LIVE | 22 US states sue to stop Trump's Birthright Citizenship order

Trump said on Tuesday his team is discussing imposing a 10 per cent tariff on China starting February 1 based on the fact that the latter is sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.

"We're talking about a tariff of 10 per cent on China based on the fact that they're sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada," Trump told reporters at a joint news conference at the White House along with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.

In response to a question, Trump said he is looking at February 1 as the date for the tariffs. "For Mexico and China, we're talking about approximately 25 per cent (tariff)," the president said.

Responding to another query, Trump said he did not "talk too much about tariffs" when he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.

When asked if he has asked Xi Jinping to intervene to stop the war in Ukraine, Trump said China has not done very much on that. "He's got a lot of power. I said you ought to get it settled. I had that talk with President Xi the other day too. I said we don't want that crap in our country. We've got to stop it. I would have stopped it. I had to deal with him where he was going to give the maximum penalty, which in China is death penalty, for drug dealing and he was all set," Trump said.

"He was going to give the maximum penalty to fentanyl dealers if they send (the staff) to the United States. And of course, Biden didn't pick that up. I had that deal all done. It was all wrapped up," he added.

"We were going to get it done and then the election went -- let's put it nicely. It didn't go the proper way. I'm trying to be nice about it. It (election) was rigged and we had an incompetent president elected who never followed up on that deal," Trump said.

He added that if there was death penalty, "they wouldn't be sending fentanyl to Mexico, Canada and other places".

The US Justice Department has reassigned key senior officials across multiple divisions as part of a leadership shakeup ahead of the expected confirmation of President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, multiple people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Among those moved to other positions inside the department is Bruce Swartz, the longtime head of the Justice Department's office of international affairs, which handles extradition matters, according to two people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss personnel moves.

As many as 20 or so officials in all have been reassigned.

Another affected official is George Toscas, a veteran deputy assistant attorney general in the department's national security division who, in addition to helping oversee major terrorism and espionage investigations, has also been a key supervisor in politically charged probes over the last decade, including into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information and Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

An estimated 24.6 million television viewers watched President Donald Trump's second inauguration, the smallest audience for the quadrennial ceremony since Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013.

The Nielsen Company said on Tuesday that viewership was down from Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration, which reached 33.8 million, and Trump's first move into the White House which was seen by 30.6 million viewers in 2017.

Inauguration viewership has varied widely over the past half-century, from a high of 41.8 million when Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 to a low of 15.5 million for the start of George W Bush's second term in 2004.

The length of Trump's inauguration coverage may have hurt him in bragging rights. The 24.6 million figure represents the average number of people tuning in to coverage on one of 15 networks between 10:30 am to 7:30 pm EST.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he is considering going to the Middle East, but not immediately amid the return of hostages, as he reiterated that the attack on Israel by the Hamas on October 7, 2023, should not have happened.

"We're thinking about going to the Middle East. But not yet, as hostages are coming back right now. Some of them have been very, very damaged. You look at the young lady with her hand practically blown off — you know how that happened, right? Did you know how that happened," Trump said during a joint news conference at the White House with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.

"When you find out, you're not going to be too happy because it was terrible. But the hostages are starting to come back," Trump said, as he took credit for the return of the hostages.

"If I weren't here, they would have never come back. They would have all died. If this were done a year earlier, if (Joe) Biden would have done this deal a year-and-a-half, two years ago... Frankly, it should have never happened, October 7 should have never happened," he said.

"You go back just six months, many of these young people were living -- you know, young people don't die like that. But now they're dying. And you wonder why they're dying; they're being killed. Biden couldn't get it done. It was only after the imposition that I put on as a deadline that got it done," he added.

Described the situation in the Middle East as bad, Trump said, "It is a very sad situation. It should have never happened."

President Donald Trump's administration is directing that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave, and that agencies develop plans to lay them off, according to a memo Tuesday from the Office of Personnel Management.

The memo follows an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government's diversity and inclusion programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners.

The memo directs agencies to place DEI office staffers on paid leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday and take down all public DEI-focused webpages by the same deadline. Several federal departments had removed the webpages even before the memorandum. Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related trainings and end any related contracts, and federal workers are being asked to report to Trump's Office of Personnel Management if they suspect any DEI-related program has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.” By Thursday, federal agencies are directed to compile a list of federal DEI offices and workers as of Election Day. By next Friday, they are expected to develop a list to execute a “reduction-in-force action” against those federal workers.

The memo was first reported by CBS News.

The move comes after Monday's executive order accused former President Joe Biden of forcing “discrimination” programs into “virtually all aspects of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, known as DEI.

That step is the first salvo in an aggressive campaign to upend DEI efforts nationwide, including leveraging the Justice Department and other agencies to investigate private companies pursuing training and hiring practices that conservative critics consider discriminatory against non-minority groups such as white men.

The executive order picks up where Trump's first administration left off: One of Trump's final acts during his first term was an executive order banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism. Biden promptly rescinded that order on his first day in office and issued a pair of executive orders — now rescinded — outlining a plan to promote DEI throughout the federal government.

Officers enforcing immigration laws will now be able to arrest migrants at sensitive locations such as schools and churches after the Trump administration threw out policies limiting where those arrests could be made.

The move reverses guidance that for over a decade has restricted two key federal immigration agencies -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection -- from carrying out immigration enforcement in sensitive locations.

"This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens -- including murders and rapists -- who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance dates back to 2011. The Customs and Border Protection issued similar guidance in 2013.

Attorneys general from 22 states on Tuesday sued to block President Donald Trump's move to end a century-old immigration practice known as birthright citizenship guaranteeing that US-born children are citizens regardless of their parents' status.

Trump's roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfilment of something he's talked about during the presidential campaign.

But whether it succeeds is far from certain amid what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle over the president's immigration policies and a constitutional right to citizenship.

The Democratic attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates say the question of birthright citizenship is settled law and that while presidents have broad authority, they are not kings.

"The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period," New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said.

The White House said it's ready to face the states in court and called the lawsuits "nothing more than an extension of the Left's resistance".

"Radical Leftists can either choose to swim against the tide and reject the overwhelming will of the people, or they can get on board and work with President Trump," White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a US citizen by birthright and the nation's first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him.

"The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says -- if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop," he said.

"There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own." What is birthright citizenship? At issue in these cases is the right to citizenship granted to anyone born in the US, regardless of their parents' immigration status. People in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.

It's enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, supporters say. But Trump and allies dispute the reading of the amendment and say there need to be tougher standards on becoming a citizen.

The US is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship -- the principle of jus soli or "right of the soil" -- is applied.

Most other countries confer citizenship based on whether at least one parent -- jus sanguinis, or "right of blood" -- is a citizen, or have a modified form of birthright citizenship that may restrict automatic citizenship to children of parents who are on their territory legally.

Trump's order questions that the 14th Amendment extends citizenship automatically to anyone born in the United States.

Ratified in 1868 in in the aftermath of the Civil War, the 14th Amendment says: "All persons born or naturalised in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Trump's order asserts that the children of non-citizens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

It excludes the following people from automatic citizenship: those whose mothers were not legally in the United States and whose fathers were not US citizens or lawful permanent residents, and people whose mothers were in the country legally but on a temporary basis and whose fathers were not citizens or legal permanent residents.

It goes on to bar federal agencies from recognising the citizenship of people in those categories. It takes effect 30 days from Tuesday, on February 19.

It's not clear whether the order would retroactively affect birthright citizens. It says that federal agencies "shall" not issue citizenship documents to the people it excludes or accept other documents from states or local governments.

At the inaugural prayer service, Right Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, made a direct appeal to US President Donald Trump to have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community and undocumented migrant workers.

Referencing Trump's belief that he was saved by God from assassination, Budde said, "You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now." The Trump administration has already issued executive orders rolling back transgender rights and toughening immigration policies.

When he returned to the White House, Trump was asked about the sermon.

"Not too exciting, was it," the president asked as he walked with staff toward the Oval Office.

"I didn't think it was a good service. They could do much better."

The Washington National Cathedral service was largely focused on national unity. In her sermon, Budde said they gathered "to pray for unity as a people and a nation — not for agreement, political or otherwise — but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division".

She added, "Unity is not partisan."

More than a dozen religious leaders spoke during the interfaith service, including those from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. Notably absent from the invited clergy with speaking roles were conservative evangelicals, who are among President Trump's strongest supporters. Nonetheless, some of those evangelical supporters were in the pews.

Budde, who gave this year's sermon, has joined other cathedral leaders in criticising Trump previously, rebuking his "racialised rhetoric" and blaming him for inciting violence on January 6, 2021.

Budde was "outraged" in 2020 after Trump staged an appearance in front of St John's Episcopal Church, which is near the White House. He held up a Bible after the area had been cleared of peaceful protesters.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he likes both sides of the argument on H-1B foreign guest workers' visa, noting that he likes "very competent people" coming into the country and that he has used the programme.

"I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people that may not have the qualifications they do. But I don't want to stop — and I'm not just talking about engineers, I'm talking about people at all levels," Trump told reporters at the White House during a joint news conference with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.

While his close confidants like Elon Musk, the Tesla owner, supports H-1B visa as it brings in qualified tech professionals, many of his supporters oppose it arguing that it takes away jobs from Americans.

"We want competent people coming into our country. And H-1B, I know the programme very well. I use the programme. Maître d', wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters — you've got to get the best people. People like Larry, he needs engineers, Masa also needs... they need engineers like nobody's ever needed them," Trump said.

"So, we have to have quality people coming in. Now by doing that, we're expanding businesses and that takes care of everybody. So I'm sort of on both sides of the argument, but what I really do feel is that we have to let really competent people, great people, come into our country. And we do that through the H-1B programme," Trump said.

US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he had pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs.

Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015.

Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media website, that he had spoken to Ulbricht's mother on his first full day in office.

"It was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross. The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of government against me," he wrote.

Trump also called Ulbricht's prison sentence "ridiculous".

He had promised to help Ulbricht during a speech at the Libertarian Party National Convention last May.

Libertarian activists, who generally oppose criminal drug policies, have long believed that government investigators overreached in building their case against Silk Road. Many held "Free Ross" signs.