A Minnesota veteran who found work at the Veterans Benefits Administration after suffering two traumatic brain injuries on overseas deployments stood in front of hundreds of people and five Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday night and recalled the moment she learned she lost her job.
“All I was given was a Post-it note,” Joy Marver said, inspiring gasps and boos from a raucous crowd. “The Post-it note contained just the HR email address and my supervisor’s phone number. This came from an external source. Doge terminated me. No one in my chain of command knew I was being terminated. No one knew. It took two weeks to get my termination email sent to me.”
The firing was so demoralizing she said she considered driving her truck off a bridge but instead went into the VA for crisis care.
“Don’t fuck with a veteran,” she concluded.
For the full story, click here:
Elon Musk is offering voters money again – this time in Wisconsin, via an online “Petition in Opposition to Activist Judges”, concerning an election for the state supreme court.
“Judges should interpret laws as written, not rewrite them to fit their personal or political agendas,” reads the petition, launched by Musk’s America Pac, alluding to the Trump administration’s string of court reverses and resulting virulent attack on the independence of the federal courts.
Those who sign the petition are told they will be “rejecting the actions of activist judges who impose their own views and demanding a judiciary that respects its role –interpreting, not legislating”.
Underneath that text, a “special offer for Wisconsin registered voters” says signees get $100. So does anyone who refers someone else who signs.
Musk is not technically buying votes: the petition does not make any demand of who signees should vote for in the supreme court race or any other contest. Nor could it control any ballot cast in the privacy of the voting booth.
But Musk does have form in offering voters money, a controversial thing to do at any time. Last October, as the presidential election neared its end, America Pac offered $1m a day to lucky petition signers, in what the Guardian said appeared to be “a way to incentivize Republicans in battleground states to register to vote”. Musk was sued over the scheme.
The Wisconsin supreme court race is an interesting one, of course. As Politico put it this morning:
In the final 10 days of the high-profile campaign, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is blanketing the TV airwaves with two new ads that put Musk front-and-center. The ads … part of a seven-figure investment in Musk-related ads and events, link the billionaire and his Department of Government Efficiency to Brad Schmiel, the state’s former GOP attorney general who’s now running for the seat.”
Looking ahead, Politico adds: “It’s the first big test of an emerging attack line for Democrats in a swing state, and it’s playing out in the most expensive state Supreme Court race in US history, with the potential to swing the liberal-leaning court back to conservative.
‘Elon Musk is out of control, and now the power-hungry billionaire is unloading millions to buy the Wisconsin supreme court,’ the ad’s narrator says, citing the more than $7m a Musk-backed super pac has dropped on the race. ‘He knows corrupt politician Brad Schmiel is for sale and will abolish the checks and balances that protect us.’”
Here’s more on the Wisconsin race, from the Guardian’s David Smith:
A Republican US representative from Utah faced a town hall audience on Thursday night and made a rather surprising statement: the US will drift towards authoritarianism “if we don’t get the executive branch under control”.
That earned Celeste Maloy applause – which turned to boos when she added: “When Biden was president, I had the same concern.”
Democrats charge Donald Trump with authoritarian leanings and actions, particularly as he stokes a stand-off with federal judges who have ruled against him.
Town halls have become treacherous territory for Republicans thanks to Trump’s brutal attacks on federal budgets and staffing, overseen by Elon Musk, Trump’s very evidently un-elected, and very evidently super-rich, donor, confidant and ally.
ABC News reports that Malloy, a member of the House appropriations committee, faced a “boisterous audience in liberal Salt Lake City” with Mike Kennedy, another Utah Republican.
They told their audience they opposed some Trump cuts, such as to the National Parks Service, but Malloy said: “We are not going to get out of the situation we’re in financially without all of us feeling some pain.”
Kennedy prompted jeers when he defended Trump moves including eviscerating the US Agency for International Development.
According to ABC, “Voters from both parties said after the town hall they had hoped to hear more about social security. Dozens of the program’s offices across the country are slated to close due to actions taken by Elon Musk’s [so-called] ‘department of government efficiency’”, or Doge.
Musk’s unsubstantiated claims of massive social security fraud – and his apparent desire to cut the benefits program – are proving damaging for Republicans.
Addressing her own town hall this week, the Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski – no stranger to crossing Trump – said: “It doesn’t help the president when you have somebody who clearly is not worried about whether or not social security benefits are going to be there for him” working on social security reform.
“It worries Americans all over the country. This is why social security has been kind of viewed as the untouchable from a political perspective.”
The day so far
Elon Musk visited the Pentagon this morning amid multiple reports that military officials would share with him their confidential plan for war with China. A little bit later in the Oval Office, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth took questions after announcing a “state of the art” fighter jet program, where the defense secretary denied that Musk had been shown the plan, or that such a disclosure was ever being considered. The president, meanwhile, outlined how functions handled by the Department of Education would be moved to other agencies now that he has ordered it closed, and also said there would be “flexibility” in his new tariff regimen.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Trump professed his love for King Charles and said he would be open to a reported offer that the United States join the Commonwealth.
Responding to reports that some of the suspected Venezuelan gang members deported to El Salvador last weekend were not in any gang, Trump said investigators would look into that, while defending his hardline immigration policies.
John F Kennedy’s assassination came up in Trump’s encounter with the press, when a reporter asked him who killed the former president. Trump did not say, instead explaining why he allowed documents to be released with Social Security numbers and other identifying details included.
Meanwhile, a Venezuelan government minister denied that any of the more than 200 migrants the Trump administration deported to El Salvador last weekend weekend were members of the gang Tren de Aragua, Reuters reports.
Donald Trump and the justice department have insisted the migrants were members of the group, and therefore eligible for swift deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. From Reuters, here’s what Venezuela’s government thinks of that:
Venezuelan’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Friday that no one among the hundreds of deportees to a Salvadoran prison, whom Washington accused of being members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, were related to the criminal organization.
Cabello cited a list of names disclosed in U.S. and from one of his own sources, speaking in a podcast shared on his Telegram channel.
U.S. President Donald Trump had on Saturday invoked an obscure wartime law to rapidly deport people who were, according to the White House, members of the Venezuelan gang which Washington has declared a terrorist group and alien enemy.
Despite a judge quickly blocking the measure, Trump’s administration deported 137 Venezuelans to El Salvador where they were detained in the country’s massive anti-terrorism prison, for a period of a year subject to renewal.
Meanwhile, families and lawyers have been seeking answers about relatives and clients whom they could no longer reach, and demanding their return to Venezuela.
“I believe with absolute responsibility that not a single one (of the names on the list) appears on the organizational chart of the now-extinct Tren de Aragua organization, not a single one,” Cabello said.
Venezuela says Tren de Aragua was effectively wiped out after a series of raids in 2023, and that the idea that it still exists is based on a claim from the country’s political opposition.
“It is a lie, a massive lie, and we have the means to prove it,” he added. “Now if the United States refuses to recognize this reality, that’s their prerogative.”
Updated
Trump signals 'flexibility' on new tariffs he will impose on 2 April
Donald Trump has talked up the new tariffs he has promised to impose on countries worldwide on 2 April, so much so that he’s taking to calling the date “Liberation Day”.
On that date, the president has ordered the United States to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners around the world, which will be equal to whatever levies they place on US goods. Exemptions from 25% tariffs that he has given Canada and Mexico will also end on that day.
It will likely amount to a a major reordering of the United State’s relations with its trading partners, and have major implications for the US economy. Yet for all his talk of tariffs, Trump has indicated that he may change his mind.
The latest came just now in the Oval Office, where he said there will be “flexibility” with the new tariffs.
“People are coming to me and talking about tariffs, and a lot of people are asking me if they could have exceptions. And once you do that for one, you have to do that for all,” Trump said.
“The word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there’s flexibility, so there’ll be flexibility.”
Trump has moved on, and is now, once again, talking about making Canada the 51st state.
But a reporter wanted to know if he was worried that Canada would be a blue state, if it was somehow admitted to the union. The president demurred:
I don’t know about that. I think Canada is a place, like a lot of other places, if you have a good candidate, the candidate’s gonna win.
Donald Trump, who is continuing to take questions in the Oval Office with Pete Hegseth by his side, said he would not have allowed the military’s plan for a potential war with China to be shared with Elon Musk or anyone like him.
“I don’t want other people seeing, anybody seeing potential war with China. We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it,” Trump said.
The possibility that Musk could see the plan raised alarms, as he has business interests in China. Trump said he was aware of that:
You know, Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that, but it was such a fake story.
Hegseth says Musk did not see plan for potential war with China
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said that Elon Musk was not shown the Pentagon’s plan for a potential war with China during the Tesla CEO’s visit earlier today.
“Elon Musk is a patriot. Elon Musk is an innovator. Elon Musk provides a lot of capabilities our government and our military rely on, and I’m grateful for that,” said Hegseth, who added that reports Musk would be shown the plan were meant to “undermine whatever relationship the Pentagon has with” him.
“We welcomed him today to the Pentagon to talk about [the department of government efficiency], to talk about efficiencies, to talk about innovations. It was a great informal conversation. The rest of that reporting was fake. There was no war plans. There was no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans. That’s not what we were doing the Pentagon.”
The Trump administration carried out the high-profile deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members over the weekend, which may have violated a judge’s order.
The deportees were sent to El Salvador, but since they arrived, their family members have offered evidence that they were not members of Tren de Aragua, the gang whose members Trump has targeted for rapid deportation under the Alien Enemies Act.
Asked about the possibility some of the deportees were not gang members, Trump said:
I was told that they went through a very strong vetting process, and that will also be continuing in El Salvador, and if there’s anything like that, we would certainly want to find out. But … these were a bad group. This was a bad group, and they were in bad areas, and they were with a lot of other people that were absolutely killers, murderers, and people that were really bad, with the worst records you’ve ever seen.
Much of the Trump administration’s case against the deportees seems to center on their tattoos:
Donald Trump is now taking questions from reporters in the room, and the first was a blunt ask for the president to “tell us who killed Kennedy”.
Earlier in the week, Trump released 80,000 pages of government documents related to the assassination of John F Kennedy. Trump did not answer the question of who killed Kennedy, instead saying of the documents: “I don’t think there’s anything that’s earth shattering, but you’ll have to make that determination.”
He also weighed in on why he allowed social security numbers and other identifying details to be revealed in the Kennedy documents, saying “I didn’t want anything deleted.”
Trump added that he would release government documents concerning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Donald Trump is delivering his speech from the Oval Office, seated at his desk next to what appears to be an image of the F-47 fighter jet.
It’s a little hard to make it out, though.
Trump announces 'state of the art' F-47 fighter jet program
Donald Trump has now shifted to defense, unveiling the F-47 fighter jet program, which he promises will deliver a “state of the art” stealth jet.
“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built. An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we’re confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation,” Trump said.
“The F-47 is equipped with state-of-the-art stealth technology. It’s virtually unseeable and unprecedented power, the most power of any jet of its kind ever made.”
Its designation may be an homage to Trump, who is the 47th president.
Updated
Trump says Small Business Administration to handle student loans as education department dismantled
Donald Trump is speaking now in the Oval Office with defense secretary Pete Hegseth by his side, but began by elaborating on how he will implement his executive order yesterday ordering the dismantling of the Department of Education.
“I’ve decided that the SBA, the Small Business Administration, headed by Kelly Loeffler, terrific person, will handle all of the student loan portfolio,” Trump said.
“We have a portfolio that’s very large, lots of loans, tens of thousands of loans, pretty complicated deal, and that’s coming out of the Department of Education immediately.”
He added that the Department of Health and Human Services “will be handling special needs and all of the nutrition programs and everything else.”
Donald Trump spent much of this week touting his efforts to secure a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. But as the Guardian’s Andrew Roth reports, what Trump says and what his negotiating partners understand are often two different things:
Donald Trump’s shuttle diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine has at times resembled a game of broken telephone, and the US president’s disregard for the details suggests the ceasefire he seeks is further off than his bullish statements may suggest.
Consider the events of just the last week. After his call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Trump said that the two men had agreed to a partial ceasefire on “energy and infrastructure” targets, indicating that Russia would not target bridges, hospitals, railways or other civilian structures.
Hours later, a Russian drone slammed into a Ukrainian hospital. Russia’s readout of the call said that it had agreed to a halt on strikes on “energy infrastructure”, suggesting that everything else was fair game.
By Wednesday, the White House press secretary was dodging the question of what was discussed, pointing reporters to the administration’s readout without clarifying if Trump had misunderstood their discussion.
That day, Trump surprised the world by announcing that the US was proposing an American-led privatisation of Ukrainian power plants in order to provide a new security guarantee to the Ukrainians. Trump ordered his national security adviser Mike Waltz and secretary of state Marco Rubio to provide an “accurate” readout of the call (in itself a curious distinction). In it, they said Trump had told Zelenskyy that “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.”
Not so fast, said Zelenskyy on Thursday. The power plants are national property and “belong to all Ukrainians”. A takeover bid had never come up.
Reporters at the Pentagon have spotted Elon Musk leaving, after what the New York Times reports was an 80-minute meeting with defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
It is unclear if Musk, who leads Donald Trump’s department of government efficiency initiative and has business interests in China, was briefed on the military’s plan for a potential war with Beijing. But the Times reports that Musk’s meeting with Hegseth did not take place in a secure Pentagon conference room where it was originally scheduled to take place.
Updated
Trump to announce new jet fighter program in White House speech - report
Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth are scheduled to at 11am deliver a joint address from the Oval Office, but the White House did not say what it will concern. The Wall Street Journal seems to have uncovered the answer: they will announce a new fighter jet program.
The new jet will be the most expensive in history, and operate alongside drones, according to the Journal, which adds the plane is geared towards fending off China’s air force in the event of a war.
Here’s more, from the Journal:
The piloted planes are to be fielded in the 2030s and would fight alongside semiautonomous drones, as the Pentagon seeks to gain a technological edge over U.S. adversaries.
The future of the program had been in doubt after the Biden administration opted to leave the final decision on how to proceed to the incoming Trump administration. Elon Musk, the billionaire and Trump ally, has publicly campaigned against manned aircraft, which he said were “obsolete in the age of drones.”
Musk arrived at the Pentagon Friday morning for sensitive discussions about China.
Air Force officials have argued that piloted planes are still vital for fighting the wars of the future, especially if they incorporate cutting-edge designs, sophisticated sensors, more powerful engines and control the semiautonomous drones that operate with them.
…
Fielding the plane will be expensive, as the new fighters could cost as much as several hundred million dollars each. The Air Force’s current Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters cost about $80 million.
The F-35, which has been a Musk target, is a multi-role plane that is designed mainly for air-to-ground combat. The new fighter has been described as an air-to-air fighter that would replace the F-22 and would be able to fly in heavily defended environments.
Updated
Donald Trump is so excited about the reciprocal tariffs he plans to impose on 2 April that he has taken to calling it “Liberation Day”.
As he did in a Truth Social post this morning:
April 2nd is Liberation Day in America!!! For DECADES we have been ripped off and abused by every nation in the World, both friend and foe. Now it is finally time for the Good Ol’ USA to get some of that MONEY, and RESPECT, BACK. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
But a recent poll conducted for the Guardian shows that Americans are generally freaked out by the prospect of the United States imposing tariffs on countries worldwide, including a hefty share of Republicans:
Trump signals openness to reported UK offer of Commonwealth spot to ease tensions with Canada
Donald Trump is partaking in some royal intrigue with a social media post declaring his love for Britain’s King Charles and saying he would welcome a reported “secret offer” billed as easing tensions with Canada.
On Truth Social, the president linked to a story in UK tabloid the Sun, which says:
KING Charles will reportedly make a “secret offer” to Donald Trump during his State visit.
The Royal proposal is said to potentially reduce tensions between the White House and Canada.
Plans are allegedly in the works to make the USA the next “associate member” of the Commonwealth.
The international association, which currently boasts 56 states, could welcome the US as a new member.
In February, a Tariff war began between the two countries with Trump signing orders to impose near-universal tariffs on goods from Canada entering the United States.
The US President revealed Canada could avoid higher taxes if it joined the United States of America as its 51 state.
Canada, of which the King is head of state, is part of the Commonwealth of Nations and including America may dampen the current conflict.
To which Trump responded:
I Love King Charles. Sounds good to me!
But trade tensions with Canada are likely to grow worse on 2 April, when an exemption from 25% tariffs he imposed on the country expires.
Updated
Musk arrives at Pentagon amid reports he'll be briefed on China war plan
Journalists at the Pentagon have spotted Elon Musk arriving for a visit where he will reportedly be briefed on the military’s plan for a potential war with China.
Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth have both denied the reports that details of the military’s strategy against China will be shared with Musk.
Updated
The US government appears to have complied with a federal judge’s request for a high-level official to confirm that it is considering invoking a nation security exemption to avoid sharing details of migrant deportation flights that may have violated a court order.
Justice department attorneys have been in a legal standoff with James Boasberg, a federal judge who over the weekend told the Trump administration not to allow three planes carrying suspected Venezuelan gang members to fly to El Salvador. The planes arrived anyway, and Boasberg has since been demanding details of the aircrafts’ itineraries to determine if his order was violated.
The justice department has said the Trump administration may determine the information is a “state secret” that it cannot reveal to the judge. Yesterday, Boasberg demanded that the administration have “a person with direct involvement in the Cabinet-level discussions” submit a declaration. That declaration has now arrived, from Todd Blanche, a deputy attorney general, who confirmed his “direct involvement in ongoing Cabinet-level discussions regarding invocation of the state-secrets privilege.”
The government now has until next Tuesday to decide whether to invoke the privilege. Here’s more on the back-and-forth between the judge and the Trump administration:
In Tempe on Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez praised Arizona voters for electing two Democratic senators. She then swiped at the state’s former one-term senator, Kyrsten Sinema, who left the Democratic party to become an independent while in office and declined to seek re-election.
“One thing I love about Arizonans is that you all have shown that if a US Senator isn’t fighting hard enough for you, you’re not afraid to replace her with one who will,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Sinema recently resurfaced old comments by Ocasio-Cortez attacking the then-senator over her refusal to abolish the filibuster, a Senate rule requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation. Last week, House Democrats implored their Senate counterparts to use the filibuster to block a Republican-drafted funding bill.
“Change of heart on the filibuster I see!” Sinema posted.
“Still no. In fact, the same Dems who argue to keep the filibuster ‘for when we need it’ do not, in fact, use it when we need it,” Ocasio-Cortez shot back.
At their rally in Arizona, senator Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offered a sharp critique of the Democrats.
“This isn’t just about Republicans, either. We need a Democratic party that fights harder for us, too,” Ocasio-Cortez said, drawing some of the loudest, most sustained applause of the event.
Several rallygoers said they would like to see Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat of New York, challenge the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer in a primary race after he relented and helped Republicans pass a funding bill last week to avert a shutdown.
Ocasio-Cortez made no explicit mention of Schumer or her future political ambitions, despite intermittent shouts of “Primary Chuck”.
She called on attendees to help elect candidates “with the courage to brawl for the working class”.
Donald Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth are scheduled to make a joint speech from the Oval Office at 11am ET.
The White House did not say what it would concern, but Hegseth tweeted last night that the president is “leading the way on the future of American power.”
Hegseth denies Musk to see China war plan during Pentagon visit
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has joined his boss Donald Trump in denying that Elon Musk will be allowed to see the US military’s secret plan for a potential war with China when he visits the Pentagon today.
On X, Hegseth acknowledged Musk’s visit but said the war plans would not be discussed:
We look forward to welcoming @elonmusk to the Pentagon tomorrow. But the fake news delivers again — this is NOT a meeting about “top secret China war plans.” It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production. Gonna be great!
Trump posted about the matter not once, but twice on Truth Social. Last night, he wrote:
How ridiculous?” China will not even be mentioned or discussed. How disgraceful it is that the discredited media can make up such lies. Anyway, the story is completely untrue!!!
The president issued a denial again this morning in which he attacked a reporter and two outlets that reported the story, while saying: “Elon is NOT BEING BRIEFED ON ANYTHING CHINA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR!!!” The department of war has not existed since 1947.
Updated
Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, delivered a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, accusing them of “screwing over” working and middle class Americans as they turn the country into an oligarchy.
Speaking to an overflow crowd of thousands as part of his Stop Oligarchy tour, Sanders warned the president: “We will not allow you to move this country into an oligarchy. We’re not going to allow you and your friend Mr Musk and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on this country.”
Ocasio-Cortez put it differently: “We’re going to throw these bums out and fight for the nation we deserve.”
Sanders trained some of his sharpest attacks on industry titans.
“You know who the biggest criminals are in this country? They are the CEOs of major corporations who are robbing us every single day,” he said. “They are the fossil fuel industry that has lied to us for years about what they’re doing to the planet. It is the drug companies who charge us the highest prices in the world and people die because they can’t afford those drugs. It’s the insurance companies who deny claim after claim. Those are major criminals.”
Earlier on Thursday, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez held another rally in Las Vegas. The tour continues on Friday, with events in Colorado, including a town hall in Denver featuring Alvaro Bedoya, an Federal Trade Commission member who was abruptly fired by Trump this week. On Saturday, the pair will return to Arizona for a rally in Tucson.
Trump denies report on Musk briefing on China
Donald Trump has denied a New York Times report that his close ally, billionaire Elon Musk, was due to be briefed by the Pentagon on Friday about the US military’s plan for any war that might break out with China.
“China will not even be mentioned or discussed,” Trump said in a post about the Pentagon meeting on Truth Social on Thursday.
The Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, said in a post on X that the meeting would be “about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production”.
A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the briefing for Musk would be attended by senior US military officials in the Pentagon and would be an overview on a number of different topics, including China.
According to the New York Times report, the briefing would include 20 to 30 slides that lay out how the United States would fight in a conflict with China. The newspaper cited two US officials it did not identify.
Updated
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said late Thursday that he would be meeting with billionaire Elon Musk at the Pentagon Friday to discuss “innovation, efficiencies & smarter production”.
Musk, a top adviser to Donald Trump, and his “department of government efficiency” have played an integral role in the administration’s push to dramatically reduce the size of the government.
Musk has faced intense blowback from some lawmakers and voters for his chainsaw-wielding approach to laying off workers and slashing programs, although Trump’s supporters have hailed it.
A senior defense official told reporters Tuesday that roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the defense department.
In a post on Musk’s X platform, Hegseth emphasized that “this is NOT a meeting about ‘top secret China war plans’”, denying a story published by the New York Times late Thursday.
Hegseth is also scheduled to deliver remarks with Trump at the White House Friday morning.
Updated
A federal judge instructed the Trump administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and executive branches.
James Boasberg, the US district judge, demanded answers after flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after the judge temporarily blocked deportations conducted under an 18th-century wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return planes that were already in the air to the US when he ordered the halt.
Boasberg had given the administration until noon Thursday to either provide more details about the flights or make a claim that they must be withheld because they would harm “state secrets”. The administration resisted the judge’s request, calling it an “unnecessary judicial fishing” expedition.
Donald Trump rescinded an executive order targeting a prominent Democratic-leaning law firm after it agreed to provide $40m in free legal services to support his administration’s goals.
The White House has targeted law firms whose lawyers have provided legal work that Trump disagrees with. Last week, he issued an order threatening to suspend active security clearances of attorneys at Paul, Weiss and to terminate any federal contracts the firm has.
But the president suddenly reversed course following a meeting between Trump and Brad Karp, the chair of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, over the White House order.
Trump’s order singled out the work of Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked at the firm and who oversaw an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Trump’s finances before Trump became president. Pomerantz once likened the president to a mob boss.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news on this Friday morning.
We begin with the news that Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the education department, an agency Republicans have talked about closing for decades.
The order says the education secretary, Linda McMahon, will “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities”.
Eliminating the department altogether would be a cumbersome task, which probably would require an act of Congress, AP reported.
In the weeks since he took office, the Trump administration already has cut the department’s staff in half and overhauled much of the department’s work.
Trump adviser Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has cut dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful. It gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.
The agency’s main role is financial. Annually, it distributes billions in federal money to colleges and schools and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Closing the department would mean redistributing each of those duties to another agency.
The Department of Education also plays an important regulatory role in services for students, ranging from those with disabilities to low-income and homeless children.
In other news:
Elon Musk is reportedly visiting the Pentagon on Friday to get a briefing on the US military’s plans for fighting a war with China.
Trump said that he is rescinding an executive order targeting a Democratic-leaning law firm after the firm agreed to provide $40m in free legal services in support of his administration’s aims.
A federal judge blocked Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” from accessing social security records and ordered them to delete any previously obtained information.
Judge James Boasberg, a former law school housemate of Brett Kavanaugh, said the Trump administration “evaded” his order in the case of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador.
Trump administration lawyers have embraced the view that the Alien Enemies Act, which Trump invoked to deport suspected members of a Venezuelan gang, permits immigration agents to enter homes without a warrant.
The justice department has brought charges against three unnamed individuals for using or planning to use molotov cocktails to attack Tesla automobiles and dealerships.
Immigration agents arrested Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national with a valid visa doing research at Georgetown University, and are trying to deport him for alleged support of Hamas. A judge later temporarily barred DHS from deporting him.
Tim Walz, who Kamala Harris picked as her running mate, sees an ominous future for the country under Trump, but also opportunities for Democrats to regain their popular support.
Trump pushed the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, something presidents typically do not do. Yesterday, the central bank held rates steady while forecasting weaker economic growth.
Updated
