Judge orders administration to preserve Signal messages; Trump withdraws Elise Stefanik's U.N. nomination

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has had one public face since late January: tech billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk, who posts nearly constantly about DOGE on social media and has given several media interviews about its budget-slashing effort.

Musk said as recently as last month that it was a “crime” to publicly name other people who worked at DOGE, and his strict secrecy helped to keep DOGE employees out of the spotlight, even as they went about radically remaking the federal government and trying to dismantle entire agencies.

But in a switch, Musk introduced a few other faces Thursday in a group interview on Fox News that featured some of his chief lieutenants. They included DOGE staffers who have worked quietly behind the scenes to upend key components of the U.S. government such as the Treasury Department and the Social Security Administration.

Seven DOGE employees participated in the interview on “Special Report” hosted by Bret Baier, and it was by far their most extensive public comments since President Donald Trump began his second term Jan. 20.

Read the full story here.

Trump tonight repeatedly thanked "Muslim friends" in Michigan who contributed to his election victory in November, but made no mention of the war in Gaza during his remarks at the White House's Iftar dinner commemorating Ramadan.

“I also want to extend a very special thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Muslim Americans who supported us in record numbers in the 2024 presidential election," Trump said. "It was incredible. We started a little slow with you, but we came along. And by the time that election was finished, we figured we -- we went up like a rocket ship."

A federal worker accidentally includes a journalist on a detailed message in advance of a government operation.

While that sounds like the case of The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief being added to a group Signal chat by Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed military attack plans in Yemen, it’s not.

It’s what happened to a longtime Department of Homeland Security employee who told colleagues she inadvertently sent unclassified details of an upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation to a journalist in late January, according to former ICE chief of staff Jason Houser, one former DHS official and one current DHS official. (The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they do not want to endanger their current or future career opportunities.)

But unlike Waltz and Hegseth, who both remain in their jobs, the career DHS employee was put on administrative leave and told late last week that the agency intends to revoke her security clearance, the officials said.

Read the full story here.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a letter today that the Trump administration is not following the law in adhering to the funding levels set in the recently passed government funding bill.

“Regardless of our views on the Fiscal Responsibility Act and accompanying implementation agreement, it is incumbent on all of us to follow the law as written—not as we would like it to be,” the senators wrote in their letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

Trump signed an executive order today suspending the security clearances for employees at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP which previously employed Robert Mueller, a special counsel who led the Russia investigation after the 2016 presidential election.

“Security clearances held by WilmerHale employees will be immediately suspended, pending a review of whether their access to sensitive information is consistent with the national interest,” the order states. “Federal Agencies will also refrain from hiring WilmerHale employees unless specifically authorized.”

The order accuses the firm of engaging in "obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends, supports efforts to discriminate on the basis of race, backs the obstruction of efforts to prevent illegal aliens from committing horrific crimes and trafficking deadly drugs within our borders, and furthers the degradation of the quality of American elections, including by supporting efforts designed to enable noncitizens to vote."

The federal government will also end its contracts with the firm, the order says.

A WilmerHale spokesperson said in a statement that the firm was aware of reports on the order, which it likened to an executive order targeting another high-profile law firm, Perkins Coie. A federal judge recently granted a restraining order blocking parts of that order.

Trump signed an executive order today directing Vice President JD Vance to eliminate "improper, divisive, or anti-American" ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.

"Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive," the order reads.

Trump accused the Biden administration of advancing "corrosive ideology" at the museums, specifically naming a few Smithsonian properties in his order that he said perpetuated "divisive" and "race-centered" ideas.

Musk today defended his harsh criticism of Sen. Mark Kelly on social media from earlier this month after the Arizona Democrat made a visit to Ukraine amid its war with Russia.

"We should care about the interests of the United States above the interests of another country — if they don't, they're a traitor," Musk said in a Fox News interview.

Musk had called Kelly a "traitor" in a post on X this month when the Navy combat veteran urged continued U.S. support for Ukraine following his visit to the country shortly after the Trump administration paused military aid to Ukraine that has since resumed.

Musk said during a Fox News interview that aired this evening that "almost no one" in the federal government has been fired amid the Department of Government Efficiency's effort to slash spending.

"Basically, almost no one has gotten fired, is what we're saying," Musk told host Bret Baier.

Musk made the comment after a DOGE staffer told Baier that very few federal workers had received what are known as reduction-in-force notices.

Earlier today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it plans to cut 10,000 full-time jobs as part of the White House’s “reduction in force” efforts. The firing and subsequent rehiring of thousands of other federal workers has created widespread confusion among government employees.

Trump signed an executive order today establishing a task force comprising key government agencies that will work to increase law enforcement presence in Washington, D.C., and "restore and beautify" federal buildings and monuments in the city.

The task force is directed to surge law enforcement in public areas and strictly enforce laws regarding drug use, vandalism and unpermitted demonstrations; maximize immigration enforcement to apprehend and deport immigrants in the country illegally; expedite concealed carry licenses for citizens and crack down on fare evasion on the D.C. metro.

Trump's order also authorizes the creation of a program to "restore and beautify" federal buildings, monuments, statues, memorials, parks, and roadways, remove graffiti from commonly visited areas, and ensure the cleanliness of public spaces and parks.