President Donald Trump is set to visit the Justice Department on Friday to rally support for his administration’s tough-on-crime agenda, an appearance expected to double as a victory lap after he emerged legally and politically unscathed from two federal prosecutions that were dismissed after his election win last fall.

“I’m going to set out my vision,” the Republican President said Thursday about the purpose for a visit the White House is billing as “historic.”

The venue selection for the speech underscores Trump’s keen interest in the department and desire to exert influence over it following criminal investigations that shadowed his first four years in office and subsequent campaign. The visit, the first by Trump and the first by any President in a decade, brings him into the belly of an institution he has disparaged in searing terms for years but one that he has sought to reshape by installing loyalists and members of his personal defense team in top leadership positions.

Although there’s some precedent for Presidents to speak to the Justice Department workforce from the building’s ceremonial Great Hall, Trump’s trip two months into his second term is particularly striking. That’s because of his unique status as a onetime criminal defendant indicted by the agency he is now poised to address and because his remarks are likely to feature an airing of grievances over his exposure to the criminal justice system — including an FBI search in 2022 of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach for classified documents.

Trump’s visit also comes at a time when Attorney General Pam Bondi has asserted that the department needs to be depoliticized even as critics assert agency leadership is injecting politics into the decision-making process.

“President Trump will visit the Department of Justice to give remarks on restoring law and order, removing violent criminals from our communities, and ending the weaponization of justice against Americans for their political leanings,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

The relationship between Presidents and Justice Department leaders has waxed and waned over the decades depending on the personalities of the officeholders and the sensitivity of the investigations that have dominated the day. The dynamic between President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, was known to be fraught in part because of special counsel investigations that Garland oversaw into Biden’s mishandling of classified information and into the firearms and tax affairs of his son Hunter.

When it comes to setting its agenda, the Justice Department historically takes a cue from the White House but looks to maintain its independence on individual criminal investigations.

Trump has upended such norms.

He encouraged specific investigations during his first term and tried to engineer the firing of Robert Mueller, the special counsel assigned to investigate ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. He also endured difficult relationships with his first two handpicked Attorneys General — Jeff Sessions was fired immediately after the 2018 Midterm Election, and William Barr resigned weeks after publicly disputing Trump’s bogus claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

Arriving for a second term in January fresh off a landmark Supreme Court opinion that reaffirmed a President’s unshakable control of the Justice Department, Trump has appeared determined to clear from his path any potential obstacles, including by appointing Bondi — a former Florida Attorney General who was part of Trump’s defense team at his first impeachment trial — and Kash Patel, another close ally, to serve as his FBI Director.

At her January confirmation hearing, Bondi appeared to endorse Trump’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020 by refusing to answer directly whether Trump had lost to Biden. She also echoed his position that he had been unfairly “targeted” by the Justice Department despite the wealth of evidence prosecutors say they amassed. She regularly praises him in Fox News Channel appearances and proudly noted that she had removed portraits of Biden, Garland and Vice President Kamala Harris from a Justice Department wall upon arriving.

“We all adore Donald Trump, and we want to protect him and fight for his agenda. And the people of America overwhelmingly elected him for his agenda,” Bondi said in a recent Fox interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

Even before Bondi had been confirmed, the Justice Department fired department employees who served on special counsel Jack Smith’s team, which charged Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and with hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Both cases were dismissed last November in line with longstanding Justice Department policy against indicting sitting Presidents.

Officials also demanded from the FBI lists of thousands of employees who worked on investigations into the Jan 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the building in an effort to halt the certification of the electoral vote, and fired prosecutors who had participated in the cases. And they’ve ordered the dismissal of a criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams by saying the charges had handicapped the Democrat’s ability to partner in the Republican administration’s fight against illegal immigration.

Leavitt is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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As Trevor Murphy pulls up to his dad’s 20-acre (8-hectare) grove in one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, he points to the cookie-cutter, one-story homes encroaching on the orange trees from all sides.

“At some point, this isn’t going to be an orange grove anymore,” Murphy, a third-generation grower, says as he gazes at the rows of trees in Lake Wales, Florida. “You look around here, and it’s all houses, and that’s going to happen here.”

Polk County, which includes Lake Wales, contains more acres of citrus than any other county in Florida. And in 2023, more people moved to Polk County than any other county in the country.

Population growth, hurricanes and a vicious citrus greening disease have left the Florida orange industry reeling. Consumers are drinking less orange juice, citrus growers are folding up their operations in the state and the major juice company Tropicana is struggling to stay afloat. With huge numbers of people moving into Florida’s orange growing areas, developers are increasingly building homes on what were once orange groves.

Many growers are now making the difficult decision to sell orange groves that have been in their families for generations to developers building homes to house the growing population.

Others, like Murphy, are sticking it out, hoping to survive until a bug-free tree or other options arrive to repel the disease or treat the trees.

Mounting concerns

When Hurricane Irma blasted through the state’s orange belt in 2017, Florida’s signature crop already had been on a downward spiral for two decades because of the greening disease. Next came a major freeze and two more hurricanes in 2022, followed by two hurricanes last year. A tree that loses branches and foliage in a hurricane can take three years to recover, Murphy said.

Those catastrophes contributed to a 90% decline in orange production over the past two decades. Citrus groves in Florida, which covered more than 832,00 acres (336,698 hectares) at the turn of the century, populated scarcely 275,000 acres (111,288 hectares) last year, and California has eclipsed Florida as the nation’s leading citrus producer.

“Losing the citrus industry is not an option. This industry is … so ingrained in Florida. Citrus is synonymous with Florida,” Matt Joyner, CEO of trade association Florida Citrus Mutual told Florida lawmakers recently.

Nevertheless, Alico Inc., one of Florida’s biggest growers, announced this year that it plans to wind down its citrus operations on more than 53,000 acres (21,000 hectares), saying its production has declined by almost three-quarters in a decade.

That decision hurts processors, including Tropicana, which rely on Alico’s fruit to produce orange juice and must now operate at reduced capacity. Orange juice consumption in the U.S. has been declining for the past two decades, despite a small bump during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A prominent growers group, the Gulf Citrus Growers Association, closed its doors last year.

Location, location, location

Pressure on citrus farming is also growing from one of the state’s other biggest industries: real estate.

Florida expanded by more than 467,000 people last year to 23 million people, making it the third largest state in the nation. And more homes must be built to house that ever-growing population.

Some prominent, multigenerational citrus families each have been putting hundreds of acres (hectares) of groves up for sale for millions of dollars, or as much as $25,000 an acre.

Murphy owns several hundred acres (hectares) of groves and says he has no plans to abandon the industry, though last year he closed a citrus grove caretaking business that managed thousands of acres for other owners.

However, he also has a real estate license, which is useful given the amount of land that is changing hands. He recently sold off acres in Polk County to a home developer, and has used that money to pay off debt and develop plans to replant thousands of trees in more productive groves.

“I would like to think that we’re at the bottom, and we’re starting to climb back up that hill,” Murphy says.

A bug-free tree

A whole ecosystem of businesses dependent on Florida citrus is at risk if the crops fail, including 33,000 full-time and part-time jobs and an economic impact of $6.8 billion in Florida alone. Besides growers, there are juice processors, grove caretakers, fertilizer sellers, packing houses, nurseries and candy manufacturers, all hoping for a fix for citrus greening disease.

Tom Davidson, whose parents founded Davidson of Dundee Citrus Candy and Jelly Factory in Lake Wales in 1966, says the drop in citrus production has impacted what flavor jellies the business is able to produce and the prices it charges to customers.

“We’re really hoping that the scientists can get this figured out so we can we can get back to what we did,” Davidson says.

Researchers have been working for eight years on a genetically modified tree that can kill the tiny insects responsible for citrus greening. The process involves inserting a gene into a citrus tree that produces a protein that can kill baby Asian citrus psyllids by making holes in their guts, according to Lukasz Stelinski, an entomology professor at the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Citrus Research and Education Center.

It could be at least three years before bug-resistant trees can be planted, leaving Florida growers looking for help from other technologies. They include planting trees inside protective screens and covering young trees with white bags to keep out the bugs, injecting trees with an antibiotic, and finding trees that have become resistant to greening through natural mutation and distributing them to other groves.

“It’s kind of like being a Lions fan before the Detroit Lions started to win games,” Stelinski says. “I’m hoping that we are making that turnaround.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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The Mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, wants to terminate a lease and cut financial support for an independent film theater that screened an Oscar-winning documentary about the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

Mayor Steven Meiner introduced a resolution describing the film “No Other Land” as antisemitic. City commissioners will discuss the resolution Wednesday during their next meeting.

“No Other Land” opened last Friday at O Cinema, located at the Miami Beach Historic City Hall. Meiner had reached out several days before the premiere to discourage O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell from showing the film.

“The City of Miami Beach has one of the highest concentrations of Jewish residents in the United States,” Meiner said in his letter to Marthell. “The ‘No Other Land’ film is a one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.”

Marthell initially agreed not to screen the movie in a response to Meiner, but the showing went on as scheduled.

“My initial reaction to Mayor Meiner’s threats was made under duress,” Marthell said in an email Thursday. “After reflecting on the broader implications for free speech and O Cinema’s mission, I (along with the O Cinema board and staff members) agreed it was critical to screen this acclaimed film.”

O Cinema has always been committed to sharing films that not only entertain, but also challenge, educate and inspire meaningful dialogue, Marthell said.

“We understand the power of cinema to tell stories that matter, and we recognize that some stories — especially those rooted in real-world conflicts — can evoke strong feelings and passionate reactions. As they should,” Marthell said. “Our decision to screen ‘No Other Land’ is not a declaration of political alignment. It is a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard.”

In December and January, the city of Miami Beach executed two grants worth about $80,000 for O Cinema, according to the mayor’s proposed resolution. About half the money has already been paid, but the resolution would stop the rest. The city began leasing space to O Cinema in 2019 with the ability to terminate the contract with 180 days of notice, which is what Meiner is seeking to do.

“No Other Land,” which was shot between 2019 and 2023 and released last year, was directed by a group of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.

“When the Mayor uses the word antisemitism to silence Palestinians and Israelis who proudly oppose occupation and apartheid together, fighting for justice and equality, he is emptying it out of meaning,” Abraham said in an email. “I find that to be very dangerous.”

The film documents the destruction of Palestinian villages in the West Bank by the Israeli military. It won the Academy Award for best documentary feature as well as earlier awards.

While the film has earned wide praise from film critics, it has also drawn controversy.

“Freedom of expression is an important value, but defamation of Israel into a tool for international promotion is not art,” Israeli culture minister Miki Zohar said in a social media post.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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