President Trump’s supporters are worried he is muddling his populist message as Republicans seek to keep the party base together going into the midterm election year.
This week, Trump faced an uproar from his most faithful MAGA supporters when he defended the H-1B visas and inviting foreign students to come study in the U.S. Conservative critics including and perhaps most prominently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused the president of contradicting his America First message.
Meanwhile, the president has continued to tout expensive White House renovations, including his long anticipated ballroom addition in place of the East Wing, as he seeks to tackle the issue of affordability.
Some worry that the moves will depress the president’s base, who have long viewed him as an economic populist fighting for the working class.
The backlash was fiercest after Fox News host Laura Ingraham, a vocal Trump ally, pressed him over his stances on H-1B visas and his calls for 600,000 Chinese students to study at U.S. higher education institutions. The president argued H-1B visas are necessary because the U.S. needs “certain” talents to carry out specific jobs. On his calls for the 600,000 Chinese students studying in the U.S., Trump argued the move was needed to keep U.S. colleges in business.
“Where is my president?” Trump supporter Kylie Kremer, who played a role in organizing the rally prior to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, posted on X with a clip of the interview.
Conservative commentator Natalie Winters, who co-hosts Steven Bannon’s War Room podcast, also reposted a clip of the interview in which Trump defends his calls for Chinese students to study in the U.S., calling the remarks “insulting to MAGA’s intelligence.”
Four law enforcement officers were shot and wounded after they responded to a domestic violence incident at about 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 15 in Kansas, authorities said.
A U.S. proposal to provide a United Nations mandate for an international stabilization force in Gaza is facing opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries, which have expressed unease about a yet-to-be established board that would temporarily govern the territory and the lack of any transitional role for the Palestinian Authority.
Heavy rain across the Gaza Strip on Friday has drenched many tents where displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
Two Israeli soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian detainee were met with cheers as they arrived at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on Monday.
A “massive” Russian attack on Kyiv has killed at least six people with more than 30 others injured, according to the head of the Kyiv city military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
A US football coach who starred in the Netflix documentary Last Chance U, about struggling college teams, has died after being shot on campus, authorities in California said.
A powerful storm doused California with heavy rain on Friday, prompting evacuation warnings as the state braced for the potential of floods, mudslides, thunderstorms and even the chance of a tornado over the weekend.
The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled Friday.
