Trump’s federal changes face legal hurdles as president pushes Gaza plan – CNN

• DOGE order: President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to work with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut staff and limit hiring. Speaking at his side in the Oval Office, Elon Musk defended the mission of DOGE, which he’s running, while admitting that “some of the things I say will be incorrect” in response to a question about claims he made about Gaza.

• Trump meets Jordan’s king: The president made no attempt to soften his proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza and redevelop the land into premium housing as he met King Abdullah II of Jordan. In a social media post after the meeting, Abdullah said Jordan has a “steadfast position” against displacing Palestinians.

• Fired after criticism: The inspector general of the US Agency for International Development was fired, a day after his office released a report critical of the impact of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who is now leading a sweeping effort to reshape the federal government, offered the most sustained defense of his far-reaching moves during a question-and-answer session in the Oval Office late Tuesday.

As President Donald Trump watched from his seat at the Resolute Desk, Musk — who stood a few feet away, wearing a long black coat and accompanied by his 4-year-old son, X — denied that his extensive business dealings with the government amounted to conflicts of interest in his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency.

Here’s what else was said during the Oval Office Q&A:

Federal workers:

Both men touted their aggressive efforts to downsize and remake the federal government, saying American voters sent Trump to the White House to reform the workings of Washington. Trump has dismissed government watchdogs, or inspectors general, at agencies across the city, raising myriad oversight questions.

Musk said he is interested in investigating federal employees with high salaries. He accused staffers of “getting wealthy at taxpayer expense” and said he wants to look into it.

Also, Trump vowed that federal workers who opt to accept the government’s deferred resignation offer will “get their money” when asked whether he could “personally guarantee” that workers who opt to resign will be paid through September.

Gaza: Musk conceded that “some of the things that I say will be incorrect” when he was asked about claims made on his social platform, X, and by the White House about condoms being sent to Gaza. It’s a remarkable concession from the world’s richest man — who bought the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, in 2022 and posts many updates to his more than 217 million followers on the site.

Comments on the courts: Trump on Tuesday complained about the judges who ruled to block several of his recent actions as he works to enact his agenda.

“Any court that would say that the president or his representatives — like secretary of the treasury, secretary of state, whatever — doesn’t have the right to go over their books and make sure everything’s honest… I mean, how can you have a country? You can’t have anything that way. You can’t have a business that way. You can’t have a country that way,” Trump said.

Also, Trump said he will “always abide by the courts,” after reporters asked if he’d follow a judge’s ruling if it blocked one of his administration’s policy priorities.

Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s pick for special envoy for hostage affairs, told CNN Russia’s release of Marc Fogel did not play out as a direct one-for-one exchange with a Russian held in the United States on the tarmac Tuesday night.

Fogel has returned to the US, according to a post on X and a photo from the White House.

“For us, it was the start,” Boehler said in a video call with CNN Tuesday from Joint Base Andrews, where Fogel landed Tuesday evening. “This was a unilateral decision. It means for us we make and give thoughts to other people that are nonviolent from a Russia perspective. So, it means the president’s open to things now.”

Asked by Collins if this signals a conversation for something to happen, but not actually a one-for-one exchange on the tarmac, Boehler said, “That’s correct.”

“You won’t see an exchange go on right now. I think you will see the president give consideration if there are some nonviolent people where maybe there’s no issues one way or the other, but you will not see a one-for-one thing happening at the same time,” Boehler said.“What happened here is there was consideration one way or the other for non-violent criminal. And so, the United States gave some consideration, although it wasn’t linked one way or the other,” Boehler said. “What we wanted to do here is look at a step forward. And I think you see Russia making a step for the president, for President Trump based on his focus on hostages.”

Boehler, who was joined at Joint Base Andrews by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also teased the release of an additional detained American Wednesday but would not comment if the person was in Russia.

“That’s going to be a surprise for tomorrow,” Boehler said.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are moving quickly to shock the US government, trim the federal workforce, and stop spending and enforcing laws they disagree with.

Where supporters applaud a strong leader, critics see a president operating outside the normal checks and balances laid out in the US Constitution.

Click here and send us your questions about what Trump has tried to do and how much he’ll be able to achieve.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Tuesday that she has faith federal court orders will be honored amid a roiling debate over President Donald Trump’s commitment to following judicial rulings that have put some of his policies on hold.

“Court decisions stand,” the high court’s most senior liberal justice said during an event in Miami. “Whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not, it doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point.”“That’s the faith that I have in our system,” she said.

Sotomayor avoided any specific mention of the Trump administration, which has flirted in recent days with the notion that federal courts are overstepping their authority as they temporarily suspend some of the president’s policies to review whether they are legal. Vice President JD Vance drew considerable criticism this week after taking to social media to question whether courts can block any of Trump’s agenda.

“I’m not getting too much into that,” Sotomayor demurred at first when asked at an event hosted by the Knight Foundation about the importance of checks and balances in maintaining democracy.

“We’ve had moments where it’s been tested but, by and large, we have been a country who has understood that the rule of law has helped us maintain our democracy,” she said. “But it’s also because the court has proceeded cautiously and has proceeded understanding that it has to proceed slowly.”

Asked at the White House earlier Tuesday whether he’ll comply with court rulings, Trump said that he would. “I always abide by the courts, and then I’ll have to appeal it,” he said.

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

Jordanian officials were content with how Tuesday’s high stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and King Abdullah II went today, one official told CNN.

“We had a very candid discussion and explained our position,” the Jordanian official added.

Responding to Trump’s repeated comments that Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza, the king told reporters in the Oval Office that there is another plan being put forward by Egypt and other Arab countries, and that discussions are being planned by Saudi’s crown prince.

“I think the point is: How do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody?” King Abdullah II said.

American aid for Jordan is being withheld amid the administration’s broader foreign freeze.

Despite Jordan being a critical military and intelligence partner for the United States, the Trump administration has yet to issue a waiver for Jordan allowing that assistance to continue.

Military and intelligence personnel have halted recruitment efforts at an upcoming prestigious engineering conference that attracts diverse high school and college STEM students from across the country amid President Donald Trump’s executive order ending diversity initiatives in the military, according to conference organizers.

The Becoming Everything You Are Conference (BEYA), which was previously called the Black Engineer of the Year Award Conference, was known to military recruiters as a place to find highly qualified applicants, according to conference founder Tyrone Taborn.

“In compliance with Department of Defense and Headquarters Department of the Army guidance, we will not participate in the upcoming BEYA event,” an Army spokesperson confirmed to CNN, adding service members can attend in an unofficial or personal capacity.

Military.Com first reported the cancellations.

President Donald Trump previously signed an executive order ending diversity initiatives in the military and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has instructed the military to end all diversity and inclusion efforts, as a result.

Close to 14,000 people will attend this year’s conference, which is scheduled for February 13-15 in Baltimore, according to BEYA organizer Matt Bowman, a former Navy recruiter and fighter pilot. Last year, BEYA helped the Defense Department recruit close to 800 people, Bowman said.

Taborn estimated that the government spent $1.5 million on the conference in sponsorships, who said the Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Space Force have also withdrawn their recruiters. Defense contractors have also pulled out including SpaceX, Booz Allen Hamilton and the Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Taborn said.

In addition, the CIA, NSA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), NASA and Department of Energy have also withdrawn from the conference, Taborn said.

CNN has contacted these companies and agencies for comment.

A watchdog group filed a lawsuit Tuesday to obtain records from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, claiming it was structured to keep its communications secret even though its head Elon Musk promised “maximum transparency.”

The case appears to be one of the first lawsuits testing the Trump administration’s argument that DOGE is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, known as FOIA. American Oversight, a nonpartisan group, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC.

The group’s lawyers claim DOGE “is a department or agency subject to FOIA and must process FOIA requests on an expedited basis pursuant to the requirements of FOIA and agency regulations.”

Musk defended DOGE’s actions during a media availability with President Donald Trump on Tuesday in the Oval Office.

“We actually are trying to be as transparent as possible,” Musk said. “In fact, we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X and to the DOGE website. So, all of our actions are maximally transparent.”

A White House spokeswoman previously said DOGE was “subject to Presidential Records.” Documents that fall under the Presidential Records Act can’t be released via FOIA for at least five years after the administration ends, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

In the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, Musk and his DOGE staffers have created significant chaos at federal agencies and departments with their attempts to reduce the size of government, swiftly cut spending that they believe is unnecessary, and sideline career officials who are standing in their way — while drawing quick legal scrutiny and judicial rebukes.

The inspector general of the US Agency for International Development was fired on Tuesday, a day after his office released a report critical of the impact of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the aid agency, a source familiar told CNN.

Paul Martin received an email from the deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel Tuesday evening that his position as inspector general of USAID was “terminated, effective immediately.”

Martin had served in the role as the agency’s independent watchdog since December 2023.

In a report Monday, the USAID OIG said that the Trump administration’s reduction of USAID personnel and its sweeping freeze on foreign assistance had made it more difficult to track potential misuse of US taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance. This could cause the money to reach terror groups, the report said.

USAID requires that programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen receive “partner vetting,” in order to ensure that taxpayer funds do not end up supporting groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, or the Houthis. According to the report, these vetting efforts have ground to a halt because of the reduction in staff at USAID.

CNN is reaching out to Martin and the White House for comment.

Dozens of federal workers gathered in Washington, DC, today to fight for their jobs at a rally hosted by the nation’s largest union for federal workers.

Emma Esch, who works on environmental justice at the Environmental Protection Agency in Philadelphia, came to the rally after being placed on administrative leave last week as part of Elon Musk’s broader efforts to gut the federal government.

“We’re not going around helping only blue states or only blue communities. We are out in rural red communities, helping the American people” Esch said of her work that she is longer able to do. “We’re helping keep our water clean. We’re helping keep our air clean, we’re helping keep kids safe from lead paint, from lead water.”

Another worker, Colton Puckett who works with for the National Labor Relations Board in San Antonio, Texas, said he is rallying “to try and save my job, to save my coworkers jobs, to save our agency.”

Democratic leaders joined the rally but Republicans who control Congress were largely absent.

Most Republicans, at least publicly, support efforts to cut the federal administration. But more than 80% of that workforce lives outside of Washington, DC, so it’s an issue that Republicans have to answer to their constituents for as well. Facing a deluge of calls, some Republicans are starting to take careful action, including meeting with workers in their district this week.

Michael Oberman, who works at the US Citizenship and Integration Services in Nebraska, told CNN he was planning to meet with GOP lawmakers from his state while in DC.

“We’re not a waste. We do the work every day, and some of us have been doing it for 30 years, and doing the work that’s important for immigration” Oberman said. “My message to the Republican Party is they represent us and all of us.”

Brazil will not enter a trade war with the United States after US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Brazilian Institutional Relations Minister Alexandre Padilha said, according to CNN Brasil.

“The government has not discussed this at all,” Padilha said at a news conference.

In fact, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “has always said, very clearly, that a trade war is not good for anyone,” Padilha said.

He added that Brazil favors strengthening trade with its partners rather than engaging in any trade war, CNN Brasil reported.

Brazil is the second-largest exporter of steel to the US, behind only Canada, according to the US Department of Commerce.

For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the tariffs “entirely unjustified.”

“We are US’ closest ally, our economies are integrated. Canadian steel and aluminum is used in a number of key American industries, whether it’s defense, shipbuilding, manufacturing, energy, automotive. Together we make North America more competitive,” Trudeau told Canadian news agency CBC at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday.

He said he would be working with the Trump administration to “highlight the negative impacts” on citizens of both countries.

And if it comes to striking back, Canada’s response will be “firm and clear,” Trudeau added.

Senate GOP leaders announced the confirmation vote for Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence will now take place at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday.

After she’s confirmed, the Senate will vote to break a filibuster on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

This won’t delay Kennedy’s final confirmation vote. The Senate will count down the debate time as though they broke the filibuster at 1 a.m. ET Wednesday — meaning the final confirmation vote for Kennedy is still tracking for Thursday morning, according to Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso’s office.

Senators on both sides of the aisle have plans to attend the Munich Security Conference over the long weekend, which starts on Friday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing agencies to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut staff and limit hiring, with the purpose of reducing the size of the federal government.

The order has instructions for agency leaders to cooperate with DOGE’s scrapping of federal workforce.

“Agency Heads will coordinate and consult with DOGE to shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions. The Office of Personnel Management will initiate a rulemaking to ensure federal employees are held to the highest standards of conduct,” a White House fact sheet of the order stated.

The order is meant to implement Elon Musk’s DOGE “workforce optimization,” and will allow agencies to only rehire one worker for every four people who leave the workforce.

“Upon expiration of the Day 1 hiring freeze and implementation of the hiring plan, agencies will be able to hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service (with appropriate immigration, law enforcement, and public safety exceptions),” the fact sheet states. “Agencies 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.”

More groups are suing the Trump administration as the president announces executive actions to carry out his agenda and transform the federal government.

The courts have so far moved to halt Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal grants and loans and gut government agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. One judge has also moved to prevent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) officials from accessing a critical Treasury Department payment system.

Here’s a look at where some of the latest legal challenges stand:

New lawsuits:

Recent court orders and agreements

Reactions from lawmakers:

This post has been updated with the latest details of new lawsuits, agreements and reactions from lawmakers.

Elon Musk said restoring democracy is “a significant part” of the Trump administration’s goals and underpinned the mission of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

At the White House’s Oval Office on Tuesday alongside President Donald Trump, Musk claimed that “we live in a bureaucracy” and added that it’s “incredibly important” to fix it.

“You can’t have an autonomous federal bureaucracy. You have to have one that is responsive to the people,” he said Tuesday. “That’s the whole point of a democracy.”

Musk added that the federal bureaucracy was the unelected “fourth unconstitutional branch of government” and that it had more power currently than any elected representative.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is alleging that Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, is “personally directing the ongoing purge” of bureau employees.

In a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said he had received “highly credible information from multiple sources” that Patel gave directives to White House and Justice Department officials about a series of recent firings at the FBI even though he hasn’t yet been confirmed to lead the bureau.

If the allegations are true, Durbin said, Patel may have perjured himself at his confirmation hearing by claiming he was unaware of plans to terminate FBI employees.

“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other dedicated, nonpartisan law enforcement officers,” Durbin wrote, asking the inspector general to investigate the claims.

Durbin’s letter adds to a series of allegations by Democratic lawmakers that Patel will improperly carry out Trump’s orders and is unqualified for the post.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Durbin is the ranking member, is set to vote on Patel’s nomination Thursday morning.

A spokesperson for Patel said the media, in reporting on the letter, was relying on “anonymous sources and second-hand gossip to push a false narrative.”

In his letter Tuesday, Durbin said that he believed that Patel was receiving information from inside the FBI and instructing his advisory team, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to enact his directives at the FBI.

Durbin’s allegations focus on meetings in late January about several high-level, career FBI employees who were told they had to resign or would be fired. Patel’s advisory team had a “written list” of those names, the senator said.

The Justice Department’s inspector general’s office declined to comment.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will “always abide by the courts,” after reporters asked if he’d follow a judge’s ruling if it blocked one of his administration’s policy priorities.

“Well, I always abide by the courts, and then I’ll have to appeal it. But then what he’s done is he’s slowed down the momentum, and it gives crooked people more time to cover up the books,” Trump said.“So yeah, the answer is, I always abide by the courts, always abide by them, and we’ll appeal, but appeals take a long time.”

The president’s comments come as both Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk have sown doubt about whether Trump’s administration would follow court orders after judges across the country have stymied efforts to end birthright citizenship, place thousands of workers at the US Agency for International Development on leave, and impose a deadline for federal employees to accept the administration’s deferred resignation offer.

Pressed Tuesday on if the administration’s efforts to slash funding would be subject to Congressional approval, Trump said he didn’t know.

“I really don’t know — I know this, we’re finding tremendous fraud and tremendous abuse,” Trump said. “If I need a vote of Congress to find fraud and abuse, it’s fine with me. I think we’ll get the vote. Although, there’ll be some people that wouldn’t.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said federal workers who opt to accept the government’s deferred resignation offer will “get their money.”

Asked in the Oval Office on Tuesday whether he could “personally guarantee” that workers who opt to resign will be paid through September, Trump replied: “Well, they’ll get their money.”

“But they’re getting a good deal. They’re getting a big buyout,” the president said. “And what we’re trying to do is reduce government.”

Trump’s comments came one day after a judge extended a pause on the deadline for workers to accept the offer set by the Trump administration and temporarily paused the government from soliciting more “buyouts.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday complained about the judges who ruled to block several of his recent actions as he works to enact his agenda.

“Any court that would say that the president or his representatives — like secretary of the treasury, secretary of state, whatever — doesn’t have the right to go over their books and make sure everything’s honest… I mean, how can you have a country? You can’t have anything that way. You can’t have a business that way. You can’t have a country that way,” Trump said from the Oval Office.

Trump said the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is just one of the areas he and his administration — namely DOGE led by Elon Musk, who spoke alongside Trump — is looking for fraud and waste. Trump froze funding for foreign aid and put many of USAID’s employees on leave.

He called the agency “incompetent” and “really corrupt.”

“I can’t imagine a judge saying, well, it may be corrupt, but you don’t have the right — you got elected to look over the country and to, as we say, make America great again, but you don’t have the right to go and look and see whether or not things are right that they’re paying or that things are honest that they’re paying,” Trump said.

On Monday, federal employees told a judge that the administration had failed to reinstate USAID workers who were put on leave. A major hearing in that case is set for Wednesday.

More generally, Trump said the only way his administration and DOGE is going to be able to catch inefficiencies in the government is to look for it. But, “if a judge is going to say you’re not allowed to look for it, that’s pretty sad for our country,” Trump said.

Elon Musk conceded on Tuesday that “some of the things that I say will be incorrect” when he was asked about claims made on his social platform, X, and by the White House about condoms being sent to Gaza.

“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So nobody’s gonna bat a thousand. I mean … we will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes,” Musk said in the Oval Office standing next to the president.

It’s a remarkable concession from the world’s richest man — who bought the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, in 2022 and posts many updates to his more than 217 million followers on the site.

“So you know, if the — I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million worth of condoms to anywhere, frankly, I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about. And that is really an enormous number of condoms when you think about it. But you know, if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I’m like, OK, that’s not as bad. But still, you know, why are we doing that?” Musk continued.

The president and the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed previously that there was a federal plan to spend $50 million on condoms in Gaza.

Experts on US aid to Gaza and global health aid had previously told CNN that they were baffled by the claim that the US had been planning to spend $50 million on condoms in Gaza.

“We have asked around, and no one is sure what this is referring to,” said Steve Fake, a spokesperson for Anera, an aid nonprofit that has partnered with USAID on a five-year, $50 million health initiative in Gaza.

Elon Musk said he is interested in investigating federal employees with high salaries.

“We do find it sort of rather odd that, you know, there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,” he said in the Oval Office alongside President Donald Trump.

The billionaire accused staffers of “getting wealthy at taxpayer expense” and said he wants to look into it.

“We’re just curious as to where it came from,” he said of federal workers’ salaries. “Maybe they’re very good at investing, in which case we should take their investment advice perhaps. But just there seems to be mysteriously they get wealthy.”

The Associated Press said the White House barred its reporter from Tuesday’s Oval Office executive order signing because of the AP style guidance on using the name “Gulf of Mexico” rather than Gulf of America.

The AP said in a statement they were informed on Tuesday that if AP did not “align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office.”

That occurred Tuesday, when an AP reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing in the Oval Office that turned into a question-and-answer session with Trump and Elon Musk.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

The AP’s guidance on Trump’s order renaming the Gulf of America states that the news service “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”

The AP said that’s because the gulf has carried the Gulf of Mexico name for “more than 400 years” and that other countries and international bodies do not have to recognize the name change. That’s not the case for Mount McKinley, whose name Trump changed from its former name of Denali. Because the area of the Alaskan mountain “lies solely in the United States” and Trump had full authority to change the name, the AP said it will use the name Mount McKinley.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While leaving a meeting in the Capitol with Senate Republicans on the budget reconciliation process and border security needs, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought defended the deep cuts being made to government entities and programs as “legal.”

Asked by CNN if it is allowed under the law for the administration on its own to dismantle agencies like the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Vought replied: “Everything we do is legal.”

CNN also asked Vought if the Trump administration would abide by decisions of the Supreme Court on any of the many issues that are working their way through the court system. But Vought would not answer the question, saying only: “I’m here to talk about reconciliation with the Senate.”

During a meeting with GOP senators, also attended by Trump border czar Tom Homan, the two Trump officials stressed to the lawmakers the critical need to pass more border funding “soon.” They did not put a date on “soon,” according to several senators who attended the meeting.

Border security money will be included in competing budget reconciliation bills making their way through the House and Senate.

But the Senate wants to pass a stripped-down border, defense, energy bill quickly now while the House wants to couple those items with extension of Trump tax cuts and other items in one large bill which could take longer to complete. Speaker Mike Johnson believes that’s the most effective way to pass the bill in his narrowly divided chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled on Tuesday that Democrats are not ready yet to say they’ll force a government shutdown next month to oppose the Trump administration’s rollback of the federal government, instead placing blame on Republicans if funding talks go awry.

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju if Democrats plan to use negotiations over a deal to fund the government by March 14 as a means to rein in Elon Musk, Schumer answered:

“Here’s the bottom line. The Republicans are already shutting down good chunks of the government. Democrats don’t want a shut down, but it’s in Republicans hands. It’s up to them.”

Schumer said Democrats are “certainly going to make an effort” to include language in appropriations bills to undo “lots of the many things that they’ve done that are wrong,” when asked if they’ll try to codify protections for USAID or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Pressed on the Republican argument that the Trump administration is delivering on promises the president made to the American people to cut back on government waste, Schumer answered, “Everyone knows there’s waste in government and should be cut, but DOGE is using a meat ax, and they’re cutting things that are efficient and effective,” citing community health centers in his home state of New York.

Two Republican House members announced a new task force on the “declassification of federal secrets” on Tuesday.

House Oversight Chair James Comer said the task force, which will be led by GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, will build off the executive order signed by President Donald Trump to release files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Luna added that the task force will also investigate the “client list” of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) and Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs).

“This is not a conspiracy theory investigating committee,” Luna said. “We’re actually looking to present truth to the American people.”

Along with Luna, the task force will include GOP Reps. Tim Burchett, Lauren Boebert, Eric Burlison, Eli Crane, Brandon Gill and Nancy Mace. But Luna said she wants the task force to be “a beacon of bipartisanship.”

Luna said she plans to have her first task force hearing in March and has already initiated close to a dozen communications with various agencies to including the Department of Justice and the Department of State.

Jordan’s leader, King Abdullah II, said his country maintains its “steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank” following his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington.

Trump reasserted his plan for the US to take control of Gaza and remove Palestinians from the enclave during a joint press conference with the king on Tuesday. At the time, Abdullah did not outright reject the president’s idea, though he advised they should “not get ahead of ourselves” and indicated alternative proposals would be forthcoming.

In a post on X later on Tuesday, Abdullah said there was a “unified Arab position” against the displacement of Palestinians.

“Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” he said.

Abdullah also described the talks with Trump as “constructive.”

Trump’s plan would involve Jordan and Egypt accepting millions of new Palestinian refugees, an idea that both countries have resisted.

United Nations experts on Tuesday condemned US President Donald Trump’s plans to “take over” Gaza and move the Palestinian population elsewhere, saying that doing so would return the world to the colonial era.

“Implementing the US proposal would shatter the most fundamental rules of the international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945, that the US was instrumental in creating to restore peace after the catastrophic Second World War and Holocaust. It would return the world to the dark days of colonial conquest,” warned dozens of UN human rights special rapporteurs in a joint statement.

The experts said the mass deportation of civilians from occupied territory was recognized as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 after the Second World War, “to prevent the recurrence of acts such as Nazi Germany’s expulsion of populations from European countries.”

“Today, it is also a crime against humanity,” they said.

Trump’s plan would “break the global taboo on military aggression and embolden other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, with devastating consequences for peace and human rights globally,” they added.

The president reiterated his plan to take control of Gaza on Tuesday. Trump told reporters at the White House he believes the United States “will have Gaza,” citing “US authority” to claim the enclave, which he said he’d like to see developed into lucrative property for resorts and office buildings.

CNN’s Donald Judd contributed reporting

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, will not need to file a public financial disclosure, the White House says.

Musk, whose companies have billions of dollars in government contracts, is currently in the process of dismantling many parts of the federal government through the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative.

“As an unpaid special government employee who is not a commission officer, he will file a confidential financial disclosure report per the norm,” a White House official told CNN.

Ethics guidelines do not require Musk to file a public disclosure, but questions remain about Musk’s many potential conflicts of interest.

The New York Times, which first reported the story, says Musk received ethics training this week, citing a White House official.

Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday warned the House not to hold up the process of advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda, including border security, as both chambers prepare to move forward with separate legislative strategies.

Senate Budget Commitee Chairman Lindsey Graham responded to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comment earlier in the day that the Senate’s plan to advance a bill prioritizing defense and border security issues first, followed by a second bill, was a “non-starter.”

“I’m going to do what I think is best with my colleagues to make America safe. If you listen to what I heard today and you’re hesitant to act that would be a problem,” Graham told CNN after Senate Republicans met behind closed doors with Trump’s border czar and budget director.

Graham said Tom Homan was “begging us for money,” and OMB Director Russell Vought told senators that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “out of money.”

“To my friends in the House, we’re moving because we have to. I wish you the best. I want one big, beautiful bill, but I cannot — and I will not go back to South Carolina and justify not supporting the president’s immigration plan,” Graham said.

Graham plans to advance a budget blueprint in his committee on Wednesday that includes $150 billion for the military and $175 billion for border security, leaving tax provisions to a separate bill later in the year. Meanwhile, House Republicans intend to advance their own budget resolution, including all of Trump’s priorities in one bill this week.

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday that he believes the United States “will have Gaza,” citing “US authority” to claim the enclave.

“We’re going to have it, we’re going to keep it, and we’re going to make sure that there’s going to be peace and there’s not going to be any problem, and nobody’s going to question it, and we’re going to run it very properly,” Trump said during a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II on Tuesday.

The president said he’d like to see Gaza developed into lucrative property for resorts and office buildings. Pressed by reporters in the Oval Office for what would allow the United States to seize control of the sovereign territory of Gaza, Trump replied, “under US authority.”

Also on Tuesday, Trump rebuffed the idea that the US might purchase the land in question.

“We’re not gonna have to buy … we’re gonna have Gaza, we don’t have to buy, there’s nothing to buy,” he said. “It’s a war-torn area. We’re going to take it, we’re going to hold it, we’re going to cherish it, we’re going to get it going eventually, where a lot of jobs are going to be created for the people in the Middle East. It’s going to be for the people in the Middle East, but I think it could be a diamond.”

President Donald Trump made no attempt Tuesday to soften his proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza and redevelop the land into premium housing, even as his guest in the Oval Office, King Abdullah II of Jordan, suggested the Arab world was opposed.

Instead, Trump repeated his view that Palestinians should be moved out of the devastated strip to “parcels” in third countries, including Jordan, despite the objections of those countries’ leaders.

“It’s not a complex thing to do. And with the United States being in control of that piece of land, a fairly large piece of land, you’re going to have stability in the Middle East for the first time,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Abdullah, seated next to Trump, did not outright reject the president’s idea. But his discomfort with the plan was obvious as he indicated alternate proposals for Gaza would be forthcoming.

“I think we have to keep in mind there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said. “I think the point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody?”

Later, Abdullah advised, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” even as Trump’s comments made obvious he was serious about moving forward with the plan he revealed one week ago.

Threat on cutting aid to Jordan: Trump said Tuesday that he does not need to threaten Jordan with financial aid to get them to accept Palestinians from Gaza as part of his proposed plan for US ownership of the region.

When asked if he was still considering withholding aid from Jordan and Egypt if they rejected the plan, Trump replied, “Well, I don’t want to say that, because we’ve had such a good relationship and we were doing so well just in the short time that we’ve been talking,” sitting next to Jordan’s king.

“No, I think we’ll do something. I don’t have to threaten with money,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “I think we’re above that,” Trump added.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting to this post.

President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East is leaving Russia with Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was jailed in Russia and deemed “wrongfully detained” by the United States, according to a statement from national security adviser Mike Waltz.

Waltz said that an “exchange” was made without specifying details, adding that it was a show of “good faith” from the Russians and a step in the right direction toward ending the war in Ukraine.

“Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia. President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the President’s advisors 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,” Waltz said in a statement.

As CNN previously reported, Fogel, 61, worked for nearly a decade as a history teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, where children of US diplomats were among his students.

He was arrested in August 2021 at an airport in Moscow while returning for the school year, after he was found carrying cannabis. He had traveled into the country with about 17 grams of cannabis, which his family and lawyer said was recommended by a doctor to treat “severe spinal pain.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he harbored some doubt as to whether Hamas will adhere to his imposed Saturday deadline to return hostages or face “all hell” breaking loose in Gaza.

“And you know, I have a Saturday deadline, and I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline personally,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday as het met with Jordan’s King Abdullah. That country has been a key part of negotiations that led to the current ceasefire.

“I think they, they want to play tough guy, but we’ll see how tough they are,” Trump added. He previously said he doubts whether many of the hostages are still alive. On Tuesday he repeated his desire to see Palestinians removed from the Gaza strip — a suggestion that many Palestinians and Arab nations in the region have flatly rejected.

Trump added that “all bets are off” in regard to the ceasefire if Hamas does not release all Israeli hostages by Saturday.

“I think they want to time because I think the people they have living are in such bad shape because they are sending the most healthy people out. Because they don’t want to send the least healthy people out. And there was an uproar when they saw the people from yesterday,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They either have them out by Saturday at 12:00, or all bets are off.”

President Donald Trump expressed confidence that the United States would be able to work out an arrangement with Egypt to take in Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, as he aims to take control of the region.

“The Palestinians, or the people that live now in Gaza, will be living beautifully in another location. They’re going to be living safely. They’re not going to be killed, murdered, and having to leave every 10 years,” Trump said from the Oval Office.

“We’re going to be able to work something, and I know we’ll be able to work something also with, I believe, not, not 100%, but 99% we’re going to work out something with Egypt,” Trump said.

Jordanian King Abdullah, who is in the US to meet with Trump on Tuesday, said he would take “2,000 children” from the Gaza Strip who are ill, including with cancer, to his country “as quickly as possible,” which Trump called “fantastic.”

“I didn’t know that. What you just said, 2,000 children with cancer or other problems, and that’s really a beautiful gesture. That’s really good, and we appreciate it. And we’ll be working with Egypt, I think you’re going to see some great progress. I think with Jordan, you’re going to see some great progress, three of us, and we’ll have some others helping, and we’re going to have some others at a very high level helping, and the whole thing will come,” Trump said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted Sen. Lindsey Graham’s budget reconciliation proposal is a “nonstarter.”

“I’ve expressed that to him, there is no animus or daylight between us. We all are trying to get to the same achievable objectives.”

Johnson added, “What I’ve been very clear about is that we are moving towards a one bill reconciliation strategy in the House, because it’s the only way, I think, to achieve all of the important objectives that we have before us.”

Johnson highlighted the importance of the Budget Committee’s Thursday markup of the spending bill and confirmed that he has maintained strong communication with chairman Jodey Arrington.

Additionally, the speaker and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, a source told CNN.

This post has been updated with details of Johnson and Thune’s meeting.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams thanked the Justice Department on Tuesday for directing prosecutors to drop the federal corruption case against him, saying he never broke the law or traded power for personal benefit.

Adams praised the department’s decision for “ending a months-long saga that put me, my family and this city through an unnecessary ordeal. As I said from the outset, I never broke the law and I never would. I would never put any personal benefit above my solemn responsibility as your mayor.”

Adams forcefully defended himself again from accusations he said had resulted in the “most difficult 15 months” of his life.

“I thank the Justice Department for its honesty,” he added. “Now, we can put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of our city. It’s time to move forward.”

Specific details of “reciprocal” tariffs that President Donald Trump has promised to impose on US trading partners who have barriers to US exports to their countries, will not be announced this week, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said.

Instead, Navarro told CNN Tuesday that Trump this week will announce that the secretaries of Treasury, Commerce and the US Trade Representative will study the tariffs and other trade barriers that are now in place.

“There’s no reciprocal tariffs yet,” he said. “Let’s not jump the gun. What’s going to happen is we’re going to look at all of our trading partners, starting with the ones with which we run the biggest deficits with, find out if they’re cheating the American people, and if they are we’re going to take measures to correct that wrong.”

Remember: Trump had indicated in earlier remarks that actual reciprocal tariffs would be announced this week, but Navarro’s comments indicate this is just the start of a process. Navarro also defended the process of retaliatory measures against America’s largest trading partners.

“Reciprocal trade. It’s the most fair thing in the world,” he said. “If they’re cheating us, then that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to travel to Kyiv this week for discussions with Ukrainian officials about the country’s critical mineral deposits, two people familiar with his plans told CNN. President Donald Trump has said he wants access to the minerals in exchange for continued US aid to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he planned to meet with “serious people” from the Trump administration in Ukraine this week, before he heads to the Munich Security Conference, but he did not reveal who he would be meeting with.

“I told them that I want the equivalent like $500B worth of rare earth,” Trump told Fox News in an interview Sunday. “And they’ve essentially agreed to do that so at least we don’t feel stupid.”

Zelensky posted on X that they would not be handed over for free.

“Ukraine is open to partnerships, but our resources are not something we simply hand over—even to our closest allies,” he wrote. “Strategic cooperation must be mutually beneficial.”

But the Ukrainian president has signaled an openness in the past to allowing the US to access Ukraine’s natural resources, including its deposits of critical minerals like graphite, lithium, titanium, beryllium and uranium.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told NBC on Sunday that the minerals could be a way for the US to “recoup” the costs of supporting Ukraine throughout the war.

“We need to recoup those costs and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in terms of their rare earths, their natural resources and their oil and gas, and also buying ours,” he said. “Those conversations are going to happen this week.”

CNN’s Alex Marquardt contributed to reporting in this post.

President Donald Trump is welcoming Jordan’s King Abdullah II to the White House, where the leaders are expected to meet and discuss Gaza amid Trump’s plan for the US to seize control and redevelop the strip.

Trump appears intent on negotiating his farfetched plan into reality.

“I’m talking about starting to build,” Trump said over the weekend, “and I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt.”

Trump has also suggested that he could withhold aid from Jordan and Egypt if they do not accept Palestinians as part of his plan of US ownership of Gaza — a proposal Arab leaders have rejected.

The meeting also comes after Trump on Monday urged Israel to cancel its ceasefire deal with Hamas and “let all hell break out” if Hamas does not return hostages still being held in Gaza by noon on Saturday.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Gaza ceasefire will end if Hamas does not release hostages as planned on Saturday.

“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon — the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is completely defeated,” Netanyahu said in a video statement Tuesday.

Speaking after a security cabinet meeting, the Israeli leader added that he ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to gather “inside and around the Gaza Strip,” in response to Hamas’ decision to “violate the agreement and not release our hostages.”

An Israeli official told CNN the cabinet expects the release of all nine hostages scheduled in the first phase of the ceasefire deal “within a few days.”

“Hamas violated the agreement and therefore there will be no progress in the further implementation of the agreement and in negotiations on Phase B – without the return of our hostages,” the official told CNN.

US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Israel to cancel the ceasefire and “let all hell break out” unless Hamas release all remaining hostages by Saturday, a demand that goes beyond the deal hashed out between the militant group and Israel.

The House Budget Committee scheduled a Thursday meeting to vote on the budget blueprint outlining the goals of their sweeping bill to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda — setting up a showdown with Senate Republicans who are advancing a much narrower plan.

House GOP leaders have yet to release details of the plan as they continue to haggle over its many details. But it’s expected to be much broader and more expensive than the Senate plan.

An identical non-binding budget resolution must be adopted by both chambers before they can move on the binding legislation through what’s known as the reconciliation process, which can’t be filibustered in the Senate.

Earlier, GOP Rep. Ralph Norman brushed off the Senate’s plan to move forward with a two-bill strategy this week, and said, “It’s different than what we’ve got.”

“We’ve got the most legitimate bare-bones cuts, which is what we promised American people, than any plan out there,” he said, adding that the Senate proposal is incomplete and in some places “numbers hadn’t been included.”

Norman said House members met with senators last night to discuss budget strategy but made clear that “spending starts with the House.”

Meanwhile, as budget talks remain stalled in the House, Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris told CNN that the House should take up the budget blueprint from Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham once it passes the Senate.

Harris’s remarks are a reflection of the growing impatience among many House Republican, who are eager to put a legislative win on the board for Trump. It also puts him at odds with House GOP leadership.

Graham took a swing at House Speaker Mike Johnson’s one bill strategy on Monday, saying though he wishes they could get it done that way “reality is something altogether different.” Graham plans to hold a vote in his panel on a bill including defense and border security funds on Wednesday.

This post has been updated with more details on budget talks.

President Donald Trump on Monday imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States with no exceptions or exemptions.

The tariffs were imposed Monday with no exceptions or exemptions. The US gets most of its imported steel from Canada, followed by Brazil and Mexico. Meanwhile, China, the world’s largest steel producer, accounted for only around 1.8% of US-imported steel last year.

Mexico’s Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, said Tuesday that the tariffs are “not justified” when it comes to his country because Mexico imports more steel from the United States than it exports there anyway.

Ebrard said he would hold consultations with the Trump administration to present Mexico’s views on the tariffs soon.

Meanwhile, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said his country will respond “strongly and firmly” to the United States’ tariffs on both steel and aluminum – if it needs to.

Watch CNN’s Phil Mattingly explain Trump’s tariffs:
CNN’s Phil Mattingly breaks down three strategic rationales for President Trump’s approach to a cornerstone of his legislative agenda, tariffs. #trump #cnn #cnnnews #tariff #tariffsandtaxes
CNN’s Michael Rios, Karol Suarez and Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting to this post.

The US central bank is in no rush to slash interest rates any time soon, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers Tuesday.

“With our policy stance now significantly less restrictive than it had been and the economy remaining strong, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance,” Powell said in prepared remarks.

The Fed chief is testifying on Capitol Hill as part of his semiannual monetary policy report.

How people are responding: His comments were met with disdain from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who accused Powell and the central bank of playing politics as the Trump administration aggressively restructures the federal government and cuts down on regulations.

Warren also criticized the Fed for holding interest rates steady in its latest meeting last month.

“I urge you to move more rapidly to bring down interest rates, beginning with a meaningful rate cut next month. You have proven you can move quickly when it is politically expedient,” Warren said during Powell’s semiannual testimony on monetary policy before the Senate Banking Committee.

On tariffs: Powell is currently unsure whether consumers will necessarily feel the pinch of tariffs, he said on Tuesday. Whether it’s an exporter, an importer or a middle man, “somebody’s got to pay the tariff,” he testified at the Senate Banking Committee hearing.

Powell acknowledged that the tariffs Trump has enacted could cause inflation to heat up — but said it’s too soon to tell.

This post has been updated with additional details.

A pair of career officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) resigned on Tuesday following orders by the watchdog group’s acting director to stand down from all work, CNN has learned.

Lorelei Salas, supervising director at the CFPB, sent an email Tuesday morning announcing her decision.

“The Bureau has been instructed to stand down. I do not believe it is appropriate, nor lawful, to stop all supervisory activities and examinations, and I can no longer serve as the Supervisor Director,” Salas wrote in the email, which was viewed by CNN.

Another career official, Eric Halperin, said he has decided to resign from his role as enforcement director.

“As you know we have been ordered to cease all work,” Halperin wrote in a separate email. “I don’t believe in these conditions I can effectively serve in my role, which is protecting American consumers. Today I made the difficult decision to resign effective today.”

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan responded to Pope Francis’ criticism over migrant deportation policies in the US.

“Stick to the Catholic Church, leave border enforcement to us,” Homan told reporters from the White House on Tuesday.

“He wants to attack us from securing our border, he’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?” Homan added.

On Tuesday, Pope Francis strongly criticized the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants in a letter to the US bishops. The Pope cautioned that forcibly removing people solely due to their undocumented status strips them of their fundamental dignity and “will end badly,” according to Vatican News.

Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier is expected to be the new top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, replacing former Rep. Susan Wild, who lost re-election, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Democrats made the announcement during their closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, the source said.

The panel came under the spotlight for its investigation into former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz during the last Congress.

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said he is not satisfied with the number of arrests made by immigration officials in the US.

“I’m not satisfied, there is more criminal aliens that need to be arrested,” Homan told reporters from the White House Tuesday. “The numbers are good, for me, not good enough, we have to get more.”

Homan also sent a salient message to sanctuary cities. “Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don’t want, more agents in their neighborhoods and more criminals getting arrested because they forced us in their community,” he warned.

Since taking office, Trump and his administration have been targeted sanctuary cities with executive orders and agency actions designed to pressure them into carrying out his immigration agenda.

Cities such as San Francisco in California and Portland in Oregon have since sued the Trump administration alleging it has threatened and unlawfully targeted sanctuary jurisdictions, as CNN has reported.

House Democrats launched a rapid response task force as their latest attempt to counter the messaging battle they are attempting to fight against President Donald Trump on multiple fronts.

The group will be led by Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse and supported by Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro, Gerry Connolly and Jamie Raskin.

The task force will also be a litigation working group, to partner with the groups who are challenging some of the executive actions and Department of Government Efficiency efforts in court.

“It’s an all hands on deck effort simultaneously underway in Congress, the Courts and the Community” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter announcing the task force.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already found billions of dollars in “fraud, waste and abuse” in what he characterized as the United States’ “incompetently run Government.”

In a post on Truth social, Trump also criticized “certain activists and highly political judges” who “want us to slow down, or stop.”

The comments come as Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials have attacked judges who have blocked some of the president’s second term orders.

The courts have so far moved to halt Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal grants and loans and gut government agencies like USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. One judge has also moved to prevent DOGE officials from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system.

Elon Musk lashed out at the judge, calling him “corrupt” and posting to X: “He needs to be impeached NOW!”

Vance also posted over the weekend, questioning the judicial branch’s authority to block Trump’s orders.

“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote on X.

Pope Francis has criticized the Trump administration’s program of deporting migrants and rebutted US Vice President JD Vance’s use of theology to defend the crackdown.

“I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” the pope wrote in a letter to the bishops of the United States.

He added: “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”

In his letter the 88-year-old pontiff said every country had the right to “keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival” and to ensure orderly migration.

But the pope said deporting people who have fled their homeland due to factors such as extreme poverty, persecution and the deterioration of the environment “damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families” and makes them defenceless and vulnerable.

Remember: On the eve of Trump’s inauguration last month, Francis, who has made the protection of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, described the planned migrant deportations as a “disgrace.”

Trump has previously criticized Francis. In 2016, after the pope suggested the then-presidential candidate was “not Christian,” Trump fired back, saying Francis’ comments were “disgraceful.”

The pope’s letter was dated February 10 and released on Tuesday, the same day the Vatican announced that Francis had appointed a pro-migrant bishop, Edward Weisenburger, as Archbishop of Detroit. The bishop has in the past suggested “canonical penalties” should be imposed on Catholics involved in separating children from their families at the US-Mexico border. His appointment of Weisenburger also comes after his nomination of Cardinal Robert McElroy, a critic of Trump, as Archbishop of Washington, DC, who has said the deportation of migrants is incompatible with Catholic teaching.

Judges stopped the implementation of Trump’s policies in five different ways on Monday. Here’s a look at the legal moves:

• A judge temporarily reinstated the top investigator for federal workforce whistleblowers

• Another judge blocked the birthright citizenship executive order

• The National Institute of Health (NIH) cuts to research universities were stopped in 22 states

• The exit plan for federal workers was put on hold for longer

• And, a judge told the administration it needed to reinstate funding for environmental and health groups, in an order that said smacked the administration for not following a prior court ruling

Fast-moving process: These cases are moving fast and the courts are largely trying to maintain the status quo before too much damage is done. They are stepping in quickly to do things like stopping cutbacks to the federal workforce, reinstating frozen federal funding; protecting private data from Department of Government Efficiency’s tinkering.

But there are so many ways the Trump administration is trying these policy implementations and so many new cases with impact on vast swaths of American life are having emergency proceedings each day.

One of the most significant new matters to pop up on Monday is the trio of lawsuits in a Massachusetts federal court, where essentially the entire academic and medical communities nationwide are warning of catastrophe because of the NIH pulling back funding it provides toward researchers. Right now, the court has stopped the NIH cost cuts in 22 states, after dozens of university and health care leaders spoke up with specifics on how their work and their patients would be hurt. Heavyweight lawyers are seeking to expand the court’s intervention to research labs and clinics nationwide.

The progress of the court cases themselves are revealing that in some situations, the administration is either slow to follow court orders, disorganized in communicating what’s happening to Department of Justice lawyers appearing in court, or perhaps intentionally flouting judges’ orders. The executive branch is also beginning to argue more forcefully, in at least three cases, that the courts shouldn’t be involved in decisions like these that the president makes and that he should have the power to manage the executive branch as he chooses.

Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 with the hopes of turning it into “the everything app” that will let users zap money to each other and where they could eventually conduct their “entire financial world.”

Days after Musk attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration this year, Twitter, now known as X, made its first major step towards building a financial ecosystem. X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the launch of a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments platform in partnership with Visa, to be launched later this year.

Now, Musk is at the forefront of the effort to gut the primary federal financial regulator overseeing the payments business: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“RIP CFPB,” Musk posted on X last week, with a tombstone emoji.

Hours later, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is led by Musk, deleted the CFPB’s X account and was granted access to the consumer watchdog’s systems, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Since then, the CFPB’s acting director has instructed employees to “stand down” from all work – including fighting financial abuse.

All of this is alarming consumer advocates and ethics experts, who say there is a glaring conflict of interest between the world’s richest person simultaneously presiding over the shutdown of the CFPB while also owning businesses that would benefit from weakened financial regulation.

Read more about concerns over conflicts of interest here.

The Trump administration’s effort under the Trump administration to cut back on federal funding from the National Institute of Health, for research programs at universities and medical systems, has been blocked nationwide.

On Monday, lawyers representing dozens of research institutions told Judge Angel Kelley of the federal district court of Massachusetts, that the change “will devastate critical public health research at universities and research institutions in the United States. Without relief from NIH’s action, these institutions’ cutting edge work to cure and treat human disease will grind to a halt.”

Virtually the entire Academic and medical communities across the country went to court seeking emergency help.

In hundreds of pages of sworn statements, more than 30 medical system research directors and university leaders describe how research funding cutbacks would devastate their work and harm patients.

One chemistry professor from the State University of New York who studies Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s Disease wrote that the cost reduction by the NIH “will cost thousands of Americans their lives.”

More on legal challenges: A second lawsuit on Monday from American research universities –helmed by prominent conservative lawyer Paul Clement and other major attorneys–also told the court the NIH cuts would “devastate medical research.”

A third similar lawsuit filed Monday from major groups representing medical schools, pharmacy schools and hospitals had asked Kelley to expand her initial action to apply not just to states that had sued.

Judge Kelley agreed with 22 Democrat-led states that cost cutting should be blocked temporarily.

Late Monday night, Kelley expanded the pause on the NIH cost-cutting nationwide, writing the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services and “their officers, employees, servants, agents, appointees, and successors are hereby enjoined from taking any steps to implement, apply, or enforce” the NIH cost-cutting “in any form with respect to institutions nationwide until further order is issued by this Court.”

It’s another busy day in Washington, DC, so let’s take a look at what to expect on Tuesday.

In the morning, President Donald Trump will attend a bilateral meeting with the King and Crown Prince of Jordan in the Oval Office, according to the White House.

After the meeting with the king of Jordan, Trump will sign executive orders in the Oval Office at 3 p.m. ET, the White House said.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance is in France for an AI summit. He arrived at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday morning and was greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

There is now a growing list of court proceedings challenging President Donald Trump’s executive actions as he seeks to reshape the federal government in his first weeks in office.

In at least two of those cases, litigants have accused the administration of not complying with federal judges’ orders, though it’s not clear yet if that is intentional.

Here’s the latest legal news:

US President Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine may fall under Russian control “someday,” as he called for the war-torn country to share its natural resources in exchange for US assistance.

Trump, whose return to power has thrown doubt over billions of dollars in US aid to Ukraine, told Fox News on Monday that he had told Kyiv he wanted “$500 billion worth of rare earth.”

Ukrainian officials had “essentially agreed” to the proposal, he claimed.

Ukraine has “tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things,” Trump said. “I want to have our money secured, because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars.

“They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we are going to have all this money in there and I say I want it back.”

Trump, who has been vocal about the need for a quick end to the conflict, had earlier floated the idea of meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week.

His envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Gen. Keith Kellogg, announced he would discuss their vision for peace in Ukraine with allies at the Munich Security Conference, on February 14-16. Kellogg is then expected to visit Kyiv four days later, according to Ukrainian state media.

The Kremlin echoed Trump’s remarks.

“The fact that a significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russian, and the fact that it has already become Russian is (undeniable),” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

Peskov acknowledged it as a “50% probability” and stated that a significant part of Ukraine already wishes to become Russia, referring to the referendum held in the occupied parts of Ukraine.

The body of water formerly known in the United States as the Gulf of Mexico is now listed for US-based users of Google Maps as the Gulf of America.

The change follows an executive order by US President Donald Trump renaming the area. Google previously said it had “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”

“People using Maps in the US will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” it said.

Google said last month it would also change the name of Mount McKinley, the nation’s highest peak, from Denali following Trump’s order. Former President Barack Obama renamed the Alaska landmark to Denali in 2015 as a nod to the region’s native population. But that change hasn’t been made on Google Maps as of Tuesday morning.

Both changes stem from an executive action that Trump signed shortly after taking office, saying the changes “honor American greatness.”

The order criticized Obama’s decision to rename McKinley as “an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice.” Drawing parallels to Trump, the order notes that McKinley “championed tariffs” and was assassinated “in an attack on our Nation’s values and our success.”

Every day, Donald Trump shatters previous understandings of the presidency and America’s role in the world.

But in his rush to wield vast power and fulfill campaign promises, the new commander in chief is straining the rule of law and gambling with global stability.

Before his second term began, it was assumed that a president wouldn’t simply refuse to spend billions of dollars already authorized by Congress and deploy a private citizen, like Elon Musk, to obliterate huge government agencies enshrined in US law.

The idea that the White House would simply ignore a court order was more a theoretical question for a law school seminar than a potential reality.

Trump has done all this and more — at the risk of igniting constitutional crises at home and turmoil abroad.

Domestically, Trump is posing threats to the rule of law on multiple fronts. And only three weeks into his term, many legal analysts believe that the country is heading to an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

A comment by Vice President JD Vance appeared to raise the possibility that the White House would refuse to accept court rulings on its most controversial programs.

“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance said, reflecting this young White House’s tendency to simply decree the legality of presidential action and disregard other branches of government.

Growing fears of a lawless administration are fueled by multiple signs that Trump sees the rule of law as an inconvenience.

Read the full analysis.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is bringing the name Bragg back to one of the Army’s largest bases, Fort Liberty, which replaced the namesake of a Confederate general in 2023.

But in a memorandum signed Monday, Hegseth instructed the Army to rename the North Carolina military installation in honor of a different Bragg: Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II veteran who was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for extraordinary bravery during the Battle of the Bulge.

Before it was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023, the fort was named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, who drew criticism for his combative personality and poor field performance during the Civil War. A naming commission set up by Congress to study renaming bases noted Bragg is “considered one of the worst generals of the Civil War,” and was “widely disliked in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army and within the Confederate Army by peers and subordinates alike.”

Hegseth, a National Guard veteran and former longtime Fox News host, opposed removing the names of Confederate generals from US military bases and has described the renaming efforts as “a sham,” “garbage,” and “crap” in various media appearances. He has also suggested they should be changed back, particularly Fort. Bragg.

“We should change it back by the way,” he said last year. “We should change it back. We should change it back. We should change it back, because legacy matters. My uncle served at Bragg. I served at Bragg. It breaks a generational link.”

President Donald Trump has urged Israel to cancel its ceasefire deal with Hamas and “let all hell break out” if Hamas does not return hostages still being held in Gaza by noon on Saturday.

Hamas had threatened to postpone the next hostage release scheduled to take place on Saturday “until further notice,” accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire deal.

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” the president said Monday.

Pressed on what “all hell” might entail in Gaza, Trump said, “You’ll find out, and they’ll find out — Hamas will find out what I mean.”

Trump expressed skepticism that many hostages remain alive to release, telling reporters, “I think a lot of the hostages are dead.”

He said explicitly that Palestinians would not have a right to return to Gaza under his plan to take US ownership of the strip and rebuild it.

“No, they wouldn’t,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News when asked whether the Palestinians would have a right to return. “Because they will have much better housing. Much better – in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”

Trump’s assertion that Palestinians wouldn’t be entitled to return to Gaza is certain to deepen international opposition to the proposal, which drew outcry when he first announced it last week at a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Donald Trump is removing the head of the Office of Government Ethics from his post, the agency said Monday — the latest example of the president acting against a government watchdog.

The agency’s director, David Huitema, was confirmed to the post by the Senate in November. He had been nominated by President Joe Biden but had languished for more than a year in the Senate before lawmakers confirmed him by a 50-46 vote during a post-election lame-duck session.

A statement on the agency website reads: “OGE has been notified that the President is removing David Huitema as the Director of OGE. OGE is reverting to an Acting Director.”

Read more details here about Huitema’s ouster

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and its sweeping freeze on foreign assistance has made it more difficult to track potential misuse of US taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance, the agency’s independent watchdog said.

This means the money could end up unintentionally going to terrorist groups, according to a new report from the USAID Inspector General’s office.

The reports conclusion appears to undermine President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s arguments that their moves to abolish the agency will curtail fraud and fraud.

Although the report notes that the office has long “identified significant challenges and offered recommendations to improve Agency programming to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse,” it makes clear that the slashing of USAID personnel as well as the foreign assistance freeze have negatively impacted efforts at oversight.

“Recent 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,” the report said.

USAID requires that programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen receive “partner vetting,” in order to ensure that taxpayer funds do not end up supporting groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, or the Houthis. According to the report, these vetting efforts have ground to a halt because of the reduction in staff at USAID.

Read the full story.

A federal judge has extended a pause on the deadline set by the Trump administration for federal workers to accept a deferred resignation and temporarily prohibited the government from soliciting more so-called buyouts.

The temporary restraining order announced from the bench on Monday by US District Judge George O’Toole will remain in place for now until the judge decides if he should indefinitely pause the offer’s deadline pending further court proceedings over the legality of the buyout program.

CNN’s Tami Luhby, Alayna Treene and Tierney Sneed contributed reporting.
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