President Trump 'not particularly' interested in Musk talks

Five members of the Proud Boys are suing the US government for $100 million (€87.7 million) over their prosecution for their roles in the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

The leaders of the far-right militant group claim their constitutional rights were violated when they were prosecuted.

According to the lawsuit, the men claim they were arrested with insufficient probable cause. 

It also alleges that government agents later "found" fake incriminating evidence and that they were held in pre-trial detention for years, often in solitary confinement.

"The Plaintiffs themselves did not obstruct the proceedings at the Capitol, destroy government property, resist arrest, conspire to impede the police, or participate in civil disorder, nor did they plan for or order anyone else to do so," the lawsuit said.

The January 6, 2021 riots came as supporters of Donald Trump — who at the time was nearing the end of his first term in the White House — tried to stop former president Joe Biden's election victory from being certified.

Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes. Dominic Pezzola was acquitted of conspiracy but was found guilty of stealing a police officer's riot shield and vandalizing a window with it.

Shortly after he was inaugurated for his second term in January this year, Trump issued pardons for the five Proud Boys and over 1,500 other people who were charged or convicted in connection with the attack on the US Capitol four years ago.

An appeals court in the United States ruled Friday that President Donald Trump can temporarily bar reporters from the Associated Press (AP) from attending some White House events.

Trump had banned AP reporters and photographers in February over the agency's continued use of the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage. 

Shortly after Trump was inaugurated for his second White House term in January, he renamed the body of water the Gulf of America.

The AP sued the Trump administration in February, arguing that Trump's policy violated the amendment protecting freedom of speech in the US Constitution.

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on Friday temporarily blocked a ruling in April by a lower court that had ordered the White House to lift the ban on AP journalists.

US District Judge Trevor McFadden — a Trump appointee — had ordered the Trump administration to give AP reporters access to press events at the Oval Office, the presidential Air Force One aircraft and the White House.

In his ruling, McFadden had said that the White House was not allowed to exclude reporters based on their viewpoints.

In their appeal, lawyers for the Trump administration said McFadden's ruling infringed on the president's ability to decide who can access certain spaces.

“The Constitution does not prohibit the President from considering a journalist’s prior coverage in evaluating how much access he will grant that journalist,” a court filing said.

In its style guide, the AP — which has been a pillar of US journalism for 180 years — explains that the Gulf of Mexico has been known by that name "for more than 400 years," adding that it will continue to "refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen."

Trump has taken a hostile approach to media outlets, particularly those that he deems to be too liberal or left-wing. 

In May, he signed an executive order to cut funding for public broadcasting organizations NPR and PBS.

US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to once again begin sending rare earth minerals and magnets to the United States.

"We're very far advanced on the China deal," Trump said.

China had slowed the exports amid the trade war between Washington and Beijing.

There was no immediate confirmation of the restoration of the exports by Beijing.

Trump's comments came after he spoke to Xi over the phone on Thursday.

US and Chinese officials are set to meet in London on Monday for another round of trade negotiations.

Janine Wedel, an author and anthropologist who is an expert in corruption and power structures, has told DW that the public breakup of Donald Trump and Elon Musk is not a surprise because "oligarchies are inherently unstable."

"We were taking bets about just how many weeks or months Elon Musk might last, because one thing we know is that oligarchies are inherently unstable. Sooner or later, they start sparring with each other, and sooner or later there are breakups and reconfigurations," Wedel said.

She described how the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which Trump appointed Musk to lead had "bypassed Congress" and other branches of government that "are supposed to contain this sort of phenomenon."

She also compared the US under Trump to post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s.

Watch Wedel's full interview with DW News here.

The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the newly created department which until last month was helmed by billionaire Elon Musk, to continue having broad access to millions of Americans' personal Social Security information.  

The high court sided with the Trump administration in its appeal against an order by a judge in Maryland that restricted DOGE's access to the Social Security Administration under federal privacy laws.

That case in Maryland is still being played out.

DOGE has spearheaded Donald Trump's attempts to slash public spending and downsize the federal government.

It has laid off thousands of federal workers and dismantled government agencies, including the Department of Education, as well as cutting federal programs that severely impacted funding for social and humanitarian initiatives.

Elon Musk, whose deteriorating relationship with Trump dramatically played out on social media this week, left DOGE on May 30. 

In a separate case, the US Supreme Court extended its block on judges' orders that required DOGE to hand over its records to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group.

The Supreme Court's ruling halts an order by US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington DC for DOGE to respond to CREW's requests, after Cooper had concluded that DOGE is a government agency that is subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows the public to seek access to government agencies' records. 

CREW had sued to get information on DOGE's operations which led to mass layoffs and huge cuts to government programs.

The White House has said that DOGE is an advisory body, and is therefore not covered by the FOIA.

More now from US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has been speaking to reporters after Kilmar Abrego Garcia was indicted on human trafficking charges.

"Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," Bondi told a press conference Friday.

She said a grand jury had found that had made "over 100 trips" smuggling for the MS-13 criminal group. "Thousands of illegal aliens were smuggled," including children, Bondi said.

She also said that Abrego Garcia is alleged to be part of the same smuggling ring that was responsible for the death of more than 50 migrants in 2021 after a tractor trailer overturned in Mexico.

Abrego Garcia is also accused of abusing "undocumented alien females" while he smuggled them "throughout" the US, Bondi continued, citing unnamed "co-conspirators."

He allegedly trafficked firearms and narcotics "on multiple occasions."

"These facts demonstrate Abrego Garcia is a danger to our community," Bondi said.

The US Attorney General did not provide details about how the investigation had unfolded or yielded the charges, which relate to a traffic stop over four years ago.

She only confirmed that "recently found facts" had led to the indictments.

When asked what had changed since the traffic stop in May 2021, Bondi replied, "What has changed is Donald Trump is now President of the United States, and our borders are again secure."

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador by the Trump administration, has been charged in the United States with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the country.

Abrego Garcia, who was deported on March 15, is now headed back to the US.

The charges relate to a traffic stop in Tennessee in 2022. 

Although police at the time suspected him of human trafficking, he was never charged with a crime and was allowed to drive on with a warning related to an expired driver's licence, according to a report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April.

The indictment was filed on May 21, US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed at a press conference, over two months after Abrego Garcia had been deported.
Garcia's deportation in March sparked protests in the US amid anger over the Trump administration's aggressive approach to tackling undocumented migrants in the country.

The US Supreme Court in April ordered Trump to facilitate the 29-year-old's return after Washington admitted to an "administrative error" that led to his deportation.

After Abrego Garcia had been deported to El Salvador, the White House continued to insist that Abrego Garcia was a member of international criminal gang MS-13, and refused to facilitate his return.

He was deported to his home country despite a 2019 judge's order that granted him protection from deportation because he was likely to be victimized by gangs if he was returned to the Central American nation.

His deportation became a flashpoint for the Trump administration's immigration policies as well as its tensions with the judiciary, after several judges shot down a number of Trump's policies and executive orders.
 

The relationship between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world's richest man, implodes. They fell out when President Trump's former senior advisor criticized the president's so-called "big beautiful bill," which will increase government spending. 

The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees fired in mass layoffs as part of his plan to dismantle the agency.

The Justice Department's emergency appeal said US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction that reversed the layoffs of around 1,400 people and put the plan on hold.

The order has blocked one of Trump's biggest campaign pledges and has stalled the effort to wind down the department. 

Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote on Friday that Joun was substituting his policy preferences for those of the Trump administration.

Sauer also pointed out that in April, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to block Joun's earlier order seeking to keep in place Education Department teacher-training grants.

The dismantling of the Education Department would leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent some hundreds of millions on Donald Trump's presidential campaign and gained unprecedented access to the Republican president's administration.

But after Thursday's comments in the Oval Office and the explosive exchanges on social media, Musk's business interests may be in Trump's crosshairs, considering Trump's threat to cut lucrative subsidies and federal contracts.

DW takes a look at what their public row means for Musk's empire. Read more here.

US President Donald Trump may offload the red Tesla he bought as a sign of support for Elon Musk earlier this year, White House sources told various media outlets on Friday.

The vehicle which retails for around $80,000 (€70,185) was still in a parking lot on White House grounds according to a reporter from the French AFP news agency.

"He's thinking about it, yes," a senior White House official told AFP when asked if the president would sell or give away the Tesla.

The pair were pictured in the vehicle during happier times in their relationship, which now looks to have completely fallen apart following Thursday's angry exchanges.

Tesla stocks dropped more than 12% on Thursday , losing more than $150 billion of market value before rallying again on Friday during early trade.

An amount of around 139,000 jobs were added in the US during May, the US Department of Labor announced on Friday.

"For the third month in a row, the jobs report beat expectations, with 139,000 new jobs added in May!" the Department of Labor said in a post on X.

The gains in employment were above the 130,000 predicted by economists polled by the Reuters news agency.

Healthcare firms added some 62,000 jobs, while the hospitality sector, including bars and restaurants, was responsible for adding 48,000 jobs.

There were 22,000 federal government jobs cut as the Trump administration's cost-cutting measures made an impact. Since Trump came to office in January, federal government payrolls have been down 59,000.

"The job market is still standing tall even as some of these headwinds start to blow,", The Associated Press quoted Daniel Zhao, lead economist at the jobs website Glassdoor, as saying.

"But ultimately we're all still waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's still much too early for tariff impacts to be a significant drag on the economy.," Zhao said.

US President Donald Trump said he is "not particularly" interested in speaking with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

In a telephone interview with broadcaster ABC News, Trump didn't appear to be too concerned with having fallen out with the man who spent at least $250 million (€218 million) in support for Trump during his campaign to return to the White House.

ABC news asked on Friday whether he had a call scheduled with Musk later that day.

"You mean the man who has lost his mind?" Trump asked, before saying he was "not particularly" interested in talking to him at the moment.

Trump told the broadcaster that Musk wanted to talk to him, but that he wasn't ready to speak to Musk.

On Thursday, Trump had expressed disappointment with Musk over his criticism of his so-called "big, beautiful bill."

Trump said the pair had a "great relationship" but that he didn't know whether they would have one going forward.

That sparked a furious exchange on social media platforms with Musk questioning whether the president would have made it to the White House without his backing.

Musk then levelled allegations against Trump that he was "in the Epstein files" without producing evidence to support his claims.

Trump's previous association with the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who hanged himself while awaiting trial, has been widely reported in the past.

Trump brought Musk into the White House to act as an adviser and head up  the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which ended a week ago, after spearheading massive layoffs in various government bodies and departments.

The honeymoon looks to be well and truly over, that's as a very public spat involving US President Donald Trump and his former adviser Elon Musk has been left hanging, with no sign that the two will be making amends any time soon.

Trump has told local news he doesn't have any interest in talking with Musk after the two launched a series of blistering swipes at one another on social media.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees fired earlier this year amid mass layoffs.

We'll be following up on the main developments coming out of the US. Thank you for joining us.