Donald Trump news LIVE: Trump to make ‘massive’ infrastructure announcement, says White House aide

U.S. stocks climbed in early trading as markets reopened after Monday’s public holiday, with the S&P 500 index up 0.47%, the Nasdaq rising 0.45% and the Dow Jones gaining 0.44%, Reuters reported.

The Mexican peso tumbled after President Donald Trump vowed to impose stiff tariffs, reigniting fears among traders that the nation will become a target over the next four years, Bloomberg reported. The currency weakened as much as 1.4% before trimming losses.

Donald Trump news LIVE: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold his first bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

“Secretary Rubio meets with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar at the Department of State,” the State Department said, releasing the schedule of the new Secretary of State on the first day as the top American diplomat.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio was appointed as secretary of state earlier today. He was sworn in by Vice President JD Vance.

Donald Trump news LIVE: Ukraine is working to set up a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump, reports Reuters.

“The teams have been working on a meeting, they are currently in the process,” Zelenskyy says at an interview panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Donald Trump news LIVE: US President Donald Trump will make an “massive” infrastructure announcement on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says in an interview with Fox News. “It is going to be a massive announcement,” Leavitt says.

Donald Trump news LIVE: The executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump will “transform not only the US, but the entire world,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says in a post on X.

Donald Trump news LIVE: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for one hour and 35 minutes on Tuesday, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov says.

They discussed talks with Donald Trump and the outlook for a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, Ushakov adds.

The European Union has expressed concern about Donald Trump’s announcement regarding his intention to withdraw from the World Health Organization

“We see with concern the announcement to withdraw from the WHO by the United States and we trust that the U.S. administration will consider all this ahead of the formal withdrawal,” a spokesperson of the European Commission’s said, according to Reuters.

European Union’s climate policy chief Wopke Hoekstra says that it is unfortunate that US President Donald Trump has once again withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate deal.

“It is truly an unfortunate development that the world’s largest economy, and one of our closest allies in the fight against climate change, is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement”, Hoekstra writes on social media platform X.

President Donald Trump signed executive orders Monday rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes within the federal government in what he described in his inauguration speech as a move to end efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that it regrets US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the global agency and hopes that it will change its mind.

“We hope that the United States will reconsider, and we hope that there will be constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, for Americans but also people around the world,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told a Geneva press briefing.

Elon Musk has hit out at his critics after a controversy erupted over a gesture he made at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, with some comparing it to a Nazi salute. READ MORE

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday congratulated Donald Trump on becoming U.S. President, saying in a statement the leaders could work to provide an impetus “for freedom, peace and security as well as for prosperity and economic development.”

Soon after his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump arrived at the Commander-in-Chief Ball with First Lady Melania Trump, drawing a thunderous ovation from the crowd. READ MORE

Germany will try to talk US President Donald Trump out of his decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organisation, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach says.

“The new US president’s announcement to withdraw from the World Health Organisation is a serious blow to the international fight against global health crises,” he says, according to Reuters.

Donald Trump news LIVE: Palestinian authorities have accused Trump of “inciting Israeli settler violence”, reports AFP.

Earlier on Monday, Trump said that he was not confident a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold, despite trumpeting his diplomacy to secure it ahead of his inauguration.

Donald Trump news LIVE: Outgoing vice president Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, have left Washington DC, following President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

For her final flight, Harris was supported by an all-female U.S. Air Force crew, operating a C-32 aircraft from Joint Base Andrews to Los Angeles. This marks the first time an all-female crew has flown the C-32 for the U.S. Air Force, per Politico. Read more.

Immigrant and civil rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against a birthright citizenship executive order signed by newly sworn in US President Donald Trump after taking office on Monday, Reuters reported.

“Immigrants’ rights advocates today sued the Trump administration over its executive order that seeks to strip certain babies born in the United States of their US citizenship,” the report cited advocates’ statement that called the order unconstitutional.

Donald Trump ordered halting birthright citizenship, however, it is unclear whether his order will survive inevitable legal challenges, since birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution.

What is birthright citizenship?

Birthright citizenship is a legal principle that automatically grants citizenship to individuals at birth. According to americanimmigrationcouncil.org, there are two types of birthright citizenship: ancestry-based and birthplace-based.

Birthplace-based citizenship, known as jus soli (Latin for “right of the soil”), grants citizenship based on the location of birth.

In the United States, birthright citizenship is enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” This principle was solidified by the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which ruled that children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are US citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

The US follows a combination of:

Unrestricted birthplace-based citizenship (jus soli): Citizenship is granted to anyone born on US soil, regardless of their parents’ status, with exceptions like children of foreign diplomats.

Restricted ancestry-based citizenship (jus sanguinis): Citizenship is extended to children born abroad to US citizens, provided certain statutory conditions are met.

A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban led to the release of two Americans in exchange for Khan Mohammed, a Taliban figure serving a life sentence in California on drug trafficking charges, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The deal took place as President Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, handed power back to President Donald Trump.

The Taliban hailed the swap as a step toward “normalising” relations with the US, though most nations continue to refuse recognition of the group’s rule. The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul confirmed the exchange, noting that the two US citizens were traded for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008.

On Donald Trump’s order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO), former chief scientist at the WHO, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, said the US will “end up losing more than it can gain” out of the decision.

“…with this, the US will only end up losing more than it can gain. Not only will it not be able to influence or impart inputs on crucial health issues but by opting to opt out of the WHO network, not be able to get critical data, that may help prepare better for any future pandemic. Therefore, it is neither good for the US nor for the rest of the world,” Dr Swaminathan told the Financial Express.com.

US President Donald Trump fired four senior government officials appointed by his predecessor early Tuesday and warned “over a thousand more” faced imminent dismissal in a first post on Truth Social since his inauguration.

“My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” Trump said on the platform.

“Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council—YOU’RE FIRED!” Trump added.

(via AFP)

Marking his priorities for his second term, newly sworn in US President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders within hours of taking office to fulfil some of his campaign promises.

Donald Trump’s first executive order and actions targeted issues ranging from immigration and energy policy to national security and the federal workforce.

Click here for the list of top executive orders by Donald Trump

In an order addressing “birthright citizenship,” US President Donald Trump on Monday (US time) directed US agencies to deny citizenship to children born in the US unless at least one parent is a US citizen or permanent resident, with the new policy set to take effect in 30 days. The policy challenges an amendment to the US Constitution and is expected to face legal opposition.

Additionally, Donald Trump suspended US refugee resettlement for a minimum of three months and ordered a review of security measures to determine whether travelers from specific countries should face a travel ban.

Newly sworn in US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was not confident a ceasefire deal in Gaza would hold, despite trumpeting his diplomacy to secure it ahead of his inauguration.

Asked by a reporter as he returned to the White House whether the two sides would maintain the truce and move on in the agreement, Trump said, “I’m not confident.”

“That’s not our war; it’s their war. But I’m not confident,” Trump said.

Trump, however, said that he believed Hamas had been “weakened” in the war that began with its unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

(via AFP)