9 hours ago
Trump seems to suggest that Renee Nicole Good was a 'high-level agitator'
Asked by a Fox News correspondent today to explain the claim, by vice-president JD Vance, that Renee Good was “part of a broad left-wing network,” the president seemed to accuse the 37-year-old woman killed by and ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday – of being a “high-level agitator”.
Trump didn’t provide any evidence for his claim, but insisted that a woman heard screaming the word “shame!” in video of the incident recorded by a witness, must have been “a paid agitator” and “professional troublemaker”.
However, the woman who was screaming “shame” in the video was not Good, but another bystander who was behind the witness who filmed the encounter in the video Trump appeared to be referring to. Trump appeared to incorrectly accuse Good of having been the person screaming, and asserted, without evidence and contrary to experience, that only a paid agitator would scream at ICE agents.
“She was so loud and so crazy and just not normal,” the president said. “So I guess you could say professional, but I didn’t think she did a very good job. You have agitators, and we will always be protecting ICE.”
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When asked why federal officials are not working with local authorities on the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, Trump said that Minnesota officials were “crooked”.
He went on to call Tim Walz, the state’s Democratic governor, “incompetent”.
“I mean, he’s a stupid person,” Trump said.
This comes as the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension (BCA) said that the FBI took control of the ongoing investigation, denying BCA access to case materials.
Trump confirms meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Machado next week
At a meeting with oil and gas executives today, Donald Trump said that he plans to meet with the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, next week.
“She’s going to come in and pay her regards to our country,” Trump said. “And she’s coming in sometime next week, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.”
The president added that the relationship with Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, was “very good” at the moment.
Trump seems to suggest that Renee Nicole Good was a 'high-level agitator'
Asked by a Fox News correspondent today to explain the claim, by vice-president JD Vance, that Renee Good was “part of a broad left-wing network,” the president seemed to accuse the 37-year-old woman killed by and ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday – of being a “high-level agitator”.
Trump didn’t provide any evidence for his claim, but insisted that a woman heard screaming the word “shame!” in video of the incident recorded by a witness, must have been “a paid agitator” and “professional troublemaker”.
However, the woman who was screaming “shame” in the video was not Good, but another bystander who was behind the witness who filmed the encounter in the video Trump appeared to be referring to. Trump appeared to incorrectly accuse Good of having been the person screaming, and asserted, without evidence and contrary to experience, that only a paid agitator would scream at ICE agents.
“She was so loud and so crazy and just not normal,” the president said. “So I guess you could say professional, but I didn’t think she did a very good job. You have agitators, and we will always be protecting ICE.”
David Smith
Reporting from the East Room
Trump said that together the US and Venezuela have 55% of world’s oil reserves.
“Drill, baby, drill was my campaign,” he added.
Trump got Vance, Rubio and a few oil executives to weigh in, all sounding wildly optimistic and upbeat. The president commented: “If we didn’t do this, Russia or China would have done it … This is sort of a nextdoor neighbor.” But he added that China and Russia were welcome to buy US controlled oil: “We are open for business.”
Stephen Miller is sitting under a portrait of Martha Washington and, more surprisingly, Tucker Carlson is sitting in the background.
Energy secretary Chris Wright noted that while the US may have less oil underground than Venezuela, “we have 20 times the production” of the country.
Sitting alongside the president in today’s meeting is vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, energy secretary Chris Wright, and secretary of the interior Doug Burgum.
Vance praised his boss in his remarks today. Noting that previous Republican and Democratic administration “would lose hundreds or thousands of American lives” by getting into “endless quagmires”. Trump, he claimed, “empowered” the American military to “stop the flow of drugs” into the US, and “control one of the great energy reserves” in the world.
“He [Trump] did it without losing a single American life in the process,” the vice-president added.
The president adds that oil companies who want access to Venezuela’s reserves will have to “spend at least $100bn to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure” in the country.
“Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50m barrels of Venezuelan crude oil,” Trump said.
In his remarks today, the president said that “some” of the money generated from Venezuela’s oil production will go to the country itself, and “some will go to the oil companies”.
Trump confirms that Venezuela has turned over 30m barrels of oil.
“It’s about $4bn worth,” he said. “It’s on our way to it’s on its way to the United States right now. And we want to thank Venezuela for that.”
The president added that the administration will decide which oil and gas companies will have access to Venezuelan production.
“One of the reasons you couldn’t go in … you had no security, but now you have total security,” Trump told the executives in the East Room today. “You’re dealing with us directly. You’re not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.”
Trump says latest seized oil tanker is on its way back to Venezuela
The president just announced on Truth Social that the fifth seized oil tanker by the US Coast Guard, known as the Olina, is “on its way back to Venezuela”.
He added that the intercepted oil “will be sold through the GREAT Energy Deal, which we have created for such sales”.
We’re getting more pictures from the demonstrations against the increase in federal law and immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, just two days after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
In a short while we’ll bring you the latest from Donald Trump’s meeting with top US oil executives at the White House, which just opened up to the press.
