(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of expected talks between the United States and Iran over the weekend, the State Department pushed back on the idea that the discussion would be a negotiation over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“This is a meeting that’s happening, right? On Saturday, there’s a meeting. There’s no negotiations,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.
“This is a dynamic where the president has made very clear and certainly the secretary has made very clear that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” she said. “It’s touching base, yes. Again, it’s not a negotiation. It’s a meeting.”
However, Bruce and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt both emphasized that President Donald Trump is seeking to cut a deal with Tehran.
“When it comes to Iran, the president has reimposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian regime, and he’s made it very clear to Iran they have a choice to make: You can strike a deal with the president, you can negotiate, or there will be hell to pay,” Leavitt said.
Bruce confirmed that Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, will represent the Trump administration during the session. But beyond that, both the White House and the State Department have been tight-lipped concerning details about the planned talks, which Trump announced during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Trump also asserted that the U.S. was already conducting direct diplomacy with Iran for the first time since 2018, when he exited an Obama-era nuclear deal with the country.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later posted on X that the meeting Trump referenced would take place in Oman and that talks would be “indirect high-level talks.”
“It is as much an opportunity as it is a test,” Araghchi said.
On Tuesday, the White House and the State Department stood by the president’s initial description of the forthcoming conversations and rejected Iran’s characterization of the talks as indirect.
“That’s nice for the Iranians,” Bruce said of Araghchi’s comments. “I would refer back to the president of the United States, President Donald John Trump.”
(AUSTIN, TX) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in a proclamation Monday afternoon that the special election to fill the seat vacated following the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Texas, for the rest of his term will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4, concurrent with Election Day.
But Democrats are arguing he is trying to keep the seat open as long as possible because of Republicans’ slim majority in the House.
Republicans have 220 seats to Democrats’ 213, and the special election would most likely install a new Democrat in the seat, given the district’s Democratic lean, cutting back on the GOP majority.
In a statement, Abbott blamed Harris County, where the district is located, for election administration issues, saying that is why he had to schedule the election for November.
“Forcing Harris County to rush this special election on weeks’ notice would harm the interests of voters. The appropriate time to hold this election is November, which will give Harris County sufficient time to prepare for such an important election,” Abbott wrote.
Abbott gave that reasoning in a recent local interview as well, telling local station KXAN on Thursday that the county will “need to have adequate time to operate a fair and accurate election, not a crazy election like what they conducted in the past.”
State audits found that Harris County had issues with administering elections in 2021 and 2022, according to Votebeat. Those issues included not properly training election workers and not issuing enough ballot paper at various places. But the county has also been a target for unfounded theories or allegations about elections.
However, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth noted in a statement on Friday that the county has successfully run eight elections since election administration duties were given to the Harris County Clerk’s Office in September 2023 and said the county is prepared to run the special election.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on Monday afternoon that an announcement is “forthcoming” on litigation over filling the seat.
“The Republicans are on the run on the economy … and they’re on the run legislatively, which is why Gov. Abbott is conspiring with House Republicans to rig the system and not call a special election,” Jeffries said at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol.
In a later statement on Monday after Abbott announced the date, Jeffries said House Democrats are still considering legal action. The Texas Democratic Party has also threatened to file a lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Abbott’s office, when asked on Monday by ABC News about the governor’s response to Democratic allegations about margins in the House and the allegation that Abbott is following President Donald Trump’s or Republicans’ direction, pointed to Abbott’s comments from the local news interview, without elaborating.
The spokesperson did not address how Abbott might respond to any litigation.
Abbott’s announcement means the congressional seat will be vacant for about eight months since Turner’s passing in March, if the new date holds.
Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist who works for various Texas Democratic clients, told ABC News on Monday that the seat vacancy comes “at a time when people absolutely need their congressional representation” as the Trump administration implements sweeping tariffs and cuts to the federal government.
From a legal standpoint, however, Texas state law appears to give the governor wide latitude to choose when to set special elections.
Joshua Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, Austin, told ABC News on Tuesday that the amount of time the seat will remain vacant in this case is much longer than previous occurrences in 2018 and 2021, when Abbott also called special elections to fill vacancies.
But Blank pointed out that Abbott, a former state attorney general and state Supreme Court justice, is likely sure he is on solid legal ground: “Gov. Abbott doesn’t seek out lawsuits against him. He was a sophisticated legal operator before he became a sophisticated politician and a sophisticated governor, and that really suffuses his politics and his approach.”
Chad Wilbanks, a Republican strategist and former Texas GOP executive director, told ABC News on Friday, “The governor is the sole authority of calling the special election for when he wants.”
“Democrats at the state and federal level support boys playing in girls sports, they support open borders and drags shows in public libraries,” he added, referring to LGBT and immigration issues. “There is no urgency because of their policies that Texans oppose.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to expand the mining and use of coal in the U.S., calling it “beautiful, clean coal.”
During a ceremony at the White House, surrounded by hard-hat-clad coal miners, Trump signed the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order that follows the president’s recent promises to oversee a boost of coal production in the U.S.
The action directs the Interior Department to facilitate coal leases for millions of acres of public lands. Trump’s order also directs the Energy Department and other agencies to research if coal can be used to supply electricity for artificial intelligence data centers.
The comments Tuesday follow plans announced last month for a sweeping rollback of longstanding regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency — which the Trump administration has called the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
Several of the 31 actions announced by the agency in March targeted prior regulations meant to restrict emissions and pollution related to the use of coal. Chief among these was the announcement to “reconsider” President Joe Biden’s “Clean Power Plan 2.0,” which was a group of regulations targeting coal and natural gas power plants announced last year.
The “Clean Power Plan 2.0” tightened the emissions standards for coal-fired power plants for toxic metals like mercury and forced plants to control and clean coal ash released during their operations. But during his campaign, Trump spoke favorably about using more coal to power America’s energy needs.
Coal is an abundant, energy-dense resource with a higher concentration in the U.S. than any other country in the world, but it is also a fossil fuel and creates carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) when burned, which contributes to global warming and human-amplified climate change. Coal emissions can also lead to health issues, including respiratory illness, lung disease, acid rain, smog, and neurological and developmental damage.
While coal-fired electricity has become “cleaner than ever,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the fossil fuel is still responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions and environment-polluting coal ash. So “clean coal” is a bit of a misnomer, sometimes referring to types of technology used to physically clean coal before it is burned or capture carbon related to its burning, according to Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation.
“Burning coal could never be technically considered clean regardless of the treatment applied to it before combustion – it will always emit the largest concentration of greenhouse gases of any fossil fuel, and soil and water pollution from coal and coal ash (what’s left after it’s burned) will never go away,” Solomon said. “Even the best technologies that reduce air pollutants like sulfur and nitrogen oxides still allow many of these to get through.”
These technologies are also not widely used in the U.S. According to a December 2023 report from the Congressional Budget Office, 15 carbon capture and storage facilities are operating in the United States. And none of them are being used at coal-burning power plants. The CBO also found that the 15 facilities can capture “0.4% of percent of the United States’ total annual emissions of CO2.”
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the most significant factor in recent reductions of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. has been the decline in coal usage. In 2022, coal-fired electricity generation was largely replaced by other sources, primarily natural gas and renewables. As the production of cleaner alternatives continues to grow, the reliance on coal to meet the country’s energy needs continues to diminish.
ABC News’ Climate Unit contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A National Park Service webpage about the Underground Railroad has been restored to its original state months after it was changed to remove abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman from the top of the page.
The “What is the Underground Railroad?” page featured a photo of and quote from Tubman as leading elements on the page, followed by text explaining the significance of the Underground Railroad in transporting enslaved people to freedom and out of the South. The page was altered to remove Tubman in early February, per data from the Wayback Machine, replacing the image with a collage of Postal Service Underground Railroad commemorative stamps highlighting “Black/White Cooperation.”
The change also altered the text to market the Underground Railroad as a bridge for “the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality” rather than “resistance to enslavement through escape and flight.”
Mentions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 were also deleted before the restoration, along with historical cards of enslaved peoples fighting to reach freedom and a mural of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the first Black regiment made up of those raised in the North. All of these elements have since been added back in their original states.
“Changes to the Underground Railroad page on the National Park Service’s website were made without approval from NPS leadership nor Department leadership. The webpage was immediately restored to its original content,” the NPS said in a Tuesday statement to ABC News.
The NPS is a bureau of the Department of the Interior, and two anonymous NPS employees told the Washington Post that Interior Department political appointees directed senior career officials to identify webpages to change, which were then sent to management for consideration amid the Trump administration’s push against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. However, the employees told the Washington Post that they didn’t know whether the recommendations were the direct reason for any webpage removals.
“The removal of Harriet Tubman’s image and quote from the National Park Service’s ‘Underground Railroad’ webpage is concerning,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump posted on X while Tubman was still scrubbed from the page. “Tubman’s legacy and the resistance of enslaved people must never be diminished. We must stand in the truth of our history!”
Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., argued the removal was “an attack on truth, an attempt to erase history that would help us improve society today, a refusal to be uncomfortable and engaged in changing harmful policies and practices.”
The Washington Post investigation published on Friday pointed out these changes and others from the NPS. Its analysis of thousands of NPS webpages found several changes in language to rebrand racially charged moments in American history or remove references to slavery entirely.
A page on Benjamin Franklin’s views on slavery was taken down, and some mentions of prominent figures such as Thomas Stone owning enslaved people were omitted.
This comes amid a larger effort from the Trump administration to purge DEI from government webpages.
Last month, the Department of Defense said it “mistakenly removed” Jackie Robinson’s Army service as well as other content, including a page that honored the 60th anniversary of U.S. troops, in its effort to remove DEI from its sites.
Actress Viola Davis, who is set to play Tubman in an untitled HBO biopic, took to Instagram on Monday to share comment on the situation, saying the edits were “downplaying Harriet Tubman and slavery.”
“Really?!! Harriet Tubman?!!” she wrote in the caption. “Elevating this icon of American History is being diminished?!!! Erased?! Man…..Lord….give us STRENGTH!!!!”
(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk took another shot at Peter Navarro on Tuesday over tariffs, calling President Donald Trump’s top adviser on trade and manufacturing a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Musk, a senior Trump adviser who had promoted Trump’s agenda, has been critical of Navarro, one of the architects of Trump’s tariff policy who has made the rounds in media defending the sweeping tariffs the president imposed last week that sent world markets plunging.
Musk’s insults Tuesday came after Navarro called the Tesla CEO a “car assembler” rather than a “manufacturer,” claiming that key components of his Teslas come from overseas.
That prompted Musk to respond.
“Navarro is truly a moron. What he says here is demonstrably false,” he posted on X.
He claimed in a second post, “Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” and tagged Navarro’s handle in the post.
Asked about the feud at Tuesday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed it as “boys will be boys.”
“No, look, these are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” Leavitt said. “And you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history.”
Musk threw shade at Navarro early Saturday morning over his Harvard education.
After a social media user posted a clip defending Navarro’s explanation of the White House’s tariffs, pointing out his PhD in economics from Harvard, Musk responded, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Navarro responded to Musk’s posts, saying, “Elon, when he’s in his DOGE lane, is great, but we understand what’s going on here. Elon sells cars. He’s simply protecting his own interests.”
“There’s no rift here,” he added. “Look, Elon, he’s got X, he’s got a big microphone. We don’t mind him saying whatever he wants. But, just, the American people need to understand that we understand what that’s all about, and it’s fine.”
Musk said he offered Trump advice on tariffs when he spoke via live stream in Washington to the Italy’s League Congress Conference in Florence on Saturday.
Musk expressed his hope for the U.S. and Europe to create “a very close, stronger partnership” and reach a “zero-tariff” policy soon.
“I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said.
“And also more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America if they wish, if they wish to work in Europe or wish to work in America, they should be allowed to do so, in my view. So that has certainly been my advice to the president,” he continued.
(WASHINGTON) — The State Department has moved to squeeze lifesaving foreign aid dramatically for countries around the world, according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The latest cuts include the termination of all remaining U.S. Agency for International Development contracts supporting the delivery of food, water and medicine to populations in Afghanistan and Yemen, the cancellation of the largest World Food Programme (WFP) contract for Somalia, and the termination of several awards that funded the delivery of critical assistance in Syria and Lebanon, three officials told ABC News.
Jordan, Haiti, Gaza, Niger, Palau and Papua New Guinea, as well as several other countries and major aid groups, also saw significant lifesaving aid contracts terminated in recent days, they added.
The latest round of cuts to aid totals over $1.3 billion, according to OneAID, a grassroots advocacy group made up of former and current USAID experts and partners.
It also marks an apparent reversal for the State Department, which previously granted exemptions for the funding to continue after the Trump administration’s sweeping reduction in U.S. foreign aid prompted widespread backlash.
The WFP confirmed on Monday that the U.S. government had informed the organization that funding for emergency food assistance in 14 countries had been terminated.
“If implemented, this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation,” the WFP said in a statement. “We are in contact with the US administration to seek clarification and to urge for continued support for these life-saving programmes.”
ABC News reached out to the State Department for comment on the cuts but did not receive a response.
It’s unclear what motivated the latest round of funding cancellations, but one official said they were ordered by Jeremy Lewin, the USAID deputy administrator for policy who previously worked with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to dismantle the agency.
The official also said many of the programs hit by the latest cuts were recently granted hiring privileges or had spending modifications to their contracts approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
These special permissions were viewed as an indication that State Department leadership viewed the work as essential for fulfilling its mission of delivering “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance” amid the Trump administration’s review of all foreign aid spending.
Shortly after returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump ordered all a freeze on all foreign assistance for 90 days, leading to a flurry of stop-work orders and hiring freezes affecting a broad range of humanitarian aid work.
Since then, the Trump administration has moved to cancel some $60 billion worth of foreign aid grants and contracts, but senior officials like Rubio have promised that the most essential assistance would continue.
“This is not about getting rid of aid. This is about restructuring how we’re going to do aid,” Rubio said last month.
(WASHINGTON) — The IRS and Department of Homeland Security have reached a data-sharing agreement to support the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda, according to a court filing late Monday night.
Under the terms of the agreement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would submit names and addresses of immigrants living in the United States without legal status who have final removal orders, which would be used to check against IRS taxpayer records.
“As laid out in the MOU, DHS can legally request return information relating to individuals under criminal investigation, and the IRS must provide it,” the court filing said. The actual memorandum of understanding was filed in court and said the agencies are exercising this authority under the president’s executive order.
“Each request will attest that [redacted] information will only be used by officers and employees of ICE solely for the preparation for judicial or administrative proceedings or investigation that may lead to such proceedings,” the MOU said.
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department confirmed the MOU and said the basis is legal.
“The Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement have entered into a memorandum of understanding to establish a clear and secure process to support law enforcement’s efforts to combat illegal immigration,” the Treasury spokesperson said.
“The bases for this MOU are founded in longstanding authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans while streamlining the ability to pursue criminals,” the spokesperson added. “After four years of Joe Biden flooding the nation with illegal aliens, President Trump’s highest priority is to ensure the safety of the American people.”
The MOU, according to a Treasury Department official, creates guardrails for the agencies to follow in carrying it out.
Consistent with IRS privacy protection laws, specifically Internal Revenue Code Section 6103, the Treasury Department is committed to protecting the taxpayer data of lawfully abiding persons, the official said.
However, Section 6103 has a criminal exemption. This exemption obligates the IRS to assist law enforcement in the pursuit of criminals and will be used against any migrant who has overstayed for more than 90 days as part of the carveout.
Veterans of the IRS have raised concerns about the unprecedented use of tax data and the use of exceptions to the strict laws governing its use, some of which are meant to help law enforcement in criminal investigations.
Section 6103 requires that the IRS keep individual taxpayer information confidential with certain limited exceptions, including with law enforcement agencies “for investigation and prosecution of non-tax criminal laws” with approval from a court, according to the agency’s website.
Current and former agency officials also said they worry the new policy could affect tax collections and discourage immigrants without legal status who are working from paying taxes for a variety of reasons.
The IRS has allowed immigrants without legal status to file income tax returns with individual tax numbers. These migrants contributed $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes using borrowed or fraudulent Social Security numbers, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
The court filings were filed in a case attempting to stop the MOU from being signed.
A senior DHS official said that under the Trump administration, “the government is finally doing what it should have all along: sharing information across the federal government to solve problems.”
“Biden not only allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country — he lost them due to incompetence and improper processing,” a DHS official said. “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.”
Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Trump administration can move forward with the termination of 16,000 probationary federal workers across six agencies and departments, rescinding a lower court order that they be reinstated as litigation challenging the layoffs continues.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid mixed messaging from top White House officials, President Donald Trump was asked directly on Monday whether his sweeping tariffs are negotiable or here to stay.
“They can both be true,” Trump responded. “There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations because there are things that we need beyond tariffs.”
For days, from Trump on down, administration officials have offered conflicting statements on whether countries can do anything to save themselves from the tariffs, which include a universal 10% tariff implemented over the weekend and what they claimed were more targeted “reciprocal” tariffs to take effect on Wednesday.
On Monday alone, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shared he was tasked with negotiating with Japan while White House trade advisor Peter Navarro penned an editorial that the new policies are “not a negotiation.”
Bessent posted on social media that following a “very constructive phone discussion” with Japanese officials, Trump instructed him and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to “open negotiations to implement the President’s vision for the new Golden Age of Global Trade.”
Navarro wrote in the Financial Times that Trump wouldn’t be backing down from his “reciprocal” tariffs on nations the administration’s deemed the worst offenders in trade relations.
“This is about fairness, and no one can argue with that. This is not a negotiation,” Navarro wrote. “For the US, it is a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system. President Trump is always willing to listen. But to those world leaders who, after decades of cheating, are suddenly offering to lower tariffs — know this: that’s just the beginning.”
When Trump announced the sweeping tariffs in the White House Rose Garden, he justified them as a response to a “national emergency” caused by trade deficits and unfair practices with global partners.
Since then, markets at home and abroad slumped. Foreign leaders recoiled, with some — like China — taking retaliatory action against the United States. Economists increased their odds of a recession this year.
Officials were pressed to justify the action on Sunday morning news shows, where again the confused messaging was apparent. Trump spent the weekend golfing as fallout from his tariff policy continued.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” said tariffs were going to “stay in place for days and weeks” and that “this is the policy.”
Meanwhile, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, on ABC News’ “This Week,” boasted that 50 countries had reached out to the White House to negotiate tariffs.
Trump on Monday said they’re open to “fair deals” with foreign leaders that put “America first” — but that tariffs would stay in place in the meantime.
“We’re going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don’t, we’re going to have nothing to do with them. They’re not going to be allowed to participate in the United States,” he said.
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked Trump on Monday if he’d be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiation.
“Well, we’re not looking at that,” Trump responded. “We have many, many, countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals. And in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs.”
A rumor of a possible 90-day tariff pause that circulated on Monday caused stocks to briefly spike into green territory before going back into the red when the White House denied the report.
Trump said in the Oval Office that he doesn’t “mind going through it,” seemingly a nod to the criticism and volatility of the market because he believes it’s worth it at the end of the day.
“So, it’s got to be very interesting,” he said. “It’s the only chance our country will have to reset the table because no other president would be willing to do what I’m doing or to even go through it. Now, I don’t mind going through it because I see a beautiful picture at the end.”
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court for emergency intervention in the case of a Maryland man the government — by its own admission — removed to El Salvador by mistake and now must return by 11:59 p.m. on Monday under a lower court’s order.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the filing that a federal court cannot order a president to engage in foreign diplomacy, which he says is implicitly involved in any potential return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration alleges is a gang member.
“The Constitution charges the President, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the Nation against foreign terrorists, including by effectuating their removal,” Sauer writes. “And this order sets the United States up for failure. The United States cannot guarantee success in sensitive international negotiations in advance, least of all when a court imposes an absurdly compressed, mandatory deadline that vastly complicates the give-and-take of foreign-relations negotiations.”
The appeal to the Supreme Court came Monday morning, just before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a ruling by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that Garcia must be returned by 11:59 p.m. on Monday
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s emergency motion to block the order to return Garcia to the U.S. after he was sent to a prison in El Salvador despite having protected legal status.
In a unanimous decision, the panel of three judges agreed Xinis’ order requiring the government “to facilitate and effectuate the return of [Garcia] by the United States by no later than 11:59 pm on Monday, April 7, 2025,” should not be stayed.
“The United States Government has no legal authority to snatch a person who is lawfully present in the United States off the street and remove him from the country without due process,” the judges said. “The Government’s contention otherwise, and its argument that the federal courts are powerless to intervene, are unconscionable.”
Xinis had ruled on Friday that Garcia must be returned to the U.S.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
