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

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

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      Trump reportedly fires watchdog who oversees USAid after damning report

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      Donald Trump reportedly fired the federal watchdog responsible for overseeing the US Agency for International Development (USAid) on Tuesday, one day after the independent inspector general issued a damning report detailing the impact of the president’s sudden dismantling of the agency.Paul Martin, who was appointed by Joe Biden in December 2023, was dismissed in an email from Trent Morse, deputy director of the White House office of presidential personnel, seen by the Washington Post.Martin found that “widespread staffing reductions across the agency … coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAid’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance”.Reuters and the Associated Press also confirmed the news. A USAid official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Martin had been “removed from his position”. A US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity added that the White House have given no reason for the firing.The shuttering of USAid was one of the first steps taken by Elon Musk and the newly founded so-called “department of government efficiency”, a team within the White House created by Trump. USAid employs about 10,000 staff, with approximately two-thirds posted at the agency’s more than 60 missions overseas across multiple countries. Trump had called for nearly all of the agency’s employees to be put on administrative leave, and had placed 500 on leave last week, before a judge blocked the move Friday.Among the effects of the sudden halt in the agency’s work Martin documented are more than $489m of food assistance at ports, in transit and in warehouses being at risk of spoilage or loss. He also noted that the agency had lost almost all ability to track $8.2bn in unspent humanitarian aid – affecting its ability to ensure none of it falls into the hands of violent extremist groups or goes astray in conflict zones.The agency requires that programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria the West Bank and Gaza be vetted to ensure safe usage of US taxpayer funds. However, a lack of workers to vet the programs could lead to funding unintentionally being funneled into terrorist groups, according to the report.Martin’s firing comes two weeks after Donald Trump fired 18 inspectors general, violating a law that requires the administration to alert Congress 30 days before taking such an action.On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order requiring agencies to cooperate with the Musk-led team at “Doge” as it cuts federal staffing. Trump called USAid “incompetent and corrupt” as he tasked the Doge team with scaling down the agency.The order notes that agency heads “will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionUSAid is the world’s largest donor of aid, supporting maternal health in conflict zones, clean water access, HIV/Aids treatments and more around the world. While its budget accounted for 42% of the humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024, it takes up less than 1% of the US federal budget.Marina Dunbar and Robert Mackey contributed to this reportSend us a tip
      If you have information you’d like to share securely with the Guardian about the impact of cuts to federal programs, please use a non-work device to contact us via the Signal messaging app at (646) 886-8761. More

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      Danes offer to buy California to spite Trump’s Greenland aims: ‘We’ll bring hygge to Hollywood’

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      Since returning to the presidency last month, Donald Trump has called for Canada to become the 51st US state, suggested he might take over the Panama Canal, floated US ownership of Gaza – and tried to buy Greenland.Now, Denmark – which owns Greenland – is clapping back.More than 200,000 Danes have signed a satirical petition to buy California from the US.“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petition reads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”Across the top of the petition’s website, a slogan calls to “Måke Califørnia Great Ægain” and imaginary supporters like Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame offer their reasons for making California “New Denmark”.“We’ll bring hygge to Hollywood, bike lanes to Beverly Hills and organic smørrebrød to every street corner. Rule of law, universal healthcare and fact-based politics might apply,” the petition continues.“Let’s be honest – Trump isn’t exactly California’s biggest fan. He’s called it ‘the most ruined state in the union’ and has feuded with its leaders for years. We’re pretty sure he’d be willing to part with it for the right price.”Trump and California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, have been locked in tense relations since the president retook office – with Newsom recently directing $50m to fight the Trump administration and its deportation efforts and Trump threatening to condition federal disaster aid to the state in wake of the Los Angeles wildfires.The petition aims to crowdfund $1tn (“give or take a few billion”) and receive 500,000 signatures.Trump began floating the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019, saying the US needs to control the autonomous territory “for economic security”. The Arctic island is believed to be rich in oil and gas, and other raw materials essential to green technology – that are becoming available as massive ice sheets and glaciers melt as a result of the climate crisis. The same melting ice is also opening up new shipping routes.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSpeaking on Danish television in January, Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister, said Greenland was “not for sale”, adding: “Seen through the eyes of the Danish government, Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”Similarly, following a visit from Donald Trump Jr earlier this year, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, said: “We are Greenlanders. We don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danish either. Greenland’s future will be decided by Greenland.”Although the Danish petition to purchase California may be a joke, the US’s bid to purchase Greenland appears quite serious. Buddy Carter, a Republican representative of Georgia, announced that he had introduced a bill to authorize the purchase of Greenland and rename it “Red, White and Blueland”. More

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      Judge orders CDC and FDA to restore webpages removed after Trump order

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      A federal judge has ordered that the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restore several of the webpages that they took down following Donald Trump’s executive order attacking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).On Tuesday, the US district judge John Bates gave the health agencies until midnight to reinstate public medical information that had been scrubbed from the websites.The orders came after the group Doctors of America said the removal of webpages at the CDC was detrimental to patient care because doctors rely on such pages for information about treating different conditions. Bates ordered the webpages to be restored to their previous condition as of 30 January.The judge wrote: “It bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare.”Citing declarations from two doctors filed in the case, Bates said if “those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions”.“The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health,” he added.Donald Trump signed several controversial executive orders on his first day in office, including orders that stated that the US recognizes only two sexes, male and female. He directed all federal agencies to remove “all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology”.Following the orders, the CDC and FDA took down numerous webpages, including research, datasets and recommendations on how physicians should treat sexually transmitted infections, as well as immunization guidance for adults.Trump’s moves resulted in some webpages having their wording altered to fit the new admiration’s orders, but certain datasets, such as from the CDC’s youth risk behavior surveillance system (YRBSS), were removed entirely, according to reporting from CBS News.The CDC website currently shows a banner that says the website “is being modified to comply with President Trump’s executive orders”.Zachary Shelley, a lawyer for the advocacy group Public Citizen, which represented the group of 27,000 doctors and medical trainees, told USA Today that “there is immense harm to the public” and “there is increased risk of disease outbreak” if the webpages are not restored. More

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      US schoolteacher held in Russia since 2021 released, White House says

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      A US teacher who has been held in Russia since 2021 was released on Tuesday following an unannounced visit to Moscow by Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.The White House said in a statement that Marc Fogel, a Pennsylvania schoolteacher sentenced in Russia to 14 years on drug-trafficking charges, had left the country aboard Witkoff’s plane.“Today, President Donald J. Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are able to announce that Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia,” Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said in a statement.Fogel had worked as a teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow since 2012 and taught overseas in countries like Oman and Malaysia. He was arrested in 2021 at a Moscow airport after Russian officials found less than an ounce of marijuana in his luggage.In his statement, Waltz said that the US and Russia “negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”.He did not say what the US side of the bargain entailed. Previous negotiations have occasionally involved reciprocal releases of detainees and prisoners.Trump later said he hoped the release could mark the start of fresh ties with Moscow.“We were treated very nicely by Russia,” Trump told reporters. “Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”The deal was negotiated in secret, but rumors began circulating about Witkoff’s presence in Russia when his private jet was spotted landing in Moscow.The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier in the day that he had “no information” about the reported arrival of Witkoff’s plane.View image in fullscreenThe surprise release of Fogel highlights the ongoing backchannel negotiations between the US and Russia and signals Putin’s intent to cultivate ties with the Trump administration ahead of expected peace talks over the war in Ukraine.Putin has showered Trump with compliments since his inauguration, repeatedly praising him as “brave” for surviving an assassination attempt while also signaling his readiness to meet with the US leader.Trump has said that he has spoken with Putin but has been vague on the details other than to say he was making “progress” to secure a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Monday, Trump suggested that Ukraine “may be Russian some day”, as his vice-president JD Vance gears up to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy later this week at the Munich security council.Russia’s latest engagement with the US will set off alarm bells in Kyiv, where Zelenskyy must navigate the new reality of a US administration that has opened dialogue with Moscow while at times displaying open hostility toward Ukraine.Fogel and his family had hoped he would be included in the historic prisoner exchange in August that freed the Wall Street journalist Evan Gershkovich and the US marine Paul Whelan. At the time, Fogel was not yet designated as “wrongfully detained” by the US government, a label he only received late last year.In a statement, Fogel’s family said they were “beyond grateful, relieved and overwhelmed” that he was coming home. “This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal,” they said. “For the first time in years, our family can look forward to the future with hope.”Fogel is expected to arrive in the US later on Tuesday. More

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      Canada’s Liberal party was left for dead, but Trump might have just given it a second chance

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      Until just a few weeks ago, it was an exhilarating time to be a Conservative in CanadaAfter nearly 10 years of Liberal rule, a deepening cost of living crisis had soured public support for Justin Trudeau and his shop-worn government. The Tory leader, Pierre Poilievre, had seized on a controversial carbon levy, and pledged to make the next federal vote an “axe the tax” election. Pollsters predicted his party would seize a convincing majority of seats. The country was on the cusp of a new Conservative era.And then Donald Trump suggested the US might take over Canada.The US president’s threats – ranging from “economic coercion” to outright annexation – have upended Canadian politics in a way few could have predicted. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he travelled to the Super Bowl game, Trump further escalated his rhetoric, claiming that Canada is “not viable as a country” without US trade, and warning that it can no longer depend on the US for military protection.For the last two years, any consideration of the future of Canada’s Liberal party had focused on the scale of its impending electoral loss. But in recent weeks, a series of polls have suggested that the Liberals have reversed their freefall.And a key factor in the party’s apparent resurrection has been Trump.Since Trump’s comments, Canada has seen a groundswell of visceral patriotism. Maga-style hats emblazoned “Canada Is Not for Sale” went viral. Canadians jeered visiting American sports teams, even during a children’s ice hockey tournament in Quebec City.And amid a shift in the public mood, the Canadian prime minister has positioned his government as leading a “Team Canada” approach to the emerging threat from the south.“In this moment, we must pull together because we love this country,” Trudeau said in a recent speech in response to Trump’s threats. “We don’t pretend to be perfect, but Canada is the best country on earth. There’s nowhere else that I and our 41-million strong family would rather be, and we will get through this challenge just as we’ve done countless times before: together.”But for Poilievre, who had harnessed a populist current in the country and drawn comparisons with Trump, the avenues forward are less clear.The Conservative leader’s combative politics have served him well against Trudeau, but now appear to be faltering as nationalism supplants partisanship.One poll, from Ipsos, found the Conservatives had shed roughly 12 points of support within two weeks. Another survey in Quebec, from the firm Leger, found that if the Liberals put former central banker Mark Carney atop their ticket, the party vaulted far ahead of both the Conservatives and the separatist Bloc Québécois.A third, from the outfit Mainstreet, found the Liberals were tied – or even leading – among likely voters in the battle ground of Ontario.“This is very much a race that still favours the Conservatives. But if the Liberals gain even a couple more points, we’re in a place where they would suddenly become much more competitive, and the potential for minority government is possible,” said Éric Grenier, a political analyst at the Writ.One of the main drivers in shifting sentiment has been the resignation of Trudeau as Liberal leader, after the Conservatives had gleefully prepared to wage an entire federal election campaign against him.“Now the election isn’t going to be about Trudeau. And with both Liberal candidates saying they won’t move forward with the carbon tax, it also won’t be about that. It will most likely be about the next four years and who is best able to dealing with Trump,” said Grenier.Last week, another poll from the Globe and Mail and Nanos found that 40% of Canadians felt Carney – the former governor of the Bank of England – was best suited to face off against Trump. Only 26% of respondents felt that person was Poilievre.For a campaign to go from a very specific issue – a referendum on Trudeau’s last nine years as leader – to a completely different issue – Donald Trump – is “rare”, said Grenier.The Conservatives plan to present a new, patriotic election message in the coming days. Attenders have been instructed to wear red and white – the colours of Canada, but also the colours of the Liberal party.“Adopting a Canada-first approach to the election is needed, but it’s an awkward one for them, because they’ve been saying for the last couple years that the country is broken,” said Grenier. “And now they have to say: ‘Well, it is but we still really love it.’ And it also feels a bit forced because a segment of their voting base – and probably a segment of their caucus – prefers to have Donald Trump as a president.”For the Liberals, the reversal confirms their decision to force Trudeau out. But Grenier cautions against reading too much into the polling.“The danger for someone like Carney, who is polling surprisingly well in a place like Quebec, is that some of the numbers are quite high. Can he live up to that? Or is the idea of him more attractive to voters than the reality of him as an actual leader?”Still, in an election fought over national identity and the protection of sovereignty, Liberals have unexpectedly found themselves dealt a few lucky cards.None of the Liberal candidates vying for the party’s top job are cabinet ministers, depriving opposition parties the chance to accuse them of dereliction.“It may still be a ‘change’ election, but it looks like it is not going to be a carbon tax election. Rhyming couplets like ‘axe the tax’ feel a little stale and disconnected from contemporary political and economic challenges,” said Scott Reid, a political adviser and former director of communications to the former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin. “And if the next election is going to be about how we rewire our relationship to the United States in the face of Trump’s capriciousness, someone with the credentials of Mark Carney starts to look interesting to some voters, and it at least gives the Liberal party the possibility of resurrecting itself.”Still, the polls at this point are “more akin to a spark than a bonfire’’, Reid said, adding that if an election were held today, Poilievre’s Conservatives would probably win a majority of seats.But the largely unprecedented nature of Trump’s unpredictable incursions into the national discourse means that honing a careful message, for either party, is largely a useless task.“What will Donald Trump do in the coming months when there’s a new prime minister on the scene [after the Liberals select their new leader]? How might he blunder into the minefield of Canadian politics? We just don’t know,” said Reid. “But we almost do know that it will happen. Either he determines the ballot question or, on any given day, he has the capacity to dictate the ballot question of the next election. That’s just the reality of it.” More

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      Trump names loyalist Ric Grenell as interim Kennedy Center leader

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      Donald Trump has named longtime foreign policy adviser Ric Grenell as interim executive director of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, a move likely to raise concerns about the politicisation of the arts and potential for censorship.Grenell has been a vocal tribune of Trump’s “America First” ideology, and was not afraid to ruffle feathers during past spells as ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence (he was the first openly gay person to lead the intelligence community). More recently, the 58-year-old has served as the president’s envoy for special missions, and was involved in securing the release of Americans detained in Venezuela.Trump had announced on Friday that he was firing multiple individuals from the national cultural complex’s board of trustees, including chairman David Rubenstein, a billionaire philanthropist.Trump named himself chairman and said he would soon announce a new board for the Kennedy Center, which he condemned for having featured “drag shows specifically targeting our youth”.In a social media post on Monday, the president wrote: “Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center. NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA – ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!”The tirade contradicts Trump’s past statements. In 2020, defending $25m in funding for the Kennedy Center as part of economic relief during the Covid pandemic, he said: “The Kennedy Center, they do a beautiful job, an incredible job.”The Kennedy Center, which receives federal funding, is one of the nation’s leading arts venues and has long enjoyed bipartisan support.Its programming includes classical music concerts, dance performances such as Alvin Ailey and The Nutcracker, magic shows, numerous operas and shows specifically aimed at children. Its roster of musicals over the past two years has included Frozen, Funny Girl, Les Misérables, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, Moulin Rouge, Spamalot, Sunset Boulevard and Wicked.The board was in the process of selecting a new president to replace the outgoing Deborah Rutter, who announced last month her intention to step down after 11 years.Presidents appoint members of the center’s board of trustees. On Monday, a list of previous board members had been removed from the center’s website, according to a report by CNN.In response to Trump’s announcement last week, the Kennedy Center highlighted its long and “collaborative relationship with every presidential administration” and said it had not received any information from the White House regarding the change.Grenell delivered an address at last year’s Republican national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just days after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.Speaking to reporters during the convention, Grenell said: “I’m really struck this week that we could we be having a funeral for Donald Trump.“I believe that God intervened. I believe it was a total divine intervention and, for me, just personally, I believe that means that God isn’t finished with him. There’s more work to be done.”Since taking office last month, Trump has launched a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward dismantling the bureaucracy and installing loyalists.During his first term in office, Trump snubbed the annual Kennedy Center Honors, considered the top national award for achievement in the arts. Joe Biden went to the honors in each of the four years of his presidency.In December, at the last show attended by Biden, the center’s leaders made clear that Trump is welcome to come in the future.The Kennedy Center is considered a living memorial to former president John F Kennedy, and its exterior wall is inscribed with quotations from the 35th president. One says: “I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft.“I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.” More

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      Trump administration told to comply with court order lifting federal funding freeze; judge maintains hold on buyout plan – live

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      The Trump administration must lift its broad federal funding freeze, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered on Monday.“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order says.The order comes after Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and DC said the Trump administration violated another judge’s earlier ruling which temporarily blocked the freezing of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. These attorneys general said despite the ruling, some funds remain frozen.Trump’s proposed freeze has put groups including non-profit organizations, educational institutions and tribal nations in a panic over the uncertainty of their funding.The president has fired the director of the office of government ethics, according to the agency’s website. The office oversees ethics requirements and compliance for more than 140 agencies within the executive branch, including reviewing conflicts of interest and financial disclosures for federal employees.A one-sentence statement on the group’s website read that it “has been notified that the President is removing David Huitema” and that it would revert to its acting director, Shelley K Finlayson.Huitema had been confirmed in December for a five-year term.Today s farThanks for joining our coverage of US politics, and the second Trump administration, so far today. Here are the top headlines we’ve been following this afternoon:

      A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must lift its broad federal funding freeze, which had thrown non-profit organizations, educational institutions and tribal nations in a panic over the uncertainty of their funding. Over the weekend, however, JD Vance signaled that the White House was considering ignoring court orders it disagreed with, potentially in a case such as its attempts to restrain spending authorized by Congress.

      The Internal Revenue Service has been asked by the US Department of Homeland Security to help crack down on immigration.

      A federal judge has prolonged his hold on Donald Trump’s offer of deferred resignations for millions of federal workers. The temporary restraining order will remain in place until the judge decides if he should indefinitely pause the offer’s deadline pending further court proceedings over the legality of the buyout program.

      The Trump administration confirmed to The Associated Press that it had taken USAid off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades

      Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Monday that would relax enforcement of a foreign corruption law in a move the White House claims would allow American companies to be more competitive, the Associated Press reports.
      Donald Trump is expected to sign more executive orders this afternoon. Although press have not been invited, we’ll let you know as news emerges on their contents.A group of investors led by Musk has offered $97.4bn to buy the non-profit that operates OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, the Wall Street Journal reports.Musk and OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman are already engaged in a legal battle over the future of the non-profit, which they cofounded in 2015. Altman became chief executive of the company in 2019, after Musk left the company, and began working to transform OpenAI into a for-profit.Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Monday that would relax enforcement of a foreign corruption law. The White House claims the order will allow American companies to be more competitive, the Associated Press reports.The executive order will direct the attorney general Pam Bondi to pause enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – which prohibits American companies operating abroad from using bribery and other illegal methods – while she issues new guidance that “promotes American competitiveness and efficient use of federal law enforcement resources”, according to a White House fact sheet about the order obtained by the AP.Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s dismantling of USAid continues, despite a court order that temporarily paused his plans to lay off thousands of employees.The Associated Press reports that the aid agency has lost its lease at its Washington DC headquarters, while an unidentified official told employees who showed up today to “just go”. Here’s more:
      The Trump administration confirmed to The Associated Press that it had taken USAID off the lease of the building, which it had occupied for decades.
      USAID’s eviction from its headquarters marks the latest in the swift dismantling of the aid agency and its programs by President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk. Both have targeted agency spending that they call wasteful and accuse its work around the world of being out of line with Trump’s agenda.
      A steady stream of agency staffers — dressed in business clothes or USAID sweatshirts or T-shirts — were told by a front desk officer Monday that he had a list of no more than 10 names of people allowed to enter the building. Tarps covered USAID’s interior signs.
      A man who earlier identified himself as a USAID official took a harsher tone, telling staffers “just go” and “why are you here?”
      USAID staff were denied entry to their offices to retrieve belongings and were told the lease had been turned over to the General Services Administration, which manages federal government buildings.
      A GSA spokesperson confirmed that USAID had been removed from the lease and the building would be repurposed for other government uses.
      A federal judge has prolonged his hold on Donald Trump’s offer of deferred resignations for millions of federal workers, Reuters reports.The unheard-of offer that is billed as allowing federal workers to resign their jobs and continue getting paid until September was made by the Trump administration last month, and linked to Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”. Labor unions sued over the program, and succeeded in getting a deadline for workers to accept paused.Here’s more from Reuters on the latest ruling in the case:
      The decision by U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston prevents Trump’s administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to labor unions that have sued to stop it entirely.
      More than 2 million federal civilian employees had faced a midnight deadline to accept the proposal. It is unclear when O’Toole will rule on the unions’ request.
      The buyout effort is part of a far-reaching plan by Republican President Donald Trump and his allies to reduce the size and rein in the actions of the federal bureaucracy. Trump, who returned to the presidency on January 20, has accused the federal workforce of undercutting his agenda during his first term in office, from 2017-2021.
      Unions have urged their members not to accept the buyout offer – saying Trump’s administration cannot be trusted to honor it – but about 65,000 federal employees had signed up for the buyouts as of Friday, according to a White House official.
      Reuters has been unable to independently verify that number, which does not include a breakdown of workers from each agency.
      The offer promises to pay employees their regular salaries and benefits until October without requiring them to work, but that may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14 and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point.
      The White House has said employees could submit plans to leave through 11:59 p.m. ET Monday.
      In his three weeks in office, Donald Trump has signed executive orders that appear to fly in the face of the constitution and federal law.The New York Times reports that legal scholars believe the president has put the United States on the road to a constitutional crisis – or perhaps already created one:
      There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.
      It can also be obvious, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.
      “We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,” he said on Friday. “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.”
      His ticked off examples of what he called President Trump’s lawless conduct: revoking birthright citizenship, freezing federal spending, shutting down an agency, removing leaders of other agencies, firing government employees subject to civil service protections and threatening to deport people based on their political views.
      That is a partial list, Professor Chemerinsky said, and it grows by the day. “Systematic unconstitutional and illegal acts create a constitutional crisis,” he said.
      The distinctive feature of the current situation, several legal scholars said, is its chaotic flood of activity that collectively amounts to a radically new conception of presidential power. But the volume and speed of those actions may overwhelm and thus thwart sober and measured judicial consideration.
      It will take some time, though perhaps only weeks, for a challenge to one of Mr. Trump’s actions to reach the Supreme Court. So far he has not openly flouted lower court rulings temporarily halting some of his initiatives, and it remains to be seen whether he would defy a ruling against him by the justices.
      “It’s an open question whether the administration will be as contemptuous of courts as it has been of Congress and the Constitution,” said Kate Shaw, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “At least so far, it hasn’t been.”
      The Trump administration has been ordered to lift its freeze on federal funding – but will it?Over the weekend, JD Vance signaled that the White House was considering ignoring court orders it disagreed with, potentially in a case such as its attempts to restrain spending authorized by Congress. Vance wrote on X:
      If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.
      If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal.
      Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.
      It remains to be seen if the White House will follow through on Vance’s threat.The Internal Revenue Service has been asked by the US Department of Homeland Security to help crack down on immigration.A memo sent on Friday obtained by the New York Times revealed homeland security secretary Kristi Noem asked treasury secretary Scott Bessent to deputize IRS agents to help with nationwide immigration enforcement efforts, including by auditing employers believed to have hired unauthorized migrants and human trafficking investigations.The Trump administration must lift its broad federal funding freeze, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered on Monday.“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” the order says.The order comes after Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and DC said the Trump administration violated another judge’s earlier ruling which temporarily blocked the freezing of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. These attorneys general said despite the ruling, some funds remain frozen.Trump’s proposed freeze has put groups including non-profit organizations, educational institutions and tribal nations in a panic over the uncertainty of their funding.When organizers announced a “Nobody Elected Elon” protest at the treasury department’s headquarters in Washington – in response to the revelation that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) had accessed sensitive taxpayer data – not a single Democratic lawmaker had agreed to attend.But as public outrage mounted over Donald Trump’s brazen assault on the federal government, the speaking list grew. In the end, more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, spoke at the event, which drew hundreds of protesters outside on a frigid Tuesday last week. In speech after speech, they pledged to do everything in their power to block Trump from carrying out his rightwing agenda.“We might have a few less seats in Congress,” Maxwell Frost, a representative from Florida, thundered into the microphone. “But we’re not going to be the minority. We’re going to be the opposition.”Donald Trump’s assault on Washington DC’s institutions continues, with employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau being told today by a Project 2025 architect who now works in the White House not to come to the office, or otherwise do their jobs. The president has also said he’ll be announcing a round of new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports at some point, the prospect of which has raised fresh concerns of market havoc and unpredictable retaliatory measures. In Congress, House Democrats have put together a “rapid response task force” to counter the administration, while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would use spending negotiations as leverage against Trump’s policies. Meanwhile, five former Treasury secretaries warned that Elon Musk’s meddling in the department’s payment system could have regrettable consequences.Here’s what else has been going on today:

      Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, told Pentagon leaders not to take on recruits with gender dysphoria, and banned gender-affirming care for service members.

      A third federal judge struck down Trump’s attempt to ban birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

      Democratic attorneys general from 22 states sued over a Trump administration policy that could drastically curb funding for medical research. More