RFK Jr confirmation hearing live: Donald Trump’s health secretary pick faces Senate grilling – BBC.com
Donald Trump has ordered the expansion of a detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house 30,000 undocumented migrantsThe Cuban president has hit out at the plan, calling it an “act of brutality”Meanwhile, The White House has rescinded a memo pausing federal funding, which had sparked mass confusion when it leaked earlier this weekThe memo would have frozen money for an array of services and was temporarily blocked by a judge minutes before it was due to take effect on TuesdayThe rollback is intended to combat any confusion caused by the memo, according to the White House, with President Donald Trump saying the initial freeze was meant to combat “scams”Earlier, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s pick for health secretary, faced hours of grilling from US senatorsKennedy, who has been a vocal vaccine sceptic, was asked to explain his past comments on vaccines. He also was asked about his views on abortion and the US food industryThis video can not be playedTrump directs opening of Guantanamo Bay detention centre for 30,000 migrantsEdited by Caitlin Wilson and Alys Davies in Washington DCKayla EpsteinUS reporterAfter another day of executive orders and confirmation hearings adding to the avalanche of measures Donald Trump has already enacted, it’s worth taking a step back to look at the new US president’s first 10 days in the White House.Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, gave me his assessment of the start of Trump’s second go-round in the Oval Office.”In general, the executive
orders are much better done than they were eight years ago, when it seemed
like the Trump administration was flying by the seat of its pants,” he said.He said that the Trump administration had taken up a “flood the zone” strategy, where “you release so many executive orders it’s harder for the opposition – politically or legally – to respond.”Shapiro believes that Trump and his team had used their transition period after the election effectively, laying the groundwork for executive orders that would establish his administration’s intentions right out of the gate.We are pausing our live coverage for now, but you can stay up to date on today’s news below:In other news going back to his time before taking office, Donald Trump has officially filed to appeal his criminal conviction and sentencing in New York, where he was found guilty on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.His lawyers have filed the bid to a New York state appellate court.The move was expected, as the president’s lawyers had repeatedly stated their intention to file an appeal during and after the trial last year.Trump was sentenced on 10 January to an unconditional discharge, meaning he will face no fine or jail time. But the conclusion of the process still marked him officially as a felon, making him the first-ever US president to have been convicted of a felony.President Donald Trump has this evening issued an executive order which the administration says would allow families more choices for children’s education outside of the standard public school system.It will also end federal funding for curricula that he called the “indoctrination” of students in “anti-American” ideologies on race and gender, according to the White House, external. The directives are in keeping with Trump’s campaign promise to reshape the country’s education system.RFK Jr was not the only Trump nominee to face Senate committee scrutiny today. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, told his hearing that he supports using tariffs to restore “reciprocity” to the US’s trading relationships – saying in general he prefers the idea of across-the-board per-country tariffs to more specific alternatives.And the judiciary committee met to vote on whether to advance the president’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, splitting along party lines with a 12-10 divide. Her nomination will now head to the full Senate for a vote.Pam Bondi speaking at her confirmation hearing earlier this monthMore on the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump today now.Among the orders is one that intends to combat antisemitism in schools and campuses in the US.Trump has pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who have taken part in pro-Palestinian protests.The order says there has been an “explosion of antisemitism on our campuses” since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.The order directs government officials to use “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence”.”To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in an accompanying White House fact sheet.”I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathisers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” the president added.Rights groups and legal experts quickly responded on Wednesday and said the order would violate free speech rights enshrined in the constitution. It is likely to be challenged in court.Let’s bring you up-to-date with the latest developments from the White House, Senate and beyond:This video can not be playedThe Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. The Senate vote was 56 to 42, with Democrats Mark Kelly, John Fetterman and Ruben Gallego voting with Republicans in favour of his confirmation.Natalie ShermanNew York business reporterTrump renewed his attacks on the US central bank, hours after officials left interest rates unchanged despite his public calls for them to cut.In a social media post, he accused the Federal Reserve and its chairman Jerome Powell of mishandling the economy, saying they had “failed to stop the problem they created with Inflation”.The Fed left key interest rate unchanged at its January meeting on Wednesday, in a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, hitting pause after a string of cuts late last year.Some economists have warned that some of those policies could put upward pressure on prices, at least in the short-term, concerns Powell said were shared by some at the bank.In his post on Truth Social, the social media company that he owns, Trump promised: “I will make our Country financially, and otherwise, powerful again!”He also accused the Federal Reserve of focusing on “gender ideology, ‘green’ energy, and fake climate change,” instead of the issue of inflation.Read more here:Trump attacks Fed after no change in interest ratesTop immigration officials Noem and Homan spoke to reporters at an event where Trump signed a new immigration crackdown lawSpeaking to reporters at the White House, Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called border tsar, said the new plan to house migrants at Guantanamo Bay would “expand upon the existing migrant centre” already there.Homan said that the migrants could be transported there directly after being intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard, and that the “highest” detention standards would be applied.It is unclear how much it could cost to expand the facility.When asked by reporters at the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the money would be allotted through “reconciliation and appropriations”.Guantanamo Bay – an area on the southeastern tip of Cuba – has been home to a US military base since 1898 after the territory was seized during the Spanish-American war. According to historians, European sailor Christopher Columbus landed in the region in 1494 during his second voyage to the Americas.The area came to a play prominent role in the US’s response to the 11 September 2001 attacks.Since the prison camp opened in 2002, nearly 800 people – most of whom were held on suspicions of terrorism – have been jailed there.Allegations of torture by US interrogators has been levelled by multiple detainees.Today, there are 15 still detained, according to US media.Efforts by previous presidents to lower the prison’s population and close it halted during Donald Trump’s first term, when he signed an executive order to keep the facility open. Trump said efforts to release detainees or close the prison made the US look weak on terrorism.Migrants have been housed at the base previously. Reports suggest that around three dozen were held there in recent years, under the Biden administration. In the 1990s, the base was used to house migrants from Cuba and Haiti during an influx of migration to the US from those two countries. Migrants have been detained at Guantanamo Bay for decades, including this group seen at the base in 1994A Cuban migrant being registered by US authorities at Guantanamo Bay in 1994 after being intercepted at sea on his way to the USTrump has now signed the memorandum calling on the heads of the homeland security and defence to expand the migrant detention centre at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.The order directs the officials to bring the facility “to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security”.”This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”Will GrantMexico, Central America and Cuba CorrespondentThe US naval base at Guantanamo Bay has been partly used for immigration purposes by the American authorities for decades, in what is known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center or GMOC. Principally, it has housed migrants picked up at sea and was recently the subject of a Freedom of Information request by the American Civil Liberties Union for the disclosure of records about the site. The Biden Administration responded that GMOC “is not a detention facility and none of the migrants there are detained”. What differs, then, with the Trump Administrations plans is that the centre will very much be intended as a detention facility. President Trump has said 30,000 beds will be available to house “the worst” undocumented immigrants – in reference to those with criminal records – saying his administration “didn’t trust” their countries of origin to hold them. It has provoked an expected outcry from the Cuban government which has denounced the existence of a US naval base on the island ever since Fidel Castro swept to power in 1959. The Cuban President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, called Trump’s move “an act of brutality” saying the base itself was on “illegally occupied territory”. The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said the step “shows contempt for the human condition and international law”. Still, none of those comments will worry the Trump Administration much. With the State Department now headed by the former Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, whose family left Cuba in the 1950s, the fact they have inflamed tensions with Havana in the process will doubtless be seen by him as simply an added bonus.This group of HIV-positive Haitian migrants detained at sea were allowed to enter the US in 1993 after spending 20 months at the migrant campThe Cuban president and foreign minister have just reacted to Trump’s announcement of a detention facility for undocumented migrants in Guantanamo Bay – which is located in Cuba. Earlier today, President Trump said the 30,000-person facility would house “the worst criminal illegal aliens”. He added that “some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back”.In a social media post written in Spanish, which we have translated, President Miguel Diaz-Canel called it an “act of brutality” to place migrants next to “known prisons of torture”.Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also wrote on social media that the plan “shows disregard for human conditions and international law”. As a reminder, the Guantanamo Bay is the home of a US military base and a detention camp was established there in 2002 to hold suspects captured in counter-terrorism operations.But various US administrations have also housed migrants at a facility called the Guantánamo Migrant Operations Center.Rachel LookerReporting from Capitol HillI’ve been speaking with Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance committee where Kennedy testified earlier today. Wyden told me he felt Kennedy “bobbed and ducked” throughout the confirmation hearing. “I asked him to describe reconciling his anti-vax and pro-vax statements and he couldn’t do it, he didn’t even try,” Wyden says.During the hearing, Wyden asked Kennedy if he was lying about being pro-vaccine, referencing podcasts and publications where Kennedy appeared to insinuate he was both for and against them. “Which one’s a lie? It can’t both be true,” Wyden tells me. “I think we also walked away wondering if we really understood what the various programmes were all about because he got us all scrambled,” he said. Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from the White HouseThis video can not be playedTrump says he’ll use Guantanamo Bay to house illegal immigrantsNews is happening fast today, so let’s check in on another recent announcement from President Trump.Speaking at the White House earlier, President Trump said the US will set up a 30,000 person detention facility for undocumented migrants in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Trump said the facility would double the government’s capacity to hold undocumented migrants, and added that it would take the US “one step further to eliminating the scourge of migrant crime”.The move will come in the form of an Executive Order and will be carried out by the Pentagon, he said. Various US administrations in the past have housed migrants at a facility called the Guantánamo Migrant Operations Center, or GMOC. Stay with us for more updates on this later. Rachel LookerReporting from Capitol HillWe’ve been hearing from lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the recent news that the Trump administration has rescinded a memo that would have frozen funding for a swathe of federal programmes. “I think the problem is getting worse, not better,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, tells reporters.”This is happening simultaneous to the firing of all the inspectors general, so the lights just got turned off at the agencies,” he says. “We’ve lost all ability to understand what is happening inside our government and that is absolutely by design.” Trump fired at least a dozen federal watchdogs on Friday. Murphy says Republicans are “feeling the heat” from this announcement on federal funding. “They are reeling in part because they see how unpopular this is,” he tells reporters.We’re now hearing from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is speaking at a press conference. He urge’s Donald Trump to rescind his nomination of Russell Vought as budget chief after the president scrapped a highly controversial OMB order. “When the Trump administration announced this awful directive on Monday night, we knew immediately it was short-sighted, disastrous, cruel and dumb,” he says. “The directive was given without any comprehension of what it actually called for.”He goes on to say that Vought was the “architect” of Project 2025 and the OMB Memo.Schumer says he “assumes” Trump would hold those behind this memo to account. “Though the Trump administration failed in this tactic, its no secret they will come back again and again and again,” he adds. Amid a busy day in Washington DC, Donald Trump has signed the first piece of legislation of his second term – the Laken Riley Act, which requiresundocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.Anthony ZurcherNorth America correspondentThe White House blinked – even if they are reluctant to fully admit it.Just two days after a sweeping, but vague, memorandum put a hold on nearly all federal “grants and loans” – causing confusion over what government services were frozen – it has been rescinded.The reversal is a notable backtrack for an administration that, for its first week, had been pressing forward across multiple policy fronts with little apparent resistance – “flooding the zone” with activity to keep its opponents off balance.The government spending freeze, however, was so sweeping – and so inadequately explained – that it quickly became a political liability.Talking to reporters on Tuesday, for instance, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was unable to answer clearly whether the order affected Medicaid – a government-run low-income health insurance programme that covers 79 million Americans.The order had already been suspended by a federal judge, and a protracted legal battle loomed. In the end, the White House decided to pull back, while insisting that the presidential orders underlying the memorandum still freeze programmes that conflict with Donald Trump’s agenda.Democrats will be heartened at the win. They have dented, at least for a moment, the Trump team’s projections of confidence and inevitability.This is just an opening skirmish, however. The big political battles – over the federal budget and spending priorities – remain ahead.Many of the programmes that were targeted by the Trump administration in this memorandum may only have a temporary lease on life.Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from the White HouseThis video can not be playedWatch: President Trump says funding freeze was short-term to ‘look at scams’We’ve just heard from President Trump, who is commenting on the confusion over the funding freeze and rescission of the memo. Speaking in the East Room of the White House, Trump says that the “short-term funding freeze” allowed the US government to look into what he termed “scams” by federal agencies. Saying that he is seeking to “correct any confusion”, he adds that the memo allowed the White House to look “at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse”.”That process we identified and stopped.”In his remarks, Trump cites a number of examples, including – without providing evidence – that $50m had been sent to Hamas for use in condoms, which he claims have been used to create explosives. He also cites money provided to undocumented immigrants and payments to the World Health Organisation. “We have to find them quickly, because we want the money to flow to proper payments,” Trump adds.Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
