WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times EDT):
11:45 p.m.
President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Wednesday aimed at minimizing the federal government’s role in education.
The order will direct the education secretary to conduct a study to identify potential over-reach by the federal government on education issues.
That’s according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to outline details of the order that will be signed during an event with governors.
Trump has spent little time discussing education issues since taking office, despite promising during the campaign to deliver more control to state and local entities.
The president will sign a handful of executive orders this week as he seeks to rack up accomplishments ahead of his 100th day in office.
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8:40 p.m.
The White House says President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had “a very amicable call” Tuesday evening, hours after Trump claimed Canada had “outsmarted” the U.S. for a long time but his administration is “not going to put up with it.”
Trump has been railing against Canada’s decision to change its policy on pricing certain milk products, which has driven down prices.
His administration moved Monday to impose a hefty tariff on softwood lumber from Canada, accusing the Canadians of unfairly subsiding lumber prices.
The Canadian government is offering more detailed description of the call.
It says Trudeau “refuted the baseless allegations” by the U.S. Commerce Department about Canadian lumber.
Trudeau also said Canada “would continue to defend its interests” when it comes to milk products.
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8:35 p.m.
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus says President Donald Trump’s flexibility on immediate funding for a border wall is putting Democrats in an awkward spot during the fight to keep the government open.
Priebus says Trump is “showing some reasonableness on the wall and border security,” a move that has put Democrats “on their heels.”
He says Democrats “weren’t quite expecting that it wasn’t going to be as rigid of a situation.” He says they are now trying to “fashion some fake controversy for us to fight over in order to shut the government down and blame us.”
Priebus says Trump is open to funding the physical wall at a later date, as long as the administration gets “a significant amount of border security money” this time
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4:05 p.m.
President Donald Trump is insisting his promised wall along the Southern border will be built by the end of his first term in office.
But Trump is refusing to say whether he’s willing to force a government shutdown at the end of the week by insisting money for his wall be included in a must-pass spending bill.
The president tells reporters, “The wall’s gonna get built.” He says, “It’s going to have a huge impact on human trafficking.”
He says he expects construction to start “soon.”
Trump told a gathering of conservative media reporters Monday evening that he might be willing to wait until September for the funding.
Trump’s chief spokesman says the wall remains a top priority for the president.
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3:35 p.m.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will direct his new agriculture secretary to identify and eliminate what Trump says are unnecessary regulations that hurt farmers and rural communities.
The order also establishes a new task force charged with reviewing policies, legislation and regulations that unnecessarily hinder agricultural and economic growth.
Trump says he’s working to make life easier for working Americans. He was kicking off a round-table discussion with farmers at the White House Tuesday.
Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue was sworn in as Trump’s agriculture secretary earlier Tuesday.
Trump is signing a flurry of executive orders this week as he approaches his 100th day in office and looks to rack up accomplishments to tout.
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3:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump says Canada has “outsmarted” the U.S. for a long time but his administration is “not going to put up with it.”
Trump has been railing against Canada’s decision to change its policy on pricing domestic milk to cover more dairy ingredients, leading to lower prices for products, including ultra-filtered milk.
His administration moved Monday to impose a 20 percent tariff on softwood lumber entering the U.S. from Canada, escalating an intensifying trade dispute between the two countries.
He says he’s not worried about sparking a trade war with Canada but says it has “outsmarted our politicians for many years.”
Trump made the remarks Tuesday while signing an Executive Order promoting agriculture and rural prosperity in U.S.
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12:03 p.m.
President Donald Trump is condemning those who deny the Holocaust and is pledging to confront anti-Semitism.
In a speech marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, Trump says those who would deny that 6 million Jews were killed by Germany’s Nazi leadership during World War II “are an accomplice of this horrible evil.” The president says “we must never, ever shrink away from telling the truth in our time.”
Trump also pledges that as president of the United States he will “always stand with the Jewish people.”
The president spoke at a U.S. Capitol ceremony hosted by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to mark the unveiling of its new conservation and research center. The center houses a vast collection of artifacts by those who survived Adolf Hitler’s massacre of Jews.
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