Trump sits down with Sean Hannity in first interview since becoming president: Live updates

Donald Trump told Sean Hannity that the attacks on police officers during the Capitol riot are just “minor incidents,” downplaying the injuries sustained by DC Metropolitan Police and Capitol Police during the attempted insurrection.

Trump also downplayed what happened on January 6th. He said the people who stormed the Capitol and attacked police officers were simply there to “protest the vote,” which he says should be allowed.

“Number one, they were in there for 3.5 years. A long time. And you know what they were there for? They were protesting the vote. You should be allowed to protest the vote. You should be allowed to,” Trump said.

In 2020, when protesters were demonstrating against the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Trump unleashed federal agents on them and openly threatened to deploy the US military to quash marches.

Donald Trump told Sean Hannity he didn’t think the federal government should give California “anything” in terms of assistance as fire officials in Los Angeles continue to battle wildfires in the region.

Trump suggested withholding aid until California begins bringing water from the northern parts of the state to the drought-stricken south, presumably to use the water to help fight the wildfires.

He complained that California wouldn’t do that because it’s protecting an endagered species of fish.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” he told Hannity.

Earlier in the interview he bashed Newsom’s leadership and said he should “release the water that comes from the north.”

He also, without evidence, claimed that California was ignoring water flowing down from the Pacific Northwest and instead focusing on building “fake reservoirs.”

Donald Trump discussed his flip-flop on TikTok, telling Sean Hannity that there were several buyers interested in purchasing the firm that owns the app. Trump said he was developing a “warm spot” for it because it helped him reach younger audiences during his 2024 electoral campaign.

When Hannity asked Trump about the allegations made by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers that TikTok was being used as a tool for Beijing to spy on people, he shrugged off the implication.

“Is it that important for China to be spying on young people, on young kids watching crazy videos?” Trump asked.

Hannity replied that he doesn’t want “China spying on anybody.”

Donald Trump’s first sit-down interview is airing now.

Trump gave the interview to long-time ally and Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Early in the interview, Trump accused FEMA of not helping the victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina — a statement which is verifiably false — and suggested that the federal emergency response agency be disbanded and the states left to fend for themselves.

Donald Trump has selected Brent Bozell to run the United States Agency for Global Media.

The agency is a US-supported global media agency. Voice of America falls under the USAGM’s umbrealla.

Trump has tapped former news anchor and failed senatorial and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to head Voice of America.

A former Tesla executive says he agreed to take a job working remotely for the electric carmaker, which then almost immediately went back on its word and threatened to fire him if he didn’t relocate from his home in Southern California — allegedly prompting the recurrence of an agonizing medical condition and threatening his marriage.

In a lawsuit filed last month in state court and moved to federal court on Wednesday, compliance and operational risk specialist Mike Tully accuses Tesla of a heartless bait-and-switch after “being promised and assured” he wouldn’t be required to move. The Irvine resident only accepted the position because of this guarantee, which came via his new boss, Associate General Counsel Charles Lee, according to the previously unreported complaint.

Donald Trump unleashed a tirade against former aide John Bolton on Wednesday as he increasingly signals that he will back away from Washington’s center-right foreign policy establishment.

The president was asked about his day-one decision to strip a federal protective detail from Bolton, who served as his national security adviser early on in his first term in the White House.

Bolton, long one of the most outspoken supporters of direct military action to combat Iran and its proxies in the Middle East, was allegedly targeted for assassination by the Iranian regime in 2022 in retaliation for the Trump administration’s killing of Qassem Soleimani, a top commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).

Donald Trump has named his special agent-in-charge to lead the US Secret Service.

Sean Curran — who helped protect Trump during his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania last sumer — will now head the agency, according to a statement he made on TruthSocial.

ICE officials are directing employees to use the term “alien” instead of “immigrant,” a new memo distributed across the enforcement agency details.

Immigrant rights groups consider the term derogatory and dehumanizing because of the way they’ve been used by conservative pundits and politicians.

The term will be used in all “internal and external communications,” Axios reported. The Independent has asked ICE for comment.