Space force general will lead project slated to cost $175bn
Donald Trump confirmed that Space Force general Michael Guetlein will oversee development of the ‘Golden Dome’ antimissile shield.
“We’re talking about $175bn total cost of this when it’s completed,” Trump said. “This is very important for the success and even survival of our country. It’s a very evil world out there.”
The project stems from a January executive order that called for an “Iron Dome for America”, taking cues from Israel’s Iron Dome, designed to counter short-range threats using technology. US military officials have described the Golden Dome as a “system of systems”, combining traditional defenses with emerging, largely untested technologies.
Trump said the “Golden Dome” will take two-and-a-half to three years to be completed. But the option that Trump chooses will determine its timeline and cost. The $25bn coming from Republicans’ budget bill is only set to cover initial development costs. The final price tag could exceed $540bn over the next two decades, according to the congressional budget office.
Key events
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
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The Trump administration said it will permit use of Covid vaccines by adults over 65 and those with certain medical conditions in the fall, raising questions about whether some people who want a vaccine will be able to get one. The FDA framework, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, urges companies to conduct large, lengthy studies before tweaked vaccines can be approved for healthier people.
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A federal judge said that the Trump administration appeared to have violated his April court order by deporting a Burmese immigrant to South Sudan without giving him sufficient time to contest the removal, especially given the risk of being sent to a country that is not his own. Judge Brian E Murphy in Boston made the remarks during a hearing in Federal District Court after immigration attorneys raised alarm that at least one other immigrant may also have been deported to South Sudan without due process.
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Donald Trump announced $25bn for his “Golden Dome” defense initiative. The funding, included in what the president has dubbed his “big, beautiful bill”, will go toward an expansive air defense system designed to shield the entire US. Trump confirmed that Space Force general Michael Guetlein will oversee development of the ‘Golden Dome’ antimissile shield. “We’re talking about $175bn total cost of this when it’s completed,” Trump said.
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Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a “comprehensive review” of the United States’ chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, an evacuation operation in which 13 US service members and 150 Afghans were killed at Kabul’s airport in an Islamic State bombing. It was unclear how Hegseth’s review would differ from the many previous reviews that have been carried out – including by the US military, the state department and even Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives.
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The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told the Senate foreign relations committee that the number of visas he has revoked was “probably in the thousands”, adding that he believed there was still more to do. “I don’t know the latest count, but we probably have more to do. A visa is not a right, it’s a privilege.”
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The Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, couldn’t correctly state what habeas corpus is when pressed to define the concept by the Democratic US senator Maggie Hassan. Asked what habeas corpus is, Noem claimed it’s “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to –”.
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A group of fired federal workers held a sit-in on the House-side steps of the US Capitol in an effort to pressure members of Congress to do more to reign in Doge’s “harmful and illegal cuts to federal programs”. According to the Fork Off Coalition, the group includes “federal employees illegally terminated by Doge; contractors on cancelled federal contracts; and other workers harmed by Doge”.
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Donald Trump defended the justice department’s decision to charge the Democratic representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers earlier this month. McIver faces a felony assault charge over a physical confrontation with Ice officials outside an immigrant detention facility in New Jersey.
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US senator Chris Van Hollen has accused the Trump administration of “making a mockery” of the US refugee process, turning it into a system of “global apartheid” by granting asylum status to white Afrikaners, while turning away refugees from war-torn countries, including Sudan, where he said a genocide is currently unfolding. The first group of 59 Afrikaners began arriving in the US last week after Trump claimed the Afrikaners were victims of “unjust racial discrimination” and granted them asylum status.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr said earlier that the MAHA commission report Donald Trump tasked him with producing would come out on Thursday. Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission to “Make America Healthy Again,” during Kennedy’s swearing in ceremony on 13 February and tasked it with investigating chronic illness and delivering an action plan to fight childhood diseases, starting with a report due within 100 days.
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Donald Trump pressed Republicans in Congress to unite behind his sweeping tax-cut bill, but – despite his very optimistic front – apparently failed to convince a handful of holdouts who could still block a package that encompasses much of his domestic agenda. In a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, Trump bluntly warned Republicans in the House of Representatives not to press for further changes to the sprawling bill, which would cut taxes and tighten eligibility for the Medicaid health program.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr defended his management of the ongoing measles outbreak in the US, telling Republican senator Jerry Moran, of Kansas, that he’s urging people to get vaccinated against the virus, The Hill reports. Moran asked Kennedy what the Department of Health and Human Services needed in order to best respond to the outbreak, which has surpassed 1,000 cases.
The New York Times reports that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, after Republicans accused him of lying to Congress about decisions he made during the coronavirus pandemic while in office.
The inquiry, begun about a month ago by the US attorney’s office in Washington, according to the news outlet. The investigation comes after senior Justice Department officials in February demanded the dismissal of an indictment of the city’s current mayor, Eric Adams, on corruption charges.
In March, Cuomo entered the New York City mayoral race in an attempt to resurrect a seemingly dead political career. Cuomo fell from grace after he issued a controversial directive early on in the pandemic that barred nursing homes from refusing to accept patients just because they’d had Covid-19.
More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients were released from hospitals into nursing homes under the directive, which was rescinded amid speculation that it had accelerated outbreaks.
Cuomo later resigned in August 2021 after a state attorney general’s report concluded he had sexually harassed multiple women, including current and former state employees.
New Trump vaccine policy limits access to Covid shots
The Trump administration said it will permit use of Covid vaccines by adults over 65 and those with certain medical conditions in the fall, raising questions about whether some people who want a vaccine will be able to get one.
Top officials for the Food and Drug Administration laid out new standards for updated Covid shots, saying they’d continue to use a streamlined approach to make them available to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one high-risk health problem.
But the FDA framework, published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, urges companies to conduct large, lengthy studies before tweaked vaccines can be approved for healthier people.
It’s a stark break from the previous federal policy recommending an annual Covid shot for all Americans six months and older. In the paper and a subsequent online webcast, the FDA’s top vaccine official said more than 100 million Americans still should qualify for what he termed a booster under the new guidance.
Scientific advisers to the FDA are slated to meet Thursday to decide on the composition of the Covid vaccine to be made available in the fall.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for comparing immigration enforcement officers under President Donald Trump to the secret police force of Nazi Germany in a commencement speech over the weekend.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said likening ICE officers to the Gestapo is “sickening” in a statement.
“Governor Walz’s comments comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo is sickening,” McLaughlin said. “This type of rhetoric and demonization of ICE officers has led to our officers facing a 413% increase in assaults.”
The comments came during the Democrat’s commencement speech at the University of Minnesota Law School graduation ceremony on Saturday.
“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Walz said in his remarks.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina shared a photo today of what she described as a “naked silhouette” of herself, Politico reports, claiming it was a still from a video secretly recorded by her former fiancé without her consent.
During a House subcommittee hearing, Mace alleged that the video was one of several taken by her ex-fiancé, Patrick Bryant. In response, Bryant issued a statement denying the accusations and calling them “false” and “outrageous.”
Mace first named Bryant and three other men in a February speech on the House floor, where she accused them of sexual abuse and other sex-related crimes. During that address, she revealed she was a survivor of sexual assault and stood beside a display showing the names and photos of the four men, with the word “PREDATORS” printed across the top.
A United States Air Force veteran, who the US government had determined to be wrongfully detained in Venezuela, was released from custody today.
Joseph St Clair was handed over to Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, according to a statement from the veteran’s family and a post on X from the official. The family said St Clair, who had served four tours in Afghanistan, was detained in November.
“This news came suddenly, and we are still processing it, but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude,” St Clair’s parents, Scott and Patti, said in a statement.
Senators Chuck Grassley and Amy Klobuchar introduced a resolution today urging Russia to return abducted Ukrainian children before any peace agreement to end the war is finalized.
In a statement, Grassley condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching what he called an “inhumane and unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” accusing him of abducting thousands of children to “brainwash and Russify them” in an effort to erase their cultural identity. “The United States ought to demand these children are returned before inking a deal to end the war in Ukraine,” he said.
The resolution, which has bipartisan backing, was co-sponsored by senators Joni Ernst, Dick Durbin, Roger Wicker, and John Fetterman. Its fate on the Senate floor remains uncertain.
US judge says deportations to South Sudan likely violate court order
A federal judge said that the Trump administration appeared to have violated his April court order by deporting a Burmese immigrant to South Sudan without giving him sufficient time to contest the removal, especially given the risk of being sent to a country that is not his own, The New York Times reports.
Judge Brian E Murphy in Boston made the remarks during a hearing in Federal District Court after immigration attorneys raised alarm that at least one other immigrant may also have been deported to South Sudan without due process.
“It sounds like this deportation would be a violation of my preliminary injunction,” Judge Murphy said.
He ordered Justice Department attorney Elianis N Perez to alert everyone involved in the flight that they could face criminal contempt charges if the court’s order was ignored.
He also directed her to determine the plane’s location and whether it could be turned around.
Former President Joe Biden’s last known prostate cancer screening was in 2014, according to several reports.
The revelation that Biden hasn’t undergone screening in a decade adds context to his diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone.
Biden, 82, and his family are reviewing treatment options. The cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, allowing for effective treatment, according to his office.
Asked about Biden during an appearance at the White House, Donald Trump said, “it takes a long time to get to that situation” and that he was “surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago.”
The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into hiring practices at the city of Chicago, according to a letter sent to the Chicago mayor’s office.
The probe’s announcement comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke at a Chicago church on Sunday to outline his vision for the remainder of his term. During the speech, Johnson praised the number of Black people in top positions in his administration.
The speech garnered immediate attention on social media, including calls from conservatives and others to investigate. The letter outlines what the Trump administration and some MAGA activists have identified as race-based hiring that they say discriminates against white candidates.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is looking into whether the city has habitually violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race.
“Considering these remarks, I have authorized an investigation to determine whether the City of Chicago is engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination as set forth above,” the letter signed by assistant attorney general for Harmeet K Dhillon said. “If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions.”
