Trump set for UN meetings with war on agenda as speech looms
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump is expected to start the day with a speech to assembled delegates at the UN General Assembly, before meeting with no fewer than 11 world leaders, bilaterally or in group settings.
While the contents of his speech are unknown, Trump last year caused a stir with a combative address, telling the audience that their countries were “going to hell” for, among other things, climate policy and mass migration.
The president is then set for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with leaders from four continents on Tuesday. It comes against the backdrop of an unstable Middle East and a four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine that shows no signs of abating.
Trump will meet with British prime minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the representatives of the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
In the evening, he may meet dozens more leaders, albeit briefly, during a leaders’ reception. Trump met with French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday and additions to his Tuesday schedule are possible.
Here, my colleague Robert Tait provides some analysis on what may be expected from Trump’s address:
In other developments:
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The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds. Newsrooms including the New York Times and the Washington Post also decided to hold off on publishing or distributing still photographs taken as part of the White House pool coverage on Monday until midnight as part of the collective effort. More here.
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The barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights. The parties are seeking a temporary restraining order that would immediately lift the ban – and return access for the journalists – while the case plays out. More here.
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Trump is bracing for a loss in the lawsuit brought by the three media organizations, as he considers that the judge presiding over the case – his own appointee – previously ordered the White House to restore credentials for journalist Jim Acosta. “In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal,” he wrote on Truth Social.
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Trump said that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms. More here.
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The Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas on Sunday spoke out from detention on Monday afternoon when he was able to call his lawyer, in the middle of a press conference, and plead for better medical care. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was taken from a hospital in Austin into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, even though he apparently still has a bullet lodged near his spine and is in much discomfort. More here.
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Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican subject of a House ethics complaint that she had sex with three staff members, and paid one to keep quiet, has said the allegations are untrue – and part of a “politically motivated” campaign against her. More here.
Key events
Head of the United Nations warns of spiraling global conflict ahead of Trump’s address
Tom Ambrose
In his address to the world leaders gathered at the UN general assembly in New York, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said the world must work together in “interdependence” to solve problems.
“The fault lines in our world are widening,” Guterres, who leaves office at the end of the year, said, citing geopolitical conflicts, the climate crisis and the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
But instead of letting the future continue to veer toward fragmentation, transactionalism and mistrust, he called for “a world built on interdependence – and sustained by a dense web of economic, political, social and technological connections.”
Republican senator calls for probe into Trump Jr’s oligarch-funded wedding, crypto
Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, on Tuesday published a letter calling for a key Senate committee to investigate Donald Trump’s son over his personal and business dealings with foreign governments, as well as his shady ventures in cryptocurrency and predictions markets.
Curtis’ letter follows a bombshell report from ProPublica earlier this month that found Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had helped bankroll Trump Jr.’s lavish Bahamas wedding earlier this year.
“A toaster is a wedding gift,” Curtis wrote in a post to social media revealing the letter. “A private-island party paid for by a Putin-connected oligarch is something else. Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. ‘Trust us’ was not enough then, and it is not enough now.”
But Curtis’ concerns over Trump Jr.’s dealings go beyond the wedding, citing his pursuit of real estate deals abroad that have included meetings with foreign heads of state, his stake in defense contractors, and his promotion of Trump family-backed cryptocurrency ventures that have generated immense wealth for the president and his family.
He also took aim at Trump Jr.’s deep investment in the nascent and dubiously legal prediction market industry, most notably through his ties to Polymarket, that depend on a lenient hand from federal regulators his father has power over.
Trump on concerns about depleted US munitions: ‘It’s not true’
After months of mounting concerns that the campaign against Iran has critically depleted the US supply of munitions, Trump took to social media – not long before he was set to address world leaders at the United Nations – to dismiss the fears.
“The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It’s not true. We have more munitions than we could ever possibly think of using, and are building them up now at levels we have never seen before.”
(Several outlets, citing officials within the Trump administration, have reported that a critical shortage of key munitions, including missile interceptors, is shaping decision-making around the war. In a report published earlier this month, the Defense Department’s inspector general acknowledged the supply constraints, writing that the missile expenditure in Iran has “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.”)
The US and Iran have been at war since February, when Trump, alongside Israel, launched a series of missile strikes that killed the country’s supreme leader. Since then, the remains of Iran’s hardline leadership have dug in, blockading the vital Strait of Hormuz, a key artery of oil shipping, and launching waves of drones and missiles at US bases and ships in the region.
The US has retaliated by striking Iranian targets and oil tankers, and by imposing withering economic sanctions aimed at forcing the regime back to the bargaining table.
Those efforts, so far, have not yielded the kind of capitulation that Trump has demanded to end the war.
A series of top Republicans heading to Iowa and New Hampshire – key states in the presidential primary – have raised the possibility of a contentious 2028 field for the GOP nomination, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Senator Ted Cruz, a onetime 2016 primary opponent of Trump’s, and John Kennedy, a senator from Louisiana, have both visited Iowa in recent weeks. Senator Rick Scott of Florida headlined a party event in New Hampshire.
Add to them senator Rand Paul, the longtime libertarian from Kentucky who has often clashed with Trump, and representative Thomas Massie, a congressman from the state who Trump helped oust via a primary challenge. Neither has ruled out a presidential run.
Democrat says ICE blocked her oversight visit to country’s largest detention camp
José Olivares
Federal immigration officials in Texas prevented US representative Veronica Escobar from fully conducting her congressional oversight duties at a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, the lawmaker said in an interview with the Guardian.
Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso and surrounding areas on the US-Mexico border in west Texas, conducted an oversight visit last month at the Camp East Montana ICE tent facility housed in the Fort Bliss military base, after two separate “disturbances” had been reported there in recent weeks.
But when she arrived to scrutinize conditions at the camp, the largest ICE detention center in the country, she said she was not allowed to speak with any of the detained immigrants. She also requested surveillance footage of the reported incidents but said she has not received it.
“The administration obviously has attempted to block congressional oversight,” Escobar said in a telephone interview with the Guardian. “It’s been very challenging at times. And that has depended on, to a large extent, what the directive has been from the administration.”
The constraints placed on Escobar is one of the latest instances in which the Trump administration has limited members of Congress’s ability to conduct oversight visits into federal immigration detention centers.
Escobar and other federal lawmakers sued the Trump administration last year for blocking such access. Despite a federal judge ruling in favor of the lawmakers last December, there have been subsequent reports of ICE officials placing limits on or turning away members of congress when attempting to conduct oversight visits.
“Oversight, during the second Trump administration, has certainly been significantly more challenging than during the first Trump administration,” Escobar added.
Trump seeks ‘massive’ Belarus fertiliser deal amid Canada trade war
President Donald Trump has said he is working on a “massive” deal to buy fertiliser from Belarus, pivoting away from main supplier Canada amid an escalating trade dispute, and moving instead toward an ally of Russia.
“The United States is working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our farmers and ranchers.”
In recent weeks Trump has stepped up his trade war with Canada, a long-term US ally and the country’s biggest supplier of potash.
The announcement on Monday shows Washington’s willingness to pursue dialogue with Minsk despite its repression of dissidents and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US imports most of its potash – a chemical salt used to manufacture fertiliser – and prices soared after the Ukraine war began in 2022.
In 2024, 79% came from Canada, 11% from Russia and 4% from Belarus, according to the US Geological Survey.
Trump and Mamdani appear friendly after ‘wide-ranging’ meeting at Gracie Mansion
José Olivares
Donald Trump said on Monday that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms.
At a news conference following their closed-door meeting at Gracie Mansion, Trump and Mamdani appeared friendly as they have in previous meetings. Mamdani said he and Trump held a “wide-ranging” discussion, which touched on affordable housing and immigration, but did not offer extensive details regarding any disagreements between them.
Asked whether he challenged Trump over his decision to ban CNN, MS Now, and Politico from White House grounds, Mamdani said: “I told the president that we’re going to have all of the members of the press here on the lawn, and that is something that I believe in.”
“It’s interesting because they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn’t very worried about that,” Trump chimed in, pointing to the large assembly of press on the lawn.
The visit to Gracie Mansion, ahead of the president’s speech to the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, was a measure of Trump’s apparent respect for the 34-year-old mayor of his native New York. It was the first presidential visit to the historic riverside residence in 45 years, following Ronald Reagan, who met there with Ed Koch in 1981.
US TV networks suspend White House pool coverage over Trump media ban
Ariana Baio
The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds.
The collective decision came after the barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights.
The ban was an extraordinary escalation of Trump’s battle against news outlets. After a coalition of networks including ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC – which along with CNN form a press “pool” that share the responsibilities of capturing and distributing footage of the president carried by news outlets worldwide – announced they would cease coverage in solidarity with the barred outlets, the White House promoted its own feed online, branding it “Trump TV”. The channel purported to show “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration all in one place”.
“Get real-time updates and live events streamed DIRECTLY to your phone,” the White House posted on social media. “No noise. Just the news that matters most – straight from the Trump Administration.”
It is extremely rare for a president to travel or make public appearances without the accompaniment of a representative from the White House television pool. Network cameras have provided coverage of the president since 1950.
On Monday, the ban against CNN meant that no broadcaster was covering Trump’s midday ribbon-cutting to unveil a new White House helipad. Although the White House provided a livestream, without professional boom mics and audio setup, the president’s remarks were inaudible over the sounds of a helicopter’s engine running in the background.
The president abruptly announced his ban against outlets this weekend in a Truth Social post, saying he had enough of “purposely negative stories” about him. Journalists had their press badges confiscated by Secret Service on Saturday.
Trump set for UN meetings with war on agenda as speech looms
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump is expected to start the day with a speech to assembled delegates at the UN General Assembly, before meeting with no fewer than 11 world leaders, bilaterally or in group settings.
While the contents of his speech are unknown, Trump last year caused a stir with a combative address, telling the audience that their countries were “going to hell” for, among other things, climate policy and mass migration.
The president is then set for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with leaders from four continents on Tuesday. It comes against the backdrop of an unstable Middle East and a four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine that shows no signs of abating.
Trump will meet with British prime minister Andy Burnham, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the representatives of the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
In the evening, he may meet dozens more leaders, albeit briefly, during a leaders’ reception. Trump met with French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday and additions to his Tuesday schedule are possible.
Here, my colleague Robert Tait provides some analysis on what may be expected from Trump’s address:
In other developments:
-
The major US television news outlets agreed to suspend their video coverage of Donald Trump after the administration banned journalists from several outlets from entering the White House grounds. Newsrooms including the New York Times and the Washington Post also decided to hold off on publishing or distributing still photographs taken as part of the White House pool coverage on Monday until midnight as part of the collective effort. More here.
-
The barred outlets – CNN, MS Now and Politico – sued the administration on Monday, saying the president’s actions were a violation of their first amendment rights. The parties are seeking a temporary restraining order that would immediately lift the ban – and return access for the journalists – while the case plays out. More here.
-
Trump is bracing for a loss in the lawsuit brought by the three media organizations, as he considers that the judge presiding over the case – his own appointee – previously ordered the White House to restore credentials for journalist Jim Acosta. “In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal,” he wrote on Truth Social.
-
Trump said that he hoped Zohran Mamdani would be a “great mayor” for New York, an unusually warm assessment of the democratic socialist leader whom the president and his Republican allies have spent months holding up as a symbol of the Democratic party’s alleged embrace of “communism” ahead of the November midterms. More here.
-
The Venezuelan man who was shot by a federal immigration officer in Texas on Sunday spoke out from detention on Monday afternoon when he was able to call his lawyer, in the middle of a press conference, and plead for better medical care. Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, 28, was taken from a hospital in Austin into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, even though he apparently still has a bullet lodged near his spine and is in much discomfort. More here.
-
Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican subject of a House ethics complaint that she had sex with three staff members, and paid one to keep quiet, has said the allegations are untrue – and part of a “politically motivated” campaign against her. More here.
