Politics

By Rene Marsh and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Scores of firings have begun at federal agencies, with terminations of probationary employees underway at the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration, federal employees and union sources told CNN on Wednesday. The probationary employee firings mark the first from the Trump administration as President

CNN By Jake Tapper, Pamela Brown, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — The newly constituted board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has elected President Donald Trump as its chairman. “It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We

By Paula Reid, Tami Luhby and Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to move forward for the moment with its deferred resignation offer for federal employees. US District Judge George O’Toole said federal employee unions, which brought a lawsuit on behalf of their members, are

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — US Agency for International Development employees this week recounted the panic they experienced in the days after they were ordered to return from their assignments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Several employees, as part of a lawsuit filed Tuesday by a group representing the agency’s foreign service members,

By Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju and Ali Main, CNN Washington (CNN) — Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget plan is in trouble as multiple GOP hardliners seek last-minute changes that could risk support from the party’s centrist middle — jeopardizing leadership’s plans to kickstart President Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress. Just hours after the House GOP’s compromise

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN (CNN) — The Mack truck Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are driving through the government as we know it is fueled by some stories that aren’t true, but fester anyway. Justifying their plan to gut the federal workforce and slash government spending, Musk and Trump told tales on

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — President Donald Trump keeps making false claims about not only the 2020 election he lost but the 2024 election he won. When a Fox News anchor noted to Trump, in an interview segment that aired Monday, that Vice President Kamala Harris received 75 million votes in the 2024

By Jake Tapper, Pamela Brown, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — The newly constituted board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has elected President Donald Trump as its chairman. “It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will

CNN By Morgan Rimmer and Katie Bo Lillis, CNN Washington (CNN) — The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, a major win for President Donald Trump as Gabbard had been among the most controversial of his Cabinet picks. The vote was 52-48 mostly along party lines,

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The next stage of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce is underway. Agency leaders have been told to begin preparations for large-scale layoffs, known as reductions in force, or RIFs, under an executive order President Donald Trump signed Tuesday. They will work with Elon Musk’s Department

By Katelyn Polantz and Manu Raju, CNN (CNN) — Eight inspectors general whom Donald Trump fired from their federal agency watchdog posts are suing for their jobs back, adding to the legal scrutiny over Trump’s first weeks of decisions in the White House and raising questions about his political intentions. They say that Trump shouldn’t

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — Elon Musk acknowledged Tuesday that there might not have been a federal plan to spend $50 million on condoms for Gaza — two weeks after the White House press secretary told the false story at an official briefing and more than a week after the president baselessly doubled

CNN Analysis by Clare Sebastian, CNN (CNN) — Wednesday’s meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels was, on paper, about coordinating military aid for Ukraine and welcoming the new US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth into the international fold. In practice, it was a day that saw the Trump administration upend the alliance’s approach to

By Natasha Bertrand, Clare Sebastian and Haley Britzky, CNN Brussels (CNN) — US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end,” that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic and that the US will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security as the Trump administration shifts its attention

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Tuesday that she has faith federal court orders will be honored in the United States amid a roiling debate over President Donald Trump’s commitment to following judicial rulings that have put some of his policies on hold. “Court decisions stand,” the high court’s

By Devan Cole and John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — Recent court orders slowing down or indefinitely blocking President Donald Trump’s policy blitz have raised the specter that the executive branch might openly flout the federal judiciary and prompted questions about how judges would respond. Any decision by the administration to defy federal courts would immediately