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      The Guardian view on Trump’s realignment: the geopolitical plates are moving. Brace for further shocks | Editorial

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      The rumblings prompted by Donald Trump’s re-election soon gathered force. First came tariffs and threats of territorial annexation; then the greater shocks of JD Vance’s Valentine’s Day massacre of European values and Mr Trump’s enthusiastic amplification of Kremlin lines on Ukraine.On Monday came another seismic moment. For more than a decade, the UN security council has been largely paralysed by the split between the five permanent members – Russia and China on one side; the US, France and Britain on the other. This time, when the US brought a resolution calling for an end to the war in Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, it did not criticise Moscow, demand its withdrawal or back Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The result was that China and Russia backed the resolution – while the UK and France, having failed to temper it, abstained.Earlier, even Beijing had chosen to abstain rather than reject a UN general assembly resolution condemning Moscow as the aggressor in Ukraine. It was passed overwhelmingly, with the backing of 93 states. Yet the US joined Russia in voting against it – along with Belarus, North Korea, Syria and a handful of others. “These are not our friends,” the Republican senator John Curtis wrote on X.The post-1945 order is beyond repair while Mr Trump occupies the White House. Emmanuel Macron’s charm and deftness papered over the problems somewhat when he became the first European leader to meet the US president since his re-election. (Sir Keir Starmer, not noted for his nimbleness or charisma, is likely to find the task somewhat harder this week.) The French president was adroit in flattering Mr Trump even as he told the truth. But it is not surprising that he failed to make any real progress in closing the gap. These are not cracks in the transatlantic relationship, but a chasm.A committed Atlanticist such as Friedrich Merz, on course to shortly become the German chancellor, is compelled to urge independence from the US because “the Americans, at any case the Americans in this administration, do not care much about the fate of Europe”. He warned that European leaders might not be able to talk about Nato in its current form by June. The problem is not only what Mr Trump may do but what he may not. Nato is built on the conviction that countries will stand by the commitments they make. That confidence cannot exist while Mr Trump is president.When Sir Keir told MPs on Tuesday that “Here we are, in a world where everything has changed”, he was commenting on Russian aggression, but everyone understood the real shift underlying his remarks. To note, as he did, that the US-British alliance has survived countless external challenges was not quite a vote of confidence. It tacitly acknowledged that the threat this time is internal.The ground is rocking beneath Europe’s feet. It must brace itself for further shocks. In place of the post-second world war order, Mr Trump envisages a world where alliances are no more than empty words and great powers bluff and bully their way through. Bilateral meetings have their purpose – they may offer minimal respite and buy a little time – but it will require common will to defend the interests of European states. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, suggested that European leaders would be meeting in London at the weekend to discuss security. Their best hope of standing firm is by standing together.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. More

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      Is a Trump backlash on its way? Well, eggs are as expensive as ever – and you can’t eat the culture wars | Arwa Mahdawi

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      Each new morn, new widows howl, new orphans cry and Donald Trump passes a wild executive order. To liberally paraphrase Macbeth, every day seems to bring some new reason to scream into the void. The good news, however, is that even diehard Trumpers seem to be getting sick of all the chaos. A month into Trump’s second act, there are signs that the honeymoon is over and a backlash may be brewing. For certain Republican voters, regret may be setting in.First, the polling. A Harvard CAPS/Harris survey published on Monday gave Trump a 52% approval rating. Meanwhile, three national polls show a decline in support for the president, with most Americans saying he hasn’t done enough to lower prices and has overstepped his presidential powers. A CNN poll published on Thursday found that 47% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance while 52% disapprove – and the numbers are trending downwards.There are also signs of growing disillusionment at town halls across the country. Various outlets have reported recently that Republicans holding community events are facing hostile crowds, angry about the mass firing of government workers that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is carrying out. Disgruntled voters are also venting online: social media is full of viral posts from Trumpers who have been caught in Musk’s bloodbath or whose family members have been fired. These posts haven’t garnered much sympathy, I should add. Rather, there have been a lot of references to the Leopards Eating People’s Faces party meme.Is Trump in trouble? Judging by the number of headlines centred on the president’s problems – along with the plummeting popularity rates of his mate Musk – a lot of people sure hope so. Some Democrats are already rubbing their hands together in glee and prophesying that the Trump ship is about to go down. On Sunday, for example, the Democratic strategist James Carville, who helped Bill Clinton win in 1992, told Mediaite that he reckons the Trump White House will suffer a “massive collapse” in “less than 30 days”.While this is certainly a tantalising prospect – and one that has had a lot of airtime on liberal cable news – I wouldn’t get too excited. These days, being a “Democratic strategist” tends to mean that everything you say will immediately be proved dramatically wrong. In fact, it’s probably best not to get too excited by any of the chatter around the Trump slump. As we all know, the 78-year-old president is the ultimate comeback kid. A few middling poll numbers and angry town halls are nothing for a guy who has shrugged off being found liable for sexual abuse and who was charged with 88 felony counts across four criminal cases.Trump is certainly taking all this bad press in his stride – by which I mean he has been busy posting on social media that he is the best president the world has ever seen and everyone loves him. On Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he has “the best polling numbers I’ve ever had”. He added: “The Democrats, run by broken down losers like James Carville, whose [sic] weak of mind and body, are going crazy, and just don’t know what to do. They have lost their confidence and spirit – They have lost their minds!”Trump isn’t entirely wrong. Along with many other people, I am losing my mind – at the constant stream of inanity, cruelty and straight-up illegal nonsense coming out of Washington. One of the latest examples is Trump referring to himself as a “king” and boasting that he might stay in the Oval Office after his second term ends in 2028. There is a reason so many people are hyping up reports that Trump is losing popularity: I think it’s what the extremely online call “copium” and what others call “desperately clutching at straws”.Still, here is a straw for us all to clutch: while Trump may have an uncanny ability to bounce back from scandals and bad press, he is not a king and he is certainly not a god. He is still a mere mortal – and he is digging himself into a hole out of which even he may not be able to clamber. Consumer sentiment has slumped while prices continue to rise. Trump campaigned relentlessly on the cost of living and made a big (and unrealistic) promise to bring down food prices on day one of his term. Now, it’s clear he has no realistic plan to lower the cost of groceries; eventually, even his most devoted followers are going to figure out that you can’t eat the culture wars. To riff on Macbeth again: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the astronomical price of eggs. More

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      Ukrainians in New York commemorate anniversary of Russia’s invasion: ‘three years of our resistance’

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      New York City officials, foreign dignitaries and members of the city’s Ukrainian community gathered in New York on Monday to raise the Ukrainian flag above lower Manhattan, marking three years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.The anniversary this year follows escalating tensions between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Last week, the US president falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war and labeled Zelenskyy as “a dictator”, while the Ukrainian president expressed frustration over being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war and accused Trump of living in a Kremlin “disinformation bubble”.Several dozen people, holding Ukrainian flags and dressed in blue and yellow, stood in the crowd at Bowling Green park on Monday morning, and observed a moment of silence in between remarks delivered by representatives and organizers to commemorate the anniversary.“Today we mark three years of Russian barbaric invasion of Ukraine and unprecedented of a large-scale war that [Vladimir] Putin unleashed on the European continent,” Serhiy Ivanchov, the consulate general of Ukraine in New York, told the crowd. “Three years of our resistance”.“Unfortunately, the Russian unprovoked war continues and Ukraine still needs international support more than ever,” Ivanchov said. “Ukraine needs a reliable and clear system of security guarantees.”View image in fullscreenNew York City is home to the largest Ukrainian community in the United States, with around 150,000 Ukrainian New Yorkers.The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, who attended the Ukrainian flag raising last year, did not attend Monday’s ceremony, but sent two representatives from the mayor’s office of immigrants affairs in his place.Dilip Chauhan, the deputy commissioner for the mayor’s office for international affairs, read out a statement sent from Adams in which he said that Ukrainians “throughout the five boroughs have long enhanced life in our diverse city and they will continue to play a key role as we take bold steps to grow our economy and afford a safer, fairer and more prosperous future”.The mayor proclaimed Monday, 24 February 2025, as Ukrainian Heritage Day, and said in his statement he was “honored and deeply moved on this anniversary to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian New Yorkers as we raise their flag and say in a single unified voice, united against aggression and ‘Slava Ukraine’ (glory to Ukraine)”.View image in fullscreenAt the gathering two wounded Ukrainian soldiers were present. As the national anthem of Ukraine was performed and the Ukrainian flag was raised alongside the US flag, many attendees wiped away their tears.“We have gathered to remember a very solemn day that many of us will never be able to wrench from our hearts, hearts that many of us will never be able to put together,” Andrij Dobriansky, director of communications and media for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America said.Among those in the crowd was Dasha Wilson, who had a Ukrainian flag wrapped around her shoulders.“I’m very proud of my country that we have withstood for three years,” said Wilson, who moved to New York 10 years ago. “I’m very appreciative for Americans for helping Ukraine.”Given the recent rising tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy, Wilson said that she hopes that the US and Ukraine will “remain good partners” and continue to “work together”.Last week’s geopolitical events shocked many Ukrainians at home and abroad as well as US lawmakers and allies.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThis week, members of New York’s Ukrainian community told the Guardian that they were feeling a mix of disillusionment, betrayal, defiance and acute uncertainty about what the future holds for Ukraine amid the unprecedented rise in tension between the US and Ukrainian leaders.On Monday, the New York state assemblyman Michael Novakhov – a Republican who represents Brighton Beach, home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of immigrants from the former Soviet Union – spoke directly to Trump.“Mr President, I voted three times for you. I am a Republican, but Mr President, Putin is the dictator, not Zelenskyy. Russia started the war, not Ukraine,” he told the crowd.Another speaker, Oleksandr Taran – president of Svitanok NYC, a New York-based organization that advocates for Ukraine’s sovereignty and combats disinformation – recalled his memories of the day that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.View image in fullscreen“The evening of February 23 I was going about my usual chores when I glanced at the television,” said Taran, who moved to New York eight years ago. “Suddenly, the breaking news banner appeared, explosions in Kyiv, my hometown, my heart stopped. Ukraine was under attack.”“And so it began,” he continued, “the war that upended millions of lives in a matter of hours, Friday morning, and the war that we as Ukrainian Americans have been fighting in our own way ever since”.He added: “The world soon learned, this war would not be over in days or weeks, and it would demand relentless courage from the Ukrainians and support from our allies worldwide.“If this tragedy has shown us anything, it is the immeasurable strength and unity of our people in crisis; our identity becomes an anchor.”Julius Constantine Motal contributed reporting More

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      There is a clear Trump doctrine. Those who can’t see it won’t have a say in reshaping the world | Nesrine Malik

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      A resonant phrase during Donald Trump’s first administration was the advice to take him “seriously, but not literally”. It was a singularly detrimental expression, widely quoted by politicians and the media. Its adoption fit with the position many felt most comfortable taking: Trump was bad, but he wasn’t smart. He wasn’t intentional. He wasn’t calculated and deliberate. He sounded off, but rarely followed up with action. He was in essence a misfiring weapon that could do serious damage, but mostly by accident.The residue of that approach still persists, even in analysis that describes Trump’s first executive orders as a campaign of “shock and awe”, as if it were just a matter of signalling rather than executing. Or that his plan for Gaza is to be taken – you guessed it – seriously, not literally. When that was suggested to Democratic senator Andy Kim, he lost it. “I understand people are bending over backwards to try to mitigate some of the fallout from these statements that are made,” he told Politico. But Trump is “the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world … if I can’t take the words of the president of the United States to actually mean something, rather than needing some type of oracle to be able to explain, I just don’t know what to think about when it comes to our national security.”Part of the problem is that people are reluctant to imbue Trump with any sort of coherence. But a Trump doctrine is emerging, most sharply in foreign policy. It has clear features, contours and a sort of unified theory of conflict. First, it is transactional, particularly when it comes to warfare in which the US is playing a role. Nothing has a history or any objective sense of right and wrong. Time starts with Trump, and his role is to end things, ideally while securing some bonus for the US.That upside is the second feature of the Trump doctrine: financialisation, or the reduction of politics to how much things cost, what is the return and how it can be maximised. Trump sees conflicts and financial assistance that have not produced anything tangible for the US. From the Gaza war, some sort of real estate deal can be salvaged. In Ukraine, a proposal for almost four times the value of US assistance so far in minerals is like the stripping of a distressed company by a new investment manager trying to recoup the funds disbursed by predecessors.The third feature is the junking of any notions of “soft power” – something that is seen as expensive, with questionable benefits that are abstract and unquantifiable. Soft power might even be a myth altogether, a fiction that flattered previously gullible regimes, giving them some sense of control while others fed off the US’s resources. In Gaza or Ukraine, the US was going through the motions of action without a definitive breakthrough. Where others saw soft power, Trump sees quagmires.The features of this approach may change, and they might be shortsighted and deleterious to the US’s security. And they may not entirely come from Trump himself, but rather the intersection of different political strands of the configuration of interests that support and advise him. Channelled through Trump, the doctrine takes on the hallmarks of his character – rambling, narcissistic, ignorant. However, none of this should be confused with a lack of underlying consistency and resolve to follow through.This leaves other leaders, particularly in Europe, in a place where their historical arrangements and understandings when it comes to US compact have been wiped out. European countries are now simply junior nations who can either dispense with their cancelled notions of the importance of rebuffing Vladimir Putin, join Trump in bringing an end to the war on his terms, or pick up the pieces themselves when the US withdraws its support.The ensuing anger and language of “appeasement” and “capitulation” feels like a misreading of what is happening, an echo of a time when it was universally agreed upon that aggressive enemies are to be stood up to, and anything else is a moral defeat and sign of weakness. But Trump is functioning in a different value system, one where these notions don’t even apply or have different definitions.As Europeans seethe, Trump’s plan for Ukraine is being worked out not only away from Europe in Washington, but in the Middle East, at new centres of middleman power that have always been transactional. They themselves are in the throes of redefining their relationship with the US, and have no illusions about the world that is emerging. Sergei Lavrov met with Marco Rubio in Riyadh and Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to the region preparing for Gulf-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi. Those whose relationships with the US have been hard-edged, about mutual self-interest rather than shared values, and have always had to manage the US to greater or lesser extents, seem best positioned now to not freeze in moral horror.For the rest, for the country’s more intimate friends and family, those who shared America’s values and security liabilities, the regime change is a bitter pill to swallow. It is likely that there can be no persuasion, negotiation or hope of a “transatlantic bridge”, as Keir Starmer has been described, a figure that can act as an intermediary between the US and Europe and head off rupture. Perhaps Starmer can appeal to Trump’s ego? Or “tread a diplomatic line”, or convince him that giving in to Putin makes him look weak? All that assumes some measure of impulsiveness on Trump’s part that can be reined in (and by a prime minister not exactly known for his pyrotechnic charm), and also that Trump even shares similar notions of “judgment of history” or the same understanding of “weakness”. There is no small, but still shared, middle ground.There are now two options for the US’s former close friends and security partners: shed everything, dispense with notions of European solidarity, fast-forward the end of the postwar order, and make peace with defence vulnerability and political subordination. Or embark on a colossal power-mapping exercise. This entails rapid, closely coordinated action on a political, bureaucratic and military level to either replace the US, or at least demonstrate that they constitute a bloc that has some power, agency and agility – and challenge Trump in the only language he understands.It is tempting to think that Trump doesn’t mean it, or needs to be managed and cajoled because all that underlies his actions is recklessness. Or that there is a way to reconcile what are now in essence two incompatible conceptions of the global order. Who wants to wake up every day and reckon with the end of the world as they know it? But it is so. And the sooner political leaders come to terms with the fact that roads back to the old way are closed, the more likely it is that this new world will not be fashioned entirely on Trump’s terms.

      Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist More

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      Trump names conservative podcaster Dan Bongino as FBI deputy director

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      Dan Bongino, a former US Secret Service agent who has written bestselling books, run unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as the FBI’s deputy director.President Donald Trump announced the appointment on Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our country”. He called the announcement “great news for law enforcement and American justice”.The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s principal federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats are concerned that the president could seek to target his adversaries. Bongino would serve under Kash Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director at the White House on Friday and who has signalled his intent to reshape the bureau, including by relocating hundreds of employees from its Washington headquarters and placing greater emphasis on the FBI’s traditional crime-fighting duties.Patel has declined to explicitly say whether he would use his position to pursue Trump’s political opponents.The deputy director serves as the FBI’s second-in-command and is traditionally a career agent responsible for the bureau’s day-to-day law enforcement operations.Bongino, 49, served on the presidential details for then-presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush, before becoming a popular rightwing figure. He became one of the leading personalities in the Maga political movement to spread false information about the 2020 election.For a few years following Rush Limbaugh’s death in 2021, he was chosen for a radio show on the same time slot of the famous commentator.Bongino worked for the New York police department from 1997 through 1999, before joining the Secret Service. He began doing commentary on Fox News more than a decade ago, and had a Saturday night show with the network from 2021 to 2023. He is now a host of the Dan Bongino Show, one of the most popular podcasts, according to Spotify.Bongino ran for a US Senate seat in Maryland in 2012 and for congressional seats in 2014 and 2016 in Maryland and Florida, after moving in 2015. He lost all three races.During an interview last year, Bongino asked Trump to commit to forming a commission to reform the Secret Service, calling it a “failed” agency and criticizing it for the two assassination attempts last year.“That guy should have been nowhere near you,” Bongino said about the man who authorities say camped outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, before he was spotted with a rifle. More

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      Trump administration briefing: Zelenskyy rejects US minerals demand; bomb threat sent to anti-Trump conference

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      As Ukraine prepared to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would be willing to step down if it meant peace or membership of Nato, something the US and some other Nato member states oppose. Zelenskyy insisted he wanted good, “friendly” relations with America – a “strategic partner” – and shrugged off Trump’s bruising description of him as a “dictator” for not holding elections during wartime.But he also said that he would not sign a $500bn minerals deal proposed by the US. He said the figure was far higher than the US’s actual military contribution of $100bn.“I’m not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians are going to pay later,” he said.Here is what else happened on Sunday:Zelenskyy says he would ‘quit for peace’ as he refuses US demand for Ukraine mineralsVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is not willing to cave in to intense US pressure to sign a $500bn minerals deal and that he wants Donald Trump to be “on our side” in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv ahead of the third anniversary on Monday of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy said he did not recognise the sum demanded by the White House as apparent “payback” for previous US military assistance.Read the full storyTrump ‘surrendering to the Russians’ on Ukraine, top Democrat saysA senior Democratic lawmaker accused Donald Trump of “surrendering to the Russians” on Sunday, as Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff said talks between the US and Russia over Ukraine was “the only way to end the carnage”.Read the full storyBomb threat sent to anti-Trump conference singles out officer who tangled with ex-Proud Boys leaderPeople attending a center-right political conference in Washington DC were forced to evacuate on Sunday, after someone claiming to be Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, allegedly emailed a bomb threat against the event. Tarrio, who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the 6 January insurrection, denied any involvement in the incident.Read the full storyKash Patel tells FBI staff to ignore Elon Musk request to list their achievementsThe new FBI director, Kash Patel, has told his agency employees to hold off on responding to an email from the Donald Trump administration asking them to list their accomplishments in the last week as tech billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the federal government’s size.Read the full storyTrump administration eliminating 2,000 USAid positions in US, notice saysThe Trump administration on Sunday said it was placing all but a handful of USAid personnel around the world on paid administrative leave and eliminating about 2,000 of those positions in the US, according to a notice sent to agency workers and posted online.Read the full storyTrump halts medical research funding in apparent violation of judge’s orderThe Trump administration has blocked a crucial step in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) process for funding medical research, likely in violation of a federal judge’s temporary restraining order on federal funding freezes.Read the full storyOpposition to Trump, slow to energize, shakes off its slumberProgressive activists and concerned constituents spent the first week-long recess of the new Trump administration pressuring congressional Republicans to stand up to the president, Musk and their potentially unlawful power grabs.At congressional offices, Tesla dealerships and town halls across the country, including in solidly conservative corners of Georgia, Wisconsin and Oregon, voters registered their alarm over Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid, the widening influence of Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” and the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle or entirely eliminate federal agencies that Americans rely on for essential services.Read the full storyPolitical theatre confirms Elon Musk’s Maga hero status at jubilant CPACWhat do you give the man who has everything? A ballroom full of cheering conservative activists found out this week when Elon Musk was presented with a chainsaw by Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, who has used the power tool as a symbol of his push to impose fiscal discipline.Wearing sunglasses, a black Maga baseball cap and a gold necklace, Musk giddily wielded the chainsaw up and down the stage. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy!” he declared. Members of the audience shouted: “We love you!” Musk replied: “I love you guys, too!” And he quipped: “I am become meme.”It was a wild political theatre that confirmed Musk’s status as a new hero of the Maga movement.Read the full storyCan Keir Starmer persuade Trump not to give in to Putin?When Keir Starmer is advised on how to handle his crucial meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, he will be told by advisers from Downing Street and the Foreign Office to be very clear on his main points and, above all, to be brief.Starmer will also be advised to flatter Trump when he can, to say that everyone is so grateful that he has focused the world’s attention on the need for peace between Russia and Ukraine. But to flatter subtly. And not to lay it on too thick.Read the full storyTrump compared to mobster Tony Soprano by former envoy to PanamaThe former US ambassador to Panama has launched a stinging critique of Donald Trump’s approach towards Latin America, comparing his conduct to that of the ruthless and egotistical fictional mob boss Tony Soprano.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Trump said in a post on social media Sunday that Dan Bongino, a conservative talk show host, will be deputy director of the FBI. Bongino will join Kash Patel, who was recently confirmed by the Senate as director of the FBI. Trump said Bongino was named to the role by Patel. The position does not require Senate confirmation.

      A contentious Trump administration proposal to give the US $500bn worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv has been taken off the table, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.

      Republican US senator Markwayne Mullin poured cold water on extremist conservative fantasies that Trump could find a way to run for an unconstitutional third presidential term, saying he would not support that barring an amendment to the US constitution that would legalize it.

      New York Governor Kathy Hochul says she told Trump in a private meeting at the White House that congestion pricing tolls in New York City are necessary and working, yet the Democrat predicted the courts will probably decide the matter.

      Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared to resume fighting against Hamas after the Palestinian group accused it of endangering a five-week-old Gaza truce by suspending prisoner releases. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said he was headed to the Middle East this week to “get an extension of phase 1” of the truce. More

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      Kash Patel tells FBI staff to ignore Elon Musk request to list their achievements

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      The new FBI director, Kash Patel, has told his agency employees to hold off on responding to an email from the Donald Trump administration asking them to list their accomplishments in the last week as tech billionaire Elon Musk expands his crusade to slash the federal government’s size.Hundreds of thousands of federal workers had been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they achieved to the office of personnel management (OPM), sparking confusion across key agencies that included the US’s top law enforcement agency.But the FBI director – confirmed by the Senate on Thursday – undercut the request. According to ABC News, the agency was seeking additional guidance from the US justice department on next steps.“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel’s message read. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”Patel’s missive came amid reports on Sunday indicated that he was expected to be named acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a domestic law enforcement agency that – like the FBI – sits within the Department of Justice.Separately, the US attorney John Durham, the top federal prosecutor in the eastern district of New York, also sent a message to his staff to hold off, according to the outlet.“Of course, a majority of our work is law enforcement sensitive (in addition to much classified work), so even assuming this is legitimate, we will need to be careful in how we respond to this inquiry. As noted, the deadline isn’t until 11.59pm on Monday, so we have plenty of time,” Durham wrote in his letter.And the Department of Defense reportedly told employees to pause responding to the OPM message.“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” the force’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness said in a message, CNN’s Natasha Bertrand reported on Sunday. “When and if required, the department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM.”Trump’s national health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, however, evidently did not follow the leads of Patel, Durham and the defense department. He required that his staff comply with the OPM directive, according to a copy of an email reported on by Sam Stein of the Bulwark.“This is a legitimate email,” Kennedy’s agency said in an email to staffers. “Please read and respond per the instructions.”Musk, who has been tasked to ostensibly cut government costs during Donald Trump’s second presidency, telegraphed the extraordinary request on his social media network on Saturday.“Consistent with [Trump’s] instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”Shortly afterwards, federal employees – including some judges, court staff and federal prison officials – received a three-line email with this instruction: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”The deadline to reply was listed as Monday at 11.59pm, although the email did not include Musk’s social media threat about those who fail to respond.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe latest unusual directive from Musk’s team has injected a fresh sense of chaos across beleaguered agencies, including the National Weather Service, the state department and the federal court system, as senior officials worked to verify the message’s authenticity on Saturday night and in some cases, instructed their employees not to respond.The president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 workers in the federal government, issued a statement saying: “Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” said Everett Kelley, the AFGE president.Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce – either by being fired or offered a buyout – during the first month of Trump’s administration. In fire both new and career workers, the White House and Musk’s so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) have been telling agency leaders to plan for “large-scale reductions in force” and freeze trillions of dollars in federal grant funds.There is no official figure available for the total number of firings or layoffs so far, but the Associated Press has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside Washington. The cuts include thousands at the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service and the National Parks Service, among others.Musk on Friday celebrated his new role at a gathering of conservatives by waving a giant chainsaw in the air. He called it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy” and said “waste is pretty much everywhere” in the federal government. More

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      Trump ‘surrendering to the Russians’ on Ukraine, top Democrat says

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      A senior Democratic lawmaker accused Donald Trump of “surrendering to the Russians” on Sunday, as Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff said talks between the US and Russia over Ukraine was “the only way to end the carnage”.In an interview on ABC News’ This Week, Democratic senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, hit out at Trump’s recent verbal attacks on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and increased alignment with Russia.“Essentially, this is President Trump surrendering to the Russians,” Reed said. “This is not a statesman or a diplomat. This is just someone who admires Putin, does not believe in the struggle of the Ukrainians and is committed to cozying up to an autocrat.”But senior administration officials sought to side-step accusations that Trump’s re-positioning of US policies on Ukraine, including a possible deal for Ukraine to repay US military and financial support with rare-earth materials, amounted to a capitulation to the Russian position on the war.Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the mideast who revealed this week that he had “spent a lot of time with President Putin”, during a recent trip to Moscow, “talking, developing a friendship, a relationship with him”, declined to blame Russia for starting war in Ukraine, calling Ukraine’s ambitions to join Nato “a threat to the Russians”.“The war didn’t need to happen – it was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians,” Witkoff said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.“There were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining Nato”, he said. “That didn’t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians and so we have to deal with that fact.”Witkoff’s remarks come days after he, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, held talks in Saudi Arabia with Russian officials over re-establishing diplomatic relations and a Russia-Ukraine peace deal.Ukrainian officials said they were not invited to the meeting, and later said they would not accept a peace deal imposed on them. But Ukraine’s position later appeared to shift after Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections” who “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”.On Sunday, Zelenskyy said he wanted Trump to be a close partner to Ukraine, not just a mediator between two superpowers, the US and Russia, and would be willing to step down, if it would secure lasting peace for his country.“If, to achieve peace, you really need me to give up my post, I’m ready. I can exchange it for Nato [membership]”, he said. “I don’t plan to stay in power for decades” he added. “But we won’t let Putin stay in power over Ukrainian territories either.”That came as President Putin appointed the chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, as a special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation with western nations “including the United States of America”. Dmitriev, considered the most US-savvy member of Russia’s elite, was part of the Russian delegation that met with US counterparts in Riyadh.Nato membership for Ukraine has all-but been ruled out by the US negotiators. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, confirmed to Fox News Sunday that no US troops would be part of any future peace-keeping force in Ukraine and dodged the question over responsibility for starting the bloody three-year conflict.“Does all the finger-pointing and pearl clutching make peace more likely? That’s the enduring question the president is asking. He wants peace, and if that’s the case, you’ve got to stare down the Russians, and Vladimir Putin, and who they’ve chosen to negotiate and have earnest conversations about difficult things,” Hegseth told his former colleague Shannon Bream.“Standing here and saying, ‘You’re good, you’re bad; you’re a dictator, you’re not a dictator; you invaded, you didn’t’, it’s not useful, it’s not productive. So President Trump isn’t getting drawn into that in unnecessary ways and as a result, we’re closer to peace than ever before,” Hegseth added.The White House continued its pushback against claims that it has pivoted to Russia’s position on the war. “President Trump’s peace through strength America First diplomacy effectively deterred Russia in his first term, and this war would have never started if he had never left office,” said the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in an email to the Wall Street Journal.Leavitt said Trump was “actively pressing both sides to end this brutal conflict once and for all”. More