Trump says he ‘had very good talks with Putin’ and again criticizes Ukraine – live | Trump administration

Key events

As bad as Donald Trump’s feud with Volodymyr Zelenskyy may be, the Guardian’s Luke Harding reports that the president’s opinions do not appear to be shared by everyone in his administration:

The US envoy to Ukraine, Gen Keith Kellogg, has praised Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war”, striking a dramatically different tone from Donald Trump, who has called Ukraine’s president a “dictator”.

Kellogg left Kyiv on Friday after a three-day visit. Posting on social media, he said he had engaged in “extensive and positive discussions” with Zelenskyy and his “talented national security team”. “A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine,” he said.

The general’s upbeat remarks are in glaring contrast to those of the US president and his entourage, who have heaped abuse on Zelenskyy during a tumultuous week. Trump claimed Ukraine was to blame for starting the war with Russia, and accused Zelenskyy of doing “a terrible job”.

On Friday, Trump returned to the theme, saying he did not consider it essential for the Ukrainian president to be present at negotiations. “I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings,” Trump told Fox News. “He’s been there for three years. He makes it very hard to make deals.”

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The Trump administration wants Ukraine to sign a deal that will allow the United States access to its supply of critical minerals, as a way of paying Washington back for its support against the Russian invasion.

But Democratic senator Adam Schiff views the proposed deal a different way. Writing on X, Schiff said:

Translation:

That’s a nice country you’ve got there.

Would be a shame if something happened to it.

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The justice department is investigating one of America’s largest health insurers for potentially bilking Medicare, the Guardian’s Jessica Glenza reports:

The US Department of Justice is reportedly investigating the insurance giant UnitedHealthcare for its Medicare billing practices.

The federal government is examining whether UnitedHealthcare is using patient diagnoses to illegally increase the lump sum monthly payments received through the Medicare Advantage program, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Although it is best known for its insurance operations, UnitedHealthcare is one of the largest corporations in the world with a $457bn market capitalization. Its businesses touch health technology, pharmacy benefits and physician practices.

The company is so large that one industry analyst estimated 5% of US gross domestic product flowed through its infrastructure each day. It is the largest employer of doctors in the US with more than 90,000 physicians in 2023, or nearly one in 10 American doctors.

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Updated at 14.11 EST

This Valentine’s Day, a new political power couple took their vows on the plush white couches of Fox & Friends in midtown Manhattan: Donald Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, and the New York City mayor, Eric Adams.

The pair appeared on the conservative TV show to discuss an agreement they had reached the day before. Their deal reversed longstanding New York City policy by letting federal immigration agents back on to Rikers Island, the city’s jail complex that largely holds people who have been charged with but have not yet been convicted of crimes. The surprise agreement came as the newly installed leaders of Trump’s Department of Justice were making an extraordinary push to dismiss criminal corruption charges that the agency had been pursuing against Adams.

As Adams grinned beside him, Homan said that allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to once again roam the city’s jail complex was just “step one”.

“We’re working on some other things that we don’t really want to talk about,” Homan said, alluding to their joint efforts to circumvent New York’s “sanctuary city” law.

Then Adams, a Democrat who had risen to power vowing to protect immigrants from the president’s agenda, publicly pledged his acquiescence to the White House’s hardline immigration enforcement agenda: “Let’s be clear: I’m not standing in the way. I’m collaborating.”

You can read the full story here:

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Updated at 13.52 EST

A federal judge has indefinitely adjourned the trial of New York Mayor Eric Adams

After the US Department of Justice asked federal judge Dale Ho to dismiss Adams’ corruption charges, Ho responded with a decision that he would not immediately dismiss the case, but delay his trial indefinitely.

Ho is also appointing an outside lawyer, Paul Clement from the law firm Clement & Murphy PLLC, to present arguments against the prosecutors’ bid to dismiss to help him make a decision.

Adams stands accused of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal campaign donations from Turkish foreign nationals.

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Updated at 13.32 EST

Things got heated between Donald Trump and Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, after the president threatened to withhold federal funds from the state if it continues allowing transgender athletes to compete in female sports.

Trump recently signed an recent executive order which seeks to prevent trans girls and women from participating in female sports teams.

“We will see you in court,” the Democratic governor said as she stood up and confronted Trump during a White House event.

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Updated at 13.18 EST

The day so far

Senate Republicans had a late one, staying up all night and into the morning to approve a budget framework that will fund Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans, despite howls from Democrats. It was a key step on the Republican-controlled Congress’s path to implementing Trump’s agenda, even as signs of discontent over the president’s aggressive moves against the federal government have emerged. A Republican congressman was condemned by his constituents in a deep-red district, another GOP lawmaker publicly objected to the rapid pace of Trump’s executive orders, and the Pentagon reportedly had to pause plans to fire civilian employees en masse over concerns the move could harm military readiness. Meanwhile, the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Trump would win the Nobel peace prize for all the wars he plans to end, even as he simultaneously threatened military action against Mexican drug cartels.

Here’s what else has happened today:

Trump continued his feud with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing Ukraine of talking “tough” but not having much leverage, while saying he enjoyed his talk with Vladimir Putin.

Two polls show Americans are becoming worried that Trump is overreaching, though he still remains more popular than he was in his first term.

The United States might actually be serious about airstrikes on Mexican drug cartels, but experts don’t think they’d make much of a difference, the Los Angeles Times reports.

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Updated at 13.09 EST

The Trump administration is pressuring Ukraine to sign an agreement that will allow the United States access to the country’s critical minerals, and the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports that national security adviser Mike Waltz today said he expected Volodymyr Zelenskyy to soon agree to its terms:

The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on Friday that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was expected to sign a minerals agreement with the United States imminently, as part of broader negotiations to end the war with Russia.

“Here’s the bottom line: President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term,” Waltz said during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

The statement comes amid an increasingly public dispute between Zelenskyy and Trump, with Waltz telling Fox News this week that the Ukrainian leader needs to “tone it down” and sign the proposed agreement.

The proposed partnership would give the United States access to Ukraine’s deposits of critical minerals including aluminum, gallium and tritium, Waltz said – materials that are essential for advanced technology manufacturing such as nuclear research and semiconductors, and have significant military applications. The so-called agreement is also being positioned as a way for American taxpayers to recoup some of their investment in Ukraine’s defense, with US aid to Ukraine having exceeded $175bn, according to Waltz.

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Updated at 12.34 EST

Trump says he ‘had very good talks with Putin’, again criticizes Ukraine

Donald Trump repeated his criticisms of Ukraine in remarks to a group of governors, while also speaking fondly of his interactions with Vladimir Putin.

“I’ve had very good talks with Putin” and “not such good talks with Ukraine”, the president told a meeting of the National Governors Association, which featured Democratic and Republican leaders of states nationwide.

He went on to accuse Kyiv of talking “tough” but having little in the way of bargaining chips.

The remarks are the latest swings in the feud that began earlier this week between Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here’s more about that:

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Updated at 12.12 EST

Here’s more from the Guardian’s Robert Tait on the budget resolution Senate Republicans passed early this morning, which will fund mass deportations and other top priorities of the president:

The US Senate has passed a budget resolution that paves the way for funding Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan after his “border czar” said there weren’t enough funds for the operation.

A 10-hour marathon session – dubbed a “vote-a-rama” – concluded in the early hours of Friday morning with a 52-48 vote almost entirely on party lines in favor of a spending structure that would see $175bn reserved for border security, including Trump’s prized border wall with Mexico, and a $150bn boost to the Pentagon budget.

Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky, was the sole Republican to vote against the package at the end of a session that saw Democrats place numerous roadblocks in the form of amendments.

Friday’s vote came ahead of an attempt by the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to fashion legislation that would roll Trump’s agenda – including a mass tax cut – into what the president has called “one big beautiful bill”.

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The Los Angeles Times reports that the United States is considering military actions such as airstrikes on drug cartel operations in Mexico – and that experts don’t think such a strategy would change much.

Were Washington to go that route – as threatened by national security adviser Mike Waltz earlier today – it would mark a major shift in US policy towards Mexico, and the criminal organizations that hold great sway in the country. The Times reports that military action is being seriously considered:

Todd Zimmerman, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special agent in Mexico City, said in an interview that the administration’s decision this week to label drug cartels as terrorist organizations was a pointed message to their leadership that US military action is on the table.

‘They’re worried because they know the might and the strength of the US military,’ he said. ‘They know that at any time, they could be anywhere – if it comes to that, if it comes to that – they could be in a car, they could be in a house, and they could be vaporized. They’ve seen it in the Afghan and Iraq wars. So they know the potential that’s out there.’

…

Other experts pointed out that past efforts to deploy military might against drug traffickers have failed to slow the flow of drugs into the United States. When the Mexican government declared war on cartels in 2006 and sent soldiers into the streets to fight them, the clearest result was a massive increase in homicides.

‘It doesn’t work,’ said Elisabeth Malkin, deputy program director for Latin America at the International Crisis Group. ‘A whole constellation of actions are needed: to pursue proper investigations, to create cases that hold up in court, to dismantle whole networks rather than just going after the big drug kingpin, who is paraded before the cameras.’

Mike Vigil, a former head of international operations at the DEA, described Trump’s efforts as ‘all for show.’

‘The military aircraft, the troops at the border, the talk of drones: It’s all a flash in the pan,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to have an impact.’

Using multimillion-dollar munitions to strike primitive drug laboratories would be a laughable waste of resources, Vigil said.

‘You’re not talking about sophisticated laboratories. We’re talking about some tubs and pots and pans, kitchenware,’ he said. ‘And the labs are not fixed, they’re mobile. They move them around, they’re not operational 24/7. And these labs are easily replaced. So you’re not accomplishing anything.’

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Updated at 12.27 EST

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference is the biggest gathering of its type in the United States, attracting Donald Trump, JD Vance and fellow travelers from countries across the world.

But after Trump ally Steve Bannon threw up what looks like a Nazi salute (something powerful people in the president’s orbit seem to like doing), the leader of a far-right party in France canceled his appearance. We have more on that, and all other news happening in Europe, at our live blog covering the continent:

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National security adviser Mike Waltz also upped the rhetoric against Mexican cartels, after the Trump administration earlier this week named six of them as foreign terrorist organizations.

“We are going to unleash holy hell on the cartels. Enough is enough. We are securing our border, and the cartels are on notice,” Waltz said.

It’s unclear what practical effect designating cartels as terrorist groups will have on US policy, but experts worry it could be a first step towards the United States taking military action against the criminal organizations:

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Updated at 10.48 EST