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Trump and Venezuelan interim leader hold first phone call
Donald Trump and Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, have both issued statements regarding their phone call earlier today.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “We are making tremendous progress, as we help Venezuela stabilize and recover. Many topics were discussed, including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, Security. This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL.”
In a post on X, Rodríguez wrote in Spanish that she “held a long and courteous telephone conversation” with Trump “in which we addressed a bilateral work agenda for the benefit of our peoples, as well as pending matters between our governments”.
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Senate votes against war powers resolution
The Senate has voted against a war powers resolution that would have prevented Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without giving Congress advance notice.
Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, who joined three other Republicans to advance the resolution alongside Democrats last week, flipped after they say they received assurances from the Trump administration.
With Hawley and Young’s votes, the Senate was split 50-50 on the resolution. JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Republican senators Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins cast their votes for the war powers resolution alongside Democrats.
Senator Todd Young, one of five Republicans who voted with Democrats last week to advance a bipartisan war powers resolution to prevent Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela, says he now sides with the president.
In a statement, Young said he “has received assurances that there are no American troops in Venezuela” and that if Trump were to pursue “major military operations” he would ask Congress “in advance for an authorization of force”.
Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri, shared a similar message with reporters earlier in the day.
Trump and Venezuelan interim leader hold first phone call
Donald Trump and Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, have both issued statements regarding their phone call earlier today.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “We are making tremendous progress, as we help Venezuela stabilize and recover. Many topics were discussed, including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, Security. This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL.”
In a post on X, Rodríguez wrote in Spanish that she “held a long and courteous telephone conversation” with Trump “in which we addressed a bilateral work agenda for the benefit of our peoples, as well as pending matters between our governments”.
The Trump administration canceled as many as 2,8000 grantees of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa), totalling up to $1.9bn in funding for substance use and mental health care yesterday.
“It feels like Armageddon for everyone who’s on the frontlines of the addiction and mental health space,” Ryan Hampton, founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy organization for people in and seeking recovery, told my colleague Melody Schreiber. “The scope of care that’s disrupted by these grants is catastrophic. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will die.”
We have the full story here:
Majority of US voters oppose military action in Iran, Greenland
A majority of Americans oppose the United States taking military action in Iran or Greenland, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
According to the public opinion polling center, 70% of US voters believe the United States should not get involved in Iran if protesters there are killed demonstrating against the government. Similarly, 86% of voters oppose the United States using military force to take control of Greenland.
Voters were more divided on the Trump administration’s decision to use military force to capture the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro. While 47% of voters said they supported the decision, 45% said they opposed it.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky and former Senate majority leader, denounced Donald Trump’s desire to control Greenland in a speech on the Senate floor today.
“I have yet to hear from this administration a single thing we need from Greenland that this sovereign people is not already willing to grant us,” he said. “Unless and until the president can demonstrate otherwise, then the proposition at hand today is very straightforward: incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in US access to the Arctic.”
Federal court upholds redrawn California congressional map
A US district court in California has upheld the state’s new congressional map, redrawn after voters approved the state’s bid to redistrict in order to counter similar gerrymandering efforts in Texas, called Proposition 50.
“Republicans’ weak attempt to silence voters failed. California voters overwhelmingly supported Prop 50 – to respond to Trump’s rigging in Texas – and that is exactly what this court concluded,” California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said in a statement reacting to the ruling.
“Californians overwhelmingly voted in favor of Proposition 50. Today’s decision upholds the will of the people. It also means that, to date, every single challenge against Proposition 50 has failed,” added the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta.
Donald Trump said he had a “great conversation” with Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, after his first known conversation with Nicolás Maduro’s former vice-president.
Here’s more of our recent coverage of Rodríguez:
Bill and Hillary Clinton filed sworn legal documents with Jim Comer yesterday, sharing everything they knew about Jeffrey Epstein, the office of Bill Clinton shared in a statement.
Comer chairs the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating the late convicted sex offender. Earlier today, Comer said he plans to hold the Clintons in contempt of Congress after they refused to appear before the committee for in-person testimony.
“Bill & Hillary Clinton took the extraordinary step of – without being asked – each submitting comprehensive statements to Jim Comer directly in two documents. Each was a sworn legal document listing everything they have to offer,” Clinton’s office said in the statement.
The documents include a four-page letter to Comer, as well as one-page declarations from both Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Democrats on the committee issued a statement adding that “President Trump’s targeting of the Clintons is part of a continuing pattern in which President Trump has weaponized the Department of Justice against his perceived political enemies, including, among others, former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and most recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell”.
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, announced on social media that “several officers from the Swedish Armed Forces are arriving in Greenland today”.
He added that the troops are “part of a group from several allied countries” preparing for “Operation Arctic Endurance”. He did not provide any additional details about the operation, but said it “is at Denmark’s request that Sweden is sending personnel”.
The president pushed back against another reporter’s question on his next steps in Greenland.
“You don’t know what I’m going to do,” Trump said. “Certainly I’m not going to give up options, but it’s very important. Greenland is very important for that national security, including of Denmark … I can’t rely on Denmark being able to fend themselves off.”
Donald Trump repeated his refrain that if the US doesn’t annex Greenland, “Russia is going to go in, and China’s going to go in, and there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it”.
“We can do everything about it,” he added, noting that after he wraps up in the Oval Office he’ll receive a briefing about the vice-president and secretary of state’s meeting with Danish and Greenlandic officials earlier today.
The president didn’t confirm that military action against Iran was off the table while speaking in the Oval Office today.
“We’re going to watch and see what the process is,” he said, adding that he’s been given “a very good statement by people that are aware of what’s going on”.
