Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
Donald Trump signed an executive order meant to expand the power of Elon Musk’s governmental cost-cutting program, the so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge. The new order requires agencies to create a centralized system to record and justify payments, which may be made public for transparency – an initiative that would be monitored by Musk’s team.
The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60bn in overall US assistance around the world.
Fired USAid employees and advocates for people with HIV staged a protest in a Capitol office building, warning that Donald Trump’s drive to dismantle the agency tasked with implementing Washington’s foreign aid agenda imperils the fight against the virus.
Trump announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC to sign the rare earth minerals agreement. He praised Doge, claiming, without evidence, that it has saved billions.
Elon Musk also delivered remarks and warned that without cost-cutting, the country could go “bankrupt” describing himself as “tech support”. He acknowledged mistakes made by Doge, such as when they accidentally cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but he said, they “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.
Trump also mentioned that the Environmental Protection Agency might cut up to 65% of its employees and declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
Trump said that tariffs on Canada and Mexico will continue, and that a 25% tariff on the European Union was coming soon.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
The Guardian’s political correspondent, Lauren Gambino, writes about the latest executive order meant to expand the power of Elon Musk’s governmental cost-cutting program:
The order is part of a much broader effort by the White House to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce, which the Trump administration has cast as an impediment to realizing his sprawling agenda. On Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management sent a seven-page memo directing agency leaders to develop plans to implement “large-scale reductions” by 13 March, according to the Associated Press.
“We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to,” Trump said earlier on Wednesday during the first cabinet meeting of his second term. “We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job.”
The administration already moved to fire thousands of probationary employees who were not yet entitled to civil service protections. The president on Wednesday said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% of its employees. Employees at the labor department and the Social Security Administration are also reportedly bracing for dramatic downsizings.
Addressing the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Musk conceded that Doge had made some mistakes in its rapid-fire approach to shrinking and in some cases attempting to entirely eliminate agencies. He conceded that Doge “won’t be perfect”, including when it “accidentally” cancelled an Ebola-prevention effort that the tech billionaire insisted had been restored “immediately” and with “no interruption”.
An official with the US Agency for International Development (USAid), one of Doge’s first targets, disputed Musk’s claim, telling the AP that agency funds for Ebola response had not been released since Trump froze foreign aid last month.
Under the new Doge-related executive order, the General Services Administration has 60 days to submit a plan for offloading any government real estate “deemed by the agency as no longer needed”.
The directive also places a 30-day freeze on all government-issued credit cards, effective immediately, unless they are used for disaster relief and other critical services, or an exception is made by a supervisor. Federally funded travel for conferences and other “non-essential purposes” will be subject to new reporting requirements.
Read more on the executive order:
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Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has gained access to a US Department of Housing and Urban Development system that contains confidential personal data on hundreds of thousands of alleged victims of housing discrimination, including survivors of domestic violence, ProPublica reports.
The system, known as the HUD enforcement management system, is typically highly restricted due to the sensitive nature of its records, which include medical and financial documents, social security numbers, and other private information.
Doge requested access, and HUD granted it last week, according to the news outlet.
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Trump plans to cut more than 90% of USAid foreign assistance contracts
The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60bn in overall US assistance around the world, The Associated Press reports.
The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAid projects for advocates to try to save in what are current court battles with the administration.
The Trump administration outlined its plans in an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press and in filings in one of those federal lawsuits.
The filing also maintained that the administration could not meet a court-ordered deadline to pay for past work. The administration requested the supreme court put a hold on a federal judge’s order requiring the government to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients for past work. A Washington DC federal appeals court on Wednesday evening denied that request.
Read more:
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The Mexican economy minister Marcelo Ebrard will meet US trade representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday and with commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday to discuss trade negotiations between Mexico and the US.
The meetings follow remarks by Donald Trump that stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada would take effect on 2 April.
These discussions come ahead of a planned 2026 review of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, though Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum suggested on Wednesday that renegotiations could happen sooner.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs has temporarily halted plans to cut billions of dollars in contracts after lawmakers and veterans service organizations raised concerns that the reductions could harm essential health services for veterans.
The pause impacts hundreds of VA contracts that Secretary Doug Collins had described a day earlier as consulting agreements, whose cancellation would save $2 billion as part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to reduce federal spending.
“No benefits or services for Veterans or VA beneficiaries will be eliminated,” VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said in a statement.
US Forest Service chief Randy Moore announced that he will retire on 3 March, citing frustration over recent staff cuts after 45 years with the department.
The announcement follows the Trump administration’s dismissal of approximately 2,000 probationary employees at the Forest Service. This comes in addition to 1,000 layoffs at the National Park Service and 700 rangers who accepted the administration’s “fork in the road” buyout offer.
The wave of terminations has left employees and supervisors uncertain and concerned about the agencies’ future, especially as they head into the busy spring tourism season with reduced staff.
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A Georgia Republican who previously ran a fringe gubernatorial campaign under the slogan “Jesus, guns, and babies” has announced her bid for Congress in 2026.
Kandiss Taylor of Baxley revealed her plans during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Tuesday.
She said that she will seek the Republican nomination for Georgia’s first congressional district in the south-east region of the state.
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Senator calls Trump and Musk 'out-of-touch billionaires'
Senator Patty Murray of Washington state called Donald Trump and Elon Musk “out-of-touch billionaires” during a news conference alongside three former federal employees.
Murray said Trump and Musk don’t care if they “burn down something really important”.
“The Trump/Musk firing spree continues to be as surgical as a wrecking ball,” Murray said.
“That is no way to treat people who have dedicated themselves to our country, often for years. And many of them, by the way, are veterans. Nearly a third of our federal workforce are veterans, people who are literally put their lives on the line for our country, and now we’re all seeing what Trump and Musk think about that.”
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The Trump administration plans to close more than 110 IRS offices with taxpayer assistance centers as part of its broader push for government efficiency, the Washington Post reports.
The closures are scheduled during the peak federal tax filing season, which ends on 15 April.
The move comes about a week after the IRS began laying off about 7,000 probationary employees.
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Fired USAid workers and HIV activists hold ‘die-in’ to protest Trump and Musk
Fired USAid employees and advocates for people with HIV staged a protest in a Capitol office building on Wednesday, warning that Donald Trump’s drive to dismantle the agency tasked with implementing Washington’s foreign aid agenda imperils the fight against the virus.
Wearing white T-shirts that read “Aids funding cuts kill” and chanting “Congress has blood on its hands, unfreeze aid now”, around three dozen protesters lay down in the rotunda of the Cannon House office building, home to the offices of representatives from both parties. Capitol police said about 20 arrests were made of demonstrators who defied their orders to disperse.
“What we are demanding of Congress is that they stop behaving like doormats in the face of this attack on humanitarian assistance that truly is highly effective and life-saving,” Asia Russell, executive director of Health Gap, a global advocacy group fighting against HIV, said prior to the protest.
“It’s very hard to overstate what’s at stake regarding humanitarian assistance.”
The protest came as USAid remained frozen by the Trump administration’s rapid moves to close the agency. Over the weekend, the agency announced that it was placing all but a small number of its employees worldwide, as well as nearly 2,000 staffers based in the United States, on paid leave. Those working in Washington DC have been invited to retrieve their belongings from its headquarters, which is set to be turned into office space for US Customs and Border Protection, one of the agencies implementing Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
Read the full story by Chris Stein here:
The Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith, offers an analysis of the president’s first full cabinet meeting:
Trump cabinet flunkies hail wannabe Caesar and Elon, his oligarch pal
On Tuesday, just over a mile from the White House, the classicist Mary Beard spoke to an audience about Roman emperors. “An autocrat is somebody who kills you when he’s being his most generous,” she remarked. “You go to dinner, you think, wow, this is wonderful! But the generosity of the autocrat is always potentially lethal.”
On Wednesday, Donald Trump held his first full cabinet meeting. The mood was warm and convivial and, some might say, generous. Housing secretary Scott Turner offered a prayer that included: “Thank you, God, for President Trump.”
Was it just an accident that the TV camera framed the scene as the antithesis of DEI? Viewers could see seven men in suits with Trump in the middle, then another row of seven men in suits sitting behind. Nearly all of them were white. (Yes, there were women and people of colour at the meeting – but not many.)
The Vice-president, JD Vance, was in attendance but there was no doubt whom this emperor had appointed as consul. Trump invited Elon Musk, the tech billionaire running the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to speak before any of his cabinet secretaries after claiming that everyone present was supportive.
Wearing a black “Make America great again” cap, Musk jokingly referred to himself as “humble tech support” – people laughed dutifully – and claimed that his haphazard efforts to take a chainsaw to the federal government can save a trillion dollars and dig the country out of debt. “It’s not an optional thing, it’s an essential thing,” he said. “If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt.”
It sounds fine in theory. But Doge, mostly consisting of young male software engineers fuelled by pizza and Red Bull, has been a disaster. It fired the people who oversee the nuclear weapons stockpile then hastily tried to rehire them, only to find they were hard to contact because they could not access their work email accounts. It claimed to have saved $8bn on a terminated contract that was actually worth only $8m. Musk falsely stated that the US spent $50m on condoms for Gazans. And it emerged this week Doge quietly deleted the top five items from its public ledger of alleged savings after they turned out to be nothing of the sort.
You can read the full analysis here:
US health officials are reevaluating a $590m contract for bird flu shots that was awarded to Moderna, Bloomberg News reports.
The US government had awarded Moderna the money in January to advance the development of its bird flu vaccine.
The review is part of a government push to examine spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines, the technology that powered Moderna’s Covid vaccine, according to Bloomberg.
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In a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration, senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts asked the agency whether a deal to install equipment from SpaceX unit Starlink at several air traffic control facilities was part of a competitive bidding process.
“I urge the FAA to be transparent about this agreement and ensure that Musk does not wrongfully steer federal funds to his companies,” Markey wrote to Chris Rocheleau, acting administrator of the FAA.
Markey asked whether there is a final contract award between the FAA, which oversees airplane safety, and SpaceX for the deployment of three SpaceX Starlink terminals, and whether reports are accurate that SpaceX engineers are serving as senior advisers to the FAA.
Markey also asked in the letter whether Elon Musk has had access to FAA offices or employees.
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Under the new cost-cutting executive order, each agency’s “Doge” team lead must provide monthly reports on contracting activities, including payment and travel justifications.
Law enforcement, the military, immigration agencies, and national security-related activities are excluded from these requirements.
Also, all government-issued credit cards will be frozen for 30 days starting on Wednesday, except for use in disaster relief or critical services.
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New executive order requires government payments, travel to be justified and made public
A new executive order under the Trump administration is making every agency create a centralized system to record all payments made under federal contracts and grants.
“This order commences a transformation in Federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure Government spending is transparent and Government employees are accountable to the American public,” reads the order.
According to the executive order, employees approving payments must provide a written justification, which may be made public for transparency.
Agencies must also record all federally funded travel for non-essential purposes, which will require written justifications before approval.
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Representative Joe Morelle from New York has urged Donald Trump to reverse a recent executive order that would give the White House direct control of independent federal regulatory agencies including the Federal Election Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Morelle, a ranking member of the committee on house administration, called Trump’s directive “an unprecedented violation of American rule of law” in the letter sent Wednesday.
Morelle, a Democrat, said Trump’s order ignores that Congress “specifically designed certain independent regulatory agencies to exist outside of White House control”.
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The United States Postal Service said it would implement new service standards expected to save the agency at least $36bn over the next decade.
Beginning 1 April, the new USPS plan will gradually take effect, it said. While most mail will maintain current delivery times, some services will see slightly faster or slower standards.
“The changes will enhance service reliability nationwide while maintaining the existing five-day service standard day range for First-Class Mail, whereas the day ranges for end-to-end Marketing Mail, Periodicals and Package Services will be shortened,” according to a statement.
The move comes days after Donald Trump said he is considering merging USPS with the commerce department, a proposal Democrats argue would violate federal law.
Democratic senator Gary Peters said that any attempt by Trump to take control of the postal service, which employs about 650,000 people, and remove its board of governors would be illegal.
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The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has urged the Trump administration to strike down a key scientific finding that has served as the foundation for US climate change policy, the Washington Post reports.
In a report submitted to the White House, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin recommended revising the agency’s 2009 determination that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.
This report, established under the Clean Air Act, provides the legal basis for various climate regulations affecting motor vehicles, power plants, and other major pollution sources.
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Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking committee, urged Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the commerce department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to adopt a firm approach toward China, pointing to concerns over Chinese startup DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence technology, Reuters reports.
Warren called on nominee Jeffrey Kessler to strengthen AI chip regulations introduced by Joe Biden’s administration in January.
“In light of DeepSeek, we must reinforce our controls on (China),” Warren wrote, calling for a series of other actions on Chinese tech efforts.
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Several Democratic senators made dramatic returns to Washington to vote against Republicans’ budget blueprint on Tuesday night.
California Congressman Kevin Mullin, who had been absent while recovering from a blood clot and infection following knee surgery, went straight to the airport after being discharged from the hospital, while Colorado Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen returned to teh House floor with her newborn son, Sam, nestled in her arms.
Their dramatic – and surprise – appearances were part of an effort by Democrats to block Republicans’ plan to advance major pieces of Donald Trump’s tax cut and immigration agenda.
“I have a message for Donald Trump: nobody fights harder than a mom,” Petterson wrote on X. “Republican leadership may have denied my ability to vote by proxy but that didn’t stop us from voting against this disastrous budget that strips away health care and food for seniors, veterans, kids and families across Colorado — all to give tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk.”
Unfortunately, Republican Leadership denied my ability to vote remotely after giving birth to my son, Sam, but that’s not stopping us from showing up to vote NO on this disastrous budget proposal.
— U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen (@RepPettersen) February 26, 2025
They want to rip away health care from 400,000 CO kids, take food off the plates… pic.twitter.com/CcthHFFSNx
The bill ultimately passed in a 217-215 vote. Only one Democrat, Arizona congressman Raúl Grijalva, who has cancer, returned for the vote. But up until the moment the vote ended, Republicans were working to overcome unified Democratic opposition to the plan, which would likely result in steep cuts to social safety net programs, including Medicaid.
“After three surgeries, a blood clot, an infection and being hospitalized for over a week, the moment I was discharged I immediately rushed to the airport so I could get on a plane to D.C. and vote NO on Republicans’ disastrous budget plan,” Mullin said in a statement after the vote. “They are trying to make the most devastating cuts to Medicaid the nation has ever seen – $880 billion – all so they can give more tax cuts to billionaires and corporations.”
On board the flight, Mullin’s wife, Jessica Stanfill-Mullin, helped administer IV antibiotics to him.
People protest in Capitol over cuts to USAid funding
Here are some photos coming in from the wires showing demonstrators gathered on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, protesting against cuts to USAid funding.
Organized by ActUp’s Health Global Access Project, the protesters temporarily occupied the rotunda before Capitol Police arrested 21 of them.
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The day so far
One of the big moments of today came from Donald Trump’s first officials cabinet meeting. Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term:
Trump announced that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC to sign the rare earth minerals agreement. He praised Doge, claiming, without evidence, that it has saved billions.
Elon Musk also delivered remarks and warned that without cost-cutting, the country could go “bankrupt” describing himself as “tech support”. He acknowledged mistakes made by Doge, such as when they accidentally cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but he said, they “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.
Trump also mentioned that the Environmental Protection Agency might cut up to 65% of its employees and declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
Trump said that tariffs on Canada and Mexico will continue, and that a 25% tariff on the European Union was coming soon.
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
Other news that happened today:
UK prime minister Keir Starmer left for Washington today prior to his meeting with Donald Trump set for Thursday in what will be his biggest diplomatic test to date.
US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said that the US will invest up to $1bn to combat the spread of bird flu, including increasing imports of eggs.
Donald Trump threatened to sue journalists and authors who use “anonymous” sources in their reporting.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz will not run for Minnesota’s newly open US Senate seat, according to his spokesperson.
The US abstained from World Trade Organization condemnation of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
California governor Gavin Newsom announced that he is launching his own podcast.
The US supreme court heard oral arguments in a case that could radically transform workplace discrimination claims.
New York City mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him.
A meeting between EU foreign policy chief and US secretary of state Marco Rubio was cancelled, with both sides citing scheduling conflicts.
Trump urged Apple to end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The Trump administration issued a memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs of government employees, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.
A US judge has briefly extended an order reinstating the head of a federal watchdog agency responsible for protecting whistleblowers who had challenged his firing by Trump.
The Trump administration said that New York City must end its congestion pricing program by 21 March, according to Reuters.
Trump announced that his administration is reversing concessions given to Venezuela on an oil transaction agreement by former president Joe Biden.
The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.
The Senate confirmed Trump’s pick for US trade representative, Jamieson Greer.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has told unionized employees they will have to return to the office in mid-April, unless they have certain exemptions, per a memo seen by Reuters.
In the memo, SEC chief operating officer Ken Johnson told staff that they will be required to work on-site beginning 14 April 2025 and said that the return-to-work directive would “best position the SEC to fulfil the agency’s mission”.
In response, the National Treasury Employees Union chapter 239, which represents SEC employees, said in an email to members seen by Reuters, that the SEC’s action “plainly violates” the union contract and called the order illegal.
“Like you, the union only received notice of this order by the SEC management moments ago,” the email reportedly said. Reuters is reporting that the union’s 2023 collective bargaining agreement outlines telework options for approved employees and that the agreement lasts three years.
This comes as similar efforts have occurred at the agency with non-unionized staff, and across the federal workforce, in response to a mandate by Donald Trump that officials fire remote or hybrid work arrangements.
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Judge extends order reinstating head of federal watchdog fired by Trump – report
A US judge has briefly extended an order reinstating the head of a federal watchdog agency responsible for protecting whistleblowers who had challenged his firing by Donald Trump.
According to Reuters, US district judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington said Hampton Dellinger, the head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his post through at least Saturday.
Jackson said the extension would give her time to draft a permanent ruling in the case.
Last week, the US supreme court temporarily kept Dellinger on the job as the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Trump’s second presidency.
The justices said in an unsigned order that Dellinger could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. And now, that has been extended to at least Saturday, per Reuters.
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The Trump administration says in a letter made public on Wednesday that New York City must end its congestion pricing program by 21 March, according to Reuters.
Last week, the transportation department announced that it intends to rescind federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, that is designed to reduce traffic and raise money to upgrade ageing subway and bus systems.
Two New York City transit agencies have filed suit to block the decision.
The letter today comes as this week it was reported by the New York Times that New York’s congestion pricing plan raised $48.6m in tolls during its first month and that it has exceeded expectations and is on track to raise billions of dollars for the New York’s transit system.
The revenue numbers were the latest sign that the tolling plan was working.
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President Donald Trump’s stated plan to slap a 25% tariff on exports from the European Union to the United States will result in a serious trade conflict, Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store said today to news agency NTB.
Norway is not a member of the European Union but it closely integrated with the bloc on trade.
Diplomatic talks between the US and the EU have been called off – report
A planned meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and US secretary of state Marco Rubio was reportedly abruptly cancelled on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
Both sides blamed scheduling challenges, the AP said, but European officials said they were caught off-guard.
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In other news today, Utah is poised to become the first state in the US to ban fluoride from its water systems with a bill now before its Republican governor, Spencer Cox.
The bill outlaws the adding of fluoride to water “in or intended for public water systems”, and adds that it repeals any previous laws “including sections about providing fluoridated water upon resident request and under emergency circumstances”.
Cox has not publicly indicated support or opposition to the bill. If he signs it, fluoride would be banned across Utah starting 7 May, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Although the bill would remove fluoride from public taps, it would also allow pharmacists to prescribe fluoride supplements to individuals.
The bill, HB81, was approved last Friday. “I’m pleased to announce that HB81 has passed both the House and senate and is headed to the governor for his signature,” wrote Stephanie Gricius, the Republican who sponsored it, on social media. “I’m so grateful to everyone who helped push this policy.”
Read more about it here:
White House denies reporters from AP, Reuters and HuffPost access to cabinet meeting
The White House on Wednesday reportedly denied reporters from Reuters, the AP, and other news organizations access to President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting in keeping with the administration’s new policy regarding media coverage.
Reuters is reporting that the White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper.
TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, along with correspondents from Axios, the Blaze, Bloomberg News and NPR were permitted to cover the event.
This comes as on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.
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Trump has announced that his administration is reversing concessions given to Venezuela on an oil transaction agreement by former president Joe Biden.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he ordered that the agreement, “dated November 26, 2022” be terminated “as of the March 1 option to renew”.
Additionally, Trump said, that Venezuela’s “regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to.
“I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden ‘Concession Agreement’ be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew” he added.
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The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.
The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that under the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order signed by Donald Trump last month undocumented immigrants must also provide their fingerprints, while parents must ensure children under 14 are registered. The department will provide “evidence” of their registration and those 18 and over must carry that document at all times.
The announcement comes as Trump has sought to harshly crackdown on immigration and implement a mass deportation campaign. Since taking office, his administration has attempted to suspend a refugee resettlement program (a judge blocked the cancellation), moved to cut off legal aid for immigrant kids (although it later walked back that decision), sought to allow immigration raids in schools and churches (another judge blocked such efforts in some houses of worship) and has begun sending undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo.
Under the program announced this week, undocumented immigrants 14 and older in the US for 30 days or more will be required to register and undergo fingerprinting. Parents and guardians must register children under 14, and once children reach that age they must reapply and be fingerprinted, DHS said on its website. Those who do not comply can face criminal penalties, including misdemeanor prosecution, and fines.
More on this story here:
The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.
The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made the announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing, framing the move as democratizing access to the president.
“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.
“Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”
The announcement upends over 70 years of established protocol of journalists themselves – not government officials – determining the rotating reporters who travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.
You can read more on this story here:
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Senate confirms Donald Trump’s pick for US trade representative
In a 56-43 vote, Jamieson Greer was confirmed as the country’s top trade negotiator.
Of those who voted in favor of Greer’s confirmation, five were Democrats: Senators John Fetterman, John Hickenlooper, Gary Peters, Elissa Slotkin and Sheldon Whitehouse.
Greer is a former lawyer for the air force and served as the chief of staff for Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative during Trump’s first term. Greer will play a key role in Trump’s tariff plans.
Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate finance committee, opposed Greer’s confirmation and said: “Mr Greer will be a rubber stamp for the Trump Tax, the kneejerk decision to slap tariffs on nearly everything Americans buy and make high prices even higher.”
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Trump's public comments before cabinet meeting: key moments
Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term.
Trump opened his meeting by announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC on Friday to sign an agreement regarding rare earth minerals.
Trump spoke about the costs of eggs, and how his administration was working to “get the prices down”.
During the meeting, Trump praised Doge and said, without evidence, that the initiative had cut billions and billions of dollars.
Trump then asked Elon Musk to stand up and deliver some remarks about his work with Doge. In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support and claimed that if costs don’t get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”. Musk also described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.
Musk acknowledged that Doge “won’t be perfect” and said that Doge accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.
Musk said that Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers. “We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said. Trump also told the room that the federal employees who have not responded so far are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.
Trump said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% or so of its employees.
Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force. The US president then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, spoke about the new “gold card” plan and said that 200,000 of them could add up to $1tn.
During the meeting, Trump heavily criticized former president Joe Biden, and criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the southern border.
Trump once again said that he wanted Canada to become the 51st US state.
Trump said that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon. “It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”
Trump described Putin as a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”. He also said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
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Trump says that the US has “gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run” before criticizing former president Joe Biden calling him the “worst president in the history of our country”.
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Once again, Trump adopted Russia’s narrative on the origin of the Ukraine war.
During the meeting, Trump suggested that Ukraine’s prospect for Nato membership was “probably the reason the whole thing started”.
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Robert Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, said that he is watching the measles outbreak and that so far two people have died.
“We’re going to continue to follow it,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday it was reported that one school-aged child in West Texas had died of measles.
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Trump calls Putin 'cunning' and a 'very smart guy'
Trump calls Russian President Vladimir Putin a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”.
During remarks, Trump said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.
Trump also said that he has “great respect” for the fighters in Ukraine, and called them “great fighters”.
“But without our equipment, that war would have been over, like people said, in a very short period of time.” Trump said.
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Canada’s Liberal party, which looked bound for a loss only weeks ago, is seeing a significant comeback amid US president Trump’s threat of tariffs.
The Liberals are now tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls.
Among them is an Ipsos survey showing the left-leaning Liberals have 38% public support and the official opposition right-of-center Conservatives have 36%. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks while running advertisements comparing Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, to Donald Trump.
Read more about it here:
Tariffs to move forward on Canada and Mexico, Trump says
Trump states that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon.
“It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”
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Trump once again asserts that he wants Canada to be the 51st state.
“If they had to pay their way, they couldn’t exist,” Trump said.
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Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
“I never comment on that,” Trump said. “I don’t comment before I don’t ever put myself in that position.”
He then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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Musk says Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers
During the meeting, Musk said that he is going to send another email, referring to the email he sent last week asking federal workers to list five things they did last week or risk termination.
“We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said on Wednesday.
Trump told the room that the federal employees who have not responded are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.
Yesterday, the White House said that more than 1 million federal workers responded to the ultimatum email.
The email caused confusion this week and the US office of personnel management (OPM) directed agencies that responses to the email were optional.
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Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick talks about the new “gold card” plan that Trump first discussed on Tuesday.
Lutnick said that about 200,000 of these gold cards “is $1tn to pay down out debt”.
“We are going to balance this budget,” Lutnick said.
On Tuesday, Trump unveiled his plans for a “gold card” similar to a green card, but for wealthy foreigners willing to pay about $5m.
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Trump tells the room that he is currently “impressed with everybody” in his cabinet.
“I’m very impressed by everybody so far,” Trump said. “I’m very happy with all of my choices.”
The president then praised Elon Musk’s cost cutting efforts, and praised Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Elon Musk said that he asked Donald Trump if it was OK to send out the email blast last week to federal employees, to which the president said yes.
“We got a partial response,” Musk said.
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Trump says environmental agency to cut majority of staff
Trump says that Lee Zeldin, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), plans to cut up to 65% or so of his employees.
Zeldin, Trump said, “thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of the people” from the EPA.
“We’re going to speed up the process,” Trump added.
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Cabinet members were asked if they were happy with Elon Musk a few minutes into the meeting.
Musk started to answer the question, but Donald Trump interjected and said he might want to let cabinet members answer, before joking that if anyone disagreed, he might “throw them out”.
That drew applause and laughs from cabinet members.
Trump continued, “They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this. And some disagree a little bit. But I will tell you for the most part, I think everyone’s not only happy, they’re thrilled.”
Musk then praised the president, and said that Trump had “put together, I think, the best cabinet ever.”
“And I don’t give false praise,” Musk said.
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Trump to meet Zelenskyy at White House on Friday
Earlier in the cabinet meeting, Trump confirmed that that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will come to the White House on Friday.
“We’re doing very well with Russia-Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday. It’s now confirmed, and we’re going to be signing an agreement,” Trump said.
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Musk says that Doge “won’t be perfect” but says that “when we make mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly.”
Musk says that Doge accidently cancelled Ebola prevention, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.
“But we do need to move quickly if we’re to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction in financial year 2026,” he said. “It requires saving $4bn per day every day from now through the end of September.”
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Elon Musk delivered remarks during the first cabinet meeting, despite not being a member of the cabinet.
In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support, and said that if costs dont get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”.
“It’s not an optional thing, it’s an essential thing,” Musk said. “That’s the reason I’m here and I am taking a lot of flack and getting a lot of death threats, by the way, but if we don’t do this, America will be bankrupt.”
Musk described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.
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Trump praises Doge and claims 'billions' in savings without evidence
Donald Trump praised Doge during his first official cabinet meeting, and said that the initiative has “cut billions and billions and billions of dollars” without evidence.
“We’re looking to get it maybe to a trillion dollars,” Trump said.
This comes as it has been reported that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting bonanza appears to be having less impact than the world’s richest man is claiming, with a review finding that almost 40% of the federal contracts scrapped so far will save the American taxpayer not a penny.
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In his first official cabinet meeting, Trump says that “we have to get the prices down” such as the “price of eggs and various other things”.
“Eggs are a disaster,” Trump said, adding that Brooke Rollins, the US agriculture secretary will present a chart later.
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President Donald Trump is holding his first official cabinet meeting.
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Trump administration issues memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs – report
The Trump administration has reportedly issued a memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs of government employees, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.
In the memo released on Wednesday, the administration directs federal agenciesto submit reorganization plans by 13 March and to prepare to eliminate roles. The memo was first reported and published by Fox News.
The memo points to the executive order signed by Trump in February, which directed agencies to “eliminate waste, bloat and insularity” in order to “empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.”
“President Trump required that ‘Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force, consistent with applicable law’” the memo adds. “President Trump also directed that, no later than March 13, 2025, agencies develop Agency Reorganization Plans.”
The memo states, however, that government positions “necessary to meet law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety responsibilities” are exempt from the order, along with officials “nominated and appointed to positions requiring presidential appointment or Senate confirmation”, officials in the Executive Office of the President and employees of the US Postal Service.
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California governor Gavin Newsom will launch a new podcast called This is Gavin Newsom, saying: “We need to change the conversation.”
In a post on X, the Democratic governor announced he plans on “talking to people directly that I disagree with, as well as people I look up to, and you — the listeners.”
He says egg prices, tariffs, executive orders, and Doge are among the topics he will discuss on his new platform.
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The US supreme court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in a case that could radically transform workplace discrimination claims.
Marlean Ames has brought an appeal claiming that she was passed over for a job and demoted because she is straight. She says she was fired from her position as an administrator in a state agency for youth services in Ohio and replaced by a gay man.
Her petition to the supreme court seeks to challenge the way that such “reverse discrimination” cases have been handled in lower courts.
Previous court rulings have set a precedent that people from majority groups – such as men, white and straight people – have to meet a higher legal bar than those from minority groups in proving workplace discrimination and bias claims.
Read more about it here:
The treasury department’s office of foreign assets has announced sanctions on six companies accused of helping procure drone parts for sanctioned Iranian firm Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra and its subsidiary Narin Sepehr Mobin Isatis.
In a news release, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said that “Iran continues to try to find new ways to procure the key components it needs to bolster its UAV weapons program through new front companies and third-country suppliers.”
He added: “Treasury remains committed to disrupting the schemes that enable Iran to send its deadly weapons abroad to its terrorist proxies and other destabilising actors.”
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The Trump administration has set its sights on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency, with significant cuts and a political crackdown on climate science.
As Trump takes aim at the agency, the impact is likely to be felt across the US and around the world. Experts and officials have warned that dismantling and defunding the agency will come with severe consequences that will only increase as the world heats.
Read more about it here:
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him.
Adams alleges misconduct by the prosecution even as the Justice Department is seeking to dismiss the charges.
His lawyers allege the misconduct occurred when the government leaked a letter to the public that then-US attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to attorney general Pam Bondi explaining why the charges should not be dropped.
Sassoon offered to resign as she refused to follow acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove’s directive to drop the charges against Adams.
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EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will not meet with US secretary of state Marco Rubio during her trip to Washington DC this week, “due to scheduling issues”, her office said on Wednesday.
Kallas had said on Monday that she would meet Rubio during her trip on this week to discuss efforts by the US to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Zelenskyy: no security guarantee with US and mineral deal 'depends on Trump'
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this morning that no security guarantee had been agreed with the US and described the deal between the two countries as a ‘framework’.
Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
Follow our coverage about that here:
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Mexican security envoy is set to meet with US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Thursday.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters on Wednesday that senior Mexican security and diplomatic officials will meet Rubio in Washington on Thursday.
Sheinbaum said her government’s security, defense and foreign ministers will attend the meeting.
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Trump claims cabinet 'extremely happy' with Musk ahead of meeting
Ahead of today’s cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump says his whole Cabinet is “extremely happy” with Elon Musk.
In a post on Truth Social this morning, Trump wrote: “ALL CABINET MEMBERS ARE EXTREMELY HAPPY WITH ELON. The Media will see that at the Cabinet Meeting this morning!!!”.
This comes after the US government’s human resources office walked back the ultimatum issued by Musk that would have forced its workers to resign if they did not submit a bullet-point list of their recent accomplishments.
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President Donald Trump urges Apple to end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote that “APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM. DEI WAS A HOAX THAT HAS BEEN VERY BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. DEI IS GONE!!!.”
The post comes a day after Apple shareholders voted overwhelmingly to keep them in the face of growing pushback from conservative groups.
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US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins says that the US will invest up to $1bn to combat the spread of bird flu, including increasing imports of eggs.
In an opinion piece published on Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, Rollins said that the agriculture department would invest up to $1bn to curb the “the crisis and make eggs affordable again”.
A recent report by the USDA released on Tuesday predicted that egg prices will increase by 41.1% in 2025. In January 2025, retail egg prices increased by 13.8%, per the report. It added that retail egg prices continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes due to an outbreak of bird flu that began in 2022.
In the published piece on Wednesday, Rollins said that she was “working with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending. We will repurpose some of those dollars by investing in long-term solutions to avian flu, which has resulted in about 166 million laying hens being culled since 2022.”
Rollins said that they will dedicate up to $500m to helping US poultry producers implement gold-standard biosecurity measures, make up to $400m of increased financial relief available to farmers whose flocks are affected by avian flu, explore the use of vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens, provide up to $100m in research and development of vaccines and therapeutics and more.
The secretary said that they would also consider temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term and would “proceed with imports only if the eggs meet stringent US safety standards and if we determine that doing so won’t jeopardize American farmers’ access to markets in the future”.
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House and Senate Republican leaders will meet today to hash out a unified plan for approaching government funding negotiations with Democrats.
Republican leaders from both sides of the Capitol will meet today, according to Politico, to devise a unified plan for approaching government funding negotiations with Democrats before the March government shutdown deadline.
House appropriations chair Tom Cole said in an interview late Tuesday night that he and Speaker Mike Johnson were hoping to land an agreement with their Senate counterparts on “a path forward” on how to fund government programs.
“The best-case scenario is that we walk out united about what we need to do,” Cole said.
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Trump threatens to sue authors and journalists who use anonymous sources in their reporting
President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform this morning, threatening to sue journalists who use “anonymous” sources in their reporting.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump criticized books and articles that feature “so-called ‘anonymous’ or ‘off the record’ quotes”.
“At some point I am going to sue some of these dishonest authors and book publishers, or even media in general, to find out whether or not these ‘anonymous sources’ even exist, which they largely do not,” he wrote. “They are made up, defamatory fiction, and a big price should be paid for this blatant dishonesty. I’ll do it as a service to our Country. Who knows, maybe we will create some NICE NEW LAW!!!.”
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee last year, will not run for Minnesota’s newly open US Senate seat, according to his spokesperson.
“Governor Walz is not running for the United States Senate,” spokesperson Teddy Tschann said, according to CBS News. “He loves his job as Governor and he’s exploring the possibility of another term to continue his work to make Minnesota the best state in the country for kids.”
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President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign more executive orders this afternoon.
According to his public schedule, Trump is set to sign executive orders at 3pm ET today in the Oval office.
Musk to attend first cabinet meeting of Trump's second term
Elon Musk is set to attend Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting of his second term at 11am ET this morning, despite not being a cabinet member.
The White House said on Tuesday that Musk would be participating in Trump’s first official cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN that “Elon, considering he is working alongside the president and our cabinet secretaries, this entire administration will be in attendance tomorrow.”
Leavitt added that Musk will be talking about the efforts of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and “how all the cabinet secretaries are identifying waste, fraud and abuse” at their agencies.
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A freshman Democratic congressman is introducing a bill to protect the jobs of veterans working for the US government amid mass firings by the Trump administration, the latest legislative response to the turmoil rippling across federal agencies.
The bill from Rep Derek Tran, an Army veteran and former employment lawyer, would require that any veterans terminated without reason from the federal government since the start of President Donald Trump’s term be reinstated.
It would also require federal agencies to submit reports to Congress on the veteran dismissals and provide justifications for their actions, the Associated Press reports.
“They sacrificed so much to protect our country, to defend our freedom,” said Tran, who represents parts of Orange County, California. “Now they’ve been kicked to the curb.”
The bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled House, but it serves as the latest example of how Democrats are trying to harness public backlash to Trump’s efforts to upend the federal government through the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) which is led by billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Nearly 6,000 veterans have been fired across the federal government, according to data from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee. That data found that Doge has fired about 38,000 federal employees since the start of Trump’s second term.
US abstains from World Trade Organization condemnation of Russia's aggression in Ukraine – report
The United States has reportedly abstained from co-sponsoring a joint statement at the World Trade Organization (WTO) that condemns Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, according to a report from Reuters citing diplomatic sources and a Geneva trade official.
More than 40 WTO members, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, agreed to the statement, which was presented during the Ukraine trade review session at the WTO.
This marks the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the United States has not supported this annual statement.
Trump faces Truth Social backlash over AI video of Gaza with topless Netanyahu and bearded bellydancers
Donald Trump is facing a backlash on his Truth Social platform after sharing an AI-created video (see post 11.43) of him sipping cocktails with a topless Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, in a future imagining of the Palestinian territory devastated by Israel’s war.
Oliver Holmes and Paul Owen report that after the 78-year-old president shared the footage – which includes the caption “Gaza 2025 … what’s next?” – he faced a backlash on his social media platform.
One Truth Social user wrote: “I could not be a bigger supporter of President Trump but this particular video is in very poor taste. Very poor taste, indeed!” Another wrote: “I hate this. I love our president, but this is horrible.”
The video might have gone down particularly badly with Trump’s Christian supporters, with several comments referencing the idolatry of the golden statue, and others lamenting a scene showing Trump in a nightclub alone with a woman dressed as a bellydancer as a crowd looks on.
“Only one deserves the glory and the honor, Mr President,” wrote another user. “The statue is a symbol of the antichrist, please humble yourself to God. Jesus is king and only Him.” Other users described the video as “sick” and “filth”.
One account, with the name Kainoa P, wrote: “You’re doing great Mr President. But don’t let it get to your head. God put you in that position for His glory, not yours.”
Read the full report here:
US economy ‘less safe’, experts say, as Trump hobbles consumer watchdog
Millions of Americans are more likely to be ripped off by scammers and thieves as a result of a bid by the Trump administration to defang the top US consumer watchdog, former officials have warned.
Donald Trump has indicated he wants to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was set up after the financial crisis to shore up oversight of consumer financial firms, prompting critics to accuse him of setting the stage for “one of the biggest cons” in modern memory.
The billionaire tycoon Elon Musk, engaged in a government-wide “efficiency” blitz with the president’s blessing, has suggested the agency is already dead. Only in a court filing late on Monday did Russell Vought, the CFPB’s acting director, clarify it would continue to exist – albeit in a “more streamlined and efficient” form – under the new administration.
With the CFPB incapacitated by layoffs, work stoppages and widespread confusion over its future, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who played a key role in setting up the agency, held a forum on its future on Capitol Hill on Tuesday alongside other Senate Democrats.
Read the full report here:
There has been reaction to Trump’s proposal for a “gold card” for wealthy foreigners (post 11.14am) which would give them the right to live and work in the US as well as a route to citizenship in exchange for a $5million fee.
Immigration and wealth advisers have said the proposed initiative is unlikely to trigger a major inflow of wealthy global investors seeking US citizenship because of concerns over higher taxes, Reuters reports.
Bassim Haidar, a former UK non-domiciled multimillionaire said:
I do not believe that the current POTUS offer will have a big impact, as getting a green card in the US if you meet certain criteria, is not difficult.
Paying $5 million for a golden visa and getting taxed on your global income defeats the purpose.
John Hu, founder of Hong Kong-based John Hu Migration Consulting said raising the investment threshold to $5 million would be a deterrent for many Chinese nationals.
“The total number of applicants, if the golden visa is going to replace the EB5, will drop significantly,” he told Reuters.
‘Like being on the Titanic’: US aid workers dread bleak future after Trump cuts
In a village in Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa, Sasha teaches hundreds of children at a local primary school. A significant part of her work as an education volunteer at the US Peace Corps is to educate her students about HIV prevention. Almost a quarter of Lesotho’s 2.3 million population lives with HIV, giving it the second-highest level of HIV infection in the world.
At the beginning of February, Donald Trump halted virtually all US foreign aid. The 90-day pause left many agencies scrambling to follow the new guidance, affecting programs such as the one Sasha works for. In Lesotho, she and other volunteers work to mitigate the effects of HIV/Aids stigma through grant-funded programs like a soccer camp. All of that stopped.
Volunteers were instructed to stop any HIV-related prevention programming, according to emails reviewed by the Guardian. Many families also rely upon Pepfar– the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief – which provides HIV/Aids medication for more than 20 million people worldwide. Sasha said that Pepfar-focused nurses at the local clinic were told to stop coming to work.
Read the full report here:
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Reuters is reporting that defence secretary Pete Hegseth is considering making a visit to South Korea next month, according to the South Korean Yonhap news agency, citing defence sources.
Donald Trump has shared a bizarre AI-generated video of “Trump Gaza” on his Truth Social platform.
The US president posted the clip, which appears to have been published beforehand by accounts unaffiliated with the White House, on Wednesday.
It features Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sunbathing in a Dubai-style resort while Elon Musk is showered with banknotes while walking on a beach.
The clip echoes Trump’s recent comment on Gaza when he said: “We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal … the Riviera of the Middle East. This could be so magnificent.”
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Trump may rue firing experts when environmental rollbacks land in court
Amid spending freezes and policy rollbacks from Donald Trump, environmental advocacy groups are gearing up for a long series of legal showdowns with the administration.
The experience of suing Trump during his first term has left the movement better prepared, but the court battles will still be daunting, with the administration appearing to test the nation’s legal boundaries in an effort to consolidate power under the executive branch.
Trump’s firing of experts might backfire by reducing his ability to defend weakening rules, advocates say, though there are also fears, stirred by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, that the administration will not obey court rulings.
“The authoritarian statements that the president has made and his vice-president have made, the suggestion that the executive is in some way above the law and that they might ignore the decisions of federal courts, are deeply disturbing and highly antidemocratic,” said Jason Rylander, legal director for the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
Read more here:
Donald Trump has said the US is set to sell a “gold card” to wealthy foreigners giving them the right to live and work in the US as well as a route to citizenship in exchange for a $5 million fee, CNN reports.
Trump said from the Oval Office:
We’re going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.
The president said the sale of the cards will begin in about two weeks.
He suggested millions of them could be sold and when asked if he would sell the cards to Russian oligarchs, Trump responded:
Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.
The card will replace the government’s EB-5 immigrant investor visa programme, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said, adding prospective recipients would to go through vetting “to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens”.
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Russian and US delegations will meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss how to restore their respective diplomatic missions, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Moscow has had no ambassador in Washington since the previous envoy, Anatoly Antonov, left his post last October, Reuters reports.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said high-level teams would work to restoring the countries’ diplomatic missions in Washington and Moscow as part of negotiations towards ending the conflict in Ukraine.
The UK prime minister leaves for Washington today prior to his meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday in what will be Keir Starmer’s biggest diplomatic test to date.
On Tuesday Starmer announced the biggest increase in defence spending since the cold war, with the budget rising to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 - three years earlier than planned - and paid for by slashing the aid budget.
Following the announcement US secretary of defence Peter Hegseth, who said he had spoken to his UK counterpart John Healey, described the increase as “a strong step from an enduring partner”.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has said that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
A initiative by the United States to increase electricity supply in Africa has been dismantled by President Trump’s administration after more than a decade of work, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Almost all of Power Africa’s programmes have been listed for termination and the majority of its staff fired, the report added, according to Reuters.
Opening summary
Welcome to our coverage of events on Capitol Hill. Republicans narrowly passed a budget blueprint on Tuesday evening, barely scraping together the votes to advance Donald Trump’s tax-cut and immigration agenda.
The House approved the plan in a vote of 217-215, with the representative Thomas Massie, the lone Republican voting in opposition.
No Democrats supported the measure, describing it as a betrayal of middle and low-income voters on behalf of “billionaire donors” like Trump adviser Elon Musk. They warn the budget will result in cuts to Medicaid.
The fiscal year 2025 proposal includes approximately $4.5tn in tax cuts alongside increased spending for defence and border security. To offset these costs, the plan will ask congressional committees to find about $2tn in spending reductions over the next decade.
After Tuesday’s vote, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, said: “Children will be devastated. Families, devastated. People with disabilities, devastated. Older Americans, devastated. Hospitals, devastated. Nursing homes, devastated,” and he said he would “make sure that every single one of these extreme Maga Republicans is held accountable for betraying the people they represent”.
Johnson told reporters after the vote: “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda.”
In other developments:
More than 20 staffers of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) stepped down on Tuesday, saying in a joint letter they refused to use their expertise to “dismantle critical public services”.
Donald Trump has stepped in to defend Elon Musk from a mounting backlash in his own administration after some cabinet members told US federal workers to ignore the billionaire entrepreneur’s demand that they write an email justifying their work. “What he’s doing is saying: ‘Are you actually working?’ Trump said. “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.
It comes as Federal workers faced fresh uncertainty about their futures on Tuesday after Elon Musk gave them “another chance” to respond to his ultimatum that they justify their jobs or risk termination, contradicting guidance from some Trump administration officials that the request was voluntary.
Cabinet officials will face Musk on Wednesday as the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that the tech billionaire will join Trump’s first cabinet meeting despite not being a member of the cabinet. He will be “talking about all of Doge’s efforts and how all of the cabinet secretaries are identifying waste, fraud and abuse at their respective agencies.
Elon Musk’s cost-cutting drive appears to be having less impact than he is claiming. The Associated Press found that almost 40% of the federal contracts scrapped so far will not save the American taxpayer a penny. The Associated Press looked at a list of 1,125 federal government contracts that Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) boasted it had torn up in the first month of the new Trump administration. The news agency found that of those, 417 were likely to produce no savings to the federal budget.
Workers at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been invited back to its office “to retrieve their personal belongings” as the Trump administration continues its bid to shut down the foreign aid agency.
