Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Barack Obama in a statement late Monday praised Harvard University for rejecting President Donald Trump’s demands as the university faces a funding freeze for alleged inaction on antisemitism.

“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions — rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,” Obama posted on X. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”

Obama’s remark came after Harvard University said on Monday it was refusing to comply with a series of demands from the Trump administration. On Monday evening, the administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced a multibillion-dollar freeze on funding to the university. (Harvard University has said it is committed to fighting antisemitism and to making changes to create a welcoming environment.)

Obama, an alumnus of Harvard Law School, did not address the funding freeze.

In recent remarks at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, Obama had said he was concerned about the White House’s moves against universities.

“I don’t think what we just witnessed in terms of economic policy and tariffs is going to be good for America, but that’s a specific policy. I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech,” Obama said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

He had also called on universities not to give into what he framed as intimidation.

“If you are a university, you may have to figure out, are we in fact doing things right? Have we in fact violated our own values, our own code, violated the law in some fashion? If not and you’re just being intimidated, well, you should be able to say, that’s why we got this big endowment,” Obama said, according to the transcript.

“We’ll stand up for what we believe in and we’ll pay our researchers for a while out of that endowment and we’ll give up the extra wing or the fancy gymnasium — that we can delay that for a couple of years because academic freedom might be a little more important,” he added.

Trump, on Tuesday morning, called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status after the university said it would not comply with the Trump administration’s series of demands.

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.

Harvard University is exempt from federal income tax because it is an educational institution. It is also exempt from Massachusetts state income tax, according to the university.

ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Peter Charalambous, Selina Wang and Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance fumbled The Ohio State University football team’s national championship trophy during a celebration at the White House on Monday.

President Donald Trump hosted the Buckeyes after they won the College Football Playoff National Championship against the University of Notre Dame in January.

When Vance went to pick up the football-shaped trophy off a table at the end of the event, the 24-karat gold, bronze and stainless steel trophy nearly toppled over behind him before two players caught it. The base dropped to the ground to gasps from the crowd.

Vance went on to hold the trophy separate from the base.

Though the Pentagram-designed piece appeared to break, the trophy and base are two separate pieces so that the 26.5 inch-tall, 35-pound trophy can be hoisted in the air. The 12-inch-tall base weighs about 30 pounds.

Vance, a graduate of Ohio State, joked about his fumble afterwards, saying on X, “I didn’t want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy so I decided to break it.”

During the celebration, Vance additionally recounted his joke about asking Trump if he could skip the final inaugural ball on Jan. 20 to attend the championship game in Atlanta.

“The president said, ‘No, but we’ll have him at the White House,'” Vance said.

Trump recounted key moments from the team’s season and shook hands with the players.

Following remarks, the team captains presented Trump with a jersey with “TRUMP 47” written on the back as a band played Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his idea of sending U.S. citizens to foreign prisons, telling El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele he wanted to send “homegrown criminals” to his country next, according to a video posted by Bukele’s office on X.

The comments came as Trump welcomed Bukele, a key partner in his migrant deportations, to the White House amid controversy over the Supreme Court saying the administration should “facilitate” the return of a migrant from Maryland wrongfully sent to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison.

As the two men entered the Oval Office, before reporters were allowed in the room, Trump discussed his proposal to send what he called American “criminals” accused of violent crimes to El Salvador and told Bukele he needed to build more prisons to house them.

“Homegrown criminals next,” Trump said, according to a livestream posted by Bukele’s office. “I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places.”

Bukele was heard responding “alright” and others in the room laughed.

“It’s not big enough,” Trump added.

Trump and various White House officials have repeatedly floated the idea of sending U.S. citizens to El Salvador and other places — something legal experts have said would be flatly unconstitutional.

On Monday, during a spray with reporters, Trump said his team was “studying” the issue.

“If it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem,” Trump said. “Now we’re studying the laws right now, Pam [Bondi] is studying. If we can do that, that’s good.”

“And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in,” he continued.

Bukele first offered to house violent U.S. criminals shortly after Trump was inaugurated.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the proposal from Bukele back in early February, he called the it “an act of extraordinary friendship.” Though at the time, Rubio also noted there would be constitutional questions about such a move, saying there are “obviously legalities involved.”

Bukele on Monday said he was “very eager to help” the Trump administration.

“In fact, Mr. President, you have 350 million people to liberate. You know, but to liberate 350 million people, you have to imprison some,” Bukele said.

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, meeting at the White House on Monday, were pressed repeatedly on what’s next regarding the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant from Maryland.

Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters in the Oval Office, “It’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him a citizen of El Salvador.

Bukele, the self-described “world’s coolest dictator” who has become a key ally in the administration’s controversial migrant deportations, indicated, when a reported asked, that he would not take action to release Abrego Garcia.

“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele said.

The Supreme Court last week ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. Trump on Friday said, “If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would tell them to do that. I respect the Supreme Court.”

Trump appeared to amend that statement, though, in a social media post over the weekend where he suggested the fate of those deported now rests with Bukele.

“Looking forward to seeing President Bukele, of El Salvador, on Monday! Our Nations are working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity. President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” Trump wrote. “These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government.”

The Justice Department argued in court filings that the courts had “no authority” to direct how the executive branch engages in foreign relations and argued the administration could not interfere with El Salvador’s sovereignty. Another hearing is set in the case for Tuesday.

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, President Trump said he thought Bukele was “doing a fantastic job” and “taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint.”

“We have some very bad people in that prison, people that should have never been allowed into our country, people that murder drug dealers, some of the worst people on Earth are in that prison and he’s able to do that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida on Sunday.
When pressed further about the alleged human rights abuses reported at El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT, President Trump said, “I don’t see it. I don’t see that happening.”

The Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants they allege to be Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, though have done so with seemingly little due process.

Rubio, in a social media post over the weekend, said the efforts continued with another 10 alleged criminals associated with MS-13 and Tren de Aragua deported to El Salvador.

Rubio wrote that the “alliance” between Trump and Bukele “has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”

Plus, Trump and several officials have floated sending U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to the infamous El Salvador prison — something legal experts have said would violate the Constitution.

“The president has discussed this idea quite a few times publicly. He’s also discussed it privately,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.

“These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly. And these are violent repeat offenders in American streets,” Leavitt continued.

“The president has said if it’s legal, right, if there is a legal pathway to do that, he’s not sure. We are not sure if there is. It’s an idea that he has simply floated and has discussed, very publicly, as in the effort of transparency,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday is hosting El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, the self-described “world’s coolest dictator” who has become a key ally in the administration’s controversial migrant deportations.

The two men will greet each other at the White House around 11 a.m. ET for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office.

There, they will likely face reporter questions on the use of El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison CECOT to house migrants removed from the U.S. and the ongoing legal dispute regarding the wrongful deportation Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. The Justice Department, though, in a court filing on Sunday that the courts had “no authority” to direct how the executive branch engages in foreign relations and argued the administration could not interfere with El Salvador’s sovereignty. Another hearing is set in the case for Tuesday.

Asked about Monday’s meeting, President Trump said he thought Bukele was “doing a fantastic job” and “taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint.”

“We have some very bad people in that prison, people that should have never been allowed into our country, people that murder drug dealers, some of the worst people on Earth are in that prison and he’s able to do that,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida on Sunday.

When pressed further about the alleged human rights abuses reported at CECOT, President Trump said, “I don’t see it. I don’t see that happening.”

The Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants they allege to be Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, though have done so with seemingly little due process.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a social media post over the weekend, said the efforts continued with another 10 alleged criminals associated with MS-13 and Tren de Aragua deported to El Salvador.

Rubio wrote that the “alliance” between Trump and Bukele “has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”

Plus, Trump and several officials have floated sending U.S. citizens convicted of violent crimes to the infamous El Salvador prison — something legal experts have said would violate the Constitution.

“The president has discussed this idea quite a few times publicly. He’s also discussed it privately,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week.

“These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly. And these are violent repeat offenders in American streets,” Leavitt continued.

“The president has said if it’s legal, right, if there is a legal pathway to do that, he’s not sure. We are not sure if there is. It’s an idea that he has simply floated and has discussed, very publicly, as in the effort of transparency,” she said.

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(WASHINGTON) — A new legislative push led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., is seeking to bar special government employees like tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk from communicating with government agencies that interface with their companies, and would require federal employees like Musk to meet new ethics requirements.

Warren and Stansbury introduced a bill this week in the Senate and House, respectively, that would prevent special government employees (SGEs) like Musk – who lead companies worth $1 billion or more – from interacting with federal agencies that interface with his companies.

SpaceX and Tesla together have received billions of dollars in government contracts over the past ten years.

While the legislation introduced by Warren and Stansbury does not mention Musk or his companies by name, Musk’s proximity to Trump in the early days of Trump’s second term has made him a clear target of Democrats who have been outspoken about their opposition to Musk’s key role in orchestrating massive cuts to the federal government, with little input from lawmakers.

The bill, titled the SGE Ethics Enforcement & Reform (SEER) Act of 2025, would create what the lawmakers are calling a “bright-line rule” that makes new provisions explicitly applicable to owners of a “large company,” which the bill defines as any for-profit company making over $1 billion.

Democrats, including Warren, have also raised concerns that Musk’s companies could be unfairly benefitting from Musk’s influence over Trump’s policies.

Since 2015, Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla have been awarded at least $24 billion in federal contracts, according to government spending data and public announcements. SpaceX has won nearly $23 million worth of contracts, which includes nearly $6 million that the Space Force recently awarded SpaceX for launch missions.

“No special Government employee, as defined in section 202 of title 18, United States 23 Code, who is not on an advisory committee or a chair or vice chair on an advisory committee may have direct or indirect communications in their official capacity with an agency or office that contracts with, regulates, or has a pending enforcement action against a large company – (1) that the special Government employee owns; or (2) for which the special Government employee serves as a senior executive or director,” the bill reads.

The new bill would also implement a new requirement for government employees designated as “special government employees” to resolve conflicts of interest between their private-sector and governmental work during their service.

Unlike other cabinet and high-level positions that are subject to congressional scrutiny via the Senate confirmation process, Musk, in his advisory role, is designated a “special government employee,” a status Congress created in 1962 for temporary executive branch hires to perform limited duties for no more than 130 days.

“Unelected billionaire Elon Musk should not be acting as co-president of the United States and making $8 million a day from government contracts while he’s at it. My new bill would crack down on conflicts of interest and create stronger ethics rules for Elon Musk and all Special Government Employees. Government should work for the American people, not billionaires lining their own pockets,” Sen. Warren said in a statement provided to ABC News.

Those working for the government as special government employees are not paid by the federal government and can continue to collect payment from outside entities while performing their work for the government, which Warren and Stansbury say runs the risk of creating possible conflicts of interest.

The legislation aims to address those concerns by applying the same standard ethics rules that apply to regular federal employees to special government employees after they render 60 days of government service. These rules guide federal employees to avoid using their office for personal gain, to steer clear of conflicting financial interest, to maintain impartiality, to avoid outside activity or employment that could raise conflict of interest questions, and more.

The new legislation would also apply tougher scrutiny to the process of acquiring a conflict of interest waiver for this kind of work.

Musk has appeared alongside Trump as recently as Thursday, when he was present at a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

ABC News has previously reported that Musk could be taking a step back from his current role in the administration. His term would be up around the end of May but it had been widely rumored that the White House could take steps to keep him on or extend his employment status in some way.

“Elon has done a fantastic job. Look, he’s sitting here, and I don’t care. I don’t need Elon for anything other than I happen to like him,” Trump told reporters during the meeting.

Trump has acknowledged that Musk will eventually need to return to Tesla to run the company. However, when reports that Musk could depart the White House in May surfaced, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refuted them.

“Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at [the Department of Government Efficiency] is complete,” Leavitt said earlier this month.

The bill introduced by Warren and Stansbury faces an uncertain future on Capitol Hill. It does not currently have a Republican co-sponsor and it’s unlikely to get the GOP support it would need to move through either chamber of the Republican-controlled Congress. Many Republicans have praised Musk’s efforts to slash federal spending and have remained hesitant to criticize Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Still, the bill comes as Democrats are looking to demonstrate that they are fighting against the Trump agenda on all fronts. Warren has been particularly focused on the Musk-led effort to dismantle federal agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that she was instrumental in creating.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim contributed to this report.

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(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — At the U.S. Naval Academy, it’s not what’s on the shelves that’s drawing attention — but what’s missing.

The institution’s Nimitz Library has been stripped of 381 titles, according to a list published in the New York Times, including works exploring race, gender, and national identity.

The culling includes “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “Bodies in Doubt” by Elizabeth Reis, and “White Rage” by Carol Anderson. None was banned outright — just rendered “not immediately available,” a Naval Academy spokesman, Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, said. The books, he said, had been placed in a room where patrons could no longer access them.

President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” has been extended to cover the country’s military academies. With language targeting what it called “discriminatory equity ideology” and “gender ideology” — which he later called “the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies” — the order set in motion extensive removals, reviews and institutional confusion.

“There isn’t any clear criteria,” Katherine Kuzminski, director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, told ABC News. “It leaves leadership scrambling — how do we ensure compliance without being accused of overcorrecting?”

Kuzminski said military leaders, bound by a strict code to obey lawful orders, are grappling with what she called the ambiguity of the policy. “Particularly in the Air Force,” she noted, “when the Tuskegee Airmen learning module was removed from basic training for a few days, leadership was trying to follow through with the best of intentions.”

Department of the Navy leadership determined which books required removal at the Naval Academy library, Hawkins told ABC News.

Initially, officials searched the Nimitz Library catalog, using key word searches, to identify books that required further review, Hawkins said. Approximately 900 books were identified during the preliminary search, he said, and department officials then closely examined the preliminary list to determine which books required removal to comply with directives outlined in executive orders issued by the president.

That ultimately resulted in nearly 400 books being selected for removal from the Nimitz Library collection, he said.

Historians and former military officials told ABC News the implications are chilling. Richard Kohn, a military historian and former chief historian for the Air Force, sees the move as a “cleansing” effort. “It reveals a certain kind of weakness in the current administration’s confidence,” he said. “They’re determined to appeal to their MAGA constituency by rolling back decades of progress on race, religion, and diversity.”

For Kohn, removing these books from the shelves sends a clear message to cadets: To get ahead in the military, avoid certain ideas.

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Thomas Keaney, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced international Studies, spoke about how far the academies have come — and how far he said they risk falling back. “When I was there,” he said, “it was a whites-only institution,” he said of the U.S. Air Force Academy. “It was the poorer for it.” Education, he insisted, is about exposure. “You are not harming people by letting them read,” he said.

In a letter to the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, Democratic Reps. Adam Smith and Chrissy Houlahan called the book removals “a blatant attack on the First Amendment” and “an alarming return to McCarthy-era censorship.”

They demanded to know who ordered the removals, the process used and which titles were being purged, while urging an immediate halt.

The academies have issued carefully worded responses — or none at all — when asked by ABC News for comment.

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy did not respond to repeated requests. The U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Air Force Academy and U.S. Coast Guard Academy issued brief statements affirming compliance with executive orders but offered few specifics.

“The Coast Guard Academy is conducting a comprehensive review of its curriculum to ensure compliance with all executive orders,” a spokesperson said.

The U.S. Naval Academy spokesman confirmed that “nearly 400 books” had been removed from its Nimitz Library, explaining the move as an effort “to ensure compliance with all directives outlined in Executive Orders issued by the President.”

He emphasized what he called the library’s robust collection — some 590,000 print books and thousands of academic resources — framing the book removals as minor compared to the size of the overall collection. “The Naval Academy’s mission,” the spokesperson added, “is to develop Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically … to prepare them for careers of service to our country.”

At the U.S. Air Force Academy, a spokesperson noted that a curriculum review was underway “to ensure our compliance with executive orders.”

But outside voices in military academic circles warned that the issue goes beyond compliance, saying it strikes at the core of intellectual development.

“You can’t make ideas safe for people, but you can make people safe for ideas,” said Kohn, who specializes in civil-military relations. “If you don’t mentor students in the academies to understand what’s going on in American society, you don’t really educate them.”

Keaney, the former U.S. Air Force officer, was more circumspect but equally concerned. “I don’t think anyone is going to be hurt by reading anything — however nutty or outside their own culture it is,” he said. “You’re not harming people by exposing them to ideas. On the contrary, you’re training them to be discerning leaders. Give them a chance. Don’t leave them to deal from ignorance.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice said it is reviewing the criminal case brought against a former FBI informant convicted of peddling lies about former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and is moving for a judge to release the man from prison immediately while his case is on appeal.

Alexander Smirnov was sentenced to six years in prison in January after pleading guilty to lying to his FBI handler about the Biden family’s ties to a Ukrainian energy company — in addition to a series of unrelated tax fraud charges.

Smirnov’s lies were later seized on by House Republicans to bolster their efforts to impeach Joe Biden over unproven claims that he corruptly used his position as vice president in the Obama administration to benefit himself financially once out of office.

“The United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Friedman said in a filing Thursday, offering no further explanation.

The case against Smirnov, brought by former special counsel David Weiss, who was previously a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, alleged he concocted “fabrications” about Joe Biden and his son accepting $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma. The indictment accused Smirnov of repeatedly changing his story about the alleged bribery scheme after meeting with senior members of Russia’s intelligence services, in what Weiss described as a deliberate effort to influence the 2024 presidential election.

The Thursday filing points to health problems Smirnov has reportedly faced since his incarceration. His attorneys have said he has suffered from chronic eye disease for over a year and requested he be released to receive treatment from a doctor in California.

The judge overseeing his case, however, repeatedly rejected their efforts prior to his guilty plea, arguing he posed a risk of flight from the United States based on his extensive contacts with overseas foreign intelligence services.

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment further on the government’s filing.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump undergoes his annual physical at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, marking his first such exam of his second term.

“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, who became the oldest president to be sworn into office at 78, posted on Truth Social earlier in the week.

The public hasn’t been provided a detailed look into Trump’s health since 2018 and, during the 2024 presidential campaign, he didn’t provide any details about his health despite numerous promises to do so.

It is not clear whether the White House will provide an update after Friday’s exam, but details about Trump’s medical history have been disclosed in the past.

What Trump’s last official presidential checkup revealed

In the January 2018 evaluation, Trump appeared to be in “excellent” cardiovascular shape for his age, according to then-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who administered Trump’s nearly four-hour physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said.

The president’s medical issues were limited to high cholesterol, rosacea (a benign skin disease) and being considered “overweight,” as measured by the body mass index (BMI).

Trump’s LDL cholesterol level was 143 and total cholesterol level was 223, higher than the recommended total of 200. The LDL cholesterol, in particular, is significantly higher than the recommended level of 100.

His BMI – or body mass index – is calculated at 29.9, using the National Institutes of Health calculator, which is just shy of the obesity classification, which starts with a score of 30.

The 2018 report said the president takes a cholesterol-lowering drug called rosuvastatin, and because his cholesterol level was a little high, Jackson increased the dosage.

Trump was also taking finasteride for male-pattern hair loss. That medication can also be used to treat prostate issues at higher doses.

Trump also takes aspirin daily to prevent heart disease, a multivitamin and applies a cream called ivermectin, as needed, to treat skin condition rosacea.

At Trump’s urging, his physician conducted a brief screening test called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Jackson claimed Trump had a perfect 30/30 score.

COVID hospitalization

In October 2020, Trump was hospitalized after he contracted COVID-19. Then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that Trump had a fever and his blood oxygen level had dropped rapidly.

Sources with knowledge of the situation told ABC News that Trump was having trouble breathing and was given supplemental oxygen.

Doctors gave Trump an experimental course of monoclonal antibodies and steroids to treat him and he returned to the White House after three days

Trump’s health post 1st term

Other than the letters from Jackson, the most recent revelation of Trump’s health was a three-paragraph letter from his personal physician Bruce Aronwald of Morristown Medical Group, in which the doctor wrote that Trump’s “overall health is excellent.”

“His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” Aronwald wrote. “In addition, his most recent extensive laboratory analysis remains well within normal limits and was even more favorable than prior testing in some of the most significant parameters, most likely secondary to weight reduction.”

The doctor further explained that Trump’s cardiovascular studies were “all normal” and cancer screening tests were “all negative,” claiming Trump had lost weight through “an improved diet and continued daily physical activity.”

Butler assassination attempt

On July 13, gunfire erupted at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing Trump supporter Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and six others, according to investigators.

Trump’s former White House physician, GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, released a letter claiming that he had personally reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital, which Jackson claimed showed the former president was treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”

Jackson also confirmed that Trump underwent a precautionary CT scan while in Butler.

The Trump campaign, however, would not release the records that Jackson claimed to have reviewed.

Trump shared another letter from Jackson, detailing Trump’s ear injury and its healing process — claiming he’s doing “well” and recovering “as expected.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Far as he was from Washington, D.C., as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hiked to the top of a towering sandstone arch in rural Arizona with a group of Navajo Nation leaders, the impact of his agency’s cuts reached farther.

Wearing a shirt with a clear request written on the front, “Save IHS Jobs and Diabetes Program,” a Navajo council delegate, Eugenia Charles-Newton, approached Kennedy to tell him she was concerned HHS cuts were impacting the diabetes program that she relied on for care.

Charles-Newton said she’d heard funding wasn’t being renewed for aspects of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, a program within Indian Health Services (IHS) at HHS. The rapid restructuring at HHS had made it difficult to track the actual impact, she said.

Kennedy, who listened and then walked arm-in-arm with Charles-Newton for the last leg of the hike, promised to look into the program and whether any funding was being impacted by the HHS-wide restructuring. The improvements to Navajo health care that she was asking for seemed like “common sense,” he said.

The president of Navajo Nation, Buu Nygren, also mentioned an impacted program — the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which provides federally funded assistance to reduce utility bills and help with weatherizing homes. Navajo people — living with the extreme temperatures of the desert — relied heavily on its assistance, he said.

But the program was gutted by HHS cuts. Nygren told ABC News he held out hope that Kennedy, made aware of its importance to Navajo Nation, might consider reinstating it.

From the start of the layoffs, Kennedy has insisted that no “essential services” would be cut. “The cuts in all of our agency are not affecting science,” Kennedy told ABC News last week.

But the scope of the cuts — and the work impacted, from utility bill assistance on Navajo Nation, to research into black lung disease for coal miners, to a division that monitors lead exposure among children — has continued to dog Kennedy, raising questions about his oversight and involvement in the major restructuring.

In all, the tribal leaders were resoundingly appreciative of Kennedy’s visit, which was part of his first major trip as HHS secretary. The trip focused on combatting chronic disease, with a heavy emphasis on the importance of healthy, unprocessed foods.

Dubbed the Make America Healthy Again tour, Kennedy also visited Utah, the first state in the nation to pass a law to remove fluoride from drinking water systems, and met with local officials. While there, he toured the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Utah, which is aiming to center healthy diet and exercise in the health care conversation, and got aboard their “food pharmacy,” which delivers prescribed healthy foods to patients.

In Arizona, which passed a law to ban SNAP recipients from using the assistance for soda, Kennedy held a press conference with the legislators who championed the bill and toured a Phoenix health center that offers healthy cooking programs for local native communities. He also stopped in for a panel discussion at the 2025 Tribal Self-Governance Conference, sitting with tribal leaders including the chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe, which he fondly described spending time around during his childhood in Massachussetts.

On Navajo Nation, the crowd that gathered at the foot of Window Rock, a memorial, commended him for his devoted attention to issues of outdated medical centers, lack of water infrastructure and inadequate access to healthy foods.

“Processed food hurts all of us. It disproportionately injures Native people,” Kennedy told the group of Navajo leaders, who nodded in agreement.

But they also used the opportunity to tell Kennedy that they needed more support, not less — warning against the impact of his agency’s cuts. It was a conversation that Kennedy was receptive to.

“We are all going back with a long laundry list of tasks that we need to perform. And I’m going to give you my commitment today that I am available and listening to you,” Kennedy said.

In an interview with CBS News that aired on Wednesday, Kennedy struck a similar tone to what he told the tribal leaders on Navajo Nation — that he would look into cuts that he wasn’t aware of, and reinstate those that had disrupted “scientific research.”

“There’s a number of studies that were cut that came to our attention and that did not deserve to be cut, and we reinstated them. Our purpose is not to reduce any level of scientific research, that’s important,” Kennedy said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday.

Kennedy’s comments come after he also told ABC News last week that studies and personnel were being reinstated, adding that the plan was always to make large cuts and then “remedy” mistakes.

But government officials later walked back those comments — and have largely stood by the cuts, which hit nearly one-fifth of the workforce at both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

On Wednesday, HHS did not respond to a request from ABC News for clarity on which research studies Kennedy was referring to in his interview with CBS News, and whether they had been reinstated.

Asked about various cuts in the CBS interview, from a grant for diabetes research at the University of Michigan to over $11 billion in cuts to COVID recovery efforts at the state level, Kennedy said he wasn’t “familiar,” but would look into it.

Across the CDC, FDA and the National Institute of Health, three of the main public health arms of HHS, there have not been significant changes to the cuts that hit around 10,000 employees last week.

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