February 7, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

President Donald Trump downplayed concerns around Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to complex, secure systems containing millions of Americans data, instead suggesting that such systems are not secure.

Key context: CNN has reported that multiple lawsuits have accused the Trump administration of violating privacy law and other protections in allegedly allowing affiliates of the Musk-led DOGE to take control of highly restricted government IT systems.

Judges have moved swiftly — sometimes scheduling hearings on just a few hours’ notice — to try to understand what the DOGE affiliates are up to in reaching into the digital infrastructure through which the government carries some of its most fundamental operations.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed, Hannah Rabinowitz and Katelyn Polantz contributed reporting to this post.

President Donald Trump said he plans to “fire some” of the FBI agents who worked on the January 6 insurrection investigations, because he claimed, “some of them were corrupt.”

Pressed to clarify if these agents where the ones who worked on the investigations into the Capitol riot, Trump answered, “I don’t know, I know we have some that are very corrupt, and we don’t like it.”

“We’re going to bring back the reputation of the FBI. Kash Patel is going to do a great job and we bring back the reputation of the FBI, which has been hurt very badly. It’s been devastated over the last four years,” the president said, referring to his nominee to lead the agency.

Some background: FBI employees and the Justice Department agreed to a court order Friday that bars the DOJ from releasing a list of FBI employees who worked on January 6 cases — including the one against Trump — publicly, to the White House or to any other government agency without two days’ notice. The agreement is the latest in a series of debates over how to protect more than 5,000 FBI employees’ information which was gathered as part of a survey and handed over to Justice Department leadership.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during an interview with Reuters in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he is willing to strike a deal with US President Donald Trump that would exchange some of Ukraine’s mineral resources for security guarantees.

Trump has said he wants access to Ukraine’s mineral deposits in exchange for future military aid for the embattled country.

Zelensky also told Reuters that in a previous meeting with Trump he said it would be in Trump’s interest to contribute to Ukraine’s defense in order to prevent Russia from mining these resources, as part of Zelensky’s so-called “victory plan.”

Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 50 materials classed as “critical,” according to the Ukrainian government. The US largely depends on imports for these minerals.

While addressing the global interest in Ukraine’s mineral deposits from Trump and others, Zelensky stressed that a deal should entail a partnership.

“This is very rich land. This does not mean that we are giving it away to anyone, even to strategic partners. We are talking about partnership,” he said to Reuters. “Let’s develop this together.”

Zelensky also said that he is working to schedule a meeting with Trump.

“The coming weeks may be very intensive in diplomacy, and we will do what’s needed to make this time effective and productive,” Zelensky said on X.

“Weʼre also planning meetings and talks at the teams’ level. Right now Ukrainian and American teams are working out the details. A solid, lasting peace shall become closer,” he said.

Zelensky said that it was important that this meeting takes place before Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is very important. Otherwise it will look like a dialogue about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he told Reuters.

This satellite image taken February 7 shows new arrays of tents near an airstrip at the western edge of the base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Satellite imagery obtained from Planet Labs shows the expansion of the migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

On Tuesday, a military flight carrying migrants landed in Guantanamo Bay, according to a social media post from US Transportation Command. It was carrying around 10 migrants with criminal records, according to a Homeland Security official.

On Thursday, another military flight carrying 13 migrants with criminal convictions left from the El Paso area to Guantanamo Bay, according to two officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said today she is headed to the base.

The American Civil Liberties Union is requesting immediate access to the migrants recently transferred from immigration detention centers to the base, according to a Friday letter obtained by CNN.

This satellite image taken February 7 shows new tents at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this post.

Tom Krause — the only remaining person affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency who is allowed access to the nation’s federal payments system — is now an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, according to sources familiar with the matter.

A former tech executive with ties to Elon Musk, Krause has been installed in a top leadership position that has traditionally been filled by career civil servants.

Krause will be the first political appointee in modern history to oversee the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, an arcane but critical office within Treasury that processes more than $5 trillion in federal government payments a year, distributing everything from tax returns, to Social Security benefits, to bills other agencies need to pay.

The payments system has received significant attention and legal scrutiny over the past week as Krause and other DOGE personnel detailed to Treasury have sought to gain control over the critical piece of government infrastructure, which has traditionally been tightly managed by career civil servants, not political appointees.

Krause takes the role previously held by long-time career official David Lebryk, who departed last week after clashing with Krause and political leadership over their intentions of manipulating the BFS system to align with President Donald Trump’s political decisions.

Days after Trump took office, Krause pushed Lebryk to stop some USAID payments — a virtually unheard-of approach to using the system.

A federal judge earlier this week ordered that Krause and another DOGE-affiliated worker, who has apparently resigned from the department, were the only two working with Musk’s or the White House’s initiatives who could have access to the sensitive payment system records, in a “read-only” way, because of privacy needs around the information.

Litigation around the work of DOGE and its access to and intentions with sensitive government data continues.

US President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday.

Momentary relief was met with the stark reality Friday that President Donald Trump is not nearly done with his chaotic tariff regimen.

In remarks to reporters from the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said he will announce new so-called reciprocal tariffs next week, perhaps fulfilling a campaign pledge and a long-held desire to match foreign countries’ import taxes dollar-for-dollar to restore what the president believes is fairness to international trade.

That statement shook financial markets Friday after what had been a relatively quiet week for stocks. Although Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs on China went into effect Tuesday, and China retaliated against the United States with expanded tariffs of its own, markets rose a bit this week on relief that Trump pushed back plans for 25% tariffs on all goods coming in from Mexico and Canada.

Friday’s announcement of new potential tariffs that could hit all corners of the world rattled investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 400 points, or 0.9%. The broader S&P 500 also fell 0.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was 1.4% lower.

Trump said reciprocal tariffs would ensure “that we’re treated evenly with other countries” and could help reduce America’s budget deficit. Tariffs have served as a key part of Trump’s pledge to raise revenue to pay for the extension of his 2017 tax cut on top of other promised tax cuts.

But the tariffs themselves could represent an enormous tax hike on American consumers, who economists say ultimately pay the cost of tariffs.

CNN’s Matt Egan, Elisabeth Buchwald and Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.

Read more about Trump’s tariffs here.

President Donald Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday that he has directed Elon Musk to review “just about everything” including Pentagon and education spending.

“Have you directed Elon Musk to review Pentagon spending, given it’s the biggest discretionary spending?” Collins asked during Trump’s news conference with Japan’s prime minister.

“Yes, I have,” Trump told CNN.

“Pentagon, education, just about everything. We’re going to go through everything just as it was so bad with what we just went through, with this horrible situation we just went through. And I guess it’s 97% of the people have been dismissed,” the president said, seemingly referring to the dismantling of USAID.

CNN reported that less than one-third of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024 consisted of discretionary spending, which Congress approves annually. Nearly half of discretionary spending goes toward defense programs.

When pressed further by reporters on if there is anything Trump has told Musk that he cannot touch, the president said, “we haven’t discussed that much,” but that he does dictate what areas he wants Musk to work in.

The president said that he will “pick out a target” and tell Musk and his staffers to look into it. “There could be areas that we won’t, but I think everything’s fertile,” he said.

“I’ve instructed him, go into education, go into military, go into other things as we go along, and they’re finding massive amounts of fraud, abuse, waste, all of these things,” Trump added.

This post has been updated with more comments from Trump.

Vice President JD Vance speaks alongside President Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 30.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he agreed with Vice President JD Vance about bringing back a recent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer.

The 25-year-old recent employee Marko Elez, according to the Wall Street Journal, resigned from his role at DOGE following the newspaper’s reporting that linked him to a social media account with posts supporting racism and eugenics.

When a reporter in the East Room asked, “The vice president says, ‘bring him back,’ what do you say?” Trump was quick to respond, “Well, I don’t know about the particular thing, but if the vice president said that, I’m with the vice president.”

Soon after, Elon Musk posted on X: “He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Vance said on X earlier Friday said that he would support the rehiring of Elez.

“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance wrote. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,” Vance’s post read.

“So I say bring him back,” Vance continued. “If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that,” Vance concluded.

Some background: An account that appeared to be linked to Elez, who previously worked for Musk’s SpaceX company, posted a call to repeal the Civil Rights Act, an endorsement of a “eugenic” immigration policy and repeated anti-Indian screeds within the last year, archived posts show.

The racist messages were posted on an X account with the username @nullllptr, which has since been deleted, according to online archives of the site.

CNN has made multiple attempts to reach Elez to ask him about the postings, but has been unsuccessful.

CNN’s Casey Tolan and Andrew Kaczynski contributed reporting to this post, which has been updated with background on Elez’s posts.

Two foreign service officers stationed in Africa have detailed how the rapid dismantling of the US Agency for International Development will impact the work they are doing on the continent.

The USAID workers spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

One of the officers works in the health sector, specializing in HIV programming. She explained how USAID funds a global medical supply chain that runs through several countries in Africa, assisting in the dissemination of life-saving HIV and malaria medications, and antidiarrheals for children, with diarrhea being a leading cause of death in children in Africa.

The other officer specializes in democracy, human rights and governance, working to prevent and counter extremism in African countries. She has been working with government officials to provide resources and skills to people who recently defected from violent extremist groups, to reduce recruitment and weaken the groups overall.

But with the freeze on foreign aid, this assistance is expected to come to a halt, and she believes “the likelihood of people either being forcibly recruited or choosing to join the group would increase substantially because there’s no alternative in place.”

Both officers also helped answer contract or legal questions from partners on the ground, who work directly with aid recipients. They have now been cut off from their daily communication with those workers. The disconnect affects even high-ranking health officials from the countries where USAID is working, with the agency’s staff now unable to take calls from their own government.

Justin Trudeau speaks during the Canada-US Economic Summit in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Friday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a gathering on Friday that US President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada “is a real thing,” two Canadian business leaders who were at the meeting confirmed to CNN.

Trudeau’s comments, first reported by the Toronto Star, were picked up on an open microphone when Trudeau believed the media had been escorted out.

Trudeau made the comments after delivering an opening address at the summit, and after journalists had left the room, CBC reported.

Some context: In an interview with CNN prior to Trump’s inauguration, Trudeau said that Trump’s comments about turning Canada into the United States’ 51st state were just a distraction from the consequences of his tariff threats.

Trump followed through with his threats last week, announcing new tariffs against Canada. But after Trudeau made commitments to bolster security at Canada’s border, Trump announced Monday a pause on the tariffs for at least a month.

President Donald Trump said he plans to continue to have a relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his second term in office.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Trump said he thinks “it’s a very big asset for everybody that I do get along with him.”

Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if he wanted Trump to resume contact with the North Korean leader, Ishiba said that was something the US needed to decide for itself.

He said that he thinks it would “be great” to resolve issues with the country and that Japan would “love to continue cooperation with them.” Ishiba added that Japan and the US will work toward the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

“Regarding North Korea, we affirmed the need to address its nuclear and missile program which poses a serious threat to Japan, the US and beyond,” Ishiba said, speaking through a translator, about Trump’s possible efforts on these issues.

Some context: Over the past year, the North Korean leader has raised international concern by breaking with decades of policy toward South Korea — classifying it as a “permanent enemy.” He’s called on his army to accelerate war preparations in response to “confrontation moves” by the US — actions that came as the Biden administration strengthened ties and increased military drills with South Korea and Japan.

And then there’s the deepening of ties with Russia. The North Korean leader has met with his “closest comrade” Russian President Vladimir Putin twice since last September and inked a major defense pact in June.

CNN’s Simone McCarthy and Caitlin Danaher contributed reporting to this post which has been updated with additional remarks from Ishiba.

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that Japan’s Nippon Steel is looking at an “investment rather than a purchase” of US Steel, though the president appeared to say Nissan instead of Nippon in his remarks.

Nippon Steel’s multibillion-dollar proposal to buy struggling US Steel was blocked by President Joe Biden in the waning days of his term.

Biden said he was blocking the controversial $14.3 billion acquisition, marking a significant use of executive authority. He cited the need to protect national security and supply chains.

More context: The Nippon deal for US Steel was announced in December 2023 and drew bipartisan opposition, including from Biden, Trump and then-Senator JD Vance, as well as strong opposition from the United Steelworkers union (USW). US Steel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks, and Nippon declined to comment. But the USW said it is still concerned and urged Trump to push for a US buyer rather than investment from Nippon.

The union has argued that Nippon Steel is not interested in keeping the US Steel’s mills that make steel from raw materials, such as iron ore. Those mills in Pennsylvania and Indiana employ 11,000 USW members. The union argues Nippon only wants the non-union operations US Steel has in Texas where steel scrap is melted to make new steel.

But Nippon said it has promised to invest $2.7 billion in US Steel’s operations, including $1.3 billion in the mills in Pennsylvania and Indiana. US Steel has said without Nippon’s investment, it may have to close the unionized mills. But a rival American steelmaker, Cleveland-Cliffs, has offered to buy those mills and keep them operating.

This post has been updated with more details on the Nippon deal.

President Donald Trump meets with Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (not pictured) at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 7.

In remarks to reporters from the Oval Office on Friday, President Donald Trump said he will be making an announcement on reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week, “so that we’re treated evenly with other countries.”

Trump added that the additional levies would help shrink the nation’s budget deficit.

Later, during a joint news conference with Ishiba, Trump reiterated that reciprocal tariffs is the “only fair way to do it, that way nobody’s hurt.” He said he expects to meet about it Monday or Tuesday and make an announcement on it.

The move on reciprocal trade was one of Trump’s 2024 campaign promises. Trump ran on imposing tariffs on American imports with equal rates that trading partners place on American exports.

Some analysis on what this means: Unlike retaliatory tariffs, which tend to occur in response to one nation imposing tariffs on another, reciprocal tariffs are enacted as a means for one nation to attempt to get even with another, typically matching foreign nations’ tariffs dollar for dollar.

For instance, Trump has previously discussed employing reciprocal tariffs on nations that the US runs trade deficits with, meaning US imports from them exceed what America exports to them.

If Trump moves forward with reciprocal tariffs, however, it could prompt a series of retaliatory tariffs from impacted nations. That could ignite a trade war, prompting ever-higher taxes that ultimately hurt consumers, who economists note typically get stuck with the bill at the end.

This post has been updated with more details about the tariffs and more of Trump’s remarks.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday announced it is switching positions in a major Supreme Court case on transgender rights, backing away from the Biden administration’s opposition to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

The appeal over Tennessee’s ban is the most significant LGBTQ+ case the Supreme Court has considered in years. The Biden administration had challenged the state’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy. A federal appeals court allowed the ban to take effect in 2023 and the court heard oral arguments in December.

While the Biden administration sued over the law, officials in the Trump administration told the Supreme Court they believe that lawsuit was a mistake and that they support the state’s ability to ban gender affirming care for minors.

But Justice Department officials also stressed that the high court should still decide the case, even though the administration no longer believes in the appeal.

Tennessee’s SB 1 bans hormone therapy and puberty blockers for minors in the state and imposes civil penalties for doctors who violate the prohibitions. The law also bans gender-affirming surgeries, though that provision is not at issue in the case.

During oral arguments in December, several of the court’s conservatives appeared ready to back the law, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

This still from video taken February 7 shows the signage at US Agency for International Development being taped over.

The signage at the US Agency for International Development is being taped over and potentially removed entirely.

Remember: The future of USAID hangs in the balance. President Donald Trump is racing to shut it down, declaring it a waste of money and run by “lunatics.”

On Thursday, it was revealed the administration plans to slash the 10,000-strong workforce to fewer than 300 people.

But experts warn this plays straight into the hands of the very country he considers to be the biggest threat to US interests — China.

On Thursday, a pair of labor groups representing USAID employees sued Trump over his efforts to dismantle the decades-old humanitarian agency.

The lawsuit also takes aim at the administration’s freeze on almost all foreign assistance – a move that has brought critical humanitarian work around the world to a halt and has led to thousands of contractors being furloughed or laid off.

A worker removes the signage outside of the USAID headquarters in Washington, DC, on Friday.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 7.

US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba are holding a joint news conference at the White House after meeting earlier this afternoon.

Trump said he and the prime minister spoke “long and hard about a vital economic relationship between our two countries and the continuance of that relationship.”

Ishiba is the first Asian leader to meet Trump since his return to office on January 20.

The visit comes at a time of heightened tensions among US allies as the Trump administration threatens tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China, and as the president calls for partners to boost defense spending.

Ishiba told reporters before his departure to Washington, DC, that he wanted to talk to Trump about Japanese investments in the US, as well as the two countries’ security alliance in the Asia-Pacific region, among other topics, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

After the news conference, Trump is scheduled to make a “Faith Office announcement” and sign executive orders.

This post has been updated with Trump’s remarks. CNN’s Alex Stambaugh, Junko Ogura and Hanako Montgomery contributed reporting to this post.

People walk past the rubble of collapsed buildings along Saftawi street in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip on January 20.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he sees “no rush to do anything” in Gaza and insisted there would be no US “boots on the ground.”

Remember: Trump said the US “will take over” Gaza in a news conference earlier this week, prompting swift condemnation for one of the most stunning recent foreign policy suggestions by a sitting US president.

The White House press secretary said Wednesday that Trump was advocating for a “temporary” resettlement of Palestinians, a view that, on its surface, appeared at odds with the plan Trump revealed a day earlier to “resettle people permanently” in a different area. He has suggested redeveloping the coastal enclave into a “Middle Eastern Riviera.”

More from Trump: The president said in his comments Friday that the idea has been “very well-received,” but didn’t offer specifics. His suggestion has been roundly criticized by leaders in the Middle East and Europe.

Trump said he just wanted “to see stability” in Gaza and that it would “lead to great stability in the area for very little money, very little price.”

“We wouldn’t need soldiers at all, that would be taken care of by others,” he said.

President Donald Trump said on Friday he would “probably” meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky next week and hinted at a talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

When asked if the meeting would take place in Washington, DC, Trump replied, “could be Washington well, I’m not going there,” meaning Kyiv.

Trump also referred to discussions he wants to have about the financial and military support the US provides Ukraine, in the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Zelensky will lead Ukraine’s delegation at the Munich Security Conference next week, which Vice President JD Vance and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, are also scheduled to attend, but not President Trump.

Last week, Trump told reporters that Russia “should want to make a deal” with Ukraine and claimed he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “immediately.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker strongly denounced the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the state’s sanctuary policies, calling it a “massive effort to distract” from other pressing issues affecting working families.

“They want you to pay attention to a bunch of lawsuits that are about something that, frankly, is unlawful,” Pritzker said Friday, framing the administration’s legal action as an attempt to divert attention from potential cuts to federal programs.

The Trump administration sued officials in Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County on Thursday over policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities, accusing them of obstructing its immigration crackdown.

It’s the first major challenge from the administration against Democratic-led cities and states that have opposed the use of local law enforcement to help the federal government enforce civil immigration laws.

Asked whether his team had any communication prior to the filing of the lawsuit, Pritzker said the legal filing took his entire team by surprise.

“This administration is opaque, not transparent at all,” he said.

CNN’s Devan Cole and Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post.

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that Elon Musk is “doing a great job” when he was asked about the newly released Time magazine cover showing Musk seated behind the Resolute Desk.

“Is Time magazine still in business?” Trump quipped. “I didn’t even know that.”

Trump was named Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2024.

The president claimed that in the case of USAID — the US Agency for International Development — that “the whole thing is fraud,” without providing evidence. On Thursday, it was revealed the administration plans to slash the 10,000-strong workforce to fewer than 300 people.

The move will leave billions of dollars in aid in limbo, which will impact lifesaving global health programs, early warning systems and food security efforts.

Pressed if the president will make Musk available for questions from the press, the president said that Elon is “not shy.”

Top career supervisors at the federal agencies are being asked to help determine which employees are worth saving and which are not, CNN has learned, as the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) effort aimed at dramatically shrinking the government turns its attention to firing probationary workers.

To that end, supervisors at several agencies are now being asked to evaluate workers with an eye toward whether or not particular workers should be retained or not, a process that often happens in private industry, but is now rapidly playing out in the federal government.

CNN has reviewed emails sent to managers at the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration. In addition, an employee at the Department of Health and Human Services told CNN about the ongoing efforts.

Supervisors are being asked to advocate for either “retaining” or “releasing” employees who are in their probationary period with less than two years of federal service.

One source at a government agency, who was tasked with the exercise, tells CNN, “We had to justify the critical nature of their role and what the impacts would be if they were released.”

The source received a list of names with positions and in a sentence or two had to rank whether the employee should be released or retained.

FBI employees and the Justice Department agreed to a court order Friday that bars the DOJ from releasing a list of FBI employees who worked on January 6 cases — including the one against Donald Trump — publicly, to the White House or to any other government agency without two days’ notice.

The agreement is the latest in a series of debates over how to protect more than 5,000 FBI employees’ information from being leaked. The data was gathered as part of a survey and handed over to Justice Department leadership.

Several FBI employees, along with the agency’s union, sued, saying they feared for their safety should their identities be made public. The employees specifically feared that the list would be handed over to either the White House or DOGE, which they said raised the likelihood that would happen.

Friday’s consent order, signed District Judge Jia M. Cobb, was reached one day after the FBI provided the employees’ names to the Justice Department through a classified system. Cobb had initially resisted instituting a temporary restraining order because the employees were only identified on the survey through and employee ID number.

Keep reading.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is pictured during a hearing in Washington, DC, on December 10, 2024.

As House Republicans are planning to spend the weekend trying to nail down the final details of their budget agreement, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham just unveiled the Senate’s version, a sign that GOP lawmakers in that chamber are not going to yield as House Republicans finish their work.

Graham also noticed that the markup on this budget resolution will take place Wednesday and Thursday. The committee expects to be finished Wednesday but traditionally they give themselves two days just to make sure they have enough time.

More context: The move is yet another indication that Senate Republicans are charging ahead on their own path despite pleas from GOP leadership in the House that the Senate wait for them to go first given their narrow majority and virtually no room for error.

As Graham laid out earlier this week, this will aim for Republicans to spend $150 billion on defense and $175 billion for immigration, both of which they promise will be fully offset.

Graham’s budget resolution is merely the first step for Senators to begin the process knowns as reconciliation. It sets up a blueprint for how committees will draft their policy bill and gives certain committees jurisdiction and parameters to do the work.

The Trump administration delayed the suspension of the so-called de minimis provision, which allowed packages worth less than $800 to enter the country duty-free, until the Commerce Department has “adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue,” according to a new executive action announced on Friday.

The executive order did not say how long the delay would last.

Why this matters: The suspension of the long-standing provision would have dire effects on Chinese e-commerce sites like Shein, Temu and Aliexpress — along with goods shipped in from Amazon, eBay, Etsy and other retailers that ship from China.

Chinese e-commerce sites have built their gargantuan business models around this exemption. The relaxed restrictions and tax exemptions on cheap products has allowed more than a billion packages to pour in at a low-cost price for consumers looking for a deals on clothing to household goods.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baltimore Field Officer director Matt Elliston listens during a briefing on January 27 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In the first weeks of the new Trump administration, the White House has boasted about the arrests of thousands of undocumented immigrants. But behind the scenes, senior officials have expressed frustration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in tense calls for not meeting its marks, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

“They’re treading water. They’re way behind,” a Trump administration official told CNN, referring to ICE. The calls have included White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, along with various federal agencies.

President Donald Trump kicked off his second term in office with an ambitious immigration agenda, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and seal off the US southern border. Since then, Trump administration officials have swiftly moved to strip temporary protections for migrants and delegate more authority to federal and state partners.

More than 8,000 people have been arrested by federal immigration authorities since Trump’s inauguration. Administration officials haven’t shared exactly how many undocumented immigrants they’re aiming to arrest this year, but daily apprehensions have already surpassed last year’s daily average under then-President Joe Biden.

But Trump’s stated goals are also meeting the on-the-ground realities and challenges that have bogged down federal immigration enforcement authorities for years.

Multiple sources described tremendous pressure on ICE officers to deliver results, including ramping up efforts to target and detain undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Miller has previously described quotas on ICE field offices as a “floor, not a ceiling.”

Read the full story.

The American Civil Liberties Union is requesting immediate access to nearly two dozen migrants recently transferred from immigration detention centers to the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, according to a letter obtained by CNN.

Addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the letter raises concerns over detainees’ legal rights, living conditions, and access to due process.

“The Constitution, and federal and international law prohibit the government from using Guantánamo as a legal black hole,” according to the letter.

Remember: This week, the Trump administration transported migrants to Guantanamo Bay on US military aircraft, a move that sparked backlash from immigrant advocates and prompted fears of prolonged detention without legal representation.

The ACLU warned Friday of potential human rights violations and called for transparency regarding the treatment of those being held.

House Speaker Mike Johnson shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they speak to the press at the US Capitol following their closed-door meeting in Washington, DC, on February 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited House Speaker Mike Johnson to visit Jerusalem later this year, after the two met this morning.

Johnson was supposed to meet with Netanyahu Thursday, but they were forced to reschedule due to an extensive meeting at the White House between House Republicans, President Donald Trump and top officials to discuss their plans to advance Trump’s agenda.

Netanyahu was full of praise for the Trump administration’s support for Israel, though he did not reference Trump’s proposal to take over and “develop” Gaza. The prime minister highlighted Trump’s executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court over its arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and thanked Trump for ensuring more weapons would be sent to Israel.

“I was, deeply moved by the reception that we got, the substantive things that we discussed — making sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, and also making sure that Hamas is destroyed. We’re not going to have a future for Gaza or for a future for peace in our part of the world if Hamas remains there,” he added. “We agreed on many things, but I think it sets the tone for this great strengthening of the American-Israeli alliance. It’s not only an alliance between governments. It’s an alliance between peoples.”

He added that he has developed a “warm, personal bond” with Johnson, and praised the speaker’s leadership.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a joint news conference with Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader at the National Palace in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on February 6.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to travel to Germany and the Middle East next week, according to a senior State Department official.

Rubio will attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany and then to Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, February 13 to 18th, the official said.

The secretary’s trip to the Middle East comes after President Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that nearly 2 million Palestinians should be relocated from battle-leveled Gaza to new homes elsewhere and for the US to take ownership of Gaza and develop it into “Riviera of the Middle East.”

The trip which has not been formally announced will be Rubio’s second trip abroad following multiple stops across Central America earlier this week.

The Trump administration is effectively freezing a $5 billion bipartisan grant program that helps states build electric vehicle chargers along highways and roadways, according to a new Department of Transportation memo.

The letter suspends state plans that were approved by former President Joe Biden’s administration to build out charging networks, until the new administration can change its guidance for it, which is due out sometime in the spring. It also means no federal grant money will flow to states that were building charging stations.

The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, also knowns as NEVI, was created as a result of the infrastructure law passed with both Republican and Democratic votes in 2021. It was part of Biden’s climate and clean energy policies to get more electric vehicles on the road.

Clean energy groups said the new move created “great uncertainty” for states and companies, putting billions of dollars in limbo.

The White House says Friday’s jobs report showing a slower-than-expected pace of hiring reflected poorly on the previous administration.

“Today’s jobs report reveals the Biden economy was far worse than anyone thought, and underscores the necessity of President Trump’s pro-growth policies,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement.

The statement came after a government report showed 143,000 jobs added in January, fewer than expected; with the unemployment rate dipping to 4%,

Economists were projecting the unemployment rate would stay at 4.1% and 170,000 jobs would be added, according to FactSet estimates.

More context: The Trump administration pointed to an annual benchmark revision released Friday showing there were 589,000 fewer jobs added to the economy in 2024 than previously tallied.

But the annual revision is a routine review of the surveys that generate monthly employment data, which are then reconciled with estimates from other statistical sources that weren’t available when the numbers were first reported.

The latest annual revision was indeed larger than usual, but not unusually so. In fact, there was a downward revision of 514,000 jobs (-0.3%) for the year ended in March 2019 during Trump’s first term before the Covid-19 pandemic.

And while federal government surveys have become less robust because of plummeting response rates in recent years, the numbers still present a vital snapshot of the world’s biggest economy.

The US job market these days isn’t running at the same red-hot pace coming out of the pandemic, but it remains solid.

This post has been updated with more information.

Customers shop for food at a grocery store on January 15 in Chicago.

Americans fear faster inflation is on the horizon.

The University of Michigan’s latest consumer survey, released Friday, showed that Americans’ inflation expectations for the year ahead surged this month to 4.3%, up a full percentage point from January to the highest level since November 2023.

The survey’s sentiment index also declined in February for the second consecutive month, down 5% from January to its lowest reading since July 2024.

“The decrease was pervasive, with Republicans, Independents, and Democrats all posting sentiment declines from January, along with consumers across age and wealth groups,” Hsu said.

Rep. Paul Tonko speaks during a demonstration after being blocked from entering the Environmental Protection Agency to meet with Department of Government Efficiency officials on Thursday, in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump’s shake-up of federal agencies — aimed at slashing spending and getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion — continued Thursday at full tilt.

However, a federal judge paused the deadline for federal employees to accept the administration’s deferred resignation offer while more proceedings on the program’s legality play out.

The administration sent an email to employees just after 5 p.m. ET informing them of the court-ordered pause and saying that the deadline for the “buyouts” would be extended to Monday. The email did not acknowledge the possibility that the judge might further halt the program at a hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are supporting Elon Musk’s growing influence in how Trump is wielding executive power and dramatically slashing federal agencies. They argue it is simply a function of how the administration is addressing the need to cut waste.

Here’s the latest on Trump’s changes:

USAID: The Trump administration is expected to keep fewer than 300 people at the US Agency for International Development, an enormous reduction in the workforce, according to multiple USAID sources. A pair of labor groups representing employees at USAID sued Trump over his efforts to dismantle the decades-old humanitarian agency. Trump posted on Truth Social Friday morning that “USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT.”

EPA: More than 160 employees in the Environmental Protection Agency’s office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights have been told they are being placed on paid administrative leave as the agency executes the administration’s executive order to wipe out all program offices it deems as tied to diversity, equity and inclusion, CNN has learned from multiple sources.

NIH: The process for awarding new research funds at the National Institutes of Health is still being held up even after guidance this week saying some closed review meetings could proceed, five sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

FEC: Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub said she received a letter from Trump removing her from her role.

Energy Department: A 23-year-old former SpaceX intern representative from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was granted access to the Energy Department’s IT system Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, two people with knowledge of the situation told CNN. Luke Farritor — a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern — was granted access even over objections from members of the department’s general counsel and chief information offices, the sources told CNN.

One is a 23-year-old software engineer from Nebraska who helped decipher an ancient scroll buried for centuries. Another was the runner-up in a “hackathon” contest last year as a Harvard senior. A third is the CEO of a multibillion-dollar start-up.

These are among the operatives linked to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) whose work to slash public spending and reshape the federal bureaucracy have sent shockwaves through government agencies.

For the past couple of weeks, DOGE staffers have appeared without warning throughout the nation’s bureaucracy, seeking access to sensitive files, databases and computer systems. Their movements inside offices from Washington, DC, to Kansas City have been detailed by a frightened federal workforce and chronicled by media outlets seeking answers about their specific activities and intentions.

Some of the most pointed concerns were summed up in a letter this week from Democratic senators to the White House: “No information has been provided to Congress or the public as to who has been formally hired under DOGE, under what authority or regulations DOGE is operating, or how DOGE is vetting and monitoring its staff and representatives before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans’ personal information.”

Although the slate of software engineers in their early 20s working under DOGE appear to lack government experience, their resumes detail impressive accomplishments in tech.

Meanwhile, on X, Musk’s social media platform, DOGE itself has been boasting of alleged accomplishments: “DOGE is saving the Federal Government approx. $1 billion/day,” the account claimed in a post last week. “A good start, though this number needs to increase to > $3 billion/day.”

Read more on the DOGE team here.

House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson arrives for a House Republican Caucus meeting at the US Capitol on January 14 in Washington, DC.

Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that his conference is leaning toward addressing the looming debt limit deadline as part of their budget blueprint, but said details won’t be announced until later this weekend.

Asked by CNN about including a debt limit hike in the budget bill, Johnson said: “I think that probably will be part of it.”

This new push to include the debt limit is a shift for the House GOP, after Johnson himself told members at their GOP policy retreat in Florida that they likely didn’t have the votes to pass the debt limit as part of Trump’s already-costly agenda. It comes after a marathon White House meeting Thursday, in which the debt limit was a key point of discussion.

Johnson had previously said he hoped to release details of the GOP’s budget plan on Friday. But he told reporters that they will take more days to finalize that proposal.

Johnson also declined to comment, when asked by CNN, about the size of spending cuts the GOP is considering.

“Stay tuned, it’s moving forward,” Johnson said.

President Donald Trump will speak with leaders from Japan and Panama on Friday as a deadline to slash the US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s workforce looms and additional executive orders are to come.

Here’s the latest on what’s happening on Friday:

Meeting with Japanese prime minister: Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and hold a news conference. The two are expected to discuss deepening cooperation on defense and the economy. The summit scheduled for Friday makes Ishiba the first Asian leader to meet Trump since his return to office.

More executive orders: Trump will then make “a Faith Office announcement” and sign executive orders in the afternoon before departing to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the weekend.

Panama phone call: Trump is also expected to speak by phone with Panama’s President Raúl Mulino on Friday as tensions rise between both nations over the Panama Canal. Trump has repeated and publicly stated desire for the US to retake control of the canal.

USAID deadline: The Trump administration is expected to reduce USAID’s global workforce to under 300 agency employees Friday, with other employees placed on administrative leave and ordered to return to the US.

A pair of labor groups representing employees at USAID sued Trump on Thursday over his efforts to dismantle the decades-old humanitarian agency. It’s unclear if the court will step in on an emergency basis before Friday at 11:59 p.m. ET, when USAID has said all of their direct hire personnel, excluding the exceptions, will be put on leave.

Guantanamo Bay trip: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is expected to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Friday to assess the migrant operations center amid plans to dramatically expand the number of people temporarily housed there, according to a DHS official.

Meanwhile, a federal judge this morning in Boston will hear a challenge to Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.

People attend a job fair in Orlando, Florida, on January 29.

The US economy kicked off 2025 by adding 143,000 jobs in January, fewer than expected; but the unemployment rate dipped to 4%, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Economists were projecting the unemployment rate would stay at 4.1% and for the economy to add 170,000 jobs, according to FactSet estimates. Cold and severe weather as well as the wildfires in Los Angeles were expected to be influential factors on January’s report, economists told CNN.

Friday’s report also provided more clarity on recent labor market trends, indicating that job growth last year was weaker than previously estimated.

The latest benchmark revision — an annual process that squares up estimates — showed there were 589,000 fewer jobs added to the economy in 2024.

The next target in President Donald Trump’s effort to overhaul the federal workforce: Less than “fully successful” performers.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent a memo to federal department leaders Thursday asking for details on all employees who received less than “fully successful” performance ratings over the last three years.

Among the information being requested are employees’ names, job titles, pay plans, agencies, grades and duty stations. OPM also wants to know if the employees completed performance improvement plans within the last year.

In addition, according to the memo, agencies should report whether they’ve tried to take action against the employees for poor performance under civil service laws and whether the workers are currently challenging those efforts before the US Merit Systems Protection Board or other bodies.

OPM is also asking for any regulations, policies or collective bargaining agreement terms that would impede agencies’ ability to make meaningful distinctions on relative employee performance on agency performance plans or agencies’ ability to “swiftly separate low-performing employees.”

The deadline to send the information to OPM is March 7.

The memo says it is aimed at helping OPM develop “new metrics for evaluating the federal workforce that aligns with the priorities and standards in the President’s recent Executive Orders.”

Some background: The Trump administration is undertaking sweeping reforms of the federal workforce, including offering a deferred resignation package, jettisoning workers involved in diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives, making it easier to fire career policy staffers and laying off employees still in their probationary periods, among other actions.

Flags fly over an entrance to FBI headquarters, days after the Trump administration launched a sweeping round of cuts at the Justice Department, in Washington, DC, on February 3.

As thousands of FBI employees brace for possible political retribution from Donald Trump’s administration, one special agent penned an anonymous open letter circulating across the bureau in defense of colleagues who took part in the sprawling January 6, 2021, Capitol riot investigation.

CNN has obtained a copy of the letter and confirmed its authenticity.

CNN reported Thursday that the FBI provided the Justice Department with names of employees who worked on January 6-related cases after a new demand from the acting deputy attorney general, capping a weeklong back-and-forth between bureau leadership – who had sought to protect agent and staff identities – and the department.

This 2014 photo shows boxes containing sanitation kits and soap provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) being stored at a UN school before a distribution to Palestinian displaced people on August 15, 2014, in Gaza City.

The Trump administration is expected to keep fewer than 300 people at the US Agency for International Development, drastically reducing the workforces at the agency, according to multiple USAID sources.

The rest of the direct hires will be put on leave as of Friday at midnight.

USAID has about 10,000 personnel around the world, which includes thousands of contractors, many of whom have been furloughed or fired.

Those sources told CNN 294 essential workers are expected to retain access. The rest are being cut off from USAID systems, including email.

Three officials told CNN that only one officer would be left in multiple missions.

Another USAID official said their overseas mission went from having more than 20 foreign service officers to only one.

USAID leadership announced this week that “all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.”

The FBI has given the Justice Department names of employees who worked on January 6-related cases after a new demand from the acting deputy attorney general, capping a weeklong back-and-forth between bureau leadership — who had sought to protect agent and staff identities — and the department.

The FBI complied by providing the names through a classified system to protect employees from being publicly identified, acting Director Brian Driscoll told employees in an email Thursday.

The Justice Department’s Thursday demand comes after the bureau earlier this week withheld the names of thousands of employees and instead relayed information based only on employee ID numbers, according to an email obtained by CNN.

Over the past several days, FBI and Justice Department leadership have gone back and forth over how to protect the information gathered as part of a review of January 6-related investigations, including the one into President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the FBI handed over information on more than 5,000 employees, including employee ID numbers, job titles and their role in the January 6 investigations — but not their names.

At least 65,000 federal workers have now opted into the deferred resignation program, a White House official told CNN, as a federal judge halted President Donald Trump’s midnight deadline to accept until at least Monday.

The 65,000 figure represents more than 3% of the roughly 2 million federal employees who received the incentive.

CNN reported earlier Thursday that at least 50,000 employees had already accepted the package, which would generally allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.

Russell Vought arrives for a meeting at the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley on Monday, December 16, 2024.

The Senate has voted to confirm Russ Vought as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, after Senate Democrats held the floor overnight in a marathon of speeches to protest Vought’s nomination.

The vote was 53-47, on party lines.

Vought has drawn Democrats’ ire over his ties to the controversial conservative policy blueprint Project 2025, as well as his claim that the 2020 election was “rigged.”

Democrats have also argued that OMB’s memo freezing federal funding last month — which was eventually rescinded — was a warning sign of how the office will operate with Vought in charge. As OMB director, Vought will be a key player in implementing President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Vought is Trump’s 13th nominee confirmed since he took office on January 20.

Marathon protest: Beginning at 2:17 p.m. ET on Wednesday, after a key procedural vote limiting debate on Vought’s nomination to 30 hours, Democrats organized hours of speeches, holding the floor overnight and all day on Thursday to protest Vought’s nomination. The Senate eventually voted to confirm Vought after the 30 hours expired.

Democrats also gathered on the floor just ahead of the confirmation vote, and as their names were read in the roll call, they each stood up and cast their vote for a group. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, for example, said his vote against confirming Vought was “for New Jersey first responders.” Each time they spoke, they were reprimanded by the presiding officer, GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, for breaking Senate rules and debating during a vote.

There was some consternation in the chamber when Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt said he was voting for Vought’s confirmation on behalf of taxpayers and was not reprimanded by Moody. In response, Democrats banged their fists on their desks and called for “regular order.”

President Donald Trump signed a series of executive actions Thursday evening.

Here’s a look at some of those actions:

Fighting against “anti-Christian bias”: Trump signed an executive action that creates a new task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias,” and halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government.

Trump previously announced his executive action on anti-Christian bias during remarks earlier Thursday.

“Today, I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general — who’s a great person, she’s going to be a great attorney general — Pam Bondi, the head of a task force brand new to eradicate anti-Christian bias,” he said, as CNN’s Betsy Klein previously reported.

Reviewing NGO funding: Trump also signed an executive memorandum directing a comprehensive review of the funding allocated to all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that depend on federal financial support, the White House told CNN.

This action is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reassess federal spending.

International Criminal Court sanctions: Trump later signed another executive action Thursday that targets the International Criminal Court.

“The United States will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members, as their entry into our Nation would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” the action reads.

The action is expected to impose financial and visa sanctions on “individuals and their family members who aid in ICC investigations involving US citizens or our allies,” as CNN previously reported. This move aims to punish the court for issuing arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.