The Latest: Trump challenges bedrocks of American democracy

When Elon Musk debuted the Department of Government Efficiency recently at the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson enthusiastically predicted the coming Trump administration would bring “a lot of change around here.”

Three weeks in, the change President Donald Trump has brought is on an unprecedented scale, , sparking and challenging the very role of Congress to create the nation’s laws and pay its bills.

Government workers are . Entire . Federal funding to states and nonprofits was . And the most of countless Americans was opened to Musk’s DOGE team in an unprecedented breach of privacy and protocol.

An opposition movement is gathering steam online, with on Wednesday.

Here's the latest:

Pam Bondi is sworn in as U.S. attorney general

Before Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered the oath of office in the White House’s Oval Office, Trump praised Bondi’s record as a prosecutor and said she will restore “fair, equal and impartial justice” to the department.

It was the first time Trump participated in a swearing in ceremony in his new term, underscoring the president’s immense personal interest in the department that charged him in two since-abandoned criminal cases.

Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, told the president that she would not let him down, saying: “I will make you proud and I will make this country proud.”

Bondi takes the reins of a Justice Department bracing for upheaval as Trump looks to exert his will over an agency that has long provoked his ire.

Senate Democrats to pull an all-nighter to protest Vought, Project 2025 and DOGE

Senate Democrats are planning an all-nighter to protest confirmation of Russ Vought as Trump’s budget director.

All 47 Democrats are opposing the Vought, who is a chief architect of Project 2025 and influential in the Musk-run DOGE cuts ripping through the federal government. While Democrats don’t have to votes as the minority party to stop the nominee, they will try to muster the stamina to rail against him all night — running out the procedural clock before the roll call.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said they will “sound the alarm on Russell Vought through the night.”

Supporters and lawmakers turn out to back USAID

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered across the street from the U.S. Capitol to protest the latest cuts and dismantling of USAID. Half a dozen Democratic members of Congress were expected to speak at the rally, the second with lawmakers this week.

Posters titled “the faces of foreign aid” showed images of doctors and farmers and teachers who administer USAID programs across the globe.

“Hell no, we won’t go!” chants began before the speakers took the mics.

USAID workers scramble for answers after Trump pulls almost all of them off the job worldwide

U.S. around the world are scrambling Wednesday for answers and starting to pack up households or pull their children from school after a sudden yanking almost all of them

In Washington, Democratic lawmakers and other supporters of the U.S. Agency for International Development planned rallies to protest the dismantling of the independent government agency established six decades ago. USAID has been one of the agencies hardest hit as the new administration and Elon Musk’s budget-cutting team target they say are wasteful or not aligned with a conservative agenda.

U.S. embassies in many of the more than 100 countries where USAID operates convened emergency town halls for the thousands of agency staffers and contractors looking for answers. Embassy officials said they had been given no guidance on what to tell staffers, particularly local hires, about their employment status.

Speaker Mike Johnson calls Trump’s plans for Gaza ‘common sense’

House Speaker Mike Johnson calls Trump’s plans to redevelop Gaza a “bold move” that should be given a look.

“If we could control that situation and bring about a lasting peace there, it would do well for everybody,” Johnson, a Republican, said at a press conference.

“It just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer,” he said. “I think it follows common sense.”

The speaker said plans to discuss the idea further when he meets with Netanyahu on Thursday at the Capitol.

He acknowledged while Trump’s announcement surprised many Johnson by said it was also cheered by others around the world.

Russian ally hails suspension of US foreign aid

The president of a Serb-dominated part of Bosnia says U.S. funding has inflicted “serious evil” around the world for years.

Milorad Dodik was sanctioned by the Biden administration over allegations of corruption and separatist policies that are undermining the U.S.-brokered peace agreement that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he praised Trump’s election as “a magnificent event in the new political history.” He also claimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development has been used to destabilize nations.

Baltimore mayor pushes back on anti-DEI attacks with ‘Definitely Earned It’ campaign

President Donald Trump’s orders to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs is getting pushback from Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. The Black mayor faced racist attacks online last year after a major bridge collapsed near his city.

He’s announcing a “Definitely Earned It” campaign to highlight minority achievers during Black History Month.

Online commenters labeled Scott a “DEI mayor” and suggested his race was somehow to blame for the fatal accident.

Scott says Trump allies appear to believe that unless you’re from “wealthy historic families with straight white Christian men, then you should never be in a position of power and that your thoughts and opinions don’t matter.”

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CIA offers buyouts to employees

The CIA has offered buyouts to employees, the spy service confirmed Wednesday, becoming the latest agency to enact President Donald Trump’s plan to transform the federal government and its workforce.

An agency spokesperson declined to say how many employees received offers, or whether they face a deadline to decide. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, promised to make to the agency during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.

“Director Ratcliffe is moving swiftly to ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the Administration’s national security priorities,” the CIA said in a statement. “These moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission.”

JD Vance expresses administration’s commitment to religious freedom

Vice President JD Vance said the administration intends to expand on its work from Trump’s first term and the opening weeks of his second to protect religious liberty.

In remarks to the International Religious Freedom summit in Washington, Vance listed Trump’s recent executive orders on the issue, including convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.

He thanked the organization for its work and said, “both at home and abroad, we have much more to do to more fully secure religious liberty for all people of faith.”

Union representative says federal workers are having second thoughts on deferred resignation

A representative with the largest union for federal employees says many workers are having second thoughts about accepting deferred resignation offers.

Mary-Jean Burke said she’s talked to workers around the nation, and many found the offer attractive at first – but skepticism has set in.

“People are really frightened about the chaos,” said Burke, first executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees ��ɫtv VA Council. “For the rank and file, they feel unnerved.”

Some workers who are retirement eligible have been “on the fence” and people are constantly asking questions, said Burke, a physical therapist for veterans in Indiana.

“I just worry about the federal workforce,” Burke said. “A lot of people are stressed out because they kind of feel like the predictability of their mission is a little bit different.”

The FAFSA federal student aid form will no longer offer “nonbinary” as a gender option

The Education Department said “male” and “female” will be the only options this year and going forward. It was changed in response to President Donald Trump’s order calling for the federal government to define sex as male or female only.

Other updates in the works strive to make the FAFSA form more user-friendly in the future, especially a process in which students “invite” their parents to fill out their portion of the form. Sending the invite was a major source of trouble in last year’s botched FAFSA overhaul, which became a black eye for the Biden administration.

The department said the contributor invite process is responsible for “the largest drop-off of students who decide not to complete the FAFSA form.” The update is being planned for the 2026-27 form.

Congress demanded an overhaul to simplify the form in 2020, but delays and glitches marred the Biden administration’s rollout last year. It meant students had to wait months to find out how much financial aid they would be offered for college, and advocates fear it may have deterred some students from going to college at all.

DeSantis goes to battle with Florida Republicans in trying to get closer to Trump

With an open presidential primary coming in 2028, Florida Gov. is launching an offensive to win back Trump supporters after as he prepares for a potential second try for the presidency. He's doing it by pushing Trump’s most prominent issue — immigration.

The problem for DeSantis: Florida Republicans think they know Trump better.

When DeSantis ordered a to pass his border-related proposals, legislators swiftly tossed out his ideas and presented their own bill to move gubernatorial power on immigration enforcement to the agriculture commissioner. They named it the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy, or TRUMP, Act.

Republican political consultant Jamie Miller said DeSantis appears to be winning the war on social media and conservative airwaves for now, "but we all know that that microphone can be taken away with one tweet.”

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Trump wants USAID workers off the job and out of the field

The Trump administration says it’s off the job and out of the field, worldwide.

The order takes effect just before midnight Friday and gives agency staff overseas 30 days to return home unless they’re deemed essential.

The notice posted online Tuesday says contractors not determined to be essential also would be fired. The move had been rumored for several days.

Thousands of USAID employees already have been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after the Republican president imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance.

Senators find Trump’s comments ‘crazy,’ if they acknowledge hearing them at all

“He’s completely lost it,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “He wants a U.S. invasion of Gaza, which would cost thousands of American lives and set the Middle East on fire for 20 years? It’s sick.”

“No wonder Elon Musk is in charge of the government. This guy has no connection to reality,” Murphy added.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he wasn’t ready to comment on Trump’s remarks.

“I’m not doing any hallway interviews today, none at all – especially if it’s about Gaza,” Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho said Tuesday night. “I haven’t heard it, the statement or anything else, the context.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer decries a ‘hostile takeover’. Elon Musk calls him ‘hysterical’

Congress is proving little match for DOGE. Lacking the votes as Republicans largely remain silent, they’re supporting a rush of lawsuits demanding court interventions to stop the Republican president’s team from . And protests are erupting outside government agencies and clogging the congressional phone lines.

“Whatever DOGE is doing, it is certainly not — not — what democracy looks like or has ever looked like in the grand history of this country,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.

“An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government,” Schumer posted on Musk’s social media site X.

Musk responded on his platform: “Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that DOGE is doing work that really matters.”

Trump’s administration is pulling almost all USAID workers off the job worldwide

The Trump administration said that it is pulling almost all U.S. Agency for International Development workers off the job and out of the field worldwide, moving to all but to shore up American security by fighting starvation, funding education and working to end epidemics.

The administration notified USAID workers in emails and , the latest in a sudden dismantling of the aid agency by returning political appointees from President Donald Trump’s first term and billionaire Elon Musk’s government-efficiency teams who .

The order takes effect just before midnight Friday and gives direct hires of the agency overseas — many of whom have been frantically packing up households in expectation of the announcement — 30 days to return home unless they are deemed essential. The notice said contractors not determined to be essential also would be fired.

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Trump and Musk shake foundations of US democracy

When debuted the Department of Government Efficiency, House Speaker enthusiastically predicted

Three weeks in, that change is on an unprecedented scale, , sparking and challenging the very role of Congress to create the nation’s laws and pay its bills.

An opposition movement is gathering steam online, with on Wednesday.

▶ Read more about

U.S. allies reject Trump's musings on Gaza

Trump’s suggestion for the U.S. to “take over” the Gaza strip came at a White House news conference with .

Netanyahu smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take “ownership” in redeveloping the war-torn territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trump’s idea in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”

The prime ministers of Australia and Ireland, foreign ministries from China, New Zealand and Germany, and a Kremlin spokesman