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    Kash Patel confirmed as FBI director despite fears he could use powers to pursue Trump opponents – live

    The US Senate has confirmed Kash Patel as the next FBI director, handing oversight of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency to an official who has declined to explicitly say whether he would use his position to pursue Donald Trump’s political opponents.Patel was narrowly confirmed on Thursday in a 51-49 vote, a reflection of the polarizing nature of his nomination and what Democrats see as his unwillingness to keep the bureau independent from partisan politics or resist politically charged requests from the president.Notably, at his confirmation hearing, Patel refused to commit that he would not use his position to investigate officials he portrayed as Trump’s adversaries in his book, and affirmed that he believed the FBI was answerable to the justice department and, ultimately, the White House.Patel’s responses suggest that his arrival at FBI headquarters will usher in a new chapter for the bureau as a result of his adherence to Trump’s vision of a unitary executive, where the president directs every agency, and willingness to prioritize the administration’s policy agenda.You can read more about Patel’s confirmation here:A vaccine policy committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will not meet as scheduled next week, just days after vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as head of Health and Human Services.Kennedy criticized the panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, during his confirmation hearings. The committee is currently on a list of advisory groups currently under review, according to an executive order issued by Trump yesterday.Kennedy, who promised Senator Bill Cassidy that he would not touch the childhood vaccine schedule during the confirmation process, told HHS employees they would investigate the schedule when he began work this week. The vaccine schedule includes shots that prevent measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.Attendees of the White House’s Black History Month reception have broken out into cheers of “four more years”, referring to Donald Trump’s suggestion that he should extend his presidency beyond the constitutionally allowed two terms.Donald Trump has announced he will install a new statue of Prince Estabrook, an enslaved man who was wounded at the Battle of Lexington, in “our new National Garden of American Heroes”.He added that “the Garden will predominantly feature incredible women like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin and Coretta Scott King” alongside “some of the most beautiful works of art in the form of a statue for men like Frederick Douglass, Booker T Washington, Jackie Robinson, what a great athlete, Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali … and the late Kobe Bryant.”Addressing guests at the White House, Donald Trump struck an uneasy tone celebrating Black History Month while also criticizing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.“We now have more Black Republicans serving in the US House than at any time since 1870,” he said. As the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding approaches, he added “we’re going to look forward to honoring the contributions of countless Black Americans who fought to win, and protect and expand American freedom from the very, very beginning.”Trump went on to say, “The last administration tried to reduce all of American history to a single year, 1619, but under our administration, we honor the indispensable role Black Americans have always played in the immortal cause of another date 1776.”Trump’s mention of 1619 appeared to be a reference to the New York Times’ 1619 Project which marked the year enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas.Donald Trump has just taken the stage at the White House’s Black History Month reception, alongside golfer Tiger Woods.Woods said “it was an honor” to be at the White House with Trump. Trump gave Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019, which Woods was wearing at the reception today.“Today we pay tribute to the generations of Black legends, champions, warriors and patriots who helped drive our country forward to greatness. And you really are great, great people. What a great, nice group of … ,” Trump said.Trump also shouted out Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner, and Senator Tim Scott.One of the more intriguing groups at CPAC this year is the Third Term Project, which says it is exploring the case for reconsidering presidential term limits – in other words, changing the constitution so Donald Trump can run again.“Drawing on historical examples like Franklin Delano Roosvelt’s four-term presidency and international cases such as Viktor Orban in Hungary, the discussion will highlight how sustained leadership fosters policy continuity, national stability, and long-term progress,” the project said ahead of a press conference on Thursday.Republican congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee has already put forward a bill proposing a constitutional amendment allowing for a president to serve up to three terms, provided that they did not serve two consecutive terms prior to running for a third.Wearing a “Trump 2028” sticker, Amber Harris of the Third Term Project said: “You need more than four years to enact some of the things he wants to do and giving him the two consecutive terms to do it could get this country back on track.”She dismissed concerns over Trump turning into an emperor or king as “fearmongering” and was unworried by the fact he would be 82 in 2028. “I’m not an ageist kind of person. I don’t worry about somebody’s age if they’re mentally competent to do the job. I would fully support it.”However, an unscientific Guardian survey of eight CPAC attendees found little enthusiasm for the proposal, with most preferring the idea of Trump passing the torch to a rising star such as Vice-President JD Vance.Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

    The Senate confirmed Kash Patel as the next FBI director, handing oversight of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency to an official who has declined to explicitly say whether he would use his position to pursue Donald Trump’s political opponents. The Senate voted to confirm Patel in a 51-49 vote, with senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republicans to oppose Patel.

    Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky, announced he will not run for re-election next year. McConnell formally announced his retirement in a Senate floor speech on Thursday, on his 83rd birthday, bringing an end to a decades-long career for a Republican leader who marshaled his party through multiple administrations with a singleminded focus on power that enraged his critics and delighted his allies.

    Mike Waltz, the White House national security adviser, said Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy should sign a deal handing over half of the country’s mineral wealth to the US. Trump is “obviously very frustrated” with Zelenskyy, Walz said, adding that “some of the rhetoric” and “insults” about Trump were “unacceptable”. Waltz also noted that the US “fully supports” Article 5 of the Nato alliance but that its European partners need to increase their spending.

    Donald Trump will host his first official cabinet meeting at the White House next Wednesday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also confirmed that Trump will host the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Monday and the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Thursday.

    JD Vance marked the Trump administration’s one month since its return to power with a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The vice-president claimed uncontrolled immigration was “the greatest threat” to both Europe and the US, and suggested that the US’s military commitment to European allies could be contingent on their domestic policies, particularly targeting Germany.

    The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will lay off thousands workers in Washington and around the country beginning on Thursday, according to reports. The layoffs reportedly affect probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency and largely include workers in compliance departments.

    A Senate committee voted to advance Linda McMahon’s nomination as Donald Trump’s education secretary. The Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions voted 12-11 along party lines to advance the nomination of McMahon, the billionaire co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), to the Senate floor.
    Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, whose 18-year prison sentence following the 6 January 2021 attack was commuted by Donald Trump, is roving the corridors of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).Wearing a black patch on his eye and a Trump tattoo on his arm, Rhodes told reporters:
    I’m the new spokesman for Condemned USA to advocate for the other J6ers who are still in prison and then other political prisoners like Tina Peters, the election worker in Colorado, once again targeted simply for exercising her rights to question an election.
    Last year Peters, a local elections official in Colorado, was sentenced to nine years in prison for leading a voting system data-breach scheme inspired by the rampant false claims that fraud altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.Rhodes, 59, from Granbury, Texas, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy, told the Guardian that he owns the trademark for the Oath Keepers. “I can do what I want with it,” he said. “We’ll see what I want to do with it. I’m thinking about it.”Richard Barnett, a January 6 rioter who put his feet on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk and was sentenced to more than four years in prison, showed off his “certificate of pardon” from Trump.The 64-year-old retired firefighter, wearing a sweater emblazoned with “J6” “political prisoner” and “376369”, said of Trump’s first month in office:
    “Awesome, baby. Keep it coming. Keep it coming. Absolutely. Let’s get some arrests on the books. There’s a lot of treason going on in this country. It’s time to clean it up.
    Donald Trump has appeared to embrace a proposal to share a portion of the cuts in US government spending made by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) with all US households in the form of checks.Trump addressed the idea in a speech at an investment conference in Miami on Wednesday, telling attendees:
    There’s even under consideration a new concept, where we give 20% of the Doge savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt.
    Trump suggested the policy would incentivize Americans to “participate in the process of saving us money” by reporting suspected government waste to boost their own share of the funding cuts.The greatest challenge for recent FBI directors has been the delicate balance of retaining Donald Trump’s confidence while resisting pressure to make public pronouncements or open criminal investigations that are politically motivated or that personally benefit the president.Kash Patel is unlikely to have difficulties, such is his ideological alignment with Trump on a range of issues including the need to pursue retribution against any perceived enemies like former special counsel Jack Smith and others who investigated him during his first term.The new leadership at the FBI comes as questions about the far-reaching nature of his loyalty to Trump remain unresolved. At his confirmation hearing, Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee tried in vain to elicit answers about his role as a witness in the criminal investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.During the investigation, Patel was subpoenaed to testify about whether the documents the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified under a “standing declassification order”, as he had represented in various public comments at the time.The Guardian reported at the time that Patel initially declined to appear, citing his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. He later testified after the chief US district judge in Washington authorized Patel to have limited immunity from prosecution, which forced his testimony.That loyalty, to resist federal prosecutors, endeared him to Trump and is understood to have played a factor in him ultimately getting tapped for the FBI director position after Trump struggled for weeks to decide who he wanted at the bureau, a person familiar with the matter said.As we reported earlier, Kash Patel has been narrowly confirmed by the Senate as the next FBI director.The Senate voted to confirm Patel by a 51-49 vote. Two moderate Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined all Democrats in opposing Patel.Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell, who earlier today announced he was not seeking re-election, voted to confirm Patel. He has voted against three of Trump’s most controversial nominees.In a statement before the vote, Collins said Patel had made “numerous politically charged” statements discrediting the FBI.These statements “cast doubt on Mr Patel’s ability to advance the FBI’s law enforcement mission in a way that is free from the appearance of political motivation”, she said.Murkowski’s statement said her reservations with Patel “stem from his own prior political activities and how they may influence his leadership”.“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Democratic senator Dick Durbin said before the vote this afternoon.Another Democratic senator, Richard Blumenthal, said he was “absolutely sure of this one thing: this vote will haunt anyone who votes for him. They will rue the day they did it.”Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse had some harsh words for Kash Patel and his Republican colleagues who voted for his confirmation earlier today.Whitehouse said Patel is the “first senior law enforcement official in American history to have plead the fifth, and he’s been unwilling to even explain to the judiciary committee what crimes it was that he was concerned about that caused him to plead the fifth.“Kash Patel, mark my words, will cause evil in this building behind us. Republicans who vote for him will rue that day.”Kash Patel’s confirmation was a close one.If more than three Republican senators voted against him, Patel wouldn’t have been confirmed.Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski announced earlier today on X that she planned to vote against Patel’s nomination, largely due to his refusal to cooperate with January 6 investigations.“My reservations with Mr. Patel stem from his own prior political activities and how they may influence his leadership,” Murkowski wrote.“The FBI must be trusted as the federal agency that roots out crime and corruption, not focused on settling political scores. I have been disappointed that when he had the opportunity to push back on the administration’s decision to force the FBI to provide a list of agents involved in the January 6 investigations and prosecutions, he failed to do so.” More

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    Stop criticising Trump and sign $500bn mineral deal, US official advises Kyiv

    White House officials have told Ukraine to stop badmouthing Donald Trump and to sign a deal handing over half of the country’s mineral wealth to the US, saying a failure to do so would be unacceptable.The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should “tone down” his criticism of the US and take a “hard look” at the deal. It proposes giving Washington $500bn worth of natural resources, including oil and gas.Waltz said Kyiv was wrong to push back against the US president’s approach to peace talks with Moscow, given everything the US had done for Ukraine. He denied accusations the US had snubbed Ukraine and America’s European allies by excluding them from talks earlier this week with Russia. This was routine “shuttle diplomacy”, he said.“Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv … and insults to president Trump were unacceptable,” Waltz later told reporters at the White House.“President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with president Zelenskyy, the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered.”On Wednesday, Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator” who refused to hold elections and blamed Ukraine for the war. Zelenskyy, for his part, said Trump was living in a Kremlin “disinformation bubble” and that he wished Trump’s team were “more truthful”.The US’s rapid dumping of Zelenskyy as an ally was underlined when Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, cancelled a press conference in Kyiv. Journalists were summoned to the presidential palace to ask questions after his meeting with Zelenskyy but were stood down.Later Zelenskyy said he had a “good discussion” with Kellogg. It covered the battlefield situation, how to return Ukrainian prisoners of war, and “effective security guarantees”. He said he was grateful to the US for its assistance and bipartisan support, adding: “It’s important for us – and for the entire free world – that American strength is felt.”Kellogg is seen as the most pro-Ukrainian of Trump’s entourage. He did not take part in a meeting earlier this week between the US and Russia in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. One Ukrainian official said Kellogg had been sidelined from the peace talks, adding that Zelenskyy was in an “engaged” frame of mind and “highly motivated”.The envoy is due to leave Kyiv on Friday after a three-day trip. It was unclear if he would take up Zelenskyy’s proposal that they visit the frontline and talk to senior commanders, who are fending off a superior and advancing Russian force in the war-torn east.Ukrainians are sceptical any deal with Moscow will stick and believe Vladimir Putin’s original war goals – to conquer as much territory as possible – are unchanged. The US vice-president, JD Vance, said on Thursday that talks with Russia were making progress. “I really believe we are on the cusp of peace in Europe for the first time in three years,” he said, adding that Trump was determined to stop the war.Vance told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland: “I think with president Trump, what makes him such an effective negotiator, and I have seen this in private, is that he does not take anything off the table … Everything is on the table. And of course that makes the heads explode in America because they say: ‘Why are you talking to Russia?’”There were further signs that the Trump administration now considers Ukraine an adversary, and is working against it on a diplomatic level.According to Reuters, the US was refusing to co-sponsor a draft UN resolution to mark the third anniversary on Monday of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. The resolution condemns Russian aggression and reaffirms Ukraine’s sovereignty and pre-2014 international borders, before Russia annexed Crimea and started a covert military takeover of the eastern Donbas region.This is the first time since the war started that the US has failed to back the resolution. About 50 countries are likely to support it, including the UK and most EU governments, it is understood.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe White House was blocking a similar statement from the G7 group of countries blaming Russia for the conflict, the Financial Times reported. It said US envoys had objected to the phrase “Russian aggression” and had not signed off on a plan to allow Zelenskyy to address G7 leaders by video.Meanwhile, the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the White House could be willing to lift sanctions on Russia, or increase them, depending on Moscow’s readiness to negotiate. Bessent visited Kyiv this week, presenting Zelenskyy with the demand for minerals and saying it was “payback” for previous US military assistance.Bessent said he had received assurances Ukraine would sign the deal. On Wednesday, however, Zelenskyy said the US had provided $69.2bn in assistance under the Biden administration – far less than the figure the new White House is demanding. He said an agreement depended on the US giving security guarantees for a postwar settlement.European leaders have offered support to Ukraine, including Britain’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron. Zelenskyy said he spoke on Thursday to Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. “We deeply appreciate Denmark’s clear stance on a true peace – the peace we all strive for, that must be securely guaranteed,” he wrote on social media.The Kremlin has reacted with jubilation to Trump’s unprecedented attacks on Ukraine and to his false claim Zelenskyy has a 4% popularity rating. The actual figure is 57%, according to the latest opinion polls. “The rhetoric of Zelenskyy and many representatives of the Kyiv regime leaves much to be desired,” Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said.Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and now deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said he was stunned at how quickly Trump’s stance on Ukraine had evolved. “‘A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Medvedev posted on X.He added in English: “If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud. Trump is 200 percent right.” More

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    Tracking Trump cabinet confirmations – so far

    Senate confirmation hearings are under way for Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations.All cabinet-level positions require a majority vote of senators to be approved. With a current 53-seat Republican majority, Trump’s more fraught nominees can only afford to lose three Republican senators, assuming Democrats are uniformly opposed.Marco Rubio was the first cabinet appointee to win confirmation in a unanimous vote in his favor. Controversial picks including Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr have also secured confirmation for key roles in the cabinet.ConfirmedKash PatelRole offered: FBI directorConfirmed by the Senate on 20 FebruaryView image in fullscreenAfter being nominated by Trump, the “deep state” critic Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI director, a role that handles oversight of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. He has declined to explicitly say whether he would use his position to pursue the US president’s political opponents.Patel was confirmed in a 51-49 vote, a reflection of the polarizing nature of his nomination.Kelly LoefflerRole offered: administrator of the Small Business AdministrationConfirmed by the Senate on 19 FebruaryView image in fullscreenTrump named former senator Kelly Loeffler to head the Small Business Administration. He said she will use her business experience to “reduce red tape” and “unleash opportunity” for small businesses.Loeffler was confirmed in a 52-46 vote.Robert F Kennedy JrRole offered: Secretary of health and human servicesConfirmed by the Senate on 13 FebruaryView image in fullscreenRobert F Kennedy Jr was Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, a choice that sparked outrage and concern over RFK Jr’s vaccine skepticism.RFK Jr was confirmed in a 52-48 vote in the Senate, with all Republicans other than the Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell voting in support. He will now oversee the country’s vast federal health infrastructure, giving him oversight of the very agencies he has spent years battling through lawsuits and public campaigns.Brooke RollinsRole offered: Agriculture secretaryConfirmed by the Senate on 13 FebruaryView image in fullscreenAs agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins will lead a 100,000-person agency that would carry out an agenda with implications for American diets and wallets, both urban and rural.Rollins was president of America First Policy Institute, a group helping lay the groundwork for Trump’s second administration.The Senate confirmed Rollins in a 72-2 vote.Tulsi GabbardRole offered: National intelligence directorConfirmed by the Senate on 12 FebruaryView image in fullscreenTulsi Gabbard is a former Democratic member of Congress and was Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence.Gabbard, who has been publicly questioned over her affinity for foreign dictators and promoting conspiracy theories, was confirmed by the Senate in a 52-48 vote.Russell VoughtRole offered: Office of management and budget chiefConfirmed by the Senate on 6 FebruaryView image in fullscreenRussell Vought, the OMB chief during Trump’s first term in office, has been deeply involved in Project 2025.During a 15 January hearing, Vought declined to fully commit to distributing congressionally approved funds, specifically US military aid to Ukraine.Vought was confirmed in a 53-47 vote on 6 February.Scott TurnerRole offered: Department of Housing and Urban Development secretaryConfirmed by the Senate on 5 FebruaryView image in fullscreenScott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term.Turner was confirmed in a 55-44 vote.Pam BondiRole offered: Attorney generalConfirmed by the Senate on 5 FebruaryView image in fullscreenPam Bondi, the first female attorney general of Florida and a lawyer for Trump during his first impeachment trial, replaced the president’s first pick, Matt Gaetz, to head the justice department.At her 15 January hearing, Bondi, 59, insisted she would ensure the justice department would remain independent. At the same time, she failed to say that Trump lost the 2020 election.Bondi was confirmed by the Senate in a 54-46 vote.Doug CollinsRole offered: Veterans affairs secretaryConfirmed by the Senate on 4 FebruaryView image in fullscreenDoug Collins, the former Georgia representative who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial, was nominated by Trump to be secretary of veterans affairs.During his 22 January hearing, Collins pledged to “take care of the veterans” should he succeed in the confirmation process.Collins was confirmed on 4 February in a 77-23 vote.Doug BurgumRole offered: Interior secretaryConfirmed by the Senate on 30 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump named Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, as his pick for secretary of the interior. His directive from Trump is to make it even easier for energy companies to tap fossil fuel resources, including from public lands, which has alarmed environmentalists.Burgum was confirmed in a 79-18 vote with more than half of Senate Democrats joining Republicans.Lee ZeldinRole offered: Environmental Protection Agency administratorConfirmed by the Senate on 29 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump named the former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin said he would work to “restore American energy dominance”.Zeldin was confirmed on 29 January in a 56-42 vote.Sean DuffyRole offered: Secretary of transportationConfirmed by the Senate on 28 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump named Sean Duffy, a former Republican congressman and co-host on Fox Business, to serve as the secretary of transportation. Duffy will oversee billions of dollars in unspent infrastructure funds and has promised safer Boeing planes, less regulation and help for companies developing self-driving cars.Duffy was confirmed in a 77-22 vote.Scott BessentRole offered: Treasury secretaryConfirmed by the Senate on 27 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump named Scott Bessent, a prominent Wall Street investor and Trump fundraiser, to be his nominee for treasury secretary. He has praised Trump for using tariffs as a negotiating tool.The Senate voted 68-29 to confirm Bessent as treasury secretary on 27 January.Kristi Noem Role offered: Homeland security secretaryConfirmed by the Senate on 25 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump selected South Dakota’s governor, Kristi Noem – a staunch ally who has little experience on the national security stage – to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She will oversee everything from border protection and immigration to disaster response and the US Secret Service.Noem was confirmed on 25 January.Pete HegsethRole offered: Secretary of defenseConfirmed by the Senate on 24 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump nominated the former Fox News host and army veteran Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary, a surprise decision that stunned the Pentagon.During his hearing, Democrats asked Hegseth pointed questions about allegations of sexual misconduct and claims that he was frequently intoxicated in the workplace when he led two different non-profit organizations. Democratic senators and several Republicans expressed concerns that he was not qualified to lead the country’s largest government agency.He was confirmed in a late-night vote on 24 January, with a tie-breaking vote from JD Vance.John RatcliffeRole: CIA directorConfirmed by the Senate on 23 JanuaryView image in fullscreenTrump loyalist John Ratcliffe previously served as director of national intelligence during the final months of the president’s first term.Ratcliffe was confirmed by the Senate on 23 January in a 74-25 vote, with 20 Democrats and one independent joining Republicans in backing the nomination.Marco RubioRole: Secretary of stateConfirmed by the Senate on 20 JanuaryView image in fullscreenSenator Marco Rubio, 53, was confirmed as the first Latino to serve as secretary of state on 20 January. It was widely expected Rubio would secure confirmation, as senators largely viewed him as one of the least controversial of Trump’s cabinet picks.Rubio received 99 votes, becoming the first member of Trump’s cabinet to win Senate approval.Not yet confirmedElise StefanikRole offered: UN ambassadorView image in fullscreenThe New York representative Elise Stefanik was selected by Trump to be the ambassador to the UN. Floated as a possible Trump running mate, Stefanik is the highest-ranking woman in the Republican conference in the House of Representatives.During her confirmation hearing, Stefanik endorsed Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank, aligning herself with positions that could complicate diplomatic efforts in the Middle East.Chris WrightRole offered: Energy secretaryView image in fullscreenTrump named Chris Wright, an oil and gas industry executive with no political experience, to lead the US Department of Energy.During a 15 January confirmation hearing, Wright faced criticism for disputing the ties between climate change and more frequent or severe wildfires, and for calling wildfire concerns “hype” and dismissing their connection to climate policies.Howard LutnickRole offered: Commerce secretaryView image in fullscreenTrump nominated Howard Lutnick, co-chair of his transition team, to be his commerce secretary. Lutnick has uniformly praised the president-elect’s economic policies, including his use of tariffs.Lori Chavez-DeRemerRole offered: Labor secretaryView image in fullscreenTrump tapped the Oregon Republican for labor secretary, a position that would oversee the department’s workforce and its budget, and would put forth priorities that affect workers’ wages, health and safety, the ability to unionize and employers’ rights to fire workers, among other responsibilities.Linda McMahonRole offered: Education secretaryView image in fullscreenTrump named Linda McMahon, co-chair of his transition team, his pick for education secretary. Trump, who previously promised to dismantle the Department of Education, said McMahon would work to “expand ‘choice’” across the US and send education “back to the states”.Jamieson GreerRole offered: US trade representativeView image in fullscreenTrump lauded Jamieson Greer for his role enacting the USMCA, a revamped trade pact between the US, Mexico and Canada, and imposing tariffs on China. If confirmed, Greer will be tasked with reining in the trade deficit and opening up “export markets everywhere”.Mehmet OzRole offered: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administratorView image in fullscreenTrump tapped Dr Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, adding that he would work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr.Brendan CarrRole offered: Chair of the Federal Communications CommissionView image in fullscreenTrump tapped Brendan Carr to be the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that regulates telecommunications.In a statement, Trump said Carr “is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy”. More

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    Vance poses immigration as ‘greatest threat’ to US and Europe in CPAC speech

    JD Vance marked one month since the Trump administration returned to power on Thursday by again claiming uncontrolled immigration was “the greatest threat” to both Europe and the United States.The vice-president took the stage at the country’s largest conservative voters conference in National Harbor, Maryland, to double down on his criticism that stunned European leaders last week when he accused them of suppressing free speech and “running in fear” from voters’ true beliefs.“The greatest threat in Europe, and I’d say the greatest threat in the US until about 30 days ago, is that you’ve had the leaders of the west decide that they should send millions and millions of unvetted foreign migrants into their countries,” Vance told the crowd.His rhetoric represents the administration’s dramatic U-turn in long-standing American domestic and foreign policy priorities, making clear the aim is to bolster border security with more agents and be more cautious about European military commitments.Vance also made the extraordinary claim, without evidence, that the month-old administration was about to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict in decades.“I really believe we are on the cusp of peace in Europe for the first time in three years,” he said about the war in Ukraine. “How are you going to end the war unless you are talking to Russia? You’ve got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting.”The remarks landed well at a transformed Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where establishment Republicans that once dominated the stage have been replaced by nationalist figures including Steve Bannon, Britain’s Nigel Farage, and the tech billionaire and “department of government efficiency” operator Elon Musk.The conference’s shift over the years mirrors the broader changes in Republican politics since Trump’s first nomination – at the 2016 event, Trump finished third in the conference’s straw poll with just 15%, behind Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.This year, thousands of conservatives near and far have flocked to CPAC, many donning “Make America great again” (Maga) apparel and America-centric costumes, including a Statue of Liberty outfit and flag shirts.The nationalist vibe at CPAC was further reflected by the presence of prominent European rightwing and Trump-friendly figures, including András László, a Hungarian member of the European parliament and president of the Patriots for Europe foundation.Speaking to the Guardian on the sidelines of the conference, László defended the Trump administration’s existential stance on European politics.“We need to have honest discussions, even if they are difficult to have,” László said, echoing Vance’s criticisms of European speech restrictions. “What are we fighting for? Sovereignty and democracy for Ukraine if we don’t practice it at home? We need to stop stifling freedom of speech, have more discussion, even if sometimes that might be painful for some people.”His organization, which launched last year and is now the third-largest group in the European parliament, with 86 members from 13 states, has been gaining influence across the continent, reflecting the same nationalist currents reshaping American conservatism.The conference also drew Liz Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, who crashed the UK economy with tax cuts for the wealthy before resigning after just 49 days in office. Reinventing herself as a rightwing populist, Truss used her CPAC platform to claim her political failures were actually the fault of shadowy elites.“The British state is now failing, is not working. The decisions are not being made by politicians,” Truss said, claiming her country was controlled by a “deep state” while calling for a British version of Trump’s movement. “We want to have a British CPAC.”Hours before his appearance at CPAC, Vance had posted a lengthy critique of traditional US and European foreign policy writ-large on X, dismissing concerns about the administration’s stance on Ukraine as “moralistic garbage” and defending its push for peace negotiations.“President [Donald] Trump and I have made two simple arguments: first, the war wouldn’t have started if President Trump was in office; second, that neither Europe, nor the Biden administration, nor the Ukrainians had any pathway to victory,” Vance wrote.Vance got more specific on the CPAC stage, suggesting that the US’s military commitment to European allies could be contingent on their domestic policies, particularly targeting Germany.“Germany’s entire defence is subsidised by the American taxpayer. There are thousands upon thousands of American troops in Germany today,” he said. “Do you think the American taxpayer is going to stand for that if you get thrown in jail for posting a mean tweet?” More

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    US Senate narrowly confirms Kash Patel as next FBI director

    The US Senate has confirmed Kash Patel as the next FBI director, handing oversight of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency to an official who has declined to explicitly say whether he would use his position to pursue Donald Trump’s political opponents.Patel was narrowly confirmed on Thursday in a 51-49 vote, a reflection of the polarizing nature of his nomination and what Democrats see as his unwillingness to keep the bureau independent from partisan politics or resist politically charged requests from the president.Notably, at his confirmation hearing, Patel refused to commit that he would not use his position to investigate officials he portrayed as Trump’s adversaries in his book, and affirmed that he believed the FBI was answerable to the justice department and, ultimately, the White House.Patel’s responses suggest that his arrival at FBI headquarters will usher in a new chapter for the bureau as a result of his adherence to Trump’s vision of a unitary executive, where the president directs every agency, and willingness to prioritize the administration’s policy agenda.That objective to implement the Trump administration’s mandate has already taken hold at the justice department, which oversees the bureau and last week forced through the dismissal of corruption charges against Eric Adams, the New York mayor, in order to get his help to deport undocumented immigrants.The greatest challenge for recent FBI directors has been the delicate balance of retaining Trump’s confidence while resisting pressure to make public pronouncements or open criminal investigations that are politically motivated or that personally benefit the president.Patel is unlikely to have difficulties, such is his ideological alignment with Trump on a range of issues including the need to pursue retribution against any perceived enemies like former special counsel Jack Smith and others who investigated him during his first term.The new leadership at the FBI also comes as questions about the far-reaching nature of his loyalty to Trump remain unresolved. At his confirmation hearing, Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee tried in vain to elicit answers about his role as a witness in the criminal investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.During the investigation, Patel was subpoenaed to testify about whether the documents the FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified under a “standing declassification order”, as he had represented in various public comments at the time.The Guardian reported at the time that Patel initially declined to appear, citing his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. He later testified after the chief US district judge in Washington authorized Patel to have limited immunity from prosecution, which forced his testimony.That loyalty, to resist federal prosecutors, endeared him to Trump and is understood to have played a factor in him ultimately getting tapped for the FBI director position after Trump struggled for weeks to decide who he wanted at the bureau, a person familiar with the matter said.Patel ultimately clarified, in something of a partial admission under close questioning from senator Cory Booker, that although he witnessed Trump issue a declassification order for some documents, he did not actually know whether they applied to the documents found at Mar-a-Lago.Democrats have unanimously considered Patel’s track record in the first Trump administration, his incendiary remarks criticizing the bureau he was nominated to lead and more generally his role in the classified documents case to be disqualifying.When Trump tapped Patel last year, Democrats largely believed it would lead to a backlash that would sink his nomination. No resistance ever materialized, in part because Patel was less controversial than some of Trump’s other nominees, such as Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.Patel was formerly a public defender in Florida before joining the justice department in 2014 as a line prosecutor in the national security division.In 2017, Patel became a top Republican aide on the House intelligence committee, where he authored a politically charged memo accusing the FBI and the justice department of abusing surveillance powers to spy on a Trump adviser. The memo was criticized as misleading, though an inspector general later found errors with aspects of the surveillance.His efforts impressed Trump, who brought him into the administration and quickly elevated him to national security and defense roles. By the end of Trump’s first term, he was the chief of staff to defense secretary Chris Miller and briefly considered for CIA director.While John Durham, the special counsel appointed by Trump, found a catalog of mistakes by prosecutors in the Russia investigation, he found no evidence that officials had been motivated by political animus and brought no charges – contrary to claims by Trump and Patel. More

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    ‘I feel betrayed’: federal health workers fired by Trump tell of ‘nightmare’

    As protesters gathered outside the headquarters of US health agencies to call attention to mass layoffs devastating the federal service in recent days, more employees at health agencies were terminated on Wednesday, including employees with years of experience and stellar performance reviews who were not probationary.Thousands of terminated employees across the federal government are appealing the decision. Some former employees are struggling to apply for unemployment or understand when their benefits expire in the chaotic termination process.At the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the layoffs included all public health fellows stationed at state, local and regional health departments, as well as staff working on global health and outbreak response – even as the bird flu outbreak ramps up and the CDC suspends its seasonal flu vaccine campaign.The Guardian spoke to four employees at the CDC who were terminated in recent days. Three requested anonymity to avoid retribution from the Trump administration. All of them recently received satisfactory or outstanding performance reviews, and none of them had been placed on performance review plans.Mack Guthrie was part of the Public Health Associate Program at the CDC – until everyone in the program was let go over the weekend. He worked in Minneapolis public schools to help prevent STIs and unintended pregnancies by educating students, testing and counseling patients in clinics, and tracking STI rates and trends.All of these layoffs are “a major hit to America’s health infrastructure”, said Guthrie, who had an outstanding performance review so was stunned to see his performance listed as the reason for termination.While all of the public health fellows were told they were being laid off, some never received letters, Guthrie said, adding: “The whole process has been dominated by chaos and confusion.”The state, tribal, local and territorial departments where they were deployed “are already starting to feel the effect of our absence”, Guthrie said.“For some of my colleagues, they are filling gaps at host sites that would simply not get filled otherwise,” he said. “These organizations simply don’t have the funds to hire people.”When one CDC employee attempted to log into their laptop on Wednesday morning, they received an error message and realized they were locked out of the system, unable to communicate with their team or even say goodbye. They’d been laid off overnight and because they have not yet received a letter, they don’t know the reason for their termination. This employee had years of experience and excellent performance reviews, and was not probationary.Employees in probationary periods were especially hard-hit in this round of layoffs. That status has nothing to do with their performance, unlike employees who may be put on probation in the private sector. Rather, it usually means they have been in their current position for less than two years, and thus they don’t have the same legal protections as other federal workers.One terminated employee who has been in the same position for four and a half years was surprised to receive notice that their job was considered probationary and they were being let go, despite high praise on performance reviews. They are appealing the decision to human resources, but have not received responses yet.Form letters sent to terminated employees say that they “are not fit for continued employment” because their “ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency’s current needs”, and their performances have “not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency”.Former CDC employees told the Guardian they are now part of a class-action wrongful termination appeal to the US Merit Systems Protection Board – joining other federal employees represented by the Washington law firm James & Hoffman.The leader of the merit board was herself reinstated by a judge on Wednesday after the Trump administration tried to fire her.“If you’re going to terminate my position, don’t tell me it’s because of my performance,” said another employee who worked as a CDC contractor for four years before entering a probationary period after being hired permanently.View image in fullscreenEmployees who were locked out of their systems with little or no notice are now scrambling to collect their final paychecks, apply for unemployment, return equipment, and understand their benefits.The longtime employee who was locked out on Wednesday told the Guardian they were not given the proper documentation in order to apply for unemployment.“When I called HR, the team simply did not know what to do and I was left with, ‘Please call back tomorrow, we will have better guidance,’” the employee said. “Folks don’t even have essential documents to properly separate from the agency.”The employees said they haven’t been offered details on whether their annual leave will pay out, or even how long their health insurance will last.“I still need to communicate with my center in terms of what is happening with my final paycheck, how do I return my equipment, and I have no idea how they intend to do that,” said the employee who worked at the CDC for five years.The so-called “department of government efficiency,” known as Doge, has targeted certain agencies for layoffs in a purported bid to cut back on government spending, despite representing a very small portion of the federal budget.“They feel fake,” the employee said. “It seems like a giant scam that they were trying to see if it would work, and it did … I can’t believe that I lost my job as a result of this group of people.”The layoffs cap a stressful month for CDC staffers rushing to implement Trump’s flurry of executive orders.“We were working around the clock. If not working, I couldn’t sleep – for weeks, since the administration came in – thinking of all the things we had to do to meet those orders,” said the employee who was at the CDC for four and a half years.All the while, they were waiting to learn if they would keep their job – a “dream job” that has become “a nightmare”.“It was really part of my identity – I lived and ate it around the clock,” the employee said. “That was such a big part of my life … I feel betrayed.”The employee urged former supervisors and teammates to check in on the wellbeing of terminated staffers, some of whom report experiencing depression and anxiety.“All of us have always looked at CDC as being the final goalpost for a public career,” said the longtime employee.“It feels like I worked so hard to be where I’m at, only to look back and see an empty space. I know I did the work, but it’s rapidly being taken away.”Send us a tipIf you have information you’d like to share securely with the Guardian about the impact of cuts to federal programs or the federal workforce, please use a non-work device to contact us via the Signal messaging app at (646) 886-8761. More

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    It’s time for Americans to withhold their taxes | Judith Levine

    Political power boils down to two things: votes and money. But when money buys presidents, senators and judges, votes are merely the sales receipts. What’s left is money, and the purpose of power is to get more of it.Trump’s non-billionaire followers appear thrilled that Elon Musk and his so-called “department of government efficiency” are burning down the government. “Imagine if Trump hadn’t met and talked with Elon Musk that all this progress on efficiency may not be taking place or at such a fast pace needed before the midterms,” comments holy666 on a Fox News story about the mass layoffs of federal employees.Firings at the IRS elicit particular glee. Writes EnemyCitizen: “A beautiful thing about Mr Trump’s approach is that internal revenue will slow down and Congress will have to sober up and stop passing appropriations bills that apply our hard-earned money to frivolous political agendas. No more blank checks, Congress!”In fact, what the megalomaniacal multibillionaire is destroying is everything – minus the policing functions, of course – that we pay taxes for, including such frivolous agendas as food inspection, flood mitigation and Medicare. This is how kleptocracies work. Taxes are collected from the hoi polloi. The more benign government functions – housing the poor, postponing climate apocalypse – are abolished. But the rest of these functions do not entirely disappear. Rather, it is farmed out to private enterprise, which undertakes what it’s paid to do with minimum expense and maximum profit (and we all know corporations never commit waste, fraud or abuse).Watchdogs are eliminated, bribery is legalized. The most corrupt carry off the greatest rewards. And bereft of revenue, social services wither, the infrastructure crumbles, and the prisons fill with the destitute and the resistant.Maga wants to starve the bureaucracy. But it still wants money. And with the wealthiest awaiting gigantic tax breaks, they need it from the rest of us. With the Internal Revenue Service in effect transformed into a shell corporation laundering the money of the ultra-rich, why should we pay taxes?The IRS is being speedily organized for this rerouting. Doge is axing as many as 15,000 law-abiding and knowledgeable civil servants. It is trying to coerce the agency to give Elon’s AI-wielding AV squad unfettered access to the system containing the personal and financial data of every American taxpayer, small business and non-profit.Not only would this arrangement provide an armory of intelligence to be deployed against the president’s enemies – according to a lawsuit filed by taxpayer advocates, unions and small business alliances, it would give Musk access to his rivals’ profit and loss statements, payrolls, tax records and information about IRS investigations into their (or his own) suspected tax fraud. “No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors,” assert the plaintiffs, “and for good reason.”These are all good reasons to withhold your taxes.Can the tactic work? Is it right? Morally and politically motivated tax nonpayment has an honorable, if not always successful, history. After the Roman empire’s destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 AD Jewish people refused to pay Rome’s “temple tax”. Rome responded by destroying more temples. Gandhi’s salt tax protest, on the other hand, was the first step toward India’s independence from the British empire. The American Revolution was a tax revolt, and that worked – although some colonists resisted taxes levied by the revolutionaries and, after independence, the states as well.More recently, American opponents of wars, nukes and abortion have refused to pay all or portions of their taxes in protest. Many went to prison for it. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau wrote of weighing the benefits and costs of any given action. He believed all taxation was illegitimate as long as the US condoned slavery. “If [the injustice] is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law,” he concluded.One of the diabolical features of an anti-state state like our current regime is its ability to turns acts of resistance against the state against themselves. Principled prosecutors and agency heads resign rather than carry out the president’s illegal orders – leaving only Maga flunkies in their places. Civil servants quit rather than pervert the services or science they’ve devoted their careers to – leaving the work unguarded and the workforce decimated, precisely as the wrecking crew intends.So it is with tax resistance. Every dollar that does not come into Washington’s coffers is justification to cut another dollar. You may remember that the vanguard of 21st century far right populism was the Tea party, an anti-tax movement.In the New Republic, Liza Featherstone points out that the destruction of popular government programs is not “a goofy misstep on this administration’s part. Rather, it’s exactly the point.” Whether firing park rangers, defunding daycare centers, or deep-sixing job-creating clean-energy projects in red states, the programs’ “popularity is precisely what the Trump-Musk administration dislikes about them. For anti-government ideologues, it’s important that people not have good experiences with the government.”And if people have bad experiences with the government – if they contract bird flu because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer have the wherewithal to control and prevent disease; if bridges collapse because the funds to repair them are cut off – well, there’s proof that the government can’t do anything right, and deserves to be destroyed.In fact, after it outsources the government, the regime would be smart to keep calling it the government. When IRS.com loses a taxpayer’s refund and assigns a bot to sort out the problem, the taxpayer will blame IRS.gov.Thanks to intentional staff shortages at the IRS, your missing tax payment might go unnoticed, just as the Trump family’s multibillion-dollar fraud escaped the agency’s auditors for decades. But if tax evasion is a secretive act, tax resistance is civil disobedience, a public, political act. The reason to withhold your taxes is not to cheat the government of much-needed funds. It is not even to cheat the crooks now running the country, satisfying as that may be. It is to expose the criminality of what is being done – and not done – with the money the state has a legal and moral obligation to collect and then to distribute, to serve all the people.

    Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books More