The Latest: Trump pays tribute to fallen soldiers in service at Arlington National Cemetery
May 27, 2025, 5:25 AM
President Donald Trump speaks during the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 26, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump paid tribute to fallen service members during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in an address that honored the “great, great warriors” yet also briefly veered into politics as he boasted of a nation he’s “fixing after a long and hard four years.”
Though the holiday is one U.S. presidents typically treat with pure solemnity, Trump began it with a Memorial Day social media post that attacked his predecessor and called federal judges who’ve blocked his deportation initiatives “monsters who want our country to go to hell.”
Here’s the latest:
The president has no public events schedule for Tuesday, according to the White House.
Hong Kong’s leader John Lee said Tuesday the city would welcome any students who’ve been discriminated against by the U.S. policy, days after the Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students.
Last Friday, a U.S. federal judge blocked the U.S. government from cutting off Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students, an action the Ivy League school decried as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.
Lee said in a weekly press briefing that the government and eight of the city’s universities will do their best to assist any students who suffered from “discriminatory and unfair treatment” in finding a way to study in Hong Kong. He said if necessary, he would consider raising the enrollment quotas for non-local students in these universities.
When Trump directed his attorney general last month to investigate online fundraising, he cited concerns that foreigners and fraudsters were using elaborate “schemes“ and “dummy accounts” to funnel illegal contributions to politicians and causes.
Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses.
Trump’s announcement contained a glaring omission — his political committees also received scores of potentially problematic contributions.
An Associated Press review of donations to Trump over the past five years found 1,600 contributions from donors who live abroad, have close ties to foreign interests or failed to disclose basic information, often making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify them and verify the legality of their donations.
Among those was $5,000 linked to a derelict building, and $5,000 from a Chinese businessman who listed a La Quinta Inn as his address. Another sizable donation — $1 million — was made by the wife of an African oil and mining magnate.
▶ Read more about the AP’s findings
A Texas oil executive from Elon Musk’s government efficiency team has been given sweeping powers to overhaul the federal department that manages vast tracts of resource-rich public lands, but he hasn’t divested his energy investments or filed an ethics commitment to break ties with companies that pose a conflict of interest, records show.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently directed Tyler Hassen, who lacks Senate confirmation and has no public administration experience, to reorganize the Interior Department, which oversees some 70,000 employees in 11 agencies including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Before joining DOGE, Hassen spent nearly two decades as an executive at Basin Holdings, an enterprise involved in the manufacture, sale and servicing of oil rigs worldwide. A financial disclosure report obtained by AP shows Hassen made millions annually from these companies, owned by John Fitzgibbons — an industry giant who is well-connected in Russia.
▶ Read more about Hassen
Catching up on the news from the holiday weekend? Here are some of the headlines
1. Trump has targeted Democrats over questionable online fundraising. His campaign has similar issues
2. Trump says he will pardon a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted of federal bribery charges
3. Trump indicates progress with Iran and hints at an announcement on nuclear talks
4. Trump says Russian leader Vladimir Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”and is is “needlessly killing a lot of people”
5. Trump walks back on June start date for EU tariffs, says he’ll delay them until July
6. Trump’s speech to West Point graduates mixes praise, politics and grievances
Trump paid tribute to fallen service members during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, in an address that honored the “great, great warriors” yet also briefly veered into politics as he boasted of a nation he is “fixing after a long and hard four years.”
Though the holiday is one that U.S. presidents typically treat with pure solemnity, Trump began it with an all-caps Memorial Day social media post that attacked his predecessor and called federal judges who have blocked his deportation initiatives “monsters who want our country to go to hell.”
Yet at Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 400,000 have been laid to rest, Trump commemorated the sacrifice of U.S. service members and singled out several Gold Star families to tell the stories of their fallen relatives.
▶ Read more about Trump’s Memorial Day speech
