Trump bans foreign nationals from 12 countries after Elon Musk urges Americans to ‘kill the bill’
Donald Trump has banned foreign nationals from 12 countries from entering the US over national security concerns. See the list.
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Donald Trump has banned foreign nationals from 12 countries from entering the US over national security concerns.
“I have determined to fully restrict and limit the entry of nationals of the following 12 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen,” the president wrote in the proclamation he signed on Wednesday.
Additionally, the Trump administration will “partially restrict and limit the entry of nationals” from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
“These restrictions distinguish between, but apply to both, the entry of immigrants and non immigrants,” read the order.
Mr Trump said the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally.
“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message from the Oval Office posted on X.
“We don’t want them.”
Venezuela warned its citizens that travelling to the United States would amount to taking a “great risk” after the new restrictions were announced.
“Being in the United States is a great risk for anyone, not just for Venezuelans,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.
It comes after he signed a bombshell proclamation banning international students from entering the United States to study at Harvard University for the next six months.
The new measure suspends new visa holders from attending the Ivy League institution, with the president citing national security, radicalism and foreign interference.
Harvard did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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‘KILL THE BILL’: MUSK LAUNCHES FRESH ATTACK
It comes after Elon Musk has launched another attack on the Trump administration, warning government overspending risks driving the country into “debt slavery” and leaving no money for health, pensions or defence budgets.
Days after leaving the White House, the tech billionaire shared a clip on X from 60 Minutes about the United States’ “unsustainable fiscal path”.
The X post had been written by Geiger Capital with the caption: “A million seconds ago was May 23rd. A billion seconds ago was 1993 A trillion seconds ago was 30,000 B.C. The US national debt is now rising by $1 Trillion every 180 days.”
Interest payments already consume 25% of all government revenue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
If the massive deficit spending continues, there will only be money for interest payments and nothing else! No social security, no medical, no defense … nothing. https://t.co/UKp4HYdKRt
Mr Musk shared the post at 2am local time, writing: “This immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery.”
He followed up with another post soon after to his 220 million followers.
“Interest payments already consume 25 per cent of all government revenue,” Mr Musk said.
“If the massive deficit spending continues, there will only be money for interest payments and nothing else! No social security, no medical, no defence … nothing.”
Mr Musk has become increasingly vocal about his disapproval of the government in recent days, including blasting Trump’s key spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.
And on Wednesday he called for Republicans to “kill the bill” followed by a photo of actress Uma Thurman in the Quentin Tarantino cult film Kill Bill and for an alternative plan that “doesn’t massively grow the deficit.”
Call your Senator,
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
Call your Congressman,
Bankrupting America is NOT ok!
KILL the BILL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2025
Musk had previously dropped hints of his disdain for the mega bill, politely telling “CBS Sunday Morning” in an interview that he was “disappointed” to see that the legislation increases the deficit and “undermines the work that the DOGE team.”
“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in response to Musk’s tirade. “It doesn’t change his opinion.”
The South Africa-born billionaire marked his final day as a special government employee this past Friday, with President Trump giving him a formal send-off in the Oval Office.
Sources familiar with Musk’s thinking told New York Post that his scorched-earth rant was largely motivated by four factors, including the House Republicans’ removal of electric vehicle tax credits that were part of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and boosted Tesla, the White House officials’ refusal to allow him to remain a special government employee beyond the 130-day statutory limit, the Federal Aviation Administration opting not to use his Starlink satellite system to help run the nation’s air traffic control and Trump pulling his nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman to lead NASA over Isaacman’s “prior associations.”
MAR-A-LAGO INTRUDER BUSTED
A 23-year-old man was nabbed by Secret Service agents early Wednesday after hopping the wall around President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, telling officers he wanted to “spread the gospel” to Mr Trump and wed his 18-year-old granddaughter, Kai.
Anthony Thomas Reyes was busted just after midnight and confessed to arresting officers that he had scaled the wall surrounding the Palm Beach, Florida property, the New York Post reports.
Wednesday marked at least the second time Reyes had been caught trying to get inside the exclusive club, with the previous instance occurring on New Year’s Eve.
Reyes was initially charged by state authorities with trespassing, though federal charges are likely to follow.
Mr Trump, 78, was in Washington at the time of the incident.
PENTAGON ORDERS ‘GAY’ SHIP TO BE RENAMED
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of a US Navy ship that had been named after a gay icon, the assassinated former San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.
Military.com said it had reviewed a memo from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy that said the move was in line with Hegseth’s purported goal of “re-establishing a warrior culture” in the US armed forces.
Military.com quoted an unidentified defence official as saying that Navy Secretary John Phelan had been ordered by Hegseth to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, and the timing of the announcement – during LGBTQ WorldPride month – was intentional.
Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, condemned the reported move to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, calling it “a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.”
“Harvey Milk proudly served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy and was a formidable force for change – not just in California, but in our Country,” the California congresswoman said in a statement.
Milk served as a US Navy diver at a time when there was a ban on homosexuality in the military.
One of the first openly gay politicians in America, Milk was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, where he was instrumental in passing laws banning discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Months later, in 1978, Milk was shot dead along with mayor George Moscone, by a disgruntled former city supervisor.
TRUMP THREATENS CALIFORNIA WITH FINES AFTER TRANS SPORTS WIN
US President Donald Trump has declared that “large scale fines” will be slapped on California after a transgender athlete racked up a pair of wins at a girls’ high school track and field championship, despite his ban on trans women in women’s sports.
AB Hernandez, of Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California, captured first place in the girls’ high jump and triple jump events at the May 31 meet in Clovis.
“A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so,” Mr Trump declared on Truth Social.
“As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!”
Last week, under pressure from the Trump administration, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs high school sports in the state, adjusted its rules to allow biological females who lost qualifying positions to transgender athletes to compete.
The CIF also awarded first-place medals to the best biological female athlete in both events, creating an awkward situation in which Hernandez had to share the first-place step with a rival.
Hernandez easily won the girls’ high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 7 inches with no failed attempts.
Female competitors Jillene Wetteland and Lelanie Laruelle also cleared that mark, allowing them to share the podium with Hernandez.
Additionally, Hernandez easily won the triple jump with a distance of 42 feet, 2 inches. The closest rival was Kira Grant Hatcher with a jump of 40 feet, 5 inches.
Mr Trump previously warned that federal funding would be “held back, maybe permanently,” if the Golden State didn’t adhere to his February executive order to safeguard women’s sports.
The president also said at the time that he would order “local authorities, if necessary, to not allow” a transgender athlete to compete in the women’s track and field contest, though he did not mention Hernandez by name.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In March, Newsom made a shocking public admission to conservative pundit Charlie Kirk that he believes it’s “deeply unfair” to allow transgender athletes to compete against biological women.
The Trump administration previously launched an inquiry into Maine to determine whether it was breaking Title IX rules by allowing transgender athletes to compete, putting at least $250 million in annual federal funding for the state in the crosshairs.
‘BOGUS’: CHINA RIPS INTO US TARIFFS CLAIM
China said it “firmly rejects” claims by the United States that it had violated a deal struck last month to lower crippling tariffs between the world’s two largest economies.
Washington “has made bogus charges and unreasonably accused China of violating the consensus, which is seriously contrary to the facts,” Beijing’s commerce ministry said, adding
“China firmly rejects these unreasonable accusations”.
A logjam in the trade talks between the United States and China could be broken once Mr Trump and Xi Jinping speak, US officials said – a conversation they said could happen soon.
Mr Trump has accused Beijing of violating a deal reached last month in Geneva to temporarily lower staggeringly high tariffs the world’s two biggest economies had imposed on each other, in a pause to last 90 days.
China’s slow-walking on export license approvals for rare earths and other elements needed to make cars and chips have fuelled US frustration, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday — a concern since confirmed by US officials.
But US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to take the pressure down a notch on Sunday, telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the gaps could soon be bridged.
“I’m confident that when President Trump and Party Chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out,” Mr Bessent said, however noting that China was “withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement.”
When asked if rare earths were one of those products, Mr Bessent said, “Yes.”
“Maybe it’s a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it’s intentional. We’ll see after the president speaks with” Xi, he said.
On when a Trump-Xi call could take place, Mr Bessent said: “I believe we will see something very soon.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council told America’s ABC News that the call could happen “this week” but that he had no confirmation of a scheduled time.
Since Mr Trump returned to the presidency, he has slapped sweeping tariffs on most US trading partners, with especially high rates on Chinese imports.
New tit for tat levies on both sides reached three digits before the de-escalation this month, where Washington agreed to temporarily reduce additional tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 per cent to 30 per cent.
China, meanwhile, lowered its added duties from 125 per cent to 10 per cent.
Separate from the China deal, Mr Trump said on Friday he would double sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 per cent starting June 4.
Mr Hassett said China’s dumping of low-cost steel was hurting US industry — which in turn was hindering US military preparedness.
“The bottom line is that we’ve got to be ready in case things don’t happen the way we want, because if we have cannons but not cannonballs, then we can’t fight a war,” Mr Hassett told the This Week program.
“And if we don’t have steel, then the US isn’t ready, and we’re not preparing ourselves for something,” he added.
“We have to have a steel industry that’s ready for American defence.”
TOP TRUMP ADVISER VOWS: TRUMP TARIFFS NOT GOING AWAY
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Donald Trump’s “tariffs are not going away” and the US President is not planning to extend the 90-day pause on some of his steepest rates when it expires in July.
Mr Lutnick downplayed the impact of legal uncertainty over the tariffs during an interview with Fox News Sunday, saying the talks were ongoing.
“You can’t listen to silly people making silly comments,” Mr Lutnick said.
“All of the countries that are negotiating with us understand the power of Donald Trump and his ability to protect the American worker.”
In response to the ongoing court challenges, Mr Lutnick said: “Tariffs are not going away”.
He added that the US “could sign lots of deals now” but the Trump administration is working to “make them better”.
“You’re going to see over the next couple of weeks, really, first class deals for the American worker,” he said.
Mr Lutnick said Mr Trump has many other authorities that even in the “weird and unusual circumstance where this was taken away, we just bring on another or another or another.”
– with AFP
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