The Latest: Trump says ‘Crimea will stay with Russia’ as he presses for deal to end war in Ukraine

President Donald Trump commented in an interview published Friday that Crimea will stay with Russia the latest example of the U S leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege Trump made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted Tuesday He s been accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin Here s the latest Wall Street s rally fades as more CEOs talk about uncertainty ahead because of Trump s arrangement war Wall Street s three-day rally is running out of momentum Friday and U S stocks are drifting in mixed trading as they near the end of another roller-coaster week The S P was higher in early trading though the majority of stocks within it were falling The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down points or less than as of a m Eastern time and the Nasdaq composite was higher Intel weighed on the realm after the chip company explained it s seeing elevated uncertainty across the industry and gave a forecast for upcoming revenue and profit that fell short of analysts expectations Its stock fell even though its results for the beginning of the year topped expectations Read more about the financial markets Trump calls Pope Francis a fantastic kind of guy while leaving for his funeral The president and first lady Melania Trump are heading to Rome for the funeral Speaking to reporters before boarding a helicopter to Air Force One the president reported We re going to Rome to pay our respects and we ll be leaving that same day He repeated his predictions that he ll be meeting with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the funeral But exactly what that might entail is unclear Trump even suggested that a meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was attainable He added of the possibility of several meetings It s going to be very thought-provoking Trump noted he met Francis twice and that the pope loved the world literally and he was just a good man I thought he was a fantastic kind of a guy Trump noted A call with Chinese President Xi Jinping Trump raised eyebrows in an interview with Time magazine when he claimed to have received a call from Xi If true it would be a notable maturation in the tariff standoff between the world s two largest economies But it s unclear when or if such a call took place and Trump provided no clarity when speaking to reporters while leaving the White House for his trip to Rome to attend Pope Francis funeral I don t want to comment on that Trump commented I ve spoken to him a multitude of times The Chinese Foreign Ministry has previously denied negotiations have been taking place The National Precaution Council did not promptly return a request for comment Trump and Zelenskyy among dignitaries converging on Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis Heads of state and royalty will start converging on Rome on Friday for the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican s St Peter s Square but the group of poor people who will meet his casket in a small crosstown basilica are more in keeping with Francis humble persona and disdain for pomp Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei are among the leaders arriving Friday the last day the Argentine pope will lie in state in St Peter s Basilica before his coffin is sealed in the evening in preparation for his funeral Saturday The Vatican says delegations are established including heads of state and reigning sovereigns Read more about the dignitaries attending the funeral of Pope Francis Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran s nuclear project return Saturday to Oman There experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any workable deal The talks seek to limit Iran s nuclear project in exchange for the lifting of chosen of the crushing economic sanctions the U S has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on half a century of enmity Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran s venture if a deal isn t reached Iranian executives increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels Read more about the nuclear talks between the U S and Iran Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal AP sources say Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon s protection protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer two people familiar with the line reported The Associated Press The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at danger of expected hacking or surveillance Known as a dirty internet line by the IT industry it connects directly to the populace internet where the user s information and the websites accessed do not have the same guard filters or protocols that the Pentagon s secured connections maintain Other Pentagon offices have used them particularly if there s a need to monitor information or websites that would otherwise be blocked Tara Copp Trump orders Justice Department to investigate Democrats top fundraising platform In an executive order signed Thursday Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate statements that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations Democrats who had anticipated they would be targeted condemned the move Thursday and ActBlue called it an oppressive use of power by the White House The Trump Administration s and GOP s targeting of ActBlue is part of their brazen attack on democracy in America Nowadays s escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and demands to be seen for what it is Donald Trump s latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political electoral and ideological opposition ActBlue mentioned in a message ActBlue commented it would pursue all legal avenues to protect and defend itself Trump s order directs Bondi in consultation with the Treasury Department to investigate claims that online fundraising platforms and specifically ActBlue have been used by several to make straw or dummy contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees Read more about Trump s executive order on ActBlue Trump says Russia should keep Crimea The president sat down with Time magazine for an interview marking days in office a milestone that he crosses next week During the conversation which was published on Friday Trump revealed Crimea will stay with Russia The strategic peninsula was seized by Russia in years before the full-scale invasion in Everybody understands that it s been with them for a long time the president revealed It s been with them long before Trump came along They ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we re talking about for a multitude of years The people speak largely Russian in Crimea Trump noted But this was given by Obama This wasn t given by Trump How the citizens s shift on immigration paved the way for Trump s crackdown Since returning to the White House Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him But unlike in his first term Trump s efforts have not sparked the kind of widespread condemnation or protests that led him to retreat from several unpopular positions Instead immigration has emerged as one of Trump s strongest issues in citizens polling reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in inhabitants sentiment that is driven in part interviews suggest by anger at the policies of his predecessor Democrat Joe Biden The White House has seized on this shift mocking critics and egging on Democrats to engage on an issue that Trump s group sees as a win Read more about Trump s crackdown on immigration Immigration is Trump s strongest issue but multiple say he s gone too far a new AP-NORC poll finds Trump s handling of immigration remains a point of strength as he takes wide-ranging actions to ramp up deportations and target people in the U S illegally according to a new poll The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Population Affairs Research finds that of U S adults approve of Trump s handling of immigration which is nearly percentage points higher than his approval rating on the financial market and arrangement with other countries While Trump s actions remain divisive there s less of a consensus that the Republican president has overstepped on immigration than on other issues Still there s little appetite for an even tougher approach About half of Americans say he s gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants in the U S illegally They re divided on the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants who are accused of being gang members to El Salvador and more oppose than patronage revoking foreign students visas over their participation in pro-Palestinian activism Read more about what the poll shows Source