Live updates: Judge declines to rule today on whether to drop NYC mayor corruption charges – BBC.com
US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order tonight stopping any federal benefits going to undocumented migrantsMeanwhile, Trump has finished speaking at a Saudi-backed investment meeting in FloridaTrump touched on several familiar lines, including praise for Doge spending cuts and touting his border policies Earlier, the politics of Trump’s hometown of New York were in the spotlight as a judge said he would not decide immediately about whether to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams after a court hearing in ManhattanControversy has been building around Adams after US prosecutors filed a motion to halt corruption charges against the mayorA top prosecutor last week alleged the mayor asked the Trump administration to drop a corruption case against him in exchange for his co-operation on immigration enforcementAdams was indicted last year on fraud and bribery charges. He denies any wrongdoingEdited by Caitlin Wilson and Lisa Lambert, with Bernd Debusmann Jr travelling with TrumpAfter speaking at a Saudi-backed investor meeting in his home state of Florida, President Donald Trump will soon head back to his temporary home of Washington DC on Air Force One, with his friend and billionaire adviser Elon Musk also aboard. During the flight, Trump is expected to sign an executive order ending federal benefits for undocumented migrants. He’s flying back from Miami, where he addressed a Saudi-backed conference. Trump’s speech touched on many of his favourite topics – he touted the government cuts his administration has taken in the nearly one month since taking office, outlined plans for security at the southern US border and praised Musk’s work with Doge.He also took another jab at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, again calling him a “dictator” and blasting him for not yet negotiating an end to the war in his country, which began in 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion. The earlier part of the day saw Trump focused on his hometown of New York. He proclaimed on social media, “LONG LIVE THE KING” – applauding his administration’s decision to axe funding for New York City’s congestion charge.That announcement came the same day that a judge said he would not immediately rule on whether to approve prosecutors’ request – at the behest of Trump’s justice department – to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.We’re ending our live coverage of US politics for now, but you can read more about today’s news below: After he leaves the event in Miami tonight, President Donald Trump is expected to sign at least one executive order.The White
House has confirmed that Trump will sign an executive
order designed to “take corrective action” to terminate any federal taxpayer
benefits going to undocumented migrants. The measure will also seek to ensure that any
federal funds to states and localities “will not be used to support sanctuary
policies or assist illegal immigration”, according to Fox News. A White House official
told the cable network the executive order would show Trump is committed to ensuring
federal public health benefits go towards US citizens. “Can confirm!” the White House press secretary tweeted. “No more federal benefits to illegal aliens.”Trump’s appearance at the Saudi-backed investment meeting in Miami was capped off by a question-and-answer session with Foreign Institutional Investor Institute Richard Attias.Attias asked the president about a range of topics, including the best advice he’s ever received, whether he would prefer to rule during war or peacetime and the best business practices in the US that the world should adopt. Trump said that many of the people – living or dead – he’d like to have dinner with were already sitting in the front row for his speech, including Fifa head Gianni Infantino.I’m “very
happy” to be president for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 2026 World Cup held in the US, he said. He also touted the “courage” he said it took him to run for president – “My ear will show that”, he said, referring to the assassination attempt last year. And when he was asked to describe the United States in three words – a “tough question”, he said, that he doesn’t think Joe Biden could have answered – Trump landed on “love, respect and strength” as the three descriptors. Trump and Attias then walked off the stage to the song YMCA, a favourite of the president’s while on the campaign trail last year.Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiJust before the end of his speech, Trump touched upon the war in Ukraine and the peace negotiations which he said are going “very well”.”It’s young people from Russia and Ukraine that are being decimated,” he said.Trump has also taken aim at Zelensky, again calling him a “moderately successful comedian” and a “dictator” who “talked the US” into giving aid.He’s also referenced his attempt to get rare-earth minerals from Ukraine, accusing Zelensky’s government of “breaking the deal.””He refuses to have elections,” he says of Zelensky, claiming that the only thing he was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle.Trump has finished speaking in Miami, and is now taking questions on stage. Stick with us. This video can not be playedTrump repeats ‘dictator’ comments concerning President ZelenskyAbout an hour into his speech at the Saudi-backed investment meeting in Florida, Trump has just repeated his earlier comment calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator”.He blasts Zelensky’s handling of the war in his country, which started in 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion. Maybe he wants to keep the US aid gravy train going, Trump speculates about why there has not yet been an agreement to end the war.You can read more about Trump’s earlier comments and the international reaction here: Trump calls Zelensky a ‘dictator’ as rift between two leaders deepensBernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiCompared to some of Trump’s other recent appearances, this one is slightly meandering, darting back from subject to subject. In the last few minutes alone, he’s bounced back and forth from his trip to Iraq, problems with the new and yet-undelivered Air Force One aircraft and repeated jabs at former President Joe Biden. It reminds me much more of his campaign events, which often similarly veered back and forth.
At the White House, by comparison, Trump appearances I’ve attended begin quite focused before expanding during the question-and-answer portions. The audience is still paying rapt attention – particularly Elon Musk, who I can see nodding his head slowly as he listens to Trump. The same is true of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The applause, however, has begun to die down, even as he vows to protect the oil industry and “drill, baby, drill”.Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiTrump has made a point of praising Elon Musk and Doge – a clear message that there is little disagreement between the two.”He’s a very committed person. He’s a very serious person and he’s a very high IQ person,” he said. “I like high IQ people.” Trump added that “the guy has his faults. But not too many of them.” As was the case at his press conference in Mar-a-Lago yesterday, Trump is listing alleged examples of government waste across the world, including the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The crowd appears to be enjoying it, laughing loudly at each item.
Trump seems to recognise this – pausing for effect after each item on the list.For background -Doge stands for Department of Government Efficiency, although it is not an official departmentTrump is a little over 15 minutes into his speech at a Saudi-backed conference in Miami. We’re hearing many familiar lines that he has repeated both on the campaign trail and since taking the oath of office a month ago.Trump has boasted about his election win, discussed his plans to impose tariffs, praised tech mogul Elon Musk for his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency, referenced securing the US-Mexico border and bragged about cutting government spending. Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiSteve Witkoff and Mike Waltz – who have been leading the negotiations over Ukraine’s fate – are in the crowd, as well as Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Trump says he came with a “simple message” to the summit for those who want to “make a fortune”. “There’s no better place on earth than the current and future America under a certain President Donald J Trump,” he said, eliciting applause from the crowd. Musk, for his part, also got a standing ovation after a brief mention by Trump. Trump’s comments so far are a long list of frequent talking points, including “weaponization”, a pro-business environment and cryptocurrencies.Shou Zi Chew – the chief executive of TikTok – is reportedly attending the speech tonight.The popular app – which is used by more than 170 million American users – went dark briefly last month, after a bipartisan vote in Congress, signed into law by former President Joe Biden, banned the app.It ordered TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party to avert an outright ban. The Biden administration had argued the app could be used by China as a tool for spying and manipulation.Trump himself had briefly support banning TikTok during his first term, but appeared to have a change of heart during last year’s presidential campaign – and signed an executive order granting it a 75-day extension to comply with the law, upon taking office for a second time.Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiPresident Trump just came on stage at the FII Institute event in Miami – to the tune of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”. It’s clearly a receptive audience, with a lengthy standing ovation while he stood to the left rear of the podium.
He’s in a jovial mood – and appeared to lip sync parts of the song. “It’s great to be back in beautiful Miami, where I’ve actually built a lot of beautiful buildings,” he says, before listing off some of his properties in the area.The Public Investment Fund (PIF) is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and essentially holds a large amount of the country’s savings.It is considered one of the largest of its kind in the world, mainly thanks to the massive amounts of money Saudi Arabia has made through selling oil.And it’s also one of the most active, recently investing heavily in sports such as football and golf. They’ve been accused of doing this to change public perception of the country – known as sportswashing.The fund is controlled by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who chairs the board responsible for overseeing PIF’s “long-term strategy, investment policy and performance”.Trump has now taken the stage to deliver his speech at the Saudi-backed summit in Miami. We’ll bring you the top lines from his speech. Stick with us. As a reminder, you can watch the speech live at the top of this page. Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiElon Musk just entered the room in which Donald Trump is slated to speak shortly.From where I am standing, I can see him wearing a black hat, as well as a black T-shirt and blazer.He’s making small talk with the man next to him, whose face I can’t see. Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, is seated in the row behind him.Musk’s here in Miami to support the president after his much-vaunted appearance alongside Trump on Fox News last night.Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from MiamiI’ve just arrived at the Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII) event in Miami Beach – where President Trump is due to appear shortly. From my vantage spot at the corner of the venue, I can see perhaps 200 people, including a number of prominent businessmen I recognise from a previous job that often took me to Saudi Arabia. FII was launched by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, called the Public Investment Fund, in 2017 and hosts conferences and summits around the world.On its web site, it promotes the Miami summit as a gathering of “an exclusive group of the world’s most visionary investors, CEOs, world leaders, policymakers, next-generation visionaries, entrepreneurs, scientists, academics, practitioners, global citizens, cultural icons & media.”I can’t see him, but it was earlier reported that Elon Musk is here among the crowd. The drive here was lively, with throngs of people waving US – and Israeli – flags as the motorcade sped past. Some shouted “I love you Trump” as we approached the venue. For background: Trump has ordered the creation of a US sovereign wealth fund, which uses government money to make investments. Saudi Arabia’s is one of the biggest in the world.Most of the political news we’ve been bringing you so far today has focused on President Donald Trump’s former hometown – New York City.That’s with the news of a judge declining to rule today on whether to drop charges against mayor Eric Adams, and the president’s comments that “congestion pricing is dead” in the city.Now attention shifts to Trump’s new home state – Florida. He’s due to give a speech in around 30 minutes time to a Saudi-backed investment conference in Miami.Stick with us and we’ll bring you the latest from the conference.I can bring you some more details now after my time in court this afternoon, including about the judge specifically asking the parties about the possibility of a quid pro quo in the case.Shortly after 2 pm local time, Adams was sworn in and placed under questioning by Judge Ho.Adams, who has been known for his occasional rhetorical flourish, provided straightforward answers to Judge Ho’s questions, confirming he was aware with the terms of the order of dismissal proposed by the Department of Justice.The judge asked a series of standard questions to ensure Adams understood the terms of the motion to dismiss — including that it did not preclude him from future prosecution by the Justice Department if they decide in the future to re-open the case. The mayor confirmed that he understood the terms.But he also probed Adams, who was under oath, about whether any other understandings existed between himself and Trump’s Justice Department.The judge pointedly asked Adams if there had been “anything promised to you to induce you to consent to the motion?””Not at all,” Adams answered.Did anyone threaten you, Judge Ho followed up?The mayor said no.Phil McCauslandReporting from New YorkNew York City politics used to be something only local political nerds paid attention to, but Mayor Eric Adams and the Trump administration have ensured that everyone here is on the lookout for the latest update on the fate of Adams’s prosecution.Some people in the city had high hopes for the mayor after his election in 2021. They believed the city needed a more dramatic and boisterous mayor to get the city moving after the pandemic, but Adams’s approval rating has only fallen since he took office – polls now suggest that about 60% of city voters disapprove of his handling of the office. For his first few years in office, few people I know were interested in discussing the New York City mayor’s colourful press conferences, the criticism he has received for cutting funding to the city library system and other cultural institutions, or the investigations he and members of his administration have faced. But it seems like there has been a call to action in recent weeks following his indictment, the subsequent order form the justice department to then dismiss his case and the resignation of multiple Manhattan prosecutors over the ordeal. I know several people who have now registered to vote for the first time. Many of the conversations I had at a party over the weekend either jocularly referenced Adams or turned into an in-depth discussion of his case. A former New York City police officer I know – who has supported Trump – even told me that he thinks the mayor and many in his administration are “crooks” and that the White House’s effort to dismiss the charges is a “big mistake”. This all comes before the city’s mayoral election next year. It’s unclear what Adams’s role will be in that race. Though he has vowed to run again, his poll numbers are so far anaemic, and few people seem surprised by reports that he is discussing running his re-election campaign as a Republican – in a very Democratic city.Bernd Debusmann JrUS reporterEric Adams was charged last year with five separate criminal counts, including “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals”, wire fraud, two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and bribery.He has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.According to the 57-page indictment – which prosecutors and the defence team are now hoping will get dropped – Adams is alleged to have accepted more than $100,000 in luxury travel – including hotel stays, lavish meals and airline upgrades – from Turkish nationals beginning in 2016, when he still served as president of the New York borough of Brooklyn.In one instance, for example, he is alleged to have received a “heavily discounted” stay at the “Bentley Room” of Istanbul’s St Regis hotel, paying $600 for a two-day visit that was valued at approximately $7,000.Additionally, the New York City mayor is alleged to have sought out campaign contributions from Turkish sources for his 2021 mayoral election campaign.None of this was publicly declared, and prosecutors claimed Adams used “straw donors” to hide the sources of the money, and at times created “fake paper trails” that suggested he paid, or intended to pay, for the gifts.In exchange for the campaign contributions and lavish travel, Adams is alleged to have responded to a variety of concerns from Turkish nationals and at least one government official.Copyright © 2025 BBC. 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