Funding freeze sparks Democratic uproar as party grapples with how to take on Trump
CNN
Donald Trump’s move to pause trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans awakened widespread Democratic resistance to the new president’s second term that was felt Tuesday on Capitol Hill, in governors’ offices and in the race to helm the party’s national committee.
Donald Trump’s move to pause trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans awakened widespread Democratic resistance to the new president’s second term that was felt Tuesday on Capitol Hill, in governors’ offices and in the race to helm the party’s national committee. A federal judge on Tuesday blocked part of the White House budget office’s Monday night order to freeze federal aid — but only with a temporary order in place until February 3. The reach of the administration’s order created immediate confusion and Trump’s administration spent the day trying to tamp down fears that the temporary freeze applied to public benefit programs like Medicaid, even while states’ federal funding portals stopped working Tuesday. (They started to regain access to the system in the afternoon.) But the Trump budget office’s move lit a spark under Democratic officials in a way other moves of his first week back in office had not, even leading some Democrats to change the way they were voting on the president’s Cabinet nominees. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has sought to position himself as a progressive firewall against Trump in his blue state and is widely seen as one of a long list of Democrats who could seek the presidency in 2028, cast doubt on the Medicaid outage being incidental, and said federal agencies had canceled meetings scheduled for this week with state officials. He told reporters Tuesday that the Trump administration “is lying to you” or is “critically incompetent.” “What the president is trying to do is illegal,” Pritzker said, vowing to fight the White House in court. “The Trump administration is trying to confuse the American people. That’s why it’s so important that we speak plainly.”
A Peruvian fisherman has been found alive in the Pacific Ocean after spending 95 days lost at sea, Peru’s state news agency Andina reported Saturday.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s ability to use a sweeping wartime authority to quickly deport some migrants whom the US has accused of being affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
President Trump says he has ordered a “decisive” military action against Houthi rebels in Yemen, opening a new salvo against the Iran-backed group that has targeted shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
Trump’s return was widely seen as a harbinger of a second populist wave that would oust establishment figures all over the west. But a backlash against “America First” mayhem has lifted leaders seeking to operate in the political middle, like Canada’s Mark Carney.
Democrats have long found the flip phone Chuck Schumer still insists on using as an endearing quirk that illustrates how committed he is to his way of talking to all sorts of allies, all the time.
A powerful storm system roared across the Midwest and South Friday night, unleashing a series of tornadoes that carved paths of destruction and left at least three dead in Missouri.
An executive order from Trump denying federal funding for providers of gender-affirming health care for minors threatens to upend care for many people. A Trump voter says he agrees with the president on everything but trans issues.
The chaos at the Internal Revenue Service began almost immediately after the first envoy from the Department of Government Efficiency arrived last month at the agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters.
Cuba is suffering a nationwide blackout after its national power grid collapsed, leaving more than 10 million people in the dark.
Cuba’s power grid collapsed Friday night, triggering a nationwide power outage and plunging more than 10 million people into darkness.
A federal appeals court will allow the Trump administration to implement directives from the president cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as an appeal of a ruling pausing those orders plays out.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said that South Africa’s ambassador to the United States “is no longer welcome in our great country.”
The Trump administration is tightening its grip on efforts to quash pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, even as a protest over the detention of activist Mahmoud Khalil flared at the president’s New York City residence and resistance efforts continue in the courts and beyond.