‘He’s a mess’: Trump says he won’t call Tim Walz after Minnesota shootings
Over 48 hours after a Minnesota state lawmaker was killed and another injured in a “politically motivated assassination”, Donald Trump is still refusing to call the state’s governor, Tim Walz, as a president usually would under the circumstances.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One of Walz, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate:
I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him.
Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?
Here’s the clip.
COLLINS: Have you called Tim Walz yet?
TRUMP: I don’t really call him. He appointed this guy to a position. I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him … he’s a mess. pic.twitter.com/81o4oSqyR7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 17, 2025
Key events
Trump says US won’t kill supreme leader ‘for now’ but demands Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ as ‘patience is wearing thin’
Donald Trump has said that the US has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and is aware of the location of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khameini, but “we are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now”.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said on Truth Social. “He is an easy target, but is safe there.” The US president added that his “patience is wearing thin” and called for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” from Iran, repeating his warning that Iran should not shoot missiles at civilians or American soldiers.
He wrote on Truth Social:
We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured “stuff.” Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.
He added:
We know exactly where the so-called “Supreme Leader” is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
In a third post, he said:
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!
Elon Musk’s X Corp is suing New York’s attorney general, challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring social media companies to disclose sensitive information about how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation and other content.
The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court said New York’s law compels disclosure of “highly sensitive and controversial speech” that is protected by the first amendment and disfavored by the state.
Trump Mobile pulls coverage map after ‘Gulf of Mexico’ label sparks chatter online
Just hours into Trump Mobile’s Monday launch touting American-made smartphones, the venture pulled its coverage map after users noticed that the body of water south of Texas was labeled as the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Trump-preferred name, Gulf of America.
The name of the international body of water has been a hot-button issue after Donald Trump signed an executive order early in his second term, renaming it the Gulf of America, a name other countries have rejected.
He has since barred the Associated Press news agency from certain White House events, triggering a lawsuit, as AP continues to use the international name, Gulf of Mexico.
The Trump family licensed its name to the US mobile service, the latest venture aiming to cash in on the president’s political and cultural influence.
A Reuters review of the website’s code shows Trump Mobile appears to have used T-Mobile’s network data for its coverage map. The telecom operator’s coverage map labels the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico.
The map stirred up chatter across social media before being removed, with numerous users posting screenshots of the old map. As of late this morning, a link to Trump Mobile’s coverage map returned an error, saying the page could not be found.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the coverage map being taken down from the website.
How the right spread ‘brutal and cruel’ misinformation after Minnesota lawmaker killings
Rachel Leingang
Tina Smith, a Minnesota senator confronted Mike Lee, a Utah senator, on Monday to tell him directly that his social media posts fueled ongoing misinformation about a shooting that killed her friend.
Lee’s posts, which advanced conspiracies that a Minnesota assassin was a “Marxist” and blamed the state’s governor for Melissa Hortman’s death, were among many threads of false or speculative claims swirling online after the killings.
Smith told Lee his posts were “brutal and cruel,” according to CNN. “He should think about the implications of what he’s saying and doing. It just further fuels this hatred and misinformation,” she said. She wanted him to hear from her directly how painful it was to see his words after the brutality her state endured. Lee didn’t say much, according to Smith, and seemed surprised to be confronted.
Within hours of the shootings, rightwing social media accounts with millions of followers manufactured false conspiracy theories about the suspect and his motives, falsely portraying the man whose friends say he is an evangelical Christian Trump supporter as a radical leftwing assassin and attempting to paint him as a political ally of Tim Walz, the Democratic governor and former vice-presidential candidate.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it is launching a program that aims to accelerate the drug review process, under which its commissioner can issue vouchers to companies to shorten their review time for a drug application to 1-2 months from the typical timeline of about 10-12 months, Reuters reports.
The new Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program convenes experts from the regulator’s offices for a team-based review, instead of using the standard review system, where a drug application is sent to numerous FDA offices, the agency said.
The FDA plans to give a limited number of vouchers to companies aligned with US national priorities in the first year of the program.
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump has abandoned his brief immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) reprieve for farm and hotel workers, ordering the agency’s raids in those sectors to resume after hardliners crushed a pause that lasted just four days.
The whiplash reversal, first reported by the Washington Post, exposes the dysfunction gripping the president’s deportation agenda, where competing advisers battle over policy while Trump lurches between contradictory positions.
“The president has been incredibly clear,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday. “There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine Ice’s efforts.”
The flip-flop also follows Trump’s erratic pattern on major policies – from threatening then retreating on mass global tariffs to wavering on federal spending cuts – as different factions fight for his ear.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expects to find an agreement in the tariff dispute with the US before the summer is over, he told broadcaster ARD.
“We are approaching agreement in small steps. I assume that this agreement will be possible before the summer, before the summer break, and that we will then also be able to reach a similar agreement to the one concluded between the United States of America and the United Kingdom,” he said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
Few immigrants taken into Ice custody since October had serious convictions – CNN
Fewer than 10% of immigrants arrested by Ice this fiscal year have serious criminal convictions like rape, murder, assault or robbery CNN reports. Three-quarters had no criminal convictions beyond immigration or traffic offenses.
Per CNN’s story:
As the Trump administration has ramped up raids in Los Angeles and around the country, top officials have highlighted the capture of immigrants convicted of crimes like murder, assault and rape — describing them as “barbaric” criminals who “reigned terror” on American communities.
But internal government documents obtained by CNN show that only a fraction of migrants booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October have been convicted of serious violent or sexual crimes.
Public Ice data released by the administration shows that most immigrants currently in the agency’s custody do not have a prior criminal conviction. But the internal data reviewed by CNN goes deeper, making clear that even among those convicted of crimes, a substantial percentage faced only relatively minor charges.
The internal data covers the more than 185,000 immigrants who have been booked into Ice custody during the last months of the Biden administration and first months of the Trump administration, including those detained by Ice agents and those detained by Customs and Border Protection who were then placed in Ice custody.
The records show a stark contrast with the Trump administration’s public messaging. In the last month, almost all of the detained or deported immigrants named or specifically identified in Ice or DHS press releases were convicted or accused of crimes aside from immigration violations. Nearly two thirds were characterized as convicted or accused of serious crimes.
‘His playbook is radical and un-American’: NAACP will not invite Trump to convention in historic first
The NAACP said it will not invite Donald Trump to its annual convention next month, the first time the 116-year-old civil rights organization has not asked a sitting US president to attend its convention.
Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, accused the president of working against the group’s mission.
“This has nothing to do with political party,” Johnson said in a statement on Monday. “Our mission is to advance civil rights, and the current president has made clear that his mission is to eliminate civil rights.”
Johnson said Trump has undermined American democracy by trying to consolidate power, has signed unconstitutional executive orders that oppress and undo federal civil rights protections and has turned the US military against communities.
The group, which is nonpartisan, has invited presidents from both the Republican and Democratic parties since Harry Truman in 1946, it said.
“But right now, it’s clear — Donald Trump is attacking our democracy and our civil rights. He believes more in the fascist playbook than in the US Constitution. This playbook is radical and un-American,” Johnson said.
The NAACP said it also will not invite vice-president JD Vance to its national convention 12-16 July in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The civil rights group has filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration over diversity, equity and inclusion programs and voting rights.
Cuts to Fema’s storm prep program hammer communities that voted for Trump – CBS News
Hurricane season is here, and a CBS News investigation has found that cuts to Fema’s storm preparation program by the Trump administration have hammered communities that voted for the president.
In particular, red state politicians are up in arms over the cancellation of the infrastructure program – known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC.
The $4.6bn initiative was launched under the first Trump administration, and CBS’s analysis of Fema data revealed that two-thirds of the counties awarded grants voted for Trump over former Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.
Trump administration officials said they will claw back about $3.6m that has already been awarded but not yet spent, sending it back to the Treasury.
Fema said in a statement to CBS that the program was being scaled back for being “wasteful and ineffective” and “more concerned with climate change” than providing help to Americans affected by storms.
Per CBS’s story:
Projects that are now stalled as a result range from a plan to elevate six buildings on the main street in Pollocksville, North Carolina – population less than 300 – to a $50m project to prevent flash flooding in New York City.
The data suggests the elimination of the BRIC program will especially deprive vulnerable communities across the Southeast. In Florida, 18 of the 22 counties that stood to benefit from nearly $250 million in grants voted for Trump. Elsewhere in North Carolina, grants were canceled in areas ravaged by Hurricane Helene last year.
The scale of the cuts in ruby-red Louisiana – 34 grants totalling $185m – prompted the state’s Republican senior senator, Bill Cassidy, to publicly condemn the decision to cancel the program.
“We passed BRIC into law and provided funds for it,” said Cassidy in a speech on the Senate floor in April. “To do anything other than use that money to fund flood mitigation projects is to thwart the will of Congress.”
Last month, Cassidy joined more than 80 members of Congress in writing a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, begging the administration to reinstate the program and arguing that not doing so “will only make it harder and more expensive for communities to recover from the next storm”.
In the letter, the bipartisan group of lawmakers cited research that showed every dollar invested in disaster mitigation can save up to $18 in response and recovery expenditures after a storm hits.
Analysis: the internal war that could decide Trump’s Iran response
Andrew Roth
As Donald Trump considers a direct intervention in Israel’s conflict with Iran, another war has broken out in Washington between conservative hawks, calling for immediate US strikes on uranium enrichment facilities, and Maga isolationists, who are demanding Trump stick to his campaign pledge not to involve the US in new overseas wars.
At stake is whether the US could target the mountain redoubt that is home to the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, a key uranium enrichment site hidden 80 to 90 metres underground that cannot be targeted directly by Israeli jets – although they can attack some of the infrastructure that allows the plant to operate.
A direct strike would require the US Air Force’s 30,000-pound class GBU-57/B massive ordinance penetrators and the US B-2 Stealth Bombers capable of carrying them, making Washington’s sign-on a key goal for Israeli officials.
“Mr Trump posted on social media Sunday that ‘we can easily get a deal done’ to end the war,” read a Wall Street Journal editorial this week. “But that prospect will be more likely if he helps Israel finish the military job.
“If Mr Trump won’t help on Fordow, Israel will need more time to achieve its strategic goals,” it went on. “A neutral US means a longer war.”
But the escalating conflict – and America’s possible role in it – has already led to a schism among vocal Trump supporters.
Some of Trump’s most powerful allies, including his vice-president, JD Vance, have called for the US to restrain itself from sending its troops to fight wars overseas. Powerful pundits like Tucker Carlson have condemned the potential for US involvement in a war in Iran.
The schism among Trump officials also runs through the Pentagon. Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, is among the most prominent of a group of “prioritisers” who had hoped to focus US resources away from Europe and the Middle East towards the growing threat from China. The Pentagon has denied there are any disagreements on policy within the department.
With Trump rushing back to Washington from a G7 meeting in Canada to an emergency national security council meeting, the potential for a strike against Iran appeared as high as at any time since the beginning of the crisis.
“What’s happening here is some of the isolationist movement led by Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are distressed we may be helping the Israelis defeat the Iranians,” Mitch McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, told CNN. “I would say it’s been kind of a bad week for the isolationists.”
Bernie Sanders backs Zohran Mamdani in New York City mayoral primary
Bernie Sanders has endorsed the leftwing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in the latest boost to his insurgent campaign.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist like Sanders, is the main rival to the campaign of the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is seeking to rehabilitate his political career after leaving office amid sexual harassment allegations.
Cuomo, 67, began the race as a dominant favorite but Mamdani, 33, has surged in recent weeks, netting the key endorsement of Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. One poll even showed him edging into the lead.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont and a powerful figure on the Democratic party’s progressive left, said:
At this dangerous moment in history, status quo politics isn’t good enough. We need new leadership that is prepared to stand up to powerful corporate interests & fight for the working class.
Mamdani replied on X:
As for so many across this country, @BernieSanders has been the single most influential political figure in my life. As Mayor, I will strive to live up to his example by fighting for the working class every day and hopefully make Brooklyn’s own proud.
The Democratic primary election to lead one of the biggest cities in the US will be held on 24 June, after early voting began on 14 June. The election will use ranked-choice voting, allowing voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference.
New York’s current mayor, Eric Adams, who ran as a Democrat in 2021, is seeking re-election as an independent candidate and has been widely attacked by Democrats for his close relationship with Donald Trump.
The general mayoral election is set for 4 November.
‘He’s a mess’: Trump says he won’t call Tim Walz after Minnesota shootings
Over 48 hours after a Minnesota state lawmaker was killed and another injured in a “politically motivated assassination”, Donald Trump is still refusing to call the state’s governor, Tim Walz, as a president usually would under the circumstances.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One of Walz, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate:
I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him.
Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?
Here’s the clip.
COLLINS: Have you called Tim Walz yet?
TRUMP: I don’t really call him. He appointed this guy to a position. I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him … he’s a mess. pic.twitter.com/81o4oSqyR7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 17, 2025
Trump says he will probably extend TikTok deadline again
Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would likely extend a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of short video app TikTok.
The president said in May he would extend the 19 June deadline after the app helped him with young voters in the 2024 election. His comments to reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday reiterated that sentiment.
“Probably, yeah,” Trump said when asked about extending the deadline. “Probably have to get China approval but I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”
US transport secretary Sean Duffy said on Tuesday that he wanted civil aviation to return to a 1979 zero-tariff trade agreement, Reuters reports.
Speaking at the Paris airshow, Duffy said the White House was aware that the US is a net exporter in aerospace, but added that it was dealing with a complicated tariff situation.
Donald Trump has imposed tariffs of 10% on nearly all airplane and parts imports, and in early May the commerce department launched a “Section 232” national security investigation into imports of commercial aircraft, jet engines and parts that could form the basis for even higher tariffs on such imports.
Airlines, planemakers and several US trading partners have been lobbying Trump to restore the tariff-free regime under the 1979 Civil Aircraft Agreement.
Donald Trump not seeking ceasefire but wants ‘a real end’ to Iran’s nuclear programme
Julian Borger
Donald Trump has said he is not seeking a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Iran but instead wants to see “a real end” to Iran’s nuclear programme, with Tehran abandoning it “entirely”.
The US president predicted Israel would not let up in its bombing campaign and suggested a decisive moment in that campaign was imminent, though he made clear he expected Israel to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities without US help.
“You’re going to find out over the next two days … Nobody’s slowed up so far,” he told CBS News, after abruptly abandonning a G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies, saying he was returning to the White House to deal with the conflict.
Speaking to reporters on the way back to Washington, Trump said he was seeking “an end, a real end, not a ceasefire”.
That would involve a “complete give-up” by Iran, he said. Trump’s negotiating position before the Israeli attack was that Iran should stop uranium enrichment entirely, and he blamed Tehran for not accepting that proposal.
Trump also stressed that any Iranian attack on Americans or US bases, something that Iran has threatened, would be met with overwhelming force, saying “we’ll come down so hard, it’d be gloves off.”
Read the full report here:
Here is a video of Donald Trump telling reporters he wants a “real end” to the Iran-Israel conflict, and not just a ceasefire (see earlier post).
US appeals court to rule on Trump’s Los Angeles troop deployment
A federal appeals court will hear arguments on Tuesday on Donald Trump’s authority to deploy the national guard and marines to Los Angeles amid protests and civil unrest, days after a lower court ruled that the president unlawfully called the national guard into service, Reuters reports.
The lower court’s ruling last Thursday was put on hold hours later by the San Francisco-based 9th US circuit court of appeals, which will consider the Trump administration’s request for a longer pause during its appeal.
US district judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco had ruled that the Republican president unlawfully took control of California’s national guard and deployed 4,000 troops to Los Angeles against the wishes of Democratic California governor Gavin Newsom. Trump also ordered 700 US marines to the city after sending in the national guard, but Breyer has not yet ruled on the legality of the marines’ mobilisation.
Breyer said Trump had not complied with the law that allows him to take control of the national guard to address rebellions or invasions, and ordered Trump to return control of California’s national guard to Newsom, who sued over the deployment.
Trump’s decision to send troops into Los Angeles sparked a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and inflamed political tensions in a city in the midst of protest and turmoil over Trump’s immigration raids.
Fired ABC News journalist stands by his post criticizing Trump and adviser
Ramon Antonio Vargas
A journalist who lost his job at ABC News after describing top White House aide Stephen Miller as someone “richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” has said he published that remark on social media because he felt it was “true”.
“It was something that was in my heart and mind,” the network’s former senior national correspondent Terry Moran said Monday on The Bulwark political podcast. “And I would say I used very strong language deliberately.”
Moran’s comments to Bulwark host Tim Miller about standing by his remarks came a little more than a week after he wrote on X that Stephen Miller – the architect of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies – “eats his hate”.
“His hatreds are his spiritual nourishment,” Moran’s post read, in part. He added that the president “is a world-class hater. But his hatred [is] only a means to an end, and that end [is] his own glorification”.
You can read the full report here: