Trump administration will pay immigrants in U.S. illegally $1,000 to self-deport

‘Self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,’ Homeland Security secretary says

Trump claims Catholics 'loved' AI image of him as the Pope

The Department of Homeland Security revealed on Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who choose to leave the country.

Referring to it as “travel assistance,” the effort is part of a larger push to make immigrants leave the country of their own accord instead of waiting for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.

The department argued that the policy would be a good deal for U.S. taxpayers, as the average cost of the detention and deportation of an immigrant is more than $17,000.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press release.

The system uses the app CBP Home, where migrants can register their upcoming travel out of the country.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has said he will impose “100 percent tariffs” on foreign films in order to boost the Hollywood film industry, which he argued is “dying” while insisting that movies made overseas pose a “national security threat.”

“The movie industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

Key Points

• Donald Trump threatens 100% tariffs on foreign films: ‘The movie industry in America is dying’
• Trump orders reopening and expansion of notorious Alcatraz prison
• President's Alcatraz proposal is ‘not a serious one,’ says Nancy Pelosi
• Trump bemoans ‘radicalized judges’ holding up deportation push
• President says he will not pursue a third term and plans to lower tariffs on China ‘at some point’

[5 May 2025 20:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Coalition of 19 states ask federal judge to reverse deep cuts to US Health and Human Services

Rebecca Boone and Amanda Seitz write:

Attorneys general in 19 states and Washington, D.C., are challenging cuts to the U.S. Health and Human Services agency, saying the Trump administration's massive restructuring has destroyed life-saving programs and left states to pick up the bill for mounting health crises.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington D.C. on Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James said. The attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia signed onto the complaint.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. restructured the agency in March, eliminating more than 10,000 employees and collapsing 28 agencies under the sprawling HHS umbrella into 15, the attorneys general said. An additional 10,000 employees had already been let go by President Donald Trump's administration, according to the lawsuit, and combined the cuts stripped 25% of the HHS workforce.

[5 May 2025 20:20 · Gustaf Kilander]

Fox News’ Peter Doocy once again the victim of fowl play as another rogue bird attacks him

Justin Baragona writes:

For the second time in a month, Fox News’ Peter Doocy found himself the target of an angry bird that decided it’d had enough of the reporter’s live on-air report from the White House lawn.

Standing in the same spot where a feathered friend dive-bombed him during a Fox & Friends dispatch last month, the network’s senior White House correspondent appeared on America’s Newsroom to discuss the president’s recent demand that the notorious prison at Alcatraz be reopened.

Towards the end of Doocy’s segment, anchor Dana Perino noticed that the reporter was hunching over at times, prompting her to wonder if he was once again the victim of a Hitchcockian plot come to life.

[5 May 2025 20:40 · Gustaf Kilander]

Trump could be shipping deported migrants to Rwanda under newest proposal

John Bowden writes:

Donald Trump’s administration is in the “early stages” of diplomatic talks with Rwanda aimed at using the country as an offshore site to house migrants deported from the US, the country’s foreign minister said.

Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe made the news during an interview on Rwandan state television, and his remarks were first reported by The New York Times. The US over time has used a number of countries, including most recently El Salvador, as stopover locations to house deportees who are later transferred to their home countries or apply for asylum elsewhere.

Rwanda’s acceptance of US deportees would be of note especially given that the UK abandoned plans to do the same after a massive outcry over the humanitarian conditions under which migrants would be housed.

[5 May 2025 21:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

Trump celebrates with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to announce the 2027 NFL draft in DC

Andrew Feinberg writes:

President Donald Trump hosted National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris in the Oval Office on Monday to announce that the nation’s capital will host the 2027 NFL draft on the National Mall.

Trump appeared with Goodell, Harris and Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser to reveal the location for the annual event, during which the league’s 32 teams select from the nation’s top collegiate players to augment their rosters for the coming year.

[5 May 2025 21:10 · Gustaf Kilander]

Alcatraz, Sith lords and movie tariffs: Trump’s ravings get louder as his approval rating goes lower

Eric Garcia writes:

President Donald Trump made a series of increasingly erratic posts throughout his weekend at his Palm Beach estate. The first one came late Friday evening when he posted an AI image of himself as the Pope after he had previously joked that he would like to replace the late Pope Francis.

Then on Sunday, Trump threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on foreign films, supposedly to save the American film industry and address an unexpected “security threat.”

“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda,” Trump said on Truth Social.

[5 May 2025 21:20 · Gustaf Kilander]

WATCH: Trump claims Catholics 'loved' AI image of him as the Pope

[5 May 2025 21:40 · Gustaf Kilander]

Elon Musk gets approval for his new Texas city ‘Starbase’

Valerie Gonzalez writes:

Elon Musk's SpaceX facility in South Texas has officially become a city, christened with the fittingly cosmic name, Starbase.

Residents, primarily SpaceX employees, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the incorporation on Saturday.

The final tally, published by the Cameron County Elections Department, showed a landslide victory of 212 votes to 6. Musk himself celebrated the news on X, proclaiming Starbase "now a real city!"

Starbase is the facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program that is under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA that hopes to send astronauts back to the moon and someday to Mars.

[5 May 2025 22:00 · Gustaf Kilander]

WATCH: Trump says Carney wants to 'make a deal' ahead of meeting

[5 May 2025 22:45 · Gustaf Kilander]

How Trump fast-tracked Project 2025 and why it’s worse than you think

Alex Hannaford writes:

No one can accuse Donald Trump of easing his way slowly into the job the second time around; of slouching back in his chair in the Oval Office, Fox News on the big screen, remote in hand. In 100 days he’s managed to lay off 12,000 federal workers in the name of government efficiency, alienate countless allies, threatened to invade Greenland and take over the Panama Canal, humiliated Volodymyr Zelensky, told Canada he wants to see it become the 51st state (prompting a historic win for Mark Carney) and imposed tariffs on Europe and elsewhere that signal an end to free trade.

But perhaps most notable in terms of his policy agenda is that he has essentially governed by executive order – more than 140 of which have bypassed Congress entirely. And these orders have targeted everything from immigration to education to the detention of 6 January defendants. All in under four months.