Trump says US education is getting out of DEI ‘after being in that jungle for a long time’
As he signed the last in a series of executive orders on education in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Donald Trump mused aloud that by directing schools to get out of what his aide called “the whole sort of diversity, equity and inclusion cult”, the US was “getting out of that, huh, after being in that jungle for a long time”.
The offhand remark is certain to bolster criticism that the administration’s fixation on fighting diversity efforts is a form of thinly coded racism.
Key events
Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the second Trump administration to an end for the day. We will return on Thursday to resume our chronicle. In the meantime, we leave you with this summary of the day’s developments:
-
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to establish a White House initiative “To Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” that seemed to very closely echo the text of an executive order signed by Barack Obama in 2010, which established a White House initiative “Promoting Excellence, Innovation and Sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities”.
-
As he signed the last in a series of executive orders on education, Trump mused aloud that by directing schools to get out of what his aide called “the whole sort of diversity, equity and inclusion cult”, the US was “getting out of that, huh, after being in that jungle for a long time”.
-
Trump is hosting an “intimate private dinner” for the top 220 holders of the Trump memecoin next month, the issuers of the cryptocurrency announced on Wednesday. “It’s buying influence with the president. There’s no if’s, and’s or but’s about it,” Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, said.
-
A dozen states, led by the attorneys general of Oregon and Arizona, sued Donald Trump and his administration in the US court of international trade on Wednesday, calling his tariffs illegal because they were implemented under emergency powers in the absence of a true emergency.
-
The New England Journal of Medicine confirmed on Wednesday to the medical news site Stat that it had received a letter, asking it to account for alleged bias in its publication decisions, from Ed Martin, a Republican activist now serving as interim US attorney for the District of Columbia.
-
Donald Trump once again attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to agree to peace terms that look like a surrender to Russia. Trump claimed earlier today to be “very close to a deal” and said Zelenskyy’s stance on Crimea (not surrendering it) was “very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia”.
-
A federal court accused the Trump administration of “bad faith” in the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, whom it deported to El Salvador despite an earlier order against it.
-
Law firms Perkins Coie and WilmerHale asked federal judges in Washington DC to permanently bar Trump’s executive orders against them.
New England Journal of Medicine rejects inquiry about alleged bias from federal prosecutor who calls himself Trump’s lawyer
The New England Journal of Medicine confirmed on Wednesday to the medical news site Stat that it had received a letter, asking it to account for alleged bias in its publication decisions, from Ed Martin, a Republican activist now serving as interim US attorney for the District of Columbia.
The editor of the prestigious medical journal, Eric Rubin, told Stat that the letter asked him to respond to six questions from Martin, an organizer of the 2021 Stop the Steal movement who recently referred to prosecutors in his office as “President Trumps’ [sic] lawyers”.
“As practicing physicians, our editors recognize our responsibility to doctors and patients. We use rigorous peer review and editorial processes to ensure the objectivity and reliability of the research we publish,” Rubin wrote in the reply to Martin he shared with Stat. “We support the editorial independence of medical journals and their First Amendment rights to free expression. The Journal actively fosters scholarly scientific dialogue and remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting authors, readers, and patients.”
Last week, a similar letter from Martin to another scientific journal, Chest, published by the American College of Chest Physicians, was posted online by Eric Reinhart, a psychoanalytic clinician. Reinhart reported later that at least two other journals had received similar letters from Martin.
In the letter to Chest, which was shared with the New York Times, Martin wrote: “It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates.”
He then asked the journal’s publishers to answer a series of questions, including whether they accept submissions from “competing viewpoints””; what they do if they discover they “may have misled their readers”; how they acknowledge the influence of “supporters, funders, advertisers and others”; and what role funding from the National Institutes of Health plays “in the development of submitted articles”.
Trump signs executive order on historically Black colleges and universities that echoes Obama text from 2010
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to establish a White House initiative “To Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” that seems to very closely echo the text of an executive order signed by Barack Obama in 2010, which established a White House initiative “Promoting Excellence, Innovation and Sustainability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities”.
In fact, Trump’s new executive order has the exact same title as one he signed in 2017, the “White House Initiative To Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities”. It also closely echoes an order signed by Joe Biden in 2021, “White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Historically Black Colleges and Universities”.
The major difference between Trump’s two orders and those signed by Obama and Biden are that the White House initiative on HBCUs established by Obama, and then re-established by Biden, was located in the Department of Education, which Trump has promised to shutter. Trump’s initiative, both in 2017 and now, is “housed in the Executive Office of the President”.
George HW Bush also signed an executive order, in 1989, to establish an advisory commission, the “President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities”, in the education department.
Another order signed by Trump on Wednesday reversed an aspect of education policy that had dealt with racial disparities: during the Obama administration, schools were warned that they could be in violation of federal civil rights law if certain groups of students were disciplined more often than other groups. After Trump rescinded that order during his first term, it was reinstated by Biden.
12 states sue Trump over his tariffs, calling president’s use of emergency powers ‘unlawful’
A dozen states, led by the attorneys general of Oregon and Arizona, sued Donald Trump and his administration in the US court of international trade on Wednesday, calling his tariffs illegal because they were implemented under emergency powers in the absence of a true emergency.
The states challenge Trump’s claim that he can arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them.
The first lines of the lawsuit argue that the US constitution grants Congress, and not the president, the power to impose and collect taxes.
“Yet over the last three months, the President has imposed, modified, escalated, and suspended tariffs by executive order, memoranda, social media post, and agency decree,” the lawsuit states. “These edicts reflect a national trade policy that now hinges on the President’s whims rather than the sound exercise of his lawful authority.”
The 10 states that joined Oregon and Arizona are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.
In a statement, Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, said: “President Trump’s insane tariff scheme is not only economically reckless – it is illegal.”
Trump says ‘I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy’
In remarks on the war in Ukraine that were enthusiastically clipped and shared by Russian state media, Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday: “I think Russia is ready, and a lot of people said Russia wanted to go for the whole thing. I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy”.
“I hope that Zelenskyy, I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far, it’s been harder, but that’s OK, it’s all right,” Trump added in a somewhat meandering stream-of-consciousness comment.
He then reversed course and said: “But I think we have a deal with both. I hope they do it, because I’m looking to save – and, you know, we spend a lot of money, but this is about – a lot of humanity.”
The president refused to comment on a question about a reported US proposal for an end to the war that would require Ukraine to recognize Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014, as Russian territory. He also repeated the false claim that the US has spent $350bn on Ukraine’s defense from the Russian invasion.
Trump says auto tariffs on Canada could go up: ‘I really don’t want cars from Canada’
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Donald Trump just said that tariffs on Canadian-made cars “could go up”.
“They took a large percentage of the car-making and I want to bring it back to this country. I really don’t want cars from Canada,” the president said.
“When I put tariffs on Canada, they’re paying 25% but that could go up, in terms of cars,” Trump added, “All we’re doing is, we’re saying: ‘We don’t want your cars, in all due respect. We want really to make our own cars.’”
Trump says US education is getting out of DEI ‘after being in that jungle for a long time’
As he signed the last in a series of executive orders on education in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Donald Trump mused aloud that by directing schools to get out of what his aide called “the whole sort of diversity, equity and inclusion cult”, the US was “getting out of that, huh, after being in that jungle for a long time”.
The offhand remark is certain to bolster criticism that the administration’s fixation on fighting diversity efforts is a form of thinly coded racism.
Trump offers ‘intimate private dinner’ and White House tour to holders of his memecoin
Donald Trump is hosting an “intimate private dinner” for the top 220 holders of the Trump memecoin next month, the issuers of the cryptocurrency announced on Wednesday.
The dinner, on 22 May at his private club in Washington, will include remarks by Trump on “the future of crypto”, according to the online solicitation from the organizers. The fine print notes that the event “is being arranged by Fight Fight Fight LLC”, one of the companies behind the coin, and that “President Trump is appearing at the dinner as a guest and not soliciting any funds for it”.
“From April 23 to May 12, your average $TRUMP balance determines your spot,” according to the organizers. “Get $Trump Memes and climb the ranks.” The top 25 Trump coin holders will also be invited to a reception before the dinner with the president, and will be given a tour of the White House.
Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, told Bloomberg that no matter what disclaimers are added, “it’s buying influence with the president. There’s no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.”
“We’ve never had a president who is so in love with money as this one,” he added.
The name of the company behind the event, Fight Fight Fight, is based on the comment made by Trump after he survived the attempt on his life last July.
On Monday, the president spent part of his time with children at the Easter event at the White House showing them a commemorative trading card, issued the day after the assassination attempt, emblazoned with that slogan above a photograph of him with a raised fist and a bloody face.
The card, which was encased in protective plastic, was issued immediately after the failed assassination attempt. It is currently available for $24.95 on eBay.
Donald Trump is reportedly planning to exempt automakers from some US tariffs, the Financial Times reports.
According to the FT, two unnamed sources say that Trump’s “trade war climbdown”, in response to “intense lobbying by industry executives”, would “exempt car parts from the tariffs that Trump is imposing on imports from China …
“The exemptions would leave in place a 25 per cent tariff Trump imposed on all imports of foreign-made cars. A separate 25 per cent levy on parts would also remain and is due to take effect from May 3.”
Police and FBI raids on pro-Palestinian protesters in Michigan part of ‘vandalism’ investigation, state attorney general’s office says
A series of raids on the homes of pro-Palestinian protesters in Michigan on Wednesday were carried out as part of an investigation into “acts of vandalism” and were “not investigative of protest activity” or related to “immigration enforcement”, a spokesperson for Michigan’s attorney general told the Guardian.
Armed federal agents and Michigan state troopers were seen breaking into a home in Ypsilanti in dramatic video posted on Instagram by a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter in Michigan.
Allow Instagram content?
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.
In the video, as a battering ram is used to break open the front door of a house, the voice of someone inside can be heard saying: “No search warrant was provided.” After the door is knocked in, an officer, with gun drawn, wearing what appears to be a Michigan state trooper jersey under a bulletproof vest, enters and says: “Hands up!”
Although the activists say the officers refused to show a warrant at this home and three others before detaining eight residents and seizing electronic devices, a spokesperson for Dana Nessel, Michigan’s Democratic attorney general, told the Guardian the officers “executed search warrants on multiple subjects and properties in multiple jurisdictions, including Ann Arbor, Canton, and Ypsilanti”.
“These search warrants were not investigative of protest activity on the campus of the University of Michigan nor the Diag encampment; today’s search warrants are in furtherance of our investigation into multijurisdictional acts of vandalism,” the attorney general’s spokesperson, Danny Wimmer, wrote in an email.
“There were many agencies involved, including local, state and federal authorities, though there was no Ice presence nor any immigration enforcement purpose to our actions,” Wimmer added. “Furthermore, it is our belief that each subject of the search warrants are American citizens and no persons were arrested today, though some individuals were briefly detained and released during the execution of the search warrants.”
Michigan Live reports that the Tahrir Coalition, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, asked members to go to the Ypsilanti home on Wednesday morning as the raid unfolded. The local news outlet has video of supporters of the activists who were detained there, and then released, taunting the officers.
As our colleague Tom Perkins reported last year, the University of Michigan governing board asked the state’s attorney general to bring charges against campus Gaza protesters, tapping “a political ally [to whom] some board members had extensive personal, financial or political connections”.
According to the Detroit Free Press: “Some who were arrested last year at an encampment on the Diag at the University of Michigan are waiting to learn if they will stand trial on felony charges in Washtenaw County. Police also are investigating a series of attacks on the homes of U-M regents and Provost Laurie McCauley that were marked by anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian graffiti.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged on Wednesday that talks in London had been marked by emotions and expressed hope that future joint work would lead to peace.
“Emotions have run high today. But it is good that 5 countries met to bring peace closer,” the Ukrainian president wrote on the X social media platform. “The American side shared its vision. Ukraine and other Europeans presented their inputs.”
He pledged Ukraine would always abide by its constitution and said he believed Ukraine’s western partners, including the United States, would “act in line with its strong decisions”, an oblique reference to American criticism of Zelenskyy’s statement that Ukraine could not recognise Russian control over the Crimean peninsula.
Here is the full story on Trump’s attacks on Zelenskyy from my colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Pjotr Sauer:
Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.
The US president claimed a deal to end the war – largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow – was close, while the vice-president, JD Vance, said the agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines.
After a day of speculation and partial disclosure of the terms of the peace proposal, Trump attacked his Ukrainian counterpart for complaining that Kyiv was unwilling to cede Crimea to Russia – the most contentious aspect of the tentative agreement that has leaked so far.
The day so far
Trump’s White House has attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again, accusing the Ukrainian president of jeopardizing peace talks. Trump claimed earlier today to be “very close to a deal” and said Zelenskyy’s stance on Crimea was “very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia”. Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that his country could not accept recognising Crimea as Russian territory, amid reports suggesting Russia is seeking US recognition of Crimea in exchange for dropping its claims to three Ukrainian regions it only partly occupies (JD Vance also said earlier that the peace agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines, and that Moscow and Kyiv would need to agree to exchange territory if they want to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine). White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is “frustrated” with the Ukrainian president, who is “moving in the wrong direction”. Meanwhile, in a contrastingly softening approach, the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that high tariffs between the US and China are not sustainable, as the Trump administration signaled openness to de-escalating its trade war. Stock markets rose around the world after Trump said his tariffs on China would come down “substantially” and that he had “no intention” of firing the chair of the US central bank, Jerome Powell.
Elsewhere:
-
Illinois’s Dick Durbin announced he will retire after 44 years in the US Congress and as one of the most influential Democrats in Washington. The second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, behind the minority leader Chuck Schumer, the 80-year-old said he would not seek re-election in 2026. “I truly love being a United States Senator, but in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch,” Durbin said in a video statement on X.
-
A federal court accused the Trump administration of “bad faith” in the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, whom it deported to El Salvador despite an earlier order against it. The US district judge Paula Xinis has given the Trump administration until 6pm ET on Wednesday to provide details to support its claims that it does not have to comply with orders to return Ábrego García to the US, where he was living and working in Baltimore, because of special privilege. The Trump administration continued to resist, with Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, hours later filing a sealed motion asking for a stay of the judge’s order to provide sworn testimony and documents about efforts to return Ábrego García to the US.
-
Law firms Perkins Coie and WilmerHale are asking federal judges in Washington DC to permanently bar Trump’s executive orders against them, calling the measures acts of retaliation that violate US constitutional protections. The court hearings are the latest flashpoint in a legal battle pitting prominent law firms against the president and his administration. This morning, Trump announced he was suing Perkins Coie, in an apparent mix-up (they’re actually suing him over his executive orders). Perkins Coie has already secured a temporary restraining order blocking portions of the order. The firm asked the judge this week to permanently block the order.
Trump ‘frustrated’ at Zelenskyy ‘moving in wrong direction’ on peace talks, White House says
Donald Trump is frustrated with the pace of talks on ending the war in Ukraine and said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going in the wrong direction when it comes to negotiations, the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday:
The president’s frustrated. His patience is running very thin. He wants to do what’s right for the world. He wants to see peace. He wants to see the killing stop, but you need both sides of the war willing to do that. And unfortunately, President Zelenskyy seems to be moving in the wrong direction.
Stock markets rise as Trump backtracks on high China tariffs and firing Federal Reserve chair
Lauren Almeida in London and Lauren Aratani in New York write:
Stock markets rose around the world after Donald Trump said his tariffs on China would come down “substantially” and he had “no intention” of firing the chair of the US central bank, Jerome Powell.
Weeks of tough talk on trade from White House officials have rattled investors and Trump now appears to be softening his tone. The president told reporters in Washington on Tuesday he planned to be “very nice” to China in trade talks and that tariffs could drop in both countries if they could reach a deal, adding:
It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.
Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose by nearly 2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 2.4% and the South Korean Kospi gained 1.6%. The rally spread to Europe in early trading on Wednesday, with the UK’s FTSE 100 index up 1.6%, while the Italian FTSE MIB rose by 1.1%. Germany’s Dax gained 2.6% and France’s Cac 2.1%. Meanwhile, US stocks opened on a high Wednesday morning, with the Dow rallying over 800 points, and the Nasdaq Composite up over 3%.
On Wednesday, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also took a softer, optimistic tone on China in remarks delivered at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC, saying that China “knows it needs to change”. He said:
If China is serious on less dependence on export-led manufacturing growth and rebalancing toward a domestic economy … let’s rebalance together. This is an incredible opportunity.
Bessent told investors in a private meeting on Tuesday that he expects a “de-escalation” of the trade war between China and the US in the “very near future”:
‘America First’ does not mean America alone. To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says China tariffs are not sustainable as US signals willingness to de-escalate
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that high tariffs between the US and China are not sustainable, as Donald Trump’s administration signaled openness to de-escalating a trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has raised fears of a global recession.
US stocks rallied on hopes that the two countries might lower the steep trade barriers they have erected over the past month, though there was no sign that negotiations might start anytime soon.
Bessent said the tariffs – 145% on Chinese products and a retaliatory 125% on US products – would have to come down before trade talks can proceed, but said Trump would not make that move unilaterally. Bessent told reporters:
Neither side believes that these are sustainable levels. As I said yesterday, this is the equivalent of an embargo and a break between the two countries in trade does not suit anyone’s interest.
The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that the White House is considering cutting tariff levels to as low as 50% on Chinese imports in a bid to lower tensions. A White House spokesperson dismissed any reports as “pure speculation” and said news on tariffs would come from Trump himself.
“We are going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters, but did not outline any specifics. The tariff levels outlined in the Journal report would likely still be high enough to deter a significant chunk of trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Bessent said the third quarter of this year is a “reasonable estimate” for achieving clarity on the ultimate level of Trump’s tariffs.
