FILE - President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Nations are being forced to choose between siding with China or the U.S. as President Donald Trump’s trade war locks the world’s two largest economies on a collision course.

Trump says Columbus Day will now just be Columbus Day, accusing Democrats of denigrating traditional American icons by celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day alongside the date when the Italian explorer landed in the Caribbean in 1492.

Trump’s border czar praises his illegal migration crackdown as executive orders aim to speed deportations.

According to a new AP-NORC poll, many Americans don’t agree with Trump’s aggressive efforts to quickly enact his agenda.

The Latest:

English for truck drivers

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt hosted a briefing for influencers at the White House complex, and she told them that Trump would sign an executive order requiring truck drivers to know English.

“There’s a lot of communications problem between truckers on the road,” she said, which is “a public safety risk.”

“We’re going to ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English,” Leavitt said. “That’s a very common sense policy in the United States of America.”

Former Justice Department prosecutor challenges his firing by the White House

Adam Schleifer was fired from his job as an assistant U.S. attorney last month after right-wing activist Laura Loomer called for his removal in a social media post. Loomer highlighted Schleifer’s past critical views about Trump while running in a Democratic primary for a New York congressional seat.

Schleifer argues in a complaint with the Merit Systems Protection Board that he was fired for “unprecedented partisan and political reasons.”

The filing obtained by The Associated Press says his removal undermines a “bedrock principle” of the justice system: “that the federal prosecutor is not a partisan political actor, but has a duty to prosecute without fear or favor.”

An email seeking comment was sent to the White House.

-By Alanna Durkin Richer

Eagles star QB to skip White House celebration, White House official says

Jalen Hurts is one of several Philadelphia Eagles players who are expected to skip Monday’s White House celebration to honor the Super Bowl champs, according to a White House official.

Hurts and other players cited scheduling conflicts as the reasons for their absences, according to the official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked by a reporter on the red carpet of Time magazine gala last week whether he would visit, Hurts responded with an awkward “um” and long silence before walking away.

Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley visited Trump over the weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and caught a ride with the president to Washington on Air Force One.

-By Aamer Madhani

Job cuts delay Pentagon plans to expand work to prevent sex assaults and suicides

Personnel cuts across the Defense Department will delay plans to hire at least 1,000 more civilians to help prevent sexual assault, suicides and behavior problems within the military, senior defense officials said.

But they insist that crucial programs aimed at addressing sexual misconduct and providing help for victims are not affected so far.

The officials told The Associated Press that plans to have about 2,500 personnel in place to do this prevention work throughout the military services, combatant commands, ships and bases by fiscal year 2028 have been slowed due to the hiring freeze and cuts.

But they said they’re looking to spread out the roughly 1,400 people they have been able to hire to date and try to fill gaps as best they can until the additional staff can be hired.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions.

-By Lolita C. Baldor

Former Jan. 6 prosecutor warns Trump’s pardons could encourage political violence

A former supervisor of the team that prosecuted the 1,500 plus people charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol says he fears Trump’s pardons could embolden right-wing extremists and encourage future political violence.

Michael Romano resigned as a deputy chief of the now-disbanded Capitol Siege Section after 17 years in the Justice Department. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Romano said these defendants and other right-wing extremists got a clear message from Trump’s sweeping pardons:

“If you support the president and if you commit violence in support of the president, that he might insulate you from the consequences, that he might protect you from the criminal justice system,” Romano said. “And so that might encourage people to commit these sort of acts.”

? Read more from Romano’s AP interview

Market turmoil has many afraid to check retirement savings

Trump has urged investors worried about his tariffs’ impact to “be cool.”

But retired and near-retired Americans are anxiously watching the turmoil his trade war has injected into financial markets, worried about outliving their savings or having to put off big purchases.

Though stocks rallied this week, the S&P 500 is down 10% from its all-time high in February. Losses in the Nasdaq and among small-cap stocks are steeper. Even bonds and the U.S. dollar have been volatile. Many economists are warning of a possible recession.

The Cboe Volatility Index, considered a “fear gauge” of investor pessimism, reached its highest level in five years this month.

? Read more about Trump tariffs feeding retiree worries

Vulnerable House Republicans limit their exposure to backlash over Trump

The U.S. House is ending a 17-day recess known as a district work period, when members of Congress typically return home to focus on their constituents.

The 10 most vulnerable House Republicans, as measured by their margins of victory last fall, were especially hard to find. None of these swing-district conservatives from across Arizona, Colorado, California, Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin hosted in-person events that were open to the public.

Just one planned a telephone town hall. Others favored invitation-only gatherings that weren’t promoted until after they were over.

GOP leaders have advised that there’s no benefit to creating more viral moments amid potential backlash over Trump’s first months in office.

Illinois governor says this is no time for Democrats to be in despair

“Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now,” JB Pritzker said. Democrats “must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box.”

The billionaire Hyatt heir has been laying the groundwork for a potential presidential campaign for years. He drew national attention in February when he drew a parallel between Trump’s rhetoric and the rise of Nazi Germany.

Pritzker invoked his Jewish faith again at the New Hampshire Democratic Party dinner Sunday night, drawing a standing ovation when he called on Trump to “stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors.”

Canadians choose their leader in what’s become a referendum on Trump

The U.S. president trolled Canadians on social media as they voted Monday for Liberal Party Prime Minister Mark Carney or Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. Trump suggested that he himself was on the ballot, repeating that Canada should become the 51st state and incorrectly claiming that the U.S. subsidizes Canada.

“It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!” Trump posted.

Canadians, infuriated, have canceled U.S. vacations, refused to buy American goods and voted early — a record 7.3 million Canadians cast ballots before their Election Day.

Beijing says there’s no recent call between Xi and Trump

Beijing’s repeated denials on Monday were unequivocal: There have been no recent calls between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

When asked about Trump’s claim in a recent TIME interview that the Chinese leader had called him, Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said. “As far as I know, there have not been any calls between the two presidents recently.”

Guo went on and said: “Let me make it clear one more time that China and the U.S. are not engaged in any consultation or negotiation on tariffs.”

Trump says ‘I run the country and the world’

Trump has often raged against the Atlantic magazine and its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg. But he decided to grant them an interview anyways, talking extensively about his return to power and his plans for the presidency.

During the conversation, Trump compared his first and second terms.

“The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”

Trump administration says it has deported about 139,000 people so far

Homan said “the numbers are good.”

He said total deportations haven’t been higher because the Trump administration has been so effective at increasing enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Homan also asserted that the Biden administration’s deportation totals were inflated by counting migrants who were turned away as they tried to cross the border illegally.

Under Trump, detentions at the border have plummeted while more people have been deported from around the country, Homan said.

Homan: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was an ‘oversight’ but not an ‘error’

“I don’t accept the term error and Abrego Garcia,” Homan told reporters at the White House. “There is an oversight.”

He acknowledged that a court order would have blocked Abrego Garcia’s deportation. The Supreme Court later ordered the administration to facilitate his return to the U.S.

But Homan said “things have changed” given accusations that he was a gang member.

Trump officials have argued they have no jurisdiction in El Salvador. And Leavitt said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has no plans “to smuggle a designated foreign terrorist back into the United States.”

Leavitt said the administration “plans to comply” with what Bukele said.

Trump’s ‘border czar’ sa

ys Mexico is ‘in a roundabout way’ paying for the border wall

Tom Homan was asked if Mexico is paying for construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, a Trump promise that didn’t happen during his first term.

He asserted that the U.S. is saving millions a day on detention and transportation costs because Mexico has troops patrolling their side of the border.

“We’ve more than made up for the cost of that wall,” he said.

Trump will sign two executive actions on immigration as his 100-day mark approaches

The orders will:

— Expand law enforcement operations to make it easier to detain migrants

— Direct state and federal officials to publish lists of “sanctuary city” jurisdictions where local authorities often don’t concentrate on enforcing federal immigration regulations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “sanctuary” cities have worked to “obstruct” enforcement.

“We are in the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history,” Leavitt said during a Monday morning briefing with reporters.

Trump’s treasury secretary says the onus is on China to dial down trade tensions

“I believe that it’s up to China to de-escalate, because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them, and so these 120%, 145% tariffs are unsustainable,” Scott Bessent said during an interview Monday on the business channel CNBC.

Bessent moved markets last week when he said in a private speech to JPMorgan Chase that he expects a deescalation in the trade war because “Neither side thinks the status quo is sustainable.”

The White House plans to hold morning briefings this week to mark Trump’s 100 days

The first one will feature Tom Homan, the president’s top border adviser.

Officials set the stage by lining up posters with mug shots of migrants who have been accused of crimes. They’re positioned outside the West Wing to be in the background of correspondents’ television shots.

With China and the US at intense economic odds, nations are being forced to choose sides

As Trump’s trade war locks the world’s two largest economies on a collision course, America’s unnerved allies and partners are cozying up with China to hedge their bets. It comes as Trump’s trade push upends a decade of American foreign policy — including his own from his first term — toward rallying the rest of the world to join the United States against China. And it threatens to hand Beijing more leverage in any eventual dialogue with the U.S. administration.

With Trump saying that countries are “kissing my ass” to negotiate trade deals on his terms or risk stiff import taxes, Beijing is reaching out to countries far and near. It portrays itself as a stabilizing force and a predictable trading partner, both to cushion the impact from Trump’s tariffs and to forge stronger trade ties outside of the U.S. market.

“America and China are now locked in a fierce contest for global supremacy,” Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in an April 16 speech. “Both powers claim they do not wish to force countries to choose sides. But in reality, each seeks to draw others closer into their respective orbits.”

? Read more about the trade war between China and the U.S.

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