U.S. President Donald Trump has attempted to void some of his predecessor Joe Biden’s eleventh hour pardons, the latest in a series of moves to prosecute his political opponents.

The pardons Mr. Trump declared void included those for Members of the U.S. House of Representatives investigating the January 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. Others pardoned by Mr. Biden just before he stepped down as President on January 20, 2025 included Chief Anthony Fauci, who led the Biden Administration’s response to COVID-19 and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Mr. Trump wrote on his ‘Truth Social’ media platform just after midnight (Washington DC time) on Monday .

The January 6 Select Committee included Republicans Liz Cheney, a Trump critic and daughter of former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, as well as Adam Kinzinger who represented the 11th District in Illinois. It also included Democrat Adam Schiff, who is now a U.S. Senator from California and a vocal critic of Mr. Trump.

On his first day in office, Mr. Trump had pardoned or commuted sentences in more than 1,500 cases connected to the January 6 attack.

Anthony Fauci invokes Fifth Amendment, declines to testify in Republican-led COVID-19 Senate hearing

Mr. Trump argued on Monday (March 17, 2025) that Mr. Biden did not sign the pardons himself and claimed, without any proof, that Mr. Biden did not even know about the pardons.

“Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.”

Mr. Trump further suggested — without providing any evidence — that members of the Select Committee were probably responsible for signing the pardons without Mr. Biden’s knowledge.

The President however admitted that it was the courts that would ultimately decide if he had the ability to rescind previous Presidential pardons.

“I think so. It’s not my decision…that’ll be up to a court,” Mr. Trump said about pardons and executive orders being void if signed by an autopen, as per reporting from the White House pool.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are among recent U.S. Presidents who have used the pardon to protect their allies or families, often pre-emptively. The courts have thus far been reluctant to curtail the President’s powers of pardon, sanctioned by Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The pardoning powers are broad but limited to crimes against the United States and excluding cases of impeachment.

U.S. President Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said on Monday (June 1, 2026), as the Justice Department said it would temporarily pause its implementation to comply with a court order.

The potential retreat is a recognition of the legal setbacks the fund has encountered since it was announced two weeks ago as well as a mounting political backlash from Republicans concerned by a perceived lack of oversight of the money disbursement and the potential for payouts to participants in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The Trump administration had defended the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponisation Fund,” established to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, as an appropriate corrective measure to make up for what officials insist was weaponised law enforcement during the Biden administration.

Though some Mr. Trump supporters — including participants in the Capitol riot — celebrated the announcement of the fund, the reaction among Republicans in Congress has been decidedly more hostile. The fund was one of the issues the president spoke about with House Speaker Mike Johnson, whom he met with Monday (June 1, 2026), according to a person who was granted anonymity to discuss a private discussion.

On Monday (June 1, 2026), a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking, said Mr. Trump was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund. The Justice Department said separately that it would comply with a ruling by a federal judge in Virginia on Friday that halted plans for the fund pending additional arguments later this month, even as it noted that it “disagrees strongly” with that decision.

Lawmakers have raised concerns about the lack of oversight of the money and pushed the administration to either impose limits on the fund or scrap it altogether. It especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.

Republicans who returned to Washington on Monday (June 1, 2026)said they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on the fund.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated on Monday (June 1, 2026) that he hoped the White House would move to drop the fund.

“I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune told reporters.

Senators pressed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the fund at a closed-door gathering last month that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called one of “the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.” The fund’s future was called into question by a pair of court rulings.

In Virginia, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema temporarily halted its formation and scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order barring the government from moving forward with the fund while pending litigation challenges it.

The Justice Department said on Monday (June 1, 2026) it would abide by the ruling but noted in a statement the “fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise.”

Separately, the federal judge in Florida overseeing Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS ordered Mr. Trump’s attorneys to respond to “grievous allegations” by settlement critics that the president abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal. US District Judge Kathleen Williams gave them until June 12 to respond in writing to allegations of collusion and whether the case should be reopened because the court was the “victim of a fraud.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was “100% correct” in his assessment that the U.S. was a nation in decline, but the remarks referred to the years of his predecessor Joe Biden.

“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He said the U.S. “suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI), horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!”

Mr. Trump asserted that the U.S. has seen “an incredible rise” during the first 16 months of his administration and pointed to record stock markets and 401(k)s, military victories, renewed economic strength and what he described as a booming job market.

Mr. Trump also touted a military victory and thriving relationship in Venezuela, as well as the “military decimation” of Iran.

“President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the United States has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Administration,” he said.

“Two years ago, we were, in fact, a Nation in decline. On that, I fully agree with President Xi!” Mr. Trump said, adding that, “But now, the United States is the hottest Nation anywhere in the world, and hopefully our relationship with China will be stronger and better than ever before!”

Mr. Trump also cited trillions of dollars in foreign investment flowing into the U.S., praised the administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes and claimed that President Xi congratulated him on what he called the administration’s “tremendous successes” in a short period of time.

The U.S., ​Iran and a group of regional ‌mediators are discussing the ​terms for a ⁠potential 45-day ceasefire that could lead to a permanent end to the ‌war, Axios reported on Sunday (April 5, 2026), citing four U.S., ‌Israeli and regional sources with ‌knowledge ⁠of the talks.

Reuters could ⁠not immediately verify the report. The White House and the U.S. State ​Department did not ‌immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Iran-Israel war LIVE updates

The mediators are discussing the terms of a ‌two-phased deal, the report said, ​adding that the first phase would be a potential ⁠45-day ceasefire during which a permanent end to the war ‌would be negotiated.

The second phase would be an agreement on ending the war, the report said.

The ceasefire could be extended if additional ‌time was required for talks, the report ​said.

U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street ⁠Journal on Sunday (April 5) his deadline for ⁠Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face ‌attacks on critical infrastructure is Tuesday (April 7, 2026) evening.

As per the sources, the mediators are working on confidence building measures Iran could do regarding the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and it highly enriched Uranium stockpile.

While these two issues are Iran’s main bargaining chips in the negotiations, sources said that the Iranians will not agree to fully give up on them for only 45 days of ceasefire, as per the report by Axios.

According to Axios, the mediators want to see whether Iran could take partial step on both issues in the first phase of the deal.

Meanwhile, they are also working on steps which the Trump administration could take so as to give Iran guarantees that the ceasefire will not be temporary and that the war will not resume.

As per Axios, the Iranian officials have made it clear to the mediators they don’t want to be caught in a Gaza or Lebanon situation where there is a ceasefire on paper, but that the US and Israel attack again whenever they want to.

Meanwhile it further reported that the mediators are also working on other U.S. confidence-building measures the Washington could take which would address some of Iran’s demands.

The developments come as the mediators are highly concerned that the Iranian retaliation for a US-Israeli strike on the country’s energy infrastructure would be destructive for Gulf countries’ oil and water facilities.

U.S. President Donald Trump said that Iran had agreed to allow 20 ships carrying oil through the Strait of Hormuz starting on Monday (March 30, 2026) morning and continuing over the next few days “out of a sign of respect.”

“I would only say that we’re doing extremely well in that negotiation but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Sunday (March 29) night board Air Force One as he flew to Washington.

Iran-Israel war LIVE updates

Mr. Trump was asked if Iran had responded to the 15-point ceasefire plan the U.S. has proposed and he said, they did and added, “They gave us most of the points. Why wouldn’t they?” But Mr. Trump didn’t offer details when asked about Iran, by his telling, appearing to make major concessions. “They’re agreeing with us on the plan,” Mr. Trump said.

He also said Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei “may be alive but he’s obviously, very seriously in trouble. He’s seriously wounded.”

Iran launched strikes on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile after Iranian electrical facilities came under attack, cutting power to parts of Tehran and surrounding areas.

As Israel continued to press its offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the UN Force in Lebanon said a peacekeeper had been killed on Sunday (March 29) and another critically injured by a projectile that hit a UNIFIL position.

UNIFIL said they did not know the origin of the projectile but were investigating.

Mr. Trump, citing the number of Iranian leaders who have been killed in the month-long U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, said regime change has already been achieved and the new leadership is “much more reasonable”.

“We’ve had regime change,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before. It’s a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change.”

Asked whether there could be a deal with Iran this coming week, Mr. Trump said: “I do see a deal in Iran. Could be soon.”

Trump suggests U.S. could take Iran’s Kharg Island

U.S. President Donald Trump has raised the idea of American forces seizing Iran’s Kharg Island, its main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf.

The comment by Mr. Trump came in an interview published early on Monday (March 30) by The Financial Times.

“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” >Mr. Trump told the newspaper. “It would also mean we had to be there (on Kharg Island) for a while.” Asked about Iranian defences there, he said: “I don’t think they have any defense. We could take it very easily.” The US already launched airstrikes once it said targeted military positions on the island.

Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf Arab countries and new attacks if US troops land on its territory.

Mr. Trump said that Iran’s parliament speaker authorised the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

The comment by Mr. Trump in the interview is the latest signal by the Americans of Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf’s importance within Iran’s theocracy.

“They gave us 10” Pakistani-flagged tankers, he said. “Now they’re giving 20 and the 20 have already started and they’re going right up the middle of the Strait.” “He’s the one who authorised the ships to me,” Trump told the newspaper about Qalibaf. “Remember I said they’re giving me a present? And everyone said: What’s the present?’ … When they heard about that they kept their mouth shut and the negotiations are going very well.” Qalibaf has maintained a combative personality through his X account in the war, mocking the Americans and issuing threats. But the former Revolutionary Guard commander has seen his profile rise as senior members of its theocracy have been killed.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature is set to feature on U.S. paper currency soon, a first for a sitting President since the introduction of dollar bills in 1861.

The decision, taken by the U.S. Treasury, coincides with the 250th anniversary celebrations of American Independence this year.

“In celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, President Donald J Trump’s signature alongside (Treasury) Secretary Scott Bessent’s will soon appear on U.S. currency, marking a first in history, and symbolises @POTUS’ leadership and dedication to our great nation will carry a lasting impact,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said in a post on X.

Earlier this month, a federal arts commission approved the final design for a 24-karat gold commemorative coin bearing Mr. Trump’s image to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence.

The 24-karat gold coin, portraying Mr. Trump leaning on the Resolute desk with clenched fists, will be only the second time a living president has featured on a coin.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are on a path toward unprecedented economic growth, lasting dollar dominance, and fiscal strength and stability,” Mr. Bessent said in a statement.

“There is no more powerful way to recognise the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the semiquincentennial,” he said.

Treasurer Beach said the President’s mark on history as the architect of America’s Golden Age economic revival is undeniable, adding that printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved.

President Donald Trump, whose call for assistance from allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic has largely been rebuffed, said on Tuesday (March 17, 2026) that U.S. forces “no longer need” military help in the Iran war.

“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea,” Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social network, adding: “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

Iran-Israel war LIVE updates

Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.

A handful of ships have crossed through the strait, and Iran has said the vital waterway technically remains open — just not for the United States, Israel and their allies. About 20 vessels have been struck since the war began.

Earlier with oil prices rising, Mr. Trump said he had demanded that roughly a half-dozen countries send warships to ensure ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

But his appeals brought no immediate commitments, with many saying they are hesitant to get involved in a war with no defined exit plan and sceptical that they could do more than the U.S. Navy.