Politics

By Jennifer Hansler and Jessica Hasbun, CNN (CNN) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio formally seized a second plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government on behalf of the United States on Thursday. The relationship between Caracas and Washington has been marked by tensions for decades and the plane’s seizure follows a similar

By Jennifer Hansler and Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — A pair of labor groups representing employees at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sued President Donald Trump on Thursday over his efforts to dismantle the decades-old humanitarian agency, as multiple sources told CNN that fewer than 300 agency employees are expected to be retained

By Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris and Haley Talbot, CNN Washington (CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is vowing to power forward on a key budget committee vote early next week, setting up a clash with Senate GOP leaders who are itching to move a separate blueprint with their own strategy on how to pass President

By Oren Liebermann, CNN (CNN) — A US-contracted surveillance plane crashed in the Philippines on Thursday morning, killing all four personnel on board, including one US military service member, according to US Indo-Pacific Command. The crash occurred in Maguindanao del Sur in the southern Philippines. Images from the crash site, confirmed by a US defense

By Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — Attorney General Pam Bondi, in some of her first moves on the job, is shifting the Justice Department’s national security priorities away from initiatives that have been a source of irritation for President Donald Trump and his allies. Bondi is limiting criminal enforcement of a foreign agents registration law

By Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders Thursday, one targeting the International Criminal Court and a second on “anti-Christian bias.” The ICC action places financial and visa sanctions on “individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or our allies,” according to

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration is seeking to overhaul and shrink the federal workforce. President Donald Trump has issued multiple executive actions that affect federal workers, including directing agencies to carry out major reductions in force, requiring staffers to return to the office full time and making it easier to lay

By Joan Biskupic and Jeff Zeleny, CNN (CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spent recent days alongside several Trump administration Cabinet officials – making them official. In the process, he and his wife, Ginni, have drawn exceptional attention from President Donald Trump himself. On Wednesday morning, Thomas swore in Doug Collins to be secretary

CNN By Joan Biskupic and Jeff Zeleny, CNN (CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spent recent days alongside several Trump administration Cabinet officials – making them official. In the process, he and his wife, Ginni, have drawn exceptional attention from President Donald Trump himself. On Wednesday morning, Thomas swore in Doug Collins to be

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