Closing summary
Another very full day of news from the Trump restoration draws to a close, but your Guardian livebloggers will be back on Thursday to chronicle events as they unfold. Here are some of the main developments from the past few hours:
Donald Trump ordered the US military to detain up to 30,000 undocumented immigrants at Guantánamo Bay, prompting widespread backlash from rights groups, Democrats and the Cuban government.
The Office of Personnel Management sent a memo to federal agencies instructing them to take immediate and far-reaching steps to comply with Trump’s executive order to crack down on “Gender Ideology Extremism”.
A federal judge agreed to issue a temporary restraining order blocking Trump’s freeze on federal spending after the White House press secretary undermined the administration’s argument in a tweet.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency celebrated the end of what it called “DEI scholarships in Burma”, which a former diplomat explained was really a bipartisan program to help young people struggling for an end to that country’s sectarian military dictatorship.
Trump’s executive order “to combat antisemitism” asks federal agencies to explore ways to deport pro-Palestinian activists, including student protesters.
Former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez added his name to the list of officials accused or convicted of public corruption hoping for Trump to show them mercy.
Updated
Why is Elon Musk’s Doge picking on young people hoping to end Myanmar’s nightmare autocracy?
The headlong rush to cut government funding for anything that sounds too much like “diversity, equity and inclusion” to the new administration’s shockingly young shock troops appears to have brought an abrupt halt to a program that supported young leaders struggling for a better future for Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, which is now ruled by a military dictatorship engaged in ethnic conflict.
On Wednesday, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency boasted on his social media platform that a program to provide what it called “$45m in DEI scholarships in Burma” had been cancelled.
But as the former congressman and veteran diplomat Tom Malinowski pointed out, the funding was for USAid’s Lincoln scholarships, “which help young people struggling for freedom in Burma’s dictatorship – a cause America has supported under Republican & Democratic presidents”.
“What could be ‘woke’ or ‘DEI’ about these scholarships?” Malinowksi asks. “The only clue is that USAID says they’re for students ‘of diverse backgrounds’ (oh no, diversity!). This is essential for Burma, where the military has exploited ethnic and religious divisions to stay in power.”
The program description on the USAid website does indeed say that the aim of investing in “135 young Myanmar leaders from diverse backgrounds” is to help “the next generation of leaders to guide Myanmar along a path of inclusive socio-economic development”.
Given the new administration’s horror at the prospect of young people fleeing conflict zones to build better lives in the United States, wouldn’t a modest investment in helping young people carve out a common future in a country divided by sectarian violence make sense?
Malinowksi added that, in his career as a senator, the new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, supported human rights in Burma and urged the Biden administration to do even more to help the persecuted Rohingya ethnic minority.
“It looks like these geniuses are just going through grant awards and killing anything that uses words like ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion,’ even though in countries where ethnic and religious minorities are murdered and persecuted, these have long been American goals,” Malinowski concluded.
Updated
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, has endorsed Ben Wikler for Democratic National Committee chair, just days before the party elects a new leader.
Wikler, who leads the Wisconsin Democrats and is the only former writer for the Onion in the race, shared Pelosi’s endorsement on Bluesky.
The DNC will elect a new chair on Saturday.
While Pelosi remains a powerful force in Democratic party politics, Wikler’s main rival for the leadership of the DNC, Ken Martin of Minnesota, touted the endorsement of a much younger party leader, Tennessee state representative Justin Pearson.
Updated
A federal judge in Rhode Island agreed to issue a temporary restraining order blocking Donald Trump’s freeze on federal spending after the White House press secretary undermined the Trump administration’s argument that it had rescinded the memo from the White House budget office that ordered a freeze.
As Mattathias Schwartz reports for the New York Times, lawyers for 22 states and the District of Columbia, which had filed suit, introduced as evidence a social media post from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in which she insisted that, despite the memo, “the federal funding freeze” was still in effect.
US district court judge James McConnell Jr agreed that the harm caused by Trump’s freeze was ongoing, in part because, “based on comments by the president’s press secretary”, the impact of the withdrawal of the budget office memo was “hugely ambiguous”. The judge also pointed to extensive testimony from state officials that they had been locked out of systems that provide reimbursements for Medicaid and other government programs.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked Leavitt in a post on the platform formerly known as Twitter, noting that her “tweets were so bad today she earned the entire administration a federal restraining order. Keep talking and tweeting, girl! You’re doing great!”
Updated
Trump order on antisemitism targets pro-Palestinian protesters
A new executive order signed by Donald Trump on Wednesday “to combat antisemitism” asks federal agencies to explore ways to deport pro-Palestinian activists, including student protesters, who are found to have broken the law during protests.
As our colleague Marina Dunbar reports, the order appears to target students and other activists who engaged in demonstrations against the Israeli war in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
The text of the order says that action is necessary because the Hamas attack on Israel on “unleashed an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses”.
If Not Now, an organization of American Jews “organizing our community to end US support for Israel’s apartheid system”, denounced the order.
“We are disgusted that Trump and his antisemitic, neo-Nazi allies are planning to deport students and other immigrants for protesting [against] the Israeli military’s assault on Gaza, while gutting academic freedom by threatening to withhold billions in federal funding for universities,” the group said in a statement. “This attack – fueled by anti-Palestinian racism – is all part of Trump’s broad-based attack on immigrants, our education system, and our democracy.”
Layla Saliba, a Palestinian American graduate student at Columbia University, reported on social media that student protesters there were being monitored by the police as they rallied on Wednesday evening.
“Just outside the Columbia University gates, students are hosting a vigil in honor of Hind Rajab,” Saliba wrote on X. “Hind was a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by the Israeli military. [The] NYPD is monitoring and filming students as they read poetry.”
Updated
Trump order to turn Guantánamo Bay into migrant detention center sparks outcry
There has been a wave of criticism from across the country and around the globe to Donald Trump’s executive order instructing the military to prepare to house 30,000 immigrants at the US naval base in Cuba.
“Guantánamo Bay has been the site of torture, indefinite detention without charge or trial and other unlawful practices by the US government,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “President Trump should be using his authority to finally close the prison there, not re-purposing the facility for offshore immigration detention.”
“Guantánamo is a stain on our nation’s honor,” Representative Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, wrote in response to Trump’s comments on the order. “For years, I have advocated for its closure, condemning the abuses and glaring lack of accountability that persist there. This massive expansion into a mass detention camp is morally indefensible & raises significant civil liberties concerns.”
“This darkly harkens back to why Guantánamo was chosen to hold ‘war on terror’ detainees in the first place,” the historian of Cuba Andrés Pertierra observed. “The US sent Haitian refugees fleeing in the early 90s to Guantánamo because it existed in a legal grey area in international law, limiting their rights and US obligations.”
“This is horrific,” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote. “We cannot allow this level of dehumanization to become normalized. We need to shut down Guantánamo once and for all.”
“Hours after Holocaust Memorial Day, Trump opens a prison for immigrants at Guantánamo,” Guy Verhofstadt, the former prime minister of Belgium, wrote on X.
Updated
Ron DeSantis has ramped up his spat with Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature over who has the most extreme immigration policies by promising to veto a bill they passed on Tuesday night called the Trump Act in deference to the new president.
The Republican governor has been fuming since lawmakers abruptly shut down a special session he summoned them to on Monday to advance his anti-immigration agenda, then moved ahead with their own plans instead.
The humiliated DeSantis, in a flurry of posts to X, appearances on Fox News, and even a hastily convened “roundtable” on Wednesday morning, denounced the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (Trump) Act as “weak” and “toothless”, even though it was written with White House help to support the president’s deportation plans, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
On Wednesday, the governor posted to X that his “veto pen is ready”, in part because it would removed authority for immigration enforcement from his oversight and place it in the hands of a cabinet member with whom he has been feuding.
Agriculture commissioner Wilton Simpson, among those tipped to succeed DeSantis as governor when his term ends in 2027, hit back in a post of his own.
He highlighted the support of “Florida’s conservative legislature” to Trump’s agenda of raids, arrests and deportations of undocumented migrants, and reminded DeSantis: “I’m not the one who opposed and ran against President Trump”, a reference to his disastrous challenge for last year’s Republican presidential nomination.
Student groups and immigration advocates protested across the state Tuesday against a measure included in the Trump Act and DeSantis’s proposals to charge undocumented people out-of-state tuition rates to attend Florida colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, Florida’s Democrats appear to be enjoying DeSantis’s squirming. In a post to X, the party condemned the act it says “kicks Dreamers out of college and gives police bonuses for working with Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]”.
“Will our lame duck Governor veto this bill or go home with egg on his face?” it asked.
Updated
Federal agencies ordered to change email settings to remove prompts for pronouns
Chuck Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, sent a memo to federal agencies on Wednesday instructing them to take immediate and far-reaching steps to comply with Trump’s executive order, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism”.
The memo, posted on X, orders agencies to go to great lengths to remove anything that might be defined as promoting “gender ideology” from public websites and social media accounts, and even to make sure that internal email systems, like Outlook, are set to turn off prompts that ask users for their pronouns.
Agency leaders are required to notify employees to abide by the order, and undertake a review of programs, contracts and grants by 5pm on Friday, and “terminate any that promote or inculcate gender ideology”.
They are also instructed to report back to the OPM by no later than noon on 7 February with a complete list of all steps taken to comply with the order and the guidance in the memo.
Updated
Add the name of former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez to the list of Democrats in legal trouble angling for Donald Trump to do them a favor.
Speaking to reporters outside federal court in New York, where he was just sentenced to 11 years in prison for taking bribes, including 13 gold bars found in his New Jersey home during a 2022 raid by the FBI, Menendez unsubtly invoked Trump in his remarks.
“Welcome to the southern district of New York, the wild west of political prosecutions,” Menendez said. “President Trump is right: this process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool, and restores the integrity to the system.”
Like New York’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, if Menendez wants Trump to intervene on his behalf, he will have to walk back previous comments denouncing the president. The former senator’s YouTube channel, for instance, still features video of him raising, on the Senate floor in 2019, what he called then, “the entirely legitimate question of whether Donald Trump could be compromised by the Russian government”.
If Menendez and Adams hold out hope, it could be because Trump has a track record of throwing a life line to former officials charged with public corruption.
In 2020, Trump commuted the 14-year sentence Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois and Celebrity Apprentice contestant, was serving after being convicted on corruption charges.
Trump called Blagojevich’s punishment “a tremendously powerful ridiculous sentence in my opinion” and Blagojevich emerged from prison calling himself a “Trumpocrat”.
Updated
Trump orders officials to expand migrant detention facility at Guantánamo
A memo sent to reporters by the White House communications team directs the new the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, to act on his executive order to prepare a huge detention facility at Guantánamo Bay that could be used to hold up to 30,000 immigrants deported from the US.
Here is the full text of the memo from Trump:
I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.
This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
Updated
Cuba denounces Trump plan to detain migrants at Guantánamo Bay
Cuba has responded to Donald Trump’s announcement that he plans to open a detention center for migrants at Guantánamo Bay, with the foreign minister claiming the idea “shows contempt towards the human condition and international law”.
Writing on X, the US social media site owned by Trump backer Elon Musk, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla condemned “the US government’s decision to imprison migrants at the Guantánamo naval base, in an enclave where it created torture centers and indefinite detention”.
Also writing on X, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, called the plan “an act of brutality”.
Updated
The Senate just voted, 56-42, to confirm Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, to be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Zeldin, who is expected to carry out Trump’s orders to reverse Biden administration climate rules aimed at slashing emissions from vehicles, power plants and factories, will lead an agency newly staffed by lawyers and lobbyists for the oil and chemical industries.
Three Democratic senators joined every Republican in voting to put Zeldin in charge of the EPA: Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Senators Cory Booker, of New Jersey, and Jon Ossoff, of Georgia, did not vote.
Donald Trump’s justice department has spoken with federal prosecutors in Manhattan about possibly dropping the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, the New York Times reports.
Adams, as Eric Berger reported for the Guardian last week, is a Democrat “who faces a federal indictment for allegedly accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources, met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida shortly before the president-elect took office; went to Trump’s inauguration, rather than attend scheduled events in the city for Martin Luther King Day; and did an interview with [Tucker] Carlson, a former Fox News host who frequently criticizes Democrats and has promoted conspiracy theories about immigration”.
All of these moves have been widely interpreted by critics of the mayor as a concerted effort to win Trump’s favor, and a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Trump and Adams, the newspaper reports, citing several people close to the mayor, “have been in direct communication for weeks, speaking on the phone”.
Updated
Today so far
It’s nearly 4.30pm in Washington DC. Here’s a round-up of key US politics news so far:
The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded its memo regarding the pause in federal grants and loans. The news comes a day after a federal judge temporarily halted the policy, which had prompted mass confusion and concern across the country.
But the White House has created further confusion over the announcement with a cryptic statement. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News: “In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage. The executive orders issued by the president on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments.”
Donald Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act – named after a murdered nursing student – the first legislation to receive his signature since taking office last week. At a desk in the White House’s East Room, Trump was surrounded by legislative sponsors of the bill as well as members of Riley’s family. The bill directs authorities to detain and deport immigrants who are accused, though not convicted, of theft-related crimes if they are unlawfully present in the US.
During the speech, Trump also said he was planning to sign an executive order opening a detention center at Guantánamo Bay that would hold up to 30,000 people in the US illegally. Trump said the camp would be used “to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.
Robert F Kennedy Jr defended his record in a contentious hearing before the Senate finance committee. Kennedy, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, faced pointed questions from Democrats about his past comments criticizing vaccines and his reversal on supporting abortion access.
The top Democrat on the finance committee accused Kennedy of having “embraced conspiracy theories”. “The receipts show that Mr Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said. “This is the profile of somebody who chases money and influence wherever they lead, even if that means the deaths of children and other vulnerable people.”
Republicans voiced support for Kennedy, but his path to confirmation remains unclear. Senator Mike Crapo, the Republican chair of the finance committe, told Kennedy: “I think you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed.” But Kennedy’s habit of flip-flopping on crucial health-related issues could jeopardize his confirmation.
A judge sentenced former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison on Wednesday on federal bribery and corruption charges. Menendez, 70, a three-term Democratic senator, was found guilty last year by a jury in a Manhattan courtroom of 16 counts of corruption, including bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent. He resigned from the Senate shortly after the conviction.
Updated
The Guardian’s Chris Stein has been reporting on the reaction to a separate Trump administration effort to encourage federal workers to resign en masse.
For context, the US office of personnel management (OPM) sent nearly all of its 3 million employees an email offering them deferred resignations and warning that, if they choose to stay, they may be laid off or reassigned.
It’s obvious that this is a scam built on a Musk template,” a federal employee told the Guardian on condition of anonymity. “Taking this buyout – a voluntary separation – would mean forfeiting benefits like the pensions many of us are building toward, or reduced pensions for those who would be eligible. It’s a cruel joke and the various mocking lines about thanking people for their service are salt in the wound.
Former US senator Bob Menendez sentenced to 11 years in prison on corruption conviction
A judge sentenced former New Jersey senator Bob Menendez to 11 years in prison on Wednesday on federal bribery and corruption charges.
Menendez, 70, a three-term Democratic senator, was found guilty last year by a jury in a Manhattan courtroom of 16 counts of corruption, including bribery, extortion and acting as a foreign agent. He resigned from the Senate shortly after the conviction.
A years-long investigation found Menendez had accepted bribes in the form of cash and gold bars in exchange for helping the governments of Qatar and Egypt.
Updated
The White House has not released further details about the Guantánamo Bay order beyond what was previewed by the president during the bill signing.
One of the major logistical challenges of Trump’s mass deportation plans is detention space. Despite the president’s desire to deport millions of people living in the US unlawfully, the process of arresting and removing people can take weeks, months or even longer.
Congress has given Ice the money for 41,500 detention beds in the 2024 fiscal year. Building additional facilities will take time and resources.
The US military announced on Tuesday it would allow Ice to use Buckley space force base in Colorado to “stage and process criminal aliens within the US”.
Updated
Trump says he will open migrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay
In his bill signing remarks, Trump said he was planning to sign an executive order opening a detention center at Guantánamo Bay that would hold up to 30,000 people in the US illegally.
Trump said the camp would be used “to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.
“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” he said. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo. This will double our capacity immediately.”
Of the camp in Cuba, used to hold terrorism suspects, Trump said: “That’s a tough place to get out of.”
Updated
Trump signs Laken Riley Act
Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act, the first legislation to receive his signature since taking office last week. At a desk in the White House’s East Room, Trump was surrounded by legislative sponsors of the bill as well as members of Riley’s family.
The controversial measure was approved over the concerns of legal experts and immigration advocates who warned that the measure tramples immigrants’ right to due process while failing to address very real problems with the country’s overwhelmed immigration system. The bill directs authorities to detain and deport immigrants who are accused, though not convicted, of theft-related crimes if they are unlawfully present in the US.
It does not include additional funding for implementation, a concern raised in a memo from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Updated
Trump asked the newly confirmed DHS secretary Kristi Noem to stand for applause. He seemed to acknowledge that commenting on her gender and appearance was “probably not complimentary” but did so anyway.
“She is a woman, but she is tough,” he said of Noem, adding: “Don’t let that look fool you. That look is tough.”
Updated
Trump said fury over Biden’s border policy – and support for his immigration plans – was responsible for his victory in November.
“That’s why I’m here and not somebody else,” he said.
Updated
Trump is recounting – in gruesome detail – the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who was murdered in 2023 by Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.
Trump said the bill – which would allow the arrest and detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes – was a “tremendous tribute” to Riley.
“With today’s action, her name will also live for ever in the laws of our land,” he said, acknowledging her parents and family members who are in the office.
He also touted the bipartisan nature of the bill, which attracted notable Democratic support in both chambers.
Updated
Trump speaks before signing Laken Riley Act
Donald Trump is speaking at the White House, where he is expected to sign the immigration detention bill, the Laken Riley Act.
But first he is taking a victory lap, touting the size of his electoral (and popular vote) win as well as his administration’s blitz of executive actions. “We’ve broken decades of failed Washington policies and restored common sense and sanity to our government,” Trump declared.
He said his administration has informed federal workers that “they must show up to the office on time and on schedule”.
“Show up or be terminated,” he said.
Trump also made a number of claims about the border, rescinding Biden administration policies on energy and DEI. He added that the “water has now begun flowing in California”.
Trump has claimed that the US military entered the state and “turned on the water” – which the California department of water resources clarified, explaining that the military did not enter the state and that federal pumps had been temporarily offline for maintenance.
Updated
The Guardian’s Robert Tait has chronicled the echos between Trump’s attempt to freeze trillions of dollars of federal funds and the “darkest days of Watergate”.
Monday’s memo from the White House office of management and budget (OMB) ordering a “temporary pause” on a vast array of spending activities across the US federal government convulsed official Washington in a manner arguably unseen since the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973.
Richard Nixon sparked frenzied accusations of a presidential coup and assaulting the rule of law when he tried to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate Watergate, before dispensing with the attorney general and his deputy after both declined to follow his order to carry out the sacking.
But he notes there are important distinctions.
Yet where Nixon’s – counterproductive and ultimately doomed – attempt at halting the Watergate inquiry was unrehearsed and born of desperation, Trump’s assault on spending programmes has been thought through and was months in the planning.
Its brainchild is Russ Vought, who headed the OMB in Trump’s first presidency and has been nominated to the post again. Vought, founder of the rightwing Center for Renewing America thinktank has commissioned a series of policy papers arguing, in effect, that the president is empowered to seize funds authorised by Congress for different spending priorities, even though the law states differently.
In Vought’s crosshairs is the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, passed, weeks before Nixon resigned, in response to the president’s aggressive practice of impounding funds appropriated by Congress. The law has been in place since and “establish[es] a procedure providing congressional control over the impoundment of funds by the executive branch”. But Vought’s thinktank has called it “norm-breaking, unprecedented, and unconstitutional”, and argues there is nothing illegitimate about such impoundments.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded its memo regarding the pause in federal grants and loans. The news comes a day after a federal judge temporarily halted the policy, which had prompted mass confusion and concern across the country.
But the White House has created further confusion over the announcement with a cryptic statement. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News: “In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage. The executive orders issued by the president on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments.”
Robert F Kennedy Jr defended his record in a contentious hearing before the Senate finance committee. Kennedy, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, faced pointed questions from Democrats about his past comments criticizing vaccines and his reversal on supporting abortion access.
The top Democrat on the finance committee accused Kennedy of having “embraced conspiracy theories”. “The receipts show that Mr Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said. “This is the profile of somebody who chases money and influence wherever they lead, even if that means the deaths of children and other vulnerable people.”
Republicans voiced support for Kennedy, but his path to confirmation remains unclear. Senator Mike Crapo, the Republican chair of the finance committe, told Kennedy: “I think you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed.” But Kennedy’s habit of flip-flopping on crucial health-related issues could jeopardize his confirmation.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
White House statement sparks confusion over funding freeze
The White House is sending mixed messages about the implications of the announcement from the Office of Management and Budget that it was rescinding its memo freezing federal funding.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News: “In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage.
“The executive orders issued by the president on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments. This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the president’s orders on controlling federal spending. In the coming weeks and months, more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding.”
The statement will almost certainly spark even more confusion about the status of federal grants and loans. Stay tuned for updates.
Updated
Senate Republican applauds reversal of federal funding pause
Senator Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine and the chair of the Senate appropriations committee, celebrated the White House Office of Management and Budget’s decision to rescind its order pausing federal grants and loans.
“I am pleased that OMB is rescinding the memo imposing sweeping pauses in federal programs,” Collins said in a new statement.
“While it is not unusual for incoming administrations to review federal programs and policies, this memo was overreaching and created unnecessary confusion and consternation.”
RFK Jr confirmation hearing concludes
The Senate finance commitee’s confirmation hearing for Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, has concluded.
Mike Crapo, the Republican chair of the committee, told Kennedy: “I think you have come through well and deserve to be confirmed.”
But it remains unclear whether Kennedy will have the necessary support for confirmation, particularly after Democrats pressed the nominee on his past comments criticizing vaccines and his long history of support for abortion access.
As Kennedy left the hearing room, his supporters cheered for him, with one yelling: “Make America healthy again!”
Updated
A screenshot shared on social media shows the announcement from the White House Office of Management and Budget that the order pausing federal grants and loans had been rescinded.
It states simply: “OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel.”
Updated
Trump rescinds order pausing federal grants and loans
The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded Donald Trump’s order that put a pause on federal grants and loans, which sparked confusion and concern across the country.
According to Reuters, a White House official confirmed the order had been rescinded. The news comes one day after the federal judge temporarily halted the funding pause.
Senator Bernie Sanders went on to mock Robert F Kennedy Jr over his flip-flopping on the issue of abortion access, as the cabinet nominee has embraced Donald Trump’s anti-abortion stance in recent weeks.
Echoing other Democrats on the finance committee, Sanders quoted Kennedy’s own words from 2023, when he said that the government should not interfere with a woman’s bodily autonomy.
“I have never seen any major politician flip on that issue quite as quickly as you did when Trump asked you to become HHS secretary,” Sanders said. “Tell me why you think people should have confidence in your consistency and in your word when you really made a major U-turn on an issue of that importance in such a short time.”
Kennedy replied: “Senator, I believe, and I’ve always believed, that every abortion is a tragedy.”
It is a line that Kennedy has returned to over and over again as Democrats hammer the cabinet nominee on his long record of support for abortion access.
Updated
RFK Jr dodges Sanders' question on healthcare being a human right
Senator Bernie Sanders attempted to place Robert F Kennedy Jr on the record about whether he believed that healthcare is a human right, but the cabinet nominee repeatedly dodged the question.
“Do you agree with me that the United States should join every other major country on earth and guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right? Yes, no?” Sanders asked.
Kennedy replied: “Senator, I can’t give you a yes or no answer to that question.”
Updated
Warren raises ethical concerns about Kennedy's nomination
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, highligted Kennedy’s pledge to keep corruption and corporate influence out of the department of health and human services and asked him about his post-government plans.
“Here’s an easy question. Will you commit that when you leave this job, you will not accept compensation from a drug company, a medical device company, a hospital system or a health insurer for at least four years, including as a lobbyist or a board member?” Warren asked.
Kennedy asked Warren to repeat the question before asking: “Who? Me?”
“Yes, you,” Warren said, as some laughs broke out in the hearing room.
Kennedy then said that he would commit to that pledge, prompting Warren to ask: “Will you also agree that you won’t take any compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies while you are secretary and for four years afterwards?”
“I’ll certainly commit to that while I’m secretary,” Kennedy said, before launching into a defense of his record without addressing his post-government plans.
Warren again pressed Kennedy on not taking compensation from lawsuits, and he continued to quibble with her questioning, avoiding a concrete answer to her queries.
“If you get confirmed, you could influence every single one of those lawsuits,” Warren said. “And I am asking you to commit right now that you will not take a financial stake in every one of those lawsuits so that what you do as secretary will also benefit you financially down the line.”
“I’ll comply with all of the ethical guidelines,” Kennedy said.
“That is not the question,” Warren shot back. “No one should be fooled here.”
Updated
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat of Nevada, pressed Kennedy on whether he, as a lawyer, believed that pregnant women in life-threatening situations should be allowed to have emergency abortions even in states where the procedure is banned.
“You would agree also as an attorney that federal law protects her right to that emergency care, correct?” Cortez Masto asked.
Kennedy replied: “I don’t know.”
Updated
Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat of New Hampshire, suggested that she and Robert F Kennedy Jr actually agree on the issue of abortion access, citing his many past comments in support of reproductive rights.
As she questioned Kennedy, Hassan’s staff displayed posters highlighting Kennedy’s past remarks in support of abortion access. One poster quoting Kennedy read, “I’m pro-choice … I don’t think the government has any business telling people what they can or cannot do with their body.”
“You said that, right?” Hassan asked.
“Yes,” Kennedy tersely replied.
“It is remarkable that you have such a long record of fighting for women’s reproductive freedom and really great that my Republican colleagues are so open to voting for a pro-choice HHS secretary,” Hassan said.
She then asked Kennedy, “You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is: do you stand for that value or not? When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?”
Kennedy reiterated, “Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy.”
RFK Jr echoes Trump on abortion and pledges to study 'safety issues' of mifepristone
Although Robert F Kennedy Jr has previously identified as “pro-choice,” he fully backed Donald Trump’s view on abortion during his Senate confirmation hearing.
“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion,” Kennedy told Republican senator James Lankford.
He added: “I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies.”
Asked about access to the abortion medication Mifepristone, Kennedy suggested that federal agencies should examine potential “safety issues” related to the drug.
“We need to understand the safety of every drug – Mifepristone and every other drug,” Kennedy said. “[Trump] is not taking a position yet on Mifepristone, a detailed position, but he’s made it clear to me that he wants me to look at the safety issues, and I’ll ask NIH [the National Institutes of Health] and FDA [the Food and Drug Administration] to do that.”
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RFK Jr suggests HHS personnel decisions will be 'based upon my opinion'
Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat of Virginia, pressed Robert F Kennedy Jr on whether he would move to dismiss longtime staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services, as Donald Trump’s other cabinet picks have already started doing at other agencies.
“I will commit to not firing anybody who is doing their job,” Kennedy said.
Warner asked, “Based upon your opinion, or your political agenda, or Mr Trump’s political agenda?”
“Based upon my opinion,” Kennedy replied.
Warner remarked, “So I guess that means a lot of the folks who have had any type of views on vaccines will be out of work.”
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Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, continued his rapid-fire questioning of Robert F Kennedy with more quotes from Kennedy’s past writings and interviews.
Bennet asked: “Did you say that Lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bioweapon?”
Kennedy replied: “I probably did say that.”
Bennet asked: “Did you say that exposure to pesticides causes children to become transgender?”
Kennedy replied: “No, I never said that.”
Bennet challenged that claim, saying he would submit the record to the committee chair. He then asked: “Did you write in your book, and I quote, ‘it’s undeniable that African Aids is an entirely different disease from western Aids’?”
Kennedy replied: “I’m not sure.”
Bennet concluded his questioning by reminding Kennedy of the importance of the job he is seeking, noting that Americans rely on the Department of Health and Human Services to provide accurate medical information.
“This matters. It doesn’t matter what you come here and say that isn’t true, that’s not reflective of what you really believe,” Bennet said. “Unlike other jobs that we’re confirming around this place, this is a job where it is life and death.”
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Democrat's rapid-fire questioning puts RFK Jr on defense
Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado, said that he agreed with Robert F Kennedy Jr on some of his criticism of the US healthcare system, but he painted Kennedy as woefully unqualified to lead the department of health and human services.
“What is so disturbing to me is that out of 330 million Americans, we’re being asked to put somebody in this job who has spent 50 years of his life not honoring the tradition that he talked about at the beginning of this conversation, but peddling in half-truths, peddling in false statements, peddling in theories that create doubt about whether or not things we know are safe are unsafe,” Bennet said.
Bennet then launched into a series of damning, rapid-fire questions about Kennedy’s past comments on a range of healthcare topics, including the coronavirus pandemic and Aids.
“Did you say that Covid-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon that targets Black and white people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?” Bennet said.
Kennedy replied: “I didn’t say it was deliberately targeted. I just quoted an NIH-funded and NIH-published study.”
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As Democrat Ron Wyden’s questioning time ran out, Robert F Kennedy Jr attempted to clean up his record on vaccines, saying: “Senator, I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”
Wyden shot back: “Anybody who believes that ought to look at the measles book you wrote saying parents have been misled into believing that measles is a deadly vaccine. That is not true.”
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Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, also pressed Robert F Kennedy Jr on his role in a deadly measles outbreak that struck Samoa in 2019.
The measles outbreak in Samoa – which claimed the lives of 83 people, most of them young children – came just months after Kennedy visited the island nation.
Quoting Kennedy’s book that raised doubts about the potential lethality of measles, Wyden said: “The reality is measles are in fact deadly and highly contagious – something that you should’ve learned after your lies contributed to the deaths of 83 people, most of them children, in a measles outbreak in Samoa. So my question here is: Mr Kennedy, is measles deadly, yes or no?”
Kennedy replied that the death rate from measles has historically been quite low, and he again denied any role in the Samoa outbreak.
“I went there nothing to do with vaccines. I went there to introduce a medical and thematic system that would digitalize records in Samoa,” Kennedy said. “I never taught or gave any public statement about vaccines. You cannot find a single Samoan who will say, ‘I didn’t get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy.’”
He concluded: “I went in June of 2019. The measles outbreak started in August. So, clearly I had nothing to do with the measles.”
That final comment seemed curious given that reports have pointed to the timeline of Kennedy’s visit as potentially incriminating, considering the outbreak followed just a couple of months later.
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Kennedy clashes with Democrat over past vaccine comments
Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, criticized Robert F Kennedy Jr for having “spent years pushing conflicting stories about vaccines”.
As he began his questioning, Wyden quoted some of Kennedy’s podcast interviews in which he claimed that “no vaccine is safe and effective” and that he regretted vaccinating his own children. But in his opening statement, Kennedy denied being anti-vaccine.
“Mr Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true,” Wyden said. “So, are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine, or did you lie on all of those podcasts? We have all of this on tape.”
Kennedy replied that his previous comment about vaccines’ safety had been truncated and had since been corrected, telling Wyden, “You know about this, Senator Wyden, so bringing this up right now is dishonest.”
Wyden retorted that Kennedy has “a history of trying to take vaccines away from people,” citing his signature on a 2021 petition calling for the Food and Drug Administration to block access to coronavirus vaccines. Kennedy suggested that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had mishandled the recommendation process for those vaccines.
Another protester then interrupted the hearing.
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In response to questioning from Republican chair Mike Crapo, Robert F Kennedy Jr said he was not looking to place restrictions on food options, even though he has consistently expresssed alarm over Americans’ diets.
“I don’t want to take food away from anybody,” Kennedy said. “If you like a McDonald’s cheeseburger and a Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them.”
The comment, an acknowledgment of Donald Trump’s long-documented embrace of fast food, was met with chuckles in the hearing room.
Kennedy continued, “If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that, but you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.”
Protester disrupts Kennedy's opening comments on vaccines
Robert F Kennedy Jr dedicated most of his opening statement to detailing his vision for addressing “chronic disease” if confirmed as the secretary of health and human services, but he took a moment to address his past comments attacking vaccines.
“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither,” Kennedy said.
He was disrupted by a protester who appeared to yell in response: “You lie!”
The protester was escorted out of the hearing room, and then Kennedy was then able to continue his opening statement, saying, “I am pro-safety.”
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Before Robert F Kennedy Jr delivered his opening statement, the Republican chair and Democratic ranking member of the Senate finance committee shared a tense exchange on the Medicaid portal outage that occurred yesterday.
Medicaid payment portals were down across the country yesterday following Donald Trump’s announcement of a federal funding freeze, but multiple states reported that the portals were back online last night.
In his opening statement, Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon pointed to the outage as a sign of what may be to come if Kennedy is confirmed to lead the department of health and human services.
The chair of the committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, criticized Wyden’s comments as a “false attack,” noting that the portals are now operational, but Wyden retorted that the outage had created “bedlam across the country”.
Democrat excoriates Kennedy for having 'embraced conspiracy theories'
The top Democrat on the Senate finance committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, delivered a scathing rebuke of Robert F Kennedy Jr in his opening statement at the cabinet nominee’s confirmation hearing.
“The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, and charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines,” Wyden said.
“He’s made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting their kids life-saving vaccines. It’s been lucrative for him and put him on the verge of real power. This is the profile of somebody who chases money and influence wherever they lead, even if that means the deaths of children and other vulnerable people.”
Wyden noted that, if confirmed as the next secretary of health and human services, Kennedy would play a key role in issuing medical recommendations for the nation, and the Democrat expressed fear that Kennedy might use his authority to restrict access to the abortion medication Mifepristone.
“Women deserve to know if Mr Kennedy will abuse his power as our country’s chief health officer to essentially implement a national abortion ban by restricting access to this safe and legal medication,” Wyden said.
He concluded, “After a careful review of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s statements, actions, associations and views, I have reached the conclusion that he should not be entrusted with the health and well-being of the American people. When he’s taken every side of every issue, how can this committee and the American public believe anything he has to say?”
The Republican chair of the Senate finance committee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, praised Robert F Kennedy Jr as “a voice for an inspiring coalition of Americans who are deeply committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our nation”.
In his opening statement, Crapo lamented that the US healthcare system has become a “dyfunctional maze” for many Americans, and he framed Kennedy’s potential confirmation as an “opportunity to deliver bold, transformative solutions”.
“Regardless of political party, everyone in this room shares a common recognition that our current system has fallen short, as well as a common desire to make our country healthier,” Crapo said. “I look forward to today’s conversation as well as your testimony, Mr Kennedy.”
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RFK Jr confirmation hearing begins
The chair of the Senate finance committee, Republican Mike Crapo of Idaho, has kicked off the confirmation hearing for Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services.
After Kennedy entered the hearing room, he walked up toward the dais to shake the hands of committee members while photographers swirled around him to capture the scene.
The hearing will begin with opening statements before senators have the opportunity to question Kennedy, who has faced intense criticism over allegations of sexual harassment and his shifting stance on vaccines.
Stay tuned.
Anti-vaccine rhetoric and lawsuits were a lucrative enterprise for Robert F Kennedy Jr, leading up to his nomination to be secretary of health – one he is seeking to distance himself from as he enters confirmation hearings this week.
Last week, he promised to resign from his consultancies and chairmanship of Children’s Health Defense, a leading anti-vaccine nonprofit, if he is confirmed. That is cold comfort to public health experts anxiously eyeing his confirmation.
“The plain truth is that vaccines have saved hundreds of millions of lives,” said Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under Barack Obama, and now CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a public health-focused non-profit.
“When Mr Kennedy says things like autism does come from vaccines” – a false claim – “that’s very problematic”.
Frieden continued: “That was a fraudulent claim from someone who was aiming to profit from it, and false claims like that not only undermine our confidence in safe and effective vaccines they also divert attention from finding the real cause of things like autism that affect so many people.”
Read Jessica’s full report:
Robert F Kennedy’s confirmation hearing comes one day after his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, shared a video on social media describing him as a “predator” who “preys on the desperation of parents of sick children” by peddling misinformation on vaccines.
“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” Caroline Kennedy said in the video.
Her remarks were also shared in a letter to senators, as she implored them not to confirm RFK Jr as the next secretary of health and human services.
She went on to say that her father, President John F Kennedy, and her uncle, former US attorney general Robert F Kennedy, would be “disgusted” by the actions of her cousin.
More on Caroline Kennedy’s comments here:
RFK Jr confirmation hearing getting under way soon
The Senate confirmation hearing for Robert F Kennedy, Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, will get underway in about 30 minutes, and Democrats are expected to grill Kennedy on allegations of sexual harassment and his shifting stance on vaccines.
The Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports: “Robert F Kennedy Jr, the environmental lawyer turned anti-vaccine activist, faces a watershed moment this week as the Senate confirmation hearings begin on his nomination as the US’s top health official, setting up what could be the most contentious cabinet battle of Donald Trump’s second administration.
“The 71-year-old Kennedy, whose nomination has sparked fierce resistance from the scientific establishment, would take control of a sprawling $1.8tn healthcare apparatus at a time when public trust in medical institutions remains deeply fractured along partisan lines.
“As health and human services secretary, Kennedy would oversee everything from vaccine policy to food safety, wielding enormous influence over public health decisions affecting millions of Americans. His controversial views – including debunked claims about vaccines and autism, fluoride safety and raw milk regulations – have put him at odds with mainstream medical consensus.
“Kennedy told NPR in December that as a member of the administration, he is ‘not going to take vaccines away from anybody’, but he also added he wanted people to make ‘informed choices’.”
Read Joseph’s full report:
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Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and former Democratic vice-presidential nominee, argued that Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze closely mirrors many of the proposals included in Project 2025.
“We were preparing for it. They wrote it out. If you go back and look at that now, you’ll see this go step by step,” Walz told MSNBC on Tuesday night.
Walz described the funding freeze, which was paused by a federal judge on Tuesday, as “cruel” and “somewhat buffoonish,” but he expressed concern that Trump may be using it as a trial balloon to see how far he can go with his agenda.
“It’s like you caught someone and they stole everything out of your house. You caught them and you told them to put it back,” Walz said. “And when you start looking, some of it’s still gone. What they’re going to see is, oh, they didn’t raise a stink about meteorologists or our folks who are monitoring PFAS [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances] in our water, so let’s just go on with that.”
Walz acknowledged that many Americans are fatigued after a grueling presidential election, but he implored them to not give up the fight in the face of Trump’s return to the White House.
“I would tell people, stay focused. Don’t take the bait on the distractions,” Walz said. “Surround yourself with people who understand this and recognize the things they went after today are basically a big chunk of what society does. People like to have clean water and hospitals and safety and roads and airports, all the things they’re going after.”
He concluded: “I think we have to find that voice. We have to push back.”
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The Guardian’s Ramon Antonio Vargas reports:
Selena Gomez – the Texas-born pop star and actor whose paternal grandparents are from Mexico – has laughed off a failed Republican US Senate hopeful’s call for her to be deported from the country after she recorded a video of herself expressing sympathy for people affected by Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Responding to a comment from the former candidate that she should be “deported” over her video, Gomez took to social media and wrote in part: “Thanks for the laugh.”
Gomez nonetheless deleted the video amid a social media pile-on primarily driven by conservatives in favor of deportation raids that Trump’s administration has been carrying out early in his second presidency, which began on 20 January.
The clip in question showed the 32-year-old Gomez wiping away tears as she remarked: “I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry. All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t understand.
“I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I’ll try everything. I promise.”
Read the full report:
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Democrats have expressed outrage over reports that Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s new secretary of defense, has removed the security detail and clearance of Mark Milley, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff who has fiercely criticized Trump in the past.
According to Fox News, Hegseth has also instructed the acting inspector general to investigate whether Milley should be stripped of one of his stars for allegedly undermining the chain of command during Trump’s first term.
“Pete Hegseth pledged to the Senate that he’d protect the independence of the Department of Defense’s watchdog for waste, fraud, and abuse,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement.
“But after President Trump illegally fired the Pentagon’s Inspector General, the Defense Secretary is going back on his word and weaponizing government investigations to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies. It’s a clear warning sign that Secretary Hegseth is focused more on political retribution than national security.”
Over on Capitol Hill, Republicans are struggling to cobble together a plan to pass a major bill that is expected to include provisions on taxes, immigration and spending cuts.
Congressional Republicans have debated for weeks about whether the legislation – which they plan to pass using a process called reconciliation to avoid the Senate filibuster – should be split into one bill or two bills. After a two-day House Republican retreat, lawmakers are no closer to finding a path forward, one member reported.
“We have only been presented with the same policy and budget cut proposals that we have been presented with for a month now at all our meetings and at a full Saturday conference meeting earlier this month,” representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, wrote on social media.
“Next time we meet, I hope to know a framework of our plan and I hope this doesn’t turn into another bill with thousands of pages dumped on us with less than 72 hours to read it all before we have to vote on the eve of another government shutdown. But why would I expect different?”
House Republicans are working with a razor-thin majority, so they have no room for error as they work to get their bill across the finish line.
Executive order restricts gender transition for under-19s
President Trump has issued an executive order restricting gender transition treatment for people under 19.
The order said medical professionals across the country were “maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions”.
“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” it said.
“Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.
“Accordingly, 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.”
The order also directed the US health secretary to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children, including regulatory and sub-regulatory actions”.
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An overwhelming majority of people in Greenland do not want the island to become part of the US, according to a poll.
President Trump has repeatedly said he wants the US to control Greenland, which is strategically located and believed to have significant untapped resources. Trump has refused to rule out using tariffs or force to acquire the territory from Denmark.
In a poll published by Denmark’s Berlingske and Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspapers, 85% of residents of the island said they would not back the move, while 6% were in favour and 9% were undecided.
Some 45% saw Trump’s interest as a “threat”, 43% saw it as an “opportunity”, and 13% were undecided.
A day after Trump’s inauguration this month, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede insisted that Greenlanders “don’t want to be American”.
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UN agencies have begun cutting their global aid operations following the 90-day suspension of all foreign assistance ordered by President Trump.
Filippo Grandi, the head of the organisation’s refugee agency, UNHCR, sent out an overnight email to employees ordering an immediate clampdown on expenditure, including a 90-day delay in ordering new supplies except for emergencies, a hiring and contract freeze, and a halt to all international air travel.
UNHCR is responsible for providing life-saving assistance to the 122 million people currently displaced from their homes across 136 countries.
The new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, previously claimed the freeze would not affect life-saving aid, which he defined as “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance”.
He said its targets were aid programmes involving abortion, family planning, and “gender ideology”.
The US provided £2bn ($2.49bn) in funding to the UNHCR, according to the latest figures for 2024 – a fifth of the agency’s total budget.
Read the full story here:
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Trump offers US federal workers buyouts to resign
In another part of its efforts to reshape the US government, the Trump administration has offered federal workers buyouts worth more than seven months’ salary to leave their jobs.
A memo circulated on Tuesday evening set out four mandatory directives, including a full-time return to the office for most employees. It also said that the federal workforce would be subjected to “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct” and warned that most agencies would be downsized.
It said the offer to leave would remain open until 6 February.
The US government is roughly the nation’s 15th-largest workforce, with more than 3 million employees. Project 2025, the conservative manifesto that has guided much of Trump’s policy goals, calls for mass firings of federal workers and suggests replacing many with political appointees.
Denouncing the offer, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, Everett Kelley, said it was part of an attempt to pressure workers not considered loyal to the new administration to leave their jobs.
“Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” a statement read.
Read the full story here:
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What we know about the block on Trump's funding freeze
More now on the news that a federal judge has blocked a move by President Trump to pause trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants, and other financial assistance.
Federal grants and loans reach into virtually every corner of Americans’ lives, with hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into education, healthcare and anti-poverty programmes, housing assistance, disaster relief, infrastructure, and a host of other initiatives.
A two-page internal memo which had been due to take effect at 5pm eastern time on Tuesday told all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance”.
The memo was met with widespread confusion in Washington, where civil servants struggled to understand its full extent scope and application.
The US constitution gives Congress control over spending matters, but Trump has said he believes the president has the power to withhold money for programmes he dislikes.
A letter from senior Democrats on the House Committee on Appropriations expressed “extreme alarm about the Administration’s efforts to undermine Congress’s power of the purse”, adding that this and other directives had “sown immense confusion across the country, with some reports indicating that they could immediately halt all federal funding for any grant or loan”.
US district judge Loren AliKhan granted the temporary halt after several advocacy groups argued the freeze would devastate programmes ranging from healthcare to road construction. The court will revisit the issue on Monday.
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Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of all the latest developments from US politics.
We start with the news that a federal judge has temporarily blocked a move by President Donald Trump to pause trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants, and other financial assistance.
A two-page internal memo had told all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” and that “the use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars”.
The directive was seen as part of Trump’s desire to end programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The court order came moments before it was due to take effect and will prevent it from being implemented until at least next Monday, 3 February.
The administrative stay came in response to a lawsuit filed by four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses in which they said the directive was illegal and would have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”.
Stay with us for more on that and all the latest updates throughout the day.
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