January 21, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

President Donald Trump defended his decision to terminate former national security adviser John Bolton’s security detail within hours of taking office Tuesday.

“I think that was enough time,” he told reporters at the White House.

Earlier Tuesday, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Trump quietly terminated Bolton’s security detail on Monday.

Bolton, who left the Trump White House in November 2019, has required ongoing US Secret Service protection because of threats against him from Iran. Trump initially terminated his protection after he left his administration in the first term, but President Joe Biden restored it once he took office.

President Donald Trump holds a letter from Joe Biden at the White House on Monday.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that former President Joe Biden left him a “nice letter” in the drawer of the Resolute desk, offering reporters a tease of its contents.

The letter was addressed “to number 47,” Trump said.

Trump said he “appreciated” Biden’s letter.

Biden declined to tell reporters what he wrote on Monday, saying, “that’s between Trump and me.” Trump left a letter upon leaving office in 2021 that Biden later described as “very generous.”

President Donald Trump indicated Tuesday that he would consider placing additional sanctions on Russia as its war in Ukraine war is on the cusp of its third anniversary.

Asked whether he would put additional sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin fails to come to the negotiating table, Trump said, “Sounds likely.”

“We’re talking to Zelensky. We‘re going to be talking with President Putin very soon, and we’ll see what –— how it all happens,” Trump said, castigating the European Union for not spending enough to help defend Ukraine.

Trump said he would “look into” whether the US would be sending additional weapons to Ukraine. The Biden White House worked in its final months to get as much weaponry and money into Kyiv’s hands before leaving office, an acknowledgment that Trump could claw back much of whatever remain unspent from the $61 billion in funding passed by Congress in 2024.

Trump also confirmed he discussed the war during a recent call with Chinese President Xi Jinping: “He’s got a lot of power like we have a lot of power. I said you ought to get it settled.”

Zelensky would like to have peace, Trump said, “But it takes two to tango. We’ll see what happens.”

Firefighters stand near a burning house in Altadena on January 8.

President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday that efforts to pass “one big spending bill” have been made “simpler” by lawmakers seeking aid for Los Angeles after historic wildfires left at least 27 dead.

Following a meeting earlier Tuesday with Senate GOP Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump was asked if he was able to reach an agreement to pass “one powerful bill,” and he told reporters in the Roosevelt “pretty much.”

Some Republicans have called for tying conditions to aid for the fire-ravaged area, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.

In 2018, then-President Trump reportedly withheld disaster relief funds for California given the state’s Democratic lean. However, Trump reversed course after he was informed that he had a larger voter base in the impacted county than in some states, a former official said.

“We’re going to take care of Los Angeles,” Trump said, previewing a scheduled trip to survey damage from the fire Friday.

“And I’m going to North Carolina, very importantly first, I’ll be there on Friday, and then I’m going from there to Los Angeles, and then I’m going to Nevada,” he said. “And I’m really going to Nevada to thank them for the vote, because we won Nevada overwhelmingly, and that’s usually a Democrat vote. And I just want to go there to thank the people of Nevada for the big the big vote.”

President Donald Trump defended his decision to pardon people who committed violence against police officers during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Remember: Trump issued full pardons to about 1,500 people, dropped charges for those with prosecutions still pending in courts and commuted the sentences of 14 people, including the high profile leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted for their roles in the attack.

Asked Tuesday whether he believed it was never acceptable to assault a police officer, Trump replied, “sure.” Pressed on a specific case of one of the rioters who drove a stun gun into the neck of a police officer but received a pardon, Trump said he didn’t know but would “take a look at everything.”

Asked once more whether the pardons were sending a message that assaulting officers is OK, Trump said, “No, the opposite.”

“I’m the friend of police more than any president that’s ever been in this office,” he said.

Trump went on to make an indirect comparison to violent crime in Democratic-led cities.

Those who were pardoned for their roles on January 6, he said, “have already served years in prison, and they’ve served them viciously. It’s a disgusting prison. It’s been horrible. It’s inhumane. It’s been a terrible, terrible thing.”

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks to reporters in Washington, DC, on August 17, 2022

John Bolton, former national security adviser, said President Donald Trump’s revocation of his security detail is “certainly a downer.”

Bolton, who left the Trump White House in November 2019, has required ongoing US Secret Service protection because of threats against him from Iran. Trump initially terminated his protection after he left his administration in the first term, but President Joe Biden restored it once he took office.

Bolton noted that Biden restored his security detail even though “I’m sure he probably wasn’t the happiest man in the world because of the criticisms made of him on his his foreign policy.”

“But he did it because it’s simply not permissible to allow a rogue state like the terrorist in Iran to threaten Americans,” he said.

Bolton criticized his former boss in a book published in 2020 in which he claimed the president was woefully under informed on matters of foreign policy, obsessed with shaping his media legacy and that Trump asked the leaders of Ukraine and China to help him win the 2020 election. Trump responded by threatening to jail Bolton,

FBI Director nominee Kash Patel arrives for a meeting in the Russell Senate Office Building on December 9.

Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin told reporters that President Donald Trump’s pick for to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, “has neither the experience, the judgment or the temperament to serve as head of the Federal Bureau investigation,” after the two men met.

Durbin added that Patel’s hearing is tentatively scheduled for next — although Republican Chairman Chuck Grassley gets final say in scheduling — and said that his office had just received Patel’s FBI background check this afternoon. He noted that he has not reviewed it yet.

Durbin said that he read Patel’s book before their meeting, holding up a copy for reporters with several tabs sticking out of it, and that Patel could not give satisfactory answers about his dismissal of the violence of January 6th or his so-called “enemies list” at the end of the book.

“Take a look at the background of Kash Patel; there’s nothing in his background that suggests that he could supervise 30,000 agents and professionals, 400 field officers at a time of national emergency like 9/11. No indication. What I find instead is a long road of political experiences that is pockmarked along the way with grievances,” said Durbin.

The senior Democrat said that he pressed Patel on who were the “cowards in uniform” he describes on January 6, and he said that Patel dodged the question.

“I brought up, in terms of his interpretation, he calls it a haphazard riot. What in the hell was a haphazard riot? That’s how he describes January 6,” said Durbin.

He added that Patel refused to answer whether he supports Trump’s decision to pardon January 6 rioters. “He said he’d have to go through the chain of command before he said anything critical of the president,” Durbin told reporters.

Vice President JD Vance has sworn in GOP Sens. Ashley Moody of Florida and John Husted of Ohio, bringing the body back up to its full membership.

Moody, the former Florida attorney general, was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after former Sen. Marco Rubio was picked as Trump’s secretary of state. After voting for his own confirmation last night, Rubio resigned from his seat. Moody was escorted by Sen. Rick Scott, a fellow Floridian, as she was sworn in.

Husted, the former Ohio lieutenant governor, was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to take Vance’s seat. He was escorted by Sen. Bernie Moreno and DeWine as he was sworn in.

House Speaker Mike Johnson deflected when asked by reporters to respond to President Donald Trump’s pardons for more than 1,000 people charged in the Capitol attack, including some who were convicted of assaulting police officers.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to review that because I’ve been so busy, so I’ll get back to you” Johnson said.

Johnson, who said the topic did not come up in his meeting with Trump and Congressional GOP leadership, added “it’s a case-by-case evaluation as I’ve always said and I haven’t had a chance to review it.”

Two days ago, Johnson told NBC’s Meet the Press “peaceful protesters should be pardoned, but violent criminals should not. That’s a simple determination. It’s up to the president on that. But there’s been a lot of talk about it. But we’ll see what happens.”

Johnson said his two meetings at the White House, one with Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune followed by a meeting with broader Republican leadership, was a “great spirit of unity” where Republicans discussed how to implement Trump’s agenda and what to prioritize.

In response to questions about how Trump’s big agenda is going to be packaged in Congress, Johnson said, “I’m not going to talk about the discussions that we had, but we do have a strategy that we’re all working on together. It will be bicameral and there’s a lot of excitement about that.”

When pressed if Republicans are still trying to sort out the process and details, Johnson said, “we’ve got a plan pretty well formulated now and I’m not going to tell all of you all of the details of it yet because that’s not how this works. But the party is working in unison. The leaders in both chambers are working in a bicameral fashion and the president is all on board.”

Johnson later emphasized that he is still “working on a one bill strategy.”

An “ecstatic” President Donald Trump greeted House GOP leaders at the White House with an uplifting speech about working together over the next several years, according to one of the attendees, Republican Rep. Kevin Hern.

Trump hosted the GOP leaders a day after his inauguration and was “pretty ecstatic” by how it went, Hern said. They also discussed at least some policy and Trump pushed GOP leaders to eliminate the looming problem of the debt limit.

“He brings it up every time and all the time around any conversations about the reconciliation package,” Hern said, confirming that the issue did come up in the meeting. But Trump did not say exactly how the debt limit issue should be dealt with, including whether it should be included in the GOP’s reconciliation bill.

“It does not matter to him,” Hern said, noting that Trump was leaving the decision up to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune “as long as it gives him the freedom to get his policies done.”

From left, President Donald Trump is seen with Masayoshi Son, Larry Ellison and Sam Altman at the White House on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle are set to partner on a new, $500 billion AI infrastructure “company” called Stargate — a massive private sector investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

The three companies will contribute $100 billion investments each to start, with plans to pour up to $500 billion into the project in the coming years, Trump said.

Stargate will be “building the physical and virtual infrastructure to power the next generation of AI,” including data centers around the country, Trump said, calling the effort the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”

During remarks, Trump underscored a shift in global investment trends, particularly a move away from China, highlighting the US as a central hub for future economic growth.

“Tremendous amounts of money are coming in for many things, other than even AI,” he said.

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who was at the event, said the first data project is already under construction in Texas.

Ellison framed the initiative as “the promise of AI and the promise of the future,” emphasizing the transformative potential of AI, particularly in areas like cancer diagnosis. OpenAI’s Sam Altman declared it “the most important project of this era,” while SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son described it as “the beginning of the golden age.”

AI leaders have for months been sounding the alarm that more data centers — as well as the chips and electricity and water resources to run them — are needed to power their artificial intelligence ambitions in the coming years.

Oracle is among the biggest US data center operators. And SoftBank has the kind of deep pockets needed to fund the expansion of AI infrastructure, which is expected to cost billions of dollars.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting.

Deborah Sandoval barely recognized her son, Salvador, as he emerged from a Minnesota prison Monday night just hours after President Donald Trump issued a sweeping pardon of nearly all of the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

She hadn’t seen the 27-year-old in two and a half years.

“My children are my reason for living,” Sandoval told CNN. “I finally got my life back.”

Deborah Sandoval served four months in prison after pleading guilty for her own role in the January 6 insurrection. Salvador Sandoval was convicted of six felonies, including assaulting police officers inside the Capitol. He was serving an 88-month prison sentence before his pardon.

“I felt like a burden was lifted off of us,” Deborah Sandoval said. “But it’s just the beginning. Because we want the truth to come out.”

More than four years after the infamous attack on the Capitol, Deborah Sandoval maintains her belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. It wasn’t. And she claims the rioters who stormed the Capitol were innocent protesters whose first amendment speech was met with unjust violence from police. Hundreds of legal convictions — many by jury trial — say otherwise.

“They assaulted innocent Americans. I do not have regrets about going and using my constitutional right of freedom of speech,” she said. “I can’t speak for my son, but I can say he didn’t assault anybody. He was assaulted.”

Deborah Sandoval claims Trump’s sweeping pardon only validates those deeply held beliefs.

“Trump has been attacked by the same people that attacked us,” she said. “He’s been dragged through the same courts that didn’t give us a chance or give us a vote. He knows what these corrupt courts are like.”

While Kamala Harris was smiling for the cameras ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Doug Emhoff was steaming – and not just about Monday.

At the ceremonial tea at the White House before the motorcades headed to the US Capitol, the former second gentleman refused a handshake from Bruce Fischer, the husband of inauguration co-chair Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, a person familiar with the interaction tells CNN.

The tense moment came after a viral exchange earlier this month when Fischer’s husband did not shake Harris’ hand as they stood in the old Senate chamber at the beginning of January for the traditional repetition of the oath and family photo with the vice president. At one point during the interaction Harris encouraged Fischer’s husband forward, saying, “I’m not going to bite, don’t worry.”

After they finished and Harris shook the third-term senator’s hand in congratulations, she reached out to Bruce Fischer, who looked down at her hand and said “thank you.”

A full-length image of the interaction shows that the GOP senator’s husband was holding a cane with one hand and the Bible for his wife’s swearing-in with his other. But the awkwardness of the moment was evident from Harris’ widened eyes and clenched teeth smile.

And it was still on Emhoff’s mind on Monday: “Why would you try to shake my hand,” he told Bruce Fischer according to the person familiar with the interaction, “when you wouldn’t shake my wife’s hand?”

The vice president and the senator were not involved in the interaction, though Bruce Fischer did later make his way back over to apologize, the source told CNN. And by the time they headed to the car to the Capitol, tempers had cooled and there was a cordial conversation which touched on golf, among other things.

A spokesperson for Harris declined comment. Spokespeople for Bruce Fischer did not return request for comment.

Members of the far-right Proud Boys, including Enrique Tarrio, center, rally in support of Donald Trump in Washington, DC, in 2020.

In his first interview following his release from prison, former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy around the events of the January 6 US Capitol attack, heaped praise on President Donald Trump for his pardons and called for “retribution.”

“I had no doubt that he was going to release us,” Tarrio said in an interview with the right-wing host Alex Jones. “He gave me my life back.”

“Twenty-two years is not a short sentence, that’s the rest of my life,” he said.

Tarrio told Jones that the justice system was weaponized against January 6 defendants.

Meanwhile, the future of Proud Boys will remain “what it always has been” he said, adding that it would be a group of men who love freedom, drink beer and protect Trump supporters. He also suggested that media outlets should stop calling him a former leader of the organization as he “wanted to get back in the fight as soon as possible.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner takes part in a news conference in Philadelphia on March 11, 2024.

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor said Tuesday that he is exploring filing state charges against convicted January 6 rioters who were pardoned by President Donald Trump.

The comments from Larry Krasner, a Democrat and self-described progressive prosecutor, are the first indication that state and local law enforcement officials might try to push back against Trump’s mass clemency for his supporters who stormed the US Capitol in 2021.

Presidential pardons do not cover state offenses, but there would be significant legal hurdles for any state prosecution to move forward. During the first Trump administration, some efforts to charge allies like Paul Manafort in state court, after his federal prosecution for financial crimes that stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, were rejected by judges because of the Constitution’s protections against double jeopardy.

Krasner said he is examining whether there is a legal path to file state charges against January 6 convicts who assaulted police or conspired with far-right extremist groups, like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. He said his office is reviewing federal charging documents to see what conduct may have been left out — and not covered by the pardons.

“To the extent the federal charging encompasses everything we’re talking about, then this argument probably fails, but I am very doubtful that it encompasses everything that we’re talking about,” Krasner told CNN in an interview on Tuesday. “You can have a state prosecution for conduct that was not fully encompassed in the federal prosecution.”

A few Pennsylvania laws could be in play, Krasner said, including statutes that criminalize using a phone or computer to break the law, state conspiracy laws, or state election laws.

New leaders at the Justice Department, which has been a center of President Donald Trump’s ire because of its two criminal cases filed against him, have moved quickly to reassign at least 20 career officials, effectively sidelining them from senior-level positions where they’ve worked for years, according to multiple sources briefed on the changes.

There has also been a shakeup at key US Attorney offices in New York and Washington, DC.

Here’s who has been sidelined at the DOJ headquarters in Washington, according to sources:

In some instances, seasoned career prosecutors were ordered to report in the coming weeks to a new task force. The move is viewed by Justice Department officials as a way to push some of the career lawyers, who are normally protected during transitions between administrations, to consider leaving the department.

Keep in mind: Federal civil service regulations generally protect career employees at the Justice Department and other agencies from being reassigned for at least 120 days after new leadership takes over.

However, Trump administration officials appear to be interpreting the 120-day rule to not apply in this instance because DOJ is currently led by an acting attorney general and deputy attorney general while Pamela Bondi, the attorney general nominee, awaits confirmation. Therefore, they reason, new leadership hasn’t yet started, one of the sources said.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The changes could become subject to complaints before the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that is supposed to protect civil servants from political retribution in changes of administrations.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at the shakeup in New York and Washington, DC:

Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, hinted that the administration may consider strengthening tariffs on aluminum and steel imports.

Trump said this week that the administration is considering 25% tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada starting February 1 unless the countries take measures to prevent illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the US.

Navarro also characterized the proposed higher duties in a positive light, saying they “were how we had prosperity and security in America.”

“Tariffs are tax cuts,” Navarro said.

People wait for the release of those serving time related to their involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

Outside the Washington, DC, jail where some people convicted for their role in the January 6 insurrection were being held, a smattering of supporters gathered on Tuesday morning, including one rioter who already served his time in prison.

It comes as leaders of far-right militia groups and other US Capitol rioters who were convicted of violently assaulting police were freed from prison overnight by President Donald Trump’s mass pardons and commutations.

Another convicted rioter, Rachel Powell, emerged from the facility Tuesday afternoon, and later told reporters that a prison official woke her up with a flashlight ahead of her eventual release.

The rioter support groups say they believe there are about 20 detainees held in the jail.

Those convicted of January 6 charges who have already been sentenced are likely to be in federal Bureau of Prisons facilities across the country, not the local jail in Washington, which acts as more of a holding facility as a small number of detainees were awaiting trial or sentencing.

The group outside the DC jail on Tuesday morning included Brandon Fellows, who was released from federal prison in May after being sentenced by a Trump-appointed judge to three years and a month in prison, plus probation. He is one of the pardon recipients.

Prosecutors say Fellows entered the Capitol during the riot through a broken window, filmed rioters storming the building and ramming through a door, carried a “Trump 2020” flag, then smoked marijuana inside the Senate office and heckled police officers. A jury convicted Fellows of felony obstruction of a congressional proceeding, plus several misdemeanors.

The spokesperson for the DC jail hasn’t responded to CNN’s requests for information.

President Donald Trump speaks briefly with reporters after returning to the White House on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump is granting temporary, six-month security clearances to incoming White House officials who have not completed the vetting process typically required before being allowed to access highly-classified information, blaming a backlog of background checks that he helped cause.

It’s a move national security lawyers inside and outside the government say is unusual, if not unprecedented.

One former US official who worked on clearance issues in the Biden and first Trump administrations raised concerns that foreign intelligence partners, on which the US relies for much of its intelligence work, will curtail what they share with the US, out of fear that their sources may be put in danger.

“They will start restricting their intelligence,” the official said. “If someone on the other end here has not been vetted, why would they share that?”

Trump made the move in one of the dozens of executive actions he issued on his first day in office, immediately giving high-level clearances called TS/SCI, to incoming officials, including some who have never been vetted for potential security vulnerabilities.

The FBI, which conducts background investigations of officials and appointees usually required for security clearances, is working to clear a backlog of hundreds of applications. Part of the reason for that is Trump’s transition waited about a month after the November election to sign the agreements required for the FBI to begin its work, people briefed on the matter said.

But Trump complained about the backlog and blamed bureaucracy in the executive action he signed.

“There is a backlog created by the Biden Administration in the processing of security clearances of individuals hired to work in the Executive Office of the President,” Trump’s executive memorandum said, referring to an office that employes hundreds of people.

“Because of this backlog and the bureaucratic process and broken security clearance process, individuals who have not timely received the appropriate clearances are ineligible for access to the White House complex, infrastructure, and technology and are therefore unable to perform the duties for which they were hired.”

Immigration officers are seen outside a Department of Homeland Security office in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday.

Federal immigration authorities will be permitted to carry out enforcement actions in and near places like churches and schools, marking a departure from longstanding policy to avoid so-called “sensitive areas.”

In a statement, acting Homeland Security secretary Benjamine Huffman announced the end of two directives, giving agents more authority over whether they carry out enforcement and eliminating a legal pathway for migrants seeking to come to the United States.

In 2011, ICE set forth a policy preventing agents from making arrests in sensitive locations. Immigrant advocates have shared concerns over stripping that policy, arguing that doing so would stoke fear in immigrant communities and keep children from going to school and stop people to seeking care at hospitals.

The second directive included the phase out of parole programs which allowed certain migrants to temporarily live and work in the United States. Republicans have repeatedly said that the Biden administration abused the parole program by extending it to multiple nationalities. The statement doesn’t clarify which programs will be phased out, but says the program will be returned to a case-by-case basis.

“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country. This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis,” the statement says.

Hundreds of immigration advocacy volunteers in Denver, Colorado, are ready to deploy at a moment’s notice to document possible US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in their community, according to Jennifer Piper, the program director of American Friends Service Committee.

The “Colorado Rapid Response Network” hotline – which has been promoted on social media as the number to call when an immigration raid is in progress – was launched in 2017, during Trump’s first term, Piper said.

This month, more than 250 volunteers flocked to training sessions for 2-3 hours, designed to prepare volunteers to document and respond to any federal immigration action reported to the hotline.

The volunteers are trained to confirm the address of the ICE activity, document the scene, determine the number of people who were detained, and any other details available from witnesses, Piper said. Volunteers usually deploy in teams of two, she said.

Since Trump was sworn into his second term, no confirmed reports of ICE enforcement activity has been reported to the hotline in the Denver area, according to Piper.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed House Republicans for “celebrating pardons issued to a bloodthirsty mob that violently assaulted police officers on January 6, 2021.”

Some context: Republican senators seem split in their reactions to President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the sentences or pardon January 6 insurrections.

While some dodged questions or seemed to stand by Trump, others expressed uneasiness or objected to the decision to give a blanket pardon to more than 1,000 January 6 prisoners, including ones who were convicted of assaulting police officers.

Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, on January 15.

The Senate Judiciary Committee officially announced that the panel’s vote on former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, will be next Wednesday, January 29, after Democrats used committee rules to push the vote by one week.

More on the nominee: During her confirmation hearing last week, Bondi repeatedly insisted she would not allow politics to infect her Justice Department – accusing former President Joe Biden’s DOJ of being responsible for politicizing law enforcement against Trump.

Bondi practiced law in Florida for over a decade — first as a prosecutor in Tampa and then for eight years as the state attorney general — where she had a reputation for being a media savvy and effective litigator.

Elected as Florida’s top prosecutor in the conservative tea party wave, she grew increasingly partisan during her two terms in office, making regular appearances on Fox News and then becoming a top Florida surrogate for Trump during his 2016 campaign.

Read more about Bondi’s career here.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to appear at the White House Tuesday afternoon alongside President Donald Trump and other tech CEOs to announce a massive private sector investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States, a source familiar with the discussions confirmed to CNN.

OpenAI is set to partner with Oracle and SoftBank to pour up to $500 billion in the coming years into an AI data center project called Stargate, the person said. The plans were first reported by CBS.

AI leaders have for months been sounding the alarm that more data centers — as well as the chips and electricity and water resources to run them — are needed to power their artificial intelligence ambitions in the coming years.

Oracle is among the biggest US data center operators. And SoftBank has the kind of deep pockets needed to fund the expansion of AI infrastructure, which is expected to cost billions of dollars.

Altman has previously urged US officials to aid in that infrastructure buildout to ensure the United States remains ahead of China in the AI arms race, given that AI is poised to impact everything from the economy to military capabilities. The OpenAI CEO also reportedly met with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son last year to solicit investment in new semiconductor plants for building AI chips.

Altman, who attended Trump’s inauguration Monday, told Fox News last month that he believes Trump will “be very good at” attracting AI infrastructure investments to the United States and said he looks “forward to working with his administration on it.”

A sign outside the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva is seen in 2021.

In his first hours as president, Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.

WHO, the United Nations health agency that helps protect the health and security of the world’s people, receives about a fifth of its budget from the US.

Trump has blasted WHO as “corrupt” and accused it of ripping America off, and millions of Americans who voted for him are increasingly skeptical of the value of such international structures. But experts have warned that the withdrawal of WHO’s most influential member could harm global health.

What does WHO do? WHO is one of several global institutions that emerged from the wreckage of World War II. The agency was founded in 1948 in an attempt to protect the world’s health. Its constitution, signed by all UN members at the time, warned that “unequal development” in the health systems of different countries was a “common danger.” The organization’s objective is “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.”

Today, the agency works in more than 150 locations around the world, leads efforts to expand universal health coverage and directs the international response to health emergencies, from yellow fever to cholera and Ebola.

What has it achieved? WHO’s most notable achievement was the eradication of smallpox, which marked a rare instance of cooperation between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But, because the organization is so large, its effects are often “diffuse,” said Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London. He pointed to the near-universal upward trend in life expectancy since WHO’s founding as an achievement for which the agency also deserves credit.

Why does Trump want to withdraw? Trump first tried to exit WHO during his first term in 2020, accusing the organization of “severely mismanaging and covering up” the spread of Covid-19.

Trump has long said he believes the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, which Beijing has sought to obscure. Notably, WHO has shared some of Trump’s concerns and in December — five years since the first case of Covid-19 was detected — called for China to be more transparent to help the world understand how the pandemic began.

During his latest election campaign, Trump was more brazen, calling the organization “nothing more than a corrupt globalist scam” which “disgracefully covered the tracks of the Chinese Communist Party.”

President Donald Trump will sit for his first Oval Office television interview since returning to the White House on Wednesday, when he speaks to Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a White House official tells CNN.

The interview will be pre-taped and will air on Hannity’s show that airs at 9 p.m. ET, the official said.

Axios first reported the details of the interview.

Two dozen Democratic-led states and cities are challenging President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship in court, a major constitutional challenge to one of the White House’s signature policies.

The lawsuits allege that a Trump executive order signed Monday violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which gives a constitutional right of citizenship to all children born in the United States.

The case could end up becoming the first major Supreme Court showdown for Trump’s second-term agenda. The 18 states filed in a Massachusetts federal court, which means any appeal of a ruling from that court will come up through the First US Circuit Court of Appeals, where all the judges are Democratic appointees.

The Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship in the past and there is also a federal law passed by Congress, predating the 14th Amendment’s 1868 ratification, establishing that children born on US soil are entitled to citizenship.

“The president’s entitled to put forth a policy agenda that he sees fit,” New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who is co-leading the new lawsuit, told CNN.

“When it comes to birthright citizenship – something that’s been part of the fabric of this nation for centuries, that’s been in the Constitution for 157 years since the Civil War, that’s been upheld by the Supreme Court twice – the president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, rewrite the Constitution and upend the rule of law,” he added.

Read more about why these states and cities are suing.

This post has been updated with more developments.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams stopped short of endorsing any potential changes to the city’s current sanctuary laws on Tuesday, a turnaround for a city leader who has repeatedly suggested migrants who are accused of committing crimes should be deported without due process.

It’s a slight change in tone a day after President Donald Trump took office and signed several executive orders on immigration, including one that directs both the Department of Homeland Security secretary and the attorney general to ensure sanctuary cities do not receive federal funds. The order also requires federal agencies to increase partnerships with local law enforcement.

Adams first called for changes to the city’s sanctuary city policies in February of last year. The mayor also previously said the city is willing to work with federal agencies to enforce immigration laws.

New York’s laws: The policies which have been in place since the late 1980s when Mayor Ed Koch first put them in place to ban agencies and officials from sharing information about immigrants unless it involved a criminal matter or the individual authorized it.

In 2014, former Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council added more restrictions and passed a law to remove ICE from Department of Correction facilities. The law also barred the New York Police Department or the Department of Correction from honoring detainer requests from ICE. Detainer requests are issued by ICE as an official ask to hold an individual for possible deportation.

In an aerial view, the container ship Tampa Triumph passes through the Miraflores Locks as it transits the Panama Canal on September 20, 2023.

More than 100 years after the construction of the engineering marvel that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans – and 25 years after the canal was returned to Panama by the US – the waterway faces renewed intimidation from an American president.

US President Donald Trump in his inaugural address on Monday vowed to wrest the canal back. “We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made and Panama’s promise to us been broken,” Trump said, claiming that Panama overcharges the US Navy to transit the canal.

“Above all China is operating the Panama Canal,” Trump also said, a frequent claim he has made without providing any evidence. “And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama and we are taking it back!”

Panamanian officials have scoffed at Trump’s latest claims that the country charges too much for ships to transit the canal or that China secretly has taken control of the waterway.

Still, his threats are not taken idly by Panamanians who consider the canal to be central to their national identity and depend on lucrative canal traffic. In 2024, the canal earned nearly $5 billion in total profits. According to a study released in December by IDB Invest, 23.6% of Panama’s annual income is generated from the canal and companies that provide services related to the canal’s operations.

Panama has also experienced several US military interventions over the years.

Read more here about how the US imposed a canal on Panama in the first place

President Donald Trump’s executive actions on immigration are not deterring migrants from illegally crossing the US-Mexico border, a human rights advocate said Tuesday.

Danielle Cosmes of the American Friends Service Committee said they were not surprised to see eight migrants near the border wall waiting to be taken to a detention center by Customs and Border Protection agents early Tuesday.

Cosmes runs an aid tent adjacent to the border wall that shares information about immigration law and distributes water, hot beverages and food to arriving migrants while they wait to be processed. On Tuesday, no migrants accepted donations or wanted to speak to Cosmes.

The announcement of executive actions does not mean organizations will see immediate effects on the ground, they said.

Cosmes also warned of a potential increase in injuries and fatalities of people attempting to cross in more remote areas of the US-Mexico border.

“That’s what we can expect when policies and executive orders are taking away opportunities for safe entries and eviscerating the asylum system,” they said.

House Republicans are already making moves to try and bolster some of President Donald Trump’s executive orders related to immigration.

GOP Rep. Brian Babin introduced a bill on Tuesday to limit birthright citizenship.

And GOP Rep. Brandon Gills introduced a bill earlier this month to instate Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which would require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings with the US immigration courts.

This trend will likely continue as Republicans look to curry favor with Trump and formalize his immigration policies.

Within hours of taking office, President Donald Trump terminated the Secret Service detailed that was assigned to his former national security adviser John Bolton, Bolton confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

Bolton, who departed left the Trump White House in November 2019, has required ongoing US Secret Service protection after he left government because of threats against him from Iran. Trump initially terminated his protection after he left his administration in the first term, but President Joe Biden restored it once he took office.

“The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me. That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call,” he said.

The White House declined to comment. Trump also terminated Bolton’s security clearance on Monday.

In August 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian national and member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accusing them of attempting to arrange the murder of Bolton.

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Republican senators are reacting to President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the sentences or pardon January 6 insurrections.

While some dodged questions or seemed to stand by Trump, others expressed uneasiness or objected to the decision to give a blanket pardon to more than 1,000 January 6 prisoners, including ones who were convicted of assaulting police officers.

Here’s what some of the lawmakers are saying:

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, who has warned before about giving a blanket pardon to January 6 attackers said “I just can’t agree.” He said the move “raises a legitimate safety issue on Capitol Hill.” Tillis has often talked about how he was the last senator leaving the chamber on January 6. He said he’s going to file two bills to increase “penalties up to and including the death penalty for the murder of a police officer, and increasing the penalties and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer.”

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wouldn’t say what he thought or if he agreed with the decision only saying, “as I said it’s the president’s prerogative.” Asked if he was comfortable, he said that’s not the question.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Biden “opened the door” for that action. “We said all along that Biden opened the door on this,” Thune told CNN. Asked again later about the pardons, Thune said, “We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward.”

Sen. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, told CNN he was still digesting the “details” of Trump’s pardon and commutation for January 6, but pressed on how some of the recipients were responsible for attacking police officers, he said “I think if you attack a police officer that’s a very serious issue and they should pay a price for that.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, said he was uncomfortable with the concept of blanket pardons, comparing Trump’s pardoning of January 6 rioters to former Biden’s preemptive pardons for his family members, but said there’s now a “clean” slate. “I’m uncomfortable with all of it. That said, I’m willing to look forward instead of backwards, and I do think that that’s what this episode does. It provides us a chance, whether we like this pardon or don’t like that pardon, or like a different pardon or not a different pardon.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, said she’s concerned about the message that the pardons send to the US Capitol Police who protect the lawmakers every day. “And I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women that stood by us,” she said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana who is up for reelection and facing a primary in the state, told CNN: “I’m a big ‘back-the-blue’ guy. I think people who assault police officers — if they do the crime, they should do the time.”

Murkowski and Cassidy voted to convict Trump after his second impeachment trial in 2021.

This post has been updated with additional reactions.

President Donald Trump said in an executive order Monday that he will decide within 90 days whether to invoke the Insurrection Act at the US-Mexico border, which would allow him to use military forces domestically for law enforcement.

Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border on Monday, authorizing additional use of Defense Department resources there. In the order, he directed the secretaries of defense and homeland security to submit a report within 90 days of the order regarding “additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, to include whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”

The language is already being noticed by officials at the Pentagon, with one defense official telling CNN the mention of the Insurrection Act was notable.

About the act: The Insurrection Act hasn’t been invoked since 1992. According to The Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, the act is the “primary exception” to the Posse Comitatuts Act, which bars the use of federal military forces for law enforcement purposes.

Trump threatened to invoke the act in 2020 in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the resulting protests.

The idea of using the military domestically came up during the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, who was asked directly by Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin if he has been involved in discussions about using the active-duty military “inside the United States.”

Hegseth said everything the Trump administration would do “would be lawful and under the Constitution, but I recognize that this (Biden) administration has abdicated its responsibility. President Trump is going to restore order at the border.”

Newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that there would be changes at the State Department, but they are not meant to be “punitive” or “destructive.”

Rubio’s comments come after the Trump administration asked more than a dozen career State Department officials serving in senior roles step down, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Several of those officials stood behind Rubio as he gave his remarks to the assembled department staff.

Rubio also said he wants to the State Department to be “at the core of how we formulate foreign policy, because we’re going to have the best ideas of any agency, and because we’re going to execute it better and faster and more effectively than any other agency in our government.”

Rubio arrived at the State Department to a long round of applause by the department staff who gathered in the lobby for his arrival.

The National Treasury Employees Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to wipe away certain federal workers’ civil service protections.

The suit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that Trump is exceeding his authority over the hiring and firing of career employees and that the directive is contrary to federal law and regulation. Also, the union, which represents federal employees in 37 departments and agencies, contends that Trump officials cannot ignore a 2024 Biden administration rule that bolstered workers’ protections.

Trump’s executive order revives a similar one that he signed shortly before the 2020 election that created a category for federal employees involved in policy — known as Schedule F — that would allow him and his federal appointees to have more control over certain government workers’ employment.

The union argues that the 2024 rule says policy-oriented employees are only non-career, political appointees. So applying the latest executive order to career employees and denying workers shifted into Schedule F their due process rights would be “contrary to law and regulation,” according to the complaint.

The executive order is intended to affect as many as 50,000 employees, the complaint said, citing a 2022 Axios article.

President Donald Trump said Monday he still 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 his previous day-one threat, Trump said in an Oval Office signing ceremony.

The tariffs, if enacted, could strain Americans’ wallets, especially given Mexico and Canada are two of America’s top three trade partners. Collectively, they accounted for 30% of the value of all the goods the US imported last year, according to federal trade data.

Here’s where a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods could hit Americans hardest:

Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

Newly-sworn in Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked employees after arriving to the Department of State for the first time on Tuesday and outlined his “core mission” for the agency.

He officially became the first of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees to take office after Monday’s unanimous vote to confirm him.

Those who work at the State Department are the “face of the United States,” Rubio said, and expressed gratitude for their dedication. He said that while he has interacted with the State Department during his time as a senator, the landscape is different now.

Voters “have elected Donald J. Trump as our president, when it comes to foreign policy, on a very clear mission. And that mission is to ensure that our foreign policy is centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interests,” he said.

The new secretary of state said as part of that, the department will “promote peace around the world, because that is our national interest.” While he said there will inevitably be conflicts, which the US will aim to prevent — but never at the expense of national security.

Rubio was there with his wife, Jeanette Rubio, who was also at his swearing-in earlier today, and his four children.

He was welcomed to the building with cheers from the crowd gathered to greet him. As he walked in, he stopped to shake hands and talk to people.

Donald Trump said he “didn’t think it was a good service” after a member of clergy directly addressed the president during a sermon Tuesday, calling for him to have “mercy on the people in the country who are scared,” notably, immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community.

She said there were “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

The bishop also referred to “the people who pick our products and clean our offices, who labor in poultry farms and wash the dishes at their restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals.”

“They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”

As he walked back into the White House, Trump first responded to a question about the service by asking the reporter what they thought.

“Not too exciting, was it?” he said. “I didn’t think it was a good service, no. They could do much better.”

Trump and his family reacted throughout the remarks. When Budde finished, Trump looked over at his vice president and said something, to which JD Vance shook his head.

Budde is the bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. The church’s website describes her as an “advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation.”

President-elect Donald Trump arrives for inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Monday in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday seeking to end birthright citizenship in the United States. Civil and immigration rights groups have already filed lawsuits challenging the executive action.

But Tom Jawetz, senior fellow at the Immigration Policy at American Progress, told CNN Tuesday he doesn’t believe the action will actually halt birthright citizenship.

“The stakes in immigration proceedings are extremely high, right? They can be life-and-death proceedings regarding whether that person is fleeing for their life to seek protection here or not,” he added.

Jawetz said there were efforts under the Biden administration to put together policies to expedite the adjudication of backlogged immigration cases.

“There were priorities put in place to close cases that were not as significant or even terminate cases that were not high priorities,” Jawetz told CNN. “Assuming we get continued congressional inaction, that’s not going to get much better.”

Some fear that Monday’s orders, in addition to potential future memos and orders, “might try and chip away at that backlog of immigration court cases by essentially just eliminating due process entirely, and just pushing cases through without fair consideration,” he said.

Undocumented migrants with no criminal records could be arrested in sweeps set to take place in sanctuary cities, President Donald Trump’s border czar told CNN’s Dana Bash today.

Tom Homan emphasized that the target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations are violent criminals, but others could be arrested in sanctuary cities that are unwilling to allow ICE into county jails to conduct arrests.

However, Homan insisted that “these are well-planned operations” because immigration officials “know exactly who they’re looking for” and “know pretty much where they’ll find them.”

Some context: The term “sanctuary city” is a broad term applied to jurisdictions, often led by Democrats, that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions. Nationwide, state and city officials have been making preparations for the immigration crackdown, with cities like Los Angeles adopting “sanctuary city” ordinances that bar personnel from voluntarily cooperating with immigration enforcement.

Another of Trump’s immigration actions – suspending the US refugee program – could leave in limbo at least 2,000 Afghans who had previously been approved to resettle in the US, a major Afghan advocacy organization said today.

When asked about the fate of these refugees, Homan insisted that “the order stands” and said they would be handled on a “case-by-case basis.”

“We know that a lot of these refugees weren’t properly vetted. There are things we need to fix that the last administration broke before we allow the program to continue,” Homan said.

This post was updated with Homan’s comments about Afghan refugees.

Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Monday in Washington, DC.

Elon Musk expressed support for the convicted January 6 rioters who have been pardoned, reposting on X to a photo of two brothers after their release from jail in Washington, DC.

It also appears Musk may have dispatched one of his top SpaceX and X lieutenants to the jail. Christopher Stanley, who works at Musk’s companies, posted on the social media platform Monday night that he was “boots on ground to ensure” the release of the Valentin brothers “was executed.”

Andrew Valentin and Matthew Valentin, who were both convicted of felony assault and sentenced to prison last week, walked out of the DC Central Detention Facility Monday night. Joshua Karoly, an attorney for Matthew Valentin, told CNN that his client is “extremely grateful to be returned to his family’s loving arms.”

Musk replied to Stanley with a heart emoji. He also wrote that people should “let us know if you encounter any difficulties with release of your loved ones.”

Stanley did not respond to request for comment.

CNN’s Rashard Rose contributed reporting to this post.

Senate Republicans want to confirm President Donald Trump’s top national security nominees this week, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso told reporters on Tuesday.

That includes Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, Kristi Noem for homeland security secretary and John Ratcliffe to head the CIA.

“Our focus is making sure he has a security team in place,” Barrasso said.

Marco Rubio was sworn in as secretary of state earlier Tuesday after a unanimous confirmation vote.

Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, DC, on Monday.

President Donald Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to the United Nations, Rep. Elise Stefanik, defended billionaire Elon Musk on Monday after Democrats on the committee asked her about a gesture Musk made at a Trump rally that appeared to be a Nazi salute.

Responding to questions about Musk’s gesture from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who noted a number of American far-right figures who recognized the gesture as a Nazi salute on social media, Stefanik said, “the American people are smart” and “see through” the accusations that Musk made the antisemitic gesture.

“What concerns me is … these are the questions you believe are most important to ask to the (nominee to be) UN ambassador,” said Stefanik, who defended her record combatting antisemitism and said she intends to bring “moral clarity” to her position.

Earlier in her confirmation hearing, Stefanik said that she is “deeply committed” to fighting what she called the “antisemitic rot within the United Nations.”

Musk, who has previously agreed with antisemitic rhetoric on his social media platform X and has endorsed Germany’s far-right party, made the gesture twice during a speech celebrating Trump’s inauguration. He posted on X calling the accusation “pure propaganda.”

President Donald Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to the United Nations, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, said Tuesday she agreed with the view espoused by a number of far-right politicians in Israel that Israel has “a biblical right” to annex the West Bank.

Stefanik’s comment came during questioning by Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Van Hollen recounted a private conversation between them when Stefanik had expressed such a view.

Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, has also expressed support for Israel annexing the West Bank. The Israeli occupation of the area has been condemned by UN resolutions.

Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the First Ministers' Meeting in Ottawa, Canada, on January 15.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country will respond “robustly” if US President Donald Trump follows through with imposing tariffs on Canada, telling reporters on Tuesday that “everything is on the table.”

Trump said in an Oval Office signing ceremony Monday evening that his administration will impose a 25% tax on goods from Canada and Mexico that may come as soon as February 1.

Trudeau also addressed Trump’s executive action, signed Monday, that directs officials to analyze how the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (the USMCA) is affecting American workers and businesses — and whether America should remain in the free trade agreement. His action requires agencies to assess whether stricter US trade policy could successfully restrict the flow of fentanyl and of undocumented migrants into the United States.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche, Kevin Liptak, David Goldman and Elisabeth Buchwald contributed reporting to this post.

Jacob Chansley, who gained notoriety for roaming the US Capitol in horns and fur as the self-styled “QAnon Shaman” during the January 6 insurrection, said on social media he is eager to take advantage of his newly restored right to buy guns after President Donald Trump pardoned him yesterday.

Chansley pleaded guilty in 2021 to felony obstruction and was sentenced to more than three years in prison. He was released early in 2023 and was included in Trump’s mass pardons Monday for January 6 rioters.

Impact of the pardons: Most of the 1,250 pardoned rioters already served their prison terms, were never sent to prison in the first place, or haven’t been sentenced yet for their crimes. For those who aren’t behind bars, the greatest impact of the pardon will be the restoration of their civil rights.

Over the years, January 6 defendants have complained about being fired from their jobs, ostracized by friends, removed from social media sites and having their credit cards cancelled. Their convictions also have influenced child custody disputes and divorce cases, defendants said.

President Donald Trump has missed his deadline for ending the war in Ukraine.

Of course, no one truly believed Trump would be able end the grinding, 3-year conflict in 24 hours, as he implausibly promised repeatedly as a candidate. Even his new special envoy to Ukraine has asked for 100 days to find a solution

Yet the missed deadline — and the scant mention of the conflict during Monday’s inauguration celebrations — nonetheless underscore how difficult the challenge of ending the fighting in Ukraine will be for the new president, who so far has made no public attempts at brokering peace.

Amid the laundry list of priorities Trump recited during his inaugural address, Ukraine did not warrant a mention. While Trump declared himself a “peacemaker,” he offered no specific pledges of continued American assistance to Kyiv.

For now, it appears Trump’s first order of business will be a talk with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who he accused of “destroying Russia” during remarks in the Oval Office on Monday.

“He can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well,” Trump told reporters amid a lengthy signing ceremony, a rare moment of criticism about the Russian president. “Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country.”

Read more here about Trump’s challenges with the war in Ukraine

GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee for United Nations ambassador, said that she is “deeply committed” to combatting antisemitism.

Speaking at her confirmation hearing, she said there is “antisemitic rot within the United Nations.”

Stefanik said that combatting antisemitism is something she is “deeply committed to doing in this role. It’s one of the reasons why in my conversation with President Trump I was interested in this position, because if you look at the antisemitic rot within the United Nations, there are more resolutions targeting Israel than any other country, any other crisis combined.”

Stefanik’s comments came in response to a question from Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania who asked how she will “fight back against antisemitism and bias against Israel within the UN.”

During her time in Congress, Stefanik highlighted the issue of antisemitism and received widespread national attention for her sharp questioning of university presidents who were called to testify on Capitol Hill in 2023 over antisemitism on campuses in response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Stefanik’s comments today show that she will continue to focus on the issue in her role as ambassador if she is confirmed.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, of Delaware, said he was particularly concerned with President Donald Trump’s executive order to freeze foreign assistance, and warned that this move could endanger Ukraine as the winter sets in.

“Does it mean we’re going to abandon Jordan, which is a critical ally and a sea of stability in a whole area that is filled with conflict? Does it mean that we’re going to step back from funding the World Food Program or UNICEF?” he continued.

“I don’t have clarity, and I think we need clarity.“

President Donald Trump kicked off his term with a series of sweeping immigration executive actions on Monday.

They included declaring a national emergency at the US southern border, immediately ending use of a border app called CBP One that had allowed migrants to legally enter the United States, and kicking off the process to end birthright citizenship, which is expected to tee up a legal fight.

States are poised for immigration raids and Mexico is preparing to house an influx of people that will be left in limbo.

Here’s the latest:

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum listens a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on Tuesday.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country will defend its sovereignty and support Mexicans in the United States after President Donald Trump signed executive orders and actions that could impact millions of Mexican immigrants living in the US.

On immigration: Sheinbaum said during a news conference Tuesday that the orders signed by Trump on Monday are very similar to those from his first term.

“We have already lived through it,” the Mexican president said, while noting that the number of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border is much lower than it was at that time.

Trump began his term on Monday with a series of broad immigration measures, including declaring a national emergency at the southern US border; immediately ending the use of the CBP One app; and initiating a process to end birthright citizenship, which is expected to lead to a legal battle.

On cartels: Regarding Trump’s designation of cartels as terrorist organizations, Sheinbaum said she will seek coordination with the new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the matter, but that Mexico is a “free, independent, and sovereign” country and her government will act based on Mexican laws.

“We are going to act in defense of our sovereignty and to seek coordination and collaboration. And they (the US), in any case, act within the framework of their sovereignty in their territory,” she said.

On the Gulf: She also spoke about the controversy Trump generated by seeking to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Sheinbaum said that Mexico and the rest of the world would continue to recognize the area as the Gulf of Mexico.

The commandant of the US Coast Guard has been removed from her position over “leadership deficiencies” and “operational failures,” a Department of Homeland Security official confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.

In a list of reasons “supporting her immediate removal,” the official cited Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan’s “failure to address border security threats” and “excessive focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.” Additionally, the official said the Coast Guard suffered “significant shortfalls in recruiting personnel” under Fagan’s leadership. But the Coast Guard actually met — and in certain areas exceeded — its recruiting goals for the first time in six years in October.

The list also cites the “mishandling” and “coverup” of Operation Fouled Anchor, a secret internal Coast Guard investigation that substantiated dozens of rapes and assault allegations at the agency from the late 1980s to 2006, CNN has reported.

Fagan has said she only learned of the “totality” of the so-called Fouled Anchor probe when CNN inquired about the issue last year, though she had heard of it because she had previously taken steps to remove a commanding officer caught up in the investigation.

Fagan’s firing came just hours after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. Trump signed executive orders on Monday aimed at increasing the US military’s presence at the southern border, and he has repeatedly criticized the US military for being too “woke” and focused on DEI initiatives.

The Coast Guard under Fagan has been targeted by Trump’s allies before. Then-GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz and GOP Rep. Eli Crane sent a letter to DHS in August “demanding answers” over the Coast Guard’s “prioritization of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)” initiatives, pointing to the agency’s sexual orientation and gender identity inclusivity training and calling it “indoctrination.”

Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has said publicly that “any General, Admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke sh*t has got to go.”

Fagan was the first female uniformed leader of a US armed forces branch. CNN has reached out to the US Coast Guard for comment from Fagan.

Fox News first reported Fagan was removed from her position.

(L-R) President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and second lady Usha Vance arrive to the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral onTuesday in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are attending an interfaith prayer service at the the Washington National Cathedral.

According to the cathedral, the service will “gather with interfaith and ecumenical partners to offer prayers of thanksgiving for our democracy and to seek God’s guidance in the years ahead.”

Later today, Trump will host House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a meeting at the White House as they prepare to enact his agenda, according to congressional leadership aides.

GOP leadership will meet with Trump in a larger meeting immediately following that.

CNN’s Haley Talbot contributed reporting to this post.

US Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican from New York, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on her nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

Asked about how the United Nations could hold Russian leader Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to the UN on Tuesday declined to give specifics details but said she supports the president’s efforts to end the war

She said she would further work with the UN to “deter Russia in the long term” and pointed to her congressional record of supporting Ukraine against Russia.

Convicted US Capitol rioters continue to be released from prison after President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons and commutations Monday, including Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.

An attorney connected to Rhodes’ case confirmed he was released from the Maryland prison where he was serving an 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy and other felony charges. Rhodes was one of the 14 convicted people connected to far-right extremist groups who received commutations instead of full pardons.

Unlike the vast majority of January 6 defendants, Rhodes never went inside the Capitol. Prosecutors said he and his co-conspirators plotted after the 2020 election to violently subvert the transfer of power, and that he “coordinated” from outside the Capitol with fellow Oath Keepers who infiltrated the complex.

Here’s what happened to some of the other key figures:

GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik said during her opening remarks at her confirmation hearing that, if confirmed as US ambassador to the United Nations, she will work to advance President Donald Trump’s “peace through strength foreign policy” and called for a reformed UN, which she said has not lived up to its founding mission.

If confirmed, the New York representative said she would “work to ensure that our mission to the United Nations serves the interest of the American people,” she said.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday.

After President Donald Trump took an executive action seeking to end birthright citizenship in the United States on Monday, a coalition of civil rights and immigration rights groups sued his administration, and the American Civil Liberties Union’s director told CNN the group filed the legal action within two hours of Trump’s order.

“We’re going to the court to give these families, these expecting parents, as well as the broader community relief from what Trump is trying to do again,” Wang said Tuesday.

Trump also took another immigration executive action on Monday immediately terminating the use of a border app called CBP One that had permitted legal entry for migrants.

Wang told CNN the Biden administration had been using the CBP One phone app to support its immigration policy and that it was one of the last alternatives for people to apply for asylum at the border.

Wang said the goal for the ACLU’s legal action is “a fundamental American promise of citizenship of equality, of freedom, of opportunity – we are coming to court in order to stand up for your rights.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post.

More than a dozen career State Department officials serving in senior roles were asked to step down from their roles, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Many received the request prior to Monday’s inauguration. They had been serving in top posts for both management and policy as well as assistant secretaries of state, the sources said, and some were among the senior-most diplomats at the State Department.

Although it is typical for an incoming administration to appoint its own officials to senior roles, the current career officials often stay while the appointees await Senate confirmation.

Moreover, the scope and speed has raised alarm bells.

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment.

John Bass, who had been serving as undersecretary for political affairs — the third-highest ranking position at the State Department — was among the officials asked to step down from his role, the sources said. In remarks to staff Friday prior to his departure, now-former Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed Bass, saying there is “no finer Foreign Service officer in this generation than John Bass.”

Newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to address the State Department workforce at its headquarters in Washington, DC, later on Tuesday.

Refugees board a bus at Dulles International Airport that will take them to a refugee processing center after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 31, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia.

President Donald Trump’s executive order to suspend the US refugee program could leave at least 2,000 Afghans who had previously been approved to resettle in the US in limbo, a major Afghan advocacy organization said Tuesday.

The people immediately impacted include the families of roughly 200 US service members, as well as families of people who have already relocated to the US, VanDiver said.

Flights for those impacted in the short term have not been cancelled yet, he added, as the government has to work through implementing the order.

The executive order, titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” says the admission of refugees under the program “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. The program is being suspended, beginning on January 27, for at least 90 days, if not longer.

The order says after 90 days, the Secretaries of Homeland Security and State will submit a report to Trump on whether or not the program “would be in the interests of the United States.” A report will be submitted every 90 days afterwards until Trump determines that it is.

Republicans have been hugely critical of Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the impact it had on service members, veterans, and Afghans who served alongside the US military — including Trump’s own national security advisor Mike Waltz who said the administration had “abandoned” Afghan allies.

Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday extended her hold on the Justice Department sharing the special counsel’s report on his investigation into President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents with anyone outside the department.

Her order took some jabs at the prosecutors representing to the position of former Attorney General Merrick Garland, accusing them of misleading her at a court hearing Friday and asserting that they’ve failed to live up to the “special role” they play in the criminal justice system.

Before Trump’s inauguration, Garland sought to share the report privately with a small group of lawmakers on the condition that they do not disclose what they learn from it.

On Tuesday, Cannon embraced arguments put forward by Trump’s former co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira – two employees of his charged with obstruction-related crimes – that even limited disclosure could prejudice them if their cases ever went to trial. Cannon dismissed the prosecution last summer on the grounds that special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed, but that ruling is on appeal, leaving the possibility that the charges could be revived.

“The bare wishes of one Attorney General with ‘limited time’ in office to comply with a non-existent ‘historical practice’ of releasing Special Counsel reports in the pendency of criminal proceedings is not a valid reason,” Cannon wrote.

Aerial view of Panama canal in the area of Pedro Miguel locks, in Panama City on December 13, 2022.

In recent weeks, when he was president-elect, Donald Trump publicly said that Panama should return the Panama Canal to the United States and that he would not rule out using military force to reclaim it. At his presidential inauguration on Monday, Trump doubled down.

It was President Jimmy Carter who negotiated the return of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians and secured the more-than-two-thirds vote in the US Senate necessary to ratify the Panama Canal treaties in 1978.

Carter felt that returning the Panama Canal to Panama’s government was the right thing to do since it was a legacy of a time when the US exerted a quasi-colonial policy over Central America.

It’s worth noting that it wasn’t just Carter who signed on to the Panama Canal treaties; presidents of both parties – Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton – all felt bound by the terms of the treaties, which were only fully implemented when the United States entirely transferred the operations of the Panama Canal over to Panama on December 31, 1999.

Since then, the operation of the canal by the Panamanians has been a non-issue, and more than two-thirds of the ships transiting the canal are either coming or going to American ports, according to the US International Trade Administration.

Read more about what retaking the Panama Canal would involve

US stocks opened higher Tuesday in the first full day of Donald Trump’s second presidency as traders absorbed a blizzard of executive orders that so far point to less aggressive action on trade.

The Dow rose 170 points, or 0.39%. The S&P 500 ticked up by 0.49% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite moved higher by 0.52%.

Trump said in an Oval Office signing ceremony Monday that his administration would levy a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada starting February 1. He did not mention a tariff on China, the US’ biggest trade partner.

Asked Monday at an Oval Office signing ceremony about tariffs on China, Trump noted extensive tariffs he imposed during his first administration were still in effect after former President Joe Biden largely left them in place.

Trump also implied that the US would implement tariffs on China if Beijing did not approve any deal on TikTok, which is facing a ban in the US due to questions about national security and scuttling the First Amendment.

The dollar, which has been gaining in recent months in anticipation of Trump’s second term, was largely flat Tuesday morning after rising on news of Trump’s proposed tariffs.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a Tuesday note that Trump’s focus on tariffs as early as February 1 is a reminder that “vigilance is warranted” as markets try to keep track of Trump’s flurry of policy decisions.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche, Kevin Liptak and David Goldman contributed reporting.

With Donald Trump once again back in the White House, many countries are wondering what their relationship with Washington will look like, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

Speaking from World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Ukrainian leader suggested that while the United States is an “indispensable” ally to Europe, the relationship might not be fully reciprocal.

“Will President Trump even notice Europe?” Zelensky asked. “Does he see NATO as necessary, and will he respect EU institutions?”

He added that Europe “needs to learn how to fully take care of itself” so that “the world can’t afford to ignore it.”

The Ukrainian leader also urged European countries to stand together to face threats from Russia and Iran, noting the size of Russian army to other European states and suggesting that no European country can stand up by itself to Russia.

The family of Capitol Police Officer Brian David Sicknick, who suffered strokes and died of natural causes one day after responding to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, issued a statement following President Donald Trump’s pardon of rioters.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is sworn by Vice President JD Vance in the Vice Presidential Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus, on Tuesday, in Washington, as his wife, Jeanette Rubio, looks on.

Vice President JD Vance has sworn in former Republican Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

He’s the first of President Donald Trump’s nominees to take office.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity. It would not have been possible with God’s blessings. I’m honored, and I’m privileged, cognizant of responsibility, and I want to thank President Trump for his confidence. We will work hard every second of the day to help him achieve the agenda the American people have given him to achieve,” Rubio said.

Rubio also said that Trump will be putting America’s interests first.

Rubio stressed how Trump is focused on the “promotion of peace,” and he laid out three questions that will guide him as secretary of state.

“Everything we do must be justified by the answer to one of three questions: Does it make us stronger? Does it make us safer? And does it make us more prosperous? If it doesn’t do one of those three things, we will not do it,” Rubio said.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Rubio.

President Donald Trump announced early Tuesday that he is removing several political appointees, including some prominent Democrats and critics of his, from advisory boards.

Among those removed from their posts are celebrity chef and restaurateur José Andrés from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition; former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council; diplomat Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars; and ex-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council.

Andrés on Tuesday responded to Trump’s post, stating that he already submitted his resignation last week given that his two year term was up.

“Let’s build longer tables,” Andrés concluded.

More background: Andrés, an ally of former President Joe Biden, has clashed with Trump over the now-president’s infamous statement in 2015 that Mexican immigrants coming to the United States were criminals and rapists. A scuttled restaurant deal between Andrés and the Trump Organization, which the chef blamed on the remark, resulted in a long-running lawsuit that was settled early in Trump’s first administration.

Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term, has since been outspoken in his criticism of Trump, at one point calling him a “fascist.” He was among those pardoned in the final hours of the Biden presidency so as to protect him against potential retribution from Trump.

Hook, a top State Department official during the first Trump administration, was at one point expected to lead Trump’s transition team at the State Department, CNN previously reported, while Bottoms, a Democrat, has been a frequent Trump critic in recent years.

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

President Donald Trump will host House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a meeting at the White House at 2 p.m. ET as they prepare to enact his agenda, per leadership aides.

In a larger meeting immediately following that, GOP leadership will meet with Trump at 3 p.m. ET.

Trump began his term by taking a series of sweeping immigration executive actions Monday that included declaring a national emergency at the US southern border, immediately ending use of a border app called CBP One that had allowed migrants to legally enter the United States, and kicking off the process to end birthright citizenship, which is expected to tee up a legal fight.

President Trump will make a “massive” infrastructure announcement on his first full day in office, the White House said Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in her first interview in the new role, told Fox News that she would not hold a press briefing Tuesday, but that the American people would “be hearing from the leader of the free world.”

She wouldn’t “get ahead of the president” on details of the announcement, but said the event would happen in the late afternoon at 4 p.m. ET.

More context: The White House was criticized – and often teased – about announcements on infrastructure during the first Trump administration, declaring at least seven times it was “infrastructure week,” only to be eclipsed by other events.

The new announcement from the president echoes one of former President Joe Biden’s biggest achievements, the bipartisan infrastructure law.

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin

Donald Trump’s presidency “may open a new era of cooperation between Russia and the West to address global issues and avoid nuclear escalation,” a senior Russian economic official told CNN Tuesday.

Dmitriev, an Ivy League-educated former Goldman Sachs banker, is a key figure when it comes to the Russian government’s international economic relations. He has been a consistent interlocutor between Russia and the United States and helped build early contacts between Russia and Trump’s team following the US president’s first election victory in 2016.

His remarks come amid a noticeable change in tone between US and Russian officials. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed openness to rebuilding relations with the new US administration, saying he welcomed statements from Trump and his team “expressing a desire to restore direct contact with Russia.”

Trump on Monday said he plans to meet Putin once talks are set up, a process he said was already underway.

World leaders have congratulated President Donald Trump on his inauguration, with many urging stronger alliances or continued cooperation between their countries and the United States, in carefully crafted social media posts and statements.

Trump’s return to the White House portends a seismic shakeup in international relations, with the new president immediately ordering the US’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and World Health Organization, as world leaders brace for new tariffs on goods and the impact of Trump’s “America first” agenda.

It is “truly unfortunate” that Trump will be withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, the European Union’s climate commissioner said on Tuesday.

Germany’s Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said his country will try to persuade Trump to reconsider withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. He said Trump’s decision is a “serious blow to the international fight against global health crises.” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he hopes Trump would reconsider.

Some populist leaders celebrated Trump’s return, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the US president a “dear friend,” and Hungary’s Victor Orbán who declared, “now it’s our turn to shine.” The executive orders signed by Trump will “transform not only the US, but the entire world,” Orban said in a post on X Tuesday.

But not all the messages were congratulatory.

Some leaders expressed their anger at remarks Trump made during his Inauguration Day speech, or with the controversial raft of executive actions he signed almost immediately after entering the Oval Office.

Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino rejected Trump’s promise that the US would be “taking back” the Panama Canal. The vital waterway in Central America was built by the US but is now controlled by Panama.

Other regional neighbors were also critical of Trump.

Cuba condemned Trump’s decision to put the Communist-run island back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, with its president calling the move, “an act of arrogance and disregard for the truth.”

But outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau struck a more conciliatory tone, despite Trump’s recent jibes about making Canada the 51st US state and indication that he will impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1.

A New Zealand mayor also pushed back on Trump’s claim on Monday during his inaugural address that Americans split the atom. Nick Smith, the mayor of the city of Nelson, said in a Facebook post that the “honour belongs to Nelson’s most famous and favourite son Sir Ernest Rutherford.” Smith said that once a US ambassador to New Zealand is appointed, he will invite them to Nelson to visit a memorial for the scientist and “so we can keep the historic record on who split the atom first accurate.”

This post was updated with more international reaction.

Secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing at Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 15.

President Donald Trump’s administration is already making clear the US is changing course on its Ukraine strategy — with newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday calling on both sides to “give something” to end the conflict.

“The president said when he was campaigning, he wants the dying to stop. He wants the destruction to stop. I think that’s in everyone’s interest,” Rubio said, speaking to NBC News on the first full day of Trump’s presidency. “Now, will that be easy? Will it be complicated? Of course, because every side is going to have to give something.”

Asked what message it would send if Russia is able to hold onto Ukrainian land without consequence, Rubio said the country had “already faced consequences” in the form of sanctions, inflation, and lives lost.

Rubio refused to weigh in on “domestic political debates” when asked about Trump’s January 6 mass pardons — and his own comments four years ago after the attack on the Capitol.

He also said it was “reasonable” for “a new administration on their first day in office” to take “some time to look at an issue” like a possible TikTok ban and to “weigh all of the security concerns.”

Tuesday marks the first full day of the President Donald Trump’s second term, and it’s already off to a busy start after Trump signed a series of executive actions, ordering a crackdown on immigration and removing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and World Health Organization.

Trump also granted pardons to over 1,000 people involved in the Capitol insurrection in 2021, including the 14 far-right extremists from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted or charged with seditious conspiracy.

Here’s what to expect today:

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a video call Tuesday, in which they reaffirmed the long-standing ties and shared interests of their two countries, according to Chinese state media CCTV.

Xi said China and Russia should continue to deepen strategic coordination in the new year, firmly support each other and safeguard the legitimate interests of the two countries.

The discussion came the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and four days after Xi held a call with the incoming US leader.

The Chinese president also recalled Beijing and Moscow’s close collaboration last year in multilateral platforms including the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS.

Putin said he was glad to see the economic, trade and energy cooperation between the two countries had maintained a good momentum.

The last time Xi and Putin met was in October on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, where the Chinese leader said “the profound and lasting friendship” between the two sides would not change amid major developments on the world stage.

The tensions between China and the US and Western sanctions on Russia have resulted in closer trade relations between Beijing and Moscow, while Xi and Putin have developed a strong personal relationship.

The Justice Department has begun to ask the federal court in Washington, DC, to dismiss pending cases against alleged January 6 rioters, citing President Donald Trump’s executive order yesterday that also pardoned those who were already convicted.

The court filing notes the case should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be brought again at a later date.

More on January 6 cases: An ongoing trial against two January 6 defendants is being dropped as well.

The jury trial against father and son Kenneth and Caleb Fuller of Minnesota began last week. Their jury in Washington, DC, was selected on January 15, and was set to return to court this morning at 9 a.m. ET.

The DOJ filed its notice of dismissal of the case last night. The men were arrested in 2023 after their photos allegedly participating in the riot were posted to the FBI’s January 6 wanted list.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Jeanette Vizguerra, immigrant rights activist, poses for a portrait at First Unitarian Society of Denver in Denver, Colorado on January 26, 2021.

Jeanette Vizguerra is an undocumented mom and an activist in Denver, who is fearlessly speaking out on behalf of the immigrant community ahead of possible mass deportations at a time when some migrants are paralyzed with fear.

“I’m angry,” she told CNN.

Vizguerra gained international attention when she took sanctuary in a church with her four children in 2017 to avoid deportation during President Donald Trump’s first administration. That year, she was also named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

She says some undocumented people in Denver are planning to stop going to work, stop sending children to school and are thinking of self-deportation. But she is telling them to stay, not to fear, and to “fight for your dignity” and for the years they have worked and dedicated to the US.

To address fears, Vizguerra says she’s been livestreaming advice on social media, like informing migrants to ask anyone who is trying to enter their homes for a warrant signed by a judge.

Vizguerra points out that Trump is a felon, after his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to hush money payments, who is now trying to cast the first stone at migrants, like her, who have come to this country for a better life for themselves and their families.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a conference in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday.

The executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump will “transform not only the US, but the entire world,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a post on X Tuesday.

On Monday, Trump’s first day back in office, he signed several executive orders, including the declaration of a national emergency on the southern border of the United States, the withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and Washington’s pullout from the Paris climate accord.

Despite pushback on Trump’s actions from other European figures, Orban, one of Europe’s most prominent populists to voice support for Trump, wrote Tuesday that “the rebellion against woke liberal democracy has entered a new stage.”

“The time has come for patriotic forces to occupy Brussels,” Orban said, referring to the headquarters of the European Union.

Germany will try to persuade President Donald Trump to reconsider withdrawing his country from the World Health Organization, the German health minister said on Tuesday.

In a statement shared by the German health ministry, Karl Lauterbach said that Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the United Nations health agency is a “serious blow to the international fight against global health crises.”

“Without the US’ contribution to WHO, it will be much more difficult to help countries affected by outbreaks of infectious diseases or environmental disasters,” Lauterbach said. “Many programs to combat the consequences of famine, war and natural disasters are paid for with these funds.”

Lauterbach added that Germany “will continue to work closely with the US on global health issues. Global health security is in the interest of all nations - including the USA.”

Some context: On his first day back in office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the United Nations health agency, citing its alleged “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states,” as reasons for the US withdrawal.

EU Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra speaks during the United Nations climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 18.

It is “truly unfortunate” that US President Donald Trump will be withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, the European Union’s climate commissioner said on Tuesday.

On Monday, Trump signed executive actions to pull out of the international climate change treaty, in which nearly 200 countries agreed to work together to limit global warming.

Hoekstra said the agreement “has strong foundations and is here to stay,” writing that, “despite this setback, we remain committed to working with the US and our international partners to address the pressing issue of climate change.”

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, also posted to X about the treaty, writing that “all continents will have to deal with the growing burden of climate change.”

“The Paris Agreement continues to be humanity’s best hope. Europe will stay the course. And we’ll keep working with all nations that want to stop global warming,” von der Leyen said.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 3, 2020.

The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes that US President Donald Trump will reconsider his decision to withdraw his country from the agency, it said in a Tuesday statement.

“The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization,” read the statement posted by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

On his first day back in office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the United Nations health agency, citing its alleged “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states,” as reasons for the US withdrawal.

WHO’s statement stressed that it “plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go.”

It also noted that the US was a founding member of the organization in 1948.

When President Barack Obama took the oath of office in January 2009, unemployment was surging, markets were plunging and families were losing their homes. He inherited an economic calamity.

President Donald Trump has been dealt a far stronger hand – even as he returns to the White House vowing to dramatically reshape the American economy through a flurry of executive action and sweeping legislation.

The unemployment rate ended 2024 at just 4.1%. The only incoming presidents to inherit a lower unemployment rate were President George W. Bush in January 2001 and President Richard Nixon in January 1969.

Although the cost of living remains a major frustration and risks of reigniting inflation remain, the US economy is broadly in good shape as Trump takes power. The jobs market is enjoying a historic period of uninterrupted growth, wage increases are beating price gains and overall growth continues to defy expectations.

One thing that could cool the US economy off a bit is the sheer amount of uncertainty that is being injected into the economy right now.

Read the full analysis.

Latin American migrants watch the inauguration of US President Trump at the Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, on Monday.

Terry Hodge would have a tough time caring for the 150 or so elderly women at Bethany Health Care Center without the dozens of immigrant nursing assistants, housekeepers, dietary aides and other staffers at the Framingham, Massachusetts, facility.

More than 40% of her employees were born abroad, hailing from 26 countries, including Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ghana, said Hodge, the center’s administrator. Among the certified nursing assistants, the figure is 84%.

They are workers whom Bethany “can’t afford to lose,” she said, noting they help residents get out of bed, escort them to the bathroom, dress and feed them, give them medication and talk to them.

That’s why President Donald Trump’s vow to deport millions of immigrants in the US and restrict the influx of new arrivals has so concerned Hodge and her workers — particularly those who are asylum seekers and beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and Temporary Protected Status programs since Trump has tried to target these measures in the past.

Two sisters, both undocumented immigrants, are speaking out against the Trump administration’s intention to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Anna and Brenda Ibarra, who attend college at Oklahoma State in Tulsa, say they moved to Tulsa with their family sometime in 2007. At the time, Brenda was 3, and Anna was just a year old.

“We want our voices to be heard. Immigrants are not here to commit crimes. If we were here to commit crimes, many of them would be in jail,” said Brenda Ibarra, 22. “But instead, they’re raiding workplaces. Immigrants are here to work and to better their lives, not do anything bad.”

Anna Ibarra, 20, said it’s scary that they want to do this in places such as businesses and schools.

If they get sent back to Mexico, Brenda Ibarra said they “would have a hard time finding ourselves there because our whole life has been here.”

“We’re not here to take anybody’s jobs,” Brenda Ibarra said. “We’re here to work, help the economy, and study. We’re not criminals; all we want to do is make a better life for ourselves in the place where we grew up.”

State and local leaders across the country are bracing for a tidal wave of aggressive immigration policies and possible mass deportations that President Donald Trump has vowed to enact in the hours and days following his inauguration Monday.

The immigration actions – which are already being challenged in court – could create fear and confusion in cities with robust immigrant populations as everyone from school bus drivers to restaurant managers and church pastors will be left to wonder what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement comes knocking.

Nationwide, state and city officials have been making preparations for the inevitable immigration crackdown. And while many have plans in place to support migrant communities – and in some cases thwart federal immigration enforcement – others have expressed enthusiastic support for Trump’s planned policies.

Read about how states are responding to the new immigration actions.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order regarding cartels in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, on Monday.

For many of America’s 170 million TikTok users, US President Donald Trump’s move to delay a legal ban of the popular social media platform was cause for celebration.

But in China, where TikTok’s parent company is based, the reception has been less positive, largely because Trump has suggested he could require the company to give up a 50% stake to avert its shutdown.

The future of TikTok should be “decided by companies” in line with Chinese law, China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

The US should “earnestly listen to the voice of reason” and “provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment” for companies from all countries, spokesperson Mao Ning said when asked about the joint venture proposal.

On Chinese social media, where TikTok’s fate has appeared as one among many efforts from the US to stymy Beijing’s technical prowess, Trump’s suggestions were met with disdain.

Tens of millions of users on the social media platform Weibo flocked to hashtags related to the potential 50-50 ownership, with many decrying the US government’s “robbery.”

“Apple and Tesla should also give up 50% of their shares to Chinese companies then,” one comment with thousands of likes said.

“We need 50% control of Nvidia then!” said another commentator, referring to the US chipmaker.

Pro-Trump supporters storm the US Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

With the stroke of a pen on Monday, President Donald Trump completely upended the Justice Department’s four-year effort to arrest, prosecute and punish the people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It was the largest criminal probe in American history, those who heeded Trump’s call in 2021 to come to Washington and try to stop Congress from certifying his 2020 election defeat. More than 140 police officers were injured during the seven-hour siege, which also led to the deaths of four Trump supporters in the mob and five police officers.

The presidential proclamation Trump signed in the Oval Office said this action of mass clemency “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”

Two brothers convicted for their roles in the attack on the US Capitol were the first of those pardoned to be released. Andrew Valentin and Matthew Valentin, who were each sentenced last week to two and a half years in prison, walked out of the DC Central Detention Facility on Monday night.

Here’s what to know about the pardons:

• Virtually all convicted pardoned: The proclamation Trump signed grants a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to virtually everyone who was convicted of January 6-related crimes.

• Commutations for leaders of extremist groups: Trump’s proclamation singled out 14 members of far-right extremist groups, like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, who received commutations instead of pardons. This means they’ll be freed from federal prison but won’t have their civil rights restored, as happens with a full pardon, which paves the way for a recipient to get back their right to own a gun or their right to vote.

• Dismissing all pending prosecutions: Trump’s proclamation directed about 300 pending cases to be dismissed.

• Trump went further than anyone expected: During and after the 2024 campaign, Trump kept the door open to pardoning every defendant. But he also hedged at times. In recent weeks, Trump’s allies signaled that pardons would be restricted to nonviolent defendants. But there was no “case-by-case” review, as Trump aides promised.

• He justified them with lies: Trump justified the pardons with the same series of lies and false claims that he has used for years to whitewash the violence, deflect blame and rewrite history.

Read more about the mass pardons.

Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday.

On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed actions that remove the US from the Paris climate agreement, freeze hiring in the federal government and require federal workers to return to the office.

Here are some of the actions Trump took on his first day in office:

President Donald Trump delivers his second inaugural address in the rotunda of the US Capitol on Monday.

President Donald Trump completed his incredible comeback by delivering his second inaugural address in the rotunda of the US Capitol.

Before closing with a pledge to bind the nation and unify Americans, he borrowed lines from his campaign speeches and he promised broad changes in US government, to guard against an invasion at the southern border and to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

We added context and fact-checks to a transcript of Trump’s second inaugural address.

Read it here.

President Joe Biden attends a Department of Defense Commander in Chief Farewell Ceremony in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday.

In his first hours few hours in office, President Donald Trump implemented a series of executive actions that are expected to kickstart his promised transformation of the federal government.

Trump rescinded 78 Biden-era executive actions, many of which Joe Biden signed on the first day of his administration.

Among the Biden-era actions that Trump rescinded are:

Biden only recently removed Cuba from the terror list. The list of revoked orders Trump signed Monday did not specify individual reasons for reversing the Biden moves.

Biden applied the sanctions on certain Jewish settlers accused of fomenting violence in the West Bank in February 2024.

And his 2023 AI order aimed to monitor and regulate the risks of artificial intelligence.

Donald Trump on Monday restored the warp speed presidency.

Proclaiming a new American “Golden Age,” Trump consolidated power hours into his new term, wielding massive executive authority in seeking to obliterate large chunks of Joe Biden’s legacy and showing he plans to learn from his first-term failures to pull off a transformational presidency.

Trump pardoned hundreds of rioters from the January 6, 2021, attack with a single signature in his black Sharpie. He initiated his promised immigration purge and border security plan and ushered billionaire tech oligarchs into his inner political circle.

The new president set off simultaneous political alarms in multiple foreign capitals with off-the-cuff foreign policy making, instantly turning the US away from the internationalism embraced by every president apart from him since World War II.

In a freewheeling news conference back in the Oval Office, Trump demonstrated a capacity to drive his own message and move geopolitical chess pieces in public in a way that Biden lost when age caught up with him. The imagery was of a well-briefed new president eyeing big goals, confident that his first term gives him a heads-up on how to wield the levers of power and determined to make the most of a second chance.

But Trump also laced the pageantry of Inauguration Day with rally-style grievance politics and vast doses of untruths, twisted facts and an increasingly messianic sense of his own power, which was a foreboding omen for the rule of law. Several rambling and vindictive speeches in addition to his inaugural address suggested that, as in his first term, his biggest challenge in forging a meaningful legacy will lie in choosing presidential focus over stunt politics.

Read more about the impact of Trump’s first actions in office.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday.

After signing a slew of executive actions in front of thousands of supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, on Monday, President Donald Trump signed more executive actions at the Oval Office.

Here are some of them:

Read more about Trump’s Day 1 executive actions.

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, a couple of months after he became just the second person in history to win a nonconsecutive term in the White House.

Trump defeated Kamala Harris in November’s election, completing a historic political comeback four years after he lost to Joe Biden. Trump served as president from 2017-2021.

The inauguration ceremony took place inside the US Capitol Rotunda due to dangerously cold temperatures projected in the nation’s capital.

See the best photos from this historic day here.

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds a Bible during the inauguration ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, January 20.

Trump supporters gather at the National Mall on Monday.

JD Vance's son Vivek rests his head during the parade in Capital One Arena on Monday.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden shake hands during the inauguration ceremony on Monday.

The Trumps and Vances wave farewell to the Bidens outside the Capitol.

The removal of the former US military chief’s portrait from the Pentagon as President Donald Trump returned to power sends a message of “intimidation to the military leadership,” a CNN military analyst said.

The portrait of Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term and has warned Trump is a fascist, was torn down from a Pentagon wall just 10 days after it was unveiled, CNN reported Monday.

Retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton told CNN’s Laura Coates the move was unprecedented and “almost Stalinist,” referring to former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who was known for cutting his enemies out of photographs.

Earlier Monday, former President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Milley along with others, to which Trump reacted, saying, “Why are we trying to help a guy like Milley?”

People gather inside Capital One Arena for Trump's Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington DC, on Monday.

President Donald Trump signed a slew of executive actions in front of thousands of supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington DC on Monday.

He started by rescinding 78 Biden-era actions.

Here’s what else Trump signed at the arena:

The president then tossed the pens that he used to sign the executive actions into the crowd after he finished signing.