Category: usa news today

President Trump says he is bringing back Columbus Day ‘from the ashes’

President Donald Trump is again wading into the debate around Columbus Day.

In an April 27 post on Truth Social, Trump said he’s “bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes.”

A federal holiday since 1892, Columbus Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October. But some states and cities have celebrated the date as Indigenous Peoples Day, or celebrate both, amid concerns that honoring Italian explorer Christopher Columbus glorifies the exploitation and genocide of native peoples.

Trump’s focus on Columbus Day comes as his administration has targeted alleged “woke” policies and institutions, including eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the federal government and withholding federal funding from universities over policies he disagrees with.

Trump on Columbus: ‘Christopher is going to make a major comeback’

Former President Joe Biden recognized Indigenous Peoples Day in a 2021 proclamation, becoming the first president to do so. In his Columbus Day proclamation that year, Biden acknowledged “the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities.”

“It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them,” the proclamation continued.

Biden also said the day should be one of reflection on the “courage and contributions of Italian Americans throughout the generations.”

Trump has complained for years that Columbus, who landed in the Americas in 1492, is being mistreated as his legacy is re-evaluated.

First 100 days: Trump promised to improve the economy on Day 1. Americans are still waiting.

“Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy,” Trump said in a 2020 Columbus Day proclamation. “These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions.”

Trump has railed against what he described as an effort by Democrats to “destroy” the explorer’s reputation, saying his political rivals “tore down his Statues, and put up nothing but ‘WOKE,’ or even worse, nothing at all!”

“You’ll be happy to know, Christopher is going to make a major comeback,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I am hereby reinstating Columbus Day under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before!”

Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr.

April 27, 2025
Man found dead in car submerged in California river: Reports

A missing man’s body was recovered after police found his vehicle submerged in a California river, according to local reports.

Clifford Souza, 74, was first reported missing on April 23 and was last seen driving in a gray Ford Ranger pickup truck in Gualala, California, around 125 miles northwest of San Francisco, local news outlets KRON4 and Fox 2 reported.

On Saturday, California Highway Patrol responded to a call that reported a submerged vehicle off Highway 1, where Souza was later found in the Russian River in Sonoma County, according to KRON4.

The crash remains under investigation, California Highway Patrol told the news outlet.

USA TODAY has contacted the California Highway Patrol for more details.

How did the crash happen?

Authorities believe Souza was traveling on the highway when the truck veered and landed in the river, Fox2 reported. It is not clear when the crash occurred.

Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to call the California Highway Patrol’s Santa Rosa office at 707-806-5600.

April 27, 2025
Booker, Jeffries slam Trump budget plan in sit-in at Capitol
- Sen. Cory Booker and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries livestreamed their appeal from the U.S. Capitol.
- Booker and Jeffries criticized the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget.
- The proposed budget includes cuts to programs such as Medicaid, Head Start and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Sen. Cory Booker and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries launched a live-streamed appeal from the steps of the U.S. Capital on April 27, demonstrating against Republican-backed budget plans.

Starting just after 6 a.m., the lawmakers addressed viewers about the Trump administration’s proposed budget that they said would slash programs in housing, health care and education that help millions of Americans, while expanding tax breaks for the wealthiest.

“Republican leaders have made clear their intention to use the coming weeks to advance a reckless budget scheme to President Trump’s desk that seeks to gut Medicaid, food assistance and basic needs programs that help people, all to give tax breaks to billionaires,” Booker said in a statement. “Given what’s at stake, these could be some of the most consequential weeks for seniors, kids and families in generations.”

Congress will take up the fiscal 2026 budget proposal when they return to session Monday after a two-week recess. The administration’s plan would cut billions of dollars from programs that support childcare, health research, education and housing, the New York Times, which obtained preliminary budget documents, reported.

Programs including Head Start, which provides child care and preschool education to low-income families, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps struggling households pay for heating and cooling, are on the chopping block. The proposal also includes massive cuts to federal health agencies.

Calling budgets a reflection of “what we value, who we protect, and what we stand for,” Booker and Jeffries urged Americans to speak out.

Trump has called for shrinking federal government that he says “spends too much money on programs, contracts, and grants that do not promote the interests of the American people.” Even if Congress approves the budget cuts, fiscal experts say the federal deficit could grow significantly due to Trump’s proposed tax cuts. The tax cuts would add at least $5 trillion to the deficit in 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Trump made tax cuts a centerpiece of his campaign, with proposals to eliminate taxes on tips and Social Security benefits, but it will cost trillions of dollars to extend tax cuts from his first administration even before adding his new proposals.

Trump allies such as Steve Bannon have supported raising taxes on the rich, but the president hadn’t taken a position. Trump has suggested tariffs could potentially replace the income tax, even though economists warn that tariffs raise far less revenue and fall harder on lower-income households.

The Democratic sit-in, held on what the lawmakers called a day of “faith, spirituality, and moral reflection,” has been streaming on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube.

Booker made history earlier this month with a marathon speech on the Senate floor, railing against the Trump administration’s actions, policies and plans for more than 25 hours.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
April 27, 2025
Bill Belichick girlfriend shuts down question about relationship

Don’t ask North Carolina head football coach Bill Belichick how he met his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson. At least, not while she’s around to hear it.

CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil learned that the hard way while interviewing Belichick as part of the coach’s efforts to promote his new book, “The Art of Winning.”

Dokoupil asked Belichick how he deals with the many opinions and investment people have in his relationship with Hudson.

“I’ve never been too worried about what everybody else thinks,” Belichick said. “Just try to do what I feel like is best for me and what’s right.”

“How did you guys meet?” Dokoupil asked.

Hudson cut in after Dokoupil’s question, saying, “We’re not talking about this.”

After the interjection, Dokoupil pivoted to asking about Belichick’s recent adoption of social media. The CBS interviewer asked the NFL coaching legend about the public response to a few of Hudson’s Instagram posts that Belichick appeared in.

“It’s charming, it’s a different side of you. What’s the reaction been like?” Dokoupil asked.

“What’s it been like?” Belichick responded after a pause.

Dokoupil clarified his question, asking again about “these different sort of photos,” including an image of Hudson balanced on Belichick’s feet on a beach.

“Yeah, so I’m on some of those social media platforms, but I honestly don’t follow them.”

After winning six Super Bowls as an NFL head coach, Belichick will begin his first year of coaching at the collegiate level this year. He’s taking over the reins as the head football coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels a year after they finished 6-7 (3-5 ACC) and 13th in the ACC.

April 27, 2025
Immigration sweep in Florida leads to almost 800 arrests

FORT MYERS, Fla. − Almost 800 people have been arrested in the first few days of Operation Tidal Wave, a multi-agency immigration enforcement crackdown in Florida, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities announced.

ICE called the effort a “first-of-its-kind partnership” involving state and federal agencies and local law enforcement. The agency, in a statement Saturday, lauded local police agencies for providing “extraordinary support” for the crackdown that began April 21.

“This is a warning to all criminal illegal aliens: We’re coming for you,” Homeland Security Secretary Krisiti Noem wrote in a social media post. “@DHSgov, @ICEgov, and our state partners will hunt you down, arrest and deport you. That’s a promise.”

All 67 Florida county sheriffs already agreed to partner with ICE. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Operation Tidal Wave an example of the “big results on immigration enforcement an deportations” that federal, state and local agencies can accomplish by working together.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said the operation was a “major success” and that more such crackdowns are planned in coming months.

“Almost 800 aliens including MS-13 gang members, including convicted murders, rapists, all these people are now off our streets who have otherwise been acting with impunity and terrorizing U.S. communities,” McLaughlin said on Fox News. “You are going to be seeing this throughout the country.”

2-year-old citizen apparently deported: ‘No meaningful process,’ judge says

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said last month that he planned to investigate Fort Myers City Council after it failed to agree to the partnership, calling the refusal “very troubling” − and illegal.

Naples Congressman Byron Donalds, a Trump-backed gubernatorial hopeful, said City Council members who refused to go along with the ICE agreement should lose their jobs. Gov. Ron DeSantis also weighed-in, writing that “Florida will ensure its laws are followed, and when it comes to immigration − the days of inaction are over. Govern yourselves accordingly.”

Days later, City Council voted again and approved the ICE partnership. “Good Choice,” Uthmeier said in a social media post.

April 27, 2025
Rubio pressed on 2, 4 and 7-year-old citizens removed from country

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said three young children, ages 2, 4 and 7, who are all United States citizens and removed from the country in recent weeks, were “not deported” but “went with their mothers” to Honduras.

The children, from two different families, were put on a flight to the Central American country with their mothers on April 25, according to multiple outlets.

The 4 year old has Stage 4 cancer and is without access to medication or contact with doctors, The Washington Post and the Associated Press reported. The 4 year old and 7 year old are siblings.

More: 2-year-old U.S. citizen apparently deported ‘with no meaningful process,’ judge says

NBC News’ Kristen Welker referred to the Post’s account in an interview on “Meet the Press” with Rubio April 27. The secretary of State pushed back, calling the headline “misleading.”

“Three U.S. citizens ages four, seven and two were not deported,” Rubio said. “Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers.”

“If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States if their father or someone here wants to assume them,” he added.

According to court documents, a lawyer for the father of the 2-year-old, a girl identified by the initials V.M.L., called immigration officials when the family was detained in Louisiana to inform them that the child is a citizen. The girl’s mother was apprehended as she attended a routine appointment at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New Orleans office.

The father, who lives in the United States, asked for V.M.L. to be placed with a custodian “ready and willing” to care for her in the country. He was told he would also be taken into custody if he were to try to pick up his daughter, according to the court filing.

V.M.L., her mother and sister, who is 11 and was born in Honduras, were deported early Friday morning. Lawyers representing their family had already filed a petition seeking the 2-year-old girl’s release.

U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty scheduled a hearing for May 19 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”

“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen,” Doughty said.

Asked whether citizens and noncitizens alike are entitled to due process, Rubio on Sunday answered, “Yes, of course.”

“But let me tell you, in immigration standing the laws are very specific,” he continued, defending the removals. “If you’re in this country unlawfully, you have no right to be here and you must be removed. That’s what the law says. Somehow over the last 20 years we’ve completely lost this notion.”

Contributing: Sarah Wire, USA TODAY; Reuters

April 27, 2025
Luka Doncic making Lakers better, one no-look pass at a time

“This is gonna make me look bad, isn’t it?”

Unfortunately, Jaxson Hayes, yes, it will. But only in the beginning.

The play, one Hayes did not remember, came last season, on Dec. 12, 2023, when he was in his first months with the Los Angeles Lakers and Luka Dončić was still starring for the Dallas Mavericks. It was midway through the fourth quarter of a tight game, with the Mavericks down by two.

Dončić — as he loves to do — called for a pick-and-roll to draw a matchup against the opposing team’s center. In this case, it was Hayes. Dončić dribbled his way into the low left block, drove his shoulder into Hayes to create space, a space Hayes closed quickly — maybe a little too quickly.

With Hayes in his face, Dončić took a moment, gathered his feet and then whipped the ball with his left hand right behind Hayes’ head to a wide open Dante Exum, who was waiting patiently behind the 3-point line at the top of the key. The pass fell right into Exum’s shooting pocket and the shot barely hit net, one of Dončić’s 17 assists that night.

“Ugh, bro, come on,” Hayes told USA TODAY Sports with a smile recently after being shown the highlight on a smartphone. “I’m just glad he’s making those plays on our side now.”

In his 31 games with the Lakers, Dončić has done exactly that, feeding role players with no-look dishes, over-the-head scoops and full-court darts, providing scoring opportunities for those who might otherwise struggle to claim those chances.

Yet, Dončić is just one of the generational passers on the Lakers. Throughout his 22 seasons in the NBA, no player has dazzled with his vision, ball location and creativity more than LeBron James. With the attention that Dončić and James draw, often sucking additional defenders into the paint when they attack, players like Hayes, guards Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent and forward Rui Hachimura have all benefitted.

“He has such great court vision as a player,” Hayes said of Dončić. “He draws so many defenders and gets so much attention, so it gets me a lot of open baskets. It has been awesome. I just need to make sure I’m in the right positions. Luka and LeBron — they do all the rest.”

Hayes, in particular, has seen his efficiency soar. When Dončić drives, opposing bigs often abandon Hayes to try to alter Dončić’s shots, which has led to dozens of easy lobs for Hayes to dunk through the rim.

In the 25 regular-season games that both Dončić and Hayes played, Hayes recorded a perfect shooting percentage in seven of them. In that span, Hayes shot 76.5% from the field, representing an increase of nearly 10 percentage points compared to the 29 games Hayes played prior to Dončić’s arrival, in which he shot 67.6%.

“You just always have to have your hands ready,” Hayes said.

It has become a nightly occurrence for Dončić to laser a highlight-worthy pass to a teammate. The pressure, then, falls on his teammates to make good on their end and drain the open shots.

Earlier this month, in a 126-99 April 6 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dončić flipped a no-look pass behind his head to an open Vincent, who flushed a 3. When asked after the game how he comes up with these passes in the moment, Dončić practically shrugged.

“I don’t think you can practice that pass, honestly,” Dončić said then. “It’s just sometimes I decide some stuff, then I don’t know how I make it.”

Yet, the Lakers are currently in a 2-1 hole in their first-round series against the Timberwolves, and Dončić struggled through a Game 3 loss with a stomach bug. The Lakers wasted a 38-point showing from James with turnovers and missed opportunities.

Game 4 tips off Sunday in Minnesota, and a 3-1 deficit would put the team’s season in a precarious spot. Whether Dončić recovers from his stomach ailment or not, the Lakers will need more from him, starting with that Luka magic, the no-look dishes that destabilize a defense.

“Nobody is faster than the ball,” James said recently of Los Angeles’ passes. “It comes to ball movement and things of that nature that combat a lot of the ball pressure.

“When that ball is popping, that’s always a key to success.”

April 27, 2025
Trump approval ratings at record low almost 100 days in

WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump’s favorability continued to dip, as he reaches 100 days of a second term and voters weigh in on his approach to issues like the economy and immigration.

Trump’s approval rating was 39% in a new poll from The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos released April 25. That’s down six percentage points from a similar survey released mid-February.

It’s the lowest approval rating for any president at their 100-day mark going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third term, according to the outlets.

Another recent poll, published April 27 from CNN, found Trump’s approval rating at 41% − down four points from their poll in March and seven points since February. It’s the lowest mark dating back to at least Dwight Eisenhower’s administration, according to CNN.

Both surveys found that voters have soured on the president’s handling of the economy.

Sixty-one percent of respondents in the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos poll said they disapprove of how Trump is managing the nation’s economics. The number comes as Trump’s varying tariffs plan has led to market turmoil and raised fears about an impending recession.

Fifty-two percent of respondents in the CNN poll said they have at least some confidence in Trump’s handling of the economy, but that’s down from five points from early March.

Trump also is in the negative with voters on a handful of issues that defined his reelection campaign last year, according to The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos. From immigration policy to managing the federal government, more than half of those surveyed said they disapproved with Trump’s actions to date.

The Republican president is not the only entity under scrutiny in the new polls, though.

Almost 70% of voters said the Democratic Party, which has grappled with how to oppose Trump’s second term, is out of touch with the concerns of most Americans. Sixty-four percent said the same about the GOP.

The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll was conducted online April 18-22 among 2,464 adults in the U.S. It has a margin of error of +/- two percentage points.

The CNN poll was conducted from April 17-24 among 1,678 adults, using online and telephone interviews. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

April 27, 2025
‘Of course’ all people in the U.S. are entitled to due process

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s agenda of deporting undocumented immigrants but said that “of course” all people in the U.S. are entitled to due process.

“Yes, of course,” Rubio told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when asked whether citizens and noncitizens in the U.S. are entitled to due process.

His comments come as the Trump administration has pressed the courts to allow the immediate deportations of immigrants it accuses of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang under the Alien Enemies Act without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.

Last week, the Supreme Court asked the administration to pause deportations of some Venezuelan men based in Texas who the Trump administration said were members of Tren de Aragua, with attorneys for the immigrants asking for them not to be deported “before the American judicial system can afford them due process.”

That decision came after the Supreme Court in early April allowed the Trump administration to move forward with some deportations under the AEA as long as detainees “receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act.”

“The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs,” the Supreme Court justices added.

On Sunday, the secretary of state defended the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, which have included deporting three children who are U.S. citizens — ages 2, 4 and 7 — alongside their mothers, according to T he Washington Post.

“Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers,” Rubio told moderator Kristen Welker.

“If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States if there’s their father or someone here who wants to assume them. But ultimately, who was deported was their mother, their mothers who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers,” the secretary of state added.

Rubio called the story “misleading,” saying that “you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed the 2-year-old and threw him on an airplane.”

According to the Post, attorneys for the deported mothers were not given opportunities to contact their lawyers or their families while in custody in the U.S.

In a December interview with “Meet the Press,” then-President-elect Donald Trump previewed his approach to deportations involving mixed-status families, or those where some family members are in the U.S. legally and others aren’t.

“I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump told Welker at the time.

Rubio also defended the Trump administration’s broader approach to deporting undocumented immigrants, calling the strategy a departure from decadeslong norms in the U.S. that allowed undocumented migrants to remain in the country while pursuing asylum claims.

“Once you come into our country illegally, it triggers all kinds of rights that can keep you here indefinitely. That’s why we were being flooded at the border, and we’ve ended that,” Rubio said.

He also spoke about the ongoing negotiations to reach a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, just one day after Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in Rome.

Rubio said the deal was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there.”

Speaking about the state of negotiations, the secretary of state told Welker, “There are reasons to be optimistic and there are also reasons to be concerned.”

“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” Rubio added.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that Zelenskyy has a “tough road ahead,” but still maintained that the two countries have “the confines of a deal.” He said he’d like to see Putin imminently commit to an agreement to end the war and implement a ceasefire.

“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” Trump said, adding that he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places after discussions.”

Trump suggested to reporters that his relationship with the Ukrainian leader has improved since the the two leaders’ confrontational Oval Office clash in February.

“I think he understands the picture, and I think he wants to make a deal,” Trump said.

April 27, 2025
Trump’s first 100 days bring litany of lies from gas to eggs

As we approach the end of President Trump’s first 100 days in office, let’s review all the ways he’s lied to our faces.

President Donald Trump will hit the 100th day of his second presidential term on April 30, and two things are already pretty clear: he will offer an intentionally inaccurate review of his own performance and then kvetch about anyone who refuses to swallow and regurgitate his self-aggrandizing delusions.

From the price of eggs to immigration to the war in Ukraine, nothing Trump has done comes close to what he bragged last year about planning to accomplish if voters sent him back to the White House.

The “100 day” milestone has always been an arbitrary marker in politics, amounting to less than 7% of the 1,461 days in Trump’s term. But his move-fast-and-break-things approach has garnered plenty of attention in a short period, while fundamentally breaking many of the promises he made while campaigning for reelection.

Trump promised to lower costs. Now groceries are more expensive, and gas isn’t cheaper.

Trump pegged his 2024 win on “groceries” in a December interview with NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” after spending more than a year complaining about inflation and rising costs for food and fuel.

He bragged in an April 24 social media post that costs are now “WAY DOWN” while claiming that the cost of eggs has dropped 87%.

This encapsulates Trump’s approach to proclamations ‒ if they can’t be accurate, make them flashy.

Consumer price index data shows that a trip to the grocery store in April will be more expensive than it was 12 months ago. And, while the prices of eggs have been fluctuating, they hit a record high in March.

Trump also promised while campaigning in September to reduce the cost of gasoline to below $2 per gallon. Right on schedule, he claimed during April 17 remarks at the White House that gasoline had dropped to $1.98 “in a couple of states.”

A CNN fact-check found that claim to be bunk, as the national average for gas that day was $3.17 per gallon and the lowest known price was $2.19 at one gas station in Texas. Don’t expect the White House to stick to the facts. Trump’s media team circulated his lie on social media.

Trump said he would improve Biden’s economy. Instead, he made it worse.

Trump’s reelection campaign pledges to constrain inflation and enrich Americans through trade-war-inducing tariffs have not panned out as he promised, either.

His tariffs, which hit America’s allies just as hard, if not harder, than geopolitical foes, had the net result of erasing serious gains in American retirement investment accounts while tanking the stock market and raising legitimate concerns about a recession. Trump is acting in contravention of conventional wisdom for most economists.

The results are in. Americans prefer the conventional wisdom. The Pew Research Center, in a survey released April 23, found that 59% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s tariffs, matching the number for people who disapprove of his performance overall so far.

On inflation, Trump has chosen to publicly feud with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, demanding a reduction in interest rates while musing about firing him, which caused havoc in the stock market until Trump backed down.

Americans did not find any of that reassuring.

Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on people, power and policies in the time of Trump from columnist Chris Brennan. Get it delivered to your inbox.

A Fox News poll released April 23 found that 82% of registered voters are very or somewhat concerned about inflation, while 59% disapproved of how Trump handles the issue.

Trump, a day after the Fox News poll dropped, lashed out on social media at his slavishly loyal cable television allies and their pollster while offering a concise summation of them that inadvertently reflected the state of the economy with him in power — “It sucks!!!”

Trump lied about his mass deportations and deported legal US residents

Trump also campaigned aggressively on a pledge of the “largest deportation” of undocumented migrants in American history. He has, so far, missed that mark.

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, in an April 24, report, said Trump is on pace to deport about 500,000 people this year, compared with the 685,000 people deported during fiscal year 2024, when Joe Biden was president.

Trump could pass the blame here to Kristi Noem, his Homeland Security secretary who has proved adept at cosplaying as a heavily armed enforcer, if less adroit at guarding her own purse in public.

Trump was not satisfied with scooping up people off the streets for deportations, including some with a legal right to be here, tourists and others who are American citizens. He wanted to go after babies born here, too.

Trump promised to end “birthright citizenship” granted in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment to anyone born in America. A federal judge in Seattle called Trump’s executive order to undo birthright citizenship “blatantly unconstitutional.”

An appellate court refused to let Trump move forward with his plans. Now the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the issue on May 15.

Opinion: Supreme Court reminds Trump to follow the law, signaling concern that he won’t

Americans have already weighed in, with 56% opposing Trump’s plans to end birthright citizenship, according to a February survey from the Pew Research Center.

Trump even lied about his foreign policy influence. Now he’s begging Putin to ‘STOP!’

Trump’s failures have not been limited to domestic issues. He has enraged foreign trading partners. He single-handedly revived Canada’s Liberal Party ahead of April 28 elections with anti-tariff fervor.

And his promise to end Russia’s war in Ukraine even before taking office? Welp, that didn’t happen.

Instead, Trump started waffling about ending that war even before taking office. His diplomatic approach to peace has consisted entirely of blaming Ukraine for being invaded while acting annoyed that the country will not sacrifice more to make Russia happy.

Opinion: Leaks, and the leaking leakers who leak them – A Trump saga on Signal

The arc of Trump’s Ukraine pledge has been ‒ I will fix it, to I’ll try to fix it, to I might just give up on fixing it.

His most strident comments for Russia, the aggressor that started all this, was a pathetic April 24 social media plea for that country to “STOP” killing Ukrainian civilians. Somewhere, Vladimir Putin is likely giggling at the absurdity of it all.

Trump has two simple tactics when dealing with promises he failed to keep ‒ deny the failure, or stomp away while blaming anyone but himself. He might try both if he can’t end Russia’s war in Ukraine. He’ll likely use one or both on any other promises he made on the campaign trail, as he fails to follow through while in power.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.

April 27, 2025