National Public Radio and three local stations filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Donald Trump, arguing that an executive order aimed at cutting federal funding for the organization is illegal.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington by NPR, Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KUTE, Inc. argues that Trump’s executive order to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR violates the First Amendment.
Here’s the latest:
NPR sues Trump administration over executive order to cut finding to public media
National Public Radio and three local stations filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Trump, arguing that an executive order aimed at cutting federal funding for the organization is illegal.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington by NPR, Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KUTE, Inc. argues Trump’s executive order to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR violates the First Amendment.
Trump issued the executive order earlier this month that instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. Trump issued the order after alleging there’s “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
“The Order’s objectives could not be clearer: the Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” the lawsuit alleges.
▶ Read more about NPR’s lawsuit against the Trump administration
US envoy to Ukraine says Vatican is out as site for talks on ending Russia-Ukraine war
Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, said the Russians don’t want to go to the Vatican.
“We would have liked to have it at the Vatican and we were pretty set to do something like that, but the Russians didn’t want to go there, to the Vatican, so I think Geneva may be the next stop,” Kellogg said in an interview Tuesday on Fox News Channel.
Trump had said last week after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Vatican had expressed interest in hosting the negotiations, though there was no confirmation that any talks had been scheduled.
Kellogg also said Russia has yet to deliver a memorandum that Putin said Moscow would work on with Ukraine to draft a framework for a possible future peace treaty.
Trump administration moves to cut federal contracts for Harvard
The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to cancel remaining contracts with Harvard University, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
The government already has canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants for the Ivy League school, which has pushed back on the administration’s demands for changes to several of its policies.
Cuts to contracts could take away millions more from Harvard’s budget.
A draft letter from the General Services Administration directs agencies to review contracts with the university and seek alternate vendors. The administration is planning to send a version of the letter Tuesday, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
The New York Times first reported on the letter.
— Darlene Superville
Trump’s Tuesday schedule, according to the White House
The president has no public events schedule for Tuesday, according to the White House.
Amid Trump-Harvard dispute, Hong Kong seeks to enroll international students
Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said Tuesday the city would welcome any students who’ve been discriminated against by the U.S. policy, days after the Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students.
Last Friday, a U.S. federal judge blocked the U.S. government from cutting off Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students, an action the Ivy League school decried as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.
Lee said in a weekly press briefing that the government and eight of the city’s universities will do their best to assist any students who suffered from “discriminatory and unfair treatment” in finding a way to study in Hong Kong. He said if necessary, he would consider raising the enrollment quotas for non-local students in these universities.
Trump targeted Democrats over questionable online fundraising. His campaign has similar issues
When Trump directed his attorney general last month to investigate online fundraising, he cited concerns that foreigners and fraudsters were using elaborate “schemes“ and “dummy accounts” to funnel illegal contributions to politicians and causes.
Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses.
Trump’s announcement contained a glaring omission — his political committees also received scores of potentially problematic contributions.
An Associated Press review of donations to Trump over the past five years found 1,600 contributions from donors who live abroad, have close ties to foreign interests or failed to disclose basic information, often making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify them and verify the legality of their donations.
Among those was $5,000 linked to a derelict building, and $5,000 from a Chinese businessman who listed a La Quinta Inn as his address. Another sizable donation — $1 million — was made by the wife of an African oil and mining magnate.
▶ Read more about the AP’s findings
Here’s what a Texas oil executive from DOGE is doing inside the Interior Department
A Texas oil executive from Elon Musk’s government efficiency team has been given sweeping powers to overhaul the federal department that manages vast tracts of resource-rich public lands, but he hasn’t divested his energy investments or filed an ethics commitment to break ties with companies that pose a conflict of interest, records show.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently directed Tyler Hassen, who lacks Senate confirmation and has no public administration experience, to reorganize the Interior Department, which oversees some 70,000 employees in 11 agencies including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Before joining DOGE, Hassen spent nearly two decades as an executive at Basin Holdings, an enterprise involved in the manufacture, sale and servicing of oil rigs worldwide. A financial disclosure report obtained by AP shows Hassen made millions annually from these companies, owned by John Fitzgibbons — an industry giant who is well-connected in Russia.
▶ Read more about Hassen
Major headlines from the weekend
Catching up on the news from the holiday weekend? Here are some of the headlines
1. Trump has targeted Democrats over questionable online fundraising. His campaign has similar issues
2. Trump says he will pardon a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of federal bribery charges
3. Trump indicates progress with Iran and hints at an announcement on nuclear talks
4. Trump says Russian leader Vladimir Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”and is is “needlessly killing a lot of people”
5. Trump walks back on June start date for EU tariffs, says he’ll delay them until July
6. Trump’s speech to West Point graduates mixes praise, politics and grievances
Trump honors fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, while attacking Biden and judges
Trump paid tribute to fallen service members during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, in an address that honored the “great, great warriors” yet also briefly veered into politics as he boasted of a nation he is “fixing after a long and hard four years.”
Though the holiday is one that U.S. presidents typically treat with pure solemnity, Trump began it with an all-caps Memorial Day social media post that attacked his predecessor and called federal judges who have blocked his deportation initiatives “monsters who want our country to go to hell.”
Yet at Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 400,000 have been laid to rest, Trump commemorated the sacrifice of U.S. service members and singled out several Gold Star families to tell the stories of their fallen relatives.
▶ Read more about Trump’s Memorial Day speech