Key events
Musk quietly puts brakes on plans for new political party, WSJ says
Billionaire Elon Musk is quietly putting the brakes on plans to start his new political party, telling allies he wants to focus on his companies, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the plans.
Musk, without commenting further on the report, said in an X post: “Nothing @WSJ says should ever be thought of as true”.
Musk, the world’s richest man, unveiled the ‘America Party’ in July after a public dispute with president Donald Trump on the tax cut and spending bill.
He has recently been focused in part on maintaining ties with vice-president JD Vance, the paper said, and has acknowledged to associates that forming a political party would damage his relationship with Vance.
Musk, the world’s richest man, and his associates have told people close to Vance that the billionaire is considering using some of his financial resources to back Vance if he decides to run for president in 2028, the paper said.
Norwegian and Swedish-Danish postal groups Posten Bring and PostNord are pausing parcel shipments to the United States ahead of the scrapping of a US customs tax loophole that allows duty-free entry for low-value packages, they said on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration said last month it would suspend the global “de minimis” exemption, which also allows minimal paperwork, for international shipments under $800 from 29 August.
“Due to the short time-frame to adapt to the new requirements, PostNord is temporarily halting shipments,” the company owned by the Swedish and Danish governments said in a statement.
Under the executive order suspending the “de minimis” exemption, low-value packages sent to the US will face “all applicable duties”, according to the White House.
Gabbard strips security clearance from dozens of intelligence officials
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard said on Tuesday that she had stripped security clearances from 37 current and former national security officials, including some who worked on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
In a memo posted on X, Gabbard accused the targeted individuals of having engaged in “politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and/or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards”.
This move is the latest in a series of retributions by the Trump administration against national security officials and political opponents he views as adversaries.
“These are unlawful and unconstitutional decisions that deviate from well-settled, decades-old laws and policies that sought to protect against just this type of action,” Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer whose own clearance was revoked by the Trump administration, said in a statement.
He called it hypocritical for the administration to “claim these individuals politicized or weaponized intelligence.”
In March, Trump revoked security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and several other Democrats and critics. The order also stripped access from former secretary of state Antony Blinken, former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, New York attorney general Letitia James – who prosecuted Trump for fraud – and Biden’s entire family.
In other developments:
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it will open a new migrant detention facility in Nebraska as part of President Trump’s ongoing efforts to bolster Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (Ice) detention network. The facility, located in the southwest part of the state, has been called “Cornhusker Clink” by the department and will hold undocumented migrants arrested by Ice. The project is a partnership between the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and Ice, adding up to 280 new detention beds.
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National guard members from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana began arriving in Washington on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports, to help with President Donald Trump’s federal crackdown on crime and homelessness. The Joint Task Force District of Columbia, the military unit overseeing the Guard, told the news wire that those troops will perform similar duties to local Guard members already on the streets. These tasks include protecting landmarks and crowd control.
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The White House launched an official TikTok account, joining the social platform with more than 150 million US users. Reuters first reported the move. The first video posted by the White House on TikTok shows a video montage with a Trump voiceover saying: “Every day I wake up determined to deliver a better life for the people all across this nation. I am your voice.” More here.
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Texas Democrats are tearing up the “permission slips” they signed in order to leave the chamber, joining state representative Nicole Collier ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the controversial Texas congressional redistricting maps. The slips are part of new surveillance protocols set by Texas Republicans in the House chamber, stating that Democrats would “be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated [Texas department of public safety] officer” who would ensure their return to the chamber.
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Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Washington DC police systematically manipulated crime statistics to make the city appear safer than it actually is. The probe, anonymous sources tell the Washington Post, NBC News and Fox News, being conducted by the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia under Jeanine Pirro, is the latest escalation between the Trump administration and DC officials over federal control of local policing. More here.
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The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it will look for “anti-American” views, including on social media, when assessing the applications of people wanting to live in the United States. In an announcement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles requests to stay in the United States or become a citizen, said it would expand vetting of the social media postings of applicants and that “reviews for anti-American activity will be added to that vetting”. More here.
