What's going on today
- President Donald Trump announced today that he's revoking former President Joe Biden's access to classified information, citing Biden's remarks in 2021 that Trump should no longer receive such intelligence briefings, a courtesy typically extended to former presidents, due to "erratic behavior."
- A judge said this afternoon that he will grant a request to pause the midnight deadline to cut down the U.S. Agency for International Development from a workforce of more than 5,000 to just a few hundred.
- Trump met with Japan's prime minister at the White House this afternoon and the two then held a news conference. Trump said that he may meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington, D.c., next week as he attempts to broker the end of the Ukraine-Russia war.
- The Justice Department and lawyers representing FBI agents who investigated Jan. 6 have reached an agreement that would prohibit anyone in the federal government from publicly releasing the names of those agents while litigation proceeds.
DOGE set sights on the consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Two employees at the consumer Financial Protection Bureau have confirmed that three Trump administration officials — Nikhil Rajpal, christopher Young and Gavin Kliger — have been onboarded into the bureau’s internal system.
Both employees said the three men work for Elon Musk’s DOGE, which the cFPB union, NTEU 335, also said in a press release about their presence at the agency today. (The web page now leads to an error message.)
NBc News has previously reported that Kliger is affiliated with DOGE.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier today, Musk posted about the bureau with a gravestone emoji.
"cFPB RIP," he said in the post to X.
Matt Stoller, research director of the American Economic Liberties Project, said Trump and Musk had worked to “defang” the agency with a halt on rule making and suspension of the effective dates of rules that have not yet taken effect.
“It’s ‘Make Financial Scams Great Again,’ right?” Stoller said.
He argued that the real issue at stake remains Big Tech, and DOGE’s effort look poised to hamper the agency’s check on its power.
Trump says he is revoking Biden's access to intelligence briefings
Trump announced in a post to Truth Social this evening that he was "immediately revoking" former President Joe Biden's access to classified records.
"There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information," he wrote. "Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings."
Trump cited a report from former special counsel Robert Hur, who last year cited instances of Biden's "poor memory."
The Biden office did not immediately provide a comment.
Biden said in 2021 that Trump should not receive intelligence briefings, even though they are typically afforded to other former presidents.
In his Truth Social post today, Trump wrote: “I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERIcA GREAT AGAIN!”
Judge considers restricting DOGE access at Labor Department
A federal judge in Washington heard arguments today over DOGE staffers accessing sensitive data at the Labor Department.
“I’ll do what I can when I can,” U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said at the end of the hearing early this evening.
Attorneys for the labor unions challenging DOGE's access to personnel information and other data argued the Trump-created office isn't legally entitled to access the computer systems because of privacy laws, a position an attorney for the Justice Department maintained was wrong.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Mark Samburg, told the judge that his clients would be amending their lawsuit in the coming days to seek similar relief involving at least two other federal agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services and the consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Trump signs order calling South Africa's treatment of white citizens a 'shocking disregard' of rights
Trump signed an executive order today saying that South Africa acted "in shocking disregard of its citizens' rights" in actions related to Afrikaners, who are South Africans of European descent.
The order also noted South Africa having accused Israel of genocide in the U.N.’s International court of Justice
"The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its ‘undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests," the order said.
The order says that "as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices," the U.S. will not provide aid to South Africa and the U.S. "shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation."
customs and Border Protection takes over USAID headquarters lease
customs and Border Protection has taken over the lease of the space previously housing USAID in the Reagan Building in downtown Washington, according to a White House official.
It's not immediately clear for what purpose the cBP will use the space.
Is the Trump administration’s buyout offer to federal employees legal?
As millions of federal workers face a looming deadline to decide whether to accept the Trump administration’s unprecedented buyout offer, questions remain over whether the plan is even valid without congress’ approval, according to interviews with federal law and labor experts.
More than 60,000 employees have already agreed to resign as part of Trump’s effort to rapidly reduce the government workforce, with more being coaxed to take the deal ahead of a Monday deadline.
That same day, a federal judge in Boston is expected to hear arguments over the merits of the “deferred resignation” program, which is being challenged by several labor unions.
Trump makes himself chair of the Kennedy center
Trump has made himself chair of Washington’s John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, announcing he intends to make it “great again.”
Trump said he fired multiple trustees from the organization’s board, including its chair, billionaire David M. Rubenstein, who has led the center for 14 years. Rubenstein said he would step down as chair but later delayed his plans to retire until next year.
“I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” Trump said on Truth Social, blasting past programming that has included drag shows.
Alaska Legislature passes resolution urging Trump to keep Denali name
Alaska's legislature passed a resolution today urging the Trump administration to keep the name of the state's famed mountain as Denali, rather than change it back to Mount McKinley.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename Denali after President William McKinley. It had also previously been named Mount McKinley, but during the Obama administration it was formally recognized as Denali, the name that had been used by Indigenous people.
The resolution, from a state that consistently votes for Republican presidential candidates, emphasizes that "the name Denali is deeply ingrained in the state’s culture and identity" and that "residents of the state understand that the use of Indigenous names throughout the state reflects the long history, diverse cultures, traditions, and languages of the state’s Alaska Native peoples."
Trump administration preparing to restart immigrant family detention
The Trump administration is moving forward with restarting the detention of migrant families, including those with young children, which could mean an increase in arrests of children and teens, according to three sources familiar with the planning.
The sources said Immigration and customs Enforcement (IcE) is preparing to publish in the coming days a “Request for Proposal” that will ask private prison companies to bid for contracts to restart detention facilities intended specifically for families.
Trump signs executive order on the Second Amendment
Trump signed an executive order this afternoon titled “Protecting Second Amendment Rights,” ordering the attorney general to examine “all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies” to find infringements of Second Amendment rights.
The attorney general would then have to present a plan to Trump and his domestic policy adviser to protect those rights, per the order.
The order includes instructions for the AG to review presidential and agency actions from former President Joe Biden’s four years in office, as well as reports and documents issued by the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was shut down shortly after Trump assumed office.
USAID-related signage continues to be stripped from the Ronald Reagan Building
Reporting from Washington, D.c.
The directory outside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade center in Washington now features black tape where the “U.S. Agency for International Development” once read. The plaza’s flagpole no longer features the USAID flag that once flew.
Elon Musk posted, “This building is now occupied by @cBP,” which it long has prior to USAID moving out, with “customs and Border Protection” also featured on the building’s exterior.
While USAID is expected to be folded into the State Department, what remains will likely be a fraction of its original organization, from thousands of employees worldwide to just several hundred.
Trump is ‘angry’ that deportation numbers are not higher
Agents at Immigration and customs Enforcement are under increasing pressure to boost the number of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants, as President Donald Trump has expressed anger that the amount of people deported in the first weeks of his administration is not higher, according to three sources familiar with the discussions at IcE and the White House.
A source familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president is getting “angry” that more people are not being deported and that the message is being passed along to “border czar” Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Deputy chief of Staff Stephen Miller and acting IcE Director caleb Vitello.
“It’s driving him nuts they’re not deporting more people,” said the person familiar with Trump’s thinking.
A quiet border in the Rio Grande Valley sector
Reporting from Rio Grande Valley
Rarely has the border been so quiet. During a five-hour ride-along with customs and Border Protection by vehicle and by boat early this morning around the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas — at one point one of the busiest areas — migrant encounters have slowed down to a trickle following policies in the latter half of the Biden administration and the new Trump administration.
In a sector where just a few years ago the daily average encounters were between around 1,300 and 1,500 a day, now less than 100 per day is the norm, according to Border Patrol Agent christina Smallwood.
During those five hours this morning, not a single migrant was spotted. Overnight, only eight along the whole sector were seen and detained, Smallwood said.
Many of the migrants in this area used to be families turning themselves in to seek asylum. But as Trump has largely suspended the ability to ask for asylum, most encounters now are single adults looking to flee Border Patrol, Smallwood said.
The Border Patrol agent said she can’t remember seeing the border this quiet in the 17 years she’s been with the agency. She said she believes fewer people are coming as they become more aware of the “consequences,” and “they don’t want to risk all of that just to be returned to their home country.”
There are still remnants of the previous influx of larger numbers of migrants: bracelets given by smugglers and left behind, rafts, a children’s sandal, a red winter hat, a teddy bear and other belongings.
Border Patrol has said that tensions are higher with the cartels after President Donald Trump designated them a terrorist organization, and that cartels have been posting videos appearing to show drones dropping explosives to intimidate cBP.
Musk says he'll rehire DOGE staffer who resigned over racist social posts
Elon Musk on Friday said he'll rehire a former DOGE staffer who resigned after the Wall Street Journal linked the staffer, Marko Elez, to a now-deleted social media account that posted racist ideology.
"He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine," Musk wrote in a post on X.
Judge says he will pause USAID administrative leave
After hearing arguments in Washington, Dc Judge carl Nichols says he will grant the plaintiff’s request for a temporary pause of the planned administrative leave for thousands of USAID employees.
“I will be entering tonight sometime between now and midnight a limited- very limited — TRO that will be directed at the placement of the 2,200 or 2,700 employees on administrative leave, and then the accelerated removal of people from their countries," Nichols said.
The administrative leave for 2,200 USAID employees was scheduled to begin tonight at 11:59p.
Head Start official says some programs may have to shut down if they don't receive federal funding by Monday
Tommy Sheridan, Deputy Director of the National Head Start Association, said some local Head Start programs will have to shut down as early as Monday if they still can’t access the federal grant funds that have been tied up since the White House announced, then promptly rescinded, a freeze that would have affected nearly all federal grant programs last week.
During an interview with MSNBc, Sheridan estimated 37 Head Start grant recipients across 20 states and several territories are still unable to access critical federal funds.
“We did see some programs have to close down as a result of this over the last week and and luckily, most of those programs have gotten back over services,” Sheridan said. “But we are aware that of the 37 that I just noted, there are a couple who, if they don’t receive funds today, they are going to be looking at having to close down services as of Monday.”
Asked why the federal Head Start grant money has been inaccessible, Sheridan said the program falls under the jurisdiction of the Health and Human Services Department and was one of many that attempted to draw down funds from the federal Payment Management Services system last Tuesday in an attempt to recoup as much funding as possible before the White House federal grant freeze took effect. The result was a system-wide crash that left Head Start and other HHS programs locked out with no access to federal funding as 1,000s of requests made through the system during last Tuesday’s chaos remain under review.
"It’s a system that normally operates pretty quickly, but it was, it really got quite messy very quickly, and now we’re still playing catch up," Sheridan said.
The White House and the Health Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vance and Rep. Ro Khanna spar online over DOGE staffer
JD Vance posted a lengthy X thread doubling down on his call for former DOGE staffer Marko Elez to be reinstated. Elez resigned from his post after the Wall Street Journal reported earlier Friday that he was linked to a now-deleted social media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.
In response to Vance's original post calling for Elez to be brought back, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-calif., wrote: “Are you going to tell [Elez] to apologize for saying ‘Normalize Indian hate’ before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids.”
Khanna appeared to reference the three children Vance shares with his wife Usha, who is Indian-American.
Vance replied with a three-part post firing back at Khanna that ended with how he doesn’t worry about his kids making mistakes or being internet trolls, but he does worry “they’ll grow up to be a US congressmen who engages in emotional blackmail over a kid’s social media posts. You disgust me.”
Democratic states sue Trump administration over order to halt funding for gender-affirming care
Three Democratic states sued the Trump administration on Friday over its order to ban federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under 19.
Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown filed the federal lawsuit in the Western District of Washington. The attorneys general of Oregon and Minnesota, and three doctors, also joined as plaintiffs. The complaint argues that the order discriminates against transgender people.
Trump signed an executive order last month directing federally run insurance programs, including Medicaid and TRIcARE for military families, to exclude coverage for such care. It also calls on the Department of Justice to pursue litigation and legislation to oppose it.
Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care. The new order suggests that the practice could end, and targets hospitals and universities that receive federal money and provide the care.
During a press conference, Trump said he expected to fire “some” of the FBI investigators who worked on cases involving the capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
FDA employees get unexpected calls about return-to-office policy
Some Food and Drug Administration employees received unexpected phone calls from their managers this week regarding the Trump administration’s mandate that workers return to the office five days a week, according to two people who got such calls.
In the phone conversations, managers informed the employees that they would be ordered back to the office by March 17.
Discussions about office policies are typically more formal and conducted over email, one of the employees said. Because of that, both workers — who asked that their names not be published to protect their jobs — said they felt that the calls were scare tactics aimed at pressuring them to accept the buyout offer that the Trump administration has offered.
“It felt like an attempt to scare people into taking the buyout deal before it was too late,” one source said.
A federal judge temporarily paused the proposed buyout offer until at least Monday. More than 60,000 federal employees have taken the offer so far, according to the White House. The FDA has more than 18,000 employees, according to the agency’s website.
Trump says he will 'pick out a target' for DOGE as he directs cost-cutting mission
Asked about his conversations with Elon Musk, whom Trump has launched on a far reaching cost-cutting mission across the federal government, the president said the two men have not spent time dwellig on the details of the project.
“We have not discussed that much,” Trump told reporters during a press conference at the White House on Friday. “I’ll tell him to go here, go there. He does it. He’s got a very capable group of people, very, very, very, very capable. They know what they’re doing.”
Describing their working relationship, Trump said he had “instructed” Musk to “go into education, go into military, go into other things as we go along.”
The president said he will “pick out a target” for DOGE to enter, and claimed the team is unearthing “massive” government fraud, waste and abuse. There could be “some areas of high intelligence” that Trump said he would tackle himself.
“But I think everything’s fertile,” he continued. “You know, we’re a government. We have to be open.”
San Francisco sues Trump administration for targeting sanctuary cities
San Francisco officials filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against the Trump administration, arguing Trump’s executive orders that promise to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities and prosecute local law enforcement officials who refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement efforts are unconstitutional.
The suit, co-led by San Francisco and Santa clara county officials in the U.S. District court for the Northern District of california, comes as the latest in a series of sanctuary cities and state attorneys general suing the Trump administration over recent immigration-related executive orders.
“They’ve targeted sanctuary localities and states with executive orders and agency actions meant to illegally compel local jurisdictions into carrying out the President’s priorities and allowing the federal government to commandeer local law enforcement officers as IcE agents, the federal actions made clear that cities like San Francisco will be defunded if we do not give up our local authority and autonomy and comply,” said San Francisco city Attorney David chiu during a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
“I want to be clear, the Trump administration is asserting a right it does not have. They are trying to tell us how to use our resources and to commandeer our local law enforcement. This is the federal government coercing local officials to bend to their will or face defunding or prosecution, and that is illegal or authoritarian,” said chiu.
Trump says DOGE doesn't need access to sensitive Treasury payment system data
During a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Trump was asked about reports that DOGE has access to Treasury Department payment systems, including information that includes Americans' social security numbers, home addresses and bank accounts.
"Why does DOGE need all of that?" a reporter asked Trump.
“Well, it doesn’t, but they get it very easily. We don’t have very good security in our country," the president answered.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration agreed to temporarily block most DOGE staffers from accessing the systems that contain sensitive personal information.
Republicans eye dueling budget votes next week as Mike Johnson faces pressure to act
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is eying a committee vote next week to kickstart a massive multi-trillion-dollar package to advance President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
But first, Johnson needs to unify his small and fractious Republican majority before the House can even begin working on the bill.
Johnson is eager to project imminent success as he faces pressure to get his ducks in a row from the GOP-controlled Senate, where the chamber’s budget committee plans to move forward next week with a dueling resolution that takes a different approach.
But House Republicans are divided on the parameters of a party-line bill that seeks to address tax, border and energy policy — from how much spending to cut, which programs to slash, how much red ink to add and how to structure a tax overhaul.
USAID name stripped from D.c. headquarters
Letter by letter, crews are currently scraping off the signage displaying “U.S. Agency for International Development” from the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington where the agency's headquarters once was.
Trump says he may meet with Zelenskyy next week
Trump said he may meet next week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington, as he seeks to bring the long-running war between Ukraine and Russia to an end.
"I will probably be meeting with President Zelenskyy next week, and I will probably be talking to President Putin," Trump said during his Oval Office meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. "I’d like to see that war end for one primary reason. They’re killing so many people."
Asked whether he would travel overseas to meet Zelenskyy, Trump said it "could be" a sit-down in Washington.
Trump has urged an end to the war for months and dwelled on the devastation wrought by the years of fighting.
“I’d like to see it end just on a human basis,” Trump said. “It’s a ridiculous war.”
Democrat demands House speaker respond over Musk's access to Americans' data
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., slammed Elon Musk’s broad access to the U.S. Treasury payments data and indicated she would not be open to discussing the Republicans' spending bill until House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has addressed Musk’s access to such data.
“People should be outraged” Dingell told MSNBc’s Andrea Mitchell. “This kind of data that is being collected on them, everything from their Social Security numbers to their home addresses to their health information. … I’m not going to read anything until we know they’re going to come talk to us and say what’s on the table.”
congressional conservatives are seeking to pass a reconciliation bill that would fund the government by a March 14 deadline.
“I want to say that right now Mike Johnson’s got to come and talk to people in the house,” Dingell said, referencing the Democratic push for clarity on Musk’s access to American data “They’ve got to be talking to the Senate. We don’t know exactly what’s going on.”
'It's just devastating': Former USAID head warns halt could bolster chinese influence abroad
Samantha Power, the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency, which provides international humanitarian aid, could bolster china’s global influence.
“It’s no secret we’re in a period of intense strategic competition with the People’s Republic of china,” Power told MSNBc’s Andrea Mitchell. “The PRc has become more active over the last decade and a half through the Belt and Road initiative, but also through programs that mimic some of what USAID is doing. … They see the value of gaining this political capital and winning hearts and minds in this way.”
Trump issued an executive order halting all foreign aid distribution; amid a stop-work order, thousands of USAID employees and contractors have been being fired or furloughed. Plunged into uncertainty, USAID announced this week that nearly all global hires would be placed on administrative leave.
NBc has reported that shipping containers filled with aid supplies have been sitting untouched at various ports, and clinical drug trials for infectious diseases around the world have been halted.
‘There is American food in warehouses that is just sitting there because of the stop-work order,” Power said. “It is just devastating for American interests. It’s devastating for America’s reputation as a country that keeps its word.”
Power, who penned an op-ed yesterday in The New York Times arguing that the end of USAID will be a win for global autocrats, said china will “relish the strategic opening that this offers them.”
“This is going to create an opening just about everywhere USAID has worked,” she said, pointing to china’s launch of a $4 million global mine clearing program to address the gaps left in USAID’s absence.
Power also slammed Republicans who have pivoted to false theories about how USAID spends its congressionally appropriated budget, saying “falsehoods about projects that are allegedly going on here or there have come in such a short time to define USAID’s reputation, including with Republican supporters of USAID who have stood with the agency over decades.”
From TikTok to messy cabinet nomination fights, Vance builds his VP portfolio
Vice President JD Vance’s White House portfolio is coming into sharper focus.
Trump has tapped Vance, along with national security adviser Michael Waltz, to oversee a deal to sell and save TikTok, the chinese social media company facing a ban in the U.S., two people familiar with the arrangement told NBc News.
The assignment, first reported by Punchbowl News, tops a longer list of tasks Vance is tackling.
His week began in his native Ohio, where, on the second anniversary of the toxic East Palestine train derailment, he committed the administration to completing cleanup efforts and defended Trump’s call for tariffs on Mexico, canada and china. It continued with Vance nudging his former Senate colleagues to support a pair of Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees. And it ended today with Vance calling for the rehiring of a Department of Government Efficiency staffer who resigned after The Wall Street Journal surfaced racist remarks he had made online.
Up next week: the first overseas trip of Vance’s vice presidency, with an itinerary that includes an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and the Munich Security conference in Germany.
Trump says he will make 'reciprocal trade' announcement next week
Trump said he plans to announce "reciprocal trade” with a range of countries “next week,” arguing these are necessary “so that we’re treated evenly.”
“We don’t want any more, any less,” Trump said during a meeting in the Oval Office with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The president said tariffs are on the table if trade is not “reciprocal” and that he hopes to work on reducing a roughly $100 billion deficit with Japan.
“We want to get that down to even,” said the president. “I think we will be able to do that easily. I want to get other countries to equality.”
Senate offices warned not to use china's DeepSeek AI platform
The chief information officer of the Senate Sergeant at Arms Office has sent a notice to Senate offices warning them not to use DeepSeek, citing the app's terms of service and that the company’s servers are located outside the United States and are “outside the purview of U.S., EU, and UK laws.”
DeepSeek is a chinese-based artificial intelligence company that last month unveiled an open-source AI model rivaling those released by American companies in the last few years.
The notice, which was obtained by NBc News, has the subject line: “DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence: Beware of the High Risks.”
The cIO also warns Senate offices about the potential pitfalls of using AI, and warns: “Individuals should not put personal or sensitive data into any Al database because the data could be used by the Al platform to train the platform, and the data will be added to the platform’s knowledge base.”
“Al products should not be used for Senate work,” the cIO says, citing potential inaccuracies in the output of some AI services.
The cIO has "risk assessed" a number of AI services, but notes, “These services should only be used for research and evaluation using non-sensitive data.”
Government agrees not to publicly release the names of Jan. 6 FBI agents
The Justice Department and lawyers representing FBI agents who investigated Jan. 6 have reached an agreement that would prohibit anyone in the federal government from publicly releasing the names of those agents while litigation proceeds. U.S. District Judge Jia cobb approved the order and it is now binding.
The Justice Department now has a full list of names of all FBI agents who investigated Jan. 6 cases. A lawyer for the Justice Department said in court yesterday that there is no plan to share that list outside the DOJ or with the public.
If the government wants to pull out of this agreement for any reason, they have to give the agents two days' notice to allow them time to seek judicial intervention. The court will now go forward with a briefing on a motion for a preliminary injunction that would indefinitely block the release of these names — that schedule is expected to run through the end of March.
Trump-picked prosecutor posts letter promising aggressive investigation of Musk claims
Ed Martin, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney for the District of columbia, posted a letter on the Musk-owned social media platform X promising an inquiry after a referral by Musk.
Martin wrote that Musk had flagged "individuals and networks who appear to be stealing government property and/or threatening government employees." Martin promised to "begin an inquiry" and said that "if people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically, we will investigate them and we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable."
Martin had previously posted on X promising to protect DOGE workers — while maintaining silence as another group of federal workers has been targeted online, too.
"No one should abuse American taxpayer dollars nor American taxpayer workers," Martin wrote in the new letter.
Federal employee unions ask judge to pause Trump administration's effort to shutter USAID
Federal employee unions have asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to pause the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Defendants have violated the constitution and federal law through their systematic shutdown of USAID,” lawyers for the employees wrote in their motion.
“If the shutdown is allowed to continue, Plaintiffs and their members will suffer increased risks to their physical safety, irreparable harm to their health and family lives, exposure to legal liability, and devastating financial consequences, among other injuries," they added.
The case has been assigned to Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge carl Nichols.
Thousands of USAID contractors have already been furloughed or let go, and thousands of employees face being put on administrative leave, which was scheduled to go into effect tonight.
Rubio to travel to Israel, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia after Munich Security conference
Marco Rubio will be going to the Munich Security conference, and then to Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from Feb. 13 to 18, a senior State Department official said, noting that the trip plans are fluid.
Yesterday, Rubio referred to Gaza as uninhabitable due to unexploded ordnance and weapons depots left by Hamas.
“President Trump has offered to go in and be a part of that solution,” but “it’s very difficult to do that when you have populations on top of you,” Rubio told reporters in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
“In order to fix a place like that, people are going to have to live somewhere else in the interim,” Rubio said. “And there are countries in the region who express a lot of concern about the Palestinian people. We encourage them to step forward and provide a solution and an answer to that problem.”
Rubio declined to say whether Palestinians who left would be allowed to return to Gaza.
Vance disagrees with resignation of DOGE staffer with history of racist tweets
In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance said he disagreed with DOGE's decision to fire an employee after The Wall Street Journal reported on the employee's past racist social media posts.
"I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back," Vance said.
He added that more valid reasons for firing the staffer, named Marko Elez, would have been if he's "a bad dude or a terrible member of the team."
Elez resigned after the Journal reached out with reporting linking Elez to an account that had previously posted things like, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool," and "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity."
Members of congress denied entry to Department of Education
Members of congress who wanted to meet with acting Education Secretary Denise carter were denied access to the Department of Education building in Washington, D.c., this morning.
The lawmakers, all Democrats, tried to enter after holding a press conference in front of the building.
They were denied entry, with a lone police officer not letting them through the doors. Reps. Maxine Waters, D-calif., Jahana Hayes, D-conn., Mark Takano, D-calif., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., and others repeatedly questioned the security guard.
"So what are you going to do, you’re going to beat us up if we go in?" Waters said.
The officer responded, “You mean you’re going to … steamroll in here?"
Takano said, “Please stand aside, sir.” The officer said he wouldn't.
“By what authority can you deny members of congress their oversight role?" Takano asked.
This comes as the Trump administration is trying to abolish or dismantle the entire department.
Asked for comment, an Education Department spokesperson said, “The protest was organized by members of congress who were exercising their First Amendment rights, which they are at liberty to do. They did not have any scheduled appointments, and the protest has since ended.”
White House now says USAID has 611 essential personnel, not 290
The White House now says that the total number of essential personnel at the U.S. Agency for International Development is 611, not 290.
An internal notice sent by the White House yesterday said, "We anticipate that there will be modifications to this list over the course of the foreign assistance review. We will continue to communicate updates as they become available."
Two sources familiar with plans had previously said that the agency workforce would be reduced to about 290 workers from more than 5,000 foreign service officers, civil servants and personal service contractors.
Earlier this week, Musk said he and Trump wanted to shut the agency down.
Immigrant rights groups ask Trump administration for more info on Guantanamo Bay detainees
Immigrant rights groups, including the AcLU, are sending a letter to the Trump administration today demanding more access to information on immigrants sent to Guantanamo Bay.
"The constitution, and federal and international law prohibit the government from using Guantánamo as a legal black hole," the letter says. "We therefore request that the government provide our organizations access to the noncitizens detained at Guantánamo so that those individuals will have access to legal counsel, and so advocates and the public can understand the conditions under which the government is detaining them."
A lawyer involved in crafting the letter, which was signed by more than three dozen organizations, said a letter like this is often the precursor to a lawsuit if access is denied.
“The administration cannot hide what it’s doing by shipping immigrants off to the notorious Guantanamo prison. Transparency is the key to the rule of law and everyone should be concerned about that being undermined,” said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the AcLU who has brought multiple cases against the government for infringing on immigrant rights.
Trump attempts to fire chair of Federal Election commission
Federal Election commission chairwoman Ellen Weintraub posted on X Thursday night that she received a letter from Trump informing her that she has been removed from the FEc “immediately.” Weintraub wrote, “There’s a legal way to replace FEc commissioners — this isn’t it.”
Weintraub, who first joined the FEc in 2002, is serving an expired term, and it is common for commissioners to continue to serve after their six-year term ends. It does not appear that Trump has the power to unilaterally remove an FEc commissioner, even if his or her term has expired.
Erin chlopak, senior director for campaign finance at the campaign Legal center and a former FEc assistant general counsel, told NBc News that the statute governing the FEc does not lay out a process for removing an FEc commissioner. But the statute does say that FEc commissioners can continue to serve after their terms expire until their successor is confirmed by the Senate and takes office. chlopak noted that Trump has not nominated someone to replace Weintraub.
“By nominating a new commissioner, and having that commissioner going through the ordinary process of advice and consent with the legislative branch, he could have easily and lawfully replaced her,” chlopak said. “And he seemingly deliberately chose not to do that.”
Asked for comment about Trump's attempt to fire Weintraub, deputy White House press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement to NBc News, “Our message to Ellen Weintraub is simple: you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. The President has made a decision on who he’d like to chair the Federal Election commission (FEc), and it’s not her. Grandstanding over this decision won’t change the President’s mind.”
The White House did not directly address questions about Trump’s authority to remove an FEc commissioner and did not immediately respond to a question about whom Trump would like to see as the next FEc chair.
'Back to plastic!' Trump to sign executive order limiting use of paper straws
Trump announced he will sign an executive order that will end federal support for paper straws, a Biden-era policy that was part of a broader plan to end federal reliance on single-use plastics.
“I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BAcK TO PLASTIc!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social this morning.
The order, which Trump said he will sign next week, is the latest in a series of executive orders aimed at reversing environmental protection and clean energy policies. In his first week in office, Trump signed orders to roll back oil-drilling restrictions in Alaska and broadly expand America's reliance on fossil fuels for energy production.
Trump’s Gaza comments hand Islamic terrorists a ‘rallying cry,’ experts say
Trump’s calls for the United States to “take over” and “develop” the Gaza Strip have handed Islamic terrorist groups a rallying cry to recruit and inspire attacks against Americans at home and abroad, security experts and former intelligence officials say.
Trump’s comments this week, proposing that the United States would control the Palestinian enclave while its residents would be forced to relocate abroad, have caused shock and outrage around the world — and terrorists will pounce on that anger to attract more support and organize attacks, experts said.
“I think every cIA station chief in the Middle East woke up this morning with a migraine headache, because there’s a potential for a generational counterterrorism nightmare here,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a former cIA officer who worked in the region, said Wednesday in an interview on MSNBc’s “Morning Joe.”
Attorneys general 'expect' judge to halt Trump's birthright citizenship order, Massachusetts AG says
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea campbell told reporters this morning that she and her counterparts in other states "expect" a federal judge in Boston to rule in favor of the lawsuit she's leading against Trump's birthright citizenship executive order.
campbell argued that the order, which aims to end automatic birthright citizenship for the children of some immigrants under the 14th Amendment of the constitution, "targets innocent newborns."
"Unborn babies and children should never be political targets, and we will not allow the president could treat them as such," campbell said at a press conference.
A coalition of 18 attorneys general is seeking to overturn the order, including campbell, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and connecticut Attorney General William Tong.
Judge Leo Sorokin will hear arguments this morning on whether to temporarily block the order, as federal judges in Washington state and Maryland have already done. The order was intended to go into effect next week.
DNc files amicus brief in Georgia election rules lawsuit
The Democratic National committee filed an amicus brief in an election lawsuit today, urging a Georgia court to block new rules that required hand-counting of ballots and allowed local boards power to conduct “reasonable inquiry” into election results.
The brief — the committee's first legal action under new chair Ken Martin —argues that the two rules violate rule-making processes and exceed the power of the state election board that implemented them.
Trump allies on the board voted to approve a series of controversial rules weeks before the 2024 election. A judge temporarily halted the rules before they could be fully implemented, pending further litigation.
One rule required election officials to open ballot boxes after voting was finished to count by hand the number of ballots in them, sparking concerns that it was opening up the election process to delayed results and more opportunities for mistakes. Another rule also gave local election boards the power to conduct "reasonable inquiry" into election results ahead of certification.
The new rules were criticized by election officials in the state, including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who warned at the time the rules were illegal, would slow the reporting of results and cause “chaos.”
"As Republican officials in Georgia have made clear, these new rules were made up by Republicans in the run-up to November’s election and don’t make our elections fairer or stronger, they are an attempt to sow distrust in our elections," Martin said in a statement.
Trump’s freeze stalls hiring of federal firefighters
LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration’s federal hiring freeze has stopped the onboarding of thousands of seasonal federal firefighters, including those who work for agencies called on to help battle the devastating Los Angeles-area fires, creating a potential shortfall of firefighters ahead of the next fire season.
Even though Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order says the freeze does not apply to positions related to “public safety,” federal firefighters are not exempt, according to a person who works in hiring at the Bureau of Land Management.
Japanese leader arrives in Washington to sell Trump on the importance of Asian alliances
HONG KONG — What a difference a few months makes. The United States and its longtime allies Japan and South Korea have been strengthening ties in recent years, both individually and as a three-way partnership, to counter an increasingly assertive china and North Korea.
But recent political changes in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have injected new uncertainty into their relations.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing an impeachment trial over his botched attempt in December to declare martial law, and it will be months before the country has a clear leader. In Japan, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is hamstrung by a minority government after his scandal-ridden Liberal Democratic Party performed poorly in an October parliamentary election.
And in the United States, voters elected a president in November who has disdain for alliances and prefers to deal with countries individually, and who in his first term accused Japan and South Korea of “freeloading” under the U.S. security umbrella.
Today, Ishiba is set to meet with Trump at the White House, in the first major indication of how the new U.S. administration will interact with the two Asian democracies.
Warren and Schumer lead probe into DOGE's focus on Education Department
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are leading an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency's focus on the Education Department following the White House's preparation of an executive order to dismantle the agency.
In a letter to acting Education Secretary Denise carter, the two Democratic senators and 14 others expressed concern that Elon Musk's staff at DOGE, which is not an official government agency, “have gained access to federal student loan data, which includes personal information for millions of borrowers.”
The senators were referring to reporting by The Washington Post.
“This deeply troubling report raises questions about potential exposures of Americans’ private data, the abuse of this data by the Trump Administration, and whether officials who have access to the data may have violated the law or the federal government’s procedures for handling sensitive information,” the letter said.
The group of senators requested that the department answer a list of questions regarding DOGE and access to these databases by Feb. 13.
FBI turns over names of agency staff who worked on Jan. 6 cases to Justice Department
Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll has turned over the names of all FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases to the Justice Department, he said in a memo to agency staff last night.
The original data he provided only had employee ID numbers to reduce the risk that the employees' identities would be released to the public.
But Driscoll said he was directed to send the actual names by the office of acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who had previously called Driscoll insubordinate.
"Given our significant concerns regarding your personal safety and security, we provided the lists on the classified enclave with caveats that appropriately identify the information as law enforcement sensitive," Driscoll wrote in the memo. "We also reiterated once against our concerns for the safety of our personnel, and the risks posed to you and your families should these lists become public."
Driscoll did not explain why he turned over the names, but he could be removed as acting director at any point or fired from the bureau. He is not yet eligible for a government pension.
Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s buyout orders of federal workers
Trump is facing legal hurdles in his efforts to shrink the federal government. The latest coming from a federal judge who is pausing the implementation of the White House’s buyout offer to all federal workers until Monday after employee unions filed suit arguing it violates federal law. NBc’s Peter Alexander reports and Kristen Welker, moderator of "Meet the Press," joins "TODAY" with analysis.
Secrecy is becoming a defining characteristic of Elon Musk’s DOGE
On Monday, a team at IBM that is contracted to manage human resources data for more than 500,000 federal employees received an unusual request to provide “read-only” access for the HR records for all 14,000 employees of the General Services Administration, according to a source familiar with the contract.
The email was from IBM’s regular contact at the GSA, the agency that manages federal property. But the request was odd since the agency already had “read and write” access to the data.
The request and the questions it raised were one example of the suspicion and speculation in Washington as Trump and Elon Musk conduct an unprecedented effort to shrink the federal workforce and slash federal programs that is shrouded in secrecy.
Democrats have criticized Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency for failing to disclose the names of its staff members, its criteria for laying off certain government workers and its rationale for cutting programs. Which government data they are accessing remains not fully known.
As of Wednesday, NBc News has confirmed that DOGE officials have been active at the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees health care for more than 139 million people; the U.S. Agency for International Development; the Department of Veterans Affairs; and the U.S. Treasury.
Japanese PM to visit White House today
Trump is hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House today.
In the morning, Trump will hold bilateral meetings and have lunch with the prime minister. In the early afternoon, they are scheduled to hold a joint press conference.
How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid
Until recently, Elon Musk seldom posted about the U.S. Agency for International Development on X, where he is wont to share his thoughts on nearly every subject.
Then on Sunday came a flurry of posts wherein the world’s richest person, the Trump-appointed head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, described USAID, the foreign humanitarian assistance agency, as “a viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America,” “evil” and “a criminal organization.”
“Time for it to die,” Musk posted.
Musk’s sudden — and consequential — interest in USAID did not emerge from a vacuum: The agency has long been a target of criticism that its aid programs masked nation-meddling and overspent American tax dollars abroad. Some conspiracy theories alleged that the global humanitarian programs were a cover for biowarfare research or that USAID’s funding enriched an elite few who control the world.
But until very recently, those claims were largely outside the mainstream
Icc condemns Trump's executive order sanctioning court
The International criminal court condemned an executive order Trump signed yesterday sanctioning the Hague-based court, which he accused of improperly targeting the United States and Israel.
A spokesperson for the court said the order would “impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independent and impartial judicial work.”
“The court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all Situations before it,” the spokesperson said. “We call on our 125 States Parties, civil society and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights.”
The Icc drew backlash from both Republicans and Democrats in November when it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and several Hamas leaders at the same time. Neither Israel nor the U.S. has ever recognized the jurisdiction of the Icc.
Panama’s president tells U.S. to stop ‘lies and falsehoods’ about canal
PANAMA cITY — Panama President José Raúl Mulino said yesterday the U.S. was spreading “lies and falsehoods” after the State Department claimed U.S. government vessels would be able to pass through the Panama canal without paying.
The comments were likely to exacerbate tensions between the two countries after the U.S. had cited progress on military cooperation and confronting alleged chinese influence over the canal.
Later, Mulino added on social media that he would speak with Trump this afternoon.
What you missed yesterday: Project 2025 co-author confirmed as White House budget director
The Senate voted along party lines yesterday to confirm Russell Vought as the head of the Office of Management and Budget.
Vought, a co-author of Project 2025 who faced strong Democratic opposition, was confirmed by a vote of 53-47.
"God be praised. Grateful to the President and the US Senate," Vought said on X after his confirmation. "Incredibly thankful for all the many who prayed me through. Now. Let’s. Go."
Procedural vote on Gabbard nomination will take place Monday
The first procedural vote on Gabbard's nomination is set for Monday. If she gets a simple majority, her nomination will then most likely be subject to 30 hours of debate.
Gabbard is one of Trump's nominees facing the most scrutiny.
After Gabbard, the Senate will turn to votes on nominees Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary, Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary, Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretary and Kelly Loeffler for administrator of the Small Business Administration.