‘More than 1 million’ federal workers have responded to Doge’s ‘what did you do last week’ email, White House claims
Asked when is the deadline referred to in Elon Musk’s deadline second email to federal workers, Leavitt says agency heads will “determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies”.
“The secretaries are responsible for their specific workforce, and this is true of the hirings and the firings that have taken place,” she says.
She adds that unless their agency has told them not to, workers should reply to the email.
She claims more than a million workers have so far responded, including herself.
It took me about a minute and a half to think of five things I did last week. I do five things in about ten minutes, and all federal workers should be working at the same pace that President Trump is working.
Key events
Trump reinstated an executive order requiring cost transparency in health care
The executive order requires hospitals to publish online the prices for some of their most common services, including MRI scans and caesarean section deliveries. The lack of transparency has often left patients shocked by medical bills.
Trump previously issued a similar order during the final year of his first term, but it was later rescinded by former President Joe Biden.
Hospitals and insurers had strongly opposed the rule, with many failing to comply.
“It’s been unpopular in some circles because people make less money,” Trump said. “But it’s great for the patient. It’s great for the people in our country.”
Fox News senior White House correspondent, Jacqui Heinrich, condemned the Trump administration’s decision to determine which outlets have access to the president as part of the press pool, a selection that the White House Correspondents’ Association makes.
“This move does not give the power back to the people – it gives power to the White House,” Heinrich posted on X. “The WHCA is democratically elected by the full-time White House press corps.”
“WHCA has determined pools for decades because only representatives FROM our outlets can determine resources all those outlets have – such as staffing – in order to get the President’s message out to the largest possible audience, no matter the day or hour,” she added.
USAid staffers have only 15 minutes to retrieve belongings from their former offices, according to The Associated Press.
For nearly three weeks, many staffers at the agency’s main building in Washington have been barred from entering as the administration continues dismantling the facility.
Several employees have requested permission to retrieve personal items, including family photos and work shoes stored in drawers.
The notice about the arrangements says that aid workers must undergo security screening before reentering.
The Guardian’s labor reporter Michael Sainato reports that, in the notice, staffers were told to “bring their own boxes, bags, tape, and/or other containers to remove their personal items; these items will not be provided”.
“Neither USAID, nor any of our assisting agencies, will provide boxes, tape, protective wrapping, or other packaging materials to assist with the retrieval process,” the notice reads.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending security clearances for lawyers at the Covington & Burling law firm that worked with special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith led the federal cases against Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents.
The order comes less than a month after the US justice department fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the criminal cases against Trump in a move to purge people who worked for Smith.
Donald Trump said he wants to begin selling gold cards for $5m to foreigners who want to move to the US and create jobs.
The president said the immigration program, which he said was legal, could start in about two weeks. He added it is possible Russian oligarchs could qualify for the gold cards.
“That’s going to give you Green Card privileges,” he said on Tuesday. “Plus, it’s going to be a route to citizenship and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”
White House officials said that the administration aims to end the EB-5 visa program and replace it with the gold card.
“They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” Trump added.
Edward Wong of the New York Times reports that Trump appointees at USAid have sent recently-fired employees a list of more than 100 weapons they are prohibited from bringing when returning to the office to collect their belongings.
Firearms, axes, martial arts weapons, including nunchucks and throwing stars, were in the list, as well as spearguns and dynamite.
Staff will collect their personal belongings at the Ronald Reagan Building this Thursday and Friday
There have been no known recent incidents of aid agency employees making weapon-related threats, Wong reports.
Trump signs executive order to launch investigation into foreign copper production
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday instructing the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to launch an investigation into whether foreign copper production and imports threaten US economic and national security.
According to White House officials, the investigation could lead to new tariffs on foreign copper, a material essential to manufacturing and construction, as well as critical to the US military and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The administration said it intends to move quickly on the investigation, but no timeline was given.
The day so far
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‘More than one million’ federal workers have responded to Elon Musk/Doge’s ultimatum email, the White House has claimed. Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also said agency heads will “determine the best practices” for dealing with the ‘what did you do last week’ email in terms of whether people should respond and who, if anyone, would get fired. NBC News reported that responses to the email will reportedly be fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether their jobs are necessary.
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In a significant shift of journalistic power, the White House press team will now decide which journalists and media outlets will make up the White House press pool. Leavitt said legacy outlets will still be allowed to join and participate in the press pool, but the “privilege” will also be extended to “new voices” from “well-deserving outlets”. It builds on the decision to revoke the Associated Press’s full access to presidential events over its continued use of “Gulf of Mexico” as opposed to “Gulf of America”.
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Some 40% of the federal contracts that the Trump administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money, the administration’s own data shows. Doge last week published an initial list of 1,125 contracts that it terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. Data published on Doge’s “wall of receipts” shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings.
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Elon Musk will attend Trump’s first official cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Leavitt confirmed at the White House press briefing.
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Meanwhile, more than 20 civil service employees resigned from Doge, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services. “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”
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House speaker Mike Johnson hinted that the planned budget vote might not go ahead this evening. The budget resolution is on thin ice after at least four GOP lawmakers have come out against it, amid internal ideological turmoil in the party over proposed cuts to Medicaid. Given the slim majority in the House, Johnson can’t afford to lose more than one Republican vote, assuming both parties are in full attendance.
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A federal judge in Seattle blocked the Trump administration’s effort to halt the nation’s refugee admissions system. US district judge Jamal Whitehead said in his ruling after the hearing on Tuesday that the president’s actions amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions program. “The president has substantial discretion … to suspend refugee admissions,” Whitehead told the parties. “But that authority is not limitless.”
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A US judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration from instituting a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal funding by pausing grants, loans and other financial support. US district judge Loren AliKhan in Washington wrote that while some funds had become unfrozen since she first temporarily blocked the administration’s spending pause, there remained a risk the administration might again try to shut off funding. The judge said for those reasons she agreed with groups representing nonprofits and small business that a preliminary injunction was necessary blocking a further funding freeze.
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A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients by 11.59pm on Wednesday night, saying there was no sign that it had taken any steps to comply with his earlier order that the funds be unfrozen.
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The Senate confirmed Daniel Driscoll, an Iraq war veteran and adviser to JD Vance, as secretary of the army.
Donald Trump was scheduled to sign yet another round of executive orders in the Oval Office at 3pm ET today but he’s running behind. We’ll bring you updates as we get it.
The White House announcement this morning did not say what topics will be covered or how many will be signed.
Since taking office last month Trump has signed 73 executive orders, according to the office of the federal register – that’s more than any president since FDR in 1937.
Judge gives Trump administration Wednesday night deadline to pay foreign aid funds
This report is from Reuters.
A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Trump administration to pay foreign aid funds to contractors and grant recipients by 11.59pm on Wednesday night, saying there was no sign that it had taken any steps to comply with his earlier order that the funds be unfrozen.
US district judge Amir Ali’s order came in a telephone hearing in a lawsuit brought by organizations that contract with and receive aid from the US Agency for International Development and the State Department. It applies to work done before 13 February, when the judge issued his earlier temporary restraining order.
It was the third time Ali had ordered the administration officials to release foreign aid funds that were frozen after Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid, throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have said they will have to shut down completely if they are not paid soon. They allege that the administration has violated federal law and the US constitution in refusing to pay out the funds and in dismantling USAid.
The foreign aid agency on Sunday said that all of its staff except certain essential workers would be put on paid administrative leave, and that 1,600 positions in the US would be eliminated.
You can read more about USAid and what the freeze means for millions of people around the world here:
Judge extends block on Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding
This report is from Reuters.
A US judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking the Trump administration from instituting a sweeping freeze on trillions of dollars in federal funding by pausing grants, loans and other financial support.
US district judge Loren AliKhan in Washington wrote that while some funds had become unfrozen since she first temporarily blocked the administration’s spending pause, there remained a risk the administration might again try to shut off funding.
The judge said for those reasons she agreed with groups representing nonprofits and small business that a preliminary injunction was necessary blocking a further funding freeze.
“The injunctive relief that defendants fought so hard to deny is the only thing in this case holding potentially catastrophic harm at bay,” she wrote.
Those groups sued after the White House’s Office of Management and Budget on 27 January issued a memo directing federal agencies to temporarily pause spending on federal financial assistance programs.
That memo said the freeze was necessary while the administration reviewed grants and loans to ensure they are aligned with Trump’s executive orders, including ones ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and directing a pause on spending on projects seeking to combat climate change.
OMB later withdrew that memo after it became the subject of two lawsuits, one before AliKhan and another before a judge in Rhode Island by Democratic state attorneys general. But the plaintiffs argued the memo’s withdrawal did not mean the end of the policy itself.
They pointed to a social media post on X by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shortly after the memo was withdrawn saying: “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.”
Federal judge in Seattle blocks Trump’s effort to halt the refugee admissions system
This report is from the Associated Press.
A federal judge in Seattle has blocked Donald Trump’s effort to halt the nation’s refugee admissions system.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by major refugee aid groups, who argued that Trump’s executive order suspending the federal refugee resettlement program ran afoul of the system Congress created for moving refugees into the US.
Lawyers for the administration argued that Trump’s order was well within his authority to deny entry to foreigners whose admission to the US “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States”.
US district judge Jamal Whitehead said in his ruling after the hearing on Tuesday that the president’s actions amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will” in setting up the nation’s refugee admissions program.
“The president has substantial discretion … to suspend refugee admissions,” Whitehead told the parties. “But that authority is not limitless.”
Justice Department lawyer August Flentje indicated to the judge that the government would consider whether to file an emergency appeal.
The plaintiffs include the International Refugee Assistance Project on behalf of Church World Service, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and individual refugees and family members. They said their ability to provide critical services to refugees – including those already in the US – has been severely inhibited by Trump’s order.
Some refugees who had been approved to come to the US had their travel canceled on short notice, and families who have waited years to reunite have had to remain apart, the lawsuit said.
Peter Baker of the New York Times has compared the White House’s decision to take control of the press pool covering the president and its banning the Associated Press from key White House spaces to treatment of the press under the Kremlin. He wrote on X:
Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.
The message is clear. Given that the White House has already kicked one news organization out of the pool because of coverage it does not like, it is making certain everyone else knows that the rest of us can be barred too if the president does not like our questions or stories.
Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn’t pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions. Trump has just declared that he will.
Important to note, though: None of this will stop professional news outlets from covering this president in the same full, fair, tough and unflinching way that we always have. Government efforts to punish disfavored organizations will not stop independent journalism.
Lauren Gambino
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed “not one” Democratic vote on the Republican budget proposal that could come to the floor as early as this evening.
Jeffries declared from the steps of the US Capitol, surrounded by Democratic lawmakers and advocates:
Let me be clear, House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget. Not one, not one, not one.
The press conference was intended to be a show of protest against the Republican bill – the legislative vehicle for enacting Trump’s tax cut and immigration agenda. The minority leader is under pressure to stand up to the Republican majority. Activists have keyed in on the possible cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans.
Jeffries said:
The Republican budget represents the largest Medicaid cut in American history.
Children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Seniors will be devastated. Hospitals will be devastated, nursing homes will be devastated.
In an earlier press conference on Tuesday, House Republicans accused Democrats of “defending and even advocating for government waste, fraud and abuse”.
Lauren Gambino
At a rally on Capitol Hill, progressives lawmakers and activists railed against Republicans’ plan to enact Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut and immigration agenda. A vote could take place as early as this evening, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Opposition to the House budget resolution has been steadily building over the last few weeks. During last week’s recess, constituent anger over Republicans’ proposed cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs as well as Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government boiled over at town halls and Congressional offices across the country.
At the Capitol Hill protest, called Tax the Greedy Billionaires and headlined by MoveOn and Indivisible, Senator Chris Murphy assailed the Republican budget bill as the “most massive transfer of wealth and resources from poor people and the middle class to the billionaires and corporations in the history of this country”.
He continued:
You’re talking about $880 billion of cuts to Medicaid. And I get it like $880 billion like, what does that mean? Right? That’s a huge number. Nobody understands. Let me tell you what that means. That means that sick kids die in this country. That means that hospitals in depressed communities and rural communities close their doors, right? That means that drug and addiction treatment centers disappear all across this country.
Congressman Greg Casar, chair of the Progressive Caucus, compared the moment to the early days of Trump’s first term, when Congressional Republicans, newly in the majority, attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The effort prompted a widespread backlash and ultimately failed in the Senate, with a dramatic thumbs-down vote by the Arizona Republican John McCain.
“The American people won and those House Republicans lost,” Casar said. “We’re right back in the same situation, because today, something is happening in America. Americans are rising up to say, ‘We want a government by and for the people, not by and for the billionaires.’”
More on opposition to the Trump administration here:
Asked why Dan Bongino was named deputy director of the FBI rather than a current special agent, as is normal practice, Leavitt claims Bongino got the job because he understands the depth of “past corruption” at the agency.
The press briefing is over now.
