The Latest: Trump emboldened to accelerate his agenda after nationwide injunction ruling

After a divided Supreme Court on Friday ruled that individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, President Donald Trump told reporters he’d “promptly file” to advance policies blocked by judges, including birthright citizenship restrictions.

The court ruled that individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions. The outcome was a victory for Trump, who has complained about individual judges throwing up obstacles to his agenda, but the court left open the possibility that the birthright citizenship limitations could remain blocked nationwide.

Here’s the latest:

Girish Gaur of Lindell TV shouted his support for a third presidential term for Trump and cheered during a break in questions that the president took for nearly an hour Friday in the White House briefing room.

Gaur was standing just off stage, slightly behind the podium where Trump stood, but otherwise closer to the president than reporters in their assigned seats.

“Who said that? I like him,” Trump responded, before taking more questions.

Lindell TV was founded by Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, and a fierce Trump supporter.

Trump is constitutionally barred from seeking a third presidential term, but has refused to rule the idea out.

Congo’s foreign minister invoked the millions of victims of the decades of conflict in signing the peace deal with Rwanda.

“Some wounds will heal, but they will never fully disappear,” Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said of the generations scarred by the resource-fueled fighting in east Congo.

“Those who have suffered the most are watching. They are expecting this agreement to be respected and we cannot fail them.”

The president in a statement on his social media platform shortly after his news conference laid into Iran’s supreme leader for claiming victory in the 12-day Israel-Iran war.

“As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” Trump added.

The deal will help end the decadeslong deadly fighting in eastern Congo. The agreement signed Friday has been lauded by Trump as “a big day for the world.”

The deal will also help the U.S. government and American companies gain access to critical minerals needed for much of the world’s technology at a time when the United States and China are actively competing for influence in Africa.

“This is an important moment after 30 years of war,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a signing ceremony before a White House event that will bring the ministers together with Trump.

Analysts see the deal as a major turning point but don’t believe it will quickly end the fighting in the region that has killed millions of people since the 1990s

The president scoffed at Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s assertion delivered on Thursday that Iran delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar and warned against further attacks in his first public comments since a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

“The place was bombed to hell,” Trump said.

The president said he plans to soon deliver a formal response to the supreme leader that will say in part: “Look you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”

The president repeated his claim that the chair of the Federal Reserve could save taxpayers as much as $900 billion a year in interest payments on the national debt if Powell would cut the short-term rate that the Fed controls.

“We have a man who’s not a smart man and he probably has Trump derangement syndrome,” Trump said, referring to Powell, whom he appointed in his first term.

It’s true that the federal government’s interest payments have spiked since the Fed first boosted its rate in 2022 to fight inflation. The Fed’s hikes over time contributed to higher interest rates on the Treasury securities that the government sells to fund the debt.

But for longer-term rates, such as those paid on five-year and 10-year Treasury notes and 30-year bonds, the Fed has less influence. Instead, market forces play a bigger role. In fact, when the Fed cut its key rate three times last year, from about 5.3% to 4.3%, the yield on the 10-year Treasury – and therefore the amount of interest paid by taxpayers – actually rose.

It’s still higher than it was then – 4.25% now, up from 3.66% then.

“We’ve had a big week. We’ve had a lot of victories this week,” the president said. He recapped the U.S. strikes on Iran and the subsequent ceasefire, plus increased defense spending at the NATO summit.

He thanked U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for her work on the Supreme Court case that limited the power of individual judges to block his agenda, saying “she’s going to go down as a great attorney general.”

“We’ve had tremendous wins,” he said. “But this was a tremendous win today.”

“Can I tell you, they’re exhausted. And Israel’s exhausted too,” Trump said of Iran.

Talking about Iran, Trump said “the last thing they’re thinking right now is nuclear.”

“No, I’m not worried about it at all,” he said of secret nuclear sites.

The president said he plans to issue a statement later responding to a statement Thursday from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he said his country had delivered a “slap to America’s face.

The White House will host leaders from Congo and Rwanda to sign a peace deal to end years of fighting.

Trump said “I didn’t know too much about it” but expressed satisfaction that the U.S. was able to help bring both sides together.

He mentioned that the U.S. would also get access to critical minerals in the region.

The president was speaking about threats to his life, including proxy groups from Iran that may issue threats, and he referenced the bullet that struck his ear last summer in an attempted assassination.

Though intelligence officials said there were threats last year to Trump’s life from Iran, law enforcement found no evidence that the two assassination attempts he faced were connected to Iran.

Trump said he gets “that throbbing feeling every once in a while,” about his ear.

“What I do is a dangerous business,” he said.

Asked during a White House news conference if he would demand during expected talks with Iran that the International Atomic Energy Agency or some other organization be authorized to conduct inspections, Trump responded the Islamic republic would have to cooperate with the group “or somebody that we respect, including ourselves.”

The president was asked a question by a reporter from LindellTV, a news organization founded by Mike Lindell, a conspiracy theorist and founder of MyPillow, about whether he would like to see a Justice Department probe of the judges whose rulings allowed criminal cases and other court cases to proceed against him while he was out of office.

“I love you,” Trump said in response to the question. He then went on and added, “I hope so.”

The president previously said he wanted his tax-and-spending agenda approved by Congress before July 4.

But he sounded more flexible Friday.

“It can go longer,” he said.

The parliamentarian said procedural legislative rules mean Republicans need to rework part of the president’s legislative agenda.

“I disagree with the parliamentarian on some things. On other ways, he’s been fine,” Trump said.

The position is actually held by a woman, Elizabeth McDonough. Some Republicans have called for her firing.

As Republicans are scrambling to pass President Trump’s sprawling tax package by his July 4th deadline, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he’s planning to head back to the Senate today to speak with lawmakers.

Bessent made the remarks at the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington on Friday morning,

Bessent also said had been up until 10 p.m. the night before speaking with lawmakers about SALT provisions relating to the deduction of state and local taxes.

“Perfect cannot be the enemy of good,” Bessent said. “Getting this passed is the single most important thing we can do this year.”

The president made the comment about the Pennsylvania senator when musing about whether he could win any Democratic votes for his legislative agenda.

“Maybe Fetterman,” he said. “Because he seems to be the most sensible one lately.”

The president didn’t directly address what type of meeting he would like to see with the Iranians. But reflecting on the past days that included U.S. strikes on Iran and his trip to a NATO summit in Europe, he said, “Been a hell of a week, hasn’t it?”

The president, in response to a question about the looming deadline of his tariff rates, said the administration will send out a letter to countries over the next week or so telling them what they’ll have to pay.

“Some will be disappointed because they’re going to have to pay tariffs,” he said without offering more details.

“We can now promptly file to proceed with these numerous policies,” he said.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said he would try to advance restrictions on birthright citizenship and other policies that had been blocked by district courts.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking Friday on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” said the talks could be “wrapped up by Labor Day.”

On April 2, Trump announced so-called reciprocal tariffs, import taxes ranging from 11% to 50% on dozens of countries with which the United States runs trade deficits. But after financial markets sank on fears of massive disruption to world trade, Trump suspended the levies for 90 days to give countries a chance to negotiate reductions in their barriers to U.S. exports. That pause lasts until July 8.

“If you can’t get to a deal,” Bessent said, Trump is “happy to go back” to the high April 2 tariffs.

Bessent said the U.S. hopes to reach deals with 10 or 12 of the most important trading partners by the Sept. 1 Labor Day holiday.

The attorneys asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Friday to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by President Trump’s administration over whether or not he’ll be deported upon release.

A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she’s been holding off over concerns U.S. immigration officials would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him following statements by Trump administration officials “because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by” the Justice Department.

“The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,” the attorneys wrote.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the USNS Harvey Milk replenishment oiler will be renamed after a World War II sailor who received the Medal of Honor, stripping the ship of the name of a slain gay rights activist who served during the Korean War.

In a video, Hegseth said he was “taking the politics out of ship naming.” Instead, the ship’s new name will honor Navy Chief Petty Officer Oscar V. Peterson, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

The decision is the latest move by Hegseth to wipe away names of ships and military bases that were given by the Biden administration, which in many cases chose monikers honoring service members who were women, minorities or other leaders. It follows earlier actions by Hegseth and President Trump to purge all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion.

After classified briefings with top White House officials on the recent strikes in Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was clear “a major setback” had been struck to Iran’s nuclear program and called for direct diplomacy to follow.

“We now need Iran to engage with us in direct, good-faith talks, negotiations,” said Johnson. “They need to sit down at the table with us and ensure that peace is truly lasting.”

Lawmakers remained divided on the effectiveness of the strikes. The briefings, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left some unconvinced the operation had achieved its goals.

California Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat, said it’s unclear “how far they’ve actually set back” Iran’s program. Khanna and others criticized Trump for not consulting Congress beforehand.

“I have not been happy for a long time that I’ve learned about this strike sitting on my sofa with a cold beer looking at Twitter. That’s not the way this is supposed to work” said Rep. Jim Hines, the Democrat’s top member on the House intelligence committee.

Vance said the justices were “smacking down the ridiculous process of nationwide injunctions.”

He also shared a post from conservative commentator Sean Davis, who said the court was “nuking universal injunctions,” which liberals have sought from district judges to slow down Trump’s agenda.

That’s due to a sharp decline in demand as an Israeli-Iranian ceasefire appears to be holding and commercial airlines are resuming service.

In an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press, the department said the US embassy in Jerusalem had canceled two government flights from Tel Aviv to Athens, Greece, that had been scheduled for Friday “due to a lack of passengers.” It added that only five U.S. citizens had departed on a final charter flight to Rome on Friday and that there had been a significant reduction – by at least one-third, to 89 – in the number of Americans seeking information about departure options since Wednesday.

Since the embassy started evacuation flights last Saturday, roughly 650 Americans left Israel on government flights, although more than 14,650 had contacted the State Department to seek information about departing or to report their departure by either plane, ship or overland travel to Jordan or Egypt, the notice said.

The White House and House Republicans have narrowed on a plan for one outstanding issue in Trump’s big bill – the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT.

As it stands, they’ve tentatively agreed to the House-passed terms of a $40,000 cap on deductions – but for five years, instead of 10.

The SALT deduction has been a key holdup as lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states negotiate. They want to quadruple what’s now a $10,000 cap. Senate Republicans argued that’s too generous.

One GOP holdout, Rep. Nick LaLota of New York, says he can’t support the compromise.

“We would still like to meet that July 4th, self-imposed deadline,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said at the Capitol.

“The president likes that idea. I certainly like that idea” and so does Senate Majority Leader John Thune,” he said. “We are very, very close.”

The president posted on his Truth Social media network that it was a “GIANT WIN.”

“Even the Birthright Citizenship Hoax has been, indirectly, hit hard. It had to do with the babies of slaves (same year!), not the SCAMMING of our Immigration process,” Trump said in the post.

He announced he plans to have a news conference at 11:30 a.m. at the White House.

The Republican proposal to shift the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, has been accepted by the Senate parliamentarian.

Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Nutrition, and Forestry Committee that handles food aid, said plans to make certain immigrants ineligible for food aid were also accepted.

“This paves the way for important reforms that improve efficiency and management of SNAP,” he said.

But the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, said her party will “keep fighting these proposals that raise grocery costs and take food away from millions of people, including seniors, children, and veterans.”

The Friday ruling rejected a challenge from Christian employers to the provision that affects some 150 million Americans.

The 6-3 ruling comes in a lawsuit over how the government decides which health care medications and services must be fully covered by private insurance under former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare.

The plaintiffs said the process is unconstitutional because a volunteer board of medical experts tasked with recommending which services are covered isn’t Senate approved.

President Trump’s administration defended the mandate before the court, though the Republican president has been a critic of his Democratic predecessor’s law. The Justice Department said board members don’t need Senate approval because they can be removed by the health and human services secretary.

A flurry of overnight actions appear to be putting the sprawling package of tax breaks and spending cuts in place as senators race for weekend votes.

The Senate parliamentarian accepted a number of revisions to Republican plans that had stalled progress this week.

Senators hope to begin voting this weekend, in time for Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

A divided Supreme Court on Friday ruled individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, but the decision left unclear the fate of President Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship.

The outcome was a victory for Trump, who has complained about individual judges throwing up obstacles to his agenda.

But a conservative majority left open the possibility that the birthright citizenship changes could remain blocked nationwide. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally.

Birthright citizenship automatically makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers in the country illegally. The right was enshrined soon after the Civil War in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

But steep cuts to SNAP food stamps and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been revised by Republicans and are now accepted by the parliamentarian as complying with the procedures for Trump’s big bill.

The package is getting back on track after several setbacks as senators race toward a weekend session for votes to deliver by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

And Trump said he expects to soon have a deal with India.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV the deal was signed earlier this week. Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement.

“We just signed with China the other day,” Trump said late Thursday.

Lutnick said the deal was “signed and sealed” two days earlier.

It was unclear if the latest agreement was different from the one Trump announced two weeks earlier that he said would make it easier for American industries to obtain much-needed needed magnets and rare earth minerals. That pact cleared the way for the trade talks to continue, while the U.S. agreed to stop trying to revoke visas of Chinese nationals on U.S. college campuses.

China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday the two sides had “further confirmed the details of the framework.” But its statement didn’t explicitly mention U.S. access to rare earths.

It’s the latest sign that prices remain stubbornly elevated.

Prices rose 2.3% in May compared with a year ago, up from just 2.1% in April, the Commerce Department said Friday. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 2.7% from a year earlier, an increase from 2.5% the previous month. Both figures are modestly above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

At the same time, Americans cut back on spending for the first time since January, as overall spending fell 0.1%.

The inflation figures suggest President Trump’s broad-based tariffsare still having only a modest effect on prices. The costs of some goods, such as toys and sporting goods, have risen, but those increases have been partly offset by falling prices for new cars, airline fares, and apartment rentals, among other items.

The White House and the Justice Department have received a wave of clemency requests – all carefully crafted to capture the attention and fancy of Trump or those who know his inclinations.

The flurry, legal experts said, has been sparked by Trump’s frequent and eyebrow-raising grants of clemency since retaking office in January. The Republican president has pardoned and commuted the sentences of more than 1,600 people, including many political allies, former GOP officeholders and hundreds charged or convicted in the 2021 Capitol riot. He even pardoned a pair of reality TV stars who were serving time for bank fraud and tax evasion.

In doing so, Trump has largely cast aside a process that historically has been overseen by nonpolitical personnel at the Justice Department who spent their days poring over clemency applications.

11 a.m. – Trump receives an intelligence briefing in the Oval Office

3 p.m. – Trump will meet with foreign ministers from Congo and Rwanda in the Oval Office