President Donald Trump is heading into the fifth day of his second term in office, striving to remake the traditional boundaries of Washington by asserting unprecedented executive power.
The president is also heading to hurricane-batteredwestern North Carolina and wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles, using the first trip of his second administration to tour areas where politics has clouded the response to deadly disasters.
Here’s the latest:
Trump expands use of fast-track deportation, which critics say is prone to mistakes
The Trump administration announced Friday that it is expanding a fast-track deportation authority nationwide, allowing immigration officers to deport migrants without appearing before a judge.
The administration said in a notice in the Federal Registeron Friday that it is expanding the use of “expedited removal” authority so it can be used across the country. “The effect of this change will be to enhance national security and public safety — while reducing government costs — by facilitating prompt immigration determinations,” the administration said.
? Read more about ‘expedited removal’ authority
Trump says he’s considering ‘getting rid of FEMA’ as he visits hurricane-damaged North Carolina
Speaking to reporters Friday at Asheville Regional Airport where he was meeting with supporters and local officials about the recovery from last year’s Hurricane Helene, Trump says FEMA “has been a very big disappointment.”
Trump said of the agency: “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow. Other than that, we’re very happy with them.”
He did not offer clear details on what he would replace it with, indicated he wants to move more of the disaster management responsibility to the states. That was a key priority of the conservative ’Project 2025” written by Trump’s supporters, including some who’ve since joined his administration.
“A governor can handle something very quickly,” Trump said.
Trump says OPEC+ can end the bloodshed in Ukraine by cutting oil prices
The president continued to make the case that reducing oil revenue is the key finding an endgame in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Trump in his first days in office has centered his focus on the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries, making the case that it has kept the price of oil too high for much of the nearly three-year war. Oil revenue is the engine driving the Russian economy.
“One way to stop it quickly is for OPEC to stop making so much money. And they drop the price of oil because they have it nice and high,” Trump told reporters during a visit to Western North Carolina on Friday. “And if you have it high, then that war is not going to end so easily. So, OPEC ought to get on the ball and drop the price of oil. And that war will stop right away.”
Trump continues to criticize FEMA
President Trump landed in North Carolina to tour lingering damage from Hurricane Helene and said he would like to see states “take care of disasters” and that he was reviewing “the whole concept of “FEMA” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which he’s criticized.
Trump, speaking to reporters after he landed near Asheville, North Carolina, said it would be faster to let states respond to disasters.
“Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen,” Trump told reporters.
Trump is expected to make a virtual, prerecorded appearance at the March for Life
Thousands of anti-abortion activists are gathering in Washington D.C. for the annual March for Life, seeking to build momentum after a string of victories and maintain pressure on legislators.
Trump will be out of town but is expected to address the rally via prerecorded video message, and Vice President JD Vance will be a featured speaker. Among his flurry of initial actions and orders this week, Trump on Thursday pardoned several activists who had been jailed for blockading a Washington abortion provider.
? Read more about the 52nd annual March for Life
What happens next with the Kennedy, MLK assassination files?
Trump ordered the release of classified documents on the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. But it could still be a while before any files are released.
Trump’s order, signed Thursday night, directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to release the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually be made public.
