US judge says Musk’s DOGE must release records on operations run in ‘secrecy’
By Nate Raymond A federal judge on Monday ordered the government-downsizing team created by U.S. President Donald Trump and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk to make public records concerning its operations, which he said had been run in “unusual secrecy.” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington sided with, opens new tab the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in finding that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was likely an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The ruling, the first of its kind, marked an early victory for advocates seeking to force DOGE to
Trump refuses to rule out recession as chaotic trade war with Canada, Mexico and China escalates
By Oliver O’Connell,Joe Sommerlad Donald Trump said over the weekend that he could not rule out the possibility of a recession being triggered by uncertainty over his tariff war against the United States’s top trading partners Canada, Mexico and China. “I hate to predict things like that,” the president told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures when pressed about the possibility. “There is a period of transition.” Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, meanwhile won the race to succeed Justin Trudeau as Canada’s new prime minister last night and wasted no time in vowing to take on Trump in a trade war, urging his country to unite. Carney, who saw off a
Veterans fired from federal jobs say they feel betrayed, including some who voted for Trump
By Brian Witte Nathan Hooven is a disabled Air Force veteran who voted for Donald Trump in November. Barely three months later, he’s now unemployed and says he feels betrayed by the president’s dramatic downsizing of the federal government that cost him his job. “I think a lot of other veterans voted the same way, and we have been betrayed,” said Hooven, who was fired in February from a Virginia medical facility for veterans. “I feel like my life and the lives of so many like me, so many that have sacrificed so much for this country, are being destroyed.” The mass
House Republicans unveil bill to avoid shutdown and they’re daring Democrats to oppose it
By Kevin Freking House Republicans unveiled a spending bill Saturday that would keep federal agencies funded through Sept. 30, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats over the contours of government spending. The 99-page bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming nondefense programs below 2024 budget year levels. That approach is likely to be a nonstarter for most Democrats who have long insisted that defense and nondefense spending move in the same direction. Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.,
Trump expands exemptions from Canada and Mexico tariffs
By Natalie Sherman & Michael Race US President Donald Trump has signed orders significantly expanding the goods exempted from his new tariffs on Canada and Mexico that were imposed this week. It is the second time in two days that Trump has rolled back his taxes on imports from the US’s two biggest trade partners, measures that have raised uncertainty for businesses and worried financial markets. On Wednesday, he said he would temporarily spare carmakers from 25% import levies just a day after they came into effect. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum thanked Trump for the move, while Canada’s finance minister said
Judge orders Trump administration to speed payment of USAID and State Dept. debts
By Ellen Knickmeyer A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to speed up its payment on some of nearly $2 billion in debts to partners of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, giving it a Monday deadline to repay the nonprofit groups and businesses in a lawsuit over the administration’s abrupt shutdown of foreign assistance funding. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali described the partial payment as a “concrete” first step he wanted to see from the administration, which is fighting multiple lawsuits seeking to roll back the administration’s dismantling of USAID and a six-week freeze on
Tulsi Gabbard fires more than 100 intelligence officers over messages in a chat tool
By Dan De Luce Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies for using a government chat platform for discussions that included topics like polyamory, gender transition surgery and politics. “I put out a directive today that they all will be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked,” Gabbard told Fox News on Tuesday. The chat tool was overseen by the National Security Agency, according to Gabbard. Each intelligence agency has internal collaboration chat tools, former intelligence officials said. Gabbard said the fired intelligence officers’ conduct represented “an egregious violation of trust”
Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 employees from Veterans Affairs, according to internal memo
By Stephen Groves The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a reorganization that includes cutting over 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care and other services for millions of veterans, according to an internal memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top-level officials at the agency Tuesday that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by
As Trump delivers joint address, Black women of Congress help lead the resistance
By Gerren Keith Gaynor Donald Trump’s first joint address to Congress as the 47th president of the United States on Tuesday night was met with resistance from Democrats on Capitol Hill. But it’s the elected Black members, particularly Black women, of Congress who are working to lead and shape the opposition to Trump’s agenda. Ahead of Trump’s State of the Union-styled speech, members of the Congressional Black Caucus gathered on Capitol Hill to speak with Black reporters about how they are responding to the flood of executive actions that have left thousands unemployed and billions of dollars for critical programs
Federal judge blocks Trump administration’s drastic funding cuts to medical research
By Lauren Neergaard A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from drastically cutting medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and cost jobs. The new National Institutes of Health policy would strip research groups of hundreds of millions of dollars to cover so-called indirect expenses of studying Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease and a host of other illnesses — anything from clinical trials of new treatments to basic lab research that is the foundation for discoveries. Separate lawsuits filed by a group of 22 states plus organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions nationwide sued to stop the