The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the deferred resignation program, which has been commonly described as a buyout.
US District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston did not express an opinion on the legality of the program. He scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. EST.
Democratic senators are still at it, having talked through the night to protest Trump’s pick of Russ Vought as budget director.
Seizing the Senate floor is one of the remaining tools the minority party has to stonewall a confirmation. Democrats unanimously oppose Vought, a Project 2025 author who is influential in Musk’s DOGE efforts to gut government.
Republicans have the votes to easily confirm Vought once the 30 hours of debate expires Thursday.
The private White House meeting comes as Trump allies on Capitol Hill argue amongst themselves over the size, scope and details of his “big, beautiful bill” to cut taxes, regulations and government spending.
GOP leaders want Trump to direct them how to proceed. So far the president has been noncommittal about the details — only pushing Congress for results.
The standoff is creating frustration. Republicans see precious time slipping as they fail to advance their top priority with their party in control. Meanwhile, their phone lines are being swamped with callers protesting Trump’s cost-cutting efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk against federal programs, services and operations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said they’re discussing “tax priorities of the Trump administration,” including Trump’s promises to end federal taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Renewing tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 also was on the agenda, she said.
The Education Department says it is investigating potential civil rights violations at two universities and a high school sports league that allowed transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams.
A day earlier, Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
“The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls — and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms — to promote a radical transgender ideology,” said Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
The agency is opening reviews at San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart’s letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asks her not to deport Venezuelans without criminal records as ordered by Trump.
“I respectfully request, within all applicable rules and regulations, that you assess all options available to ensure that Venezuelan nationals without criminal records are not forcibly returned to one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world,” the Miami Republican wrote.
Trump has ordered the end of temporary protections for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans, leaving them vulnerable to deportation in 60 days when their current status expires. That would have deep impacts in Florida, which has the nation’s largest number of TPS beneficiaries.
Federal lawsuits blocked Trump from taking similar steps during his first term to remove protections for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan. Diaz-Balart didn’t mention other countries in his letter.
Six more active-duty service members and one person seeking to join the Marines filed suit challenging Trump’s executive order to revise military policy on allowing transgender service members.
These plaintiffs include the civil rights group Gender Justice League and Navy Commander Emily Shilling, whose more than 19 years of service includes flying 60 missions as a combat pilot in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The suit was filed in US District Court in Seattle. A similar federal challenge was filed last week in the District of Columbia.
Human Rights Campaign attorney Sarah Warbelow is handling the Seattle challenge along with Lambda Legal and a private firm. She said the order violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and goes back on a promise that transgender people could openly serve in the military.
The Secretary of State seemingly contradicted the president again on Thursday when talking about Trump’s proposal for the US to take over Gaza while Palestinians relocate from the territory. Rubio insisted that would just be a temporary move.
“I think that’s just a realistic reality that in order to fix a place like that, people are going to have to live somewhere else in the interim,” Rubio said. Gaza is “not habitable.”
The US top diplomat and other administration officials have tried to walk back Trump’s comments about a permanent relocation of Gaza’s Palestinians.
But Trump insisted on his social media platform earlier Thursday that the US could take over Gaza without needing to send in troops and that Palestinians would be resettled elsewhere with modern homes and “would actually have a chance to be happy, safe and free.”
Rubio said he had no confusion after meeting with Panama President José Raúl Mulino and canal administrators during his Latin American tour.
“I respect very much the fact that Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow,” Rubio said.
But he said the United States is obligated to protect the Panama Canal if it comes under attack, and “that treaty obligation would have to be enforced by the armed forces of the United States, particularly the US Navy. I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict.”
US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle on Thursday decried what he described as the Trump administration’s attempt to change the Constitution through an executive order.
Coughenour had previously called the order “blatantly unconstitutional” and two weeks ago issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking its implementation.
Thursday’s ruling came a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case involving immigrants’ rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-born children could be affected.
“There’s no time to lose,” Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said. “The leadership of the United States is essential and irreplaceable.”
Abinader warned Thursday during a press conference with the US Secretary of State that Haiti represents a threat to the U.S. as well as the entire region, and without humanitarian aid, a wave of migrants will leave the violence-wracked country.
Marco Rubio said the only option for the US is to keep supporting the current UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police.
“Haiti’s solution is in the hands of Haiti, its people, its elite, but we’re going to help,” Rubio said.
Sean Duffy sparred with Clinton Thursday on the social media site X over the Trump administration’s plan to have Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency help upgrade aviation safety.
“They have no relevant experience,” Clinton said in response to Duffy’s post about getting help from Musk’s team. “Most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car. And you’re going to let them mess with airline safety that’s already deteriorated on your watch?”
Duffy responded sharply, saying experienced Washington bureaucrats are why the nation’s infrastructure is crumbling.
“I’m returning this department to its mission of safety by using innovative technology in transportation and infrastructure,” Duffy said. “Your team had its chance and failed. We’re moving on without you because the American people want us to make America’s transportation system great again. And yes, we’re bringing the 22-year-olds with us.”
Emails from Elon Musk allies went to a wide swath of the federal government, including a judge overseeing a lawsuit filed to try and block the messages.
US District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss said judges around the country got emails, apparently by mistake, preceding the “fork in the road” message from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Moss ignored it.
He’s overseeing a court challenge filed by federal employees who allege Musk allies set up a server to send the emails without proper privacy protections, leaving their information vulnerable to hacking.
Moss declined to immediately block any future messages, pointing out to a privacy assessment since completed by the government.
“We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer,” Karoline Levitt said.
“They don’t want to come into the office. If they want to rip the American people off, then they’re welcome to take this buyout and we’ll find highly qualified people” to replace them.
The deferred resignation program was orchestrated by Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur serving as a top Trump adviser, to further the Republican president’s goal of remaking the federal government, weakening what his allies describe as the “deep state” that undermined his first term.
Administration officials said they can save taxpayer money by presenting employees with “a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The Army Corps said that permitting for at least 168 solar and wind projects nationwide had been paused to comply with Trump’s executive order on “unleashing American energy.’'
That changed on Thursday — agency spokesman Doug Garman said the Army Corps received direction to lift the temporary pause. No reason was given.
Environmental advocates had expressed alarm that clean energy development would be slowed by a prolonged pause. The Army Corps issues permits for projects on private land that affect wetlands and other waters under the Clean Water Act.
Trump has issued a similar pause on federal lands and waters as he seeks to expand production of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas and move away from renewable energy.
Justice Department lawyers said that they have no immediate plans to publicly release the names of thousands of FBI agents and other personnel who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
They said they were open to a reaching an agreement that would bar them from doing so while litigation surrounding the issue continues.
Discussion of the possible accord emerged during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb on a pair of lawsuits filed anonymously by two sets of agents who had been involved in the Jan. 6 investigations or special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal cases against Trump.
White House press secretary Karoline Levitt says 40,000-plus federal workers have agreed to resign in exchange for continuing to be paid through Sept. 30.
“We expect that number to increase,” Leavitt said. “We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer.”
She spoke as news broke of another federal judge temporarily blocking the plan. The judge ordered the Trump administration to move a midnight deadline for federal employees to take the offer until after a court hearing on Monday.
The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the deferred resignation program.
Several labor unions have sued over Trump’s plans, which were orchestrated by Elon Musk, a top adviser. The Republican president is trying to downsize and reshape the federal workforce.
Jamieson Greer, Trump’s choice to be the top US trade negotiator, promised to pursue the president’s hardline trade policies in testimony Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee. But he faced pushback from senators unsettled by Trump’s unpredictable actions on trade.
Trump’s protectionist approach — involving the heavy use of taxes on foreign goods — will give Americans “the opportunity to work in good-paying jobs producing goods and services they can sell in this market and abroad to earn an honest living,’' Greer said in remarks prepared ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee.
As US trade representative, Greer would have responsibility — along with Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick — for one of Trump’s top policy priorities: waging or at least threatening trade war with countries around the world, America’s friends and foes alike.
Federal employees have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Thursday to decide whether they will take up the Trump administration’s offer to resign and be paid through the end of September.
The offer — the administration’s most sweeping effort so far to remake and shrink the federal workforce — has sent shock waves through the federal government and beyond, with some employees scrambling to make up their minds about the proposal while others urge colleagues to reject a deal they consider a trap.
Three unions that represent more than 800,000 federal workers, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the deadline, calling the offer an “arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum,” and a federal judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday at 1 p.m. to consider whether to take urgent action.
Employees had just nine full days to respond after they received an email Jan. 28 from the Office of Personnel Management. With the subject line “Fork in the Road,” the email outlined the administration’s intent to “reform” the federal workforce and started the decision-making clock for the “deferred resignation program.”
A federal judge who already questioned the constitutionality of Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order is set to hear arguments Thursday over a longer-term pause of the directive, which aims to end citizenship for children born to parents not legally in the country.
US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle has scheduled a hearing involving lawyers from the Trump administration, four states suing to stop the order, and an immigrant rights organization, which is challenging it on behalf of a proposed class of expectant parents.
The latest proceeding comes just a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case involving immigrants' rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-born children could be affected.
Here’s a closer look at where things stand on the president’s birthright citizenship order.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared for a photo-op with US senators at the Capitol when a reporter asked the question.
“Mr. Netanyahu, do you think US troops are needed in Gaza to make President Trump’s plan peaceful?”
“No,” he replied, and then press aides shooed journalists from the room.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a vote next week on Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI after Democrats used panel rules to delay a vote scheduled Thursday.
Trump’s nominee for education secretary will face her first confirmation test next week.
Linda McMahon is scheduled to go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Feb. 13. Trump said her top priority will be dismantling the agency, and that he wants McMahon “to put herself out of a job.”
McMahon, 76, is a longtime Trump ally and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. She led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.
Trump officials have organized question-and-answer sessions as federal workers decide whether to quit in exchange for several months of pay.
“I know there’s been a lot of questions out there about whether it’s real and whether it’s a trick,” Rachel Oglesby, now chief of staff at the US Department of Education, told employees, according to a recording obtained by The Associated Press.
“And it’s exactly what it looks like. It’s one of the many tools that he’s using to try to achieve the campaign promise to bring reform to the civil service and changes to D.C,” she said.
A similar discussion was recorded at the Department of Agriculture.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers,” said human resources official Marlon Taubenheim. “These are very trying times.”
Trump blamed last week’s deadly collision of a passenger jet and Army helicopter on what he called an “obsolete” computer system used by US air traffic controllers, and he vowed to replace it.
Trump said during an event that “a lot of mistakes happened” on Jan. 29 when an American Airlines flight out of Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter as the plane was about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, killing all 67 people on board the two aircraft.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Trump blamed diversity hiring programs for the crash. But on Thursday, he blamed the computer system used by the country’s air traffic controllers.
“It’s amazing that it happened,” Trump said during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol. “And I think that’s going to be used for good. I think what is going to happen is we’re all going to sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new — not pieced together, obsolete.”
Thousands of miles from Elon Musk’s office in the White House complex, a federal worker based in the Pacific Northwest is wondering whether to quit.
Musk, one of Trump’s most powerful advisers, has orchestrated an unprecedented financial incentive for people to leave their government jobs, promising several months of pay in return for their resignation. The worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, wants to take the money and move overseas.
But she’s worried. What if the offer is too good to be true? What if this is really a covert effort to make a list of disloyal government employees?
The emergence of X owner Elon Musk as the most influential figure around President Trump has created an extraordinary dynamic — a White House adviser using one of the world’s most powerful information platforms to sell the government’s talking points while intimidating its detractors.
The world’s richest man is using the social media platform as a cudgel and a megaphone for the Republican administration at a time when his power to shape the electorate’s perspective is only growing, with more Americans getting their news from ‘influencers’ online. Musk alone has 215 million followers.
Requests for comment from Musk’s special commission, the Department of Government Efficiency, and X were not returned.
Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University and the author of “How Democracies Die,” said “This is a combination of economic, media and political power that I believe has never been seen before in any democracy on Earth.”
Trump is tapping Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead an effort to root out “anti-Christian bias” nationwide.
The president said during the National Prayer Breakfast that the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination.”
It’s envisioned as an office within the White House that Trump said would place a special emphasis on bias within the federal government, “at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”
IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season will not be allowed to accept the Trump administration’s offer to be paid to quit until after the taxpayer filing deadline.
A letter to IRS employees Wednesday says such workers are exempt until May 15.
Union leaders and worker advocates have criticized the proposal and question whether the Trump administration will honor its terms.
“This country needs skilled, experienced federal employees,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. “We are urging people not to take this deal because it will damage the services to the American people and it will harm the federal employees who have dedicated themselves and their career to serving.”
Democratic senators are still at it, having talked through the night to protest Trump’s pick of Russ Vought as budget director.
Seizing the Senate floor is one of the remaining tools the minority party has to stonewall a confirmation. Democrats unanimously oppose Vought, a Project 2025 author who is influential in Musk’s DOGE efforts to gut government.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D. Colo., said his office was flooded with complaints over Trump’s temporary freeze of federal funds, which has since been rescinded and blocked by a court. He said Congress has appropriated this money and the White House cannot unilaterally cut it.
Republicans have the votes to easily confirm Vought once the 30 hours of debate expires Thursday.
Two Elon Musk allies have “read only” access to Treasury Department payment systems, but no one else will get access for now, including Musk himself, under a court order signed Thursday.
It comes in a lawsuit filed by federal workers unions trying to stop the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency from following through on what they call a massive privacy invasion.
Two Musk allies, Marko Elez and Tom Krause, have been made “special government employees” and already have access to the system, government attorneys have said.
The temporary order blocks further access by DOGE as US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly considers the case.
Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation-building.
But just weeks into his second term, President Trump is proposing to use American power to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, to reclaim US control of the Panama Canal and to buy Greenland from Denmark.
The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is flummoxing some of his allies.
“The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, posted on social media. “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
During the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, as he advocated for Americans to “bring God back into our lives.”
“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” Trump said. “Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”
Trump reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling lawmakers and attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”
“I feel even stronger,” he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”
The president, who’s a nondenominational Christian, called religious liberty “part of the bedrock of American life” and called for protecting it with “absolute devotion.”
Trump said Palestinians would be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
He added that the US would work “with great development teams from all over the World,” and “slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”
Trump reasserted his commitment to his Gaza plan the day after his top diplomat and his chief spokesperson walked back that the president is advocating for the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rejected the U.S. taking “ownership” of the territory.
Trump says “no soldiers by the US would be needed” to carry out his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory.
The comments come two days after Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, suggested relocating Gaza residents and redeveloping the land for people from around the world.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in a posting on his Truth Social platform.
The Republican-led Senate is expected to confirm a chief architect of Project 2025 as director of the Office of Management and Budget on Thursday.
Senate Democrats vowed to give around-the-clock speeches to protest Trump’s nomination of Russ Vought to the influential position, and all 47 said they would vote against him. But as the minority party in the Senate, that’s not enough to stop his confirmation.
Vought also is influential in the effort to broadly dismantle the federal government, led by Elon Musk’s DOGE team.
Thursday, Feb. 6
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.
Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas are the honorary co-chairs of this year’s event.
In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom. The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded.
In 2023 and 2024, President Biden, a Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Hill event, and his remarks were livestreamed to the other gathering.
Trump attended the official prayer breakfast and will also speak at a separate prayer breakfast at a Washington hotel sponsored by a private group.
CONTINUE READING
US District Judge George O’Toole Jr. in Boston did not express an opinion on the legality of the program. He scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. EST.
Watch live: Senate Democrats keep up revolt over Russ Vought
Democratic senators are still at it, having talked through the night to protest Trump’s pick of Russ Vought as budget director.
Seizing the Senate floor is one of the remaining tools the minority party has to stonewall a confirmation. Democrats unanimously oppose Vought, a Project 2025 author who is influential in Musk’s DOGE efforts to gut government.
Republicans have the votes to easily confirm Vought once the 30 hours of debate expires Thursday.
Trump huddles with House and Senate GOP leaders — 3:56 p.m.
The private White House meeting comes as Trump allies on Capitol Hill argue amongst themselves over the size, scope and details of his “big, beautiful bill” to cut taxes, regulations and government spending.
GOP leaders want Trump to direct them how to proceed. So far the president has been noncommittal about the details — only pushing Congress for results.
The standoff is creating frustration. Republicans see precious time slipping as they fail to advance their top priority with their party in control. Meanwhile, their phone lines are being swamped with callers protesting Trump’s cost-cutting efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk against federal programs, services and operations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said they’re discussing “tax priorities of the Trump administration,” including Trump’s promises to end federal taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Renewing tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 also was on the agenda, she said.
San Jose State and Penn face inquiries in Trump crackdown on transgender athletes — 3:38 p.m.
The Education Department says it is investigating potential civil rights violations at two universities and a high school sports league that allowed transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams.
A day earlier, Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
“The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls — and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms — to promote a radical transgender ideology,” said Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
The agency is opening reviews at San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Trump ally in Congress asks for an exception protecting Venezuelans in US — 3:35 p.m.
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart’s letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asks her not to deport Venezuelans without criminal records as ordered by Trump.
“I respectfully request, within all applicable rules and regulations, that you assess all options available to ensure that Venezuelan nationals without criminal records are not forcibly returned to one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world,” the Miami Republican wrote.
Trump has ordered the end of temporary protections for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans, leaving them vulnerable to deportation in 60 days when their current status expires. That would have deep impacts in Florida, which has the nation’s largest number of TPS beneficiaries.
Federal lawsuits blocked Trump from taking similar steps during his first term to remove protections for people from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan. Diaz-Balart didn’t mention other countries in his letter.
Second lawsuit challenges order targeting transgender service members — 3:15 p.m.
Six more active-duty service members and one person seeking to join the Marines filed suit challenging Trump’s executive order to revise military policy on allowing transgender service members.
These plaintiffs include the civil rights group Gender Justice League and Navy Commander Emily Shilling, whose more than 19 years of service includes flying 60 missions as a combat pilot in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The suit was filed in US District Court in Seattle. A similar federal challenge was filed last week in the District of Columbia.
Human Rights Campaign attorney Sarah Warbelow is handling the Seattle challenge along with Lambda Legal and a private firm. She said the order violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and goes back on a promise that transgender people could openly serve in the military.
Rubio insists relocation of Gazans would be temporary — 3:00 p.m.
The Secretary of State seemingly contradicted the president again on Thursday when talking about Trump’s proposal for the US to take over Gaza while Palestinians relocate from the territory. Rubio insisted that would just be a temporary move.
“I think that’s just a realistic reality that in order to fix a place like that, people are going to have to live somewhere else in the interim,” Rubio said. Gaza is “not habitable.”
The US top diplomat and other administration officials have tried to walk back Trump’s comments about a permanent relocation of Gaza’s Palestinians.
But Trump insisted on his social media platform earlier Thursday that the US could take over Gaza without needing to send in troops and that Palestinians would be resettled elsewhere with modern homes and “would actually have a chance to be happy, safe and free.”
Rubio: It’s ‘absurd’ to charge fees to the US military for using the Panama Canal — 2:57 p.m.
Rubio said he had no confusion after meeting with Panama President José Raúl Mulino and canal administrators during his Latin American tour.
“I respect very much the fact that Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow,” Rubio said.
But he said the United States is obligated to protect the Panama Canal if it comes under attack, and “that treaty obligation would have to be enforced by the armed forces of the United States, particularly the US Navy. I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict.”
A second federal judge has blocked Trump’s order redefining birthright citizenship — 2:50 p.m.
US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle on Thursday decried what he described as the Trump administration’s attempt to change the Constitution through an executive order.
Coughenour had previously called the order “blatantly unconstitutional” and two weeks ago issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking its implementation.
Thursday’s ruling came a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case involving immigrants’ rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-born children could be affected.
Dominican president pleads for restoring US humanitarian aid to Haiti — 2:49 p.m.
“There’s no time to lose,” Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said. “The leadership of the United States is essential and irreplaceable.”
Abinader warned Thursday during a press conference with the US Secretary of State that Haiti represents a threat to the U.S. as well as the entire region, and without humanitarian aid, a wave of migrants will leave the violence-wracked country.
Marco Rubio said the only option for the US is to keep supporting the current UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police.
“Haiti’s solution is in the hands of Haiti, its people, its elite, but we’re going to help,” Rubio said.
Transportation Secretary argues with Hillary Clinton online — 2:40 p.m.
Sean Duffy sparred with Clinton Thursday on the social media site X over the Trump administration’s plan to have Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency help upgrade aviation safety.
“They have no relevant experience,” Clinton said in response to Duffy’s post about getting help from Musk’s team. “Most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car. And you’re going to let them mess with airline safety that’s already deteriorated on your watch?”
Duffy responded sharply, saying experienced Washington bureaucrats are why the nation’s infrastructure is crumbling.
“I’m returning this department to its mission of safety by using innovative technology in transportation and infrastructure,” Duffy said. “Your team had its chance and failed. We’re moving on without you because the American people want us to make America’s transportation system great again. And yes, we’re bringing the 22-year-olds with us.”
Even judges got DOGE emails — 2:39 p.m.
Emails from Elon Musk allies went to a wide swath of the federal government, including a judge overseeing a lawsuit filed to try and block the messages.
US District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss said judges around the country got emails, apparently by mistake, preceding the “fork in the road” message from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Moss ignored it.
He’s overseeing a court challenge filed by federal employees who allege Musk allies set up a server to send the emails without proper privacy protections, leaving their information vulnerable to hacking.
Moss declined to immediately block any future messages, pointing out to a privacy assessment since completed by the government.
White House press secretary suggests workers trying ‘to rip the American people off’ should quit instead — 2:31 p.m.
“We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer,” Karoline Levitt said.
“They don’t want to come into the office. If they want to rip the American people off, then they’re welcome to take this buyout and we’ll find highly qualified people” to replace them.
The deferred resignation program was orchestrated by Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur serving as a top Trump adviser, to further the Republican president’s goal of remaking the federal government, weakening what his allies describe as the “deep state” that undermined his first term.
Administration officials said they can save taxpayer money by presenting employees with “a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
US Army Corps lifts pause on renewable energy projects — 2:05 p.m.
The Army Corps said that permitting for at least 168 solar and wind projects nationwide had been paused to comply with Trump’s executive order on “unleashing American energy.’'
That changed on Thursday — agency spokesman Doug Garman said the Army Corps received direction to lift the temporary pause. No reason was given.
Environmental advocates had expressed alarm that clean energy development would be slowed by a prolonged pause. The Army Corps issues permits for projects on private land that affect wetlands and other waters under the Clean Water Act.
Trump has issued a similar pause on federal lands and waters as he seeks to expand production of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas and move away from renewable energy.
Justice Dept. says no immediate plans to release names of Jan. 6 FBI agents — 1:55 p.m.
Justice Department lawyers said that they have no immediate plans to publicly release the names of thousands of FBI agents and other personnel who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
They said they were open to a reaching an agreement that would bar them from doing so while litigation surrounding the issue continues.
Discussion of the possible accord emerged during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb on a pair of lawsuits filed anonymously by two sets of agents who had been involved in the Jan. 6 investigations or special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal cases against Trump.
White House says more than 40,000 federal workers have agreed to resign — 1:50 p.m.
White House press secretary Karoline Levitt says 40,000-plus federal workers have agreed to resign in exchange for continuing to be paid through Sept. 30.
“We expect that number to increase,” Leavitt said. “We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer.”
She spoke as news broke of another federal judge temporarily blocking the plan. The judge ordered the Trump administration to move a midnight deadline for federal employees to take the offer until after a court hearing on Monday.
Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s plan to push out federal workers — 1:26 p.m.
The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline for workers to apply for the deferred resignation program.
Several labor unions have sued over Trump’s plans, which were orchestrated by Elon Musk, a top adviser. The Republican president is trying to downsize and reshape the federal workforce.
Trump’s US trade negotiator choice vows hardline policies — 1:19 p.m.
Jamieson Greer, Trump’s choice to be the top US trade negotiator, promised to pursue the president’s hardline trade policies in testimony Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee. But he faced pushback from senators unsettled by Trump’s unpredictable actions on trade.
Trump’s protectionist approach — involving the heavy use of taxes on foreign goods — will give Americans “the opportunity to work in good-paying jobs producing goods and services they can sell in this market and abroad to earn an honest living,’' Greer said in remarks prepared ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee.
As US trade representative, Greer would have responsibility — along with Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick — for one of Trump’s top policy priorities: waging or at least threatening trade war with countries around the world, America’s friends and foes alike.
Judge to hear federal worker lawsuit, with buyout offer set to expire tonight — 1:16 p.m.
Federal employees have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern time Thursday to decide whether they will take up the Trump administration’s offer to resign and be paid through the end of September.
The offer — the administration’s most sweeping effort so far to remake and shrink the federal workforce — has sent shock waves through the federal government and beyond, with some employees scrambling to make up their minds about the proposal while others urge colleagues to reject a deal they consider a trap.
Three unions that represent more than 800,000 federal workers, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the deadline, calling the offer an “arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum,” and a federal judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday at 1 p.m. to consider whether to take urgent action.
Employees had just nine full days to respond after they received an email Jan. 28 from the Office of Personnel Management. With the subject line “Fork in the Road,” the email outlined the administration’s intent to “reform” the federal workforce and started the decision-making clock for the “deferred resignation program.”
What to know about the court cases over President Trump’s birthright citizenship order — 12:57 p.m.
A federal judge who already questioned the constitutionality of Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order is set to hear arguments Thursday over a longer-term pause of the directive, which aims to end citizenship for children born to parents not legally in the country.
US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle has scheduled a hearing involving lawyers from the Trump administration, four states suing to stop the order, and an immigrant rights organization, which is challenging it on behalf of a proposed class of expectant parents.
The latest proceeding comes just a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case involving immigrants' rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-born children could be affected.
Here’s a closer look at where things stand on the president’s birthright citizenship order.
Israeli leader has a one-word answer to the idea of US troops in Gaza — 12:50 p.m.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared for a photo-op with US senators at the Capitol when a reporter asked the question.
“Mr. Netanyahu, do you think US troops are needed in Gaza to make President Trump’s plan peaceful?”
“No,” he replied, and then press aides shooed journalists from the room.
Senate committee delays vote on Kash Patel — 12:31 p.m.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a vote next week on Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI after Democrats used panel rules to delay a vote scheduled Thursday.
Trump ally tasked with dismantling Education Department faces first confirmation test — 12:00 p.m.
Trump’s nominee for education secretary will face her first confirmation test next week.
Linda McMahon is scheduled to go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Feb. 13. Trump said her top priority will be dismantling the agency, and that he wants McMahon “to put herself out of a job.”
McMahon, 76, is a longtime Trump ally and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. She led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.
The deal is ‘exactly what it looks like,’ says Trump official — 11:55 a.m.
Trump officials have organized question-and-answer sessions as federal workers decide whether to quit in exchange for several months of pay.
“I know there’s been a lot of questions out there about whether it’s real and whether it’s a trick,” Rachel Oglesby, now chief of staff at the US Department of Education, told employees, according to a recording obtained by The Associated Press.
“And it’s exactly what it looks like. It’s one of the many tools that he’s using to try to achieve the campaign promise to bring reform to the civil service and changes to D.C,” she said.
A similar discussion was recorded at the Department of Agriculture.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers,” said human resources official Marlon Taubenheim. “These are very trying times.”
Trump blames ‘obsolete’ US air traffic control system for the plane and chopper collision near DC — 11:53 a.m.
Trump blamed last week’s deadly collision of a passenger jet and Army helicopter on what he called an “obsolete” computer system used by US air traffic controllers, and he vowed to replace it.
Trump said during an event that “a lot of mistakes happened” on Jan. 29 when an American Airlines flight out of Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter as the plane was about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, killing all 67 people on board the two aircraft.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Trump blamed diversity hiring programs for the crash. But on Thursday, he blamed the computer system used by the country’s air traffic controllers.
“It’s amazing that it happened,” Trump said during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol. “And I think that’s going to be used for good. I think what is going to happen is we’re all going to sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers. Brand new — not pieced together, obsolete.”
Federal workers debate the legitimacy of financial incentives to quit as the deadline nears — 11:39 p.m.
Thousands of miles from Elon Musk’s office in the White House complex, a federal worker based in the Pacific Northwest is wondering whether to quit.
Musk, one of Trump’s most powerful advisers, has orchestrated an unprecedented financial incentive for people to leave their government jobs, promising several months of pay in return for their resignation. The worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, wants to take the money and move overseas.
But she’s worried. What if the offer is too good to be true? What if this is really a covert effort to make a list of disloyal government employees?
Harvard expert: Musk now has ‘unthinkable’ power for a democracy — 11:38 a.m.
The emergence of X owner Elon Musk as the most influential figure around President Trump has created an extraordinary dynamic — a White House adviser using one of the world’s most powerful information platforms to sell the government’s talking points while intimidating its detractors.
The world’s richest man is using the social media platform as a cudgel and a megaphone for the Republican administration at a time when his power to shape the electorate’s perspective is only growing, with more Americans getting their news from ‘influencers’ online. Musk alone has 215 million followers.
Requests for comment from Musk’s special commission, the Department of Government Efficiency, and X were not returned.
Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University and the author of “How Democracies Die,” said “This is a combination of economic, media and political power that I believe has never been seen before in any democracy on Earth.”
Trump says he’ll create a task force to stop ‘Christian bias’ — 11:31 a.m.
Trump is tapping Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead an effort to root out “anti-Christian bias” nationwide.
The president said during the National Prayer Breakfast that the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination.”
It’s envisioned as an office within the White House that Trump said would place a special emphasis on bias within the federal government, “at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”
IRS workers are told to keep working until a month after the tax deadline — 11:16 a.m.
IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season will not be allowed to accept the Trump administration’s offer to be paid to quit until after the taxpayer filing deadline.
A letter to IRS employees Wednesday says such workers are exempt until May 15.
Union leaders and worker advocates have criticized the proposal and question whether the Trump administration will honor its terms.
“This country needs skilled, experienced federal employees,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. “We are urging people not to take this deal because it will damage the services to the American people and it will harm the federal employees who have dedicated themselves and their career to serving.”
Senate Democrats keep up revolt over Vought — 10:52 a.m.
Democratic senators are still at it, having talked through the night to protest Trump’s pick of Russ Vought as budget director.
Seizing the Senate floor is one of the remaining tools the minority party has to stonewall a confirmation. Democrats unanimously oppose Vought, a Project 2025 author who is influential in Musk’s DOGE efforts to gut government.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D. Colo., said his office was flooded with complaints over Trump’s temporary freeze of federal funds, which has since been rescinded and blocked by a court. He said Congress has appropriated this money and the White House cannot unilaterally cut it.
Republicans have the votes to easily confirm Vought once the 30 hours of debate expires Thursday.
Judge temporarily limits DOGE access to Treasury — 10:21 a.m.
Two Elon Musk allies have “read only” access to Treasury Department payment systems, but no one else will get access for now, including Musk himself, under a court order signed Thursday.
It comes in a lawsuit filed by federal workers unions trying to stop the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency from following through on what they call a massive privacy invasion.
Two Musk allies, Marko Elez and Tom Krause, have been made “special government employees” and already have access to the system, government attorneys have said.
The temporary order blocks further access by DOGE as US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly considers the case.
America Everywhere? Even allies are confused. — 9:46 a.m.
Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation-building.
But just weeks into his second term, President Trump is proposing to use American power to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, to reclaim US control of the Panama Canal and to buy Greenland from Denmark.
The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is flummoxing some of his allies.
“The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, posted on social media. “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
Trump: ‘Let’s bring religion back’ — 9:29 a.m.
During the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, as he advocated for Americans to “bring God back into our lives.”
“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” Trump said. “Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”
Trump reflected on having a bullet coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, telling lawmakers and attendees, “It changed something in me, I feel.”
“I feel even stronger,” he continued. “I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”
The president, who’s a nondenominational Christian, called religious liberty “part of the bedrock of American life” and called for protecting it with “absolute devotion.”
Trump’s team tried to walk back his Gaza comments. He’s still commenting. — 9:27 a.m.
Trump said Palestinians would be “resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
He added that the US would work “with great development teams from all over the World,” and “slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”
Trump reasserted his commitment to his Gaza plan the day after his top diplomat and his chief spokesperson walked back that the president is advocating for the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rejected the U.S. taking “ownership” of the territory.
Trump says his Gaza rehab plan can be done without US troops — 9:26 a.m.
Trump says “no soldiers by the US would be needed” to carry out his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop the war-torn territory.
The comments come two days after Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, suggested relocating Gaza residents and redeveloping the land for people from around the world.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in a posting on his Truth Social platform.
Senate Democrats lack the votes to stop budget director confirmation — 9:24 a.m.
The Republican-led Senate is expected to confirm a chief architect of Project 2025 as director of the Office of Management and Budget on Thursday.
Senate Democrats vowed to give around-the-clock speeches to protest Trump’s nomination of Russ Vought to the influential position, and all 47 said they would vote against him. But as the minority party in the Senate, that’s not enough to stop his confirmation.
Vought also is influential in the effort to broadly dismantle the federal government, led by Elon Musk’s DOGE team.
Thursday, Feb. 6
The history of the National Prayer Breakfast — 9:05 a.m.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.
Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas are the honorary co-chairs of this year’s event.
In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom. The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded.
In 2023 and 2024, President Biden, a Democrat, spoke at the Capitol Hill event, and his remarks were livestreamed to the other gathering.
Trump attended the official prayer breakfast and will also speak at a separate prayer breakfast at a Washington hotel sponsored by a private group.
