President claims Biden pardons of Jan. 6 committee are invalid

Trump administration officials Sunday announced the deportations of hundreds of immigrants the White House alleges are members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the wartime Alien Enemies Act after a judge temporarily blocked the effort Saturday.

“The president invoked this authority to deport nearly 300 of them who are now in El Salvador, where they will be behind bars where they belong, rather than roaming freely in American communities,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Read the full story.

Steve Kornacki joins “TODAY” to break down a new NBC News poll on President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, more than 50 days since he was sworn in. His job performance is rated as 47% approve while 51% disapprove.

Voters are starting 2025 sour on the state of the economy and President Donald Trump’s handling of it so far, even as his election to a second term sparked an upswing in positive feelings about the direction of the nation, according to a new national NBC News poll.

Buoyed by jubilant and unified Republicans, who are standing in lockstep with Trump and the expansive agenda he and congressional leaders are pushing in Washington, more registered voters see the U.S. as heading in the right direction than at any point since early 2004, though a majority still say the country is on the wrong track. Trump’s approval rating also equals his best-ever mark as president (47%), though again, a majority (51%) disapproves of his performance.

Meanwhile, driven in part by a pessimistic shift among Democrats since Trump’s election, just 18% of voters rate the economy as “excellent” or “good” — not as low as the poorest economic marks during the Biden administration, according to CNBC polling from 2022, but within a handful of points and as low as that mark has been in NBC News polling since 2014. Majorities of voters disapprove of Trump’s early job performance on the economy (54% disapprove, 44% approve) and how he’s handling inflation and the cost of living (55% disapprove, 42% approve).

It’s a new development for Trump, who never previously had a majority against his handling of the economy in a national NBC News poll. Now, he is confronting jittery markets and businesses amid his early moves to put tariffs on U.S. neighbors and other allies. Trump also faces questions from voters about whether he is sufficiently focused on their core issue of costs as he pursues other projects like reshaping the federal bureaucracy.

Read the full story.

Trump claimed without evidence today that his predecessor’s pardons for members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol are invalid because then-President Joe Biden didn’t use a real pen.

“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social online platform.

Trump went on to allege that Biden didn’t know about the pardons or approve them, and said that therefore all the committee members would be “subject to investigation at the highest level.”

It wasn’t clear if the president was planning imminent action or an investigation against the committee members. The White House was contacted for comment.

Read the full story.

Trump is preparing to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But I think we have a very good chance,” Trump says. NBC’s Keir Simmons reports for “TODAY.”

It’s not only that the Trump administration is firing government employees en masse, or trying to swallow up neighboring Canada, or squeezing Ukraine, a democratic nation fighting off Russia’s invasion.

For those in the crosshairs, no small part of the ordeal is the public humiliation they’ve endured. The new administration has been rushing to execute its agenda and along the way has left a roadside trail of unsuspecting and, in some cases, helpless casualties.

In recent weeks, the world has seen images of federal workers leaving their building for the last time, tearfully clutching boxes with small plants and other belongings after abruptly learning they’re out of a job. Some of them were given just 15 minutes to clear out their desks.

Justice Department officials perceived to be not fully on board with the Trump agenda were escorted out of the building by law enforcement or security guards as if they had committed wrongdoing.

Read the full story here.

A majority of American voters say their sympathies lie more with Ukraine than with Russia in the war between the two countries. At the same time, nearly half say they think Trump favors Russia, while most of the remainder believe he favors neither, according to the new national NBC News poll.

Sixty-one percent of registered voters choose Ukraine when asked which of the two countries has their sympathies more, while just 2% say Russia. Another 35% say they are more sympathetic to neither side, while 2% are not sure.

When asked where they believe Trump’s sympathies are, 49% choose Russia, 40% say they think Trump favors neither side, and 8% choose Ukraine. Another 3% say they are not sure.

Trump himself has publicly adopted the idea of not favoring either side, saying in February, “If I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal.”

Read the full story here.