Mike Johnson attempts to defend Trump after president says ‘I love the inflation’ – live

Free DC, a community group that has rallied opposition to Donald Trump’s deployment of federal troops to police the District of Columbia, has accused members of the Arkansas national guard of treating their movement’s flag “like a war trophy” by taking one home when they left the nation’s capital last month.

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Free DC movement’s version of the District of Columbia flag appeared near the US Capitol on 12 August, 2025, after Donald Trump deployed federal troops to police Washington DC.”,”caption”:”The Free DC movement’s version of the District of Columbia flag appeared near the US Capitol on 12 August, 2025, after Donald Trump deployed federal troops to police Washington DC.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

The community group posted a screenshot on Instagram taken from a video released by the guard that showed a Free DC flag on the floor during a ceremony to mark the end of the Arkansas unit’s deployment.

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In a caption, Free DC activists wrote:

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n

We don’t know where they got the flag on the ground but it is a symbol of opposition to everything this deployment is about.

n Free DC has been adamantly opposed the Guard’s deployment to DC since the day Trump announced he was sending them. These soldiers are a danger to people and communities here as well as to free and fair elections, and we want them gone. The ‘Free DC’ flags that people have put up all over DC show just how many people share our opposition. It does not belong in any kind of National Guard celebration.

n

For occupying soldiers to take one of these flags as if it’s a souvenir is insulting and disgusting.

n

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After Free DC drew attention to the image, the video, which was shot by the Arkansas national guard on 27 May, was removed from multiple Pentagon websites, but not before the activists made a copy and uploaded it to YouTube.

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A gallery of photographs from the departure ceremony, which remains on a Pentagon media site the video was deleted from, suggests that the Free DC flag, along with two of the district’s official flags, were on the floor so that soldiers could sign them.

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As Donald Trump appeared unwilling on Wednesday to back off his plan to install as acting director of national intelligence an unqualified political “attack dog”, federal mortgage director Bill Pulte, Senate Democrats said they would not vote to reauthorize a warrantless surveillance law before it expires on Friday.

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Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), permits US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets operating outside the country without a warrant.

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Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey was asked by a reporter whether he would support a short-term extension of the law until the Fourth of July holiday.

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“With Pulte still in there? I’m not for that,” Kim told Punchbowl News.

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“We should not reauthorize FISA,” his colleague from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, posted, “until there is ZERO CHANCE Bill Pulte (or anyone else with a history of or intent to abuse of power to hurt Trump’s political opponents) gets anywhere near our classified services.”

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In a social media video, Murphy said Pulte has “zero experience in national security or intelligence”.

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“The reason anybody knows who Bill Pulte is, is because he’s just a Trump attack dog who got put at an agency, a federal housing finance agency, apparently for the explicit purpose of combing through the private mortgage records of anybody that has ever criticized Donald Trump,” Murphy added.

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“But because he showed that he was willing to make public sensitive private information about the president’s political enemies, he’s now being put in charge of the entire American intelligence infrastructure.”

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Senator Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who is vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said last week that Pulte “appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need. Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counter-terrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience”.

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On Wednesday, Warner warned that “Pulte could be Trump’s most dangerous appointee yet” and released an explainer-style YouTube video in which he walked viewers through Pulte’s past and noted: “Trump admits he wants Pulte in this position to help him stoke claims of voter fraud.”

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In a brief statement, the US military’s Central Command announced on Wednesday afternoon that US “forces began launching additional self-defense strikes today at 5.15pm ET against multiple targets in Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction. The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”

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Hours after Donald Trump brushed off concerns about new data showing that inflation jumped to an annual rate of 4.2% in May by saying “I love the inflation”, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused a CNN journalist of taking the president’s comment “totally out of context”.

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“The president is laser-focused on the domestic economic situation”, Johnson insisted. “He is working to bring down prices; his working to get the strait of Hormuz reopened.”

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As he walked through the US Capitol, trailed by reporters, Johnson said that the meaning of the president’s comment, which was made in his presence during an Oval Office event, was crystal-clear, at least to him.

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“What he was saying is: ‘It’s going to be great to have that number and compare it to what comes next, when we get these situations resolved, that’ll be a fun thing to consider,’” the Republican congressman suggested.

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In fact, Trump’s meaning was far from clear, coming at the start of a rambling answer to the question of whether he was concerned “about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning”.

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“No, I love it, the numbers were great. You know what I really loved? I love the inflation n – you know why? Because as soon as this war is over,” the president began, before interrupting his answer with a long tangent on what he called the success of a US military effort to sneak oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz, which he said had contributed to a drop in oil prices.

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“I can say it now, something you didn’t know. Do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out – that’s why oil is $85 a barrel,” the president said, without further explaining why he “loved” the inflation data showing the third consecutive monthly increase since the start of the Iran war and a three-year high.

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Trump then continued for three more minutes, recounting what he called the success of the US attacks on Iran, and Venezuela, and never returning to the question of inflation, but instead repeating his familiar, baseless claim that he told advisers in February that war was necessary because “Iran’s going to have a nuclear weapon very soon” and that he had expected the impact of his war on Iran on the price of oil and the stock market to be worse. In fact, US intelligence agencies had assessed that Iran had given up the pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003 and not restarted the effort.

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When Trump finished speaking, a reporter reminded him of the topic, asking if he expected “inflation to come down between now and November”.

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“When the war is over? It’s coming down,” Trump replied. “It’s going to come down like a rock.”

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Speaking to reporters outside the headquarters of US Central Command in Tampa on Wednesday, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, confirmed Donald Trump’s earlier statement that the US plans to strike Iran again tonight.

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“The war department is prepared to set the terms to ensure that we get the kind of deal President Trump expects,” Hegseth told reporters.

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“Those strikes that happen tonight will be strong,” Hegseth said, before suggesting that the military assault could be averted if Iran agrees to a peace deal with the president.

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“President Trump is a deal-maker, the best in the world,” Hegseth went on. “He’s prepared to make that deal; Iran would be wise to take it.”

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“If we need to negotiate with bombs, then we’ll negotiate with bombs,” he added.

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The defense secretary also suggested that what he called a successful US mission to guide oil tankers through a crucial choke point in the Gulf means that “the United States of America controls the strait of Hormuz”.

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The leaders of roughly seven defense companies have been preparing to meet with Donald Trump at the White House later this week in what is expected to be a contentious discussion amid mounting concerns over the dwindling US supply of missiles, NBC News reports citing two people familiar with details of the meeting.

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Trump is expected to press the companies to find ways to swiftly increase their production of weaponry for the Pentagon, the people and one other person familiar with the upcoming meeting told NBC News. The deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, is also expected to attend, two of the people said.

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In public, Trump has boasted that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply” of weapons, but the president has expressed anger and frustration to aides and allies over thinning American stockpiles, the people added. One of the people told NBC News they anticipate the meeting is “going to be ugly”.

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Indeed, as Trump threatened to resume bombing Iran again today, the US military has already burned through missiles and interceptors at a rate that has alarmed some defense officials.

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Last month, the Associated Press reported that US military contractors will need at least three years to replenish stockpiles of three key weapons systems used heavily in Trump’s war against Iran – a timeframe that has become a major concern.

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  Donald Trump said the US will attack Iran on Wednesday, and accused Tehran’s peace negotiators of “playing us for suckers”, just a day after claiming again that a peace deal was imminent. “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” the president told reporters at the White House, hours after the two sides traded fire, drawing neighbouring Gulf states back into the on-and-off war that has consumed the region since late February. William Christou has our story.

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  Trump also signed the GOP’s $70bn bill that will fund ICE and the border patrol through 2029 into law, after the House narrowly passed the legislation yesterday. Marina Dunbar has this report.

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  Trump also stood firm on his decision to install controversial loyalist Bill Pulte as the country’s top intelligence official, demanding Congress pass a short-term extension of a surveillance law set to expire amid intense criticism of the appointment. Pulte will has been asked “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing” of the office of the director of national intelligence, the president declared, after lining him up to serve as acting director on a temporary basis. Here’s our report.

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  Scandal-plagued Democrat Graham Platner will face the Republican senator Susan Collins in the Maine election in November in what will be a marquee race that could help decide control of the Senate. Here’s David Smith’s report.

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  Bill Gates is facing questions from the House oversight committee about his association with Jeffrey Epstein. “I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct,” the Microsoft co-founder said in his opening statement. “I have never victimized anyone.” More from Anna Betts here.

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The US military carried out a “secret mission” last month to “support oil tankers and other commercial ships through the strait of Hormuz”, according to Donald Trump.

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In a Truth Social post today, the president said that the effort, which he said he directed, “resulted in more than 100 million barrels of oil” moving through the crucial chokepoint and “into the open market”.

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Trump described the effort as “wildly successful,” adding that the “United States of America controls the Strait of Hormuz, not Iran”.

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Trump’s latest comments mark a pivot away from his words last month in which he repeatedly said during a cabinet meeting: “Nobody’s going to control” the strait of Hormuz. He added: “It’s international waters.”

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In that same meeting, Trump threatened to bomb Oman upon being asked whether he would accept a short-term deal that would allow Iran and Oman to control the strait, saying: “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up.”

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Progressives rallied around Graham Platner after his primary victory in Maine yesterday while Donald Trump again exerted his grip on the GOP by helping to defeat a politician who had pushed for the release of the Epstein files.

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Primary elections were held in four states – Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina – before November’s midterms to decide control of both chambers of Congress. The results offered mixed signals about the direction of the two parties.

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The marquee race was a Senate primary election in Maine, where Platner won 72% of the vote, defeating the state governor, Janet Mills, who had suspended her campaign but remained on the ballot, and third-placed David Costello, based on early results reported by Reuters.

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The result sets up a bruising general election battle against the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, which is likely to be tight, and could help decide control of the Senate.

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Other elections offered fresh evidence of the issues shaping the wider political landscape. South Carolina served up another test of Trump’s enduring influence over the Republican party. The president enjoyed a comfortable victory through his ally Lindsey Graham, who secured renomination to the Senate without being forced into a runoff.

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In the primary for governor, the congresswoman Nancy Mace became the latest casualty of Trump’s efforts to topple Republicans, after she demanded the release of the government’s Epstein files.

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But Trump’s preferred candidate, the state’s lieutenant governor, Pamela Evette, failed to secure an outright majority and must now face Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general, in a runoff election this month.

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The longtime South Carolina congressman James Clyburn easily fended off a little-known primary challenger. Two Republicans are still competing for the chance to face Clyburn but he is expected to be the overwhelming favourite in the general election.

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In Nevada, Democrats selected the state’s attorney general, Aaron Ford, as their nominee for governor, setting up what is expected to be one of the country’s most competitive statewide contests. Ford defeated the Washoe county commissioner, Alexis Hill, after largely ignoring his primary opponent and focusing instead on the Republican governor, Joe Lombardo.

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Nevada also produced one of the most important congressional contests of the cycle. Republicans nominated Marty O’Donnell, a Trump-endorsed composer best known for creating the soundtrack to the hugely successful Halo video game franchise, to challenge the Democratic congresswoman Susie Lee in the state’s highly competitive third congressional district.

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Teresa Benitez-Thompson won the Democratic primary in Nevada’s second district. Benitez-Thompson, a former assembly leader, faces an uphill battle. Republicans outnumber Democrats by 70,000 in the district that covers Reno and rural northern Nevada.

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Also in the Oval Office earlier, Donald Trump said he expects top artificial intelligence companies to agree to “giving back” to the public, an apparent reference to a possible government stake in the firms.

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“I’m going to have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly, and we’re talking about giving back something to the public, and if we do that, the public will become very rich,” Trump told reporters. “I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular.”

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An agreement to give the US government equity stakes could have a massive impact on the government’s finances. OpenAI – which is targeting a valuation of up to $1tn – in April publicly proposed creating a “public wealth fund” to invest in AI companies, according to a company statement. Proceeds from the fund would be “distributed directly to citizens”, according to the company.

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The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has expressed support for the idea of creating a US sovereign wealth fund by taking 50% stock in AI companies. Trump said last week that his team was looking into the idea.

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But beyond Washington, concern is growing among Americans about AI negatively affecting their lives, from fears that the rise of AI could put them out of work to the environmental impacts of nationwide datacenter projects.

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With Reuters.

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When asked about his earlier comment that he had asked Bill Pulte, whom he plans to install as acting director of national intelligence on 19 June, “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies”, Donald Trump stood by his social media post.

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“People have wanted to downsize for a while,” Trump said. “Many people don’t want it at all. A lot of people thought it was a duplication.”

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Trump’s choice of Pulte as the country’s top intelligence official has prompted widespread concern over his complete lack of national security experience. The president defended his choice on Wednesday, telling reporters: “Smart people are smart people. I always say I’d rather have smart than experienced, but experience is good too.”

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He said he hoped reporters would give Pulte an “easy run”, as “he’s very busy”.

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“He doesn’t need stupid people saying, ‘Why didn’t you get a higher mark at a certain college?’” Trump said. “Because he’s highly educated, he was a great student, he’s great at everything he’s done. How come he got a B-plus? See, they’ll go after him for getting a B-plus instead of an A, but the other guy can be a thug.”

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Donald Trump answered a question on Wednesday about Adam Hamawy, the army doctor who has secured the Democratic nomination to represent New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, with a comment about Graham Platner, who has secured the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in Maine.

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“I actually think the one in Maine is worse because he’s just an outright pig,” Trump said Wednesday. “I watched him a couple of times. He’s like a pig, that’s what he reminds me of.”

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Platner’s campaign overcame a mountain of personal controveries ranging from alleged “toxic” behavior towards women to a tattoo recognised as a Nazi symbol. Read more here:

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Trump has now gone straight to questions. Right off the bat, he’s asked what he meant when he said Iran “will have to pay the price” for taking too long to reach a deal.

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The president responds:

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Well, we’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard.

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Asked if that means resuming bombing, Trump adds: “Yeah, well based on the helicopter, I assume we have the right to do that.”

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He says Tehran should sign the deal and says “they keep tapping us along”, before the US army Apache helicopter went down near the strait of Hormuz.

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Trump accused Iran of shooting down the aircraft, and the US military subsequently launched several hours of strikes on Iranian targets, including air defences and radar sites, near the Gulf. Iran responded with strikes targeting US bases in the region.

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“So, we’ll see what happens. But we hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” Trump added. “And we’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.”

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Trump claims that Iran has already agreed to not obtaining a nuclear weapon, but the agreement still needs to be signed. (A reminder that Iran had previously agreed to this under the 2015 deal signed with the Obama administration, which Trump tore up three years later.)

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He then attacks the Iranian team and president as “very stupid”.

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As Donald Trump presses on with his contentious plan to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence on 19 June, he has reiterated that he has asked Pulte “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies”.

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In a post on Truth Social moments ago (despite being due at a bill signing), the president added: “At the same time, I am looking for a permanent ODNI Nominee with experience in National Security.”

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He went on: “I am asking Congress to send me a short-term extension of FISA to provide time for the selection and confirmation of a permanent Head of the Agency.”

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Democratic lawmakers have said Pulte’s appointment would scuttle a bipartisan agreement to renew section 702 of Fisa (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), which is due to expire on Friday.

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“The Radical Left Dumocrats are trying to take our National Security hostage because of unrelated issues,” Trump wrote.

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In his opening statement to the House oversight committee, which was shared on his website, Bill Gates said:

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n

At the outset, I want to state very clearly: I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct. I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.

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Gates said he was introduced to Epstein in 2011 “through people I trusted in my professional and philanthropic work”, and that he “claimed he could raise billions of dollars for global health”. But by 2014, he found this to be “a dead-end” and told Epstein their association would go no further.

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Gates goes on to say that Epstein later tried to use knowledge of his extramarital affairs as leverage “to pressure me to re-engage with him”.

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n

It was after this that I learned Epstein had become aware of sensitive information about my personal life, including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage. These affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family.

n

As the public can now see, based on what has been released in the files, Epstein was working to use information about my infidelities – in addition to many lies that he layered on top – to pressure me to re-engage with him. He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda.

n

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Gates expressed regret at meeting with Epstein, calling it “a grave error of judgment”.

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n

I recall being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues, but I did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed. I accepted the introduction without applying the scrutiny I should have.

n

I should never have met with Epstein in the first place. Based on what I know now, I understand that even if he had delivered the new donors he promised, it would not have justified associating with him.

n

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Donald Trump is due this morning to sign the Secure America Act – the GOP’s $70bn bill that will fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029 – into law, after the House narrowly passed the bill yesterday.

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There is a livestream here if you’d like to follow the signing. Trump often makes remarks and/or takes questions at these events, and I’ll bring you all the key lines here.

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Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is largely targeting people from the countries most vulnerable to displacement from climate-driven disasters, a Guardian analysis shows.

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As the Trump administration pushes policies to boost planet-heating fossil fuels, millions of people are being forced to flee their homelands due to storms, floods and droughts worsened by the climate crisis.

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Of the 39 countries from which the Trump administration has fully or partly restricted entry to the US, 22 are ranked within the most vulnerable quarter of nations in the world to climate impacts, according to a Guardian analysis of data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, which assesses how prone jurisdictions are to the climate crisis.

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“Nearly all of the most vulnerable countries are on a ban or visa pause,” said Danielle Wood, an associate professor at Notre Dame. Immigrants from Chad and Niger, the two most climate-vulnerable countries in the world according to the index, are now fully barred from the US, as are people from Sudan, Somalia and Sierra Leone, also among the 10 countries most exposed to climate impacts.

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Here is Oliver’s report:

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US inflation jumped to an annual rate of 4.2% in May, the third consecutive monthly increase since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran and a three-year high, as Americans continue to face steep oil prices.

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Prices have increased sharply over the past several months, rising at an annual rate of 3.3% in March before going up to 3.8% in April. In February, before the conflict began, inflation was at 2.4%.

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prices over $6 a gallon displayed at a VP Fuels station near a billboard advertising the UFC fight at the White House, on 2 June in Los Angeles.”,”caption”:”Gas prices over $6 a gallon displayed at a VP Fuels station, near a billboard advertising the UFC fight at the White House, on 2 June in Los Angeles.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Energy prices were once again responsible for the increase in the consumer price index, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accounting for 60% of the overall monthly increases. The national average price for a gallon of gas is $4.15, according to AAA, which is slightly lower than where the price was a month ago but still $1 per gallon more than a year ago. Airline fares also increased 26.7% annually, a squeeze travelers may have already noticed ahead of the busy summer season.

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Other essential everyday expenses, such as food, energy services and clothing, also increased. Stripping out volatile energy and food prices, core CPI increased 2.9%.

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The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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More from this report here:

“,”elementId”:”331cde86-643c-4798-9996-f01f75b5ca01″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement”,”prefix”:”Related: “,”text”:”US inflation jumped to 4.2% in May, the third consecutive increase since start of Iran war”,”elementId”:”d46041c1-5517-4ff3-935c-d004260de1ac”,”role”:”thumbnail”,”url”:”https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/10/inflation-report-rate”}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1781096719000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”09.05 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1781096988000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”09.09 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1781096989000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”09.09 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”09.09″,”title”:”US inflation jumped to 4.2% in May, the third consecutive increase since start of Trump’s war against Iran”,”contributors”:[{“name”:”Gaya Gupta”}],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 10 Jun 2026 20.06 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 10 Jun 2026 06.37 EDT”},{“id”:”6a2956168f080a615eb1b63d”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

Donald Trump said Iran has taken “too long” to agree to a deal “that would have been great for them” and will now “have to pay the price”.

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In a post on Truth Social early this morning, which came after the US and Iran exchanged fire on Tuesday, Trump wrote:

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n

Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore – They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!

n

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He did not clarify on Truth Social what action he intended to take, but Fox News, citing a phone interview yesterday with the president, reports that Trump said Iran was “dragging its feet” at the negotiating table – and suggested he may be close to ordering the US military to begin targeting Iranian power plants and bridge.

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As you will remember, this is not the first time Trump has threatened to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure – which could constitute a war crime under international law.

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The future of peace talks have been thrown into question after the two sides traded fire overnight. The US launched strikes against Iran in the early hours of Wednesday morning in retaliation for what it said was Iran’s downing of a US army helicopter near the strait of Hormuz. Iran then launched a wave of retaliatory airstrikes claiming hits on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

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Trump has previously insisted that a deal could be reached.

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My colleague Tom Ambrose is covering all the latest developments here:

“,”elementId”:”9f9159b7-bc16-4404-bb8a-e9005c762e70″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement”,”prefix”:”Related: “,”text”:”Middle East crisis live: Trump accuses Iran of taking too long to make a deal and says ‘it will now pay a price’”,”elementId”:”9febd900-b1cc-43c3-b78d-6dbaf40e26a4″,”role”:”thumbnail”,”url”:”https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jun/10/iran-war-updates-missile-strikes-trump-us-retaliation-middle-east-crisis-war-live”}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1781093910000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”08.18 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1781095433000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”08.43 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1781095246000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”08.40 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”08.40″,”title”:”Trump says Iran ‘will pay the price’ for taking ‘too long’ to agree peace deal”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Wed 10 Jun 2026 20.06 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 10 Jun 2026 06.37 EDT”},{“id”:”6a29488f8f08e85b579a55d4″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

A key group of anti-Trump Republicans has endorsed the Democratic nominee in a pivotal House race in Pennsylvania, according to details first provided to the Guardian.

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Republicans Against Perry (Rap) revived their effort to oust hardline congressman Scott Perry last year. Now, the group is formally supporting Democrat Janelle Stelson in Pennsylvania’s 10th District, which includes Harrisburg.

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Rap is backed by WelcomePac, which focuses its support for Democratic candidates across the country. The group is also launching a new ad which focuses on Perry’s support for restarting the infamous nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island.

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Craig Snyder, Rap’s executive director, said the new campaign aims to show Perry “kowtowing to Washington and the handful of the super rich by supporting a billion taxpayer dollars to restart the reactor … known the world over as the site of the first major nuclear accident ever in the free world”.

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Stelson’s race to unseat Perry is a rematch. The former local news anchor previously challenged the incumbent in 2024 and lost by just one percentage point.

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Perry, the four-term representative, is a member, and former chair, of the House’s ultra-conservative Freedom caucus. Following Joe Biden’s presidential victory in 2020, he maintained that the election was stolen, and in the lead-up to the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, Perry introduced Trump to Jeffrey Clark, a fellow election denier who was then a justice department official.

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Snyder is hoping the small margin Stelson fell short by in the last cycle will be easy to overcome in the November midterms. “This year, with Governor Josh Shapiro at the top of the ticket, and many more Republicans having second thoughts about the real impacts of Maga policies in our lives, Perry is going to be retired by the people of Central Pennsylvania,” he told the Guardian.

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Donald Trump is pushing ahead with his controversial plan to install political loyalist Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, a move that has sparked bipartisan congressional backlash and imperiled the reauthorization of a powerful surveillance law set to expire at the end of this week.

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Trump’s Tuesday evening announcement came after he met earlier in the day with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, to discuss Pulte’s elevation to the role, which has prompted widespread concern over his complete lack of national security experience and the prospect that he could use the office’s spying powers to continue his campaign of targeting Trump’s perceived political enemies.

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Writing on social media, Trump said Pulte was already working with the outgoing director, Tulsi Gabbard, and will take her place on 19 June, while remaining head of the federal mortgage agency.

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Gabbard, a former congresswoman who served in the military and then on a House subcommittee with oversight of military intelligence, had announced in her resignation letter that she would step down on 30 June.

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Trump offered no explanation for Pulte taking over before that date, but the president has suggested in public comments that he expects his political ally to investigate elections that he has falsely claimed were “rigged” once he is installed as the country’s top intelligence officer.

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Bill Gates is set to testify in front of the House committee on oversight and reform on Wednesday as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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The Microsoft co-founder will appear in a closed-door session, where lawmakers are expected to question him about his past relationship with Epstein. A transcript of the interview is expected to be released at a later date.

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In a statement to the Guardian before his appearance, a spokesperson for Gates said that Gates “welcomes the opportunity to appear before the committee” and said that “while he never witnessed or participated in any of Epstein’s illegal conduct, he is looking forward to answering all the committee’s questions to support their important work”.

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The committee, chaired by James Comer, requested Gates’s appearance in March, following the justice department’s release of millions of documents related to Epstein earlier this year. The files included numerous mentions of Gates, as well as several photographs of him, and records showing that he met with Epstein on several occasions, renewing scrutiny of Gates’s past ties to the disgraced financier.

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Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

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Graham Platner won the Maine Democratic primary for Senate and called for supporters to “believe people can change” amid his controversial candidacy.

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The Marine veteran won 72% of the vote, defeating the state governor, Janet Mills, who suspended her campaign in April but remained on the ballot, and third-placed David Costello, based on early results reported by Reuters.

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Reports emerged that Platner had exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married. Former partners described him as volatile and unfaithful.

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One ex-girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, a Republican operative, alleged in the New York Times that more than a decade ago he had twisted her arm behind her back during an argument and held her in a room against her will – claims that Platner categorically denied.

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“If you believe, as I do, that we can change our politics and our country then you must also believe that people can change,” Platner, 41, told supporters in Blue Hill. “And the reason I believe is that is because I have lived it. And the reason I have lived it is because of my wife.”

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In a nod to his troubled past, Platner said:

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n

Redemption is not just some simple or easy destination; it’s a journey. I’ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes I regret, that I live with, that I continue to learn from. I’m still far from perfect. But every day I wake up and I try to be a little bit better and a little kinder than I was the day before. And if you give me the chance, I will be a senator for the people who cannot afford to buy a senator.

n

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Platner also earned supportive hollers and whoops from the crowd when he took a swipe at his critics outside Maine.

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“Now, the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by. But in trying so hard to understand me, they fail to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.”

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Platner will face the senator Susan Collins, a Republican running for a sixth six-year term, in November. The race is seen as a must-win for Democrats to take control of the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority.

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Read the full story:

“,”elementId”:”e3bdcdc5-75da-4df7-ac69-a48af3f1c0f7″},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement”,”prefix”:”Related: “,”text”:”Graham Platner shrugs off scandals to win Maine Democratic Senate primary”,”elementId”:”d237adb7-9a45-49d7-8952-43b64c5a2c71″,”role”:”thumbnail”,”url”:”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/09/graham-platner-maine-senate-primary”},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

In other developments:

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n
• n

  House Republicans narrowly passed a reconciliation bill on Tuesday, by two votes, to provide another $70bn in funding over the next three years to the Department of Homeland Security, ensuring that agencies carrying out Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda remain funded until the end of his presidency.

n

• n

  At nearly the same moment, the US struck Iran again, in retaliation for the downing of a US helicopter near the strait of Hormuz.

n

• n

  JD Vance, the US vice-president, said that a deal with Iran to end the war launched by the US and Israel 102 days ago, “could happen in the next week, but the deal could also happen months from now.”

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• n

  Lesley Groff, longtime executive assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender Trump socialized with for nearly two decades, testified before the House oversight and reform committee.

n

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Key events

Free DC movement accuses national guard troops of taking their flag back to Arkansas ‘like a war trophy’

Free DC, a community group that has rallied opposition to Donald Trump’s deployment of federal troops to police the District of Columbia, has accused members of the Arkansas national guard of treating their movement’s flag “like a war trophy” by taking one home when they left the nation’s capital last month.

The community group posted a screenshot on Instagram taken from a video released by the guard that showed a Free DC flag on the floor during a ceremony to mark the end of the Arkansas unit’s deployment.

In a caption, Free DC activists wrote:

We don’t know where they got the flag on the ground but it is a symbol of opposition to everything this deployment is about.

Free DC has been adamantly opposed the Guard’s deployment to DC since the day Trump announced he was sending them. These soldiers are a danger to people and communities here as well as to free and fair elections, and we want them gone. The ‘Free DC’ flags that people have put up all over DC show just how many people share our opposition. It does not belong in any kind of National Guard celebration.

For occupying soldiers to take one of these flags as if it’s a souvenir is insulting and disgusting.

After Free DC drew attention to the image, the video, which was shot by the Arkansas national guard on 27 May, was removed from multiple Pentagon websites, but not before the activists made a copy and uploaded it to YouTube.

A gallery of photographs from the departure ceremony, which remains on a Pentagon media site the video was deleted from, suggests that the Free DC flag, along with two of the district’s official flags, were on the floor so that soldiers could sign them.

Democratic senators rule out renewing surveillance law unless Trump relents on installing Pulte as intelligence director

As Donald Trump appeared unwilling on Wednesday to back off his plan to install as acting director of national intelligence an unqualified political “attack dog”, federal mortgage director Bill Pulte, Senate Democrats said they would not vote to reauthorize a warrantless surveillance law before it expires on Friday.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa), permits US intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign targets operating outside the country without a warrant.

Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey was asked by a reporter whether he would support a short-term extension of the law until the Fourth of July holiday.

“With Pulte still in there? I’m not for that,” Kim told Punchbowl News.

“We should not reauthorize FISA,” his colleague from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, posted, “until there is ZERO CHANCE Bill Pulte (or anyone else with a history of or intent to abuse of power to hurt Trump’s political opponents) gets anywhere near our classified services.”

In a social media video, Murphy said Pulte has “zero experience in national security or intelligence”.

“The reason anybody knows who Bill Pulte is, is because he’s just a Trump attack dog who got put at an agency, a federal housing finance agency, apparently for the explicit purpose of combing through the private mortgage records of anybody that has ever criticized Donald Trump,” Murphy added.

“But because he showed that he was willing to make public sensitive private information about the president’s political enemies, he’s now being put in charge of the entire American intelligence infrastructure.”

Senator Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who is vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said last week that Pulte “appears to have been selected precisely because the White House believes he will provide the narrative it wants, not the intelligence we need. Americans have every reason to worry about what happens when the official charged with overseeing everything from counter-terrorism to foreign election threats is chosen for his willingness to advance the president’s political agenda rather than his experience”.

On Wednesday, Warner warned that “Pulte could be Trump’s most dangerous appointee yet” and released an explainer-style YouTube video in which he walked viewers through Pulte’s past and noted: “Trump admits he wants Pulte in this position to help him stoke claims of voter fraud.”

US military announces new ‘self-defense strikes’ on Iran

In a brief statement, the US military’s Central Command announced on Wednesday afternoon that US “forces began launching additional self-defense strikes today at 5.15pm ET against multiple targets in Iran at the Commander in Chief’s direction. The strikes are in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.”

US House speaker tries to explain away Trump’s ‘I love the inflation’ comment

Hours after Donald Trump brushed off concerns about new data showing that inflation jumped to an annual rate of 4.2% in May by saying “I love the inflation”, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused a CNN journalist of taking the president’s comment “totally out of context”.

“The president is laser-focused on the domestic economic situation”, Johnson insisted. “He is working to bring down prices; his working to get the strait of Hormuz reopened.”

As he walked through the US Capitol, trailed by reporters, Johnson said that the meaning of the president’s comment, which was made in his presence during an Oval Office event, was crystal-clear, at least to him.

“What he was saying is: ‘It’s going to be great to have that number and compare it to what comes next, when we get these situations resolved, that’ll be a fun thing to consider,’” the Republican congressman suggested.

In fact, Trump’s meaning was far from clear, coming at the start of a rambling answer to the question of whether he was concerned “about the latest inflation number, which came out this morning”.

“No, I love it, the numbers were great. You know what I really loved? I love the inflation n – you know why? Because as soon as this war is over,” the president began, before interrupting his answer with a long tangent on what he called the success of a US military effort to sneak oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz, which he said had contributed to a drop in oil prices.

“I can say it now, something you didn’t know. Do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out – that’s why oil is $85 a barrel,” the president said, without further explaining why he “loved” the inflation data showing the third consecutive monthly increase since the start of the Iran war and a three-year high.

Trump then continued for three more minutes, recounting what he called the success of the US attacks on Iran, and Venezuela, and never returning to the question of inflation, but instead repeating his familiar, baseless claim that he told advisers in February that war was necessary because “Iran’s going to have a nuclear weapon very soon” and that he had expected the impact of his war on Iran on the price of oil and the stock market to be worse. In fact, US intelligence agencies had assessed that Iran had given up the pursuit of nuclear weapons in 2003 and not restarted the effort.

When Trump finished speaking, a reporter reminded him of the topic, asking if he expected “inflation to come down between now and November”.

“When the war is over? It’s coming down,” Trump replied. “It’s going to come down like a rock.”

Hegseth says US will strike Iran again tonight: ‘If we need to negotiate with bombs, then we’ll negotiate with bombs’

Speaking to reporters outside the headquarters of US Central Command in Tampa on Wednesday, Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, confirmed Donald Trump’s earlier statement that the US plans to strike Iran again tonight.

“The war department is prepared to set the terms to ensure that we get the kind of deal President Trump expects,” Hegseth told reporters.

“Those strikes that happen tonight will be strong,” Hegseth said, before suggesting that the military assault could be averted if Iran agrees to a peace deal with the president.

“President Trump is a deal-maker, the best in the world,” Hegseth went on. “He’s prepared to make that deal; Iran would be wise to take it.”

“If we need to negotiate with bombs, then we’ll negotiate with bombs,” he added.

The defense secretary also suggested that what he called a successful US mission to guide oil tankers through a crucial choke point in the Gulf means that “the United States of America controls the strait of Hormuz”.

Defense industry leaders preparing for ‘ugly’ meeting with Trump as concerns grow over shrinking US missile supply, NBC News reports

The leaders of roughly seven defense companies have been preparing to meet with Donald Trump at the White House later this week in what is expected to be a contentious discussion amid mounting concerns over the dwindling US supply of missiles, NBC News reports citing two people familiar with details of the meeting.

Trump is expected to press the companies to find ways to swiftly increase their production of weaponry for the Pentagon, the people and one other person familiar with the upcoming meeting told NBC News. The deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, is also expected to attend, two of the people said.

In public, Trump has boasted that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply” of weapons, but the president has expressed anger and frustration to aides and allies over thinning American stockpiles, the people added. One of the people told NBC News they anticipate the meeting is “going to be ugly”.

Indeed, as Trump threatened to resume bombing Iran again today, the US military has already burned through missiles and interceptors at a rate that has alarmed some defense officials.

Last month, the Associated Press reported that US military contractors will need at least three years to replenish stockpiles of three key weapons systems used heavily in Trump’s war against Iran – a timeframe that has become a major concern.

When the best referee in Africa is barred from working at the World Cup after being denied entry at the US border, claims of this being an inclusive tournament ring hollow.

Omar Abdulkadir Artan was supposed to make history this week, becoming the first Somali referee to officiate at a World Cup. Instead, he is watching from home.

In this video, Morgan Ofori digs into a historic year for African nations against the backdrop of US travel bans.

The day so far

• Donald Trump said the US will attack Iran on Wednesday, and accused Tehran’s peace negotiators of “playing us for suckers”, just a day after claiming again that a peace deal was imminent. “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” the president told reporters at the White House, hours after the two sides traded fire, drawing neighbouring Gulf states back into the on-and-off war that has consumed the region since late February. William Christou has our story.

• Trump also signed the GOP’s $70bn bill that will fund ICE and the border patrol through 2029 into law, after the House narrowly passed the legislation yesterday. Marina Dunbar has this report.

• Trump also stood firm on his decision to install controversial loyalist Bill Pulte as the country’s top intelligence official, demanding Congress pass a short-term extension of a surveillance law set to expire amid intense criticism of the appointment. Pulte will has been asked “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing” of the office of the director of national intelligence, the president declared, after lining him up to serve as acting director on a temporary basis. Here’s our report.

• Scandal-plagued Democrat Graham Platner will face the Republican senator Susan Collins in the Maine election in November in what will be a marquee race that could help decide control of the Senate. Here’s David Smith’s report.

• Bill Gates is facing questions from the House oversight committee about his association with Jeffrey Epstein. “I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct,” the Microsoft co-founder said in his opening statement. “I have never victimized anyone.” More from Anna Betts here.

Trump claims US military carried out ‘secret mission’ to help move 100m barrels of oil through strait of Hormuz

Maya Yang

The US military carried out a “secret mission” last month to “support oil tankers and other commercial ships through the strait of Hormuz”, according to Donald Trump.

In a Truth Social post today, the president said that the effort, which he said he directed, “resulted in more than 100 million barrels of oil” moving through the crucial chokepoint and “into the open market”.

Trump described the effort as “wildly successful,” adding that the “United States of America controls the Strait of Hormuz, not Iran”.

Trump’s latest comments mark a pivot away from his words last month in which he repeatedly said during a cabinet meeting: “Nobody’s going to control” the strait of Hormuz. He added: “It’s international waters.”

In that same meeting, Trump threatened to bomb Oman upon being asked whether he would accept a short-term deal that would allow Iran and Oman to control the strait, saying: “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up.”

Democrats rally round Platner in Maine as Trump reaffirms grip on GOP after primaries

David Smith

Progressives rallied around Graham Platner after his primary victory in Maine yesterday while Donald Trump again exerted his grip on the GOP by helping to defeat a politician who had pushed for the release of the Epstein files.

Primary elections were held in four states – Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina – before November’s midterms to decide control of both chambers of Congress. The results offered mixed signals about the direction of the two parties.

The marquee race was a Senate primary election in Maine, where Platner won 72% of the vote, defeating the state governor, Janet Mills, who had suspended her campaign but remained on the ballot, and third-placed David Costello, based on early results reported by Reuters.

The result sets up a bruising general election battle against the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, which is likely to be tight, and could help decide control of the Senate.

Other elections offered fresh evidence of the issues shaping the wider political landscape. South Carolina served up another test of Trump’s enduring influence over the Republican party. The president enjoyed a comfortable victory through his ally Lindsey Graham, who secured renomination to the Senate without being forced into a runoff.

In the primary for governor, the congresswoman Nancy Mace became the latest casualty of Trump’s efforts to topple Republicans, after she demanded the release of the government’s Epstein files.

But Trump’s preferred candidate, the state’s lieutenant governor, Pamela Evette, failed to secure an outright majority and must now face Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general, in a runoff election this month.

The longtime South Carolina congressman James Clyburn easily fended off a little-known primary challenger. Two Republicans are still competing for the chance to face Clyburn but he is expected to be the overwhelming favourite in the general election.

In Nevada, Democrats selected the state’s attorney general, Aaron Ford, as their nominee for governor, setting up what is expected to be one of the country’s most competitive statewide contests. Ford defeated the Washoe county commissioner, Alexis Hill, after largely ignoring his primary opponent and focusing instead on the Republican governor, Joe Lombardo.

Nevada also produced one of the most important congressional contests of the cycle. Republicans nominated Marty O’Donnell, a Trump-endorsed composer best known for creating the soundtrack to the hugely successful Halo video game franchise, to challenge the Democratic congresswoman Susie Lee in the state’s highly competitive third congressional district.

Teresa Benitez-Thompson won the Democratic primary in Nevada’s second district. Benitez-Thompson, a former assembly leader, faces an uphill battle. Republicans outnumber Democrats by 70,000 in the district that covers Reno and rural northern Nevada.

Trump says he thinks AI companies will agree to ‘giving back’ to the public

Also in the Oval Office earlier, Donald Trump said he expects top artificial intelligence companies to agree to “giving back” to the public, an apparent reference to a possible government stake in the firms.

“I’m going to have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly, and we’re talking about giving back something to the public, and if we do that, the public will become very rich,” Trump told reporters. “I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular.”

An agreement to give the US government equity stakes could have a massive impact on the government’s finances. OpenAI – which is targeting a valuation of up to $1tn – in April publicly proposed creating a “public wealth fund” to invest in AI companies, according to a company statement. Proceeds from the fund would be “distributed directly to citizens”, according to the company.

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has expressed support for the idea of creating a US sovereign wealth fund by taking 50% stock in AI companies. Trump said last week that his team was looking into the idea.

But beyond Washington, concern is growing among Americans about AI negatively affecting their lives, from fears that the rise of AI could put them out of work to the environmental impacts of nationwide datacenter projects.

With Reuters.

Here’s my colleague Marina Dunbar’s report on Donald Trump signing the nearly $70bn immigration enforcement package into law today, after the House narrowly passed the legislation, ensuring funding for ICE and border patrol activities through the rest of his presidency.

“This morning, I’m thrilled to sign the Secure America Act to immediately and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of my term,” Trump said during the signing in the Oval Office. “We’ll give the heroes of ICE and border patrol – and that’s what they are, they’re heroes – the support and resources they need to defend our borders, protect our homeland and to keep America safe.”

Trump says ‘people have wanted to downsize’ intelligence community for a while

When asked about his earlier comment that he had asked Bill Pulte, whom he plans to install as acting director of national intelligence on 19 June, “to execute the immediate and needed downsizing of the office, reverting staff to their home agencies”, Donald Trump stood by his social media post.

“People have wanted to downsize for a while,” Trump said. “Many people don’t want it at all. A lot of people thought it was a duplication.”

Trump’s choice of Pulte as the country’s top intelligence official has prompted widespread concern over his complete lack of national security experience. The president defended his choice on Wednesday, telling reporters: “Smart people are smart people. I always say I’d rather have smart than experienced, but experience is good too.”

He said he hoped reporters would give Pulte an “easy run”, as “he’s very busy”.

“He doesn’t need stupid people saying, ‘Why didn’t you get a higher mark at a certain college?’” Trump said. “Because he’s highly educated, he was a great student, he’s great at everything he’s done. How come he got a B-plus? See, they’ll go after him for getting a B-plus instead of an A, but the other guy can be a thug.”

Trump calls Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner ‘an outright pig’

Donald Trump answered a question on Wednesday about Adam Hamawy, the army doctor who has secured the Democratic nomination to represent New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, with a comment about Graham Platner, who has secured the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in Maine.

“I actually think the one in Maine is worse because he’s just an outright pig,” Trump said Wednesday. “I watched him a couple of times. He’s like a pig, that’s what he reminds me of.”

Platner’s campaign overcame a mountain of personal controveries ranging from alleged “toxic” behavior towards women to a tattoo recognised as a Nazi symbol. Read more here: