January 28, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

As Vice President JD Vance rallied House Republicans behind closed doors on Tuesday, he mostly steered clear of the complex policy details that have divided their conference.

Speaking at the House GOP’s policy retreat at President Donald Trump’s resort in sunny Doral, Florida, Vance stressed party unity as leadership begins the difficult work of actually drafting the president’s first big legislative package.

Yet the vice president also raised one contentious issue that GOP leaders are still grappling with how to handle: the debt limit.

Vance reiterated to lawmakers that Trump wants to defuse the debt limit in the GOP’s package, rather than negotiating with Democrats, according to multiple GOP lawmakers. GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson later told reporters that Vance’s message was that Trump “did not want to give Democrats” leverage on the bill.

But Vance’s pronouncement came just hours after House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested to his conference that the party didn’t have the political ability to pass a debt limit hike with only Republican votes.

While Johnson has not formally declared how he will handle the debt limit, the conflicting paths represent the larger problem that GOP leaders will face in the coming weeks: With every decision Republicans make on the legislative package, they risk alienating key players — including Trump himself.

Overall, Vance — like Trump a day earlier — did not offer a prescription for how the bill should look. Instead, he acknowledged the balancing act that Johnson and his team must achieve, pointing to the demands of members from all corners of the party, from SALT tax relief to fiscal reform.

State Medicaid agencies have been unable to access federal funds on Tuesday for the health insurance program that covers more than 72 million low-income Americans, according to at least one state agency and Democratic lawmakers and later confirmed by the White House.

The block occurred even as the Trump administration said Tuesday that Medicaid — as well as certain other federal assistance programs — was not subject to the sweeping freeze on federal grants that it had announced on Monday evening. The Office of Management and Budget issued a Q&A on Tuesday afternoon stating that “mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps) will continue without pause.”

The administration’s insistence that Medicaid is not affected only heightened confusion surrounding the impact of the freeze.

Connecticut Medicaid officials are unable to access the Payment Management Services system, known as PMS, and are assessing the situation, a spokesperson for the state Department of Social Services told CNN Tuesday.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy confirmed on X that the system is down and berated the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for telling reporters Tuesday that she’ll have to get back to them about whether Medicaid enrollees would be affected.

State Medicaid agencies use the PMS system to draw down funds to pay hospitals, doctors and other providers that treat Medicaid recipients, as well as insurers, who contract with states to cover enrollees. Many states access the system on a quarterly basis, but some draw down the needed funds near the end of each month to make payments at the start of the next one.

In her first speech to department employees on Tuesday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said her experience growing on a farm and working as a rancher taught her lessons that she will bring with her to her new post.

Noem told a story about a time when she and her dad were building a fence. She said her dad told her she needed to have equipment ready for him without him having to ask.

“What he was doing was teaching us to think ahead,” she told the crowd. “That is what our job is, as well, here at the Department of Homeland Security. We prepare ahead and think three steps ahead so people have what they need, before they need it.”

Noem pledged to lead by example and said she was “committed to fulfilling our mission with you.”

The former governor of South Dakota said her background before she got into politics was in business, but that all of her past experience taught her “that we will walk through every single situation together” and keep Americans at the forefront of the mission.

She also said that she approached President Donald Trump and asked him directly for the homeland security job, knowing that border security — a big piece of what the department is responsible for — would be a priority of his administration.

“We will be the first line of defense for anybody that’s in the American homeland,” Noem said, adding that the department will “exercise all legal authorities we have to protect this country.”

At her first White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt made an unusual claim about inflation that has stung American shoppers for years: Leavitt said egg prices have continued to surge because “the Biden administration and the Department of Agriculture directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage.”

For context: That’s not exactly correct, and it needs some context. Those “killings” are required by the Department of Agriculture to contain the spread of the highly contagious avian flu that has afflicted 100 million birds since 2022, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The egg-laying birds either die naturally or are culled to avoid the spread of the deadly virus. It is up to farmers to report an outbreak to state officials and the Department of Agriculture, who will eliminate the impacted birds in the flock. Farmers can apply for financial assistance from the USDA if they lose their flocks.

In November and December alone, the virus surged killing about 17.2 million egg-laying hens — half of 2024’s total, according to the USDA. As a result, egg prices are expected to rise by 20% this year as the virus spreads, and flocks are slow to repopulate. The avian flu has also spread to dairy farms and has been detected in humans.

If the infected egg-laying birds weren’t killed, the virus could spread, and egg prices could be even higher. Unless the Trump administration decides to change its bird flu policy, Trump’s USDA will also help assist in the “mass killing” of chickens.

A pair of LGBTQ rights organizations sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s new ban on transgender Americans serving in the military.

The lawsuit, brought by GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights on behalf of six transgender service members and two transgender individuals who want to enlist, kickstarts what is expected to be a high-profile legal fight over the ban, which Trump was able to implement during his first term even as it initially faced setbacks in court.

The lawsuit, which argues the ban violates the constitutional rights of the eight plaintiffs, asks for the court to strike the ban down and for an order “prohibiting the categorical exclusion of transgender people from military service.”

During Trump’s first term, district courts around the country temporarily blocked his ban on trans service members from taking effect in four different challenges brought against it. But in January 2019, the Supreme Court paved the way for the prohibition to be enforced while the lawsuits played out.

“This ban betrays fundamental American values of equal opportunity and judging people on their merit,” said Jennifer Levi and attorney with GLAD Law. “It slams the door on qualified patriots who meet every standard and want nothing more than to serve their country, simply to appease a political agenda.”

A major veterans group came out on Tuesday against the executive order signed by President Donald Trump regarding transgender service members in the military, saying it is “bad for our national security” and that the order tells many troops “their overall well being matters less to their Commander-in-Chief than scoring political points.”

“Today’s Executive Order targeting the service of transgender Americans in the military is backward, harmful and contrary to American values,” said Allison Jaslow, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).

“It’s also bad for our national security if we want to be a nation that still fights its wars with volunteers. No American who is willing and able to wear the uniform should be getting turned away by a recruiter, or worse, being booted from the military after years of their service and sacrifice, and significant investment by the US taxpayer into their training to be a warfighter,” she added in her statement published Tuesday.

IAVA is a major veterans organization representing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It represents over 425,000 members, according to its website.

Trump’s executive order, released Monday evening, directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to implement policy that says people with gender dysphoria are “inconsistent” with high military standards “for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”

The White House has issued a new memo that appears to greatly limit the scope of a freeze in federal financial assistance set to take effect Tuesday evening.

The Office of Management and Budget memo, obtained by CNN, says the freeze is not across the board and is instead targeted to executive orders that address immigration, foreign aid, climate and energy, DEI initiatives, gender identity and abortion.

“Any program not implicated by the President’s Executive Orders is not subject to the pause,” the memo states.

The memo says there’s a process in place for agencies to determine whether a program is subject to the freeze.

But the memo comes after a wide swath of programs, including Head Start for preschoolers, have told CNN their funding appears to be frozen.

In this June 2023 photo, Ed Martin speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC.

The top federal prosecutor in Washington, recently installed to that post by President Donald Trump, is furious about recent leaks to the press and also specifically directed staff to scrutinize a former official’s work on January 6 cases after she rebuked him on TV, according to internal emails obtained by CNN.

Ed Martin, the interim US attorney for DC, sent an email Tuesday to his entire office, complaining that someone leaked an email he sent Monday. In the Monday email, he launched an internal review of how prosecutors handled some January 6 cases where the Supreme Court concluded that prosecutors overstepped with charging decisions.

In the Tuesday email blast, Martin said: “Wow, what a disappointment to have my email yesterday to you all was leaked almost immediately. Again, personally insulting and professionally unacceptable. I guess I have learned my lesson (‘Fool me once…’)”

Martin is a socially conservative activist and commentator and was involved with the 2020 election denier movement. In his Tuesday email, he lashed out at a prosecutor who was involved in January 6 cases and resigned after Trump granted mass clemency that ended all of the nearly 1,600 cases and wiped away all remaining prison terms.

That ex-prosecutor, Ashley Akers, gave at least four TV interviews Monday, with multiple appearances on MSNBC and CNN, where she condemned many of Martin’s moves.

She said she had a “guttural reaction” when Trump chose to “immediately absolve” the January 6 defendants. She said it was “appalling” that Martin was “advocating on behalf of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers” by successfully urging a judge to nix their travel restrictions. And she called his internal review of January 6 cases a “wild goose chase.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivers remarks during her first daily briefing, at the White House, in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2025.

In her first briefing with reporters on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “energy is one of the number one drivers of inflation,” echoing remarks President Donald Trump has made since taking office.

Is that really the case? Well, it depends on what data you’re looking at.

On a monthly basis, the 2.6% rise in energy prices accounted for 41% of the overall 0.4% increase in inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in December. However, on an annual basis, energy prices are 0.5% lower as of December. Had that not been the case, annual inflation, which clocked in at 2.9% in December, would have been slightly higher, according to CPI data.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though, the rise in energy prices played a much greater role in lifting up overall inflation on a monthly and an annual basis. When inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, energy prices were up more than 40% compared to the prior year, making it the largest annual increase since 1980.

In addition to energy prices, Leavitt also blamed spending “like drunken sailors” under the Biden administration as a leading cause of inflation. The verdict on that, however, is much less clear, with mixed research findings on how much government spending contributed to the record inflation levels experienced under the Biden administration.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt could not immediately answer whether Medicaid will be affected by the sweeping federal funding freeze announced by President Donald Trump on Monday.

Leavitt said during the first press briefing of Trump’s second term on Tuesday that the funding freeze on all federal grants and loans, which was announced in a memo Monday and may impact trillions in government spending and halt public programs that affect millions of Americans, was to “ensure that all of the money going out from Washington, DC, is in line with the president’s agenda.”

The memo says the freeze will not affect Social Security or Medicare benefits, nor does it include “assistance provided directly to individuals.” But it does not address Medicaid, the program providing health insurance for the poor that is administered by states but mostly funded by the federal government.

Asked directly whether she could guarantee “that no individual now on Medicaid will now see a cut-off because of the pause,” Leavitt responded: “I’ll check back on that and get back to you.”

The US envoy to the Middle East will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, according to an Israeli official.

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s envoy to the region, is also scheduled to meet with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, the official told CNN.

Negotiations for the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas are on the agenda, the official said.

The current ceasefire deal is set up to progress in three distinct phases. Phase one, which began on January 19, will see the release of 33 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Israel will also release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal.

The second and third phases are less developed – and the details will be decided during the six weeks of the first phase. Over the past 15 months, Qatar, Egypt and the US have been key mediators in the discussions between Israel and Hamas.

Immigration enforcement actions continue across the United States.

The Trump administration’s immigration sweeps have included more than 2,000 arrests in two days, a significantly higher number than the average arrests per day under the Biden administration — but the increased arrests haven’t translated into an immediate deportation uptick under the Trump administration, data shows.

In the first White House press briefing of his second term, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is using “every lever of his federal power” to enact sweeping immigration changes as he forges ahead with his second term agenda.

Here are some of the latest developments related to immigration actions:

• High-ranking gang member arrested: Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, a high-ranking member of the Tren de Aragua gang, was arrested by federal agents during an immigration crackdown in New York City early Tuesday, a senior law enforcement source with knowledge of the operation confirmed to CNN. There are approximately 24 people in custody in the city, with the number expected to go up by the end of the day, according to a law enforcement official.

• Washington state’s rapid response team: Gov. Bob Ferguson issued an executive order Monday aimed at supporting children who are separated from their families through the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. Directed by the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, the Family Separation Rapid Response Team is tasked with ensuring children have uninterrupted access to care and education if their parents or caregivers are deported or detained. Ferguson ordered the team to hold its first meeting by February 14.

• More than 100 people arrested in the Chicago area: These arrests have been made since the immigration crackdown began Sunday, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling announced during a press conference Tuesday. Snelling expressed concern for the fears that have spread in the immigrant community and said that it has probably led people in the city not to report crimes.

• Oklahoma schools on proof of immigration or citizenship: The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted Tuesday to approve a proposal requiring families to prove their immigration or citizenship status when enrolling their children in school. The rule still needs to be approved by the legislature and governor to take effect, according to state administrative rules.

The White House on Tuesday said President Donald Trump’s vow to enact 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Saturday is “still on the books.”

Trump threatened the tariffs against the United States’ neighbors during his first day in office in an extraordinary change in North American trade policy that could raise prices for US consumers. He additionally floated a 10% tariff on Chinese goods across the board.

“As far as I’m still tracking, and that was last night talking to the president directly, February 1 is still on the books,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

Members of the media raise their hands as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivers remarks during her first daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt just said in her first briefing from the White House press room that the reported drone sightings that sparked panic in New Jersey last month were drones authorized to fly by the Federal Aviation Administration and “not the enemy.”

Leavitt made the announcement — the most significant since drone paranoia took off in December — after Trump said on December 16 “something strange is going on and for some reason they don’t want to tell the people.”

In response to the public concern, the FAA put in place dozens of drone bans over critical infrastructure, which have since expired. The new explanation is in line with what Biden administration officials said at the time — that the drone sightings were not nefarious.

“Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones,” Leavitt said. “In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”

In this January 2020 photo, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a meeting at the White House next Tuesday, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House during Trump’s second term, the statement said.

The two leaders previously discussed Netanyahu visiting Washington, DC, during a phone call in the days before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivers remarks during her first daily briefing at the White House, in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2025.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday previewed some changes she said are coming to the White House press briefing room, including the expansion of passes for “new media” personalities and outlets.

“We’re also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news-related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room,” she said.

She added that “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators” can apply for press credentials.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds her first news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on January 28, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said President Donald Trump is using “every lever of his federal power” to enact sweeping immigration changes, in the first press briefing of his second term.

“President Trump is back, and the golden age of America has most definitely begun,” Leavitt said from the White House on Tuesday.

This still from video shows Caroline Kennedy warning senators that her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a “predator” ahead of his confirmation hearings to be President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services secretary and urged them to reject his nomination.

Caroline Kennedy warned senators that her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a “predator” ahead of his confirmation hearings to be President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services secretary and urged them to reject his nomination.

Kennedy, who said she felt an “obligation” to speak out, read aloud her letter she sent to senators detailing troubling behavior from her cousin that she said she witnessed over the years, accusing him of hypocritical views on vaccines while being “addicted to attention and power.”

Recounting one disturbing episode, Kennedy recalled her cousin putting baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his birds years ago.

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Caroline Kennedy accuses cousin RFK Jr. of being a 'predator'

01:55 - Source: CNN

“I watched his younger brothers and cousins and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction. His basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the center of the action where drugs were available and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence” Kennedy said.

Although Kennedy acknowledged her cousin has been able to “pull himself out of illness and disease,” she accused him of living a double standard and financially benefitting off of some of his conspiratorial vaccine views.

The former ambassador to Australia said it has not been easy remaining silent during her cousin’s failed presidential campaign but felt obligated to speak out because she feels he has misrepresented the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.

In urging the Senate to reject her cousin’s nomination, Kennedy said her father and uncle “would be disgusted” by Kennedy Jr.’s views.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds her first news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on January 28, 2025 in Washington, DC.

The White House is hosting its first press briefing since President Donald Trump began his second term last week.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt is expected to address members of the media from the White House briefing room for the first time.

Students study in the Perry-Castaneda Library at the University of Texas at Austin on February 22 in Austin.

Student financial aid administrators are “still sorting through” whether the White House budget office order pausing federal grants and loans will impact student financial aid, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators told CNN on Tuesday.

“While the memo says the funding pause does not include assistance ‘provided directly to individuals,’ it does not clarify whether that includes money sent first to institutions, states, or organizations and then provided to students,” McCarthy said, noting that the NASFAA is also researching the impact on campus-based aid programs. Even though most Title IV funds – those dealing with federal student aid – pass through COD, or the Education Department’s central aid-distribution system, “they are ‘labeled’ for individual students and would hopefully not be impacted by the pause,” McCarthy said.

The leader of the National Education Association, which represents millions of members including educators and support personnel, also expressed frustration over the grant- and loan-pausing order.

A freeze of federal funding would “hurt students, communities, and public schools - especially students in lower-income communities who benefit most from federal funding,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

“The dream of higher education will be further out of reach as institutional aid for programs is affected. These are the real people impacted,” Pringle said.

Sean Duffy arrives to meet with Sen. Cynthia Lummis on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on December 11, 2024.

The Senate voted 77-22 Tuesday to confirm Sean Duffy as head of the Department of Transportation.

Democrats who previously expressed support for Duffy voted against him Tuesday in protest of President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told CNN.

Duffy had previously advanced on a procedural vote of 97-0.

As transportation secretary, Duffy will lead 55,000 employees and grapple with some of the most complex challenges facing the nation as they oversee aviation, roadways and rails.

A child plays with dolls at a Head Start program in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on September 28, 2023.

Some Head Start programs are already unable to access the federal system they use to draw down their federal grant funding, which could force some to close their doors as early as Wednesday, Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, told CNN Tuesday.

Head Start serves nearly 800,000 low-income children from birth to age five and their families.

Although the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants is not set to start until 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sheridan has heard from several programs that told him they received error messages when trying to log into the federal Payment Management Services system to access their grant funding on Tuesday morning. The association believes it is connected to the administration’s freeze order.

Without access to the funds, some programs would not be able to pay their staffs.

Other programs may have more funding on hand so they could continue operating for several weeks, he said.

Roughly 1,600 Head Start providers received more than $12 billion in federal funding in the last fiscal year to provide early education and health services to children and support for their parents, according to the association.

Several nonprofit organizations sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its move to freeze various federal aid programs.

The pause in funding, the lawsuit said, “will have a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money (money already obligated and already awarded) to fulfill their missions, pay their employees, pay their rent —and, indeed, improve the day-to-day lives of the many people they work so hard to serve.”

The challengers allege that the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a statute that sets procedural guardrails on how an executive branch agency implements policy. The lawsuit said that the nonprofit organizations will be seeking a temporary restraining order.

The complaint said that the Office of Management and Budget’s aid freeze, laid out in memo that was made public Monday night by reporters, would put the pause in effect “with barely twenty four hours’ notice, devoid of any legal basis or the barest rational(e).”

They argue that the decision threw nonprofits in “disarray” as “nonprofits often make budget decisions two to five years in advance, and they make business decisions based on expected cash inflow just as any for-profit enterprise would,” the lawsuit says

The case was filed against the OMB in DC federal court by the National Council of Nonprofits, the American Public Health Association, Main Street Alliance and SAGE, a New York LGBTQ nonprofit.

This post has been updated with additional information from the lawsuit.

Erica Watkins of Tulsa, the state director of Defense of Democracy, holds a sign to protest Oklahoma's Board of Education considering a rule that would require parents enrolling children in public schools to provide proof of their child's US citizenship or legal immigration status on Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted Tuesday to approve a proposal requiring families to prove their immigration or citizenship status when enrolling their children in school.

The rule still needs to be approved by the legislature and governor to take effect, according to state administrative rules.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters opened the meeting by criticizing what he called media reports’ “lies” and “gaslighting” on the issue and said the goal of the rule was to gather data on its student body.

Advocates have said they believe the rule will make immigrant families feel afraid and unwelcome at public schools, which are legally required to provide every child education regardless of citizenship status.

The board discussed the citizenship status proposal for about 15 minutes before approving the rule in a 6-0 vote. In that discussion, Walters clarified that the rule applies to the parents of students.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats are introducing a resolution condemning pardons of those convicted of assaulting Capitol Police and called on his Republicans colleagues to support the measure.

“Today Senate Democrats will go to the Senate floor with a resolution that says something very simple: We condemn pardoning individuals guilty of assaulting Capitol Police,” Schumer said, acknowledging Sen. Patty Murray who led the effort.

This comes as President Donald Trump issued sweeping pardons of nearly every person convicted of crimes on January 6, without distinction for those who committed violence against Capitol Police officers.

“No Republican should block it. It should be a no-brainer to say people who attack police don’t deserve pardons. By handing out these pardons to convicted criminals, President Trump is effectively saying you want to attack our brave police officers? That’s okay,” Schumer said.

The resolution states, “That the Senate disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers.”

“Our Capitol Police, meanwhile, deserve nothing less than our full and steadfast support for everything they do to keep us safe every day,” Schumer said. “The very least we can do for them as senators is declare those convicted of attacking Capitol Police officers do not deserve a presidential pardon.”

A new document released by the Office of Management and Budget, obtained by CNN, shows the hundreds of programs that could be impacted by the federal assistance freeze and how the Trump administration is trying to understand which programs touch on hot button topics like immigration and abortion.

The 52-page document lists every title and objective that is affected by the freeze, and each agency is required to answer several questions about the programs affected, including whether each program has any funding related to undocumented immigrants, climate policy, diversity programs or abortion. OMB is asking agencies to submit their answers no later than February 7, 2025, which is next Friday.

From the Agriculture Department and such programs as emergency grain storage assistance to the Justice Department and the rural crime initiative to the Department of Health and Human Services cancer center support grants, hundreds of programs touching all corners of America were placed under review.

While the review from the Office of Management and Budget is poised to take a critical look at the spending from the Biden administration and the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the decision also opens up a deeper confrontation between the executive and legislative branch over funding.

Aides to members of Congress in both parties acknowledge the scope of the review – and funding pause – is unprecedented and raises deep constitutional questions.

The pause on federal grants and loans could have real-world, direct impacts and “complete pausing of the work” done by local health organizations, such as the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and local health departments, the association’s CEO, Lori Tremmel Freeman, said.

“It is part of an important flow of dollars that support parts of our own government – local health departments – to do things like keep communities’ water supplies safe, monitor for disease, make sure restaurant inspections are able to continue, people can eat out healthily, and ensure there is clean air for people to breathe,” Freeman said.

“The money could stop immediately for some of these programs, including addressing some of the biggest health priorities today for us: the substance abuse epidemic and recovering from multiple natural disasters,” Freeman added.

The federal government’s pause in grants could have a big effect on the money that state governments rely on.

As of late 2022, about 36% of state government revenue came from federal grants, according to analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

A large portion of that funding is for Medicaid, the program providing health insurance for the poor that is administered by states but mostly funded by the federal government, according to the General Accounting Office. Grants to states skyrocketed during Covid-19 pandemic due to relief and stimulus funding.

The Trump administration memo pausing grants specifically exempted Social Security and Medicare, but did not mention Medicaid.

The state with the largest dependency on federal money was Louisiana, Pew found, with just over half of all state revenue coming from the federal government. North Dakota was the only state where less than a quarter of the state’s money came from Washington.

House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled to Republicans that he does not see a path forward for the debt limit in President Donald Trump’s first major legislative package, according to three sources.

Johnson said there are Republicans in the House and Senate that have never voted for a debt limit increase, and — acknowledging the tough math in Congress — suggested that Republicans may have to work with Democrats on the issue, instead of putting it in Trump’s big legislative package.

Some conservative Republicans in the room chafed at the idea of working with Democrats, but did not put forward an alternative plan, one of those sources said.

Johnson spoke to the House GOP in Doral, Florida, where he and his leadership team are working to set expectations for the conference ahead of a major budget resolution release in the coming days. That budget will include instructions that will decide for certain whether debt limit can be attached or not.

The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, according to an internal memorandum sent Monday. The pause also blocks the issuance of new grants.

The freeze is slated to take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday and could impact trillions of dollars. It marks the latest move by the Trump administration to exert control over federal funding, even that which has already been allocated by Congress.

Here’s what lawmakers have responded so far:

• Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — the top Democratic appropriators in Congress — wrote to the White House on Monday night outlining their “extreme alarm” with the move. “The scope of what you are ordering is breathtaking, unprecedented, and will have devastating consequences across the country,” they said.

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer quickly criticized the move. “Congress approved these investments and they are not optional; they are the law,” the New York Democrat said. “These grants help people in red states and blue states, support families, help parents raise kids, and lead to stronger communities.”

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune defended President Donald Trump’s actions and said people should wait and see what may happen. “We’ll see kind of what the extent of it is and what they’re, you know, what they intend to do in a more fulsome way. But for now, I think it’s just this is kind of a preliminary step that I think most administrations make,” he said.

• Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations committee, told CNN’s Manu Raju on the sidelines of the House GOP conference in Doral, FL on Tuesday he doesn’t “have a problem” with the White House decision to pause federal aid. “I’m not a lawyer, I can’t pontificate on what’s legal but I suspect what’s happening is what most Republicans would be supportive of,” he said. “Appropriations is not a law, it’s the directive of Congress.”

• Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr said the pause on aid was “welcome” and in line with Trump’s effort to review government spending while calling concerns about the impact on the freeze to medical research and food assistance programs “overblown.”

• Utah Rep. Blake Moore, the vice chair of the House GOP conference, acknowledged some of the “angst” around the freeze, but insisted the move is important to make sure federal spending is “compliant.” “The federal government spends a lot of money, we want to just make sure it’s going to the right places, it’s compliant,” he said. “It’s going to be okay.”

• Rhode Island Rep. Gabe Amo, a member of the House Committee on the Budget, said the move would “bring great pain” to red and blue communities alike. “This action will bring great pain to many — from community health centers to federal programs that help feed hungry kids to small businesses and non-profit organizations doing good work in our communities. People will suffer at the hands of this decision,” said Amo in a release.

• Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley said the administration was using kids as political pawns. “I can’t imagine this is what the American people wanted when President Donald Trump said he had a mandate. Kids not eating isn’t a part of any deal,” said Quigley to Jim Acosta on “CNN Newsroom.”

This post has been updated with additional lawmaker reactions.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer at the US Capitol on January 14 in Washington, DC.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the Trump administration’s decision to freeze federal grants and loans as “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”

The freeze, slated to come into effect at 5 p.m. today provides that federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in a memorandum.

The New York Democrat said his state’s attorney general, Letitia James, as well as other attorneys general, plan on “going to court right away on this.”

Schumer said President Donald Trump “plunged the country into chaos without a shred of warning.”

“In an instant, Donald Trump has shut off billions – perhaps trillions – of dollars that directly support states, cities, towns, schools, hospitals, small businesses, and most of all, American families,” he said.

The New York Democrat listed funding for disaster assistance, local law enforcement and rural hospitals as areas that will lose funding. “Why? They need tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and these cuts, they think, will fund them,” Schumer said.

Schumer also referenced Project 2025, the controversial and detailed blueprint for a newly reimagined federal government published by conservatives at the Heritage Foundation while Trump campaigned in 2024 saying: “Plain and simple this is Project 2025.”

A steady stream of children walked out of the Row NYC Hotel in New York City Tuesday morning hand in hand with parents who shuffled them along and onto yellow school buses while others walked around the corner and headed into the subway for their daily school commute.

While many made their way out, several more remained inside, kept out of school by parents fearful their children will be taken from schools or that they will be picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents themselves.

Yensy Lopez, a mother of three who came to the United States from Colombia, told CNN she is worried despite having a work permit and asylum proceedings in the works.

“We’re afraid they’ll take the children to force us to turn ourselves in,” Lopez said.

Lopez says her three children have grown weary of random door knocks in recent days, scared that ICE agents will show up at the hotel at any moment.

The hotel turned into one of the city’s biggest migrant shelters in the wake of a massive influx of immigrants since spring 2022. It’s located in the heart of Manhattan, just steps away from Times Square, and has become a home to hundreds of migrants who spread out across the hotel’s 1,331 rooms.

CNN spoke with several parents who said they were feeling a general sense of unease since ICE began operations around the country.

Vanessa Meneses, who is from Venezuela, is sending her two kids to school, saying she is not able to go to try and find work if she leaves her children unattended in the hotel.

In this image posted to her X account, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is seen at a meeting of federal law enforcement officers on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s new secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, joined federal law enforcement officers Tuesday in in New York City as they made an arrest under the president’s strict new immigration agenda.

Noem posted photos of the early morning show of force, purporting to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement taking a man Noem said was in the country illegally into custody.

More on the operation: Roughly 200 federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the US Marshals were involved in the immigration enforcement actions in New York City on Tuesday, according to a law enforcement official.

The agents were broken up into several teams that went to various locations in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, according to the official.

So far there are more than 20 people in custody from the enforcement actions that started before 6 a.m. ET, the official said. Those taken into custody include one person who was wanted for a double homicide in a different country and another for weapons possession, the official said.

The enforcement actions are starting to wind down for Tuesday, but will be ongoing all week, a separate law enforcement official said. The actions in the city were supposedly targeting gang members, according to a law enforcement official. Officials hit one house and let one person go who didn’t fit the profile of who they were looking for, the official said.

A law enforcement source tells CNN the NYPD was not involved in any of the enforcement action being carried out Tuesday. CNN has reached out to the New York City mayor’s office and NYPD for more information.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has announced an investigation into the policies of so-called sanctuary cities Monday including New York, and invited the mayors of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver to testify before Congress next month.

This post has been updated with more reporting on the immigration enforcement action in New York City.

There are good reasons why it is typical to refrain from drawing attention to immigration operations until they are complete, the former director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told CNN.

Sandweg told CNN the Obama administration ran similar immigration operations and over time, they became less effective.

“You start missing more and more of your target because those individuals are no longer in the location that you expect them because they caught wind of the operation,” he said.

“It’s surprising in a way from an operational perspective that they’re putting this much publicity on this operation, but politically I think it makes sense,” Sandweg said.

Some context: At least two agencies assisting US immigration officials with the sweeps ordered by the fledgling Republican White House have told personnel to ensure their clothing clearly depicts their respective agency in case they are filmed by journalists, sources familiar with the operations tell CNN.

The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, according to an internal memorandum sent Monday.

What is it?

The freeze means that federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by CNN. The pause also blocks the issuance of new grants.

When does it start?

The freeze on federal assistance is slated to take effect at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Who will be affected?

The memo specifies that the pause applies to “other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” according to the memo. But it states that it will not affect Social Security or Medicare benefits, nor does it include “assistance provided directly to individuals.”

While individual assistance is not directly targeted by the freeze, the pause will impact aid programs that support people across the United States, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He said the action jeopardizes “billions upon billions of community grants and financial support that help millions of people across the country.”

Organizations in the dark

Many organizations are scrambling to work out how they’ll be impacted by the freeze.

The primary source of federal funding for senior nutrition programs, like Meals on Wheels, is the Older Americans Act Nutrition Programs, which is a grant. So if the memo applies to this act, “this would presumably halt service to millions of vulnerable seniors who have no other means of purchasing or preparing meals,” Jenny Young, spokesperson for Meals on Wheels America, told CNN Tuesday.

Like many entities that receive funding through federal grants, the organization is trying to figure out what the memo means and who can answer its questions, she noted.

It’s also uncertain whether the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program will be able to access funds for new applications for heating assistance, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

Universities are still working to assess the impact of the freeze on their operations as well.

A US military plane carrying Guatemalan migrants deported from the United States sits on the tarmac at La Aurora airport in Guatemala City, on January 27.

The Trump administration’s immigration sweeps have included more than 2,000 arrests in two days, a significantly higher number than the average arrests per day under the Biden administration — but the increased arrests haven’t translated into an immediate deportation uptick under the Trump administration, data shows.

Information gathered by Tom Cartwright, who tracks ICE deportations for the advocacy group Witness at the Border, shows ICE deportation flights are nothing out of the ordinary as of Monday.

During the week of January 6, there were 28 ICE flights; the week of January 13, there were 27; and the week of January 20, there were 23 flights.

Flights average around 115 passengers.

Most of the flights were headed to Guatemala, including two military flights, followed by Honduras, then Mexico.

Both Mexican and Guatemalan leaders said they haven’t seen increased numbers of migrant deportees since Trump took office.

Here’s a breakdown of countries receiving ICE flights, month-to-date (as of January 26):

Google is complying with President Donald Trump’s executive action that renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Soon, the name change will appear on Google Maps.

In a post on X, Google explained that it has a “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” The name will be tweaked when the Geographic Names Information System, a government database of names and location data, is updated.

Google will also change the name of Mount McKinley, the nation’s highest peak, from Denali. Former President Barack Obama renamed the Alaska landmark to Denali in 2015 as a nod to the region’s native population.

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

Read more details here about the name change.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra said she had a “long conversation” recently with President Donald Trump about the auto industry, placing a focus on its “importance from an economic security” and “national security perspective” as potential tariffs on Mexico and Canada loom.

Automakers are nervously awaiting more information about Trump’s tariff actions on America’s neighbors as car manufacturers have treated all of North America as a single free-trade zone. There is no such thing as an “all-American car,” because most American cars have parts made in Mexico or Canada.

Barra did not say precisely when she spoke with Trump, only that the conversation took place after he was inaugurated last week.

Trump said last week he intends to move forward with an across-the-board tariff of 25% on Mexican and Canadian goods, though he said those levies would come on February 1 rather than on Day One, as he previously said.

President Donald Trump talks with California Gov. Gavin Newsom after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.

The US military did not enter California and “turned on the water,” as President Donald Trump claimed Monday night, state officials said. The federal government restarted water pumps that were offline for three days for routine maintenance.

In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump said the US military used emergency powers to redirect water to California. “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, turned on the water,” Trump wrote.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokesperson referred CNN to a Department of Water Resources post on X.

Trump has continued to falsely imply Los Angeles lacked the water to put out the fires because Newsom wanted to protect an “essentially worthless fish called a smelt,” which is only found in Northern California.

Last Friday, Trump and Newsom had a face-to-face encounter when Newsom met Trump at Los Angeles International Airport, where Trump had just arrived to tour the wildfire damage.

“We’re looking to get something completed, and the way you get it completed is to work together,” Trump said.

The US Army Corps of Engineers told CNN in a statement:

CNN has also reached out to the Pentagon.

This post has been updated with comment from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Bolstered by support from the Trump administration, Chicago US Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams are targeting criminals first in their immigration arrests, though the White House has left discretion about enforcement up to officers, the local field director said.

Officers are “targeting the worst first,” Chicago ICE Field Director Sam Olson told Fox News on Tuesday.

The Trump administration has taken an “unprecedented, whole-of-government approach” to the operation, with on-the-ground support from the FBI, US Marshals and other agencies, Olson said.

His team has arrested people with “a litany of criminal convictions,” including sexual assault, murder and drug possession, he added.

“We’re in a difficult situation here in Chicago, because a lot of the targets that we’re looking at were previously arrested by local or state authorities, and we’ve placed holds on many of them, and they were released from the facility into the communities again,” Olson said.

Officers have spent hours researching where the people live live before going into their communities, he said, noting most teams are comprised of at least 10 agents trying to arrest one person.

The Association of American Universities, which is composed of America’s 71 leading research universities, said Tuesday it is “still working to assess” the impact a pause on federal research funding would have on members after the White House budget office ordered a freeze on all federal grants and loans.

According to the Association of American Universities website, member universities “earn the majority of competitively awarded federal funding for research that improves public health, seeks to address national challenges, and contributes significantly to our economic strength, while educating and training tomorrow’s visionary leaders and innovators.”

Members include NYU, the University of Notre Dame, Stanford, the University of Texas, Georgia Tech, and many others.

An order issued Monday to “temporarily pause” all federal financial assistance programs to organizations could be devastating for charity groups that rely on government grants and loans, the head of the National Council on Nonprofits said.

The memo to federal agencies issued by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, orders the pause to go into effect at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday. During the pause, agencies are required to review all assistance programs and “assign responsibility and oversight to a senior political appointee to ensure Federal financial assistance conforms to Administration priorities.”

President Donald Trump walks off stage after speaking at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, in November.

In August 2024, then-candidate former President Donald Trump delivered a press conference surrounded by packaged foods, meats, produce, condiments, milk and eggs.

“When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One,” he said.

It was a pledge he repeated on the campaign trail, often followed by the phrase, “drill, baby, drill.” And to many voters, inflation was a justifiable target: Years of sharply rising prices had taken a toll on their hard-earned pay and their livelihoods.

But Day One has turned into Day Seven, and those eggs are getting even more expensive.

Despite a flurry of executive actions, Trump’s price-related promises have gone unfulfilled, Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter addressed to the president.

In fact, the lawmakers added, Trump appears to be “backtracking” on those promises, conceding in recent weeks that it’s “hard to bring things down.”

Read more about why Trump has not been able to immediately lower prices here.

The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, according to an internal memorandum sent Monday.

Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by CNN. The pause also blocks the issuance of new grants.

The memo specifies that the pause will not affect Social Security or Medicare benefits, nor does it include “assistance provided directly to individuals.”

The freeze on federal assistance is slated to take effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday and could impact trillions of dollars. It marks the latest move by the Trump administration to exert control over federal funding, even that which has already been allocated by Congress.

“This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities,” Vaeth wrote.

The memo suggests that the pause is in line with President Donald Trump’s executive orders last week.

The pause also applies to “other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal,” according to the memo.

“Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities,” Vaeth wrote.

An immigrant is detained by US Immigrations and Customs Homeland Security Investigations agents at a Home Depot parking lot in Tucson, Arizona, on Sunday.

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement blitz is underway, involving multiple federal agencies and resulted in the arrest of nearly 1,000 people, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Here’s the latest:

Watch some of CNN’s interview with Trump’s border czar below:

President Donald Trump attends a House Republican members conference meeting in Trump National Doral resort in Miami, Florida, on Monday.

President Donald Trump said he wasn’t “100% sure” that he cannot run for a third term as president.

He added a moment of lighthearted uncertainty, asking Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, “I’m not sure, am I allowed to run again, Mike? I better not get you involved in that.”

This is not the first time Trump has hinted at the possibility of seeking three terms in office. In an appearance last Sunday in Las Vegas, Nevada, he remarked, “It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve not once, but twice or three times,” further stoking speculation about his future political plans.

Some context: Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has spoken about amending the US Constitution to permit Trump to run for a third term. But it’s difficult to amend the Constitution, which hasn’t been changed since the 27th Amendment was ratified in 1992. Formally proposing an amendment requires either a two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives and Senate — Republicans do not hold enough seats to pass it — or via a constitutional convention, which hasn’t been held since the 18th century. Then, to ratify a new amendment, three-fourths of state legislatures (so 38 states) would need to approve it.

Here’s what else Trump spoke about at the conference dinner:

On TikTok: At the conference dinner, Trump reiterated his fondness for the app and his preference that it be sold by its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance. “China won’t be involved,” he said while insisting “a lot of people” are seeking to purchase the platform.

On Medicare and Social Security: The president said he will not sign a bill that includes “even a single penny” of cuts to Medicare or Social Security benefits, reiterating a commitment he made during his campaign.

On Colombia: In his first comments on the mass deportation effort launched under his administration, Trump took a victory lap on immigration, saying Colombia, “agreed with us almost immediately after I got involved,” following a dispute over deportation flights over the weekend that threatened to spiral into a damaging trade war between the two nations.

On DeepSeek: After the Chinese artificial intelligence company unveiled a ChatGPT-like AI model operating at a fraction of the cost of comparable US models, Trump said the announcement “should be a wake-up call” for US tech companies.

President Donald Trump on Monday announced he had signed four executive orders that will reshape the military, including banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces; gutting the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and reinstating with back pay service members who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19.

Trump said he signed the executive orders while aboard Air Force One on a return flight to Washington from Florida. CNN previously reported Trump was expected to do so, according to two White House officials.

The orders, which were first reported by the New York Post, come as Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as secretary of defense on Saturday. Hegseth has long stated he planned to implement major cultural changes to the military, including ending DEI practices and removing “woke” service members.

Moments after his arrival at the Pentagon on Monday, Hegseth told reporters that there are “more executive orders coming.”

“Today, there are more executive orders coming, … on removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of Covid mandates, iron dome for America — this is happening quickly, and as the secretary of defense, it’s an honor to salute smartly as I did as a junior officer and now as the secretary of defense to ensure these orders are complied with rapidly and quickly,” Hegseth said.

Trump had banned transgender Americans form serving in the military in 2017 during his first administration, but then-President Joe Biden issued an order in 2021 repealing the ban.

Read more about Trump’s executive orders here.

CNN’s Michael Williams and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting to this post.