Today's events
That’s all from us today. It was another busy day at the start of the second week of Trump’s second term.
Here’s what happened:
Donald Trump signed three executive orders on Monday that would reshape the military, including gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and reinstating service members with backpay who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19. One executive order directed the Pentagon to come up with a policy around transgender members in the US armed forces. It does not yet ban trans soldiers.
Trump also signed an executive order on Monday that would begin the process of creating a “next-generation” missile defense shield, which the administration is referring to as the American Iron Dome.
A judge has dropped restrictions that barred the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, Stewart Rhodes, from entering Washington DC and the US Capitol. US district judge Amit Mehta lifted his order after finding that Trump’s decision to cut short their prison sentences also released them from a term of court supervision. Rhodes and his co-defendants were released from prison last week as part of Trump’s order granting clemency to all nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack on the Capitol.
US Senate votes 68-29 to confirm billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as treasury secretary.
DoJ fires more than a dozen officials who worked on Trump election interference cases after acting attorney general James McHenry said he did “not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda”.
More than 50 USAID officials were put on administrative leave as Trump halts all foreign aid pending a 90-day-review.
One of the inspector generals who was fired by Donald Trump has warned that the president’s terminations amount to a “threat to democracy”. Hannibal “Mike” Ware, the former inspector general (IG) for the Small Business Administration, spoke to MSNBC after Trump fired the inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies on Friday night, eliminating a critical oversight component and clearing the way for him to replace them with loyalists.
Trump issued an executive order on Sunday directing federal government to override California’s water management practices if they are found to be ineffective. Trump has falsely claimed 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. His order directs federal agencies to “immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries”.
The US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the Colombians had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants. Trump had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees amid his sweeping immigration crackdown, but a White House statement late on Sunday said Colombia had agreed to accept the migrants and Washington would not impose its threatened penalties.
A series of immigration raids were conducted in cities over the weekend in what the “border czar”, Tom Homan, claimed was only “the beginning stages” of Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests.
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer is requesting the mayors of sanctuary cities – Boston, New York, Denver and Chicago – to testify on 11 February as part of an investigation into the impact sanctuary policies have on public safety.
Trump said the emergence of a new AI model called DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a “wake-up call” for American companies. The release of Deepseek AI sent US stocks plummeting on Monday as it became the most downloaded app in the US. Its capabilities were compared to the latest OpenAI model which put into question US leadership in the AI boom. American companies “need to be laser-focused on competing to win”, he said.
Senate Democrats signed on to a resolution condemning Donald Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers. The one-line resolution indicates: “The Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol police officers.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as treasury secretary. On Saturday, the Senate voted 67-23 to advance Bessent’s nomination. A final vote is scheduled to take place this evening at 5.30pm ET.
Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been ordered to immediately stop engaging with the World Health Organization (WHO). The move affects critical work on influenza surveillance and disease outbreaks across the globe. Trump announced last week that the US will exit the WHO, citing what he described as a mishandling of the Covid-19 and other international health crises.
Republicans in the Florida legislature delivered a significant snub to the governor, Ron DeSantis, by abruptly halting his proposals for a crackdown on immigration in the state. The governor’s goals included making it a state crime for undocumented migrants to enter Florida; pressuring local authorities to join in a deportation purge, and punishing those who do not; and appointing a dedicated state “immigration officer” to liaise with the Trump administration under his personal authority.
JD Vance defended some of Trump’s controversial cabinet nominations in advance of further confirmation hearings this week. Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vance said Hegseth is a “disrupter” and described Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, as being of “impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services”.
Trumps signs orders eliminating DEI from military, reinstating troops who refused Covid vaccines
Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday evening including one that would eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from the military, Reuters is reporting. The White House also told Reuters, that Trump signed an order that eliminated “gender radicalism” from the military.
The order does not yet ban transgender soldiers from the military, but directs the Pentagon to create a policy for transgender members of the military, CBS is reporting.
Another order Trump signed reinstated soldiers who were expelled for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Trump also signed an executive order to establish a process to build a short-range missile defense system akin to Israel’s Iron Dome. This would take years to build.
The orders were signed on US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s first day. Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to be confirmed, said he planned to make major changes in the Pentagon. He did not rule out making changes to the top brass.
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The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) said it arrested more than 1,100 people on Monday. Ice had been providing daily updates on the number of arrests as part of Trump’s broader crackdown on immigrants. On Sunday, Ice arrested just under 1,000 people.
In the entire fiscal year of 2024, Ice made 113,431 administrative arrests. That amounts to about 310 arrests a day, according to CNN.
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A Black county commissioner in Ohio dropped out of a keynote speech at a Martin Luther King Jr Day lunch after being told that he wasn’t allowed to mention diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), journalist Phil Lewis reports.
Kevin Boyce, Franklin county’s first Black county commission said that two hours before he was supposed to deliver his address to a crowd at Columbus’s department of veteran affairs (VA) he was told that he wasn’t allowed to mention DEI.
It was an insult,” Boyce told Lewis. “It was an insult to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. It was an insult to my own personal journey that they asked me to talk about. How can I talk about my journey and MLK Jr without discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially given the [Trump] administration’s executive order?”
Read the rest of Phil’s report here.
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More than 50 mostly senior-level civil servants at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have been placed on administrative leave, NBC News reported citing former USAid officials. The leave is effective immediately.
This comes after Trump issued an executive order halting all foreign assistance pending a 90-day review and the state department and USAid froze nearly all foreign assistance.
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Trump says China’s DeepSeek AI should be ‘wake-up call’ for American companies
Trump said the emergence of a new AI model called DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a “wake-up call” for American companies.
The release of Deepseek AI sent US stocks plummeting on Monday as it became the most downloaded app in the US. Its capabilities were compared to the latest OpenAI model which put into question US leadership in the AI boom.
American companies “need to be laser-focused on competing to win”, he said.
Trump said his decision to revoke the Biden AI rules through executive order will allow AI companies to “focus on being the best” instead of on being the most woke.
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Four Chicago immigrant rights groups are suing the Trump administration to halt Ice raids. The groups, represented by Just Futures Law and the Civil Rights Clinic of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, are asking for an emergency hearing to ask for a temporary restraining order against Ice.
The groups allege the raids are retaliation for the city’s sanctuary policies and a violation of the first amendment.
“The federal government’s plan to use Chicago-based immigration raids to quash the Sanctuary City Movement is a clear and obvious violation of the first amendment,” the filing said.
Just Futures Law legal director Sejal Zota said in a press release that “sanctuary policies are fully within the law.”
“Trump’s animosity towards sanctuary cities, Chicago in particular, has been on full display since his presidential campaign,” the emailed release reads. “Chicago is just one of many cities being targeted for their long, successful history in pushing for sanctuary protections for its immigrant residents and because of that, Trump is going after them.”
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House Oversight Committee chair James Comer is requesting the mayors of sanctuary cities – Boston, New York, Denver and Chicago – to testify on 11 February as part of an investigation into the impact sanctuary policies have on public safety.
“All four major cities are sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to fully cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, which is impacting public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,” the Oversight Committee X account posted on Monday.
US Senate votes 68-29 to confirm Scott Bessent as treasury secretary
US senators have voted to confirm Scott Bessent as US treasury secretary, according to Reuters. Trump’s treasury pick is a billionaire hedge fund manager from South Carolina who the Financial Times is reporting is pushing for a 2.5% universal tariff on US imports that increases every month.
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“I have a little bias toward TikTok right now,” Trump said at the annual policy retreat.
Trump credited TikTok for securing him the youth vote. But he said what will happen to the company after he gave the ByteDance-owned platform a 90-day extension on the ban that the supreme court upheld is yet to be seen. He said there will be a lot of bidders looking to purchase TikTok.
Updated
Trump is addressing House Republicans at their annual policy retreat at Trump National Doral Miami.
You can watch his remarks here.
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Following a travel ban imposed on Colombia by Trump on Sunday, the World Bank has instructed its Colombian employees not to enter or leave the US, the New York Times is reporting.
Trump implemented the travel ban and visa restrictions after Colombia refused to accept US military flights with migrants who had been deported on board until they were returned in a dignified manner. The refusal was short-lived. Still, the New York Times reported that World Bank employees who arrived at Dulles international airport had their G4 visas revoked. These employees were deported.
A memo sent around to employees said the World Bank was “closely monitoring the situation and actively engaging with US Government counterparts”.
“Please be aware that attempts to enter or leave the US could encounter challenges at the point of departure or upon arrival,” it also said.
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CNN obtained the letter justice department officials who were fired for their involvement in prosecuting Trump for election interference received. In it, acting Attorney General McHenry wrote that the Biden administration’s “campaign” to weaponize legal force against its political opponents was most salient in the justice department’s “unprecedented prosecutions” against Trump.
“You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” the letter said. “The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates. Given your significant role in prosecuting the President, I do not believe that the leadership of the Department can trust you to assist in implementing the President’s agenda faithfully.”
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An Indiana man who was pardoned by Donald Trump for taking part in the January 6 insurrection was killed by police during a traffic stop on Sunday.
Matthew Huttle, 42, was shot by a sheriff’s deputy after allegedly resisting arrest and getting into an altercation with an officer, local news outlets in Indiana report, based on the Indiana state police’s account of the incident.
Huttle was one of the more than 1,500 people pardoned by Trump for their roles in the 2017 Capitol riot on the first day of his second term in office.
Huttle traveled to Washington with his uncle, Dale, and both men were charged for participating in the insurrection. He entered the US Capitol for about 10 minutes and agreed to a plea deal that gave him six months in prison. His uncle, Dale Huttle, was sentenced to 30 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge for assaulting an officer after he jabbed the police officer with a long flagpole.
The county sheriff in Jasper county, Indiana, said he requested the state police investigate the shooting. The officer was placed on administrative leave per department policy for police shootings, the sheriff said.
“Our condolences go out to the family of the deceased as any loss of life is traumatic to those that were close to Mr Huttle,” the sheriff Patrick Williamson said in a statement.
Read more:
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The Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama, said Israeli news reports that Trump is in talks with the Albanian government to take in 100,000 Palestinian refugees from Gaza are “fake”.
In a post on X, Rama tweeted that Albania had not been asked by anyone to do so.
“We are proud of our strong friendships with Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and, of course, the Palestinian people, whose state Albania recognized a very long time ago,” Rama posted. “But Albania is not in the Middle East itself, and from the heart of Europe, we cannot do more than any other European country in such a matter.”
Updated
DoJ fires several officials who worked on Trump election interference cases
The justice department has terminated officials who worked with special counsel Jack Smith on the 2020 election interference cases against Trump, several publications are reporting.
In a report that was released earlier this month, Smith concluded Trump engaged in “unprecedented criminal effort” to remain in power after losing the 2020 presidential election.
More than a dozen officials were fired after acting attorney general James McHenry said he did “not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda”.
The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that a prosecutor is reviewing the DoJ’s decision to charge hundreds of 6 January defendants with felony obstruction offenses.
This is Johana Bhuiyan taking over from Léonie.
Updated
The day so far
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Donald Trump is expected to sign three executive orders on Monday that would reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces. The orders will also include gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and reinstating service members with backpay who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on his first full day of work at the Pentagon.
Trump is also expected to sign an executive order on Monday that would begin the process of creating a “next-generation” missile defense shield for the US. Hegseth said Trump would also sign an executive order to put in place the Iron Dome for the US, referring to the Israel’s short-range air defense system.
A judge has dropped restrictions that barred the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, Stewart Rhodes, from entering Washington DC and the US Capitol. US district judge Amit Mehta lifted his order after finding that Trump’s decision to cut short their prison sentences also released them from a term of court supervision. Rhodes and his co-defendants were released from prison last week as part of Trump’s order granting clemency to all nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack on the Capitol.
One of the inspector generals who was fired by Donald Trump has warned that the president’s terminations amount to a “threat to democracy”. Hannibal “Mike” Ware, the former inspector general (IG) for the Small Business Administration, spoke to MSNBC after Trump fired the inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies on Friday night, eliminating a critical oversight component and clearing the way for him to replace them with loyalists.
Trump issued an executive order on Sunday directing federal government to override California’s water management practices if they are found to be ineffective. Trump has falsely claimed 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. His order directs federal agencies to “immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries”.
The US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the Colombians had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants. Trump had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees amid his sweeping immigration crackdown, but a White House statement late on Sunday said Colombia had agreed to accept the migrants and Washington would not impose its threatened penalties.
A series of immigration raids were conducted in cities over the weekend in what the “border czar”, Tom Homan, claimed was only “the beginning stages” of Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests.
Senate Democrats signed on to a resolution condemning Donald Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers. The one-line resolution indicates: “The Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol police officers.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as treasury secretary. On Saturday, the Senate voted 67-23 to advance Bessent’s nomination. A final vote is scheduled to take place this evening at 5.30pm ET.
Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been ordered to immediately stop engaging with the World Health Organization (WHO). The move affects critical work on influenza surveillance and disease outbreaks across the globe. Trump announced last week that the US will exit the WHO, citing what he described as a mishandling of the Covid-19 and other international health crises.
Republicans in the Florida legislature delivered a significant snub to the governor, Ron DeSantis, by abruptly halting his proposals for a crackdown on immigration in the state. The governor’s goals included making it a state crime for undocumented migrants to enter Florida; pressuring local authorities to join in a deportation purge, and punishing those who do not; and appointing a dedicated state “immigration officer” to liaise with the Trump administration under his personal authority.
JD Vance defended some of Trump’s controversial cabinet nominations in advance of further confirmation hearings this week. Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vance said Hegseth is a “disrupter” and described Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, as being of “impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services”.
Updated
CDC staff told to stop working with WHO immediately
Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been ordered to immediately stop engaging with the World Health Organization (WHO).
An email sent from the CDC’s deputy director for global health states: “Effective immediately all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means – in person or virtual – must cease their activity and await further guidance,” according to multiple outlets.
The move affects critical work on influenza surveillance and disease outbreaks across the globe.
Donald Trump announced last week that the US will exit the WHO, citing what he described as a mishandling of the Covid-19 and other international health crises.
WHO projects across the world are seen as a vital backup for health crises, with the agency taking the lead in combating diseases, particularly in poorer countries and conflict zones. It has coordinated international responses to mpox, Ebola and polio.
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Inspector general fired by Trump warns terminations are a 'threat to democracy'
One of the inspector generals who was fired by Donald Trump has warned that the president’s terminations amount to a “threat to democracy”.
Trump fired the inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies on Friday night, eliminating a critical oversight component and clearing the way for him to replace them with loyalists.
Hannibal “Mike” Ware, the former inspector general (IG) for the Small Business Administration, told MSNBC on Monday:
We’re looking at what amounts to a threat to democracy, a threat to independent oversight and a threat to transparency in government.
Ware, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, said the reason given for his firing was “changing priorities of the administration”.
“The reason that is alarming is because IGs are not a part of any administration,” he said.
IGs oversee how the priorities of the administration is being conducted to make sure that there is transparency in government, and to make sure that there’s no fraud waste and abuse, and how taxpayer funds are being expended.
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Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, has ordered the deployment of 400 soldiers and some helicopters to the border, his office said.
In a statement, Abbott’s office said the 400 additional soldiers, as well as C-130 and Chinook helicopters, will join thousands of Texas national guard soldiers already deployed on the border to collaborate with US border patrol agents on the border.
“Texas has a partner in the White House we can work with to secure the Texas-Mexico border,” the governor said.
To support that mission, today, I deployed the Texas tactical border force, comprised of hundreds of troops, to work side-by-side with US Border Patrol agents to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country and to enforce immigration laws.
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Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to visit Washington DC next week for a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump, Axios reports, citing Israeli and US sources.
Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been accused by a leading labor union of an “absolutely illegal” breach of federal regulations after posting a vague request for job applications.
The Trump administration’s much-vaunted but ill-defined program to reshape the federal government announced it was recruiting “full-time, salaried positions” for software engineers, information security engineers and “other technology professionals” on its official website.
Government vacancy announcements are typically required to include key information around pay, security requirements, qualifications, and the number of available roles, according to the office of personnel management.
The Doge page does not contain such details. It includes a brief paragraph explaining that it is looking to hire “world-class talent to work long hours identifying/eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse”, and a form to submit personal details. A checkbox indicates the roles are based in Washington DC, and available only to US citizens.
The page was promoted by Musk on X, the social network he owns, and swiftly drew criticism from a prominent union leader.
“This is an application to apply for a corrupt organization to do corrupt things,” said Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents about 110,000 federal workers.
“This is definitely against federal law if they’re using it as a way to actually give someone a job or deny someone a job. It’s absolutely illegal.”
A transgender woman serving in a federal prison has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump over a plan to move her to a men’s prison, after Trump’s executive order directing the government to recognize only two sexes.
The lawsuit, filed on Sunday in Boston federal court, is among the first court challenges related to the executive order, which directs the federal government to only recognize two, biologically distinct sexes, male and female; house transgender women in men’s prisons; and cease funding any gender-affirming medical care for inmates.
Trump’s executive order discriminated based on sex in violation of the plaintiff’s due process rights under the constitution’s fifth amendment by requiring prison officials to treat incarcerated people differently depending on their sex, according to the lawsuit, Reuters reports.
The plaintiff’s impending transfer to a men’s prison would also violate the eighth amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and depriving the plaintiff of medically necessary healthcare would violate a federal law known as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, according to the lawsuit.
The inmate’s lawyers argued that if she were transferred to a men’s facility, she would be at an “extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault”.
Mexico has received more than 4,000 migrants deported from the US in the first week of the Trump administration, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said.
The “large majority” of them are Mexicans but some are non-Mexican deportees, she said on Monday.
Sheinbaum told reporters that there has not yet been a “substantial” increase in deportation flights since Trump took office last week.
A decision by the US education department to end their investigations into book bans in the country has sparked backlash from advocacy and civil liberties groups.
The education department’s Office for Civil Rights announced on Friday that it had dismissed 11 complaints related to book bans and it will no longer employ a “book ban coordinator” to investigate local school districts and parents.
There has been a flurry of attempts to ban or remove books from school libraries and classrooms across the US in recent years, with the vast majority of attempts targeting books that are written by or about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, according to the free speech organizations that track book-banning efforts.
PEN America, a non-profit aimed at protecting free expression, has tracked more than 10,000 public school book bans in the 2023-2024 school year.
Judge lifts ban barring ex-Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes from Washington DC
A judge has dropped restrictions that barred the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, Stewart Rhodes, from entering Washington DC and the US Capitol.
The US district court judge Amit Mehta wrote in an order on Friday that Rhodes, along with seven other January 6 defendants, would need to first obtain permission from the court before setting foot in the US capital. The order led to a request from the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, to reverse the ban.
On Monday, the judge released a new order explaining why he had added a location restriction to Rhodes’ terms of release: at the time Rhodes was sentenced, location restrictions were not yet added to supervision orders as special conditions for a prisoner’s release. This has since changed, the ruling said. After consulting the Probation Office and being told the location restrictions were appropriate, Mehta issued his ban on Friday.
However, Mehta went on to say that he would vacate his order from Friday “because it would be improper for the court post-commutation to modify the original sentences”.
He added: “The court acknowledges that its conditions of supervision will not be enforced.
“Accordingly, the US Department of Justice’s motion is granted in part and denied in part. The court will not ‘dismiss’ the non-custodial portion of defendants’ sentences, but defendants are no longer bound by the judicially imposed conditions of supervised release.”
Updated
The day so far
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Donald Trump is expected to sign three executive orders on Monday that would reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces. The orders will also include gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and reinstating service members with backpay who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19, defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on his first full day of work at the Pentagon.
Trump is also expected to sign an executive order on Monday that would begin the process of creating a “next-generation” missile defense shield for the US. Hegseth said Trump would also sign an executive order to put in place the Iron Dome for the US, referring to the Israel’s short-range air defense system.
Trump issued an executive order on Sunday directing federal government to override California’s water management practices if they are found to be ineffective. Trump has falsely claimed 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. His order directs federal agencies to “immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries”.
The US and Colombia pulled back from the brink of a trade war on Sunday after the White House said the Colombians had agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants. Trump had threatened tariffs and sanctions on Colombia to punish it for earlier refusing to accept military flights carrying deportees amid his sweeping immigration crackdown, but a White House statement late on Sunday said Colombia had agreed to accept the migrants and Washington would not impose its threatened penalties.
A series of immigration raids were conducted in cities over the weekend in what the “border czar”, Tom Homan, claimed was only “the beginning stages” of Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests.
Senate Democrats signed on to a resolution condemning Donald Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers. The one-line resolution indicates that “the Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol police officers.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager, Scott Bessent, as treasury secretary. On Saturday, the Senate voted 67-23 to advance Bessent’s nomination. A final vote is scheduled to take place this evening at 5.30pm ET.
Republicans in the Florida legislature delivered a significant snub to Governor Ron DeSantis by abruptly halting his proposals for a crackdown on immigration in the state. The governor’s goals included making it a state crime for undocumented migrants to enter Florida; pressuring local authorities to join in a deportation purge, and punishing those who do not; and appointing a dedicated state “immigration officer” to liaise with the Trump administration under his personal authority.
JD Vance defended some of Trump’s controversial cabinet nominations in advance of further confirmation hearings this week. Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vance said Hegseth is a “disrupter” and described Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, as being of “impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services”.
Updated
Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into whether there should be a radical shake-up of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) after saying he supported its abolition.
In a new executive order, the returning president appointed a review council to examine the workings of the agency, which he accused of political bias and of denying aid to his supporters.
“Despite obligating nearly $30bn in disaster aid each of the past three years, Fema has managed to leave vulnerable Americans without the resources or support they need when they need it most,” the order stated, adding: “There are serious concerns of political bias in Fema.”
The order also accused the agency of going beyond its remit by spending more than $1bn “to welcome illegal aliens”, although it did not provide evidence.
The review council will consist of “no more than 20 members” and will included the new secretaries of defense and homeland security, Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem, respectively.
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Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday that would begin the process of creating a “next-generation” missile defense shield for the US, CNN reports.
The order would call for the creation of an “iron dome” for the US, referring to Israel’s missile-shield system designed to intercept short-range launches.
The outlet reports that:
The executive order directs implementation of a next generation missile-defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation aerial attacks.
Trump has previously promised to build an “impenetrable dome” over the US to “protect our people”.
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We reported earlier that nearly all Senate Democrats signed on to a resolution condemning Donald Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 defendants who assaulted police officers.
John Fetterman, the Democratic senator for Pennsylvania, has now signed the resolution, Politico reports.
Fetterman was not on an initial version of the resolution circulated this morning, but a spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that he supports the effort.
Florida Republicans rebuke DeSantis over immigration
Republicans in the Florida legislature delivered a significant snub to Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday by abruptly halting his proposals for a crackdown on immigration in the state.
DeSantis had summoned lawmakers to a “special legislative session” in Tallahassee on Monday morning aimed at aligning state laws to the hardline measures coming out of the White House.
The governor’s goals included making it a state crime for undocumented migrants to enter Florida; pressuring local authorities to join in a deportation purge, and punishing those who do not; and appointing a dedicated state “immigration officer” to liaise with the Trump administration under his personal authority.
The special session had Trump’s blessing, with the president posting to Truth Social this month he hoped more governors would follow DeSantis’s lead.
But in an action on Monday morning that local media outlets called variously a kneecapping of DeSantis, and an extension of a civil war between the governor and legislature over who has control of Florida’s immigration policies, Republican lawmakers in both the state House and Senate immediately “gaveled” out the sessions as soon as they had begun – to press ahead with their own proposals.
According to NBC News, their act “effectively killed all the legislation already filed by DeSantis’s allies… [and] puts the governor in a tricky position”.
For example, under the lawmakers’ bill, there would still be a state immigration officer, the agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson, a possible DeSantis successor, but he would report to the legislature, and not to the governor.
As the NBC report explains it, assuming the bill passes, DeSantis must either sign a measure that “kneecaps” his authority over immigration enforcement in Florida, or veto a bill including many hardline immigration actions supported by the Trump administration.
“Sometimes leadership isn’t about being out in front of an issue. It’s about following the leader you trust. I trust President Trump,” saidthe Florida Senate president, Ben Albritton, according to the Miami Herald.
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The air force has resumed using training material that referred to the Tuskegee Airmen after the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives caused an internal review.
Following Trump’s executive order last week, the air force suspended course instruction on a documentary about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first Black airmen in the US military.
The famed Black aviators included 450 pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during the second world war. Their success in combat helped pave the way for Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948.
Another video about civilian female pilots trained by the US military during the second world war, known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or Wasps, was also pulled.
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said in a post on X on Sunday that any move to cut the training was “immediately reversed”.
The air force later said that “no airmen or guardians will miss this block of instruction due to the revision, however one group of trainees had the training delayed. That block of training was pulled in order to take out DEI material on January 23 and will continue again as of Monday,” Associated Press reported.
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The escalating federal law enforcement actions against undocumented immigrants has set up what could be a showdown between state and local officials in so-called “sanctuary cities” such as Chicago and Denver.
Under “sanctuary” laws, local law enforcement is prohibited from co-operating with federal deportation actions. The border czar Tom Homan has warned Democratic-controlled cities not to interfere with the actions.
“If you don’t, get the hell out of the way,” he said in a speech to Republicans last year.
In an interview on Sunday, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, said he intended to cooperate with efforts to deport those accused of or convicted of violent crimes, but would also enforce Illinois’ own “sanctuary state” laws.
“We’re going to follow the law in Illinois,” Pritzker told CNN. “We expect them to do the same, and I’m very afraid they will not follow the law”.
Illinois’ senators, the Democrats Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, also issued a statement warning that the administration’s deportation efforts was likely to go beyond deporting criminals and instead sweep in veterans, essential workers and other people without criminal records.
“We can all agree we that [we] must remove dangerous individuals who are here illegally. But the actions being taken by the Trump admin go beyond those goals,” the senators said, adding that they stood with immigrant communities and their offices “are ready to help those improperly caught up in these raids”.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) also said it made arrests outside a Home Depot in Tucson, Arizona, and in neighborhoods with Dominican immigrants in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In Denver, Colorado, federal agents reportedly arrested 41 people, including four said to be members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, at a “makeshift nightclub” early on Sunday morning.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told CBS that the immigration status of all the arrestees was “questionable” and that they had seized drugs, weapons and cash. The detainees were handed over to Ice, according to Steffan Tubbs of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain division.
The focus on Tren de Aragua, or TdA, comes after Donald Trump made several apartment blocks in neighboring Aurora said to have been taken over by the gang a focal point for his anti-illegal immigration campaign message. Aurora city officials said last week they were seeking to close down a sixth apartment building due to gang activity.
Meanwhile, Navajo Nation leaders have reportedly expressed concern over reports that Indigenous people belonging to their tribe as well as others had been detained in immigration sweeps in and around Phoenix. And the mayor of San Jose, California, confirmed Ice agents were conducting targeted actions there.
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The TV personality Dr Phil joined the US border czar, Tom Homan, in an immigration raid in Chicago, one of several conducted in US cities over the weekend.
Homan claimed the choreographed raid was only “the beginning stages” of Donald Trump’s promised threat to deport millions of people from the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, bringing the total since Trump took office to 2,681 arrests – short of the 1,200 to 1,500 daily arrests that Trump has reportedly demanded.
In Chicago, where Ice confirmed it was conducting “enhanced targeted operations”, Dr Phil – the American TV mental health personality whose full name is Phil McGraw – joined an arrest operation with Homan.
In a post on X, Dr Phil claimed Ice aimed to pick 270 “high-value targets” and said the agents were “not sweeping neighborhoods like people are trying to imply”.
A justice department official claimed that the first arrest observed by the US acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove, who also joined Homan’s publicity event, involved an person living illegally in the US who had “killed a 19-year-old woman while driving under the influence”.
Senate Democrats condemn Trump's January 6 pardons
All Democratic senators but one – John Fetterman of Pennsylvania – signed a resolution on Monday condemning Donald Trump’s decision to pardon people who were found guilty of assaulting police officers in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The one-line resolution indicates that “the Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol police officers”.
Fetterman was the lone Democrat to not sign the resolution. Democrats are expected to bring the measure to the floor this week but given Republican’s majority, it will probably fail.
Trump, during his first day in office last week, issued “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons for about 1,500 people who were involved in the January 6 attack on Congress, including some convicted of violent acts.
Note: Fetterman’s spokesperson has since confirmed that he supports the resolution.
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Pete Hegseth, on his first day as defense secretary, said the government would provide “whatever” assistance is required at the US southern border.
“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” he told reporters.
“Whether that is through state active duty, title 32 or title ten, because we are reorienting – this is a shift.”
Hegseth was speaking to journalists outside the Pentagon where he was jointed by the top US military officer, Air Force Gen CQ Brown.
Asked if he might fire Brown, Hegseth joked that he was standing right next to him.
“I’m standing with him right now. I look forward to working with him,” as he patted Brown on the back.
As we reported earlier, Hegseth also said that Donald Trump will soon sign executive orders removing diversity, equity and inclusion from the military and reinstating thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing Covid-19 vaccines.
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Donald Trump had banned transgender people from serving in the US military during his first term – a policy that was reversed under Joe Biden.
Hours after being sworn into his second term last week, Trump signed an order revoking the Biden administration’s rule allowing transgender people to openly serve in the military.
The order did not have immediate effect for transgender troops currently serving, the Military Times reports.
This latest order would go further than last week’s action, according to CNN, outlining new military standards regarding gender pronouns and stating that mental and physical readiness requires transgender service members be banned.
A Trump White House official, citing a fact sheet regarding the executive order, told the outlet:
It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements.
Hegseth confirms Trump will soon sign orders removing DEI programs from military
The reported executive orders come after Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as defense secretary on Saturday.
Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon for his first full day of work on Monday where he was warmly greeted by the top US military officer, air force Gen Charles Q Brown, Reuters reports.
Speaking to reporters, Hegseth said Trump will soon sign orders removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs from the military and reinstating thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing Covid-19 vaccines.
“There are more executive orders coming,” he said.
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Trump to sign executive order banning transgender troops - report
Donald Trump is expected to sign three executive orders on Monday that would reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces, CNN reports.
The orders will also include gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and reinstating service members with backpay who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19, two White House officials told the outlet.
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Over the weekend, the Senate voted to confirm Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, putting the South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and Donald Trump’s plans to clamp down on illegal immigration during his second presidency.
Republicans unanimously voted to confirm Noem and got support from seven Democrats, including John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Gary Peters of Michigan, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Margaret Hassan of New Hampshire and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. The final vote was 59-34.
Noem, who held her state’s lone House seat for eight years before becoming governor in 2019, has risen in the Republican party by tacking closely with Trump. At one point, she was even under consideration to be his running mate.
Her political stock took a momentary dip, however, when she released a book last year containing an account of her killing her hunting dog, as well as a false claim that she once met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Noem does not have any experience in law enforcement but has pledged to faithfully execute the president’s orders and copied his talk of an “invasion” at the US border with Mexico.
On Friday night, defense secretary Pete Hegseth was also confirmed in a dramatic tie-breaking Senate vote by JD Vance, joining the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe.
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Senate expected to confirm Scott Bessent as treasury secretary
The Senate is expected on Monday to vote on the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager, Scott Bessent, as treasury secretary.
On Saturday, the Senate voted 67-23 to advance Bessent’s nomination. A final vote is scheduled to take place this evening at 5.30pm ET.
The treasury secretary job is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s gigantic economy and financial markets.
One of the main focuses and controversies of the role will be to deal with Donald Trump’s high-profile and oft-repeated promises to pursue a policy of aggressive new US tariffs in foreign trade – something that is widely feared by many other countries across the globe.
Bessent, 62, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production.
If Bessent is confirmed, he would be the first out gay Senate-approved cabinet official in a Republican cabinet.
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In a statement late on Sunday, the White House claimed victory in its showdown with Colombia over deportation flights and said it had agreed to accept the migrants.
A statement from the White House last night reads:
The government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.
As a result, the tariffs and sanctions that Donald Trump had threatened would be “held in reserve, and not signed”, it said.
Other penalties, such as visa sanctions, will remain in effect until the first planeload of deportees has arrived in Colombia, the statement said.
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Here’s more on the back-and-forth between Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, amid rising tensions between Latin American governments and Washington over US deportation flights.
Petro had earlier said he would only take back citizens “with dignity”, such as on civilian planes, and had turned back two US military aircraft with repatriated Colombians.
Trump responded fiercely, threatening to take the following “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures” including doubling tariffs on Colombian exports to the US to 50%; a ban and visa revocations on Colombian government officials “and all allies and supporters”; and enhanced inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo entering the US on what he called “national security grounds”.
In response, Petro ordered an increase of import tariffs on goods from the US. Petro said he ordered the “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%”.
Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a statement saying: “Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air.
“President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of.”
The sight of Donald Trump signing a flurry of executive orders with his black Sharpie in front of the Maga faithful after his inauguration inspired envy and concern in equal measure inside the UK government.
Cabinet ministers have been impressed by the new US president “cracking on” with bold – and often controversial – election promises. “We could do with a bit more of that here,” one told the Guardian.
Yet the flood of announcements over Trump’s first week in power and the potential for the UK to be caught up in the global diplomatic and economic maelstrom – or worse still, a direct target of it – has also caused anxiety.
So the newly inaugurated president’s first public utterance about Keir Starmer since re-entering the White House – that the prime minister had “done a very good job” and they “get along well” despite their divergent political views – was met with some relief inside Downing Street.
Read the full piece from our political editor, Pippa Crerar, here:
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Vance defends Trump cabinet picks Hegseth and Gabbard on Sunday political show
Vice-president JD Vance has defended some of Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet nominations ahead of further confirmation hearings this week.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Vance was asked about Pete Hegseth, the former soldier and Fox News host who was confirmed as defense secretary last week following a narrow vote in the Senate.
“I think Pete is a disrupter,” he said. “If you think about all of those bipartisan, massive votes [from past confirmations], we have to ask ourselves, what did they get us?
“They got us a country where we fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive. They’ve got us a military with a major recruitment crisis, a procurement price crisis that’s totally dysfunctional, where we [have] terrible cost overruns. So we need a big change.”
Vance was also asked about Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who has faced criticism for her views on Edward Snowden, previous meetings with now deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and comments on the Russia-Ukraine war.
He said Gabbard, also a former soldier, who will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, had an “impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services”.
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Donald Trump has issued an executive order directing federal government to override California’s water management practices if they are found to be ineffective.
It comes two days after Trump visited Los Angeles to see the damage done by a series of wildfires that have burned more than 35,000 acres and killed at least 28 people.
Trump has falsely claimed 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.
Demand at the height of the fires caused some hydrants in LA to run dry, but local officials said that was because the system was not designed for such large fires, while Newsom has said no amount of water could have contained brush fires whipped by 100mph winds.
Trump’s order told federal agencies to “immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries”.
It also orders the White House budget office to see whether it can attach conditions to federal aid to the state to ensure cooperation.
Read the full story here:
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All countries “should be on notice” that they will face sanctions if they do not cooperate with US deportation efforts, the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has said.
It comes after Colombia agreed to accept repatriated citizens having initially refused to take two planes of deportees.
“Colombia and all nations should be on notice - Congress is fully prepared to pass sanctions and other measures against those that do not fully cooperate or follow through on requirements to accept their citizens who are illegally in the United States,” Johnson wrote on X.
“President Trump is putting America first, just like he said he would. And Congress will implement policies that reinforce his agenda.”
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Immigration raids in Chicago begin after Homan claimed officials were ‘reconsidering’
US federal authorities have begun immigration raids in Chicago, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) statement confirmed on Sunday.
It comes after the White House border czar, Tom Homan, said officials were “reconsidering” the raids to ensure officers’ safety after details were leaked into the press.
Ice said its agents, along with the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP, and the US Marshals Service, had begun conducting “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago “to enforce US immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities”.
Homan previously said Chicago would be “ground zero” for immigration enforcement actions.
The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration has directed Ice officials to increase daily arrests from a few hundred to 1,200 to 1,500.
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More now on that news that Colombia has agreed to accept flights carrying migrants deported from the US, narrowly averting a trade war between the two countries.
In a statement late on Sunday, the White House said: “The government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
The Colombian foreign minister, Luis Gilberto Murillo, said in his own statement that “we have overcome the impasse with the US government”, adding: “We will continue receiving Colombians who return as deportees.”
Trump had threatened to impose 25% tariffs “on all goods” exported from Colombia to the US, rising to 50% after a week, after Colombia refused to accept two military planes carrying deportees.
In response, Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, announced retaliatory tariffs and said he would only take back citizens “with dignity”, such as on civilian planes.
Murillo’s statement did not specifically say that the agreement included military flights, but it did not contradict the White House announcement.
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Colombia backs down over US deportation flights after Trump tariff threat
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. We’ll be bringing you the latest updates as Donald Trump begins the second week of his second term in office.
On Sunday, the US and Colombia have pulled back from brink of a trade war after Colombia agreed to accept flights carrying migrants deported from the US.
Trump had threatened to impose trade tariffs and sanctions on Colombia after it initially refused to accept the flights.
In a statement late on Sunday, the White House said Colombia had agreed to accept the flights and that the threatened penalties would not go ahead.
Stay with us throughout the day for all the latest developments.
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