Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump, who is definitely not mad that his more popular predecessor Barack Obama got a lot of attention for saying last weekend that aliens “are real, but I haven’t seen them”, announced that he is directing the defense department and other agencies to release whatever files they have on the search for alien life.
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Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre, told CNN that Trump “is potentially implicated” by the Epstein files, “and he may have to answer some questions”.
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The English far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who was repeatedly denied entry to the US in the past, spent Thursday in Washington DC, meeting people close to Trump according to images and video posted on his social media accounts.
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FBI Director Kash Patel has jetted off to Italy to watch the men’s ice hockey medal matches, sticking taxpayers with a bill as high as $75,000, according to multiple reports.
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The husband of Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has reportedly been barred from the labor department’s headquarters in Washington DC after at least two female staff members accused him of sexually assaulting them, the New York Times reports.
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Trump told supporters in Georgia that there had been less media coverage of the cost-of-living crisis in the past weeks “Because I’ve won, I’ve won affordability.”
Key events
Tommy Robinson meets figures close to Trump in Washington DC
The English far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who was repeatedly denied entry to the United States in the past, and was jailed by British authorities in 2013 for using a passport in someone else’s name to travel to the United States from Britain, spent Thursday in Washington DC, meeting with a series of people close to Donald Trump, according to images and video posted on his social media accounts.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, organized of the mass, far-right “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London last year.
On Thursday he posted images of himself meeting Kari Lake, Trump’s administrator of United States Agency for Global Media, Mike Flynn, TRump’s first national security adviser, and Patrick Byrne, a multimillionaire election denier. Robinson said he and Byrne discussed “covid, the vaccine, Antifa and the stolen 2020 election.”
In 2010, when members of Robinson’s English Defence League protested in New York against plans for an Islamic cultural centre and mosque near Ground Zero, he was refused entry at JFK airport, taken into custody and flown straight back to the UK.
Virginia Giuffre’s brother says Trump is ‘potentially implicated’ by Epstein files
Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the former prince Andrew in 2001 at the age of 17, told CNN that she would feel vindicated by his arrest on Thursday.
Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested and held for hours by British police on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he shared confidential material while he was UK trade envoy with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing or accusations against him.
Roberts went on to say that “it’s a shame” that Donald Trump won’t acknowledge the suffering of the survivors of Epstein’s abuse. “It’s a shame that he continues to deflect. We would expect more from. the president of the United States,” Roberts said.
“I think we have a lot of work to do here in the United States,” he added. “We sat three feet from Pam Bondi,” he added, in reference to her testimony in Congress last week.
“It was disgraceful the fact that she couldn’t even look behind and acknowledge us because if they did that, then they would admit some sort of wrongdoing,” Roberts said.
“Our president can’t do that right now. And the reason is, is because he is potentially implicated in these files and he has to come to terms with that, and he may have to answer some questions himself,” Roberts added. “The reality is the UK is doing far more. I think that the king can hold his head high when he comes here saying: I am doing the most that I can. While here in the United States, our president has yet to even do even remotely the same. And survivors and I believe the people are very disappointed”.
Trump says he is directing release of defense department information on UFOs
Donald Trump, who is definitely not mad that his more popular predecessor Barack Obama got a lot of attention for saying last weekend that aliens “are real, but I haven’t seen them”, announced on Thursday that he is directing the defense department and other agencies to release whatever files they have on the search for alien life.
In a post on his social media platform, Trump said that he will ask the defense secretary and others “to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
Obama’s comments came in response to a question from a podcaster who asked, in a lightening round, “Are aliens real?”
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” the former president said. “And they’re not being kept in, what is it? Area 51. There’s no underground facility, unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
“What was the first question you wanted answered when you became president?” the host asked next.
“Uh, where are the aliens?” Obama replied and broke out laughing.
After his comments generated huge interest, Obama shared the video on social media with this caveat: “I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Trump’s decision to release more government information on UFOs came after he was asked about Obama’s comments, earlier on Thursday, by a Fox News correspondent.
In reply, Trump claimed Obama “gave classified information; he’s not supposed to be doing that.”
When the Fox correspondent pointed put that the president can declassify information, Trump said, “maybe I’ll get him out of trouble; I may get him out of trouble by declassifying.”
Roque Planas
FBI Director Kash Patel has jetted off to Italy to watch the men’s ice hockey medal matches, sticking taxpayers with a bill as high as $75,000, according to multiple reports.
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson disputed the reports, saying that the trip was “planned months ago” and that Patel will meet with Italian law enforcement, security officials and Ambassador Tilman Fertitta.
Patel has repeatedly faced criticism for his use of the FBI’s Gulfstream passenger jet, which he has flown on to see his country musician girlfriend perform, to attend sporting events and to hunt a private ranch in Texas. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee began investigating Patel’s use of the jet December.
Lauren Gambino
Virginia’s governor Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week, elevating a pragmatic voice whose affordability-focused gubernatorial campaign is seen as a model for the party to win back power in the November midterm elections.
The Democratic rebuttal will immediately follow Trump’s address to Congress on 24 February. Spanberger, a former undercover CIA officer who served three terms in Congress, became Virginia’s first female governor earlier this year, resoundingly winning an office previously held by a Republican. She won the race by a double-digit margin, campaigning on affordability and lowering costs for families.
In a statement, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and his counterpart, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer hailed Spanberger as a public servant with a record of holding Trump accountable – and winning races in competitive territory.
“She stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who will lie, deflect and blame everyone but himself for his failed presidency on Tuesday evening,” Jeffries said in a statement announcing her selection. “As our nation marks its 250th anniversary this summer, Governor Spanberger embodies the best of America as a mother, community leader and dedicated public servant.”
Roque Planas
Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivor Haley Robson will attend the state of the union address on Tuesday as a guest of California Democrat Ro Khanna.
Khanna and fellow congressman Thomas Massie co-wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which compelled the justice department to release files from the federal investigation into Epstein, the late sex offender Donald Trump socialized with for more than 15 years.
“Haley’s courageous fight is proof that this isn’t about politics, it’s about exposing America’s two-tiered system of justice and bringing accountability to the Epstein class involved in the horrific abuse of young girls,” Khanna said in a statement. “She and her fellow survivors’ bravery was the catalyst for changing a rotten system and finally standing up for humanity and American values.”
Robson, a registered Republican, lobbied for the legislation that led to the release of the Epstein files and criticized the Trump administration for slow-walking the process and over-redacting documents.
Husband of Trump’s labor secretary accused of sexually assaulting two of her staffers – report
The husband of Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has reportedly been barred from the labor department’s headquarters in Washington DC after at least two female staff members accused him of sexually assaulting them, the New York Times reports.
According to the Times, the allegations against Dr Shawn DeRemer, which led to the filing of a police report, are that he touched women inappropriately at the department’s main building, which is named for Frances Perkins, FDR’s labor secretary from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman ever to serve in the US cabinet.
One of the incidents, during working hours in December, was recorded on office security cameras, unnamed sources told the Times. The video, allegedly showing Dr DeRemer giving one of the women an extended embrace, was reviewed as part of a criminal investigation the source said.
Chavez-DeRemer, a former Congresswoman who lost her seat representing part of the Portland metro area in 2024, has attempted to demonstrate her loyalty to Trump, who was found liable for sexual abuse of the journalist E Jean Carroll by a Manhattan jury, by hanging a huge banner of his face on the Perkins building.
A biography of the secretary on the department’s website says that she “and her high school sweetheart, Dr. Shawn DeRemer founded an anesthesia management company and several medical clinics across the Pacific Northwest.”
In January, a security officer assigned to protect the labor secretary was reportedly placed on leave as officials investigate an alleged romantic relationship between them.
The department’s inspector general is reportedly investigating allegations that Chavez-DeRemer traveled to the Red Rocks Casino Resort and Spa in Las Vegas, along with a staffer with whom she was having an inappropriate relationship.
Roque Planas
Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, will deliver the Spanish-language Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s state of the union speech on Tuesday.
“Americans don’t need another speech from Donald Trump pretending everything is fine when their bills are too high, paychecks are too low, and masked and militarized federal agents are roaming our communities violating Constitutional rights on a daily basis,” Padilla said in a statement.
Padilla made national headlines last year, when federal agents handcuffed him and forced him to the floor while trying to ask a question to the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem. He has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Roque Planas
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has expanded the block on a California state law that requires federal immigration agents to identify themselves.
The ruling by a three-judge panel temporarily bars California from enforcing a law that requires federal law enforcement agents to show their identification and badge numbers.
A US district judge in Los Angeles, Christina Snyder, had already blocked another measure prohibiting federal agents from hiding their faces behind masks earlier this month. Synder’s ruling argued that the state law discriminated against federal agents because it did not apply to local police officers.
ICE officers’ use of masks when carrying out contentious immigration arrests have led critics to condemned the agency as a “secret police” force.
Trump takes credit for helping defeat Jon Ossoff in 2017, fails to mention he campaigned against him in 2020
At his recently completed rally in Rome, Georgia, Donald Trump invited Mike Collins, a Georgia congressman who is running for Senate, to attack Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who currently holds the seat and has been fiercely critical of the president.
As he introduced Collins, Trump recalled that he had campaigned against Ossoff in 2017, when the Democrat lost a special election for a US House seat in Georgia to a Republican supported by the president, although Ossoff outperformed expectations in a Republican district.
Trump then said that when he heard Ossoff was running for Senate, in 2020, “I said, ‘No, he’s easy to beat; he’s a real stiff’”.
What the president failed to mention is that he also campaigned against Ossoff in the 2020 Senate election, and even mentioned him by name 10 times at a rally in Georgia in December 2020, ahead of the run-off election in which Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won seats in the Senate defeating Trump-backed Republicans, flipping control of the chamber to the Democrats the night before the January 6 riot.
At a recent campaign rally in Atlanta, Ossoff began his remarks on Trump’s impact on the country with indignation about a racist video the president had posted about Barack and Michelle Obama. “You’re seeing what I’m seeing, right? The president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman at 1 am,” Ossoff said.
“This is the cruelest and most arrogant group of people who have ever ascended to high office in the United States,” Ossoff went on to say about the Trump administration.
“We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans,” Ossoff added. “But this is a government of by and for the ultra-rich. It is the wealthiest cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class ruling our country.”
Trump also made no mention of the fact that, in 2022, when Mike Collins won the Republican nomination to represent Georgia’s 10th Congressional District in Congress, he trounced Vernon Jones, who had Trump’s endorsement, by 50 points.
‘I’ve won affordability’ Trump says
Donald Trump is currently giving a campaign-style speech, boasting about what he calls his economic accomplishments to workers at a steel service center in Rome, Georgia.
So far, the most eye-catching claim has been Trump’s statement, unsupported by anything like evidence, that he has triumphed over “affordability”.
“Do you notice, what word have you not heard over the last two weeks? Affordability. Because I’ve won, I’ve won affordability. I had to go out and talk about it,” the president said, in the clearest example yet of his deep-seated belief that the cost-of-living crisis so many Americans are experiencing is a partisan attack on him, rather than reality.
Trump is speaking in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, where early voting began this week in an election to replace the district’s previous representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from Congress in January after publicly breaking with Trump over issues including his claim that her concern about the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes was also “a hoax”.
The Trump banner on the justice department building has already received some criticism as a sign of the president’s overarching power over the nation’s legal arm.
Bill Kristol, a prominent conservative commentator and founder of The Weekly Standard, said on X, “Shameful—but in a way useful. No one should any longer pretend we have a “Department of Justice.” We have a Department of Trump.”
Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, posted, “The Department of Justice is supposed to work for and represent you, not him.”
In other news, the Associated Press is reporting that a large banner featuring president Donald Trump’s face is seen on the exterior of justice department headquarters in Washington DC.
From the Associated Press:
While Trump banners have been hung outside other agencies across Washington, the decision to place one on the storied justice department building Thursday amounts to a striking symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control. The banner, hung between two columns on one corner of the building, says, “Make America Safe Again,” a slogan used by the administration to tout its efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration and violent crime.
Trump says Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest is ‘so bad for the royal family’
Speaking to reporters en route to Rome, Georgia today, Trump weighed in on the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince.
“I think it’s a shame. I think it’s very sad,” Trump said. “I think it’s so bad for the royal family … To me, it’s a very sad thing.”
Trump added:
Nobody used to speak about Epstein when he was alive … but I’m the one that can talk about it because I’ve been totally exonerated. I did nothing, in fact, the opposite.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Donald Trump has warned Iran that “bad things” will happen if no deal is reached and appeared to set a 10-day deadline before the US might take action. During the first Board of Peace meeting, Trump said negotiations with Iran were going well but insisted that Tehran has to reach a “meaningful” agreement. “Otherwise, bad things happen,” he said.
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Also at the meeting, Trump said the United States will contribute $10bn to his Board of Peace. “When you look at that compared to the cost of war, that’s two weeks of fighting, it’s a very small number. It sounds like a lot, but it’s a very small number,” Trump said. He offered no details about how the US would send this money to the board, or if he’s requested approval from Congress for the funds.
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While Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest by British police today came after years of uproar over his association to Jeffrey Epstein, documents show that he had been on the radar of US law enforcement for nearly 15 years. Mountbatten-Windsor’s name came up during a 2011 FBI inquiry into Epstein, investigative documents recently disclosed by the justice department reveal. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied all allegations of misconduct related to Epstein.
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Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week, top Democrats have announced in a statement. The Democratic rebuttal will immediately follow Trump’s address to Congress next Tuesday. Spanberger, who served three terms in Congress, became Virginia’s first female governor earlier this year, resoundingly winning an office previously held by a Republican.
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Congressmen Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie plan to introduce a bipartisan war powers resolution next week, and try to force a vote on the House floor, to curb the Trump administration’s possible military action against Iran. “Trump officials say there’s a 90% chance of strikes on Iran. He can’t without Congress,” said Khanna, a California Democrat, amid the reports that the US is positioning aircraft carriers and amassing a large arsenal of fighter jets for a potential strikes.
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Donald Trump announced today that the Commission of Fine Arts unanimously approved his plans for a $300m White House ballroom. The president fired the previous members of the board last year and installed several loyalists in January, which included his 26-year-old assistant.
Ally-packed commission approves Trump’s plans for White House ballroom
Donald Trump announced today that the Commission of Fine Arts unanimously approved his plans for a $300m White House ballroom.
The president fired the previous members of the board last year and installed several loyalists in January, which included his 26-year-old assistant. On Thursday, six of the seven members of the commission moved to fast-track the final vote. One commissioner recused himself because he was an initial architect on the plans.
The independent agency’s purview includes reviewing designs proposed for memorials and new or renovated government buildings, and the commission is intended to be staffed by experts in art, architecture and urban design.
The ballroom plans will also need to be approved by the National Capital Planning Commission – which is now run by Will Scharf, an advisor to Trump.
A federal court is weighing a lawsuit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued to put a halt to the ballroom’s construction.
