Trump news at a glance: president gives his loyal enforcer the boot | Trump administration
Spring cleaning has begun at the White House.
Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, on Thursday, dismissing a loyalist who reshaped the Justice Department but still failed to please a president obsessed with pursuing political enemies and frustrated by the politically explosive release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
“We love Pam,” Trump wrote in an article on Truth Social, “and she will be transitioning to an important and much-needed new job in the private sector, which will be announced in the near future.”
The president added that Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, would serve as acting attorney general. Lee Zeldin, a former congressman from New York who now heads the Environmental Protection Agency, is reportedly a leading contender to replace Bondi.
Bondi may be best remembered for responding to Trump’s public demand last year that federal prosecutors bring criminal charges against his personal enemies, including James Comey, former FBI director, Letitia James, New York attorney general, and John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser. The Justice Department continued to investigate other Trump foes.
Trump fires loyalist and ally Pam Bondi as attorney general
During her 14 months as attorney general, Bondi presided over a major purge of Justice Department staff, shifted attention from criminal prosecutions to immigration cases and spearheaded the defense of Trump’s towering stack of executive orders as they faced legal challenges.
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Trump asked his advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief
Exclusive: Donald Trump has privately asked Cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, expressing frustration at having protected a former lawmaker who undermined his rationale for war with Iran, according to two people briefed on the discussions.
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Iran War Justification Questioned After Trump Says ‘I Don’t Care’ About Uranium Stockpiles
Donald Trump has said he does not care about Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU), arguing they lie deep underground and can be monitored by satellite, raising questions about one of the main US justifications for the war.
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Trump’s White House ballroom gets approval from planning authorities
Donald Trump’s ballroom project at the White House received approval from Washington planning authorities on Thursday, two days after a judge ruled that work could not proceed without congressional approval.
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Republican senators break with Trump on NATO withdrawal as tensions rise
A second Republican senator came out in favor of NATO on Thursday, joining Mitch McConnell and Democrats, after Donald Trump said he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance after it refused to participate in the joint assault with Israel on Iran.
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Trump warns Tehran that ‘more to follow’ after strike destroys Iran’s largest bridge
Donald Trump has claimed responsibility for the destruction of Iran’s largest bridge, a day after threatening to bomb the country “to return the country to the Stone Age” if a deal ending the five-week war he started is not reached.
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Oil prices jump and markets fall after Trump warns Iran
Oil prices rose and stocks fell after Donald Trump vowed in a televised speech to hit Iran “extremely hard” in the coming weeks, dashing hopes of a near-term end to the Middle East conflict.
Brent crude prices jumped 8% Thursday morning to above $109 a barrel, reversing Wednesday’s decline when hopes of a de-escalation of the war in Iran pushed the international benchmark below $100 a barrel at one point.
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What else happened today:
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The United States lifted sanctions against Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, It is the latest step toward normalizing relations between the two countries after U.S. forces kidnapped his predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.
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A coalition of civil rights groups sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying a new executive order to limit mail-in voting was unconstitutional.
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The Costa Rican government agreed to take in up to 25 migrants deported from the United States per weekSthe latest deal in the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to deport dozens of people to “third countries.”
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The US House of Representatives on Thursday took no action on a compromise measure that would end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)which raises questions about how long this period of record unfunding will persist.
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Donald Trump threatens to impose 100% tariffs on pharmaceutical companies that have not reached agreements to lower drug prices in the United States. The new tariff would apply only to branded drugs and their active ingredients.
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Randy George, the top US military officer, leaves office after Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, reportedly requested that he retire immediately. The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that George, who served as the Army’s 41st chief of staff, was retiring.
A catch-up? Here’s what happened Wednesday April 1.
