The U.S. government has granted waivers to let 872 refugees into the country this week, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. The waivers, granted by the State Department and DHS, came amid worldwide protests against President Trump's executive order which bans all Syrian refugees indefinitely, halts refugee entries for 120 days, and restricts for three months immigrants from Libya, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - Muslim-majority countries with a combined population of 212 million.

States and cities will find it easier to turn away even those refugees the Trump administration admits to the U.S. under the executive order issued Friday. The order evolved from a proposal that candidate Donald Trump described as a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" - though President Trump says of the final version, "This is not a Muslim ban."

President Donald Trump lashed out at Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham for publicly second-guessing his executive order on refugees, calling them "weak on immigration" and "looking to start World War III." The rebuke in a pair of Sunday afternoon tweets came after McCain (R-Ariz.) and Graham (R-S.C.)

Top Democrats on committees with judiciary, homeland security and foreign affairs oversight are demanding an "emergency" meeting with DHS Secretary John Kelly to discuss President Donald Trump's controversial executive action on refugees.

President Trump has reorganized the National Security Council by elevating his chief strategist Steve Bannon and demoting the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now, Bannon will join the NSC's principals committee, the top inter-agency group for discussing national security.

By the time the sun rose on Sunday in the U.S., the chaotic weekend set in motion by Trump's executive order on immigration was beginning to give way to greater clarity - in some respects, at least. That order - which temporarily bars citizens from seven largely Muslim countries, as well as all refugees, from entering the U.S.

They began Saturday as a series of pop-up demonstrations outside several major airports. But by Sunday, the protests against President Trump's temporary immigration freeze had leapt from those airports to squares and plazas in cities across the U.S.

The United States has been downgraded to a "flawed democracy" from a "full democracy" by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its 2016 Democracy Index report. However, although the report's publication comes shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, the EIU analysts write that the US was not downgraded because of him.

Although Donald Trump tweeted "no new deals" during his White House tenure in December, Trump Hotels is now planning on expanding into every major metropolitan area in the United States. "There are 26 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., and we're in five," Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger said during a panel discussion in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON U.S. Republican lawmakers will map out strategy for enacting President Donald Trump's agenda of repealing and replacing Obamacare and overhauling the tax code as they gather in Philadelphia on Wednesday for a three-day policy retreat. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to huddle with the lawmakers on Thursday.

MEXICO CITY A Mexican official widened a tax evasion complaint against U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, the same day the new American leader signed a decree to speed up construction of a border wall between the two countries.

A draft Trump administration executive order could open the way to the reinstatement of a Central Intelligence Agency program in which terrorism suspects could be interrogated in secret prisons abroad, according to a copy of the document published by the Washington Post on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON ― The White House intends to temporarily shut down travel from a wide swath of countries to the United States and implement dramatic restrictions on immigration and refugee admission, according to a draft version of a White House executive order obtained Wednesday by The Huffington Post.

The Trump administration will temporarily suspend the entry of foreign nationals from some Muslim-majority countries through executive order, according to refugee advocacy groups who have obtained what they say is a draft copy of an order to be signed by the new president.

Several big city mayors across the U.S. on Wednesday vowed to defy President Trump's executive order that threatens to cut off federal funding to so-called "sanctuary cities" that offer some sort of protection to undocumented immigrants in their communities.

Xi has little room to make concessions before party congress China leaders already fanning national pride, stressing unity U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Xi Jinping on everything from trade to Taiwan to pressure his Chinese counterpart to cede ground. In doing so he risks a backlash that could make doing deals even harder.

Mexico City (AP) -- A senior government official says Mexico's president is "considering" canceling next week's visit to Washington following President Donald Trump's order to begin construction of a wall between the two countries.

More US National Parks appear to have joined a protest against President Trump's policy on climate change. On Tuesday, tweets by the Badlands National Park account about global warming were deleted, but now others have shared their concerns. President Trump has called climate change a hoax.

As congressional Republicans prepare to gather in Philadelphia for their annual retreat, they are dealing with an irritation that has become familiar over the past year-and-a-half: Donald Trump.

The National Park Service employees' Twitter campaign against Donald Trump spread to other parks on Wednesday, with tweets on climate change and a reminder that Japanese Americans were forcibly interned in camps and parks during the second world war.