Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, who has long called for the federal government to open up more documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, refrained from immediately weighing in on the tranche of files released this week by the Trump administration.
“Oliver is holding off on commenting on anything regarding the JFK files until he’s able to familiarize himself with the new materials,” a representative for Stone said in an email to NBC News this week.
Stone directed the 1991 film “JFK,” a dizzying exploration of the conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy’s killing. The movie focuses on former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) who distrusted the Warren Commission’s conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
The director has said the movie was intended to serve as a “counter-myth” and a deep dive into the country’s “untold history.” It surveys a sprawling cast of potential culprits, including the CIA, the Mafia, Cuban freedom fighters and the military-industrial complex amid the war in Vietnam.
The batch of Kennedy files released this week did not immediately appear to contain any narrative-shifting bombshells about Kennedy’s killing, though some of the files reveal the 35th president’s skepticism of the CIA.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to call a snap federal election on Sunday that is expected to be held on April 28, The Globe and Mail reported, with the campaign likely to be dominated by anger over Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports and calls to make Canada the 51st state.
Carney has not yet made a final decision on April 28 as the election date, the newspaper reported yesterday, citing two sources who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss campaign plans and strategy. His office has not responded to an NBC News request for comment.
Carney, the newly elected leader of Canada’s governing Liberal Party, became prime minister last Friday after his predecessor and fellow Liberal, the highly unpopular Justin Trudeau, stepped down after almost a decade in power amid criticism over his response to 25% tariffs that Trump has imposed on Canadian imports.
The center-left Liberals are now in a tight race with the Conservative Party, after Trump’s actions and rhetoric prompted a surge in Canadian nationalism and support for the Liberals that erased the Conservatives’ double-digit lead in the polls in a matter of weeks.
Trump said this afternoon that people who were deported to El Salvador by his administration went through a rigorous vetting process.
“I was told that they went through a very strong vetting process, and that that will also be continuing in El Salvador, and if there’s anything like that we would certainly want to find out,” Trump said in response to a reporter asking about reports that some who were deported weren’t criminals.
“These were a bad group. This was a bad group, and they were in bad areas, and they were with a lot of other people that were absolutely killers, murderers, and people that were really bad with the worst records you’ve ever seen,” Trump added. “And, but we will continue that process, absolutely we don’t want to make that kind of a mistake.”
Families of the Venezuelan immigrants who were recently deported say they were shocked to see their loved ones sent to a megaprison in El Salvador and deny that they have links to the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, NBC News reported this week.
Trump criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who ran as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket last year, while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon.
“He lost an election. He played a part. You know, usually a vice president doesn’t play a part, they say. I think Tim played a part. I think he was so bad that he hurt her, but she hurt herself,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come as Walz has re-emerged on the national stage this week. The Minnesota governor returned to Wisconsin for the first time since the 2024 campaign to rally support for the Democratic candidate in the state’s highly contested Supreme Court race.
During the Wisconsin event and in an interview on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, Walz urged Democratic governors to stand up to what he called Trump’s “unconstitutional mandates.”
Trump also blamed Harris’ loss in part on Joe Biden. “Joe hurt them both. They didn’t have a great group. I would probably put him at the bottom of the group,” Trump said.
In his Oval Office remarks, a reporter asked Trump about NBC News’ reporting that Biden is eager to help the Democratic Party get back on its feet by fundraising, campaigning or whatever else is needed.
Trump said he’d welcome it.
“I hope so,” Trump said.
Trump still uses his former opponent as a frequent foil. He has invoked Biden in some form more than 400 times since his Jan. 20 inauguration, according to an NBC News analysis.
Following his executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, Trump said Friday that the Small Business Association will “immediately” begin overseeing student loan servicing. He also said the Department of Health and Human Services will handle nutrition programs and programs for children with disabilities.
Yesterday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said those areas would remain under the Education Department.
Completely eliminating the department would require the approval of Congress, and Trump has said he hopes Democrats will vote in favor.
America PAC, the super PAC founded by billionaire Elon Musk ahead of the 2024 election, is reviving its controversial petition-gathering program to promise Wisconsin registered voters $100 if they sign its conservative-leaning petition ahead of next month’s state Supreme Court race.
The new petition says signers are “rejecting the actions of activist judges who impose their own views and demanding a judiciary that respects its role,” language that mirrors Musk and other Trump allies (as well as the president himself) who have lambasted judges they believe are stymying Trump’s agenda. A post on X from the group says voters can also receive $100 for each signature that comes from their referral.
America PAC ran a similar petition drive in swing states ahead of the presidential election, but that drive was coupled with an entry into a $1 million raffle for signers. Philadelphia’s district attorney sued Musk and the group over the sweepstakes, but was unsuccessful.
It’s the latest attempt by Musk to use his virtually unlimited personal wealth to further his political aims. However, like last year’s petition, the $100 only goes to people who sign the petition and is not explicitly linked to any promise to vote or to back a certain candidate or political party.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will continue to deport immigrants to a megaprison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador if the individuals have a final order of deportation, a Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News.
The order by Judge James Boasberg only blocked the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants subject to Trump’s presidential proclamation from the U.S. to El Salvador without final orders of removal.
The DHS spokesperson said that Venezuelan people who ICE arrested this week could face possible deportation to El Salvador if they are ordered deported by an immigration judge.
The DHS spokesperson did not say when future deportations to El Salvador may occur.
Sending deported immigrants to a prison in a foreign country that is not their own is unprecedented. The recent use of Guantanamo Bay was as a detention center rather than a deportation site, and immigrants there remained in the custody of the U.S.
When immigration judges order an immigrant to be deported, they do so with the expectation they will be humanely sent back to their home country.
U.S. ally South Korea is struggling to remove its Department of Energy designation as a “sensitive country” after being added to the list in January.
The designation, which takes effect April 15, puts South Korea on the lowest tier of the watch list along with countries such as China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. Countries may appear on the list for national security, nuclear nonproliferation or terrorism support reasons, and they are subject to additional review before their nationals are granted access to DOE facilities, according to the department’s website.
“We will negotiate toward removing South Korea from the list as much as possible, but if that doesn’t work, we will create a constructive alternative,” Ahn Duk-geun, the South Korean trade minister, told reporters yesterday upon arriving in Washington.
“We plan to find the best possible solution so that this does not become an obstacle to scientific and industrial cooperation between South Korea and the U.S.,” he said.
Joseph Yun, the acting U.S. ambassador in Seoul, said Tuesday that South Korea was added to the list because visitors to the DOE’s labs mishandled sensitive information, according to Reuters. He did not elaborate on the details but said it was “not a big deal” and did not have broader implications for U.S.-South Korea cooperation.
Protesters gathered outside a VA medical center in Saginaw, Michigan, on Thursday to oppose the Trump administration’s sprawling cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The protesters held signs reading “Keep your promise” and “Hands off our Veterans,” waving and cheering as cars passed to draw attention to the thousands of VA employees who have been fired from the agency, which provides health care and other critical services to millions of veterans.
Carly Rose Hammond, a member of the Saginaw City Council, told NBC 25 that now is the time for the nation to stand up for the veterans who fought for its freedoms.
“They’re coming after nurses, they’re coming after Medicaid, they’re coming after Social Security offices. Those are people that need those services every single day — that’s what we as voters voted for,” Hammond said.
An internal memo obtained by NBC News earlier this month detailed plans to slash 80,000 jobs from the agency by August in order to “resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure.”
Critics and concerned veterans warn the cuts could be detrimental for veterans who rely on the agency for health care and other critical services.
The Trump administration has appealed more than 15 decisions by federal judges to circuit courts since Jan. 20.
That includes one appeal filed overnight by Elon Musk and DOGE, appealing Judge Theodore Chuang’s order to reinstate USAID systems and access, to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The administration has also appealed, for example, a ruling to reinstate National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, as well as another ruling to reinstate Cathy Harris, who was fired as a Democratic member of the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The government also appealed a ruling last weekend that blocked deportations using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Planes carrying deportees, however, didn’t turn around and instead landed in El Salvador, appearing to defy the judge’s decision. The White House has denied that if defied the judge.
Trump has been railing against federal judges who have blocked actions by his administration. This morning, he wrote on Truth Social, “No District Court Judge, or any Judge, can assume the duties of the President of the United States. Only Crime and Chaos would result. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., met a friendly crowd at a town hall last night in a Trump-won county.
The congressman received a standing ovation when he arrived, and many of the attendees appeared to agree with his comments.
But one constituent was booed by the crowd after he said he was a “little disappointed” that the congressman voted against the House Republican spending bill that was approved last week.
The congressman was able to get them to stop booing, saying he appreciates the constituent’s perspective, then explained why he voted against the bill.
“It was the worst CR I’ve ever seen in recent history, because it basically let the administration take money and move it around however they’d like, and spend it however they’d like, right?” he said.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Subramanyam dodged on whether he thinks it’s time for new Democratic leadership. When pressed by NBC News, he said that the future of Senate Minority Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is up to the Senate.
“It truly is. … I don’t think we’re in disarray. I think right now, we look like we’re in disarray, but we certainly have a unifying message,” said Subramanyam.
Beijing said it welcomed a visit by Sen. Steve Daines, a strong Trump supporter, but did not say whether he would meet with senior Chinese officials as the world’s two biggest economies take turns imposing tariffs on each other.
China welcomes Americans “from all walks of life, including members of the Congress, to visit China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular briefing in Beijing today, adding that China believes both the U.S. and China benefit from the “steady, sound and sustainable” development of their relationship.
Daines, a Montana Republican, is the first member of Congress to visit Beijing since Trump returned to the White House in January. He arrived in the Chinese capital yesterday after meeting with top leaders in Vietnam and said he would be talking with Chinese officials about curbing the international flow of fentanyl, the U.S. trade deficit with China and fair market access for American farmers and ranchers.
His office said earlier that Daines would be coordinating closely with the White House and would be “carrying President Trump’s America First agenda,” The Associated Press reported.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in the presidential race has given rise, again, to whispered worries in the Democratic Party about female candidates and electability — resurrecting a fraught conversation that bubbled for years after Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
The whisper campaign has started to some extent in New Jersey, where this year’s governor’s race will be one of Democrats’ first big electoral tests since Trump won his second term.
Former President Joe Biden has told some Democratic leaders he’ll raise funds, campaign and do anything else necessary for Democrats to recover lost ground as the Trump administration rolls back programs the party helped design, according to people close to him.
Biden privately met last month with the new Democratic National Committee chairman, Ken Martin, and offered to help as the party struggles to regain its viability amid polling that shows its popularity has been sinking, the people said.
NEW DELHI — India’s IT ministry has unlawfully expanded censorship powers to allow the easier removal of online content and empowered “countless” government officials to execute such orders, Elon Musk’s X has alleged in a new lawsuit against New Delhi.
The lawsuit and the allegations mark an escalation in an ongoing legal dispute between X and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over how New Delhi orders content to be taken down. It also comes as Musk is getting closer to launching his other key ventures Starlink and Tesla in India.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is seeking information from the Securities and Exchange Commission over its decision to relax federal regulations around meme coins weeks after Trump and first lady Melania Trump released their own versions.
The SEC defines a meme coin as a type of crypto asset inspired by internet memes, characters, current events, or trends. In a staff statement last month, the agency said because of its view that meme coins are typically purchased for entertainment and social interaction rather than financial value, owners of the asset do not have to abide by federal regulations.
“Persons who participate in the offer and sale of meme coins do not need to register their transactions with the Commission under the Securities Act of 1933,” a February statement from the agency reads. “Accordingly, neither meme coin purchasers nor holders are protected by the federal securities laws.”
In a letter to acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda, Warren highlighted the financial benefits the Trumps incurred through the coins and wrote the rule change “conveniently presents a legal interpretation that could shield the President and First Lady’s coins from regulatory scrutiny.”
“By the afternoon of January 20th, the coins were reportedly worth a combined $9.5 billion and attracted large numbers of first-time crypto investors,” the senator added. “Though the $TRUMP coin lost roughly two-thirds of its value within a few weeks of launch, President Trump’s companies earned nearly $100 million in fees; small retail investors, meanwhile, lost money.”
Warren in the letter characterizes meme coins as “direct threats to consumers” that could benefit from more, not less, oversight.
The information the senator is requesting from the SEC includes “all communications” between the agency and the White House,” and more specifically, whether the agency has taken directives from the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, a board formed by Trump in January that includes Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“It is essential that the Commission issue policy proposals designed to benefit the American public—not the President’s bottom line,” her letter reads.
Trump denied a New York Times report that his adviser Elon Musk is set to be briefed by the Pentagon today on the U.S. military’s plan for any potential war with China.
“China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform late last night.
Musk, who is leading the Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal government, is scheduled to visit the Pentagon today for a meeting and briefing, three defense officials told NBC News. Two of the officials said Musk was expected to be briefed on China but that the briefing would be unclassified. None of the officials could confirm the Times report, which cited two U.S. officials.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also denied the report, saying in a post on X that it would be “an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production.”
Japan said there had been “no change” in plans to enhance the deterrence and response capabilities of the U.S.-Japan alliance, despite news reports that the Pentagon is considering canceling a planned expansion of U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
The move to cancel the expansion, as outlined in draft documents seen by NBC and CNN, would save about $1.18 billion, part of larger cuts to defense spending that could include restructuring the U.S. military’s combatant commands and headquarters and giving up U.S. command of NATO military operations for the first time in almost 75 years.
The Japanese government’s top spokesperson, Yoshimasa Hayashi, told reporters in Tokyo today that Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba confirmed the expansion plan during Ishiba’s visit to Washington last month.
The U.S. and its longtime ally Japan, which hosts more than 50,000 U.S. service members, have been intensifying military cooperation in recent years in an effort to address growing security threats from China and North Korea.
China called on the U.S. to protect Chinese nationals studying in the U.S. after a member of Congress requested several universities to disclose detailed information about their Chinese students, citing potential national security risks.
In a letter to six universities, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., accused China’s ruling Communist Party of establishing a “well-documented, systematic pipeline” to embed researchers in leading U.S. institutions for “sensitive” technologies. The universities are Carnegie Mellon, Purdue University, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, the University of Maryland and the University of Southern California.
“America’s student visa system has become a Trojan horse for Beijing,” Moolenaar said in a statement, in what he called a “direct threat” to American national security.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that educational cooperation is “in the interests of both parties.”
“We urge the U.S. to stop generalizing national security and to genuinely protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students, and not to take discriminatory or restrictive measures against them,” spokesperson Mao Ning said yesterday at a regular briefing in Beijing.
China is the second-biggest source of international students in the U.S. after India, accounting for about a quarter of the total in the 2023-24 academic year, according to the State Department.
LAS VEGAS — At the first stop of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour out West, two of the Democratic Party’s most unabashed progressive lawmakers had plenty to say about President Donald Trump. But they also had some strong words for their own party.
“This isn’t just about Republicans. We need a Democratic Party that fights harder for us, too,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. told the fired-up crowd gathered at the Craig Ranch Amphitheater to see her and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “But what that means is that we as a community must choose and vote for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class.”
While Ocasio-Cortez did not mention any Democratic leaders by name, the crowd broke out into multiple “Primary Chuck” chants — a reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who backed down from a funding fight with Trump last week.
Tech billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk is scheduled to visit the Pentagon today for a briefing that will include a discussion on China, according to two defense officials.
The briefing will be unclassified, the officials said.
The New York Times reported last night that Musk would be briefed on the U.S. military’s plans for any potential war with China, citing two U.S. officials. One official also confirmed that the briefing would be focused on China, and another only confirmed that Musk would be at the Pentagon today, according to the Times’ report.
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at the Oval Office at 11 a.m. ET with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The White House did not specify the focus of their remarks.
In the evening, Trump is slated to head to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
