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      Trump administration briefing: pro-Ukraine rallies across US as Trump officials fume at Zelenskyy

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      The disastrous meeting between US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday has catalysed a series of pro-Ukraine protests across the US.Protesters took to the streets in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, with hundreds gathering to express support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy.Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Waitsfield, Vermont, on Saturday to oppose vice-president JD Vance’s visit to the state for a ski trip with his family.The demonstration had been planned earlier in the week by the Mad River Valley chapter of Indivisible, a grassroots group, but additional protesters said they were motivated to join after watching Vance and Trump’s combative Oval Office meeting.Pro-Ukraine rallies in multiple US cities after chaotic White House meetingVideos posted on social networks showed hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York’s Times Square, many carrying the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine on their backs. In Los Angeles county, a pro-Ukraine crowd rallied in front of a SpaceX’s facility, and protesters in Boston held an “emergency rally” for “fair peace” for Ukraine at Boston Common.Read the full storyTrump officials fume at Zelenskyy for disregarding advice before meetingInside the Trump White House, officials blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, for the meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday, and expressed frustration that he pushed for security guarantees even though the US had made clear they wanted to negotiate that later, according to people familiar with the matter.Read the full storyFiring of watchdog agency chief illegal and would give ‘license to bully officials’, court rulesA US judge on Saturday declared Trump’s firing of the head of a federal watchdog agency illegal in an early test of the scope of presidential power likely to be decided at the US supreme court.Read the full storyKennedy Jr backtracks and says US measles outbreak is now a ‘top priority’Two days after initially downplaying the outbreak as “not unusual”, the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, on Friday said he recognized the serious impact of the ongoing measles epidemic in Texas – in which a child died recently – and that the government was providing resources, including protective vaccines.Read the full storyAndrew Cuomo announces run for mayor of New York CityFormer New York state governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday he would run for New York City mayor, an attempt to come back from a sexual harassment scandal that forced him to resign more than three years earlier.Read the full storyEmail shows Musk ally is moving to close office behind free tax-filing program at IRSAn Elon Musk ally installed in the US government said in a late-night email going into Saturday that the office behind a popular free online tax-filing option would be shuttered – and its employees would be let go.Read the full storyMedicaid recipients fear ‘buzzsaw cuts’ for Trump’s agendaRepublicans are considering a rollback of the federal social safety net, particularly Medicaid, which has nearly 80 million enrollees in all 50 states. The budget plan proposes an $880bn reduction in funding for the insurance over the next decade, an amount experts warn would hollow out the program.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration on Saturday to prevent it from transferring 10 undocumented immigrants detained in the US to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

      A FedEx cargo airplane caught on fire after striking a bird shortly after the plane’s departure from Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday morning, according to officials.

      A decision by regulators to extend the life of two of the oldest reactors in the US decades beyond their original permits has elevated the risk of a nuclear disaster in heavily populated south Florida, environmental groups are warning.

      Singer Angie Stone, known for her hit Wish I Didn’t Miss You, has died in a car crash at the age of 63. More

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      Email shows that Musk ally is moving to close office behind free tax filing program at IRS

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      An Elon Musk ally installed in the US government said in a late night email going into Saturday that the office behind a popular free online tax filing option would be shuttered – and its employees would be let go.The 18F office within the General Services Administration (GSA) created the IRS Direct File program that allows for free online tax filings. It has been a frequent target of Musk, and one of the billionaire businessman’s close associates who holds a key position in the GSA informed staffers that the agency would close 18F in an email to staffers that arrived around 1am on Saturday morning.According to the message, the firings were in support of the executive order Donald Trump issued after beginning his second US presidency, which has empowered Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) taskforce to cut federal workers.“The 18F Office has been identified as part of this phase of the GSA’s Reduction in Force (RIF) as non-critical,” the email states. “This decision was made with explicit direction from the top levels of leadership within both the Administration and GSA. There are no other TTS programs impacted at this time, however we anticipate more change in the future.”The email came from Thomas Shedd, a 28-year-old former Tesla software engineer who took over in late January as head of the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services. It’s not immediately clear what may happen to 18F programs such as the direct filing system or the total number of workers that the GSA is firing from the office, which has about 90 employees.Musk claimed in early February that he had “deleted” 18F while responding on X to a rightwing influencer who accused the agency of being “far left”. Musk didn’t elaborate on his statement, which caused confusion as the 18F website and services like its direct file program remained online.In addition to working on the free tax return program, the 18F office worked across government agencies to update technology and launch new software products. It worked on more than 31 projects across different government agencies in 2024, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa). It has been part of the GSA since 2014.Shortly after taking over TTS, Shedd told staffers that he planned to run the agency like a tech startup and that he wanted to implement artificial intelligence programs throughout the government. The GSA is one of the major agencies that Musk and his allies have taken over as part of their wider and potentially illegal dismantling of the federal government, which has cut services such as humanitarian aid and disease prevention while attempting to reshape agencies along ideological grounds. More

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      It might be a small consolation, but Elon Musk is getting poorer by the day | John Naughton

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      Extreme wealth has always played a role in democracies. Money has always talked, especially in the US. Years ago, Lawrence Lessig, the great legal scholar, calculated that most of the campaign funding for members of Congress and aspiring politicians came from one-twentieth of the richest 1% of Americans – about 150,000 people. This is about the same number as those who are named “Lester” and explains the title of his book: The USA Is Lesterland.But that particular corruption of American politics only involved billionaires like the Koch brothers playing organ-grinders to congressional monkeys. The obscene wealth generated by the tech industry has catapulted a new organ-grinder into the heart of the machine. He was able to pay his way in with a spare quarter of a billion dollars that he happened to have lying around. And now the wretched citizens of the US find themselves living in Muskland.At the time he made the decision to ensure that Trump got elected, Musk was estimated to be worth $244bn. That didn’t mean, of course, that he had that amount of hard cash in his possession, just that he owned millions of shares in a number of companies that he had founded which were judged by investors to be valuable liquid assets that could be sold if necessary.Hold on to that thought: it may come in useful.How did Musk become so rich? It started, really, with PayPal, of which he was one of the founders, and from the sale of which he emerged with enough money ($175.8m) to become an early investor in Tesla and chair of its board. In 2002, he founded the rocket company SpaceX and, later, Starlink – which has launched thousands of low-orbit satellites for providing internet connectivity to remote regions. In 2015, he founded a solar power company, Tesla Energy, and Neuralink, a company aiming to integrate the human brain with AI the following year. In 2017, he founded The Boring Company, which did what it said on the tin, namely digging tunnels.And then in October 2022 he lost his mind, bought Twitter, and renamed it X. This last decision was a commercial disaster, but it gave him a huge megaphone which he deployed to support Trump’s campaign. It also got him a place right at the heart of the US government, with a mandate to dig deep into the machine, find out how it worked and – allegedly – to detect fraud and eliminate waste.As his goons were rooting through the innards of the federal payment system, one wonders if they came across some of the disbursements that the government has made to his companies. Payments from Nasa to SpaceX, for example, for launching stuff into orbit – or eventually bringing home astronauts from the International Space Station. Or subsidies and tax refunds to Tesla, whose early survival was ensured by government loans.There are some rich ironies to be found here. Could the Elon Musk who ranted that the US should “get rid of all subsidies” be the same Elon Musk who decided to build SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink and Starlink in the US rather than in his native South Africa? For, as the tech pundit Scott Galloway puts it: “There would be no SpaceX without Nasa, its largest customer. Tesla built its Fremont factory with a $465m DoE loan in 2010, and its first 200,000 cars benefited from tax credit subsidies of up to $7,500. For years the company was able to report profits thanks to the ‘sale’ of emissions credits to other carmakers. All told, the company has accepted an estimated $2.5bn in government support.” And all of those subsidies went through the federal payments machine.At the moment, Musk looks unstoppable because he hasn’t yet triggered Trump’s narcissistic envy, and his wealth isolates from the consequences of his actions. But nothing lasts for ever and there are some encouraging straws in the wind. One is that Tesla is no longer looking as good as it once did. Sales of its cars are down 45% in Europe – at a time when EV sales there are generally up by 37%. And Muskwagens are losing ground to increasingly more attractive EVs from Kia and the Chinese challenger BYD.And then there’s what Tesla owners are ruefully calling “the Musk factor”. Owners of the company’s hideous Cybertruck, for example are finding red swastikas spray-painted on them in car parks. One sometimes sees Tesla saloons with embarrassed notices on their side windows saying “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy”. There’s even a poster showing Musk standing in a Tesla giving a Nazi salute with the caption “0 to 1939 in 3 Seconds”. And Tesla stock is now on a downward track, which means that Musk’s net worth is not what it was. Who knows, maybe one day Trump will be richer than him after he’s finished looting Ukraine.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhat I’ve been readingTalking to ourselves
      A fine essay by Renée DiResta on what’s happened to democracies’ public sphere.Herd mentality
      A really sombre Substack post by Charles Arthur.How Europe was left in the cold
      Nicholas Colin is back online. This post shows why he was missed. More

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      Federal workers might get email requiring response after Trump and Musk praise efforts to investigate workforce – live

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      This report is from the Associated Press.Federal employees could get another email on Saturday requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by Donald Trump and Elon Musk to demand answers from the government workforce.The plan, first reported by the Washington Post (paywall), was disclosed to AP by a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.The first email, which was distributed a week ago, asked employees “what did you do last week?” and prompted them to list five tasks that they completed. Musk, who empowered by Trump is aiming to downsize agencies and eliminate thousands of federal jobs, said anyone who didn’t respond would be fired. Many agencies, meanwhile, told their workforces not to respond or issued conflicting guidance.The second email will be delivered in a different way, according to the person with knowledge of the situation, potentially making it easier to discipline employees for noncompliance.Instead of being sent by the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency for the federal government but doesn’t have the power to hire or fire, the email will come from individual agencies that have direct oversight of career officials.It’s unclear how national security agencies will handle the second email. After the first one, they directed employees not to write back because much of the agencies’ work is sensitive or classified. Less than half of federal workers responded, according to the White House.The Office of Personnel Management ultimately told agency leaders shortly before the Monday deadline for responses that the request was optional, although it left the door open for similar demands going forward.On Wednesday, at Trump’s first cabinet meeting of his second term, Musk argued that his request was a “pulse check” to ensure that those working for the government have “a pulse and two neurons”.Both Musk and Trump have claimed that some workers are either dead or fictional, and the president has publicly backed Musk’s approach.Trump said that people who didn’t respond to the first email “ are on the bubble”, adding that he wasn’t “thrilled” about them not responding.“Now, maybe they don’t exist,” he claimed without providing evidence. “Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist.”The White House communications team just sent reporters a lengthy round up of statements of support from Republican lawmakers and cabinet members for what many Ukrainians see as the Oval office ambush of Zelesnkyy by Donald Trump and JD Vance.Perhaps concerned that the press corps is not closely following Republicans on X, the social-media platform that has tilted right since Elon Musk’s takeover, or Fox, the email includes quotes praising Trump and Vance from 45 Republican lawmakers and eight cabinet secretaries.Among them was this, from Senator Lindsey Graham: “I’ve never been more proud of President Trump for showing the American people — and the world — you don’t trifle with this man … He wanted to get a ceasefire. He wants to end the war and Zelenskyy felt like he needed to bait Trump in the Oval Office”.Graham’s comment, made to Fox, is curious because he told reporters earlier that he had spoken with Zelenskyy this morning, before the meeting, and warned him, “don’t take the bait”. That seems to suggest that he had cautioned Zelenskyy against being baited into an argument. Then, after Zelenskyy did respond to insults from Vance and Trump by arguing back, Graham accused him of “baiting” Trump.Graham then said that he was proud of both Trump and Vance.“What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful, and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again”, Graham said. “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change”.Here is video of Graham’s earlier comments, to a group of non-partisan reporters outside the White House after the meeting.David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, in his ‘US politics sketch’, has more on the historic and histrionic Trump-Zelenskyy Oval office showdown.For American readers unfamiliar with the term, political sketch writing is a British newspaper genre, described as “a form of verbal cartooning” akin to the kind of satirical truth-telling we more commonly get from late-night comedians.Here is how David’s latest sketch begins, but please do read it all:
      This is going to be great television,” Donald Trump remarked at the end. Sure. And the captain of the Titanic probably assured his passengers that this would make a great movie some day.
      Trump has just presided over one of the greatest diplomatic disasters in modern history. Tempers flared, voices were raised and protocol was shredded in the once hallowed Oval Office. As Trump got into a shouting match Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a horrified Europe watched the post-second world war order crumble before its eyes.
      Never before has a US president bullied and berated an adversary, never mind an ally, in such a public way. Of course reality TV star and wrestling fan turned US president had it all play out on television for the benefit of his populist support base – and a certain bare-chested chum in the Kremlin.
      Zelenskyy had come to the White House to sign a deal for US involvement in Ukraine’s mineral industry to pave the way for an end to three-year war in Russia. There was a hint of trouble to come when he arrived at the West Wing, wearing black – not a suit – and Trump greeted him with a handshake and sarcasm: “Wow, look, you’re all dressed up!”

      Donald Trump cut talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy short following heated exchanges in the Oval Office during which the US president and his vice-president JD Vance falsely accused Zelenskyy of being “disrespectful” and not thanking the US for its support. European leaders promptly rallied behind the Ukrainian president in a show of unity after the joint press conference was canceled and he left the White House early. No mineral deal was signed. More on that here.

      Federal employees could get another email on Saturday requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by Trump and Elon Musk to demand answers from the government workforce. The second email will come from individual agencies that have direct oversight of career officials, rather than being sent by the office of personnel management as was the first email. It’s unclear how national security agencies will handle the second email.

      Trump was sued by the Democratic party over a recent executive order it says violates federal election law by giving him too much power over the independent federal election commission. The lawsuit objects to an 18 February order giving the White House more control over the election commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other traditionally independent agencies that normally operate day-to-day at arm’s length from the president. Critics have called the order an unprecedented power grab. The Democrats said it would effectively substitute Trump’s views on election-related disputes for those of the bipartisan election commission, and let him dictate outcomes.

      The US government’s “severe” cuts to USAid will make the world less healthy, less safe and less prosperous, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said. Imploring the US to reverse its decision to cut funding for life-saving initiatives across the world, Guterres said America’s retreat from its humanitarian role and influence will run counter to its influence globally and its own interests. He said: “America’s generosity and compassion have not only saved lives, built peace and improved the state of the world; they have contributed to the stability and prosperity that Americans depend on.” In South Africa alone, the US shutdown of HIV/AIDs funding could lead to 500,000 deaths over the next ten years, modelling suggests.

      The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, AP reported. The workforce reduction could be as high as 50%.

      Trump wants to also radically shrink the state department – leaving it with fewer diplomats, a smaller number of embassies and a narrower remit that critics argue could hand China wins across the world, Politico reported.

      Meanwhile around 800 employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assocation (Noaa), the US’s preeminent climate research agency, have been tapped for termination, according to ABC7 NewYork.

      Five former US defense secretaries have demanded congressional hearings on Trump’s firings of several military commanders, including the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, saying it was done for “purely partisan reasons” and weakens national security.
      This report is from Reuters.Donald Trump was sued on Friday by the Democratic Party over a recent executive order it says violates federal election law by giving him too much power over the independent federal election commission.The lawsuit filed in the Washington DC federal court by three national Democratic committees is the party’s first against Trump during his second term.It comes as Democrats, outnumbered in Congress, seek an effective means to counteract far-reaching changes from Trump’s first six weeks in office, including many steps to lessen government oversight and eliminate internal dissent.Several dozen lawsuits have challenged other actions taken by Trump since his inauguration last month.Friday’s lawsuit objects to a February 18 order giving the White House more control over the election commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other traditionally independent agencies that normally operate day-to-day at arm’s length from the president.Other defendants include attorney general Pam Bondi, the election commission and three commissioners.The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the election commission said that agency does not discuss litigation.Trump’s order, “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies,” makes his and Bondi’s opinions on questions of law “controlling” for all federal employees performing their official duties, and bans executive branch employees from advancing contrary views.Critics have called the order an unprecedented power grab.The Democrats said it would effectively substitute Trump’s views on election-related disputes for those of the bipartisan election commission, and let him dictate outcomes.According to the complaint, letting Trump micromanage the commission would undermine that purpose, by allowing a “single partisan political figure” to rig campaign rules and resolve disputes against his opponents.The plaintiffs include the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.They said Trump’s order is already causing irreparable harm, by making it harder for the Senate committee to defend against a complaint by the 2024 reelection campaign of Republican US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas over his opponent’s advertisements.The lawsuit seeks a declaration that a federal law shielding the election commission from “presidential coercion and control” is constitutional, and to block Trump’s February 18 order.US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has confirmed a report by CBS that the Trump administration has moved to ease restrictions on American commanders carrying out raids and ordering airstrikes outside battlefields.CBS reported that Hegseth changed the rules of engagement for the US army during a meeting with members of the US Africa Command (Africom) last month. In a post on social media above a hyperlink to the story, Hegseth wrote: “Correct.”The change gives greater latitude to American commanders to choose their targets and move against them.Biden initially tightened restrictions around airstrikes outside traditional conflict zone in 2022 after Trump loosened them. Under Biden’s guidance the president would have had to approve the drone strike himself, whereas Trump has moved decision making power further down the chain of command. Trump ordered his first airstrikes against IS-Somalia targets earlier this month.The state department this week terminated a USAid initiative that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to help restore Ukraine’s energy grid from attacks by the Russian military, two USAid officials working on the agency’s Ukraine mission have told NBC News.According to NBC’s report, power outages have been applied overnight in some regions of Ukraine due to the attacks on energy facilities. Ukraine’s systems have been systematically targeted by Russia since its full-scale invasion three years ago.“It significantly undercuts this administration’s abilities to negotiate on the ceasefire, and it’d signal to Russia that we don’t care about Ukraine or our past investments,” one USAid official involved in the Ukraine mission said.The official continued:
      Russia is fighting a two-pronged war in Ukraine: A military one but also an economic one. They’re trying to crush the economy, but USAid has played a central role in helping it be resilient, [including] shoring up the energy grid … We’ve provided vast amount of support to the Ukrainian government to avoid a macro economic crisis.
      In addition to ending the Ukraine Energy Security Project, USAid is also dramatically downsizing its presence in Ukraine.Before the Trump administration’s latest moves, 64 American government employees and contractors were serving on the ground in Ukraine for the agency. Just eight of those personnel are slated to remain on the ground in the war-torn country after the Trump administration placed its remaining global workforce on administrative leave and ordered those workers not deemed “critical” to return to the US.The two officials warned that USAid withdrawing from Ukraine would leave its energy grid vulnerable in the heart of the winter as it endures assaults from further Russian missiles.You can read NBC’s report here.From Reuters:House Democrats demanded answers on Friday from health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on the exact number of employees fired from the health agencies he oversees and warned the dismissals could undermine public health.Hundreds of workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health have been forced out as the Trump administration overhauls government agencies.In three letters sent on Wednesday, one each for the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH, energy and commerce committee senior Democrat Frank Pallone Jr, and the top Democrat on the health subcommittee, Diana DeGette, pressed Kennedy to disclose not only how many workers were terminated at each agency, but also how many more layoffs are expected.They also asked how many of the currently vacant positions would be left unfilled and how many of those fired were responsible for responding to outbreaks of diseases like bird flu, measles, and mpox.Kennedy had pledged “radical transparency” and accountability including an “unprecedented level of collaboration” with Congress during his confirmation hearings.HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Kennedy intended to provide the information.Pallone and DeGette also asked whether HHS conducted any assessment of how these firings would impact the country’s ability to respond to public health threats. They wrote:
      We are deeply concerned these widespread terminations took place without any review of these employees’ work history or without any analysis of the impacts these job losses would have on the Department’s ability to protect the health and well-being of the American people.
      The letters come just a day after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s directives, which led to the mass firings, were illegal and ordered them to be rescinded.Pallone and DeGette warned that failing to restore these positions could put Americans at greater risk from foodborne illnesses, infectious disease outbreaks, and delays in medical research.
      The impending impact of these terminations, including exposing Americans to greater death and illness due to outbreaks of foodborne illness and infectious disease, will fall on your shoulders.
      The S&P 500 dipped slightly in choppy trading on Friday after talks between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy ended in disaster.Trump and Zelenskyy traded verbal blows at the White House before the world’s media, adding fresh uncertainty for investors already worried about sticky US inflation and a tepid economy.The S&P 500 was last down 0.07% at 5,857.40 points. The Nasdaq declined 0.22% to 18,504.02 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.01% at 43,236.40 points.Earlier, a Commerce Department report showed inflation rose in line with expectations in the previous month. However, consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, dropped 0.2% after an upwardly revised 0.8% increase in December.Not that there was any ambiguity, but the White House has confirmed that Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not sign a minerals deal on Friday.Trump has not ruled out an agreement, but not until Ukraine is ready to have a constructive conversation, a senior US official told Reuters.It was up to the Ukrainians if the leaders’ canceled joint news conference could be rescheduled while Zelenskyy remained in the US, the official said.Following furiously heated talks earlier, during which Donald Trump shouted at the Ukrainian president, the joint press conference has been canceled, the White House said.A White House source confirmed to Reuters that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is leaving the White House early.Trump posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy was “not ready for peace”. He claimed Zelenskyy had “disrespected” the US (as did his vice-president, JD Vance, who also accused Zelenskyy during the meeting of apparently not thanking the US enough for its support thus far).Trump added:
      He can come back when he’s ready for peace.
      For all the details head to over Europe live blog:This report is from the Associated Press.Federal employees could get another email on Saturday requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by Donald Trump and Elon Musk to demand answers from the government workforce.The plan, first reported by the Washington Post (paywall), was disclosed to AP by a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.The first email, which was distributed a week ago, asked employees “what did you do last week?” and prompted them to list five tasks that they completed. Musk, who empowered by Trump is aiming to downsize agencies and eliminate thousands of federal jobs, said anyone who didn’t respond would be fired. Many agencies, meanwhile, told their workforces not to respond or issued conflicting guidance.The second email will be delivered in a different way, according to the person with knowledge of the situation, potentially making it easier to discipline employees for noncompliance.Instead of being sent by the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency for the federal government but doesn’t have the power to hire or fire, the email will come from individual agencies that have direct oversight of career officials.It’s unclear how national security agencies will handle the second email. After the first one, they directed employees not to write back because much of the agencies’ work is sensitive or classified. Less than half of federal workers responded, according to the White House.The Office of Personnel Management ultimately told agency leaders shortly before the Monday deadline for responses that the request was optional, although it left the door open for similar demands going forward.On Wednesday, at Trump’s first cabinet meeting of his second term, Musk argued that his request was a “pulse check” to ensure that those working for the government have “a pulse and two neurons”.Both Musk and Trump have claimed that some workers are either dead or fictional, and the president has publicly backed Musk’s approach.Trump said that people who didn’t respond to the first email “ are on the bubble”, adding that he wasn’t “thrilled” about them not responding.“Now, maybe they don’t exist,” he claimed without providing evidence. “Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist.”Florida first lady Casey DeSantis doesn’t rule out running for governor alongside her husband.At an event at the Florida International University Academic Health Center on Friday, after reporters asked if she could confirm if she was considering a run, DeSantis said: “Well, I would say one thing. To quote the late, great Yogi Berra, ‘when you come to a fork in the road, take.’”Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said of his wife that people have been approaching him “for years, begging to get her in the fray”. More

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      Stephen Colbert on Trump’s second term: ‘The last five weeks have been shock and awful’

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      Late-night hosts took aim at Donald Trump’s disastrous start to his second term as president and looked at the rising cost of food.Stephen ColbertOn The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about his expectations versus his reality of Trump’s comeback, saying that the president has done “every terrible thing I could imagine” but that “I just never imagined he’d do all of them at once.”He said: “The last five weeks have been shock and awful.” Things have got so bad, he added, that even those within the Maga-verse have been getting “buyers’ remorse”, with reports of unhappy Trump voters.Colbert said it was “kinda hard to feel a lot of sympathy” for them, though. “They ordered the turd soup then said: ‘Waiter, there’s turds in my soup’ and then they came back four years later and asked: ‘Do you still have that turd soup?’” he joked.While Trump had promised that prices would go down on day one, his supporters “still think things are too expensive”.The last few weeks have seen “Elon slice through the federal government like a drunk raccoon with a samurai sword”.Colbert moved on to the soaring price of eggs, which may still go up even further by 41%. “This year’s Easter egg hunt is going to be The Purge,” he said.Stores in New York have been selling loose eggs for those who can’t afford a full pack and customs agents have stopped at least 90 people from smuggling them into the country.Colbert said that the head of the smuggling operation is “Pablo Eggs-cobar”.Jimmy KimmelOn Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host also spoke about how bad things have quickly become under Trump, joking that he was “tired of all the winning”.He said that “no one seems to know what the hell is going on” with Elon’s ongoing “chainsaw massacre of the federal workforce”.He spoke about an email sent to federal workers asking them to share five things they accomplished last week or face job loss while also talking about Republican senators demanding a meeting with the White House chief of staff to complain about cuts.The Department of Veterans Affairs has seen 1,400 jobs cut, which is a “tricky situation for Trump” as “we know he doesn’t think much of veterans but he loves affairs”.He said that Elon had been “just about as efficient as a Cybertruck in 2in of snow”.This week has seen the far-right Republican Lauren Boebert tweet that she didn’t realise how much “distain” she had for many of these departments. “Maybe let’s not get rid of that Department of Education just yet,” Kimmel said.The Federal Aviation Administration also cancelled its major contract with Verizon to instead sign with Starlink, a company owned by Elon Musk. “Nothing shady about that at all,” he said.Giving Musk government contracts is “like putting Pac-Man in charge of fruits”.The Trump administration also claimed it would release the full list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients and flight logs this week but instead just released “binders full of information everyone already had”, which led Kimmel to say: “Everything these people do is screwed up.”He remarked that the craziest thing is that Trump was “good friends” with Epstein, something his followers have chosen to ignore. More

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      Who’s the boss in Washington? An unelected, chaotic billionaire thinks he is | Moira Donegan

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      If you work for the federal government, it has become clear that Elon Musk thinks that he is your boss. The world’s richest man and patron of far-right causes worldwide has taken on his bizarre and extra-constitutional role in the Trump administration with an unexpected enthusiasm, enlisting a small squadron of college-aged boys to drastically cut spending across vast swaths of the sprawling US bureaucracy. His efforts have led to public health and safety crises in America, humanitarian emergencies abroad, economic devastation in families and communities that depend on federal employment, and the end of large amounts of American scientific and medical research. He has helped cut off funding for cancer research and Ebola prevention; he has ended services for disabled children, abused women and victims of consumer fraud.Musk has said that he aims to cut the federal budget by $2tn, though he has dramatically overstated the amount of spending cuts that he has achieved thus far – and does not seem to understand that some of these expenditures, such as the ones that prevent mass injury or disease, may in fact save the government money. Congress, for its part, is playing along. On Tuesday, House Republicans passed a budget resolution that dramatically cuts funding to Medicaid, the federal program that provides healthcare coverage to low-income Americans. But much of Musk’s slash-and-burn project to eliminate the functioning of the government comes from firing federal workers – which he seems to think he has the authority to do at will.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThis was the logic behind an email that Musk sent on Saturday to all federal employees – including those decidedly not working in executive agencies, such as federal judges. The email, subject line “What did you do last week?”, asked every federal employee to list five “bullet points” describing their recent working accomplishments. Musk later stipulated on X, his social media platform, that anyone who did not respond by midnight on Monday night would be fired. With one missive, Musk appointed himself the manager of every single one of the federal government’s estimated 2.3 million employees. Report to him, they were told, or lose your jobs.Chaos ensued. Some employees said that responding to such an email would put them in legal danger, since they work on sensitive or classified material. Others were weary of auditioning for positions they already held, and submitting their work for the appraisal of an unelected billionaire whose claim to authority over their jobs has no legal basis. Supervisors were swamped with calls from their employees, asking what they should do about the email; they, in turn, tried to get clarity from upper management.At some agencies, work was derailed as teams spent time trying to figure out what to do with Musk’s demand; at others, employees who had gone home for the weekend had to come back into work because they could not access their work emails for instructions from their home computers. People were calling their bosses, their union reps, their colleagues, confused and panicked, wondering what would happen to them if they lost their health insurance or couldn’t make their car payment.It did not help matters that different government departments responded to Musk’s ultimatum with different instructions for their employees. Some told workers to respond to the email; others told them not to. A hastily assembled group of officials from defense and intelligence agencies spent the weekend trying to figure out a coordinated response, with the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and the FBI head, Kash Patel, ultimately telling their staff to ignore it. Agencies including the Departments of State, Energy, Justice, and Defense also told their workers not to respond. But others, such as the Departments of Commerce, Education and Transportation, told their employees that they should comply. Things only got more confusing on Monday when the office of personnel management, the federal government’s HR body, through which Musk initially sent the mass email, tried to back off the billionaire’s demand, telling the management of various government entities that it would be up to each to determine how to direct its employees to respond. But then Donald Trump appeared to reiterate Musk’s initial demand, saying in the Oval Office of federal workers who did not respond to Musk’s email: “If you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired.”Who, exactly, is in charge here? The frightening speed with which the new Trump administration has pursued its sadistic agenda and frightening and unconstitutional expansion of executive powers can tend to obscure just how incompetent these people are. Two million federal workers now do not know whether their boss is the person above them on the org chart, or an erratic billionaire. Trying to figure it out required them to spend time in hectic and undignified scrambling, figuring out whether they would be obliged to grovel for their livelihoods or not. They spent time catering to the senseless and stupid demands of Musk’s ego, and because they had to spend their time that way, they could not spend it on their actual work.Not to mention that Musk, in his demand to control all federal employees and to rewrite the budgets and missions of federal agencies at a whim, seems to be pissing some people off. Members of the Trump cabinet have been leaking their displeasure with Musk over the past week, trying to assert control over their agencies and defend their turf. They, after all, have the Senate confirmations; they, after all, have the mandate of being selected by the president. It is yet to be seen whether any of that will hold a candle to what Musk has: the money.So far, the future is not looking bright for agency independence. Musk, who is not a cabinet member, appeared on Tuesday at a meeting of Trump’s cabinet and lectured the assembled agency heads just hours after the initial deadline had passed for their employees to report to him. Trump seemed to signal to the cabinet members that they should assume that an order from Musk was as good as an order from him. “Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” Trump asked, according to the New York Times. The response? “Nervous laughter rippled around the table.”

      Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More

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      Trump administration briefing: hundreds fired from US climate agency as Americans feel economy getting worse

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      The Trump administration has fired hundreds of workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), the US’s pre-eminent climate research agency housed within the Department of Commerce, the Guardian learned on Thursday.“This will cost American lives,” said Democratic congresswoman and ranking member of the House science, space and technology committee, Zoe Lofgren, in a written statement. Her comments were issued alongside congressman Gabe Amo’s, the ranking member of the subcommittee on environment, after news of the firings broke.“By firing essential staff who work tirelessly on behalf of the American people, President Trump and Elon Musk are playing politics with our national security and public safety,” Amo said. “Leaving Noaa understaffed will inevitably lead to additional chaos and confusion – I call on them to rehire these public servants immediately before preventable tragedy strikes.”Trump fires hundreds at US climate agency NoaaOn Thursday afternoon, the US commerce department sent emails to Noaa employees saying their jobs would be cut off at the end of the day. Other government agencies have also seen huge staffing cuts in recent days.The firings specifically affected probationary employees, a categorization that applies to new hires or those moved or promoted into new positions, and which makes up roughly 10% of the agency’s workforce.“The majority of probationary employees in my office have been with the agency for 10+ years and just got new positions,” said one worker who still had their job, and who spoke to the Guardian under the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “If we lose them, we’re losing not just the world-class work they do day to day but also decades of expertise and institutional knowledge.”Read the full storyTrump vows additional 10% tariff on China in trade war escalationDonald Trump has threatened China with an additional 10% tariff on its exports to the US, setting the stage for another significant escalation in his trade war with Beijing. The US president also claimed that he plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting next Tuesday, having delayed their imposition last month after talks with his counterparts.Read the full storyTrump says Putin would keep his word on a Ukraine peace dealDonald Trump has insisted that Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” on a peace deal for Ukraine, arguing that US workers extracting critical minerals in the country would act as a security backstop to deter Russia from invading again.During highly anticipated talks at the White House with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president said that Putin could be trusted not to breach any agreement, which could aim to return as much of the land as possible to Ukraine that was seized by Russia during the brutal three-year conflict.Read the full storyWhite House demands agencies identify hundreds of thousands of potential layoffsThe Trump administration is pushing for federal agencies to carry out a large-scale slashing of the federal workforce, demanding plans for hundreds of thousands of possible cuts within weeks. A White House memo gave officials until 13 March to submit a plan identifying “agency components and employees performing functions not mandated by statute or regulation who are not typically designated as essential” during government shutdowns.Read the full storyCanceled meeting on flu shots fuels anti-vax concernsThe Trump administration has cancelled a meeting of scientific experts called to discuss next winter’s flu shots in a move that has underscored fears of emerging anti-vaccine polices under the new health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.Read the full storyMexico releases 29 high-level organized crime operatives into US custodyMexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the US, as it faces intense pressure from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling fentanyl trafficking.The extraditions come as Mexico tries to convince the US to postpone 25% tariffs on all Mexican imports. Donald Trump has tied the tariffs to results on fentanyl trafficking and migration, without setting any specific targets.Read the full storyJudge temporarily blocks Trump’s mass firings at federal agenciesA federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ordering the US defense department and other agencies to carry out the mass firings of some employees.Read the full storyFunding cut for program fighting HIV/AidsThe Trump administration has terminated its funding of the joint United Nations program on HIV/Aids, known as UNAids, delivering another devastating blow to the global fight against the disease.Read the full storyEducator coalition sues to block Trump anti-diversity ordersA coalition of educators has filed a lawsuit to block the US Department of Education from enforcing new Donald Trump-imposed civil rights guidelines that target a range of practices related to diversity, equity and inclusion.Read the full storyMajority of Americans believe economy getting worseExclusive: The majority of Americans believe the economy is getting worse rather than better, even as Republican views on the nation’s finances have performed a dramatic backflip since Donald Trump’s re-election, according to a poll conducted for the Guardian.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The Trump administration has taken down the online application form for several popular student debt repayment plans, causing confusion among borrowers and likely creating complications for millions of Americans with outstanding loans.

      The Social Security Administration is expected to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, the Associated Press reported. The workforce reduction could be as high as 50%, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Those seeking payment plans are unable to access the applications for income-driven repayment plans (IDRs), which cap what borrowers must pay each month at a percent of their earnings, as well as the online application to consolidate their loans on the US Department of Education website.

      Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon and the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee warned that Trump’s tariffs threats are “driving the US economy straight into a wall”.

      Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee slammed the Trump administration over a decision to eliminate as much as 90% of USAid’s foreign aid contracts. “It is clear that the Trump Administration’s foreign assistance ‘review’ was not a serious effort or attempt at reform but rather a pretext to dismantle decades of US investment that makes America safer, stronger and more prosperous,” the Democrats said in a joint statement. More

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      Social Security Administration could layoff up to 50% of its workforce, source says – live

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      The Social Security Administration is expected to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, the Associated Press reported.The workforce reduction could be as high as 50%, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It’s unclear how the layoffs will directly impact benefits of the 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries, which include retirees and children who receive retirement and disability benefits.Advocates and Democratic lawmakers warn that layoffs will reduce the agency’s ability to serve recipients in a timely manner.King Charles invites Donald Trump for unprecedented second state visit to UKKing Charles has invited Donald Trump to make an unprecedented second state visit to the UK in a letter handed to the US president by Keir Starmer.Queen Elizabeth II hosted Trump on a state visit in 2019. Precedent for second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.Trump received the invitation during a meeting at the White House on Thursday, with Starmer presenting the letter from the king.In the letter, which Trump showed to the cameras in the Oval Office, Charles suggested he and Trump could meet beforehand at Dumfries House or Balmoral, which are near Trump’s golf courses in Scotland, to discuss the plans for the much grander visit.The letter, partially obscured by Trump’s hand, read: “I can only say that it would be … pleasure to extend that invitation once again, in the hope that you … some stage be visiting Turnberry and a detour to a relatively near neighbour might not cause you too much inconvenience. An alternative might perhaps be for you to visit Balmoral.“There is much on both estates which I think you might find interesting, and enjoy – particularly as my foundation at Dumfries House provides hospitality skills-training for young people who often end up as staff on your own establishments!”The letter continued: “Quite apart from this presenting an opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues of mutual interest, it would also offer a valuable chance to plan a historic second state visit to the United Kingdom.“As you will know this is unprecedented by a US President. That is why I would find it helpful for us to be able to discuss, together, a range of options for location and programme content.Read the full story:The Social Security Administration is expected to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, the Associated Press reported.The workforce reduction could be as high as 50%, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It’s unclear how the layoffs will directly impact benefits of the 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries, which include retirees and children who receive retirement and disability benefits.Advocates and Democratic lawmakers warn that layoffs will reduce the agency’s ability to serve recipients in a timely manner.A federal judge has ordered Trump administration officials involved in Elon Musk’s “opaque” department of government efficiency (Doge) to testify under oath in a lawsuit regarding the agency’s access to sensitive government databases.US District Judge John Bates ruled on Thursday that limited questioning of officials connected to Doge could help clarify the group’s activities and assess whether it poses the data security risks that government employees have raised concerns about.The judge’s order allows unions and liberal groups suing the agency to depose four officials: one from Doge’s White House headquarters and one each from the labor department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Doge’s aggressive push to streamline bureaucracy has triggered over a dozen lawsuits, and this order marks the first time that people involved in the project will be required to answer questions from lawyers outside the government.Here’s where the day stands so far:

      Donald Trump suggested Vladimir Putin can be trusted in the peace talks with Ukraine because “we had to go through the Russian hoax together”. “I’ve known him for a long time now, and I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word,” Trump said during his Oval Office meeting with Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister. For more updates from Trump’s press conference with Starmer, follow the UK politics live blog.

      Trump announced he would move forward with imposing 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada next week, after he initially delayed that policy by one month. In a post on Truth Social, Trump blamed Mexico and Canada for allowing illegal drugs to flow into the US, writing: “We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled.”

      The top Democrat on the Senate finance committee warned that Trump’s tariffs threats are “driving the US economy straight into a wall”. “Slapping tariffs on everything Americans buy from Canada, Mexico, and China will mean higher prices on groceries, gas and cars, with fewer jobs and lower pay when our closest trading partners respond to Trump’s trade war by buying fewer American products,” senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, said in a statement.

      Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee slammed the Trump administration over a decision to eliminate as much as 90% of USAid’s foreign aid contracts. “It is clear that the Trump Administration’s foreign assistance ‘review’ was not a serious effort or attempt at reform but rather a pretext to dismantle decades of US investment that makes America safer, stronger and more prosperous,” the Democrats said in a joint statement.
      The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.Senator Ruben Gallego, a freshman Democrat of Arizona, has introduced a resolution condemning the Trump administration’s rejection of a United Nations resolution denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.On Monday, the US joined Russia, Belarus and North Korea in voting against the EU-Ukrainian resolution, which was intrdouced to coincide with the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.“Let’s be clear on this: this is a war that Russia started. Ukraine did not ask for it. They did not ask to go to war with a nuclear superpower, and they did not ask for their cities to be reduced to rubble,” Gallego said in a speech today on the Senate floor.“They didn’t ask for their children to be displaced and families to be torn apart. If Ukraine had its way, this war would have ended years ago.”He warned that the US position on the UN resolution “puts us on the same side as Russia and North Korea,” adding, “That’s not just embarrassing, it is dangerous.”Donald Trump made some eyebrow-raising comments about Russia during his Oval Office meeting with Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, just a few moments ago.Trump suggested that Vladimir Putin could be trusted to follow through on the terms of any peace agreement signed with Ukraine, saying he expected the Russian leader to “keep his word”.“I’ve spoken to him. I’ve known him for a long time now,” Trump said.“You know we had to go through the Russian hoax together [the claim that Russia colluded with Trump to rig the 2016 election]. That was not a good thing …“I’ve known him for a long time now, and I don’t believe he’s going to violate his word.”For more updates and analysis from Trump’s press conference with Starmer, which is expected to get underway soon, follow the Guardian’s UK politics live blog:Kash Patel, the controversial new FBI director, has proposed teaming up with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a way to improve agents’ physical fitness, ABC News reported.Patel reportedly floated the potential collaboration on teleconference Wednesday with the heads of the FBI’s 55 field offices. Dana White, the CEO and founder of the mixed-martial arts entertainment company, is a prominent Trump supporter and major booster of his re-election campaign.Kash’s appointment has rattled the agency, amid widespread concern that he would use the historically independent bureau to pursue Trump’s political opponents – something he declined to rule out in his confirmation hearing.Asked about self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, flying to the US, reportedly after the US urged Romania to lift the travel ban that was preventing them from leaving the country, Trump said he “doesn’t know anything about it”.The pair, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, arrived in Florida from Romania on Thursday by private jet, after prosecutors suspended their travel ban and a court lifted a precautionary seizure on some of their assets. The brothers, are staunch Trump supporters.On Thursday, Ron DeSantis, the state’s Republican governor, said: “Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air.”The Tate brothers were arrested in Romania in 2022 and face trial on charges of rape, sex with a minor, people trafficking and money laundering.Attending the anti-war protest in solidarity with Barnard and Columbia students is Raymond Lotta, a spokesperson for Revolutionary Books in Harlem.“We are here specifically today because we are standing in solidarity with the students here at Barona and Columbia who are being punished severely for standing in support of the Palestinian people and calling out this university for being complicit in war crimes, and now two students have been expelled…they must be reinstated. This is a just and a righteous demand,” Lotta said.He added: “And we are here to stand in solidarity and also to help people to understand that we’re now fighting in a new situation with Trump MAGA fascism in power and their agenda is horrific. I mean, across the board, you know, terrorizing and rounding up immigrants, attempting to erase LGBTQ people. This is fascism and, you know, they are attempting to use the military to suppress protest in dissent, and the struggle here is a struggle that has inspired students across the country.”The protesters have issued a list of four demands to Barnard president Laura Rosenbury.The demands stated are: “Immediate reversal of the two Barnard students’ expulsions…Amnesty for all student students disciplined for pro-Palestine, action or thought…a public meeting with Dean Leslie Grinage, and president Laura Rosenbery and abolition of the corrupt Barnard disciplinary process and complete transparency for current past and future disciplinary proceedings.”“Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will rest,” the students chant.“Barnard College go to hell,” others yell before going into, “1, we are the students! 2, we won’t stop fighting! 3, we want divestment now now now!”NYPD have set up more barricades outside Barnard as a verbal altercation between the student protestors and counter protestors broke out with both sides yelling at each other.Elon Musk again criticized Verizon as the Federal Aviation Administration reportedly considers canceling a $2.4bn contract with the telecommunications company. On deck to supplant Verizon: The tech mogul’s own satellite internet company, Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX.In a post on his X social media platform, Musk said the “Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly”.Musk made the comment in a repost of a tweet linking to the Washington Post’s report that the FAA was “close to canceling” Verizon’s contract in favor of Starlink, setting up a major conflict-of-interest test for the administration as Musk leads its cost-cutting effort. Staff with Musk’s Doge have already infiltrated the aviation agency, according to multiple reports.“The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk,” Musk said on X. “The Starlink terminals are being sent at NO COST to the taxpayer on an emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity. The situation is extremely dire.”On X, Musk said a “total overhaul” of the air traffic control system was needed, an assessment many at the agency would agree with. Handing the contract to Starlink, however, would compound existing conflicts of interest involving SpaceX and the FAA.The Guardian’s Maya Yang is at New York’s Barnard University, where students wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with Palestine are gathered outside on the campus, chanting a series of anti-war slogans amid a heavy New York police department (NYPD) presence.“Free, free Palestine!” the students chant as well as some hold up handwritten signs that read: “No more Zionist occupation”‘and “Amnesty now.”Around 100 or so students appear gathered outside the gated campus of Barnard, where only students and faculty with ID cards are allowed in.Around eight student counter-protestors have gathered across from the Barnard and Columbia students protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza.One student, with a shirt that says “Fuck Hamas, I stand with Israel” started playing Israeli music with others waving an Israeli and an IDF flag. Another student wore a white hoodie with the words: “Columbia University students supporting Israel.”Since Hamas’s 7 October attacks which killed 1,200 Israelis and took over 200 survivors hostage, Israeli forces have waged a deadly war on Gaza, killing over 48,000 Palestinians while forcibly displacing nearly 2 million survivors amid severe shortages in food, fuel and medical supplies due to Israeli aid restrictions. More