The Latest: Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao

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President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.

Zhao has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September.

Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar. World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said he had asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a “desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry.” She said there were “no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program.

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The push renews long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation’s most sensitive wilderness areas.

The plan to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling fulfills a promise by Trump and congressional Republicans to open the portion of the refuge to possible development.

The massive GOP bill of tax breaks and spending cuts that was passed during the summer called for at least four lease sales within the refuge over a 10-year period.

▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s plan for the wildlife refuge

But the wealthy president is still being vague about his own personal contribution to the $300 million project.

Trump has said the ballroom will be paid for with money donated by his friends and from his own pocket.

But he’s hasn’t said how much money he’s giving.

“I’ll donate whatever’s needed,” he said.

Officials in Louisiana, Vermont and Virginia on Thursday pledged to find funding for a food aid program used by 1 in 8 Americans that faces a pause on Nov. 1 because of the federal government shutdown.

It’s not clear how they would do that. Other states have said that they want to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program going, too, but they’ve run into technical roadblocks about how to do it.

There’s also a push from advocates and Democrats in the U.S .Senate for the Trump administration to use contingency funds to keep the program running.

The president said we’ll “definitely” go to Congress to brief them on the administration’s recent strikes on alleged drug vessels.

But he doesn’t believe the administration needs a formal declaration of war from lawmakers.

“I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask,” Trump said during a roundtable with homeland security officials. “We’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.”

The president says of pardoning crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao “a lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.”

Zhao founded the Binance crypto exchange. Trump said he didn’t believe he’d ever met Zhao, but had “been told” he “had a lot of support, and they said that what he did is not even a crime.”

Trump said Zhao had been “persecuted by the Biden administration” and added, “I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”

Zhao served four months in prison after reaching a deal with the Justice Department to plead guilty to charges of enabling money laundering at Binance.

The U.S. president brushed aside a question about a symbolic vote in the Israeli parliament about annexing the West Bank.

“Don’t worry about the West Bank,” Trump responded to a question about the Knesset vote.

Adding that “Israel’s doing very well,” Trump continued: “They’re not going to do anything with it.”

His vice president, JD Vance, criticized the vote while on travel to Israel earlier Thursday, saying it amounted to an “insult” and went against Trump administration policies.

The president is joining Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top officials to celebrate his recent creation of a new federal task force meant to encourage cooperation between federal and local law enforcement to combat drug cartels and human smuggling networks.

At a White House event featuring national, state and local law enforcement officials, Trump hailed the task force’s “historic achievements” since it was created last month.

He said the task force had been involved in more than 3,000 arrests, including suspects from several notorious drug smuggling gangs.

As they continue to promote information about Trump’s ongoing ballroom renovations, the White House has made some adds to its website that attack former president Joe Biden and some of his other Democratic predecessors.

Under a section titled “Major Events Timeline,” there now includes references to a bag of cocaine that was found in a common area of the West Wing in July 2023 during the Biden presidency.

The Trump White House also added Biden’s designation of “Transgender Day of Visibility” in 2024, which fell on the same day as Easter Sunday that year, as well as references to former President Bill Clinton’s affair with an intern.

“Some Easter eggs on the White House site for the wannabe historians on social media,” wrote Kaelan Dorr, the White House’s deputy communications director, on the site X. “Enjoy :)”

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called on Congress to “reopen the government so that the critical programs and services of the nation can be offered.”

Bowser said federal employees are going without pay.

“All across the country, essential employees are required to work and are going without pay,” she said, adding that citizens also are going without food benefits and other needs.

About 20% of the federal workforce is in the Washington-metropolitan area, including Maryland and Virginia. Federal downsizing earlier this year has already left thousands of those workers unemployed with the shutdown impacting thousands more.

Bowser has been a central figure in the district’s response to efforts by Trump to put National Guard members on the city’s streets.

The press secretary was asked Thursday about Trump’s previous comments that his planned ballroom project wouldn’t interfere with the current structure.

Karoline Leavitt responded that the administration made clear from the start that the East Wing would have to be “modernized.”

She also said “plans changed” when Trump heard from architects and the builders behind the project.

“The plans changed when the president heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies who said that in order for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we’re now in was necessary and the president wants to do right by the people’s house,” she said.

A new Treasury report highlights roughly $9 billion of potential Iranian shadow banking activity that occurred through U.S. banks accounts in 2024, based on reporting from American financial institutions.

Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, issued the report, Thursday.

FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said the analysis is meant to “draw attention to Iran’s shadow banking activity and encourage financial institutions to be vigilant.”

In February, Trump announced a “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran with the intent of denying the nation nuclear weapons and development capabilities.

Netanyahu and Rubio spoke to reporters briefly following their initial meeting on Thursday.

Netanyahu said Rubio’s visit is the latest in a series of “incredible visits” by top U.S. leaders and comes as Israel and the U.S. continue to work to bring peace to Gaza.

“This is a circle of trust,” Netanyahu said of relations with Rubio and other U.S. leaders. “You’ve been an extraordinary friend of Israel… We still have supreme challenges but I think we can work together.”

Rubio said his visit reflects the importance Trump places on ending the conflict, and that no one in the administration is underestimating the difficulty of the work.

“Now we have more work ahead of us. We feel very positive about it,” Rubio said. “No one is under any illusions. We’ve already done the impossible once and we intend to keep doing that … We’re clear eyed about the challenges but the president has made this a top priority.”

Leavitt said the president has “the constitutional authority to grant clemency requests, and that he and the White House have a very thorough examination of every pardon request that comes to the president’s desk.”

She said during her briefing with reporters that the pardon for Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was “thoroughly reviewed by the White House counsel office” and that the crypto billionaire known as CZ faced “an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.”

“The Biden administration was pursuing an egregious over-sentencing of this individual. And the previous administration was very hostile to the cryptocurrency industry,” she said. “So the president wants to correct this overreach.”

The estimated price tag for the president’s planned renovations now stands at about $300 million — much higher than the initial $200 million that the White House put forward.

That’s because like “with any construction project, there are changes over time,” the press secretary said Thursday.

“This is going to be a magnificent addition,” Leavitt said.

On whether the cost of the ballroom includes costs for upgrading the security bunker located under the East Wing, Leavitt said “like any security enhancements that are made on the White House grounds, those will be made and maintained by United States Secret Service.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt laid out Trump’s trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea — with the president set to depart on Friday at 11 p.m. EDT.

Trump will arrive in Malaysia on Sunday morning local time. He’ll then meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and attend a working dinner for the leaders attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits.

On Monday morning local time, Trump will fly to Tokyo. He will on Tuesday morning local time meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

On Wednesday, Trump will fly to Busan, South Korea for a meeting with Korean President Lee Jae Myung. He is then scheduled to deliver keynote remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO luncheon and later participate in a working dinner with APEC leaders.

On Thursday morning, Trump will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and then fly back to the U.S. in the evening.

The Senate on Thursday rejected dueling partisan bills to pay federal workers during the government shutdown, with both Republicans and Democrats deflecting blame as many employees are set to miss their first full paycheck at the end of this week.

With unpaid staff and law enforcement standing nearby, Republicans objected as Democrats proposed a voice vote on their legislation to pay all federal workers and prevent Trump’s administration from mass firings. Democrats then blocked a Republican bill to pay employees who are working and not furloughed, 54-45.

The back and forth on day 23 of the government shutdown comes as the two parties are at a protracted impasse with no signs of either side giving in. Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate with them on extending expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say they won’t negotiate on the subsidies until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Trump is mostly disengaged and headed to Asia in the coming days.

▶ Read more about government shutdown

Trump says he’s backing off a planned surge of federal agents into San Francisco after speaking to the mayor.

Trump said on social media Thursday that Mayor Daniel Lurie said the city was making progress in reducing crime. Trump said he agreed to let San Francisco keep trying on its own.

Trump’s post came after Lurie said the two spoke Wednesday night, and Trump said he planned to call off a federal deployment to the city.

Trump’s statement came after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents began arriving at a U.S. Coast Guard base in the Bay Area on Thursday morning.

The two-story structure of drawing rooms and offices, including a walkway to the White House itself, has been turned into rubble.

It has been completely demolished as part of Trump’s plan to build what he said is now a $300 million ballroom nearly twice the size of the White House itself.

Trump said Wednesday that keeping the East Wing would have “hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building” that he said presidents have wanted for years.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the Biden administration prosecuted Zhao out of a “desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry.”

She said there were “no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims,” though Zhao had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to one count of failing to maintain an anti-money-laundering program.

“I failed here,” Zhao told the court last year. “I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”

Zhao created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.

Zhao had asked Trump for a pardon previously.

He has deep ties to World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture the Republican president and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September.

Trump’s most recent financial disclosure report reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.

World Liberty Financial also recently announced that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said he’d asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction.

▶ Read more about Trump’s pardon of Changpeng Zhao

Trump is suggesting he could call on Israel to release imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, the most popular and potentially unifying Palestinian leader, as the United States aims to fill a leadership vacuum in postwar Gaza.

Trump, in an interview published Thursday, said he’s discussed the potential for Barghouti’s release with White House aides.

“I was literally being confronted with that question about 15 minutes before you called,” Trump told Time magazine when asked about Barghouti. “So I’ll be making a decision.”

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment about Trump’s deliberations on the matter. But the president’s acknowledgment of the internal discussions underscores the difficult task of finding credible political figures to oversee governance in Gaza as the U.S. and Israel say they’re committed to preventing Hamas from continuing to rule the territory.

▶ Read more about Trump and Gaza

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says his message to air traffic controllers during the government shutdown is “come to work, even if you do not get a paycheck.”

His comments came as House Republicans held a news conference marking the 23rd day of the shutdown by focusing on its impact at the nation’s airports.

Duffy says safety is paramount so if there isn’t an adequate staffing level of air traffic controllers, there will be canceled flights.

“I cannot guarantee you your flight is going to be on time. I cannot guarantee your flight is not going to be canceled,” Duffy said.

He notes that air traffic controllers will miss their first full paycheck Tuesday and that some are having to make choices to pay the mortgage and other bills, at times by taking a second job.

“I don’t want my air traffic controllers to take a second job. I want them to do one job,” he said.

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday announced the creation of an Illinois accountability commission that would create a public record of what he called Trump’s “military-style assault on Chicago and our suburbs.”

The commission’s members would also record the effect of the federal immigration crackdown on families and recommend actions to “prevent further harm and pursue justice,” he said.

“We hope to reveal to the public in Chicago, the state of Illinois, to people around the world the facts that are going on here,” Pritzker said Thursday. “We hope to create a detailed record of the truth.”

Wellness influencer and health entrepreneur Dr. Casey Means will appear virtually before the Senate health committee for her confirmation hearing next Thursday, the committee has announced.

The surgeon general pick and her brother, former lobbyist Calley Means, served as key advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s longshot 2024 presidential bid and helped broker his endorsement of Trump last summer. Calley Means is now a White House adviser.

Means, 38, has no government experience and dropped out of her surgical residency program, saying she became disillusioned with traditional medicine. She founded a health tech company, Levels, that helps users track blood sugar and other metrics.

Stocks are drifting on Wall Street and oil prices are jumping after Trump announced “massive” new sanctions on Russia’s crude industry.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in the early going Thursday. It’s just a bit below the all-time high it set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed, and the Nasdaq composite was also flat.

Tesla fell after reporting a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though its revenue rose more than forecast.

The price of oil jumped 5.6% after Trump announced sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

The government shutdown has reopened debate on what has been a central issue for both major political parties in the last 15 years: the future of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Tax credits for people who get health insurance through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expire at the end of the year.

Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate an extension of the expanded subsidies. Republicans say they won’t negotiate until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Lawmakers in both parties have been working on potential solutions behind the scenes, hoping leaders will eventually start to talk, but it’s unclear if the two sides could find compromise.

▶ Read more about the government shutdown and health care

The European Union has agreed on a new raft of sanctions against Russia targeting its shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its imports of liquefied natural gas, the Danish EU presidency announced Thursday.

“Today is a good day for Europe and Ukraine,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement, as EU leaders were gathering for a summit in Brussels.

He said the new sanctions “will introduce new and comprehensive measures on oil and gas, the shadow fleet and Russia’s financial sector.” A new system for limiting the movement of Russian diplomats within the 27-nation EU will also be introduced.

The move comes a day after Trump’s administration announced new sanctions against Russia’s oil industry that are aimed at moving Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and ending Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

▶ Read more about the European Union summit

China’s Commerce Ministry announced Thursday that Vice Premier He Lifeng would lead a delegation to Malaysia from Friday to Monday to hold trade talks with the United States.

The talks are expected to lay the groundwork for a meeting next week between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that delegations led by him and the Chinese vice premier would meet in Malaysia, probably on Saturday.

“We could start reconstruction of the areas that are free of Hamas very quickly. We think that we could potentially get hundreds of thousands of Gazans living in that area very quickly,” Vance said before winding down his visit to Israel on Thursday. “But again, this is all still pretty early. But that’s the basic idea.”

Vance added that it will take to two to three years to rebuild the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

Rafah’s population surged early in the war as many Palestinians were displaced by Israeli operations elsewhere in the territory. By this past spring, Rafah was also largely decimated by the fighting.

The vice president made clear he wasn’t happy with comments from Psaki, who on a podcast earlier this week jokingly suggested Usha Vance was being held captive and that she stood ready to save her.

“I think it’s disgraceful,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters before departing Israel on Thursday. “But of course, the second lady can speak for herself, and I’m very lucky to have a wonderful wife. And I know at least I hope, that my wife feels the same about me.”

Psaki, who served as White House press secretary early in Democrat Joe Biden’s administration, speaking on the “I Had It” podcast also referred to Vance as “the little Manchurian candidate,” who “wants to be president more than anything else.”

“I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife. Like, are you OK? Please blink four times. We’ll come over here. We’ll save you,” Psaki said.

Vice President JD Vance criticized Israel’s parliament vote on West Bank annexation, saying the move was an “insult.”

Speaking on the tarmac of Tel Aviv’s international airport before departing at the end of his visit to Israel this week, Vance said that if the vote was a “political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.”

“I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said about the Knesset vote. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

The Israeli parliament on Wednesday took the symbolic step of giving preliminary approval to a bill that would give Israel authority to annex the occupied West Bank — a move the U.S. opposes.