House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote to the Trump administration Monday requesting information on British politician Nigel Farage's trip to the U.S. for President Trump's Oklahoma rally over the weekend.
Why it matters: The administration imposed a ban on most people traveling to the U.S. from countries including the U.K. during the coronavirus pandemic. Thompson said in his letter to Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf that the U.K. Brexit Party leader's visit "raises numerous troubling questions." He wants to know why the Department of Homeland Security deemed his trip in the "national interest."
Four major Chinese state-owned media outlets will be required to inform the U.S. State Department of their personnel rosters and real-estate holdings as if they were foreign embassies, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: The restrictions will applied to the Global Times, China Central Television, China News Service and People’s Daily, bringing the total to nine Chinese state media outlets labeled by the Trump administration as arms of the Chinese government.
Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it will only allow "very limited numbers" of people to perform the annual hajj this summer due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, AP reports.
Why it matters: The pilgrimage, which is set to occur at the end of July, typically draws around 2 million people from around the world. The Saudi government noted that only people already residing in the country will be authorized to participate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday condemned President Trump for undermining the United States' moral authority after he told Axios in an interview that he delayed imposing sanctions against Chinese officials to facilitate a trade deal with Beijing.
Driving the news: Asked why he held off on imposing Treasury sanctions against Chinese officials involved with mass detention camps for Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, Trump told Axios: "Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal."
President Trump tweeted Monday that he would only meet with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro "to discuss one thing: a peaceful exit from power."
Why it matters: The president's comments represent a backtrack from his interview with Axios' Jonathan Swan last week, where he set no such precondition for a Maduro meeting and suggested he's had second thoughts about his decision to recognize Juan Guaidó as the country's legitimate leader.
In an Oval Office interview on Friday afternoon,President Trump told me that he held off on imposing Treasury sanctions against Chinese officials involved with the Xinjiang mass detention camps because doing so would have interfered with his trade deal with Beijing.
Driving the news: Asked why he hadn't yet enacted Treasury sanctions against Chinese Communist Party officials or entities tied to the camps where the Chinese government detains Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, Trump replied, "Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal."
In an Oval Office interview with Axios on Friday, President Trump suggested he's had second thoughts about his decision to recognize Juan Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela and said he is open to meeting with dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Driving the news: Asked whether he would meet with Maduro, Trump said, "I would maybe think about that. ... Maduro would like to meet. And I'm never opposed to meetings — you know, rarely opposed to meetings.
Nigel Farage, the U.K. Brexit Party leader, was photographed attending President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday despite a ban on people from Britain entering the U.S. due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The big picture: A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Independent Farage was initially denied boarding of his flight to the U.S., but he was permitted after a review because his visit was deemed to be "in the national interest" of the U.S. Trump and Farage are friends and the president said last year the Brexit Party leader should be negotiating with the European Union on the U.K. exit from Europe because he's "very smart." Farage did not respond to Axios' request for comment.
