High Democrat defends State of the Union protests as Home speaker says he almost ejected Omar and Tlaib – reside | Donald Trump
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Johnson says he got here ‘this shut’ to ejecting Omar and Tlaib from chamber throughout State of the Union
The Home speaker, Mike Johnson, mentioned he got here “this shut” to ejecting Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from the chamber throughout final evening’s state of the union over their verbal protests to Trump’s remarks.
Trump informed Democrats throughout the speech that they need to be ashamed for not standing, Omar yelled again that he ought to be ashamed and repeatedly yelled “You’ve gotten killed People!”
Johnson informed Fox’s Sean Hannity that the retorts have been “shameful”.
“I got here this near stopping them. We might have in all probability ejected them from the ground. I assumed, let their actions converse for themselves,” he mentioned. “In the event that they’d gone a step additional, I in all probability would have ejected them.”
However, he mentioned, he thought they served as a pleasant “distinction” to Republicans, who have been standing and celebrating and chanting all through the speech.
“I feel it was good for them to be there,” he mentioned. “I feel it’s good for the American individuals to see the disgrace that they introduced upon their celebration and upon themselves.”
Key occasions
Home speaker calls allegations towards Gonzales ‘detestable’ and says he’ll converse to him ‘hopefully as we speak’
In feedback fairly much like what he mentioned yesterday, the Home speaker, Mike Johnson, has mentioned that he would meet with Tony Gonzales “hopefully as we speak” however that he would let the “due course of right here to play out as at all times”.
CNN reported Johnson as saying this morning:
The allegations are alarming and detestable, and I’ve mentioned to him publicly and privately, he’s acquired to handle that straight and head-on together with his constituents. There’s a main there in lower than every week, this stuff will play out. So we’re permitting that to occur.
He had additionally informed CBS Night Information yesterday that the allegations towards Gonzales have been “detestable”, however “we’re making an attempt to type it out”, including that he would let the “due course of right here to play out as at all times”.
My understanding is he’s denied numerous this, and we’re making an attempt to type it out … Now, it has been reported that the workplace of congressional conduct is investigating this, and has been for a while. And what we do right here is we permit all of the information to play out.
Johnson has confronted resisted rising calls from throughout the GOP to stress Gonzales, of Texas, to resign over allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
Gonzales has beforehand denied having the affair and mentioned he’s being blackmailed, however has not addressed newly launched textual content messages wherein he appeared to ask the previous staffer for intimate images and talk about intercourse acts. He refused to resign yesterday after a number of GOP lawmakers publicly referred to as for him to go.
The speaker had endorsed Gonzales’ bid for re-election “earlier than any of this got here up”. Gonzales faces a tricky main contest on 3 March towards Brandon Herrera, a gun rights influencer who virtually beat him in 2024.
Trump’s surgeon common nominee grilled over stances on vaccines and autism
Shrai Popat
Casey Means, Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for US surgeon common, is answering questions earlier than lawmakers on the Senate committee for well being, labor and pensions as we speak. The surgeon common serves because the nation’s prime physician, answerable for disseminating the newest public well being steering.
Means, who has a medical diploma however shouldn’t be board-certified, and doesn’t have an energetic medical license, declined to offer a easy yes-or-no reply when the committee chair, Republican senator Invoice Cassidy, pressed her on whether or not, if confirmed, she would encourage mother and father to vaccinate their youngsters with routine pictures such because the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. She mentioned:
I’m supportive of vaccination. I do consider that every affected person, mom, mum or dad, must have a dialog with their pediatrician about any treatment they’re placing of their physique and their youngsters’s our bodies.
When Cassidy requested whether or not she would state her place extra clearly if confirmed, she replied: “I’m not a person’s physician, and each particular person wants to speak to their physician earlier than placing a drugs of their physique.”
Her feedback come as measles outbreaks proceed throughout the nation, with South Carolina experiencing the worst measles outbreak in additional than 30 years amid declining childhood immunization charges.
In response, Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers, urged People to “take the vaccine, please” earlier this month. In an interview with CNN, Oz issued a uncommon plea from the Trump administration to insist upon inoculation.
Not all sicknesses are equally harmful and never all individuals are equally prone to these sicknesses. However measles is one you need to get your vaccine.
Whereas Means insisted that anti-vaccine rhetoric “has by no means been a component” of her message and mentioned she was “not right here to complicate the problem on vaccines”, she repeatedly sidestepped direct questions from lawmakers about whether or not vaccines trigger autism – a idea lengthy discredited by the scientific neighborhood and incessantly promoted by Trump’s well being secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“The truth is that we now have an autism disaster that’s growing, and that is devastating to many households, and we have no idea as a medical neighborhood what causes autism,” she mentioned, whereas acknowledging that there’s an amazing physique of proof refuting claims that vaccines trigger the situation. “I additionally suppose that science isn’t settled, and I feel that the trouble to take a look at complete, cumulative exposures into what’s inflicting autism is essential.”
For her half, late final evening after the speech, the Minnesota consultant Ilhan Omar shared a video clip of her yelling that Trump ought to be ashamed of himself and mentioned: “Donald Trump killed two of my constituents. He’s a liar and ought to be ashamed of himself.”
Omar was referring to the 2 US residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, whom federal brokers killed in Minneapolis throughout an immigration enforcement surge this yr.
JD Vance referred to as Democrats’ refusal to face when Trump mentioned they need to stand for US residents a “unhappy commentary” on the Democratic celebration.
Chatting with Fox Information as we speak, the vice-president mentioned it was a “disgrace” that Democrats didn’t stand in what’s going to certainly function a second crafted for Republicans to assault the left throughout the midterms.
“One thing that I noticed, that in all probability most TV viewers didn’t see, was actually the cowardice, as a result of there have been just a few Democrats who type of politely clapped,” he mentioned. “They didn’t need to rise up. I suppose possibly they have been nervous about being primaried by the far-left fringe of their celebration. However they have been all trying round … They have been all trying round for cues from their colleagues as a result of they didn’t have the braveness to face on their very own.”
He mentioned none of them had the “braveness” to face when the remainder of their celebration wasn’t.
“They received’t even have the braveness of their convictions,” he mentioned. “They lean on the individual to their left and their proper quite than even have some conviction. That’s, sadly, what’s true about Democrats in Washington as we speak.”
Chuck Schumer says Trump is ‘not defending People’
The Senate minority chief, Chuck Schumer, mentioned Democrats have been proper to stay seated when Trump referred to as on the group to face in the event that they believed in defending US residents over undocumented immigrants, a line that Republicans at the moment are utilizing to name out Democrats.
“Backside line could be very easy, we agree we have to defend People. He’s not,” Schumer informed CNN this morning. “By his reckless ICE company in Minnesota, two People have been killed. People are being pulled out of their vehicles and crushed. People’ homes, the doorways are being knocked down with out a warrant. And no different police division in America, run by People, has accomplished what ICE has accomplished.”
“So, sure, we need to defend People. He’s not doing it. And that’s why the American individuals are towards what ICE is doing.”
Alas, the supreme courtroom rulings issued as we speak have been on smaller circumstances. We’ll proceed to look at this week and past for these massive rulings we’re ready on, which carry penalties for voting rights and govt energy.
Supreme courtroom asserting selections in variety of circumstances
We’re anticipating potential rulings from the US supreme courtroom this morning.
A number of the remaining circumstances we’re looking for as we speak could possibly be:
Johnson says he got here ‘this shut’ to ejecting Omar and Tlaib from chamber throughout State of the Union
The Home speaker, Mike Johnson, mentioned he got here “this shut” to ejecting Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from the chamber throughout final evening’s state of the union over their verbal protests to Trump’s remarks.
Trump informed Democrats throughout the speech that they need to be ashamed for not standing, Omar yelled again that he ought to be ashamed and repeatedly yelled “You’ve gotten killed People!”
Johnson informed Fox’s Sean Hannity that the retorts have been “shameful”.
“I got here this near stopping them. We might have in all probability ejected them from the ground. I assumed, let their actions converse for themselves,” he mentioned. “In the event that they’d gone a step additional, I in all probability would have ejected them.”
However, he mentioned, he thought they served as a pleasant “distinction” to Republicans, who have been standing and celebrating and chanting all through the speech.
“I feel it was good for them to be there,” he mentioned. “I feel it’s good for the American individuals to see the disgrace that they introduced upon their celebration and upon themselves.”
Extra journalists and media employees killed in 2025 than in earlier 30 years of knowledge collected
A brand new report from the Committee to Shield Journalists exhibits extra journalists and media employees have been killed in 2025 than any earlier yr because the committee began accumulating information greater than 30 years in the past.
The committee discovered 129 members of the press killed in 2025, two-thirds of them by Israel. Of these killed by Israel in 2025, greater than 60% have been Palestinians reporting from Gaza, the report mentioned.
“The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) has dedicated extra focused killings of journalists than another authorities’s army since CPJ started documentation in 1992,” the report mentioned.
No less than 104 of these counted within the report have been killed in battle, together with in Ukraine, the place 4 journalists have been killed, and Sudan, the place 9 have been killed.
The group has categorized 47 of these killings as focused, the best variety of journalists killed deliberating for his or her work up to now decade. This rise in journalist deaths globally is “fueled by a persistent tradition of impunity for assaults on the press,” citing few clear investigations into these focused killings.
The group mentioned the rise in deaths comes alongside a near-record of journalists being jailed in 2025 as properly.
“Journalists are being killed in document numbers at a time when entry to info is extra essential than ever,” mentioned Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of CPJ. “Assaults on the media are a number one indicator of assaults on different freedoms, and way more must be accomplished to forestall these killings and punish the perpetrators. We’re all in danger when journalists are killed for reporting the information.”
US diplomats ordered to work towards overseas nations’ makes an attempt to control how US tech corporations deal with information
A newly revealed diplomatic cable calls on US diplomats to work towards makes an attempt by overseas nations to control how US tech corporations deal with their residents’ information, as “information sovereignty initiatives” collect steam in Europe over safety considerations.
Extra from Reuters:
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered U.S. diplomats to foyer towards makes an attempt to control U.S. tech corporations’ dealing with of foreigners’ information, saying in an inside diplomatic cable seen by Reuters that such efforts might intrude with synthetic intelligence-related companies.
Consultants say the transfer indicators the Trump administration is reverting to a extra confrontational strategy as some overseas international locations search limits round how Silicon Valley corporations course of and retailer their residents’ private info – initiatives typically described as “information sovereignty” or “information localization.“
Within the State Division cable, dated February 18 and signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the company mentioned such legal guidelines would “disrupt world information flows, improve prices and cybersecurity dangers, restrict Synthetic Intelligence (AI) and cloud companies, and broaden authorities management in methods that may undermine civil liberties and allow censorship.“
The cable mentioned the Trump administration was pushing for “a extra assertive worldwide information coverage” and that diplomats ought to “counter unnecessarily burdensome laws, resembling information localization mandates.”
Some international locations will face 15% tariffs, says US commerce consultant Jamieson Greer
Some international locations will see a 15% tariff, US commerce consultant Jamieson Greer mentioned Monday on Fox Enterprise Community. He didn’t give any additional particulars on which international locations might see this greater charge, which might be a rise from an across-the-board 10% tariff Trump imposed after the US supreme courtroom dominated towards a few of his tariffs.
“Proper now, we now have the ten% tariff. It’ll go as much as 15 (%) for some after which it could go greater for others, and I feel it will likely be consistent with the forms of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” Greer informed the community.
He additionally mentioned commerce officers for the US and Canada spoke on Wednesday and anticipated to satisfy quickly to debate an settlement on commerce.
“They’ve just a few concepts on how they could need to have a cope with us. We’re clearly open to that,” Greer mentioned.
Donald Trump made historical past once more on Tuesday night, delivering the longest State of the Union tackle on document.
However whereas the president declared the ‘golden age of America’, many Democrats boycotted the occasion, telling the nation Republicans are ‘making your life tougher’.
The Guardian’s Jenna Amatulli talks to Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramírez about Trump’s claims, the Democrats’ rebuttal, and the way the speech will land with a divided nation…
Iran’s negotiating delegation, led by overseas minister Abbas Araqchi, has left Tehran for Geneva to participate in a 3rd spherical of nuclear negotiations, state media reported on Wednesday.
The USA has deployed an enormous naval power close to the Iranian coast forward of attainable strikes on the Islamic Republic. US president Donald Trump mentioned final week that he was giving Tehran about 10 to fifteen days to make a deal.
The talks are set to happen on Thursday in Geneva, a senior US official mentioned on Monday, with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner slated to satisfy with the Iranian delegation for the negotiations.
Tom Phillips
Donald Trump has claimed authorship of the Mexican army raid that led to the killing of the nation’s most needed man, the cartel boss often called El Mencho.
The drug lord, whose actual title is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, died after a particular forces operation within the Mexican state of Jalisco on Sunday which triggered an explosion of violence in at the very least 20 of Mexico’s 32 states.
“We have … taken down one of the vital sinister cartel kingpins of all,” Trump boasted throughout his State of the Union tackle on Tuesday.
Mexico’s authorities has mentioned the US supplied “complementary intelligence” that led its troops to the cartel chief’s mountain hideout and the New York Instances has reported that details about the drug trafficker’s location got here from the CIA. However no US troops have been straight concerned within the assault and Mexico’s president has denied the operation was launched on account of months of stress and threats from Trump, calling such claims “virtually laughable”.
Nevertheless, throughout his speech the US president offered the killing of the chief of the Jalisco New Era cartel as one in all his quite a few “wins”, claiming his administration was “restoring American safety and dominance within the western hemisphere”.
“For years, massive swaths of territory in our area, together with massive components of Mexico, actually massive components of Mexico, have been managed by murderous drug cartels. That’s why I designated these cartels as overseas terrorist organisations and I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction,” Trump mentioned.
“With our new army marketing campaign we now have stopped document quantities of medication coming into our nation and just about stopped it utterly coming in by water or sea.”
Trump additionally boasted of the seize of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro – who he had spuriously labelled a ‘narco-terrorist’ – at first of the yr.
“In January, elite American warriors carried out one of the vital complicated spectacular feats of army competence and energy in world historical past. Nobody’s seen something prefer it. Overseas leaders – I received’t let you know – referred to as me and so they mentioned, ‘Very spectacular,’” Trump mentioned, calling the operation “a fully colossal victory for the safety of the US”.
Loads of medals have been dished out final evening throughout Trump’s State of the Union tackle earlier than Congress, with a few of the recipients together with service members and an Olympic athlete. The US president additionally expressed his continued curiosity in awarding himself the Medal of Honor, “however I used to be knowledgeable I’m not allowed to offer it to myself”.
Listed here are a few of final evening’s honourees:
Iran hits again at Trump forward of Geneva talks
Trump’s feedback on Iran have unsurprisingly provoked the ire of Tehran officers, which doesn’t bode properly for the nuclear talks scheduled for tomorrow.
The third spherical of oblique talks between the US and Iran shall be attended by Trump’s particular envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, together with Iranian officers. It’s set to be held in Geneva and mediated by Oman.
The talks are going down towards the backdrop of growing US army presence within the Center East, with Trump beforehand warning “unhealthy issues” would occur if Iran doesn’t comply with a nuclear deal.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, mentioned his nation remained dedicated to negotiations however that it was ready to retaliate if the US threatened army motion.
“In the event you select the desk of diplomacy – a diplomacy wherein the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual pursuits are revered – we will even be at that desk,” he mentioned, based on Iranian media.
“However when you determine to repeat previous experiences by deception, lies, flawed evaluation and false info, and launch an assault within the midst of negotiations, you’ll undoubtedly style the agency blow of the Iranian nation and the nation’s defensive forces.”
Earlier, Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian overseas ministry spokesperson, likened the Trump administration to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, for conducting a “disinformation and misinformation marketing campaign” towards Tehran.
“No matter they’re alleging with reference to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the variety of casualties throughout January’s unrest is solely the repetition of ‘massive lies’,” he wrote on X.
David Smith
Why the longest-ever State of the Union tackle was probably the most inconsequential
He needed to offer the king’s speech. Donald Trump entered the US Home chamber on Tuesday like a medieval monarch, with Republicans lined up keen to the touch his royal robes (or, in two circumstances, seize a selfie with him). However inside moments, the phantasm was shattered.
Because the US president strolled by, absorbing adulation, Democratic consultant Al Inexperienced of Texas held aloft a handwritten signal: “Black individuals aren’t apes!” – a reference to Trump just lately sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama.
When the primary State of the Union tackle of Trump’s second time period acquired underneath approach, Republicans moved in on Inexperienced menacingly and tried to tear the signal away. However he continued till being escorted out for the second yr in a row. As he departed, there have been extra acrimonious exchanges with Republicans, just a few of whom tried to start out a chant of “USA! USA!”
It was the primary however not the final time that an individual of colour would take a stand throughout the wannabe autocrat’s document 107-minute speech whereas others remained silent or raucously egged him on. It was an evening the place Trump once more sought to poison US politics and divide People alongside varied fault traces, none extra inflammatory than race.
Key takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union speech
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Throughout his one hour and 47 minute speech, the longest State of the Union tackle ever delivered, Donald Trump proclaimed a “turnaround for the ages” in his first yr again in workplace, regardless of low public approval scores and voter considerations over the state of the economic system.
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A resolute Trump sought to color over the affordability considerations on the centre of upcoming midterm elections by insisting the great occasions are right here. “Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising quick. The roaring economic system is roaring like by no means earlier than,” he mentioned. Many citizens, nonetheless, disagree, with latest polling displaying the inhabitants harbouring vital doubts about his priorities.
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The US president took purpose on the Democrats, branding them as “loopy”, unelectable and anti-American. A number of Democrats walked out early – Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, posted on Bluesky that he “couldn’t sit by an hour of Trump’s lies”.
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Trump spent about three minutes speaking about Iran with out providing any readability on his intentions concerning a attainable assault towards Tehran. He mentioned he prefers to “remedy this drawback by diplomacy”, which did little to elucidate why he has assembled the biggest US army presence within the Center East in many years.
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The previous actuality TV star welcomed a number of friends throughout his speech to current quite a few presidential medals to “extraordinary American patriots”. These included the lads’s hockey workforce that simply received gold medals on the Winter Olympics, and a nationwide guard soldier who survived a deadly taking pictures in Washington.
We factchecked a few of the claims made by Trump throughout his speech, click on on the hyperlink beneath to search out out extra:
Opening abstract
Good morning and welcome to our US politics reside weblog.
Iran has accused the US of spreading “massive lies” about its missiles programme, after Donald Trump claimed Tehran was constructing weapons that might strike the US.
Throughout his State of the Union speech final evening, the US president mentioned Iran has “already developed missiles that may threaten Europe and our bases abroad, and so they’re working to construct missiles that can quickly attain” the US.
He described Iran as “the world’s primary sponsor of terror” and claimed at the very least 32,000 protesters have been killed throughout latest unrest within the nation.
The Iranian overseas ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei rejected these claims, with out mentioning Trump straight.
“No matter they’re alleging with reference to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the variety of casualties throughout January’s unrest, is solely the repetition of ‘massive lies’,” he posted on X.
His remarks got here only a day earlier than Iran and the US are on account of maintain a 3rd spherical of Oman-mediated nuclear talks in Geneva. Trump mentioned he most well-liked to resolve tensions by diplomacy however that the US has not heard Iran say “these secret phrases – we’ll by no means have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran has repeatedly denied looking for a nuclear weapon and maintains that uranium enrichment is a sovereign proper, however proof over time suggests it has examined supplies and parts straight associated to the event of nuclear weapons.
Trump did little to elucidate why he has amassed the biggest quantity of US army energy within the Center East because the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Whereas he apparently has been weighing a army strike towards Iran in latest weeks, he solely spent about three minutes speaking about Tehran in his close to two-hour speech final evening.
Learn our full report on Trump’s State of the Union tackle right here:
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