Trump and Melania leave the White House to tour disaster zones in North Carolina and California

By Rob Crilly, Chief U.S. Politicial Correspondent

President Donald Trump leaves Washington for his first trip of his second administration Friday to do a tour of disaster zones in North Carolina and California.

He heads first to Asheville, which was devasted by tornadoes in September, and where he condemned President Joe Biden’s response to the disaster.

More controversy awaits when he tours areas of Los Angeles levelled by wild fires.

He has frequently abused Gov. Gavin Newsom, nicknaming him ‘Newscum,’ and claimed that he will withhold federal aid unless the state turns on a valve he claims would allow water to flow in from northern parts of the state.

Experts say there is no such valve and that California has worked for years on trying to get more water to dry areas of the state.

‘I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,’ Trump  said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday.

The president also suggested shifting more responsibility to individual states for managing disasters.

‘I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,’ he told Hannity, adding that ‘FEMA is getting in the way of everything.’

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have arrived in Asheville, North Carolina, the first stop in their two-state disaster tour Friday.

Trump immediately approached reporters on the tarmac to complain about the bad job FEMA had done after Hurricane Helene flooded broad swaths of the area.

‘FEMA has really let us down, let the country down. And I don’t know if that’s Biden’s fault or whose fault that is,’ Trump said. ‘We’re going to take over, we’re going to do a good job.’

Trump already floated potentially killing FEMA – the Federal Emergency Management Agency – during his sit-down Wednesday with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity.

He reiterated that point on the ground Friday.

‘We’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA,’ Trump said. ‘I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it. Meaning the state takes care of it … I’d like to see the states take care of disasters.’

He said he’d have Congress give North Carolina direct disaster relief instead of having the dollars funnel through FEMA.

The Trump administration boasted Friday that the deportation flights of illegal immigrants in the United States had begun, thanks to assistance from the United States Air Force.

An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson urged his Republican colleagues not to subpoena January 6 committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson to prevent the accidental release of sexually explicit texts the 28-year-old was sent by lawmakers.

The Washington Post first reported the explosive allegations on Thursday, as the House GOP seeks to restart an investigation of the January 6 House select committee at the urging of President Donald Trump.

Hutchinson’s testimony about January 6 was some of the most embarrassing for Trump – as she recounted hearing that he threw a hissy fit to Secret Service when they wouldn’t take him to the Capitol after his Ellipse rally.

She also vividly recalled how Trump threw his plate of food at the wall when he found out that Attorney General Bill Barr told the Associated Press that the DOJ found no instances of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Hutchinson’s testimony was wanted as the GOP’s investigation tried to find fault in how former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, among others, handled the Democrat-led House probe on January 6.

A Tennessee congressman has proposed amending the Constitution to allow Donald Trump to serve a third term as president.

Rep. Andy Ogles filed a Joint Resolution in Congress this week advancing a change to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which currently restricts presidents to two terms.

In his resolution, Ogles included several stipulations to the change if it passes, including barring any president being elected to a third consecutive term after serving two in a row.

‘And no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ the resolution read.

‘And no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ the resolution read.

Vladimir Putin today declared that the war in Ukraine could have been averted had Donald Trump not been ‘robbed of the election’ in 2020.

Describing his armed forces’ full-scale invasion of their neighbour in February 2022 as a ‘crisis’, Putin told state media the horrific bloodshed that has blighted eastern Europe for almost three years would not have happened under a Trump presidency.

‘I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president, if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022,’ the Russian president said.

His comments came as part of a wide-ranging interview in which the Kremlin chief heaped praise on the newly inaugurated US president, labelling Trump ‘smart and pragmatic’ while also signalling a willingness to approach the negotiating table over Ukraine.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

President Trump was asked if he would give Italy a break on some of the big tariffs he is threatening for Europe.

‘Well, I like her very much. Let’s see what happens,’ Trump responded.

His remark was likely a reference to Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, who visited with him at Mar-a-Lago and attended his inauguration – and suggested personal rapport, not just economic analysis, could be a factor in which nations and industries get hit hardest.

It comes after Trump threatened that ‘we’re going to do something about it’ after blasting the U.S. trade deficit with Europe on cars and agricultural products.

Trump also issued a more sweeping tariff threat in his video speech at Davos, where he also unleashed on the Bank of America CEO. He told industry elites: ‘If you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.’

A Homeland Security team and federal agents raided the offices of an immigration attorney who focused on ‘crimmigration’ on Thursday, just days after President Donald Trump began to crack down on illegal immigration.

Investigators were seen carting away evidence from the law offices of Joseph Molina Flynn on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island – a sanctuary city.

Videos posted online showed agents taking boxes of files and loading them into the scores of black SUVs and police vehicles parked outside.

An FBI spokesperson would only confirm to The Providence Journal that the agency was ‘conducting court-authorized activity’ at the building.

But two people with knowledge of the investigation told WPRI that the federal agents were looking into Flynn over allegations that he defrauded his clients seeking representation on immigration-related matters.

At least everyone can agree that Melania Trump’s hat didn’t become the stand-out star of the presidential inauguration by accident.

Fashion experts and biographers alike concurred that the ex-model and renowned clothes horse, a woman who clearly puts a lot of thought into her outfits, wore the elegant if rather severe, navy headwear to make a bold statement.

What that statement was, however, was subject to wide interpretation.

When Donald Trump repeatedly experienced difficulty navigating its wide brim to plant a kiss on his First Lady’s face, his critics were quick to suggest that she’d intentionally worn it to stop him from coming anywhere near her.

Even its designer, celebrity hatter Eric Javits, fueled such speculation by noting that ‘going back to Victorian times, a brim sort of defined a woman’s space’. Indeed, the brim was so broad it cast much of her face in shadow.

For those who continue to insist that Mrs Trump is not only trapped in a loveless marriage but disagrees fundamentally with her husband’s career, this was clear proof that she was concealing her emotions and distancing herself from the event.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

President Donald Trump will be missing Friday’s March for Life in Washington but pointed out on the South Lawn that he’ll be sending Vice President J.D. Vance instead.

‘I’m going to be watching it and J.D. Vance, our vice president, is there,’ Trump said. ‘He’s going to be representing us very well. Taking place in a little while. Other than being a little bit cold it’s going to be a good day.’

Trump then called attention to the pardons he gave to anti-abortion activists who had blocked abortion clinic entrances.

‘As you know I just signed a pardon and in the pardon we released 23 people that were unjustly put in having to do with pro-life. And they will be released and they’ll be out very shortly,’ the president said. ‘It was disgraceful.’

President Trump responded to California Sen. Adam Schiff’s decision to stay away from his L.A. fire visit. Schiff’s office cited nomination votes – there is one scheduled for Pete Hegseth to be Defense Secretary.

Asked why he invited Schiff, Trump responded while leaving the White House: ‘I don’t know. Is he going? Is he going? I don’t know, I mean I really don’t. You know, because if he’s going to be there it would be cheaper, but I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.’

Schiff’s office had said the new Democratic senator ‘greatly appreciates the President’s visit to see the devastation of these wildfires firsthand and the invitation to accompany him, and regrets that he’s unable to join the President in Los Angeles due to scheduled nomination votes.’

Trump in the past has called Schiff, a former House impeachment manager and January 6 panel member, ‘pencil neck’ and ‘scum.’

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

Donald Trump opened up about his shock that two GOP senators are going against his choice for defense secretary.

‘I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,’ the president told reporters of the two veteran female senators from Alaska and Maine.

The pair noted last night in social media posts that they would not vote for Pete Hegseth’s confirmation this evening.

It is the final hurdle the former Fox News host must cross to be sworn in.

‘And of course, Mitch is always a no vote, I guess,’ Trump added, mentioning the former longtime Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

‘Is Mitch a ‘no’ vote?’ the president added. ‘How about Mitch, huh?’

‘Let’s see what happens.’

If McConnell were to vote against Hegseth tonight, VP JD Vance would likely be forced to step in and break a tie.

If two GOP senators in addition to Murkowski and Collins vote ‘no’ on Hegseth, the 44-year-old will almost certainly not get confirmed.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

President Donald Trump held his first ‘chopper talk’ Friday – engaging with reporters with first lady Melania Trump at his side as he departed on the South Lawn for Western North Carolina and then Los Angeles.

He complained that North Carolina has been a ‘horrible thing.’

‘The way that’s been allowed to fester. And we’re going to get it fixed up,’ he said. ‘Should have been months ago. From the hurricane that took place almost four months ago,’ Trump said.

‘North Carolina has been treated very badly so we’re stopping there and we’re then going to go to Los Angeles. And take a look at a fire that could have been put out if they had let the water flow, but they didn’t let the water flow,’ the president claimed.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff has turned down Donald Trump’s invite to tour the devastation caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles.

The president leaves Washington for his first trip of his second administration Friday to do a tour of disaster zones in North Carolina and California.

He invited Schiff, a longtme foe who he called ‘scum’ on his first day back in the White House.

But a spokesman for the newly-elected Calfirornia Senator said he was ‘unable’ to attend due to ‘scheduled nomination votes’.

Jon Michael Raasch, U.S. Political Reporter on Capitol Hill

Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon Pete Hegseth will be touring disaster zones in California and North Carolina alongside the president Friday.

The cross-country visits will occur just hours before the Senate is scheduled to vote on the nominee’s final confirmation to become secretary of defense.

The many photo-ops may benefit the president and his pick as they tour hurricane and fire wreckage.

Hegseth can’t afford to lose many more GOP votes in the Senate because two Republican senators announced they would not support the former Fox News host last night.

Putting on a united front with the president just before the critical confirmation vote may be enough to buoy Hegseth through what will be a choppy confirmation around 9 pm ET tonight.

President Donald Trump engaged in some of his signature ‘chopper talk’ before heading out on his trip to tour disaster recovery in North Carolina and Los Angeles.

First lady Melania Trump bundled up and accompanied him as he left the White House on a frigid morning in D.C.

She will attend meetings with him along with disaster relief officials and politicians.

The fist lady, who famously wore a jacket that said ‘I really don’t care, do you?’ on a trip to visit child migrant shelters, sported a black knit cap and Aviator sunglasses – the eyewear of choice for former President Joe Biden.

Gavin Newsom plans to crash the proceedings when Donald Trump makes his first visit to California during his second term Friday to survey the Los Angeles wildfires.

Newsom, who has not been invited to join Trump on the tour, told the press Thursday that he’s going to be at LAX to greet the president – whether he likes it or not.

‘I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,’ Newsom said.

He added that he’ll be rolling out the red carpet, saying: ‘There’s no limit to the resources we’ll provide for that briefing.’

Trump and the California governor have feuded for years, with the president referring to the liberal as ‘Newscum’ and the Democrat working tirelessly to keep Trump from regaining the White House.

Tensions have been high between the two of late, as Trump has slammed how Newsom handled the deadly wildfires.

The last secret files about the assassination of John F. Kennedy can now be published after President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the declassification of all remaining documents about the 1963 murder.

Conspiracy theories continue to swirl 60 years after the killing.

And any new information will excite the amateur sleuths who continue to wonder whether there is more to the story than just a lone gunman in the shape of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Trump signed an executive order that directs his Director of National Intelligence to put together a plan within 15 days for the full release of documents about the JFK assassination.

‘That’s a big one, huh?’ he said as he scrawled his signature on the order, before asking that the pen be given to RFK Jr. ‘A lot of people are waiting for this for a long … for years, for decades.

‘Everything will be revealed.’