Trump administration reportedly halts Harvard’s ability to enroll international students – live | Donald Trump

Leavitt is asked to comment on politicians who fail to condemn last night’s killing of two Israeli embassy staff.

“It’s despicable,” she says, “and frankly we have seen a rise in antisemitic protests, of pro-Hamas protests, of terrorist sympathisers.” She adds:

We saw them on our college campuses and we’ve seen the Democrat party turn a blind eye and in some cases actually embrace such antisemitic illegal behaviour.

That’s why this administration has done more than any administration in history to crack down on antisemitism.

In a major escalation in the Trump administration’s bid to pressure Harvard University to fall in line with Donald Trump’s agenda, the administration has halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, the New York Times reports.

The Times writes that the Trump administration “notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations”.

“I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked,” according to a letter sent to the university by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, a copy of which was obtained by the Times.

Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and Harvard did not immediately respond to the Times’ requests for comment.

No. The BBC – and others – have factchecked the footage Trump showed to the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, yesterday in a chaotic Oval Office meeting. Here’s what they found.

The footage played by Trump in the Oval Office showed rows of white crosses stretching off into the distance along a rural road. Trump claimed: ‘These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers.’

However, the crosses do not mark graves. The video is from a protest against the murder of white farming couple Glen and Vida Rafferty, who were ambushed and shot dead on their premises in 2020. The clip was shared on YouTube on 6 September, the day after the protests.

“It’s not a burial site, but it was a memorial,” Rob Hoatson, one of the organisers of the event, told the BBC. He said the crosses were erected as a “temporary memorial” to the couple.

Hoatson said the crosses have since been taken down.

BBC Verify has geolocated the footage to an area in KwaZulu-Natal province, near the town of Newcastle. Google Street View imagery captured in May 2023 – almost three years after the footage first appeared online – shows that the crosses were no longer standing.

David Smith

Peter Doocy of Fox News asks Leavitt about Trump saying he thinks unelected Joe Biden staffers concealed his decline so they could use the levers of power for their own personal gain.

Leavitt replies:

That’s not just the president thinking that … These are facts that are now finally being revealed.

It was truly one of the worst political scandals this nation has ever seen. The previous administration covered up a decline in the president’s mental and physical ability. Now it’s coming out.

Leavitt credits some of Doocy’s Fox News colleagues for raising questions about Biden’s health at the time.

White House doubles down on video footage shown in Oval Office purporting to show anti-white killings in South Africa

David Smith

Yamiche Alcindor, a White House correspondent for NBC News, addresses yesterday’s Oval Office ambush of South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, contending that a video played by Trump did not in fact show a burial site of murdered Afrikaner farmers.

Leavitt snaps back:

The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers that have been killed and persecuted because of the colour of their skin. Those crosses are representing their lives.

As Alcindor challenges further, Leavitt insists:

It showed white crosses representing people who have perished because of political persecution.

Alcindor volleys back:

The president said it’s a burial site and it’s not.

Leavitt lambasts the “ridiculous line of questioning”. Meanwhile, the White House’s rapid response X account immediately tagged Alcindor with two photos with captions from the Associated Press.

Leavitt announces that Trump had a “productive discussion” today with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The topic of the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington came up. “They also did talk about a potential deal with Iran, which the president does believe is moving in the right direction,” Leavitt said, observing that either a positive or negative outcome remains possible.

Earlier Reuters reported that US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Rome on Friday for a new round of talks with an Iranian delegation over Tehran’s nuclear program.

It will be the fifth such round of talks. The source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, that Witkoff will be joined by a top state department official, Michael Anton. “Discussions are expected to be both direct and indirect, as in previous rounds,” the source said.

David Smith

In a preview of coming events, Leavitt looks ahead to Trump’s birthday, which coincides with the US army turning 250. She says:

The president will further honour our military on June 14, when he hosts the 250th anniversary of the United States Army with a grand military parade.

President Trump will be joined by veterans, active-duty troops, wounded warriors, Gold Star families and patriotic Americans from across the country.

Trump will attend the G20 summit in Canada from 15 to 17 June, Leavitt confirms.

Leavitt says “hatred has no place in the United States”.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is briefing the media now She starts by saying Donald Trump is “saddened and outraged” by the fatal shooting of the two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC last night.

She adds:

The department of justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator of this to the full extent of the law.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has condemned political violence as “completely unacceptable” after a deadly attack on Israeli embassy employees in Washington DC, and said that the crime does not reflect or represent the millions of Americans peacefully advocating for an end to US support for the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza.

In a statement, Cair said:

We condemn last night’s deadly attack on Israeli embassy employees in Washington DC.

While millions of Americans feel extreme frustration at the sight of the Israeli government slaughtering Palestinian men, women and children on a daily basis with weapons paid for with our taxpayer dollars, political violence is an unacceptable crime and is not the answer.

Such violence only undermines the pursuit of justice. Peaceful protest, civil disobedience and political engagement are the only appropriate and acceptable tools to advocate for policy change in our nation, including an end to US support for the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza.