Trump administration works at proposed arch site, seeks Supreme Court relief on deportations, as judge orders reporters' return

On Thursday, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said construction vehicles and heavy equipment at the site of President Trump's proposed arch near Washington indicated preparation to build, according to The Hill; US District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico for 14 days, the Times of India reported; the Justice Department said it would ask the Supreme Court to permit deportations to countries other than migrants' own, the Guardian reported; and Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Washington for his first state visit in nine years, which France 24 said took place alongside a White House dinner and discussion of artificial intelligence oversight.

The Hill reported that Beyer, whose Northern Virginia district includes the arch site, visited the location Thursday morning after constituents told him construction vehicles had arrived. He said he spoke with workers operating heavy equipment, who told him they were carrying out archaeological work to assess the composition of the soil. A federal judge earlier in the month barred construction at the site without 14 days' notice and prohibited any activity without at least 48 hours' notice, with an exception for work connected to the search for underground artifacts, according to The Hill. Beyer said the workers could not say whether the work was a precursor to construction, and added that the presence of heavy equipment and additional surveyors was a clear indication the administration was preparing to proceed. He called the arch 'illegal and immoral' and said the administration is under a court order requiring 48 hours' notice before work proceeds.

The same day, the administration moved to speed up approval of the arch by ending consultations with local government historians that have usually accompanied such projects, according to The Hill. The General Services Administration describes those consultations, required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as 'an integral component' of the process, saying each federal agency must consider public views and concerns about historic preservation when making final project decisions. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which is leading the impact review, said Thursday it would make its recommendations to the Interior Department without weighing outside reviews, and that the Section 106 review would conclude once the Interior Secretary considers and responds to its comments. The Hill reported that officials in Virginia and Washington, D.C., sent letters to the National Park Service declining approval of the plan without further examination of its effect on nearby historic sites, including Arlington National Cemetery. Trump proposed a 250-foot arch on the Virginia side of Memorial Bridge as part of his commemoration of America's 250th birthday, and announced earlier in the week that it would also house snipers, drones and ammunition, writing Sunday on Truth Social that 'There will be no facility like this anywhere in the World.'

In the press access dispute, the Times of India reported that Trump announced last Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would no longer have access to the White House, accusing them of producing 'FAKE NEWS' and describing their reporting as false and negative. The three organizations sued, arguing the ban violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights. Judge Kelly, a Trump appointee, ruled Thursday morning that their access should be immediately restored for 14 days while the lawsuit proceeds, noting that when Trump announced the ban he had emphasized the outlets' coverage rather than the national security issues the administration later invoked. The White House initially kept the reporters out despite the order and then allowed them in, according to the Times of India. ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News had suspended their normal White House video pool in solidarity with the excluded outlets, jointly arguing that the public has a right to independent information about its government. Trump criticized reporters and called Judge Kelly 'totally disloyal', and posted an AI-generated image depicting the banned organizations as trash bags outside the White House and another reporter as a homeless hobo, the outlet reported. The administration can continue to argue that it has authority to control access to the White House complex.

On deportations, the Guardian reported that the administration will ask the Supreme Court to allow it to remove immigrants to countries other than their own, almost a week after a lower court judge rejected the policy. The outlet identified Todd Blanche as the US attorney general and said he stated on Thursday that the Department of Justice would ask the conservative-majority court for relief, writing on X that a federal appeals court had blocked third-country removals 'in the dark of night' and calling the tool entirely legal and invaluable, adding that the government would immediately seek relief from the Supreme Court, which previously granted a stay in the same case. The Guardian reported that a three-judge panel on the federal appeals court in Boston rejected the policy last week, upholding a lower court decision that the Department of Homeland Security's policy was unlawful, in a class-action lawsuit brought by migrants under deportation orders. Administration agreements with other countries have allowed more than 25,000 migrants to be deported to at least 29 third countries, often Mexico, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a project of Refugees International and Human Rights First; others went to countries in Latin America, Central Asia, the Caribbean and Africa, including the Central African Republic and South Sudan, which the Guardian described as high-risk destinations.

France 24, previewing a panel discussion, described Xi's state visit as the first by a Chinese president to Washington in nine years and said the two countries agree that now is not the time for global regulation of artificial intelligence. The programme referred to news that OpenAI had hacked the Australian government and noted steps by the US president including rolling back tariffs on China, easing chip restrictions and blocking a ban on TikTok, asking whether these reflected national interest or personal gain. Its listed guests were researcher Claudia Astarita of the Institute of East Asian Studies and Sciences Po, Zongyuan Zoe Liu of the Council on Foreign Relations, and author Jacob Silverman.

• No source states whether construction of the arch has formally begun, and none names the federal judge who imposed the notice requirements in the arch case or the court involved.
• No statement in any source comes from the National Park Service, the Interior Department or the White House responding directly to Beyer's account of the site or to the ending of the Section 106 consultations; the administration's own rationale for ending them is not given by the administration.
• The France 24 reference to 'news that OpenAI had hacked the Australian government' is not corroborated, explained or dated in any other source, and no other source discusses the Trump-Xi summit's substance beyond that programme preview.
• No outcome, agreement or joint statement from Xi Jinping's state visit is reported; the France 24 item is a preview of a panel discussion listing guests rather than a report of decisions.
• No source establishes whether the Supreme Court will grant relief on third-country deportations, how many migrants were sent to each destination, what conditions they faced, or which countries have agreements with the US.
• No direct statement from any of the deported migrants appears; their position is conveyed through advocates and the class-action description.
• Judge Kelly's order lasts 14 days; no source establishes what will happen to the three outlets' access after that period or how the underlying case will proceed.
• The Guardian describes Todd Blanche as the US attorney general; no other supplied source states his title, and the sources do not establish the current status of that position.
• The sources do not establish whether the four developments are related, and they do not provide a common account of any single event beyond the shared day.

1. The Hill — original — by Mike Lillis
2. France 24 — by François PICARD
3. The Times of India — by CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
4. The Guardian US — by Ariana Baio and agencies

Read the original at The Hill

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