Trump administration reportedly set to cancel last Harvard contracts – US politics live

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Earlier this morning, Alan Garber, president of Harvard University, told NPR’s Morning Edition that elite institutions need to double down on their “commitment to the good of the nation” and “be firm in our commitments to what we stand for”.

Garber said he finds the measures taken by the Trump administration to be “perplexing”; while he acknowledges there is work to be done on campus regarding viewpoint diversity, he said he struggles to see a link between funding freezes and fighting antisemitism.

I think that we have heard from some people that they do feel that [Harvard lacks viewpoint diversity]. What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these that don’t even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems. Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift. The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work – research work – that the federal government designates as high-priority work. It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted. Shutting off that work does not help the country, even as it punishes Harvard, and it is hard to see the link between that and, say, antisemitism.

Later in the interview he points to the many ways Harvard’s work directly benefits the American public, highlighting recent honors awarded to Harvard faculty by the Breakthrough Prize, known as “The Oscars of Science”, for their work on obesity and diabetes drugs and gene editing, used to correct disease-causing genetic variations. Garber goes on:

I would say that the federal government has the authority through the budgeting process to reallocate funds. But the question to ask is what problem is [Trump] trying to solve by doing that? The money that goes to research universities in the form of grants and contracts, which is almost all of the federal support that we get, is used to pay for work that we perform at the behest of the government. So in reallocating to some other use, including trade schools, it means that work just won’t be performed. So the right question is, is this the most effective use of federal funding? Do you really want to cut back on research dollars? I’m less concerned about whether it goes to a trade school or if it goes to some other project, like working on highways. The real question is, how much value does the federal government get from its expenditures on research? There is a lot of actual research demonstrating the returns to the American people have been enormous.

He ends the interview with a warning to other universities:

I would say that we need to be firm in our commitments to what we stand for. And what we stand for – I believe I speak for other universities – is education, pursuit of the truth, helping to educate people for better futures. And hopefully our own students, after they graduate from our institutions, go out and serve the world. In the end, we’re about producing and disseminating knowledge and serving our nation and our world. When we fail in that, then we can expect to be attacked. So number one, I think we all need to redouble our commitment to the good of the nation and the world. And I know my fellow leaders fully embrace that.

Donald Trump wants to “dictate” policies like those of far-right regimes in the 1930s, a leading billionaire investor has warned.

Ray Dalio writes in a new book that the US president is acting like a chief executive without a board as he seeks to expand executive power even more aggressively than predecessors Andrew Jackson and Franklin D Roosevelt.

Dalio, 75, is the founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, and a rare critic of the system that generated his wealth. His book How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle addresses the national debt and Trump’s attacks on democratic norms. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Invoking a decade when fascists such as Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy were in power, Dalio writes: “When I say that the policies President Trump is using to ‘make America great again’ are remarkably like the policies that those of the hard-right countries in the 1930s used, that should not be controversial.”

He continues: “It would be fair to argue that his attempts to maximise the power of the presidency by bypassing the other branches of government are analogous to the ways that Andrew Jackson (of the right) and Franklin D Roosevelt (of the left) did, though he is even more aggressive than they were. We will see how far he will take it.”

White House stunned as Hegseth inquiry brings up illegal wiretap claims

The White House has lost confidence in a Pentagon leak investigation that Pete Hegseth used to justify firing three top aides last month, after advisers were told that the aides had supposedly been outed by an illegal warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap.

The extraordinary explanation alarmed the advisers, who also raised it with people close to JD Vance, because such a wiretap would almost certainly be unconstitutional and an even bigger scandal than a number of leaks.

But the advisers found the claim to be untrue and complained that they were being fed dubious information by Hegseth’s personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, who had been tasked with overseeing the investigation.

The episode, as recounted by four people familiar with the matter, marked the most extraordinary twist in the investigation examining the leak of an allegedly top secret document that outlined options for the US military to reclaim the Panama canal to a reporter.

The advisers were stunned again when Parlatore denied having told anyone about an illegal NSA wiretap himself and maintained that any information he had was passed on to him by others at the Pentagon.

The leak was first attributed internally to Hegseth’s senior adviser, Dan Caldwell, who was escorted out of the Pentagon and fired last month alongside two other aides, Hegseth’s former deputy chief of staff, Darin Selnick, and the deputy defense secretary’s chief of staff Colin Carroll.

But the illegal wiretap claim and Caldwell’s denials fueled a breakdown in trust between the Pentagon and the White House, where the Trump advisers tracking the investigation have privately suggested they no longer have any idea about who or what to believe.

Trump administration to cancel last of its Harvard contracts, report says

Harvard looks set to lose its remaining federal business worth an estimated $100m, with the New York Times reporting this morning that the Trump administration is set to cancel all contracts with the university.

The NYT says a letter severing all business with Harvard is going out to federal agencies on Tuesday. They are also being told to find “alternative vendors”.

This comes after Donald Trump on Monday threatened Harvard with further cuts to its funding.

Trump posted on his social media platform: “I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land.”

Harvard has launched legal actions over what it said was Trump’s attempt to “gain control of academic decision-making” at the university and his administration’s threat to review about $9bn in federal funding. Last week the Trump administration announced it would revoke federal permission for the institution to enrol international students. A federal judge issued an injunction within hours, temporarily blocking such a ban.

Olivia Empson

A recent former president of Harvard University urged people to “speak out” in defense of “foundational threats” to values such as freedom, autonomy and democracy in the US, as those whose deaths for such causes in war were being honored on Memorial Day.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female president of Harvard, also warned on Monday of US constitutional checks and the rule of law being “at risk” under the current administration, even as Donald Trump issued a fresh threat against the elite university as it seeks to repel his assaults on its independence and funding.

“We are being asked not to charge into … artillery fire but only to speak up and to stand up in the face of foundational threats to the principles for which [the US civil war dead] gave the last full measure of devotion. We have been entrusted with their legacy. Can we trust ourselves to uphold it?” Faust wrote in a guest opinion essay for the New York Times.

She highlighted, in particular, the principles fought and died for by Union soldiers in the US civil war and the roles played by assassinated US president Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and leading Black civil rights leader of the 19th century.

“We must honor these men,” she wrote.

Faust, who led Harvard between 2007 and 2018 and still teaches there, did not mention the US president by name but she referred to his position and made a direct link between the civil war and now.

US stock futures rally after long weekend on trade reprieve

US stock index futures jumped on Tuesday after president Donald Trump rolled back his threat of steep tariffs against the EU and tensions between the United States and the European bloc cooled as traders returned after the Memorial Day break.

On Sunday, Trump backed off from his threat to impose 50% tariffs on EU imports next month, restoring a 9 July deadline to allow for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc to produce a deal, Reuters reported.

He had said on Friday that he was recommending a 50% tariff effective June 1, expressing frustration that trade negotiations with the EU were not moving quickly enough.

“However, we’re still in the dark as to whether talks will lead anywhere, despite EU preference of a deal over escalation,” Rabobank analysts said in a note.

Asian and European markets were mixed after rising on Monday, although moves in US assets were more pronounced as traders returned after the long weekend.

Russia says US Golden Dome project undermines strategic stability

The United States’ Golden Dome project undermines the foundations of strategic stability as it involves the creation of a global missile defence system, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

The $175-billion project, proposed by US president Donald Trump, is aimed at blocking threats from China and Russia.

Moscow and Washington are also continuing to work on another prisoner swap between their two countries, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed a possible prisoner exchange involving nine people from each side during a phone call last week.

Holidaymakers in countries hit the hardest by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are taking the US off their list for trips abroad, according to online travel booking data.

Findings from the hotel search site Trivago also suggest that UK and US travellers are increasingly choosing domestic holidays amid concerns over an uncertain economy.

The company has seen double-digit percentage declines in bookings to the US from travellers based in Japan, Canada and Mexico. The latter two countries were the first on Trump’s tariff hitlist when he announced tariffs of 25% on 1 February.

Canadians in particular were incensed at Trump’s repeated suggestions that its northern neighbour would be better off annexed as the 51st state of the US.

According to Trivago’s findings, which were shared with PA Media, demand among Germans was also “down heavily”, with hotel bookings in the US showing a single-digit percentage decline.

Germany is the largest economy in the EU, which Trump has repeatedly threatened with increased tariffs, most recently saying on Sunday he had “paused” a 50% tax he intended to introduce next month.

Trump peppers Memorial Day speech with personal boasting and partisan attacks

Edward Helmore

Donald Trump honored the sacrifices of US military veterans in the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery, but also peppered his address on Monday with partisan political asides while talking up his own plans and achievements.

The US president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers and gave accounts of battlefield courage as tradition dictates, from prepared remarks, after saluting alongside his vice-president, JD Vance and defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who both served in Iraq.

But Trump also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.

“Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. That valor gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth,” he said of those killed in military service.

Then he went on: “A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through.”

The president continued with an anti-immigration statement that chimes with his agenda, though without directly mentioning his predecessor, Democratic president Joe Biden who served between Trump’s first term and the Republican’s return to the White House this January.

“Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked. People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss,” Trump said.

It was a nod to his Truth Social platform on Monday morning where he posted a tirade against judges who hold up his deportation aims, chiefly because of his ignoring due process obligations, as “monsters” and again attacked undocumented immigrants, using sweeping disparagements.

Trump announces full pardon for Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the coming hours.

We start with the news that Donald Trump has issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges.

Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Jenkins was convicted by a jury in December 2024 for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump wrote:

Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.

He said Jenkins was a “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” and a “wonderful person”, adding:

He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.

More on that as we get it today. Meanwhile, in other news:

• Donald Trump used the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery to talk up his own plans and achievements. The president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers but also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.

• EU leaders expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July. The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

• Trump issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges. Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper county, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.

• Trump also said he is considering taking a further $3bn of grant money away from Harvard University and giving it to trade schools across the US. Former president of Harvard and current professor Drew Gilpin Faust warned that American freedoms and democracy were at risk.

• Trump suggested Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “gone crazy” after Moscow launched its third consecutive night of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, killing at least six people. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump railed against Putin while also criticising the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia.

• Former congressman Charles Rangel of New York died on Monday at the age of 94. An outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill, Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus and the first African American to chair the powerful House ways and means committee.

• The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term, and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade in 2022. The FBI will also investigate pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

• The Trump family media company plans to raise about $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, according to a Financial Times report. The Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the Truth Social app and controlled by the president’s family, aims to raise $2bn in fresh equity and another $1bn via a convertible bond, the paper said, citing sources.