Trump admin live updates: Trump pardons former entertainment exec indicted by own DOJ

_{Dec 4, 6:28 AM}

Trump to host Rwanda, Congo presidents at White House

President Donald Trump is scheduled on Thursday to participate in a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda at the White House and later hold a signing ceremony for a peace and economic agreement with the African leaders at the US Institute of Peace in D.C.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing on Monday that the signing will be for a “historic peace and economic agreement that [Trump] brokered.” The president consistently touts the peace pact between these countries as one of the “eight wars” that he claims to have stopped.

The decadeslong conflict in Central Africa stems back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and, according to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, violence perpetrated by dozens of armed groups in the eastern DRC has cost more than 6 million lives since 1996. The conflict surged in 2022, when Rwandan military forces entered the DRC to provide support to the March 23 Movement, a rebel group also known as M23, and its insurgency against the Congolese military.

The foreign ministers of the DRC and Rwanda signed a peace deal brokered by the Trump administration in Washington in late June of 2025.

Though the agreement was widely celebrated, the prospects for peace were quickly questioned because the deal didn’t include all warring factions. Trump’s own advisers have acknowledged that fighting has not ended and that further diplomacy is needed to fully implement the pact.

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

_{Dec 3, 11:28 PM}

US Institute of Peace building renamed for Trump

The State Department announced Wednesday evening that the former U.S. Institute of Peace building has been renamed after President Donald Trump “to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”

“Welcome to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. The best is yet to come,” the social media post reads.

The renaming comes as Trump has sought to establish himself as a peacemaker and openly lobbied for a Nobel Peace Prize (which he was not awarded this year).

The president often claims that he’s “ended eight wars.”

On Thursday, Trump will host a trilateral meeting with the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda at the White House, before using the newly renamed building as a backdrop for the signing ceremony of a peace and economic agreement with the two leaders.

-ABC News’ Meghan Mistry, Isabella Murray and Fritz Farrow

_{Dec 3, 9:57 PM}

Trump pardons former entertainment exec indicted months ago by his own DOJ

President Donald Trump has pardoned Tim Leiweke, a former entertainment executive who was indicted just months ago by the Department of Justice for allegedly orchestrating a bid-rigging scheme.

The pardon, dated Dec. 2, was posted online by the DOJ. Trey Gowdy, a close ally of Trump, represented Leiweke in the matter. A source familiar with the matter told ABC News that Gowdy has actively pushed the administration to drop charges or grant Leiweke a pardon.

A federal grand jury indicted Leiweke in July “for orchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process for an arena at a public university in Austin, Texas.”

“As outlined in the indictment, the Defendant rigged a bidding process to benefit his own company and deprived a public university and taxpayers of the benefits of competitive bidding,” the head of DOJ’s antitrust division, Abigail Slater, said in a press release at the time. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to hold executives who cheat to avoid competition accountable.”

The circumstances surrounding the pardon are unclear. And the White House has not provided an explanation as to why Trump would issue a pardon to someone his own Justice Department investigated and indicted just months earlier.

Leiweke has a track record of slamming Trump, calling him the “world’s single greatest con man” in a now-deleted social media post in 2024.

In a 2023 social media post, Leiweke also praised former Vice President Mike Pence “for standing up and fighting for our Constitution and due process.”

-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders

_{Dec 3, 4:48 PM}

Trump continues to attack Omar, Somali immigrants

Trump was asked about the pushback from Minnesota leaders over his anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacks on Somali immigrants.

The president continued his criticism of the community, the majority of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the U.S census, and took aim again at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Trump said Omar, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, “shouldn’t be allowed to be a congresswoman.”

“Go back to your own country,” Trump later said.

_{Dec 3, 4:41 PM}

Trump on Cuellar pardon: ‘He’s a respected person’

Hours after President Donald Trump announced he granted a pardon to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, who were indicted on charges including bribery in 2024, Trump said he is a “respected person.”

“He’s a respected person. He was treated very badly because he said that people should not be allowed to pour into our country, and he was right,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Prosecutors alleged that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, began accepting the roughly $600,000 in bribes from an oil and gas company owned by Azerbaijan’s government as well as a bank headquartered in Mexico City.

_{Dec 3, 4:37 PM}

Trump questioned about supporting 2nd strike after survivors were found

ABC News’ Selina Wang questioned Trump on the Sept. 2 strike and possible consequences for military officials.

“If it is found that survivors were actually killed while clinging on to that boat, should Secretary Hegseth, Adm. Bradley or others be punished?” she asked.

“I think you’re going to find that this is war,” Trump responded before talking about how drugs were killing Americans.

Wang followed up, asking Trump if he supported “the decision to kill survivors.”

“No, I support the decision to knock out the boats,” Trump responded.

_{Dec 3, 4:27 PM}

Witkoff, Kushner had ‘very good meeting’ with Putin: Trump

President Donald Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, said that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner had a “very good meeting” with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Trump said he spoke to Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday night, saying Putin would “like to end the war.”

“He would like to see the war ended,” Trump said, referring to Putin. “They’re impression was very strongly that he would like to make a deal.”

In terms of what comes out of the meeting and it’s impact on the end of the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump said “I can’t tell you because it does take two to tango.”

_{Dec 3, 4:23 PM}

Trump says he’d ‘certainly’ be open to releasing more videos of Sept. 2 boat strike

ABC News’ Selina Wang asked Trump if he would release video of the second strike on an alleged drug boat on Sept. 2 following the revelation of a follow-up attack.

“Well, I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we would certainly release. No problem,” Trump said before touting the strikes.

_{Dec 3, 4:17 PM}

Trump talks Tennessee special election, criticizes term ‘affordability’

President Donald Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, discussed the Tennessee special election that occurred Tuesday night, saying Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn “lost by a lot more than they thought.”

With 99% of the vote counted, Republican Matt Van Epps led Behn by about 9 percentage points — 53.9% to 45% — according to the Associated Press.

Trump also criticized Democrats using the term “affordability.”

_{Dec 3, 1:19 PM}

Trump to roll back Biden-era vehicle fuel efficiency rules: WH official

President Donald Trump is set to announce a loosening of vehicle fuel efficiency standards that were put in place during the Biden administration, a White House official confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.

A White House official confirmed reports that the reset of the federal fuel efficiency standards, which Trump is set to announce in the Oval Office alongside auto executives on Wednesday afternoon, is expected to save Americans up to $109 billion. The details of the announcement were first reported by Fox News.

“As America’s largest auto producer, we appreciate President Trump’s leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities. We can make real progress on carbon emissions and energy efficiency while still giving customers choice and affordability. This is a win for customers and common sense,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement to ABC News.

ABC News has confirmed that Farley and Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa will be in attendance at the event in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

The 2024 rule from the Biden administration mandated a 2% increase in fuel efficiency each year for vehicles produced between 2027 through 2031 and a 20% per year increase, which would bring the average vehicle fuel economy up to about 50.4 miles per gallon.

The transportation sector is one of the most significant contributors of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, with cars and trucks accounting for a majority of those emissions, according to the EPA.

The Trump administration says the rollback of fuel economy standards is about reducing vehicle costs, but that’s not an established fact, with a Consumer Reports analysis of vehicle-purchase data for 2003 to 2021 model years finding “no systemic, statistically significant increase in inflation-adjusted vehicle prices across vehicle classes or vehicle nameplates.”

-ABC News’ Matthew Glasser, Clara McMichael and Michelle Stoddart