February 13, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

The State Department said it is putting on hold a solicitation for armored electric vehicles, planned under a procurement list for 2025, that initially included $400 million for armored Tesla vehicles.

The solicitation has drawn scrutiny and potential conflict-of-interest concerns given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s major role in the Trump administration.

A State Department spokesperson said that no government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for it.

The Biden administration in December of 2024 asked the State Department to explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles, a State Department official told CNN.

On Wednesday evening, as reports began to surface about the potential Tesla procurement, the State Department procurement document was edited, removing Tesla’s name listing the $400 million line item as “electric vehicles” only.

The State Department did not specifically respond to CNN’s question about why the document was edited.

Ordinarily, the next steps would be to make official solicitations to vehicle manufacturers for bids, however, the solicitation is on hold, a State Department official said, and there are no current plans to issue it.

Beyond conflict-of-interest questions with Musk’s company, the plans also raise questions about contradictions with Trump’s executive order pausing all zero emission vehicles.

CNN has reached out to Tesla as well as the Department of Government Efficiency about their involvement but did not get an immediate response.

Elon Musk, on X, denied knowing if Tesla is getting money.

“I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump speaks with the press as he meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived at the White House. This is the fourth foreign leader to visit President Donald Trump since he took office.

Trump previously welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru of Japan.

Earlier today, Modi met with Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, posting photos on X from the separate visits.

Earlier this week, Modi met with Vice President JD Vance and his family in Paris, where the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit was held.

President Donald Trump expressed openness to a trilateral leaders’ meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin about defense spending, suggesting the countries could collectively cut it in half.

“At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China, and I’m going to meet with Russia — in particular those two,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

“I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that,” Trump said. “I think we’ll be able to do it.”

Trump indicated he would like to convene the meeting when the conflict in the Middle East deescalates.

Trump suggested those conversations could take place both one-on-one and in the form of a trilateral meeting with his counterparts from Russia and China. Asked whether he would travel China for that meeting, the president said it didn’t matter to him where it took place.

“I say this — to Putin, to President Xi, I say to everybody: never bothered me, you know? I’m willing to say, ‘I’ll go first,’” Trump said. “It’s the end result that counts so it doesn’t make any difference.”

“Insecure” star Issa Rae has canceled a previously scheduled event set to be held at the Kennedy Center following news that President Donald Trump was appointed the center’s new chairman.

In a statement posted to her Instagram Story Thursday, Rae thanked her followers for “selling out” her event “An Evening with Issa Rae.”

Rae added that all tickets will be refunded.

The center confirmed that Trump was elected chairman of the board in a statement Wednesday and announced its new board membership, which includes several new Trump appointees after the removal of trustees who had been appointed by Democratic presidents.

A boy looks at the TikTok app on a smartphone screen.

President Donald Trump said he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping will authorize the sale of TikTok, which is owned by China-based ByteDance, if an American buyer steps up to the plate.

“I’m gonna make it worthwhile for China to do it. I think so,” Trump said.

“I think it’ll be to China’s advantage to have the deal be made, yeah,” he added later.

While he floated the possibility of an extension to the ban’s 75-day enforcement delay, Trump shrugged off a need for urgency.

The president continued: “We have a lot of people interested in TikTok, and I hope to be able to make deal.”

On the same day Trump was inaugurated, he took executive action to delay enforcement of the TikTok ban with the goal of helping the administration “determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans.”

Trump said Thursday that he has 90 days, but the action states 75 days.

As he often did after the election, Trump credited the app with helping him draw younger voters.

President Donald Trump said Elon Musk will not secure any new government contracts “if there’s a conflict” between his portfolio overseeing the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his private business interests.

Trump did not explicitly rule out that any of Musk’s companies — which include electric car company Tesla, rocket manufacturer SpaceX, social media platform X and neurotechnology company Neuralink — might continue to receive lucrative government contracts while Musk is serving in government. But, he insisted Musk would not secure contracts in areas where there are potential conflicts with his government work.

“No, not if there’s a conflict — if there’s no conflict, I guess, what difference does it make?” Trump said, in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Thursday. “But we won’t let him do any of, anything having to do with a conflict.”

In a follow-up exchange, Trump said he was personally checking to ensure no conflicts arise. “First of all, he wouldn’t do it, and second of all, we’re not going to let him do anything with a conflict of interest,” he said.

Earlier this week, Musk insisted his actions “are fully public.”

The president on Thursday also praised DOGE’s work so far, saying that while the team would focus attention on the Internal Revenue Service, it would not close down the agency.

President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department earlier in the day, telling CNN the Kentucky Republican is “not equipped mentally” and casting doubt on him having had polio.

The president insisted that McConnell, who also opposed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, was “not voting against Bobby – he’s voting against me, but that’s all right.”

And in an extraordinary moment, Trump seemed to suggest McConnell —who’s been open about contracting polio as a child—may not have had polio at all.

“I have no idea if he had polio,” Trump told Collins. “All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader, he knows that. He voted against Bobby, he votes against almost everything, now he’s a very bitter guy, and we have a very strong party, and he’s almost, not even really a very powerful member. He’s lost his power, and it’s affected his vote.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday, shortly after announcing plans for reciprocal tariffs, said Americans may not have to pay the price of his policies.

When asked by a reporter if consumers should expect any economic pain in the form of rising prices, Trump said “not necessarily.”

That investigation is expected to be completed by April 1, according to Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick. Then it’ll be up to Trump to determine if any new tariffs will go into effect.

Trump’s interpretation of tariffs and their effects is at odds with most economists, who expect massive duties to heat up price pressures. Inflation is down substantially from a four-decade high in June 2022, but it has recently shown signs of getting stuck above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The Consumer Price Index rose 3% in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, and compared to February 2020, the index was up more than 23% that month.

US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that Ukraine will be included in negotiations to end Russia’s war, comments that come after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week on a potential deal to end the conflict.

Asked by CNN whether Ukraine would have a seat at the table, Trump said, “Of course they would, I mean they’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, and we’d have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved too. … A lot of forks in this game, I’ll tell you what. This is a very interesting situation, but the Ukraine war has to end.”

Those comments also come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine will not accept a peace deal struck between the US and Russia without Kyiv’s involvement. During the Biden administration, top US officials, including President Joe Biden, repeatedly emphasized that there would be “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Trump said he had a “good talk” with both Putin and Zelensky, and pushed back on criticism that he should have first spoken with the Ukrainian leader.

Trump wants Russia to rejoin G7: “I’d love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Look, it’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. Was the G8 and, you know, I said, ‘What are you doing? You guys, all you talk about is Russia, and they should be sitting at the table.’”

Border czar Tom Homan met with New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday in a sign of how the Trump administration has its eyes on the country’s biggest city to carry out its immigration enforcement plans.

The focus on the Big Apple is clear from multiple legal moves over the last few days: The Justice Department on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Adams so he can better help their immigration crackdown and on Wednesday announced a lawsuit against New York state officials over so-called sanctuary policies that limit the state’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Further, FEMA clawed back more than $80 million intended to help house migrants in NYC – a move that city financial watchdog Brad Lander described as a “highway robbery” of money allocated by Congress more than two years ago.

Before his scheduled meeting with Adams, Homan also met with members of the City Council’s Common Sense Caucus. The bipartisan group of centrist lawmakers reported that their discussion with the border czar, which focused on the city’s migrants and immigration enforcement, centered on “cooperation.”

Councilmember Robert Holden, a Democrat who often aligns with Republicans, revealed that Homan expressed frustration with Adams for not fulfilling promises made during their December meeting.

Read more about the meetings here.

President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to have Canada become part of the United States on Thursday, slamming the country on its NATO spending.

In response to a question from reporters about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Trump claimed that Canada is “just about the lowest payer” into the alliance.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously said Trump’s comments about turning Canada into the 51st state are just a distraction from the consequences of Trump’s tariff threats. Trump threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian goods, before the two countries agreed to a deal that paused the tariffs for 30 days.

Some context: It is the NATO guideline to have each member country spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defense. In terms of defense spending as a percentage of GDP, NATO’s preferred metric, Canada was 5th lowest in 2024 out of the 31 members with a standing army.

But Canadian defense policy expert Stephen Saideman noted that in absolute terms — not factoring in the size of each member’s economy — Canada is actually one of NATO’s largest spenders on defense. It was 8th highest in 2024 out of 31 members excluding Iceland.

CNN’s Daniel Dale contributed reporting to this report.

The US Department of Energy headquarters is seen behind the sign marking the location of the building on February 9, 2024, in Washington, DC.

The US Energy Department is planning to fire probationary employees at 5 p.m. ET today, according to six people familiar with the situation.

The people said the situation inside the department is fluid, and it is so far unclear how many total employees could be fired.

The Energy Department’s acting general counsel had a meeting with heads of department offices on Thursday and asked offices to compile lists of “mission-critical” probationary employees who could potentially be exempt from the layoffs, the person told CNN. But those lists hadn’t been finalized as of this afternoon, the person said.

Another person told CNN there were “tears” during a meeting where multiple people were fired “because they worked there less than two years.”

For instance, about 9% of the headcount in DOE’s chief information office (the agency’s IT office) is expected to be reduced today, two people told CNN, a move that could leave the agency increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, they said. In addition, a majority of the deputy Energy Department chief information officers either took the so-called “buyout” or are looking to leave.

CNN reported last week that department leadership installed SpaceX engineer Ryan Riedel as chief information officer — the department’s top IT official, tasked with managing tech acquisitions and protecting personnel data across a vast bureaucracy.

CNN has reached out to DOE for comment.

President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda met an early test in court Thursday, as a federal judge in Maryland heard arguments in a bid by religious congregations to pause the administration’s lifting of limits on immigration enforcement at churches.

US District Judge Theodore Chuang did not indicate how he would rule on the congregations’ request for a temporary, nationwide order that would restrict when immigration enforcement activity could take place at or near a house of worship.

The religious organizations, which include congregations of Quakers and other denominations, allege that the policy change violates religious liberty protections. They claim that the policy – a major revision to the so-called “sensitive places” memo of the prior administration – is already chilling attendance at their churches.

The executive branch has broad legal discretion in the realm of immigration enforcement and so far, Trump’s crackdown has not been met with the level of swift, judicial pushback that has curtailed some of his administration’s other sweeping initiatives.

However, Thursday’s two-and-half-hour hearing in the “sensitive places” case surfaced the tensions between the aggressive language administration officials use to describe Trump’s approach, and attempts by government lawyers to describe the policy changes in court as being much more modest.

Chuang, an Obama appointee who once held a top legal role at the Department of Homeland Security, said he was “skeptical” of the broad court order that the religious groups were seeking.

Their proposed order would severely limit immigration enforcement churches absent a court warrant. That, Chuang noted, would go much further than the pre-Trump regime, which allowed such activity in certain circumstances.

However, other arguments by the challengers appeared to resonate with the judge.

A general view of the Agency for International Development (USAID) headquarters in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2019.

A federal judge has extended the pause on the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development for another week after an extensive hearing Thursday.

The case is one of the most significant early tests of President Donald Trump’s power to reduce the federal workforce and shutter an agency.

Judge Carl Nichols of the DC District Court said he will continue to have a court order in place that reinstates USAID workers whom the administration previously placed on paid leave, and blocks the administration from taking further action until February 21 that potentially could hurt USAID workers, especially those who are stationed in foreign countries that have high security risks.

Nichols, who is a 2019 Trump appointee to the trial-level court, hasn’t yet decided on whether he will allow the administration’s plans to dismantle the agency, or indefinitely block that from happening. He said he will make a ruling on that question by the end of next week, though his decision is likely to be appealed.

Other cases attempting to challenge the shuttering of USAID are still ongoing in court.

Read more details here on the hearing

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday plans for a round of sweeping new reciprocal tariffs, marking the administration’s latest salvo in its battle to balance out global trade.

The tariffs, which Trump put into motion via an executive action Thursday, won’t take immediate effect, an intentional move to give nations time to potentially negotiate new trade terms with the US, a White House official said Thursday.

More on the tariffs: The US currently has a weighted average import tariff rate of 2% on industrial goods, according to the US Trade Representative.

Weighted average tariff rates give special consideration to the value of a country’s imports. That means that if one country’s exports are subject to tariffs in another country and they constitute a large portion of the country’s overall imports, their weighted average tariff rate will be higher compared to another country whose exports accounts for a small share

Reciprocal tariffs were one of Trump’s core campaign pledges — his method for evening the score with foreign nations that place taxes on American goods and to solve what he has said are unfair trade practices.

This post has been updated with more reporting on the tariffs.

Linda McMahon is seen in the Russell Senate Office Building on December 9, 2024 in Washington, DC.

Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Education, faced questions during a confirmation hearing today about her vision for the department, given Trump’s campaign pledge to abolish it.

Future of the department: Responding to questions from lawmakers, McMahon said she agrees with Trump’s overall mission to send authority over education back to the states. She also said it would require an act of Congress to abolish the department altogether.

“Certainly President Trump understands that we’ll be working with Congress. We’d like to do this right. We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better functioning Department of Education, but certainly does require congressional action,” McMahon said.

McMahon also said money for existing programs would still go to states, with the goal of operating the programs “more efficiently.”

Pell Grants: McMahon repeatedly said federal Pell Grants — which help students with financial needs pay for college — would continue under her leadership. She also said she wants to expand the program to include other types of learning.

“The defunding is not the goal here,” she said, adding, “I’d like to see short-term certificates for pell grants for students who aren’t going on to four-year universities, who could have the opportunity to use pell grants for skill-based learning.”

DOGE audit: McMahon said there are implants from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency doing an audit of the Department of Education. She said the move was in line with voters who elected Trump “to look at waste, fraud and abuse in our government.”

Musk and Trump have made blanket allegations of fraud and waste identified through their efforts, but have provided little evidence, while simultaneously raising major oversight questions through the firing of independent government watchdogs.

This post has been updated with additional topics from McMahon’s confirmation hearing.

A US military plane deporting 119 non-Panamanian citizens, including migrants from several Asian countries, arrived in the Central American nation Wednesday, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino said at a Thursday news conference.

The migrants, from “most diverse nationalities in the world,” were received by Panama due to a “cooperation program” with the United States and after the Trump administration made the request, Mulino said.

Some of the migrants were from China, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, he added about what was the first US deportation flight Panama has received with non-citizens.

The flight comes days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama and met with Mulino. During the meeting, both Mulino and Rubio discussed using Panama as a “bridge” for foreign migrants deported from the US.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, on Thursday.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is in Belgium attending the NATO Defense Ministerial and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting. At the meeting, Hegseth is conveying to leaders one of President Donald Trump’s key priorities: ending the war in Ukraine.

Across Europe and in Kyiv, leaders are concerned. Alarms were raised when the president struck a conciliatory tone with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Here’s what to know from the meeting in Belgium today:

• Ukraine in NATO: Hegseth hedged on comments he made on Wednesday, when he said it’s not realistic for Ukraine to join NATO. At a press conference on Thursday, Hegseth said “everything is on the table” in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

• Aid tied to ending the war: Hegseth appeared to tie future aid for Ukraine’s defense to their willingness to negotiate with Russia, saying on Thursday that Trump would determine “the most robust carrot or stick on either side to induce a durable peace.”

• NATO spending: The United States has been “irritated for a long time” over its higher spending on defense than other NATO members, the organization’s chief said during a press conference Thursday. NATO head Mark Rutte said that while members have increased their defense spending in recent years, it must be “much more” than the goal of 2% of countries’ GDP.

CNN is covering the NATO defense ministers’ meeting live. Follow along for the latest updates from the meeting and more news on the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Senate voted 72-28 to confirm Brooke Rollins as agriculture secretary Thursday.

Rollins’ nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee last week.

She is the 16th nominee to be confirmed by the Senate since President Donald Trump took office on January 20.

The chaos caused by the demise of the US Agency of International Development was on full display at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about the agency held on Thursday.

There was confusion over which programs were still frozen and which had been given a waiver. Most Republicans railed on the left for allowing culture wars to infiltrate the core mission of the agency, but the panel’s former GOP chair argued that its intended function, which dispenses billions in humanitarian aid and development funding annually, needed to be protected.

House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast opened the hearing saying that many of the programs USAID was funding were “indefensible,” citing sex change surgeries in Guatemala, programs to teach people in Africa about climate change and efforts to teach people in Kazakhstan how to fight back against internet trolls.

But the former GOP chair of the committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, defended the core mission of the agency, while arguing changes needed to be made.

“All of these programs gave USAID a black eye. And that’s unfortunate,” McCaul said. “I believe it still has a legitimate purpose to counter the threat of China and Belt and Road and our other foreign adversaries. It also has the ability to counter terrorism.”

Meanwhile, Democrats tried to personalize the chaos caused by the USAID funding freeze. Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider called the committee to hold a moment of silence as the result of a woman who fled Myanmar and died at a refugee camp in Thailand when USAID funding was cut off.

Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs asked Republicans if they would like Ebola to spread in the United States, leaving most quiet. And the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Gregory Meeks, criticized Republicans for holding the hearing with witnesses from the private sector and not from the Trump administration.

Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has now voted against three of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, more than any other GOP senator.

McConnell, who opposed the confirmations of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and soon-to-be Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has undergone an evolution in his party, moving from establishment leader to a key swing vote.

The Kentucky Republican had a strained relationship with Trump and others in the MAGA sphere for years, in part due to his opposition to the Republican Party’s growing isolationist streak.

McConnell has instead argued that helping allies abroad, including Ukraine, is vital for US national security. Now that he is no longer the top Senate Republican, there is more room for McConnell to openly oppose some of the president’s picks.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during his Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 30, in Washington, DC.

The Senate voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a victory for President Donald Trump after Kennedy faced intense scrutiny over his controversial views on vaccines and public health policy.

The vote was 52-48. Former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, was the only Republican to vote against confirming Kennedy.

The confirmation vote highlights the extent of Trump’s influence over the Senate GOP majority, as a slate of contentious nominees who faced questions over whether they could be confirmed – including Kennedy, Pete Hegseth as defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence – have been approved by Senate Republicans for top administration posts.

More on the confirmation: Kennedy will now serve as one of the nation’s leading public health officials. The US Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy will lead, is comprised of a number of key federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, Kennedy denied being anti-vaccine, telling senators instead that he is “pro-safety.” He went on to say, “I believe that vaccines play a critical role in health care.” It’s not the first time Kennedy has said he’s not “anti-vaccine,” but a CNN fact check from 2023 pointed out that despite those claims, Kennedy has been one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists and has for years used false and misleading claims to undermine public confidence in vaccines that are indeed safe.

This post has been updated with more details on Kennedy’s confirmation.

Sen. Mitch McConnell arrives for a Senate Republican Conference luncheon at the Capitol on January 24.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell voted against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 52-48 a short time later, with the former Republican leader as the only GOP vote against him.

“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” McConnell wrote in a statement released following Kennedy’s confirmation.

Kennedy has a long history of falsehoods about vaccines and other public health issues.

Remember: McConnell has also voted “no” for some of President Donald Trump’s other Cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.

This post has been updated with comments from McConnell after Kennedy’s confirmation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted this morning to advance Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI, 12-10, on party lines.

The committee met for two hours before taking their vote, as senators continued to snipe back and forth over Patel’s qualifications and controversial comments.

Patel’s nomination now advances to the Senate floor.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 30.

The Senate is voting now on whether to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

A controversial nominee: Senate Democrats grilled Kennedy over his various controversial statements including his stance on vaccines during his confirmation hearings last month, and most left feeling overwhelmingly unsatisfied by the answers they received.

The Democratic lawmakers confronted Kennedy with previous statements he had made to press him on his role in a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019, his views on Covid-19, and his previous claims falsely linking vaccines to autism in children. Throughout the hearing, the Democrats repeatedly asked Kennedy to make commitments that he would not purge employees for political reasons or use his perch to personally benefit financially, without getting clear answers.

There’s a narrow majority in the Senate for the Republicans, but many key GOP senators have in recent weeks said they would support Kennedy, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Sen. John Curtis of Utah, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

CNN’s Annie Grayer contributed reporting to this post.

A second longtime US National Institutes of Health leader is retiring from government service, just over a day after the agency’s long-serving deputy director said he was doing the same, CNN has learned.

Dr. Michael Lauer, NIH deputy director for extramural research, “announced that he will retire from federal service on Feb. 14,” acting NIH Director Dr. Matthew Memoli wrote in an announcement to agency colleagues Thursday.

“Lauer has served in this critical role since October 2015, overseeing NIH’s complex grant enterprise that successfully administers and awards nearly 60,000 grants at more than 2,500 institutions in every state, supporting the work of more than 300,000 researchers,” Memoli said in a memo obtained by CNN.

Lauer, a cardiologist and researcher, joined NIH in 2007 as director of the Division of Prevention and Population Science at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Memoli said.

The announcement about Lauer’s departure came after Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the longtime NIH deputy director, abruptly told colleagues he was retiring, effective immediately.

Sources within NIH told CNN they didn’t believe Tabak would have retired voluntarily and felt unsettled by his departure. One noted fear among other leaders that others would be forced out. They declined to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak to media.

Protesters and Democratic lawmakers converge outside the Environmental Protection Agency's headquarters in Washington, DC, on February 6, to denounce a freeze on funding at the agency.

Federal agencies across Washington are finding ways to keep funding frozen even after judges last month temporarily blocked the White House’s effort to pause trillions of dollars in federal assistance.

FEMA has clawed back $80 million intended to help New York City house migrants. The EPA has paused more than 30 grant programs, including some providing money for schools to buy electric buses. And USAID contractors say hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts have not been paid.

Trump officials say the suspensions are lawful and comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, arguing he has broad powers over federal spending as president. But multiple lawsuits now accuse the administration of violating Congress’ powers over government spending, as well as a federal judge’s orders to turn funding back on after the White House freeze late last month.

Interviews with more than two dozen administration officials, government contractors and activists – as well as court filings in lawsuits alleging the government is failing to fulfill funding lawfully appropriated by Congress – reveal the degree to which federal spending remains in a state of chaos as Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency move rapidly to axe spending, even as judges tell the government to continue letting money out the door.

That’s left US contractors in a state of upheaval, and in many cases led to furloughs and layoffs of workers at organizations that rely on government funding.

Read more about the impact of the freeze.

Kash Patel appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 30.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting to consider Kash Patel’s nomination to be the director of the FBI.

In his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Patel downplayed his past promotion of right-wing conspiracy theories and his pledges to pursue retribution against Donald Trump’s opponents.

GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the committee, defended Patel’s nomination, while Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the committee, said that after reviewing the nominee’s record and questioning him during hearings he’s “even more convinced that he has neither the experience, the judgment nor the temperament to lead the FBI.”

Also happening today: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is holding a hearing this morning to examine the nomination of Linda McMahon to be secretary of education.

The Senate is expected to hold a confirmation vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at 10:30 a.m. ET.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump is expected to announce a new round of sweeping reciprocal tariffs on Thursday, matching higher rates other nations charge to import American goods.

Leavitt echoed Trump’s message on Wednesday, saying, “This is something he believes strongly in, and it’s very simple logic as to why the President wants to impose reciprocal tariffs.” Other nations have been “ripping off” the US, she said, “and that’s why the president believes this will be a great policy that will benefit American workers and improve our national security.”

Tariffs are a key part of Trump’s pledge to raise revenue to pay for the extension of his 2017 tax cut on top of other promised tax cuts. But the burden of tariffs could ultimately fall on American consumers, economists say. Taxed importers pass the costs on to retailers, which then raise prices for consumers.

The tariffs are likely to hit developing countries hardest, especially India, Brazil, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian and African countries, given that they have some of the widest differences in tariff rates charged on US goods brought into their countries compared to what the US charges them.

For instance, in 2022, the US average tariff rate on imports from India was 3%, whereas India’s average tariff rate on imports from the US was 9.5%, according to World Bank data.

Read more about the expected tariffs.

Europe’s American century is over.

Two geopolitical thunderclaps on Wednesday will transform transatlantic relations.

The watershed highlights Trump’s “America First” ideology and his tendency to see every issue or alliance as a dollars and cents value proposition. It also underscores his freedom from establishment advisors steeped in the foreign policy mythology of the West, who he thinks thwarted his first term.

Although Hegseth recommitted to NATO, something fundamental has changed.

America’s interventions won two world wars that started in Europe and afterwards guaranteed the continent’s freedom in the face of the Soviet threat. But Trump said on the campaign trail he might not defend alliance members who haven’t invested enough in defense. He thus revived a perennial point posed most eloquently by Winston Churchill in 1940 about when “The New World, with all its power and might” will step “forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

Trump is returning to the rationale used by many presidents wary of foreign entanglements from the start of the republic, saying: “We have a little thing called an ocean in between.”

Read the full analysis.

A sign marks the entrance to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) headquarters building on October 7, 2024, in Washington, DC.

In 1953, to manage the federal response to public health and welfare, President Dwight D. Eisenhower created a Cabinet-level position to run what was then called the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the precursor to the modern US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Today, its $1.7 trillion budget helps more than 83,000 employees manage a large portfolio of federal health and wellness initiatives and research.

HHS oversees the operations of 13 supporting agencies. Among the largest is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which protects public health by collecting data, monitoring diseases and conditions, and responding to health emergencies, in addition to doing health research. Another agency, the US Food and Drug Administration, approves and regulates drugs, medical devices and vaccines to make sure they are safe and effective.

The FDA also works to keep the country’s food safe and regulates tobacco products. The National Institutes of Health does its own health research, trains researchers and is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world.

HHS also runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Indian Health Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and departments like the Office of Global Affairs.

The US Supreme Court Building is seen on December 3, 2024, in Washington, DC.

Even though most Americans don’t like some of the Supreme Court’s highest-profile recent decisions, a new poll Thursday found that a vast majority believe presidents must still honor them.

Eighty-three percent of Americans believe a president is required to follow the Supreme Court’s rulings, according to a Marquette Law School poll that landed as President Donald Trump has faced fierce blowback for questioning the legitimacy of court decisions.

Just under two in 10 respondents said a president has the power to ignore the Supreme Court.

Americans’ general support for the rule of law comes even as 62% oppose the high court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and a similar share disagree with last year’s ruling from the court’s conservatives that granted Trump sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution.

Overall, the poll found that 51% of adults approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing – its highest mark in three years. Americans have more confidence in the court than they do in the presidency, Congress, the Department of Justice and the national news media, according to the poll.

Read more about the poll.

The US Department of Education building is seen on August 21, 2024 in Washington, DC.

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 Wednesday.

The firings mark the first from the Trump administration as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency aim to dramatically shrink the federal workforce. Until now, federal employees across all government agencies had only been placed on paid administrative leave.

The move comes the same day as a federal judge allowed the administration’s deferred resignation program to proceed. About 75,000 employees have accepted the offer, which generally allows them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.

A form letter sent to Department of Education employees, obtained by CNN, informing them of their termination stated: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”

At the Department of Education, the firings have impacted employees across the agency from the general counsel’s office, to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services that supports programs for children with disabilities, to the Federal Student Aid office, a union source told CNN.

The source said they have heard from dozens of employees who have been fired, but the full scope of the firings was not immediately clear.

The American Federation of Government Employees represents about 160 Department of Education employees that fall under the probationary status.

Read more on the firings.

It’s another busy day in US politics, including at the White House, Capitol Hill and abroad. Here’s what to know about what’s happening today:

• The president: President Donald Trump will sign executive orders in the Oval Office at 1 p.m. ET, according to the White House schedule. Trump is then set to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this afternoon in the Oval Office and hold a joint news conference. Trump is also expected to announce a new round of sweeping reciprocal tariffs on Thursday, matching higher rates other nations charge to import American goods.

• The vice president: JD Vance is traveling from the AI summit in Paris to Germany for the Munich Security Conference on Thursday. This morning, scores of people were injured after care drove into a crowd in the city.

• In the Senate: The Senate is expected to vote in the morning to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr to serve as the next secretary of health and human services. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to meet to vote Kash Patel’s nomination to be FBI Director out of the panel. Track the latest on Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and administration.

Meanwhile, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing to examine the nomination of Linda McMahon to be secretary of education.

• The defense secretary: Pete Hegseth is still in Belgium, where he has been attending the NATO Defense Ministerial and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting. He’ll meet with more NATO defense ministers during the day.

• In the courts: At 10:30 a.m. ET, a federal judge in Maryland is expected to hear arguments on whether he should pause a Trump move to end the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s so-called “sensitive places” policy, which barred immigration raids in places like churches and schools.

• At 11 a.m. ET, a federal judge in Washington, DC, will hear arguments over whether to indefinitely block the administration’s plans to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development.

This post has been updated with additional events.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump teased a reciprocal tariff announcement in a Truth Social post Thursday morning.

On Wednesday, Trump said he could announce his reciprocal tariff plan before he meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Trump said Sunday that he planned to slap reciprocal tariffs on “every country” that imposes import duties on the US, ““Very simply, if they charge us, we charge them,” he said while aboard Air Force One.

“THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER, BUT TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AG AIN!!!” Trump’s post read.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Thursday, January 30.

The Senate has agreed to schedule a confirmation vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, for 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

His vote will be followed immediately by a confirmation vote on Brooke Rollins’ nomination to be secretary of Agriculture.

Then, at 1:45 p.m. ET the Senate will vote to break filibusters on Howard Lutnick’s nomination to be secretary of Commerce, and Kelly Loeffler’s nomination to lead the Small Business Administration.

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a key Senate swing vote, announced in a post on X Wednesday that she will support RFK Jr.’s confirmation, explaining how she got to yes on one of Trump’s more controversial nominees.

Murkowski said that Kennedy “has made numerous commitments to me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to ensure public access to information and to base vaccine recommendations on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound research.”

Here’s a look the Cabinet picks that have been confirmed already:

A vocational school in Cali, southwest Colombia, run by local contractors of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was once a route for Venezuelan migrants like Alexandra Guerra to develop the skills to join the shoemaking industry.

The school offered the 25-year-old single mother of two a way to provide for her children, younger sister, and mother. USAID was even going to pay Guerra a daily subsidy while she looked for work.

But she saw her hopes crushed when the White House halted foreign aid last month. Her classroom was shuttered. Courses ceased. And the prospects of staying in Colombia looked bleak once again.

She has instead set her sights on migrating to Europe – where she would have to make the journey alone once again while her sons, aged four and eight, stay behind with their grandmother.

US President Donald Trump’s sweeping changes to foreign assistance led to the rapid dismantling of USAID. A freeze was put on foreign aid, USAID staffers worldwide were recalled, and several were placed on leave in the president’s apparent attempt to shut down the agency

But in Latin America, USAID had helped create economic opportunities for people like Guerra, giving migrants a degree of stability and, often, a reason to stay.

Its proponents say USAID helped curb migration at its root – the same phenomenon the Trump administration wants to stop with policies like mass deportations from the US, ICE raids, and reinforcement at the southern border.

Gustavo Vivas, the project director of the USAID program Guerra was enrolled in, says the new policy of cuts is contradictory.

Read more about the impact of Trump’s aid freeze in Colombia.

Donald Trump has “effectively surrendered” to Vladimir Putin, his former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, after the US president appeared to adopt a conciliatory tone toward his Russian counterpart in a phone call that is likely to raise alarm in Ukraine.

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Bolton: Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin in Ukraine negotiations

04:22 - Source: CNN

A vocational school in Colombia to help migrants gain employment abruptly shuttered after President Donald Trump froze US foreign aid in January.

CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon spoke to several migrants whose futures now lay uncertain after political decisions made more than 2,400 miles away.

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Migrants in Colombia speak to CNN about uncertain futures after Trump freezes US foreign aid

02:59 - Source: CNN

President Donald Trump is seen during Tulsi Gabbard's swearing in ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump made wide-ranging remarks on Wednesday to reporters gathered in the Oval Office.

He took questions about Russia’s war in Ukraine and his calls with both country’s leaders this morning, legal challenges facing his administration and his ongoing efforts to overhaul the federal government.

Tulsi Gabbard was also sworn in as director of national intelligence in the Oval Office by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump congratulated her on her confirmation.

Here’s what the president said: