had brought up similar themes – including the “courage is contagious” line – during remarks at a women of color leaders summit in early April.
That courage, Harris added on Wednesday, extends to Americans protesting against what she called “the greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history.”
“Americans across the political spectrum who are declaring that the president’s reckless tariffs hurt workers and families by raising the cost of everyday essentials; devastate the retirement accounts that people spent a lifetime paying into; and paralyze American businesses, large and small forcing them to lay off people, stop hiring, or pause investment decisions,” she said.
Trump and the White House have argued that tariffs will help Americans be better off economically in the long run and will level the playing field between the U.S. and its trading partners.
Later in her remarks, speaking more broadly about the White House’s actions, Harris said she would describe the current moment in America as a “high-velocity event” to implement an agenda she claimed was “decades in the making” to shrink and privatize government while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
“It’s an agenda, a narrow self-serving vision of America, where they punish truth tellers, favor loyalists, cash in on their power and leave everyone to fend for themselves, all while abandoning allies and retreating from the world,” Harris said. “And folks, what we are experiencing right now is exactly what they envision for America.”
Americans should be ready, if the “checks and balances” such as Congress “ultimately collapse,” Harris said, to work together and raise their voices.
“I am not here tonight to offer all the answers, but I am here to say this, you are not alone, and we are all in this together — and straight talk, things are probably going to get worse before they get better, but we are ready for it. We are not going to scatter. We are going to stand together, everyone a leader,” Harris said.
At the end of her remarks, Harris struck a populist note: “Always remember this country is ours. It doesn’t belong to whoever is in the White House. It belongs to you. It belongs to us. It belongs to We The People.”
The former Democratic nominee for president has had few public appearances since departing the White House, and has limited her political activity.
Harris’ speech came as she is set to possibly re-enter politics in the coming months. Harris has been mulling a run in California’s gubernatorial race and will make a decision by the end of summer, two sources familiar with her plans told ABC News in March.
Some Democrats have also floated her as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, although some of her longtime supporters have told ABC News they are torn over that prospect.
Whether she runs for either office or not, Harris’ public remarks thus far have sometimes included veiled and explicit swipes at the Trump administration and the president himself.
In remarks at a women of color leaders summit in early April, she weighed in on the second Trump administration, saying “there is a sense of fear that has been taking hold in our country” but that “courage is also contagious.”
And in remarks at the NAACP Image Awards in February, Harris framed the “chapter” America is in as one that “will be written not simply by whoever occupies the oval office nor by the wealthiest among us. The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people.”
Harris and her spouse, Doug Emhoff, have been the target of recent actions by Trump.
Trump issued a memo in March that revoked the security clearances and access to classified information of his previous presidential opponents — Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris — as well as more than a dozen former administration officials. On Tuesday, Emhoff said he had been dismissed from the board of trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as the White House confirmed it had removed board members.
-ABC News’ Averi Harper, Zohreen Shah, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
LONDON — The U.S. and Ukrainian governments touted the signing of a controversial minerals sharing deal as a launchpad for expansive bilateral economic cooperation — and as a signal of America’s long-term investment in a free Ukraine.
American and Ukrainian representatives signed the accord in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday after months of tense negotiations, President Donald Trump long having framed the proposal as means to recoup more than $100 billion worth of aid given to Kyiv since Russia launched its invasion three years ago.
“This partnership allows the United States to invest alongside Ukraine to unlock Ukraine’s growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital and governance standards that will improve Ukraine’s investment climate and accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a video announcing the deal.
The full details of the agreement are yet to be released, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expected to present the deal to the Ukrainian parliament — the Rada — on Thursday. Shmyhal this week previewed some parts of the agreement, saying it would not undermine Ukraine’s potential for accession to the European Union.
The deal will also need to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, members of which suggested on Thursday it was too early to fully evaluate the agreement.
“I don’t know what we have signed,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker representing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party and the chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News.
“Judging by the statement of the prime minister, it is better than the initial version,” he added. “It seems like we have managed to dodge Trump’s idea to turn the previously-provided U.S. military and material aid into Ukrainian debts.”
The lawmaker suggested it was too early to say whether the deal represented a win for both Kyiv and Washington.
“It seems like Trump put pressure on us in an attempt to get a victory in his first 100 days in office,” Merezhko said. “The devil is in the details. But politically there are upsides. First, we have improved relations with Trump for whom it’s a win.”
Other members of parliament suggested that ratification would not be immediate. “I would really like to see the final document of the agreement,” lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on Telegram.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, meanwhile, suggested it may take until mid-May for the parliament to vote on the minerals agreement — “and that’s only if everything is submitted to the Rada on time,” he wrote on Telegram.
In Russia, Dmitry Medvedev — the former president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council — framed the deal as a defeat for Kyiv.
“Trump has broken the Kyiv regime into paying for American aid with minerals,” Medvedev — who through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has become known for his hawkish statements — wrote on Telegram. “Now they will have to pay for military supplies with the national wealth of a disappearing country,” he wrote.
Nonetheless, Bessent said the agreement “clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term, it’s time for this cruel and senseless war to end the killing must stop.”
Bessent also said this deal was because of “President Trump’s tireless efforts to secure a lasting peace.”
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
