Closing summary
As another frenetic day of the second Trump administration draws to a close, we will be wrapping up for the night. We will resume our live coverage on Wednesday morning. In the meantime, here is an overview of the day’s developments.
Executive order to pause federal grants causes ‘chaos’ and ‘uncertainty’ critics say. Democrats and advocacy groups blasted the order to pause federal grants, warning its effects would sow chaos.
Trump fires Democratic National Labor Relations Board member. Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the labor board, calls move illegal.
Reports of widespread DoJ firings spark outrage. The top Democrats on the House judiciary and oversight committees are demanding answers.
Medicare portals down across the country. Numerous lawmakers report access to Medicaid funds had been frozen in states across the country, despite White House officials’ claims that the program would not be affected by the federal grant pause.
A federal judge ordered a temporary halt to the Trump administration’s sweeping directive to pause federal loans, grants and other financial assistance.
Trump signs an executive order prohibiting gender transitions for people under the age of 19.
Hegseth plans to investigate and punish Milley. Mark Milley, the retired army general who served as chair of the joint chiefs of staff under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, is to be stripped of his security detail and possibly demoted, senior administration officials tell Fox.
White House email demands all federal employees return to in-person work or resign. Employees have until 6 February to accept conditions or take buyout worth about 7 months pay.
Elon Musk appears to take credit for ‘fork in the road’ email to federal employees. Email sent to 2 million federal workers on Tuesday had same subject line as email Musk sent to Twitter employees in 2022, demanding “hard core” work or resignation.
Fact or fiction? White House claims US spent $50m on condoms for Gaza. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited no evidence for claim of wasteful foreign aid; USAid accounting suggests it is probably false.
Updated
Elon Musk appears to take credit for 'fork in the road' email to federal employees
The mass email sent to about two million federal workers on Tuesday, with the subject line, Fork in the Road, has now been posted in full on the website of the US office of personnel management.
That subject line seems to offer a clue as to who came up with the idea of demanding that anyone who wants to keep their job sign up to harsher new conditions. As Kate Conger and Ryan Mac reported in their book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, the mass email Musk sent to Twitter employees in 2022, demanding that they agree to be “hardcore” and work “long hours at high intensity” came with the very same subject line.
The email sent on Tuesday used more refined language to make the same points, saying that “enhanced standards of conduct” would be applied to ensure that workers were “reliable, loyal, trustworthy” and that those who “engage in unlawful behavior or other misconduct will be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline, including termination”.
Apparently eager to take credit for the latest mass email, Musk pinned a post to his profile on the platform formerly known as Twitter on Tuesday with a photograph of a giant fork, which he said was an art piece he commissioned two years ago, titled, A Fork in the Road.
Updated
Fact or fiction? White House claims US spent $50m on condoms for Gaza
During a briefing this afternoon, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to justify Donald Trump’s sweeping order to freeze federal funding by citing what she called important new research from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (or Doge), a special group that Trump has created, and the office of management and budget.
“Doge and OMB also found that there was about to be 50m taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” Leavitt claimed. “That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. So that’s what this pause is focused on: being good stewards of tax dollars”.
While Leavitt did not offer any evidence to support this claim, and was not pressed to by reporters, the idea that the United States government planned to spend $50m to send condoms to Gaza quickly went viral, with an assist from Musk himself.
The Fox pundit Jesse Watters even claimed that the condoms were being used by Hamas militants as balloons to float explosives into Israel.
A review of the available evidence, however, suggests that the claim is almost certainly not true.
According to a comprehensive report issued in September by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), not a penny of the $60.8m in contraceptive and condom shipments funded by the US in the past year went to Gaza. In fact, the accounting shows, there were no condoms sent to any part of the Middle East, and just one small shipment, $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives, was sent to the region, all of it distributed to the government of Jordan.
For the financial year 2023, the most recent for which data is available, only about $7m worth of condoms were distributed globally by USAid, and the vast majority of family-planning funds, 89%, were spent on programs in Africa.
As Dan Evon of the non-profit News Literacy Project points out: “It’s also worth noting that this is not a Biden program. Trump, too, spent funds on sending contraceptives around the globe. In 2019, about $40m was spent on contraceptives by the Trump administration”.
Updated
White House offers seven months' salary to all federal employees who resign over in-person work directive
All federal employees will be required to return to in-person work or resign by next week, according to a memo from the office of personnel management obtained by the Guardian.
The form letter, sent by email on Tuesday evening, also includes a “deferred resignation letter” for federal employees to return before 6 February if they wish to resign and take a buyout worth seven months of salary instead of serving in a “reformed federal workforce”.
The memo adds that the “majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 federal and DC government workers, denounced the move in a statement.
“This offer should not be viewed as voluntary,” Kelley said. “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”
Kelley also warned, ominously: “Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.”
Updated
Mark Milley to be stripped of security detail and possibly demoted in retirement, White House tells Fox
Mark Milley, the retired army general who served as the most senior uniformed officer at the Pentagon as chair of the joint chiefs of staff under Donald Trump and Joe Biden, is to be stripped of his security detail and possibly demoted, senior administration officials tell Fox.
According to the pro-Trump broadcaster’s report, incoming defense secretary Pete Hegseth, a former host on the network, plans to announce that he is “immediately pulling” Milley’s personal security detail and security clearance.
The report continues: “The secretary is also directing the new acting Inspector General to conduct a review board to determine if enough evidence exists for Gen Milley to be stripped of a star in retirement based on his actions to ‘undermine the chain of command’ during President Donald Trump’s first term, officials say”.
Trump has been enraged at Milley since the former general told reporters for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the New Yorker that he had spent the final weeks of 2020 terrified that Trump would attack Iran, either to cling to power or to sabotage the incoming Biden administration.
Susan Glasser reported for the New Yorker in 2021 that Milley coordinated his efforts with another official now on Trump’s enemies list, Mike Pompeo:
To prevent such an outcome, Milley had, since late in 2020, been having morning phone meetings, at 8 A.M. on most days, with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in the hopes of getting the country safely through to Joe Biden’s Inauguration. The chairman, a burly four-star Army general who had been appointed to the post by Trump in 2019, referred to these meetings with his staff as the “land the plane” calls—as in, “both engines are out, the landing gear are stuck, we’re in an emergency situation. Our job is to land this plane safely and to do a peaceful transfer of power the 20th of January.
Trump’s rage at Milley was so intense that, according to the indictment charging Trump with mishandling classified documents, he even showed a ghostwriter for Meadows a copy of secret plans for a US attack on Iran as part of his effort to undermine Milley.
Audio of Trump’s conversation with the ghostwriter, obtained by CNN, suggested that Trump had pulled out the classified war plan because he wanted to convince the writer that it was Milley, not Trump, who really wanted to go to war. To that end, Trump wrongly described the four-page outline of the Pentagon’s plan for war with Iran as something Milley had typed up himself.
Updated
Last week, the US state department froze all applications for passports with “X” sex markers and changes to gender identity on existing passports in response to an executive order Trump signed on his first day.
That order – titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government – mandates that government-issued identification documents exclusively use “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female”.
These targeted orders have been met with much backlash from those within the trans community and their allies. In response to Trump’s order on the military, several current or prospective service members who are transgender are now suing both Trump and the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, citing that it violates the equal protection component of the fifth amendment.
“It’s very clear that this order, in combination with the other orders that we’ve seen over the past week, are meant to not protect anyone in this country, but rather to single-mindedly drive out transgender people of all ages from all walks of civic life,” said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
Seldin said the ACLU is reviewing the order “to understand what, if anything, has immediate effect versus what needs to go through continued agency action”.
Updated
Trump signs executive order to curtail gender transition for people under 19
Donald Trump has signed another executive order aimed at the transgender community on Tuesday, this time prohibiting gender transitions for people under the age of 19.
“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” reads the president’s executive order.
The order denotes that “child” or “children” means an individual or individuals under 19 years of age and that the term “pediatric” means relating to the medical care of a child. It also clarifies that the phrase “chemical and surgical mutilation” entails puberty blockers, the use of hormones such as estrogen or testosterone, and surgical procedures. Much of what is mentioned is known as gender-affirming care.
Read the full story here:
Updated
The Democratic senator for Virginia, Mark Warner, has reacted to a judge’s ruling temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s federal grants freeze:
Writing on X, Warner said: “This lawless, chaotic order is halted for now, but some of the damage is already done, with countless federal websites down. We’re going to fight to ensure this doesn’t ever go into effect.”
Updated
Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump's funding freeze
A federal judge ordered a temporary halt to the Trump administration’s sweeping directive to pause federal loans, grants and other financial assistance, Reuters reports.
US district judge Loren AliKhan ordered the Trump administration not to implement the block on funding to existing programs, which was to have started on Tuesday at 5pm ET, until 3 February at a hearing in Washington DC federal court.
Diane Yentel, the president of the National Council of Nonprofits, which brought the emergency lawsuit, celebrated the temporary victory in a post on X, writing: “We did it (for now)! Our lawsuit was successful – the US district court is blocking OMB from moving forward on its reckless plan to halt federal funding. The stay is until Monday, so still much more to do.”
Updated
Jocelyn Samuels, a commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, confirmed in a statement that she was fired by Donald Trump by email at 10.30pm Monday night. Samuels, a Democrat who was initially appointed by Trump in 2020, then nominated for a second term by Joe Biden, said her firing was illegal.
The EEOC is a bipartisan commission of five presidentially appointed members, no more than three of whom can be members of the same party.
The commission is responsible for enforcing core federal laws against discrimination, including: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex; the Pregnancy Discrimination Act; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Updated
Grassroots organizers are urging Democratic lawmakers to use all the procedural tools at their disposal to stop the Trump administration from implementing the federal funding freeze.
Writing on Bluesky, Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, called the executive action “wildly unconstitutional” and told followers: “This is a great morning to call all your elected officials and ask them to absolutely lose their shit.”
Among other actions, Greenberg suggests in a post on the social media platform X, Senate Democrats should oppose all Trump cabinet nominees until this executive order is withdrawn and deny unanimous consent to slow Senate proceedings. “It’s a constitutional crisis,” she said. “There is absolutely no reason the Senate should be conducting business as usual.”
Updated
Judge holds emergency hearing in lawsuit trying to block federal grant freeze
US district judge Loren AliKhan is holding a 4pm ET video hearing in the emergency lawsuit brought by the National Council of Nonprofits and small businesses to block Donald Trump’s immediate freeze on federal loans, grants and other financial assistance.
Without intervention, the freeze is scheduled to begin at 5pm ET.
According Diane Yentel, the president of the National Council of Nonprofits, the parties have asked the court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (or TRO) “to block the White House Office of Management and Budget from pausing all federal agency grants and loans”.
Updated
Representative Maxwell Frost, a Florida Democrat, is unconvinced by the White House claim that Medicaid payment portals are offline because of an “outage” rather than as a direct result of the blanket freeze on federal funding.
“Bullshit. The public backlash is just too much to handle,” Frost commented on social media. “Some might be asking if they are either liars or incompetent. They are both.”
Updated
Republican lawmakers outwardly embraced Trump’s pause on federal grant funding Tuesday, according to CNN reporter Manu Raju.
Raju wrote that Tom Cole , chair of the House appropriations committee, called Trump’s move a “legitimate exercise of executive oversight”. Cole claimed appropriations directed by Congress are “not a law”.
Updated
Louisiana's Republican governor suggests grant freeze risks 'jeopardizing financial stability' of US
Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s Republican governor, buried serious concerns about the Trump administration’s freeze on federal grant funds in a statement that opened by lauding the president’s “mandate to cut government waste and increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar”.
In the statement, which was issued jointly with other Republican officials, Landry cautioned the office of management and budget to pursue a freeze on federal grant funding in a “responsible manner” so as to avoid “jeopardizing the financial stability of the state”.
Updated
White House confirms Medicaid portal 'outage' but insists it won't affect payments
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that Medicaid portals were down today in a post on X, calling the issue an “outage” and writing:
“The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage. We have confirmed no payments have been affected – they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal will be back online shortly.”
Updated
The Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the apparent freeze on Medicaid access for providers.
Writing on X, she said: “41% of all births in the US are covered by Medicaid. Overnight, Republicans are destroying healthcare for millions of Americans – and it isn’t just Trump. Republican majorities in the House and the Senate are backing this illegal sabotage. They are ALL in on it. Every one.”
Updated
The federal grant funding pause could affect Medicaid access in Florida, too, according to Democratic representative Maxwell Frost.
“Just confirmed that the Trump administration shutdown the Medicaid portal for Florida,” wrote Frost on X. “There are over 3.8 MILLION Floridians on Medicaid.”
The widespread reports that Medicaid portals were “down” in states across the US are coming even as the White House claims the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants will not affect the program.
Updated
Reports of Medicaid portals 'down' across country
Numerous lawmakers report that access to Medicaid funds had been frozen in states across the country, despite White House officials’ claims that the program would not be affected by the federal grant pause.
“My office has heard from Community Health Centers across Massachusetts that are unable to access their Payment Management System at HHS,” wrote the Massachusetts representative Richard Neal on X. “This is how they get paid by the federal government. That’s 2 million people in MA whose health insurance is at risk.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, officials were unable to access Medicaid funds across the state of Illinois.
“Can confirm. Connecticut’s Medicaid payment system has been turned off,” wrote Connecticut senator Chris Murphy on X. “Doctors and hospitals cannot get paid. Discussions ongoing about whether services can continue.”
“My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night’s federal funding freeze,” said the Oregon senator Ron Wyden on X. “This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.”
Updated
Fact-check: Karoline Leavitt claims Americans 'safer' because Trump deporting 'violent criminals'
The claim: Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, claimed Americans are “safer because of the violent criminals that President Trump is removing from our communities”.
The facts: Of the nearly 1,200 arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) on Sunday, nearly half of those detained did not have criminal records, according to NBC News.
Just more than half of those arrested that day – nearly 52% – were considered “criminal arrests”, and the rest appeared to be non-violent offenders or people who had not committed any criminal offense other than crossing the border illegally, the outlet reports.
Updated
Fact-check: Trump claims that military 'turned on water' in California
The claim: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked to clarify Donald Trump’s comments last night that the US military entered California and “turned on the water” in the wake of the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles region.
The facts: California state officials have pushed back on Trump’s claim, saying that the federal government restarted water pumps after they were turned off for maintenance.
“The military did not enter California,” the state’s department of water resources said. “The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days.
“State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful,” it added.
Trump has continued to falsely claim that California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and other officials refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires. He also falsely claimed that Newsom prioritised the preservation of endangered fish over public safety.
Medicaid and Snap to be excluded from federal funding freeze
Mandatory programs like Medicaid and Snap food benefits will be excluded from the federal funding pause ordered by Donald Trump, the White House’s office of management and budget told lawmakers in a memo, Reuters reports.
“[Any] program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause,” the memo said.
Updated
In response to a question about whether the White House would recognize Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, Leavitt skirted the question, saying that the administration will “celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed have made”.
Updated
Leavitt declined to comment on the impact of the federal grant freeze on colleges and universities.
Leavitt said the Trump administration believed his executive order on birthright citizenship was legal, and stated that “illegal immigrants who come to this country and have a child are not subject to the laws of this jurisdiction”.
Birthright citizenship – the right of anyone born in the US to full citizenship – is protected by the 14th amendment.
Updated
Leavitt defended Trump’s firing of career DoJ prosecutors who had participated in investigations into the president. “He is the executive of the executive branch and therefore he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to,” said Leavitt.
Updated
Fact-check: Leavitt claims lacking legal residence a crime
The claim: “They illegally broke our nation’s laws and therefore they are criminals,” said Karoline Leavitt, referring to undocumented immigrants who have not been charged or convicted of crimes.
The facts: Being in the US without proper authorization is not a crime. It is a civil offense.
Updated
Leavitt says federal grant freeze wouldn't impact direct assistance to individuals
Leavitt repeatedly said that the freeze on federal grant funding would not impact direct federal assistance to individuals. But she did not answer questions about how aid that flows through organizations to individuals, like Meals on Wheels, would be impacted.
She was also asked to confirm Medicaid would not be affected but sidestepped the question to repeat that Medicare and food stamps would not be impacted.
Updated
“He is focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals,” said Leavitt, in response to a question about whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement would prioritize violent offenders in deportation efforts. She then suggested that non-violent undocumented immigrants would be targeted equally.
“There’s only uncertainty in this room is amongst the media,” said Leavitt, in response to questions about a Monday decision to freeze federal grant funding, blaming the press for anxieties spurred by the measure.
Leavitt claimed the push would not affect funding for “individual assistance”, and said the freeze would primarily target culture war topics like diversity, equity and inclusion measures.
The implications of the pause on federal grants, which fund community programming across the country, remain unclear.
Updated
White House to give press credentials to any content creators who make 'legitimate' news content
“Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster – if you are producing legitimate news content, no matter the medium, you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House,” said Leavitt.
It is unclear how long TikTok will remain available in the US, given a law that went into effect last week effectively banning the app.
Updated
Leavitt said the White House would welcome non-journalists, such as content creators and podcasters, to cover press briefings and said that her team would review applications for future “new media” members of the press corps.
Leavitt touted Trump’s executive orders attempting to root out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within the federal government and establishing a binary definition of gender.
“Sanity has been restored,” she claimed.
Karoline Leavitt opened her remarks with a nod to Donald Trump’s early executive orders, emphasizing his actions on immigration.
“To foreign nationals who are thinking about trying to illegally enter the United States, think again,” said Leavitt.
White House holds first press briefing of second Trump term
Karoline Leavitt, the youngest US press secretary in history, has begun the first briefing of Donald Trump’s second term.
She will almost certainly face questions about the slew of executive actions that Trump unleashed during his first week in office, and a new measure by the office of management and budget to freeze federal grant money.
Updated
Senate votes to confirm Sean Duffy as transportation secretary
The Senate has voted 77 to 22 to confirm Sean Duffy as the new secretary of transportation.
Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and a co-host on Fox Business, served in Congress from 2011 until 2019. Before being elected to public office, he was district attorney for Ashland county, Wisconsin, from 2002 to 2008.
He was a cast member on The Real World: Boston in 1997 where he would meet his wife, the Fox news contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy.
Duffy will oversee billions of dollars in unspent infrastructure funds and has promised safer Boeing planes, less regulation and help for companies developing self-driving cars.
Non-profits and health groups sue Trump administration over federal grant freeze
Four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to freeze federal loans, grants and other financial assistance.
The lawsuit takes aim at a directive the acting head of the US office of management and budget issued on Monday that could disrupt education and health care programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and other initiatives that depend on billions of federal dollars, Reuters reports.
It argues that the pause in funding will have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”.
Updated
Bernie Sanders says federal loan freeze will be 'devastating' for millions of Americans
Bernie Sanders, the Democratic senator from Vermont, has warned that the Trump’s administration’s order pausing all federal grants and loans will have “a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing on millions” of Americans.
Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday:
Let’s be clear. The Trump Administration’s action last night to suspend all federal grants and loans will have a devastating impact on the health and well-being of millions of children, seniors on fixed incomes, and the most vulnerable people in our country.
“It is a dangerous move towards authoritarianism and it is blatantly unconstitutional,” Sanders said, adding that “our founding fathers explicitly gave Congress the power of the purse”.
If President Trump wants to change our nation’s laws he has the right to ask Congress to change them. He does not have the right to violate the United States Constitution. He is not a king.”
Updated
Transgender rights advocacy groups are preparing to file the first lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s executive order targeting transgender troops.
As we reported earlier, Trump signed an order on Monday that the White House said was intended to eliminate “gender radicalism in the military”. The order directed the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops, and is widely expected to lead to a ban.
Reuters reports that GLAD Law and the National Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR) are set to file a joint lawsuit on Tuesday arguing that the order violates the equality guarantees of the constitution.
“The law is very clear that the government can’t base policies on disapproval of particular groups of people,” Shannon Minter, the NCLR’s legal director, told Associated Press.
Updated
Using an executive order issued last night, Donald Trump targeted transgender members of the US military.
The executive order invokes the transphobic trope that trans people are somehow falsely representing themselves. “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order reads.
The order does not immediately ban trans people from military service and it is unclear how it will impact service members when implemented, but it nonetheless signals hostility toward LGBTQ+ service members.
Google has announced it will rename the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America” on its maps, reflecting Donald Trump’s new name for the body of water.
The Gulf is not exclusively controlled by the United States, and remains globally known as the Gulf of Mexico – but on the widely-used online Google Maps, it could soon appear as the Gulf of America.
“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” the company announced in a post on X.
Google indicated that it would switch the name on its maps when they are changed in the Geographic Names Information System, which is run by the US government.
The former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg is “exploring all of his options” after news that Democratic senator Gary Peters of Michigan will not run for re-election, leaving the battleground state seat open in the 2026 midterms.
According to a source familiar with Buttigieg’s thinking, he is “exploring all of his options on how he can be helpful and continue to serve. He’s honored to be mentioned for this and he’s taking a serious look.”
A few years ago, Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, moved across the state line to Michigan, where his husband, Chasten is from. The move prompted speculation about “Mayor Pete’s” political future, with few options available to him in ruby red Indiana. Michigan, the all-important battleground state, elected Donald Trump and a Democratic senator, Elissa Slotkin, in 2024.
Buttigieg served four years as Biden’s transportation secretary after a run for president in 2020. Though he lost, Buttigieg’s campaign turned him into a national figure and a party favorite, especially among Democratic moderates who view him as one of the party’s most articulate messengers.
Michigan’s Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited and has said she does not plan to endorse anyone in the primary to succeed her. Buttigieg was considered a potential candidate for governor, though Jocelyn Benson, the state’s Democratic secretary of state, has already announced her intention to seek the nomination.
On Tuesday, Buttigieg praised Peters’ time in office.
Updated
If Trump prevails in firing Democratic National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, a move that appears to violate the legal restrictions on presidents’ ability to remove board members, it will hobble the board.
To make decisions, the board requires a quorum of three members, and without Wilcox they will not reach that threshold. Wilcox has vowed to contest her firing.
In their letter sent to the acting attorney general, Jamie Raskin of the judiciary committee and Gerry Connolly of the oversight committee relayed reports that White House staff are playing a role in employment decisions in part by analyzing officials’ social media profiles to determine their political leanings.
“We have also received disturbing reports surfacing that White House staff are playing a substantial role in these employment decisions and examining career civil servants’ LinkedIn and other social media profiles to ascertain their personal political leanings,” the Democrats wrote.
Raskin and Connolly noted that the Trump administration’s hiring freeze has also resulted in the rescission of job offers to the summer interns and entry-level attorneys hired through the highly competitive and long-running Attorney General’s Honors Program.
They concluded, “Taken together, your actions raise significant concern that you are determined to fill the ranks of the DOJ and FBI with career employees selected for the personal loyalty or political services they have rendered to President Trump.”
Updated
Reports of widespread DoJ firings spark outrage
The top Democrats on the House judiciary and oversight committees are demanding answers from Donald Trump’s justice department in response to reports of widespread firings and reassignments of longtime civil servants at the department.
“The professionals you summarily dismissed or transferred from components throughout the Justice Department … are part of an expert, non-political workforce tasked with protecting our national security and public safety,” Jamie Raskin of the judiciary committee and Gerry Connolly wrote in a letter to the acting attorney general.
“Yet, you appear to have removed them from their offices without regard to their demonstrated competencies, their recognized achievements, or their devoted service to the Department, in some cases reassigning them to areas that are outside of their legal expertise.”
Reports indicate that senior officials with decades of experience in everything from environmental law to antitrust cases were transferred to new roles unrelated to their background, which could result in a wave of resignations at the justice department. Other officials overseeing the immigration court system were dismissed from their jobs.
Raskin and Connolly wrote, “By removing them from their positions in this hasty and unprincipled way, you have very likely violated longstanding federal laws.”
Updated
Democratic Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the chamber’s appropriations committee, on Tuesday called for a delay in consideration of President Donald Trump’s pick for budget chief over an order halting all federal grants and loans, Reuters reports.
Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee to head the office of management and budget, has advocated for the president to seize authority over various aspects of the federal budget. In a letter sent to the acting director of the office of management and budget on Monday, Murray and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro wrote that “it is clear Mr. Vought feels emboldened to defy Congress, the Constitution, and the Impoundment Control Act”.
Updated
The Democratic Michigan senator Gary Peters has announced he will not pursue re-election, likely making Democrats’ path to regaining control of the Senate even more challenging.
The unexpected news came on Tuesday and means Michigan Democrats will split their efforts between the 2026 gubernatorial election and defending that seat in the Senate, where they will no longer enjoy the advantage of incumbency.
“I always thought there would be a time that I would step aside and pass the reins for the next generation. I also never saw service in Congress as something you do your whole life,” Peters told the Detroit News. Peters is in his second term in the Senate, and before that served three terms in the House of Representatives.
Updated
Trump fires Democratic labor board member
Donald Trump has reportedly fired Democratic National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the labor board.
The National Labor Relations Act strictly limits the president’s ability to remove members of the board and shields members from at-will firings, making Wilcox’s firing probably illegal. Wilcox said in a statement that she will pursue “all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent”.
Trump also fired the agency’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo – which he has the authority to do.
Updated
Order to pause federal grants to cause 'chaos' and 'uncertainty', critics say
Democrats and advocacy groups have blasted the order to pause federal grants, warning its effects would sow chaos.
One of the programs potentially affected is Meals on Wheels, which addresses hunger by providing hot meals to seniors and is partly funded by the federal government.
According to HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney, a spokesperson for the group said that “the uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they should be serving meals today” and that “seniors will panic not knowing where their next meals will come from.”
“More lawlessness and chaos in America as Donald Trump’s Administration blatantly disobeys the law by holding up virtually all vital funds that support programs in every community across the country,” said Senator Chuck Schumer in a statement. “If this continues, the American people will pay an awful price.”
In a letter, senator Patty Murray, of Washington, and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut – top Democrats on the House and Senate budget committees – said the move raised “extreme alarm.
“The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” they wrote. “We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law.”
Updated
Watchdogs warned about Trump restricting funding before federal grants paused
Even before the office of management and budget circulated its memo on federal grants, government watchdogs warned that Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict funds already appropriated by congress could be illegal.
In response to Trump’s executive actions ordering, among other measures, a 90-day pause on foreign development funds and restrictions on funding for “sanctuary cities”, the non-partisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) sent a letter to congress warning that Trump could be running afoul of the Impoundment Control Act.
“Our constitutional system of checks and balances gives Congress the power of the purse,” the authors of the letter wrote.
“Put simply, it is illegal and contrary to our constitutional structure for the president to disobey appropriations acts duly enacted after Congress publicly considers and determines funding levels for the federal government.”
Updated
The memo, which could spur chaos as agencies scramble to implement it, reflects the policy priorities of Donald Trump’s pick to lead the office of management and budget – Project 2025 architect Russell Vought.
Although Vought has not yet been confirmed in the Senate, the idea of halting federal grants and dramatically consolidating budgetary power under the executive branch is one that Vought has promoted.
During Vought’s confirmation hearing, he told senators that Trump had run his 2024 presidential campaign “on the notion that the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional” and said that he agreed with that position. Passed in 1974, the Impoundment Control Act sets guardrails around the president’s ability to sidestep Congress in budgetary decisions.
Updated
Senator Patty Murray, of Washington, and Connecticut congresswoman Rosa DeLauro – top Democrats on the Senate and House appropriations committees – reacted to the memo ordering a pause on federal grant money with shock.
“The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” they wrote.
“We write today to urge you in the strongest possible terms to uphold the law and the Constitution and ensure all federal resources are delivered in accordance with the law.”
White House orders pause of federal grants
An internal memo sent by the White House on Monday instructs agencies to pause all federal grants while evaluating their compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), among others.
“Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” wrote Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The memo included some vague caveats – including that agencies pause grants “to the extent permissible under applicable law”, although it is not clear how the agencies will interpret that. Another line in the memo stipulated that “nothing in this memo should be construed to impact Medicare or Social Security benefits.”
The memo could impact billions of dollars of federal grant money for state, local and tribal governments.
Updated
Independent watchdogs summarily dismissed by Donald Trump have denounced the move as illegal and a threat to democracy that paves the way for the appointment of “political lackeys” and widespread institutional corruption.
The sacking of the 18 inspectors general from federal agencies last Friday, including the departments of defence, energy and state, has also been widely condemned as illegal.
Hannibal “Mike” Ware, who was the inspector general for the Small Business Administration until his sudden firing, told MSNBC that the dismissals are anti-democratic because they ride roughshod over a law requiring the president to give Congress 30 days’ notice and the reasoning for any such move.
“This is not about any of our individual jobs. We acknowledge that the president has the right to remove any of us that he chooses. But the protections that were baked into the act is everything, absent having to provide a real reason. We’re looking at what amounts to a threat to democracy, a threat to independent oversight, and a threat to transparency in government,” he said.
Read the full story here:
DeepSeek a 'wake-up call' for US tech, says Trump
Donald Trump has said the release of the DeepSeek AI model by a Chinese firm should be a “wake-up call” for the US tech industry.
DeepSeek, which was released last week, became the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Store on Monday, and appears to compete with the models of US leaders such as OpenAI while costing much less.
“I’ve been reading about China and some of the companies in China… coming up with a faster method of AI, and [a] much less expensive method,” Trump told a meeting of House Republicans in Miami on Monday.
“If it’s true - and nobody really knows if it is - I view that as a positive. You won’t be spending as much and you’ll get the same result, hopefully.
He added that the app “should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win.”
“Because we have the greatest scientists in the world. We always have the ideas. We’re always first. We’re going to unleash our tech companies and we’re going to dominate the future like never before,” he said.
Updated
The youngest person ever to serve as White House press secretary is preparing to deliver her first briefing.
Karoline Leavitt, 27, is scheduled to make her debut at 1pm eastern time (6pm GMT) on Tuesday.
Leavitt became hooked on politics while at college during Trump’s first term, later securing an internship in his administration and rising quickly to become assistant press secretary, according to a profile in the Times.
After Trump’s loss in 2020, she became communications director for Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, now the nominee for US ambassador to the UN, and in 2022 made her own unsuccessful bid for Congress.
Leavitt is a gun enthusiast and has described the liberal media as “unjust, unfair and sometimes just plain old false”.
Four people – Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, and Kayleigh McEnany – served as press secretary during Trump’s first term.
Updated
House Republicans are gathered in Donald Trump’s National Doral resort near Miami, Florida for a three-day summit at which they will strategize about how to pass their legislative agenda.
Pictures from Trump’s appearance at the event on Monday show him dancing onstage alongside the Republicans’ congressional leadership and addressing the assembled crowd.
Updated
Trump questions whether he can hold third term: 'Am I allowed to run again?'
Donald Trump has publicly questioned whether he might be allowed to run for a third term as US president.
Under a constitutional amendment introduced in 1951, no individual is allowed to serve more than two terms in the White House.
Speaking to a gathering of House Republicans in Florida on Monday, Trump said: “I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100% sure, because I don’t know.
“I think I’m not allowed to run again. I’m not sure, am I allowed to run again?”
The comments drew laughter from the audience.
Updated
More now on that series of executive orders signed by President Trump on Monday
As well as the one directing the Pentagon to reassess its policy on transgender troops, there was an order that removed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from the US military.
The order directed the Pentagon to get rid of “any vestiges” of such initiatives, saying they promote a “race-based preferences system that subverts meritocracy” and perpetuate “unconstitutional discrimination”.
It also prohibited the promotion of “un-American” theories that suggest America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.
Another order offered reinstatement to the roughly 8,200 personnel who had to leave the military because they refused to get the Covid vaccine during the pandemic.
Trump has also said they will be restored to their full rank and receive back pay.
A fourth order called for the development of an “American Iron Dome” defence system, similar to the one used by Israel.
It said the threat of attack by “ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States” and directed the Pentagon to submit a plan within 60 days.
Updated
What was in Trump's executive order on transgender troops?
Among a number of executive orders signed by Donald Trump on Monday was one that the White House said was intended to eliminate “gender radicalism in the military”.
The order directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops, and is widely expected to lead to a ban.
It said the adoption of a gender identity different to a person’s biological sex “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and was harmful to military readiness.
During his first term, Trump said he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military. He did not fully follow through with that ban, but his administration froze recruitment of transgender people while allowing serving personnel to remain.
Joe Biden overturned the decision when he took office in 2021.
About 1.3 million active personnel serve in the military, Department of Defense data shows. While transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members, officials say the number is in the low thousands.
Updated
Trump's executive orders reshape US military
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of all the latest from US politics.
Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders late last night to remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines, and direct officials to reassess the military’s policy on transgender troops.
As Reuters reports, Trump signed the executive orders while flying back from Miami to Washington DC. One of the executive orders said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards.
The move does appear to be paving the way for a ban of transgender soldiers in the military. Trump had tried to implement such a ban during his first term, but it was tangled up in the courts for years before being overturned by Joe Biden shortly after he took office.
Lawyers for transgender troops who challenged the ban in the courts during Trump’s first term have already pledged to fight a new ban.
We’ll be bringing you more on this soon. In other developments:
Yesterday Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job. Hegseth referred to Fort Moore and Fort Liberty by their previous names, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg. The names honouring Confederate officers were changed under former Biden as part of an effort to reexamine US history and the Confederate legacy.
Trump has suggested that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app. When asked last night if Microsoft was in talks to buy the app, the US president said “I would say yes”, adding: “A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.” Microsoft declined to comment.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will reportedly be the first foreign leader to meet Trump at the White House since his inauguration. It is thought the meeting could come as early as next week.
Trump called the apparent success of an AI model released by Chinese company DeepSeek a “wake-up call” for US tech. The share prices of some of the leading tech firms fell on Monday following the release of the model, which can perform as well as existing models but at a much lower cost, according to its developers.
Updated
