Chuck Schumer accuses GOP of ‘asking working families to pay the price while Trump pockets the perks’ in letter

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Chuck Schumer, the US Senate’s top Democrat, has vowed to oppose a Republican plan to spend $1bn on security improvements for the ballroom Donald Trump is seeking to build on the White House’s former East Wing.

The money is set to be included in a measure Republicans plan to pass that would allocate about $70bn to the federal agencies leading Trump’s mass deportation campaign, with the intention of keeping them operational through the remainder of the president’s term.

Remarks marking 250th anniversary of American independence tell US lawmakers: ‘The actions of this great nation matter’

King Charles has extolled the importance of Britain’s “special relationship” with the US in a speech to Congress that made pointed reference to the importance of Nato, the defence of Ukraine and the climate crisis.

In a speech that will be read as a veiled plea to Donald Trump to return to the US’s traditional European alliances and restore his country’s role as a defender of liberal values, Charles said: “America’s words carry weight and meaning, as they have since independence. The actions of this great nation matter even more.”

First lady accuses the comedian of ‘hateful and violent rhetoric’ over joke made days before the White House press dinner shooting

Jimmy Kimmel has refused to apologise for a joke made days before the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting in which he described Melania Trump as glowing “like an expectant widow”, after both Donald Trump and the first lady accused him of inciting violence.

On Monday Melania Trump accused Kimmel of “hateful and violent rhetoric” and “atrocious behavior”, and said it was “time for ABC to take a stand” against the comedian, who has long been critical of Trump and his policies.