Pinned
Luke Broadwater
Luke Broadwater covers the White House and reported from Michigan.
Trump vilifies migrants and attacks opponents in a speech in Michigan.
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President Trump marked the first 100 days of his second term on Tuesday at a rally in Michigan in which he celebrated his border crackdown and boasted of the retribution he has carried out against his perceived enemies and his opponents’ inability to thwart his agenda.
The president addressed about 3,000 of his supporters at Macomb Community College, in an area near Detroit seen as key to his electoral victory in the state and emblematic of union workers’ shift from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
Mr. Trump was in campaign mode, peppering his sentences with false statements — such as the lie that the 2020 election had been stolen — exaggerations, jokes and insults. He mocked the way his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr., looked in a bathing suit and encouraged the crowd to cheer to indicate which demeaning nickname for him they preferred: “Sleepy Joe” or “Crooked Joe.”
“I miss the campaign,” Mr. Trump said at one point.
The speech had been billed as a way for the president to build momentum for his economic policies, which have been dragging him down politically. The area in which Mr. Trump spoke held signs that said “Buy American. Hire American.”
His expansive tariffs have hurt the stock market and contributed to a drop in his approval rating. A majority of Americans approved of Mr. Trump’s performance in office throughout January and February, but he is now struggling with what polls show is greater public disapproval.
Those in the crowd cheered Mr. Trump’s agenda, and attendees said they supported his efforts to use tariffs to try to bring back manufacturing jobs to areas like Detroit, the home of the U.S. auto industry. The city has lost one-third of its population since 2000.
Brian Pannebecker, a retired auto worker who backs Mr. Trump’s tariffs, spoke at the rally, declaring that “Macomb County is the home of the Reagan Democrats.” About 56 percent of the county’s votes in 2024 went for Mr. Trump.
Outside the venue, however, protesters gathered with signs saying, “I dissent.” Two protesters who made it into the rally were removed by security, and the president laughed after calling one by the wrong gender.
Much of the speech focused on Mr. Trump’s border crackdown, which has resulted in a sharp drop in crossings but also concerns about a lack of due process for those who’ve been arrested. Mr. Trump reveled in a cinematic video using drone footage that depicted men in military-style gear taking deported migrants into a prison in El Salvador as their heads were shaved.
Since coming into power, the Trump administration has deployed an extensive public relations effort to promote its deportation policy. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has assisted in the effort. Both administrations have posted sensational videos of the deportations on social media.
Mr. Trump exaggerated the extent of his crackdown during his speech, falsely claiming at one point that only three people had slipped by his border agents.
Mr. Trump also cast himself as a man of action, highlighting the rapid pace of his executive orders. He has signed more than 130 executive orders this year, nearly as many as Mr. Biden did throughout his term.
He seemed particularly proud of how he has wielded extraordinary executive power in slashing the federal work force of what he called “incompetent and unnecessary deep state bureaucrats.”
Fifty percent of voters in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll said the upheaval Mr. Trump had brought to the nation’s political and economic systems was a “bad thing for the country.” Only 36 percent said the changes were good. And voters said he had “gone too far” on issue after issue: tariffs, immigration enforcement, cuts to the federal work force.
At the rally, Mr. Trump showed little concern about his falling poll numbers, dismissing them as rigged.
The Democratic National Committee issued a statement responding to Mr. Trump’s rally. “While Donald Trump lives in his delusions, Michigan families — along with millions of working families across this country — are forced to live with the consequences of his dangerous, chaotic, and economy-destroying agenda,” said Ken Martin, the D.N.C. chairman.
Before the rally, Mr. Trump attended a bipartisan event at nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base. There, he held to a more serious tone and announced an infusion of new resources, including 21 new fighter jets, seen as key to keeping the base open.
“This will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of northern American air power,” Mr. Trump said.
At the event, Mr. Trump credited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat who some criticized for her recent visit to the White House, with pushing to save the base. Ms. Whitmer appeared onstage with the president.
“I’m really damn happy we’re here,” Ms. Whitmer said after the president’s announcement.
Edgar Sandoval
Reporting from San Antonio
ICE agents arrest a migrant who climbed a tree to evade them.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in San Antonio arrested a man said to be an undocumented immigrant after a roughly eight-hour standoff that unfolded on Tuesday in a backyard where he tried to evade arrest by climbing a tree.
The man, who immigration officials identified as Raul Ical, a 29-year-old from Guatemala, attracted a large crowd of residents and journalists.
“You don’t have to sign anything,” yelled Jose Montoya, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a local advocacy group, as Mr. Ical climbed down a ladder that federal agents had placed in the backyard.
When Mr. Ical surrendered, looking defeated, he was quickly handcuffed by agents.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the episode was part of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal immigration.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” she said in a statement. “Whether in a tree or harbored in an activist judge’s house, if you are here illegally, ICE will find you, arrest you and you will be deported.”
ICE said that deportation officers in San Antonio and state police tried to serve Mr. Ical what the agency described as a “criminal warrant” on Tuesday morning before he left his vehicle and fled on foot. He ran into a backyard and climbed a tree, where he remained for hours, the authorities said.
It was unclear Tuesday afternoon whether Mr. Ical had a prior criminal record or if he had legal representation.
News of the standoff spread around the west San Antonio neighborhood as agents tried to persuade Mr. Ical to climb down. Gabriel Rosales, the director of the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the treatment of the migrant appalled him when he arrived at the scene.
“This is something that concerns me,” Mr. Rosales said. “They are coming into our communities and coming after people that look like us.”
A man who lives nearby, Joel de la Roja, 61, said that the large police presence worried him.
“A lot of people in this neighborhood are from Mexico, and they are probably scared, too,” Mr. Roja said. “It seems a bit too much. One man does not need all of these officers after him.”
Chris Rodriguez, 38, said he had heard a helicopter roaring in his neighborhood at around 11 a.m. He followed its path on his bicycle.
“It’s a sad situation,” he said. “This is the first time I see something like this. If it’s something where he’s a danger to the community, then you understand it. But I think that if he’s just undocumented, that’s overkill.”
After more than eight hours on top of the tree, a woman who described herself as a relative of Mr. Ical stood next to Mr. Montoya and called Mr. Ical. He was seen answering it; Mr. Ical told her he had decided to give up.
He was loaded into a white truck and taken away as the crowd of local news media and residents recorded the scene on their phones.
“Treat him well,” one woman yelled. “Don’t sign anything. Don’t say anything.”
Hank Sanders contributed reporting.
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Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
Trump says he could free Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, but won’t.
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President Trump, whose administration has insisted it could not bring Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador to the United States, said he does have the ability to help return the wrongly deported Maryland man, but is not willing to do so because he believes he is a gang member.
“You could get him back, there’s a phone on this desk,” said Terry Moran, an ABC News correspondent, noting a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia.
“I could,” Mr. Trump replied.
Mr. Moran said Mr. Trump could call President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and get Mr. Abrego Garcia back immediately.
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Mr. Trump said. “But he is not.” Mr. Trump added that government lawyers do not want to help bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
Mr. Trump’s comments not only undermined previous statements by his top aides, but were a blunt sign of his administration’s intention to double down and defy the courts. Before the interview with ABC News, the administration had dug in on its refusal to heed the Supreme Court order to help return Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is a Salvadoran migrant. Trump officials have said that because he was now in a Salvadoran prison, it was up the Salvadoran government to release him.
The Justice Department has argued that it can respond to the Supreme Court’s demand that the administration “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release by doing little more than letting him enter if he manages to present himself at a port of entry.
“That’s up to El Salvador, if they want to return him,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said during an Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bukele this month. “That’s not up to us.”
During that meeting, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of his immigration agenda, also argued that any question about releasing Mr. Abrego Garcia needed to be directed to Mr. Bukele rather than Mr. Trump.
“It’s very arrogant even for American media to suggest that we would tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens as a starting point,” Mr. Miller said. “That is the president of El Salvador. Your questions about the court can only be directed to him.”
Mr. Bukele also refused to help bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States, arguing it would be akin to releasing a terrorist from prison.
But Mr. Trump appeared to acknowledge during his interview with ABC News that he did have the power to help bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday night.
Mr. Trump also told ABC News his administration was right to send Mr. Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador designed for terrorists, known as CECOT, despite various government officials previously saying in court that the deportation was an “administrative error.” Mr. Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States illegally in 2012, was arrested in March of 2019 while looking for work near a Home Depot.
In October 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Mr. Abrego Garcia could not be deported back to El Salvador because he faced a credible fear of persecution from the gang Barrio 18. The judge allowed him to stay in the United States under a status called “withholding of removal,” and he obtained a work permit.
But despite that order forbidding his deportation, the administration arrested him in March of this year, accused him of having ties to MS-13 and deported him to the prison in El Salvador.
“This is a MS-13 gang member,” Mr. Trump said during the interview.
Mr. Abrego Garcia has never been charged with or convicted of being a member of a gang. During his deportation proceedings, some evidence was introduced that he belonged to MS-13, and judges decided it was enough to keep him in custody while the matter was resolved. But other judges have expressed doubt about that evidence.
“The ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived,” Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the efforts to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States, wrote in an order this month.
During the interview with ABC News, Mr. Trump also argued Mr. Abrego Garcia’s tattooed hands were evidence of his gang ties. Mr. Trump has accused him of being a member of MS-13, previously sharing a photograph of the tattoos, altered with the label MS-13 above the symbols.
The tattoos themselves appear to be real, but some gang experts have questioned whether they are truly MS-13 symbols.
Minho Kim
A federal judge in California blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to cut funding to nonprofits that provide legal services for undocumented migrants under 18 who entered the United States without adult guardians. In her opinion, the judge, Araceli Martínez Olguín, warned the administration of contempt and sanctions if it does not comply with her order. Nearly 130,000 children without a parent or legal guardian crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in fiscal 2022.
Congress approved funding for direct legal representation for such unaccompanied children until September 2027, and the budget bill that President Trump signed into law in March also mandates funding for their legal services.
Tim Balk
Judge Hannah C. Dugan of Milwaukee, who was arrested last week on charges of obstructing immigration enforcement, has been suspended, according to an order from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The suspension will last “until further order” of the State Supreme Court and is intended to uphold the “public’s confidence” in the state court system during the case, the order said. It is administrative — not disciplinary — said Stephen Kelley, a spokesman for the Wisconsin court system.
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Edgar Sandoval
When immigration authorities in San Antonio tried to serve a criminal warrant on Raul Ical on Tuesday afternoon, the 29-year-old Guatemalan national climbed a tree to evade arrest, the authorities said. Ical came down and was detained at around 7 p.m. after more than seven hours up in the tree. At one point, a neighbor yelled, “no te bajes,” which translates as “don’t get down.”
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Mark Walker
Reporting from Washington
A key lawmaker proposes funding for aviation safety improvements.
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Representative Sam Graves, Republican of Missouri and chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on Tuesday unveiled a $15 billion plan to modernize the nation’s air traffic control systems, a move underscoring growing concern over the aging technology responsible for guiding millions of flights safely through the skies each year.
The proposal would fund upgrades to radar, telecommunications and other critical systems used by the Federal Aviation Administration, while also addressing staffing shortages that have strained control towers across the United States.
The timing was not incidental. On Monday, equipment outages and thin staffing disrupted flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the F.A.A. And on Jan. 29, at Ronald Reagan National Airport, near Washington, D.C., a fiery midair collision killed 67 aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet.
A New York Times investigation found that radar limitations and communication failures were among the factors that contributed to the Jan. 29 crash. The Black Hawk’s Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out, or ADS-B Out, a system that continuously reports an aircraft’s position and altitude, had been turned off during the Army’s training mission that night, forcing the controller to rely on intermittent transponder signals which take five to 12 seconds to refresh, the investigation found.
Radio communications also faltered that night. The controller’s instructions were “stepped on” — or drowned out — as the helicopter crew pressed their microphone, and may never have been heard. This left the helicopter pilots without a key piece of information they needed to execute a common aviation practice known as visual separation and safely navigate around the American Airlines jet without having to rely on the controller working traffic that night.
The vulnerabilities are not new. A Government Accountability Office report issued last year warned that dozens of air traffic control systems were in “unsustainable” condition, citing risks that extend from technological failures to chronic understaffing.
Erica L. Green
White House reporter
In the ABC interview that was broadcast on Tuesday night, Trump said that his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, held while the two attended Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome, was a “moment of solace,” because so many Ukrainian people were dying. The moment appeared to be a turning point in the strained relationship between the two leaders, and ignited Trump’s frustration with Russia for not agreeing to a ceasefire deal. “A lot of his people are dying,” Trump said of Zelensky, adding that he felt “very badly about it.”
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Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
“I could,” Trump said when pressed by Terry Moran of ABC News on his ability to facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man and Salvadoran immigrant who the administration deported to El Salvador despite a court order forbidding his deportation there. Trump and his advisers have dug in on their refusal to heed a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” the release of Abrego Garcia.
Trump’s answer contradicted his advisers, who have claimed only the Salvadoran government has the ability to release Abrego Garcia now that he is in a prison there. “If he were the gentleman you say he is,” Trump said, he would return Abrego Garcia. But Trump argued that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and should not be returned. A federal judge has expressed doubt over the evidence backing up that assertion.
Kate Selig
A federal judge temporarily blocks the border patrol’s stop-and-arrest tactics in California.
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In January, Border Patrol agents conducted sweeps through immigrant communities in California’s Central Valley, arresting nearly 80 individuals the agency said were unlawfully present in the United States.
Officials said the operation, named “Return to Sender,” was intended to target undocumented immigrants with serious criminal backgrounds. But lawyers for those arrested argued that the agents had simply rounded up people who appeared to be day laborers and farm workers, regardless of their actual immigration status, without having a legally sound reason to suspect they were in the country illegally.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction barring Border Patrol agents from stopping individuals without having a reasonable suspicion of illegal presence, as required by the Fourth Amendment.
The judge also blocked agents from making warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause to believe the person is likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained.
The Trump administration has adopted increasingly aggressive tactics in pursuit of its goal of mass deportations, but has faced pushback from the judiciary. The California ruling marks the latest attempt by courts to rein in enforcement actions that appear to conflict with long-established constitutional and legal protections.
Judge Jennifer L. Thurston of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California noted in her ruling that the government did not “dispute or rebut” the “significant anecdotal evidence” from the plaintiffs regarding Border Patrol’s stop-and-arrest practices.
The preliminary injunction, which applies to the federal district where the sweeps occurred, will remain in place as the case proceeds. A scheduling conference is planned for early June.
The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Representatives for the plaintiffs praised the decision. “You cannot stop people based on how they look,” said Elizabeth Strater, a national vice president of United Farm Workers, a labor union. “This ruling upholds the basic standards of law in the country.”
The Border Patrol operation, carried out in Kern County, which includes Bakersfield, Calif., targeted areas heavily reliant on immigrant labor for agriculture. Agents monitored places including a Home Depot and gas stations frequented by undocumented people.
Gregory K. Bovino, a Border Patrol chief in Southern California, described the operation at the time as an “overwhelming success.” He said in a series of social media posts that it had resulted in the arrests of 78 people who were in the country illegally, including a handful with “serious criminal histories.”
Advocates for farmworkers, however, said that many of those detained had no criminal records and that the raids had terrorized immigrant communities.
In February, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of United Farm Workers and five Kern County residents, claiming that Border Patrol agents stopped and arrested individuals regardless of their immigration status or individual circumstances.
The order granting the preliminary injunction cited public data from Border Patrol stating that of the 78 people arrested during the operation, 77 did not have a criminal or immigration history that was known before their arrest.
Steve Eder and Miriam Jordan contributed reporting.
Linda Qiu
Fact-checking Trump’s rally on his first 100 days.
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Within two minutes of speaking at a rally near Detroit to celebrate 100 days of his second term, President Trump told a lie: that he won Michigan “three times.” In fact, he lost the state in the 2020 election.
What followed on Tuesday was an hour and a half filled with many familiar falsehoods and exaggerations about his accomplishments, including on tariffs, immigration and his rollback of Biden administration policies.
Mr. Trump claimed an 87 percent decrease in the price of eggs and gas below $2 a gallon in three states. Both claims were overstated. The wholesale price of eggs has fallen by about 50 percent since he took office, but the retail price of eggs increased from January to March. And there is no state where gas is below $2 a gallon.
He trumpeted the signing of an executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. But three federal courts temporarily paused the order. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case in May.
Mr. Trump claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency, the initiative led by the billionaire Elon Musk, had saved “$150 billion on waste, fraud and abuse.” While the initiative’s website highlights $160 billion in savings, reporting by The New York Times and other news outlets has shown that the figures it posted rely on inflated figures and errors, for example, including a $318 million contract that did not actually exist.
He claimed that he had presided over a turnaround in military recruitment and that “nobody wanted to join the military” six months ago. Military recruitment actually began increasing before his election in November, and the Army recruited more people in August than in January or February.
Mr. Trump also made the case for his tariff policy with misleading claims about global trade.
He again inflated and mischaracterized trade deficits with Mexico and Canada, saying that the United States was “subsidizing” the two countries by $300 billion and $200 billion a year. The trade deficit in goods and services was $41 billion with Canada and $162 billion with Mexico; a deficit simply means that one country’s consumers are buying more from the other nation, not that it is giving money away.
He claimed that the Biden administration had lost $3 billion a day, a reference to the annual global trade deficit in goods. But by that same logic, his administration had “lost” more: about $4.8 billion daily, based on February’s trade deficit in goods of $135.4 billion.
And Mr. Trump repeated a number of inaccurate talking points recycled from the 2024 election.
He misleadingly called former Vice President Kamala Harris a “border czar” in the Biden administration. Ms. Harris was never appointed the border czar nor tasked with addressing border security. Rather, she was deputized to solve the “root causes” of migration.
He again baselessly accused the Biden administration of engineering a “massive border invasion” of terrorists and murderers. There is no evidence that other countries were “emptying” their jails and mental institutions into the United States, and studies have shown that immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.
Mr. Trump also rebuked his predecessor’s climate policy, falsely claiming that the Biden administration imposed an “insane electric vehicle mandate.” While the administration instituted a set of regulations that would, in effect, compel automakers to sell more electric vehicles, there was no ban on gas vehicles.
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Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
“If people come into our process illegally, there’s a different process,” Trump says when pressed on whether he is committed to providing due process for migrants he seeks to deport. The Supreme Court, however, has held that immigrants present in the United States, regardless of legal status, are guaranteed due process rights. The Supreme Court just this month ordered that even those deported under a wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, must be given a measure of due process.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
In pre-recorded interview with Terry Moran of ABC News that was broadcast on Tuesday evening, Trump says his most significant accomplishment in his first 100 days in office is his success driving down illegal crossings at the border. Trump is right that crossings are at a record low. But he stresses the importance of those efforts by claiming, without evidence, that nations in Latin America had intentionally sent criminals to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
The Democratic National Committee has issued a statement responding to Trump’s rally marking 100 days in office. “While Donald Trump lives in his delusions, Michigan families – along with millions of working families across this country – are forced to live with the consequences of his dangerous, chaotic, and economy-destroying agenda,” said DNC Chair Ken Martin.
Michael C. Bender
The White House threatens to cut off funding for Chicago’s public schools over a program that helps Black students.
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The Trump administration threatened on Tuesday to withhold federal funds from Chicago’s publicschools over a program designed to help Black students do better academically, furthering the White House’s assault on liberal policies in education.
The investigation, overseen by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, is based on a complaint from Parents Defending Education, a conservative, Virginia-based group that claims that the Chicago program, the Black Student Success Plan, amounted to racial discrimination. According to the complaint, the school district was “failing students of all races and ethnicities, which makes this racially segregated program all the more egregious.”
A spokeswoman for the school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A news release from the district said the plan is part of the system’s “commitment to eliminating educational opportunity gaps and ensuring Black students have the support needed to achieve academic success and personal growth.” It involves “implementing culturally-responsive practices and instruction, ensuring equitable resource allocation, increasing the recruitment and retention of Black educators and leaders, and fostering meaningful engagement with Black students and families.”
The Trump administration has slashed the number of civil rights investigators at the Education Department, but has also increased the number of inquiries into programs that administration officials think unfairly favor students based on race or grant special consideration to transgender students.
One investigation took aim at Denver’s public school system over a gender-neutral bathroom at a school. An inquiry into the school district in Ithaca, N.Y., has focused on an annual “Students of Color United Summit,” which a conservative group known as the Equal Protection Project complained had discriminated against white students.
The Education Department has also opened investigations into entire public school systems in California and Maine. The California inquiry concerns a state law protecting transgender students from disclosures to their parents. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine because the state ignored President Trump’s executive order barring transgender athletes who were assigned male at birth from participating in girls’ sports.
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Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
Trump said early in his speech that he missed the campaign. That was clear. His speech marking his first 100 days in office often resembled a campaign rally, as he attacked political enemies and complained about his past legal troubles. The 90-minute address did not, however, provide much insight into the future legislative strategy for his administration.
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Zolan Kanno-Youngs
White House reporter
Trump ends his speech marking 100 days in office with his signature dance to “YMCA” by the Village People. Trump began by promoting his success driving down border crossings before making clear he would continue to embrace sending migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador. He defended his tariffs as a means of restoring American manufacturing, even though most economists say they will result in higher prices for consumers in the months to come. As is often the case with Trump, he could not seem to stay on the topic of his administration’s actions. He often ran through his list of grievances and attacked political enemies. But that may be fitting given how much time Trump’s first 100 days in office have been dedicated to seeking retribution.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett
During an interview, the health secretary advises patients to ‘do your own research’ on vaccines.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advised parents of newborns to “do your own research” before vaccinating their infants during a televised interview in which he also suggested the measles shot was unsafe and repeatedly made false statements that cast doubt on the benefits of vaccination and the independence of the Food and Drug Administration.
Mr. Kennedy made the remarks to the talk show host Dr. Phil in an interview that aired Monday on MeritTV to mark the 100th day of the Trump administration. He said, as he has in the past, that “if you want to avoid spreading measles, the best thing you can do is take that vaccine.”
But Mr. Kennedy also made clear, as he has in the past, that he believes it is up to individuals to decide. In suggesting vaccines are unsafe, he contradicted decades of advice from public health experts, including leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I would say that we live in a democracy, and part of the responsibility of being a parent is to do your own research,” the health secretary said, in response to a question from a woman in the audience who asked how he would advise a new parent about vaccine safety. “You research the baby stroller, you research the foods that they’re getting, and you need to research the medicines that they’re taking as well.”
The phrase “I did my own research” became a cultural and political touchstone during the coronavirus pandemic, when proponents of vaccination, mostly on the political left, used it to denigrate those who had chosen not to get vaccinated. It became an internet meme and popped up on mock tombstones in Halloween-themed graveyards in liberal neighborhoods.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Kennedy’s comments came amid the largest measles outbreak in about 25 years in the United States, which has included the deaths of two young children and an adult.
Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who has often been at odds with Mr. Kennedy, said that it was “perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of vaccines,” but that parents who wanted to do their own research must be careful about their sources of information.
“What doing your own research should mean is that you should talk to, or at least look at online, people who have an expertise in the field, which doesn’t mean looking in chat rooms or just on social media blog posts,” Dr. Offit said. He added that while there is good information available, “there’s also a lot of really bad sources of information that will miseducate you about your choice. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a perfect example of that.”
Another vaccine expert, Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said Mr. Kennedy was being disingenuous. “He says that — doing your own research — knowing full well that when a parent does their own research, they are now mostly downloading an onslaught of disinformation — a lot of it from the health and wellness, nutritional supplement influencer industry trying to peddle alternatives.”
Mr. Kennedy also suggested, without evidence, that measles shots cause a variety of ailments. “Does it stop measles?” he asked. “Yeah, but does it also do something else, cause you seizures or cause neurological or autoimmune disease? We don’t know. Nobody can answer that question.”
In fact, studies have shown that, with rare exceptions, people who are vaccinated are less likely than those who suffer infections to develop autoimmune diseases, which has led researchers to conclude that vaccines “have not only the potential to protect the patient from infectious diseases, but also from its complications, including autoimmune manifestations.”
Mr. Kennedy’s other statements in the interview were also rife with inaccuracies. “New drugs are approved by outside panels, not by the F.D.A. or the C.D.C.,” he declared.
That is false. Outside panels of experts do advise the F.D.A. on controversial or high-profile drug approval decisions, and some panel members have ties to industry that are publicly disclosed before the meetings begin. But the F.D.A. alone has authority to approve or reject new drugs, vaccines and other therapies. The C.D.C. has no role in drug approvals whatsoever.
“Mr. Kennedy needs a briefing on drug development and F.D.A. decisions about marketing,” said Dr. Robert Califf, the agency’s commissioner under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “He is either ignorant on the topic or intentionally misleading the public. Outside panels are advisory. F.D.A. makes the decisions.”
Mr. Kennedy also insisted, inaccurately, that vaccines are not evaluated for safety either before or after they are licensed. “There’s no safety studies at the outset, there’s no surveillance system afterward,” he said, adding, “Vaccines are the only medicine or medical product that is exempt from pre-licensing safety testing.”
In fact, the Food and Drug Administration licenses vaccines after a yearslong process that begins with extensive testing in the lab and in animals and progresses to trials in humans. The F.D.A. requires careful studies of vaccine safety and effectiveness, often with thousands of people in large trials, said Dr. Peter Marks, the agency’s vaccine division chief who was recently forced to resign from his position.
“I don’t know where this misunderstanding is coming from,” said Dr. Marks, who has been critical of Mr. Kennedy. “Vaccines are required to be extensively studied for safety. By definition, we’re giving these products to healthy people. So safety is paramount.”
After vaccines are licensed, they are monitored via an alphabet soup of databases. The Vaccine Safety Data Link system has relied on electronic health records from medical centers across the country. It has been responsible for detecting unusual side effects, including rare cases of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, among young men who took Covid-19 vaccines.
Another system, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, developed in 1990 as a “national early warning system,” relies on reports from patients and providers. Although many vaccine critics, including Mr. Kennedy, have cited VAERS data to argue that vaccines are dangerous, the system was not designed to determine if vaccines cause health problems. It was designed to pick up hints that can be investigated further in other types of data systems.
The F.D.A. has an additional safety monitoring program called BEST, or the Biologics Effectiveness and Safety Initiative.
Dr. Sean O’Leary, the chairman of the committee on infectious diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said it was wrong to claim that federal officials did not keep an eye on vaccine safety. “I don’t know where this is coming from,” he said, “because none of it is true.”
He added: “We are aware of many rare adverse events. If it becomes clear that the risks are even close to outweighing the benefits, the vaccine gets pulled from the market.”
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Minho Kim
Reporting from Washington
A judge orders Trump officials to disburse funding for Radio Free Europe.
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A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to disburse congressionally approved grant money it has withheld from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a federally funded news organization that provides independent reporting in countries with limited press freedom.
The judge, Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered the Trump administration to pay the news organization $12 million for its April funding. Judge Lamberth appeared to close a loophole from his previous ruling, which allowed the Trump administration to effectively hold funds for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty while facially complying with the court mandate.
“In this case,” the judge wrote in his ruling, “it was Congress who ordained that the monies at issue” should go to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in legislation signed by President Trump himself.
“In short: The current Congress and President Trump enacted a law allocating funds to the plaintiffs,” he concluded.
The judge, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, also offered an unusual defense of the federal judiciary and its nonpartisan nature, as Mr. Trump has in recent months called for federal judges’ impeachment and his administration has teetered toward open defiance of courts in some cases.
In recent months, Judge Lamberth wrote, “people from both inside and outside government have variously accused the courts — myself included — of fomenting a constitutional crisis, usurping the Article II powers of the presidency, undercutting the popular will or dictating how executive agencies can and should be run.”
He continued: “The subtext, if not the headline, of these accusations is that federal judges are motivated by personal political agendas.”
Judge Lamberth rejected the assertion that he was dictating administration policy in an abuse of power or siding with the news organization out of admiration for its journalistic work.
“When President Reagan nominated me to this bench,” he said, “I swore that I would discharge my duties ‘without respect to persons faithfully and impartially under the Constitution.’”
He added: “I am governed by that oath every day. I am not a political actor, and I have no agenda to press. I believe that the same is true of my colleagues on the federal bench.”
The White House did not immediately issue a response to the ruling.
In March, the Trump administration terminated the grant for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after Mr. Trump signed an executive order seeking to gut its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Judge Lamberth temporarily blocked the grant termination about a week later, saying Mr. Trump cannot unilaterally shut down an organization funded by Congress.
After the ruling in March, the administration reversed the termination but kept withholding the money, asserting that it was negotiating new terms of the grant agreement with the outlet, also known as RFE/RL.
In the proposed agreement, Trump officials sought powers to pause funds for the federally funded broadcaster and shut down parts of its programming, moves that Radio Free Europe argued were forbidden by Congress to ensure journalistic integrity.
The agreement would also allow the Trump administration to determine the members of the outlet’s board, an authority Congress revoked in 2020 after Mr. Trump’s appointee at the global media agency meddled with the news group’s editorial decisions.
The news organization had asked the Trump administration to disburse the money it was owed for April so it could keep its operations going as they negotiate a new contract, but the government ignored the request multiple times.
Trump officials also went eight days without responding to the news group’s email until a few hours before a hearing in front of the judge.
“Turning a blind eye to the defendants’ delay tactics,” Judge Lamberth wrote, referring to the Trump officials who were sued, “would be a naïve conclusion, allowing the agency to indefinitely evade judicial review.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which reports in nearly 30 languages and reaches 47 million people every week, was on the brink of collapse before the court reinstated its funding.
It had terminated most contracts with freelance journalists, missed payments on office leases and furloughed more than 120 employees. The news group, a private nonprofit that has an independent board and hiring authority, receives 99 percent of its budget from congressional funding, according to court filings. Radio Free Europe’s lawyers said the news outlet would have ceased all operation by June without more funds.
The ruling follows another issued by Judge Lamberth, who ordered the Trump administration to restore operations at Voice of America, another government-funded news outlet the administration moved to shut down by putting nearly all of its employees on paid leave. Unlike RFE/RL, Voice of America is a federal agency whose journalists are government employees.
Mr. Trump has attacked Voice of America as “the voice of radical America,” and accused the outlet, which delivers news to countries such as Russia, China and Iran, of spreading “anti-American” and partisan “propaganda.”
Judge Lamberth had also ordered the administration to halt its efforts to shut down two other federally funded newsrooms: Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. But he stopped short of granting that relief to Radio Free Europe at the time because the government and the news organization were still negotiating.
A spokesman for Radio Free Asia, Rohit Mahajan, said on Tuesday that his organization still had not received its April funding, despite Judge Lamberth’s order last week.
During a hearing on Monday, Abigail Stout, the Justice Department lawyer on the case, argued that the court should not intervene in an active contract negotiation, as such actions could set a precedent that could bind the government’s hands in hammering out deals with other parties.
Judge Lamberth did not find her argument convincing.
Radio Free Europe lawyers “are not saying they are unhappy with the conditions,” the judge said, interrupting Ms. Stout. “They are saying the terms are illegal.”
When RFE/RL’s counsel, Thomas R. Brugato, approached him and said he had six points refuting Ms. Stout’s arguments, the judge again interjected.
“Only six?” Judge Lamberth asked, smiling.
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The U.S. textile industry takes exception to the Treasury secretary’s suggestion that its boom times are past.
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American textile manufacturers pushed back on Tuesday against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s suggestion that the industry was a thing of the past, arguing that U.S. makers of apparel and fabrics should not be overlooked as the Trump administration focuses on developing more advanced sectors.
The backlash came as President Trump marked 100 days in office by highlighting what he considers his economic accomplishments and as top aides defended his aggressive use of tariffs. Mr. Bessent drew the textile industry’s ire when he said earlier in the day that Mr. Trump was interested in “the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past” while explaining the president’s ambitions to spur domestic manufacturing.
Mr. Bessent, a native of South Carolina, said at a White House press briefing, “We don’t need to necessarily have a booming textile industry where I grew up again, but we do want to have precision manufacturing and bring that back.”
The National Association of Textile Organizations took offense, noting that it had been supportive of the Trump administration’s trade agenda, including the broad tariffs that Mr. Trump announced this month. The group pointed out that the U.S. textile industry produces more than 8,000 different products for the military and employed more than 470,000 workers last year.
“Our industry saw your remarks and were disheartened to hear this sentiment, especially since this industry has been noted by President Trump himself on a number of occasions as critical and strategic,” Kimberly Glas, the trade group’s chief executive, wrote in a letter to Mr. Bessent.
Critics of the Trump administration’s tariff strategy argue that the U.S. economy is heavily reliant on services and that efforts to reshore production of goods such as textiles would raise prices for consumers. Mr. Bessent was making the case that the Trump administration is focused on bolstering domestic manufacturing of products such as automobiles and items that are crucial to national security.
Ms. Glas, who requested a meeting with Mr. Bessent, said that U.S. textile manufacturers should not be overlooked as they compete with Chinese producers that benefit from Beijing’s unfair trade practices.
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Hegseth cuts a program that encourages women to take roles in national security.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted on Tuesday that he had “proudly” canceled a program that seeks to encourage more women to take part in national security issues.
The Women, Peace and Security Act was signed into law back in 2017 by none other than the man who is Mr. Hegseth’s boss today, President Trump. The program looks to increase the role of women in preventing and resolving conflicts all over the world.
Mr. Hegseth, in a post on the social media platform X, called the program “yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.”
As defense secretary, Mr. Hegseth does not have the authority to rewrite or overturn laws, but he said that from here on in, the Pentagon would carry out the minimum requirements of the program and work to end it.
He added, “Good riddance, WPS.”
The U.S. military services have tried to carry out the program’s goals in different ways. The Air Force, for instance, has asked commanders to recognize that men, women, boys, girls and various groups, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, all are “affected by conflict in different ways.” The Air Force set up working groups to consider how different populations are affected by military policies.
Aides to Mr. Hegseth said that he had spent the past week trying to draw attention away from negative articles in multiple news outlets about chaos at the Pentagon. Besides the public focus on — and an inspector general review into — his disclosures on the commercial chat app Signal of flight sequencing of American fighter jets in Yemen strikes, Mr. Hegseth has seen the dissolution of his inner circle of close advisers. Four members of the team he brought to the Pentagon have left the department, three of them accused of leaking information and escorted from the building. A fifth — his chief of staff — has also departed his post.
Mr. Hegseth has refused to acknowledge that he did anything wrong in disclosing the Yemen strike details on Signal.
On Tuesday, as he has done during much of his tenure as defense secretary, Mr. Hegseth was again taking aim at diversity and inclusion programs. When Mr. Trump signed the Women, Peace and Security Act into law in 2017, it was backed by a number of present-day Trump officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a senator at the time, and the current national security adviser, Mike Waltz.
