Trump news today: President claims ‘there are methods’ for him to seek third term in White House – UK Times

President Donald Trump branded NBC News’ flagship political show “Meet the Fake Press” after Senator Markwayne Mullin was questioned by moderator Kristen Welker about the Signal group chat debacle involving the administration’s almost entire national security team.

He wrote on Truth Social:

A GREAT job by Senator Markwayne Mullin on beating back Kristen Welker’s, and the the Radical Left’s Witch Hunt, on the never ending Signal story. They just don’t stop – Over and over they go! Meet the Fake Press should instead explain how successful the attack was, and how Sleepy Joe Biden should have done it YEARS AGO. This story and narrative is so old and boring, but only used because we are having the most successful “First One Hundred Presidential Days” in the history of America, and they can’t find anything else to talk about. The Fake News Media has the lowest Approval Ratings in history, and for good reason. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

The post came just hours after he gave an extensive and wide-ranging interview to Welker, as has been covered in this blog for much of the day…

Taxpayers in South Dakota stumped up a massive $150,000 to help finance then-Governor Kristi Noem’s cross-country flights last year, new analysis has shown.

Andrew Georgeson reports.

…but the wood “may be used for other high and noble purposes!!!”

President Donald Trump made the announcement on Truth Social this afternoon:

Working together with a fantastic and very talented Executive Residence Staff, along with the wonderful people at the National Park Service, we are making tremendous enhancements to the White House, thereby preserving and protecting History! One of the interesting dilemmas is a tree planted many years ago by the Legendary President and General, Andrew Jackson. It is a Southern Magnolia, that came from his home, The Hermitage, in Tennessee. That’s the good news! The bad news is that everything must come to an end, and this tree is in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed. This process will take place next week, and will be replaced by another, very beautiful tree. The Historic wood from the tree will be preserved by the White House Staff, and may be used for other high and noble purposes!!!

A town hall meeting hosted by controversial Indiana Republican Victoria Spartz descended into chaos after the congresswoman gave apparently unsatisfactory answers to several questions from constituents.

The room erupted with boos and chants on Friday after Spartz said she would not be calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other members of the so-called Signalgate group chat.

Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have discussed “productive negotiations” towards a UK-US economic prosperity deal in a phone call, Downing Street said, as fears grow the UK may be landed with US tariffs.

The pair agreed that negotiations will “continue at pace” in the Sunday night call, which came after home secretary Yvette Cooper warned that “no option is off the table” in terms of a British response to any US tariffs.

The UK is trying to negotiate an exemption from tariffs on all imports into the US.

Alex Croft reports from London.

Speaking to Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Fox News, Susie Wiles was asked what was “the toughest thing you ever had to tell him.”

Trump said that there were methods for doing so, even clarifying that he was “not joking” in his conversation with Kristen Welker, moderator of Meet the Press.

Speaking on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News today, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett appeared to have no insight into what tariff plan President Donald Trump is going to unveil on Wednesday’s so-called “Liberation Day.”

“I can’t give you any forward-looking guidance on what’s gonna happen this week. The president has got a heck of a lot of analysis before him, and he’s gonna make the right choice I’m sure,” said Hassett.

Economist Justin Wolfers commented on X: “In what sort of functional policy process does the President’s chief economic advisor have no idea what economic policy the President will announce?”

The US president called up NBC’s Kristen Welker prior to her Sunday appearance as host of Meet the Press, according to Welker. He told her that he was “p***ed off” after the Russian president called for elections in Ukraine and once again questioned the legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government — comments the U.S. president said were unhelpful.

John Bowden reports from Washington, D.C.

Illinois Democrat Rep Sean Casten appears to have little time for National Security Adviser Mike Waltz’s explanation of how journalist Jeffery Goldberg’s number came to be on his phone and included in the infamous group chat on Signal.

Casten wrote on X in response to a clip of Goldberg being interviewed on Meet the Press this morning, in which he was asked about Waltz’s explanation: “Waltz is full of shit. But let’s take him at face value – because if what he says is true, then he is choosing to discuss classified information on a platform where — in his own telling — he has no control over who is listening in. Either he’s a liar or a traitor. Pick one.”