Pope Francis, who died April 21, was a longtime member of the San Lorenzo soccer team in Buenos Aires. Did his card number foretell his time of death?
Moments from Pope Francis’ funeral Mass
Tens of thousands gathered around Vatican City for Pope Francis’ funeral Mass.
Pope Francis remained a soccer fan during his time at the Vatican and some in his home country of Argentina think the pope made a set piece out of his passing.
The numbers coincide with the age of Pope Francis at his death (88) and his time of death, which the Vatican said was 7:35 a.m. (2:35 a.m. local time in Buenos Aires).
Many fans of the pope and soccer called out the connection on social media. “He died at 88 years old, at 2:35am (in Buenos Aires, 0535 GMT) and was member 88235. It really caught my attention,” wrote one San Lorenzo fan on X.
“It has to be destiny,” Ramiro Rodríguez, who wore a San Lorenzo team shirt (along with a rosary) to an April 25 mass to celebrate the pope’s life, told CNN.
San Lorenzo de Almagro confirmed the pope’s membership number to Reuters. The card bears the name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the pope’s name at birth in 1936.
“The pope leaves an unbreakable legacy,” San Lorenzo Club president Marcelo Moretti told Reuters. “For all San Lorenzo fans, he was a source of great pride. It is a very sad day.”
Moretti met Francis several times, most recently last September to ask permission to name a new stadium after him in the Boedo neighborhood where the club is based. “He accepted, with great emotion,” Moretti told Reuters.
The team will wear special commemorative jerseys to honor Pope Francis in its April 26 match.
“An honorary member of our club, his passion for San Lorenzo always moved us especially, and unites us in a constant prayer for his soul,” the club posted on its website.
Pope Francis hosted Maradona, Messi, Ronaldhino
Although Pope Francis never returned to Argentina after becoming pope in 2013, he did host Argentine soccer royalty at the Vatican: Diego Maradona, who died in 2020, said Pope Francis had restored his Catholic faith after they met in 2014.
Lionel Messi, who met the pope in 2013, paid tribute to on the social network X, posting a picture of the pope accepting an olive tree from him. He called Pope Francis, “a different, approachable, Argentine pope” and thanked him for “making the world a better place.”
Brazilian great Ronaldhino posted a picture of him presenting Pope Francis with a jersey on Instagram. “Rest in peace, Pope Francis,” he wrote.
Pope Francis “was the most football-loving Pope in all of history,” posted Santiago Ravidlas, a journalist in Paraguay.
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY’s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
The Society of Jesus is a Roman Catholic order founded in 1540 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola committed to spirituality and social action.
Crowds line up to see Pope Francis on last day of public viewing
On the last day of public viewing ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral, tens of thousands of people lined up to see him.
Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s 266th pontiff, was the first Jesuit to lead the church in its nearly 2,000-year history.
Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, died April 21 at age 88. He was the first pope to come from the Americas, a distinction he touted during his opening address upon becoming the leader of the church and its billion-plus followers.
More than 200,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square April 26 to honor the late pope at a funeral service and procession, according to Vatican News.
Fr. Arturo Sosa, S.J., Jesuit Superior General, said Francis consistently aimed to turn God’s will into action in order to promote “the transformation of humanity to make this world a worthy home for all human beings,” Vatican News reported.
Are Jesuits Catholic?
The Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic order founded in 1540 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
According to the Jesuits’ website, the Jesuits consist of 14,000-plus priests, brothers, scholastics and novices worldwide, making it one of the church’s largest male religious orders, though the number of Jesuits globally has steadily decreased since the 1960s, when there were more than 36,000.
Ignatius was a Spanish soldier whose leg was shattered by a cannonball as he fought to defend a castle in Pamplona against a French siege, as recounted by Jesuit-founded Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
During his recovery, Ignatius experienced a spiritual conversion after reading about the lives of Jesus Christ and the saints, the only books available in the castle library. Inspired to serve the poor, he began to compile his thoughts and methods in a document that would ultimately become the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. The handbook sets guidelines for meditation, self-awareness and prayer.
According to the university, Ignatius embraced education “as one of the most important ways of promoting ‘the betterment of souls.’” Even before Georgetown’s founding in 1789, the Jesuits ran more than 800 universities, seminaries and secondary schools worldwide, serving many students who otherwise lacked access to a formal education.
What does it mean to be Jesuit today?
That mission continues today. Men entering the Society of Jesus “pursue a decade-long course of studies and spiritual formation before being ordained to the priesthood.”
The Jesuit Schools Network of North America works with 91 secondary and pre-secondary schools throughout the U.S., Canada, Belize and Micronesia. While the schools are principally Catholic institutions, they aren’t meant to ready young people for the clergy as much as they are for lives of service beyond the church.
Jesuits strive to be “contemplatives in action,” turning their spirituality into action, and are known for their efforts to promote global justice, peace and dialogue.
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities lists 27 member schools in the U.S., including Georgetown, Gonzaga University, Boston College, Saint Louis University, Fordham University and the College of the Holy Cross.
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said, as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was “extremely cautious” about the potential success of the negotiations aimed at resolving a decades-long nuclear standoff.
US President Donald Trump has seemed confident in reaching a new pact with Iran that would guarantee Tehran does not make a nuclear bomb.
On Saturday, Araghchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of indirect talks in Oman’s capital, Muscat, through Omani mediators for about six hours. This comes a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical … there are still differences, both on major issues and details,” Araghchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides … However, our optimism about the success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon”.
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araghchi said Oman would announce the venue.
An Iranian official briefed about the talks told the Reuters news agency earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious”.
The only aim of these talks, Araghchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief”.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson told state TV that the country’s defence and missile programmes were not being discussed during the negotiations in Oman.
“The question of defence capacities and the country’s missiles is not [on the agenda] and has not been raised in the indirect talks with the United States,” Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday.
Speaking earlier on board Air Force One, en route to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, Trump also expressed cautious optimism.
“The Iran situation is coming out very well,” he said. “We have had a lot of talks with them, and I think we are going to have a deal. I would much rather have a deal than the other alternative.”
But Trump also repeated threats, stressing that military options remained on the table if diplomacy failed, saying: “There are some people that want to make a different kind of a deal, a much nastier deal, and I don’t want that to happen to Iran if we can avoid it.”
Tensions have remained high since Trump withdrew from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers in 2018, prompting a series of escalations. Iran has since abandoned all limits on its nuclear programme, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity – near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Western countries, including the US, have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment programme or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalising the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
But Tehran insists its defence capabilities, like its missile programme, are non-negotiable.
Pope Francis, the humble pontiff whose acts of inclusiveness, modesty and mercy rippled through his 12-year papacy, was laid to rest Saturday in a service he deliberately simplified.
Tens of thousands of mourners and dozens of world leaders and dignitaries packed St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for the funeral, which got underway in bright sunshine and was being held mostly outdoors.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, who was presiding over the service, lauded Francis in his homily as “a pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone.”
“He established direct contact with individuals and peoples, eager to be close to everyone, with a marked attention to those in difficulty, giving himself without measure, especially to the marginalized,” he said.
Pope Francis’ casket met by thousands of mourners
Pope Francis’ casket was met by thousands of mourners in honor of his 12-year papacy.
The Mass began with readings from the Scripture after Francis’ simple wooden coffin, adorned by a large cross, was carried into the square by white-gloved pallbearers. Applause echoed through the crowd as bells tolled.
Some mourners had camped out overnight to secure a spot. “We have been waiting all night,” Maria Fierro of Spain said. “Accompanying (Francis) in his last moments is very emotional.”
James Mary, a Franciscan nun, said she had been “up the whole night. We want to say goodbye because he (was a) living saint, very humble and simple.”
Francis, the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died Easter Monday at 88 from a stroke, weeks after battling back from respiratory ailments. On Easter Sunday, the frail but resolute pope − who championed the poor and marginalized and was often called “the people’s pope” − thrilled crowds with an impromptu popemobile outing into St. Peter’s Square.
The Argentine pope, who contended with Catholic Church traditionalists opposed to his reforms, was known for his warm demeanor and for spurning any kind of grandeur: Living at a guesthouse in the Vatican, taking public transportation, wearing plain white cassocks. On his U.S. trip in 2015, he zipped around the nation’s capital in a small black Fiat.
Francis, who scaled back rules for papal funeral rites a year ago, made sure his own service and burial reflected that same message of simplicity − breaking from tradition even in death.
Pope Francis‘ funeral service is expected to take 90 minutes, compared to John Paul’s service in 2005 that last lasted three hours.
In his final testament, Francis asked to be buried inside the burial niche between Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani and Sforza Chapel, which are located within the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome instead of in the Grotto at St. Peter’s Basilica. He is the first pope being laid to rest outside the Vatican in almost a century.
The pope, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, also requested a “simple” burial: “The tomb should be in the ground; simple, without particular ornamentation, and bearing only the inscription: Franciscus,” he instructed.
St. Mary Major was special to Francis because of his devotion to Mary, Mother of God. He prayed there before and after many overseas trips.
President Donald Trump had a brief “private” meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the funeral, White House communications director Steve Cheung said.
Cheung said the two leaders had a “very productive” conversation and that further details of the meeting would be made public in the coming hours.
It was the first meeting since Trump and Zelenskyy had a fiery clash in the Oval Office in February about how to reach a peace settlement with Russia over their war.
The order of service was published by the Vatican on its website.
It is 87 pages long and contains the service in English, Italian and Latin.
The Entrance Antiphon begins: “Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.”
Pope Francis’ coffin also breaks with papal tradition. Instead of being buried in three coffins − each made of cypress, lead and elm and placed inside the other − his coffin will be wooden and lined with zinc.
The coffin is shaped like a tapered hexagonal box. It it wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, resembling a human body.
The funeral has brought together dozens of world leaders and thousands of people from around the world who traveled to Rome to pay their respects.
About 2,000 local police officers are on duty at Pope’ Francis’ funeral. They are joined by thousands more officers from the national security forces. Security measures include patrols on the Tiber, drones and snipers.
Streets were closed to traffic around the Vatican on Saturday. Authorities also announced a no-fly zone over Rome for the week.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke in his homily of the pope’s constant call to “build bridges, not walls” between people. The pope held a Mass on the U.S.-Mexico border to highlight what he described as the “human tragedy” of “forced migration” when he visited the area in 2016.
The cardinal also recalled that Franics’ first ever foreign trip as pope was when he went to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a key spot in Europe’s refugees and migrants crisis.
Francis met with refugees and migrants in Lampedusa.
Dozens of world leaders and heads of state are now in Rome. Some of them have clashed with both the pope and each other.
Pope Francis once said that President Donald Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants were a “disgrace.” Before taking their seats, Trump and his wife Melania paid their respects to Francis’ coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica. The coffin was sealed shut on Friday night.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not had any easy time navigating Trump’s attempts to secure a peace deal for the Ukraine-Russia war. The two leaders clashed in an Oval Office meeting in late February. The two leaders briefly met before the service. Former President Joe Biden and wife Jill are also in Rome.
One notable absence is Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who portrays himself as a main of serious faith. Putin is subject to an international criminal court arrest warrant over his invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin said he wouldn’t be attending.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the funeral Mass, which will be celebrated by patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, bishops and priests from around the world, the Vatican said.
The College of Cardinals decides who will be the next pope in a highly secretive ritual called a papal conclave. As dean, Re is one of the most senior figures in the church. He has spent five decades serving in the Roman curia, the church’s various administrative institutions.
In a biography on the College of Cardinals website, Re is described as having an “affable manner and efficient approach to issues and conflicts.”
Pope Francis’ simple tomb, inscribed with just “Franciscus” and a reproduction of his pectoral cross, is made of marble from Italy’s Liguria region, where Francis traces his family’s origins before they settled in his native Argentina, according to Vatican News.
Francis requested to be buried in a tomb made from Ligurian stone. The plaque of slate, described as a “fine-grained gray, green or bluish metamorphic rock,” commemorates Francis’ great-grandfather, Vincenzo Sivori, on his mother’s side, the news website said.
Franca Garbaino, president of the Slate District in Liguria, said it was “not a noble stone,” but instead it was “the people’s stone” that “gives warmth.”
Francis’ family traces back to Cogorno, located southeast of Genoa, the capital of Liguria.
− Eduardo Cuevas
The Swiss Guard has been protecting popes since the 1500s. Members have a ceremonial role but also a protective one and, to an extent, they are mercenaries. They wear distinctive uniforms with feathered helmets, ruffled collars and puffed-out sleeves.
They are sometimes referred to as the world’s smallest army and are trained to an elite level in counterintelligence, close-quarters combat and bomb disposal. They are independent of Switzerland’s army, though they are trained in Switzerland.
Competition to be a Swiss Guard is intense. There are only 135 of them.
The weather has been spectacular all week in Vatican City, and conditions for the funeral also look terrific, forecasters said.
“It should a nice and calm day,” AccuWeather meteorologist Jacob Hinson told USA TODAY. He said sunny to partly cloudy skies are expected, with highs in the 70s.
Wind should not be an issue either, he added, with gusts of only 6-10 mph in the forecast.
− Doyle Rice
About 250,000 people bid farewell to Francis through this week as the pope was lying in state at St. Peter’s. Lines stretched more than half a mile north of the Vatican, and some people reported waits of about three hours to get inside the basilica.
“He was a wonderful pope,” Alessandra Caccamo of Rome said as she waited outside the Vatican. “I’m going to miss him so much, because it’s like I’ve lost a piece of me.”
Rachel Mckay, from Britain, said Francis was “somebody who made the church very accessible to everybody and inclusive to everybody. He’s like a member of the family, somebody very close to our hearts.”
A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6. As of this week, there were 252 cardinals, of whom 135 are electors, according to the Vatican. Cardinals over the age of 80 are excluded from voting.
In medieval times, cardinals could take years to elect a new pope. Conclaves are much shorter now. Pope Francis was elected the day after the conclave began in 2013.
Voting takes place in a series of rounds until a clear winner emerges.
The world is waiting with bated breadth to find out who the next pontiff will be. Several names have emerged as possible front-runners, including bishops from Canada and the Philippines. Pope Francis was the first non-European pope elected in 1,300 years.
Elon Musk, at great personal and professional cost, has devoted his time to finding ways to cut through the bureaucracy and downsize government where it makes sense.
Musk to shift focus from DOGE to Tesla after profits plunge
Elon Musk told investors he will refocus on Tesla and begin scaling back his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in May.
What I fear, though, is that Democrats will notch Musk’s retreat as a “win.”
And that could set a seriously bad precedent.
Liberals who are appalled that Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is anywhere close to the halls of government power have not handled it well, to put it mildly. That’s despite the fact Trump ran on downsizing the bureaucracy and has simply followed through on that promise.
Worse, leftists who aren’t content with peaceful protests have turned to outright violence, vandalizing Teslas and dealerships around the country to prove their “outrage.”
It’s gotten so bad the FBI in March had to launch a task force to investigate the attacks, which it considers to be domestic terrorism. At least 80 cases of arson or other vandalism of Teslas have been reported since Musk took his post.
Tim Walz makes fun of Musk. And one of his state employees keys six Teslas.
Let me give you a couple of examples of the rhetoric and violence and their possible connection.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – and recent Democratic vice presidential nominee – has taken to making fun of Musk and his company’s challenges. Tesla’s stock price has fallen sharply, given the vandalism and the backlash to Musk’s involvement with DOGE. And for some reason, Walz thinks it’s humorous to see an American company struggle.
Musk has risked Tesla’s health to help our country. We should thank him, not hate him.
Progressives no doubt feel they have achieved some sort of victory. Tesla stock has tanked, and Musk is winding down his work with DOGE.
Yet, the violence employed against innocent Tesla owners and dealers to get their way is alarming. And those who perpetrated it cannot be easily let off the hook.
I don’t blame Musk one bit for wanting to turn attention back to his flagship electric cars and other endeavors. But Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for how this went down.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
Indonesians flock to buy gold as Trump’s tariff fallout hits Indonesian stocks
Hundreds of Indonesians are flocking to buy gold bars, betting that the precious metal’s value could shield them from tougher economic times ahead as the currency and the stock market tumble in South East Asia’s largest economy.
U.S. stocks closed higher after a mixed start to the day as China appeared to back off some of its tariff demands and amid a string of earnings reports, including stronger-than-expected results from Google parent Alphabet.
The blue-chip Dow added 0.05%, or 20.10 points, to 40,113.50, and the broad S&P 500 gained 0.7%, or 40.44 points, to close at 5,525.21. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3%, or 216.90 points, to reach 17,382.94. All three indexes closed the week higher.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.266%. Gold, which has surged to multiple records in recent weeks because of its status as a safe haven and a hedge against a declining U.S. dollar, slipped 1.5%.
Throughout the day, the White House and Beijing traded public jabs over whether talks were taking place. President Donald Trump said “200 deals” on trade will be announced “over the next three to four weeks” and that talks with China continue. He also told reporters that the U.S. was “very close” to a deal with Japan.
Corporate news
Tesla shares closed 9.8% higher after the Transportation Department released new rules on self-driving cars. The stock is still down almost 30% so far this year, however.
Google parent Alphabet’s results from the first three months of the year topped analysts’ expectations. Shares gained 1.6%.
Intel issued disappointing guidance for the current quarter and said it’s planning to cut its operational and capital expenses. It said it sees a probability for a recession due to tariffs. Shares lost nearly 7%.
T-Mobile added fewer wireless subscribers than expected in the first quarter. Shares of the wireless company slid more than 11%.
Gilead Sciences reported weaker-than-expected sales in the first three months of the year even as earnings beat forecasts. The stock lost nearly 3%.
Skechers withdrew its full-year guidance due to economic uncertainty from global trade policies. The sneaker maker fell 5.4%.
Facebook-parent Meta Platforms cut staff in its Reality Labs division, CNBC reported. The stock rose 2.7%.
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin supporters are lobbying the Swiss National Bank to hold bitcoin in its reserves, Reuters reported.
“Holding bitcoin makes more sense as the world shifts towards a multipolar order, where the dollar and the euro are weakening,” Luzius Meisser, a board member of cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse and supporter of the referendum, said in the report.
Bitcoin was last up 1.7% at $95,124.
Economic news
Consumer sentiment was at the lowest since 2022, which marked the peak of the post-pandemic inflation spike, in the second April reading from the University of Michigan. “Consumers perceived risks to multiple aspects of the economy, in large part due to ongoing uncertainty around trade policy and the potential for a resurgence of inflation looming ahead,” the Michigan researchers wrote.
The story was updated with new information.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.
Several teams with quarterback needs passed on the second-team All-American, with many questioning why Sanders, who many had a first-round grade on, was passed up.
Coach Prime took to social media Friday morning.
“My bible says God uses the foolish things to confound the wise & he chose the weak things of the world that he may put to shame the strong! Please know God ain’t done & God is just really getting started. Enjoy this lesson & stop stressing,” Sanders wrote on social media.
My bible says God uses the foolish things to confound the wise & he chose the weak things of the world that he may put to shame the strong! Please know God ain’t done & God is just really getting started. Enjoy this lesson & stop stressing. #CoachPrime
Shedeur Sanders was not in attendance at the draft in Green Bay, but instead spent his time with friends and family in Canton, Texas, at a draft party waiting for his name to be called.
Sanders is expected to go on the draft’s second day and spoke to those in attendance at his draft party after the first round.
“We all didn’t expect this, of course, but I feel like with God, anything possible, everything possible,” Sanders said. “I don’t feel like this happened, you know, for no reason. All this is of course, fuel to the fire. And under no circumstance, we all know this shouldn’t have happened. But we understand we on to bigger and better things. Tomorrow’s a day. We’re gonna be happy regardless. Legendary.”
Takeaways from Trump’s sit-down with Time magazine
President Donald Trump sat down with Time magazine to talk everything from Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to ending the Ukraine war.
President Donald Trump said he’s open to bringing a wrongly deported Maryland man back to the U.S. for a court hearing, despite his administration saying Kilmar Abrego Garcia will “never” return to the U.S from El Salvador.
Trump discussed Abrego Garcia’s case in an interview with Time Magazine to mark the second-term Republican president’s first 100 days in office.
“Bringing him back and retrying him wouldn’t bother me, but I leave that up to my lawyer,” Trump said. “You could bring him back and retry him.”
Trump added that his lawyers “just don’t want to do that,” even as his administration has argued the decision is now up to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. Trump said he hasn’t asked Bukele to return Abrego Garcia.
The president also said high tariffs a year from now would be a “total victory,” sending American criminals to foreign prisons is something he’d “love to” do and he’s “not trolling” when he says Canada should become a U.S. state.
Here are six takeaways from the interview.
Open to Abrego Garcia returning
The Trump administration has blamed Abrego Garcia’s deportation to a notorious Salvadoran prison on an “administrative error,” admitting in court documents it was a mistake. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the administration must “facilitate” his return.
Yet the administration has dug in, with White House officials rejecting the ruling that they must bring him back.
The White House X account said in a post that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back.”
Asked about the case by Time, Trump said his lawyers told him the Supreme Court case doesn’t require Abrego Garcia’s return, and he lashed out at the Maryland father, saying “he wasn’t a saint.”
But when pressed on whether he deserves a court hearing, Trump indicated he’s open to it.
“But I leave that decision to the lawyers,” he added. “At this moment, they just don’t want to do that. They say we’re in total compliance with the Supreme Court.”
Trump also said he hasn’t asked Bukele to return Abrego Garcia. Pressed on how he is facilitating his return if he hasn’t asked for his release, Trump said “because I haven’t been asked to ask him by my attorneys.”
Trump would “love to” send Americans to foreign prisons
The president defended his comments in the Time interview.
“I would love to do that if it were permissible by law. We’re looking into that,” Trump said.
Trump said he would do it in “extreme cases.”
“We’re talking about career criminals that are horrible people that we house and we have to take care of for 50 years while they suffer because they killed people,” he said.
Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy, a strong Trump ally, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on April 20 that he doesn’t believe sending Americans to foreign prisons is lawful.
“Nor should it be considered appropriate or moral,” Kennedy said. “We have our own laws, we have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.”
Not trolling on Greenland, Panama Canal or Canada
Some Republicans have suggested that not everything Trump says should be taken literally, and the president even made that point to Time about Ukraine, saying his comments on the campaign trail that he’d end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office were said “figuratively.”
“I said that as an exaggeration… to make a point,” Trump added on Ukraine.
But when it comes to his comments about wanting to acquire Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada, Trump rejected the idea that he’s trolling.
“Actually, no, I’m not,” he said.
Trump went on to talk about Canada, saying again that “I’m really not trolling. Canada is an interesting case.” He complained about the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and said the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian products.
“And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state,” he added.
Trump’s big reciprocal tariffs on goods from foreign countries, most of which he paused, shocked the U.S. and global economy. Stock markets plummeted and economic forecasts increased the chances of a recession.
Trump kept high tariffs on China. It remains to be seen if he’ll follow through with high tariffs on other countries, which currently face a 10% universal tariff.
But the president indicated he’s not averse to high tariffs for a prolonged period. Asked if he’d consider it a victory if tariffs are still high in a year, Trump said: “Total victory.”
Other Trump tariff comments to Time have echoes of government price setting, which conservatives have generally shunned.
“I am this giant store,” Trump said. “It’s a giant, beautiful store, and everybody wants to go shopping there. And on behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I’ll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay.”
Trump made it clear that Ukraine will not regain control over Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014.
“Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time,” Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump also said Ukraine can’t join NATO.
“I don’t think they’ll ever be able to join NATO,” he said.
The Trump administration’s willingness to concede to Russian territorial demands has drawn strong criticism from supporters of Ukraine and those who believe it would reward the country for its unprovoked aggression.
Trump says he wouldn’t “mind having a tax increase”
The president appeared to rule that out in comments he made in the Oval Office on April 23, saying “I think it would be very disruptive because a lot of millionaires would leave the country. You’ll lose a lot of money if you do that.”
But in the Time interview, Trump said he wouldn’t “mind having a tax increase” if it was politically palatable, saying “the only reason I wouldn’t support it” is the politics.
“I would be honored to pay more, but I don’t want to be in a position where we lose an election because I was generous,” he said.
“I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less,” Trump added.
Trump is prohibited by the Constitution from seeking a third term, but has openly toyed with the idea.
(This story has been updated with more information.)
A scary-looking fish washed ashore on an Oregon beach. It came from the ‘Twilight Zone,’ what researchers call the ocean depths as much as a mile below the surface.
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The crew at the aquarium were familiar with the fish, which had fanged teeth within a wide mouth and measured nearly 5 feet long, as a longnose lancetfish. Known to swim as deep as over a mile below the ocean’s surface, lancetfish typically live in warmer waters, but do migrate as far north as the Bering Sea, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
That makes the Pacific Northwest coast a potential waypoint for lancetfish.
“We get about a half dozen in our area a year,” said Tiffany Boothe, assistant manager at the Seaside Aquarium in Seaside, Oregon. “It doesn’t look like a very friendly fish. If I saw that fish alive, I wouldn’t touch it.”
Earlier in the week, a customer came into the aquarium gift shop and showed the staff a picture of a fish he had found on the beach and wondered if they could identify it, Boothe said.
“When he showed us the picture, it was such a fresh, great specimen that we were like, ‘Sweet, we’re gonna go pick it up,’” said Boothe, who said she’s among the “fish nerds” at the aquarium.
The lancetfish has “gelatinous flesh that the seagulls just absolutely go crazy after,” Boothe said. “So it’s kind of hard to find ones that are fresh and that intact.”
Washed-up lancetfish had entire fish in its stomach
As Boothe and others at the aquarium learned more about the lancetfish, they discovered that the fish have a digestive system that is “really, really slow. So when you look at their stomach contents you find whole fish, squids … you see things you wouldn’t normally see.”
So, of course, the Seaside Aquarium fish nerds had to see what was in this latest lancetfish’s stomach. They posted the results on their Facebook page.
Among the findings: Several squid and octopus remains, as well as entire fish.
“By studying what the longnose lancetfish is eating, scientists can better understand how the marine food web changes over time (if at all). It may also help understand changes in the food web brought on by events like El Nino or La Nina,” the aquarium wrote in the Facebook post.
Lancetfish facts
The lancetfish is known as a “Twilight Zone” fish because the depths where it hunts are known as the twilight zone, or mesopelagic zone, according to NOAA. More facts about the lancetfish:
The lancetfish, which can grow to more than 7 feet long, has a “dinosaur-worthy scientific genus name,” which is Alepisaurus, meaning “scaleless lizard.”
Adding to the lancetfish’s prehistoric look are the fanged jaws, large eyes, sail-like fin, and a long, slithery eel-like body.
While other fish, sharks and seals will eat lancetfish, humans usually do not because the gelatinous flesh is watery and unappetizing.
In addition to eating other fish, squid and octopus, lancetfish are cannibalistic and will feed on other lancetfish.
Since lancetfish are usually deep-sea dwellers, they aren’t known to be a danger to humans. But the lancetfish may “get into feeding frenzies and not only will they eat each other, but sometimes they’ll whip around and they actually gash themselves” Boothe said.
The aquarium has never been able to keep a lancetfish alive for more than an hour or so, but do have the first one found by the staff in the 1990s mounted after it was preserved by a taxidermist.
“It’s actually very beautiful,” Boothe said.
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY’s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
Jared Isaacman, a billionaire pilot and astronaut, was sued in 2009 by the Trump Taj Mahal casino in New Jersey over $1 million in bad checks. The casino later settled for $650,000.
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The Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut sued Isaacman over $1 million in bounced checks. The suit was resolved and withdrawn.
Isaacman was arrested by U.S. Customs officers in 2010 at the Canadian border over a criminal complaint by a Las Vegas casino. He was released the next day.
“In my early 20s, I was fortunate to experience business success at a young age, and I spent time in casinos as an immature hobby,” Isaacman wrote to senators.
He called the lawsuits “forms of negotiation.”
President Donald Trump‘s nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, was arrested on fraud charges in 2010 and faced lawsuits in two states for writing $2 million in bad checks to casinos, according to government records and court filings.
Isaacman is a billionaire pilot and astronaut who founded the Shift4 Payments company as a teenager and commanded the first civilian space crew in 2021 aboard a SpaceX capsule.
Isaacman’s nomination is scheduled for a vote by the Senate Commerce Committee on April 30.
In a February 22, 2010, press release titled, “Nevada Fugitive Captured at Canadian Border,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it arrested Isaacman on a warrant for alleged fraud at the Washington state line. He was taken to a county jail for extradition to Nevada, where Clark County, home to Las Vegas, had issued the felony warrant. No further detail on the alleged fraud was provided.
According to jail records, he was released the next day.
In a questionnaire in connection with his nomination to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Isaacman said he was returning from the Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, in February 2010 when he was detained by CBP for “drawing and passing checks without sufficient funds.”
He said the arrest stemmed from a dispute with the Palms Casino resort in Las Vegas over a travel reimbursement the resort promised and failed to honor. Isaacman said he resolved the matter in less than 24 hours and the charges were dismissed. The court records were sealed, he said.
A spokesperson for the Palms Casino declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Isaacman declined to comment.
Claims of unpaid casino debts
Court records from New Jersey and Connecticut filed in 2009 and 2010 respectively allege the New Jersey native failed to pay casino debts.
Civil cases were brought against him by Trump’s now-defunct Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, according to court documents.
The Trump Taj Mahal sued Isaacman in July 2009 in connection with a line of credit he got in November 2005. Isaacman wrote four checks in 2008 for a total of $1 million but his bank account did not have the funds for them to be cashed, according to the complaint.
The case was settled in 2011 for $650,000.
In a 2010 complaint filed in Connecticut, the Mohegan Sun said Isaacman had written four bad checks totaling $1 million. That action was eventually resolved and withdrawn, according to a court filing.
In a subsequent filing for his nomination, Isaacman disclosed four civil casino cases: the two described above, plus another from the Taj Mahal and one from the Trump Plaza, a source familiar with the matter said.
The other two cases, from 2008, could not immediately be retrieved, according to New Jersey court personnel.
In a written question submitted after his April 9 nomination hearing, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, asked Isaacman about being detained at the border and sued four times between 2008 and 2010 in connection with casino debts and allegations of fraudulent checks.
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“In my early 20s, I was fortunate to experience business success at a young age, and I spent time in casinos as an immature hobby,” Isaacman answered. “The legal matters referenced were, in fact, forms of negotiation and were all resolved promptly. The incident at the border, following my return from the Olympics, stemmed from a payment issue that had already been resolved, which is why I was detained for only a few hours.”
Isaacman assured the committee that the behavior was in his past.
