AFP USA

Washington’s Smithsonian is a sprawling chain of museums dedicated to both celebrating and scrutinizing the American story — and the latest cultural institution targeted by President Donald Trump’s bid to quash diversity efforts.His recent executive order to excavate “divisive ideology” from the famed visitor attraction and research complex follows a wave of efforts to keep culture and history defined on his terms, including his takeover of the national capital’s prestigious performing arts venue, the Kennedy Center.And it’s got critics up in arms.”It’s a declaration of war,” said David Blight of Yale University, who leads the Organization of American Historians.”It is arrogant and appalling for them to claim they have the power and the right to say what history actually is and how it should be exhibited, written, and taught,” Blight told AFP.Trump’s latest order also says monuments to the historic Confederate rebellion, many of which were removed in recent years in the wake of anti-racism protests, might soon be restored.His order even mentioned the National Zoo — which is operated by the Smithsonian and recently welcomed two pandas from China — as potentially needing a cleanse from “improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology.” And Trump says a number of Smithsonian museums, including the distinguished National Museum of African American History and Culture, espouse “corrosive ideology,” and are trying to rewrite American history in relation to issues of race and gender.Critical observers say the exact opposite is true.Margaret Huang — president of the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate — called Trump’s order “the latest attempt to erase our history” and “a blatant attempt to mask racism and white supremacy as patriotism.””Black history is US history. Women’s history is US history. This country’s history is ugly and beautiful,” Huang said.For critics like Huang and Blight, Trump’s push to tell a rose-tinted history of “American greatness” is a disservice to museum-goers in a complicated country built on values including freedom of speech — but whose history is rife with war, slavery and civil rights struggles.”What’s at stake is the way the United States officially portrays its own past, to itself, and to the world,” Blight said.- ‘Stories about ourselves’ -Trump is a 78-year-old Frank Sinatra fan with a penchant for Broadway — he’s spoken particularly fondly of the 1980s-era musical “Cats,” the fantastical tale of a dancing tribe of felines.But his brand of culture war is much bigger than personal taste: in his second term, the president appears intent on rooting out what he deems too “woke.”The executive crusade is part of a broader effort to strip American society of efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion that institutions nationwide have vied to incorporate in recent years, purging culture of anti-racism and LGBTQ+ support.Critics say Trump’s extension of his grip to the Smithsonian represents an eyebrow-raising incursion into the programming independence of the more than 175-year-old institution.Founded in the mid-19th century, the Smithsonian “has transformed along with our culture and our society,” said Robert McCoy, a history professor at Washington State University.The complex — including the zoo, 21 museums and 14 education and research centers — is approximately two-thirds federally funded, with the rest of its approximately billion-dollar-budget stemming from sources including endowments, memberships and donations.Its Board of Regents includes the vice president. But, similarly to the Kennedy Center, until now it operated largely above political lines, especially when it came to programming.- ‘Meaning and belonging’ -“It’s become more diverse. The stories it tells are more complicated. These are people who are attempting to help us broaden what it means to be an American — what it means to tell us stories about ourselves that are more accurate and include more people,” McCoy told AFP.”When you lose that, you begin to marginalize a lot of different groups.”McCoy fears the White House’s bid to clamp down on the Smithsonian’s work could prompt resignations, a concern Blight echoed: “If they stay in their jobs, they’re in effect working for an authoritarian takeover of what they do. That will not be acceptable.”Trump’s attempts at cultural dominance in federal institutions are part of a broader package of control, McCoy said, a pattern that echoes research on how authoritarian regimes seize power.”It’s not just political and economic institutions,” he said. “It’s also the institutions that provide people with a sense of meaning and belonging — that they’re American.”

US government lawyers pushed Friday for the case of a pro-Palestinian protest leader slated for deportation to be moved to a Louisiana court thought to be sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — a prominent face of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s war in Gaza — was arrested and taken to Louisiana earlier this month, sparking protests. Several other foreign student protesters have been similarly targeted.Also Friday, Columbia University’s interim president stepped down, one week after the Ivy League school announced a package of measures to placate Trump and his criticisms over student protests and alleged campus anti-Semitism. He has targeted the school with hundreds of millions in funding cuts. Katrina Armstrong will be replaced by Board of Trustees co-chair Claire Shipman, who will serve until a permanent replacement is hired, Columbia said in a statement.”Dr Armstrong accepted the role of interim president at a time of great uncertainty for the University and worked tirelessly to promote the interests of our community,” Board of Trustees chair David Greenwald said.Shipman noted her “clear understanding of the serious challenges before us.”The government has not accused Khalil of any crime, but instead ordered his deportation and canceled his resident’s permit, alleging he was undermining US foreign policy.At a hearing in New Jersey, government lawyer August Flentje said that “for jurisdictional certainty, the case belongs in Louisiana.”But Khalil’s lawyer Baher Azmy accused the government of seeking to move the case to bolster its “retaliation.”The judge said he would not rule immediately on shifting the case to the Western District of Louisiana, a more conservative bench that has previously leaned towards Trump’s policies.Khalil was not present at the hearing, but his wife Noor attended with several supporters.- ‘Witch hunt’? -Khalil’s arrest has outraged Trump opponents, free speech advocates and some on the political right, who say the case will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.Immigration officers have similarly detained and sought to deport a Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a US permanent resident originally from South Korea.Like Khalil, Ozturk has been detained in Louisiana despite her initial arrest in the northeastern state of Massachusetts.Ozturk’s lawyer said Thursday that “we should all be horrified at the way (officers) abducted Rumeysa in broad daylight” after footage of masked, plainclothes officers surrounding the veiled student circulated online.A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday issued a court order saying “Ozturk shall not be removed from the United States until further Order of this Court,” while the jurisdiction of her case is reviewed.Students at Columbia have described a culture of fear in the wake of the action against the college and its students.- ‘Retaliation’ -“Nothing can protect you,” said a Hispanic-American student who participated in last year’s protests calling for a Gaza ceasefire and for Columbia to divest from Israel.”I take precautions, I check if someone is following me. Before, I wasn’t afraid to leave my apartment door unlocked; now I lock it in case an agent comes in to check my stuff.”Nadia Urbinati, a professor of political theory at Columbia, told AFP that “writing papers, teaching, having new research, researchers or fellows becomes more restricted, controlled and monitored.”A foreign student, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, said Trump had sought to “isolate” activists. “We try to laugh,” said another, but “the feeling of fear and paranoia is widespread.”Dozens protested in support of Khalil outside the New Jersey courthouse, holding Palestinian flags and banners.As well as targeting foreign students at Columbia University, the Trump administration has sought to slash $400 million of federal funding and grants over alleged anti-Semitism on campus.Last week the university announced a package of measures to placate Trump, including “improvements to our disciplinary processes.” Columbia said it would require protesters to identify themselves when challenged, even if they wear masks, as many did during the height of the pro-Palestinian protests.It also announced the expansion of its security team, including hiring 36 officers empowered to remove or arrest those that break university rules.The Trump administration had demanded that the university deploy external oversight, but the school stopped short of that, instead vowing to engage with outside academics on the issue.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologized Friday for failing to defend an Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker who said he was attacked by Israeli settlers.The group, which hosts and awards the Oscars each year, wrote to members after movie stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Penelope Cruz and Richard Gere had slammed its initially muted response to the incident.The Academy “condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world” and its leaders “abhor the suppression of free speech under any circumstances,” said the letter, seen by AFP.Hamdan Ballal co-directed “No Other Land,” which won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. This week, he said he had been assaulted by settlers and detained at gunpoint by soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Unlike multiple other prominent filmmaker groups, the US-based Academy initially did not issue a statement. On Wednesday, it sent a letter to members that condemned “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” without naming Ballal.By Friday morning, more than 600 Academy members had signed their own statement in response. “It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later,” the members said.”We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” they wrote.The Academy leadership’s response “fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for,” said the members.The Los Angeles-based group’s board convened an extraordinary meeting Friday to confront the deepening crisis, according to trade outlet Deadline.Later Friday, it issued an apology to Ballal “and all artists who felt unsupported by our previous statement.””We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr Ballal and the film by name,” it wrote.”No Other Land” chronicles the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta — an area Israel declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.Despite winning the coveted Oscar, the film has struggled to find a major US distributor.Following Monday’s incident, Ballal told AFP the “brutality” of the attack “made me feel it was because I won the Oscar.”During his detention at an Israeli military center, Ballal said he noticed soldiers mentioning his name alongside the word “Oscar” during shift changes.He was released Tuesday, after being detained the previous day for allegedly “hurling rocks.” Yuval Abraham, who also co-directed and appears in the documentary, has spoken out against the Academy’s response.”After our criticism, the academy’s leaders sent out this email to members explaining their silence on Hamdan’s assault: they need to respect ‘unique viewpoints’,” he wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the Academy’s letter.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will investigate diversity efforts at the Walt Disney Company, the head of the US agency said on Friday.Disney and its subsidiary ABC are being targeted as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at government agencies and private companies, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a letter to the entertainment giant.US President Donald Trump picked Carr to head the FCC.”I am concerned that ABC and its parent company have been and may still be promoting invidious forms of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations,” Carr wrote in the letter, a copy of which he shared on X, formerly Twitter.Disney made a priority of promoting race and gender diversity across its operations in recent years, and “apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company’s decisions,” Carr wrote in a letter addressed to chief executive Robert Iger.Carr notified Comcast and NBCUniversal in February that they were targets of an investigation into their diversity and equality efforts, thanking Trump at the time for efforts to “root out the scourge of DEI.”Trump’s assault on diversity across the United States government is dismantling decades of racial justice programs.Delivering on a campaign promise, the Republican billionaire made it one of his first acts in office to terminate all federal government DEI programs, which he said led to “illegal and immoral discrimination.”Earlier this month, Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin reported that Arlington National Cemetery had begun to wipe its website of the histories of Black, Hispanic and women war veterans. Descendants of the Native Americans who played a vital role for US forces in World War II said they had been shocked to discover their ancestors’ heroic contributions had been effectively deleted from the public record.The president’s move to end DEI programs has also affected more than just the federal government.Since Trump won last year’s election, several major US corporations — including Google, Meta, Amazon and McDonalds — have either entirely scrapped or dramatically scaled back their DEI programs. The American Civil Liberties Union says Trump’s policies have taken a “‘shock and awe’ approach that upends longstanding, bipartisan federal policy meant to open doors that had been unfairly closed.”US federal anti-discrimination programs were born of the 1960s civil rights struggle, mainly led by Black Americans, to promote equality and justice after hundreds of years of slavery. After the United States abolished slavery in 1865, the country continued to see other institutional forms of racism enforced.Today, Black Americans and other minorities continue to disproportionately face police violence, incarceration, poverty, homelessness and hate crimes, according to official data.

US President Donald Trump said he had an “extremely productive” first call Friday with Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney, after soaring tensions over tariffs and Trump’s wish to annex his northern neighbor.Trump added that the two planned to meet soon after Canada’s April 28 general election in which Carney — who took office two weeks ago — has made standing up to the US president the focus of his campaign.”I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.Trump said they would be “meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada.”Typically, a new Canadian leader makes a phone call with the US president an immediate priority, but this was Trump and Carney’s first contact since the Canadian was sworn in on March 14.Carney’s office said the pair had a “very constructive conversation” and agreed to begin “comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election.”It added, however, that Carney told Trump his government will impose retaliatory tariffs on American goods from April 2, when sweeping US levies are set to come into place.”We’re not going to back down, we’re going to respond with force,” Carney said at an afternoon press conference.”What is clear is that the relationship between Canada and the United States has changed. And we’re not the one’s who changed,” he added, confirming that Canada needed to look to Europe “to strengthen ties with reliable partners.””Over the coming weeks, months and years, we must fundamentally reimagine our economy.”Trump’s glowing post was still a dramatic change in tone from recent rhetoric between Washington and Ottawa, who are NATO allies and long-standing economic partners.The US president has sparked fury in Canada by repeatedly insisting that it should become the 51st US state and by slapping or threatening tariffs on the country.His post on Friday was notable for its diplomacy, as Trump gave Carney his official title of prime minister and made no reference to his annexation drive.In contrast, Trump would often belittle Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau, with whom he had a long-standing rivalry, as “governor” in a reference to his calls for Canada to join the United States.- ‘Just don’t have the cards’ -Canada’s new prime minister — who is in a tight election race to stay in the job — was chosen by Canada’s centrist Liberal Party to replace Trudeau but has never faced the country’s electorate.Just a day before the call, Carney said he would not participate in substantive trade negotiations with Washington until the president shows Canada “respect,” particularly by ending his repeated annexation threats.US Vice President JD Vance maintained a combative stance on Friday, repeating Trump’s past comment that Canadians “just don’t have the cards” on tariffs.”There is no way that Canada can win a trade war with the United States,” he said during a visit to Greenland.Trump’s planned 25 percent levy on vehicle imports to the United States is to come into force next week and could be devastating for a Canadian auto industry that supports an estimated 500,000 jobs. The 78-year-old Republican is also set to impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries that put levies on US exports, and Canada is to be in the firing line for those too.Trump has warned Canada against working with the European Union to counter upcoming reciprocal tariffs on all imports.If they did so, they would face “large-scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned,” Trump has said.Trump’s threats have impacted Canadian polls, with Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives seen as election favorites before Trudeau dropped out.Since Trump’s threats to Canada, the polls have spectacularly narrowed in favor of Carney’s Liberals, who hold a minority in parliament.

Marwa fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan because she wanted to study, work, wear jeans and go to the park without a male chaperone. Now she is under lock and key in Costa Rica, along with hundreds of other migrants expelled by the United States to third countries in Central America.Costa Rica is one of three Central American countries, along with Panama and Guatemala, that have agreed to receive migrants from other countries and to detain them until they are sent to their home nations or other host countries. A fourth country — El Salvador — took a group of Venezuelans and jailed them in a maximum-security prison after the United States claimed, without providing evidence, that they are gang members.AFP spoke to several migrants from a group of about 200 people, including around 80 children, detained at a facility near Costa Rica’s border with Panama.All said they feared for their lives in their homeland. Marwa, 27, said she was terrified at the thought that she, her husband and two-year-old daughter could be sent back to Afghanistan.Her husband Mohammad Asadi, 31, who ran a construction company back home, was threatened by the Taliban for selling materials to American companies.”I know if I go back I will die there. I will be killed by the Taliban,” Marwa told AFP in English, in an interview conducted through the center’s perimeter fence.Alireza Salimivir, a 35-year-old Iranian Christian, said he and his wife face a similar fate.”Due to our conversion from Islam to Christianity… it’s jail or the death penalty for us,” he said.- Tropical limbo -On his return to office in January, US President Donald Trump launched what he vowed would be the biggest migrant deportation wave in American history and signed an order suspending asylum claims at the southern border.Citing pressure from “our economically powerful brother to the north,” Costa Rica said it had agreed to collaborate in the “repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country.”But only 74 of the migrants have been repatriated so far, with another 10 set to follow, according to the authorities.The rest are in limbo.They refuse to be deported to their homelands, but no other country — including Costa Rica itself, which has a long tradition of offering asylum — has offered to take them in.”We can’t go back, nor can we stay here. We don’t know the culture and don’t speak Spanish,” said Marwa, who said she wanted to be close to relatives “in Canada, the United States or Europe.”- Prison or war -German Smirnov, a 36-year-old Russian former election official, said he fled to the United States with his wife and six-year-old son after flagging up fraud in last year’s presidential election.He said his request for asylum in the United States was “totally ignored, like it had never existed.”If returned to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he said: “They will give me two options, sit in prison or go to war (in Ukraine).”Marwa and her husband also said they wanted to seek asylum in the United States when they arrived at the US-Mexican border earlier this year after a grueling overland journey through 10 countries, starting in Brazil.But they were never given the chance to file an asylum claim. Instead, they were detained and flown to Costa Rica 18 days later.Asadi said an immigration official verbally abused Marwa for wearing a hijab and singled her out to pick up trash, alone.Smirnov said they treated the migrants, including women and children, “like scum.”- Costa Rica policy change -At the Costa Rican facility, the group said they were well fed and allowed to use their cell phones, but their passports had been seized by the police.”There is a systematic pattern of human rights violations in a country that has always prided itself on defending them,” said former Costa Rican diplomat Mauricio Herrera, who has filed a legal challenge to the migrants’ detention.”This is a very serious setback for Costa Rica,” he told AFP.Michael Garcia Bochenek, children’s rights counsel at Human Rights Watch, warned Costa Rica in a statement against being “complicit in flagrant US abuses.”

US government lawyers pushed Friday for the case of a pro-Palestinian protest leader slated for deportation to be moved to a Louisiana court thought to be sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — a prominent face of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s war in Gaza — was arrested and taken to Louisiana earlier this month, sparking protests. Several other foreign student protesters have been similarly targeted.The government has not accused Khalil of any crime, but instead ordered his deportation and canceling his green card resident’s permit on the grounds of undermining US foreign policy.At a hearing in New Jersey, government lawyer August Flentje said that “for jurisdictional certainty, the case belongs in Louisiana.”But Khalil’s lawyer Baher Azmy accused the government of seeking to move the case to bolster its “retaliation.”The judge said he would not rule immediately on shifting the case to the Western District of Louisiana, a more conservative bench that has previously leaned towards Trump’s policies.Khalil was not present at the hearing, but his wife Noor attended with several supporters.- ‘Witch hunt’? -Khalil’s arrest has triggered outrage from Trump opponents, free speech advocates and some on the political right, who say the case will have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.Immigration officers have similarly detained and sought to deport a Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Columbia student Yunseo Chung. Their deportations have been blocked for now by courts.Ozturk’s lawyer said Thursday that “we should all be horrified at the way (officers) abducted Rumeysa in broad daylight” after footage of masked, plainclothes officers surrounding the veiled student circulated online.Students at Columbia have described a culture of fear in the wake of the action against the college and its students.”Nothing can protect you,” said one student, a Hispanic-American with US citizenship who participated in last year’s protests calling for a Gaza ceasefire and for Columbia to divest from Israel.”I take precautions, I check if someone is following me. Before, I wasn’t afraid to leave my apartment door unlocked; now I lock it in case an agent comes in to check my stuff.”Nadia Urbinati, a professor of Political Theory at Columbia, told AFP that “writing papers, teaching, having new research, researchers or fellows becomes more restricted, controlled and monitored.”A foreign student, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, said Trump had sought to “isolate” activists. “We try to laugh,” said another, but “the feeling of fear and paranoia is widespread.”Dozens protested in support of Khalil outside the New Jersey courthouse, holding Palestinian flags and banners.”We are going to fight this witch hunt,” said one protester, who did not want to be identified.As well as targeting foreign students at Columbia University, the Trump administration has sought to slash $400 million of federal funding and grants over alleged anti-Semitism on campus.Last week the Ivy League university announced a comprehensive package of measures to appease the White House, including “improvements to our disciplinary processes.” Columbia said it would require protesters to identify themselves when challenged, even if they wear masks, as many did during the height of the pro-Palestinian protests.It also announced the expansion of its security team, including the hiring of 36 officers empowered to remove or arrest those that break university rules.The Trump administration had demanded that the university deploy external oversight, but the school stopped short of that, instead vowing to engage with outside academics on the issue.Separately, a number of university professors sued the Trump administration in Massachusetts Tuesday, arguing its campaign targeting foreign academics was illegal.

Billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk faced an immediate legal challenge Friday to his promise to give $1 million to two voters in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race in his latest attempt to use his vast fortune to sway the results of crucial US votes.Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul wrote on Instagram that his office was “aware of the offer recently posted by Elon Musk” and said he plans to “take legal action today to seek a court order to stop this from happening.”Musk, the world’s richest person and one of President Donald Trump’s top advisors, has already spent millions trying to boost support for Republican Brad Schimel, who would tilt the swing-state’s top court to a conservative majority if elected.The Tesla and SpaceX tycoon announced on X, which he also owns, that he would “hand over checks for a million dollars” to two people who sign a petition opposing “activist judges” — a term used by Republicans for judges who rule against some of Trump’s policies.He has also offered $100 to anyone signing the petition.Serious national issues are on the docket for the Wisconsin court’s next term, including abortion access and rules for voting in the crucial 2026 midterm nationwide congressional elections. Schimel is also openly backed by Trump, who wrote on his Truth Social platform this week that the race is “really big and important.”The latest stunt was a redux of Musk’s earlier million-dollar prizes in battleground states during the presidential election.The entrepreneur has rapidly emerged as one of the most powerful people in the country, with huge government contracts for his companies and a free-ranging role in Trump’s administration to slash spending on everything from foreign policy to domestic programs.In January, Tesla — currently facing tumbling stock prices amid consumer anger at Musk — took Wisconsin to court over the state’s denial of dealer licenses for the auto company.

Movie stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Penelope Cruz and Richard Gere have blasted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for failing to defend an Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker who said he was attacked by Israeli settlers.Hamdan Ballal co-directed “No Other Land,” which won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. This week, he said he had been assaulted by settlers and detained at gunpoint by soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Unlike multiple other prominent filmmaker groups, the US-based Academy initially did not issue a statement. On Wednesday, it sent a letter to members that condemned “harming or suppressing artists for their work or their viewpoints,” without naming Ballal.By Friday morning, more than 600 Academy members had signed their own statement in response. “It is indefensible for an organization to recognize a film with an award in the first week of March, and then fail to defend its filmmakers just a few weeks later,” the members said.”We stand in condemnation of the brutal assault and unlawful detention of Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank,” they wrote.The Academy leadership’s response “fell far short of the sentiments this moment calls for,” said the members.The Los Angeles-based group’s board convened an extraordinary meeting Friday to confront the deepening crisis, according to trade outlet Deadline.The Academy did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. “No Other Land” chronicles the forced displacement of Palestinians by Israeli troops and settlers in Masafer Yatta — an area Israel declared a restricted military zone in the 1980s.Despite winning the coveted Oscar, the film has struggled to find a major US distributor.Following Monday’s incident, Ballal told AFP the “brutality” of the attack “made me feel it was because I won the Oscar.”During his detention at an Israeli military center, Ballal said he noticed soldiers mentioning his name alongside the word “Oscar” during shift changes.He was released Tuesday, after being detained the previous day for allegedly “hurling rocks.” Yuval Abraham, who also co-directed and appears in the documentary, has criticized the Academy — both for its initial silence, and then for its subsequent statement.”After our criticism, the academy’s leaders sent out this email to members explaining their silence on Hamdan’s assault: they need to respect ‘unique viewpoints’,” he wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of the Academy’s letter.

US President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to overturn a lower court ban on his use of an obscure wartime law to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.The emergency appeal sets up a showdown over one of the most glaring examples of Trump’s unprecedented attempts to increase presidential power since returning to the White House in January.Trump invoked the little-known 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify rounding up alleged Venezuelan gang members, some of whom were sent to a notorious maximum security prison set up by the right-wing government in El Salvador.The Trump administration has used images of the alleged Tren de Aragua gang members being shackled and having their heads shaved in the Central American prison as proof that it is serious about cracking down on illegal immigration.Rights advocates say some of the deportees had nothing to do with gangs and that even potential criminals are required to be given court hearings before expulsion, in line with the US Constitution.District Judge James Boasberg issued an injunction barring further flights of deportees under the Alien Enemies Act after two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants were sent to El Salvador on March 15.Boasberg said migrants subject to potential deportation should be “entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all.”On Friday, the judge extended until April 12 his temporary restraining order barring any further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.An initial appeal by the Trump administration was turned down Wednesday with one appeals court judge saying that even “Nazis got better treatment” from the United States during World War II.In its appeal to the Supreme Court, which is dominated by conservative justices, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said the case is a key test of presidential authority over the courts.”This case presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country” — the president or judges, Harris said.”The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President,” she said. “The republic cannot afford a different choice.”- ‘Summary removal’ -Harris said the Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used previously during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II, authorizes “summary removal of enemy aliens engaged in ‘invasions or predatory incursions’ of US territory.””The district court’s orders have rebuffed the President’s judgments as to how to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations,” she said.The acting solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to immediately stay the district court’s order while it considers the case.Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the ACLU, urged the court to preserve the status quo “so that more individuals are not sent off to a notorious foreign prison without any process, based on an unprecedented and unlawful use of a wartime authority.””The president is not king,” added Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward. “He cannot deport people without due process, and he cannot invoke wartime powers — used only three times in history — during peacetime without accountability.”Trump has campaigned relentlessly on social media against Boasberg, even calling for him to be impeached by Congress, a remark that drew a rare public rebuke of the president from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not members of Tren de Aragua, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.