The Latest: Trump floats cutting China tariffs to 80% ahead of weekend meeting

President Donald Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.

Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

Here's the latest:

New FEMA head warns staff who might resist changes

David Richardson addressed staff Friday — a day after the former acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was fired — telling those who might want to hinder upcoming changes at the agency: ''Don't get in my way.'' If they did, he said, ''I will run right over you.''

''I will achieve the president's intent,'' Richardson said during a call with staffers across the thousands-strong agency.

Richardson is a former Marine Corps officer who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa. He was named FEMA's acting administrator on Thursday just after Cameron Hamilton, who'd been leading the agency also in an acting role, was fired.

Richardson arrives at FEMA at a time of immense turmoil and as it prepares for hurricane season.

Trump has suggested abolishing FEMA and providing money directly to states to manage.

▶ Read more about FEMA's new acting head

Broadway show reacts to Library of Congress firing

The cast and creative team behind the Broadway musical ''Dead Outlaw'' have canceled an upcoming appearance at the Library of Congress following the firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

''Dr. Hayden has been a fierce advocate for preserving America's cultural memory and a great champion of the Broadway community,'' reads a statement from the show.

Composers David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna and book writer Itamar Moses on Monday were to donate artifacts representing the development of the musical, which were to be enshrined in the library's permanent collection. The event was also to feature a performance and discussion from the creative team and Broadway cast members.

''Dead Outlaw'' tells the tale of a real life alcoholic drifter turned failed bandit who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction. It earned seven Tony Award nominations last week, including for best new musical.

US to accept two dozen white South African refugees while other programs remain paused

The first Afrikaner refugees are arriving Monday at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. They are expected to be greeted by a government delegation.

The flight will be the first of several in a ''much larger-scale relocation effort,'' White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.

''What's happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created,'' he said. ''This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race.''

State Department refugee programs have been put on hold since Trump ordered a review in February. While halting arrivals from Afghanistan, Iraq, most of sub-Saharan Africa and throughout Latin America, Trump also issued an executive order prioritizing the processing of white South Africans who claim racial discrimination in their home country.

New Jersey mayor arrested at ICE detention center where he was protesting, prosecutor says

Alina Habba, acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said on on the social platform X that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka trespassed and ignored warnings from Homeland Security personnel to leave Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility run by private prison operator GEO Group.

The mayor has been protesting the opening of the facility throughout this week, saying its operators did not get proper permits.

In her social media post, Habba said Baraka had ''chosen to disregard the law.'' She added that he had been taken into custody.

An email and phone message left with the mayor's communications office were not immediately answered Friday afternoon.

▶ Read more about the mayor's arrest

15 states sue over Trump's ‘energy emergency' efforts to fast-track oil and gas projects

The coalition of states says the administration is bypassing environmental protection laws and threatening endangered species, critical habitat and cultural resources.

Trump issued an executive order declaring a ''national energy emergency '' on the first day of his presidency. The order urges oil and gas expansion through federal use of eminent domain and the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to use private land and resources to produce goods deemed to be a national necessity.

The attorneys general of Washington, California and the other states say those kinds of steps are supposed to be reserved for actual emergencies, like projects needed in after hurricanes or major oil spills.

But now, the attorneys general say, agencies are bypassing required reviews under federal laws like the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

They want a judge to declare the executive order unlawful and to bar the government from pursuing emergency permitting for non-emergency projects.

Miller on national security adviser job: ‘Thrilled' with current job

Asked whether he would consider becoming the next national security adviser, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller isn't necessarily ruling it out.

But ''I'm very thrilled with the job that I currently have, and my focus right now, is I'm supporting Secretary Rubio,'' said Miller, referring to the secretary of state who has been tapped to the role in the interim. ''Marco and I have become very close friends.''

Could habeas corpus be suspended for migrants?

Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser, said the administration is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the country illegally.

''The Constitution is clear — and that of course is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,'' he told reporters. ''So it's an option that we're actively looking at.''

Miller added that ''a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.''

Habeas corpus refers to people's right to challenge their detention in court.

▶ Read more on immigration

Recent US poets laureate blast the firing of the librarian of Congress

The three most recent U.S. poets laureate have condemned the firing of Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who had appointed each of them to their positions.

''Dr. Carla Hayden is the kindest, brightest, most generous Librarian of Congress we could have hoped for as a nation,'' Ada Limón, who last month completed a three-year run as poet laureate, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Joy Harjo, the laureate from 2019-2022, said in a statement that Hayden had'' expanded all people's access to history, literature, art, archives and cultural programming.''

Tracy K. Smith, who served from 2017-2019, told the AP in an email that

''Her abrupt firing suggests a desire to tamp down the ceiling on our collective remembering and deprive the collective imagination of vital resources.''

White House dismisses conflict of interest concerns about Trump's upcoming dinner with memecoin investors

The White House is dismissing conflict of interest concerns about Trump promoting an upcoming dinner for top investors in his memecoin.

Trump will attend a May 22 dinner at his Virginia golf for the largest investors in the memecoin $TRUMP, and has used his social media site to drum up interest.

Pressed on whether some might invest to try and influence Trump's policy decisions, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, ''I can assure you, the president acts with only the interests of the American public in mind.''

She said Trump is abiding by ''all conflict of interest laws'' and has ''has been incredibly transparent with his own personal, financial obligation throughout the years.''

Pentagon directs military to pull, review library books that address anti-racism and gender issues in new DEI action

The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues by May 21.

That's according to a memo issued to the force on Friday.

It is the broadest and most detailed directive so far on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's campaign to rid the military of diversity and equity programs, policies and instructional materials. And it follows similar efforts to remove hundreds of books from the libraries at the military academies.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo.

White House sidesteps question on the new pope's social media

Before Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, he shared criticisms of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on social media, particularly when it comes to immigration policy.

But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt didn't directly address the issue when asked about it on Friday.

It was a rare instance of the administration holding fire when faced with criticism.

Leavitt said having an American pope is ''a great thing for the United States of America and the world, and we are praying for him.''

▶ Read more on the new pope.

White House calls Newark air traffic controllers losing communication a ‘glitch'

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the ''glitch this morning at Newark'' airport was caused by the same issues as last week, but that it didn't disrupt flights.

Air traffic controllers who guide planes landing and taking off at New Liberty International Airport briefly lost radar and communication with aircraft Friday morning.

''That glitch was caused by the same telecoms and software issues that were raised last week,'' Leavitt said. But she added, ''Everything went back online after the brief outage and there was no operational impact.''

▶ Read more on the outage.

Iran can't be allowed to enrich uranium, Witkoff says ahead of talks

U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said ahead of a new round of nuclear talks with Iran this weekend that the Trump administration wouldn't allow the country to maintain a domestic uranium enrichment program.

That's a main criticism of the 2015 nuclear deal Trump left in his first term.

''An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again,'' Witkoff told the conservative outlet Breitbart News in an interview published Friday. ''That's our red line.''

In the talks, Witkoff said Iran had reiterated that it didn't want to acquire a nuclear weapon, something Iranian officials have said for years.

He added that if the new talks on Sunday weren't productive, ''then they won't continue, and we'll have to take a different route.''

White House spokeswoman says US trade deal with UK is essentially finished, though negotiators say otherwise

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the trade deal with the United Kingdom is effectively completed.

When asked why President Donald Trump presented a deal on Thursday that wasn't finished and ready to be signed, Leavitt said: ''That's not true.''

But that's not quite accurate as Trump himself said the final details still need to be negotiated. She later walked back that statement somewhat by saying that trade deals operate by being announced and then negotiators make sure that the ''‘t's' have to be crossed and the ‘i's' have to be dotted.''

The framework's origins preceded Trump's April 2 announcement of broad universal tariffs and British officials hope to find ways to lower Trump's 10% baseline tariff rate.

Judge releases Rumeysa Ozturk, the Turkish Tufts University student who was detained by ICE

U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington released Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she's been illegally detained.

Ozturk, detailing her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media, appeared at a bail hearing remotely from the Louisiana center.

Lawyers for Ozturk, 30, said her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.

Ozturk was released Friday on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE.

White House says Trump's trip will promote a ‘proud, prosperous and successful' Middle East

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says of next week's trip that Trump is making a ''historic return to the Middle East.''

Trump leaves Monday and plans stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Leavitt said during her briefing with reporters that the White House wants to promote a ''proud, prosperous and successful Middle East.''

''This trip ultimately highlights how we stand on the brink of the golden age'' for both that region and the U.S., Leavitt said.

Most Americans disapprove of Trump's treatment of colleges, a new AP-NORC poll finds

A majority of U.S. adults disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of issues related to colleges and universities, according to a new poll.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research comes as Trump's administration ramps up threats to cut federal funding unless schools comply with his political agenda.

More than half of Americans, 56%, disapprove of the Republican president's approach on higher education, according to the poll. About 4 in 10 approve with Trump's approach, which is in line with his overall job approval.

Since taking office in January, Trump has tried to force change at universities he says have become hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism. The spotlight most recently has been on Harvard University, where Trump's administration has frozen more than $2.2 billion in federal grants, threatened to strip the school's tax-exempt status, and demanded broad policy changes.

▶ Read more about the poll

Pull climate and other funding from richer nations to keep millions alive after aid cuts, group says

Leading aid organizations are reallocating where they're sending resources as countries including the U.S. funnel less money to foreign assistance.

It's time to pull some donor funding for programs in better-off countries that target everything from climate change to refugee resettlement so that millions of people in the most vulnerable countries get what they need to survive, according to David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee.

Miliband told The Associated Press this week that it's time to change priorities to move at least half of the world's aid budget to the poorest and most conflict-ridden places. Currently, a quarter of total aid goes to such places.

The shifting of resources shows the impact of the Trump administration's decision to pull the U.S. back from being the world's single largest aid donor.

Transgender veteran says purging the military could cause a lot of problems

A transgender Marine veteran says ousting service members poses a problem for several reasons.

It could make the military less prepared, and it would disrupt life for the ousted service members and their families, said Sarah Klim, who served for 23 years but never openly because she retired in 2016, right as the end to the ban on transgender troops was announced.

Klimm, who is now a policy analyst for Minority Veterans of America, is also concerned about what happens to medical treatment for ousted troops as the Department of Veterans Affairs phases out gender-affirming care for transgender vets.

''They don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about being taken care of by the VA,'' she said.

Proposal to triple the state and local tax deduction is ‘insulting,' some GOP lawmakers say

Congressional Republicans from New York say a House proposal that would triple the cap on state and local tax deductions is ''insulting'' and would threaten the chances to extend the individual tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump's first term.

The tax cut package passed in Trump's first term placed a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. Lawmakers from New York, California and New Jersey are leading efforts to lift the cap.

Rep. Nick LaLota tweeted a joint statement from he and three other New York Republicans who say Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the House Ways and Means Committee unilaterally proposed a $30,000 cap. They say that was an amount ''they already knew would fall short of earning our support.''

Separately, Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., tweeted that she and one of the four New York Republicans, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, remain committed to a fair deal and that ''this isn't an offer — it's a slap in the face to the hardworking taxpayers we represent.''

The protests signal the difficulties Republicans will have in getting their tax cut and border security package through the House before Johnson's goal of Memorial Day.

After flirting with raising the tax rate for the wealthiest, Trump is backing off — sort of

He noted on social media Friday morning that hiking taxes on anyone, even the rich, could stir a political backlash, although he didn't completely discourage Republican lawmakers from pursuing that option as they write their massive tax package.

''The problem with even a ‘TINY' tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ‘Read my lips,''' Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

The president is referring to an infamous quote by George H.W. Bush during the 1988 presidential campaign, when he pledged not to implement any new taxes as president.

Trump has mused about a higher rate for millionaires for months and revived his request in private talks this week.

Trump will formally nominate Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as federal prosecutor for Washington

That's according a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday to disclose plans not yet made public.

Trump announced on social media Thursday that he's appointing Pirro to be interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Nominating her for the job on a more permanent basis makes her subject to Senate confirmation.

Trump picked Pirro after pulling his nomination of conservative activist Ed Martin Jr., who's been acting U.S. Attorney since January. Trump withdrew Martin from consideration after a key Republican senator said he couldn't support Martin for the job due to his defense of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pirro has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who'd never worked as a prosecutor or tried a case. She was elected as a judge and a district attorney in New York's Westchester County years before joining Fox News.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who publicly opposed Martin's nomination, expressed support for Pirro's selection on social media.

— Seung Min Kim

▶ Read more about Judge Jeanine Pirro

Senator blasts Trump action on grant program to improve online access

Sen. Patty Murray, the sponsor of legislation aimed at helping more Americans have access to affordable high-speed internet, is blasting Trump's announcement that he was ending the program.

Trump said on Truth Social: ''No more woke handouts based on race!''

Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, said in a statement that her legislation, the Digital Equity Act, passed as part of a bipartisan infrastructure package during Joe Biden's presidency. It was designed to close the digital divide in America.

She says funding went to ''help red and blue communities'' with money going to school districts, libraries and workforce training programs, among other things.

''It's about making sure seniors can get online and equipping every student in every classroom with the tools they need to succeed, whether that's a hotspot to take home or a laptop,'' Murray said.

She said the funding ''will be illegally blocked because the President doesn't like the word equity.''

Rights groups sue to free Venezuelans deported from the US and held in El Salvador

International human rights organizations filed the lawsuit Friday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asking that the commission order El Salvador's government to release the Venezuelans deported from the United States and held in a maximum-security prison.

In March, the U.S. government deported more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants alleged to have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, paying the Salvadoran government to imprison them.

Since then, they've had no access to lawyers or ability to communicate with their families. Neither the U.S. nor Salvadoran governments have said how the men could eventually regain their freedom.

''These individuals have been stripped from their families and subject to a state-sponsored enforced disappearance regime, effectively, completely against the law,'' said Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, which helped bring the suit. ''We're hoping that this case might help put pressure on El Salvador to put basic guardrails in place.''

▶ Read more about the deported Venezuelans being held in El Salvador

Fishermen battling with changing oceans chart new course after Trump's push to deregulate

Virginia Olsen has pulled lobsters from Maine's chilly Atlantic waters for decades while watching threats to the state's lifeblood industry mount.

Trade imbalances with Canada, tight regulations on fisheries and offshore wind farms towering like skyscrapers on open water pose three of those threats, said Olsen, part of the fifth generation in her family to make a living in the lobster trade.

That's why she was encouraged last month when President Trump signed an executive order that promises to restore American fisheries to their former glory. The order promises to shred fishing regulations, and Olsen said that will allow fishermen to do what they do best — fish.

That will make a huge difference in communities like her home of Stonington, the busiest lobster fishing port in the country, Olsen said.

▶ Read more about Trump and the fishing industry

Trump's Friday schedule, according to the White House

The first thing on the president's public schedule for Friday is at 4 p.m., when he will sign executive orders.

At 1 p.m., Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing.

Wall Street drifts higher as it counts down to a highly anticipated US-China meeting on trade

U.S. stocks are drifting higher Friday as Wall Street heads toward the end of an unusually quiet week.

The S&P 500 was up 0.4% in early trading and on track to erase what had been a small loss for the week. This may be the first week in seven where the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts moves by less than 1.5%, after getting rocked first by fears about Trump's trade war and then by hopes that he'll relent on some of his tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 127 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

The big event for the week is likely coming Saturday, when trading will be closed in financial markets. That's when high-level U.S. and Chinese officials will be meeting in Switzerland for their first talks since Trump launched an escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

New York Mayor Eric Adams says he'll meet with Trump on Friday to discuss city's ‘priorities'

Adams provided few other details about the meeting in Washington, which comes a month after a federal judge approved a U.S. Justice Department request to dismiss the criminal corruption case against the mayor.

Adams was accused last year by former President Joe Biden's administration of accepting illegal campaign contributions and travel discounts from a Turkish official and others, in exchange for helping Turkey open a diplomatic building without passing fire inspections, among other things. He pleaded not guilty and a trial was set for April.

But Trump's Justice Department moved to drop the charges so Adams could assist with the president's immigration agenda.

Danish leader says ‘you cannot spy against an ally' after reports of US gathering intel on Greenland

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told The Associated Press ''you cannot spy against an ally'' after reports that the United States has stepped up intelligence gathering on Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory coveted by Trump.

Frederiksen's comments Friday are the latest in the spat between Denmark, Greenland and the United States because Trump seeks to annex the strategic Arctic island. Denmark and Greenland insist the mineral-rich island is not for sale, while Trump hasn't ruled out taking it by military force even though Denmark is a NATO ally.

The Danish prime minister spoke to the AP the day after Denmark summoned the top American diplomat in the country for an explanation following a Wall Street Journal report which said several high-ranking officials under the U.S. director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had directed intelligence agency heads to learn more about Greenland's independence movement and sentiment about U.S. resource extraction there.

▶ Read more about reports of U.S. spying in Greenland

Trump is failing to give ‘critically needed leadership' in Gaza, Democrats say

The Trump administration is failing to provide ''critically needed leadership'' to end the growing crisis in Gaza after the collapse of a ceasefire there, the senior Senate Democrats say in their joint letter to Trump.

The Associated Press obtained the letter Thursday night.

The Democrats argued that a new proposal that would U.S. security contractors in a dramatic overhaul of future aid to Gaza was ''not viable.'' And an Israeli proposal for long-term control within Gaza would only take matters farther away from Trump's goals for a permanent resolution to the Israeli-Hamas conflict and for improved Israeli security, the Democratic senators said.

Leading Senate Democrats urge Trump to push Israel to let aid back into Gaza

And the two dozen leading Senate Democrats also urged the president to push Israel to forgo any permanent Israeli reoccupation of Gaza.

Senators made the appeal in a letter sent Thursday night to the White House, ahead of Trump's Middle East trip next week. Aid groups also expect a global monitor to release an update next week detailing the worsening food crisis in Gaza amid Israeli aid restrictions.

Senior Democrats among those signing include Sens. Chris Coons, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, Cory Booker, Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen.

Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden

Trump abruptly fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.

Hayden was notified in an email late Thursday from the White House's Presidential Personnel Office, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. Confirmed by the Senate to the job in 2016, Hayden was the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress.

Hayden, whose 10-year term was set to expire next year, had come under backlash from a conservative advocacy group that had vowed to root out those standing in the way of Trump's agenda. The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused her and other library leaders of promoting children's books with ''radical'' content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.

▶ Read more about Carla Hayden

Up to 1,000 transgender troops are being moved out of the military in new Pentagon order

The Pentagon will immediately begin moving as many as 1,000 openly identifying transgender service members out of the military and give others 30 days to self-identify under a new directive issued Thursday.

Buoyed by Tuesday's Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on transgender individuals in the military, the Defense Department will begin going through medical records to identify others who haven't come forward.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who issued the latest memo, made his views clear after the court's decision.

''No More Trans @ DoD,'' Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Earlier in the day, before the court acted, Hegseth said that his department is leaving wokeness and weakness behind.

''No more pronouns,'' he told a special operations forces conference in Tampa. ''No more dudes in dresses. We're done with that s---.''

▶ Read more about the new Pentagon order

Trump floats cutting China tariffs to 80% ahead of meeting as he looks to deescalate trade war

Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.

Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

▶ Read more about Trump's consideration to cut China tariffs