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Secretary of state Marco Rubio – ridiculed as “Little Marco” by Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries – has become one of the most powerful players in the president’s cabinet.
Trump appointed Rubio interim national security adviser on Thursday after Mike Waltz was forced to leave the post, alongside his deputy, Alex Wong, as sources said officials had lost confidence in their leadership.
Waltz has been under intense pressure since the Signal scandal, in which he inadvertently added a journalist to a chat that included real-time operational details on US strikes in Yemen.
It’s an enormous rise for Rubio, the son of undocumented Cuban migrants, who now holds four titles in the Trump administration. Rubio is also the acting administrator for USAID and acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration.
Trump picks Waltz for UN role after exit
Waltz may be out of the picture for now, but he is on course to reemerge in the world of international diplomacy – Trump said he will nominate Waltz as the country’s ambassador to the UN. Trump briefly considered firing Waltz over the Signal episode, but decided he did not want the media to claim the ouster of a cabinet official weeks into his second term. Trump was also mollified by an internal review that found Waltz mistakenly saved the Atlantic editor’s number.
Judge says alien act doesn’t allow Trump to deport alleged gang members
The 18th-century Alien Enemies Act does not authorize Donald Trump to deport Venezuelan immigrants alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang, a federal judge in Texas ruled on Thursday.
The decision is significant because it is the first sweeping and permanent injunction directly addressing whether the government can use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua. It applies only to migrants detained in Rodriguez’s judicial district, the southern district of Texas, which includes Brownsville, McAllen and Houston. Trump appointed Rodriguez to the federal bench in 2018.
DoJ civil rights division loses 70% of lawyers
More than 250 attorneys in the justice department’s civil rights division have either left, been reassigned, or accepted a deferred resignation offer since January, according to an estimate provided to the Guardian by people familiar with the matter. The significant decrease in personnel underscores how Donald Trump is gutting the arm of the federal government responsible for enforcing federal civil rights laws.
Trump’s bid to host UK golf tournament could violate US constitution
The British government’s attempts to curry favor with Donald Trump by nudging golf executives to host one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments at a Scottish venue owned by the US president could ultimately lead to a violation of the US constitution, ethics experts have warned.
The Trump administration has unveiled a news-style website that publishes exclusively positive coverage of the president on official White House servers, and is styled like the rightwing website the Drudge Report.
RFK Jr falsely claims vaccine includes ‘aborted fetus debris’
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his department have made a series of misleading statements that alarmed vaccine experts and advocates in recent days – including that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine includes “aborted fetus debris”.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 30 April 2025.
