U.S. aid workers around the world scrambled Wednesday to pack up households or pull children from school after the Trump administration ordered employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development off the job and out of the field, all but shutting down the organization’s six-decade mission.
Hundreds of supporters of the U.S. aid agency rallied in Washington, D.C., to protest the dismantling of the independent government agency, often sparring with Democratic lawmakers, demanding more be done.
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Pro-Trump Arab American group changes its name after the president’s Gaza ‘Riviera’ comments
A group that played a key role in Donald Trump’s voter outreach to the Arab American community alongside his allies is rebranding itself after the president said that the U.S. would “take over” the Gaza Strip.
Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group formerly known as Arab Americans for Trump, said during a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that the group would now be called Arab Americans for Peace.
The name change came after Trump held a Tuesday press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House and proposed the U.S. take “ownership” in redeveloping the area into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
FBI agents who ‘simply followed orders’ in Jan. 6 probes won’t be fired, a Justice official says
FBI agents “who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner” while investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol are not at risk of being fired, a top Justice Department official said in a memo to the bureau workforce obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
But the memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove also provides no reassurances for any agents found to have “acted with corrupt or partisan intent” and suggests those employees, if there any, should be concerned about a massive and highly unusual review process the Trump administration Justice Department has embarked upon.
The message from Bove is aimed at providing a measure of clarity about highly unusual Justice Department demand for the names of agents who participated in the investigation, a request seen within the FBI as a possible precursor for mass firings.
__By Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer
GOP quashes Democratic effort to force Musk to appear for congressional oversight questions
Republicans blocked Democratic efforts Wednesday to subpoena Musk to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during a hearing on “Rightsizing Government.”
Musk is leading Trump’s “government efficiency” effort. He’s positioned personnel in key federal agencies where they have sought to close the U.S. Agency for International Development and gain access to sensitive payment systems at the Treasury Department.
“Who is this unelected billionaire that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement and have sweeping changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight or concurrence?” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, the panel’s ranking Democrat.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., then moved to table the motion, and Republicans quashed it with a 20-19 vote.
Frustrated anti-Trump protesters get a reality check as Democrat notes Republicans hold power
Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the shutdown of USAID seem increasingly frustrated with Democratic lawmakers, chanting “do your job!”
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia took the microphone and described how Democrats plan to fight the changes in court, withhold support for Trump nominees and hopefully win future elections.
But he acknowledged political reality: “We are where we are because we lost a presidential election and we lost two houses in November. We have a lot more tools in majority than we do in minority,” Kaine said.
Trump’s birthright citizenship order is put on hold by a second federal judge
A federal judge has ordered a second nationwide pause on President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. to someone in the country illegally, calling citizenship a “most precious right.”
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman said no court in the country has endorsed the Trump administration’s interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
“This court will not be the first,” she said. “Citizenship is a most precious right, expressly granted by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Boardman said citizenship is a “national concern that demands a uniform policy,” adding that “only a nationwide injunction will provide complete relief to the plaintiffs.”
Trump’s inauguration week order had already been on temporary hold nationally because of a separate suit brought by four states in Washington state, where a judge called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.”
In total, 22 states, as well as other organizations, have sued to try to stop the executive action.
▶Read more about what the judge had to say
Pam Bondi is sworn in as U.S. attorney general
Before Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the oath of office in the White House’s Oval Office, Trump praised Bondi’s record as a prosecutor and said she will restore “fair, equal and impartial justice” to the department.
It was the first time Trump participated in a swearing in ceremony for a cabinet member in his new term, underscoring the president’s immense personal interest in the department that charged him in two since-abandoned criminal cases.
Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, told the president that she would not let him down, saying: “I will make you proud and I will make this country proud.”
Bondi takes the reins of a Justice Department bracing for upheaval as Trump looks to exert his will over an agency that has long provoked his ire.
Senate Democrats to pull an all-nighter to protest Vought, Project 2025 and DOGE
Senate Democrats are planning an all-nighter to protest confirmation of Russ Vought as Trump’s budget director.
All 47 Democrats are opposing the Vought, who is a chief architect of Project 2025 and influential in the Musk-run DOGE cuts ripping through the federal government. While Democrats don’t have the votes as the minority party to stop the nominee, they will try to muster the stamina to rail against him all night — running out the procedural clock before the roll call.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said they will “sound the alarm on Russell Vought through the night.”
Supporters and lawmakers turn out to back USAID
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered across the street from the U.S. Capitol to protest the latest cuts and dismantling of USAID. Half a dozen Democratic members of Congress were expected to speak at the rally, the second with lawmakers this week.
Posters titled “the faces of foreign aid” showed images of doctors and farmers and teachers who administer USAID programs across the globe.
“Hell no, we won’t go!” chants began before the speakers took the mics.
USAID workers scramble for answers after Trump pulls almost all of them off the job worldwide
U.S. aid staffers around the world are scrambling Wednesday for answers and starting to pack up households or pull their children from school after a sudden Trump administration order yanking almost all of them off the job and out of the field.
In Washington, Democratic lawmakers and other supporters of the U.S. Agency for International Development planned rallies to protest the dismantling of the independent government agency established six decades ago. USAID has been one of the agencies hardest hit as the new administration and Elon Musk’s budget-cutting team target federal programs they say are wasteful or not aligned with a conservative agenda.
U.S. embassies in many of the more than 100 countries where USAID operates convened emergency town halls for the thousands of agency staffers and contractors looking for answers. Embassy officials said they had been given no guidance on what to tell staffers, particularly local hires, about their employment status.
Speaker Mike Johnson calls Trump’s plans for Gaza ‘common sense’
House Speaker Mike Johnson calls Trump’s plans to redevelop Gaza a “bold move” that should be given a look.
“If we could control that situation and bring about a lasting peace there, it would do well for everybody,” Johnson, a Republican, said at a press conference.
“It just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer,” he said. “I think it follows common sense.”
The speaker said plans to discuss the idea further when he meets with Netanyahu on Thursday at the Capitol.
He acknowledged while Trump’s announcement surprised many Johnson by said it was also cheered by others around the world.
Russian ally hails suspension of US foreign aid
The president of a Serb-dominated part of Bosnia says U.S. funding has inflicted “serious evil” around the world for years.
Milorad Dodik was sanctioned by the Biden administration over allegations of corruption and separatist policies that are undermining the U.S.-brokered peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
In an interview with The Associated Press, he praised Trump’s election as “a magnificent event in the new political history.” He also claimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development has been used to destabilize nations.
Baltimore mayor pushes back on anti-DEI attacks with ‘Definitely Earned It’ campaign
President Donald Trump’s orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs is getting pushback from Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. The Black mayor faced racist attacks online last year after a major bridge collapsed near his city.
He’s announcing a “Definitely Earned It” campaign to highlight minority achievers during Black History Month.
Online commenters labeled Scott a “DEI mayor” and suggested his race was somehow to blame for the fatal accident.
Scott says Trump allies appear to believe that unless you’re from “wealthy historic families with straight white Christian men, then you should never be in a position of power and that your thoughts and opinions don’t matter.”
▶ Read more about Scott’s ‘Definitely Earned It’ campaign
CIA offers buyouts to employees
The CIA has offered buyouts to employees, the spy service confirmed Wednesday, becoming the latest agency to enact President Donald Trump’s plan to transform the federal government and its workforce.
An agency spokesperson declined to say how many employees received offers, or whether they face a deadline to decide. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, promised to make big changes to the agency during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.
“Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities,” the CIA said in a statement. “These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission.”
JD Vance expresses administration’s commitment to religious freedom
Vice President JD Vance said the administration intends to expand on its work from Trump’s first term and the opening weeks of his second to protect religious liberty.
In remarks to the International Religious Freedom summit in Washington, Vance listed Trump’s recent executive orders on the issue, including pardons for anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
He thanked the organization for its work and said, “both at home and abroad, we have much more to do to more fully secure religious liberty for all people of faith.”
Union representative says federal workers are having second thoughts on deferred resignation
A representative with the largest union for federal employees says many workers are having second thoughts about accepting deferred resignation offers.
Mary-Jean Burke said she’s talked to workers around the nation, and many found the offer attractive at first – but skepticism has set in.
“People are really frightened about the chaos,” said Burke, first executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees National VA Council. “For the rank and file, they feel unnerved.”
Some workers who are retirement eligible have been “on the fence” and people are constantly asking questions, said Burke, a physical therapist for veterans in Indiana.
“I just worry about the federal workforce,” Burke said. “A lot of people are stressed out because they kind of feel like the predictability of their mission is a little bit different.”
The FAFSA federal student aid form will no longer offer “nonbinary” as a gender option
The Education Department said “male” and “female” will be the only options this year and going forward. It was changed in response to President Donald Trump’s order calling for the federal government to define sex as male or female only.
Other updates in the works strive to make the FAFSA form more user-friendly in the future, especially a process in which students “invite” their parents to fill out their portion of the form. Sending the invite was a major source of trouble in last year’s botched FAFSA overhaul, which became a black eye for the Biden administration.
The department said the contributor invite process is responsible for “the largest drop-off of students who decide not to complete the FAFSA form.” The update is being planned for the 2026-27 form.
Congress demanded an overhaul to simplify the form in 2020, but delays and glitches marred the Biden administration’s rollout last year. It meant students had to wait months to find out how much financial aid they would be offered for college, and advocates fear it may have deterred some students from going to college at all.
DeSantis goes to battle with Florida Republicans in trying to get closer to Trump
With an open presidential primary coming in 2028, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is launching an offensive to win back Trump supporters after as he prepares for a potential second try for the presidency. He's doing it by pushing Trump’s most prominent issue — immigration.
The problem for DeSantis: Florida Republicans think they know Trump better.
When DeSantis ordered a special legislative session to pass his border-related proposals, legislators swiftly tossed out his ideas and presented their own bill to move gubernatorial power on immigration enforcement to the agriculture commissioner. They named it the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy, or TRUMP, Act.
Republican political consultant Jamie Miller said DeSantis appears to be winning the war on social media and conservative airwaves for now, "but we all know that that microphone can be taken away with one tweet.”
▶Read more about how DeSantis is trying to win Trump supporters.
Trump wants USAID workers off the job and out of the field
The Trump administration says it’s pulling almost all U.S. Agency for International Development workers off the job and out of the field, worldwide.
The order takes effect just before midnight Friday and gives agency staff overseas 30 days to return home unless they’re deemed essential.
The notice posted online Tuesday says contractors not determined to be essential also would be fired. The move had been rumored for several days.
Thousands of USAID employees already have been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after the Republican president imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.
Senators find Trump’s comments ‘crazy,’ if they acknowledge hearing them at all
“He’s completely lost it,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “He wants a U.S. invasion of Gaza, which would cost thousands of American lives and set the Middle East on fire for 20 years? It’s sick.”
“No wonder Elon Musk is in charge of the government. This guy has no connection to reality,” Murphy added.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he wasn’t ready to comment on Trump’s remarks.
“I’m not doing any hallway interviews today, none at all – especially if it’s about Gaza,” Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said Tuesday night. “I haven’t heard it, the statement or anything else, the context.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer decries a ‘hostile takeover’. Elon Musk calls him ‘hysterical’
Congress is proving little match for DOGE. Lacking the votes as Republicans largely remain silent, they’re supporting a rush of lawsuits demanding court interventions to stop the Republican president’s team from unilaterally gutting government. And protests are erupting outside government agencies and clogging the congressional phone lines.
“Whatever DOGE is doing, it is certainly not — not — what democracy looks like or has ever looked like in the grand history of this country,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.
“An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government,” Schumer posted on Musk’s social media site X.
Musk responded on his platform: “Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that DOGE is doing work that really matters.”
Trump’s administration is pulling almost all USAID workers off the job worldwide
The Trump administration said that it is pulling almost all U.S. Agency for International Development workers off the job and out of the field worldwide, moving to all but end a six-decade mission to shore up American security by fighting starvation, funding education and working to end epidemics.
The administration notified USAID workers in emails and a notice posted online, the latest in a sudden dismantling of the aid agency by returning political appointees from President Donald Trump’s first term and billionaire Elon Musk’s government-efficiency teams who call much of the spending on programs overseas wasteful.
The order takes effect just before midnight Friday and gives direct hires of the agency overseas — many of whom have been frantically packing up households in expectation of the announcement — 30 days to return home unless they are deemed essential. The notice said contractors not determined to be essential also would be fired.
▶ Read more about USAID
Trump and Musk shake foundations of US democracy
When Elon Musk debuted the Department of Government Efficiency, House Speaker Mike Johnson enthusiastically predicted “a lot of change around here.”
Three weeks in, that change is a disruption of the federal government on an unprecedented scale, dismantling longstanding programs, sparking widespread public outcry and challenging the very role of Congress to create the nation’s laws and pay its bills.
Government workers are being pushed to resign. Entire agencies are being shuttered. Federal funding to states and nonprofits was temporarily frozen. And the most sensitive Treasury Department information of countless Americans was opened to Musk’s DOGE team in an unprecedented breach of privacy and protocol.
An opposition movement is gathering steam online, with plans to protest across the U.S. on Wednesday.
▶ Read more about how Trump is dismantling the U.S. government
U.S. allies reject Trump's musings on Gaza
Trump’s suggestion for the U.S. to “take over” the Gaza strip came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take “ownership” in redeveloping the war-torn territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trump’s idea in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”
The prime ministers of Australia and Ireland, foreign ministries from China, New Zealand and Germany, and a Kremlin spokesman all reiterated support for a two-state solution.
The Associated Press
