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Trump administration: SCOTUS hearing on FTC member firing, Hegseth boat strikes criticism mounts
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Trump says he is disappointed with Zelensky in peace negotiations
01:50 • Source: CNN
Trump says he is disappointed with Zelensky in peace negotiations
01:50
• Supreme Court arguments: The high court appears ready to side with President Donald Trump on the firing of a member of the Federal Trade Commission. Liberal justices warned today that backing Trump could “destroy the structure of government” as conservatives tried to tamp down fears.
• Boat strikes: Top bipartisan lawmakers expressed support for releasing video of a controversial double-tap boat attack as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faces mounting criticism about military actions in the Caribbean.
• Ukraine negotiations: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with European leaders today after Trump accused him of not reading the US peace proposal and Ukraine talks in Florida ended with lingering questions.
• Farm aid package: Trump is set to announce a $12 billion farm aid package at a roundtable this afternoon, a White House official told CNN, before he’s expected to travel to Pennsylvania tomorrow to tout his economic record.
A majority of the Supreme Court today appeared ready to back President Donald Trump’s argument that he should be able to fire members of independent agencies that for nearly a century have been protected from presidential politics.
During more than two hours of oral arguments, the court’s 6-3 conservative wing leaned heavily into an attorney representing Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, whom Trump fired from the Federal Trade Commission in March – suggesting that his argument could lead to a significant remaking of the federal government.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, at one point asked Slaughter’s attorney about the argument that “independent agencies are not accountable to the people.”
Chief Justice John Roberts also pressed the attorney, Amit Agarwal, on the significance of a 1935 precedent, Humphrey’s Executor v. US, that Slaughter said should decide the case in her favor. In that decision – which has for years appeared in jeopardy of being overturned – the court ruled that Congress does have the power to require a president to show cause before firing independent agencies leaders.
But, Roberts said, that historic precedent has “nothing to do with what the FTC looks like today.” That decision, he said, “was addressing an agency that had very little, if any executive power.”
Roberts’ implication was that the modern FTC is wielding the kind of power that should fall within the president’s power.
A decision in the case is expected before the end of June.
Two key GOP senators are unveiling a bill to that would extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for two years while making changes to the program Republicans have been demanding related to income caps and mandated premiums.
The announcement from Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio comes the same week that Democrats will get a vote to extend ACA subsidies for three years without any changes, something Republicans agreed to vote on after Democrats shut down the government over the issue.
According to a senior GOP aide, Republicans are unlikely to have a vote on the Collins and Moreno bill or any other alternative to the Democrat plan this week. Republicans, who have struggled to coalesce around a health care bill, argue they have a lot of ideas to make changes to health care and are willing to talk with Democrats about them once Democrats have cast what the GOP sees as a messaging, designed-to-fail vote, and won’t be driven by their timetable.
The vote on the Democratic bill is likely to take place Thursday, but it’s not locked in.
European leaders met in London today to discuss an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, following a weekend of diplomacy between Kyiv and Washington, DC, which ended without any significant breakthroughs.
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of not having read the latest US peace proposal, saying that he was “a little bit disappointed” with Ukraine’s leader.
Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. also suggested that the US leader “may” walk away from Ukraine peace efforts.
At today’s meeting, Zelensky emphasized the importance of unity between Ukraine, Europe and the United States, speaking alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz struck a slightly more wary tone, saying that he was “skeptical” about some of the details he has seen in the US’ proposal for an end to the war.
While Europe is “trying to continue (its) support for Ukraine… on the other hand, we are seeing these talks and negotiations in Moscow and in the US,” Merz said, saying that the upcoming days “could be a decisive time for all of us.”
CNN’s Donald Judd and Charlotte Reck contributed to this reporting.
As they debate President Donald Trump’s power to fire the leaders of independent agencies, the Supreme Court’s conservatives are saying a ruling allowing a president to fire the leaders of some independent agencies wouldn’t be such a big deal.
The effort by some to suggest high-profile agencies like the Federal Reserve would remain insulated from the court’s decision in this case is one early sign that a majority of the 6-3 conservative majority is leaning toward Trump.
Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s conservative bloc, asked Solicitor General D. John Sauer sarcastically whether the “entire structure of the government would fall” if the court ruled in Trump’s favor on the Federal Trade Commission, a throwback to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s comments earlier.
“You want to take a moment to address that,” Alito asked, throwing Sauer a softball.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts asked similar questions that seemed to be aimed at drawing distinctions between the FTC and other agencies throughout the federal government — like federal tax court — that have for years enjoyed protection from the whims of presidential politics.
Liberal members of the Supreme Court are sounding the alarm over President Donald Trump’s bid to vastly expand his ability to easily fire leaders of independent regulatory agencies, arguing he was trying to completely upend the federal government as it’s been known for decades.
“Where else have we so fundamentally altered the structure of government?” Sotomayor added.
Minutes later, Justice Elena Kagan suggested Trump would soon attempt to strip away the legal guardrails that prevent him from removing members of the Federal Reserve for any reason, something the high court has already signaled it isn’t ready to help him do.
“Once you’re down this road, it’s a little bit hard to see how you stop,” she said. “It does not seem as though there’s a stopping point.”
“The result of what you want is that the president is going to have massive, unchecked, uncontrolled power,” Kagan added later. Kagan warned of a president “with control over everything.”
Sauer quickly responded: “He’d have control over the executive branch.” Sauer said the administration wasn’t currently challenging the removal restrictions enjoyed by members of the Federal Reserve.
More context: The President has already attempted to remove one member of the Fed, and the Supreme Court is poised to consider in coming weeks whether he identified a permissible justification for removing her earlier this year.
Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro said Democrats are working to put pressure on the adminsitration to release the video of the so-called double-tap strike on the alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
The Texas congressman, who sits on the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committee, said he believes the attack was illegal and a war crime.
He said Democrats added a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act that would affect funding for the Defense Department and Secretary Pete Hegseth “if he doesn’t do things like release this video to Congress.”
Asked if the provision will be enforceable, Castro said he hopes there will be bipartisan support. Beyond this strike that has attracted scrutiny from lawmakers, Castro said Congress should also see other attacks on alleged drug boats as the administration’s campaign continues.
“That should be basically the minimum of what the administration should provide to Congress,” Castro said.
“I think that it was a war crime and I think that it was murder,” he added. “Think about it this way, if somebody was charged in the United States with carrying drugs or even trafficking drugs there would be due process, we would follow the rule of law and most of all, the penalty would not be execution.”
President Donald Trump is expected to announce a $12 billion farm aid package at a roundtable on Monday, a White House official told CNN.
Most of the aid — $11 billion — will be directed toward crop farmers through one-time payments under the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, according to the official. The rest will go to farmers whose crops fall outside the umbrella of the assistance program.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will attend the roundtable with Trump, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET at the White House. Corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, rice, cattle, wheat and potato farmers will also attend.
The farm aid announcement details were first reported by Bloomberg, but Rollins hinted at the bridge payments at a Cabinet meeting last week.
Rollins suggested that it was not the impact of the administration’s tariffs — but Biden administration policies — that have caused farmers to need assistance. She credited Trump for opening the markets through trade deals without directly acknowledging how tariffs have impacted farmers.
“What you’ve been able to do is open those markets up and again, move toward an era where our farmers are not so reliant on government checks, but have the markets to sell their product. Having said that, we do have a bridge payment we’ll be announcing with you next week, as we’re still trying to recover from the Biden years,” Rollins said.
“For so long, our farmers, many of them, have been farming for government checks instead of moving their product around the world. These trade deals change that forever, and it isn’t one trade deal or two trade deals, it’s dozens of trade deals,” Rollins said.
In late September, Rollins said the farm economy, and especially row croppers, was facing “a significant challenge right now,” calling the impact of Trump’s tariffs a “time of uncertainty.”
The Supreme Court will grapple with President Donald Trump’s power to capture control of independent agencies today.
At issue is Trump’s decision in March to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission, despite a federal law that attempts to insulate the agency from political pressure by permitting its members to be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Trump has provided no such justification.
Why it matters: Potentially at stake is a 1935 precedent that permitted Congress to set the terms of removal for independent agency leaders.
There are a growing number of signs that Slaughter’s case could have wide consequences beyond the FTC. When the court granted the case in September it agreed to decide whether any federal court may “prevent a person’s removal from public office.”
This year, the high court has allowed Trump to fire leaders of independent agencies who were appointed by Biden – many of whom were likely to be critics.
Some context: The Humphrey’s Executor case dates to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time in the White House. He fired a commissioner of the FTC in 1933. The commissioner, William Humphrey, was appointed by President Herbert Hoover. He continued to argue he was a member of the commission until his death in 1934. His estate sought to recover his salary during the period after his firing and the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that his dismissal was improper.
The Supreme Court’s arguments today will focus on Donald Trump’s firing of a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, but it will be closely watched for clues about how the court may be thinking about the president’s power over the Federal Reserve.
Technically, Trump’s effort to boot Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in August deals with a different legal question – whether the president had established cause to fire her based on allegations she committed mortgage fraud by reporting two different homes as her primary residence. The court will hear arguments in the case in January.
But those interested in the Cook case will be closely watching Monday’s argument for how the justices deal with a second question: Whether courts have any power to require an administration to reinstate an executive employee removed from public office – even if that person was removed illegally. The Trump administration argues courts lack that power — and if a majority agrees that could have practical implications for Cook and others Trump has fired.
The court has allowed Trump to keep several fired officials off the payroll while they consider these cases, including Slaughter. But in October, it notably allowed Cook to stay in her job without explanation. The court has previously described the Fed as a “uniquely structured, quasi-private entity” with a “distinct historical tradition.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump will meet on December 29 to discuss the future of the Gaza ceasefire and the international force that will be stationed in the enclave, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson at the Prime Minister’s Office said today.
An Israeli source told CNN that Netanyahu will visit the United States in December and is expected to travel to Miami as part of the trip.
The meeting between the two leaders will include discussions on regional matters such as the Gaza ceasefire deal, Syria, Lebanon and Iran, the source said.
Some background: Netanyahu said yesterday that the international stabilization force for Gaza won’t be able to handle “the main thing” is it required to, without elaborating.
“Our friends in America want to establish an international force to do the job, and I said — please, by all means. We know there are certain tasks that such a force can handle. Not everything they can do — perhaps the main thing, they cannot do. I will discuss this with Trump,” the prime minister said at a meeting with Israeli ambassadors.
Netanyahu has insisted that the second phase of the truce must involve Hamas’ disarmament.
President Donald Trump on Monday attacked Paramount’s ownership of CBS News, claiming its stewardship of the marquee “60 Minutes” program was worse than ever.
His diatribe on social media came the same hour Paramount announced a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company.
“My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air,” Trump said, referring to an interview over the weekend with the retiring GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE! Oh well, far worse things can happen.”
The message was a rare rebuke by the president of the leadership at Paramount and CBS since the companies merged. Trump has mostly spoken favorably of the changes billionaire scion David Ellison has made at CBS, including installing journalist and entrepreneur Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief.
His message Monday was prompted by the interview that aired over the weekend with the Georgia congresswoman, who has recently grown critical of Trump’s approach in his second term.
“The only reason Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Green turns Brown under stress!) went BAD is that she was JILTED by the President of the United States (Certainly not the first time she has been jilted!),” Trump wrote.
“Too much work, not enough time, and her ideas are, NOW, really BAD – She sort of reminds me of a Rotten Apple!”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is meeting with European leaders in London today after talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over the weekend in Miami ended with unresolved questions over security guarantees, territorial issues and continued concern that the US proposal tilts in Russia’s favor.
After the talks in Miami ended, president Donald Trump accused Zelensky of not reading the latest peace proposal and said he was “a little bit disappointed.”
He told reporters yesterday that Russia would prefer to have all of Ukraine and that he believes Moscow is “fine” with the peace plan, but “I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it.”
Separately, Trump’s eldest son suggested yesterday that the president may walk away from Ukraine peace efforts over repeated allegations of corruption against several close allies of Zelensky.
Donald Trump Jr. claimed Ukraine was “a far more corrupt country than Russia” and labeled Zelensky as “one of the great marketers of all time.”
Trump Jr. has not played a prominent public role in recent talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Follow our live coverage of the meeting in London here.
President Donald Trump will travel to northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a White House official told CNN last week.
Trump is expected to use the visit next week to spotlight his economic record in his second term, with the event centered on what the administration views as key accomplishments.
Trump swept into office with a plan to remake the US economy. But the realities of a persistent affordability crisis are forcing him to reshape his plan, whilst trying to convince his base that this isn’t the case at all.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing intensifying criticism and pressure from some lawmakers to publicly release the video of a controversial follow-up attack in September on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
Top bipartisan lawmakers who were briefed last week on the “double-tap” strike that killed survivors on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean say they support the release of the video.
It is considered a war crime to kill shipwrecked people, which the Pentagon’s law of war manual defines as people “in need of assistance and care” who “must refrain from any hostile act.”
Hegseth defended the administration’s military actions over the weekend and denied giving a directive that everyone on board should be killed in the strike.
When asked whether he plans to release the full video, Hegseth said, “We’re viewing the process, and we’ll see.” His noncommittal answer differs from comments from President Donald Trump, who had told reporters his administration would “certainly” release the video.
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Hegseth defends US strikes on alleged drug traffickers
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the Trump administration’s military actions against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean during remarks at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday.
00:48 • Source: CNN
Hegseth defends US strikes on alleged drug traffickers
00:48
The US military has killed at least 87 people in strikes that have destroyed 23 boats.
The administration has told Congress that the US is now in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels, labeling those killed “unlawful combatants” and “narco-terrorists.”
The administration has not provided public evidence of the presence of narcotics on the boats struck, nor their affiliation with drug cartels.
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