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      White House denies some reporters access to Trump cabinet meeting – live

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      The White House on Wednesday reportedly denied reporters from Reuters, the AP, and other news organizations access to President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting in keeping with the administration’s new policy regarding media coverage.Reuters is reporting that the White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper.TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, along with correspondents from Axios, the Blaze, Bloomberg News and NPR were permitted to cover the event.This comes as on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.The head of the Environmental Protection Agency has urged the Trump administration to strike down a key scientific finding that has served as the foundation for US climate change policy, The Washington Post reports.In a report submitted to the White House, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin recommended revising the agency’s 2009 determination that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.This report, established under the Clean Air Act, provides the legal basis for various climate regulations affecting motor vehicles, power plants, and other major pollution sources.Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, urged President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to adopt a firm approach toward China, pointing to concerns over Chinese startup DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence technology, Reuters reports.Warren called on nominee Jeffrey Kessler to strengthen AI chip regulations introduced by former President Joe Biden’s administration in January.“In light of DeepSeek, we must reinforce our controls on (China),” Warren wrote, calling for a series of other actions on Chinese tech efforts.Several Democratic senators made dramatic returns to Washington to vote against Republicans’ budget blueprint on Tuesday night.California Congressman Kevin Mullin, who had been absent while recovering from a blood clot and infection following knee surgery, went straight to the airport after being discharged from the hospital, while Colorado Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen returned to teh House floor with her newborn son, Sam, nestled in her arms.Their dramatic – and surprise – appearances were part of an effort by Democrats to block Republicans’ plan to advance major pieces of Donald Trump’s tax cut and immigration agenda.“I have a message for Donald Trump: nobody fights harder than a mom,” Petterson wrote on X. “Republican leadership may have denied my ability to vote by proxy but that didn’t stop us from voting against this disastrous budget that strips away health care and food for seniors, veterans, kids and families across Colorado — all to give tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk.”The bill ultimately passed in a 217-215 vote. Only one Democrat, Arizona congressman Raúl Grijalva, who has cancer, returned for the vote. But up until the moment the vote ended, Republicans were working to overcome unified Democratic opposition to the plan, which would likely result in steep cuts to social safety net programs, including Medicaid.“After three surgeries, a blood clot, an infection and being hospitalized for over a week, the moment I was discharged I immediately rushed to the airport so I could get on a plane to D.C. and vote NO on Republicans’ disastrous budget plan,” Mullin said in a statement after the vote. “They are trying to make the most devastating cuts to Medicaid the nation has ever seen – $880 billion – all so they can give more tax cuts to billionaires and corporations.”On board the flight, Mullin’s wife, Jessica Stanfill-Mullin, helped administer IV antibiotics to him.Here are some photos coming in from the wires showing demonstrators gathered on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, protesting cuts to USAid funding.Organized by ActUp’s Health Global Access Project, the protesters temporarily occupied the rotunda before Capitol Police arrested 21 of them.One of the big moments of today came from Donald Trump’s first officials cabinet meeting. Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term:

      Trump announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC to sign the rare earth minerals agreement. He praised Doge, claiming, without evidence, that it has saved billions.

      Elon Musk also delivered remarks and warned that without cost-cutting, the country could go “bankrupt” describing himself as “tech support”. He acknowledged mistakes made by Doge, such as when they accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but he said, they “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.

      Trump also mentioned that the Environmental Protection Agency might cut up to 65% of its employees and declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.

      Trump said that tariffs on Canada and Mexico will continue, and that a 25% tariff on the European Union was coming soon.

      Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
      Other news that happened today:

      UK prime minister Keir Starmer left for Washington today prior to his meeting with Donald Trump set for Thursday in what will be his biggest diplomatic test to date.

      US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said that the US will invest up to $1bn to combat the spread of bird flu, including increasing imports of eggs.

      President Donald Trump threatened to sue journalists and authors who use “anonymous” sources in their reporting.

      Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will not run for Minnesota’s newly open US Senate seat, according to his spokesperson.

      The US abstained from World Trade Organization condemnation of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

      California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he is launching his own podcast.

      The US supreme court heard oral arguments in a case that could radically transform workplace discrimination claims.

      New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him.

      A meeting between EU foreign policy chief and US secretary of state Marco Rubio was cancelled, with both sides citing scheduling conflicts.

      Trump urged Apple to end its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

      The Trump administration issued a memo directing federal agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs of government employees, according to the Associated Press and other news agencies.

      A US judge has briefly extended an order reinstating the head of a federal watchdog agency responsible for protecting whistleblowers who had challenged his firing by Trump.

      The Trump administration said that New York City must end its congestion pricing program by 21 March, according to Reuters.

      Trump announced that his administration is reversing concessions given to Venezuela on an oil transaction agreement by former president Joe Biden.

      The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.

      The Senate confirmed Trump’s pick for US trade representative, Jamieson Greer.
      The US Securities and Exchange Commission has told unionized employees they will have to return to the office in mid-April, unless they have certain exemptions, per a memo seen by Reuters.In the memo, SEC Chief Operating Officer Ken Johnson told staff that they will be required to work on-site beginning 14 April 2025 and said that the return-to-work directive would “best position the SEC to fulfil the agency’s mission.”In response, the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 239, which represents SEC employees, said in an email to members seen by Reuters, that the SEC’s action “plainly violates” the union contract and called the order illegal.“Like you, the union only received notice of this order by the SEC management moments ago,” the email reportedly said. Reuters is reporting that the union’s 2023 collective bargaining agreement outlines telework options for approved employees and that the agreement lasts three years.This comes as similar efforts have occurred at the agency with non-unionized staff, and across the federal workforce, in response to a mandate by President Donald Trump that officials fire remote or hybrid work arrangements.A US judge has briefly extended an order reinstating the head of a federal watchdog agency responsible for protecting whistleblowers who had challenged his firing by Donald Trump.According to Reuters, US district judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington said Hampton Dellinger, the head of the office of special counsel, could remain in his post through at least Saturday.Jackson said the extension would give her time to draft a permanent ruling in the case.Last week, the US supreme court temporarily kept Dellinger on the job as the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over the agenda of Trump’s second presidency.The justices said in an unsigned order that Dellinger could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. And now, that has been extended to at least Saturday, per Reuters.The Trump administration says in a letter made public on Wednesday that New York City must end its congestion pricing program by 21 March, according to Reuters.Last week, the transportation department announced that it intends to rescind federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, that is designed to reduce traffic and raise money to upgrade ageing subway and bus systems.Two New York City transit agencies have filed suit to block the decision.The letter today comes as this week it was reported by the New York Times that New York’s congestion pricing plan raised $48.6m in tolls during its first month and that it has exceeded expectations and is on track to raise billions of dollars for the New York’s transit system.The revenue numbers were the latest sign that the tolling plan was working.President Donald Trump’s stated plan to slap a 25% tariff on exports from the European Union to the United States will result in a serious trade conflict, Norway’s prime minister Jonas Gahr Store said today to news agency NTB. Norway is not a member of the European Union but it closely integrated with the bloc on trade.A planned meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and US secretary of state Marco Rubio was reportedly abruptly cancelled on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.Both sides blamed scheduling challenges, the AP said, but European officials said they were caught off-guard.In other news today, Utah is poised to become the first state in the US to ban fluoride from its water systems with a bill now before its Republican governor, Spencer Cox. The bill outlaws the adding of fluoride to water “in or intended for public water systems”, and adds that it repeals any previous laws “including sections about providing fluoridated water upon resident request and under emergency circumstances”.Cox has not publicly indicated support or opposition to the bill. If he signs it, fluoride would be banned across Utah starting 7 May, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.Although the bill would remove fluoride from public taps, it would also allow pharmacists to prescribe fluoride supplements to individuals.The bill, HB81, was approved last Friday. “I’m pleased to announce that HB81 has passed both the House and senate and is headed to the governor for his signature,” wrote Stephanie Gricius, the Republican who sponsored it, on social media. “I’m so grateful to everyone who helped push this policy.”Read more about it here:The White House on Wednesday reportedly denied reporters from Reuters, the AP, and other news organizations access to President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting in keeping with the administration’s new policy regarding media coverage.Reuters is reporting that the White House denied access to an Associated Press photographer and three reporters from Reuters, HuffPost and Der Tagesspiegel, a German newspaper.TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, along with correspondents from Axios, the Blaze, Bloomberg News and NPR were permitted to cover the event.This comes as on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it would take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.Trump has announced that his administration is reversing concessions given to Venezuela on an oil transaction agreement by former president Joe Biden.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he ordered that the agreement, “dated November 26, 2022” be terminated “as of the March 1 option to renew”.Additionally, Trump said, that Venezuela’s “regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to.“I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden ‘Concession Agreement’ be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew” he added.The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that under the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order signed by Donald Trump last month undocumented immigrants must also provide their fingerprints, while parents must ensure children under 14 are registered. The department will provide “evidence” of their registration and those 18 and over must carry that document at all times.The announcement comes as Trump has sought to harshly crackdown on immigration and implement a mass deportation campaign. Since taking office, his administration has attempted to suspend a refugee resettlement program (a judge blocked the cancellation), moved to cut off legal aid for immigrant kids (although it later walked back that decision), sought to allow immigration raids in schools and churches (another judge blocked such efforts in some houses of worship) and has begun sending undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo.Under the program announced this week, undocumented immigrants 14 and older in the US for 30 days or more will be required to register and undergo fingerprinting. Parents and guardians must register children under 14, and once children reach that age they must reapply and be fingerprinted, DHS said on its website. Those who do not comply can face criminal penalties, including misdemeanor prosecution, and fines.More on this story here:The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made the announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing, framing the move as democratizing access to the president.“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.“Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”The announcement upends over 70 years of established protocol of journalists themselves – not government officials – determining the rotating reporters who travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.You can read more on this story here:Senate confirms Donald Trump’s pick for US trade representativeIn a 56-43 vote, Jamieson Greer was confirmed as the country’s top trade negotiator.Of those who voted in favor of Greer’s confirmation, five were Democrats: Senators John Fetterman, John Hickenlooper, Gary Peters, Elissa Slotkin and Sheldon Whitehouse.Greer is a former lawyer for the air force and served as the chief of staff for Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative during Trump’s first term. Greer will play a key role in Trump’s tariff plans.Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate finance committee, opposed Greer’s confirmation and said: “Mr Greer will be a rubber stamp for the Trump Tax, the kneejerk decision to slap tariffs on nearly everything Americans buy and make high prices even higher.”Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term.

      Trump opened his meeting by announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC on Friday to sign an agreement regarding rare earth minerals.

      Trump spoke about the costs of eggs, and how his administration was working to “get the prices down”.

      During the meeting, Trump praised Doge and said, without evidence, that the initiative had cut billions and billions of dollars.

      Trump then asked Elon Musk to stand up and deliver some remarks about his work with Doge. In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support and claimed that if costs don’t get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”. Musk also described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.

      Musk acknowledged that Doge “won’t be perfect” and said that Doge accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.

      Musk said that Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers. “We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said. Trump also told the room that the federal employees who have not responded so far are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.

      Trump said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% or so of its employees.

      Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force. The US president then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

      Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, spoke about the new “gold card” plan and said that 200,000 of them could add up to $1tn.

      During the meeting, Trump heavily criticized former president Joe Biden, and criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the southern border.

      Trump once again said that he wanted Canada to become the 51st US state.

      Trump said that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon. “It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”

      Trump described Putin as a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”. He also said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.

      Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.
      Trump says that the US has “gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run” before criticizing former president Joe Biden calling him the “worst president in the history of our country”. More

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      White House claims ‘more than 1 million’ federal workers responded to Doge’s ultimatum email – live

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      Asked when is the deadline referred to in Elon Musk’s deadline second email to federal workers, Leavitt says agency heads will “determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies”.“The secretaries are responsible for their specific workforce, and this is true of the hirings and the firings that have taken place,” she says.She adds that unless their agency has told them not to, workers should reply to the email.She claims more than a million workers have so far responded, including herself.
      It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about ten minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working.
      Edward Wong of the New York Times reports that Trump appointees at USAid have sent recently-fired employees a list of more than 100 weapons they are prohibited from bringing when returning to the office to collect their belongings.Firearms, axes, martial arts weapons, including nunchucks and throwing stars, were in the list, as well as spearguns and dynamite.Staff will collect their personal belongings at the Ronald Reagan Building this Thursday and FridayThere have been no known recent incidents of aid agency employees making weapon-related threats, Wong reports.President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday instructing the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to launch an investigation into whether foreign copper production and imports threaten US economic and national security.According to White House officials, the investigation could lead to new tariffs on foreign copper, a material essential to manufacturing and construction, as well as critical to the US military and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.The administration said it intends to move quickly on the investigation, but no timeline was given.

      ‘More than one million’ federal workers have responded to Elon Musk/Doge’s ultimatum email, the White House has claimed. Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also said agency heads will “determine the best practices” for dealing with the ‘what did you do last week’ email in terms of whether people should respond and who, if anyone, would get fired. NBC News reported that responses to the email will reportedly be fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether their jobs are necessary.

      In a significant shift of journalistic power, the White House press team will now decide which journalists and media outlets will make up the White House press pool. Leavitt said legacy outlets will still be allowed to join and participate in the press pool, but the “privilege” will also be extended to “new voices” from “well-deserving outlets”. It builds on the decision to revoke the Associated Press’s full access to presidential events over its continued use of “Gulf of Mexico” as opposed to “Gulf of America”.

      Some 40% of the federal contracts that the Trump administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money, the administration’s own data shows. Doge last week published an initial list of 1,125 contracts that it terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on Doge’s “wall of receipts” shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings.

      Elon Musk will attend Trump’s first official cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Leavitt confirmed at the White House press briefing.

      Meanwhile, more than 20 civil service employees resigned from Doge, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services. “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

      House speaker Mike Johnson hinted that the planned budget vote might not go ahead this evening. The budget resolution is on thin ice after at least four GOP lawmakers have come out against it, amid internal ideological turmoil in the party over proposed cuts to Medicaid. Given the slim majority in the House, Johnson can’t afford to lose more than one Republican vote, assuming both parties are in full attendance.

      A federal judge in Seattle blocked the Trump administration’s effort to halt the nation’s refugee admissions system. US district judge Jamal Whitehead said in his ruling after the hearing on Tuesday that the president’s actions amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions program. “The president has substantial discretion … to suspend refugee admissions,” Whitehead told the parties. “But that authority is not limitless.”

      A US judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration from instituting a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal funding by pausing grants, loans and other financial support. US district judge Loren AliKhan in Washington wrote that while some funds had become unfrozen since she first temporarily blocked the administration’s spending pause, there remained a risk the administration might again try to shut off funding. The judge said for those reasons she agreed with groups representing nonprofits and small business that a preliminary injunction was necessary blocking a further funding freeze.

      A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients by 11.59pm on Wednesday night, saying there was no sign that it had taken any steps to comply with his earlier order that the funds be unfrozen.

      The Senate confirmed Daniel Driscoll, an Iraq war veteran and adviser to JD Vance, as secretary of the army.
      Donald Trump was scheduled to sign yet another round of executive orders in the Oval Office at 3pm ET today but he’s running behind. We’ll bring you updates as we get it.The White House announcement this morning did not say what topics will be covered or how many will be signed.Since taking office last month Trump has signed 73 executive orders, according to the office of the federal register – that’s more than any president since FDR in 1937.This report is from Reuters.
      A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients by 11.59pm on Wednesday night, saying there was no sign that it had taken any steps to comply with his earlier order that the funds be unfrozen.
      US district judge Amir Ali’s order came in a telephone hearing in a lawsuit brought by organizations that contract with and receive aid from the US Agency for International Development and the State Department. It applies to work done before 13 February, when the judge issued his earlier temporary restraining order.
      It was the third time Ali had ordered the administration officials to release foreign aid funds that were frozen after Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid, throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.
      Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have said they will have to shut down completely if they are not paid soon. They allege that the administration has violated federal law and the US constitution in refusing to pay out the funds and in dismantling USAid.
      The foreign aid agency on Sunday said that all of its staff except certain essential workers would be put on paid administrative leave, and that 1,600 positions in the US would be eliminated.
      You can read more about USAid and what the freeze means for millions of people around the world here:This report is from Reuters.
      A US judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking the Trump administration from instituting a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal funding by pausing grants, loans and other financial support.
      US district judge Loren AliKhan in Washington wrote that while some funds had become unfrozen since she first temporarily blocked the administration’s spending pause, there remained a risk the administration might again try to shut off funding.
      The judge said for those reasons she agreed with groups representing nonprofits and small business that a preliminary injunction was necessary blocking a further funding freeze.
      “The injunctive relief that defendants fought so hard to deny is the only thing in this case holding potentially catastrophic harm at bay,” she wrote.
      Those groups sued after the White House’s Office of Management and Budget on 27 January issued a memo directing federal agencies to temporarily pause spending on federal financial assistance programs.
      That memo said the freeze was necessary while the administration reviewed grants and loans to ensure they are aligned with Trump’s executive orders, including ones ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and directing a pause on spending on projects seeking to combat climate change.
      OMB later withdrew that memo after it became the subject of two lawsuits, one before AliKhan and another before a judge in Rhode Island by Democratic state attorneys general. But the plaintiffs argued the memo’s withdrawal did not mean the end of the policy itself.
      They pointed to a social media post on X by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shortly after the memo was withdrawn saying: “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.”
      This report is from the Associated Press.
      A federal judge in Seattle has blocked Donald Trump’s effort to halt the nation’s refugee admissions system.The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by major refugee aid groups, who argued that Trump’s executive order suspending the federal refugee resettlement program ran afoul of the system Congress created for moving refugees into the US.Lawyers for the administration argued that Trump’s order was well within his authority to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the US “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States”.US district judge Jamal Whitehead said in his ruling after the hearing on Tuesday that the president’s actions amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions program.“The president has substantial discretion … to suspend refugee admissions,” Whitehead told the parties. “But that authority is not limitless.”Justice Department lawyer August Flentje indicated to the judge that the government would consider whether to file an emergency appeal.The plaintiffs include the International Refugee Assistance Project on behalf of Church World Service, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and individual refugees and family members. They said their ability to provide critical services to refugees – including those already in the US – has been severely inhibited by Trump’s order.Some refugees who had been approved to come to the US had their travel canceled on short notice, and families who have waited years to reunite have had to remain apart, the lawsuit said.
      Peter Baker of the New York Times has compared the White House’s decision to take control of the press pool covering the president and its banning the Associated Press from key White House spaces to treatment of the press under the Kremlin. He wrote on X:
      Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.
      The message is clear. Given that the White House has already kicked one news organization out of the pool because of coverage it does not like, it is making certain everyone else knows that the rest of us can be barred too if the president does not like our questions or stories.
      Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn’t pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions. Trump has just declared that he will.
      Important to note, though: None of this will stop professional news outlets from covering this president in the same full, fair, tough and unflinching way that we always have. Government efforts to punish disfavored organizations will not stop independent journalism.
      House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed “not one” Democratic vote on the Republican budget proposal that could come to the floor as early as this evening.Jeffries declared from the steps of the US Capitol, surrounded by Democratic lawmakers and advocates:
      Let me be clear, House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget. Not one, not one, not one.
      The press conference was intended to be a show of protest against the Republican bill – the legislative vehicle for enacting Trump’s tax cut and immigration agenda. The minority leader is under pressure to stand up to the Republican majority. Activists have keyed in on the possible cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans.Jeffries said:
      The Republican budget represents the largest Medicaid cut in American history.
      Children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Seniors will be devastated. Hospitals will be devastated, nursing homes will be devastated.
      In an earlier press conference on Tuesday, House Republicans accused Democrats of “defending and even advocating for government waste, fraud and abuse”.At a rally on Capitol Hill, progressives lawmakers and activists railed against Republicans’ plan to enact Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut and immigration agenda. A vote could take place as early as this evening, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.Opposition to the House budget resolution has been steadily building over the last few weeks. During last week’s recess, constituent anger over Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs as well as Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government boiled over at town halls and Congressional offices across the country.At the Capitol Hill protest, called Tax the Greedy Billionaires and headlined by MoveOn and Indivisible, Senator Chris Murphy assailed the Republican budget bill as the “most massive transfer of wealth and resources from poor people and the middle class to the billionaires and corporations in the history of this country”.He continued:
      You’re talking about $880 billion of cuts to Medicaid. And I get it like $880 billion like, what does that mean? Right? That’s a huge number. Nobody understands. Let me tell you what that means. That means that sick kids die in this country. That means that hospitals in depressed communities and rural communities close their doors, right? That means that drug and addiction treatment centers disappear all across this country.
      Congressman Greg Casar, chair of the Progressive Caucus, compared the moment to the early days of Trump’s first term, when Congressional Republicans, newly in the majority, attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The effort prompted a widespread backlash and ultimately failed in the Senate, with a dramatic thumbs-down vote by the Arizona Republican John McCain.“The American people won and those House Republicans lost,” Casar said. “We’re right back in the same situation, because today, something is happening in America. Americans are rising up to say, ‘We want a government by and for the people, not by and for the billionaires.’”More on opposition to the Trump administration here:Asked why Dan Bongino was named deputy director of the FBI rather than a current special agent, as is normal practice, Leavitt claims Bongino got the job because he understands the depth of “past corruption” at the agency.The press briefing is over now. More

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      If you thought Elon Musk was bad, look at his dreadful mini-mes and shudder for America | Emma Brockes

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      You would be forgiven for thinking we were back at the Bullingdon Club, in the company of Jonty, Munty, Stiffy, Kipper, Chugger and, to use the polite version, Pig Botherer – only in this case it’s Big Balls and a guy with a history of racist tweeting. This is the sudden, startling emergence into American political life of a type deeply recognisable to Brits: that is, jaunty young men with juvenile nicknames and a firm belief they should be running the world.This being America, the class signifiers are slightly different from those in Britain. But in most regards, the cohort of young men hired by Elon Musk for his cost-cutting taskforce, the department of government efficiency (Doge), will be familiar to anyone who lived through the era of Boris Johnson’s weapons-grade flippancy or reports of David Cameron’s youthful hijinks. (Donald Trump is very flippant, of course, but his style skews locker room rather than debate chamber – or, in this case, maths olympiad.) And while politics has always run on young, volunteer energy, less common in the US, perhaps, is the imperial swagger, the sheer frivolous entitlement accompanying a crowd that has seemingly been given the keys to the kingdom.Let’s look at the lineup. The youngest of Musk’s Doge hires, Edward Coristine – online username, Big Balls – is a 19-year-old former intern at Neuralink, Musk’s neurotechnology company, who until recently appeared to be a first-year student at Northeastern University in Boston. Luke Farritor is a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern. Marko Elez, 25, used to work for X and SpaceX, and was revealed by the Wall Street Journal to have authored several since-removed tweets asserting, among other things, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” (Elez briefly resigned before Musk announced he’d reinstate him.)And Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old who boosted a post on X by the white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and whose newly launched Substack this week highlighted the perils of skipping freshman English 101 with a post entitled “Why DOGE: Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America.”Between them, these men have gained access to federal premises and staffing systems that govern agencies including USAid, the Department of Health and Human Services, the education and energy departments, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and contain sensitive information relating to millions of Americans. Elez was, reportedly, erroneously given overwrite access to the Treasury department’s payment system before it was yanked back to read-only.Of course, given that Doge has not responded to questions about what, if any, security clearance these young men have gone through, read-only is bad enough. The head of Doge, hiring in his own image, has turned to young, male software engineers with startup energy and the conviction that if you understand coding, you understand life. They’ve established sleeping pods in spare offices at the federal agencies they have been engaged to gut or dismantle, so that while Musk goes on X to mock federal employees for not working at weekends, his mini-mes work round the clock.This feat would be more impressive if their online remarks and bios didn’t flag what might diplomatically be called large gaps in their skill-sets. Musk, a man with the emotional maturity of a cartoon bank robber, is leading a group of men most of whom have no government or management experience whatsoever, let alone expertise in fields governed by the agencies they have been tasked to reform. The whole scene is reminiscent of the 90s boom in management consultancy, during which new graduates stared with frank disbelief at anyone who was over 35 and still breathing. And sure enough, as reported in the New York Times, young engineers have been overheard referring to federal employees as “dinosaurs”, who have in turn called the guys in baseball caps “Muskrats”.On X, meanwhile, Musk amplified a post pitching “autistic tech bros” against “non-binary Deep State theater kids”, and another that said what’s happening in the US right now is equivalent to “the yearbook committe and theater kid types getting rocked by a football team and chess club alliance”. Theatre kids and chess nerds are, traditionally, both categories of social death in high school that are targeted by queen bees and jocks, a case of Musk siding with the oppressor that’s even sadder when you consider that Trump isn’t even a real jock. (For a full account of Trump’s hilariously mediocre sports career relative to his claims about it, read Lucky Loser by Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig.)Anyway, we know how this ends. In the largest sense, with the cancellation of programmes mandated democratically in Congress by a bunch of unelected goons in puffer vests. And in the smallest sense, with one of these 22-year-old jerks spilling his Big Gulp cup of Mountain Dew over a keyboard at the Treasury and wiping the social security data of 70 million Americans. I look forward to watching as Big Balls and co find new ways to tank an economy even more efficiently and irreversibly than Brexit.

      Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist More

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      Elon Musk appears with Trump and tries to claim ‘Doge’ team is transparent

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      Elon Musk claimed in the Oval Office on Tuesday that his so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) was providing maximum transparency as it bulldozed its way through the federal government, remarks contradicted by the reality of how he has operated in deep secrecy.The appearance from Musk was the first time he had taken questions from the news media since his arrival in Washington, and he used his time standing next to Donald Trump at the Resolute Desk to defend the aggressive cost-cutting measures the Doge team has pursued.Musk confidently asserted, without offering any evidence, that some officials at the now gutted USAid had been taking “kickbacks” and that “quite a few people” in the government had “managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position”.The most startling claim centered on his insistence that the Doge team had been transparent about its activities as it had swept through roughly 20 agencies, seeking the removal of career officials who stood in his way and accessing sensitive data systems.“We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible,” Musk said, referring to what Doge has posted on X. “So all of our actions are maximally transparent. I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the Doge organization.”In reality, Musk has taken great pains to conceal how Doge has operated, starting with his own involvement in the project. Musk himself is a “special government employee”, which the White House has said means his financial disclosure filing will not be made public.The Doge team involves about 40 staffers, but the actual number is not known. Staffers have tried to keep their identities private and refused to give their last names to career officials at the agencies they were detailed to, the Guardian has previously reported.Musk has also tried to stop Doge staffers from being identified. When the Wall Street Journal reported that one 25-year-old staffer, Marko Elez, had made racist posts on an anonymous X account in recent months, Musk called for the reporter who wrote the story to be fired.Their identities have slowly come to light not because of any transparency efforts on the part of Musk but as a result of Doge staffers having to use their official government emails and sometimes being added to employee directories – often over their objections.Doge technically reports to the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. But Musk has operated with virtually unchecked power as he radically reshapes the federal government, and some of his moves have caught the White House by surprise, a person familiar with the matter said.Musk’s appearance came on the sidelines of Trump signing new executive orders related to his bureaucratic cost-cutting initiatives, including one to implement the “workforce optimization initiative” of Doge that limits hiring, according to a White House official.The billionaire stood next to the Resolute Desk, where Trump sat as he signed the executive orders, wearing a black “Dark Maga” hat and accompanied by his young son, who is named X. While Musk responded to reporters, Trump was busy staring at the boy with amusement.Asked about possible conflicts of interest as a result of Musk gutting agencies that either are investigating his companies for regulatory noncompliance or that have contracts with his companies, such as the defense department, Musk suggested there were none.“First of all, I’m not the one filing the contract. It’s the people at SpaceX or something,” said Musk, the founder, chief executive, chief engineer and chair of SpaceX.Pressed by reporters on the possibility that Doge might be moving too fast and cutting too much, Musk said he would simply reverse any measures that were gratuitous, reprising a strategy that he has used to reduce costs in his private companies.“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. Nobody’s going to bat 1,000,” Musk said. “We all make mistakes. But we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”But Musk has bristled at criticism leveled at him or Doge, and has lashed out at injunctions issued by federal judges. Over the weekend, Musk promoted a series of posts that contemplated defying a court order that temporarily blocked the Department of the Treasury from giving Doge access to its payment systems. More

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      Musk defends Doge role and rejects conflict of interest claims as he joins Trump for Oval Office ceremony – live

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      Speaking from the Oval Office, where he stood behind the Resolute Desk, but to the right of a seated Donald Trump, Elon Musk just defended his outsized role in the gutting of federal agencies, under the auspices of his “department of government efficiency”.Asked about critics who call his effective control over multiple federal agencies, and the cutting of funding for congressionally approved programs federal judges have ordered to halt, Musk said: “The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get”.“That’s what democracy is all about”.He also dismissed concerns about his own clear conflicts of interest, since six of his businesses are dealing with investigations, complaints or regulatory actions from 11 of the federal agencies he has taken a leading role in drastically cutting back or reshaping.Musk told reporters he is trying to be as transparent as possible, even though his own financial disclosures will not be made public. “Transparency is what builds trust” he said.Trump backed Musk’s claim there was no problem with his role. Trump also claimed that he saw a lot of “kickbacks” with government contracts. The president said that he hoped the courts would allow him to pursue his agenda.Trump claimed that his administration, with Musk’s help, had already found billions in “fraud and abuse”, despite the fact that multiple examples they have previously offered to the public have been false or misleading. Trump cited no new evidence, but told reporters “and you know what we’re talking about”. This appears to be his new shorthand for the debunked claim that Musk’s team had uncovered $50 million in funding to send condoms to the besieged Gaza Strip.Here is photograph of the press availability in the Oval Office posted on Musk’s platform X by Katie Miller, the spokesperson for his “department of government efficiency”, which shows that Miller’s spouse, Stephen, was just out of the frame of wire photographs, to Trump and Musk’s right.The Associated Press was not allowed in to the Oval office to report on the Musk-Trump news conference, the not-for-profit news cooperative says, because it has declined to abide by a White House directive to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.The AP’s executive editor, Julie Pace, said in a statement:
      As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs billions of people around the world every day with factual, nonpartisan journalism.
      Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing.
      It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism. Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.
      The AP issued this style guidance note on 23 January on the renaming:
      President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The body of water has shared borders between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change.
      The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.
      Speaking from the Oval Office, where he stood behind the Resolute Desk, but to the right of a seated Donald Trump, Elon Musk just defended his outsized role in the gutting of federal agencies, under the auspices of his “department of government efficiency”.Asked about critics who call his effective control over multiple federal agencies, and the cutting of funding for congressionally approved programs federal judges have ordered to halt, Musk said: “The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get”.“That’s what democracy is all about”.He also dismissed concerns about his own clear conflicts of interest, since six of his businesses are dealing with investigations, complaints or regulatory actions from 11 of the federal agencies he has taken a leading role in drastically cutting back or reshaping.Musk told reporters he is trying to be as transparent as possible, even though his own financial disclosures will not be made public. “Transparency is what builds trust” he said.Trump backed Musk’s claim there was no problem with his role. Trump also claimed that he saw a lot of “kickbacks” with government contracts. The president said that he hoped the courts would allow him to pursue his agenda.Trump claimed that his administration, with Musk’s help, had already found billions in “fraud and abuse”, despite the fact that multiple examples they have previously offered to the public have been false or misleading. Trump cited no new evidence, but told reporters “and you know what we’re talking about”. This appears to be his new shorthand for the debunked claim that Musk’s team had uncovered $50 million in funding to send condoms to the besieged Gaza Strip.Here is photograph of the press availability in the Oval Office posted on Musk’s platform X by Katie Miller, the spokesperson for his “department of government efficiency”, which shows that Miller’s spouse, Stephen, was just out of the frame of wire photographs, to Trump and Musk’s right.Elon Musk has joined Donald Trump in the Oval Office, as the president put his signature on an executive order that requires federal agencies to coordinate with the billionaire Tesla chief’s “department of government efficiency”.In comments to the press, Musk called the federal bureaucracy an “unelected” fourth branch of government, and also said the US budget deficit must be addressed. Trump, meanwhile, talked about the need to root out “corruption”.A coalition of labor unions yesterday filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) violated federal law by accessing secure systems in three government departments.“Elon Musk and his minions are stealing Americans’ private personal and financial data in one of the biggest data hacks in U.S. history,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.“I suspect no one who voted for Donald Trump thought he would allow Musk permission to invade their privacy. This is a breach of our fundamental freedoms. Right now, inside the Department of Education, the world’s richest man is rifling through 45 million people’s private student loan accounts and feeding the data into artificial intelligence.”The suit singles out Doge’s access of secure systems in the departments of Treasury and education, and the office of personnel management. Last week, a judge temporarily stopped Musk’s officials from accessing the Treasury’s payment system:Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director Kash Patel coordinated with the White House and justice department on the firing of top bureau officials, then lied about it at his confirmation hearing, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee said.Dick Durbin made the allegation in a letter to justice department inspector general Michael Horowitz, and requested an investigation.“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no legal or current role in government to personally direct the unjustified and potentially illegal firings of dedicated, nonpartisan professionals at the FBI. If these allegations are true, then Mr. Patel may have committed perjury before the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Patel said.The Senate judiciary committee is expected to on Thursday vote on advancing Patel, who Democrats consider a concerning pick to lead the bureau because of his vows to use its powers to retaliate against Trump’s enemies.Shortly after Trump took office, a former personal lawyer to the president who is now a senior justice department official ordered the firing of several veteran FBI agents, and asked for the names of everyone at the bureau who worked on January 6-related cases. Here’s more on that:Officials from Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” are “actively dismantling” the department of education, a Democratic congresswoman told HuffPost.Donald Trump recently signaled that he would like to see the department abolished, and congresswoman Melanie Stansbury said Musk’s employees “are in the building, on the sixth floor, canceling grants and contracts.”She expects the department “to potentially be dissolved in the coming days.”“It’s not legal. They know it’s not legal. But they’re doing it anyway,” said Stansbury. “The only recourse we have right now is to … go the courts.”Here’s more on the Trump administration’s plans for the department:Donald Trump plans to today sign an executive order that will require heads of US government departments and agencies to cooperate with the Elon Musk-chaired “department of government efficiency” (Doge), Reuters reports.Citing a White House official, the president will also order agency heads to limit hiring to only essential staff. The order comes as Democrats warn that Trump is defying the law by allowing Musk and his staff to enter federal agencies and access secure systems, or shut them down altogether.The White House says Trump will signs executive orders at 3pm. Here’s more about the concerns surrounding Doge:Republican congressman Guy Reschenthaler has been an advocate for Marc Fogel during his detention, and had this to say about the news that he had been released:
      Our prayers have been answered. Thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s leadership, Marc Fogel has been freed from Russia! Marc spent 1,255 days locked away in a Russian penal colony under the Biden Administration. President Trump freed Marc in just 22 days.
      Notice the reference to the Biden administration. Donald Trump and his allies have sought to cast themselves as more effective than his Democratic predecessor at every turn, and do have some diplomatic successes to promote, such as when Venezuela earlier this month agreed to release six detained Americans.Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was serving a 14 year prison sentence in Russia after getting caught with medically-prescribed marijuana “will be on American soil” by tonight, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday.“Today, President Donald J. Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are able to announce that Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia,” National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in a statement. “President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine. Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States.”Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.The Trump administration is pushing for the war with Russia to end, while Zelensky is hoping for more US military commitments, as well as NATO membership, the deployment of peacekeeping troops.Trump said in a Fox interview on Monday that Ukraine “may be part of Russia someday.”After Pope Francis rebuked mass deportation of migrants plan, US border czar Tom Homan has pushed back, saying Francis should leave border enforcement to his office.“I’ve got harsh words for the Pope: Pope ought to fix the Catholic Church,” Homan, a Catholic, told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.“I’m saying this as a lifelong Catholic — I was baptized Catholic, my first Communion as a Catholic, confirmation as a Catholic. He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us.”The criticism was in response to the pope’s public letter condemning the Trump administration’s efforts sent earlier on Tuesday.“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote in a letter sent on Tuesday. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.”Francis urged people “not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”Homan compared the wall surrounding the Vatican City to the US border wall.Federal judge John Bates on Tuesday ordered US health agencies to restore websites that were suddenly and unexpectedly taken offline after Trump signed an executive order to scrub websites of “gender ideology extremism.”The legal saga began after medical advocacy group Doctors for America sued US health agencies for taking down their websites.”Prior to the sudden, unannounced removal, these Defendants had maintained these or similar webpages and datasets on their websites for years,” the lawsuit says. “The removal of the webpages and datasets creates a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprives physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and takes away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients.”Donald Trump hit out at federal judges who have frustrated his efforts to transform the government, calling them “highly political” and arguing he is merely fighting fraud and waste. The president received an assist from his ally, House speaker Mike Johnson, who said he had met with Elon Musk and was “excited” about his work in the “department of government efficiency”. But the American Bar Association warned that the administration was flying in the face of the constitution, and that it “cannot choose which law it will follow or ignore”, while a Democratic senator said that if the White House begins ignoring court orders it does not like, it would be “maybe the greatest challenge to democracy in our lifetimes.” Meanwhile, an appeals court granted prosecutors’ request to drop charges against two of Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, marking the end of the aborted federal effort to convict the president prior to his re-election.Here’s what else has been going on today:

      Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to a fraud charge connected to a fundraiser falsely billed as paying for a border wall, but will serve no jail time.

      Two senior officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have resigned, after a top White House official who also played a major role in Project 2025 ordered the watchdog to stop work.

      Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, will go to Ukraine to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced Trump, who also predicted the war with Russia would end “soon”.
      King Abdullah of Jordan has arrived at the White House to meet with Donald Trump, and the fate of the ceasefire in Gaza is expected to be high on their agenda.The two leaders may also discuss Trump’s proposal for the United States to take over the territory and for its population to be displaced to countries neighboring Israel – such as Jordan.We have a separate live blog covering the meeting, and you can follow it here: More

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      ‘We are here to fight back’: hundreds protest suspension of US financial watchdog

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      Chants of “let us work!” rang out across the courtyard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) blocks away from the White House on Monday, as hundreds of angry protesters rallied against the Trump administration’s decision to suspend all operations at the US’s top financial watchdog – an agency that has clawed back more than $21bn from Wall Street for defrauded consumers.The demonstration came after Russell Vought, Trump’s newly installed acting director of the agency, ordered all CFPB staff to stand down and stay away from the office in what critics are calling a brazen attempt to defang financial industry oversight.“This is like a bank robber trying to fire the cops and turn off the alarm just before he strolls into the lobby,” Senator Elizabeth Warren told the crowd. “We are here to fight back.”The shutdown order has thrown the agency into chaos, with employees reporting confusion over basic questions such as whether they can check their work email or complete routine training. The agency’s staff union filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Vought’s stop-work order.View image in fullscreenThose critics also point to the influence of tech billionaire Elon Musk, who reportedly placed several members of his Doge team inside the agency with access to its computer systems. Warren accused Musk of orchestrating the shutdown to benefit his planned financial services platform, X Money, part of X’s eventual evolution to be an app for everything.“The financial cops, the CFPB, are there to make sure that Elon’s new project can’t scam you or steal your sensitive personal data,” Warren said. “So Elon’s solution, get rid of the cops, kill the CFPB.”The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from predatory financial practices. It’s since taken action against major banks including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America for violations of consumer protection laws.A shutdown would then threaten oversight of everything from credit card late fees to paycheck advance schemes. Without the CFPB’s supervision, companies could potentially charge excessive overdraft fees, while debt collectors and payday lenders would face seriously reduced oversight.The agency’s enforcement actions have secured billions in consumer relief, including a $120m settlement with student loan servicer Navient announced last September over illegal loan servicing practices, and a $175m penalty against Block’s Cash App in January for inadequate fraud protection. In one of its largest actions, the CFPB ordered Wells Fargo to pay $3.7bn in December 2022 for widespread mismanagement of auto loans, mortgages and deposit accounts.But in November, Musk posted that they should “delete” the CFPB for being too duplicative of other regulatory bodies, and on Friday posted: “They did above zero good things, but still need to go.”“We have worked too hard. We have fought too hard for this democracy, and we ain’t turning it over to Elon Musk,” Representative Maxine Waters said to the crowd. “We’re going to win.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionView image in fullscreenSenator Chris Van Hollen called the situation “the most corrupt bargain in American history”, referring to Musk’s $288m investment in Trump’s campaign. “Elon Musk spent over $280m to elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has given Elon Musk the keys to the United States government,” he said.Christine Chen Zinner, senior policy counsel for consumer financial justice at Americans for Financial Reform, was also at the rally, and warned that shutting the CFPB would eliminate crucial consumer protections.“Director Vought ordering all the CFPB staff to stop their work essentially is giving financial companies a green light to defraud and gouge their customers,” she said.The move comes despite broad public support for the agency. A September poll from Americans for Financial Reform showed that 91% of voters believe it is important to regulate financial services to ensure they are fair for consumers, including 95% of Democrats, 87% of Republicans and 88% of independents.“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a really popular agency,” Chen Zinner said. “So to do anything to hamper this work would be a risky political move, because right now, the CFPB is held with the same high regard as programs like Social Security and Medicare.” More

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      Trump to announce 25% aluminum and steel tariffs as China’s levies against US come into effect

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      Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.Trump’s pre-announcement came as China’s retaliatory tariffs, announced last week, came into effect. The measures target $14bn worth of products with a 15% tariff on coal and LNG, and 10% on crude oil, farm equipment and some vehicles.The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would take effect “almost immediately”. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.The move on steel and aluminum brought a swift reaction from Doug Ford, the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, who accused the US president of “shifting goalposts and constant chaos” that would put the economy at risk.Monday’s tariffs would come on top of existing metals duties.The largest sources of US steel imports are Canada, Brazil and Mexico, followed by South Korea and Vietnam, according to government and American Iron and Steel Institute data.By a large margin, Canada is the largest supplier of primary aluminum metal to the US, accounting for 79% of total imports in the first 11 months of 2024. Mexico is a major supplier of aluminum scrap and aluminum alloy.During his first term, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, but later granted several trading partners duty-free quotas, including Canada, Mexico and Brazil.Joe Biden extended these quotas to Britain, Japan and the European Union, and US steel mill capacity utilization has dropped in recent years. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that the new tariffs would come on top of the existing duties on steel and aluminum.Trump’s rollout of tariffs has been widely criticised and prompted volatile market reactions and fear of more to come. Beijing has lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organisation, but otherwise has been muted in its response. The tariffs imposed by Trump are far below the level he had threatened during the election campaign, and analysts have said China was prepared for them.Beijing’s actions – which also include investigations into several US companies including Google – were seen by analysts as measured and allowing room for negotiation.Amid wider pushback against Trump’s economic heavy-handedness, French President Emmanuel Macron warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he was willing to go “head-to-head” on tariffs with the US president. “I already did so, and I will did (sic) it again.”Macron told CNN that the EU should not be a “top priority” for the US, saying: “Is the European Union your first problem? No, I don’t think so. Your first problem is China, so you should focus on the first problem.”Macron said tariffs would harm European economies but also the US, given the level of economic ties. “It means if you put tariffs on a lot of sectors, it will increase the costs and create inflation in the US. Is it what your people want? I’m not so sure,” he said.He said the EU must be ready to react to US actions, but stressed that the 27-nation bloc should mainly “act for ourselves”. “This is why, for me, the top priority of Europe is competitiveness agenda, is defence and security agenda, is AI ambition, and let’s go fast for ourselves.“If in the meanwhile, we have [a] tariff issue, we will discuss them and we will fix it.”Trump has long complained about the EU’s 10% tariffs on auto imports being much higher than the US car rate of 2.5%. He frequently states that Europe “won’t take our cars” but ships millions west across the Atlantic every year.The European Commission said on Monday it would react to protect EU interests, but said it would not respond until it had detailed or written clarification of the measures. “The EU sees no justification for the imposition of tariffs on its exports. We will react to protect the interests of European businesses, workers and consumers from unjustified measures,” the commission said in a statement.Trump has also flagged tariffs against Taiwan’s semiconductor industry – which he has repeatedly and without evidence accused of stealing US business. Taiwan now appears to be scrambling to prevent that happening. This week senior economic officials will fly to the US to meet their counterparts. Taiwan’s government and state-run petroleum company are also reportedly taking steps to buy more US gas and oil to reduce Taiwan’s trade surplus – a key factor cited by Trump in enacting tariffs.Reuters contributed to this article. More