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."

Trump over-performed with several minority groups in the 2024 election, including Arab American voters in battleground Michigan, where frustration over the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza contributed to low turnout for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

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.

"Our firm has a longstanding tradition of representing a wide range of clients, including in matters against administrations of both parties. The Executive Order references Robert Mueller, who retired from our firm in 2021, and had a long, distinguished career in public service, from his time as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam to his leadership of the FBI in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks," the spokesperson said. "We look forward to pursuing all appropriate remedies to this unlawful 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.

Vance, who is a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, will also be tasked with working with congressional leaders to appoint new members to the board who are “committed to advancing the celebration of America’s extraordinary heritage and progress.”

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.

Kelly responded to Musk at the time by telling reporters that he has "sworn an oath to this country. I’ve flown in combat. I served in the Navy for 25 years."

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.

This creation of the task force comes as Trump and congressional Republicans have more aggressively scrutinized the performance of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat. Trump last month directed Bowser to clear homeless encampments near federal buildings.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden said this afternoon that he intends to issue an order in the coming days in a case that focuses on The Associated Press’ access — or lack thereof — to the White House.

During oral arguments, the judge appeared to be of the mind that the decision by the Trump White House to ban the AP from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other locations has not changed the news organization's free speech rights. McFadden also said he doesn’t believe other news organizations are impacted because of the lack of everyday access by the AP.

After a declaration from White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich that indicated the AP was eligible to attend events in the Oval Office or East Room or elsewhere, Brian Hudak from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., put it another way.

“AP is eligible; they are not being selected,” Hudak said. “I am eligible to be drafted by the Washington Nationals,” but have not been selected, he added.

The Department of Education started an investigation today into a new California law that bars public schools from disclosing to parents the sexual orientation of their children.

If the three-month-old law were to be found in violation of federal rules and the Trump administration acted on threats to withhold funding, the state could lose up to $7.9 billion, California Department of Education officials said.

The investigation is the latest move by the Trump administration to address gender identity and sexual orientation in schools and beyond. In January, Trump signed an executive order saying the U.S. would recognize only two sexes, male and female.

At issue is California Assembly Bill 1955, which prohibits schools and their staffs from disclosing a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Read the full story here.

During a Fox News interview that aired this evening, Musk said that "legitimate" people will receive more Social Security benefits due to the Department of Government Efficiency's actions at the Social Security Administration.

"What we're doing will help their benefits. Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less," Musk told host Bret Baier. "Let the record show that I said this and the it will be proven out to be true. Let's check back on this in the future."

The comments came in response to a question from Baier about how DOGE can reassure Americans who are concerned about cuts to the Social Security Administration under the Trump administration.

NBC News previously reported on DOGE's efforts to shrink the Social Security Administration by shuttering offices and no longer permitting certain account changes to be made by phone. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said this week that "fewer people will get benefits" due to DOGE's actions.

A congressional delegation led by the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee will tour the naval base in Guantanamo Bay tomorrow to conduct oversight of migrant relocations to the detention facility.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., will lead the delegation consisting of Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Angus King, I-Maine; and Gary Peters, D-Mich.

According to a news release from Padilla's office, the group will get a firsthand look at operations and  "examine the costs and military readiness impacts of these missions."

Last month, the facility received the first batch of immigrants the Trump administration considered high risk. But U.S. officials are now reviewing plans to pare down staffing at the facility due to high costs and ongoing legal challenges.

Democratic senators said at a hearing today that the Trump administration is undermining its own goal of addressing antisemitism on college campuses by firing the federal staffers who investigate civil rights issues in schools.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has opened dozens of investigations into colleges as part of an effort to wipe out antisemitism at universities. It also took the unprecedented step of canceling $400 million in research funding for Columbia University on the grounds that it had not done enough to combat discrimination against Jewish students; after that, the school agreed to change some of its policies.

At the same time, however, the Education Department terminated half the staff in its Office for Civil Rights, the congressionally mandated arm of the agency that investigates failures by schools to address discrimination. As of mid-January, the office had 12,000 open investigations, but it recently stopped updating its list of pending cases.

At a hearing about campus antisemitism held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said slashing staff at the Office for Civil Rights while trying to crack down on discrimination is like axing the fire department while trying to fight fires.

Read the full story here.

A federal judge today ordered Trump administration agencies involved in the group chat about the attack on Yemen to “preserve all Signal communications between March 11 and March 15.” 

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg directed the government to provide him a status report by Monday laying out what steps they've taken to preserve the records.

Boasberg issued the order after the watchdog group American Oversight sued to make sure the records are preserved. He noted that the group is not seeking the messages, many of which were disclosed after the editor of The Atlantic was included in the group chat.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is scheduled to join the U.S. delegation traveling to Greenland tomorrow as Trump ramps up calls to move the Danish island territory under U.S. control.

Lee will accompany Vice President JD Vance, who announced his plans to join the trip this week, and second lady Usha Vance on their visit to Pituffik Space Base, the northernmost Defense Department post. National security adviser Michael Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also join the trip.

The delegation will get a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with U.S. service members at the base, according to a news release.

Trump expressed frustration with national security adviser Michael Waltz in his conversations today about his decision to withdraw Stefanik’s nomination to be the U.N. ambassador, according to two GOP sources with knowledge of the conversations.

Trump’s frustration is twofold, the sources said. First, he is angry that Waltz fumbled the Signal group chat and created a multiday controversy for the White House. Second, Trump is annoyed that the race to replace Waltz’s House seat in Florida is shaping up to be tighter than it should be for Republicans — an opportunity that opened up only because Trump selected Waltz for the national security job.

Even though GOP leaders are confident the Republican candidate in the special election, Randy Fine, will win, Trump is still worried that the optics are fueling a negative narrative and making Republicans look bad, the sources said. Trump is doing a tele-town hall for both Republican special election candidates tonight.

Read more here.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Trump withdrew his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations because "the extremists are afraid they will lose the special election to replace her.”

"Donald Trump won the Elise Stefanik district by 21 points in November 2024. He withdrew her nomination to be U.N. Ambassador because the extremists are afraid they will lose the special election to replace her. The Republican agenda is extremely unpopular, they are crashing the economy in real time and House Republicans are running scared. What happened to their so-called mandate?" Jeffries said in a statement his office published shortly after the White House pulled the nomination.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he pulled the nomination of Stefanik, whom he has called one of his biggest allies in Congress, because "it is essential that we maintain EVERY Republican Seat in Congress." He cited the slim majority Republicans hold in the House.

In remarks to reporters today, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced Trump's 25% tariffs on imported automobiles as "unjustified."

"Yesterday, in the latest salvo in his trade war, President Trump again imposed unjustified tariffs on our nation in violation of our existing trade agreements," Carney said.

"Our response to these latest tariffs is to fight, is to protect and to build. We will fight the U.S. tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impacts in the United States," he added.

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signed a bill into law that will phase out the state’s universal vote-by-mail system.

Under the new law, registered voters will have to opt in to receive mail-in ballots instead of automatically receiving them, starting in 2029. Voting rights advocates said it is the first time a state has rolled back a universal mail-in voting policy.

Read the full story here.

With the White House's decision to withdraw the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.N. ambassador, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said this afternoon that he'll invite her to return to the GOP leadership table immediately.

"Elise Stefanik is truly a great leader and a devoted patriot. Today’s selfless decision shows America what those of us who work with her already know," Johnson said on X. "She is deeply devoted to her country and fully committed to see President Trump’s agenda succeed in Congress. It is well known Republicans have a razor-thin House majority, and Elise’s agreement to withdraw her nomination will allow us to keep one of the toughest, most resolute members of our Conference in place to help drive forward President Trump’s America First policies."

The Trump administration is still grappling with the revelation Monday that several senior officials discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen in a Signal chat that inadvertently included The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

But as the fallout continues and some Trump allies call for national security adviser Michael Waltz, who Goldberg said added him to the chat, to be fired, members of the Trump administration have defended the participants.

A key remaining question is whether any classified information was posted in the chat, which the administration denies. Still, Democrats and former national security officials claim detailed plans Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent in the group ahead of the attacks should have been considered classified.

In response to a request for comment, the White House deferred to Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s previous remarks.

Read the full story here.

Just 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, in Nuuk, the world’s northernmost capital, locals were preparing to receive Vance with what they were calling the “Arctic cold shoulder,” a nod to the diplomatic fallout sparked by Trump’s repeated suggestions that the United States should take over Greenland.  

“We have always looked at America like the nice big brother to help you out, and now it’s like the big brother in bullying you,” Anders Laursen, 41, the owner of a local water taxi company, said today.  

"Growing up, you see Hollywood movies, all the heroes, and then you feel backstabbed and you feel like an ally that’s just gone the other way round, and you’re like, ‘This can’t be happening; this is not the America we knew,’” Laursen said. 

Both the length of the trip and its itinerary have changed since Sunday’s announcement that second lady Usha Vance would visit Greenland along with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and national security adviser Michael Waltz — who has been under fire in recent days for having added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the Signal group chat that detailed U.S. airstrike plans on Yemen. 

Read the full story here.

Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Democratic Federal Trade Commission members whom Trump fired this month, filed a joint lawsuit challenging the administration over the legality of their firings. 

Bedoya and Slaughter argue in the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today, that their dismissals without cause violate a nearly 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent that insulates commissioners at the FTC and other regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, from being fired for political reasons. 

“We make rules that require tech companies to protect children’s privacy online. We promote competition in the pharmaceutical industry to drive prices down,” Slaughter said in a statement this afternoon. “And we can do all of this because the FTC can’t be bought with campaign contributions or bullied by politicians.” 

Trump is preparing to pull the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, according to one congressional source and another GOP source familiar with the matter. 

The move comes amid ongoing concerns about House Republicans’ razor-thin majority. It marks a significant blow to Stefanik, a Trump loyalist and rising star in the party

Read the full story.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said today that she was “puzzled” by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's minimization of the administration's revelation of military plans to a journalist.

Gabbard should have said “this never should have happened, we made a major error,” Collins told NBC News.

The moderate Republican said she’s “frustrated” with her and other top officials’ refusal to acknowledge they made a mistake. NBC News spoke with Collins and other Republican senators about the call for a Pentagon inspector general investigation into top Trump officials' Signal chat about U.S. military strikes in Yemen, which inadvertently included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

Collins also expressed concerns about one of the top officials on the chat, special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, having been in Russia at the time of the discussion.

During a bilateral press conference in Georgetown, Guyana, with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration's decision to detain Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national who was studying at Tufts University on an F-1 visa.

"I think it’s crazy, I think it’s stupid, for any country in the world to welcome people into your country that are going to go to universities as visitors, they’re visitors, and say, ‘I’m going to your universities to start a riot. I’m going to your universities to take over a library and harass people,'" Rubio told reporters.

He added, "I don’t care what movement you’re involved in. Why would any country in the world allow people to come in and disrupt? We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to be a social activist that comes in and tears up our university campuses."

This morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed the claim by other Trump administration officials that the information shared in the Signal chat that The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg seemed to be inadvertently invited to was not classified.

While talking to reporters in Manassas, Virginia, about the arrest of an alleged gang member, Bondi was asked if the Department of Justice is involved in the Signal chat controversy.

Bondi didn't answer the question, but said, "It was sensitive info — not classified — and inadvertently released. What we should be talking about is it was a very successful mission. Our world is now safer because of that mission. We’re not going to comment any further on that."

During a Senate hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., criticized recent arrests by immigration officials of student activists at Columbia, Georgetown and Tufts universities.

“We have a president arresting people because he disagrees with their constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression and that imperils the basic democratic principles, among which all of our freedoms relies,” Markey said.

Moments later, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called Markey’s comments “insane” and got into a heated back-and-forth with Kenneth S. Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate.

Hawley challenged Stern for saying that the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student, represented a form of "McCarthyism," referring to the senator who led a widely condemned crusade in the 1950s to ostracize people accused of supporting communism.

Colorado's Democratic Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, warned Trump's executive order that seeks to strip states of their power to make key decisions in how they administer federal elections is likely to face litigation over its constitutionality.

"I call it likely unlawful because President Trump is trying to grab power that he does not have," Griswold, who was first elected in 2018 as the youngest State Secretary in the country, said. "Look, a president can’t just grab power from Congress and dictate the national law of the land. That’s not how this country works."

Griswold pointed to demands in the order, called the Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, that would alter the national voter registration form to require voters to provide documented proof of their U.S. citizenship before casting a ballot in federal elections. The order also threatens to withhold the federal funding states rely on to safely and securely administer elections if they do not comply with its provisions.

Trump’s immigration policies were deeply unpopular in his first term. Now, immigration is the area in which voters most approve of his second-term performance.

Trump’s advisers are betting that his gamble on tariffs will pay off in a similar way in time, rewriting the political rules, as well as global rules, to the United States’ lasting advantage, they say — even as Trump faces broad skepticism over the issue in current polling.

Read the full story.

Trump is participating in two telephone town halls this evening with Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and state Sen. Randy Fine, the Republican candidates competing in the special congressional elections Tuesday.

"Hear from the President on why the election for CD-1 is so important to not only families in the Panhandle BUT the entire nation!" Patronis posted on X, encouraging his supporters to dial into the tele-town hall. Patronis is vying to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida's 1st Congressional District, which Gaetz and Trump easily carried in November.

The district is deeply Republican, but Patronis' Democratic opponent, gun control activist Gay Valimont, has swamped him in fundraising. Valimont, who also lost to Gaetz in November, has spent millions on the race. Patronis has received some help in the final days from outside groups, including Elon Musk's super PAC.

Fine is vying to replace former GOP Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser in Florida's 6th Congressional District, but he has raised some concerns among GOP leaders because of his lackluster fundraising compared to his Democratic opponent, teacher Josh Weil.

"This is your chance to hear directly from me and President Trump what is at stake this election and why we NEED YOUR VOTE on April 1st!" Fine posted on X.

New Politics, a group focused on supporting candidates from service backgrounds, is launching a multimillion-dollar effort to recruit thousands of candidates over the next four years. And the congressman co-chairing the effort said it comes as the country faces “a crisis moment in political leadership.”

“When I talk to my constituents, they sense that we have a fundamental lack of leadership in the country right now and are desperate for integrity and courage and authenticity and candor and honesty, and they’re not feeling that,” Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., said in an interview. “It’s the exception rather than the rule in both parties.”

Read the full story.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter today requesting the Defense Department’s acting inspector general to launch an investigation into the leaked Signal chat about U.S. military strikes in Yemen.

The letter raises concerns over the nature of the information shared in the group chat, asking for an assessment of whether the senior Trump administration officials adhered to the department’s classification and declassification policies.

“This chat was alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen. If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know,” the senators wrote.

The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to schedule a briefing with acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins following the completion of his review, they said.

Trump is reiterating his desire for the United States to acquire Greenland ahead of a high-profile trip by Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, who arrive tomorrow. It originally was supposed to be a cultural visit for the second lady, but now the trip has a sharper focus on national security. NBC’s Molly Hunter reports for "TODAY" from Nuuk.

Next week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race is emerging as the first big test of Democrats’ anti-Elon Musk strategy as the party searches for a winning message following its loss to Trump last November.

Trump’s billionaire adviser has been a major player in the technically nonpartisan judicial race: Musk’s super PAC has emerged as the top spender in the contest and has offered $100 to Wisconsin voters to sign a petition to oppose “activist judges,” while he often posts about the election on his X feed. 

Between that and his polarizing efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency to slash the size of the federal government — and polling that shows he’s less popular than Trump, who endorsed conservative candidate Brad Schimel last week — Democratic-aligned groups and liberal candidate Susan Crawford have made Musk a major focal point in the race’s final stretch.

It’s a playbook that Democrats could seek to replicate elsewhere if it’s successful in one of the country’s tightest battleground states.

Read the full story here.

The Department of Government Efficiency website's lease termination listings for as many as eight Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offices is raising questions from Congress about whether the terminations flouted standard protocol.

A group of House Democrats sent a letter yesterday to acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, whom Trump renominated for another five-year term this week, urging the agency to “reverse course on any plan to terminate leases at EEOC’s field offices.”

The letter also says the lease terminations are “deeply concerning” because the independent agency is without a quorum to approve any changes. Trump fired two Democratic commissioners in January, leaving the anti-discrimination watchdog agency with just two remaining commissioners.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced this morning that it is cutting 10,000 more employees from its workforce, which will shrink from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees when combined with other HHS layoffs.

The cuts will save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually as part of a "dramatic restructuring" that will "streamline the functions" of HHS, the department said.

TECOLUCA, El Salvador — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.

Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”

Read the full story here

A federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration's request to pause a lower court's order to reinstate probationary employees.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup had previously ruled that thousands of fired probationary employees must be reinstated. In a two-to-one decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government's request for an emergency stay of Alsup's orders while appeals are underway.

The government has also asked the Supreme Court to pause Alsup's order, although the high court has not yet weighed in.

Trump issued an overnight threat to place “far larger” tariffs on the European Union and Canada than planned if they work together to retaliate in response to his tariffs.

“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Read the full story.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., lashed out at a reporter from Britain at a news conference yesterday, telling her to “go back to your country.”

Greene made the remarks after Sky News correspondent Martha Kelner attempted to ask about the leaked Signal chat about U.S. military strikes on Yemen. (NBC and Sky News are both owned by Comcast.)

“Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem?” Greene said before Kelner could finish her question. “We don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting.”

Former senior national security officials and Democratic lawmakers rejected yesterday the Trump administration’s continued assertion that detailed U.S. airstrike plans inadvertently shared with a journalist were not classified.

They cited The Atlantic’s publication of a full transcript of the Signal text exchange in which the administration’s top national security officials discussed planned U.S. airstrikes in Yemen.

Read the full story.

The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg released the entire text chain of messages from a group chat he was mistakenly added to that included Vice President JD Vance and nearly all of the Trump administration senior national security leaders in a discussion of sensitive military plans. It comes as more Republicans are pressing for an investigation, with the White House remaining defiant in the face of mounting backlash. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for "TODAY."

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is holding a hearing this morning to address antisemitic attacks and harassment against Jewish students on college campuses.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the committee, introduced legislation in January that would penalize colleges that do not adequately combat discrimination due to heritage and better teach students how to report alleged civil rights violations.

The hearing comes as the Trump administration aggressively targets alleged incidents of antisemitism at schools, using them in part to justify the deportation of several foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests last year.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon this month threatened 60 colleges with “potential enforcement actions” if they failed to sufficiently protect the Jewish students on their respective campuses.

Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders this afternoon in the Oval Office, according to the White House.

The new directives from Trump come after he signed orders this week to place new tariffs on U.S. automobile imports and implement new guidelines on federal elections. While announcing the auto tariffs at the White House yesterday, Trump told reporters he planned to implement additional tariffs over the next week.

“We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back,” Trump said, adding “we will be putting a tariff on lumber.”