Here's the latest:
Advocacy group asks for investigation into whether federal layoffs violated personnel rules
An advocacy group has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, asking for an investigation into whether the mass firings violated federal personnel practices.
Democracy Forward’s complaint also asked that the firings be halted while that inquiry is being conducted.
The complaint charges that the Trump administration violated federal personnel rules by dismissing employees solely because they were in their probationary periods — not because of work performance.
How many dismissed employees are represented in the complaint has not been made public. But, like a class-action lawsuit, that number could grow over time.
Ex-wideout Antonio Brown invited to White House Black History Month reception
The White House is planning to hold a reception honoring Black History Month next week and has invited former wide receiver Antonio Brown.
The onetime Pittsburgh Steelers star posted an invitation to the Feb. 20 event on social media.
The White House press office confirmed Brown’s invitation but offered no further details about the event.
Brown played in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2018 before he was traded to the Raiders — a team then-based in Oakland — in the spring of 2019. That followed a series of public missteps, including famously opting not to show up for the team’s 2018 season finale.
AP reporter and photographer barred from Air Force One over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ terminology dispute
The White House barred a credentialed Associated Press reporter and photographer from boarding the presidential airplane Friday for a weekend trip with Trump, saying the news agency’s stance on how to refer to the Gulf of Mexico was to blame for the exclusion. It represented a significant escalation by the White House in a four-day dispute with the AP over access to the presidency.
The administration has blocked the AP from covering a handful of events at the White House this week. It’s all because the news outlet has not followed Trump’s lead in renaming the body of water, which lies partially outside U.S. territory, to the “Gulf of America.”
Journalists consider the administration’s move a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment — a governmental attempt to dictate what a news company publishes under threat of retribution. The Trump administration says the AP has no special right of access to events where space is limited, particularly given the news service’s “commitment to misinformation.”
AP calls that assertion entirely untrue.
“Freedom of speech is a pillar of American democracy and a core value of the American people. The White House has said it supports these principles,” AP spokeswoman Lauren Easton said Friday night. “The actions taken to restrict AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a geographic location chip away at this important right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for all Americans.”
▶ Read more about the dispute over "Gulf of Mexico"
Judge hears arguments on case challenging Musk and DOGE’s authority
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan heard arguments Friday in Washington on a restraining order request to stop Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal agencies’ data and initiating government layoffs.
Attorneys general from 14 states are challenging Musk and his DOGE team’s authority to access sensitive government data and exercise “virtually unchecked power,” citing constitutional provisions that delineate the powers of Congress and the president.
Chutkan made no immediate decision and asked plaintiffs to draft a proposed restraining order by Saturday evening.
“Once financial or other confidential data is made public you can’t un-ring that bell, you can’t get it back,” Chutkan said.
Chutkan previously presided over Trump’s election interference case before it was dismissed.
Attorneys warned to keep things short and efficient in Trump lawsuit
A federal judge has offered a stern warning to attorneys challenging moves made by Trump’s administration: Don’t expect a hearing when a phone call will do.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes gave the verbal rebuke Friday to former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman, who now is representing eight government watchdogs suing the Trump administration over their mass firing last month.
Waxman’s legal firm had filed an emergency motion asking that the inspectors general be reinstated to their positions at various federal agencies. The judge refused, instead setting an expedited briefing schedule for the case.
“Why on earth this could not have been handled with a five-minute phone call is beyond my comprehension,” Reyes said.
She and her clerk have been “working around the clock on really monumental, time-sensitive issues,” such as a lawsuit challenging Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, she said.
More than 30 lawsuits against the Trump administration are pending in federal court in Washington.
Justice Department asks court to dismiss corruption charges against New York’s mayor
The Justice Department has formally asked a court to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove and lawyers from the department’s public integrity section and criminal division in Washington filed paperwork seeking to end the case. A judge still has to sign off on the request.
The formal move to end the prosecution was expected, and it came after days of turmoil in the Justice Department. At least seven prosecutors in New York and Washington quit rather than carry out a directive to halt the case.
Among the people leaving were the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan and a veteran prosecutor who worked on the Adams case, along with the acting chief of the public integrity section.
The Justice Department’s three-page motion sought to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the charges could be revived in the future.
Trump pushes to drive up domestic oil and gas production
Trump has signed an executive order formally creating a National Energy Dominance Council and directed it to move quickly to drive up already record-setting domestic oil and gas production.
Trump's administration also announced it has granted conditional export authorization for a huge liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana, the first approval of new LNG exports since former President Joe Biden paused consideration of them a year ago.
And Trump said he has directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to undo Biden's ban on future offshore oil drilling on the East and West coasts. Biden's last-minute action last month "viciously took out" more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) offshore that could contribute to the nation's "net worth," Trump said.
▶ Read more about the efforts to drive up U.S. oil and gas production
‘It’s just been chaos’
David Rice, a disabled Army paratrooper who had been a probationary employee since joining the U.S. Department of Energy in September, found out Thursday night he had lost his job.
Rice, who worked as a foreign affairs specialist on health matters for the department relating to radiation exposure, said he had initially been led to believe that his job would be safe. But when he logged in for a meeting Thursday night, he saw an email saying he’d been fired.
“It’s just been chaos,” said Rice, 50, who bought a house and moved to Melbourne, Florida, after getting the job.
Rice said he is in favor of making the government more efficient, but he’s frustrated with how it’s being done.
“It’s just random people, they’re probational people, getting fired for no reason other than the fact that they’re easier to let go,” he said.
He also said he hopes people realize that government employees aren’t the bad guys.
“We’re just out here trying to do something that we actually believe in, that matters,” Rice said.
Court order pauses any mass layoffs and data deletion at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Trump administration agreed to halt any plans for mass layoffs, deletion of data or removal of funding from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The agreement was ordered by a judge after the employees’ union filed a lawsuit to prevent the agency’s dismantling. Their lawyers argued Friday that fast action was needed to prevent large-scale firings and deletion of its data.
The order will stay in place at least until March 3, when U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will hear arguments in the case.
The administration has already ordered the CFPB to stop nearly all its work and closed its building.
The agency was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal.
‘None of this has been done thoughtfully or carefully’
Nicholas Detter had been working in Kansas as a natural resource specialist, helping farmers reduce soil and water erosion, until he was fired by email late Thursday night.
That’s despite Detter, who had been employed by the Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, agreeing to the administration’s deferred resignation program, under which he was supposed to be paid until Sept. 30 if he agreed to quit.
Detter responded to the letter accepting the deferred resignation, according to documents shared with The Associated Press. While his response was acknowledged, he never received the official agreement.
He said when the Trump administration first announced the deferred resignation program, he understood that it was part of an effort to improve the efficiency of the federal government, but he said “that’s not what this has been.”
“None of this has been done thoughtfully or carefully,” he said
Detter said laying off workers like him will create backlogs in the program that was created in the wake of the 1930s Dust Bowl to try keep America’s farmland healthy and productive.
‘In order to help veterans, you just fired a veteran’
Among those impacted by the federal layoffs is Andrew Lennox, a 10-year Marine veteran who was working as a probationary employee at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
He received an email Thursday evening “out of the blue” informing him that he was being terminated.
“In order to help veterans, you just fired a veteran,” said Lennox, 35, a former USMC infantryman who was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Lennox had been working as an administrative officer at the VA since mid-December and said he “would love nothing more” than to continue the work.
“This is my family, and I would like to do this forever,” he said.
In a post on its website, the VA announced the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees, saying the personnel moves “will save the department more than $98 million per year” and be better equipped to help vets.
“I was like: ‘What about this one,’” Lennox said.
Anger, chaos and confusion take hold as federal workers face mass layoffs
Federal workers were responding with anger and confusion Friday as they grappled with the Trump administration’s latest effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce by ordering agencies to lay off probationary employees who have yet to qualify for civil service protections.
As layoff notices began to go out agency by agency this week, federal employees from Michigan to Florida were left reeling from being told that their services were no longer needed.
Many of those impacted say they had already accepted the administration’s deferred resignation offer, under which they were supposed to be paid until Sept. 30 if they agreed to quit. That left some wondering how many others who signed will nonetheless be fired.
The White House and Office of Personnel Management, which serves as a human resources department for the federal government, declined to say Friday how many probationary workers, who generally have less than a year on the job, have so far been dismissed.
▶ Read more about the Trump administration's efforts to slash the government workforce
Victoria Canal to perform as scheduled at Kennedy Center after others canceled
Singer-songwriter Victoria Canal has decided to perform as scheduled at the Kennedy Center on Saturday, but she will donate all of her proceeds to Trans Equality Now.
Since Trump fired the board of directors and was elected board chair of the center, numerous officials and performers have quit or canceled appearances, including the actor Issa Rae.
In a statement issued Friday through her manager, Canal noted she had been recognized at the Kennedy Center during the Obama administration as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a “memory I still cherish.”
“After learning about the changes in leadership at the Kennedy Center, including Trump becoming self-appointed Chairman, I was debating whether or not to perform,” she said.
“I am a proud queer, Latina, disabled woman and ally to the unprotected and vulnerable trans community in the United States,” she added. “I figured if the new guys want to eliminate DEI, I’ll let them decide to cancel the show if they want to — otherwise, see you February 15th.”
North Carolin
a State University freezes hiring over ‘uncertain’ federal budget
NCSU is the state’s largest public university by population, with more than 38,400 students as of Fall 2024.
“Given the uncertain impacts of the presidential administration’s Executive Orders and guidance, the potential shut down of the federal government on March 14, and financial challenges that the state government is dealing with, leadership is becoming increasingly concerned with our budgets over the next year or two,” Warwick Arden, the university’s executive vice chancellor, said in a memo to the university’s college deans and vice provosts.
Student workers, including graduate student appointments, and part-time employees are not a part of the hiring freeze, Arden said.
“I also encourage you to be conservative in the use of all your funds given the challenging financial climate we currently find ourselves in,” Arden added.
Trump and Musk will jointly appear with Sean Hannity
The president and the billionaire will sit with the Fox News host next week, the network announced on Friday.
It’s their first televised sit-down together and comes as Musk leads Trump’s effort to slash the size and scope of the government, with efforts to freeze spending and fire federal workers proceeding in earnest.
New VA secretary plans 1,000-plus layoffs, promises no harm to veteran care or benefits
Top Republicans say they trust Doug Collins. Democrats have no such faith that cutting $98 million through dismissals won't harm veterans.
"I take Secretary Collins at his word when he says there will be no impact to the delivery of care, benefits, and services for veterans with this plan," said Rep. Mike Bost, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
The ranking Democrat, Rep. Mark Takano, said the firings show a shocking disregard. The terminated include disabled veterans, military spouses and medical researchers.
Trump spoke to Britain’s prime minister, plans to meet soon
Trump said Keir Starmer asked during their phone call Thursday to visit him in the U.S., which he accepted.
“Friendly meeting, very good. We have a lot of good things going on,” he said.
No date was set, Trump said, but it could be next week or the week after.
Vance met with German far-right leader during visit to Munich, his office says
Alice Weidel is the co-leader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party.
Vance met Weidel during a visit to Munich on Friday, nine days before a German election, in which he lectured European leaders about the state of democracy and said there is no place for “firewalls.”
Mainstream German parties say they won’t work with the party, which polls put in second place ahead of the Feb. 23 election.
Trump order targets schools and colleges mandating COVID-19 vaccines
Schools, colleges and states that require immunizations against COVID-19 may risk of losing federal money under an executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday.
It should have little national impact: Most schools have dropped such mandates. And it isn’t clear what money is at risk.
Candidate Trump often said he would “not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate,” but this order applies only to COVID-19 vaccines.
All states require schoolchildren to be vaccinated against certain diseases including measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox. And all allow exemptions for certain medical or religious reasons.
▶ Read more about Trump's executive order on vaccines
Trump denied knowing about handling of NYC mayor’s case and then opined
The president was asked by a reporter at the White House about the prosecutors resigning over the Justice Department’s push to drop the criminal case against New York City’s mayor.
“I know nothing about the individual case. I know that they didn’t feel that it was much of a case,” Trump said.
“It looked to me to be very political,” he added, and questioned why the prosecutors didn’t complain weeks earlier, though the prosecutors began raising objections this week when instructed to drop the case.
▶ Read more on Trump and the mayor's corruption case
Another prosecutor resigns with Justice Department in turmoil over NYC mayor’s case
Prosecutor Hagan Scotten is at least the seventh to resign rather than follow Trump administration orders in the corruption case.
Scotten told acting deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove on Friday it would take a "fool" or a "coward" to meet his demand to drop the charges.
Bove told prosecutors that Mayor Eric Adams is needed to support the administration’s immigration enforcement and that the charges could be reinstated after this year’s mayoral election.
A Special Forces troop commander in Iraq who graduated at the top of his Harvard Law class and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, Scotton wrote Bove: "No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives."
▶ Read more from Scotten's letter
The art of the deal? Ukraine’s president says peace with Russia depends on Trump
Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to Trump's dealmaking history in seeking the U.S. president's leadership to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“He is a strong man. And if he will choose our side, and if he will not be in the middle, I think he will pressure and he will push Putin to stop the war. He can do it,” Zelenskyy said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "President Trump will be the one at the table with Zelenskyy and Putin," and he expects Putin to claim victory "no matter what."
"I think everyone will try to come out of this situation as winners," Zelensky acknowledged. "The United States wants victory. The Russians want this victory very much, you understand. And Ukraine — it deserves it, that's all."
▶Read more about Trump's dealmaking with Russia and Ukraine
Second federal judge pauses Trump’s order against gender-affirming care for youth
A second federal judge on Friday paused Trump's executive order halting federal support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 19.
U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King granted a temporary restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington state, Oregon and Minnesota sued the Trump administration last week. Three doctors joined as plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed in the Western District of Washington.
The decision came one day after a federal judge in Baltimore temporarily blocked the executive order in response to a separate lawsuit filed on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children.
Judge Brendan Hurson’s temporary restraining order will last 14 days but could be extended, and essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds. Hurston and King were both appointed by former President Joe Biden.
▶ Read more on the Seattle lawsuit and what the ruling means
Veteran budget hawks give mixed reviews on Musk’s progress
The Associated Press interviewed four such conservatives about Musk’s effort to slash the federal workforce and disfavored programs.
Some point to early successes. Others see DOGE stoking outrage without targeting the biggest spending: defense spending and programs with bipartisan support like Medicare and Social Security.
The DOGE website claims at least $5.6 billion in savings so far — a tiny fraction of Musk’s initial goal of $2 trillion.
“This thing has paid for itself many times over now,” said Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Relief.
But Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jessica Riedl said: “So far, DOGE seems more about looking for symbolic culture war savings than truly reducing the budget deficit in any meaningful way.”
▶ Read more about how budget hawks view DOGE's progress
New Ag secretary promises layoffs at her agency
“Clearly it’s a new day,” new Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters outside the White House.
She said Trump’s winning back the presidency shows the American people “believe that government was too big.”
Rollins said Elon Musk’s government efficiency team was working at her agency and that it had already canceled some contracts and nearly 1,000 employee trainings related to diversity, equality and inclusion.
Rollins also said she’d welcome input from the Department of Government Efficiency on the nation’s food stamp program.
Trump’s government layoffs could affect economic numbers
Trump’s mass layoffs of federal workers and spending freezes could come back to bite him in the economic data.
The monthly jobs reports could start to show a slowdown in hiring, if not go negative at some point after the February numbers are released. The last time the economy lost jobs during a month was in December 2020, when the United States was still muscling its way out of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Overall, it doesn’t seem that DOGE has managed to actually cut spending substantively yet — instead they’ve just created chaos,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Budget Lab at Yale University. She noted that employers that rely on government grants and contracts would also show declines in hiring, if not worse.
“Given everything that is happening in the federal government, it is very plausible that job growth could turn negative at some point,” Gimbel said. “But it may take a few more reports for the impact to show up.”
Trump’s new tariffs are being felt on Broadway
The Golden Theatre marquee for the new musical "Operation Mincemeat" is dark because special light bulbs ordered to spell out the show's title are stuck in China, said Rick Miramontez, president of DKC/O&M and a spokesman for the show.
Thousands of the ceramic yellow LED bulbs by Satco were meant to arrive in early February, in time to install them for Saturday’s first preview. Now the show on the Great White Way, named after Broadway’s famous theater lights, will have to welcome theatergoers with a blank space.
On Feb. 1, Trump announced a 10% tariff on imports from China, which led the country to quickly implement retaliatory tariffs on select American imports.
The bulbs have apparently been caught in the contest. The ad agency in charge of the marquee was told March would be the earliest they’d arrive.
Ukraine wants ‘security guarantees’ as Trump seeks to end Ukraine-Russia war, Zelenskyy says
Zelenskyy made his remarks Friday during a meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. The two met at the Munich Security Conference.
Many observers, particularly in Europe, are hoping Vance will shed at least some light on U.S. President Donald Trump’s ideas for a negotiated settlement to the war.
European ministers hit back against Vance’s complaints about the state of their democracies
German defense minister Boris Pistorius said U.S. Vice President JD Vance's comparison of Europe to "ugly Soviet-era" authoritarianism was unacceptable.
Vance lectured European governments about free speech nine days before Germany’s election, accusing them of hostility to the idea that “somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.”
Pistorius countered that Germany’s right-wing AfD party can campaign completely normally, and “democracy doesn’t mean that the loud minority is automatically right.”
“Democracy must be able to defend itself against the extremists who want to destroy it,” Pistorius said.
▶ Read more on European reaction to Vance's lecture on democracy
Democrats tell White House that firing USAID’s top watchdog was illegal
Two senior Senate Democrats are asking President Donald Trump to reinstate the top watchdog for the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling his firing illegal.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the foreign affairs committee, and Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the homeland security committee, wrote Trump saying the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin without justification appeared to be an act of retaliation.
Martin’s office had released a report the day before warning that dismantling USAID had all but eliminated proper oversight for billions of dollars in unspent humanitarian funds.
Shaheen and Peters say the law requires 30 days notice to Congress and a reason.
Study: Excluding people in the US illegally from Census results wouldn’t impact party power
Republicans are trying again to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from the numbers used to portion out congressional seats among the states. But a new study suggests their inclusion has had little impact on presidential elections or control of Congress.
If residents lacking permanent legal status had been excluded from the apportionment process from 1980 to 2020, no more than two House seats and three Electoral College votes would have shifted between Democrats and Republicans, according to demographers from the University of Minnesota and the Center for Migration Studies of New York.
“This would have had no bearing on party control of the House or the outcome of presidential elections,” they wrote.
▶ Read more about the GOP push to change how Census numbers determine state representation
Viktor Orbán predicts Trump will bring Russia back into Western fold after end of Ukraine war
Hungary's nationalist prime minister said Trump's administration will reconnect Russia with Europe's economies and energy networks if the war in Ukraine ends.
“The United States has initiated a change that puts the whole Western world’s system of arguments, value system, and way of thinking on a new track,” Orbán said on Hungary’s state radio. “This process is progressing much faster than many people thought. We call this the Trump tornado.”
Hungary, unlike most European countries, continues to rely on Russian oil and gas. Orbán predicted the European Union will “fall apart” if energy prices aren’t brought down.
▶ Read more on the Hungarian leader's views of Trump
Zelenskyy says he will only agree to meet with Putin after common plan with Trump is negotiated
During the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy said he would only agree to meet in person with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after a common plan is negotiated with U.S. President Trump.
He also said he believes Trump is the key to ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and that the U.S. president had given him his cellphone number.
Trump envoy Richard Grenell says he might run for California governor if Kamala Harris runs
Grenell, currently working on special projects for Trump, suggested he’d be interested in the 2026 race to succeed Democrat Gavin Newsom if the former vice president throws her hat in the ring.
“If Kamala Harris runs for governor, I believe that she has such baggage … that it’s a new day in California, and that the Republican actually has a shot,” Grenell told reporters. “And I wouldn’t say no.”
Grenell spoke after taking part in Vice President JD Vance’s meetings with world leaders in Munich.
Harris hasn’t publicly expressed an interest in the governor’s race, but would be a heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
Federal workers rally against government-wide layoffs
A large group of federal workers and labor activists rallied in Washington Friday morning against the layoffs.
Many wore masks to protect their identities, for fear of reprisal from the administration. One carried an enormous silver spoon covered in aluminum foil, in reference to the “Fork in the Road” letter informing federal workers of government-wide buyouts.
One rally-goer who identified himself as Jeff, held a “No One Voted for Elon Musk” sign. He said Democrats should be more forceful, saying “We can’t fight illegality with legality.”
▶ Read more about layoffs of federal workers
Zelenskyy calls for US and Europe to band together to support Ukraine in war against Russia
Zelenskyy spoke Friday at the Munich Security Conference, saying that the United States, including the Biden administration, never saw Ukraine as a NATO member.
He is expected to meet later with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
Trump has upended years of steadfast U.S. support for Ukraine. Many observers, particularly in Europe, hope Vance will shed at least some light on Trump’s ideas for a negotiated settlement to the war following a phone call between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week.
▶ Read more about Zelenskyy and Vance's comments at the Munich Security Conference
CDC to lose one-tenth of workforce under Trump administration job cuts
Nearly 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — roughly one-tenth of the agency's workforce — are being forced out under the Trump administration's move to get rid of all probationary employees.
The Atlanta-based agency’s leadership was notified of the decision on Friday morning. The verbal notice came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a meeting with CDC leaders, according to a federal official who was at the meeting. The official was not authorized to discuss it and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The affected employees are supposed to receive four weeks of paid administrative leave, the official said, adding that it wasn’t clear when individual workers would receive notice.
With a $9.2 billion core budget, the CDC is charged with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health threats. Before the cuts, the agency had about 13,000 employees, including more than 2,000 staff work in other countries.
JD Vance: ‘In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town’
The vice president warned Europe’s elected officials that they risk losing public support if they don’t quickly change course.
“If you’re running in fear of your own voters there’s nothing America can do for you,” he told the Munich security conference.
Vance's speech made just a passing mention of the 3-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict at a time of intense concern and uncertainty over the Trump administration's foreign policy.
▶ Read more on the Trump administration's statements in Munich
Treasury watchdog begins audit of Musk DOGE team’s access to federal government’s payment system
The Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General said it was launching an audit of the security controls for the federal government's payment system after Democratic senators raised red flags about the access provided to Trump aide Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team.
The audit will also review the past two years of the system’s transactions as it relates to Musk’s assertion of “alleged fraudulent payments,” according to a letter from Loren J. Sciurba, Treasury’s deputy inspector general, that was obtained by The Associated Press.
The audit marks part of the broader effort led by Democratic lawmakers and federal employee unions to provide transparency and accountability about DOGE's activities under President Donald Trump's Republican administration. The Musk team has pushed for access to the government's computer systems and sought to remove tens of thousands of federal workers.
▶ Read more about the inspector general's audit of US government payment system security
Education Department cuts over $300 million in contracts to help schools apply best practices
The Trump administration is cutting $336 million in contracts designed to help schools and states adopt best practices in the classroom.
An Education Department news release said officials uncovered “wasteful and ideologically driven spending” at 10 regional centers hired to help schools apply research such as “equity audits.”
The department said it plans to open new contracts to replace the Regional Educational Laboratories. They were ordered by Congress in 1965 and are still required under federal law, with a mission to support school policies that improve student outcomes.
Trump officials also cut four contracts for equity service centers totaling $33 million. Without providing evidence, the department said the centers supported “divisive training in DEI, Critical Race Theory and gender identity.”
‘Power of Europe and America in the world’ at stake in Russia-Ukraine talks
Vance met separately with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and said NATO members must spend more on their militaries.
Vance told Rutte that the Trump administration wants to ensure “that NATO does a little bit more burden sharing in Europe, so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia.”
Rutte agreed: “We have to grow up in that sense and spend much more.”
Steinmeier told the conference that how exactly the Russia-Ukraine war ends “will have a lasting influence on our security order and on the position of power of Europe and America in the world.”
▶ Read more on developments in Munich
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP