Trump Will Attend Asean Summit in Malaysia, Prime Minister Says
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told lawmakers in Malaysia on Thursday that the US president had accepted his invitation during a phone call earlier in the day.
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San Francisco Chronicle
16 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down after being defunded by Congress, targeted by Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a cornerstone of American culture for three generations, announced Friday it would take steps toward its own closure after being defunded by Congress — marking the end of a nearly six-decade era in which it fueled the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and even emergency alerts. The demise of the corporation, known as CPB, is a direct result of President Donald Trump's targeting of public media, which he has repeatedly said is spreading political and cultural views antithetical to those the United States should be espousing. The closure is expected to have a profound impact on the journalistic and cultural landscape — in particular, public radio and TV stations in small communities across the United States. CPB helps fund both PBS and NPR, but most of its funding is distributed to more than 1,500 local public radio and television stations around the country. The corporation also has deep ties to much of the nation's most familiar programming, from NPR's 'All Things Considered' to, historically, 'Sesame Street,' 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' and the documentaries of Ken Burns. The corporation said its end, 58 years after being signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, would come in an 'orderly wind-down.' In a statement, it said the decision came after the passage through Congress of a package that clawed back its funding for the next two budget years — about $1.1 billion. Then, the Senate Appropriations Committee reinforced that policy change Thursday by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill. 'Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,' said Patricia Harrison, the corporation's president and CEO. As part of Thursday's committee deliberations, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., authored but then withdrew an amendment to restore CPB funding for the coming budget year. She said she still believed there was a path forward 'to fix this before there are devastating consequences for public radio and television stations across the country.' 'It's hard to believe we've ended up in the situation we're in,' she said. 'And I'm going to continue to work with my colleagues to fix it.' But Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, sounded a less optimistic tone. 'I understand your concerns, but we all know we litigated this two weeks ago,' Capito said. 'Adopting this amendment would have been contrary to what we have already voted on.' CPB said it informed employees Friday that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It said a small transition team will stay in place until January to finish any remaining work — including, it said, 'ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system.' 'Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,' Harrison said. 'We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.' The impact will be widespread NPR stations use millions of dollars in federal money to pay music licensing fees. Now, many will have to renegotiate these deals. That could impact, in particular, outlets that build their programming around music discovery. NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher estimated recently, for example, that some 96% of all classical music broadcast in the United States is on public radio stations. Federal money for public radio and television has traditionally been appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes it to NPR and PBS. Roughly 70% of the money goes directly to the 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country, although that's only a shorthand way to describe its potential impact. Trump, who has called the CPB a 'monstrosity,' has long said that public broadcasting displays an extreme liberal bias, helped create the momentum in recent months for an anti-public broadcasting groundswell among his supporters in Congress and around the country. It is part of a larger initiative in which he has targeted institutions — particularly cultural ones — that produce content or espouse attitudes that he considers 'un-American.' The CPB's demise represents a political victory for those efforts. His impact on the media landscape has been profound. He has also gone after U.S. government media that had independence charters, including the venerable Voice of America, ending that media outlet's operations after many decades. Trump also fired three members of the corporation's board of directors in April. In legal action at the time, the fired directors said their dismissal was governmental overreach targeting an entity whose charter guarantees it independence.
CBS News
17 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trade adviser says Trump has "real concerns" about jobs data after president fires labor statistics chief
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended President Trump's decision to fire a key official responsible for employment reports, telling CBS News on Friday that Mr. Trump has "real concerns" about the accuracy of federal economic data. Greer spoke to "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" hours after the monthly jobs report showed a hiring slowdown in July and revised down earlier reports for May and June. Mr. Trump reacted by firing Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer, claiming — without evidence — Friday's jobs numbers were "RIGGED." "You know, even last year during the campaign, there were enormous swings in the jobs numbers, and so it sounds to me like the president has real concerns," Greer told CBS News, adding that Mr. Trump's issues with government labor data extend beyond Friday's report. "You want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways," said Greer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' reports are based on surveys of households and businesses. It's common for the agency to revise prior months' figures up or down as more data comes in. The May and June revisions — which cut the number of new jobs by a combined 258,000 — were the largest downward change in employment figures since 1979, excluding pandemic-era jobs reports, though that doesn't mean the data was manipulated, as Mr. Trump claims. Greer defended Mr. Trump's right to fire McEntarfer, an economist who was nominated to the post by former President Joe Biden. "The President is the President. He can choose who works in the executive branch," Greer said. The firing drew staunch criticism, with McEntarfer's predecessor William Beach — who was first nominated in Mr. Trump's first term — calling it "groundless" and a "dangerous precedent." "This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers," Beach said in a statement. Friday's report showed the economy added 73,000 jobs in July, below the 115,000 predicted by economists. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2%, up from 4.1% a month earlier. The jobs report also showed a slight drop in manufacturing jobs last month. Mr. Trump's tariff hikes are intended in part to boost American manufacturing — though critics warn some U.S.-based factories that rely on foreign-made inputs will be hurt by tariffs. When asked about July's manufacturing data, Greer — one of Mr. Trump's trade negotiators — told CBS News he doesn't "read tariff policy into that number." Instead, Greer argued that the numbers reflect conditions prior to the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed through Congress last month. He argued businesses were "waiting to see" if some of the bill's tax provisions would pass, including parts that GOP lawmakers believe will encourage more business investment. "I think that we're going to see a big increase in manufacturing jobs now that we have the 'one big, beautiful bill' passed," Greer said. "And I think that … our manufacturers know that they have a clear and certain path forward on that now."
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What we know about who's paying for new White House golden ballroom
In late July and early August 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump would build a $200 million golden ballroom at the White House paid for by himself and private donors. The X account Libs of TikTok shared this claim along with an illustration of the alleged room, captioned "BREAKING: Trump is building a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and it's being funded mainly by Trump himself!" The news — widely reported in national and international media — also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived), where some posters claimed the Trump administration would actually use taxpayer money to fund the construction of the ballroom. Snopes readers also wrote in about the topic. However, we found no credible evidence that the Trump administration's proposed $200 million ballroom would be paid for using taxpayers' money. Rather, both Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and private donors would pay for the project. The Rapid Response 47 X account, an official account of the Trump administration, wrote (archived) in a July 31 post that the project would be "fully funded by President Trump and other private donors — not taxpayers." It was unclear at the time of this writing whether the $200 million amount included costs for "enhancements and modifications" that the White House statement said the U.S. Secret Service, a taxpayer -unded government agency, would provide. We reached out to the White House for clarification on this point and await a reply. Karoline Leavitt and the White House announced the project, called the White House State Ballroom, on July 31, 2025. According to the White House statement, the room would sit near the current East Wing and seat 650 people — more than three times as many as the current East Room, which seats 200 people. The White House statement described the new ballroom as an "exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of ornately designed and carefully crafted space." On funding, the White House statement said, "President Trump, and other patriot donors, have generously committed to donating the funds necessary to build this approximately $200 million dollar structure. The United States Secret Service will provide the necessary security enhancements and modifications." Trump himself also spoke about the ballroom while signing an executive order on July 31 (time code 21:46, our emphasis): Reporter: Mr. President, can you talk about your plans for the new ballroom that was announced today? The $200 million, that's going to be paid for by yourself — Trump: By me, yeah. Reporter: — private donations? Trump: It's a private thing, yeah, I'll do it and we'll probably have some donors or whatever, but it's about $200 million. We've been planning it for a long time, they've wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years but there's never been a president that was good at ballrooms. (unintelligible) really good. In fact, I looked at one we just built in Turnberry in Scotland and it's incredible. We're good at building, I'm good at building things and we'll get it built quickly and on time, it'll be beautiful, top of the line. Nearly two months earlier, on June 6, 2025, Trump posted on his social media network Truth Social, "Just inspected the site of the new Ballroom that will be built, compliments of a man known as Donald J. Trump, at the White House." Days before the White House announcement, Trump teased the idea while meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, at his Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland (which, he said, had recently had its own ballroom fitted). Trump said (video time code 1:43), "We're building a great ballroom at the White House. The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years, but they never had a real estate person, you know, nobody, no president knew how to build a ballroom." Trump did not mention the financing of the project while speaking at Turnberry. Trump has floated ideas for a ballroom at the White House since at least 2010, according to former U.S. President Barack Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod. According to Axelrod, Trump offered to build "a ballroom you can assemble and take apart" in 2010. Trump recounted the encounter to ABC News in 2011, according to a New York Post article. At that time, Trump reportedly priced the project at $100 million, half the 2025 ballroom estimate. The idea surfaced again in 2016, when Obama's press secretary Josh Earnest laughed off (video time code 36:53) another Trump offer of a ballroom as "not something that was at all seriously considered." "I'm not sure that it would be appropriate to have a shiny gold Trump sign on any part of the White House," Earnest said. The White House's July 2025 announcement included illustrations of the proposed exterior and interior of the White House State Ballroom by McCrery Architects. The illustrations showed plans for a gold-accented dining room, though they did not include any gold Trump signs. Campanile, Carl. Trump's W. House Ballroom. 20 Apr. 2011, Janssen, Kim. "Will Trump Now Build His $100 Million White House Ballroom?" Chicago Tribune, 24 May 2019, The Obama White House. "2/1/16: White House Press Briefing." YouTube, 1 Feb. 2016, The White House. "President Trump Meets with the President of the European Commission." YouTube, 27 Jul. 2025, ---. "President Trump Signs an Executive Order, July 31, 2025." YouTube, 31 Jul. 2025, ---. "Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, July 31, 2025." YouTube, 31 Jul. 2025, "The White House Announces White House Ballroom Construction to Begin." The White House, 31 Jul. 2025,
