Monday, Jun 23rd
Last update07:24:40 AM GMT
Political Glance
President Trump’s approval rating dipped to 38 percent, the lowest of his second term, according to the latest poll from Quinnipiac University.
In the June poll, 38 percent of registered voters approved of the way Trump is doing his job, while 54 percent disapproved.
The results mark the first time Trump’s numbers dipped below 40 percent since returning to office in January — when he enjoyed an all-time high job approval rating of 46 percent.
A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump unlawfully federalized thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and ordered the administration to return control of the troops to California.
The ruling came amid rising tensions between Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over federal military intervention in the state. Newsom had filed a motion for a temporary restraining order that would limit the activities of 4,000 Guard members and 700 Marines to protecting federal buildings in a small area of downtown where most protests against federal immigration raids have taken place.
"His actions were illegal – both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in his 36-page ruling.
US immigration officials carried out further “enforcement activity” in California’s agricultural heartland and the Los Angeles area as the conflict between the state and Donald Trump’s administration intensified on Wednesday.
Immigrant advocacy groups reported multiple actions across the state, where an estimated 255,700 farm workers are undocumented, and said agents pursued workers through blueberry fields and staged operations at agricultural facilities.
The raids have been sharply criticized by advocacy groups and local officials, who said they were “outraged and heartbroken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activities targeting immigrant families”.
“When our workforce’s lives are in fear, the fields will go unharvested, the impact is felt not only at the local level, but it will also be felt at the national level,” said Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios, the mayor of Ventura, a coastal city just north of Los Angeles. “Everything will be affected and every American who is here and relies on the labor of these individuals will be affected.”
All members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned Wednesday, citing alleged political interference by members of the Trump administration.
In a statement posted to Substack, the dozen former board members said they “voted overwhelmingly” to resign “rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago.”
The prestigious program — which awards a select group of scholars and academics the opportunity to continue research abroad each year — is managed by the State Department, where career officials conduct a yearlong search for applicants, who are ultimately approved by the independent Fulbright board.
Organizers with the “No Kings” movement are planning some 1,500 demonstrations across the country to protest the upcoming military parade Saturday.
One notable location, however, is missing from that list: Washington, D.C., where the military parade will take place.
Protest organizers have framed the move as a rejection of the spectacle, which will mark the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army as well as the 79th birthday of President Trump.
Police briefly detained CNN correspondent Jason Carroll while on air during the network's coverage of the Los Angeles protests.
CNN was covering the protests live when in-studio anchors briefly lost contact with Carroll, who could be seen being led away from the protests by Los Angeles Police Department officers with his hands behind his back. Carroll returned to the mic, informing the anchors: "I am being detained."
An officer then can be heard telling Carroll: "We're letting you go. You can't come back. If you come back, you will be arrested."
Carroll then thanked the officers after being left behind the police perimeter.
"I was called over, and the officer told me to put my hands behind my back. I said, 'Am I being arrested?' and he said, 'You are being detained,'" Carroll explained. He later added that he clarified who he was and that he was with CNN, to no avail. "They did not put me in zip ties, but they did grab both my hands as I was escorted over to the side. They said you are being detained while we lead you out of this area. You are not allowed to be in this area."
A federal judge granted an injunction blocking the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing databases at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
The decision from U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, an appointee of former President Clinton, found DOGE was unlawfully given access to sweeping databases that cover current and former federal employees and also contain information on prospective hires.
“Following President Trump’s inauguration, OPM granted broad access to many of those systems to a group of individuals associated with the Department of Government Efficiency (‘DOGE’), even though no credible need for this access had been demonstrated. In doing so, OPM violated the law and bypassed its established cybersecurity practices,” Cote wrote.
Page 4 of 179
