Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the coming hours.
We start with the news thatDonald Trumphas issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges.
Scott Jenkins,who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Jenkins was convicted by a jury in December 2024 for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump wrote:
He said Jenkins was a “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” and a “wonderful person”, adding:
More on that as we get it today. Meanwhile, in other news:
Donald Trump used the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery to talk up his own plans and achievements.The president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers but also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.
EU leaders expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
Trump issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges.Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper county, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
Trump also said he is considering taking a further $3bn of grant money away fromHarvard Universityand giving it to trade schools across the US.Former president of Harvard and current professor Drew Gilpin Faust warned that American freedoms and democracy were at risk.
Trump suggested Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “gone crazy” after Moscow launched its third consecutive night of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, killing at least six people.In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump railed against Putin while also criticising the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia.
Former congressman Charles Rangel of New York died on Monday at the age of 94.An outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill, Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus and the first African American to chair the powerful House ways and means committee.
The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term,and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade in 2022. The FBI will also investigate pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
The Trump family media company plans to raise about $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin,according to a Financial Times report. The Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the Truth Social app and controlled by the president’s family, aims to raise $2bn in fresh equity and another $1bn via a convertible bond, the paper said, citing sources.
Donald Trump honored the sacrifices of US military veterans in the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery, but also peppered his address on Monday with partisan political asides while talking up his own plans and achievements.
The US president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers and gave accounts of battlefield courage as tradition dictates, from prepared remarks, after saluting alongside his vice-president, JD Vance and defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who both served in Iraq.
But Trump also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.
“Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. That valor gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth,” he said of those killed in military service.
Then he went on: “A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through.”
The president continued with ananti-immigrationstatement that chimes withhis agenda, though without directly mentioning his predecessor, Democratic president Joe Biden who served between Trump’s first term and the Republican’s return to the White Housethis January.
“Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked. People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss,” Trump said.
It was a nod to his Truth Social platform on Monday morning wherehe posteda tirade against judges who hold up his deportation aims, chiefly because of his ignoring due process obligations, as “monsters” and again attacked undocumented immigrants, using sweeping disparagements.
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the coming hours.
We start with the news thatDonald Trumphas issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges.
Scott Jenkins,who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Jenkins was convicted by a jury in December 2024 for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump wrote:
He said Jenkins was a “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” and a “wonderful person”, adding:
More on that as we get it today. Meanwhile, in other news:
Donald Trump used the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery to talk up his own plans and achievements.The president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers but also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.
EU leaders expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
Trump issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges.Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper county, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
Trump also said he is considering taking a further $3bn of grant money away fromHarvard Universityand giving it to trade schools across the US.Former president of Harvard and current professor Drew Gilpin Faust warned that American freedoms and democracy were at risk.
Trump suggested Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “gone crazy” after Moscow launched its third consecutive night of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, killing at least six people.In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump railed against Putin while also criticising the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia.
Former congressman Charles Rangel of New York died on Monday at the age of 94.An outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill, Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus and the first African American to chair the powerful House ways and means committee.
The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term,and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade in 2022. The FBI will also investigate pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
The Trump family media company plans to raise about $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin,according to a Financial Times report. The Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the Truth Social app and controlled by the president’s family, aims to raise $2bn in fresh equity and another $1bn via a convertible bond, the paper said, citing sources.