President Donald Trump is hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday as he escalates pressure on the Arab nation to take in refugees from Gaza — perhaps permanently — as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East.
The visit is happening at a perilous moment for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas, accusing Israel of violating the truce, has said it is pausing future releases of hostages and as Trump has called for Israel to resume fighting if all those remaining in captivity are not freed by this weekend.
Here's the latest:
Musk talks about his work to cut federal spending
Musk appeared with Trump in the Oval Office as the president prepared to sign an executive order concerning the billionaire’s work leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk said there are some good people in the federal bureaucracy, but that they need to be accountable. He called the bureaucracy an “unelected” fourth branch of government and said the budget deficit must be addressed.
These are among Musk’s first public comments about his work overseeing DOGE.
Vance family visits Louvre Museum in Paris
Vice President JD Vance is traveling in Europe on his first overseas trip since becoming vice president.
He brought along his wife, Usha, and their three young children.
Vance addressed an AI summit in Paris earlier Tuesday. He will speak at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday.
Pentagon chief says he welcomes DOGE’s scrutiny into military budget
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth says he welcomes the scrutiny of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency into the massive military budget. And he singled out climate programs for likely cuts.
The Defense Department, he said, “is not in business of climate change, solving the global thermostat. We’re in the business of deterring and winning wars.”
Defense officials have long argued that climate change will have a broad and costly impact on the military and national security, and have worked to reduce those risks and the department’s energy use. Rising sea levels could swamp coastal bases and melting Arctic icecaps have opened sea lanes, escalating competition with China, Russia and others over valuable minerals in that region.
Speaking to reporters in Germany, Hegseth said they will search for billions of dollars in savings.
Homan and Vought tell GOP senators they need money for Trump’s deportations, border wall
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and new budget director Russ Vought told Republican senators that they need more money for the the president’s border wall and deportation operations.
“Tom Homan said, ‘I am begging you for money,’” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the GOP Budget Committee chairman, after the closed party luncheon.
Vought told the senators the administration is “running out of money” to pay for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, Graham said.
Graham is pushing ahead with a $350 billion budget bill that includes $175 billion to fund Trump’s border and deportation policies for the next four years.
Hamas condemns Trump’s plan to empty Gaza of its Palestinian residents
The Palestinian militant group said the president’s comments were “racist” and “a call for ethnic cleansing.”
The group declared Tuesday that Gaza’s residents have endured relentless bombardment and aggression but remain steadfast in their homeland.
In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Hamas accused Trump of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people.”
Trump repeated his plan Tuesday for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and remove its population. Neighboring Arab governments and the Palestinians have roundly rejected the idea.
United Nations experts define ethnic cleansing as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas “by violent and terror-inspiring means.”
FBI says it found 2,400 new records related to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination
It comes as federal agencies work to comply with Trump’s executive order last month to release thousands of files.
The FBI said it’s working to transfer the records to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.
The federal government in the early 1990s mandated that all documents related to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination be housed in a single collection at the National Archives. And while the vast majority of the collection — over 5 million records — has been made public, researchers estimate 3,000 files haven’t been released, either in whole or in part.
The FBI did not say in its statement what kind of information the newly discovered files contain.
▶ Read more about the FBI’s JFK records
Tariffs on steel imports could wreak havoc on American auto manufacturing, industry leaders say
The moves align with the Trump administration’s aggressive global trade agenda and ambitions to strengthen U.S. industry, but they could have an inverse effect.
On March 12, all steel imports will be taxed at a minimum of 25%, the result of two orders the president signed Monday that also include a 25% tariff on aluminum. That could have a serious impact on domestic auto companies including Ford, GM and Stellantis — and make these companies’ vehicles more expensive for the nation’s car buyers.
Tariffs on crucial products coming from outside of the U.S. places pressure on domestic sourcing of the materials, experts say. The basic rules of supply and demand could drive up costs.
▶ Read more about the tariffs’ effects on the auto industry
Jordan’s King Abdullah II renews Arab countries’ unified rejection of Trump’s Gaza plan
Following Tuesday’s meeting with Trump at the White House, Abdullah called on the U.S. to take a leading role in creating peace and stability in the Middle East.
He said addressing the dire humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza by rebuilding it, not displacing its population, should be the main focus of all parties.
“This requires US leadership. President Trump is a man of peace,” Abdullah said in post on the social media platform X. “He was instrumental in securing the Gaza ceasefire. We look to US and all stakeholders in ensuring it holds.”
A “just peace” would see an independent Palestinian state established alongside Israel, Abdullah said.
Trump prepares executive order to continue downsizing the federal workforce
He plans to sign the executive order Tuesday that would also include strict limits on hiring.
The Associated Press reviewed a White House fact sheet on the order, which is intended to advance Elon Musk ’s work slashing spending with his Department of Government Efficiency.
It said “agencies will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law.”
It also said agencies should “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service.” There are plans for exceptions when it comes to immigration, law enforcement and public safety.
▶ Read more about Trump’s order on the federal workforce
Research groups and data users seek restoration of material removed from federal websites
The more than 230 research groups and 2,600 data users on Tuesday implored U.S. lawmakers to order the restoration of any data sets that were removed from the websites over the past two weeks.
Federal agencies at the beginning of the month took down scores of government webpages as staffers hurried to comply with President Trump’s order rolling back protections for transgender people, which required the removal of “gender ideology” language from websites, contracts and emails.
A federal judge Tuesday ordered government agencies to restore public access to health-related webpages and datasets they removed to comply with Trump’s executive order.
“Removing or curtailing access to these data, even temporarily, erodes the public trust that federal statistical and scientific agencies have earned,” the researchers said to congressional leaders in a letter which was organized by the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, the American Statistical Association, and the Population Association of America.
Advocates warn DOGE cuts could hurt the accountability of America’s education system
They say cuts to a federal research office that tracks students’ progress could leave the nation in the dark on schools’ effectiveness.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million at the Education Department’s Institute of Education Sciences, officials said.
Education Department spokesperson Madison Biedermann declined to share the names of vendors whose contracts were cut.
The cuts are counterproductive and destructive, said Rachel Dinkes, president and CEO of the Knowledge Alliance, a coalition of education research firms.
“Cutting out at the knees the one independent agency that helps improve student outcomes is ridiculous,” she said.
▶ Read more about DOGE’s education cuts
Hegseth renames North Carolina military base Fort Roland L. Bragg and signals more change coming
It’s the first step in what could be a wholesale reversal of the Biden administration effort in 2023 to remove names that honored Confederate leaders, including nine Army bases.
It sets up a potentially costly, complicated and delicate process that could run afoul of the law.
“As the president has said, and I’ve said as well, we’re not done there,” Defense Secretary Hegseth said Tuesday when asked about the decision to go back to the Fort Bragg name but change the service member it commemorates.
The move signals the potential for the Pentagon to do the same for the other renamed bases — skirting the law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader by finding another service member with the same name.
▶ Read more about Fort Bragg’s renaming
Trump names new candidate to lead drug enforcement agency after his first choice backed out
Terry Cole, Trump’s candidate, is Virginia’s secretary of public safety and homeland security. Cole’s law enforcement background includes more than 20 years at the Drug Enforcement Administration, including assignments in Colombia, Afghanistan, Mexico and the Middle East.
Chad Chronister, the sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, was Trump’s first choice to be DEA administrator, but he later withdrew from consideration. Chronister had faced backlash from some conservatives about his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Judge leaves intact a ban on DOGE access to Treasury records pending a hearing Friday
The ban was put in place last week by another federal New York jurist in response to a lawsuit 19 Democratic attorneys general brought against Trump.
Justice Department attorneys told Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in a filing Sunday that the ban was unconstitutional and needed to be immediately reversed.
Vargas made changes to the ban to clarify its reach. For instance, she said Treasury Department officers nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate can access the records, making it clear Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent isn’t subject to the ban.
The lawsuit contended Musk’s ‘DOGE’ team was composed of “political appointees” who shouldn’t have access to Treasury records handled by “civil servants” specially trained in protecting such sensitive information as Social Security and bank account numbers.
▶ Read more about the DOGE lawsuit
Trump renews suggestion that Gaza could be emptied, controlled by US and redeveloped as tourist area
But he said it wouldn’t require committing funds and insisted he personally would not be involved in development.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control in Gaza, which he said would be possible “under the U.S. authority,” without elaborating what that actually was. Trump has suggested Palestinians in the war-torn territory would be pushed into neighboring nations with no right of return.
The president spoke after meeting Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who was asked repeatedly by reporters about Trump’s plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments on it nor the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza.
▶ Read more about Trump’s meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II
The plastic straw has come to symbolize a global pollution crisis. Trump wants them to stay
They might seem insignificant, inspiring jokes about the plastic vs. paper debate, but the plastic straw has come to symbolize a global pollution crisis over the past decade.
On Monday, President Trump waded into the issue when he signed an executive order to reverse a federal push away from plastic straws, declaring that paper straws “don’t work” and don’t last very long. Trump said he thinks “it’s OK” to continue using plastic straws, although they’ve been blamed for polluting oceans and harming marine life.
In 2015, video of a marine biologist pulling a plastic straw out of a turtle’s nose sparked outrage worldwide and countries and cities started banning them, starting with the Pacific Island nation Vanuatu and Seattle in 2018.
▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on plastic straws
Russia has released detained American teacher Marc Fogel, the White House says
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russian airspace with Fogel, who’s from Pennsylvania, and he’s expected to be reunited with his family by the end of the day.
Fogel was arrested in August 2021, and was serving a 14-year prison sentence. His family and supporters said he was traveling with medically prescribed marijuana.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to ensure Fogel’s release. He did not say what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. Previous negotiations have occasionally involved reciprocal releases of Russians by the U.S. or its allies.
Waltz described the development as “a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” Trump, a Republican, has promised to find a way to end the conflict.
▶ Read more about the American teacher being released
Four federal employees fired over payments to reimburse NYC for hotel costs for migrants
The Federal Emergency Management Agency workers are accused of circumventing leadership to make the transactions, which have been standard for years through a program helping with costs to care for migrants. Officials didn’t give details on how the workers violated policies.
On Monday, Elon Musk had posted on X that his team discovered payments used to house migrants in “luxury hotels.”
The employees terminated Tuesday were FEMA’s chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, according to a statement.
They made “egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels,” the statement said.
Officials didn’t reply to emails seeking further comment.
Judge tells agencies to restore health-related webpages removed after Trump’s executive order
U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington agreed Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order requested by the Doctors for America advocacy group. The judge instructed the government to restore access to several webpages and datasets the group identified as missing from websites and to identify others that also were taken down “without adequate notice or reasoned explanation.”
On Jan. 20, his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an order for agencies to use the term “sex” and not “gender” in federal policies and documents. In response, the Office of Personnel Management’s acting director required agency heads to eliminate any programs and take down any websites that promote “gender ideology.”
Doctors for America, represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, sued OPM, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.
▶ Read more about access to the websites
Jordan’s King Abdullah II arrives at the White House for a meeting with Trump
Trump welcomed Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein at the entrance to the West Wing.
The president escalated tensions in the Middle East by saying Monday that the ceasefire in Gaza would end Saturday unless Hamas returned all the hostages taken in its October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
Trump affirmed on Tuesday while greeting the king that the Saturday deadline was still in place.
“He’s a great man,” Trump said, gesturing to the king, before they stepped into the White House.
Sen. Patty Murray and union leaders call for halt on the ‘assault’ on the federal workforce
Murray, a Washington state Democrat, and the union leaders said federal workers are suffering panic attacks and losing sleep due to the “staggering and unprecedented assault” by the Trump administration and the country will suffer without them.
“They’re worried about their jobs. They’re worried about their families. They’re also worried about their work and the communities they serve,” Helen Bottcher, a former Environmental Protection Agency employee and current union leader in Seattle said during a news conference hosted by Murray.
The people being targeted inspect meat, make sure baby formula is safe, protect consumers from fraud, provide veterans with health care, send weather forecasts to wildland firefighters and ensure the Hanford nuclear waste cleanup is done properly, Murray said.
“They deserve better than to be threatened, intimidated and pushed out the door by Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” Murray said. “But make no mistake, we actually need these people to stay in their jobs or things are going to start breaking.”
Trump says he’s sending treasury secretary to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
“This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website.
Most recently, Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with Trump for continued U.S. military support in exchange for developing Ukraine’s mineral industry, which would be a valuable source of rare earth elements needed to develop technology products.
Trump has said Europe should repay the U.S. what Washington has spent helping Kyiv.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial Premiers will visit Washington to talk tariffs
It’s the first time all 13 have traveled together to the U.S.
The visit comes after Trump announced tariffs planned for Canada and Mexico that have since been suspended for a month — until March 1.
Doug Ford of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, and chair of the Council of the Federation, will lead the envoy for a series of meetings and events at the U.S. Capitol.
Ford recently said Canada will pause all retaliatory measures against the U.S. after news broke that the threat of tariffs has been put on hold for a month.
Trump wants Canada and Mexico, America’s two largest trading partners, to take steps to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.
Lawsuit says Trump shutdown of USAID is stiffing businesses on hundreds of millions in unpaid bills
The administration’s abrupt funding freeze also is forcing mass layoffs by the U.S. suppliers and contractors for USAID, including 750 furloughs at one U.S. company alone, Washington-based Chemonics International, the lawsuit filed Tuesday charges.
Trump administration appointee Pete Marocco is defending the USAID shutdown, claiming without evidence that “noncompliance” and “insubordination” by USAID staffers made it necessary.
Israel orders more troops to Gaza as the ceasefire with Hamas falters
It comes after after Hamas said it would call off a scheduled hostage release this weekend.
An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered officials “to prepare for every scenario if Hamas doesn’t release our hostages this Saturday.” The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting, was not clear if Netanyahu’s order referred to all hostages, or the three scheduled for release on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday.
— Josef Federman
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wouldn’t commit to having US increase defense spending to 5% of GDP
That’s the level President Trump has said other NATO members should meet.
Speaking to reporters in Germany, Hegseth said he believes the U.S. should spend more than it did under the Biden administration and “should not go below 3%.”
He said any final decision would be up to Trump, but said “we live in fiscally constrained times” and need to be responsible with taxpayer money.
The U.S. spends about 3.3% of GDP on defense. About two-thirds of all NATO members are spending at least 2% of GDP on defense, which is the current requested level.
In Germany, US vice president to visit Dachau and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Vance will visit the former concentration camp Thursday after he arrives in Munich.
On Friday, he’ll hold talks with Zelensky, says a person familiar with Vance’s schedule who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about events not yet announced.
Vance is set to address the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday.
Dachau was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there and more than 40,000 prisoners died. U.S. forces liberated the camp during World War II. It’s now a memorial.
— Aamer Madhani
House Speaker Mike Johnson meets with Elon Musk and says courts should ‘take a step back’
Johnson said he “wholeheartedly” agrees with Vice President JD Vance that courts shouldn’t try to control the president’s power as DOGE slashes through the federal government.
“The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” Johnson said at the Capitol.
Johnson said he met with Musk as the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency is upturning the government — doing what the speaker said Republicans in Congress have been unable to accomplish alone as they try to cut waste.
Dozens of lawsuits are being filed against the Trump administration and several judges are halting its actions.
With snow forecast for DC area, Office of Personnel Management recommends federal workers leave offices early
A memo from the OPM recommends federal employees “consider departure by 2 p.m.” on Tuesday.
Forecasters predict between 4 and 7 inches of snow starting Tuesday afternoon.
It’s the first snow event of President Trump’s second administration, which has prioritized bringing all federal workers back to the office five days a week. And it comes in the midst of a harsher-than-usual winter in the D.C. area. In January, prior to Trump’s inauguration, several inches of snow blanketed the area, closing down schools across the region.
Britain gave a muted response to the steel tariff announcement
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson, Dave Pares, said it’s “important we take a considered approach.”
“We’re working with industry and our U.S. counterparts to work through the detail,” he said. “We are already engaging with the U.S. system on this issue.”
Asked if Britain would impose retaliatory tariffs, he said he wasn’t going to “get ahead of those conversations with industry.”
The U.S. accounted for about 5% of U.K. steel exports in 2023 and 6% of U.K. aluminum exports, according to British government figures.
Trump ally Steve Bannon pleads guilty and avoids jail time in border wall fraud case
The charge related to duping donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. It’s a case the conservative strategist has decried as a “political persecution.”
Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to one scheme to defraud count as part of a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the “We Build the Wall” scheme. He received a three-year conditional discharge, which requires he stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment.
Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, “Like a million bucks.”
Bannon spoke to reporters afterward and called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin an immediate criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Leticia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Defense attorney Arthur Aidala called the case against Bannon flimsy, saying it was never about his client.
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
▶ Read more about Steve Bannon and the border wall case
Two top officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have resigned
The resignations are in protest of President Trump’s efforts to bring the agency to a standstill.
Eric Halperin, the director of enforcement, and Lorelei Salas, the director of supervision, sent emails this morning announcing their departures.
“As you know we have been ordered to cease all work,” Halperin wrote in an email. “I don’t believe in these conditions I can effectively serve in my role, which is protecting American consumers.”
Salas also said she could not continue to serve in her role.
“I do not believe it is appropriate, nor lawful, to stop all supervisory activities and examinations,” she wrote.
Both emails were viewed by The Associated Press.
Vance talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at US embassy compound in Paris
It comes the day after Trump announced new 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum that have been decried by Europe.
Von der Leyen earlier Tuesday in a statement said the U.S. tariffs “will not go unanswered” and will trigger tough countermeasures from the 27-nation bloc.
Neither Vice President Vance nor von der Leyen directly address the tariffs in their brief comments to reporters.
Vance said he expected they would discuss trade and economic issues as well as security. Trump has been pressing for NATO members to dramatically increase domestic spending.
“We also want to make sure that we’re actually engaged in a security partnership that’s good for both Europe and the United States,” Vance said.
Von der Leyen said she hoped Europe and the United States could work together with “optimism.”
Trump administration still accepting resignations from federal workers as they await judge’s decision
As of Friday, 65,000 workers had accepted the offer to quit while still getting paid until Sept. 30. An administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal figures, said the number has been growing since then.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. heard arguments over the deferred resignation program Monday in his Boston courtroom. Labor unions said the plan is illegal, while administration lawyers described it as a fair offer to workers.
— Chris Megerian
Trump is again promising ‘common sense standards’ on light bulbs, showerheads and appliances
In a social media post, he says he’s directing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to reinstate less energy efficient water standards issued in his first term. Trump incorrectly described Zeldin as “Secretary” and many of the standards he cited are regulated by the Energy Department.
Trump on his first day back in office pledged to “empower consumer choice” in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers. He repeatedly pushed changes in his first term to increase water flow for showers and continue production of incandescent lightbulbs that are being phased out.
Most U.S. manufacturers comply with energy efficient standards imposed by Joe Biden and other presidents.
Mexico's Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard says ‘that tariff is not justified’
Ebrard pointed out that Mexico imports more steel from the United States than it exports to the U.S. And while steel imports from the U.S. have risen over the past two years, steel exports to the U.S. have fallen.
Furthermore, the U.S. has a trade surplus with Mexico when it comes to the value of steel and aluminum crossing the border.
“It’s unjust taking into account President Trump’s own statements,” he said.
Ebrard said Mexico will take this information to the Trump administration urging “common sense.”
“Don’t destroy what we have built over the last 40 years,” he said.
The Associated Press
