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In the 50 days since Donald Trump entered the White House, there have been announcements and headlines almost every day.

Here’s an A-Z of the last 50 days under Trump 2.0.

A is for Associated Press, banned from White House events for still using “Gulf of Mexico” rather than Trump’s Gulf of America rebrand. It’s one of a number of changes in media access to government that favours Trump-friendly outlets.

Donald Trump signed a Proclamation declaring 9 February 2025 as the 'Gulf of America Day'. Pic: Reuters
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Donald Trump signed a proclamation declaring 9 February 2025 as the ‘Gulf of America Day’. Pic: Reuters

B is for bromance. French President Emmanuel Macron re-affirmed the thigh-patting friendship with Trump when both men leaned in for the tickle in an Oval Office encounter that laid bare the pair’s mutual affection. Macron addressed him as “Dear Donald” in a meeting that had Ukraine as its focus.

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Is Trump and Macron’s bromance still intact?

C is for the US Constitution, which many see as challenged by Trump 2.0. It divides power equally between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Trump appears to be expanding the executive power of the president in a way that undermines the ‘checks and balances’ structure of government to suit his political will. This is being contested in a number of legal challenges.

Protesters in Washington DC on Monday. Pic: Reuters
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Protesters in Washington DC in January. File pic: Reuters

D is for DOGE. The Department of Government Efficiency is charged with rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in the federal government and has, controversially, enforced closures and slashed thousands of jobs. It has provoked legal challenges.

E is for Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and ‘First Buddy’ in the White House, who is in charge of DOGE. Questions persist around the extent of his unchecked authority and conflict of interest as well as access, through DOGE, to government and personal information.

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Elon Musk holds a chainsaw gifted by Argentina  president Javier Milei during the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Pic: Reuters
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Elon Musk holds a chainsaw during the Conservative Political Action Conference. File pic: Reuters

F is for Fogel. Marc Fogel is a US schoolteacher imprisoned in Russia, released after the Trump administration lobbied the Kremlin, declaring it a “show of good faith from the Russians” and encouraging re ending the Ukraine war.

G is for Greenland, the mineral-rich Arctic territory belonging to Denmark which Donald Trump wants to acquire. Of the self-governing island, he told a recent joint address to Congress: One way or the other, we’re going to get it.” Denmark and the Greenlandic government say it’s not for sale.

Icebergs float near Sermitsiaq Island, Greenland, February 9, 2025. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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Icebergs float near Sermitsiaq Island, Greenland. File pic: Reuters

H is for how on earth did that happen? The question could apply to a number of things – let’s settle here for the AI video of a re-imagined Gaza as a luxury resort, variously populated by bearded belly dancers, a gold statue of Trump, and the president himself sat sipping cocktails with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Notably, it was shared on social media by President Trump, who has spoken of his wish to “own” the Gaza Strip.

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President shares ‘Trump Gaza’ AI video

I is for Indian PM Narendra Modi, who met Trump in DC but not before sitting down with Elon Musk and his children. Musk wants access to India for his Starlink internet service and Tesla vehicles. Critics say the meeting raises questions about him using his Trump-adjacent position to benefit his global business.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi points at Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House on 13 February. File pic: Reuters
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi points at Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House on 13 February. File pic: Reuters

J is for Justice, as in Department of. Long-serving officials at the DoJ have been removed, creating vacancies in traditionally non-partisan roles that opponents say Trump will fill with people who share his ideology. The president has claimed the DoJ has previously weaponised the law against him. Critics say he will do the same, against his opponents.

File pic: Reuters
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File pic: Reuters

K is for Kash Patel, newly appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Controversially, he once amplified Donald Trump’s threats to see retribution against political opponents, saying: “We will go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media.”

L is for a list of other controversial appointments, including:

RFK Jr, head of health and human services, who has promoted conspiracy theories, spread anti-vaccine rhetoric and made other unfounded medical claims.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives for his confirmation hearing. Pic: AP
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives for his confirmation hearing. File pic: AP

Pete Hegseth, defence secretary, who faced allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct, and concerns about his qualifications.

Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, who held a 2017 meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad. Following the invasion of Ukraine, she shared claims that were widely debunked and identified as Russian propaganda.

M is for Moscow. Donald Trump has been on the phone to the Russian capital several times as he resets US relations with Vladimir Putin. He wants Russia back in the G8 and the US is contemplating lifting sanctions as it seeks to improve economic and diplomatic relations.

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Are there similarities between Trump and Putin?

N is for nervousness created by the on-off tariff saga. President Trump has partially paused 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico after falls in the stock markets. Tariffs on China and other countries (TBC) remain on the agenda, in spite of trade war fears and economists’ concerns about business uncertainty, low consumer confidence and the effect on prices.

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Why are tariffs such a big deal?

O is for order, as in changing world order. Trump’s strategy challenges the geopolitics that have cemented the United States and its allies and secured peace since the Second World War. His warmth towards traditional adversaries like Russia and China suggests he’s prepared to change the political paradigm and realign a more insular America according to self-interest.

P is for Panama Canal. President Trump says he would consider using military force to seize it from Panama, one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America. He claims, without evidence, that it’s controlled by China.

A cargo ship sails towards the Bridge of the Americas, which spans the entrance to the Panama Canal, after newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks during his inauguration speech, when he vowed that the United States would take back the canal, in Panama City, Panama January 22, 2025. REUTERS/Aris Martinez
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A cargo ship sails towards the entrance to the Panama Canal. File pic: Reuters

Q is for quarterback Patrick Mahomes, of the Kansas City Chiefs. Trump watched him at American football’s ‘Superbowl’ in February, the first sitting president ever to attend. He praised Mahomes’ wife for her vocal support of him but there were no words for the partner of team-mate Travis Kelce. She is, of course, the singer Taylor Swift – no fan of Donald Trump.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. File pic: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images/Reuters
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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. File pic: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images/Reuters

R is for Rubio. Marco Rubio, secretary of state, was among cabinet secretaries who rowed with Elon Musk in a meeting over his department cuts. Trump intervened to say he still supported the DOGE mission but department secretaries would be in charge from now on. It’s the first real sign of Trump placing limits on Musk.

S is for special relationship. “We like each other, frankly, and we like each other’s country,” said Trump of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. At a White House meeting, the PM delivered an invitation for a state visit from King Charles. The pair talked Ukraine but Starmer will have liked hearing Trump say there was “a very good chance” of a trade deal “where tariffs wouldn’t be necessary”.

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What happened when Starmer met Trump?

T is for Trudeau, as in Justin Trudeau. The departing Canadian prime minister has been a target of Trump as has Canada itself, which Donald Trump wants to make the 51st state of the US. He has insisted on referring to its PM as “Governor” and placed Canada, along with Mexico, at the front of the queue for US tariffs.

Justin Trudeau holds a news conference on imposed U.S. tariffs as Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty look on in Ottawa.
Pic: The Canadian Press/AP
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Justin Trudeau holds a news conference on imposed US tariffs. Pic: The Canadian Press/AP

U is for USAID. The work of the Agency for International Development has been dismantled. More than 10,000 people have lost their jobs at the agency which spends billions on programmes worldwide, including to ease poverty, treat disease and promote democracy. It is widely viewed as a valuable ‘soft power’ tool for the US but Elon Musk has called it a “criminal organisation” and Donald Trump said it was “run by a bunch of radical lunatics”.

V is for Vance, as in JD Vance. The vice president is viewed as the right-hand man who can articulate Trump policy in a way that Trump himself can’t. His speech to the Munich security conference reflected a reshaping of transatlantic relations, stunning the room by accusing allies of ignoring their own voter concerns about free speech and migration.

Separately, he caused offence in the UK when he said a US mineral deal in Ukraine was a better security guarantee than troops from “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”. He later insisted he hadn’t specified a particular country, adding that British – and French – troops had fought bravely alongside the US.

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Did JD Vance insult British troops?

W is for ‘wokeism’. Ending it is at the heart of the Trump agenda. He has limited diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) recruitment policies across the federal government and military. It included the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Q Brown. Previously, defence secretary Pete Hegseth had questioned whether he had been made chairman because he was black.

X is for X, full name X Æ A-Xii. He’s the four-year-old son of Elon Musk who, during an Oval Office news conference, wiped a bogie – or ‘booger’ – on the Resolute desk. Donald Trump, a self-described germaphobe, sent the desk to be cleaned afterwards.

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as X Æ A-12, Elon Musk's son, scratches his nose in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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Donald Trump and X Æ A-12 in the Oval Office on 11 February. File pic: Reuters

Y is for Yosemite, the national park where DOGE cuts hit in an unexpected way. Some rangers and staff were let go as part of a 1,000-strong reduction in the National Park Service by Elon Musk’s agency, raising questions about what kind of efficiencies Musk is seeking.

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‘Why me?’ Musk’s DOGE department cuts national park jobs

Z is for Zelenskyy. An Oval Office news conference with the Ukrainian president ended in extraordinary, unforgettable scenes of shouting and finger-pointing when Trump and his vice president rounded on their guest. Zelenskyy was criticised for not wearing a suit and not expressing thanks during the meeting. Zelenskyy is dealing with a president who called him a dictator and claimed Ukraine started the war. It’s awkward.

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Watch Trump and Zelenskyy clash

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Trump calls for reopening of Alcatraz to house ‘most ruthless and violent offenders’

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Trump calls for reopening of Alcatraz to house 'most ruthless and violent offenders'

US President Donald Trump has called for the reopening of notorious prison Alcatraz.

In a post on his social media site Truth Social, Mr Trump said America had been “plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders”.

He added that when the United States was “a more serious nation” it “did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals”.

“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz, to house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders,” he wrote.

Mr Trump said the reopening of the San Francisco prison would “serve as a symbol of law, order, and justice”.

The US president’s latest policy announcement comes after he fired national security adviser Mike Waltz last week in the first major change to his administration.

US President Donald Trump. Pic: AP
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US President Donald Trump speaking to reporters on Sunday. Pic: AP

Alcatraz was infamously inescapable and in the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI.

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Nearly all of them were caught or did not survive the attempt at escaping.

The prison housed some of America’s most notorious criminals, including Al Capone and George Kelly.

It has also been the subject of a number of films, including The Rock, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.

Alcatraz Island. File pic: AP
Image:
Alcatraz Island. File pic: AP

Alcatraz Island, which is surrounded by strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters, is now a major tourist site, operated by the National Park Service.

The prison’s closure in 1963 was attributed to crumbling infrastructure and high repair costs.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said it would “comply with all presidential orders”.

The Bureau of Prisons currently has 16 high-security prisons, including its maximum-security facility in Florence, Colorado, and a facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.

The United States’ federal law enforcement agency has been the subject of increased scrutiny in recent years after Jeffrey Epstein‘s suicide at a federal jail in New York City in 2019.

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Woman missing for more than 60 years found ‘alive and well’

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Woman missing for more than 60 years found 'alive and well'

A woman in the US who has been missing since 1962 has been found “alive and well”, authorities have said.

Audrey Backeberg left her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, in July that year when she was 20 years old, Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said.

Investigators pursued numerous leads over the years but the case eventually went cold.

However, during a review of cold cases earlier this year, a detective reassessed all the case files and evidence, and re-interviewed several witnesses – and found Ms Backeberg.

The 82-year-old was “alive and well” – living outside of the state of Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said.

Ms Backeberg was married and had two children when she disappeared on 7 July 1962, according to the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation.

She left her home to pick up her salary but never returned, causing her husband to ask family members where she was.

Shortly afterwards their 14-year-old babysitter claimed she and Ms Backeberg had hitchhiked to Wisconsin’s capital city Madison and then caught a bus to Indianapolis, Indiana.

The teenager said when she arrived she became nervous and wanted to go home, while Ms Backeberg refused to return and was last seen walking near a bus stop.

Ms Backeberg’s marriage was troubled and there were allegations of abuse, the Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy organisation said, with a criminal complaint having been filed days before she went missing.

Her relatives insisted she would never abandon her children, the organisation added, and her husband passed a polygraph test and maintained his innocence.

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‘We talked for 45 minutes’ – detective

Detective Isaac Hanson, who found Ms Backeberg, said her sister’s Ancestry.com account was vital in helping him locate her address.

“That was pretty key in locating death records, census reports, all kinds of data,” he told local news station WISN.

“So I called the local sheriff’s department, said, ‘Hey, there’s this lady living at this address. Do you guys have somebody, you can just go pop in?’

“Ten minutes later, she called me, and we talked for 45 minutes.”

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‘She sounded happy’

Mr Hanson said Ms Backeberg may have left home due to marital issues, but it was unclear why she had stayed away for so long.

He said he had promised to keep their conversation private.

“I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life,” he said.

“She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets.”

Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said Ms Backeberg made the choice to leave and her disappearance “was not the result of any criminal activity or foul play”.

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Trump posts AI image of himself as pope on Truth Social

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Trump posts AI image of himself as pope on Truth Social

Donald Trump has posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in papal regalia on his Truth Social platform – just 11 days after the death of Pope Francis.

Uploaded onto his account early on Saturday morning, it shows the US president with a large gold cross on a chain around his neck.

From there, it was published, without comment or explanation, on the White House X and Instagram accounts and, though it drew fierce criticism, it was liked more than 100,000 times.

It comes just a few days after the world leader joked that he’d like to be the pontiff.

Last week, he was asked by reporters on the White House lawn who he would like to succeed Francis and he replied: “I’d like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.”

He went on to say that he did not have a preference, but there was a cardinal in New York who was “very good”.

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‘I’d like to be pope’

Mr Trump was quickly accused of mocking Pope Francis’s death, but, by noon, UK time, the post had been liked more than 58,000 times on Instagram.

User comments, however, were mostly negative, with one saying that the image “isn’t funny. It’s not satire. And it’s not harmless”.

Another simply called it “disgusting”, while other reactions included “disturbing”, “disrespectful” and “offensive”.

On X, where the picture was liked more than 78,000 times, a user commented that Mr Trump was “making a mockery of the pious”, while another judged it “not a wise decision”.

The conclave to select a new pontiff will begin on 7 May after the death of Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Argentinian, who became pope in 2013, died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 due to a stroke and heart failure.

Last weekend, the president was criticised for wearing a non-traditional blue suit for Francis’s Vatican funeral and chewing gum during the ceremony.

However, his meeting in St Peter’s Basilica with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the outdoor mass got under way was dubbed “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and President Donald Trump, talk as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
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Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in St Peter’s Basilica. Pic: Ukrainian Presidential Press Office

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Mr Trump’s own religious views have long been a matter of speculation.

He was raised as a Presbyterian and publicly identified with it for most of his adult life, before, in October 2020, he renounced it and said he now considered himself a non-denominational Christian.

Many have questioned the depth of his faith, but that hasn’t stopped him appealing to conservative Christians and the Christian right, particularly evangelicals, some of whom have helped him get elected twice.

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Earlier this year, Mr Trump shared a bizarre AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform showcasing what appeared to be a vision of Gaza under his proposed plan.

The footage showed the area transformed into a Middle Eastern paradise with exotic beaches, Dubai-style skyscrapers, luxury yachts and people partying – and featured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk.

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