Donald Trumphas denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attackIran, saying that the news outlet has “no idea” what his thinking is concerning the Israel-Iran conflict.
He also confirmed, later on Thursday, via his press secretary, that he’d be making a decision within the “next two weeks”.
The Journal reportedlate on Wednesday that Trump told senior aides a day earlier that he had approved attack plans but was delaying on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program. The report cited three anonymous officials.
On Thursday, Trump responded to the report,posting on Truth Social: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”
But Trump’s decision is dependent on whether the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) would destroy the Fordow uranium enrichment site, a US official toldAxios. Fordow, which is built into a mountain south of Tehran, is a target of Israel’s, but they lack the “bunker-buster bombs” and aircraft needed to destroy it; the US has access to both.
“We’re going to be ready to strikeIran. We’re not convinced yet that we’re necessary. And we want to be unnecessary, but I think the president’s just not convinced we are needed yet,” a US official told the outlet.
The Los Angeles Dodgers said on Thursday they denied US immigration enforcement agents access to the parking lot at Dodger Stadium earlier in the day.
“This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots,” the baseball team said in a post on X.
“They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight’s game will be played as scheduled.”
But Ice said in a response to the Dodgers’ tweet that its agents “were never there”, and Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said in a statement that “this had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
The back and forth only added to anxiety in a city left on edge by frequent and brazen immigration enforcement actions.
The homeland security presence came as immigrant communities in LA are on high alert as federal agents have raided workplaces, parking lots and a swap-meet in search of undocumented immigrants.
Since the department stepped up enforcement in the region, there have been persistent rumors that the stadium of the Dodgers, a team which has a large Latino fanbase, may be a target.
Hello and welcome to theUS politicslive blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you the news over the next few hours.
We start with the news thata US appeals court letDonald Trumpretain control on Thursday of California’s national guardwhile the state’s Democratic governor proceeds with a lawsuit challenging the Republican president’s use of the troops to quell protests in Los Angeles.
Trump’s decision to send troops into Los Angeles prompted a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and inflamed political tension in the country’s second most-populous city.
On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit court of appeals extended its pause on U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer’s 12 June ruling that Trump had unlawfully called the national guard into federal service.
Trump probably acted within his authority, the panel said, adding that his administration probably complied with the requirement to coordinate with Governor Gavin Newsom, and even if it did not, he had no authority to veto Trump’s directive.
“And although we hold that the president likely has authority to federalize the national guard, nothing in our decision addresses the nature of the activities in which the federalized national guard may engage,” it wrote in its opinion.
Newsom could still challenge the use of the national guard and U.S. Marines under other laws, including the bar on using troops in domestic law enforcement, it added. The governor could raise those issues at a court hearing on Friday in front of Breyer, it said.
In a post on X after the decision, Newsom vowed to pursue his challenge.
“The president is not a king and is not above the law,” he said. “We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of US military soldiers against our citizens.”
Trump hailed the decision in a post on Truth Social. “This is a great decision for our country and we will continue to protect and defend law-abiding Americans,” he said.
“This is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should state and local police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.”
In other news:
TheLos Angeles Dodgerssaid they blocked US immigration enforcement agents from accessing the parking lot at Dodger Stadium on Thursdayand got into public back-and-forth statements with Ice and the Department of Homeland Security, which denied their agents were ever there.
The Department of Homeland Security is now requiring lawmakers to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.The guidance comes after a slew of tense visits from Democratic lawmakers to detention centers amid Trump’s crackdowns in immigrant communities across the country.
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.Chief US district judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states’ request for an injunction barring the Department for Transportation’s policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims.
The office of the US defense secretary,Pete Hegseth, requested “a passive approach toJuneteenthmessaging”, according to an exclusive Rolling Stonereportciting a Pentagon email.The messaging request for Juneteenth – a federal holiday commemorating when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free – was transmitted by the Pentagon’s office of the chief of public affairs. This office said it was not poised to publish web content related to Juneteenth, Rolling Stone reported.
Depending on who you ask, between 4 and 6 million people showed up to last weekend’s“No Kings” protests.Now the real number is becoming clearer, with one estimate suggesting that Saturday was amongthe biggest.