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Donald J. Trump White House 2nd Term Page 1
Story by Jennifer Bowers Bahney

Maryland lawmaker Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said Wednesday that he regrets voting to confirm former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as secretary of state, especially now that Rubio is enthusiastically supporting Trump's proposal to take over Gaza and turn it into a resort.

Van Hollen told CNN's Phil Mattingly he was appalled that Trump pressed the Gaza issue in front of King Abdullah of Jordan on Tuesday.

"What the president has done is, he has lit a fire and thrown it on a keg of gasoline," Van Hollen said. "Because what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in the Middle East, is already a tinderbox. It's already on fire, and what he is doing is going to spread that fire. He has essentially called for what amounts to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the forced removal of two million Palestinians to other areas."

President Donald Trump was seemingly unaware of his self-own while describing Hamas as “bullies.”
Jesse Dollemore

Jesse talks about reporting about all the damage being done to red states in the clean energy sector, where billions of dollars worth of contracts and payments are being canceled because of Project 2025 and Donald Trump.
Roland S. Martin

A North Carolina woman who voted for the twice impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald "The Con" Trump says she regrets her decision because she now understands he's a liar.

Jesse talks about reporting from Military.com about Trump’s direction to the Pentagon to stop recruiting highly skilled and capable candidates because they’re Black.

Some MAGA supporters are now expressing regret over their vote for Donald Trump. As new policies and actions unfold, former loyalists are speaking out about their changing perspectives. What led to this shift, and how do they feel now? Watch as we break down their reasons and reactions. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more updates!
Story by Janna Brancolini

Elon Musk humiliated President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s joint press conference in the Oval Office, which left Trump looking like the “most powerless” U.S. president ever caught on camera, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell said on The Last Word.

During a press conference in the Oval Office in which they claimed—without providing a single piece of evidence—to have uncovered billions of dollars of government waste and fraud, Musk spoke 3,666 words to Trump’s 2,487, O’Donnell said.

Musk brought his 4-year-old son X to the press conference, wore a T-shirt and baseball cap, and even interrupted Trump.

He stood over Trump while the president sat behind the Resolute Desk, “delivering a picture of presidential subservience the likes of which we have never seen—the most powerless image of a president of the United States ever created by a camera,” O’Donnell said.
Story by Josh Eidelson

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration told probationary staff members it had mistakenly sent them termination notices, and then informed some of them the next day that they were fired after all.

“Probationary employees across the Small Business Administration may have received an unsigned notice of employment termination,” according to an email sent to some SBA staff on Monday that was viewed by Bloomberg News.

“Please be advised that this draft letter (see attached) was sent in error – and as such, it is not currently in effect. If you are in receipt of the initial notice, your employment has not been terminated as was erroneously indicated in the initial notice,” the email continued.

On Tuesday, some of those probationary staff — employees who are generally within their first year on the job — received a new message telling them they actually were, in fact, dismissed, according to a fired worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about being targeted.

“During this probationary or trial period, it has been determined that your continued employment does not promote the efficiency of the service because you have failed to demonstrate fitness for continued federal employment,” according to the email sent Tuesday.
Story by Liz Crampton

Donald Trump won Dearborn, Michigan, a traditionally Democratic Arab American enclave, thanks largely to outrage over Kamala Harris and the Biden administration’s stance on Israel.

Some are starting to have regrets.

After Trump unveiled a plan to “take over” Gaza and relocate nearly 2 million Palestinians to neighboring countries, two mayors in the region who had stumped for Trump have gone silent. And some Dearborn residents have been left horrified by the president’s attitude toward Palestinians.

After Trump made his comments, people in Dearborn are responding “with extreme anger and disappointment with this president who lied to this community to steal some of their votes,” said Osama Siblani, editor of Dearborn’s Arab American News.

Siblani, who declined to endorse in the presidential race, predicted that the proposal will “fail” and that Trump is “acting like a leader of a gangster group and not the most powerful nation in the world. Disgrace.”

One leader in Dearborn, granted anonymity to speak candidly, described a sense of remorse among some in the Arab American community who voted for Trump or sat out the election but now “think we screwed up but we’re not going to admit it.”
Story by Rob Wile

President Donald Trump signed an order Monday that imposes a 25% tariff on all steel imports to the United States.

“This is a big deal," Trump said while signing the order in the Oval Office. "The beginning of making America rich again."

The tariffs come just a week after Trump promised to suspend tariffs on Canada and Mexico. They echo steel and aluminum tariffs Trump imposed during his first administration, though at that point those were imposed explicitly on national security grounds.

This time, the rationale for the tariffs is somewhat more ambiguous: Trump has cited creating jobs and narrowing the U.S. trade deficit. Over the weekend, the president promised to punish countries “taking advantage of” U.S. businesses.

Many analysts see the tariffs as a negotiating tool to extract concessions from other nations.

CNBC's Eamon Javers breaks down teh flurry of executive orders signed by President Trump.
Story by Peter Wade

J.D. Vance signaled the Trump administration may try to ignore judicial orders, which could trigger a constitutional crisis.

The vice president wrote on X, "If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."

Vance also shared a post by Adrian Vermeule, professor of constitutional law at Harvard, who wrote, "Judicial interference with legitimate acts of state, especially the internal functioning of a co-equal branch, is a violation of the separation of powers."

Elon Musk, who has led Donald Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it attempts to dismantle and take over federal agencies, signaled he may also support defying the courts. He reshared an X post by "Insurrection Barbie" that said in part, "I don't like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I'm just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us."

Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman, lead counsel in the first impeachment of Donald Trump, wrote on X in response to Vance: "It's called the ‘rule of law' @jdvance. Our constitution created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances on each other (‘separation of powers'). The judiciary makes sure that the executive follows the law. If you do, then you won't have problems."
The impact can linger not just for years but decades.
By Clay Risen

On Jan. 22, 1953, his first day as secretary of state, John Foster Dulles addressed a group of diplomats at his department’s still-new headquarters in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood. For years, the State Department had come under fire from Republicans and conservative activists as a haven for Communist spies and sympathizers — and not without reason, since one of its rising stars, Alger Hiss, had been convicted of perjury in January 1950 for lying about giving secret government documents to a Soviet spy.

The failure to find more Hisses, and the fact that Hiss’ actions had taken place over a decade in the past, did nothing to appease men like Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who shot to national prominence just weeks after Hiss’ conviction with his claim to have a list of hundreds of spies within the State Department. By the time Dulles arrived that morning, public faith in the department, and morale within it, had cratered.

With his opening speech to his new employees, Dulles made clear that while he was their boss, he was not on their side. “Dulles’s words were as cold and raw as the weather” that day, wrote the diplomat Charles Bohlen. Dulles announced that starting that day, he expected not just loyalty but “positive loyalty” from his charges, making clear that he would fire anyone whose commitment to anti-communism was less than zealous. “It was a declaration by the Secretary of State that the department was indeed suspect,” Bohlen wrote. “The remark disgusted some Foreign Service officers, infuriated others, and displeased even those who were looking forward to the new administration.”
He's quickly undoing Biden's orders, too.
By Meredith Conroy via five thirty eight logo

Before his inauguration, President Donald Trump vowed to sign 100 executive orders on his first day in office. And while he didn't hit that mark on Day 1, the number and breadth of executive actions he's taken so far has been historic, and potentially unlawful. While executive orders have sometimes, controversially, been used as a last resort after a president is unable to garner legislative support to codify their policy goals, Trump has used executive orders to rapidly jump-start his agenda from the get-go, seemingly without regard for any potential obstacles in Congress or the bureaucracy that would otherwise carry these directives out — building on a pattern from his first term.

Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump has signed a record number of executive orders that have already begun to reshape American priorities at home and abroad, setting the stage for his own ambitious policy priorities while also revoking old policies to reverse the course set by former President Joe Biden. This number of executive orders, unprecedented in the modern era of politics, are part of a wider suite of sweeping actions that aim to rapidly dismantle existing institutions and initiatives while establishing a governing framework aligned with Trump's MAGA agenda and his populist base.

These actions serve another purpose too: "Unilateral activities … bolster Trump's image as the indispensable person in charge, the consummate leader, the strongman … And by acting unilaterally, he embodies the essential qualities of a strongman that many in his base desire," explains William Howell, a professor of political science and public policy at Johns Hopkins University.

In doing so, these actions have already begun to test the degree to which unchecked executive power can be wielded to challenge existing institutionalized norms and checks and balances in the government. Many of Trump's actions have triggered confusion within the government and a growing number of legal challenges in opposition. The coming fights will test Trump's relationship with the new GOP majority, a court system that he helped shape during his first term, and the broader public.
Story by Matthew Chapman

President Donald Trump was finally confronted at a joint press conference with the Japanese prime minister on Friday about tech billionaire Elon Musk's rapid infiltration of government IT systems — in particular access to the system that handles almost all payments for the Treasury Department and gives Musk and his engineering team theoretical access to huge troves of Americans' Social Security Numbers and private financial information.

When a reporter asked Trump whether Musk and his "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) task force really needed that kind of access to Americans' sensitive data, the president replied, "Well, it doesn't, but they get it easily. I mean, we don't have very good security in this country and they get it very easily."

Commenters on social media were shocked by Trump's words — with many pointing out that this was essentially a confession that Musk's scheme isn't on strictly legal footing.
Story by Joey Garrison, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Elon Musk said Friday that a Department of Government Efficiency staffer who resigned this week after social media posts surfaced of him advocating for racism and eugenics was reinstated. The move came after Vice President JD Vance led an outcry for his return.

"He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine," Musk wrote on X in response to a post by Vance calling for Marko Elez, a 25-year-old software engineer, to rejoin DOGE.

Elez resigned from DOGE after the Wall Street Journal inquired about racist comments made on a deleted social account linked to him. Vance spoke out Friday in favor of Elez, and President Donald Trump later said he was "with" Vance in calling for his reinstatement.

"Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life," Vance said in a Friday post on X. "We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that."
Is Trump a racist?

The president ordered that all foreign assistance to South Africa be halted and said his administration would prioritize the resettling of white, “Afrikaner refugees” into the United States.
Michael D. Shear reported from Washington, and John Eligon from Johannesburg.

President Trump on Friday ordered that all foreign assistance to South Africa be halted and said his administration would prioritize the resettling of white, “Afrikaner refugees” into the United States because of what he called actions by the country’s government that “racially disfavored landowners.”

In the order, Mr. Trump said that “the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa” and that American officials should do everything possible to help “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”

It follows Mr. Trump’s accusation on his social media site on Sunday that the South African government was engaged in a “massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum.” He vowed a full investigation and promised to cut off aid.

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” the president wrote in the post. “It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention.”
Is this America first or Russia and Putin first?

Story by Brendan Cole

Donald Trump's move to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been welcomed by the Kremlin, it has been reported, amid a suite of measures by the new U.S. administration which could play into Vladimir Putin's hands.

Trump's executive order to impose sanctions on the ICC, comes in a week in which Attorney General Pam Bondi halted a federal law enforcement effort to combat secret influence campaigns by Russia and other adversaries.

The U.S. Justice Department is also disbanding an effort to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

However, Russia could face tougher U.S. sanctions to push Putin to the negotiating table, Trump's envoy to Ukraine, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, told The New York Post.

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.

Why It Matters
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of war crimes, so the Trump administration's sanctions ease pressure on the Russian president. Kremlin propagandists have welcomed the rhetoric and decisions coming from the new U.S. administration, amid speculation that they may benefit Moscow.
David McAfee

Some of Donald Trump's most loyal supporters aren't forgetting how upset they are about two key nominees for his upcoming presidential administration.

Trump said on Friday that he had chosen Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a physician and Fox News medical contributor, as his surgeon general. Raw Story reported the following day that some of the former and incoming president's biggest fans were not happy about it.

"Dear President Trump, many of us…MANY of us are very disheartened and upset about this pick -this doctor has been a major advocate for pushing Covid vaccines upon people which are being proven cause much harm," one Trump-supporting Truth Social user wrote in response to Trump's announcement. "She also was a big advocate of masking and other terrible Covid policies please don’t let this happen! Sincerely -your base."
Story by Tom Boggioni

Just days before Donald Trump celebrates three weeks back in the Oval Office, his tariff threats and his decision to let Elon Musk and his DOGE staffers disrupt the flow of cash from the U.S. Treasury is having an immediate impact on voters.

And it is not a good one, reports the Wall Street Journal.

On the same day the government reported job growth was weaker than expected, the Journal's Rachel Wolfe and Joel Pinsker are reporting that consumer confidence is "souring" as prices remain high — or are going up — meaning Trump's honeymoon is swiftly coming to an end.
Story by Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's forming a task force to be led by the Department of Justice to "eradicate anti-Christian bias" within the federal government and prosecute violence against Christians.

Trump said he would be launching a presidential commission on religious liberty and signing an executive order putting Attorney General Pam Bondi over the DOJ initiative, which he said he was creating to confront "weaponization" and "religious persecution" of Christians in the United States.

The mission of the task force will be to "immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination in the federal government," including at the Department of Justice, the FBI, the IRS and other agencies, Trump said in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Story by Maya Boddie

President Donald Trump was mocked on Wednesday for claiming Senator Tommy Tuberville did "a great job" as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes's college coach.

Tuberville, who served as Auburn University's head football coach from 1999-2008, never coached Mahomes.

The president made the remark during his signing of an executive order excluding transgender women from women's sports Wednesday.
Story by Gustaf Kilander

An Elon Musk assistant has been accused of “shacking up” in the building of a federal agency, and bringing his wife and young child with him as he works for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“One of Musk’s top lieutenants and wife and young child have shacked up on the sixth floor of our agency and are living there,” reported a speaker at a town hall, who did not identify it or himself. He spoke out at the packed meeting hosted Monday night by Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam in Leesburg, Virginia, northwest of Washington, D.C.

He added that the family’s hall of rooms on the sixth floor has allegedly been “blocked off with a special access list,” the worker was quoted in The Daily Beast.

DOGE could not immediately be reached for comment.

Musk’s penchant for having employees sleep in their offices to work or be on call around the clock is well known.

Musk has reportedly told friends that he’s sleeping at the DOGE office in downtown Washington just a few steps from the White House, according to Wired. He has encouraged his employees in the past to sleep at work, Fortune reports. DOGE headquarters has reportedly received a shipment of so-called “sleep pods” to place in the offices.

Donald Trump’s CIA has now committed what is being called a counterintelligence disaster by reportedly sending the names of recently hired CIA employees to the White House in an unclassified email. Former CIA Director John Brennan joins The ReidOut with Joy Reid to discuss.
Story by Erik De La Garza

President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-diversity executive action struck again – this time in the halls of the National Cryptologic Museum – where staff were ordered to cover up displays celebrating women and people of color who served at the National Security Agency, according to media reports.

The museum’s censorship stemmed from Trump’s order to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives across federal agencies, which threw some government departments into chaos as confusion over the extent of the action swirled, NPR reported.

Part of that confusion extended to the national museum, which taped sheets of brown paper over plaques in its Hall of Honor devoted to women and people of color. The Fort Meade, Maryland-based museum acknowledged covering up the plaques of the honorees, which are described as “Trailblazers in U.S. Cryptologic History,” and said in a social media post over the weekend that it had corrected the “mistake”

Outrage has far from simmered.

"My jaw dropped, my eyes bulged," former NSA employee Larry Pfeiffer, who spent two decades at the agency, told Politico. "Like one of those Warner Brothers' cartoons."
Story by Martha McHardy

Ivanka Trump used money from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for recording equipment for a White House event, USAID documents show.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Ivanka Trump for comment via email.

Why It Matters
The revelation that Ivanka Trump's initiatives used USAID funds for events comes at a time when the agency itself is facing increased scrutiny. With discussions underway about potentially shutting down USAID or significantly restructuring its budget, how the agency allocated its funds—especially during the Trump administration—is under the microscope.

It comes amid the Trump administration's drive to end all diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government, with Trump issuing an executive order on his first day in office ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government's diversity and inclusion programs. Republicans have claimed that money allocated towards DEI by USAID is wasteful.

What To Know
According to USAID documents, Ivanka Trump used over $11,000 from the department in 2019 to buy video recording and reproducing equipment for a White House event.

The documents show $11,539 was to used by Trump in November 2019 to purchase software, CDs, tapes and records.

The purchase was approved by Jenifer Healy, who was serving as USAID deputy chief of staff at the time, and the Administrator's Office. It is not clear which White House event the equipment was used for.
By MORGAN LEE

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the U.S. on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.

“I’m appalled by democracy’s changes in the last, well, specifically two weeks — but it started a long time ago,” Margaret Wilmeth said at a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. “So I’m just trying to put a presence into resistance.”
By Lucas Lilieholm, Michael Schwartz and Helen Regan, CNN

CNN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed US President Donald Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza, as Israel’s army was ordered to prepare plans for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the territory.

Trump’s plan triggered an enormous backlash, with leaders from the Middle East and beyond rejecting it as unworkable and illegal.

But Netanyahu insisted the plan - which Trump said would involve sending Gaza’s residents to neighboring countries and taking “long-term ownership” of the enclave - was a “remarkable idea.”

“The actual idea of allowing first Gazans who want to leave to leave, I mean, what is wrong with that?” he told Fox News Wednesday, adding that those who leave the strip “can come back.”

“This is the first good idea that I’ve heard. It’s a remarkable idea and I think it should be really pursued, examined, pursued, and done because I think it will create a different future for everyone,” added Netanyahu.
Trump’s obliteration of the aid agency left employees with no guidance and workers overseas feeling like they’re playing violin “on the Titanic deck”
By Andrew Perez, Asawin Suebsaeng, Tim Dickinson

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk tore through much of the federal government over the past two weeks — effectively shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the government’s foreign aid department.

Now that nearly all of the agency’s staff has been put on leave, USAID employees aren’t sure whether they’ll still be paid — and have no real way of getting answers. Meanwhile, the agency’s thousands of overseas employees are being recalled and wondering what happens next: How will they get back to America? Are they going to be stranded? Will they have to leave their pets behind? Many have had their jobs terminated.

Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s biggest donor, has called USAID a “criminal organization” and “a ball of worms,” and claimed that he and his team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) received Trump’s blessing to “shut down” the agency.

On Tuesday, 25-year-old DOGE aide Gavin Kliger sent out a memo announcing that nearly all of USAID’s workforce was being put on paid administrative leave, effectively immediately. The memo demanded that employees be “available by telephone and e-mail during normal business hours” and “remain available to report to work if directed to do so,” while barring them from attempting to go into their offices or access USAID systems, according to a copy reviewed by Rolling Stone.
Story by IntelliNews

US President Donald Trump has said that he has issued instructions for Iran to be 'obliterated' should Tehran succeed in assassinating him.

'If they did that, they would be obliterated,' Mr Trump told gathered reporters on February 5 abc news reports. He continued 'I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.'

America’s abc news on February 5 also revealed that the US Justice Department had managed to block at least one 2024 plot to kill the then Republican nominee, although it was not known if this plot was in direct retaliation for Trump’s own 2020 order to have the former leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qud Force, Qaseem Soleimani, killed. The Iranian officer was killed in a drone attack carried out by US forces while on his way to a meeting with the Iraqi prime minister.

In the event of any assassination of a US president, the serving vice president takes over as happened during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 when then Vice President George H W. Bush assumed command until Reagan recovered, and the iconic killing of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 in Dallas, when Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in two hours after Kennedy’s death.
The order is titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports."
By Will Steakin, Rachel Scott, and Julia Reinstein

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, fulfilling a promise that was at the center of his 2024 campaign.

The order will establish sweeping mandates on sex and sports policy and will direct federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to interpret federal Title IX rules as prohibiting the participation of transgender girls and women in female sports categories, according to a White House document on the executive order obtained by ABC News.

Titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," the order will mandate immediate enforcement, including against schools and athletic associations that "deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms," according to the document, and will direct state attorneys general to identify best practices for enforcing the mandate.

Surrounded by female athletes at the signing ceremony, Trump railed against what he called "transgender lunacy."

"Under the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls," Trump said.
Countries ranging from Germany to Saudi Arabia reject displacement of Palestinians
Chloe Cornish in Kuwait City, Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper in Beirut and Heba Saleh in Cairo

US allies across Europe and the Middle East have condemned Donald Trump’s plans for Washington to “take over” Gaza and any attempt to expel Palestinians from the devastated territory.

Countries throughout the region and beyond denounced the proposals within hours of the US president’s shock Tuesday evening announcement that Washington should assume control of Gaza and that its 2.2mn-strong Palestinian population should be resettled.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned the plan for Gaza, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, would “lead to new suffering and new hatred”.

She added: “There must be no solution over the heads of the Palestinians.”

Arab states, which have long rejected any expulsion of Palestinians, were also quick to attack Trump’s proposals.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday the country would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state, adding its position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.
As the Treasury Department offers some new spin about Elon Musk’s takeover of payment systems and ousting of a top career official, Senator Ron Wyden tells us why this “reeks of a cover-up.”
New Republic

In an effort to tamp down the outcry around Elon Musk’s autocratic and illegal power grabs, the Treasury Department has sent a new letter to Congress that casts Musk’s takeover of the agency in benign terms. The letter suggests Musk’s access to Treasury’s payment systems—which was granted by President Trump; the systems are the conduit for $6 trillion in annual government payments to an enormous range of recipients—merely amounts to an innocent “audit” process, portraying this as part of a broad government reform agenda.

But if this letter is genuinely designed to address public alarm about these arrangements, it fails pretty miserably. In fact, the letter’s sheer evasiveness makes this scandal look worse. The letter has been dutifully noted by news reports, but it’s worth a closer read because it illustrates the range of questions that the administration will not answer about Musk’s arrangements.
‘Arab Americans for Trump’ group rebrands itself while activists also criticize Biden and Harris’s support of Israel
Anna Betts

Donald Trump’s remarks that the US will “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere have drawn outrage and criticism from Palestinian and Arab Americans across the US.

A group of Arab Americans that supported Trump during the 2024 election rebranded itself following Trump’s comments on displacing Palestinians, from “Arab Americans for Trump” to “Arab Americans for Peace”.

In a statement, the group said that while they still believed that Trump “is committed to achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East that is satisfactory to ALL parties”, they “take issue with the president’s suggestion of taking over Gaza and removing its Palestinian inhabitants to other parts of the Arab world”.

The group added that they were “adamantly opposed to the notion of transferring Palestinians outside of historic Palestine for ANY reason”.

The 2024 US presidential election marked a shift within communities that had long formed part of the Democratic base, as many Muslim and Arab Americans grew disillusioned over the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Trump actively courted those groups and polls indicate he made significant gains.

Protests against the Biden administration’s stance led to more than 700,000 “uncommitted” votes in the Democratic primaries, an attempt to pressure Joe Biden to shift course.
ABC News

A federal judge in Maryland has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman heard arguments Wednesday over a request by five pregnant undocumented women to block Trump's Day-1 executive order seeking to redefine the meaning of the 14th Amendment to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship.

"The denial of the precious right to citizenship will cause irreparable harm," Judge Boardman said in handing down her order. "It has been said the right to U.S. citizenship is a right no less precious than life or liberty. If the court does not enjoin enforcement of the executive order, children subject to the order will be denied the rights and benefits of U.S. citizenship and their parents will face instability."

"A nationwide injunction is appropriate and necessary because it concerns citizenship," Judge Boardman said.

The ruling comes two weeks after a federal judge in Seattle criticized the Department of Justice for attempting to defend what he called a "blatantly unconstitutional" order and issued a temporary restraining order.
Story by Elizabeth Urban

The U.S. Military Academy West Point ordered all minority cadet clubs to be disbanded immediately as crackdowns on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs set in across the country, according to a report.

All West Point clubs sanctioned by the academy's Directorate of Cadet Activities that highlight different cultures or marginalized groups were ordered to be "disbanded," while other clubs were ordered to "cease all activities" until their status could be reviewed, according to a memo shared to social media.

"This directive cancels all trip sections, meetings, events and other activities associated with these clubs. Moreover these clubs are not authorized to continue informal activities using Government time, resources or facilities," the memo stated, which has been authenticated by the Washington Post.

Among the disbanded clubs included many diverse groups, including the Asian-Pacific Forum Club, Japanese Forum Club, Latin Cultural Club, National Society of Black Engineers Club and Native American Heritage Forum.

Clubs that also centered around gender and the empowerment of women, including the Corbin Forum and Society of Women Engineers Club, were dissolved.
Opinion by Elvia Díaz, Arizona Republic

It’s not clear whether Mexico and Canada played President Donald Trump in his tariffs war, but it sure seems so – at least, temporarily.

Trump is boasting that Mexico and Canada buckled to his 25% tariff after a head-spinning clash with America’s largest trading partners.

At least for now, Mexico and Canada have outsmarted Trump by bolstering border security with measures already underway or that can easily be carried out.

Mexico and Canada made Trump think he won
I love that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau twisted Trump’s ego to back off for 30 days. They obviously figured out that he hates bad press and hates spooking the stock market even more.

All that, no doubt, played a role in Trump agreeing Monday to hold back on imposing a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods if those countries don’t stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration, which are just an excuse for Trump’s bigger endgame.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A movement to oppose the early actions of President Donald Trump’s administration is taking off online, with plans to protest across the U.S. on Wednesday.

The movement has organized under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Many of the protests are planned at state capitols, with some in other cities.

The movement has websites and accounts across social media. Flyers circulating online decry Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society, and include messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.” In a coffee shop just a block from Michigan’s Capitol, organizers of a planned action there Wednesday pushed together tables, spreading out poster boards to write messages that read “No Deportations Ever!” and “Workers Unite!”

Kelsey Brianne, a key organizer of Michigan’s rally, called it a “real grassroots effort.” She learned about the movement Sunday night and has been coordinating speakers and safety protocols.
By DAVID RISING and JON GAMBRELL

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents was swiftly rejected and denounced on Wednesday by American allies and adversaries alike.

Trump’s suggestion came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take “ownership” in redeveloping the war-torn territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.”

The comments came amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, during which the militant group has been turning over hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners held by Israel.

Egypt, Jordan and other American allies in the Middle East have already rejected the idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere in the region. Following Trump’s remarks, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement stressing the need for rebuilding “without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.”

Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trump’s expanded idea to take over the Gaza Strip in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land,” the statement said.
The white wash of history of indigenous people, woman and minorities has begun.

Samantha Cole Samantha Cole

NASA personnel were told to “drop everything” to scrub public sites of mentions of DEI, indigenous people, environmental justice, and women in leadership, according to a directive obtained by 404 Media.

The directive, sent on January 22 and obtained by 404 Media, states:

“Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of the following terms from our public sites by 5pm ET today. This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request. Note that the list below is the list that exists this morning, but it may grow as the day goes on.

DEIA
Diversity (in context of DEIA)
Equity (“ “)
Inclusion (“ “)
Accessibility (“ “)
MSI
Minority Serving Institution
Indigenous People
EEJ
EJ
Environmental Justice
Underrepresented groups/people
Anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.)”
Story by Giulia Carbonaro

The General Services Administration (GSA) reportedly sent out notice on Tuesday that it plans to sell half of the federal property it manages—a move that appears to contradict Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's plans to get federal employees to return to in-person work in the office.

Why It Matters
Trump is pushing to drastically shrink the size of the federal government, signing an executive order that imposed a 90-day hiring freeze on federal agencies—with the exception of military personnel of the armed forces or roles linked to immigration enforcement, national security and public safety—and offering incentives to federal workers to quit their jobs.

In an email sent to federal workers late last month, the Trump administration asked almost all government employees to decide by February 6 whether they want to resign and receive payment for eight months. The move was strongly condemned by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), who said it created "chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government."

GSA regional managers last week received messages from the agency's headquarters in Washington directing them to terminate the leases on all of the roughly 7,500 federal offices across the country, the Associated Press reported.
By Kevin Rector

Elon Musk and his deputies in the Department of Government Efficiency have gained access to Treasury Department systems and targeted a key foreign aid agency for closure, riling Democrats who say the billionaire has no such authority.
The debate reflects growing tensions between long-standing government norms and laws, and President Trump’s vision for a new government order of his own making.

The world’s richest man, acting as an unelected “efficiency” consultant to President Trump, has in recent days managed the rare feat of overshadowing his boss — presuming to storm into and begin closing out government agencies at will.

After two weeks of chaos caused by Trump’s own unilateral executive orders to radically alter the federal government, it was suddenly Elon Musk whose name was everywhere in Washington this week, as he and his deputies in the new, so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, slashed at the federal bureaucracy in a purported effort to cut costs.

Disregarding established security protocols while downplaying the budgetary authority of Congress, they accessed sensitive Treasury Department systems full of Americans’ most personal data and declared that the U.S. Agency for International Development — the agency long in charge of distributing American foreign aid to places such as Gaza, Ukraine and sub-Saharan Africa — was corrupt and being closed.
By Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray

CAIRO (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia said it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state, contradicting President Donald Trump's claim that Riyadh was not demanding a Palestinian homeland when he said the U.S. wants to take over the Gaza Strip.

In a shocking announcement, Trump said on Tuesday the United States would take over the war-ravaged enclave after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere and develop it economically. He was speaking at a joint press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that its stance towards the Palestinians is not negotiable.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom's position in 'a clear and explicit manner' that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances, the statement said.
The president met with the Israeli prime minister at the White House, meeting in person with another world leader for the first time since returning to power.
By Michael D. ShearPeter Baker and Isabel Kershner

President Trump declared on Tuesday that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in years.

Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

While the president framed the matter as a humanitarian imperative and an economic development opportunity, he effectively reopened a geopolitical Pandora’s box with far-reaching implications for the Middle East. Control over Gaza has been one of the major flash points of the Arab-Israeli conflict for decades, and the idea of relocating its Palestinian residents recalls an era when great Western powers redrew the maps of the region and moved around populations without regard to local autonomy.

Trump is focused on deporting and scaring into going underground, the one group of people that are working on rebuilding American’s homes, business districts, schools and churches after natural disasters in primarily MAGA states—the Undocumented who make up the majority of the “resilience” or “disaster recovery workforce” Michael Popok reports on how MAGA voter remorse is setting in as Venezuelans, Somalians, Mexicans, and Caribbean undocumented, subjected to workplace and church raids, are stopping recovery efforts in the South and LA.
Story by John Silk (with AFP, Reuters)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the United Nations' Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The order is also prompting a review of US funding for the United Nations.

What else do we know about the executive order?
Trump also ordered a US withdrawal from the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA).

He said that Washington intends to review its involvement in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Trump pulled the US out of UNHRC in 2018 during his first term in office. Former President Joe Biden reinstated the US' membership of the organization in 2021.
Story by Suzanne Blake

Since newly Trump-appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has taken over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency has mandated a complete halt of and review of services to "promote consistency" under the new administration.

Newsweek reached out to the CFPB via email for comment.

Why It Matters
The CFPB was first created after the 2008 banking recession to protect customers from unfair and predatory corporate behavior.

The halt means the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will cease crafting regulations or enforcing any rules or investigations. The halt was "effective immediately," The Washington Post reported.

What To Know
Republicans have attacked the CFPB as anti-business, with lawmakers calling to remove funding from the program. Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk has also pushed for Congress to eliminate the CFPB.

Former President Joe Biden's administration saw the CFPB make significant changes for predatory lenders under the CFPB's former director, Rohit Chopra. The CFPB also lowered the burden of medical debt and helped customers see lower fees after missing credit card bills.
Trump wasted billions of gallons of water. If California has limited water for drinking and farming in the summer they can thank Trump for wasting that water.

Story by Ella Nilsen, CNN

The US Army Corps of Engineers opened two dams on Friday in Central California and let roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs, after President Donald Trump ordered the release with the misguided intent to send water to fire-ravaged Southern California.

Trump celebrated the move in posts to Truth Social post on Friday and Sunday, declaring, “the water is flowing in California,” and adding the water was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles.”

There are two major problems, water experts said: The newly released water will not flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during the wet winter season.

“They were holding extra water in those reservoirs because of the risk that it would be a dry summer,” Heather Cooley, director of research for California water policy organization the Pacific Institute. “This puts agriculture at risk of insufficient water during the summer months.”

On Friday, Trump posted that 1.6 billion gallons was being released adding that “in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons.”
By KEN MORITSUGU and HUIZHONG WU

BEIJING (AP) — China announced retaliatory tariffs on select American imports and an antitrust investigation into Google on Tuesday, just minutes after a sweeping levy on Chinese products imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump took effect.

American tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico were also set to go into effect Tuesday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause as the two countries acted to address his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the next few days.

This isn’t the first round of tit-for-tat actions between the two countries. China and the U.S. engaged in an escalating trade war in 2018 when Trump repeatedly raised tariffs on Chinese goods and China responded each time.
By Kalea Hall, Nora Eckert and Victoria Waldersee

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Donald Trump is keeping some of the world’s biggest automakers guessing whether the U.S. president will follow through on threats to slap their vehicles and supply chains with import taxes that could cause hefty vehicle-price spikes for U.S. consumers.

Trump reiterated on the weekend he would impose 25% tariffs this week on goods from Mexico and Canada - including on vehicles made by General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), opens new tab - but delayed a decision for a month after discussions with each country's leader.

Such tariffs would cause “dramatic and immediate” financial fallout for U.S. automakers and other companies manufacturing vehicles in Mexico and Canada to sell in the U.S., said Sam Fiorani, vice president at research firm AutoForecast Solutions.
The uncertainty over Trump's threat has left the industry largely unable to take substantive action to mitigate potential damage, lest the regulatory landscape change with the president's next social media post.
The congresswoman compared herself to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert in a fierce takedown of the new regime.
By Ron Dicker

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) called President Donald Trump a “white supremacist” and said she was “tired of the white tears” during an impassioned interview on CNN Monday. (Watch the videos below.)

Crockett, who is Black, was responding to host Laura Coates’ mention of Darren Beattie being nominated to serve under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Beattie, a former speechwriter for Trump, was reportedly fired during the first term after it emerged that he attended a conference with white nationalists. In October 2024, he wrote on X: “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.”

“Your reaction,” Coates asked.

“He needs to go,” Crockett replied. “Right now we have a white supremacist that is sitting in the White House. He is backed up by other white supremacists.”

The lawmaker noted a high percentage of violent crime among white supremacists who “for whatever reason sit and they serve at the pleasure of the president. ... They were the ones there on Jan. 6 tearing our democracy down physically and now we have them tearing us down from within.”
Story by Zac Anderson, USA TODAY

President Donald Trump announced Monday that proposed U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods have been paused for 30 days, citing efforts by Canadian leaders to secure the border.

The announcement followed an afternoon call between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump had threatened 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods beginning this week unless the country did more to stop the flow of unauthorized migrants and fentanyl into the U.S.

Trudeau said in a statement that Canada is spending $1.3 billion on "reinforcing the border." Roughly 10,000 "frontline personnel are and will be" working on border protection, the country is appointing a "Fentanyl Czar" and will designate drug cartels as terrorists, Trudeau said. He added that Canada would spend $200 million on a new intelligence program targeted at organized crime and fentanyl.
An executive order — which President Donald Trump is expected to sign sometime this month — was expected to lay out a two-part strategy for shuttering the agency.
By Juan Perez Jr.

The Trump administration is finalizing plans to dismantle the Education Department through an executive order that would build on the president’s campaign promise to hammer the longtime conservative target.

The order — which President Donald Trump is expected to sign sometime this month, according to a White House official — was expected to lay out a two-part strategy for shuttering the agency, according to two people familiar with the plans and granted anonymity to discuss them.

It would direct the department to craft a plan to wind down its functions using its existing administrative authority. But the order was also expected to call for the agency to inventory a complex set of laws needed to delegate the department’s powers to other agencies and then close the department, an acknowledgment that some of conservatives’ biggest desires for change hinge on congressional approval. Such an order would launch a complex initiative. Some conservatives concede they currently lack enough support for legislation to close the department and farm its core functions out to other federal agencies.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

President Donald Trump spoke to reporters from the Oval Office on Monday about his trade tariffs and his talk with Canadian and Mexican leadership — and signed an executive order establishing a sovereign wealth fund for the nation.

But his news conference was littered with comments that left onlookers wondering if he knew what was happening.

It started when he asked a staffer which executive order he was signing. Then he was bombarded with questions including what he thought of markets tanking after he announced tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China over the weekend, and about Elon Musk's closing of the office housing the U.S. Agency of International Development. He was also questioned over Musk's accessing the personal data of government employees.

Those who watched couldn't help but ridicule as the president struggled to answer — and they fact-checked his statements.

Journalist Aaron Rupar called out a Trump claim that 300,000 Americans die annually from fentanyl overdoses — even though Trump's own executive order on tariffs to China cites 75,000 deaths from the drug. "This is a lie," he wrote.
Space constraints and court orders have led ICE to release migrants on monitoring programs after they’re arrested.
By Julia Ainsley

The Trump administration aggressively publicized the arrests of more than 8,000 immigrants by federal agents since Inauguration Day, with the promise that those detained would be part of a historic mass deportation. But NBC News has learned that some have already been released back into the United States on a monitoring program, according to five sources familiar with the operations.

Since he took office, President Donald Trump and his allies have promoted immigration operations in cities like Chicago and New York, where agents across federal agencies were called in to increase the number of arrests.

But arresting more people inside the United States on allegations of immigration violations means they need to be held somewhere. And significant space constraints in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities — and federal court orders forbidding indefinite detention — have forced the agency to release some of those arrested in the roundups rather than hold them until deportation.

ICE posts arrest figures daily on X, but it does not disclose how many of those arrested are released, remain in detention or have been deported.
By David Goldman, CNN

CNN — Just about everyone thought it was a bluff. Top analysts from the biggest banks on Wall Street said it was highly unlikely. Stocks were trading like it wouldn’t happen. Some companies built contingency plans, but they weren’t exactly rushing to make changes.

And maybe it was, after all. US President Donald Trump and Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday announced a deal to delay tariffs by a month after Mexico agreed to place 10,000 soldiers at the border.

That sent stocks on the verge of a comeback after they initially tumbled Monday. The Dow was down by around 130 points, or 0.3%, after tumbling nearly 600 points at the opening bell. The S&P 500 sank 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite was 1% lower — both well off their lows.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies also reversed course and were broadly higher mid-morning.

Auto industry stocks, which had been particularly hard hit because virtually all American-made cars are manufactured at least in some part in Mexico or Canada, rebounded. GM (GM) was down less than 2% after falling more than 7% earlier in the day, Jeep and Chrysler maker Stellantis (STLA) was down 3% and Ford (F) fell more than 1% — well off their lows.

But, globally, stocks crumbled. Major European indexes were down across the board, and Asian markets closed sharply lower. The US dollar rose sharply.
João da Silva, Nick Edser & Natalie Sherman

US shares have halted their slide, after the president of Mexico said she had reached a deal with US President Donald Trump to suspend tariffs on the country's goods.

The announcement, which was confirmed by Trump, arrested a global sell-off in financial markets, sparked by his decision to move forward with tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China, and his pledge that tariffs on the EU would "definitely happen".

After opening down more than 1%, the three major indexes in the US regained some ground, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off about 0.4% at midday.

Investors are bracing for a turbulent period that could hit the earnings of major companies and dent global growth.
Corbin Bolies

Vice President JD Vance appeared to walk back President Donald Trump’s persistent claims that “DEI” policies could be to blame for last week’s deadly D.C. plane crash after the Army released the final pilot’s name.

Vance told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday he and Trump believed the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies helped cause a staffing shortage among air traffic controllers, potentially leading to the crash between an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people.

But when asked about Trump’s repeated suggestions that air traffic controllers were hired because of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Vance demurred. None of the air traffic controllers have been named and the Army on Saturday released the name of the third person aboard the Black Hawk helicopter, a female pilot whose family initially objected to disclosing her identity.
Story by David McAfee

It was reported on Sunday that two officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were threatened with arrest and then put on leave after refusing to let Elon Musk access systems at the agency, and experts and observers quickly pounced.

In a report on Sunday, CNN said that personnel from DOGE were initially stopped after they tried to physically access USAID facilities in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night.

The DOGE personnel, who do not officially work for the U.S. government, demanded access and then threatened to call U.S. Marshalls, according to reports.
Story by Lauren Irwin

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said he believes the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is a “criminal organization” that should “die.”

“USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die,” Musk posted to the social platform X.

Musk was responding to the news that senior officials at USAID physically attempted to block people from Musk’s new department, the “Department of Government Efficiency,” from having access to secure systems, NBC News reported.
Are Trump and Musk trying to help Russia and China and hurt America? Russia’s and China’s influence will increase in places that no longer receive American aide.

Musk announced the planned closure of the foreign assistance agency early Monday on social media.
By David Ingram

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Monday that he and President Donald Trump were in the process of shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development, escalating their war on the federal bureaucracy and defying the constitutional power of Congress to determine how money is spent.

Musk, the head of Trump’s government efficiency initiative, announced the shutdown in the middle of the night in an audio-only appearance on his social media site X.

“We’re shutting it down,” he said. At another point, he said "we’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”

Musk did not say what legal authority he believed the White House has to shut down a federal agency without congressional approval, or how quickly the administration planned to act. He said the idea had “the full support of the president” and that he had spoken with Trump on the matter several times.

“With regard to the USAID stuff, I went over [it] with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” he said. “I actually checked with him a few times [and] said, ‘Are you sure?’” he said. He said that Trump responded, “Yes.”
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