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US Monthly Headline News February 2025
Opinion by Simon Walters

It may well go down in history as the most remarkable, brutal and shocking political event ever seen on live television.

But it may prove to be more than a piece of TV history.

It may be the moment an entire nation was wiped off the world map.

Or worse, it might trigger events that are a threat way beyond the borders of Ukraine.

A threat to the rest of Europe and, yes, a threat to Britain. There is no point denying it.

But the extraordinary televised clash between President Zelensky and Donald Trump and his sidekick JD Vance was not just momentous for what it meant to the global political situation.

It was the moment the world saw the truth about three men.

On one side, Zelensky – physically small, but a giant in moral stature – the comedian who became an accidental hero, elected to lead his country only to see it invaded by the murderous totalitarian monster that is Vladimir Putin.
Trump and Musk stupidity are putting our national security at risk.

Story by Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen, CNN

Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, according to four people familiar with recent US intelligence on the issue.

The intelligence indicates that foreign adversaries are eager to exploit the Trump administration’s efforts to conduct mass layoffs across the federal workforce – a plan laid out by the Office of Personnel Management earlier this week.

Russia and China are focusing their efforts on recently fired employees with security clearances and probationary employees at risk of being terminated, who may have valuable information about US critical infrastructure and vital government bureaucracy, two of the sources said. At least two countries have already set up recruitment websites and begun aggressively targeting federal employees on LinkedIn, two of the sources said.

The adversaries think the employees “are at their most vulnerable right now,” another of the sources said. “Out of a job, bitter about being fired, etc.”

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that these cast aside federal workers with a wealth of institutional knowledge represent staggeringly attractive targets to the intelligence services of our competitors and adversaries,” a third source familiar with the recent US assessments told CNN.
Story by Tom Boggioni

A comment made by Donald Trump about Russia and Vladimir Putin during a White House talk on Thursday drew the attention of two MSNBC hosts on Friday morning which led them both to rip it apart.

Asked by a journalist if he could trust the Russian strongman, the president replied, "I think he'll keep his word. I've spoken to him, I've known him for a long time now, you know, we had we had to go through the Russian hoax together –– that was not a good thing. It's not fair, that was a rigged deal and had nothing to do with Russia. It was a rigged deal inside the country and they had to put up with that too. They put up with a lot."

Trump's return to talking about the "Russian hoax" led "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist to fact-check the president.

"Before we get on to talk about Ukraine, we have to just pause right there and that statement was extraordinary," Geist stated. "The president of the United States saying he and Vladimir Putin went through the Russia hoax together, they were in this thing together that people were out to get them, when it was well documented whether you think the Trump campaign in 2016 sought the help or welcomed the help or not."

"It's not disputed that Russia put its thumb on the scale in that election, but he [Trump] sees a partner in that fight and a fellow victim," he added.
Matt Laslo

WASHINGTON — What emails?

That’s the mood from congressional Republicans these days as allegations of private servers and accessing sensitive, private data swirl about this White House.

In 2016 alone, House Republicans issued more than 70 subpoenas or investigative inquiries into Hillary Clinton and her private server.

Many of those same Republicans are now shrugging off fears that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency — a.k.a. DOGE — are flouting government protocols while scouring government databases in their effort to purge federal workers.

But Republicans are about to have a reckoning. Last summer the Supreme Court gave this Congress homework — work policymakers on Capitol Hill haven’t had to do in the past 40 or so years: Write precise rules and regulations instead of leaning on experts in federal agencies to flesh out the policy specifics after Congress passes a bill.

It’s unclear if the contemporary Congress is up to the serious task of policymaking, especially the 119th Congress, which is brimming with technophiles focused on clicks, viral videos and digital dunking.
Story by James Bickerton

President Donald Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein's private jets repeatedly during the 1990s, files released by Attorney General Pam Bondi show.

The files did not disclose new information as flight logs naming Trump as a passenger on Epstein's aircraft at least seven times had already been made public in a separate court case. There is no suggestion in the documents that the president engaged in any illegal acts.

Newsweek contacted Trump for comment, via an email to the White House press office, outside regular working hours.

Why It Matters
In September, while campaigning for the presidency, Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman that he would have "no problem" releasing more documents related to Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker who died in 2019, if he secured a second term in the White House.

Prominent members of Trump's Make America Great Again movement have called for the declassification of documents related to Epstein, which they believe may disclose details linking high-profile individuals to child sexual exploitation. However, the files published on Thursday did not include much new information and were first handed to a number of conservative influencers, sparking a backlash online.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
“It is not unusual, we have measles outbreaks every year,” he claims.
Josh Fiallo

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was slammed Wednesday for downplaying a measles outbreak that has led to the country’s first child death from the disease in decades.

Donald Trump’s health secretary waved off the active Texas outbreak—where pediatricians on the ground have reported children being accepted into care unable to properly breathe—as a normal thing that happens every year.

“There have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country, last year there were 16,” he told a reporter from Trump’s cabinet meeting. “It is not unusual, we have measles outbreaks every year.”

There were 18 people hospitalized as of Wednesday morning, Texas health officials said. Those in Lubbock, which is ground zero for the outbreak, say that number is steadily growing.
Story by Joe DePaolo

CNN anchor Jake Tapper confronted a top official of President Donald Trump’s State Department with stunning footage of Russian State TV praising Trump.

In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Tapper confronted Steve Witkoff — Special Envoy to Middle East who has also taken a lead role in Russia-Ukraine peace talks — about Russia’s belief that Trump’s view of the conflict is in “total alignment” with Vladimir Putin’s. To drive home the point, Tapper played footage from Wednesday of a Russian State TV host named Vladimir Soloviov praising Trump’s views, and claiming he essentially got his talking points direct from Putin during a Feb. 12 phone call.

“When Trump is answering questions about the press conference. I think it is not a coincidence that many of the narratives that are being voiced largely materialized after their conversation,” Soloviov said. He added, “The phrases [Trump] is saying, are so deep and so correct. They are in total alignment with the way we see things.”

The CNN anchor pressed Witkoff about the shocking clip.

“Do you think it’s good that the Russians think that the Trump administration is in total alignment with the way that Putin sees things?” Tapper asked.

Witkoff dodged the question by offering up a more broad response about the importance of having good relationships with both Russia and Ukraine:
Tagtik

Ukrainians are criticizing Donald Trump's attempts to seize the country's mineral resources as repayment for military aid provided since the start of the war.

For several days, the Trump administration has been pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sign a deal granting the U.S. $500 billion worth of mineral resources.
Story by Io Dodds

Elon Musk is on a crusade against government spending. Unless, apparently, it's going to him.

"If action is not taken to curb the deficit, America is in deep trouble. No different than a person who gets into too much debt," said the DOGE boss on his social network X in December.

"The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time," he added on February 2, as he took a sledgehammer to federal agencies and all but dismantled the U.S. Agency of International Development with no authorization from Congress.

Yet according to federal data analyzed by The Independent, Musk's own companies have been promised or awarded nearly $21 billion by the U.S. government since 2008.

The cash was still flowing as of Feb 17, with another $76.7 million promised since Donald Trump's inauguration.

So how much of money is the American taxpayer forking over to each of Musk's companies, and what is it all for?
Story by Heather Digby Parton

It's been a month since Donald Trump was inaugurated but it feels like a year. When they said we were going to be hit with "shock and awe" they meant it and when Trump said he was going to be a dictator on day one, he actually told the truth for once. It's been one of the most fearful, distressing political events in most of our lifetimes and it's gotten worse every day.

As a result of his many escapes from accountability for his crimes and a Supreme Court that gave him the green light to commit more with impunity, Trump believes that he is invincible, even recently quoting a (possibly apocryphal) line from Napoleon Bonaparte: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” He's carrying on about "manifest destiny" and dreaming aloud about expanding American territory and starting wars with neighbors. He is convinced that he can bully everyone into submission, whether it's a political opponent, an ally or a foreign adversary. He has even called himself a king.

Over the course of this past month, it has appeared that he's not wrong. The Republican Congress has completely abandoned any pretense of integrity and independence. He's sending migrants to Guantánamo and flobbing off others on foreign countries to suffer who-knows-what fate. His followers have physically threatened those few who showed any inkling that they might oppose him and his executioner, Elon Musk, a man charged with the destruction of the federal workforce. In record time he has managed to storm through the government like an Abrams tank, crushing everything in his path and leaving anyone who survives stunned and disoriented.
Will we see evidence that this true and if we do then what?

Story by Christopher Bucktin

A former Soviet intelligence officer has claimed Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and given the codename “Krasnov.” The bombshell allegation was made by Alnur Mussayev, a former Kazakh intelligence chief, in a Facebook post. The 71-year-old, who previously headed Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, said he had served in the 6th Directorate of the KGB in Moscow, which was responsible for counter-intelligence support within the economy.

One of the directorate’s primary objectives, he claimed, was “recruiting businessmen from capitalist countries.” According to Mussayev, Trump, then a 40-year-old New York real estate developer, was one of those recruits. “In 1987, our directorate recruited Donald Trump under the pseudonym Krasnov,” he wrote. Mussayev’s post did not include evidence to support his claim, but in a further comment, he made another shocking allegation. “Today, the personal file of resident ‘Krasnov’ has been removed from the FSB. It is being privately managed by one of Putin’s close associates,” he alleged.

His allegations come amid years of speculation over Trump’s ties to Russia, dating back to his first visit to Moscow in 1987. At the time, Trump, then a rising star in the New York property market, travelled to the Soviet Union to explore the possibility of building a hotel in the capital. Soviet officials reportedly facilitated the trip, raising questions among intelligence analysts about whether it was a routine business opportunity or something more nefarious. At the time, Trump, then a rising star in the New York property market, travelled to the Soviet Union to explore the possibility of building a hotel in the capital. Soviet officials reportedly facilitated the trip, raising questions among intelligence analysts about whether it was a routine business opportunity or something more nefarious.
Opinion by Matt Robison

This may be a week historians take note of: the moment when a U.S. president officially surrendered to our nation's enemies with nary a shot fired.

That's not hyperbole. It is a simple recognition that in a few short days, our nation's interests have profoundly suffered, the damage may be permanent, and it's our own president who did us dirty.

For the past 100 years, we have seen clearly that our cherished "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" could not be protected by oceans alone. Our ideals—as well as our bodies—need to be guarded by a wall of allies that fight vigorously with us against any foe.

When that wall began to crumble in the face of imperial Germany's attack, the United States saw its interests threatened as well and entered World War I, the third deadliest war in American history. A quarter century later, despite the pro-Nazi bleating of the original "America First" movement, we entered World War II because we saw that if totalitarian forces overwhelmed Europe and Asia, it was America that would ultimately suffer. More than 407,000 U.S. military servicemembers died for our cause.
Story by Anthony Orrico

President Donald Trump and the Justice Department have shuttered the first nationwide database tracking misconduct by federal police, the DOJ confirmed to the Washington Post on Thursday.

The database, created in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 by Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, was designed to prevent bad police officers from jumping to new agencies and starting over with clean records. Ironically, Trump was the one to propose this database during his first term in 2020, but it wasn't created until an executive order by President Joe Biden created the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database. Trump issued an order last month revoking Biden’s orders, and the database.

While the database only covered federal law enforcement officers and not local, state, or county officers, it contained nearly 150,000 federal officers and agents, from the FBI and IRS all the way to the Railroad Retirement Board.
Donald Trump lashed out at Volodymyr Zelensky after the Ukrainian president accused him of living in a 'disinformation space' - and Putin is thought to be buoyant and under belief victory will soon be his
By Christopher Buckt in US Editor

Donald Trump’s latest betrayal of Ukraine is so appalling that even his most loyal Republican allies are refusing to defend him.

His reckless disregard for facts, his cosying up to Vladimir Putin, and his outright revisionist history have left many in his own party shaking their heads in disbelief. Trump’s claim that Ukraine “started the war” is not just a lie- it’s an insult to a nation fighting for its survival.

It’s a blatant distortion of reality designed to give cover to Putin’s brutal aggression. Even Republicans, who usually bow to Trump’s every whim, are publicly pushing back against this nonsense.

Among the most vocal critics is Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who didn’t mince words.
ABC News

An Alabama grand jury has recommended that a city's police department be "immediately abolished," finding there is a "rampant culture of corruption," officials said Wednesday while announcing the indictment of five of the agency's officers, including its police chief.

Five Hanceville police officers were arrested and charged amid a probe into the department, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said. The spouse of one of the officers was also charged, he said.

"This is a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time, it is a good day for the rule of law," Crocker said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Crocker provided limited details on the case. Though the investigation encompassed the department's evidence room and the death of a Hanceville dispatcher, 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, who was found dead from a toxic drug combination at work, officials said.

The Cullman County grand jury found that the Hanceville Police Department has "failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence and in doing so has failed crime victims and the public at large," making the evidence "unusable," Crocker said.

The grand jury further found that Willingham's death was "the direct result of the Hanceville Police Department's negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life," Crocker said.
Story by Mike Bedigan

Donald Trump has reportedly spent almost $11 million of taxpayer money funding his golfing hobby since returning to office, despite his and Elon Musk’s ongoing war on wasteful spending by government agencies.

Since being sworn in for the second time on January 20, the president has spent all four weekends on the green, and played golf at his own properties on nine of his first 30 days in office, according to HuffPost.

Based on a 2019 report by the Government Accountability Office, HuffPost has calculated that the cost of these excursions has been around $10.7 million.

It comes after Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency continue to take aim at various federal agencies, reducing both staff and items in the budget labelled as “fraud.” However, none of DOGE’s social media posting has mentioned the word “golf” or the president’s recreational trips, according to HuffPost.

HuffPost’s calculations were made by breaking down the costs of Trump’s first trips to Mar-a-Lago during his first term, with the GAO estimating that each trip cost $3,383,250.

Roughly one-third of the figure was the round-trip flight cost of Air Force One, with additional expenses for flying down vehicles, including two presidential limousines and Trump’s motorcade.
Story by Yasmeen Hamadeh

President Donald Trump signed a landmark executive order Tuesday that would allow the White House to control independent agencies that have long operated outside of its influence.

The sweeping order, which claims to promote “Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch,” could affect independent agencies like the Federal Election Committee, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The order appears to be designed to test a once-fringe legal theory, dubbed the unitary executive theory, which holds that the president has sole control over the entire executive branch. It also reflects the growing influence of Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, who has long been a proponent of the unitary executive theory.

The order is sure to be swiftly met by legal challenges.

“Previous administrations have allowed so-called ‘independent regulatory agencies’ to operate with minimal Presidential supervision,” the order reads.

“These regulatory agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the President, and through him, to the American people,” it continued, adding that these practices undermine the agencies’ “accountability” to the nation and prohibit a “unified and coherent execution of Federal law.”
Story by Atlanta Black Star News

It’s the biggest fear of many never-Trumpers — that the Republican president will ignore the Constitution, the courts and Congress to reshape the executive branch into simply the executive, a single person lording over the government, immune from oversight, a monarchy without royalty.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump provided a window into his thinking with two social media posts that quoted the famous French general Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte named himself emperor and ruled as an authoritarian.

“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, and Elon Musk’s X platform on Saturday. Musk reposted it along with 14 American flag emojis, and The White House account on X also shared the message alongside Trump’s official presidential photograph.
Alison Durkee Forbes Staff

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Sunday to allow the firing of a top ethics official after lower courts blocked the move, the Associated Press reports—marking the first case of the second Trump administration to make it to the nation’s highest court, amid a slew of legal actions as Democrats and others fight Trump and cost-cutting czar Elon Musk.

The Treasury Department asked the Supreme Court to throw out a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked Trump’s firing of government ethics watchdog Hampton Dellinger, the AP reports, after District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Trump “plainly” violated the law by firing the ethics official.

The Trump administration went to the Supreme Court after a panel of judges at a D.C.-based federal appeals court ruled 2-1 to uphold the lower court’s ruling shielding Dellinger, whom former President Joe Biden appointed to a five-year term at the Office of Special Counsel, which handles issues like protecting whistleblowers against retaliation.

U.S. District Judge John Bates—whom Musk and his allies had previously been attacking for issuing an unfavorable opinion—sided with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and declined to issue a restraining order blocking DOGE from accessing information at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, as labor unions had asked for, with Bates swatting down the legal arguments the unions made even as he acknowledged his “serious concerns” about DOGE’s access to the data.
Story by David McAfee

Donald Trump on Saturday made a statement that stunned onlookers.

Trump posted the following comment on his social media:

"He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
Story by Rene Marsh and Ella Nilsen, CNN

Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers Thursday night at the National Nuclear Security Administration — the agency tasked with managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile — as part of broader Energy Department layoffs, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.

Sources told CNN the officials did not seem to know this agency oversees America’s nuclear weapons.

An Energy Department spokesperson disputed the number of personnel affected, telling CNN that “less than 50 people” were “dismissed” from NNSA, and that the dismissed staffers “held primarily administrative and clerical roles.”

The agency began rescinding the terminations Friday morning.

Some of the fired employees included NNSA staff who are on the ground at facilities where nuclear weapons are built. These staff oversee the contractors who build nuclear weapons, and they inspect these weapons.

It also included employees at NNSA headquarters who write requirements and guidelines for contractors who build nuclear weapons. A source told CNN they believe these individuals were fired because “no one has taken anytime to understand what we do and the importance of our work to the nation’s national security.”
Story by David McAfee

Donald Trump is threatening to turn the Supreme Court's biggest fear into a reality, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Trump and his officials have stirred controversy in recent weeks by flirting with the notion that they might defy lawful court orders, especially as it relates to Elon Musk's authority to make changes to the federal government.

In an article entitled, "Trump Will Force the Supreme Court to Face Its Biggest Fear Throughout US history," reporter Greg Stohr details the historical concerns about Presidents potentially ignoring lawful court orders. The "judiciary has worried that a president might simply ignore its decisions," according to Stohr.

"That age-old quandary is becoming newly relevant as Donald Trump tries to bulldoze his way through longstanding legal constraints in the opening weeks of his second term as president," Stohr reported. "As lawsuits over birthright citizenship, spending cuts and workforce purges make their way to the Supreme Court, the cases carry the potential for a genuine constitutional crisis. What happens, Chief Justice John Roberts must ask himself, if Trump loses and then defies the court?"
Story by Christian Boone

Elon Musk is many things, but self-aware is not one. Compassionate is another adjective that eludes one of the nation’s biggest recipients of federal contracts.

On Wednesday, Musk posted a meme on his social media platform, X, showing a blue-eyed young blond woman sporting a bright smile with the caption, “Watching Trump slash federal programs because it doesn’t affect you because you’re not a member of the ‘Parasite Class.'”

Musk wrote an accompanying message, “Why 90 percent of America loves @DOGE,” referencing the Department of Government Efficiency, which the tech billionaire leads.

Musk has live tweeted DOGE’s progress targeting what he terms as agencies fraught with government waste — posting nearly 200 times in a 24-hour period alone from Tuesday into Wednesday, according to a review by ABC News.

Musk has taken to the job with zeal, mocking detractors while musing about which agencies he’ll target next. He’s unleashed a group of Gen-Z’ers with names like “Big Balls” to conduct interviews with government workers forced to explain why they should keep their jobs.

He has relentlessly mocked his detractors, whether they be members of Congress or affected federal workers, and posted about which agencies he plans to target next. It suggests an ignorance of politics, as government aid beneficiaries include many members of the Trump coalition, like first-generation Missouri farmer Skylar Holden, who went viral this week after expressing regret for voting for Trump after the president froze certain Department of Agriculture spending.

Holder and many farmers like him depend on that funding to keep their farms afloat, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn’t said whether the freeze will be lifted. If Holder weren’t having second thoughts after that, being called a “parasite” likely would put him over the top. Many commenters were outraged by Musk’s latest meme.
Story by Niamh Kirk

Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hastily backtracked after dismissing top nuclear experts, a blunder that became apparent when The National Nuclear Safety Administration had to rehire them urgently. The firings were reversed on Friday following DOGE's oversight in not realising the agency's role in managing America's nuclear weapons before letting the employees go on Thursday.

The National Nuclear Safety Administration is now dealing with the repercussions of this "massive mistake", which has raised security concerns, as per reports. Insiders confided to CNN that the workers were let go because "no one had taken any time to understand what we do and the importance of our work to the nation's national security".

Around 400 NNSA staff at the Energy Department were reportedly axed as part of Musk's government cost-cutting initiatives, under presidential orders. Another source disclosed to CNN that Congress is "freaking out" over the fact that DOGE seemed unaware that the NNSA is in charge of the nuclear stockpile.
Story by Ben Burgis

DOGE’s slashing and burning has nothing to do with “efficiency” and everything to do with further enriching Elon Musk and his fellow plutocrats.

Last Friday, Elon Musk posted a succinct boast on the social media platform he owns. “CFPB RIP,” it said, along with an image of a tombstone. He was bragging that he had, at least for the moment, shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a regulatory agency that polices the business practices of plutocrats like him.

Musk is not just the richest man in the United States but the wealthiest person who’s ever lived. He also owns multiple companies that rake in billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government. And now, he has a major role in the Trump administration. How major? On Tuesday, he joined Trump for a press conference from the Oval Office where, for much of the event, Musk stood and spoke while Trump sat at his desk looking bored.

Musk’s formal position is an odd one. He heads something called “the Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). But DOGE is a department. Those have to be created by acts of Congress. Nor does it seem particularly focused on government efficiency. Instead, its freewheeling “audits” of various federal departments and agencies have amounted to a campaign of de facto budget cutting and deregulation not authorized by any legislation. Working together with acting secretaries and agency heads recently appointed by Trump, Musk’s DOGE has put a stop to congressionally authorized spending and fired (or put on leave, or ordered to halt all work) many thousands of federal employees.
Story by Julia Ornedo

President Donald Trump vowed to ship “the worst criminal aliens threatening America” to Guantanamo Bay. But even nonviolent, low-risk migrants have been detained on the remote island, according to CBS News.

Two U.S. officials who spoke anonymously to CBS News, along with internal government documents, indicated that migrants deemed “low-risk” were being sent to Guantanamo Bay along with “high-risk” individuals such as those with criminal records or ties to gangs.

Government guidelines define “low-risk” migrants as those who face deportation because they are in the U.S. illegally but otherwise have not been accused or convicted of violent or serious crimes.

High-risk detainees have reportedly been locked up in cells at Guantanamo’s maximum-security prison while low-risk migrants were taken to a barrack-like facility called the Migrant Operations Center, which includes rooms with restrooms. It was typically used to house asylum seekers.
Story by Brad Reed

Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) on Wednesday let loose on Republicans for giving X owner Elon Musk a pass when it comes to government waste.

During a House Department of Government Efficiency hearing, Casar slammed Musk and Trump for firing inspectors general who have traditionally overseen internal investigations into executive branch offices.

What's more, Casar argued that this was particularly dangerous given the massive government contracts that Musk's company SpaceX has with the federal government.

"You know what Elon Musk doesn't seem to be looking into?" he asked rhetorically. "His own contracts!"
Story by Uday Rana

Donald Trump is going to impose reciprocal tariffs on Thursday afternoon, the U.S. president said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“NEWS CONFERENCE ON RECIPROCAL TARIFFS TODAY, 1:00 P.M., THE OVAL OFFICE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump said in the post.

He posted earlier in the day, saying it was going to be a “big one."

“THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER, BUT TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Trump on Monday signed a pair of executive orders that will impose 25 per cent tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on March 12, with no exceptions or exemptions.

“It’s a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again,” Trump said as he signed the orders in the Oval Office.

Dem Rep. Greg Casar pointed out today that Elon Musk is getting paid $8 million per day due to his government contracts. Chris Hayes is joined by Alex Wagner to discuss that and more.
Story by Sophie Clark

The judge who said that Donald Trump's administration had ignored his court order to restart the flow of federal funds, has had articles of impeachment drafted against him.

U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr., told the White House that it must abide by the preliminary injunction to halt its funding freeze.

Representative Andrew Clyne, a Republican, has announced on X (formerly Twitter) is drafting articles of impeachment, accusing the judge of being a "partisan activist."

Clyne and McConnell have been contacted for comment via email.

Why It Matters
Clyne said McConnell should be impeached because he is a "partisan activist." Federal judges, who are appointed for life, can only be impeached if they are accused of "treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors."

If he McConnell is successfully impeached and then convicted by the Senate, it will set a precedent that blocking the President's actions in court is akin to treason.

What To Know
In January, 23 Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) sued the Trump administration over its federal funding freeze.

Although the White House has said it is going to appeal the ruling which went in favor of the state AGs who said that the freeze was unconstitutional, it does have to obey it by returning federal funding to its pre-Trump levels.

McConnell, who was the presiding judge in the original funding case, found that the administration had not been complying with his order on Monday, despite the president saying that he would comply with court orders.
Story by Jennifer Bowers Bahney

Maryland lawmaker Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said Wednesday that he regrets voting to confirm former Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as secretary of state, especially now that Rubio is enthusiastically supporting Trump's proposal to take over Gaza and turn it into a resort.

Van Hollen told CNN's Phil Mattingly he was appalled that Trump pressed the Gaza issue in front of King Abdullah of Jordan on Tuesday.

"What the president has done is, he has lit a fire and thrown it on a keg of gasoline," Van Hollen said. "Because what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in the Middle East, is already a tinderbox. It's already on fire, and what he is doing is going to spread that fire. He has essentially called for what amounts to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the forced removal of two million Palestinians to other areas."

President Donald Trump was seemingly unaware of his self-own while describing Hamas as “bullies.”
Jesse Dollemore

Jesse talks about reporting about all the damage being done to red states in the clean energy sector, where billions of dollars worth of contracts and payments are being canceled because of Project 2025 and Donald Trump.
Roland S. Martin

A North Carolina woman who voted for the twice impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald "The Con" Trump says she regrets her decision because she now understands he's a liar.
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