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NBC News
3 hours ago
- Business
- NBC News
Two weeks' notice: Trump's deadline on Iran is a familiar one
President Donald Trump's two-week timeline to decide on whether the U.S. will strike Iran's nuclear sites is a familiar one — it's one he's repeatedly used since his first term in office. 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,' he said in a statement issued through White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. In the last two months, Trump has promised action on questions or decisions in 'two weeks' over a dozen times — and he used the same timeline repeatedly during his first term in office. 'We're going to be announcing something, I would say over the next two or three weeks, that will be phenomenal in terms of tax and developing our aviation infrastructure,' Trump said of tax overhaul plans on Feb. 9, 2017. He released a one-page outline of the plan 11 weeks later, according to a Bloomberg review that year. He went on to repeatedly cite the time frame for impending actions on health care and infrastructure that never materialized during his first four years in office. Trump's use of the timing prediction has accelerated in recent weeks — and he's used it on items ranging from trade deals and tariffs to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Much of what he's predicted hasn't come to pass, with questions he's said he'd answer remaining unanswered. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Two weeks to set rates on tariffs Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on April 23, Trump said the country was going to have "great deals" on trade. "And by the way, if we don't have a deal with a company or a country, we're going to set the tariff. We just set the tariff. It's something that we think — that will happen, I say, over the next couple of weeks, wouldn't you say? I think so," Trump said. "Over the next two, three weeks. We'll be setting the number. And we're going to pick — could be for China too." Two weeks to decide on continued aid for Ukraine During an April 24 Oval Office meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump was asked if he'd continued providing military intelligence and aid to Ukraine if there was no peace deal with Russia. "Let's see what happens. I think we're going to make a deal, and if we make a deal, it'll be wonderful. We won't have to worry about your question. You can ask that question in two weeks, and we'll see. But I think we're getting very close," Trump said. Two weeks to find out if Trump trusts Putin Asked by reporters on April 27 if he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin, given the ramped-up attacks on Ukraine while Trump was calling for a ceasefire, the president said, 'We'll let you know in about two weeks.' Two weeks to determine Putin's path in Ukraine In an interview that aired May 4 on NBC's " Meet the Press," Trump was asked by moderator Kristen Welker if he'd misread Putin's position on Russia's war with Ukraine. "No, I'll tell you about in a month from now, or two weeks from now. I have no idea. I can tell you this, he's ... his ambition was stopped to a large extent when he saw that it was me that was now leading the charge," Trump said. Two weeks to set a trade deal with China Trump told reporters on May 4 on Air Force One that he'd be "setting" a trade deal with China. "At some point in the next two weeks or three weeks, I'm gonna be setting the deal. I'm gonna say that such and such a country has had a tremendous trade surplus, surplus their way, with us. They've taken advantage of us in various ways," Trump said. Two weeks to announce tariffs on pharmaceutical companies Asked on May 5 in the Oval Office if he'd made any determination on tariff rates and timing for pharmaceutical companies, Trump said, "I have. I'll announce it over the next two weeks." Asked about those same tariffs on Tuesday, Trump said, "We're going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon." Two weeks to sign trade deals During a May 6 meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office, Trump suggested a number of trade deals were imminent. "We also have a situation, because everyone says, when, when? When are you going to sign deals? We don't have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now, Howard [Lutnick, the commerce secretary], if we wanted. We don't have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market. We don't want a piece of their market," Trump said. "So we can just sit down, and I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks." Two weeks to meet Putin and end the war Trump was asked in Abu Dhabi on May 16 when he would meet with Putin to discuss ending the war. "As soon as we can set it up," Trump replied. "And I think in, uh, two or three weeks we could have it be a much, much safer place." Two weeks to set trade terms At a May 16 business roundtable in Abu Dhabi, Trump said he'd soon be setting the terms of the trade deals he wanted, and that Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would be notifying trading partners. "So at a certain point over the next two to three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out, essentially telling people it won't be very fair. But we'll be telling people what they'll be paying to do business in the United States. They'll essentially be paying to be doing business in the United States," the president said. Two weeks to determine if Zelenskyy is doing a good job Asked on May 19 in the Oval Office if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was doing enough to help end the war, Trump said, "I'd rather tell you in about two weeks from now because I can't say yes or no. "I think — look, he's a strong person, Zelenskyy, a strong guy and he's not the easiest person to deal with, but I think that he wants to stop. It's a very bad — it's a very bad thing that's happening over there. I think he wants to stop, but I could answer that question better in two weeks or four weeks from now." Two weeks to determine if Putin wants to end the war Trump was asked again if he believed Putin wanted to end the war while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on May 28. "I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks, within two weeks. We're going to find out very soon. We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently. But it will take about a week and a half, two weeks," Trump said. Two weeks to send out trade deal offers After touting a preliminary trade deal with China, Trump was asked at the Kennedy Center which country he expected to sign a deal with next. "Well, we're dealing with Japan. We're dealing with South Korea. We're dealing with a lot of them. We're dealing with about 15 countries. But as you know, we have about 150 plus and you can't do that. So we're going to be sending letters out in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries and telling them what the deal is, like I did with E.U.," Trump responded. Two weeks to decide whether to attack Iran Press secretary Karoline Leavitt began her briefing on Thursday by discussing potential U.S. involvement in Israel's conflict with Iran. "Regarding the ongoing situation in Iran, I know there has been a lot of speculation amongst all of you in the media regarding the president's decision-making and whether or not the United States will be directly involved," she said. "In light of that news, I have a message directly from the president, and I quote, 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' That's a quote directly from the president for all of you today."
NBC News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Trump posts on social media calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday posted on social media a call for a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden more than four years ago. Despite a flurry of lawsuits from the Trump campaign in the wake of his 2020 election loss, no evidence has emerged of any mass voter fraud schemes that had any impact on the election. Trump, on his Truth Social platform, falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election in "LANDSLIDE!" and that the election "was a total FRAUD!" "A Special Prosecutor must be appointed," Trump wrote. "This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America! Let the work begin!" A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Trump's call for a special prosecutor. Trump told NBC News' "Meet the Press" in a December 2024 interview that he wouldn't direct the Justice Department to look back at the 2020 election, despite his repeated false assertions that it was marred by fraud. "To the people who say that you're now directing your Justice Department to investigate 2020 and they want to move on — is that a good use of precious resources? Is that what you want them to do?" moderator Kristen Welker asked Trump. "Just so you know, I have the right to do that but I'm not interested in that," Trump replied. He added: "I'm not interested. I have the absolute right. I'm the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I'm the president. But I'm not interested in that. You know what I'm interested in? Drilling, and getting prices down, and stopping people from pouring into our border that come from prisons and mental institutions." Earlier in the week, Trump also made reference to FBI Director Kash Patel's boosting of a 2020 election conspiracy based on a single unverified claim from an unidentified FBI confidential human source about the use of fake licenses to vote. Trump himself has faced two separate special counsel investigations: The Robert Mueller investigation during his first term in office and the Jack Smith investigation during Biden's presidency. Smith's investigation resulted in two separate federal criminal cases against Trump. One charged him over his handling of classified documents, while another charged him in connection with his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. In the classified documents case, Trump's legal team argued that Smith's appointment was invalid and that Congress never authorized special counsels. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who was handling the case, then ruled that Smith's appointment was "unlawful," a decision the Justice Department appealed. The Justice Department dropped its appeal of Cannon's ruling after Trump took office in January. Smith's office dropped the Jan. 6-related case after Trump won the 2024 election last November. "Trump knew that there was no outcome-determinative fraud in the 2020 election, that many of the specific claims that he made were untrue, and that he had lost the election," Smith wrote in his public report. After beginning his second term, Trump quickly granted clemency to roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants on the day of his inauguration, freeing many who had admitted to or been convicted of assaulting members of law enforcement during that attack.
The Hill
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Padilla: Republicans can't deny ‘No Kings' protest numbers
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that Republicans cannot deny the numbers of the recent 'No Kings' protests. 'One of the best things that has happened over the last several days is that millions of people who came out across the country on Saturday, by and large, very, very peaceful, but you can't deny the numbers,' Padilla said on MSNBC's 'The Weeknight' 'My colleagues on the other side of the aisle cannot deny the numbers,' he added. The No Kings organization's 'national day of action' against the Trump administration turned out an estimated five million protesters in over 2,000 cities and towns across the U.S. The marches took place as a parade celebrating the Army took place in the nation's capital on President Trump's birthday. On Thursday, Trump was asked to respond to the 'No Kings' demonstrations, to which he replied that he doesn't 'feel like a king; I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.' Padilla's comments follow his forcible removal and handcuffing at a news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week, which flared tempers among Democrats. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday called Padilla's handcuffing 'atrocious' on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'To see him mistreated that way and tackled to the ground and shackled that way and in the midst of what we're seeing more broadly in Los Angeles is just atrocious,' Schiff said Sunday. The White House has argued that Padilla was looking for the confrontation and did not adequately indicate he was a U.S. senator, though the Californian identified himself as he was being detained.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
TV anchors are agitating for side hustles as the cable cash dries up
TV news anchors and contributors have been watching the walls slowly close in on the cable business. Now, they want their networks to let them lay the groundwork for a Substack or podcast exit before the money runs out, talent agents and other TV insiders tell Business Insider. "We're trying to identify opportunities for people to make money outside their networks," a top talent agent said. "We're having those conversations every day — we all see there's going to be limited upside for these people at the networks." Networks have historically barred talent from moonlighting on other platforms with their own newsletters and podcasts (with books being an exception). But five TV news insiders told BI there'd been newfound openness to letting talent establish themselves on platforms like Substack — especially as the examples pile up of TV journalists taking the solo route. Catherine Valentine, Substack's point person for news and politics, said the platform had seen a surge of interest from TV journalists after it launched a live video feed and Jim Acosta, formerly of CNN, started broadcasting from the platform earlier this year. Some legacy news organizations, like CNN and MSNBC, are experimenting with letting talent use Substack to distribute clips like they would have done on X (formerly Twitter) in the past. "They're opening the door because talent who's left had such immediate impact on Substack," Valentine said. She added that she'd even fielded some calls from legacy outlets about letting their employees establish their own paywalled Substacks. Agents, with a financial stake in steering clients' careers, are pushing to exploit the shift in tenor at TV networks. Two told BI they're paying attention to movements like those of CNN's Jake Tapper, who distributes notes and links for free on Substack. One also said they hoped networks might give more leeway to news contributors than anchors, even if the distinction is lost on the audience. An example is Steve Kornacki, who left NBC to become a contributor at MSNBC, which will let him do other things outside the network, a person familiar with the matter said. Agents are also carefully selecting their company targets. One said they considered Paramount's CBS News and Disney's ABC News to be more conservative when it came to letting talent freelance, while they saw NBC and MSNBC as more open. Chuck Todd, the former "Meet the Press" moderator and now independent entrepreneur, said he'd heard "informed chatter" that news orgs could copy what Disney's ESPN has done with Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee. Smith's deal freed him to appear on more platforms to talk politics, while McAfee's gave him creative control. "It's likely the future all over the media landscape," Todd said. The TV business is wobbly The changing winds come as the With people cutting the cord faster than expected, media companies can't jettison their cable channels fast enough. Warner Bros. Discovery just announced plans to split its declining TV networks from its growing streaming and studios business. Comcast is also hiving off most of its cable assets, including MSNBC and CNBC. Meanwhile, the erosion of these news outlets' businesses has left them vulnerable to attacks by President Donald Trump and made it harder for them to fight back. At the same time, some TV news journalists like Acosta, Mehdi Hasan, and Megyn Kelly, untethered — whether by choice or by force — from big media companies, are starting to show there's a viable business for established voices in podcasting and on platforms like Substack and Beehiiv. As agents prepare to go into sensitive negotiations with the networks over talent side gigs, it helps to have examples out there like Acosta, one of Substack's top politics names, as well as less lucrative ones. Agents said they're also monitoring salaries. Outlets like Puck and The Ankler have reported on various flat or declining star salaries. Despite this economic reality, agents told BI they felt the bottom hadn't yet completely fallen out of the market — think, salaries getting cut in half. Why not? Why won't TV news companies just let all their employees have Substacks? The traditional TV company view is that they pay talent well for exclusivity and can face editorial, legal, and reputational risks if someone reports or comments on another platform outside the network's editorial or legal review. Some channels, like MSNBC, also stress that they work to create various opportunities for talent in-house. SVP Madeleine Haeringer said MSNBC is focused on expanding its hosts' reach through audio, digital, and social media, using all storytelling tools to build audiences beyond cable. Substack and others are beckoning Valentine of Substack is at the ready with stats: Substack now has 5 million paid subscribers, driven by news and politics; 30 people in news and politics gross $1 million or more. "This is an area we're happily investing in because this is the future," she said. "If you have spent your career on cable news, there is a clear path for you." Ray Chao, who leads Vox Media's podcast business — home to tech journalist Kara Swisher and others — said there's a "groundswell" of interest from current and former TV news employees. His pitch is that with Vox, they can build a show that reflects their vision and forge a direct-to-consumer relationship on a medium whose audience is growing. "You can own a lot of the financial upside," he said. "It can be very lucrative." The solopreneur route can be a mixed bag, however. Todd has a podcast and YouTube channel where he interviews newsmakers and gives his takes on the day's biggest stories. He said as an entrepreneur, it's hard to have downtime and not feel like he's missing an opportunity. But he enjoys the diversity of projects he works on and having full editorial control. John Harwood, a former CNN White House correspondent who's done a podcast and writes for Zeteo, Hasan's new venture, said there are perils in what he called the Substack "hamster wheel." "People who look at that as a source of income are going to feel a very large amount of pressure to maximize the number of subscribers and deliver content at a pace that satisfies people who are paying to get it," he said.
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Trump set to give TikTok 90 more days to avoid a US ban
TikTok now has until September to find a new owner as President Donald Trump plans to delay a ban. The company is legally required to separate from its parent, ByteDance. Trump has granted the company multiple extensions after it failed to comply with the law. TikTok lives to fight another day. President Donald Trump is set to issue an executive order this week giving the company 90 more days before he enforces a law requiring its owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US app, a White House spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider. It's the company's third extension. TikTok missed its original January 19 deadline to separate from its Chinese owner, and briefly went dark in the US before coming back online after Trump's assurances that he wouldn't immediately enforce the law. The president issued an executive order giving the company until April 5 to find a new owner, and later extended that timeline to June 19. Now, he's set to offer TikTok until mid-September to bargain. "As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "This extension will last 90 days, which the Administration will spend working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure." All of these postponements fall outside the guidelines of the original law, which dictated that the president could grant a one-time, 90-day extension before the original January 19 deadline. Over the past five months, a wave of bidders has emerged for TikTok's US business, including Perplexity AI, AppLovin, and, according to the New York Times, Amazon. TikTok could also sell to a consortium of existing investors, which would allow ByteDance to maintain a minority stake. Trump tasked his vice president, JD Vance, to oversee deal negotiations. The push to sell TikTok and other apps owned by ByteDance kicked off in 2020, when Trump signed an executive order attempting to ban the company from app stores. While that effort was blocked by a federal judge, other state and federal politicians later raised concerns that TikTok could be used as a propaganda tool or data collection platform for the Chinese Communist Party. On April 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law, giving ByteDance 270 days to separate from its US app. A few months later, Trump began to warm up to TikTok, pledging on the campaign trail that he would try to rescue it from a ban (a change from his 2020 position). In May, Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker that he had a "warm spot in his heart" for TikTok.
