The Latest: Newsom asks court to block Trump’s use of military in LA immigration raids

California Governor Gavin Newsom has filed an emergency motion in federal court to block National Guard members and Marines from assisting with immigration raids in Los Angeles. “Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens,” Newsom wrote on X.

President Donald Trump originally deployed the Guard to protect federal buildings and personnel. The governor’s request says the Guard will start supporting immigration activities.

Here’s the latest:

Photos posted Tuesday on X by ICE appear to show National Guard troops standing by while officials detain two men. Hegseth reposted the photos with the text: “This We’ll Defend.”

Troops are “providing perimeter and personnel protection” for ICE facilities and officers in the field, as well as helping with transportation as needed, agency spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe said in a statement. They can temporarily detain people, but cannot arrest them.

This comes after California officials were informed that the Pentagon planned to direct the Guard to start providing support for immigration operations, including holding secure perimeters for ICE operations, when they were initially deployed to protect federal property.

For the fifth day, demonstrators gathered in Los Angeles to protest ICE raids. A few dozen protesters gathered peacefully downtown in front of the federal detention center Tuesday, which was quickly declared an unlawful assembly. Police issued a dispersal order and corralled a small group of protesters, telling members of the media to stay out to avoid getting hurt.

Officers began making arrests Tuesday afternoon.

A federal judge will hold a hearing Thursday on Newsom’s request to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles.

Newsom filed the emergency request Tuesday seeking to immediately block the administration from sending troops to help support immigration raids. The governor argued it would only escalate tensions and promote civil unrest.

Administration lawyers say Newsom is seeking an unprecedented and dangerous court order that would interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out operations.

Trump speaking at Fort Bragg called Los Angeles a “trash heap” after protests over his removal of immigrants.

Trump has ordered troops into America’s second largest city, saying that “entire neighborhoods” are under the control of criminals. His vision of Los Angeles was at odds with an affluent city where an average home costs nearly $1 million, according to Zillow.

“We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again,” Trump said.

Immigration authorities raided at least one Omaha meat production plant Tuesday morning.

Omaha police and the Douglas County sheriff said immigration officials had warned them about their plans, and their departments helped block off traffic around the neighborhood where many food production plants are located while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers worked.

Meatpacking plants rely heavily on immigrant workers who are willing to do the physically demanding work. The industry has not yet been the focus of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, but the administration has been intensifying its efforts in recent weeks.

In Omaha, a small group of people came out to protest the raids, and some of them even jumped on the front bumper of a vehicle to try to stop officers in one location while others threw rocks at officials’ vehicles as a white bus carrying workers pulled away from a plant.

Glenn Valley Foods officials didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Associated Press.

Gov. Newsom filed an emergency request in federal court Tuesday to block the Trump administration from using the National Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles.

Newsom’s move comes after Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles following four days of protests driven by anger over the president’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.

The governor’s request said it was in response to a change in orders for the Guard.

The filing included a declaration from Paul Eck, deputy general counsel in the California Military Department. Eck said the department has been informed that the Pentagon plans to direct the California National Guard to start providing support for immigration operations. That support would include holding secure perimeters around areas where raids are taking place and securing streets for immigration agents.

The Guard members were originally deployed to protect federal buildings.

It was not clear if the change in mission had begun.

Newsom’s office did not immediately say how the state was notified about the change.

96 of the arrests were for failing to disperse in the downtown Los Angeles area, where earlier in the day, hundreds had hoisted signs protesting the arrest of a labor leader during a demonstration, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.

One person was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and another for vandalism. Two police officers were injured, taken to a hospital and released.

The police department said their officers used “numerous” less-lethal rounds, and that the crowd had thinned out by the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The Los Angeles mayor said her administration has heard the ICE raids could continue for the next 30 days, if not longer.

“It’s a sense of intimidation and fear that is just so unnecessary and so corrosive to our city,” Bass said at a Tuesday news conference. The mayor said she would place a call to President Trump asking him to stop the raids.

Bass scoffed at Trump’s claim on Saturday that the National Guard helped protect the city, especially because they didn’t even arrive until Sunday. She said Guard troops are “stationary,” protecting the LA federal building.

“They are not out doing crowd control or anything like that. So I don’t know how he could say that the National Guard is who saved the day. Who saved the day was our local law enforcement agencies,” Bass said.

The ceremonies, which number over 100 between Monday and Tuesday alone, included a beefed up presence of school police “to intervene and interfere with any federal agency who may want to take action during these joyous times,” said Alberto M. Carvalho, the superintendent of Los Angeles’ school district, at a press conference this week.

Carvalho asked parents to update their emergency contact information in case something goes awry and is offering them an option to view the graduations over Zoom. “Our schools are places of education and inspiration, not fear and intimidation,” said Carvalho.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said four officers who were injured during Monday night’s protests have been treated and released from a hospital by Tuesday.

Three officers were hurt by what she described as “very large” rocks that were thrown at police. The fourth officer injured a shoulder while making an arrest.

Davis said Austin police deployed pepper spray balls and that state police used tear gas to disperse the crowd once it started to turn violent. Davis said her department is prepared for protests that are planned for downtown Austin this upcoming weekend.

“We support peaceful protest,” Davis said. “When that protests turn violent, when it turns to throwing rocks and bottles .... That will not be tolerated. Arrests will be made.”

Rep. David Valadao, a moderate Republican who represents much of the state’s San Joaquin Valley, urged for peaceful protest and said he was also concerned over how the Trump administration is conducting ICE raids in the Golden state.

“I support the First Amendment right to peacefully protest, but the violence and vandalism happening in Los Angeles is unacceptable and I stand with our law enforcement officers working to protect people and regain control over the situation,” Valadao wrote on social media.

“I remain concerned about ongoing ICE operations throughout CA and will continue my conversations with the administration—urging them to prioritize the removal of known criminals over the hardworking people who have lived peacefully in the Valley for years,” he added.

Viral social media posts are claiming that a Craigslist ad seeking “the toughest badasses in the city” is proof that the Los Angeles demonstrations are made up of paid protestors.

But this is false.

The ad, which is no longer live, was bait for a prank show called “Goofcon1” and had nothing to do with the protests in Los Angeles. It was posted on Craigslist on Thursday, the day before the protests began.

In a livestreamed episode, the show’s hosts on Friday called and spoke with people who responded to the ad. Joey LaFleur, one of Goofcon1’s hosts, confirmed with The Associated Press that he put up the Craigslist ad for the show.

“I literally had no idea it was ever going to be connected to the riots. It was a really weird coincidence,” he said, referencing the ad. “I’m not trying to troll a serious situation.”

The president during his Oval Office engagement with reporters left open the possibility of invoking one the most extreme emergency powers available to a U.S. president.

“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” Trump said. “But I can tell you last night was terrible , and the night before that was terrible.”

The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.

It is often referred to as the “Insurrection Act of 1807,” but the law is actually an amalgamation of different statutes enacted by Congress between 1792 and 1871.

About 50 people gathered outside the immigration court in downtown Seattle on Tuesday, chanting with drums and holding up signs that said “Free Them All Abolish ICE” and “No to Deportations.”

Legal advocates who normally attend the immigration court hearings as observers and to provide support to immigrants were not allowed inside the building. Security guards also turned away the media.

The hearings are normally open to the public. Organizers said they were there solidarity with protesters in Los Angeles.

The protest was peaceful and there were no law-enforcement officers in the area in the morning.

Although most have been peaceful with marchers chanting and carrying signs, some have resulted in dozens of arrests.

The demonstrations have ranged from gatherings outside of federal office buildings or state capitol buildings, and marches through the downtown of several major cities. A series of so-called “No Kings” rallies were planned Saturday to coincide with President Trump’s scheduled military parade in Washington, DC.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on social media on Tuesday that the agency would continue its program of raids and deportations despite the protests.

“ICE will continue to enforce the law,” Noem posted on X.

In Santa Ana, California, armored vehicles blocked the road Tuesday morning leading into the Civic Center, where federal immigration officers and numerous city and county agencies have their offices.

Workers swept up plastic bottles and broken glass. Tiny shards of red, black and purple glass littered the pavement.

Nearby buildings and the sidewalk were tagged with graffiti containing obscenities and Trump’s name crossed out. A worker rolled paint over graffiti on a wall to block it out. National Guard officers wearing fatigues and carrying rifles prevented people from entering the area unless they worked there.

A handful of National Guard members are stationed in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center, long guns and wood sticks slung over their shoulders. Occasionally, a passing driver will honk at or heckle them, drawing no response.

News crews are stationed on the opposite side of the street, awaiting the possible arrival of the U.S. Marines. Otherwise, there are few signs of the tumult that has gripped the city in recent nights, aside from the graffiti scrawled across several buildings – “Abolish ICE,” “Amerikkka,” and obscene slogans directed at Trump and federal law enforcement.

At the Walt Disney Concert Hall, workers were busy washing away the graffiti on Tuesday morning.

The deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million and last at least the next 60 days, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a senior defense official told lawmakers Tuesday.

“We stated very publicly that it’s 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere,” Hegseth told members of the House appropriations defense subcommittee.

After persistent questioning from members of Congress, Hegseth turned to his acting comptroller, Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who provided the total and said this “is largely just the cost of travel, housing and food.”

She said the money will come from operations and maintenance accounts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson defended Donald Trump’s handling of protests in Los Angeles and echoed the president’s attacks on Newsom.

“That’s not my lane,” Johnson said in response to a question about whether Newsom should face legal consequences such as arrest.

Johnson, speaking at a news conference at the RNC on Tuesday, continued that Newsom should be “tarred and feathered”-- eliciting chuckles from members of House Republican leadership at the press conference -- for “standing in the way of the administration and the carrying out of federal law.”

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric Smith, said the battalion deployed to Los Angeles is already there and ready to follow the orders from the U.S. Northern Command, but clarified they have not yet been called to respond.

Smith testified at a budget hearing before senators that those Marines are trained for crowd control, and they would have shields and batons as their equipment. He said they have no arrest authority, and are only there to protect federal property and federal personnel.

When asked by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumental, a Connecticut Democrat, about the danger that Marines would use lethal force that could result in injuries and deaths, Smith said he had faith in them.

“I am not concerned. I have great faith in my Marines and their junior leaders and their more senior leaders to execute the lawful tasks that they are given.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott posted on social media that “more than a dozen protesters” were arrested by city and state police in Austin.

“Peaceful protesting is legal,” Abbott, a Republican, posted on X. “But once you cross the line, you will be arrested.”

Hundreds of protestors organized by the Austin chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation gathered near the Capitol on Monday, and moved toward the federal building that houses an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. State officials had closed the Capitol to the public an hour earlier than usual head of the demonstration.

In Dallas, hundreds of demonstrators gathered for a rally on a city bridge for several hours before police later determined the rally to be “unlawful.” Dallas police said one person was arrested and charges were pending.

DeSantis has often clashed with Newsom, who like DeSantis is a term-limited governor with national ambitions.

“You don’t have the right to just simply opt out of federal immigration law. And I think what’s happened in California is they’re a sanctuary state. They’ve taken the position really uninterrupted for many, many years that they can just ignore the law, they don’t have to cooperate. Well now you have the law being applied,” DeSantis said at a Florida Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

DeSantis said law enforcement officers in Florida are ready to crack down if demonstrations there boil over into riots.

“The minute you cross into attacking law enforcement, any type of rioting, any type of vandalism, looting, just be prepared to have the law come down on you,” DeSantis added. “And we will make an example of you, you can guarantee it.”

Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation are accusing Trump of creating a “manufactured crisis” in Los Angeles with his orders to send in thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines.

“It’s a deliberate attempt by Trump to incite unrest, test the limits of executive power and distract from the lawlessness of his administration,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who organized a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta said that Trump’s decision to send in the military was designed to “give him the image and give him the fight and give him the pictures that he wants.“

Panetta said the delegation would stand with peaceful protesters, but those who are not peaceful are going to pay the consequences.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi contrasted Trump’s actions now with his handling of the Jan. 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol when law enforcement officers were being beaten.

“We begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it,” Pelosi said.

Trump said his decision to “SEND IN THE TROOPS” to Los Angeles spared the city from burning to the ground like thousands of homes after wildfires this year.

He wrote on his social media site that people want to rebuild, and that the federal permitting process is “virtually complete on these houses.”

Trump claimed that “the easy and simple City and State Permits are disastrously bungled up and WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE!” and blamed Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

“People want to rebuild their houses. Call your incompetent Governor and Mayor, the Federal permitting is DONE!!!” he wrote.

The Pentagon was scrambling Monday to establish rules to guide U.S. Marines who could be faced with the rare and difficult prospect of using force against citizens on American soil, now that the Trump administration is deploying active duty troops to the immigration raid protests in Los Angeles.

The forces have been trained in deescalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force, Northern Command said.

But the use of the active duty forces still raises difficult questions.

The Marines are highly trained in combat and crisis response. But that is starkly different from the role they will face now: They could potentially be hit by protesters carrying gas canisters and have to quickly decide how to respond or face decisions about protecting an immigration enforcement agent from crowds.

According to a U.S. official, troops will be armed with their normal service weapons but will not be carrying tear gas. They also will have protective equipment such as helmets, shields and gas masks.

▶ Read more about the Pentagon’s guidelines for the Marines

This isn’t the image Los Angeles wanted projected around the globe.

Clouds of tear gas wafting over a throng of protesters on a blocked freeway. Federal immigration agents in tactical garb raiding businesses in search of immigrants without legal status. A messy war of words between Trump and Newsom. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire and graffiti scrawled on a federal detention center building, while videos recorded the sounds of rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades hitting crowds.

In a city still reeling from January’s deadly wildfires — and with the World Cup soccer championships and the 2028 Olympics on the horizon — Bass has been urging residents to come together to revitalize LA’s image by sprucing up streets, planting trees and painting murals so LA shows its best face to nations near and far.

“It’s about pride,” she’s said. “This is the city of dreams.”

▶ Read more about the impact of the protests

On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta’s arrest Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration’s crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state’s janitors, security officers and other workers.

Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta’s release.

Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension.

There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets.

Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders from Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and Newsom don’t want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests.

An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests.

Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.

Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don’t need the help.

Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on the social platform X.

▶ Read more about the deployment of more National Guard members

California National Guards guard Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo Damian Dovarganes)

Protesters run to avoid being kettled by police during protests over the Trump administration's immigration raids in Los Angeles, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Los Angeles police officers with batons and riot gear attempt to move back protesters in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

A protester taunts a line of California National Guard protecting a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

The state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are suing the federal government to stop an enforcement surge by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer.

The state and cities filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday, along with a request for a temporary restraining order to halt the enforcement action or limit the operation.

The Department of Homeland Security says it’s surging more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, and that it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the city since the push began last month. ICE has called the Minnesota surge its largest enforcement operation ever.

The lawsuit alleges that the operation violates federal law because it’s arbitrary and capricious, since it says other states aren’t seeing commensurate crackdowns. And while the Trump administration says it’s about fighting fraud, the lawsuit says ICE agents have no expertise in combating fraud in government programs.

Here's the latest:

North Korea accused the United States of trying “to imagine, fabricate and propagate” a “cyber threat” as the U.S. held a meeting Monday at the U.N. urging all countries to work to prevent the North’s illegal actions.

The country’s U.N. mission also called a U.S.-led group that monitors sanctions against Pyongyang “an illegal ghost organization” cooked up by some Western nations.

The 11-nation Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team issued a report in October detailing how North Korean hackers pilfered about $1.6 billion in the first nine months of 2025 by breaking into cryptocurrency exchanges and creating fake identities to get remote tech jobs at foreign companies.

Jonathan Fritz, U.S. principal deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told U.N. reporters Monday that since the report’s release, the U.S. thinks the North Koreans got over $2 billion during 2025 and are using the money to buy weapons.

Archbishop Paul Coakley, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the bishops’ conference, confirmed Coakley also met with Vice President JD Vance and other officials to discuss “areas of mutual concern, as well as areas for further dialogue.” She said the archbishop “is grateful for the engagement and looks forward to ongoing discussions.”

The meeting comes as Catholic leaders have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics and mass deportations. Pope Leo and the Catholic Church hierarchy strongly support the rights of migrants, even as they acknowledge the rights of nations to control borders.

Republicans’ already narrow House majority has shrunk since the start of the year following the resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and the death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa. The margin is expected to tighten further this week, with Rep. Jim Baird still recovering from injuries sustained in a car crash and Rep. Derrick Van Orden planning to be out beginning Monday as his wife undergoes a scheduled surgical procedure.

As long as Baird and Van Orden remain sidelined, House Republicans can afford to lose only a single vote on their side if Democrats have full attendance and are unified against a bill.

U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations Tammy Bruce told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that the U.S. deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the nearly four-year war and condemns Russia’s continuing and intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.

“At a moment of tremendous potential, due only to President (Donald) Trump’s unparalleled commitment to peace around the world, both sides should be seeking ways to de-escalate,” she said. “Yet Russia’s action risks expanding and intensifying the war.”

Bruce reminded Russia that nearly a year ago it voted in favor of a Security Council resolution calling for an end to the conflict in Ukraine

“It would be nice if Russia matched their words with deeds,” she told Monday’s council meeting called by Ukraine. “In the spirit of that resolution, Russia, Ukraine, and Europe must pursue peace seriously and bring this nightmare to an end.”

Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania objects to the Justice Department’s investigation of Powell.

“I think the Federal Reserve renovation may well have wasted taxpayer dollars, but the proper place to fix this is through Congressional oversight,” McCormick said in a statement.

He said he believes strongly in an independent Fed, and he also agrees with Trump that Powell “has been slow to cut interest rates.”

But he said, “I do not think Chairman Powell is guilty of criminal activity.”

American oil companies agree that Venezuela must reform its contract laws before they can have confidence investing a significant amount of money to revitalize crude oil production there.

The head of the American Petroleum Institute trade group, CEO Mike Sommers, said it’s too soon to predict when oil companies will move back into Venezuela because it has to be clear that country won’t just seize companies’ assets and kick them out of the country again in the future, and more needs to be done to ensure the security and safety of oil workers.

“There are going to have to be these key prerequisites if investment is going to flow,” Sommers said.

But he said the industry believes Trump understands that and is committed to addressing those concerns.

Over the weekend, Trump suggested that ExxonMobil should be left out of Venezuela after that company’s CEO said Friday that Venezuela is uninvestible right now. But Sommers said oil companies are unified in the view that some things have to change before they will invest.

The state of Illinois and its largest city are suing the Trump administration over a “menacing, violent, and unlawful” immigration crackdown.

More than 4,300 people were arrested in “Operation Midway Blitz” last year. Roving patrols of masked and armed agents hit Chicago neighborhoods and many suburbs.

Among other things, the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court alleges the crackdown had a chilling effect, making residents afraid to venture out or use public services.

“We have watched in horror as unchecked federal agents have aggressively assaulted and terrorized our communities and neighborhoods in Illinois, undermining Constitutional rights and threatening public safety,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.

One man was killed in the crackdown.

The lawsuit names the Department of Homeland Security and two of its immigration agencies. DHS didn’t immediately return a message Monday.

Just under half, 45%, of U.S. adults now identify as independents, a new Gallup survey found. That’s a substantial shift from 20 years ago, when closer to one-third of Americans identified as independent.

Younger people, in particular, are rejecting the parties at much higher rates than older generations. More than half of Generation Z and Millennials say they are political independents. Independent identity is softer in older generations, where only about 4 in 10 in Gen X currently call themselves independents and roughly 3 in 10 older adults do.

▶ Read more about the Gallup poll

Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered a brief but stern response Monday as he arrived at the U.S. Capitol, reacting to news that the Trump administration has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

“I haven’t seen the case or whatever the allegations or charges are, but I would say they better, they better be real and they better be serious,” said Thune.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had just given a speech calling on Trump to use his leverage to address high prices — and in an unusual move, he gave her a phone call.

While on the phone, she said she gave him advice about his recent push to cap credit card rates and lower housing costs. “No more delays. It’s time to deliver relief for American families.”

The White House did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Earlier in the day, Warren accused Trump of raising costs for American families and doing little to address affordability. “He sure knows how to get on the phone,” regarding Venezuela and the Epstein files, Warren said during her speech. “But is he on the phone to say, ‘Move that housing bill so that we can start right now?’”

That prompted Trump to call the Democratic senator he has goaded for years.

He plans to tour a Dearborn factory that is boosting hiring to make more Ford F-150 trucks. Trump also will give a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.

Trump is under pressure to show his economic policies are helping voters ahead of the midterm elections later this year. Leavitt said Trump will be “talking about all of the great economic news,” including mortgage rates falling below 6%.

House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to “let the investigation play out” when it comes to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

After opening the House on Monday, Johnson was asked by reporters if he was concerned about the ramifications of the DOJ’s investigation.

He said there have been “concerns about cost overruns and whatever the allegations are. I don’t know what’s involved in that.”

“I think you have to let the process play out. If Chairman Powell is innocent, then he can prove that and it will all come out,” Johnson said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump is “keeping all of his options on the table” but that “airstrikes would be one of the many, many options” that he’s considering.

“Diplomacy is always the first option for the president,” Leavitt said.

Trump on Sunday evening told reporters as he made his way back from Florida that Iranian officials have reached out to his administration for talks. Trump has threatened to take military action against the Islamic Republic for its brutal crackdown against protests that started more than two weeks ago and have spread across the country.

“What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately, and I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”

Venezuela’s powerful interior minister said Monday that his government is taking steps to reestablish diplomatic relations with the United States and wants to open a consulate that will look out for the interests of Venezuela’s captured leader, Nicolás Maduro.

“We are advancing in reopening a Venezuelan embassy in the United States and an American embassy in Venezuela,” Cabello said in a press conference. “This will enable us to have a consulate that can look out for the safety and the tranquility of our President Nicolás Maduro.”

Venezuela and the United States cut diplomatic ties and shut down embassies in 2019 after the first Trump administration backed an effort to remove Maduro from office. But after Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3, both countries' governments have been looking into reestablishing diplomatic ties with a U.S. delegation that visited Caracas last week.

Cabello has described Maduro’s capture as a “kidnapping” and is one of the officials who has demanded his return to Venezuela.

Maria Corina Machado is scheduled to make her highly anticipated White House visit on Thursday, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Trump has expressed skepticism since the ouster of Nicolás Maduro that Machado could ever be the South American country’s leader, saying she “doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country.”

Machado, for her part, has offered unending praise for the American president, including dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and backing his administration’s campaigns to deport Venezuelan migrants and attack alleged drug traffickers in international waters.

Machado rose to become Maduro’s strongest opponent in recent years, but his government barred her from running for office to prevent her from challenging — and likely beating — him in the 2024 presidential election. She chose retired ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to represent her on the ballot.

Officials loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner mere hours after the polls closed, but Machado’s well-organized campaign stunned the nation by collecting detailed tally sheets showing González had defeated Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin.

▶ Read more about the Venezuelan opposition

The president had a stark warning in a social media Monday morning that it would be “be a complete mess, and almost impossible for our Country to pay” back the money the U.S. has collected from his sweeping tariffs if the high court rules he doesn’t have the unilateral ability to impose many of them.

Trump has increasingly posted warnings on social media about the court’s looming decision, including similar posts many days last week about how complicated it would be for the government to issue refunds.

“It may not be possible,” Trump said in his Monday post about repaying the tariffs. But, “if it were, it would be Dollars that would be so large that it would take many years to figure out what number we are talking about and even, who, when, and where, to pay.”

The department said Monday that the revocations, a 150% increase over 2024, have targeted foreign nationals “charged or convicted with crimes” ranging from assault and theft to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It did not offer a breakdown of those who had been actually convicted of crimes or had only been charged with offenses.

It comes as the Trump administration has stepped up efforts to deport or otherwise remove foreigners it believes are a threat to the United States or U.S. citizens.

“The Trump administration will continue to put America first and protect our nation from foreign nationals who pose a risk to public safety or national security,” the department said, adding that it had stood up a “Continuous Vetting Center” to look at all visa holders and evaluate them for potential non-compliance with U.S. laws.

The department last offered an update on visa revocations in early December when it said more than 85,000 visas had been pulled.

The former Justice Department special counsel who investigated Trump and secured two grand jury indictments has opened a law practice with former colleagues.

The firm is called Heaphy, Smith, Harbach & Windom LLP.

Besides Smith, it includes David Harbach and Thomas Windom, two former federal prosecutors who also served on the special counsel team investigating Trump, as well as Tim Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney and chief investigative counsel to a special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The firm says it will represent individuals, businesses, universities, municipalities and state agencies.

Another Republican is speaking out against the Justice Department’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska says that if the DOJ believes an investigation into Powell is warrants based on project cost overruns, which she says are not unusual, then Congress needs to investigate the DOJ.

“The stakes are too high to look the other way: if the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer,” Murkowski wrote on X.

She also notes that she spoke with Powell on Monday morning, adding “it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion.”

London’s murder rate fell in 2025 to its lowest level in decades, officials said Monday. Mayor Sadiq Khan said the figures disprove claims spread by Trump and others on the political right that crime is out of control in Britain’s capital.

Police recorded 97 homicides in London in 2025, down from 109 in 2024 and the fewest since 2014. The Metropolitan Police force says the rate by population is the lowest since comparable records began in 1997, at 1.1 homicides for every 100,000 people.

That compares to 1.6 per 100,000 in Paris, 2.8 in New York and 3.2 in Berlin, the force said.

“There are some politicians and commentators who’ve been spamming social media with an endless stream of distortions and untruths, painting an image of a dystopian London,” Khan told The Associated Press. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”

▶ Read more about crime in London

The Democratic Party regained the partisanship edge when independents were asked whether they lean more toward the Democratic or Republican Party in a new Gallup poll.

Nearly half, 47%, of U.S. adults now identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 42% are Republicans or lean Republican.

This is an indication of how Americans are feeling about their political affiliations, and it may not be reflected in voters’ actual registration.

Independents appear to be driven by their unhappiness with the party in power. That’s a dynamic that could be good for Democrats for now, but it doesn’t promise lasting loyalty. Attitudes toward the party haven’t gotten warmer, suggesting the Democrats’ gains are probably more related to independents’ sour views of Trump.

That comes a day after Trump threatened the Caribbean island in the wake of the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Díaz-Canel posted a flurry of brief statements on X after Trump suggested Cuba “make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not say what kind of deal.

Díaz-Canel wrote that for “relations between the U.S. and Cuba to progress, they must be based on international law rather than hostility, threats, and economic coercion.”

The island’s communist government has said U.S. sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.

Díaz-Canel added: “We have always been willing to hold a serious and responsible dialogue with the various US governments, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of International Law, and mutual benefit without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for our independence.”

Cuba’s president stressed on X that “there are no talks with the U.S. government, except for technical contacts in the area of migration.”

About 8 in 10 U.S. adults said the Federal Reserve Board should be independent of political control, according to Marquette/SSRS polling from September, while roughly 2 in 10 said the president should have more influence over setting interest rates and monetary policy. There was bipartisan consensus that the Fed should remain independent. About 9 in 10 Democrats and about two-thirds of Republicans said the Fed should not be subjected to political control.

That poll found about 3 in 10 Americans said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in The Federal Reserve Board. Nearly half — 45% — had some confidence, and roughly one-quarter had “very little” confidence or “none at all.”

Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in Trump’s feud with the Fed.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”

Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.

A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

▶ Read more about relations between Canada and China

The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

▶ Read more about the U.S. and Greenland

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)