Trump is hosting a dinner at the White House for the members of the performing arts center’s new board of directors.
Trump fired most of the previous board, appointed allies to replace them and had himself voted in as chairman.
He says the Kennedy Center has spent a lot of money and he doesn’t know what it was spent on, but said he’ll take “this revered institution” to “new heights.”
“We’re going to turn it around,” Trump said.
Trump noted that he’d recently had a physical exam and said the PSA test, which can detect prostate cancer, “is standard to pretty much anybody.” A PSA test was performed during Trump’s physical exam last month.
Biden has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
But prostate cancer screenings aren’t recommended for men 70 and older, meaning Biden may not have been getting regular PSA blood tests. Medical professionals also say the tests don’t do the best job of identifying aggressive prostate cancers.
Trump is 78. Biden is 82.
Asked about Biden during an appearance at the White House, Trump said, “it takes a long time to get to that situation” and that he was “surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago.”
“It’s a very sad situation and I feel very badly about it,” Trump said.
The Trump administration has agreed to pay just under $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that Ashli Babbitt’s family filed over her shooting by an officer during the U.S. Capitol riot, according to a person with knowledge of the settlement.
The person insisted on anonymity to discuss with The Associated Press terms of a deal that have not been made public.
The settlement will resolve the $30 million federal lawsuit that Babbitt’s estate filed last year in Washington, D.C. On Jan. 6, 2021, a Capitol police officer shot Babbitt as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.
The officer who shot her was cleared of wrongdoing by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which concluded that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. The Capitol Police also cleared the officer.
▶ Read more about the administration’s settlement
President Donald Trump speaks as Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., from left, and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., listen before Trump presents law enforcement officers with an award in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Trump has awarded what he called the first-ever “Medals of Sacrifice” to three sheriff’s deputies from Palm Beach County, Florida, who were killed in the line of duty.
A proposal introduced in Congress would award similar medals to any officer or first responder who is killed in the line of duty, the president said.
“I hope it never has to be given out, frankly,” said Trump, who said he knows Palm Beach County well given how much time he spends at his Mar-a-Lago club there.
Trump said the medal was designed with the cooperation of the Arnault family, which, through LVMH, owns and operates Tiffany & Co.
He called the first medal recipients “three remarkable heroes.” They were Palm Beach County deputies: Ralph “Butch” Waller, Ignacio “Dan” Diaz and Luis Paez.
New legislation introduced by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer would ban the U.S. from using a foreign plane as Air Force One.
Schumer is introducing the bill in an effort to prevent President Donald Trump from accepting a new $400 million plane from Qatar.
White House Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that the aircraft “will be accepted according to all legal and ethical obligations.”
The bill would prevent the U.S. from spending taxpayer dollars to retrofit a foreign-owned plane for presidential use.
“There’s absolutely no amount of modifications that can guarantee it will be secure,” Schumer said.
President Donald Trump will look to build momentum with House Republicans for his tax cut and immigration bill with a visit to the Capitol on Tuesday.
Trump will meet with House Republicans during their weekly conference meeting, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans not yet made public.
The legislation Republicans are hoping to pass this summer faces a critical test in the House this week with Speaker Mike Johnson seeking a vote before Memorial Day, even though GOP lawmakers still have some differences on the bill.
Johnson is working to hold his narrow House majority together to pass the president’s top domestic priority of extending the tax breaks while pumping in money for border security and deportations.
President Donald Trump says he will make a decision about how the U.S. government will refer to the body of water now commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week, telling reporters he doesn’t want to “hurt anybody’s feelings.”
After Trump finished signing the legislation, he passed the document and the marker to his wife. “She deserves to sign it,” he said.
He held up the document when she was done, with her signature just below his.
First lady Melania Trump speaks President Donald Trump listens during a bill signing event for the “Take it Down Act” in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The first lady spoke before the president signed legislation targeting “revenge porn.”
The law will it a federal crime to “knowingly publish” or threaten to publish intimate images without a person’s consent, including AI-created “deepfakes.”
She said that artificial intelligence is “digital candy” for the next generation, “but unlike sugar this new technology can be weaponized.”
Trump spoke after his wife, saying it is “so horrible what takes place.”
Trump is hosting the Kennedy Center‘s leadership at the White House, reinforcing how much attention he’s devoting to remaking a premier cultural center amid a larger effort to overhaul the social and ideological dynamics of the national arts scene.
The Monday night meeting of the center’s board in the State Dining Room comes after Trump fired its previous members and announced in February that he’d serve as the board’s chair.
Members include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Lee Greenwood, whose “God Bless the USA,” plays at Trump rallies as well as many official events.
In the view of Trump and top leaders in his administration, molding the Kennedy Center to his own liking can help create a new arts and social culture nationwide.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with its dismantling of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an organization taken over in March by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the think tank, which was created and funded by Congress to focus on resolving violent conflicts around the globe, was taken over illegally by DOGE through “blunt force, backed up by law enforcement officers from three separate local and federal agencies.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed by the organization’s former board members and president, had maintained that the Institute of Peace was established by law as an independent, nonprofit organization. The plaintiffs also argue the firing of the board members did not meet any of the steps required by the law that created the organization.
▶ Read more about the U.S. Institute of Peace
Moscow is ready to work toward ending the fighting in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday following the phone call with President Trump.
President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Putin said Russia and Ukraine would need to find compromises to suit all parties.
▶ Read more about Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine
The court’s order, with only one noted dissent, puts on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month.
The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.
▶ Read more about Trump and Venezuelan immigrants
CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon said Monday that she’s resigning after four years, the latest fallout at the network as its parent company considers settling a lawsuit with President Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with his former political opponent.
Wendy McMahon attends The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Most Powerful People in Media issue celebration in New York on May 17, 2022. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
McMahon, who’s led both the network news division and news for the CBS-owned stations, said in an email message to staff that “it’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It’s time to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”
McMahon has made clear she opposes settling with Trump — just like “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens, who quit last month.
▶ Read more about CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon
An appeals court has cleared the way for Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out.
The Friday ruling came after the Trump administration asked for an emergency pause on a judge’s order blocking enforcement at roughly three dozen agencies and departments.
The majority ruled on technical grounds, finding that the unions don’t have the legal right to sue because Trump hasn’t ended any collective bargaining agreements yet.
The Trump administration is taking action against travel companies in India that it believes are helping people enter or stay in the United States illegally.
The State Department announced Monday that it would impose travel bans on “owners, executives, and senior officials of travel agencies based and operating in India for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration to the United States.”
“We will continue to take steps to impose visa restrictions against owners, executives, and senior officials of travel agencies to cut off alien smuggling networks,” the statement said.
Leavitt said the aircraft “will be accepted according to all legal and ethical obligations.”
A 13-year-old private Boeing aircraft that President Donald Trump toured on Saturday to check out new hardware and technology features, and highlight the aircraft maker’s delay in delivering updated versions of the Air Force One presidential aircraft, takes off from Palm Beach International Airport, Feb. 16, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
The plane is a gift to the U.S. Air Force, she told reporters. It will be retrofitted to the “highest standards” by the Defense Department and the Air Force, she said.
“This plane is not a personal donation or a gift to the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.
Democrats and even some of Trump’s allies have been critical of Trump’s decision to accept the gift from Qatar for use as a future Air Force One.
Leavitt did not have details Monday on the next round of nuclear talks with Iran but said the U.S. is committed to insisting that Iran give up the enrichment of uranium, what Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday called a “red line.”
“We are 100% committed to that red line,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt said Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made that point “incredibly clear” in discussions with the Iranians.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it’s “absolutely essential” that Republicans unite and pass the bill so that Trump can deliver on the agenda he was elected to enact.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters just after House Republicans narrowly approved their budget framework, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The bill narrowly cleared a key House committee during a rare vote Sunday night but it has a long journey through Congress to get to Trump’s desk for his signature in the face of opposition from some GOP lawmakers.
Leavitt said Americans gave Republicans a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to “course correct our country” and “there is no time to waste.”
Vice President JD Vance says the U.S. is open to walking away from trying to negotiate a ceasefire to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“I’d say we’re more than open to walking away,” Vance told reporters before leaving Rome after meeting with Pope Leo XIV.
Vance said Trump has been clear that the U.S. “is not going to spin its wheels here. We want to see outcomes.”
Trump is “frustrated” by both Russia and Ukraine ahead of separate calls Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“He has made it clear to both sides that he wants to see a peaceful resolution and ceasefire as soon as possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday morning.
“He has made it clear to both sides that he wants to see a peaceful resolution and ceasefire as soon as possible.”
Trump’s call with Putin is set to take place around 10 a.m. to be followed by his conversation with Zelenskyy.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“Not to my knowledge. I don’t believe they have spoken, but I’m sure the president would be open to doing that,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at her briefing Monday.
Leavitt said she and Trump discussed the former president’s cancer diagnosis last night.
She said a statement from Trump on social media “was the initial reaction he had with me on the phone as well.”
Donald Trump’s administration says it’s the most transparent in history.
But his second administration has taken even more drastic steps than his first to shield key documents and information from the public.
For months, American consumers and businesses have been hearing that President Trump’s massive tariffs would drive up prices.
But the latest economic reports don’t match the doom and gloom.
Inflation actually eased last month, and hiring was solid in April. For now, the disconnect has businesses and consumers struggling to reconcile what they were told to expect, what the numbers say and what they are seeing on the ground.
Libraries across the United States are cutting back on e-books, audiobooks and loan programs after the Trump administration suspended millions of dollars in federal grants.
Federal judges have issued temporary orders to block the Trump administration from taking any further steps toward gutting the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences.
But the unexpected slashing of grants has delivered a significant blow to many libraries.
- 3 p.m. – Trump and the first lady will participate in a bill signing in the Rose Garden
- 4:30 p.m. – Trump will participate in a law enforcement event
- 7 p.m. – Trump will attend a Kennedy Center Board Dinner
At 9 a.m., Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing.
Biden made his first statement on his prostate cancer diagnosis on Monday when he posted a photo on X of himself with his wife Jill Biden.
“Cancer touches us all,” he said in the post. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Leo XIV on Monday at the Vatican.
Vance led the U.S. delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope.
Vance, a Catholic convert, was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Catholic.
Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Pope Francis before the Argentine pope’s April 21 death.
Trump’s frustration about the war had been building before his post Saturday on Truth Social about the coming calls.
Trump said his discussion with Putin would focus on stopping the “bloodbath” of the war. It will also cover trade, a sign that Trump might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker some kind of agreement after Russia’s invasion led to severe sanctions by the United States and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscow’s ability to grow.
Trump’s hope, according to the post, is that “a war that should have never happened will end.”
His treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump had made it clear that a failure by Putin to negotiate “in good faith” could lead to additional sanctions against Russia.
▶ Read more about Trump’s ceasefire efforts in Ukraine
In this combination of file photos, President Donald Trump, left, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, are seen at the Elysee Palace, Dec. 7, 2024 in Paris, and President Vladimir Putin, right, addresses a Technology Forum in Moscow, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, left and center, Pavel Bednyakov, right, File)
Trump is hoping separate phone calls Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
Trump expressed his hopes for a “productive day” Monday — and a ceasefire — in a social media post over the weekend. His effort will also include calls to NATO leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to the media on Monday that Putin and Trump will speak at 5 p.m. Moscow time (1400 GMT), about 10 a.m. Eastern, and called the conversation “important, given the talks that took place in Istanbul” last week between Russian and Ukrainian officials, the first such negotiations since March 2022.
Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and that makes these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a dealmaker after having claimed he would quickly settle the conflict once he was back in the White House, if not even before he took office.
▶ Read more about the upcoming calls
