Trump commemorated people murdered by undocumented migrants at a White House event this morning.
President Donald Trump warned countries that he could slap them with higher tariffs following the Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down many of his duties on foreign imports. Samuel Corum / Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Britain’s former ambassador to the U.S. has been arrested following weeks of revelations over his relationship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter Mandelson was arrested amid an intensifying scandal after the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of documents, some of which appear to show him leaking sensitive political and market information to Epstein.
London’s Metropolitan Police said in a news release that it was an update on an investigation into misconduct in public office offenses “relating to a former government minister.”
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U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon blocked the public release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified documents after his first term in the White House.
In an order filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Cannon wrote that the report should not be released outside of the Department of Justice “due to the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Smith and Attorney General Bondi’s deliberative-process determination.”
Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote that Smith and his team prepared the report for months after she dismissed the classified documents case in July 2024, ruling that his appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. The Justice Department under President Joe Biden appealed that ruling, with then-Attorney General Merrick Garland telling NBC News that Smith’s appointment was constitutional and valid.
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In his remarks at the White House this morning, Trump linked the deaths of Laken Riley and others killed by undocumented migrants to his false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” which he suggested had resulted in lax border and crime policies under the Biden administration.
“If that election wasn’t rigged, every single one of the people in this room right now would not be here,” Trump said, repeating his debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen. “You’d be home with your son, daughter, family.”
Trump repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s border policies during the event, which comes ahead of his State of the Union speech tomorrow night. Touting his immigration enforcement policies, Trump said to the families that “every one of your loved ones would be alive today” if he had been in office instead of then-President Joe Biden following the 2020 election.
In their remarks, Laken Riley’s mother and other members of the “angel families” were supportive of the current administration. Jody Jones, whose brother Rocky Jones was shot and killed by an undocumented migrant, expressed disdain for what he said were Democratic policies that showed more concern about deportations than about crime.
“What about us? We mean something, too, and this man right here understands it,” Jones said.
Jones then thanked the president, saying, “I love Donald Trump, I love my family, and, by gosh, I love America.”
Trump signed the proclamation declaring Feb. 22 as National Angel Family Day while he was surrounded by families whose loved ones were killed by undocumented migrants.
The names of the victims were then read as their pictures were displayed on a monitor.
Trump has invited several family members of people killed by undocumented migrants to speak to the audience. In emotional remarks, family members shared the horrific stories of their loved ones’ violent deaths and praised Trump’s border policies.
Marie Vega told a story of her family being shot at by migrants during an attempt to steal their vehicles, killing her son and wounding her husband, despite their attempts to defend themselves by returning fire. She praised Trump’s anti-crime push and emphasized her support for the president.
Jody Jones recounted his brother being shot and killed, saying, “I pray that no other family has to go through that.”
Laura Wilkerson described how her son was beaten and killed and his body burned, saying that Trump “never, ever looked away from my pain.”
Trump emphasized in his comments that many of the perpetrators had been arrested previously in connection with various crimes. He also has used some of his remarks to criticize Democrats for their immigration policies and the media for its coverage of the issue, and to promote falsehoods about his 2020 presidential election loss to former President Joe Biden, claiming the contest was rigged.
Trump invited the mother of Laken Riley, who was killed by a migrant who entered the country illegally and had been arrested and released before her murder, to deliver remarks.
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, repeatedly thanked Trump for highlighting her daughter’s case and focusing on border security.
“You have fought a fight that most people would not want to have to fight,” Phillips said.
Phillips said that the president was doing a “thankless job” and said that she was “beyond grateful.”
Phillips remembered her daughter as a responsible, hardworking, kind and selfless Christian who made good choices. She said that her daughter worked to help others and did not expect anything in return.
FBI Director Kash Patel chugged beer and sprayed it over members of the American men’s hockey team following their gold medal win in Italy on Sunday — while at home the agency was navigating multiple urgent issues including the Secret Service shooting dead an armed man who entered Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Patel joined the rowdy celebrations following the historic 2-1 victory over Canada at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. It was the first time in 46 years — since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” — that the men’s team has taken home the gold.
The FBI head was in the locker room in Milan downing a beer and spraying the rest over team members, according to a video posted online by ProPublica reporter William Turton, who said it was sent to him by “a source.”
The footage has been verified by NBC News and Patel acknowledged in a statement that he was there.
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The Supreme Court agreed to hear an attempt by energy companies to throw out a lawsuit filed in Colorado seeking to hold them accountable for the costs of climate change.
The court’s ultimate ruling in the case will have national implications, likely determining whether similar lawsuits filed by cities and municipalities across the country seeking billions of dollars in damages can move forward.
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Trump issued a warning this morning to other countries over potential future tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s authority to issue the duties under a national security law.
“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to,” he said in a post to Truth Social. “BUYER BEWARE!!!”
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the tariffs the Trump administration imposed under an emergency powers law were unlawful. The 6-3 decision struck one of the biggest blows so far to one of Trump’s signature economic policies.
After the court’s decision, Trump said he was enacting a global 15% tariff under a different law than the one affected by the Supreme Court decision.
The European Union’s parliament halted the ratification process of a sweeping trade deal with the U.S., the latest fallout from the Supreme Court striking down most of Trump’s tariffs.
Following an emergency meeting in Brussels, lawmakers said the United States’ side of the deal is now “so uncertain.”
“Nobody knows what will happen…and it’s unclear if there will be additional measures or how the United States will really guarantee” it’s end of the agreement, chief trade officer Bernd Lange said.
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Iran was jolted by resurgent anti-government protests over the weekend, as the United States sought to build pressure on Tehran to accede to its demands ahead of new nuclear talks amid a massive American military buildup.
Iranian state news agencies reported student demonstrations at five universities in the capital and one in the city of Mashhad. Large crowds rallied outside the Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran, according to video geolocated by NBC News that circulated on social media Sunday.
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China said it was making a “full assessment” of the Supreme Court ruling striking down many of Trump’s tariffs, and urged the U.S. to lift “unilateral tariff measures” on its trading partners.
The ruling complicates U.S. trade negotiations with China ahead of Trump’s visit to the world’s second-biggest economy, which the White House says will begin March 31. The two countries are striving to maintain a trade truce after a spiraling conflict last year that brought tariffs on each other’s goods into the triple digits.
China has criticized Trump’s tariffs, including a 10% levy he imposed over the international flow of fentanyl ingredients, as a violation of international law.
“Facts have repeatedly proven that cooperation between China and the U.S. benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both,” its commerce ministry said in a statement today.
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said “no thanks” yesterday to Trump’s idea of sending a hospital ship to Greenland, a territory that the president has repeatedly said he wishes to take over.
Trump said Saturday on social media he was working with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, his special envoy to Greenland, to send a hospital boat to Greenland.
“President Trump’s idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland has been noted. But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. It is a deliberate choice,” Nielsen said in a post on Facebook.
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The Justice Department’s release of millions of files relating to its investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has shaken the upper echelons of power across the globe, resulting in high-profile firings and resignations in the U.S. and abroad and a number of active criminal investigations overseas.
Here’s a look at those who’ve been affected to date by the information released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law that shined a light on the surprisingly wide network of rich and powerful people who interacted with the politically connected convicted sex offender, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges.
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Trump took a fresh swipe at the Supreme Court’s decision Friday that struck down his authority to impose tariffs under a national security law this morning, saying the opinion was “ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.”
In a post to Truth Social, Trump argued that he could use other tariff laws, instead of the emergency powers act at issue in the Supreme Court case, “in a much more powerful and obnoxious way.”
“Our incompetent supreme court did a great job for the wrong people, and for that they should be ashamed of themselves (but not the Great Three!),” he wrote, referring to the three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanugh, who dissented in the 6-3 ruling.
Trump will hold a remembrance ceremony at the White House this morning with the families of the victims of crimes committed by undocumented migrants, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed yesterday in a post to X.
Trump will also sign a proclamation designating Feb. 22 as “Angel Family Day,” Leavitt confirmed.
In her post, Leavitt linked to a New York Post article from yesterday that first reported the event. The article said Trump would honor Laken Riley, who was killed by a migrant who illegally entered the U.S., as well as other families.
Conservatives have used the term “angel families” to describe those whose loved ones were victims of crimes by migrants who illegally entered the U.S.
The House and the Senate have postponed votes that were scheduled for today until tomorrow because of the winter storm blanketing the Northeast.
Federal agencies remain open but are operating under a two-hour delay, and employees have been allowed to work remotely or take unscheduled leave.
The Department of Homeland Security remains shut down. The Senate is expected to take a procedural vote on a bill to fund the department when it returns tomorrow.
Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County deputy shot and killed a man who entered the secure perimeter at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida with “what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can,” the Secret Service announced in a statement on Sunday.
The suspect’s identity has not officially been released “pending notification of next of kin,” the statement said. Two law enforcement sources identified the suspect to NBC News as Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of North Carolina.
A man with that name was reported missing, his mother posted yesterday morning on Facebook. Local police declined to comment when they were asked whether Martin was still considered a missing person.
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Several Mexican states canceled school today and local and foreign governments warned citizens to stay inside, as violence erupted across the country after the army’s killing of the powerful leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” was the Mexican government’s biggest prize yet to show the Trump administration in its efforts to crack down on the cartels. His death was met with a forceful reaction by his Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known by its Spanish initials, CJNG.
Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was wounded in an operation to capture him yesterday in Tapalpa, Jalisco, about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara, and he died while he was being flown to Mexico City, the Defense Department said in a statement. The state is the base of the cartel known for trafficking huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement last night that the U.S. “provided intelligence support to the Mexican government in order to assist with an operation in Talpalpa, Jalisco, Mexico, in which” Oseguera Cervantes was killed.
“President Trump has been very clear — the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved,” Leavitt said.
She said the Trump administration “commends and thanks the Mexican military for their cooperation and successful execution of this operation.”
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said on X that the operation was carried out by Mexican special forces “within the framework of bilateral cooperation, with U.S. authorities providing complementary intelligence.”
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NBC News