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US Monthly Headline News January 2025
Story by Igor Bobic, Jonathan Cohn

President Donald Trump on Monday issued a sweeping memo ordering a halt to all grant, loan and other financial assistance programs disbursed by the federal government, a massive policy change that could affect a huge range of services across the country.

Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, writes in the memo that federal agencies should temporarily pause grant and loan programs until Trump’s administration can ensure they are consistent with the president’s agenda, including bans on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and limits on clean energy spending.

“The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal tax dollar,” Vaeth wrote. “The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”

The memo states the order, which goes into effect Tuesday, does not affect Social Security or Medicare recipients and that financial assistance put on hold “does not include assistance provided directly to individuals,” according to The Washington Post.

Democrats warned that Trump’s latest directive could significantly harm programs used by millions of Americans, including food and rent assistance, early childhood programs, and children’s health insurance.
Story by Dan De Luce

President Donald Trump’s decision this week to revoke the security clearances of more than four dozen former intelligence officials is an unprecedented move, underscoring his willingness to break decades-old norms to please his supporters and punish his perceived opponents, legal experts say.

“This is the most politically saturated security action since the Oppenheimer case in the 1950s,” said Dan Meyer, a Washington-based lawyer who specializes in security clearance cases.

Meyer was referring to Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who oversaw the secret program to build the atomic bomb during World War II, who had his security clearance removed at the height of the McCarthy era over his prewar associations with the Communist Party.

Previous administrations have been accused of rescinding security clearances based on prejudice or political bias. Until 1995, for example, gay people often had their security clearances removed as officials claimed they could be subject to blackmail. During the Vietnam War, officials or contractors perceived to be opponents of the war had their clearances canceled, said Meyer, a partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey.

But no president has ever waded directly into the clearance process so publicly and on such a large scale as Trump did when he rescinded security clearances for 50 people in one step, Meyer and other legal experts said. Nor has a commander in chief chosen to publicly rescind security clearances for former CIA directors, deputy directors and other former top-ranking intelligence officials, many of whom worked for administrations from both parties.
What will the price of Trump and GOP stupidity be?  Freezing aide will allow Russia and China gains into countries we once supported and reduce American influence around the world. Is Trump trying to help Russia and China by reducing American influence around the world?

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

CNN — The US State Department has frozen nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, effective immediately, days after President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order Monday to put a hold on such aid for 90 days.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a cable, seen by CNN, to all US diplomatic posts on Friday outlining the move, which threatens billions of dollars of funding from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for programs worldwide.

Foreign assistance has been the target of ire from Republicans in Congress and Trump administration officials, but the funding accounts for very little of the overall US budget. The scope of the executive order and subsequent cable has left humanitarian and State Department officials reeling.

The cable calls for immediate “stop work” orders on existing foreign assistance and pauses new aid. It is sweeping in its scope. Essentially all foreign assistance appears to have been targeted unless specifically exempted. That means lifesaving global health aid, development assistance, military aid, and even clean water distribution could all be affected.

The cable provides a waiver only for emergency food assistance and foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt. The cable does not specifically mention any other countries that receive foreign military financing, like Ukraine or Taiwan, as being exempt from the freeze.

In the coming month, the cable said, the administration will develop standards for a review of whether the assistance is “aligned with President Trump’s foreign policy agenda.”
Story by Michael Luciano

President Donald Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general in a massive late-night purge on Friday evening. The terminations seemed to violate federal law.

The Washington Post first reported on the firings of 12 inspectors general at various agencies. Later, The New York Times reported that at least 17 had been removed. IGs possess investigative powers over their respective agencies where they probe potential waste, abuse, and corruption.

“The inspectors general were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, according to people familiar with the situation, who like others in this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private messages,” the Post reported. “The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires Congress to receive 30 days’ notice of any intent to fire the inspectors general.”

The Post said inspectors general from the Departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Energy were terminated. Most of the IGs who were removed were appointed by Trump during his first term.

“It’s a widespread massacre,” said one IG who was dismissed Friday night. “Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system.”
Vice-president casts tie-breaking vote for Fox News host despite allegations of sexual assault and alcohol abuse
Alice Herman and Joan E Greve in Washington

Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News personality and rightwing commentator who has said women should not serve in combat roles, recommended the military purge generals and faced allegations of sexual assault and alcoholism, has been confirmed as secretary of defense in the Senate by a tie-breaking vote from Vice-president JD Vance.

Almost the entire Republican conference supported Hegseth’s nomination while every Senate Democrat voted against his confirmation, resulting in a 50-50 vote. Three Republican senators – Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – opposed Hegseth’s nomination. Collins and Murkowski had earlier cited concerns about his personal history and inexperience as disqualifying.

Hegseth was among the most heavily scrutinized nominees for Donald Trump’s cabinet, owing to allegations of sexual assault and workplace misconduct that have surfaced in the last two months.

Shortly after Trump announced Hegseth as his defense secretary pick, extremism experts raised alarms about Hegseth’s apparent affinity for far-right symbols – noting that his tattoo sleeve featured at least two images associated with far-right and neo-Nazi groups. Hegseth himself has complained publicly that the US Army declined his service during Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration after a fellow servicemember flagged him as a potential insider threat.
Opinion by Matthew Chapman

President Donald Trump is trying to push a very particular type of populism from a period of America's past, conservative analyst David Brooks wrote for The New York Times — and it will ultimately destroy his presidency.

Brooks, a longtime discontent within GOP politics who escalated his criticism following the rise of MAGA, believes Trump specifically thinks America was at its greatest in the latter half of the 19th century.

"Over the past few months, and especially in his second Inaugural Address, Trump has gone all 19th century on us," wrote Brooks. "He seems to find in this period everything he likes: tariffs, Manifest Destiny, seizing land from weaker nations, mercantilism, railroads, manufacturing and populism. Many presidents mention George Washington or Abraham Lincoln in their inaugurals. Who was the immortal Trump cited? William McKinley. You can tell what kind of conservative a person is by discovering what year he wants to go back to. For Trump, it seems to be sometime between 1830 and 1899. 'The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts,' he declared in his address."
Story by Daniel Hampton

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board appeared incensed over his recent "vindictive whim" — revoking Secret Service protections to former officials who've publicly broken with him.

Trump this week stripped one-time national security adviser John Bolton of his security clearance and a Secret Service detail that guarded him, even though federal prosecutors have said Bolton was the target of an Iranian assassination plot.

Trump downplayed the potential threat against Bolton, telling reporters: "We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives—why should we?”

He added that Bolton is “a very dumb person.”

“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has made this decision,” Bolton previously told CNN. “Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to once again extend Secret Service protection to me in 2021.”

On Thursday, reports emerged that Trump did the same to Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state, and Brian Hook, a former top aide to Pompeo. Both have also faced Iranian threats.
Story by Billal Rahman

The nation's top immigration enforcement agency reportedly detained a military veteran in New Jersey as it conducted sweeping raids under President Donald Trump's mass deportation operation.

An ICE spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual's identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark, New Jersey. This is an active investigation and, per ICE policy, we cannot discuss ongoing investigations."

Why It Matters
Mass deportations were a key component of Trump's 2024 campaign. Since the president returned to office on Monday, hundreds of undocumented immigrants have been arrested under his administration's crackdown, and critics say the immigration raids are sowing fear in vulnerable communities.

What To Know
Ras J. Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said on Thursday that ICE raided a local business and detained "undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant."

He added that a U.S. military veteran was among the people detained and that he "suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned."
Opinion by Paul Waldman

“The people who did this, they need to feel the heat,” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said after he was granted clemency by Donald Trump. “They need to be put behind bars and they need to be prosecuted,” Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers said after his release from prison. By “they,” Tarrio and Rhodes were referring to the people whose efforts led both men to be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for seditious conspiracy for their roles in planning and organizing the Jan. 6 insurrection. They want the prosecutors who prosecuted them to be prosecuted themselves. And they might just get their wish.

On the day of his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order on “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government.” It serves as a declaration that this administration is looking to punish those Trump perceives as his enemies. And while much of the order focuses on federal law enforcement, including the Justice Department, there’s good reason to believe that Trump’s campaign of revenge will be felt throughout the federal government.

The result is Orwellian in both substance and rhetoric. Just as he plans to “drain the swamp” with the swampiest administration in history, and make government “efficient” by crippling its ability to perform its duties, Trump claims he will end “the weaponization of government” by weaponizing it against his foes.

From the start, the document makes its target clear: Joe Biden and those who worked for him. “The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents,” it says in Section 1. “The prior administration and allies throughout the country engaged in an unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process,” it goes on, protesting that the insurrectionists who attempted a violent overthrow of the 2020 election on Trump’s behalf were “ruthlessly prosecuted.”
Story by Daniel Barnes

SEATTLE — A federal district court judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship — the first skirmish in what promises to be a protracted legal battle over the new administration’s agenda.

Senior U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour heard 25 minutes of arguments and then issued an order from the bench blocking the policy from taking effect for 14 days. There will be a further briefing on a preliminary injunction to permanently block the executive order while the case proceeds.

"I’ve been on the bench for over four decades," Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, said. "I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order."

The case comes as four states (Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon) sought to block the order before it is supposed to take effect in late February. It's one of five lawsuits filed by Democratic attorneys general and immigrant rights organizations challenging the order — which seeks to limit automatic birthright citizenship to children of U.S. citizens and green card holders — as unconstitutional.
Amazon's modifications mirror similar actions taken by other major companies after Trump’s election victory, including Meta, McDonald’s, and Walmart
By Nina JoudehSenior Reporter

Amazon has recently made several major internal changes, including removing statements advocating for LGBTQ rights and racial equity from its public listing of corporate policies. This is a bold move for the second-largest employer in the world, which also just announced a documentary with First Lady Melania Trump.

The deletion of previous statements pledging to commit to “equity for Black people” and “LGBTQ+ rights” were removed from a page on the company’s website in December, as were any mentions of the word “transgender,” according to The Washington Post.

Amazon’s website previously stated the company stood “in solidarity” with Black employees and customers and supported “legislation to combat misconduct and racial bias in policing, efforts to protect and expand voting rights, and initiatives that provide better health and educational outcomes for Black people.” This section has since been deleted.
U.S. president calls the clergywoman a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” “ungracious,” “nasty” and “not compelling or smart.”

U.S. President Donald Trump hit out Wednesday at a bishop who directly called on him to show mercy to immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.

During the inaugural prayer service Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral attended by Trump, Vice President JD Vance and their families, the Right Rev Mariann Budde delivered a sermon in which she appealed to Trump to be merciful to minorities, “some who fear for their lives.”

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said, referring to “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families.”

Most “immigrants are not criminals,” she added. “They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”

Trump hit back in the early hours of Wednesday on his social media platform Truth Social, calling Budde a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who is “not very good at her job” and demanding an apology.
Story by Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

As President Donald Trump’s health care agenda for a second term takes shape, it’s becoming clear that many Joe Biden-era policies won’t make the cut.

On Monday, Trump signed a sweeping order aimed in part at reversing several Biden administration executive orders on health care, including efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, enhancing the Affordable Care Act and increasing protections for Medicaid enrollees. The so-called initial rescissions order, according to the Trump White House, is aimed at Biden policies that it says are “deeply unpopular” and “radical.”

The moves by Trump, experts say, are likely to be inconsequential to many Americans in terms of what they pay in out-of-pocket health care costs.

One Biden effort overturned by Trump, for example, had directed Medicare to look at ways to lower drug costs, including whether to impose a $2 monthly out-of-pocket cap on certain generic drugs.

That initiative, however, was only in the development stage, said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and it was unclear whether it would be implemented at all.

Biden’s bigger health care initiatives, such as a $35 monthly cap on insulin, a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs and Medicare’s negotiating drug pricing provision weren’t affected by Trump’s executive actions Monday.
Story by jepstein@businessinsider.com (Jake Epstein)

The commandant of the US Coast Guard has been removed from her position over DEI initiatives, border security concerns, and other issues, a senior Department of Homeland Security official confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday, just one day after the new Trump administration took over.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman said in a memo to the Coast Guard workforce on Tuesday morning that he had relieved Adm. Linda Fagan from her role. He did not provide any reason for the dismissal, which came just hours after President Donald Trump's inauguration.

"She served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her

service to our nation," Huffman, who was appointed to the acting role earlier in the day, wrote in the memo.

Fagan was the first uniformed woman to lead a branch of the US armed forces and had been serving in the top Coast Guard role since 2022. With her dismissal, she's now become the first top military officer to be removed under the new Trump administration. The president and members of his team had previously suggested that it would purge leaders across the armed forces.
Story by John E. Jones III, Dickinson College

In the first hours of his second term, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly everyone convicted of crimes associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol – including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio – and commuted the sentences of 14 more, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

CNN reported that nearly 1,600 people have been charged and about 1,300 have been convicted of crimes committed on that day. There are about 300 cases “still active and unresolved,” CNN reported.

According to a Washington Post analysis, 14 leaders of far-right militant groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been convicted of seditious conspiracy. And 379 people have been charged with felony assault; most of them have been convicted already. though some are still awaiting trial. Trump also ordered the Justice Department to dismiss all pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants.

To understand the situation, Jeff Inglis, a politics editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with John E. Jones III, a retired federal judge who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2002. Jones is now president of Dickinson College.
by Sarah Fortinsky

President Trump took office Monday, marking the beginning of a new era in Washington.

The changing of the guard was, perhaps, marked most significantly by sweeping new executive actions that will have far-reaching consequences on swaths of the electorate.

Here’s a look at Trump’s moves on his first day in office, broken down by the numbers.
26 executive orders

Trump issued a flurry of executive orders on issues ranging from immigration to gender to TikTok.
by Ashleigh Fields

Former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized President Trump for pardoning roughly 1,500 people who were arrested during the Jan, 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, including some who harmed police. At least 600 insurrectionists were formally accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement.

“No one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers,” McConnell told Semafor in an article published Tuesday.

He echoed Vice President Vance’s remarks in a “Fox News Sunday” interview earlier this month, during which he said only those who “protested peacefully” should be pardoned, adding “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

McConnell’s comments come months after he stepped down from Senate leadership, however fellow GOP members still say his voice will be influential for the party in the new legislative cycle.
By Marshall Cohen, CNN

CNN — With the stroke of a pen on Monday, President Donald Trump completely upended the Justice Department’s four-year effort to arrest, prosecute and punish the people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It was the largest criminal probe in American history, those who heeded Trump’s call in 2021 to come to Washington and try to stop Congress from certifying his 2020 election defeat. More than 140 police officers were injured during the seven-hour siege, which also led directly or indirectly to the deaths of four Trump supporters in the mob and five police officers.

Trump on Monday pardoned nearly every single convicted January 6 rioter, and at his direction, the Justice Department is also beginning to ask the federal court in Washington, DC, to dismiss pending cases with prejudice, meaning charges cannot be brought again at a later date.

The presidential proclamation Trump signed in the Oval Office said this action of mass clemency “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”

Trump’s pardons make no effort to distinguish between people who engaged in violence that day compared with those who were charged or convicted of nonviolent offenses. For instance, the pardons include the men who viciously beat DC police officer Michael Fanone and pepper-sprayed US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day.
Story by Sean Craig

Former President Joe Biden greeted President Donald Trump at the White House in advance of Monday’s inauguration with a conciliatory gesture, telling him and first lady Melania Trump: “Welcome home.”

Trump ended his first day back in that home by posting a sneering message boasting of how his team was hunting down hundreds of Biden appointees to throw out of office.

“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump wrote, in a Truth Social post shortly after midnight. “My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.”
They attacked America's Capitol and now Trump gives them a pardon. That is not America first that is a big FU to America.

Story by tspirlet@insider.com (Thibault Spirlet,Brent D. Griffiths)

President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned roughly 1,500 people related to January 6-related offenses, fulfilling a campaign promise to wipe clean the records of most people connected with the Capitol riot.

"We hope they come out tonight, frankly," Trump said after signing the pardons. "They're expecting it."

Trump said he included six commutations in the pardon package so that their cases could be studied further. Among those whose sentences were commuted were the leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who had been charged with seditious conspiracy. Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers' founder, was in the middle of serving an 18-year prison sentence.

Outside the commutations, Trump's pardon is sweeping in scope. It applies to "all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."
Story by ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a sweeping execution order Monday on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.

Trump's order, coming just hours after he returned to the White House, compels the Justice Department to not only seek the death penalty in appropriate federal cases but also to help preserve capital punishment in states that have struggled to maintain adequate supplies of lethal injection drugs.

Trump had been expected to restart federal executions, which have been on hold since a moratorium was imposed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden recently converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
Story by Gregory Korte

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump revoked the security clearances of 50 former US intelligence officials who had cast doubt on conservative attacks on former President Joe Biden’s son, delivering on a campaign promise to exact retribution against what he sees as a “deep state” conspiracy against him.

The former intelligence officials signed on to a letter in the final days of the 2020 presidential election saying the distribution of emails obtained from an abandoned laptop belonging to Hunter Biden “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

The emails, which purported to show a corruption scheme by members of Biden’s family involving ties to Ukrainian and Chinese businesses, were published by a conservative tabloid and helped to spur a criminal investigation into the former president’s son. Biden granted him a blanket pardon in December.
ABC News

The Senate voted unanimously to confirm Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state on Monday, making him the first confirmed member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet in his second administration.

All 99 senators voted in favor of Rubio, including Rubio himself. There's currently one vacancy in the chamber due to Vice President J.D. Vance resigning in mid-January. Rubio, the first Hispanic American to hold the position, is expected to resign his position in the Senate shortly.

Rubio's experience as the top Republican on Senate Intelligence Committee gave his resume the necessary credentials to earn the public backing of a number of Democrats.

"Leading the U.S. Department of State is a tremendous responsibility, and I am honored by the trust President Trump has placed in me," Rubio said after he was tapped by Trump in November. "As Secretary of State, I will work every day to carry out his foreign policy agenda. Under the leadership of President Trump, we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else. I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the U.S. Senate so the President has his national security and foreign policy team in place when he takes office on January 20."
Story by Juliegrace Brufke, Mary Ann Akers

His presidency was just an hour old when Donald Trump excoriated Joe Biden for pardoning GOP officials who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots—and promised retribution, in the form of salvation.

“I was going to talk about the J6 hostages, but you’ll be happy because, you know, it’s action, not words that count, and you’re going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages,” Trump said during a rambling post-inaugural speech that showed his lingering resentment over the 2020 election results.

“I was going to talk about the things that Joe did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes, like the unselect committee of political folks,” he added, referring to the bipartisan Jan. 6 panel.

Biden’s pardons also applied to former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, who famously called Trump a “total fascist.”

“Why are we doing this? Why are we trying to help a guy like Milley?” Trump said Monday at the Capitol.

Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, returning to office after four years.
CNN

President Donald Trump mostly stuck to lofty generalities and promises of action during his second inaugural address, making far fewer checkable claims than he typically does in his speeches.

But Trump did make a smattering of inaccurate statements. Here is a fact check.

Inflation rates: Trump falsely claimed the US experienced “record inflation” during the Biden administration. Trump could fairly say the US inflation rate hit a 40-year high in June 2022, when it was 9.1%, but that was not close to the all-time record of 23.7%, set in 1920. (And the rate has since plummeted. The most recent available inflation rate at the time Trump spoke here was 2.9% in December.)
ABC News

President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons to potential targets of the incoming Trump administration, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and lawmakers who served on the House Jan. 6 Committee.

"Our nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day. They are the lifeblood of our democracy," Biden said in a statement just hours before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.

"Yet alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties," Biden added.

Trump in his 2024 campaign repeatedly vowed "retribution" on his political enemies, specifically singling out lawmakers like Liz Cheney who investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump said Cheney and other committee members should be put in jail.
By Megan Cassidy, Sarah Ravani

Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao was criminally indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury after an FBI corruption investigation that centered on City Hall and a powerful family that operates the city’s curbside recycling program, a source familiar with the matter told the Chronicle.

Federal officials said Thursday they planned to announce the results of a “major law enforcement action” Friday morning, but did not provide details. Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI declined to comment and said they couldn’t confirm the indictment.

However, the source said officials will announce the indictment of Thao, who was recalled from office by voters in November. The person said others were indicted alongside Thao but did not identify them. The Chronicle agreed to protect this person’s anonymity under its confidential sources policy.

Thao and her attorney could not be immediately reached for comment. Thao’s partner, Andre Jones, did not respond to questions when approached outside the couple’s home Thursday. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark in just two days.

The court's 9-0 decision throws the social media platform - and its 170 million American users - into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Monday.

The law was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden, though a growing chorus of lawmakers who voted it are now seeking to keep TikTok operating in the United States.

TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app's users challenged the law, but the Supreme Court decided that it did not violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech as they had argued.
Story by Leigh Kimmins

CNN on Thursday broadcast a supercut of some of the withering comments that Donald Trump’s appointees have previously made about him.

The president-elect took to Truth Social this week to detail his White House blacklist, saying he doesn’t want any officials in his new administration who’ve worked for someone “suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” citing some of his most prominent critics as examples of those with the imagined condition.

Despite his passionate rebuttal of these characters, some of his current close political allies have been highly critical of him in the past. Just a few of these moments were compiled and broadcast on CNN’s News Night with Abby Phillip Thursday.

“Trump himself has announced a blacklist of sorts, refusing to hire anybody who’s associated with specific people like Nikki Haley or Mike Pence, maybe not a surprise, or in his words, quote, anyone suffering from Trump derangement syndrome,” Phillip said.

She continued: “Here’s the thing though, he is hiring people who’ve been critical of him. In fact, many of them are already in his future Cabinet.”

The montage began with Robert Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services calling his possible soon-to-be boss a “bully.”

“Well, I think the problem is, number one, he’s a bully,” he said in a Yahoo Finance interview. “And, you know, I don’t like bullies and I don’t think America [does]...that’s part of America’s tradition.”
The report, which said the special counsel’s office stood “fully behind” the merits of the prosecution, amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the president-elect.
By Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage

Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted President-elect Donald J. Trump on charges of illegally seeking to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, said in a final report released early Tuesday that the evidence would have been sufficient to convict Mr. Trump in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.

“The department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind,” Mr. Smith wrote.

He continued: “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

The Justice Department delivered the 137-page volume — representing half of Mr. Smith’s overall final report, with the volume about Mr. Trump’s other federal case, accusing him of mishandling classified documents, still confidential — to Congress just after midnight on Tuesday.
Story by Ryan J. Reilly

WASHINGTON — Federal Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday denied a request to extend an injunction banning the Justice Department from releasing a volume of a report former special counsel Jack Smith issued on President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The ruling from U.S. District Court Aileen Cannon means that the Justice Department could release the portion of the Smith report that deals with Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss as soon as midnight, barring future legal action from Trump or his team. She kept in place a prohibition on releasing the portion of the report about the classified document case, which the Justice Department said it didn't intend to release at this point.
Story by Eric Tucker

Special counsel Jack Smith resigned from the Justice Department after having submitted his report on Donald Trump to the attorney general, the department revealed in a filing on Saturday.

Smith's resignation had been expected.

The Justice Department late Friday asked a federal appeals court to move swiftly in reversing a judge's order that had blocked the agency from releasing any part of Smith's investigative report on the president-elect.

The emergency motion is the latest back and forth in a court dispute over whether any portion of Smith's report can be made public before Trump takes office Jan. 20. The push to release it before Trump’s inauguration reflects concerns that the Justice Department under the Trump administration, which will include members of his personal legal team in key leadership roles, would be in position to prevent the report from coming to light.

The department wants to release in the coming days one part of its two-volume report focused on Trump's efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that he lost to President Biden. The department has said it will not publicly disclose a separate volume — about Trump's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021 — as long as criminal proceedings against two of Trump's co-defendants remain pending.
Story by David Badash

House Republicans are circulating a “menu” of options that Speaker Mike Johnson’s conference could chose from—reportedly a massive $5 trillion worth of federal government programs to put on the chopping block to pay for the President-elect’s promised priorities, including tax cuts and border security.

The early list, published by Politico, has positive-sounding categories like “Making Medicaid Work for the Most Vulnerable,” but within that are proposals like “Medicaid Work Requirements.”

Republicans have for years been trying to institute work requirements for Medicaid recipients, despite the fact that about two-thirds of recipients who are able to work are already employed.

“An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that a national Medicaid work requirement would result in 2.2 million adults losing Medicaid coverage per year (and subsequently experiencing increases in medical expenses), and lead to only a very small increase in employment,” KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) reported in 2023.

The list also proposes “Ending Cradle-to-Grave Dependence,” which, among other items, suggests “Reduce TANF by 10 Percent.”
Donald Trump Hush Money Case Sentencing: This means that the President-elect has been found guilty of his charges, but will not face any jail time or penalty because he has been elected President of the United States and will take oath to the country's highest office on January 20.
Written by: Abhishek Chakraborty World News

Washington DC: Donald Trump today became the first felon in the White House after a US court upheld his conviction in a hush money case. He has been sentenced to an 'unconditional discharge' for covering up unaccounted payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

This means that the President-elect has been found guilty of his charges, but will not face any jail time or penalty because he has been elected President of the United States and will take oath to the country's highest office on January 20 - a post that brings with itself an impunity of being above the law while in office and beyond.

And so, though the 34 counts of Donald Trump falsifying business records on which he was convicted in May 2024 carried potential jail time, the judge could do little about it, ending up having to spare the President-elect. Should he not have been the president, Donald Trump would have been jailed for a term of four years. Instead he will now return to the White House as President for another four.
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, JAKE OFFENHARTZ and MICHELLE L. PRICE

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday in his hush money case, but the judge declined to impose any punishment, an outcome that cements his conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.

The punishment-free judgment marks a quiet end to an extraordinary case that for the first time put a former president and major presidential candidate in a courtroom as a criminal defendant. The case was the only one of four criminal indictments that has gone to trial and possibly the only one that ever will.

Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan could have sentenced the 78-year-old Republican to up to four years in prison. Instead, he chose a sentence that sidestepped thorny constitutional issues by effectively ending the case but assured that Trump will become the first person convicted of a felony to assume the presidency.

Unlike his trial last year, when Trump brought allies to the courthouse and addressed waiting reporters outside, the former president did not appear in person Friday, instead making a brief virtual appearance from his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Story by Rebecca Falconer

Justice Samuel Alito spoke with President-elect Trump the day before the Republican leader's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to halt Friday's sentencing in his New York hush money case, the judge confirmed Wednesday.

What they're saying: Alito said in a statement first reported by ABC News that he agreed to take the call from Trump on Tuesday afternoon after his former clerk William Levi asked him to recommend him for a job in the incoming administration.

"We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed," Alito said.

"We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect."

Why it matters: It's not unusual for justices to give job recommendations for former clerks, but the timing of the call, hours before the filing of an appeal against the conviction of what would be the first-ever criminal sentencing of a living president, drew criticism from advocates who've campaigned for more transparency in courts.
Story by Carl Gibson

President-elect Donald Trump was reportedly planning to dodge a televised town hall hosted by Fox News last year, until an insider at the network fed him questions ahead of time.

That's according to a CNN report about a forthcoming book by Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt, entitled "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power." Isenstadt's book is based on hundreds of interviews with sources, internal memos, records and regular trips to Palm Beach, Florida. CNN reported that if Isenstadt's claim about Fox secretly helping Trump ace his town hall appearance is true, it would amount to a "serious breach of journalism ethics."

The Iowa town hall, which was scheduled for January of 2024, came in the heat of the GOP primary, when Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was at his peak of popularity and Trump's campaign was angry with the network over the tone of its reporting. Even though town hall moderator Bret Baier was "golf buddies" with Trump, the 45th president was reportedly planning to skip the town hall due to Baier and co-moderator Martha McCallum's penchant for asking tough questions, namely about Trump's threats of retribution against his political enemies.
Story by Lynn Bonner, NC Newsline

At the request of GOP Judge Jefferson Griffin, Republicans on the state Supreme Court have prohibited the state Board of Elections from certifying Democratic Justice Allison Riggs’ election.

Riggs, the incumbent, leads Griffin by 734 votes in the election for a seat on the state’s highest court.

Griffin, an Appeals Court judge, wants to discount more than 60,000 votes on the belief that throwing them out will allow him to win.

After the state Board of Elections dismissed his election protests last month, Griffin asked the Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority, to step in.
Story by David Badash

Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans who served on the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, is trolling his former GOP colleagues in the Senate with their own words on the fourth anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kinzinger, who was first elected in 2010 and served for more than a decade until deciding to not run for re-election in 2022, has been one of the few Republicans to hold the GOP accountable.

On Monday, Kinzinger posted a January 6, 2021 tweet from U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that reads, “Those who made this attack on our government need to be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Their actions are repugnant to democracy.”

Graham has since fully embraced Donald Trump and his allies, including those who supported his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
By Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress formally certified Republican President-elect Donald Trump's November election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, clearing the way for him to be sworn in on Jan. 20.

The certification of the election results on Monday in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was accomplished in a brief, formal ceremony during a joint session of the House of Representatives and Senate. It was presided over by Harris, acting in her vice-presidential role as president of the Senate.

Judge Juan Merchan just ordered President-elect Trump to appear for his sentencing in the New York hush money case on January 10th. NBC News' Garrett Haake joins Alex Witt to report more.
Story by Elizabeth Elkind

Speaker-designate Mike Johnson, R-La., was re-elected to lead the House of Representatives on Friday.

The Louisiana Republican won along party lines during the first round of voting, a stark contrast to his predecessor’s drawn-out, 15-round battle in 2023.

It comes despite saber-rattling by some conservatives who threatened to withhold support from Johnson in protest of his handling of government funding and several other issues in the 118th Congress.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was part of an unsuccessful push to oust Johnson last year, was the speaker-designate’s most vocal critic leading up to the Friday vote.

He told former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on his new One America News Network program, "You can pull all my fingernails out, you can shove bamboo up in them, you can start cutting off my fingers."
The move was the latest escalation in the back and forth between Beijing and Washington over products considered vital to national security.
By Alexandra Stevenson

China on Thursday singled out dozens of companies from the United States, including Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in a series of punitive trade measures that could ratchet up tensions between the two superpowers.

With weeks to go before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes the office with a promise to impose new tariffs and sanctions on China, Beijing is once again showing it is ready to strike back.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said it added 28 companies to an export control list to “safeguard national security and interests.” It also banned the export of so-called dual-use items, which have both civilian and military applications, to those companies. And it placed 10 companies on what it calls an “unreliable entities list” related to the sale of arms to Taiwan, preventing them from doing any business in China and prohibiting their executives from entering or living in the country.

Chinese authorities have taken similar — albeit narrower — actions in the past on these companies, most of which have a limited presence within China, said Andrew Gilholm, a China expert at the consulting firm Control Risks.
By Mike Spector, Rachael Levy, Marisa Taylor and Chris Prentice

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON Jan 2 (Reuters) - Last month, in the waning days of the Biden administration, the SEC set a tight deadline of several days for demanding that Elon Musk pay a settlement or face civil charges relating to alleged securities violations during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022.

Musk broke the news himself in a social-media post: “Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” he wrote, referring to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

He added a smiley-face emoji but attached a legal letter condemning the “improperly motivated” ultimatum: “We demand to know who directed these actions—whether it was you or the White House.”

An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on the incident. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The SEC is not the only investigative agency Musk has defied and accused of political harassment. The billionaire has long railed against government oversight, portraying himself as a victim of bureaucratic zealots stifling his companies’ potentially life-saving innovations.
By Brian Stelter, CNN

New York CNN — An erroneous early Fox News report about the New Orleans terror attack is warping the political dialogue in the aftermath of the deadly rampage.

The false report from Fox, which was attributed to anonymous sources, confused the public – and evidently President-elect Donald Trump too. The misinformation is still circulating more than 24 hours later – serving as a cautionary tale about the news ecosystem as the new year begins.

During the 10 a.m. hour on Wednesday, Fox reported that the New Orleans suspect’s truck crossed the US border in Eagle Pass, Texas “two days ago.” Some of the right-wing network’s coverage explicitly said “the suspect” drove across the border, leaving viewers with the impression that a foreigner might be responsible for the deadly carnage.

In fact, the New Orleans attack suspect was a US citizen and Army veteran. But those facts weren’t publicly established at the time Fox aired the faulty information.

Eight minutes after the first Fox segment that mentioned the border, Trump issued a statement about “criminals coming in” from other countries. While Trump didn’t mention Fox directly, he is known to be an avid consumer of the cable network and has tapped several of its personalities for his incoming cabinet.

Some of Trump’s family members and political allies also immediately connected the attack to illegal immigration and cited Fox.
WASHINGTON – Today, President Biden named twenty recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal.

The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.

The awards will be presented at the White House on January 2, 2025. The following individuals will be awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal:
Man who died in explosion that injured seven outside Trump hotel served over 19 years in military
Edward Helmore

The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that caught fire and exploded in Las Vegas outside one of the hotels in Donald Trump’s business empire has been identified as soldier Matthew Livelsberger, from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Livelsberger, 37, was killed in the explosion, while seven bystanders were wounded. The US army service member, identified by Denver’s KOAA and KTNV media outlets, was behind the wheel of the electric-powered truck, which investigators soon after discovered was packed with fireworks-style mortars, camping fuel and gas canisters when it exploded on Wednesday morning.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to local news outlets that the electric vehicle was rented from Turo, the vehicle-sharing service that was also used in the New Orleans attack on the same day. There, suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar used the Turo app to rent an electric Ford pickup truck used in that attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day, which killed 15 and injured dozens more.

News station Denver 7 cited law enforcement sources on Thursday that Livelsberger and Jabbar had served at the same military base – a possible connection the US army has not independently confirmed to the Guardian. Livelsberger is known to have spent time at the massive North Carolina base of Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, which is home to army special forces command.

The US army said on Thursday that Livelsberger was an active duty soldier from 2006 to 2011 before transferring to the national guard and then the army reserves. He rejoined the army in 2012 and was a special operations soldier. US special operations command confirmed that Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on leave at the time of his death.
Fourteen people were killed in the New Year's Day attack on Bourbon Street.
By Aaron Katersky, Victoria Arancio, Kevin Shalvey, Pierre Thomas, Josh Margolin, Luke Barr, and David Brennan

Authorities no longer believe there are any other suspects involved in the New Year's truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured 35 others, the FBI said Thursday.

After investigators reviewed all of the surveillance videos more closely, it appears that the suspect -- 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who also died in the attack -- placed explosive devices in the area himself and then changed clothes, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The FBI is still investigating whether there were individuals Jabbar spoke to or messaged with prior to the early Wednesday attack, but no one was in the vicinity to help him do anything, the sources said.
He sold them countless, often conflicting fantasies. In 2025, he’ll face political reality.

In his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump let readers in on a promotional strategy of his. “I play to people’s fantasies,” the real estate developer wrote, by insisting that a project “is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.” It’s a tactic Trump has also employed in his political career—most effectively this election cycle, when many voters were drawn to him based on perceptions of his second-term plans that had little to no basis in reality.

Consider these archetypal dispatches from the 2024 campaign trail. “A lot of people are happy to vote for [Trump] because they simply do not believe he will do many of the things he says he will,” an October New York Times “campaign notebook” entry observed. The following week, The Washington Post noted of prospective Trump voters: “Some read between Trump’s lines about how he would govern, while others disregard parts of his past or present platform.”

Then there was the phenomenon Paul Krugman, the retiring Times columnist, dubbed “Trump-stalgia,” which could just as well have been called “Trump-nesia.” Most Americans are undoubtedly better off than they were four years ago, he wrote in May. “But for reasons that still remain unclear, many seem disinclined to believe it.” This sentiment held true through the election. As TNR’s Greg Sargent reported on November 9, citing internal Democratic polling, “It proved disturbingly difficult to persuade undecided voters that Trump had been a bad president.”
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