The Latest: Trump says US must respond to downed helicopter
President Donald Trump blamed Iran for downing a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and said the United States must respond to the attack.
A drone boat rescued two Army aviators who were aboard the Apache attack helicopter when it went down near the waterway that Iran has effectively closed during its war with the U.S. and Israel. Trump said in a social media post that both service members “are safe and uninjured.”
House Republicans hope to approve nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement on Tuesday, which would fund Homeland Security throughout President Donald Trump’s time in office. Democrats call it a blank check that imposes no limits on agents despite the deaths of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration is vowing to appeal a federal judge’s rejection of its $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, saying the much-higher fee aims to prevent foreign workers from taking American jobs. Schools and states say filling teacher and doctor jobs was already hard enough before the fee hike.
Trump says he’ll nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for the full-time job, setting up a Senate test of his use of the Justice Department to pursue his foes and give himself immunity from potential tax crimes. And as he looks forward to celebrating his 80th birthday party Sunday with a UFC cage match, Trump has begun suggesting that the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage could become a permanent South Lawn fixture.
The Latest:
Recent U.S. sanctions targeting Cuba’s leadership and the indictment of former President Raúl Castro are a “pretext” for the Trump administration to persuade the American people to support a military intervention, Cuba’s top diplomat to the United States told The Associated Press.
In an interview on Tuesday, Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera repeated accusations against the Trump administration made by other Cuban officials, including the foreign minister and the president, and complained bitterly that the U.S. is targeting Cuban civilians with its decades-old embargo and new blockade of energy shipments to the island.
“The sanctions against our leaders, we see as a pretext to make the American people think we are a threat,” she said at Cuba’s embassy in Washington. “We are not a threat to the U.S., and we don’t want confrontation.”
Johnson met for several hours with the president as Congress is racing to ensure the FISA foreign surveillance tool does not expire by Friday’s deadline.
Lawmakers have objected to Trump’s pick of Pulte as director of the office of national intelligence putting the vote to reauthorize FISA at risk.
Pressed if he believed Pulte was qualified for the job, Johnson said, “We talked about all that, I’m going to let the president speak.”
Asked if Trump would dump Pulte, Johnson deferred to the president.
The Trump administration is telling European nations that they need to step up their travel restrictions for people entering the continent from Ebola virus-hit countries in Africa, warning that failure to do so may result in increased U.S. regulations regarding travel from Europe, including for the World Cup football tournament.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday called European Commission President Ursala von der Leyen to convey the concerns, “to discuss U.S. and European coordination and response efforts to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda,” the State Department said in a statement.
“The department’s highest priority and focus remain protecting the health of the American people and preventing this Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores,” it said.
There are relatively few direct flights between Africa and the United State per day but more than 300 direct daily flights between Europe and the United States.
President Donald Trump blamed Iran for downing a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and said the United States must respond to the attack.
A drone boat rescued two Army aviators who were aboard the Apache attack helicopter when it went down near the waterway that Iran has effectively closed during its war with the U.S. and Israel. Trump said in a social media post that both service members “are safe and uninjured.”
“Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” Trump wrote.
The helicopter went down as the Middle East was still reeling after Iran and Israel exchanged fire the previous day in the biggest blow yet to the strained ceasefire in the Iran war. Iranian state television reported Tuesday that the Israeli attacks killed at least two members of the country’s air-defense units.
The first lady spoke at the White House while recognizing the winners of a nationwide contest in which students were asked to complete a project using an AI method or tool to address a challenge in their communities.
“Today is about opening doors,” she said. “When new doors open, passions flow, courage blossoms and dreams are realized. AI inspires.”
More than 20,000 students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and more than four dozen Defense Department schools in 10 countries participated in the inaugural Presidential AI Challenge.
Melania Trump recognized six elementary, middle and high school champion teams, along with about 120 finalists.
The first lady is a proponent of using artificial intelligence in education and also has warned of the risks posed by the technology.
The warnings are the latest example of Trump leaning into the message that his administration is fixing the problem of healthcare expenses that can drain a family budget. It’s a calculated pitch ahead of the November midterms at a time when affordability is a top concern, and Trump is vulnerable on this after allowing subsidies to lapse for Affordable Care Act insurance, widely known as Obamacare.
Just 29% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s healthcare policies in the most recent survey on the issue by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Price transparency could have a particular impact in the Republican strongholds of Texas, Florida, Indiana, Alabama and Louisiana, which have among the most hospitals warned about inadequate price information.
The administration argues that the lack of basic pricing information for consumers to access is keeping healthcare costs higher than they should be.
The Associated Press obtained exclusively the list of hospitals that since April have either received letters of warning or requests to submit plans to provide transparent pricing. Penalties range up to $2 million annually for each hospital that doesn’t create a plan to post clear pricing data.
The letters are meant to fix a fundamental problem: Patients, employers and insurers might not know ahead of time the cost of blood work, an imaging test or another form of treatment, and as a result pay more than they should have. AP has posted the list of hospitals that have received letters.
Pressed if the Republicans would be able to approve the package during afternoon votes, Majority Leader Steve Scalise appeared confident, despite their already slim advantage potentially being narrowed as lawmakers from several states dash home to campaign on primary election day.
“We always have to deal with absences, a narrow majority, that’s life in the big city,” Scalise, the Republican from Louisiana, told reporters.
Democrats oppose the package, which would fuel Trump’s immigration enforcement and deportation agenda through the rest of his time in the White House.
“We’re just going keep working through but, you know, we’re going to get our work done,” he said.
Lawmakers in both parties are pressing the White House to reconsider its decision to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday he does not believe the administration is considering replacing Pulte in the acting role, and is instead weighing a permanent nominee to lead the intelligence community.
“I think they’re weighing seriously making a long-term pick,” Thune told reporters.
Thune added that it’s his “hope” the decision would come sooner rather than later.
Salt Lake City and its county are suing to block a giant warehouse where Homeland Security plans to detain as many as 10,000 immigrants. Their federal lawsuit is the latest brought by local officials around the country who were not consulted before DHS purchased industrial warehouses to convert into regional immigrant processing and detention centers.
The lawsuit targets the most expensive yet: $145.4 million for a warehouse roughly the size of 15 football fields. The March purchase, from a real estate group partially owned by Deutsche Bank, cost nearly 50% more than the property’s 2025 assessed market value, records show.
In all, DHS purchased 11 warehouses for more than $1 billion in the final weeks of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure. The DHS Office of Inspector General is investigating whether that was wasteful, and Noem’s successor, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, has put it on hold.
A U.S. Navy drone boat rescued two Army aviators after their Apache helicopter went down near the coast of Oman, a U.S. military official said Tuesday.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said a 24-foot unmanned boat located the crew members, who had spent two hours in the water, and brought them to shore.
Military officials have not said what caused the helicopter to go down. The military said the incident is under investigation.
Rep. Mike Johnson is meeting with Trump now that the president’s choice of Bill Pulte for director of national intelligence has upended debate over extending an expiring foreign surveillance program.
Lawmakers in both parties are pushing the White House to drop Pulte, saying he lacks the congressionally mandated national security expertise.
Johnson expects the Foreign intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, will be part of the talks.
FISA is set to expire Friday, risking an interruption of the surveillance tool if Congress fails to extend it.
Trump says two U.S. Army members were not injured when their Apache attack helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The pilots are fine,” Trump said after watching the NBA finals in New York Monday night. “Nobody injured.”
What caused the crash remains unclear in a Middle East still reeling after Iran and Israel exchanged fire the previous day in the biggest blow yet to the straining ceasefire in the Iran war. Iranian state television reported Tuesday the Israeli attacks killed at least two members of Iran’s defense units.
A statement from the U.S. military’s Central Command said the crew were rescued within two hours and were in stable condition.
“We have a good chance” of signing a deal in “two or three days,” Trump said Monday night, without providing any detailed reason for new optimism.
Trump has repeatedly predicted that a deal is near over the two months since the U.S. and Iran agreed to an initial ceasefire. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, however, said Monday that Trump’s remarks have “contradicted the agreed-upon sections, showing that (the U.S. is) neither seeking a ceasefire nor dialogue.”
“We’re very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal,” the president said. “If we go and bomb — which we could do very easily if we want, and we spend another two or three weeks bombing — they’ll have nothing left whatsoever. But you won’t have the strait open for months.”
He added: “If we do the bombing, you know, a lot of people are going to be killed. Who wants to do that? I don’t.”
The Senate completed its work last week, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to oppose it. If the House approves, Trump’s signature would all but assure an essentially uninterrupted flow of funds for his immigration enforcement and deportation agenda into 2029.
The Department of Homeland Security is under new leadership after Trump replaced Kristi Noem with new Secretary Markwayne Mullin. He has vowed to keep the department out of the headlines, but the administration is under pressure from anti-immigration advocates to deliver on Trump’s campaign promise of the largest deportation operation in American history.
So far, the administration has not hit its goal of 1 million deportations a year, but Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has promised more to come, including hinting at enforcement in New York, the nation’s biggest city, which is heavily Democratic.
“We have to fund border security and immigration enforcement, and it’s sad that Republicans have to do it on our own,” Johnson said.
The Republican-controlled Congress already provided nearly $140 billion for ICE and Customs and Border Protection as part of Trump’s tax and spending cuts bill.
Democrats wanted significant changes after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis — insisting for example that agents be required to display their ID badges and get a judicial warrant before entering private property. Instead, the funding will come with virtually no strings attached.
“We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people – not give ICE another $70 billion blank check so that they can unleash brutality on American citizens and violently target law-abiding immigrant communities,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
House Republicans hope to get nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the rest of President Donald Trump’s time in office.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and GOP unity for the final votes. The legislation got sidetracked when Republicans sought to include $1 billion for enhanced White House security amid Trump’s new ballroom construction, and a $1.8 billion compensation fund for Trump’s allies. Both proved politically toxic and were scrapped.
Now, the bill is focused entirely on fueling Trump’s deportation agenda, a topic Republicans hope will carry them to victory in this year’s midterm elections. The bill provides $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and another $5 billion to cover unforeseen costs.
House Republicans hope to get nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the rest of President Donald Trump’s time in office.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and GOP unity for the final votes. The legislation got sidetracked when Republicans sought to include $1 billion for enhanced White House security amid Trump’s new ballroom construction, and a $1.8 billion compensation fund for Trump’s allies. Both proved politically toxic and were scrapped.
Now, the bill is focused entirely on fueling Trump’s deportation agenda, a topic Republicans hope will carry them to victory in this year’s midterm elections. The bill provides $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and another $5 billion to cover unforeseen costs.
Voters across Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota are casting ballots in another day of primary elections in America, but much of the political world will be focused on Maine’s high-stakes U.S. Senate contest.
Neither Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins nor Democratic challenger Graham Platner faces serious opposition for their party’s nomination, but the vote will test Platner’s credibility after his progressive campaign has been rocked by controversy over his past behavior.
Elsewhere, Trump’s clout within the GOP will be tested anew in states where he’s endorsed primary candidates.
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Oil and jet fuel costs have soared since the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. airlines spent more than $6 billion on jet fuel in April, up 78% from a year earlier, according to government data.
Delta, American and United all gained between 1% and 2% overnight, but the airline industry’s top global trade group warned that soaring energy costs could nearly halve this year’s profits for major carriers, even as they raise airfares, cancel flights and trim schedules.
Elevated oil prices have sent broader inflation higher, increasing household bills. They’ve also hiked bond market yields worldwide, which threatens to slow economies and undercut all kinds of investments. The 10-year Treasury yield was holding around 4.55% early Tuesday, up from 4.01% before the Iran war.
The U.S. government will issue its wholesale prices data on Tuesday and consumer prices on Wednesday.
The White House and its storied South Lawn are no strangers to sporting events. But they’ve never seen anything like the UFC bout President Donald Trump is hosting to celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday or the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage complete with an open overhead dome featuring large screens that are surrounded by thousands of arena seats.
Sometimes called America’s backyard, the South Lawn was until now known for low-contact sports and joyful events geared toward children or bipartisanship, like the annual Easter Egg Roll or the congressional picnic.
The same space being used for blood sport, feting a president who relishes it and playing out in a hulking structure featuring a complicated overhead lighting scheme known as The Claw, illustrates yet another of the White House norms that Trump is gleefully laying to rest — or, in UFC parlance, forcing to tap out.
That the president has begun suggesting that he could make the cage-fighting venue a permanent South Lawn fixture further underscores just how far from T-ball the White House has come.
Trump was booed loudly by fans inside MSG when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem as he became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.
Chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” echoed through the arena as Avery Wilson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but they gave way to boos moments later as Trump was displayed on the jumbo screens giving a military salute. The jeers ended when the U.S. flag followed him on the screens, and fans cheered when New York Knicks players were shown. Mentions of the San Antonio Spurs also elicited vociferous boos.
The president was unfazed. “It was, I think, mostly cheers,” he told reporters after the game before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It was loud, and it was very enthusiastic.”
Trump watched Game 3 from Knicks owner James Dolan’s suite, along with granddaughter Kai, personal adviser Boris Epshteyn and Cabinet secretaries Lee Zeldin, Sean Duffy and Doug Burgum. He sat next to Dolan for the first quarter and spent part of the second talking to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman.
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