Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump unveiled the framework for a trade agreement with the United Kingdom on Thursday, marking the first such accord with any nation since the White House suspended some of its far-reaching “Liberation Day” tariffs last month.

The Trump administration will adjust 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, and will lower auto tariffs from 25% to 10% on the first 100,000 British vehicles sent to the U.S., Trump said.

The agreement left in place 10% tariffs that the U.S. slapped last month on imported goods from nearly all foreign countries.

In exchange, the U.K. will ease trade barriers targeting a set of products, including ethanol, beef and machinery, among other products, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. That additional market access amounts to $5 billion worth of trade, the White House said.

The U.S. also secured a $10 billion purchase of Boeing airplane parts and a “secure supply chain” for pharmaceuticals, according to information shared by Trump on social media on Thursday.

The U.K. will fast-track U.S. imports through customs inspection, Trump said.

The U.S.-U.K. agreement left some details to be worked out later, setting the two countries on a path toward a wider deal, Trump said.

Addressing reports at the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump touted the agreement.

“This deal is working out for both countries,” Trump said, noting the “final details are being written up.”

In remarks made over a speaker phone on Trump’s desk, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said negotiations between the two sides moved toward an agreement in recent weeks.

“This is a really important deal,” Starmer said. “There are no two countries that are closer than our two countries.”

Starmer acknowledged some details still need to be “ironed out.”

The roughly $68 billion in imported goods from the U.K. last year accounted for about 2% of U.S. imported goods, U.S. data showed. The U.S. exported nearly $80 billion worth of products to the U.K. last year, which accounted for almost 4% of U.S. goods exports.

Dozens of nations face potential so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” but the U.K. is not among them, since the U.K. buys more than it sells to the U.S. The White House paused the reciprocal tariffs until July, as it seeks to strike trade agreements with dozens of countries.

Testifying before a House subcommittee on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration had commenced negotiations with 17 of the top 18 U.S. trade partners, excluding China. Those countries account for the vast majority of U.S. foreign trade, Bessent said.

Bessent is set to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, for initial trade negotiations with China on Saturday. The U.S. last month imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting 125% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.

On Thursday, Trump said the negotiations between the U.S. and China would be “very substantive,” voicing a willingness to lower the tariffs on Chinese goods.

“It couldn’t go higher,” Trump said. “You know it’s coming down.”

Trump’s tariff escalation last month roiled markets and triggered recession warnings on Wall Street.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned Trump’s tariff policy could cause higher inflation and an economic slowdown.

“If the large increase in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they’re likely to generate a rise in inflation and a slowdown of economic growth,” Powell said Wednesday.

Still, key indicators suggest the economy remains in “solid shape”, Powell said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office that he will soon announce a new nominee for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, replacing his pick, Ed Martin.

“He is a terrific person. He wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought,” Trump said during a White House event. “I’m very disappointed in that. But I have so many different things that I’m doing now with the trade. One person, I can only lift that little phone so many times in a day. But we have somebody else that will be great.”

Trump said his administration will “have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s gonna be great.”

Trump tapped Martin in mid-February to stay on permanently as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, a role that requires Senate confirmation.

But Martin’s past, specifically his defense of Jan. 6 rioters and inflammatory rhetoric around the Capitol attack plagued his nomination.

Martin had to apologize in an interview for his past praise of a Jan. 6 rioter who had a lengthy history of antisemitic statements and had infamously posted photos of himself dressed as Adolf Hitler.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a key Republican vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told ABC News this week he would not support Martin and that he had relayed his opposition to the White House.

The opposition from Tillis, who is up for reelection next year, combined with that from all Democrats, could block Martin’s nomination from getting out of committee.

Trump stood by choosing Martin and called the waning support for him “disappointing” — but that ultimately the decision was up to senators.

“They have to follow their heart and they have to follow their mind,” Trump said when asked about Martin’s uphill battle in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Martin has been acting interim U.S. attorney since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. In that time, he has moved to fire or demote career attorneys who investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and has sent letters to top Democrats and other political opponents threatening them with potential criminal investigations.

Martin’s term as interim U.S. attorney, which can only last 120 days, is set to expire on May 20.

-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Former President Joe Biden, on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday, said President Donald Trump has had the “worst 100 days” of any president.

Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden are joining the co-hosts live in-studio to discuss life post-presidency, the Democratic Party’s losses in 2024, and the current political landscape as President Donald Trump passes the 100-day mark of his second term.

It’s their first joint interview since leaving the White House.

The Bidens have kept a relatively low profile since leaving Washington in January, though the former president is beginning to ratchet up his public appearances.

Joe Biden’s first major speech since departing the White House came last month in Chicago, when he rebuked the Trump administration’s approach to Social Security, accusing officials of “taking a hatchet” to the agency and more broadly causing “so much damage” to the federal government. Biden has appeared occasionally since.

In his first post-presidency interview, broadcast on the BBC on Wednesday, Biden sharply criticized the current administration on a host of issues: He likened Trump’s push for a peace deal that would have Ukraine cede territory to Russia to “modern-day appeasement,” and blasted Trump’s threats to acquire Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.

“What president ever talks like that?” Biden said. “That’s not who we are. We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity — not about confiscation.”

Trump, for his part, routinely criticizes Biden as “the worst president in American history” and blames him for various difficulties in his own administration, including recent stock market turmoil and a decline in U.S. gross domestic product.

Biden’s presidency marked the culmination of a career in public service that spanned more than five decades, including 36 years as a senator and eight years as vice president. He leaves behind a complex legacy, punctuated by Trump’s historic victory in November.

Biden and his team were criticized for his decision to seek reelection and later withdraw after a poor debate performance against Trump that moved some Democrats to publicly question his ability as he approached the age of 82 to campaign for and serve another term.

Even still, Biden and his allies have maintained a belief that he could have beaten Trump had he stayed in the race. He’s said he decided to drop out and endorse then-Vice President Kamala Harris to help unify the party.

Asked by the BBC if he should have dropped out earlier, Biden said it wouldn’t have had an impact on the outcome.

“I don’t, I don’t think it would have mattered. We left at a time when we had a good candidate, she’s fully funded,” Biden said.

“I meant what I said when I started, that I think I’m prepared to hand this to the next generation, a transition government,” Biden added. “But things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away from the ticket and it was a hard decision. But regret that? No, I think it was the right decision. I think that, well, it was just a difficult decision.”

Jill Biden, 73, who has also begun stepping up public appearances, has also emphasized she believes her husband would have been able to serve four more years.

“Sure,” she told the Washington Post in an interview before the Bidens left the White House in January. “I mean, today, I think he has a full schedule. He started early with interviews and briefings, and it just keeps going.”

More broadly, the Bidens’ appearance on “The View” comes as Democrats are in the midst of rebuilding their coalition and retooling some parts of their message; and grappling with what role — if any — the former president should play in the future of the party.

Two key electoral races this year will stress test those changes: gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. It’s unclear if Joe Biden will be involved in campaigning.

Both Joe Biden and Harris have signed with the CAA talent agency.

Meanwhile, Jill Biden, who retired from her longtime teaching career in December, was recently named as chair of the recently launched Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network, which will promote research and investments for women’s health.

Speaking about the initiative in Los Angeles on Monday, Jill Biden said that she does not think the federal government will be as involved with women’s health investments and research as it used to be.

“I think this is really an opportunity for business, for private equity to, you know, it doesn’t seem like the federal government is really going to be as involved as they were … I think we all have a part to play in every aspect of this,” Biden said when discussing what excited her about the initiative.

She was seemingly referencing federal government cuts, which have heavily hit health research initiatives as well, although she did not call out the White House or any figures explicitly.

-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Republican-led House is voting Thursday on Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman’s motion to send legislation formalizing the Gulf of Mexico’s proposed name change to Gulf of America back to committee.

The legislation, which was introduced by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, codifies an executive order from President Donald Trump to rename the body of water.

Its fate in the Senate is more of a challenge, given that it will need bipartisan cooperation to overcome a filibuster.

“Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘Gulf of America,'” the bill text states.

The measure also instructs each federal agency to update each document and map in accordance with the name change, which Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will oversee.

“Codifying the rightful renaming of the Gulf of America isn’t just a priority for me and President Trump, it’s a priority for the American people. American taxpayers fund its protection, our military defends its waters, and American businesses fuel its economy,” Greene argued in a post on X.

One of Trump’s first executive orders when he started his second term was to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker Mike Johnson has endorsed the bill, which is expected to clear the lower chamber in a party-line vote.

“We’ve been working around the clock to codify so much of what President Trump has been doing … to make sure that we put these into statutory law so that it can’t be reversed and erased by an upcoming administration,” Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday.

House Democrats, including Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have criticized the measure.

“Why is the top thing that House Republicans — going to do this week on their legislative agenda renaming the Gulf of Mexico?” Jeffries said at a news conference Monday. “Because Donald Trump and House Republicans are on the run. They are on the run.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Republican-led House is set to vote Thursday on a bill to make the Gulf of Mexico’s name change to Gulf of America permanent.

The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, codifies an executive order from President Donald Trump to rename the body of water.

Its fate in the Senate is more of a challenge, given that it will need bipartisan cooperation to overcome a filibuster.

“Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper or other record of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico shall be deemed to be a reference to the ‘Gulf of America,’” the bill text states.

The measure also instructs each federal agency to update each document and map in accordance with the name change that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will oversee.

“Codifying the rightful renaming of the Gulf of America isn’t just a priority for me and President Trump, it’s a priority for the American people. American taxpayers fund its protection, our military defends its waters, and American businesses fuel its economy,” Rep. Greene argued in a post on X.

One of Trump’s first executive orders when he started his second term was to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker Mike Johnson has endorsed the bill, which is expected to clear the lower chamber in a party-line vote.

“We’ve been working around the clock to codify so much of what President Trump has been doing … to make sure that we put these into statutory law so that it can’t be reversed and erased by an upcoming administration,” Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday.

House Democrats, including Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have criticized the measure.

“Why is the top thing that House Republicans — going to do this week on their legislative agenda renaming the Gulf of Mexico?” Jeffries said at a news conference Monday. “Because Donald Trump and House Republicans are on the run. They are on the run.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Former President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will appear on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday for their first joint interview since leaving the White House.

The pair will join the co-hosts live in-studio to discuss life post-presidency, the Democratic Party’s losses in 2024, and the current political landscape as President Donald Trump passes the 100-day mark of his second term.

The Bidens have kept a relatively low profile since leaving Washington in January, though the former president is beginning to ratchet up his public appearances.

Joe Biden’s first major speech since departing the White House came last month in Chicago, when he rebuked the Trump administration’s approach to Social Security, accusing officials of “taking a hatchet” to the agency and more broadly causing “so much damage” to the federal government. Biden has appeared occasionally since.

In his first post-presidency interview, broadcast on the BBC on Wednesday, Biden sharply critiqued the current administration on a host of issues: He likened Trump’s push for a peace deal that would have Ukraine cede territory to Russia to “modern-day appeasement,” and blasted Trump’s threats to acquire Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.

“What president ever talks like that?” Biden said. “That’s not who we are. We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity — not about confiscation.”

Trump, for his part, routinely criticizes Biden as “the worst president in American history” and blames him for various difficulties in his own administration, including recent stock market turmoil and a decline in U.S. gross domestic product.

Biden’s presidency marked the culmination of a career in public service that spanned more than five decades, including 36 years as a senator and eight years as vice president. He leaves behind a complex legacy, punctuated by Trump’s historic victory in November.

Biden and his team were criticized for his decision to seek reelection and later withdraw after a poor debate performance against Trump that moved some Democrats to publicly question his ability as he approached the age of 82 to campaign for and serve another term.

Even still, Biden and his allies have maintained a belief that he could have beaten Trump had he stayed in the race. He’s said he decided to drop out and endorse then-Vice President Kamala Harris to help unify the party.

Asked by the BBC if he should have dropped out earlier, Biden said it wouldn’t have had an impact on the outcome.

“I don’t, I don’t think it would have mattered. We left at a time when we had a good candidate, she’s fully funded,” Biden said.

“I meant what I said when I started, that I think I’m prepared to hand this to the next generation, a transition government,” Biden added. “But things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away from the ticket and it was a hard decision. But regret that? No, I think it was the right decision. I think that, well, it was just a difficult decision.”

Jill Biden, 73, who has also begun stepping up public appearances, has also emphasized she believes her husband would have been able to serve four more years.

“Sure,” she told the Washington Post in an interview before the Bidens left the White House in January. “I mean, today, I think he has a full schedule. He started early with interviews and briefings, and it just keeps going.”

More broadly, the Bidens’ appearance on “The View” comes as Democrats are in the midst of rebuilding their coalition and retooling some parts of their message; and grappling with what role — if any — the former president should play in the future of the party.

Two key electoral races this year will stress test those changes: gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey. It’s unclear if Joe Biden will be involved in campaigning.

Both Joe Biden and Harris have signed with the CAA talent agency.

Meanwhile, Jill Biden, who retired from her longtime teaching career in December, was recently named as chair of the recently launched Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network, which will promote research and investments for women’s health.

Speaking about the initiative in Los Angeles on Monday, Jill Biden said that she does not think the federal government will be as involved with women’s health investments and research as it used to be.

“I think this is really an opportunity for business, for private equity to, you know, it doesn’t seem like the federal government is really going to be as involved as they were … I think we all have a part to play in every aspect of this,” Biden said when discussing what excited her about the initiative.

She was seemingly referencing federal government cuts, which have heavily hit health research initiatives as well, although she did not call out the White House or any figures explicitly.

-ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois has announced his bid to run for Senate in 2026, confirming speculations that he would join the quickly expanding field of primary competitors looking to win the safe Democratic seat left open by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who is retiring at the end of his term.

In an interview with ABC News, the five-term congressman said he’s running on a record of confronting “bullies” like Donald Trump and is keenly focused on opposing agencies such as the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk.

“I have a track record of standing up to Donald Trump in Congress. I voted for impeaching him twice, but I also … played a big role in the first impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill,” said Krishnamoorthi, who entered the House in 2016, now serves as the top Democrat on the House’s China select committee on the Chinese Communist Party and is a senior member of the Intelligence and Oversight committees.

“But I have a track record of standing up to lots of bullies, whether it’s the e-cigarette companies that prey on our youth and try to hook them on vapes or it’s Purdue pharmaceuticals that try to hook a generation to Oxycontin. I’ve gone after all of them. They put a target on my back, but I got results, and now we need results with Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE,” he added.

Krishnamoorthi added that he is running to fight for the economic prosperity of Illinoisans who are “suffering under the economic chaos unleashed by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE.”

“We need to focus like a laser on their economic problems right now, even at the same time that we’re standing up to Donald Trump,” he told ABC News.

Krishnamoorthi’s bid will kick off with three campaign stops on Friday as he “vows to ‘stand up and fight back’ against Trump’s agenda. The congressman, who represents much of Chicago’s northwestern suburbs, will make stops in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois, and in Schaumburg, Illinois, where he currently lives.

“My roots are in Peoria. I represent the suburbs. I’ve worked in the city for many years. So I want to try to trace that journey that I’ve had in Illinois but also speak to as many people as possible across Illinois,” he told ABC News.

In an announcement video released on Wednesday, Krishnamoorthi called the actions occurring within the White House “insanity” and suggested that he is a Democrat who can “fight back” against the Trump administration. The Democratic Party is grappling with questions over its political direction following the startling loss of all three branches of government during the 2024 elections.

“People want to know, at this moment, in this time, where is the power to fight back? What does it look like?” Krishnamoorthi said in the video. “Well, I’ll tell you: It looks like you and you and you, all of us ready to stand up and fight back. I spent my life standing up to bullies, fighting for everyday people. So I’ll never be quiet while billionaires like Elon Musk and a convicted felon deny the dreams of the next generation for their own egos and personal profit. That’s why I’m running for the United States Senate.”

The Harvard University-educated lawyer who received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University was born in central Illinois to Indian immigrants.

Ahead of his election to Congress, Krishnamoorthi served in a number of state roles and as a policy director in the Obama administration. In his announcement video released on Wednesday, the congressman referred to himself as “Raja” and referenced the fact that former President Barack Obama, too, had an ethnically ambiguous sounding name, saying, “I worked on a friend’s campaign who showed that Illinois will give you a shot even if you have a funny name. And inspired by Barack’s example, I was elected to Congress.”

“Yes, I know the name is long, so like always, just call me Raja,” he concluded the video.

Krishnamoorthi, one of the front-runners in the already hotly contested race, has amassed over a $19 million war chest ahead of his launch, with a stunning $3 million raised in just the first three months of 2025.

His bid comes after Durbin announced in April that he would not seek a sixth term. Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton jumped in the race less than 48 hours after Durbin’s announcement and quickly earned the endorsements of billionaire Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois’ other senator, Tammy Duckworth.

“At the end of the day, the most important thing is I get the endorsement from the people of Illinois,” Krishnamoorthi told ABC News when asked about his posture among the already crowded primary field.

“They need to have their say. … We need to make sure that the process plays out, unfolds, that they are able to kick the tires and assess who they want to hire to represent them in the U.S. Senate, and I’m going to do everything in my power to earn their support,” he added.

Krishnamoorthi’s announcement also comes just a day after his colleague, Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., declared her own bid for the seat. In an announcement video posted on Tuesday, Kelly brought up how in Congress, she does not stand up during moments of silence to mark mass shootings because, she said, “moments of silence in Congress just aren’t going to cut it anymore.”

Kelly is also the former Illinois Democratic Party chairwoman and a member of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ leadership team. It’s reported that Rep. Lauren Underwood, who is also a member of Jeffries’ leadership circle, is still exploring a run for the seat.

Krishnamoorthi told ABC News that his record, paired with his ability to “stand up” to Trump distinctly, makes him uniquely positioned for the role.

“I think that your track record matters. I think that the diversity of your experiences, plus … where you come from, I think that matters,” he said. “I think that most of all, who is going to be the most effective at standing up to Donald Trump but also delivering for constituents?”

Durbin said he doesn’t plan on endorsing any particular candidate but is not ruling out the possibility in an “extreme case.”

“I hope I do not have to,” Durbin said.

Still, Krishnamoorthi linked himself to Durbin as he launched his bid for Senate on Wednesday, lauding him as a “titan” who was a “fellow son of downstate.”

“Senator Dick Durbin is a titan who will go down as one of the most effective and dedicated public servants in Illinois history. I am deeply humbled by the encouragement I have received from friends, family members, and community leaders encouraging me, a fellow son of downstate, to run for the U.S. Senate,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement announcing his candidacy.

 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that the United States would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen, insisting that the rebel group had agreed to stop attacking U.S. ships in the Red Sea.

“They’ve announced to us at least that they don’t want to fight anymore,” Trump said during an Oval Office photo-op with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “They just don’t want to fight, and we will honor that.”

“And, they have capitulated,” he added. “But more importantly, they — we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.”

The move caps off weeks of costly attacks and threats delivered by the Trump administration, which led to a major shakeup of the president’s national security team.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Oman confirmed the announcement in an X post on Tuesday.

“Following recent discussions and contacts conducted by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the relevant authorities in Sana’a, in the Republic of Yemen, with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides,” the Foreign Ministry of Oman said in the statement.

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” it added.

However, Mohammed Ali al Houthi, a member of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, said the Houthis are not immediately agreeing to the U.S.-proposed ceasefire.

The Houthis will “evaluate” the U.S. ceasefire proposal “on the ground first,” he posted on X Tuesday afternoon.

When asked by ABC News for more details on the announcement, U.S. Central Command deferred to the White House.

Trump was pressed by reporters for more details about how the deal with the Houthis came together, but he quickly said the announcement isn’t a deal.

“They’ve said, ‘Please don’t bomb us anymore, and we’re not going to attack your ships,'” he said.

When asked who told the U.S. that the Houthi attacks on U.S. ships would stop, Trump demurred, saying it “doesn’t matter” and then adding that it was from a “very, very good source.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance laughed and said they agreed with him.

“They don’t want to be bombed anymore,” Trump repeated.

Rubio added that “this was always a freedom of navigation mission.”

“These guys, these are, you know, a band of individuals with advanced weaponry that were threatening global shipping,” he said. “And the job was to get that to stop.”

The U.S. began airstrikes in Yemen against Houthi targets starting March 15 and has conducted over 800 strikes, according to the U.S. military.

On April 18, an American strike on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in the deadliest known attack of the American campaign.

However, the U.S. military has taken some hits as well.

The U.S. military has lost seven Reaper drones since March 15, each drone costing $30 million, and an F/A-18E fighter jet rolled off the side of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and sank to the bottom of the Red Sea two weeks ago. No one was killed in that incident.

The USS Harry S. Truman possibly made a sudden movement due to Houthi fire, ultimately causing the fighter jet to roll off it, according to a U.S. official, who cited initial field reports. The incident is still under investigation, but the aircraft carrier has previously been targeted by the Houthis.

Israeli forces have also conducted strikes on Yemen for the past two days, striking its main port on the Red Sea, two cement factories and the Sanaa airport.

The Israeli government said these strikes were in response to Houthi strikes on Israel on Sunday, and the Israel Defense Forces said it targeted Houthi infrastructure in Yemen in the strikes.

While Trump claimed the U.S. mission against the Houthis has been a “freedom of navigation” mission from the beginning, the conflict in the Red Sea between the Houthis and U.S.- and British-flagged vessels has been occurring since Oct. 8, 2023.

The Houthis said they would attack vessels connected to Israel’s allies in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza after Israel launched a military operation against Gaza following the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Since then, the Houthis have been targeting vessels they say are connected to Israel’s allies in the Red Sea to various degrees of severity over the past 19 months. The U.S. ratcheted up the conflict three days before Israel ended the temporary ceasefire with Hamas, resuming military operations in Gaza on March 18. The U.S. launched its first strike against the Houthis on March 5.

The Trump administration has spent weeks trying to save face over its own planning of attacks in Yemen after it was revealed that top national security members, including then-national security adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, communicated plans about the impending attacks on Signal.

The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally invited to one of the Signal group chats and saw details about the planning.

Last week, Trump announced Waltz would be leaving his Cabinet position and would be nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

ABC News’ Ahmed Baider contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can move forward with a ban on transgender military service members for now, lifting a lower court injunction against the policy after a judge ruled it was an “unsupported, dramatic and facially unfair exclusionary policy.”

The court did not explain its decision other than to say the order would expire if the justices ultimately take up the case on the merits and issue a ruling striking it down.

Litigation continues in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated they would have denied Trump’s request for a stay.

During Trump’s first term, the high court took a similar course, lifting an injunction against a ban on transgender service members after it was challenged. President Joe Biden ended the policy and thousands of transgender members of the military have provided active service over the past four years.

The Pentagon has estimated more than 4,200 active service members have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria which is the military’s metric for tracking the number of transgender troops. Advocacy groups have put the actual number of trans service members much higher, around 15,000.

The Supreme Court’s decision means the military can begin discharging service members who are transgender and cease enlistment of transgender people.

The Trump administration argued that the president is owed broad deference in running the military and shaping the force, framing its policy as a “medical” exclusion. Solicitor General John Sauer claimed that gender dysphoria presented problems for unit cohesion and lethality; two federal judges found little evidence to support those claims.

At the end of April, the Trump administration made a new emergency request seeking an immediate stay of a nationwide injunction blocking the ban on openly transgender military service members.

Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Settle, a George W. Bush nominee, when issuing the preliminary injunction in the case on March 27, had written the Trump administration’s policy on transgender soldiers would be a “de facto blanket prohibition” that seeks “to eradicate transgender service.”

The case was filed by a group of seven transgender service members and one transgender person who wishes to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

In a statement, advocates for the seven active-duty service members who brought the lawsuit called the ruling a “devastating blow.”

“By allowing this discriminatory ban to take effect while our challenge continues, the Court has temporarily sanctioned a policy that has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with prejudice,” said Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation which are providing legal representation for the transgender troops.

“Transgender individuals meet the same standards and demonstrate the same values as all who serve. We remain steadfast in our belief that this ban violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and will ultimately be struck down,” the foundation said.

During a trip to Stuttgart, Germany, in February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked by a service member at U.S. Africa Command why “four exceptional transgender soldiers” he’d served alongside over severn years needed to be removed.

Hegseth responded: “It’s an ongoing review, with our foot forward on readiness and deployability, readiness and deployability, which is what we have looked at. And there are any number of scientific ways that you can explain that letter as to why there are complications with trans soldiers in that with readiness and deployability.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday bluntly told President Donald Trump in the Oval Office that Canada is “not for sale” after Trump repeated his assertion it should become the 51st state.

“As you know from real estate, there are some places that are not for sale. And Canada is not for sale, it will never be for sale,” Carney told Trump. “But the opportunity is in the partnership and what we can build together. And we have done that in the past.”

Trump still didn’t let go of the idea as he later mused, “Never say never.”

“Time will tell. It’s only time. But I say never say never,” Trump said. “I’ve had many, many things that were not doable, and they ended up being doable and only doable in a very friendly way.”

Trump and Carney’s high-stakes talks on Tuesday come as the historically friendly relationship between the U.S. and Canada has become strained due to Trump’s tariffs and takeover threat.

Minutes ahead of their meeting, Trump lashed out at Canada on his conservative social media platform, writing the U.S. didn’t need “anything” the country has to offer in terms of trade and goods.

“We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us! The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence,” Trump wrote.

Carney’s visit comes off the heels of his election win to replace Justin Trudeau that was fueled, in part, by his anti-Trump platform.

After his victory, Carney warned Canadians: “Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never, that will never ever happen.”

Trump on Monday had said he was “not sure” what the prime minister wanted to discuss but added that Canada “wants to make a deal,” while Carney said on Friday that they will focus on “trade pressures and the broader future economic and security relationship.”

“I’m not pretending these discussions will be easy — they won’t proceed in a straight line,” Carney said last week. “There will be ups and downs, zigzags along the way. But as I said in my remarks, I will fight for the best possible deal for Canada. I will only accept what’s in the best interest of Canadians, and I will take as much time as necessary to achieve that.”

One advantage for Carney compared to his predecessor going into this meeting is his lack of history with Trump. Trudeau left his post with a bruised relationship with the president, who Trump repeatedly trolled as “governor” rather than prime minister. The two leaders were unable to work out a tariff deal.

A 25% tariff imposed by Trump remains in place for Canadian goods that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (or USMCA) as well as a 10% tariff on Canadian oil imports and 25% tariff on all cars, auto parts, steel and aluminum.

Canada’s retaliatory action includes a 25% tariff on vehicles imported from the U.S. that are not compliant with USMCA. In March, Canada imposed $21 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs were applied on items like American orange juice, whiskey, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles and certain pulp and paper products.

Canada also has a lot to lose if Trump follows through with threat to impose 100% tariffs on films produced outside the U.S.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.