President Donald Trump attends wrestling match with Elon Musk amid cheers from crowd
Donald Trump enjoyed a night of wrestling and was greeted by a cheering crowd, as top Democrats traded jibes amid ongoing leadership woes. See the photos.
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US President Donald Trump was hailed with massive cheers in Philadelphia at a weekend NCAA Men’s Division I Wrestling Championship.
The New York Post reports the crowd rose to its feet and applauded Mr Trump as he entered the Wells Fargo Arena and stood on the event floor for about a minute waving to the audience.
As Mr Trump took his seat the crowd chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A.”
Mr Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a picture on X of the president giving US national champion Carter Starocci a friendly wrestling embrace in the arena under the header “Coolest. President. Ever.”
Mr Trump was accompanied by DOGE chief Elon Musk and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
Mr Jordan is a prior NCAA Division I men’s wrestling title winner.
In February, he became the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl.
Later that month he attended NASCAR’s Daytona 500.
Oklahoma State wrestler Wyatt Hendrickson saluted President Donald Trump after he completed his stunning upset at the NCAA championship on Saturday night.
Hendrickson, a former Air Force wrestler and current second lieutenant, defeated Minnesota’s Gable Steveson 5-3 to clinch the Heavyweight title.
Draped with an American flag, Hendrickson shook hands and shared a quick hug with the 47th president.
“He said he was very proud of me,” the 24-year-old said in his post-match interview with ESPN.
It comes as the leadership woes of the Democrats continue.
A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he will not step down from his role any time soon while strenuously defending his decision to vote against blocking a Republican bill to avert a partial government shutdown.
The 74-year-old Rep. Schumer, a New York Democrat, has been facing a progressive revolt over his shutdown vote earlier this month, but reiterated that he “did this out of conviction” and fired back at detractors such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California).
“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer told NBC’s Meet the Press.
“I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.”
In New York City, progressives held a rally demanding Schumer step down from his leadership post due to his actions in the shutdown fight.
Similar protests against him have popped up across the country, particularly in New York and Washington, DC.
The longtime senator was forced to postpone his book tour last week in response to security concerns over the demonstrations.
One of the most prominent detractors against him was Rep. Pelosi, 84, who sledged him in an interview.
“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” Rep. Pelosi told reporters during a news conference at a children’s hospital in San Francisco. “I think that’s what happened the other day.”
But Rep. Schumer shot back, “There was no leverage point that we could’ve asked for things. They just would’ve said no.”
CANADA’S NEW PM CALLS SNAP ELECTION
Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has called a snap election for 28 April, seeking a stronger mandate as his country fights off a trade war and annexation threats from US President Donald Trump.
“I’ve just requested that the governor general dissolve parliament and call an election for April 28. She has agreed,” Mr Carney said, referring to King Charles III’s representative in Canada, a member of the British Commonwealth.
TRUMP NAMES NEW JET IN HONOR OF HIS SECOND TERM
US President Donald Trump announced the US will begin producing the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet whose name includes an homage to himself.
The new F-47 will succeed the F-35, long heralded for its superior stealth capabilities. In its Navy variant, the F-35 was the first US fighter jet to be able to land vertically like a helicopter, allowing it to touch down on ships with limited runway room.
Mr Trump denied naming it after himself, insisting that “the generals picked a title, and it’s a beautiful number.”
Mr Trump mentioned the F-47 would be the first aircraft to be able to “fly with drones,” though it was unclear what he meant.
“It flies with many, many drones, as many as you want. And it’s a technology that’s new, but it doesn’t fly by itself. It flies (with a pilot) but with many drones, as many as we want,” the president said. “And that’s something that no other plane can do.”
Mr Trump added that he could not say how many F-47s were being ordered from Washington state-based manufacturer Boeing or how much they will cost “because it would give it away”.
TRUMP REVOKES SECURITY CLEARANCES FOR POLITICAL FOES
Mr Trump made good on a threat to revoke the security clearances of his predecessor Joe Biden and several senior former White House and national security officials.
The list of names stripped of their authorisation to see state secrets included Mr Biden, his family members, and former vice-president and Trump presidential rival Kamala Harris.
Former secretary of state and defeated presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was on the list, along with Mr Biden’s secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jacob Sullivan.
In a memorandum to agency heads and distributed by the White House communications office, Mr Trump said the named officials should no longer be allowed access to classified material.
“I hereby direct every executive department and agency head … to revoke any active security clearances held by the aforementioned individuals,” Mr Trump said.
“I also direct all executive department and agency heads to revoke unescorted access to secure United States Government facilities from these individuals.”
JOE ROGAN WANTS CANADA AND US TO ‘GET ALONG’
Podcaster Joe Rogan is against Canada becoming the 51st member of the United States but he’s not ruling out bringing Greenland into the fold.
“I just want America and Canada to get along. I think it’s ridiculous,”
Rogan comedian Mark Kosta on his March 14 episode of the ongoing trade war between the neighbouring countries.
President Trump. whom Rogan, 57, has staunchly supported and had on as a guest on his podcast before the 2024 election, has frequently floated the idea of adding Canada as the 51st state, even before hitting the country with 25 per cent tariffs.
“I don’t really think they should be our 51st state. There. I said it,” Rogan confessed.
US CUTS FUNDING TO AUSTRALIAN UNIS
The White House has cut funding to seven Australian universities after they were sent surveys to see if joint research projects aligned with Donald Trump's agenda.
Academics were asked whether they have ties to communist or socialist parties, receive funding from China and if they only recognises male and female sexes.
US funding for $600 million worth of research efforts is now in jeopardy.
Researchers are calling on the Albanese government to step in and prevent any further grant cuts, while the Australian Education Department says the total amount of funding cut by the US is unclear.
SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS PRESSURE TRUMP OVER AUSSIE LAWS
Tech giants Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon and Elon Musk’s X are pressuring the Trump administration to target “coercive and discriminatory” Australian media laws.
Members of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which is an international advocacy organisation based in Washington, DC for the tech industry were asked for comments by The Office of the US Trade Representative regarding Australia’s media regulations.
In comments written to the USTR trade chief on 11 March, the trade policy manager of the CCIA Amir Nasr targeted Australia’s News Media Bargaining Incentive as one of the “key examples” of discriminatory taxation of digital products and services, The Guardian reports.
The incentive involves taxing digital platforms, which can be offset if they pay news publishers for content.
Mr Nasr wrote: “Australia’s extraction and redistribution of revenue from U.S. digital suppliers to local news businesses is reported to have cost US firms $US140 million ($A222 million) annually”.
The note defines Australia’s news media bargaining incentive as a “coercive and discriminatory tax that requires US technology companies to subsidise Australian media companies.”
Mr Nasr said thee are currently two companies forking out $A250 million per year through “deals that were coerced through the threat of this law.”
He predicted that the cost will increase once the Australian government imposes the new rate of the incentive tax.
“Companies could be required to pay anywhere between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of their local expenditure on Australian content, with qualifications that will likely make it very difficult for US companies to qualify.
“Australia’s online video streaming market is estimated to generate up to $US2.3 billion ($A3.6bn) of annual revenue, with the majority of it earned from US companies. If the Australian government pursues the 20 per cent expenditure mandate it has floated in the past year, that would put this revenue at risk,” Mr Nasr wrote.
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO ‘ELIMINATE’ EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
The US president signed an order aimed at shutting down the Department of Education, a decades-old goal of the American right, which wants individual states to run schools free from the influence of federal government.
Surrounded by schoolchildren sitting at desks set up in the East Room of the White House, Mr Trump smiled as held up the order after signing it.
He said the order would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”
“We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good,” he said.
“We’re going to return education back to the states where it belongs.”
The Education Department, created in 1979, cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress but Mr Trump’s order will likely have the power to starve it of funds and staff.
The top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, called it a “tyrannical power grab” and “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken.”
– with AFP
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Originally published as President Donald Trump attends wrestling match with Elon Musk amid cheers from crowd
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