The Department of Homeland Security revealed on Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who choose to leave the country.
Referring to it as “travel assistance,” the effort is part of a larger push to make immigrants leave the country of their own accord instead of waiting for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.
The department argued that the policy would be a good deal for U.S. taxpayers, as the average cost of the detention and deportation of an immigrant is more than $17,000.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.
The system uses the app CBP Home, where migrants can register their upcoming travel out of the country.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has said he will impose “100 percent tariffs” on foreign films in order to boost the Hollywood film industry, which he argued is “dying” while insisting that movies made overseas pose a “national security threat.”
“The movie industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
Read More
Alcatraz, Sith lords and movie tariffs: Trump’s ravings get louder as his approval rating goes lower
Key Points
- Donald Trump threatens 100% tariffs on foreign films: ‘The movie industry in America is dying’
- Trump orders reopening and expansion of notorious Alcatraz prison
- President's Alcatraz proposal is ‘not a serious one,’ says Nancy Pelosi
- Trump bemoans ‘radicalized judges’ holding up deportation push
- President says he will not pursue a third term and plans to lower tariffs on China ‘at some point’
The Independent's live coverage has paused for the evening
22:50
,
Gustaf Kilander
Please come back tomorrow for more breaking news.
Hello and welcome!
09:05
,
Joe Sommerlad
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump orders reopening and expansion of notorious Alcatraz prison
09:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
President Donald Trump has ordered the reopening of the infamous Alcatraz island prison offshore from San Francisco, California, which once housed the Chicago mobster Al Capone but closed in 1963.
“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than misery and suffering,” the Republican wrote.
“When we were a more serious nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
The president insisted the step was necessary in order to ensure Americans “will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our country illegally.”
https://t.co/3nNtHvebkk pic.twitter.com/VjHCpR8tMr
— Trump Posts on (@trump_repost) May 4, 2025
Kelly Rissman reports.
Trump’s Alcatraz proposal is ‘not a serious one’, says Nancy Pelosi
09:35
,
Joe Sommerlad
The former House speaker, a San Francisco resident, has dismissed the president’s plan to reopen the storied federal penitentiary turned local tourist hot spot as fundamentally unserious.
Alcatraz closed as a federal penitentiary more than sixty years ago. It is now a very popular national park and major tourist attraction. The President’s proposal is not a serious one. https://t.co/ALKXZLWlzO
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 5, 2025
Watch: Trump bemoans ‘radicalized judges’ holding up deportation push
09:50
,
Joe Sommerlad
On his return to the White House last night, after another weekend on the links in Palm Beach, Florida, the president had this to say about his frustrations with America’s legal system holding up his efforts to remove suspected illegal immigrants by insisting on pesky due process.
In pictures: Alcatraz, the historic island jail Trump is planning to reopen
10:05
,
Joe Sommerlad
Here’s a look at the San Francisco penitentiary the president hopes to make great again.
Trump threatens 100% tariffs on foreign films: ‘The movie industry in America is dying’
10:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
The president, who was famously critical of the dark South Korean satire Parasite winning Best Picture win at the Oscars in 2020, is now saying that foreign cinema poses an existential threat to Hollywood and will be heavily tariffed in retaliation.
“The movie industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
“Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.
“This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!
“Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands.”
Here’s more from Kevin EG Perry.
Trump attacks ‘total loser’ Karl Rove and demands Fox anchor retire
10:40
,
Joe Sommerlad
Back on Truth Social last night, the president lashed out at the former White House deputy chief of staff to George W Bush after seeing his interview with Trey Gowdy on Fox News in which the adviser noted the high cost of gasoline and consumers' concerns about Trump’s tariff war.
“He's got to be focused on those two things, I think, that people wanted, which was a strong and prosperous economy and inflation being wiped up,” Rove said of the president, drawing the following angry rebuttal from Trump:
I don't need to have Karl Rove of FoxNews to tell me what to do. The guy's a total Loser who's been wrong about almost everything!
— Trump Posts on (@trump_repost) May 5, 2025
Before that, the president had gone after the same network’s veteran anchor Howard Kurtz, 71, for offering only a “weak” defense of his administration.
In the segment in question, Kurtz had hosted Trump supporter Ben Domenech and Democrat strategist Leslie Marshall for a discussion on the sacking of national security adviser Mike Waltz and the president’s slumping approval ratings.
It is time for Howie Kurtz to retire! Every Woke Anchor in the Business, people that no one watched from CNN, MSDNC, and others, are plastered all over his show, with all really negative and fake statements, and then I am weakly "defended" by Howie and his group (although Ben…
— Trump Posts on (@trump_repost) May 4, 2025
Trump says he doesn’t ‘know’ if he must uphold the Constitution
11:00
,
Joe Sommerlad
Giving a rare interview to a more liberal news outlet yesterday, the president told Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he does not know whether it is his duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution, despite swearing a solemn oath pledging precisely that at his inauguration at the Capitol in January.
Watch: Trump says he will not pursue a third term and plans to lower tariffs on China ‘at some point’
11:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
Here’s two more key exchanges from the president’s interview with NBC yesterday:
WELKER: Are you seriously considering a third term?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025
TRUMP: I will say this -- so many people want me to do it ... but this is not something I'm looking to do pic.twitter.com/AIdby6SStp
“You’re not lowering the tariffs on China.” - Welker
— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) May 4, 2025
“Why would I do that?” - Trump
“Would you lower them?” - Welker
“At some point I will lower them. Because otherwise you can’t do business.” - Trump
pic.twitter.com/s6qA4QinEY
Trump: "We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we're essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we're saving hundreds of billions of dollars. It's very simple." pic.twitter.com/bXgi2iAvod
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025
The president otherwise spent time reiterating his opinion that America’s children have too many dolls anyway (so inflation pricing their parents out of toys is fine), which is also not a great look.
Trump: "I don't think a beautiful baby girl that's 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls ... they don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five." pic.twitter.com/H9nBN0Eh2q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025
‘Clown’ Trump slammed for AI-generated pope post
11:40
,
Joe Sommerlad
The other big controversy the president invited over the weekend was his bizarre decision to post an AI image of himself in papal costume as Catholics around the world mourn the loss of Pope Francis.
JD Vance responds to Trump’s pope meme
12:00
,
Joe Sommerlad
The vice president, a Catholic, was one of the last world leaders to meet with Pope Francis before his death on Easter Monday but said that he was “fine with people telling jokes” in response to his boss’s questionable posting over the weekend.
SNL mocks Trump’s use of executive orders: ‘Reduce the number of interracial couples in TV commercials’
12:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
James Austin Johnson returned as the president on Saturday Night Live (SNL) over the weekend and was joined by Mikey Day as Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff.
“I understand Elmo has now been apprehended by ICE,” Johnson quipped in their latest skit.
“Brought to you by the letter L for El Salvador. He's not coming back.”
Democrats react with quiet shock to damning John Fetterman profile
12:40
,
Joe Sommerlad
When Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was hospitalized for depression in 2023, many on Capitol Hill celebrated it as a moment of courage and a willingness to be open about mental health struggles.
Now, a startling picture of relapse and its associated cost is being associated with him after a deeply sourced profile on Fetterman was published Friday in New York Magazine’s Intelligencer by reporter Ben Terris.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have yet to comment.
But the shock from the profile’s reporting has been evident across social media and on political talk programs over the weekend.
Trump attacks Rove after Republican strategist delivers 100-day verdict
13:00
,
Joe Sommerlad
If you missed this earlier, here’s Madeline Sherratt with more on the president’s attack on the Bush adviser after being angered by his appearance on Fox yesterday.
Trump is desperate to brand his opponents as communists. But why?
13:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
For years, President Donald Trump has blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles.
Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents – from judges to educators – as threats to American identity, culture and values.
Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-vice president Kamala Harris, in the White House election.
“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club in August.
Here’s more.
Truth Social: Trump promotes $Trump meme coin gala dinner
13:35
,
Joe Sommerlad
— Trump Posts on (@trump_repost) May 5, 2025
Tech site says Signal-like app used by Trump adviser was hacked
13:40
,
Joe Sommerlad
A security breach in an unofficial version of the encrypted messaging app Signal has raised concerns about the vulnerability of communications within the highest levels of the U.S. government, according to a report by tech site 404 Media.
The app, TeleMessage, which mimics Signal’s functionality, was reportedly used by former national security adviser Mike Waltz, as indicated by a Reuters photograph showing him using the app during a cabinet meeting last week.
The vulnerability exploited by the hacker highlights potential security risks associated with using unofficial communication platforms for sensitive government discussions.
Trump offered to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help tackle ‘horrible’ drug cartels
14:00
,
Joe Sommerlad
President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he offered to deploy American troops to Mexico to assist in combating drug trafficking, an offer that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed she declined.
Here’s Andrea Shalal with the story of what would have been a highly consequential escalation of the conflict with the cartels had Sheinbaum accepted.
Trump targets housing policies in latest battle against transgender rights
14:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
In the months since President Donald Trump took back the White House and installed a loyalist to lead the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Secretary Scott Turner and his team have moved swiftly and strategically to undo, uproot and remake the agency’s decades of work and priorities.
In the crosshairs is an intense focus on transgender people, as HUD retreats from long-established fair-housing protections by closing their discrimination complaints and, more broadly, moving to undo the Obama-era Equal Access Rule that cemented transgender people’s rights to discrimination protection in housing.
MTG signals the one thing that will cost Republicans ‘bigly’
14:40
,
Joe Sommerlad
Republicans are at odds on whether to pass Trump’s tax cuts, which could introduce $4.6 trillion to the national debt over the next decade
Premium: How Trump fast-tracked Project 2025 and why it’s worse than you think
15:00
,
Joe Sommerlad
America is having to face up to the consequences of a new dictator class, Alex Hannaford warns.
What’s on Trump’s schedule today?
15:20
,
Joe Sommerlad
The president has a slightly mysterious “sports announcement” listed at the White House today at 1pm local time.
After that, he is signing more executive orders in the Oval Office at 3pm before heading off for a “MAGA Inc Dinner” at the Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C., at 7.30pm.
He’s currently on Truth Social posting clips of Markwayne Mullin and Kelly Loeffler talking up his economic policies:
Senator Markwayne Mullin: "President Trump is the first President we've had that actually has a backbone strong enough to stand up and say we've got to right this wrong, start manufacturing goods here. China has got rich off our country. We have spent trillions of dollars… pic.twitter.com/60zM6cFYgT
— Trump Posts on (@trump_repost) May 5, 2025
"Small businesses are back in the driver's seat thanks to President Trump and his belief in the American worker, American industry, and Main Street." pic.twitter.com/IR1qDEjhs9
— Trump Posts on (@trump_repost) May 5, 2025
Warren Buffett says it is not ‘wise’ to use tariffs as a weapon
15:40
,
Joe Sommerlad
The “Sage of Omaha,” who announced last week that he is stepping down from Berkshire Hathaway at the age of 94, did not explicitly name Trump during his remarks to his company’s investor conference on Saturday but his intentions were clear.
“Trade should not be a weapon,” Buffett said. “And the United States… we’ve won. I mean, we have become an incredibly important country, starting from nothing 250 years ago.
“There’s nothing like it. And it’s a big mistake, in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don’t like you very well, and you’ve got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done, and I don’t think it’s right and I don’t think it’s wise.”
Mike Bedigan has more.
Trump admin to pay immigrants $1,000 to leave U.S.
15:59
,
Gustaf Kilander
The Department of Homeland Security revealed on Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who choose to leave the country.
Referring to it as “travel assistance,” the effort is part of a larger push to make immigrants leave the country of their own accord instead of waiting for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.
The department argued that the policy would be a good deal for U.S. taxpayers, as the average cost of the detention and deportation of an immigrant is more than $17,000.
“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a press release.
The system uses the app CBP Home, where migrants can register their upcoming travel out of the country.
Trump recounts call with Erdoğan: 'Good and productive'
16:20
,
Gustaf Kilander
Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to announce the results of his call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
I just had a very good and productive telephone conversation with the President of Turkey, Recep Erdoğan, concerning many subjects, including the War with Russia/Ukraine, all things Syria, Gaza, and more.
The President invited me to go to Turkey at a future date and, likewise, he will be coming to Washington, D.C.
During my four years as President, my relationship with President Erdoğan was excellent.
We worked together closely on numerous things, including the fact that he helped return Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned, back to the United States — Immediately upon my request.
In any event, I look forward to working with President Erdoğan on getting the ridiculous, but deadly, War between Russia and Ukraine ended — NOW!
Donald Trump on Truth Social
Trump plans $100m tariffs on movies and TV shows made overseas - here are the shows that could be impacted
16:40
,
Gustaf Kilander
President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that he’s starting the process of putting in place 100 percent tariffs on any movie made outside of the U.S.
The Trump trade war is now moving on from industry to intellectual property, which could have a massive impact on an industry that often produces work across several countries.
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” Trump claimed on Truth Social on Sunday night. “Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated.”
Read more:
Democratic senators press Trump administration on how it will protect endangered species
17:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Tammy Webber writes:
Three Democratic U.S. senators are asking the Trump administration to explain how it analyzed a proposed rule to eliminate habitat protections for endangered and threatened species and whether industry had a hand in drafting it.
Senators Adam Schiff, Sheldon Whitehouse and Cory Booker sent a letter Monday to the departments of Interior and Commerce that also asks how the administration plans to protect species if the rule is changed.
At issue is a long-standing definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act, which has included altering or destroying the places those species live — the No. 1 cause of extinction.
Read more:
Europe launches drive for scientists in swipe at Trump’s funding freeze
17:20
,
Gustaf Kilander
Catherine Gaschka and Lorne Cook write:
The European Union launched a drive on Monday to attract scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans, after the Trump administration froze U.S. government funding linked to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“A few years ago, no one would have imagined that one of the biggest democracies in the world would cancel research programs under the pretext that the word diversity was in this program," French President Emmanuel Macron said at the “Choose Europe for Science” event in Paris.
“No one would have thought that one of the biggest democracies in the world would delete with a stroke the ability of one researcher or another to obtain visas,” Macron said. “But here we are."
Read more:
Albanese holds ‘warm’ talks with Trump on Aukus and tariffs after election win
17:40
,
Gustaf Kilander
Shweta Sharma writes:
Anthony Albanese said he had a “very warm” conversation with American President Donald Trump after becoming the first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive term in over two decades.
Mr Albanese said he discussed the Aukus military pact and the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs in a congratulatory phone call following his stunning comeback.
Mr Albanese of the Labor Party won against the conservative Liberal-National coalition led by Peter Dutton, as Mr Trump’s global tariff war and the fear of centre-right leaders mirroring Trump-style politics shaped the election in his favour.
