Politics

(WASHINGTON) — When billionaire Elon Musk posted on X last weekend that all federal employees would soon receive an email demanding details of their work from the past week, senior White House officials — who had not been fully briefed on the plan — were initially caught off guard, multiple sources told ABC News.

Musk’s email would then set off widespread confusion across the federal government. It created tension among members of Trump’s Cabinet, as multiple agency heads told their employees to hold off on replying until they themselves were briefed on the situation.

At one point shortly after the Saturday evening email, sources familiar with the discussions said senior White House staff debated issuing guidance to their own employees, informing them that they did not need to reply. Late Monday night, the Office of Personnel Management said that White House staff were exempt from the exercise, citing the Presidential Records Act.

The lack of communication between Musk and President Donald Trump’s top advisers in the White House, who are responsible for executing his second-term agenda, is the latest in a series of controversial moves by the world’s richest man since he arrived in Washington last month that have begun to divide some of those closest to the president.

Musk’s whirlwind approach — marked by rapid gutting of the federal workforce and dominating national headlines — has sparked a rift among some in the White House and Trump’s inner circle, sources told ABC News. Some close to the president have bristled at Musk’s frenetic pace and his apparent disregard for coordinating with senior officials around the president. Others, however, have expressed support for the tactics and embraced Musk’s fast-paced efforts so far, hailing them as a long-overdue shakeup of a stagnant system.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing Tuesday that “the President and Elon, and his entire Cabinet, are working as one unified team, and they are implementing these very common-sense solutions,” adding that more than 1 million federal workers had responded to Musk’s “What did you do last week?” email, including herself. Leavitt said that Musk would attend Trump’s first Cabinet meeting set for Wednesday.

But as Musk has ripped through the federal workforce at a breakneck pace reminiscent of his approach at his own companies, the White House has, at times, first learned of his actions through media reports or his own posts on X instead of through the usual chain of senior staff, sources said, which has ruffled feathers among some top officials who view the billionaire’s methods as increasingly out of control.

But while Musk has some detractors in Trump’s orbit, he has gained support from some of the most powerful voices around the president, including Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and U.S. Homeland Security adviser, and Katie Miller, a senior adviser to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts who is married to Stephen Miller, sources said.

Still, even with some in the White House growing frustrated with aspects of Musk’s first few weeks in Washington, sources said there is hesitancy to intervene, given not only the billionaire’s immense wealth but, perhaps more importantly, his vast influence given his larger-than-ever profile and his ownership of X.

Some concerned with Musk have resigned themselves that the Tesla CEO is unlikely to be reined in anytime soon and are instead focused on managing the situation as best they can until his special government contract comes to an end later this year, though it is not immediately clear if Musk plans to leave Washington then, either.

“Some love it, some can’t wait for [Musk] to leave — bottom line is he’s not going anywhere anytime soon,” a source familiar told ABC News.

In response to this story, a senior White House official told ABC News, “Any insinuation that senior leadership in the Trump White House is not properly being advised on the actions of DOGE is completely false. As an SGE, Elon Musk works directly with the president of the United States and senior members of his team to coordinate the effective and efficient execution of the president’s agenda.”

“The American people widely support the mission of DOGE. Look no further than the Harris poll in which a vast majority of Americans support the mission of DOGE. Anyone who is seen as objecting to this mission in either party is objecting to long overdue change in Washington. If you’re not going to be a part of the solution, you are now a part of the problem,” the official added.

The South African-born businessman spent $270 million to help 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 DOGE.

ABC News previously reported that 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, and has since taken up offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he brought in sleep pods for his young staffers as they worked deep into the night.

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 earlier this month.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans remain divided over the budget blueprint to jumpstart the process to advance Trump’s agenda, putting a vote planned for Tuesday evening in jeopardy as Speaker Mike Johnson attempts to rally his rank and file.

Following a closed-door conference meeting, GOP leaders say that while the hope is still to move forward with a floor vote Tuesday night, it could slip further into the week. There are several lawmakers who have splintered off to publicly oppose the measure, while even more hold back their support with the hope of extracting changes.

“​​We’re planning to take up our budget resolution as early as today,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday, suggesting the vote may get pushed. “There may be a vote tonight. There may not be. Stay tuned. That’s why you get paid. Hang around here,” he added.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is actively defending the budget — contending that Democrats are “lying” when they assert that Republicans are primed to make deep cuts to Medicaid.

“This bill doesn’t even mention the word ‘Medicaid’ a single time, and yet, all Democrats are doing is lying about what’s in the budget because they don’t want to talk about the truth,” Scalise said. “Instead of just sitting back and licking their wounds that they’re completely out of touch with the American people, their only choice is to resort to lying about what’s in this vote today. There is no Medicaid in this bill. There are no Medicaid cuts in this bill. Yet that’s all they’re saying.”

While the blueprint itself does not mention Medicaid directly, it sets a goal of at least $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory federal spending, which includes funding for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Johnson and his leadership team have worked for weeks to mollify concerns — an effort the speaker says will continue with holdouts Tuesday afternoon. Currently there are four public no votes including Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson and Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz. The speaker can only afford to lose one defection before a second betrayal kills the effort.

Following the meeting, Massie quipped that GOP leaders have “convinced him” to vote no — predicting the measure would actually increase the deficit by billions of dollars.

Nevertheless, Johnson defended the blueprint.

“The objective and our commitment has always been deficit neutrality. That’s the goal here. If we can reduce the deficit, even better,” Johnson said responding to accusations that the plan would increase the deficit.

Some additional Republicans are undecided including New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, stressing she is acting on behalf of her aging constituency.

“I’m still undecided, but I’m leaning more towards yes because I’ve gotten some clarity and assurances that make me feel comfortable allowing this process to move forward,” she said. “We have to make sure that leadership includes those of us who have large Medicaid populations in that process.”

Self-proclaimed “budget hawk” Georgia Rep. Rich McCormick said he’s still “in discussions” on whether or not to back the resolution.

“I’d like us to be more aggressive on spending cuts so we can save on things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,” he said.

“I am trying to figure out exactly what this entails… how this bill is going to affect the actual hard numbers, and that’s what I’m interested in,” he said.

House Democrats gathered on the Capitol steps Tuesday afternoon to protest an “assault” on democracy and the “reckless Republican budget.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries led the group of lawmakers, declaring that Democrats have unified their opposition against the measure.

“So let me be clear, House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget, not one, not one, not one. They will not get a single Democratic vote. Why? Because we’re voting with the American people,” he said.

Jeffries said the GOP budget plan “represents the largest Medicaid cut in American history,” adding that “children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Seniors will be devastated. Hospitals will be devastated; nursing homes will be devastated.”

“Everything we care about is under assault. The economy is under assault. The safety net is under assault. Our very way of life as a country is under assault. Democracy itself is under assault. Donald Trump, the administration and House Republicans are hurting the American people,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — After facing angry questions from constituents at a town hall last week, Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick is back on Capitol Hill with a new message for Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency: Show a little compassion.

McCormick faced ‘boos” as he fielded questions from furious constituents in his suburban Atlanta district.

“People are concerned about what DOGE is, what it can do, what its powers are, if they’re overstepping the law. They’re concerned about the rapidity of the moves and people losing their benefits,” McCormick said.

McCormick said he is heading to the White House Tuesday afternoon for a previously scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump. If given the chance, he plans to convey some of his concerns about DOGE to the president directly.

“I think some of their actions have been too rapid to adapt to — for real people. I mean, you’re talking about Republicans, too. We’re not just talking about Democrats,” he said.

“I’m all for trimming the government; I am all for also doing it in a deliberate manner that allows people to adjust to their lifestyles … We’re talking about people who are struggling and have to make big decisions,” he added.

He said Republicans have a strong message, but it’s at risk of being lost.

“You can lose that message with just one attitude. And if nothing else, we have to be careful with how we message this so it doesn’t come across as discompassionate,” he said. “In my opinion, we have to be a little more — give people a little more to adjust, who are about lose their jobs.”

“It’s very hard for me to adjust,” he said referencing the “lightning speed” pace of changes from the new administration.

“I think we can have better coordination between the executive branch and the legislative branch … just for if nothing else — we can be one team, one fight moving forward,” he added.

Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz of Oregon also got an earful from constituents at a town hall last week. His message for Musk? Don’t leave Congress in the dark.

“I think the group is learning as it goes. You can tell this by the fact that they rehired some of the people they fired, so that’s a good thing — it shows that they’re listening and paying attention to what they’re doing,” Bentz.

“I would tell him he needs to reach out to Congress and let us know what they have in mind before they do it. So we at least have some sort of heads up.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that an Oklahoma man convicted of murder, Richard Glossip — who has been scheduled for execution nine times and served his “last meal” three times — must now receive a new trial because errors committed by prosecutors violated his constitutional rights.

The 5-3 decision marks an extraordinary turn in a case that has seen decades of failed appeals, including a prior unsuccessful bid before the Supreme Court in which Glossip challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.

“We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her majority opinion, invoking the 14th Amendment’s right to due process. “We reverse the judgement below and remand the case for a new trial.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Sotomayor. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett dissented. Justice Neil Gorsuch recused from the case because of prior involvement as an appellate judge.

Glossip was convicted by an Oklahoma jury for involvement in the 1997 murder of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, only by testimony from the confessed killer, Justin Sneed, who later recanted the claim that he was paid by Glossip to perform the killing. He has maintained his innocence. There was no physical evidence.

Sneed — who received a life sentence in exchange for testifying against Glossip — had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and been taking psychiatric medication, but denied it during trial — facts uncorrected by prosecutors who knew the truth.

“Had the prosecution corrected Sneed on the stand, his credibility plainly would have suffered,” Sotomayor wrote. “That correction would have revealed to the jury not just that Sneed was untrustworthy … but also that Sneed was willing to lie to them under oath. Such a revelation would be significant in any case, and was especially so here where Sneed was already nobody’s idea of a strong witness.”

The state’s Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, who is a death penalty advocate, came out strongly against execution after reviewing the trial record.

“The death penalty doesn’t turn on, you know, ideology or politics,” Drummond told ABC News last year. “It should turn on the rule of law. This has been a wildly unpopular position for me to take, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Drummond has said he does not believe Glossip is innocent but that a new trial is imperative.

“We are thankful that a clear majority of the Court supports long-standing precedent that prosecutors cannot hide critical evidence from defense lawyers and cannot stand by while their witnesses knowingly lie to the jury. Today was a victory for justice and fairness in our judicial system,” said Glossip’s attorney Don Knight in a statement. “Rich Glossip, who has maintained his innocence for 27 years, will now be given the chance to have the fair trial that he has always been denied.”

The Van Treese family had asked the Supreme Court to uphold Glossip’s conviction.

Justice Thomas, in a written dissent, said the high court had no authority to override Oklahoma state court’s, which had refused to give Glossip a new trial.

“The Court stretches the law at every turn to rule in his favor,” Thomas wrote. “It finds a due process violation based on patently immaterial testimony about a witness’s medical condition. And, for the remedy, it orders a new trial in violation of black-letter law on this Court’s power to review state-court judgments.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Democrats plan to target House Republicans in vulnerable districts by highlighting potential cuts to Medicaid and other federal spending in the budget blueprint GOP lawmakers hope to vote on this week, according to a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee memo first obtained by ABC News.

The memo titled “Medicaid Cuts Prove Politically Perilous for House Republicans” outlines a plan to paint GOP members in swing districts as voting for a “budget blueprint that would inflict massive pain upon American families.”

The budget blueprint sets a goal of at least $2 trillion dollars in cuts to mandatory federal spending, which includes funding for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans and those with disabilities, is expected to face the brunt of the cuts. Some GOP members have discussed including new work requirements for the program and limiting how much the federal government pays each state.

Republican leadership has repeatedly promised not to cut other entitlement programs.

“Rather than delivering on their campaign promises to lower the high cost of living, [Republicans] are poised to pass an extreme budget scheme that would decimate affordable health care and take food off the tables of millions of American families,” the memo reads. “Republicans will find that a ‘yes’ vote doomed their reelection chances come November 2026.”

Vulnerable Republicans, several of whom represent swing districts with a significant number of constituents on Medicaid, have expressed serious concern that safety net programs could be on the chopping block.

“Slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing home are already struggling to keep their doors open,” Republican members of the Congressional Hispanic Conference wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson in a letter last week.

GOP leadership has stressed to members that, while the budget blueprint calls for substantial cuts, specific cuts have yet to be determined. And Republican members have disputed their budget will have a negative impact on low-income families, pointing to policies like “No Tax on Tips,” a signature Trump campaign promise included in the budget plan.

The Democratic memo also notes House Republicans in safe red seats are already facing what it calls “massive political blowback” at town hall meetings back home, as angry voters speak out about potential funding cuts and thousands of recent firings by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“We are all fricking pissed off about this, you’re going to hear it,” a constituent said to Rep Rich McCormick, R-Ga., at a town hall last week.

Johnson told ABC News the protests were an “ambush” organized by Democratic advocacy groups.

“I think the American people largely applaud what’s happening. We need to get government cut back to its size and scope the way it should be and make sure people are doing their work,” he said.

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(WASHINGTON) — After a weekend of confusion, the Trump administration on Monday afternoon told federal agencies they don’t have to direct workers to comply with Elon Musk’s request for information about their activities at work, and that doing so is voluntary, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The Office of Personnel Management — effectively the human resources agency for the federal government — updated agency human resources officers on a Monday call over Elon Musk’s call for the Trump administration to fire federal workers who did not reply to an email asking them to submit an email listing their accomplishments from the previous week.

Adding to the confusion are Trump’s own comments Monday, when he told journalists in the Oval Office there was a “lot of genius” behind Musk’s proposal, and that workers would be “sort of semi-fired” if they don’t respond.

OPM did not respond to a request for comment on the instructions given to federal agencies.

In the latest effort by the Department of Government Efficiency to investigate efficiency and reduce the size of the government, employees were asked in an email from the Office of Personnel Management on Saturday to list five accomplishments over the previous week and reply by 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday.

Musk threatened on social media that employees would face termination if they do not comply. The original email sent to employees did not include such an ultimatum, leaving some employees unaware of the threat.

However, some federal agencies told employees not to respond to the OPM email, some advised that employees should reply and others said that replying is “voluntary,” creating uncertainty among the rank and file.

Musk’s ultimatum raised questions about how much authority he holds in the government. While the White House argued in a court filing that Musk has no true power, Musk doubled down on his ultimatum Monday morning, warning that “Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere.”

Trump endorsed the email while taking questions Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government,” Trump said. “So, by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?'”

“And then if you don’t answer like you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist,” Trump said.

Asked later Monday about the change in OPM policy, a White House official said, “DOGE is moving fast, at the direction of POTUS, and that’s exactly the point.”

“It’s all about efficiency, even internally,” the official added.

In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Everyone is working together as one unified team at the direction of President Trump. Any notion to the contrary is completely false.”

Mixed messages

Federal employees on Saturday began receiving the OPM email with the subject line “What did you do last week” that demanded they list “5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and CC your manager,” according to multiple sources and an email reviewed by ABC News.

The subject line came from Musk’s playbook: “What did you get done this week?” is the same message he sent to the CEO of Twitter (now X) Parag Agrawal before Musk bought the company and fired the CEO.

A spokesperson from the Office of Personnel Management said Saturday that “agencies will determine any next steps.”

Yet management at multiple agencies told their staff that they were waiting on further guidance and, in some cases, told them to hold off on replying, according to multiple sources.

Employees at the Justice Department were told that they did not need to respond to the OPM request, according to an email obtained by ABC News. The Defense Department told employees who received the email to “please pause any response.” The Pentagon official filling in as the Department’s top personnel officer said that DOD would review any performance of personnel according to its own procedures, but added that “when and if required” it would coordinate responses to OPM’s email.

Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel also told staff to “please pause any responses” to the email.

Employees at agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Energy were told by senior staff that they were waiting on further guidance and, in some cases, told to wait for further notice before responding.

NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro informed employees on Monday before OPM’s guidance went out that responding to the email was optional and that not responding would have “no impact to your employment,” according to an email obtained by ABC News.

“Employees may have already responded or may still choose to respond. You are not required to respond, and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond,” Petro wrote in the email.

Other agencies directed employees to reply. Speaking to Fox News on Monday morning, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy explained why his employees should respond to Musk’s email.

“If you can’t come up with five things that you did, maybe you shouldn’t be employed here,” Duffy said, calling it an “easy task” that “happens in the private sector all the time.”

Leadership at the Treasury Department sent an agency-wide email Monday morning instructing all employees — including those at the IRS — to comply with OPM’s email by the deadline, according to an email obtained by ABC News.

However, the email still left some employees confused, particularly because it does not clarify whether failure to respond by the deadline could result in termination.

Federal workers who don’t follow Musk on social media could be unaware there’s an ultimatum on the table. While the administration did ask federal employees to list their accomplishments, the email did not state that those who failed to respond by the deadline would be fired.

Employees across agencies told ABC News they hadn’t seen Musk’s threats until they were asked for their reaction to them.

One IRS employee told ABC News that when they asked their direct managers whether not responding would result in them being fired, they were told, “We are only to adhere to official emails and ignore any directives not communicated through official channels.”

Another employee in management at the IRS said staff are “freaking out.”

Managers at the Department of Veterans Affairs told employees to respond to the email. One manager at the agency told ABC News that workers are “scared.”

“It’s not an exaggeration,” they said. “Everybody is afraid they are going to lose their jobs on a daily basis. There’s this fear that you’re going to open your email and you will be terminated.”

How much authority does Musk have?

It is not clear if Musk has the authority to terminate employees in this manner. However, he continues to act as if he does, threatening employees on Monday morning with administrative leave if they do not return to work this week.

White House lawyers attested in federal court that Musk “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions.”

Trump aides have also said publicly that Musk is operating in an advisory capacity as a special government employee.

While Trump has said that Musk cannot do anything without his approval, the president has publicly heralded Musk as the leader of DOGE and lauded him for the job he’s doing in that capacity. On Saturday, shortly before the OPM email went out, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.”

-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer, Peter Charalambous, Selina Wang, Emily Chang and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(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.

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(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.

 

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(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.

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(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.

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