US politics live: Donald Trump posts weird AI-generated video of a Trumpified Gaza Strip

Donald Trump is still set on his idea of turning Gaza, currently home to two million, into a new real estate paradise. As evidenced by this video.

Welcome to our rolling coverage of US politics, which continues to be eventful. You can probably expect that to persist for, oh, another threeish years or so.

Donald Trump is still set on his idea of turning the Gaza Strip, currently home to two million or so Palestinians, into a new real estate paradise.

The American President, posting on social media, shared an AI-generated video today which seemed to imagine the end result of his Gaza plan.

The video started with footage of a ruined Gaza, in its current state, and then transitioned into a version of the Strip as a sort of Las Vegas-style paradise.

There were multiple shots of an AI-generated Elon Musk, one of Palestinian children holding aloft a golden balloon modelled off Mr Trump’s face, and one image of a giant golden Trump statue, somewhat reminiscent of the Colossus of Rhodes.

Mr Trump did not elaborate; the post was not accompanied by any words.

Meanwhile Elon Musk’s ultimatum to employees of America’s federal government, demanding they provide his DOGE team with a list of their recent accomplishments, continues to sow widespread confusion.

Mr Musk reiterated, in the last 24 hours, that replying to the original email from the government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM), essentially its HR department, which requested a list of things workers had achieved in the past week, was compulsory.

Mr Musk initially said that someone’s failure to respond to the email would be considered a resignation. Then various government departments, most of which are led by Donald Trump’s own appointees, told their workers they could ignore the order.

And the OPM - having issued the email in the first place - clarified that there would be no punishment for failing to reply.

Elon. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

OK. It seemed to have been sorted. Replying to the the email was voluntary. But then Mr Musk issued a fresh edict, giving workers what he framed as a “second chance” to email him back: “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

Mr Trump himself, when questioned about the idea, has expressed sympathy for Mr Musk’s position without firmly saying he supports it. It’s unclear, from his recent remarks, whether Mr Trump actually knows what has been happening within his own government.

So the situation is this: Mr Musk says reply to the email or be fired. Department and agency heads, such as Mr Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, say workers should ignore it.

And workers are left to wonder whether Mr Musk has the power to override the instructions of their more direct bosses. If you’re an FBI employee, for example, do you follow the stance of Mr Patel or Mr Musk? The White House has provided no clarity, and Mr Trump seems to be unaware of any issue existing in the first place.

Will you actually be fired if you don’t respond to Mr Musk? No one knows.

Meanwhile one mystery concerning the DOGE team has been solved: we now know who is technically in charge of the cost-cutting operation. Mr Trump has repeatedly said Mr Musk runs the quasi-government department, while in court, his administration has repeatedly insisted Mr Musk has no real power, and is simply a presidential adviser.

We learned today that a person called Amy Gleason was, technically, the “acting administrator” of DOGE, and had hence been signing off on its decisions.

When asked for comment from the media, Ms Gleason revealed she was in Mexico. It’s unclear why she is overseas when she is supposedly running the most prominent program within America’s federal government, a mere month after Mr Trump took office.

Trump says US will sell $5M ‘gold cards’

Donald Trump said the US would start selling “gold cards” for $5 millions to offer foreigners a pathway to citizenship.

The President announced the cards – which he likened to a US green card “but at a higher level of sophistication” – at the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“It’s a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent,” he said.

“We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges-plus,” Mr Trump added.

“They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it’s going to be extremely successful and never been done before anything like this.”

Mr Trump said he expected the initiative to launch in the next two weeks, predicting the government will sell over a million cards, helping to bring down the national debt.

“A million cards would be worth $5 trillion,” he said. “And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that’s a total of $50 trillion well, We have $35 trillion in debt. That’d be nice, so we’ll see.”

When asked if a Russian oligarch would be eligible for a card, Mr Trump said “possibly”.

“I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” he added.

Donald Trump said the US would start selling “gold cards” for $5 millions. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

‘Bloody’: US comedian cuts hand on mug in anger at Biden

Jon Stewart sliced open his hand while smashing a mug in anger at former President Joe Biden during a very impassioned monologue on his talk show.

The US comedian started his ‘The Daily Show’ on Monday by pretending to be a DOGE employee, bringing out a calculator and a mug reading “World’s Most Dad” in a clear dig at DOGE boss Elon Musk and his ever-growing offspring.

Stewart then turned his attention to federal subsidies to pharmaceutical companies, saying “You know what’s so horrible about our system now and the corruption that lays within it?” Stewart said.

“We’re so f**king numb to it, we actually tout tiny cracks in that exploitation as victory.”

He then showed a clip of former US President Joe Biden at an event stating, “I’m proud to announce Medicare has reached an agreement with all manufactures on all 10 drugs selected in the first round of negotiations.”

Reacting to the clip, Stewart said: “Ooh, can it be? The companies we subsidise with billions of dollars are allowing us the privilege of negotiating the price of 10 of their drugs?!”

“And 10 is all of them, right?”

“It would be embarrassing if it was a small drop in the bucket and that the American people didn’t expect that we should negotiate for all their f***ing drugs! Because we’ve already paid for ‘em with our subsidies!” he yelled, before smashing the mug on his desk in exaggerated outrage

“F***ing thanks! Come on!”

After briefly continuing his rant, Stewart grimaced as he looked at his hand, which he quickly pulled away to hide under his desk.

Stewart spoke about federal subsidies to pharmaceutical companies when he smashed the mug on his desk in exaggerated outrage. Picture: The Daily Show

Stewart grimaced as he looked at his hand, which he quickly pulled away to hide under his desk. Picture: The Daily Show

“I’ll be going too the soon,” he then joked with an embarrassed smile.

After keeping his hand hidden, he brought it back out later in the monologue — with the audience gasping loudly at the blood now clearly visible.

“It’s fine!” he assured his audience.

Stewart advertised the episode on social media by promising it would be a “bloody good” one. “Emphasis on the bloody,” he wrote. “I’m an idiot.”

Trump says Zelensky could visit Washington on Friday amid mineral de

Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the US, which could be signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington on Friday.

In part of a dramatic shift of policy that includes reaching out to Russia, Donald Trump has demanded that Ukraine give access to its rare earth minerals to compensate for the billions of dollars of wartime aid it received under former US President Joe Biden.

The deal would see the US jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral wealth, with revenues going to a newly created fund that would be “joint for Ukraine and America”, a senior Ukrainian source told AFP on the condition of anonymity on Tuesday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky could sign the deal on a trip to Washington as early as Friday. Picture: Paula Bronstein/Getty

The source said the draft of the deal included a reference to “security”, but did not explicitly set out the United States’ commitments – one of Kyiv’s prior demands for an agreement.

“Now government officials are working on the details,” the source said.

The Ukrainian source said Mr Zelensky could sign the deal on a trip to Washington as early as Friday, which was also referenced by Mr Trump

“I hear that. I hear that he’s coming on Friday,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“He would like to sign it together with me, and I understand that — it’s a big deal, a very big deal.”

It comes after Mr Trump branded his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” and called for him to “move fast” to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky had earlier accused the US President of living in a Russian “disinformation space”.

21 DOGE staffers resign

Almost two dozen civil service employees have resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency, stating they refuse to jeopardise American’s data or “dismantle critical public services”.

21 employees, including engineers, data scientists and product managers, issued a joint letter to DOGE leadership on Tuesday.

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the employees wrote in the letter, obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honour those commitments.”

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardise Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” they added.“ We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimise DOGE’s actions.”

Over 20 civil service employees have resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

In a statement, White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt said: “Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years.”

“President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers.”

Elon Musk responded to The Associated Press’ report, labelling it “more fake news”.

“These were Dem. political holdovers who refused to return to the office,” he wrote on X.

“They would have been fired had they not resigned.”

21 employees, including engineers, data scientists and product managers, issued a joint letter to DOGE leadership on Tuesday. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP

Treasurer Jim Chalmers pushes for tariff exemptions

Jim Chalmers has continued to push for Australia’s exemption from Donald Trump’s sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports in Washington DC.

The Treasurer spoke to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett in a “really productive and positive meeting” in the nation’s capital on Wednesday, Australia time.

“We had a wide-ranging discussion, from the flow of capital to critical minerals and trade,” he wrote in a statement on X.

Mr Chalmers earlier said he doesn’t expect a resolution following the meeting, which was expected to canvas Australia’s longstanding support of the US, our trade surplus which dates back to the Truman administration, and our critical minerals trade with the US.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers meets with US Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and Kevin Rudd in Washington DC. Picture: Supplied

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Mr Chalmers said his visit was not aimed at concluding discussions but “to try and inform it”

“It’s well understood that, at the end of the day, this will be President Trump’s call,” he said.

“The alliance and the economic partnership between Australia and the US is as strong as it’s ever been,” he continued.

“Australia has a different case to make than other countries who have been the focus of the administration here.”

– With the New York Post and AFP