(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk is the world’s richest man. He’s revolutionized electric cars as CEO of Tesla, launched rockets as head of SpaceX and seized control of a social media platform by buying Twitter for $44 billion.
The South African-born businessman spent $270 million to help President Donald Trump get reelected. When Trump returned to office on Jan. 20, he empowered Musk to slash federal spending and make key decisions about the future of the U.S. as a lead adviser in the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The following day, the Office of Personnel Management — which acts as the government’s human resources department — directed agencies to compile a list of workers whose positions could be eliminated.
By Jan. 22, there was a federal hiring freeze. All agencies were directed to put diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff on leave, related programs were shuttered and employees were ordered to remove pronouns from their signatures.
The next several days set off confusion and panic for many workers across the country. A federal funding freeze briefly denied Head Start — free early childhood development programs designed to help low-income households — access to funding on Jan. 27, despite a federal judge’s court order to the contrary.
Then, on Jan. 28, some 2 million federal workers received an email with an offer to resign and be paid through September or risk being fired. The email subject line “Fork in the road” mirrored the language Musk used when he slashed Twitter’s workforce in 2022.
Within 30 days, DOGE gained access to personal information of millions of Americans through at least 15 federal agencies. Much of Musk’s staff consisted of young engineers who moved into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Musk initially wanted an office in the West Wing, but told people he thought what he was given was too small, multiple people familiar with his comments told ABC News earlier this month.
Only Congress has the power to eliminate entire agencies, but Musk and his team proved they can still be stripped down when they went into the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“DOGE was in the building. We took down our Pride flags,” USAID contractor Kristina Drye told ABC News on Feb. 3. “I took out any books I felt would be incriminating. No one was talking.”
At the same time, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) workers were told to stay home — its headquarters closed and all work stopped. The consumer watchdog was created after the 2008 financial crisis and housing crash to protect American families from unfair and deceptive practices.
Around 75,000 workers took the Trump administration’s offer to resign, according to the White House. However, some people — like Kansas-based Department of Agriculture natural resource specialist Nick Detter — say they accepted within the timeframe and were fired anyway. The administration acknowledged that this has happened by mistake.
“I would never say that there’s no room for improvement, efficiency in the federal government,” Detter told ABC News. “But in my experience over the last month with this whole thing, that’s not what this has been.”
After the buyout offer closed, many federal workers said they started receiving emails and calls informing them that they were fired. Justine Beaulieu, who worked for the Department of Agriculture until last week, said she was among them.
“I was three days away from my due date on Friday when I got that termination letter. And I had my baby yesterday, right on time,” she told ABC News. “Paid maternity leave is off the table, and my health insurance is set to lapse at the end of this month.”
The administration has been reversing course in some cases, working to rehire the workers who manage the country’s nuclear weapons and the inspection officers who worked on containing the bird flu outbreak.
Musk has been designated as a special government employee. His companies Tesla and SpaceX have been awarded $18 billion in federal contracts over the last decade. Some of this money has come from agencies the president asked Musk to review, but Musk dismissed the notion that there could be conflicts of interest.
“No, because you have to look at the individual contract and say, first of all, I’m not the one, you know, filing the contract — it’s people at SpaceX,” he told ABC News on Feb. 11.
On the same day, Trump assured ABC News any possible conflicts of interest would be addressed.
“If we thought that, we would not let him do that segment or look in that area, if we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest,” the president said.
Trump has fired independent watchdogs like Defense Department Inspector General Robert Storch.
“When you just wholesale fire people like that without giving any reasons for doing it, it sends a message that that sort of oversight, that productive oversight, isn’t really valued,” Storch told ABC News on Feb. 12.
The total savings DOGE has made so far is still unclear, but the group’s work has already set the stage for one of the biggest modern shakeups of the federal government.
(WASHINGTON) — Dan Bongino, the former Secret Service agent turned Fox News host and conservative podcast personality, will be the next deputy director of the FBI — a choice that is drawing criticism from Democrats as another one of President Donald Trump’s allies moves into a leadership position.
Trump named Dan Bongino, a 2020 election denier, as deputy FBI director on Sunday to serve under newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel. Bongino, who left Fox News in 2023, hosts the popular right-wing and pro-Trump podcast called “The Dan Bongino Show,” which ranks among Apple’s top 10 news podcasts.
On Monday morning, a very emotional Bongino told his show’s listeners that he was sitting at home watching TV when Trump called him to let him know he was going to appoint him as the deputy director of the FBI. Bongino told listeners that he wanted the deputy FBI director job.
“I got a call from the president, and he couldn’t have been nicer, and obviously, keep the contents of it between us, but I think you get the gist about what it was about and I kind of broke down a bit,” he said. “This is now real.”
Typically, the position of FBI’s deputy director is held by a career agent — something Bongino is not. The FBI’s deputy director is responsible for the day-to-day operations and running the agency. The position does not require Senate confirmation.
Democrats have expressed outrage at the pick of Bongino as a leader in the agency, concerned that Trump could use his allies leading the agency to go after his adversaries.
“Trump installs another loyalist who won’t say no to any immoral or unethical act,” Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff wrote of Bongino on X, adding that his appointment degrades law enforcement agencies and public safety.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy wrote on X that “Trump has chosen grifters to lead the FBI.”
“Kash Patel sells ‘K$SH’ branded merch, vaccine reversal pills. Dan Bongino’s entire show is telling listeners the world is ending so they buy the dozens of survivalist products he sells,” Murphy wrote on X.
Bongino defended his appointment and said the job as the FBI’s deputy director is “unquestionably nonpartisan.”
“I’m going to ask you a simple question, have you seen what I did before I came here,” Bongino said on his podcast. “I’m committed to service. People play different roles in their lives: People are dads, people are soccer coaches. People are cops and military officers and military-enlisted people. People are carpenters, people are plumbers. We play different roles in our life, and each one requires a different skill set.”
Bongino joins an agency — like many others — undergoing changes under the Trump administration. In a message to the FBI workforce last week, Patel announced his intention to “reduce the footprint” of the FBI in “the National Capital Region,” including by “reallocating personnel to the field offices and Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville [Alabama].” One source told ABC News this could include as many as 1,500 agents and others from Washington being relocated.
The FBI, Bongino said, belongs to the American people and will work to restore trust in the agency. Bongino has said the FBI is “lost, broken” and “irredeemably corrupt,” when talking about the raid on Trump’s Palm Beach home in 2022.
“Every single DNA cell in my body is going to be dedicated towards keeping this homeland safe, no matter what, no matter what, that’s my job,” he said. “We’re going to reestablish faith in this institution, the good people that are doing their job, hitting the streets, developing sources. We’ll have your back. We are going to reestablish faith in this institution.”
The son of a plumber and a supermarket employee, Bongino grew up in Queens, New York, and started his career as a New York Police Department officer in the 1990s.
Bongino said in his 2013 book, “Life Inside the Bubble,” that joining law enforcement was a “dream of his” and he dedicated himself to his beat.
After leaving the NYPD, Bongino joined the Secret Service where he rose to the ranks and joined former President Barack Obama’s protection detail.
He said he was compelled to run for Congress in Maryland in 2014 after leaving the service because of “the fog of scandals in the Obama administration,” he told ABC News in 2013.
Bongino claimed that he overheard a series of secret negotiations around the Affordable Care Act during Obama’s first term, which drove him to leave the service and enter politics.
That campaign was unsuccessful, but it allowed Bongino to develop a platform to speak on conservative issues.
Bongino has been an outspoken supporter of Trump, and told Fox News in 2017 that the Trump-Russia collusion investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign was a “total scam.”
He also questioned the results of the 2020 election and claimed there were “anomalies” with the voting totals. Despite the numerous false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, there has been no evidence to back them up.
After Trump was shot during the 2024 campaign, Bongino was critical of the agency he now helps lead.
“They absolutely, resolutely, 100% failed,” he said of the Secret Service on Fox News in July. He also called for the firing of then-Deputy Director Ron Rowe in addition to the then-Director Christopher Wray.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is hosting French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday, with Russia and Ukraine atop the agenda as the world marks three years since Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Trump said he believed the war could end “soon” as he and Macron sat for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office.
“I think we could end it within weeks — if we’re smart,” Trump told reporters. “If we’re not smart, it’ll keep going and we’ll keep losing.”
The two leaders were also holding a news conference in the East Room, where they can expect to be peppered with more questions about the status of peace talks.
Trump said he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy soon, signaling the U.S. and Ukraine were “close” to a deal giving the U.S. access to profits from Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources and that Zelenskyy would come to Washington to sign it. Trump has demanded the access as a way for Ukraine to pay back U.S. aid during the war.
“I will be meeting with President Zelenskyy. In fact, he may come this week or next week to sign the agreement,” Trump said.
Trump also said he would meet with Putin, but did not elaborate on a timeline. Trump said he is having serious discussions with Russia about “economic development deals” in addition to ending the war in Ukraine — but did not elaborate on what exactly those deals could look like.
The U.S. president was asked if he would call Putin a “dictator” — as he did with Zelenskyy last week. Trump notably declined to do so.
“I don’t use those words lightly,” Trump responded. “I think we’re going to see how it all works out.”
Macron, during a Q&A on his social media last week, said he would tell Trump: “You can’t be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest. How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?”
Macron convened European leaders for emergency meetings on Ukraine in Paris last week, as top U.S. officials held talks with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine and Europe.
Macron said France and its partners agreed Ukraine must always be involved and its rights respected in negotiations and that security concerns of Europeans must be taken into account.
“Following discussions over the past few days with European colleagues and allies, we are committed to ensuring that peace returns to Ukraine in a just, solid, and lasting manner, and that the security of Europeans is strengthened through all upcoming negotiations,” Macron posted on X on Sunday ahead of his trip to Washington.
The Trump administration’s increased pressure on Ukraine to resolve the conflict, with Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and falsely blaming Ukraine for Russia’s ongoing assault. Trump escalated his criticism last week, when he said Ukraine has “no cards” to play as negotiations unfold.
Meanwhile, Trump said he’s had “good talks” with Putin. Trump has not appeared to make any demands of Russia as negotiations unfold, while he’s ruled out NATO membership and a return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders.
The posture marks a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy, and comes as the Trump administration brandishes an “America First” agenda that could upend traditional transatlantic alliances.
Vice President JD Vance caused a stir when he took an aggressive tone toward Europe’s leadership on immigration, free speech and more as he spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Vance told U.S. allies the greatest threat to Europe was “within” and not Russia or China.
Vance doubled down on those themes in his speech at CPAC last week. Asked there about the future of U.S. alliances on the continent, Vance said they would continue to have “important” partnerships with Europe.
“But I really do think the strength of those alliances is going to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction … That friendship is based on shared values,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at a private “listening session” held at the State Department earlier this month with dozens of aid groups — some on the brink of financial collapse — opened the proceedings by making one request: that everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Inside the Loy Henderson Conference Room, representatives from aid organizations, industry groups, and foreign embassies — reeling from the administration’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid and the unraveling of USAID — dutifully rose to their feet.
The aid groups were there in the hope that Marocco would provide answers on the future of foreign assistance. After the Pledge, Marocco outlined the Trump administration’s foreign aid plans, defending what he called a “total zero-based review,” and arguing that some areas of foreign aid required “radical change” before taking questions from those in attendance, according to an audio recording of the private meeting obtained by ABC News.
‘Nefarious actors in the agencies’
Multiple sources who attended the Feb. 13 meeting described the mood in the room as “deeply uncomfortable,” saying that some of the attendees who were representing groups teetering on bankruptcy were left “traumatized” by the tone and the lack of specific details.
During the discussion, a representative for World Vision, a global Christian humanitarian organization, asked Marocco about the impact of the freeze, noting that aid groups like his had been forced to bankroll U.S. government-funded programs with private money while awaiting overdue payments to be unpaused.
“Will the spigot open? We’ve gotten waivers, but the PMS system isn’t operating, so we’re bankrolling U.S. government-funded programs out of private money,” said Edward Brown, the vice president of World Vision, which provides poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and child welfare in nearly 100 countries.
Marocco responded that following President Donald Trump’s executive order halting foreign aid, some transactions were still being processed, prompting his team to “seize control” of the payment system to stop them — leaving some groups without payments that, weeks later, had still had not arrived.
“As far as payment, one of the reasons that there have been problems with some of the payments is because, despite the president’s executive order, despite the secretary’s guidance, we still had nefarious actors in the agencies that were trying to push out hundreds of illegal payments,” Marocco said. “And so we were able to seize control of that, stop them, take control of some of those people, and make sure that that money was not getting out the door.”
Marocco suggested that payments for organizations with existing contracts would resume the following Tuesday.
“I feel confident we’re going to have that pretty good by Tuesday of next week,” he said. “That does not mean everybody’s going to be caught up on everything that they want. But I think that our payment system will probably be fluid at that point.”
But Tuesday came and went, and many groups say they were still on the edge of bankruptcy — prompting some to escalate their legal battle against the administration.
On Monday, several USAID officials told ABC News that the payment system Marocco said would be fully restored was now technically operational, but that funding was still moving at an extremely slow pace and that many of the programs that were granted waivers to continue operations had still not received any money.
USAID officials said the lack of funding has rendered many of the exempted programs inoperative. Some have resorted to using stockpiled resources, but because these programs have been cut off from federal support for weeks, most report that they have few funds left and don’t anticipate they will be able to function for much longer, according to the officials.
On Friday, after a federal judge cleared the way for the administration to proceed with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the U.S. and around the world, the Trump administration moved forward with its effort to dismantle USAID, telling all but a fraction of staffers worldwide that they were on leave as of Monday.
In a court-ordered affidavit filed last Tuesday, Marocco wrote that the agency “has authorized at least 21 payments” for grants, loans, and other foreign aid executed before Trump’s inauguration “that are in total worth more than $250 million and are expected to be paid this week.”
As of Monday, it was not clear whether those payments had been made.
When reached for comment, World Vision would not confirm to ABC News if payments had resumed, but told ABC News they were “complying with the executive order that pauses U.S. foreign assistance funding — with potential waivers for emergency food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance — for the next 90 days, while programs are reviewed for alignment with the current administration’s foreign policy.”
‘What we consider to be legitimate’
In one tense moment during the listening session, a senior Democratic Senate staffer pressed Marocco on whether, once the payments resumed, they would include reimbursements for work incurred before the Jan. 24 freeze.
“When payments resume, will they include work incurred before Jan. 24 in the payments forthcoming on Tuesday?” asked the staffer, who, when reached for comment by ABC News, asked not to be named our of fear of retribution.
Marocco would not guarantee that government-contracted work that occurred before the freeze would be reimbursed, stating that the Trump administration would only cover “legitimate expenses” — and noting that the administration’s definition of a legitimate expense may differ from the groups in the room.
“We will be looking at those,” Marocco said. “What we consider to be legitimate may not be the same thing that other people consider to be legitimate, but we’re going to.”
The staffer attempted to follow up, arguing that if the work had been incurred before the freeze, “it was legitimate at the time, right?”
“We’ve moved on to the next person,” Marocco responded.
In his affidavit filed on Tuesday, Marocco conveyed the scope and status of the government’s aid freeze. He wrote that, since Trump signed the executive order for a 90-day freeze, USAID had terminated nearly 500 grants and contracts. He said the agency “has not quantified” the total cost of those programs.
As of Tuesday, the State Department had terminated more than 750 foreign assistance-funded grants and contracts of its own and had suspended nearly 7,000 more, Marocco wrote.
A ‘cycle of dependency’
Marocco used the meeting with the organizations to paint a dire picture of U.S. foreign aid, claiming it had “devolved into a fiscal cycle of dependency, of presumption, arrogance, and frankly, folly, that is just astonishing.” He dismissed past reform efforts as ineffective, arguing that officials had merely “nibbled around the edges” rather than addressing what he saw as systemic failures.
He insisted the review was necessary to force difficult conversations about “what these programs are actually doing” and whether they should continue at all. And he framed the overhaul as part of President Trump’s broader effort to reshape Washington’s approach to foreign assistance.
“The American people deserve better. They require better. And President Trump has promised better,” he said, criticizing aid decisions made “behind closed doors in Congress, in small groups in Washington, D.C.”
Marocco told those gathered that the administration’s review extended beyond USAID and would encompass a range of federal agencies, including NASA, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
“If there is a tax dollar that is going out to a foreigner, we need to gain control of that and understand what it is we’re trying to achieve with our partners,” he said. “We want to identify all of that. We want to fix it. That’s the goal.”
Marocco made clear that the new foreign aid structure would be tied to Trump’s political priorities.
“With the Secretary of State, you will be in line,” Marocco said. “The foreign assistance review, you will follow the president’s foreign policy objectives. Or you will not be spending money abroad.”
He told the aid groups in the room they needed to justify their programs.
“You need to think about convincing someone — perhaps one of the women who is in my mother’s Bible study,” he said. “You need to think about somebody who’s working at a McDonald’s in Mississippi. You need to think about a grad student in Harlem.”
The Trump administration has received widespread condemnation from Democrats in Congress over its effort to slash foreign aid programs. “What Trump and Musk have done is not only wrong, it’s illegal,” Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said earlier this month during a news conference outside USAID headquarters. “USAID was established by an act of Congress, and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress. Stopping this will require action by the courts and for Republicans to show up and show courage and stand up for our country.”
‘Catastrophic’ harm
The Feb. 13 meeting came as the legal battle over the aid freeze was escalating. Last week, a coalition of aid groups asked a federal judge to intervene, arguing that the freeze violated existing funding agreements and had caused “catastrophic” harm to their humanitarian missions. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order halting the freeze, but aid organizations said their funding remained locked, leaving them scrambling to keep operations afloat.
Late Tuesday, Trump administration attorneys filed court papers arguing that their interpretation of the judge’s order allows the freeze to largely remain in place. The aid groups fired back Wednesday, urging the court to enforce the ruling.
“The court should not brook such brazen defiance of the express terms of its order,” they wrote in the filing.
Judge Ali, a Biden-era appointee, wrote Thursday that while Trump administration officials had “not complied” with his order, he would not hold them in contempt of court.
But he warned those officials not to buck what he characterized as his “clear” directive to lift their “blanket freeze” on aid disbursements.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is hosting French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday, with Russia and Ukraine set to be atop the agenda as the world marks three years since Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Trump and Macron participated in a call with other G7 leaders before a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office. After they will hold a news conference in the East Room, where they can expect to be peppered with questions about the status of peace talks.
Macron convened European leaders for emergency meetings on Ukraine in Paris last week, as top U.S. officials held talks with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine and Europe.
Following those meetings, Macron said France and its partners agreed Ukraine must always be involved and its rights respected in negotiations and that security concerns of Europeans must be taken into account.
“Following discussions over the past few days with European colleagues and allies, we are committed to ensuring that peace returns to Ukraine in a just, solid, and lasting manner, and that the security of Europeans is strengthened through all upcoming negotiations,” Macron posted on X on Sunday ahead of his trip to Washington.
The Trump administration’s increased pressure on Ukraine to resolve the conflict, with Trump calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and falsely blaming Ukraine for Russia’s ongoing assault. Trump escalated his criticism last week, when he said Ukraine has “no cards” to play as negotiations unfold.
Meanwhile, Trump said he’s had “good talks” with Putin. Trump has not appeared to make any demands of Russia as negotiations unfold, while he’s ruled out NATO membership and a return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders.
The posture marks a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy, and comes as the Trump administration brandishes an “America First” agenda that could upend traditional transatlantic alliances.
Vice President JD Vance caused a stir when he took an aggressive tone toward Europe’s leadership on immigration, free speech and more as he spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Vance told U.S. allies the greatest threat to Europe was “within” and not Russia or China.
Vance doubled down on those themes in his speech at CPAC last week. Asked there about the future of U.S. alliances on the continent, Vance said they would continue to have “important” partnerships with Europe.
“But I really do think the strength of those alliances is going to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction … That friendship is based on shared values,” he said.
Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s Friday night purge of senior Pentagon leaders is a threat to the nonpartisan nature of the military.
“It was completely unjustified. These men and women were superb professionals. They were committed to their oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. And, apparently, what Trump and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth are trying to do is to politicize the Department of Defense, and it’s not surprising they put Kash Patel as the FBI director, who is a partisan, who has no, I think, respect for the traditions of neutrality of the FBI,” Reed said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“And, now they’ve turned to DOD, and they want everyone in DOD beholden to the president, not to the Constitution,” he said. “They want everyone there to do what they’re told, regardless of the law.”
Trump fired Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown in a controversial move Friday evening. In addition to Brown, the administration fired other senior officials, including the Navy’s top admiral, Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti.
It was the first time two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have had their roles terminated.
In a social media post, Trump said he was nominating retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a group of senior uniformed leaders who serve as the top military advisers to the president and Department of Defense officials. The Joint Chiefs of Staff was created with the idea of it being apolitical. By design, officers’ four-year terms intersect two presidents.
Reed said the purge degraded the military, especially the firing of three top military lawyers.
“What was also startling in the weekend was firing all the advocate generals of the military. If you’re going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers. So we’re looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military, and the repercussions are being felt already,” he said. “People questioning whether they should say, talented leaders, wondering if they should get out. It is, it’s, the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of the military and politicization of the military.”
Retired Gen. George Casey Jr., a former U.S. Army chief of staff who served under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, pointed out that Brown’s dismissal could leave the United States vulnerable.
“That’s extremely destabilizing at a time that there’s a lot going on domestically and a lot going on abroad. When you remove so many senior leaders, especially without justifying and giving due cause, it creates huge uncertainty in the ranks, and it just isn’t a good thing for the military at a very difficult time,” Casey said.
Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said they would remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from the military and Hegseth alluded that Brown’s firing was because of his involvement in those initiatives.
“That’s a problem for me, because these leaders were following the lawful directives of the civilian leaders of the past administration, and now we’re going to put leaders in jeopardy and punish them for following lawful orders from another administration. I mean, give me a break,” Casey said.
However, despite his disapproval of the administration’s action, Casey said that Trump acted within his rights as president. He added that the firings should have been explained better.
“I may disagree with the timing and everything of these, of these removals, but it’s purely, it is significantly within the president’s prerogative. That’s his, that’s his prerogative. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and we follow the directives of, the, our civilian leaders,” Casey said.
In an interview Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week,” Democratic Sen. Jack Reed decried President Donald Trump’s recent verbal attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and increased alignment with Russia.
“Essentially, this is President Trump surrendering to the Russians,” Reed told co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“This is not a statesman or a diplomat,” Reed added. “This is just someone who admires Putin, does not believe in the struggle of the Ukrainians and is committed to cozying up to an autocrat.”
Reed said statements Trump made recently about Ukraine were “generally misleading or completely false,” and suggest he has “no real intention to engage the Ukrainian government to find out what they need” in negotiations with Russia.
“I’d be more confident in that suggestion if there was a vigorous dialogue between the Ukrainians and the United States with respect to these negotiations, that we understood where their lines are, et cetera. That apparently has not happened,” he said.
In order to solve the war in Ukraine, Reed said it will be crucial to “communicate to the Russians that we will be very, very serious about their actions in Ukraine.”
“What we have to do is keep the pressure on, and then go into negotiations — negotiations that will include the Ukrainians, not exclude them.” he said “And then with this pressure, hopefully, Putin will decide that the cost is too great to continue this effort.”
Talking to Raddatz later, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a vile dictator and thug” who is “clearly responsible for the war in Ukraine,” despite Trump’s false assertions earlier in the week that Zelenskyy started the war.
“Russia, China and Iran have been working in a coordinated effort to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel and the free world,” Lawler said. “They are not our allies or our friends — we must be clear eyed about that.”
Lawler said he “did not agree with the President’s rhetoric about Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” but also said that Zelenskyy “saying that the president is falling for Russian disinformation does not help his cause.”
“What I would say is this, it does not behoove either side to have this public back and forth,” Lawler said. “I think President Zelenskyy needs to work with the administration, especially with respect to economic cooperation.”
A photo released by the Department of Homeland Security of the first flight of migrants who were part of Tren de Aragua, preparing to takeoff for Guantanamo Bay, Feb. 4, 2025. Via DHS.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transported 177 migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras for final removal to Venezuela, according to a post on X from the agency.
Most of the migrants being housed at Guantanamo Bay were Venezuelan.
In court filings, the government contended the Guantanamo Bay operation was “meant to be a temporary stopover” on the path to repatriation. The migrants left on two flights on Thursday.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a brief video earlier in February that she visited the base and checked out the operations the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense were standing up.
“I’m down here on Guantanamo Bay, checking out some of the operations we’re standing up to house the worst of the worst, and illegal criminals from the United States of America they won’t be there for long” she said in a video on X.
“ICE intends to use [Naval Station Guantanamo Bay] as a temporary staging facility for aliens being repatriated and expects the average length of stay at the MOC to be as limited to the time necessary to effect the removal orders,” an ICE official wrote on Thursday.
There were 10 U.S. military flights that originally transported all the migrants to Guantanamo Bay, with the first carrying 10 migrants arriving on Feb. 4.
“These 10 high-threat individuals are currently being housed in vacant detention facilities,” the Defense Department said in a statement at the time. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking this measure to ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination.”
And Noem added in a post on X at the time, “President @realdonaldtrump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today.”
While some of the migrants were suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the charges they faced were unclear.
“Where are you going to put Tren de Aragua before you send them all the way back?” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked. “How about a maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay, where we have the space?”
Guantanamo Bay’s Migrant Operations Center was designated by President Donald Trump in a Jan. 29 executive order to house migrants without legal status living in the United States. The Migrant Operations Center, separate from the high-security prison facility that has been used to hold al Qaeda detainees, was set to be operational at “full capacity,” according to the order.
The removal of the migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras follows the migrants being granted access just this Thursday to speak to their attorneys over the phone.
DHS said at the time that it was determining “feasibility and necessity” for in-person visits from the migrants’ attorneys.
“There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people,” Trump said on Feb. 4. “So we’re going to use it.
“The migrants are rough, but we have some bad ones, too,” he added. “I’d like to get them out. It would be all subject to the laws of our land, and we’re looking at that to see if we can.”
It is unclear whether there will be future migrant flights to Guantanamo Bay.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Laura Romero and Stacey Dec contributed to this report.
(Photo by Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In an unprecedented move both Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral, were fired from their posts by President Donald Trump, marking the first time that two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been dismissed from their senior military roles.
As a retired military officer, Caine will be brought back onto active duty and will have to be confirmed by the Senate in order to assume the role of the president’s senior military adviser and the nation’s top military officer.
Caine retired after serving 34 years in the Air Force where he served as an F-16 pilot, the assistant commanding general at Joint Special Operations Command, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s associate director for military affairs.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump announced on his Truth Social account. “He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.”
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brown became the president’s top military adviser in October 2023 and was to complete a four-year term at the end of September 2027. He was the second African American to serve in the role and Franchetti was the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top admiral.
The role of chairman is intended to be apolitical and by design the chairman’s four-year term overlaps presidential election years meaning someone serving in the role could serve in two different presidential administrations.
Trump as president has the authority to remove generals and senior officers from their positions and reassign them, but if forced out of a role, officers may not find another opening available to them.
“Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote. “General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
“During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate,” said Trump, repeating praise of the three-star general that he had placed since his first term after meeting him during a tour of U.S. military troops in Iraq.
“It was done in record-setting time, a matter of weeks,” said Trump. “Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”
“Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden,” said Trump. “But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military.”
Defense officials told ABC News that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called both Brown and Franchetti to advise them that they were being removed from their posts. At the time both Brown and Franchetti were traveling outside of Washington, Brown having completed a tour of U.S. military troops on the southern border with Mexico, and on his way to California to link up with Franchetti where both of them were to participate in a conference.
Hegseth later said in a statement that he would request nominations to replace Franchetti; Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s Vice Chief of Staff; and the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Earlier this week both Brown and Franchetti appeared on a list of generals and admirals provided by the Trump administration to Congressional Republicans that Hegseth was considering firing or removing from their positions.
“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him,” said Hegseth in a statement issued after Trump’s announcement.
“The outgoing Chairman, Gen. Charles ‘CQ’ Brown, Jr., USAF, has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service,” said Hegseth. ‘I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country.
“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” he added.
In a statement provided to ABC News Slife said “The President and Secretary of Defense deserve to have generals they trust and the force deserves to have generals who have credibility with our elected and appointed officials.”
“While I’m disappointed to leave under these circumstances, I wouldn’t want the outcome to be any different,” said Slife. “I wish the President, the Secretary, and the Airmen of the USAF the very best as they serve our nation in challenging times.”
The removal of some of the nation’s most senior military officers drew criticism from a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Our military has accepted the principle of civilian control of the military for 236 years. What may seem like an arcane principle to most Americans, is essential to the healthy civil-military relations that drive effective national security decision-making,” retired Gen. George Casey, a former Army Chief of Staff told ABC News in a statement.
“Firing officers for following the directives of the previous civilian leadership of the Department of Defense will undermine that principle and is completely unnecessary. Change the policy, not the people,” he added.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee thanked Brown “for his decades of honorable service to our nation” and expressed confidence that “Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he was “troubled by the nature of these dismissals” and said they appear “to be part of a broader, premeditated campaign by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to purge talented officers for politically charged reasons, which would undermine the professionalism of our military and send a chilling message through the ranks.”
Brown was nominated to be the first Black chief of staff for the Air Force by Trump during his first term, in early 2020.
However, he received criticism from Hegseth in the leadup to his confirmation as defense secretary, as well as from Trump following his 2024 election win.
Both Brown and Franchetti’s names appeared on a list circulating through Republican offices in Congress of top Pentagon officials that Hegseth was said to be considering having removed from their posts.
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said in a November appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show.”
“But any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI woke s— has got to go,” he continued. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it. That’s the only litmus test we care about.”
“We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to C.Q.,” he wrote in his book “War on Warriors.” “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it really doesn’t much matter.”
Hegseth also called into question Franchetti’s qualifications to be the Navy’s top Admiral.
In the same book he wrote: “If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray.”
(WASHINGTON)– Some Republicans are facing pushback in their hometowns as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency make severe cuts across the federal government, both through sweeping employee terminations and looming budget cuts.
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., faced a grilling from his constituents on DOGE’s and Trump’s massive cuts at a town hall Thursday night.
“We are all fricking pissed off about this — you’re going to hear it,” a constituent told McCormick.
McCormick was interrupted multiple times as he tried to defend Trump and Musk’s efforts to overhaul the federal government and the thousands of firings across the United States.
“By and large, the president has great purview over where this money goes,” McCormick said at one point, before the crowd started to shout him down. “You can go and yell whenever you want, but I can’t understand 10 people, let alone 100 people, at once.”
A main point of contention was the firing of hundreds of workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta and roughly 20 miles from the town of Roswell, where the meeting was held.
“It is a fact of budgets, based on whose in control of the government, where that money goes,” McCormick said, prompting more shouting.
“The conservative approach is to take this in a slow and methodical way so that you make sure you do it right, and that’s not happening,” a constituent shouted back.
DOGE wasn’t the only tense topic the Georgia congressman faced. Some voters also brought up Trump’s recent comments on Ukraine.
When asked about Trump claiming Ukraine was responsible for its own invasion, McCormick said, “I want Ukraine to win, and President Trump said he wants Ukraine –,” before he was cut off by more shouting.
Another constituent, who introduced herself as Virginia and said she was a direct descendent of Revolutionary War orator Patrick Henry, said she took issue with a recent Trump post in which he promoted a photo of himself in a crown.
“Tyranny is rising in the White House, and a man has declared himself our king, so I would like to know … what you, congressman, and your fellow congressmen are going to do to reign in the megalomaniac in the White House,” she said, leading to a standing ovation from the crowd.
“When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected,” McCormick responded, to boos and shouts from the audience.
McCormick arguably faced the toughest crowd so far this week, though Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wisc., also heard strong objections from his constituents about Trump’s collaborations with Musk.
“How can we be represented by you, if you don’t have a voice in Congress?” a woman asked Fitzgerald, according to video from WTMJ-TV’s Charles Benson.
“The end result of the fraud and abuse that has been discovered already –” Fitzgerald began answering before being shouted down by the disappointed audience.
“Certainly the discussion in and around DOGE and with the probationary moves that have already been done, they’re going to have be scrutinized at some point,” Fitzgerald said.
In a town hall on Wednesday, Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kansas, was pressed repeatedly on where he would draw the line with Trump and Musk’s federal overhaul.
“Is there anything that Trump and Elon could do that you would not support?” a constituent asked. “Tell me, tell me what you would not support.”
“They’re going through the government in way that’s never been done,” Mann responded, avoiding detailing what he would not support.
Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, also was grilled by his constituents during a virtual town hall Monday night. However, due to the virtual format, Begich’s team was able to maintain control over the town hall, though the livestream received more than 2,000 comments.
“I’m a lifelong Republican,” one constituent named Joel said, according to Alaska Public Radio. “But I am in the majority, I think, with a lot of Americans, a lot of Alaskans, that are really concerned that we have an executive branch that is more than willing to push or remove the guardrails that are on the executive branch, and what we need from Congress and from the courts is to play that checks and balances role.”
“Look, the Congress has certain roles and responsibilities. The executive does as well,” said Begich, who noted he is a member of the “DOGE caucus.”
“And if the Congress or the executive branch steps outside of its constitutionally defined boundaries, the courts step in and realign and say, ‘Hey, you’re out of bounds,'” he added. “To the extent that the executive branch may or may not have exceeded that authority, there will be an opportunity in the courts for that to be challenged, and I would expect many of these challenges to be brought to the Supreme Court.”
Another constituent pressed Begich on this, asking in a post on the livestream, “When are you going to express your authority to hold the president accountable to the Constitution?”
In the wake of the pandemic, many lawmakers haven’t returned to holding traditional in-person town halls, preferring to reach a larger audience virtually while having more control over situations that melt down.
While some voters in these town halls have supported DOGE, even constituents in deep-red districts, who say they’re Republican voters, are upset with what they’re seeing.
“I’m a registered Republican voter, and this administration has gone absolutely off the tracks long ago,” remarked one man on a telephone town hall with Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla. “All of these things really concern me.”
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, noted that some of his constituents were fired then rehired, and he told locals to come to him if they have any problems.
“We had seven researchers that had gotten caught up in the cuts. They’re back to work — we just had to make the calls. … With offices in USDA, there were some cuts — they’re getting restored,” he said. “If you have concerns, please come to me.”
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Oregon, was questioned by a constituent on how the federal firings were carried out.
“I’m all for fiscal responsibility and downsizing the government, and we’ve been through downsizing before. And you can do it in a way that is humane and treats people with dignity and doesn’t fire them on the spot for performance when we all know how hard these people work,” a woman said with tears in her eyes.
Bentz didn’t directly respond to the remark, instead thanking the woman and the audience and encouraging people to share thoughts or comments with his team.
When asked by ABC News’ Mary Bruce on Friday what response he has to those who voted for him who are concerned after his first month in office, Trump touted that he has the highest poll numbers “of any Republican president ever.”
“They like the job that we’re doing. They like the job that Elon is doing. He’s doing something that a lot of people wouldn’t have the courage to do,” he added, refusing to address those who spoke out in the town halls. “So, it’s actually just the opposite. … People are thrilled. They can’t even believe it’s happening.”
Earlier Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about growing criticism from the public on DOGE and Trump’s executive orders, including among conservatives.
“I love how the media takes a few critics when the overwhelming response from the American people is support for what this administration is doing. If you look at the public polling, 70% of Americans, according to CBS, believe that President Trump is delivering on the promises he made,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump’s actions amount to precisely what he campaigned on.
“There should be no secret about the fact that this administration is committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse,” she added. “The President campaigned on that process campaigned on that promise. Americans elected him on that promise, and he’s actually delivering on it. And this is something that Democrats promised they would do for decades. President Trump is just the first president to get it done.”
