Politics

By Katelyn Polantz and Phil Mattingly, CNN (CNN) — Four days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk’s top lieutenants at the Treasury Department asked its acting secretary, a career civil servant, to immediately shut off all USAID payments using the department’s own ultra-sensitive payment processing system. The ask was so out of line with how

By Jennifer Hansler, Alex Marquardt and Lauren Kent, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration’s rapid moves to dismantle the US Agency for International Development have left thousands of workers scrambling to figure out what comes next and scores of those posted in dangerous hotspots around the world afraid for their safety. CNN spoke with numerous

By Eric Bradner, Tami Luhby, Katelyn Polantz and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s bid to remake the federal government is already affecting some vulnerable populations in the United States, according to nonprofits and health care providers who are grappling with delays in federal funding, new rules and changed guidance. A 19-year-old West

By Tami Luhby, Alayna Treene and Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge paused Thursday’s deadline for federal employees to accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer while more proceedings on the program’s legality play out. The administration sent an email to employees just after 5 p.m. ET informing them of the court-ordered pause

By Rene Marsh and Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Employees in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights have been told they are being placed on paid administrative leave as the agency executes the Trump administration’s executive order to wipe out all program offices it deems as tied to diversity,

By Katelyn Polantz and Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — Two Treasury Department employees affiliated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will keep limited access to the highly sensitive payment system within the agency, following emergency court proceedings Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns about DOGE’s access to the system. The Trump administration agreed

By Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with

By Arit John, Fredreka Schouten and Arlette Saenz, CNN (CNN) — After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk. The party and allied groups this week have shown up at the doors of agencies impacted by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, held rallies and

By Hadas Gold, CNN (CNN) — The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN. Her departure is the latest in a series of top career officials who have been removed from their jobs

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — Five former leaders of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from across Republican and Democratic administrations spoke out against the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the humanitarian agency and called on “Congress to swiftly protect the Agency’s statutory role.” In a Wednesday statement obtained first by CNN, the

By Lauren Fox and Sarah Ferris, CNN Washington (CNN) — A month into the new Congress, House and Senate Republicans are still not on the same page on how to tackle President Donald Trump’s agenda raising the possibility the two chambers could be on a collision course that imperils Trump’s domestic priorities in the first

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — Before signing an executive order Wednesday to try to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports in schools and other settings, President Donald Trump repeated a lie he told last year. He asserted that two Olympians who won gold in women’s boxing events in 2024 were men

By Morgan Rimmer, CNN Washington (CNN) — Senate Democrats have started what they’re promising will be an overnight marathon of speeches to protest Russell Vought’s nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Vought is expected to be confirmed in a vote Thursday evening. Republicans control 53 seats in the chamber compared to 47

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump has revoked the security detail assigned to his former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Wednesday, adding to the growing list of officials who have faced retribution from their onetime boss. Esper is one of several top aides who continued to

By Kevin Liptak, Alayna Treene and Jeff Zeleny, CNN (CNN) — Trump administration officials are hurrying to catch up to the president’s audacious and improbable plan for the United States to take ownership of Gaza and redevelop it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera,” trying to wrap their heads around an idea that some hope might

CNN By Evan Perez and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The acting deputy attorney general accused FBI leadership of “insubordination” by refusing to identify a “core team” of bureau employees who worked on January 6 investigations, while trying to assure that rank-and-file agents who “simply followed orders” will not be fired unless they “acted with

By Evan Perez and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — The acting deputy attorney general accused FBI leadership of “insubordination” by refusing to identify a “core team” of bureau employees who worked on January 6 investigations, while trying to assure that rank-and-file agents who “simply followed orders” will not be fired unless they “acted with corrupt

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN (CNN) — Donald Trump ran his presidential campaign promising to abolish entire federal agencies and departments, but it’s not quite so easy for a president to simply end an organization that was created and funded each year by Congress, which is supposed to be the president’s equal. So the

By Devan Cole, CNN Greenbelt, Maryland (CNN) — A second federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, saying it’s likely unconstitutional and “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth.” The nationwide preliminary injunction from US District Judge Deborah Boardman is a significant