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After calling for the permanent “resettlement” of all Palestinians from Gaza earlier in the day, Trump said the US would “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip. The US president said he envisioned “long-term” US ownership of Gaza after Palestinians were moved elsewhere:
USAid staff put on leave – except those deemed essential
The Trump administration is placing US Agency for International Development direct-hire staffers around the world on leave, except those deemed essential, the Associated Press reports.
A notice posted online Tuesday gives the workers 30 days to return home, upending the aid agency’s six-decade mission overseas.
Thousands of USAid employees already had been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.
Elon Musk’s budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency had taken USAID’s website offline over the weekend as it steadily dismantled the agency, which has been a special target of Musk, Trump and Republicans in the first two-and-a-half weeks of Trump’s second term. The website came back online Tuesday night, with the notice of recall or termination for global staffers its sole post.
The move had been rumored for several days and was the most extreme of several proposals considered for consolidating the agency into the state department. Other options had included closures of smaller USAid missions and partial closures of larger ones.
The decision to withdraw direct-hire staff and their families earlier than their planned departures will probably cost the government tens of millions of dollars in travel and relocation costs.
Staff being placed on leave include both foreign and civil service officers who have legal protection against arbitrary dismissal and being placed on leave without reason.
The American Foreign Service Association, the union which represents US diplomats, sent a notice to its members denouncing the decision and saying it was preparing legal action to counter or halt it.
Locally employed USAid staff do not have much recourse and were excluded from the federal government’s voluntary buyout offer.
The notice says those who will exempted from leave include staffers responsible for “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” and would be informed by Thursday afternoon.
“Thank you for your service,” the notice concluded.
Updated
Donald Trump has vowed that US would “take over” war ravaged Gaza and “own it”, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in an announcement shocking even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency.
Trump, who has previously threatened Greenland and Panama and suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, added Gaza to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it could become the “Riviera of the Middle East” and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.
“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,” the president told a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday evening. “It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.”
Doge staffers enter Noaa headquarters and incite reports of cuts and threats
Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency.
“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”
Project 2025, written by several former Trump staffers, has called for the agency to be “broken up and downsized”, claiming the agency is “harmful to US prosperity” for its role in climate science.
Summary: Trump-Netanyahu press conference
Donald Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed reporters at the White House, where the US president announced his intention to take over the Gaza Strip, move Palestinians to neighbouring countries and redevelop the territory for occupation by “the world’s people”. Here are the main takeaways from their joint press conference on Tuesday evening:
In a shock announcement, Trump said the US will “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip. The US president said he envisioned a “long-term” US ownership of the territory after all Palestinians were moved elsewhere. He did not explain how and under what authority the US can take over the land of Gaza. “We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” he said. He said the US would “level” destroyed buildings and “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
The US president called Gaza a “symbol of death and destruction” and that the only reason people want to go back there is because they have nowhere else to go. The 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza should move to neighbouring countries with “humanitarian hearts” and “great wealth”, Trump said. Earlier he had called for Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states to take in Palestinians. He said they could be split up across a number of separate sites. Forced displacement of the population would probably be a violation of international law and would be fiercely opposed not only in the region but also by Washington’s western allies. Some human rights advocates liken the idea to ethnic cleansing.
He went on to say that Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live there, echoing the previous sentiments of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said Gaza had very valuable “waterfront property”.
Trump gave a vague answer when asked a question on whether he supported a two-state solution. Asked if his view that Palestinians should be relocated from Gaza was a sign that he was against the two-state policy that has been the foreign policy approach of the United States for decades, Trump said no. “It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or one state or any other state. It means that we want to have, we want to give people a chance at life,” he said. “They have never had a chance at life because the Gaza Strip has been a hellhole for people living there. It’s been horrible.”
Trump claimed high-level support among unnamed leaders he had spoken to. “This is not a decision made lightly,” he said, adding that “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.” He said the move would bring “great stability to that part of the Middle East”.
Trump did not rule out sending US troops to secure Gaza. “As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that,” he said. On Trump’s idea of taking over Gaza, Netanyahu said the US president “sees a different future for Gaza”, adding: “I think it’s something that could change history.”
Trump said he would probably announce a position on Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank in the next month. “We haven’t been taking the position on it yet,” he said. Trump added that he planned to visit the Gaza Strip, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu described Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”. The Israeli leader said “we have to finish the job in Gaza”, and said “Israel will end the war by winning the war.” Netanyahu praised Trump for “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas” and “showing willingness to puncture conventional thinking”.
The Saudi government, in a statement, stressed its rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinians from their land and said it would not establish relations with Israel without establishment of a Palestinian state. Meanwhile Hamas condemned Trump’s calls for Palestinians in Gaza to leave as “expulsion from their land”. The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said that world leaders and people should respect Palestinians’ desire to remain in Gaza.
Stunned US lawmakers have been responding to Donald Trump’s proposal to seize Gaza and expel its population.
While the White House sold Trump’s shocking announcement that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip” and take “a long-term ownership position” in the Palestinian territory” as proof of his “unwavering pursuit for peace”, current and former members of Congress expressed shock and outrage.
“He’s totally lost it. A US invasion of Gaza would lead to the slaughter of thousands of US troops and decades of war in the Middle East” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy wrote on X. It’s like a bad, sick joke.”
“I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza”, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Jewish Insider. “It might be problematic.”
“That’s insane”, Democratic Senator Chris Coons told NBC News. “ I can’t think of a place on earth that would welcome American troops less and where any positive outcome is less likely.”
Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat who has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza, was more open to the idea. “It’s a provocative part of the conversation, but it’s part of the conversation, and that’s where we are” Fetterman told Jewish Insider. “The Palestinians have refused, or they’ve been unwilling to deliver a government that provided security and economic development for themselves”.
Justin Amash, a former Republican member of Congress whose father was expelled from his home by Israeli forces in 1948, was appalled. “If the United States deploys troops to forcibly remove Muslims and Christians – like my cousins – from Gaza, then not only will the US be mired in another reckless occupation but it will also be guilty of the crime of ethnic cleansing” Amash wrote on X. “No American of good conscience should stand for this.”
Updated
The US International Trade Commission on Tuesday said it had canceled an ongoing multi-year investigation into the impact of trade policy on under-served communities and workers at the request of the Trump administration.
The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan federal agency told witnesses that it was canceling a hearing on the racial and diversity impacts of trade on Wednesday after the US Trade Representative’s office withdrew its request for the broader study. A copy of the email was seen by Reuters.
The agency had planned a total of six virtual hearings on the issue, including separate sessions on persistent poverty in rural areas and urban areas, and had planned in-person conversations in five US cities from March to May.
US judge blocks Trump administration from moving transgender women to men's prisons
A US judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from moving transgender women to men’s prisons and ending their gender-affirming care, Reuters reports.
In a broad ruling temporarily halting an executive order that Trump, a Republican, signed on his first day back in office on 20 January, US District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington found that three transgender inmates who sued would probably succeed in arguing the policy was unconstitutional.
The decision marked the second time that a federal judge had sided with LGBTQ legal rights groups who sued to prevent the U.S. Bureau of Prisons from implementing the order.
Lamberth’s order applies to all 16 transgender women currently housed in federal women’s prisons. It goes further than a 27 January decision by a federal judge in Boston blocking prison officials from transferring an individual transgender woman to a men’s facility.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department, which defended the Trump administration in court, declined to comment. The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Near the tail-end of the demonstration, news broke that the treasury said Musk’s team had been granted “read-only” access to “coded data” of the government’s payments system, according to Bloomberg.
In a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, Jonathan Blum, the treasury’s principal deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs, wrote that the system remains “robust and effective” and that no valid payment requests from government agencies had been rejected.
But that did little to quell protesters’ concerns about Musk’s involvement with systems in the first place, including many who were former federal contractors, such as Alexa Fraser, who worked in public health research.
“What protections did he turn off to get in there? Who has he sold it to?” she told the Guardian. “We have no reason to think his security situation is better now.”
Dave Stoakley, who drove more than two hours from central Virginia to protest, saw the situation as part of a larger pattern. “I think it’s an intentional dismantling of the government,” he said. “They’re throwing out the good with the bad.”
Blumenthal captured the crowd’s fears in stark terms: “Every American’s information is at risk. What does Elon Musk do with everything he touches? He makes money!”
Hundreds of protesters and a contingent of Democratic lawmakers rallied outside the Department of the Treasury in Washington on Tuesday, denouncing what they called Elon Musk’s “hostile takeover” of federal financial systems, as demonstrations spilled on to, and took over, the street outside the building.
The protests targeted reports of the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) team’s reported access to sensitive government financial data, including information related to social security payments, Medicare reimbursements, and tax refunds – systems that process trillions of dollars in annual transactions.
“He has access to all our information, our social security numbers, the federal payment system,” Representative Maxwell Frost told the crowd. “What’s going to stop him from stealing taxpayer money?”
About a dozen members of Congress, including Maxine Waters, Al Green, Ayanna Pressley, and senators Jeff Merkley and Richard Blumenthal, joined the condemnations. Jasmine Crockett’s voice boomed across the crowd: “We are not going to sit around while you go and desecrate our constitution. We are going to be in your face and on your asses!”
Minutes earlier, a handful of lawmakers, including Crockett, Pressley, Frost and Jamie Raskin, had attempted to get inside the treasury department before being rebuffed:
Here is the video of Trump saying Palestinians have “no alternative” but to “permanently” leave Gaza due to the devastation left by Israel. He described Gaza as a “pure demolition site” and added:
‘This has been happening for years. It’s all death”:
Outside the Treasury, protesters waved placards with slogans including: “Nobody Elected Musk” and “Bessent, you have 1 job!! Protect our money. You already failed.”
About three dozen Democratic members of the Senate and House of Representatives tried to enter the Treasury to confront Bessent on the issue but they said they were denied access.
“Elon Musk is seizing power from the American people. We are here to fight back,” said US Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Rebecca Weiss, who lives in suburban Maryland, told Reuters that she attended the protest because she is worried about what Musk will do with the payments data.
“He’s obviously a data guy, and now he has access, potentially, to everybody’s personal identifiable information, which he might take advantage of for his business purposes,” she said. “The bottom line is, we didn’t elect him. He’s muscled in illegally in a place that he’s not authorized.”
Democrats earlier on Tuesday vowed to push legislation to deny “special government employees” such as Musk access to sensitive government records.
US treasury says Musk's government efficiency team granted 'read-only' access to payment system codes
The US Treasury said on Tuesday that Elon Musk’s government-efficiency team has been granted “read-only access” to its payment system codes but denied that this cut off any government payments including for Social Security or Medicare, Reuters reports.
The confirmation of a Musk associate’s access to the system codes came in a letter from a Treasury official to Democratic Senator Ron Wyden that said the review was being undertaken to “maximize payment integrity for agencies and the public”.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has not commented on reports in recent days that Musk’s informal Department of Government Efficiency had gained access to the system responsible for disbursing more than $6tn of annual government spending.
Several thousand people gathered outside the Treasury on Tuesday to protest DOGE’s Treasury access amid his sweeping incursion into government operations, which this week led to the shutdown of the US Agency for International Development, merging its aid mission into the state department.
The payment system review “is not resulting in the suspension or rejection of any payment instructions submitted to Treasury by other federal agencies across the government.” Jonathan Blum, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Legislative Affairs wrote to Senator Ron Wyden, of Oregon.
“In particular, the review at the Fiscal Service has not caused payments for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare to be delayed or re-routed,” Blum’s letter said.
The DOGE team at Treasury conducting the review is led by technology firm chief executive Tom Krause, whom the letter described as a “Treasury employee.” Krause is CEO of Cloud Software Group, which owns former independent software firms Citrix and Tibco.
Wyden raised alarms over the weekend when reports first surfaced that a team under the direction of Musk, appointed by President Donald Trump to conduct a broad review of government operations.
“I’m sure the Treasury Secretary and the president want to save face and downplay the risks as Elon Musk seizes power, but nothing they’re saying is believable or trustworthy,” Wyden said in response to Blum’s letter.
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Senate confirms Pam Bondi as US attorney general
The Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as US attorney general Tuesday evening, putting a longtime ally of Trump’s at the helm of a Justice Department that has already been rattled by the firings of career employees seen as disloyal to the Republican president.
The vote fell almost entirely along party lines, with only Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, joining with all Republicans to pass her confirmation 54-46.
Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and corporate lobbyist, is expected to oversee a radical reshaping of the department that has been the target of Trump’s ire over the criminal cases it brought against him. She enters with the FBI, which she will oversee, in turmoil over the scrutiny of agents involved in investigations related to the president, who has made clear his desire to seek revenge on his perceived adversaries.
Republicans have praised Bondi as a highly qualified leader they contend will bring much-needed change to a department they believe unfairly pursued Trump through investigations resulting in two indictments.
Amnesty International criticizes US for not arresting Netanyahu, despite warrant
Amnesty International has described the US as, “showing contempt for international justice” by failing to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite the international criminal court issuing a warrant for his arrest in November last year.
He is wanted by the ICC to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In a series of posts on X, Amnesty wrote:
By welcoming Israeli PM Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the United States is showing contempt for international justice.
The Biden administration flouted any efforts at international justice for Palestine. Now, by not arresting Netanyahu or subjecting him to US investigations, President Trump is doubling down welcoming him as the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the inauguration
The US has a clear obligation under the Geneva conventions to search for & try or extradite persons accused of having committed or ordered the commission of war crimes. There must be no ‘safe haven’ for individuals alleged to have committed war crimes & crimes against humanity.
The US has been consistently provided with evidence that US-origin weapons contributed to war crimes, and the US continues to violate the obligation to prevent genocide knowing that its weapons are used as part of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Complying with ICC arrest warrants & pursuing accountability in domestic courts is crucial to bring to justice those responsible for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the continued dispossession and oppression of Palestinians under Israel’s unlawful occupation and system of apartheid
Trump holds press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
In a press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that ended a short while ago, US President Donald Trump called the Gaza Strip a “symbol of death and destruction” for many decades and an “unlucky” place.
He said Gaza should not “go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that … lived a miserable existence there.”
Instead, he says Palestinians should go to other countries, without naming any specific countries.
“It could be sites or it could be one large site” where people would live “in comfort and peace”, he said.
“They’re not going to be shot at and killed,” Trump says, claiming that the “only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is that they have no alternative”.
He said that “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.”
Asked whether US troops will be deployed to Gaza, Trump said
We’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re going to take over that place.
Trump said he couldn’t say whether the Gaza ceasefire will hold, adding that “we weren’t helped very much by the Biden administration”.
“We hope it holds,” he adds.
World leaders and people should respect Palestinians’ desire to remain in Gaza, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump said he believed people from the territory should be resettled elsewhere “permanently.”
“Our homeland is our homeland, if part of it is destroyed, the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people selected the choice to return to it,” said Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour. “And I think that leaders and people should respect the wishes of the Palestinian people.”
On Tuesday, Trump met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, with the US leader saying he believed Palestinians should leave Gaza after an Israeli offensive that has devastated the territory and left most of it reduced to rubble.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Trump said he wanted a solution that saw “a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes where they can be happy.”
At the United Nations, Mansour did not name Trump but appeared to reject the US president’s proposal.
“Our country and our home is” the Gaza Strip, “it’s part of Palestine,” he said. “We have no home. For those who want to send them to a happy, nice place, let them go back to their original homes inside Israel, there are nice places there, and they will be happy to return to these places.”
Who is Pam Bondi?
The Senate is heading towards a confirmation vote for Pam Bondi asUS attorney general this evening, potentially putting a longtime ally of Donald Trump at the helm of a Justice Department that has already been rattled by the firings of career employees seen as disloyal to the Republican president.
Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and corporate lobbyist, is expected to oversee a radical reshaping of the department that has been the target of Trump’s ire over the criminal cases it brought against him. She would enter with the FBI, which she would oversee, in turmoil over the scrutiny of agents involved in investigations related to the president, who has made clear his desire to seek revenge on his perceived adversaries.
Bondi has faced intense scrutiny over her close relationship with the president, who during his term fired an FBI director who refused to pledge loyalty to him and forced out an attorney general who recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign.
While Bondi has sought to reassure Democrats that politics would play no part in her decision-making, she also refused at her confirmation hearing last month to rule potential investigations into Trump’s adversaries. And she has repeated Trump’s claims that the prosecutions against him amounted to political persecution, saying the Justice Department “had been weaponized for years and years and years, and it’s got to stop.”
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
Donald Trump has called for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, casting it as a humanitarian move “to resettle people permanently”. Sitting alongside his longtime political ally, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House, Trump was asked how many people he believed should be resettled from Gaza. “All of them”, Trump replied.
Democratic congressional leaders assailed Elon Musk for operating a “shadow government” of billionaires and presented new legislation designed to curb his reach. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, previewed a bill aimed at preventing “unlawful access” to the treasury department’s payment systems, after staff members at Doge – Elon’s “department of government efficiency” – were granted entry.
Democratic members of Congress attempted to enter the treasury building to perform oversight into the activities of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, which has been granted access to sensitive information, including federal payment systems. In video posted on Bluesky and X from outside the treasury, Representatives Maxwell Frost, of Florida, and Jasmine Crockett, of Texas, explain that they are there to demand answers.
Donald Trump said he would support sending US citizens to serve time in overseas jails, after El Salvador’s president told secretary of state Marco Rubio he’d be willing to house prisoners from the United States.
Donald Trump just signed executive orders preventing the United States from providing support to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and ending its cooperation with the global body’s human rights council. He also signed an order to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran as his administration renews efforts to curb its nuclear program. The United States has had an on-again-off-again relationship with the UN human rights council, and is not currently a member. Trump’s executive order criticizes the body for anti-US bias. Under Joe Biden, the US also froze funding to Unrwa amid allegations some of its employees participated in the 7 October attack, and the order Trump signed prevents future funding to the agency.
Donald Trump reiterated that his administration would seek to dismantle the US Department of Education and leave standards at schools up to the individual states.
Taking questions in the Oval Office after he signed executive orders, Donald Trump confirmed that his administration will “wind down” USAid, and alleged fraud at the agency tasked with implementing the United States’s foreign aid agenda, Reuters reports. Politico reports that almost all USAid employees at its Washington DC headquarters will be put on leave on orders of the Trump administration.
CNN reports that the FBI has turned over to the justice department the names of thousands of FBI agents who worked on January 6-related cases, while officials connected to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” have been seen at the agency’s headquarters. The demand for the names came from Emil Bove, who is now the acting deputy attorney general after previously representing Donald Trump as he faced state and federal prosecutions during Joe Biden’s presidency.
A group of anonymous FBI employees who were involved in cases related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol or the criminal investigations of Donald Trump have filed a class action lawsuit against the justice department and the acting attorney general, James McHenry, over efforts to compile a list of employees who worked on these cases, which the agents fear could be used for termination or disciplinary action.
Donald Trump launched the opening salvo in his trade war by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to immediately slap its own levies on US imports and announce an anti-trust investigation of Google. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro raised hopes of a deal by saying the US president would speak with Xi Jinping today, but a US official has reportedly said that call is off.
The Senate’s finance committee voted to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination as health and human services secretary despite his peddling of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and Tulsi Gabbard won the support of two Republican holdouts ahead of the Senate intelligence committee’s vote on her nomination for director of national intelligence at about 2pm.
Approximately 20,000 federal workers have reportedly accepted the deferred resignation offer connected to Elon Musk, but that’s a far cry from his stated goal to trim the government workforce.
Updated
A full week after the claim was first made by his press secretary, Donald Trump again cited, without evidence, a supposed US government plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to send condoms to Gaza.
As the Guardian reported last Tuesday and Thursday, actual spending plans for the global distribution of contraceptives included no money at all for Gaza, and a UN agency that had its spending frozen by the state department said that none of the money was for condoms.
And yet, the unsourced White House claim, originally attributed to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has been repeated again and again in recent days.
On Monday, Trump said that his administration had blocked “$100 million on condoms to Hamas”. On Tuesday, when he was asked by reporters about Musk’s attempt to shutter the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), Trump said: “Look at all the fraud that he’s found in this USAid, the whole thing with a hundred million spent on you-know-what.”
Interestingly, when Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, showed reporters a list of examples of what she called wasteful spending by USAid on Monday, which was then posted on the White House website – and viewed by 30 million of Musk’s followers on his platform, X – it included a dozen programs or projects rightwing news outlets have objected to in the past, but no mention of condoms for Hamas, or anyone else in Gaza.
It will take reporters time to investigate all of those new examples, but we can report that one of them, the supposed spending of $70,000 for a “production of a ‘DEI musical’ in Ireland” appears to have been for something very different: a cultural festival that featured interviews with journalists and newsmakers as well as Irish music performances sponsored, in part, by the US embassy in Dublin.
Another of the new examples, described as “$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt”, also appears to have been misdescribed by the White House. The press release on the funding cited as evidence by the White House instead describes a grant initiated in 2019, during Trump’s first term, for “economic development” and “educational opportunities” for the people of the impoverished North Sinai. That region of Egypt is considered a priority for the US in large part because it borders Israel and Gaza.
Updated
Hundreds of high school students walked out of classes in Los Angeles to protest against deportations and rally outside city hall on Tuesday afternoon.
Here is video from an activist collective of the students, chanting “Sí, se puede!” the Spanish rallying cry of the United Farm Workers union in the 1970s that inspired Barack Obama’s English slogan “Yes we can”.
The students used the same slogan as they marched from Garfield high school in East LA, as seen in video from Centro CSO, a community group fighting for “all oppressed people in Boyle Heights & East LA”.
Updated
Ezra Levin, who founded and co-directs the grassroots organizing group Indivisible, has taken the mic at the Treasury rally and is leading the crowd in a chant of “Shut down the Senate!”
Levin demands that senators use all of the tools available to them to prevent the normal functioning of the Senate in response to “stop what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing to this country”.
Levin urges Democrats to go and talk to their Democratic senators and say: “Imagine you were Mitch McConnell in the minority, and then do what that asshole would do!”
Updated
Protesters remain outside outside the treasury as Democratic lawmakers continue to speak.
A live stream shows that Democrats who were denied entry to the treasury continue to rally against Elon Musk’s control of the US payment system as it gets dark.
“Trump is betraying the American voters when he gives this power to Musk,” Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico told a crowd of protesters.
Here is an image of the crowd from Leah Greenberg, a founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, the grassroots organizing group that urged protesters to come to the treasury.
Updated
As our colleagues on the Middle East live blog report, Donald Trump just called for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, casting it as a humanitarian move “to resettle people permanently”.
Sitting alongside his long-time political ally, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House, Trump was asked how many people he believed should be resettled from Gaza. “All of them”, Trump replied.
Updated
Democrats and protesters rally outside treasury department to protest Musk’s access
The message from Democrats gathered outside the Treasury building now is focused on the threat not from Donald Trump, but from the man they have identified as the self-appointed “co-president” Elon Musk.
“No one elected Elon Musk to nothing,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, said. “And yet Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people. We are here to fight back. This is no longer business as usual.”
“Elon Musk is here to collect on his investment,” in Donald Trump’s election, Warren said. “Musk has grabbed control of America’s payment system.”
That control of payment systems means, Warren said, Musk could decide whether or not to make social security payments to people who criticize him on X, or to doctors who provide treatment he does not approve of.
Earlier, Senator Chris Murphy was even more blunt. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the billionaires,” Murphy said. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the creepy 22-year-olds working for Elon.”
“We are taking back this country from Elon Musk,” Murphy concluded.
Updated
Here is a live feed of Democrats denouncing Elon Musk outside the treasury, from the YouTube channel of Senator Jeff Merkley, of Oregon.
Standing behind a podium with the slogan “Nobody Elected Elon!” and in front of someone holding a sign that reads “It’s a Coup”, Representative Maxine Waters of California just said Musk thinks he is “the co-president of the United States of America”.
Then she was more blunt, saying: “Nobody elected your ass.”
A few minutes earlier, Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, said: “I know some of y’all have been frustrated and you’ve been saying ‘Where are Democrats.’ Where are the leaders? We ain’t never left all. We are here … we are going to be in your face. We are going to be on your asses. We are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like. And this ain’t it.”
Updated
Democrats rally outside treasury building against Musk and Doge
Democratic members of Congress are attempting to enter the treasury building to perform oversight into the activities of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, which has been granted access to sensitive information, including federal payment systems.
In video posted on Bluesky and X from outside the treasury, Representatives Maxwell Frost, of Florida, and Jasmine Crockett, of Texas, explain that they are there to demand answers.
“We’re here because an unelected billionaire has access to the private information of our constituents, and we want answers”, Frost said.
“Oversight is going to do out job,” Crockett added. “We need to understand why it is that our Department of Treasury has been broken into.”
Representative Seth Magaziner, from Rhode Island, added: “We need to know who is in control of the treasury, what their permissions are, what their intentions are, and what they want to do with your money and your identity. We need answers now.”
“Zero people voted for Elon to run our government,” Frost wrote in an earlier post. “This is about oversight and transparency.”
Wired magazine reported early on Tuesday:
A 25-year-old engineer named Marko Elez, who previously worked for two Elon Musk companies, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the US government, three sources tell WIRED.
Two of those sources say that Elez’s privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a secure mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy.
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Stop the Steal: Democrats unveil bill to counter Musk's 'shadow government'
Democratic Congressional leaders assailed Elon Musk for operating a “shadow government” of billionaires and unveiled new legislation designed to curb his reach.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, previewed a bill aimed at preventing “unlawful access” to the treasury department’s payment systems, after staff members at Doge – Elon’s “department of government efficiency” – were granted entry.
The measure, titled the bill Stop the Steal – a tongue-in-cheek reference to Trump’s baseless election fraud campaign, has little chance of passing, but is part of the Democrats’ efforts to push back against the Trump administration.
“Our belief is there’s a real danger, a terrible, terrible danger and a looming danger that they will not only have access to American privacy information, but that they will use that to cut programs left and right,” Schumer said.
The sensitive payment systems are used to pay the government’s bills, including the distribution of social security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal employees, tax refunds, among countless other functions.
“It’s unfortunate that many of our Republican colleagues are determined to stand up a shadow government of the billionaires, by the billionaires and for the billionaires that will stick it to the American people,” Jeffries said.
Schumer added: “Our message to the president is it’s exactly the opposite of what he’s campaigned on. It’s going to hurt voters, across the board, people who voted for him, people who voted against him, people who didn’t vote. And look, whenever he’s ready to talk to us, we’re ready to talk to him.”
The Democratic leaders appealed to the public for support in pushing back against Trump’s most controversial and potentially unlawful moves: “It’s an all hands on deck effort,” Jeffries said.
Many progressives and community advocates have expressed dismay over the Democratic party’s relatively muted and disjointed response to the Trump administration’s blitz of orders and actions. This week, the leaders have been much more visible and vocal about the measures they are taking to hold the line.
“We are working on this and pushing back on all fronts,” Jeffries said.
They claimed Trump’s decision to rescind a memo freezing all federal funds as an early victory. Public backlash led the administration to hold off after the directive unleashed chaos across the federal government. And Schumer said public outcry helped push Trump to accept a one-month delay in his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
Schumer pledged to use the filibuster – requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation in the Senate – as a backstop and as leverage while also using the authority they have to conduct Congressional oversight. Keeping the public informed will be essential, he added.
“The roots of democracy are still deep,” he said. “And when the public is really outraged by things, there is a response.”
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Trump proposes sending US criminals to foreign jails
Donald Trump said he would support sending US citizens to serve time in overseas jails, after El Salvador’s president told secretary of state Marco Rubio he’d be willing to house prisoners from the United States.
“In an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country, President Bukele offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals, including US citizens and legal residents,” Rubio said on Twitter/X earlier today, after meeting with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American country.
Asked about the idea in the Oval Office, Trump said:
These are sick people. If we could get them out of our country, we have other countries that would take them. They could. It’s no different than a prison system, except it would be a lot less expensive and it would be a great deterrent send them to other countries ...
If we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don’t know if we do or not. We’re looking at that right now, but we could make deals where we’d get these animals out of our country.
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Trump backs ending education department, wants to 'let the states run schools'
Donald Trump reiterated that his administration would seek to dismantle the US Department of Education and leave standards at schools up to the individual states.
Referring to Linda McMahon, his to-be-confirmed nominee to lead the department, Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office:
I told Linda, Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. … So we’re ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right? We’re ranked number one in cost per pupil, so we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked at the bottom of the list. We’re ranked very badly. And what I want to do is let the states run schools.
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Trump says he will 'wind down' USAid
Taking questions in the Oval Office after he signed executive orders, Donald Trump confirmed that his administration will “wind down” USAid, and alleged fraud at the agency tasked with implementing the United States’s foreign aid agenda, Reuters reports.
The president added that Elon Musk, who he has put in charge of the effort, is doing a “great job”.
Trump stops future US funding to Unrwa, ends cooperation with UN human rights council
Donald Trump just signed executive orders preventing the United States from providing support to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, and ending its cooperation with the global body’s human rights council.
He also signed an order to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran as his administration renews efforts to curb its nuclear program.
The United States has had an on-again-off-again relationship with the UN human rights council, and is not currently a member. Trump’s executive order criticizes the body for anti-US bias.
Under Joe Biden, the US also froze funding to Unrwa amid allegations some of its employees participated in the 7 October attack, and the order Trump signed prevents future funding to the agency.
We have a separate live blog covering the latest news in the Middle East, and you can follow it here:
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Trump to put nearly all USAid staffers at headquarters on leave – report
Politico reports that almost all USAid employees at its Washington DC headquarters will be put on leave on orders of the Trump administration.
The move comes after officials from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” gained access to secure information in the organization, over the objections of two security officials who were subsequently put on leave. Hundreds of employees were then told they were on leave over the weekend, and the Trump administration plans to tell much of the rest of its staff the same in the hours to come.
Here’s more, from Politico:
A person familiar with the situation said some 1,400 people will be notified Tuesday, on top of about 600 who were placed on leave starting Sunday night. That amounts to the majority of Washington-based staff – many of them civil and Foreign Service officers, the person said.
A senior USAID official said the agency’s human resources department said in a meeting Tuesday morning that it had already revoked system access for more than 1,400 staffers – an indication that they are likely about to be notified they’re being put on leave.
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Senate committee approves Tulsi Gabbard's nomination as national intelligence director
The Senate intelligence committee has approved former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.
The committee’s Republican chair Tom Cotton announced the outcome of the behind-closed-doors vote on X:
I’m pleased that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence. Once confirmed, I look forward to working with Ms. Gabbard to keep America safe and to bring badly needed reforms to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
He did not reveal the tally of the vote. The panel’s Democrats were not expected to support Gabbard over her statements on foreign policy seen as deferential to US adversaries like Russia.
Gabbard awaits confirmation by the full Senate.
The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has condemned the Trump administration’s purge of top FBI officials, saying the move undermines national security and the bureau’s efforts to fight drug trafficking.
Several top officials, including assistant directors at the bureau in charge of intelligence, counter-terrorism and science and technology, were among those forced out last week, Virginia senator Mark Warner said in a statement.
“These are people who have served our country, protected Americans, and put criminals behind bars. Now they have been pushed out simply for doing their jobs. As we deal with a myriad of threats – to our homeland, to our cyber networks, to our economic competitiveness – this blatant abuse of power is making us all less safe,” Warner said.
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CNN reports that the FBI has turned over to the justice department the names of thousands of FBI agents who worked on January 6-related cases, while officials connected to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” have been seen at the agency’s headquarters.
The demand for the names came from Emil Bove, who is now the acting deputy attorney general after previously representing Donald Trump as he faced state and federal prosecutions during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Here’s more, from CNN:
The demand has caused consternation among FBI employees who fear it is meant to amass a list of personnel for possible termination by the Trump administration.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, in a Friday memo with the subject line “Terminations,” had given FBI officials a noon deadline Tuesday to submit the names of thousands of agents and analysts. Bove previously ordered the firing of eight senior FBI officials, including those who oversaw cyber, national security and criminal investigations.
More than 5,000 names were submitted, sources said. There are more than 13,000 agents and 38,000 total FBI employees.
Meanwhile, officials dispatched by Elon Musk have been seen at FBI headquarters. Musk has headed up efforts by President Donald Trump’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Unions representing federal workers have begun a legal counterattack to Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency” accessing government computer systems, the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports:
Three federal employee unions are suing the Trump administration, alleging that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been granted unprecedented and potentially illegal access to sensitive government records.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court, claims that the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, violated federal privacy laws by giving Musk’s team full access to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s confidential payment systems.
Within days of Bessent’s appointment, the bureau’s top career official, David A Lebryk, was placed on administrative leave after reportedly resisting Doge’s data access requests. Lebryk subsequently announced his retirement, according to the lawsuit.
The unions argue that millions of Americans’ personal data – including social security numbers, tax returns and payment details – could be at risk.
“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the complaint reads.
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The Senate has confirmed Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs.
According to the Associated Press, Collins was confirmed on a 77-23 vote.
Collins, a former air force chaplain and former Georgia representative who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, pledged during his 21 January hearing to “take care of the veterans” should he succeed in the confirmation process.
“I’m an Iraq war veteran,” he said during his hearing, “I understand burn pits because I slept next to one for many months. I understand this generation that went time and time and again, deployment after deployment in a different way than we’d seen many times before in our past wars.”
Collins served in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021.
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FBI employees sue government over efforts to compile a list of employees who worked on Jan 6 or Trump cases
A group of anonymous FBI employees who were involved in cases related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol or the criminal investigations of President Donald Trump have filed a class action lawsuit against the justice department and the acting attorney general, James McHenry, over efforts to compile a list of employees who worked on these cases, which the agents fear could be used for termination or disciplinary action.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, states that on 2 February, the FBI employees were instructed to fill out a survey that would identify their specific role in the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.
It adds that some employees were required to fill out the survey themselves, whereas others were told that their supervisors would be filling out the form.
“Plaintiffs were informed that the aggregated information is going to be forwarded to upper management” the complaint reads, adding that they believe that “the purpose for this list is to identify agents to be terminated or to suffer other adverse employment action”.
The lawsuit states that the employees “fear that all or parts of this list might be published by allies of President Trump, thus placing themselves and their families in immediate danger of retribution by the now pardoned and at-large Jan. 6 convicted felons”.
The complaint alleges that the gathering, retention, and disclosure of the employees activities related to the acts of President Trump “is a violation of Plaintiffs’ rights under the First Amendments to the Constitution”.
The employees also allege that it is a “violation of Plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment substantive and due process rights” and the “publication or dissemination of the information in these surveys would be a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974”.
“Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek to enjoin the publication or dissemination of these surveys, or any information derived therefrom,” it states.
This comes as last week, the FBI’s acting director, Brian Driscoll, said that he had been directed by the acting deputy attorney general to provide a list of names of all current and former agents who had ever been assigned to investigate or prosecute January 6 attack cases.
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The assistant commissioner of a division within the General Services Administration (GSA) reportedly informed staff this week that layoffs across the federal government are “likely” after the resignation offer expires on Thursday, according an email obtained by the Washington Post.
In the email obtained by the Post, Erv Koehler, the assistant commissioner of general supplies and services at GSA, reportedly expressed that he empathized with the “tough decisions you each are having to make” and encouraged staff to “focus on making the best decision for you and your particular situation”.
He said that GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service “is being asked” to cut its program by 50%.
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Senator Bernie Sanders, a member of the finance committee, denounced Robert F Kennedy’s views on vaccines after voting against advancing the cabinet pick’s nomination as HHS secretary.
“There are a few issues that Mr Kennedy and I agree on,” the Vermont progressive said in a statement. “We agree on the need to lower the outrageous prices we pay for prescription drugs in this country. We agree that we should stop Big Pharma from being allowed to flood the airwaves with advertising.
“But, despite those agreements, I cannot in good conscience vote for someone who denies and will dilute our public health protections, sow distrust in science and oversee massive cuts to health care programs for low-income people, nursing home care for seniors and long-term care for people with disabilities.”
Sanders specifically pointed to Kennedy’s baseless claims that vaccines can cause autism and that the polio vaccine has killed some of its recipients as evidence of the nominee’s lack of credentials to lead HHS.
“Despite what Mr Kennedy believes, the overwhelming consensus within the scientific community is clear: Vaccines are safe and effective,” Sanders said. “We must reject Mr Kennedy’s nomination.”
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The day so far
Donald Trump launched the opening salvo in his trade war by imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to immediately slap its own levies on US imports and announce an anti-trust investigation of Google. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro raised hopes of a deal by saying the US president would speak with Xi Jinping today, but a US official has reportedly said that call is off. Meanwhile, Trump appears set to get the cabinet he wants, after two of his more controversial nominees hit crucial milestones in their Senate confirmation process. The chamber’s finance committee voted to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination as health and human services secretary despite his peddling of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and Tulsi Gabbard won the support of two Republican holdouts ahead of the Senate intelligence committee’s vote on her nomination for director of national intelligence around 2pm.
Here’s what else has been doing on:
About 20,000 federal workers have reportedly accepted the deferred resignation offer connected to Elon Musk, but that’s a far cry from his stated goal to trim the government workforce.
Trump will later today meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making him the first foreign leader to visit the White House since he was sworn in again.
Pam Bondi’s nomination for attorney general is set to get voted on by the Senate today. Democrats are concerned she will use the justice department to go after Trump’s enemies, but Bondi appears to have the support needed to be confirmed.
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Trump, Xi call no longer expected today – report
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will not be speaking today after all, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a US official.
White House trade adviser Pete Navarro had earlier in the day said that the two leaders will speak. The conversation raised the possibility of a similar deal to the one Trump reached with Canada and Mexico’s leaders yesterday, where both agreed to additional border security steps in exchange for a month-long reprieve from 25% tariffs on imports to the United State that otherwise would have begun at midnight.
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Republican Senate leader John Thune said the chamber is expected to vote on Pam Bondi’s nomination as attorney general later today.
Bondi was picked for the role after Donald Trump’s initial choice, former congressman Matt Gaetz, dropped out amid reports of sexual misconduct that were later substantiated by a House ethics committee report. Democrats fear that Bondi, a former state attorney general in Florida, will use the justice department to pursue Trump’s enemies. Here’s a look back at her confirmation hearing:
Trump expected to speak to China's Xi today after outbreak of trade war
Donald Trump is expected to speak with China’s president Xi Jinping today, hours after the two countries levied tariffs on each other.
The Trump administration ordered 10% tariffs on Chinese goods to begin at midnight today, prompting Beijing to immediately announce an anti-trust investigation into US tech giant Google and retaliatory levies on imported American coal, liquified natural gas and petroleum, as well as some vehicles.
“Let’s see what happens with the call today,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said in a live interview with Politico.
Trump had imposed similar levies on Canada and Mexico, but backed off before they went into effect after speaking with each country’s leader on Monday and securing commitments that he said would improve security on their shared borders. Here’s more about the new trade turmoil between the United States and China:
Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr are both former Democrats, and faced the most skepticism of any of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.
But both appear on course for confirmation, after a Senate committee advanced Kennedy’s nomination this morning, and two Republican holdouts announced their support for Gabbard ahead of a crucial vote this afternoon. It now appears likely that Trump will win confirmation of all of his cabinet picks – here’s a rundown of who he nominated, who has been confirmed, and who is still awaiting their votes in the Senate:
Tulsi Gabbard picks up support from key GOP senator for intelligence director post
Republican senator Todd Young says he will support former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as director of national intelligence, greatly increasing the likelihood she will be confirmed.
Young was the last known Republican holdout on advancing Gabbard through the Senate intelligence committee. Democrats have condemned the former congresswoman for her comments supporting Vladimir Putin, and for her meeting with Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad, while Republicans were displeased with her refusal to condemn Edward Snowden at a hearing last week.
On X, Young wrote that Gabbard has alleviated his concerns:
I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership.
I have done what the Framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, which is my top priority as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer.
Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security.
Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, condemned the potential confirmation of Robert F Kennedy to lead the department of health and human services as a “grave threat to the health of the American people”.
“Mr Kennedy has given us no reason to believe he’ll be anything other than a rubber stamp for plans to gut Medicaid and rip health care away from the American people, and a yes-man if ordered by [Donald Trump] or [Elon Musk] to take an illegal action,” Wyden said.
“I agree that the health care status quo needs substantial changes to better serve patients. So the question in front of us this morning is pretty simple: do Senators want their legacy to include disregarding basic health science and instead of elevating conspiracy theorists?”
The chair of the Senate finance committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, applauded Robert F Kennedy’s appearance last week, when the nominee faced Democrats’ pointed questions about his past comments attacking vaccines and his flip-flopping on abortion access.
“He has spent his career fighting to end America’s chronic illness epidemic and has been a leading advocate for health care transparency, both for patients and for taxpayers,” Crapo said.
“Mr Kennedy has proven his commitment to the role of secretary of the HHS, and I will vote in favor of his nomination. I strongly encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same.”
Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican of Louisiana, said he decided to support Robert F Kennedy’s nomination after “very intense conversations” with the cabinet pick over the weekend and up until this morning.
“I want to thank VP JD specifically for his honest counsel,” Cassidy said in a social media post. “With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.”
Cassidy’s support likely guarantees that Kennedy will be confirmed as the next secretary of health and human services when his nomination comes up for a final vote on the Senate floor, which is expected to occur in the coming days.
Senate committee advances Robert F Kennedy's nomination to lead health and human services department
The Senate finance committee has voted to advance Robert F Kennedy’s nomination as the next secretary of health and human services, with Republicans on the committee unanimously backing the cabinet pick.
One Republican on the committee, senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, was considered a potential no vote on Kennedy, but joined his colleagues in favorably reporting the nomination ahead of the floor vote.
The vote to advance fell along party lines, with 14 Republicans supporting the nomination and 13 Democrats opposing it.
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About 20,000 federal workers accepted Trump buyout offer – report
The number of federal workers who have accepted a deferred resignation offer connected to Elon Musk’s effort to downsize the government at Donald Trump’s behest is about 20,000, Axios reports.
However, a senior administration official expects that figure to rise. “We expect more to come. If you see what’s happening at USAID, it’s just one piece of the puzzle”, the official told the outlet.
That total is about 1%, well below the 5% to 10% reduction that Trump is reportedly targeting, and not far from the federal government’s usual yearly attrition rate of 6%, Axios reports.
The unusual offer of deferred resignations for all federal workers – under which they will continue getting paid until September but don’t have to work and are allowed to find other jobs – has been attacked by unions and many workers as a dangerous assault on the civil services that keeps the government running:
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Donald Trump has posted a message of support for Robert F Kennedy Jr ahead of a vote in the Senate finance committee on whether to advance his nomination to lead the health and human services department.
Pointing to an increase in the rate of diagnoses of autism in children, the president wrote on Truth Social:
Something’s really wrong. We need BOBBY!!! Thank You! DJT
The Senate finance committee will convene at 10am to vote on Kennedy’s nomination.
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Trump to meet with Netanyahu at White House
Donald Trump will today welcome Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, in the US president’s first meeting with a foreign leader since taking office.
The war in Gaza and the implementation of the ceasefire deal that has largely halted hostilities and seen Israel release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages take on 7 October will likely be top of Trump and Netanyahu’s agenda. Citing a senior administration official, Reuters reports that the leaders will also discuss the possibility of Israel normalizing relations with other countries, including Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive at 4pm ET, and later hold a press conference with Trump at 5.10pm, the White House said.
Tulsi Gabbard’s chances of being approved by the Senate intelligence committee received a boost last night, when Republican senator Susan Collins announced she would support advancing her nomination as director of national intelligence.
“After extensive consideration of her nomination, I will support Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence,” said Collins, who represents Maine and is one of the most vulnerable GOP senators up for re-election in 2026.
“As one of the principal authors of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 that established this coordinating position, I understand the critical role the DNI plays in the Intelligence Community. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, however, has become far larger than it was designed to be, and Ms Gabbard shares my vision of returning the agency to its intended size. In response to my questions during our discussion in my office and at the open hearing, as well as through her explanation at the closed hearing before the Senate intelligence committee, Ms Gabbard addressed my concerns regarding her views on Edward Snowden. I look forward to working with Ms Gabbard to strengthen our national security.”
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Senate committee to vote on Tulsi Gabbard's nomination for intelligence director
The Senate intelligence committee is set to today vote on whether to advance former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as director of national intelligence.
The one-time Democrat has faced blowback for statements supportive of Vladimir Putin and visit to Syria’s now-ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, and is expected to pick up support only from Republicans on the panel. The vote will be taken behind closed doors.
The GOP controls the Senate and has a one-seat majority on the committee. If Gabbard’s nomination founders, it may be because of her comments regarding Edward Snowden, as the Guardian’s Robert Tait reported last week:
Donald Trump’s support means a lot in Washington these days, but Robert F Kennedy Jr faces headwinds more significant than others nominated by the president.
A sign of those could be found in the editorial pages of the conservative New York Post this morning, which wrote:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s two-day Senate confirmation hearing should remove all doubt: He’s absolutely unfit to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
His testimony did nothing to change anyone’s mind about that.
Take his refusal to deny a link between vaccines and autism — despite mountains of scientific evidence refuting any such connection.
“Will you reassure mothers — unequivocally and without qualification — that the measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism?” the would-be HHS boss was asked.
“If you show me data, I will be the first person to assure the American people that they need to take those vaccines,” he responded.
Uh, has he heard of Google?
We’ll see if that sways Republican senators.
Robert F Kennedy faces key Senate vote for health chief nomination
Robert F Kennedy’s candidacy to lead the health and human services department faces a crucial test on at 10am ET, when the Senate finance committee votes on whether to advance his nomination.
Kennedy has a long history of espousing conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine views, and it’s unclear if enough Republicans on the panel will back his nomination, despite the support of Donald Trump.
Even if the committee declines to advance him, the full Senate can still decide to vote to confirm Kennedy. Here’s a look back at how his confirmation hearing went last week:
NBC News is reporting that secretary of state Marco Rubio is set to appoint Pete Marocco to head up USAid, and to review all the work the agency is undertaking.
Marocco is director of foreign assistance at the state department, and has been tied to the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
NBC News quoted an anonymous USAid staff member who told the news network “He hasn’t been responsible for building anything ever. He’s very good at turning things off and questioning things and making people feel uncomfortable. He’s taken apart a lot of things.”
Marocco held a role at USAid among a number of other positions during Donald Trump’s first term of office.
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Norway’s newly appointed finance minister Jens Stoltenberg has said his country will work closely with the European Union if the Trump administration raises tariffs against European trade.
Stoltenberg, who was secretary general of Nato from 2014 to 2024, said that his preference was for dialogue with the US and that his country would do everything it could to avoid tariffs being placed on its trade, Reuters reports.
Norway is not a member of the EU, but it is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) which allows Norway to participate in the EU’s single market.
Michael Sainato is labor reporter for Guardian US
US government workers are describing an atmosphere of “fear” and “madness” as they grapple with a barrage of executive orders issued by Donald Trump and threats to their jobs from the office of personnel management, the agency tasked with managing the federal civil service, which has been taken over by the billionaire Elon Musk.
Weeks before the administration transition, federal worker unions reported low morale among workers in anticipation of pushes for intimidation, mass firings and harassment.
“I don’t think anybody expected things to escalate quite as quickly as this,” said Justin Chen, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local 1003, which represents employees at the Environmental Protection Agency in Texas.
He said that the office of personnel management had not sent out mass emails to agencies and employees before, and when he first saw the email, he thought it was a phishing attempt.
“It appears as if there is an unelected billionaire more or less running the federal government right now, who none of us voted for, who seems to be breaking both [the] law and potentially the constitution all over the place,” added Chen.
“It appears that the richest man in the world is literally causing most of the problems for my membership – and no one elected him. Quite frankly, who’s the president right now? Who’s actually running the show?”
Read more of Michael Sainato’s report here: ‘It’s been madness’: US federal workers reeling over Trump-Musk takeover
Trump expected to stop US engagement with UN human rights council and continue Unrwa funding pause
Donald Trump is expected on Tuesday to stop US engagement with the UN human rights council and continue a halt to funding for the UN’s Palestinian relief agency (Unrwa), a White House official has said.
The move coincides with a visit to Washington by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accused the agency of anti-Israel incitement and its staff of being “involved in terrorist activities against Israel” (you can keep up with the latest Middle East news in this blog)
Unrwa, which has denied such allegations, is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region. A ban preventing Unrwa from operating in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel came into effect last week after the Israeli parliament voted in favour of it late last year.
The US was the agency’s biggest donor – providing $300m-$400m a year – but Joe Biden paused funding last January after Israel accused some Unrwa staff of taking part in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. The US Congress then formally suspended contributions to Unrwa until at least March 2025.
The UN last year investigated Israel’s claim that 19 Unrwa workers took part in the 7 October attack, and fired nine of those accused, but said Israel had not provided evidence to substantiate its broader allegations.
During Trump’s first term in office, from 2017-2021, he also cut off funding for Unrwa, questioning its value, and saying that Palestinians needed to agree to renew peace talks with Israel, and calling for unspecified reforms.
The first Trump administration also quit the 47-member human rights council halfway through a three-year term over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. The US is not currently a member of the Geneva-based body. Under the Biden administration, the US was re-elected and served a 2022-2024 term.
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How is USAid funded?
USAid was established in 1961 by Democratic president John F Kennedy at the height of the cold war with the aim of better coordinating foreign assistance, already a key platform of US foreign policy in countering Soviet influence.
It now administers about 60% of US foreign assistance and disbursed $43.79bn in the 2023 fiscal year. According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report this month, its workforce of 10,000, about two-thirds of whom serve overseas, assisted about 130 countries. USAid is funded by Congress, based on administration requests.
The CRS said USAid helps “strategically important countries and countries in conflict; leads US efforts to alleviate poverty, disease, and humanitarian need; and assists US commercial interests by supporting developing countries’ economic growth and building countries’ capacity to participate in world trade”.
Its top aid recipients in 2023 were Ukraine, Ethiopia, Jordan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria.
Now some news away from the tariffs. Hours after re-entering the White House on 20 January, Donald Trump ordered a sweeping review of almost all US foreign aid and tasked billionaire Elon Musk with scaling down the United States Agency for International Development (USAid), responsible for distributing billions of dollars in aid around the world.
Since then, dozens of USAid staff has been put on leave and hundreds of internal contractors have been laid off.
The new administration, which has been highly critical of the agency, plans to merge the USAID, which manages almost $43bn in food, humanitarian and other aid, including clean water programs and the provision of medicines, with the state department. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, declared himself the acting administrator of USAid on Monday, in order to “align” it with Trump’s priorities.
Rubio said that a lot of functions of the organisation “are going to continue”.
“They’re going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy,” he told reporters in El Salvador.
Here is an extract from a story from my colleague Richard Luscombe about the ways in which Trump and Elon Musk are taking aim at USAid and what the implications are for global aid programmes:
USAid is the world’s largest single donor. In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72bn of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/Aids treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work. It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.
Trump has ordered a global freeze on most US foreign aid as part of his “America first” policy that is already sending shock waves around the world. Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.
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Market reaction to Trump's tariff plans
Here is a breakdown of how some markets reacted to Trump’s tariff plans on Tuesday, as reported by my colleagues in this story:
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng share index jumped by almost 2.8%, while South Korea’s Kospi rose by 1.3%. The FTSE 100 fell 31 points to 8,551 shortly after opening in London.
Sterling dropped by half a cent against the US dollar to $1.24, while the euro was down a similar amount at $1.03.
The Canadian dollar, which slumped to a 20-year low on Monday before rebounding, weakened – to 1.445 to the dollar.
Chinese markets remain closed because of the lunar new year holiday and will reopen on Wednesday.
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Leaders from the 27-strong bloc of EU countries are bracing themselves for Donald Trump announcing tariffs on them.
The US president has long complained about the size of the US trade deficit with the EU and has demanded Europe import more American cars and farm products.
Luxembourg’s foreign minister Xavier Bettel said this morning that Trump will be constructive in trade talks with the EU, in order to avoid a damaging trade war and pushing up inflation in the American economy.
“All the European products, if they have to pay much more, at the end of the day, it’s inflation. And I think that Donald Trump has been elected also to reduce inflation, not to raise inflation,” Bettel said before a meeting of EU ministers in Warsaw.
The EU will retaliate with comparable tariffs if the US imposes tariffs on European products, Bettel added.
Updated
Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba will meet Donald Trump on a visit to the US this week, according to a senior government spokesperson.
Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday:
If circumstances permit, he will visit the United States from February 6-8 and hold (his) first face-to-face Japan-US summit meeting with President Trump in Washington DC.
Through this visit we hope to build a strong relationship of trust with the new US administration and take the US-Japan alliance to new heights.
Ishiba reportedly wants to discuss increasing imports of US shale gas with Trump who has pledged to cut gas prices by boosting domestic oil production.
Japan maintains a sizable trade surplus with the US but has expressed fears about the consequences of Trump’s tariffs for the global economy.
Over the weekend, Japanese finance minister, Katsunobu Kato, told Fuji TV: “We’re deeply concerned about how these tariffs could affect the world’s economy.”
“Japan needs to scrutinise these policies and their effects, and take appropriate measures,” he said.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to target the EU next after announcing punishing import tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. He also warned the UK is “out of line” in its trade with the US but indicated that the imbalance could be “worked out”.
Downing Street has said Britain and the US had “a fair and balanced trading relationship which benefits both sides of the Atlantic” but officials in London fear this may be insufficient to safeguard the UK from tariffs.
The Guardian’s economics correspondent, Richard Partington, has written this useful explainer about what is at stake for the UK and EU if Trump decides to target their exports with tariffs. Here is a snippet from his piece:
Should Trump impose tariffs on the EU, some countries are likely to be hit harder than others. Germany has by far the most goods exports, worth €158bn (£131bn) in 2023. The Netherlands imports the most goods from the US, worth €76bn.
However, the proportion of exports to the US relative to total trade also varies significantly between EU member states. Ireland has by far the largest share, at more than 25%. Germany and Italy’s trade with the US is worth about 10% of their global totals, while east European nations have lower shares.
On trade, the EU takes collective action. Emmanuel Macron has said the bloc will stand up for itself if it is targeted. The UK now negotiates alone after Brexit.
As we mentioned in a previous post, China’s competition watchdog said earlier today that it had launched an investigation into Google over alleged antitrust violations.
While the announcement did not specifically mention any tariffs, it came just minutes after Trump’s 10% tariffs were to take effect.
There is not much more detail about the investigation or the allegations against the US tech giant, but here is a bit of background on Google’s operations in China.
Google products such as its search engine are blocked in China, but it works with local partners in the country to provide apps and games to the Chinese market.
In 2011, Google abandoned its Chinese-language search engine in the mainland and transferred it to Hong Kong. By 2014, China blocked the last remaining way to access Google’s email service Gmail.
China has used antitrust regulation to target US companies in the past.
In December, Beijing announced an antitrust probe into US chip juggernaut Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, in a move that was widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington’s curbs on the Chinese chip sector.
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Summary
Here are today’s key developments:
China on Tuesday slapped tariffs on US imports in a rapid response to new US duties on Chinese goods, renewing a trade war between the world’s top two economies as President Donald Trump sought to punish China for not halting the flow of illicit drugs.
Trump’s additional 10% tariff across all Chinese imports into the US came into effect at midnight on Tuesday. Within minutes, China’s Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for US coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos. The new tariffs on US exports will start on 10 February, the ministry said.
Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is imposing export controls on critical minerals tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.
China also announced a probe into Google, moments after the deadline for the US imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods passed. China will investigate the US tech company for alleged anti-trust violations, according to a brief statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation.
And Beijing filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization “to defend its legitimate rights and interests” in response to the US tariffs.
New York attorney general Letitia James on Monday told hospitals that they would be violating state law if they stop offering gender-affirming care for people under age 19 in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at curtailing federal funding for such treatments, the Associated Press reports.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.
Trump announced he’s planning to appoint Michael Ellis and the deputy director of the CIA. Ellis is a close Trump ally and worked in the president’s previous administration and helped fight allegations of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.
The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five US universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.
The US Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary. The vote was 59-38. Wright, 60, the CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 has said he will step down from the company once confirmed. He wrote in a Liberty report last year that he believes human-caused climate change is real, but that its hazards are “distant and uncertain”. He has also said that top-down governmental policies to curb it are destined to fail.
The US interior department has unveiled a suite of orders aimed at carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda to maximise domestic energy and minerals production and slash red tape, Reuters reports. In a statement, the agency said interior secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, signed six orders on his first day in office.
Trump has invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week, a White House official said, hours after a US military plane departed to return deported migrants to the country.
Senator Susan Collins, a republican from Maine, said she’ll vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. Collins is a key swing vote and her support brings Gabbard’s nomination close to being sealed.
Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, in alignment with mandates from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to slash federal agencies.
Musk’s Doge reportedly accessed administration systems for the federal Small Business Administration. It has also reportedly accessed secure information at USAid and the Treasury department. According to Wired, Musk has reportedly deployed six young men to lead Doge’s efforts to access federal government data.
The Trump administration made plain its intent to merge USAid with the state department under Musk’s supervision. Employees were barred from the agency headquarters today, after the website was shuttered over the weekend. Several democrats cried foul, calling the act illegal and denouncing Musk.
The Trump administration may begin using an obscure 18th-century law to deport undocumented migrants without first going through the courts.
Darren Beattie, a former White House official who wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” is reportedly set for a top role at the state department.
China files complaint with World Trade Organization
Beijing on Tuesday said it had filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization “to defend its legitimate rights and interests” in response to hiked US tariffs on Chinese goods.
“China has filed a case against the US tariff measures under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,” the commerce ministry said in a statement, adding the US actions were of a “malicious nature”.
What are tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium and molybdenum - the elements whose export China is restricting?
Among the measures announced by China in response to US tariffs on Chinese goods coming into effect is export controls on certain natural elements.
China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.
Tungsten, tellurium, molybdenum and ruthenium are critical minerals – materials that are essential for advanced technologies, clean energy, and national security, according to the Australian National University and US Geological Survey.
Tungsten is among the rarest elements on earth and is used in fluorescent lamps and the aerospace industry, as well as in wear-resistant metals. Tellerium is used in solar panels. Ruthenium is used in solar cells and in electrical contacts and chip resistors in computers. Among molybdenum’s uses is in jet engines.
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China adds US companies to Unreliable Entity List
China has also announced it is adding the US companies PVH Group and Illumina, Inc. to the Unreliable Entity List.
PVH Group is an American clothing company which owns brands including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. Illumina Inc is a biotech company specialising in genomic sequencing, which recently partnered with Nvidia on health related AI tech.
“The above two entities violated normal market trading principles, interrupted normal transactions with Chinese companies, adopted discriminatory measures against Chinese companies, and seriously damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” the commerce ministry said, without detailing what exactly the companies were accused of.
“The Unreliable Entity List Working Mechanism will take corresponding measures against the above entities in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.”
Listing likely means fines, and restrictions on sales and investments in China for the two companies.
Updated
China retaliates within minutes of US tariffs taking effect
More now on China’s response to US tariffs taking effect, via Reuters:
China on Tuesday slapped tariffs on US imports in a rapid response to new US duties on Chinese goods, renewing a trade war between the world’s top two economies as President Donald Trump sought to punish China for not halting the flow of illicit drugs.
Trump’s additional 10% tariff across all Chinese imports into the US came into effect at 12:01 am ET on Tuesday (05:01 GMT). Within minutes, China’s Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for US coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos. The new tariffs on US exports will start on 10 February, the ministry said.
Separately, China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said the country is imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items to “safeguard national security interests”.
China also announced a probe into Google, moments after a deadline for the US imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods passed, restarting a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
China will investigate the US tech company for alleged anti-trust violations, according to a brief statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation.
Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.
But there was no such reprieve for China, and a White House spokesperson said Trump would not be speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping until later in the week.
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China to impose export controls on certain elements
China’s Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said on Tuesday that to “safeguard national security interests” the country is imposing export controls on tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum and ruthenium-related items, Reuters reports.
Updated
As the US readied higher tariffs on China on Monday, the White House announced that Trump would speak with China’s president, Xi Jinping, later this week. Beijing has pledged to hit back with “countermeasures” and file a legal case against the US at the World Trade Organization.
Economists have warned Trump’s tariff plans risk raising prices for millions of Americans, just weeks after he pledged, upon taking office, to “rapidly” bring them down.
But addressing reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump maintained that tariffs were a “very powerful” means of both strengthening the US economically and “getting everything else you want”.
Every country wants to agree a way to avoid US tariffs, the president claimed. “In all cases, they all wanna make deals.”
Trump had conceded over the weekend that they could cause “a little pain” in the US. “WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!),” he wrote on social media. “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
Beijing retaliates moments after deadline for US tariffs on China passes
China has announced a probe into Google in an apparent retaliatory move, moments after a deadline for the US imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods passed, restarting a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
China will investigate the US tech company for alleged anti-trust violations, according to a brief statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation.
China’s finance ministry has also announced 15% tariffs on coal and liquefied natural gas and 10% on crude oil and agricultural equipment from the US. A 10% tariff also applies to pickup trucks and large-displacement vehicles.
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China announces retaliatory tariffs moments after US levies take effect
Donald Trump has fired the opening salvo of his trade war, imposing tariffs on China on Tuesday in a move he claims will strengthen the US economy, despite warnings it will increase prices and knock growth.
The US president pulled back from the brink of an economic conflict with Canada and Mexico, however, delaying threatened duties for another month following 11th-hour talks.
He pushed ahead with higher tariffs on China, introducing a 10% levy on all goods exported from the country to the US and further straining relations between the world’s two largest economies.
For exports from China, the US is also scrapping an exemption through which shipments valued at less than $800 have not faced tariffs. Popular Chinese retailers such as Shein and Temu have relied on the exemption to sell cheap goods in the US.
After a call with Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed to postpone tariffs of 25% on Mexico – the latest of several delays – after she offered to send 10,000 of the country’s troops to its border with the US.
Talks with Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, also prompted Trump to postpone 25% tariffs on the country. Canada is implementing a $1.3bn border plan, Trudeau said, and will appoint a fentanyl czar, list cartels as a terrorists and “ensure 24/7 eyes on the border”.
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US tariffs on China come into effect as deadline passes
US tariffs of 10% on Chinese imports has come into effect, risking a renewed trade war between the world’s top two economies as President Donald Trump punishes China for not halting the flow of illicit drugs.
Trump on Monday suspended his threat of 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada at the last minute, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.
But there was no such reprieve for China, with new levies coming into effect at 12:01am ET on Tuesday (05:01 GMT).
Updated
For now, analysts believe the latest tariff measures against Chinese imports won’t bite too hard, AFP reports.
“The 10 percent tariff is not a big shock to China’s economy,” Zhang Zhiwei at Pinpoint Asset Management said in a note.
“It’s unlikely to change the market expectation on China’s macro outlook this year, which already factored in higher tariffs from the US,” he added.
And that could allow China to keep its powder dry in the event Trump’s first wave of tariffs are the prelude to a bigger showdown.
The US president has ordered an in-depth review of Chinese trade practices, the results of which are due by 1 April.
That could serve as a “catalyst for more tariffs”, said Murphy Cruise, pushing Beijing to shift tactics.
“This strategy of no retaliation may change if the US imposes additional significant tariffs later on,” UBS economists said.
“In such a case, we think China may retaliate on a targeted basis and in a restrained manner, imposing tariffs on selected agricultural products, auto parts, energy,” they said.
Experts added that China could also let the value of its currency devalue, increasing the competitiveness of its exports.
Trump’s flagged talks with Beijing offer the two sides a chance to step back from the brink of a trade war that could hit hundreds of billions’ worth of goods.
“China is looking to diffuse tensions,” Murphy Cruise said.
“China’s economy is in a much weaker position this time around; it will be substantially harder to withstand a barrage of tariffs.”
As the clock nears midnight in Washington DC, signalling the beginning of Trump’s tariffs on China’s imports, here is a look at how China might respond, via AFP:
From retaliatory tariffs on US goods like car parts and soya beans to controls on raw minerals essential for American manufacturing – analysts say China has plenty of options if it wants to reply to fresh US levies.
US President Donald Trump over the weekend announced 10% tariffs on Chinese products, upping the stakes in a trade confrontation between the global superpowers that started eight years ago in his first term.
Beijing in response warned there were “no winners” in a trade war and vowed as yet unspecified countermeasures.
News that Canada and Mexico had agreed a deal with Trump to delay 25% tariffs on their goods was followed by his announcement that he would be holding talks with China “probably in the next 24 hours” to try for an agreement.
But, as the threat of new measures continues to hang over Beijing, eyes are on what officials there have lined up as a response.
With its economy still struggling with sluggish consumption and slow growth, observers expect China to keep its powder dry for now – at least until another round of tariffs that could do greater damage.
“We expect China not to jump to immediate retaliation following the 10 percent tariff hike, but will keep the doors of negotiation and cooperation open,” UBS bank analysts wrote in a note.
“We do not expect China to follow the same strategy as in the first round of tariff hikes in 2018-19.”
Bilateral trade totalled more than $530bn in 2024, according to US data, with exports of Chinese goods to the United States exceeding $400bn. That was second only to Mexico.
But that yawning trade imbalance – $270.4bn in January-November last year – has long raised hackles in Washington.
The White House has released US President Donald Trump’s schedule for tomorrow, when he will meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They will hold two meetings, a press conference, and have a dinner together. Trump is also expected to sign more executive orders.
Here is the schedule:
9:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time
2:00 PM THE PRESIDENT signs Executive Orders
Oval Office
Closed Press
4:00 PM THE PRESIDENT greets the Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Stake Out Location
Open Press
4:05 PM THE PRESIDENT hosts a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Oval Office
In-House Pool
4:20 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in an expanded bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Cabinet Room
Closed Press
5:10 PM THE PRESIDENT holds a press conference with the Prime Minister of the State of Israel
East Room
Pre-Credentialed MediaMedia Sign Up Here
Media Link closes Tuesday, at 10am EST
5:40 PM THE PRESIDENT has dinner with the Prime Minister of the State of Israel
State Dining Room
Closed Press
Why hasn’t the US created a sovereign wealth fund before, and why now?
Sovereign wealth funds generally exist in countries that either have large foreign exchange reserves, such as China, or revenue from the sale of oil or other commodities, like Norway and Saudi Arabia. The US, however, has consistently run budget deficits in recent years.
There are in fact some US states that do have smaller wealth funds, generally funded by commodities or land. The largest is the Alaska Permanent Fund, started in 1976, which currently manages about $82bn.
But the size of the American private investment sector on Wall Street and beyond is such that various investment managers and private equity firms manage large pools of capital. That reduces both the need for and availability of capital for a sovereign wealth fund to exist, absent political will.
Bessent said the US sovereign wealth fund would be set up in the next 12 months. While on the election campaign trail in September, Trump proposed setting up a fund which would finance “great national endeavours,” including infrastructure projects such as highways and airports, manufacturing and medical research.
Trump also suggested, without providing specifics, that the fund could be used to keep TikTok operating in the US. TikTok is now operating due to an extension Trump granted prolonging the deadline for a forced sale or shutdown.
New York Attorney General tells hospitals to keep offering gender-affirming care
New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday told hospitals that they would be violating state law if they stop offering gender-affirming care for people under age 19 in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at curtailing federal funding for such treatments, the Associated Press reports.
In a letter, James, a Democrat, told health care facilities that refusing to provide the treatments would violate New York’s anti-discrimination laws.
“Regardless of the availability of federal funding, we write to further remind you of your obligations to comply with New York State laws,” her letter reads.
Trump, a Republican, last week signed an executive order that directed agencies to take steps to make sure that hospitals receiving federal research and education grants “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” The language in the order – using words such as “maiming,” “sterilizing” and “mutilation” – contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States.
The letter from James came as some hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and Washington DC, said they were pausing gender-affirming treatments for young people while administrators evaluate the order. The White House on Monday released a statement that said the executive order was “already having its intended effect.”
A spokesperson for the Greater New York Hospital Association said they were in close contact with member hospitals about the gender-affirming care executive order.
“We are collaboratively working through every aspect of the EO to determine its legal and clinical implications. That work is ongoing,” Brian Conway said in an email.
Gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth is not common but such treatments have been the subject of fierce political debate. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 adolescents in the US with commercial insurance received puberty blockers or hormones during a recent five-year period, according to a new study.
Rubio says El Salvador has offered to accept deportees as well as US criminals
US secretary of state Marco Rubio says El Salvador’s president has offered to accept deportees from the US of any nationality as well as violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.
President Nayib Bukele, “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said.
“He’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentence in the United States even though they’re US citizens or legal residents.”
Bukele said in a post on X that he had offered the US “the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system”.
“We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison... in exchange for a fee,” he wrote shortly after Rubio’s announcement, referring to El Salvador’s so-called terrorism confinement center.
“The fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”
Bukele is seen by the Trump administration as a key ally in its migration efforts in the region. The Salvadoran president has launched an unflinching security crackdown in his country, arresting more than 80,000 people, and bringing the number of homicides down sharply. His policies are credited by Washington with reducing the number of Salvadorans seeking to enter the US illegally.
Since taking office on 20 January, President Donald Trump has stepped up the number of migrants the US deports to Latin America, including using military planes for repatriation flights.
The Trump administration on Monday removed protection against deportation from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the US.
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California’s Democratic-dominated assembly endorsed up to $50m in funding Monday to defend the state’s progressive policies against challenges by the Trump administration.
The legislation sets aside $25m for the state department of justice to fight legal battles against the federal government, and another $25m for legal groups to defend immigrants facing possible deportation.
The proposals won approval on party-line votes after assembly Democrats delayed an expected vote last week. They now head to Democratic governor Gavin Newsom’s desk.
“We do not trust President Donald Trump,” assembly speaker Robert Rivas said before the votes, describing the president’s administration as “out-of-control” and a threat to constitutional rights.
Mexico had agreed to send 10,000 members of its national guard “to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, in particular of fentanyl”, Sheinbaum said. In return, the US had agreed to work to prevent high-powered weapons crossing the border into Mexico.
Trump confirmed the deal shortly afterwards on his Truth Social network. He said 10,000 Mexican soldiers would be “specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our country”.
Negotiations involving senior Mexican officials, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, would take place during the pause, he said.
After two calls with Trump on Monday, Trudeau announced that tariffs would be “paused” for 30 days. “Canada is implementing our $1.3bn border plan – reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl,” he said in a statement. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”
Trump to pause Canada tariffs for at least 30 days as China levies set to take effect on Tuesday
Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.
It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday.
Following talks with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed at the last minute to hold off from imposing new duties on the two countries.
The agreements came on a day of extreme volatility in global financial markets as rattled investors reacted to the prospect of a dramatically escalating dispute involving the world’s largest economies.
The US president had upended US-Mexico ties over the weekend when he announced 25% tariffs and accused Sheinbaum’s administration of engaging in an “intolerable alliance” with Mexican crime groups.
Sheinbaum rejected that “slanderous” accusation, but on Monday morning struck a softer note as she announced “a series of agreements” with Trump after a conversation between the two leaders during which they agreed to pause US tariffs for a month to allow for fresh negotiations.
The Guardian’s Tom Phillips, Richard Partington and Callum Jones report:
What is USAid and why does Trump dislike it so much?
Donald Trump’s administration has confirmed plans to merge the US international aid agency USAid into the state department in a major revamp that would shrink its workforce and align its spending with Trump’s priorities.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, declared himself the acting administrator of the agency and employees have been locked out of its Washington DC headquarters, while others have been suspended.
Trump has entrusted Elon Musk, the billionaire heading his drive to shrink the federal government, to oversee the project. On Sunday, Trump said USAid had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out”, while Musk called it “a criminal organization” without providing any evidence and said it was “time for it to die”.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live US politics coverage. This is Helen Sullivan bringing you the latest.
Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.
It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday.
Meanwhile, confusion over the fate of USAid continues. Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, said he was taking over the agency and then named controversial figure Peter Marocco to be the deputy administrator.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Trump announced he’s planning to appoint Michael Ellis and the deputy director of the CIA. Ellis is a close Trump ally and worked in the president’s previous administration and helped fight allegations of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.
The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five US universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.
The US Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary. The vote was 59-38. Wright, 60, the CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 has said he will step down from the company once confirmed. He wrote in a Liberty report last year that he believes human-caused climate change is real, but that its hazards are “distant and uncertain”. He has also said that top-down governmental policies to curb it are destined to fail.
The US interior department has unveiled a suite of orders aimed at carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda to maximise domestic energy and minerals production and slash red tape, Reuters reports. In a statement, the agency said interior secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, signed six orders on his first day in office.
US President Donald Trump has invited Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week, a White House official said, hours after a US military plane departed to return deported migrants to the country.
Senator Susan Collins, a republican from Maine, said she’ll vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence. Collins is a key swing vote and her support brings Gabbard’s nomination close to being sealed.
Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, in alignment with mandates from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” to slash federal agencies.
Musk’s Doge reportedly accessed administration systems for the federal Small Business Administration. It has also reportedly accessed secure information at USAid and the Treasury department. According to Wired, Musk has reportedly deployed six young men to lead Doge’s efforts to access federal government data.
The Trump administration made plain its intent to merge USAid with the state department under Musk’s supervision. Employees were barred from the agency headquarters today, after the website was shuttered over the weekend. Several democrats cried foul, calling the act illegal and denouncing Musk.
The Trump administration may today begin using an obscure 18th-century law to deport undocumented migrants without first going through the courts.
Darren Beattie, a former White House official who wrote, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” is reportedly set for a top role at the state department.
