What Trump and Congress are doing today
- A federal judge this afternoon temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's freeze on all federal foreign and domestic aid. The White House argues a funding pause is needed to let agencies conduct reviews to ensure spending aligns with the president's agenda.
- The administration's move drew fire from numerous Democrats and some Republicans — as officials struggle to determine what the impact would be. The effort to halt the aid comes amid a continued barrage of executive orders reversing Biden administration policies and a major effort by immigration enforcement agencies to carry out Trump's mass deportation plans.
- Federal workers began receiving payout offers from the Trump administration. A senior administration official told NBC News that the administration expects up to 10% of the federal workforce to leave.
- The Senate confirmed Trump's nominee for transportation secretary, former Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., this afternoon.
Coverage of this liveblog has ended. For the latest news, click here.
Republicans are in their honeymoon phase. But big clashes over Trump’s agenda are unresolved.
Ebullient House Republicans gathered here this week at Trump’s eponymous golf club in sunny South Florida to toast the president, Vice President JD Vance and the party’s takeover of the federal government.
But it’s a question of when — not whether — the honeymoon will end.
During a three-day policy retreat at Trump National Doral Miami, Trump, Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other top Republican leaders largely avoided getting into the weeds of how they plan to pass a sweeping package that will be the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agenda or how to pay for it.
Trump says he asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to retrieve stranded astronauts
Trump said tonight on Truth Social that he asked tech billionaire Elon Musk and his SpaceX company to retrieve two NASA astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station since the summer.
“I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to 'go get' the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration," Trump wrote. "They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe."
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been at the International Space Station since their Boeing spacecraft encountered problems midflight in June.
NASA said tonight that the astronauts "are currently slated to return to Earth in March aboard a Dragon spacecraft already docked to the International Space Station."
"Our goal remains to bring the crew home as soon as possible based on space station operations and a critical crew handover for the agency’s Crew-10 mission. We will continue to coordinate with SpaceX on mission operations and provide a return date later,” NASA said in a statement.
NASA had announced last month that the spacecraft tasked with bringing the astronauts home would be ready to launch “no earlier than late March 2025,” pushing back a February launch date.
Tim Walz rebukes Trump administration over funding freeze directive
In his first interview since the election, former Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, rebuked the Trump administration over its directive to freeze federal funds to states and nonprofit groups.
Walz told MSNBC that he expects the freeze to hit red states hard and that some of them will “pay the price” more than his state would. He also chastised Republican governors who have not spoken out against the freeze.
“The deafening silence of Republican governors, these are my colleagues, some of them are my friends, but shame on you. You know what this is doing. And look, I come from a wealthy state that has the lowest childhood poverty rates, and we have a strong safety net. I guarantee you, these Republican states would pay the price more than us, and they’re just silent on it,” Walz said on "The Rachel Maddow Show."
Some Republican governors, such as Louisiana's Jeff Landry and New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, have raised some concerns about the freeze, but others, like Virginia's Glenn Youngkin, have praised Trump’s move.
As a federal judge temporarily halted Trump’s federal funding freeze, NBC News’ Ellison Barber talks to California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Meals on Wheels CEO Ellie Hollander about the impacts of a potential freeze.
Democrats removed from the EEOC by Trump say they're considering legal options
Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, two of three Democrats serving on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said today that they are considering legal options after they received emails last night from the White House informing them that Trump was removing them from their roles.
"Removing me, along with Commissioner Samuels, well before the expiration of our terms is unprecedented and will undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws," Burrows said in a statement.
Samuels similarly referred to the move as "unprecedented" in a statement on X that contended her termination was unlawful and that work to protect employees from unlawful discrimination "is an American value; it is not — and should not be — a partisan issue."
The termination "represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency — one that is not controlled by a single Cabinet secretary but operates as a multi-member body whose varying views are baked into the Commission’s design,” Samuels added.
Both commissioners’ terms were not set to expire this year.
Burrows was first appointed to the commission in 2015 and was confirmed by the Senate to serve a third term, expiring in 2028. Samuels, whom Trump appointed to the commission in 2020, was serving a second term that was set to expire in 2026.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, criticized Trump for "taking an axe to longstanding civil rights protections."
"These brazen firings undermine not only the will of Congress but these agencies’ critical work fighting on behalf of workers across the country," Murray said in a statement today.
Trump allies coast in special House primary to fill vacant Florida seats
A pair of Trump-endorsed Republicans easily won a pair of special House primaries today in Florida, setting them up to fill two vacant, deep-red seats and pad the party’s slim House majority.
The Associated Press projected the primary in Florida’s 6th District for state Sen. Randy Fine shortly after polls closed in the district at 7 p.m. ET, with Fine taking more than 80% of the GOP primary vote.
State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis had more than two-thirds support in the GOP primary in the 1st District when the AP called his race soon after 8 p.m. ET, easily outpacing a crowded field of candidates.
Trump administration may pull money from TSA, Coast Guard to help ICE afford costly deportations
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the principal agency tasked with carrying out Trump’s promise of mass deportations, faces a budget shortfall, and Trump administration officials are considering pulling funding from the Transportation Security Administration to make up for it, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
The administration is also looking at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Coast Guard as possible areas from which to take money to give ICE.
The executive branch is allowed to move money appropriated by Congress from one agency to another within a department, and the Trump administration would not be the first to do so to make up for an ICE budget shortfall.
Netanyahu to meet with Trump at the White House next week
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first foreign leader to meet with Trump during his second term with a trip to the White House next week.
A White House official confirmed to NBC News that Trump had extended an invitation to Netanyahu and that he accepted. Netanyahu’s office said they agreed to meet Feb. 4.
“I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries,” Trump wrote in a letter to Netanyahu today.
Republicans largely back Trump’s attempted federal aid freeze — with some notes of caution
Elected Republicans in Washington and around the country largely supported the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze federal aid programs amid the chaos and confusion sparked by the budget office’s sweeping directive.
Across the board, GOP members of Congress and governors generally said that they backed the idea of reviewing federal spending and that the order was in line with Trump’s campaign promises. Still, a few said it was important for the White House to provide more clarity to ensure certain services weren’t affected.
“This is not unusual for an administration to pause funding and to take a hard look and scrub of how these programs are being spent and how they interact with a lot of the executive orders that the president signed,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters when he was asked whether Republicans plan to accept Trump’s move or assert the power of the purse given to Congress.
Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair: Funding freeze is 'rooted in racism'
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said today that the Trump administration's funding freeze stems from "a contempt" for "underprivileged communities."
“Following the Trump Administration’s most recent attack on families, minority communities, students, and seniors is not only flagrantly illegal but is inherently rooted in racism and a contempt for our nation’s most underprivileged communities," Espaillat said in a statement. "We will not remain silent in the face of such flagrant disregard for the fundamental values and ideals of who we are as a nation.
"This latest, illegal OMB memo issued by Trump is an incitement and chaos move, which again proves that President Trump and Republicans are intent on prioritizing the interest of billionaires and corporations over those of working families, minority communities, students, and seniors," he added.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Espaillat's statement.