The Latest: Trump lands in Texas to survey flood damage
By The Associated Press
President Donald Trump has landed in Texas for a firsthand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding that has killed at least 120 people, which the administration has characterized as a once-in-a-lifetime event.
While the administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency and return disaster response to the states as part of Trump’s push to slash federal services, it has lessened its focus on the topic since the July 4 disaster, underscoring how tragedy can complicate political calculations. Ahead of his Texas visit, Trump approved a request from Gov. Abbott to extend the major disaster declaration beyond Kerr County, making eight additional counties eligible for financial assistance for recovery efforts.
The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas, a relatively common practice that allows presidents to visit disaster sites and hopefully ease logistical burdens for authorities on the ground. The White House also says he’ll visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims. Trump will also get a briefing from officials.
Here’s the latest:
Senator who worked at State Department protests ‘shameful’ firings
Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, was among the dozens of protesters outside the State Department on Friday afternoon as staff walked off the job for the last time.
“I came out today to show solidarity with people who deserve better than how they’ve been treated,” Kim told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Kim, who worked as a civilian adviser at State in Afghanistan during the Obama administration, said it’s shocking to watch what’s happening in the building he “aspired to be in” so many years ago.
“I was so proud of the work that I did and the public servants that I worked alongside,” he said. “And it’s just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country.”
Detainees report unsanitary conditions, inadequate medical care inside ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Worms in the food. Toilets that don’t flush. Days without a shower or prescription medicine.
Those are only a few of the litany of poor living conditions described by people being held at a new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades.
Attorneys, advocates, detainees and families are speaking out about the makeshift migrant detention center — dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by officials — that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration raced to build on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. The center began accepting detainees on July 2.
Government officials have adamantly disputed the described conditions, but have provided few details and denied access to the media.
Trump and his allies have praised this detention center’s harshness and remoteness as a national model for the deterrence needed to persuade immigrants to “self-deport” from the United States.
▶ Read more about how lawyers and detainees have described “Alligator Alcatraz”
Trump administration sues California over egg prices
The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter-approved regulations that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens.
The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on egg production and products across the country because of the state’s outsize role in the national economy.
Egg prices soared last year and earlier this year due in large part to bird flu, but prices have recently come down sharply.
While the Trump administration claims credit for that, seasonal factors are also important. Avian influenza, which is spread by wild birds, tends to spike during the spring and fall migrations and drop in summer.
▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s lawsuit
Trump suggests reporter is ‘evil’ for asking about warnings going out in time
A reporter asked the president what he’d say to those who questioned whether the warnings went out in time and whether lives could be saved.
Trump first responded by saying that he thought “everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances,” and that he admired the response.
But then he criticized the reporter who posed the question, saying “only a bad person would ask a question like that” and “only a very evil person would ask a question like that.”
Trump then took a question from a conservative outlet, Real America’s Voice, who thanked the president and other representatives for their response.
“Well, that’s a nice reporter. That’s a nice question,” Trump said.
Retired civil servants, ambassadors among those protesting firings outside State
As more than 1,300 State Department employees received notices about their positions being abolished Friday, dozens of their former colleagues and even one former ambassador stood outside the Washington office to protest their dismissal.
Robert Blake, who served as a U.S. ambassador under Bush and Obama administrations, said he came out to support his peers at a very “unjust time” for foreign and civil servants.
“I have a lot of friends who served very loyally and with distinction and who are being fired for nothing to do with their performance,” Blake said. He added, “I want to tell them there is life after the State Department but this is still a sad day.”
Tom Countryman, who was organizing the rally outside State, told AP he knows all too well how his former colleagues feel Friday as he was among those fired from the State Department during Trump’s first term in office. The only difference, he said, is that he was ready to retire in 2017.
“For people in the middle of their career, who still have the passion and the energy to serve this country, to be suddenly told they’re no longer needed, is much more traumatic.”
Melania Trump expresses her ‘deepest sympathy’
The first lady gave rare public remarks alongside the president. She said she received a special bracelet from the girls summer camp that was devastated in the deadly flooding.
“We are here to honor them,” she said.
Melania also promised to return to support the camp.
Trump takes stock of who is at his event in Texas
As he often does, the president acknowledged public officials, running down a list of lawmakers and others.
Among those present was Attorney General Ken Paxton, the controversial Republican who is challenging Sen. John Cornyn in next year’s primary.
“Ken’s around here someplace. Hi Ken,” Trump said.
Paxton’s wife, a state senator, announced Thursday that she was filing for divorce. The president also noted someone else in the audience.
“There’s Dr. Phil,” Trump said. “You’re looking good Phil. This is a hell of a situation, isn’t it, huh?”
Trump says ‘it’s hard to believe the devastation’ in Texas
After touring flooded areas, the president began his remarks in Kerrville by expressing astonishment at the scale of the disaster.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “A little narrow river that becomes a monster.”
Trump talked about the loss of life from the flooding, saying “dozens and dozens of precious children taken from us.”
Trump orders reversal of Chinese firm’s 2020 purchase of US tech firm
Trump ordered a reversal of China-based Suirui Group’s February 2020 purchase of U.S. based Jupiter Systems, an audio visual equipment company.
The company has 120 days to divest from Jupiter Systems, unless the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, also known as CFIUS, grants Suirui an extension. A Federal Register notice dated July 8 states that the deal risks U.S. national security.
Suirui, a cloud communications supplier, must divest from Jupiter within 120 days, unless the company gets an extension by CFIUS.
Representatives from Treasury, Jupiter Systems and the Chinese Embassy did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment on whether the firms have requested an extension of the 120 divestment period.
A Treasury statement related to the divestment action states that the CFIUS process “focuses exclusively on identifying and addressing national security concerns arising from a covered transaction on a case-by-case basis.”
Trump tours flood-devastated Central Texas
Near a firetruck parked next to uprooted trees, the first couple and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could be seen peering at a map and received a briefing from emergency response officials.
The president, in a suit and tie, donned a white USA ballcap against the heat. First lady Melania Trump was dressed down, in a khaki jacket, olive pants and Converse sneakers, as well as her own, dark ballcap.
Later, the Trumps posed for pictures with police officers and officials wearing hardhats.
State Department staffer says they were cut while already on administrative leave
Jessica Bradley Rushing, who worked at the State Department office tasked with Afghan relocation efforts, told The Associated Press she was shocked Friday when she received a dismissal notice from the agency.
Rushing had already signed a deferred resignation agreement with State in March that put her on administrative leave until end of September.
She said in a phone interview with AP that she spent the entire morning getting updates from her colleagues still at State’s Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) “who were watching sort of this carnage take place within the office.”
“I never even anticipated that I could be at risk for that because I’m already on administrative leave and then I happened to open my email and see that I also got the ‘RIF’ notice,” Rushing said.
Foreign service union blasts State Department cuts as ‘untethered from merit or mission’
The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats, said it opposes the Trump administration’s decision to cut 18% of its workforce Friday “at a moment of great global instability.”
“In less than six months, the U.S. has shed at least 20 percent of its diplomatic workforce through shuttering of institutions and forced resignations,” the organization said in a statement. “Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our national interests.
The group added that if the administration had issues with excess staffing, there were “clear, institutional mechanisms” that could have resolved that issued.
“Instead, these layoffs are untethered from merit or mission. They target diplomats not for how they’ve served or the skills they have, but for where they happen to be assigned. That is not reform,” the statement continued.
Trumps get ready to see flood damage by air
Trump was wearing a suit without a tie as he boarded Marine One in Texas and prepared to do an aerial tour of the flooding devastation. Melania Trump was dressed down, wearing a khaki jacket, olive pants and Converse sneakers, as well as a ball cap.
Trump lands in Texas
Air Force One has touched down in San Antonio and will be traveling to Kerrville.
Kerr County commissioner calls Trump’s visit to the flooded communities a good thing
“He’s here to pledge his federal support like he already has with FEMA. That’s important as a leader to be where the point of friction is. That’s what a leader does.” Jeff Holt said.
Holt is also a member of the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department. If Trump asks him what they need for the future, Holt said he will tell the president “(phone) towers, then maybe a little better early warning system.”
Holt noted the early warning system is a topic for the state Legislature in a special session that starts July 23.
Secular group wants to stop settlement between IRS and church group in Johnson Amendment case
Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Thursday filed documents to intervene in the settlement between the IRS and the National Religious Broadcasters.
Earlier this week, the IRS and church groups submitted a joint filing in Texas federal court, agreeing the IRS wouldn’t enforce the rarely used IRS rule, called the Johnson Amendment, against the plaintiffs.
The Johnson Amendment is a 1954 amendment to the U.S. tax code that prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
Americans United is requesting intervenor status in the case and is asking the court to reject the proposal because it would grant favor and privilege to religious organizations and treat them differently than secular nonprofits, violating the separation of church and state.
“The Trump administration’s radical reinterpretation of the Johnson Amendment is a flagrant, self-serving attack on church-state separation that threatens our democracy by favoring houses of worship over other nonprofits and inserting them into partisan politics,” said AU President and CEO Rachel Laser.
Democrats on House Oversight Committee seek documents, communications on Texas flooding response
The lawmakers say they’re requesting the information to better understand the federal response and prevent such disasters from happening again.
The letters were spearheaded by the Oversight Committee’s recently elected ranking member, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, as well as Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who also sit on the committee.
The group also says reported changes to agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is housed in the Department of Homeland Security, may have contributed to a lack of preparedness.
“We are deeply concerned not only that Secretary Noem may have effectively crippled the agency’s ability to respond to this crisis, but also that she failed to personally act to ensure a timely response,” reads a letter sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Democrats also inquired about alleged failures in early warning systems across impacted areas in two separate letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Commerce Department’s inspector general.
White House invites Cornyn, Cruz and Hunt on Air Force One
The lawmakers flying with the president en route to Kerrville, Texas, on Friday include the state’s two senators and a House member who represents a district far from the flood damage site.
On the presidential aircraft are Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, as well as Rep. Wesley Hunt, who hails from a Houston-area district.
Houston is about 250 miles east of Kerrville.
Hunt, notably, is considering a run in the Texas Senate GOP primary against Cornyn, who’s up for reelection next year.
The House lawmaker who represents Kerrville is Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican.
US is selling weapons to NATO allies to give to Ukraine, Trump says
It comes as Ukraine struggles to fend off a recent escalation in Russia’s drone and missile attacks.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said in an interview with NBC late Thursday. “So what we’re doing is, the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons (to Ukraine), and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that some of the U.S.-made weapons Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S., he said.
“It’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a (U.S.) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
▶ Read more about the war in Ukraine
Trump backs Brazil’s Bolsonaro
Brazil’s former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, is facing a criminal trial for trying to overturn his election defeat. Trump said earlier this week that Brazil should drop the case or face tariffs on its imports into the U.S.
“I know the honest ones, and I know the crooked ones,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he defended Bolsonaro.
Trump added that “he loved the people of Brazil.”
Brazil’s Lula says he has no reason to call Trump over tariff hike
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says he’ll only call his American counterpart, President Trump, when they have a reason to speak. Trump promised Wednesday to hike import taxes of the South American nation by 50% on Aug. 1.
“I sent a letter congratulating Trump for his victory. I don’t have to speak to Trump, there’s no reason. I thought I would meet Trump at the G7 meeting, but he had already left when we arrived. Whenever I need to speak to Trump, I have no problem calling him. As I have called (Bill) Clinton, (George W. Bush), (Barack) Obama and (Joe) Biden,” Lula said in an interview to TV Globo that aired Thursday night.
“Two presidents do not call each other to tell jokes. He could have called Brazil to speak about the measure he was going to take, but he didn’t send any letter. He published it on his website, a total disrespect,” the Brazilian leader added.
Trump says ‘you’ll be seeing things happen’ on Russia
The president acknowledged a strike on a Ukrainian hospital. He’s expressed increasing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin and he’s promised a “major statement” on Monday.
Trump leaves the White House to visit Texas flood disaster
The president told reporters “it’s a horrible thing” what happened in Texas with the recent deadly floods.
He’s heading to Kerrville, where the rising Guadalupe River killed at least 120 people.
“Nobody can even believe it,” he said. “That much water, that fast.”
Trump extends major disaster declaration to more Texas counties
Ahead of his visit to flood-ravaged Central Texas, President Trump on Thursday approved a request from Gov. Abbott to extend the major disaster declaration beyond Kerr County to eight additional counties, making them eligible for direct financial assistance to recover and rebuild.
“I thank President Trump and his Administration for their swift and continued support,” Abbott said in statement Thursday. “Texas will continue to deploy all available resources and support to help those impacted until the job is done.”
More counties could be added to the disaster declaration as further information from the damage assessments becomes available, according to FEMA.
Vought says administration ‘on the verge’ of fulfilling promises to defund NPR and PBS
The White House budget chief said Republicans have been talking for years about eliminating federal money for public media, and now they have a chance to do exactly that.
Congress is slated to vote on recissions, which would claw back $9 billion in funding.
“It’s important that we finally take that opportunity to and not fall back on the tired old excuses,” Vought said.
He plans to be on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to answer questions from lawmakers and he’s confident the legislation will pass.
Should the Fed stay independent? Vought won’t say
After his interview with CNBC, Vought spoke to reporters at the White House. He declined to say whether the Fed should continue to operate independently as it sets monetary policy, saying “I think the question is immaterial.”
He pivoted to criticizing the Fed’s headquarters overhaul.
“I know you guys want to make it more of a metaphysical question,” Vought said, but insisted “this is about the extent to which this building, this renovation project, is horrifying from a cost perspective.”
Trump administration keeps pressure on the Federal Reserve
Russell Vought, Trump’s top budget adviser, bobbed and weaved through an interview with CNBC as the White House ratchets up the pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower rates.
Vought said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who Trump wants to replace, has “mismanaged the institution” and “has been late at every turn” when it comes to setting monetary policy.
CNBC’s Joe Kernen asked if it was really the right time to lower interest rates, as the president has demanded. If the economy is as strong as Trump says, “that’s usually not a time where you need interest rate cuts.”
Vought said inflation isn’t a problem and “we want to see the benefits of a growing economy flow to all Americans,” such as with cheaper mortgages.
CNBC’s Melissa Lee pressed Vought on whether the administration’s concerns about the high cost of renovating the Fed’s headquarters was part of a pressure campaign to achieve lower rates.
“This is about the extent to which this building is incredibly expensive and overrun,” Vought said.
Trump’s schedule, according to the White House
Trump and first lady Melania Trump are scheduled to visit parts of Texas devastated by flooding before retiring to the Trump Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
9:30 a.m. — Trump and the first lady will depart Washington for Kerrville, Texas
2:10 p.m. — Following their noon arrival, they will meet with first responders and local authorities
3:15 p.m. — The president and first lady will depart for Bedminster, New Jersey
Trump to host the Philippine president this month to discuss trade and security in Asia
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s will visit the United States from July 20 to 22 but Philippine officials were still finalizing details of his meeting with Trump with the U.S. State Department, the Philippine government said. The allies have boosted mutual defense engagements, including large-scale combat exercises in the Philippines, to strengthen deterrence against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region.
Among the proposed topics for discussion is strengthening “peace through deterrence,” Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez told The Associated Press by telephone.
That echoed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ’s remarks about the U.S. military’s plan to ratchet up deterrence against China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea by intensifying security engagements with the Philippines and allied nations in the region.
▶ Read more about the Philippine president’s planned visit
The State Department is firing more than 1,300 employees
The firings Friday are in line with a dramatic reorganization plan unveiled by the Trump administration earlier this year.
The department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States, said a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters ahead of individual notices being emailed to affected employees.
Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they’ll formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press. For most affected civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said.
President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their Republican allies have lauded the move as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner and more efficient.
But the cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats who say they’ll weaken U.S. influence and its ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.
— Matthew Lee
