Trump defends release of Capitol riot leaders from prison

Yesterday we were able to see Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, on the big stage.

Today, we’re hearing reports the president’s fifth child is starting a new business venture.

Barron Trump is reportedly starting a real estate venture with two other young partners.

Some reports suggest the business partners hope to one day operate as a subsidiary of the Trump empire.

Donald Trump says he has issued a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the deep web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht, 40, was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump posts on his Truth Social platform that he had called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her that he has granted a pardon to her son.

“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me,” Trump says.

• Read more on this breaking story

Jacob Chansley, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully obstructing the certification of the 2020 presidential election, will likely be familiar to BBC audiences as the man who wore strange garb to storm the Capitol.

“I regret nothing,” the self-styled QAnon Shaman tells BBC Newsnight after being pardoned by Trump.

Chansley says that now that his conviction has been wiped clean, he plans to exercise his right to buy guns again, and he believes that the attack at the Capitol was staged by the “deep state”.

Hear more from him in our video below:

Putting Trump’s AI infrastructure plans in contextpublished at 23:54 Greenwich Mean Time 21 January

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

The details of this AI announcement remain pretty limited so far.

But let’s set some of these numbers in context.

Demand for data centres has been exploding. A McKinsey report last year estimated that global demand for data centre capacity could more than triple by 2030.

And though the numbers tossed out today sound big, other companies are investing at similar scale.

Microsoft said, external earlier this month it was on track to invest $80bn to build out AI-powered data centres this year. Amazon announced two, externalprojects, external worth about $10bn each just in the last two months.

OpenAI has also been calling for significant investments, and pushing the government to support the plans. It said today’s announcement was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of conversations.

The projected surge has raised concerns about the impact on energy supplies and the role of foreign investors.

In our last post we covered the key lines from Trump’s announcement of additional investment in AI infrastructure.

The president also answered a number of questions from reporters on a wide range of other issues. Here’s what he had to say:

• The president defended his pardons for around 1,500 involved in the Capitol riot, including some who assaulted police officers, and said “their lives have been ruined”

• Trump said the Nato target of 2% of national spending on defence should be raised to 5%
• Asked if he will continue sending weapons to Ukraine, Trump said he was “looking at that”, and said his administration was talking to Zelensky and would speak to Putin very soon. He added the EU should be paying more and equalise its spending on the war with the US
• He also said he would “probably” consider increasing sanctions on Russia if it doesn’t come to the table to negotiate a ceasefire
• Trump spoke about the potential for tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China – he was not clear on whether tariffs would definitely be introduced but, asked when they would come into effect, said “probably 1 February is the date we’re looking at”

During that media conference, Donald Trump announced new investment in AI. Here’s the rundown of the announcement:

• Standing next to major tech executives Sam Altman and Larry Ellison, and Japanese tech tycoon Masayoshi Son, Donald Trump announced the formation of Stargate, a US-based artificial intelligence company
• Trump said the company would invest $500bn (£404bn) in AI infrastructure, leading to the creation of roughly 100,000 jobs
• Ellison of Oracle said data centres are already under construction in Texas, saying that there are 10 buildings under construction and will expand to 20
• Altman from OpenAI said this was the “most important project of this era”, adding that it wouldn’t happen without Trump
• Repeating Trump’s words, Son said “this is the beginning of the golden age of America”

Trump was also asked during that media conference whether he is going to continue selling products that benefit him financially – a reference to him launching his own cryptocurrency shortly before taking office.

Trump says he doesn’t know much about it other than that he launched it and heard it was very successful.

He asks the reporters how much it is worth now and he’s told it’s made a lot of money.

“How much?” Trump asks them, and is told it’s several billion dollars over the past few days.

Trump gestures to the tech CEOs standing beside him and says that the several billon dollars is “peanuts” for them.

The Trump administration announced it was ending Secret Service protection for John Bolton on Tuesday, a move which Trump defended during that media conference we’ve just been covering by saying: “We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives.”

Bolton left the Trump White House in November 2019 and has required ongoing US Secret Service protection since, due to threats made against him by Iran.

Responding to the news earlier on Tuesday, Bolton said: “I am disappointed but not suprised.”

Trump and Bolton’s relationship quickly soured after Trump fired Bolton over their many disagreements, and during Trump’s campaign Bolton was a vocal critic of his former boss.

Speaking to reporters moments ago, Trump said Bolton was “a very dumb person, but I used him well”.

That’s the end of the media conference from President Donald Trump, who had announced new investment in AI and answered questions on a plethora of topics.

We will continue to bring you those last few questions and further analysis, so stick with us.

Trump is asked about the potential for tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

He doesn’t explicitly say whether the tariffs will happen, but instead goes on to claim the countries have allowed millions of people to enter the US that “shouldn’t be here” and that fentanyl, a highly addictive and dangerous opioid drug, is coming into the country.

Asked about China, he says “we’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China”, claiming they are sending fentanyl to Canada and Mexico.

He’s asked how soon tariffs will come in into effect, and he says “probably 1 February is the date we’re looking at”, adding for Mexico and China they are “talking about approximately 25%”.

Next, a reporter asks Trump if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t come to the table to negotiate a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, would he consider more sanctions against Russia?

“Most probably,” Trump says.

He also repeats the claim that if he’d been in power, the war would not be happening at all.

Reporters are now repeatedly asking about his sweeping pardons for the roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with the US Capitol riot in January 2021.

“Aren’t you sending the message that assaulting officers is okay”, one reporter asks, referring to those who have been pardoned who were convicted for assaulting Capitol police.

Trump says that those people “spent years in jail” while “murderers don’t even go to jail in this country”.

He then defends his support of police by saying he was freeing two police officers from jail who had been arrested for “going after a criminal”.

Trump is asked if he is open to Elon Musk buying TikTok, and the president says he would be if the billionaire wanted to buy the social media app.

He says he’d like Larry Ellison of Oracle “to buy it too”, and invites him to make a deal in front of the press.

Trump reiterates comments he has made in recent days that the app is “worthless” without what he describes as a “permit”, adding he is “thinking about saying to somebody” that they should buy it and give half to the US – in return he will allow them to have the “permit”.

Ellison says it sounds like a good deal to him, with a laugh.

Trump next turns to the LA fires and the allocation of water resources there.

He makes some broad and sweeping claims about valves that can be turned on to solve the problem in the Pacific Northwest, which we will look to fact check and dive into a bit later.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

As someone who covers the White House and is sometimes on pool duties – and in the room with the President – the differences in Trump’s approach to the press and Biden’s are stark.

Biden would only rarely stop and take questions, often only stopping briefly as he left the room after events and announcements similar to Trump’s today. In the two years or so I covered him, I only occasionally saw him stop to answer questions in an impromptu style

Donald Trump seems, so far, to take the opposite approach, taking questions and delivering long answers.

He seems to relish it – including the slightly tense moments such as when he repeatedly told a reporter “no” when he asked for a follow-on question.

It remains to be seen whether this will continue throughout the administration, but earlier today the new White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that he would be a “transparent” president.

Trump is now questioned on the release of Former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, as well as the pardons for the more than 1,500 people convicted for involvement in the January 6 2021 riot on Capitol Hill.

One reporter asks if people who assaulted police officers deserved a pardon, which Trump does not answer directly.

Asked next if there is a place for them in the political conversation, he responds: “They’ve been given a pardon, I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.”

Trump takes his place at the podium again, resuming his remarks by claiming his administration has already secured nearly $3 trillion of investments in the US.

He adds that this will probably be $6-7 trillion in the next week.

The president touts his flurry of executive orders including bringing down inflation and his orders on immigration.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman keeps his remarks brief, saying he is “thrilled” they get to do this in America, and adding he believes this will be the “most important project of this era”.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without you Mr President,” he says.

Trumps asks him how AI will fight various problems such as health issues – and Altman says he believes this technology will cure diseases at “rapid” rate.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is next up to the podium.

He says that last month, he celebrated Donald Trump’s win and promised to invest $100bn.

Son then says he has come back now to offer $500bn – he says the $100bn is immediate and the $500bn will come over five years.

“As you said,” Masayoshi Son notes to Trump, “This is the beginning of the golden age of America”.

He adds that this is not just for business, but that the investment will help people’s lives.

The age of AI is coming “very very soon,” he says, and that after that “artificial super intelligence will come to solve the issues that mankind would never had thought we could solve”.

Larry Ellison of Oracle is now invited to speak.

He starts by saying to Trump: “We couldn’t do this without you.”

Ellison says AI holds incredible promise. He adds that data centres are already under construction in Texas and each building is half a million square feet.

He goes on to say that there are 10 buildings, but that will expand to 20 and other locations will be added.

Ellison says the applications they are building will help with maintaining and reviewing electronic health rerecords to improve healthcare.