Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to escalate the Trump administration’s confrontation with Panama on Sunday, telling its leader that President Trump had determined that Chinese “influence and control” over the Panama Canal threatens the waterway and demanding “immediate changes,” according to the State Department. Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, provided a different account of … Read more
As Secretary of State Marco Rubio begins his first overseas trip on Saturday in Panama, Central American countries are largely reeling under the weight of President Trump’s confrontational approach, including threats of military force to reclaim the Panama Canal and coercing nations into accepting military planes filled with deported migrants. The visit comes during a … Read more
President Trump’s sweeping executive order to halt foreign aid threatens to freeze a U.S. program supporting security forces inside a notorious camp in the Syrian desert that holds tens of thousands of Islamic State members and their families, Syrian and U.S. officials said. The order has also wreaked havoc on another U.S. organization in Syria … Read more
Treating H.I.V. across dozens of nations. Stopping the forced labor of Chinese workers. Training Mexican and Colombian police in anti-narcotics enforcement. Those are just a tiny sample of aid programs around the world operating with grant money from the U.S. government that could be permanently shut down under an executive order President Trump signed last … Read more
The Trump administration placed several dozen senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development on administrative leave in response to what an official characterized as resistance to President Trump’s policy. An email on Monday to USAID staff from the agency’s acting administrator, Jason Gray, said that Trump officials “have identified several actions within USAID … Read more
In the end it took only about 12 hours for President Trump’s first head-to-head confrontation with one of the United States’ closest allies in Latin America, a blowup over Columbia’s rejection of U.S. military flights to return illegal immigrants, to result in a complete retreat by the target of Mr. Trump’s threats. It wasn’t much … Read more
It was a contentious, aggressive telephone call, five days before the inauguration of President Trump on Jan. 20. Speaking to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Mr. Trump insisted he wanted the United States to take over Greenland, the massive and autonomous Danish island that occupies a strategic part of the ocean as the ice … Read more
The U.S. State Department office that funds the clearance of unexploded munitions around the world has asked humanitarian demining organizations funded by the department to cease operations “effective immediately,” according to a surprise announcement early Saturday. The email, sent at 6:26 a.m. by Karen R. Chandler, head of the State Department’s Office of Weapons Reduction … Read more
Mexico’s plan to receive thousands of its deported citizens from the United States is nothing short of ambitious. Plans are underway to build nine reception centers along the border — massive tents set up in parking lots, stadiums and warehouses — with mobile kitchens operated by the armed forces. Details of the initiative — called … Read more
When the career staff of the National Security Council popped onto a video call at 11:30 on Wednesday morning, a sense of dread had already settled in. They knew exactly what President Trump thought of the council: that it was the core of the deep state, whose employees, almost all drawn from the State and … Read more