February 7, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has moved here.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its plans to put at least 2,200 of employees at the US Agency for International Development on administrative leave Friday night and required the agency to temporarily reinstate 500 other workers who had been suspended.

In a temporary restraining order issued late Friday, US District Judge Carl Nichols said the Trump administration may not place any USAID employees on administrative leave and said that the hundreds of others who have already been placed on leave must be reinstated through at least February 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

The order came just before the embattled agency was set to put thousands of employees on indefinite leave or fire them. CNN reported ahead of the judge’s ruling that USAID had planned to keep fewer than 300 people on as essential personnel as of 11:59 p.m. ET Friday.

The order from Nichols, an appointee of President Donald Trump, also said that no USAID workers “shall be evacuated from their host countries before February 14, 2025 at 11:59 PM” and it required the government to give the employees “complete access to email, payment, and security notification systems until that date.”

The judge set a hearing on a request for a broader block on the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the agency for February 12.

The seven-page order emphasized the “irreparable harm” that the USAID employees would face if they were put on leave under the original notice, particularly given the environments some of them work in around the globe.

The emergency order came in a lawsuit brought on Thursday by a pair of labor groups representing USAID employees.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Alex Marquardt and Lauren Kent contributed reporting to this post, which has been updated with details from the judge’s written order.

The Department of Defense logo is seen on the wall of the Pentagon press briefing room, in October.

The Washington Post, CNN, The Hill and The War Zone will lose workspace at the Pentagon this year under an expanded “media rotation program” instituted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press office.

The rotation makes room for a number of right-wing and explicitly pro-Trump media outlets that have not had workspace at the Pentagon before.

The Friday night announcement was criticized by some journalists as a way to score political points and penalize tough-minded news outlets.

The changes only affect workspaces, not credentials, so journalists from the affected outlets will not lose access to military officials and press briefings.

Effective later this month, One America News Network will replace NBC News for the remainder of the year; Breitbart will replace National Public Radio; The New York Post will replace The New York Times; and HuffPost will replace Politico.

HuffPost has a progressive bent, but the other three beneficiaries are all Trump-boosting brands that are notably smaller than the outlets they are replacing.

Read more about reaction to the Pentagon’s “media rotation program.”

President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts Republican senators for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday.

President Donald Trump demanded a “balanced budget” from Republican senators at a dinner Friday, one day after meeting with House Republicans to discuss a spending resolution as the clock continues to tick on a spending deadline next month.

Lawmakers have until March 14 to pass a plan to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. Friday’s dinner came as Senate Republicans are charging ahead on their own plan, unveiling a blueprint earlier in the day even as House Republicans are spending the weekend nailing down the final details of their own budget agreement.

Addressing the Senate Republicans at his Mar-a-Lago club, the president reflected on his hourslong Thursday meeting with their House counterparts — calling it a “great meeting” with members “from all sides.”

Trump expressed confidence in his Cabinet picks while candidly reflecting on his relationships in the Senate — including some that have proven frustrating to the president at times. He appeared to issue a subtle warning, emphasizing the importance of getting his candidates confirmed.

“The relationships have been good. And we don’t always agree on everything, but we get there. We get there. We had a couple of people that had to get a little bit — they had to study a little bit further to get some of our nominees. I think you’re going to find our nominees are very good. I think it’s very important,” Trump said.

The dinner, which is taking place during the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s annual winter meeting in the Palm Beach area, came at Trump’s invitation, according to a source familiar with the agenda.

US District Judge John Bates ruled Friday he will not limit Department of Government Efficiency representatives from accessing Labor Department data for now, rejecting an emergency request by labor unions and a think tank to put restrictions on DOGE’s access.

Bates said he had “concerns” about how DOGE was allegedly operating, but that the challengers had not shown the type of imminent harm known as standing that would make it appropriate for a court to intervene at this juncture.

Before the ruling, and a hearing Bates held on the matter Friday afternoon, a DOGE representative who has been detailed to the Department of Labor submitted a declaration asserting that he and the other DOGE associates at the department were following the relevant rules for handling the department’s data.

Court filings by the labor unions alleged that an unidentified Department of Labor employee had been told by their superiors that they were to do whatever the DOGE representatives asked, regardless of the security protocols. The challengers had asked for a temporary restraining order that would have placed limits on DOGE associates’ access to the data and would have blocked the Labor Department from taking adverse actions against any employee who denied DOGE representatives unlawful access to the data.

During Friday’s hearing, Bates expressed skepticism that the challengers had given him enough reason to issue a temporary restraining order.

“We don’t really know what records are being examined and how widely any information from these records is being disseminated,” Bates said. Still, he did not seem fully persuaded by the government’s assurances that the department’s data — which includes sensitive medical and employment records of Americans — was being adequately protected.

Lawyers for the challengers indicated at the hearing that they intend to expand their lawsuit to also challenge DOGE’s efforts to access data at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Multiple US Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers told CNN they were breathing a sigh of relief Friday night after a federal judge in Washington issued an order temporarily blocking more than 2,000 USAID officials from being placed on administrative leave.

The USAID employees spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing further retribution.

“Major happiness for the moment,” said one official, recognizing the temporary nature of the judge’s order.

The acting leadership of USAID announced earlier this week that all direct hires would be placed on leave at 11:59 P.M. Friday, with some essential personnel exempt.

Sources told CNN that only around 300 of USAID’s 10,000-strong workforce would be kept on. The Trump administration later claimed the number is just over 600 after a second wave of notices went out informing some of their essential status.

“The fight is just beginning,” a third USAID official told CNN. “We just stopped the blitz.”

Colleen Shogan testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee full committee hearing on her nomination to be archivist of the US National Archives and Records Administration on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on February 28, 2023.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced it had dismissed Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan in a surprise move Friday evening.

While Shogan had been told that Trump wanted to replace her, she did not expect her removal would happen as soon as today and was shocked when she was notified, a source familiar with the situation said.

Shogan, who was nominated to the position by President Joe Biden in 2022, was the first woman to hold the post as head and chief administrator of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and previously served as senior vice president and director of the David M. Rubenstein Center at the White House Historical Association.

Shogan had served as the archivist since 2023 and was not at the National Archives when FBI agents searched Trump’s home in 2022 looking for classified documents.

CNN has reached out to NARA for comment.

Some background: The role of the National Archives took on new prominence in recent years, coming under scrutiny from Republicans in the wake of the 2022 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents.

At the time, the Archives asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records.

Trump has been critical of the National Archives, telling radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview last month the previous archivist in place during the Mar-a-Lago raid, David Ferriero, “was a disaster,” before hinting he planned to replace Shogan.

“I think I can tell you that we will get somebody,” he told Hewitt. “Let me just put it – yeah, we will have a new archivist.”

Ellen Weintraub addresses the audience during the last day of the Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon.

Ellen Weintraub, who was sent a letter from President Donald Trump firing her as the chair of the Federal Election Commission, said Friday that her email and access to her office have been revoked.

Weintraub told CNN’s Erica Hill on “Erin Burnett Outfront” that she hasn’t had any further communication from the White House since getting the letter Thursday which removed her as a commissioner of the agency.

The former FEC chair, a Democrat, has maintained that her firing “just isn’t the way this works,” adding that the agency is bipartisan and a president cannot oust a chair.

Commissioners are meant to serve for a single 6-year term, but can effectively remain in their roles absent replacements.

“It may have aggravated the president that I was still there, that I hadn’t left,” Weintraub said when asked if tenure of about 22 years worked against her.

“But I made a commitment to the American people to stay in this job until I got replaced. And I regret that I was not able to fulfill that commitment,” she aded.

When asked if she plans to file a lawsuit for her job, Weintraub did not rule out taking legal action.

The White House told CNN in a statement, “Our message to Ellen Weintraub is simple. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

Weintraub has long been a critic of Trump, calling out the president during his first term for his 2020 election lies while defending the results.

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday.

President Donald Trump used his executive power Friday night for a series of actions, including more executive orders and switching up the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees.

Here are some of the measures he took:

Revoked access: The president said he was removing former President Joe Biden’s access to classified information by revoking his security clearance and stopping his daily intelligence briefings. The practical effect of Trump’s claim to revoke Biden’s security clearance is an open question. Former presidents typically do not have security clearances. As president, they have access to all classified information. Upon leaving office, they do not.

Kennedy Center: Trump announced an aggressive plan to gut the existing board of trustees at the Kennedy Center and oust its chairman, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, a remarkable move aimed at remaking the nation’s cultural center. Trump said he would be appointing himself as chairman of the board.

And he took these executive actions:

The Federal Communication Commission has opened an investigation into San Francisco-based KCBS Radio over the station’s coverage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions, the FCC’s commissioner said.

Commissioner Anna Gomez confirmed the investigation in a statement to CNN after it was revealed by new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee.

During a KCBS broadcast on January 26, host Bret Burkhart reported that the ICE agents were in unmarked vehicles and provided details about the specific makes and models of cars the agents were using, a recording of which was published by multiple conservative media outlets. Burkhart said during the broadcast that the information was given to him by San Jose’s mayor, a council member, and a rapid action network in the area that helps immigrants.

The investigation was disclosed by Carr during an interview with FOX News on Thursday. Carr called the broadcast “concerning” and said ICE agents were “doing undercover operation in East San Jose,” which is “a part of town known for gang activity.”

Carr said the FCC’s enforcement directorate has sent a letter of inquiry to the station as part of the investigation to determine if it violated its FCC license, which requires it to operate in the public interest. Carr added the station has a few days left to respond.

Gomez, who was appointed to the five-member commission by President Joe Biden, raised concerns about Carr publicly disclosing details of an investigation.

Reaction: The Freedom of the Press Foundation slammed the FCC’s move, saying that government regulators “don’t get to decide what news the public is interested in hearing about,” and that there is “no law against identifying ICE agents.”

CNN has reached out to Carr’s office and KCBS for comment.

Signage on the exterior of the US Department of the Treasury building on January 11, in Washington, DC.

The Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency’s access to the Treasury Department’s sensitive payment system poses an “unprecedented insider threat risk” to Treasury information, according to an internal Treasury threat assessment.

The assessment was prepared by a contractor for Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Service and released to the bureau’s IT staff on Thursday.

A federal court on Wednesday allowed two Treasury Department employees affiliated with DOGE to keep “read-only” access to the payment system, which generally means they are not allowed to make changes.

But even read-only could be problematic, according to the threat assessment.

Wired first reported on the internal Treasury assessment.

The assessment is made by risk-averse threat analysts and is not an official Treasury Department stance on DOGE access, sources familiar with the assessment said. But it’s the latest example of people within government raising significant concerns about DOGE’s rapid-fire access to government systems.

CNN is reaching out to Treasury for comment.

One employee at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was fired from an internship with a data security firm after leaking proprietary information, according to a company spokesperson.

Edward Coristine, 19, interned with Path Network in 2022, but his “brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure,” the spokesperson said. Bloomberg was first to report the firing.

CNN’s attempts to reach Coristine and his parents for comment by phone were unsuccessful.

DOGE’s effort: For the past couple of weeks, DOGE staffers have appeared without warning throughout the nation’s bureaucracy, seeking access to sensitive files, databases and computer systems. Their movements inside offices from Washington, DC, to Kansas City have been detailed by a frightened federal workforce and chronicled by media outlets seeking answers about their specific activities and intentions.

Some of the most pointed concerns were summed up in a letter this week from Democratic senators to the White House: “No information has been provided to Congress or the public as to who has been formally hired under DOGE, under what authority or regulations DOGE is operating, or how DOGE is vetting and monitoring its staff and representatives before providing them seemingly unfettered access to classified materials and Americans’ personal information.”

Although the slate of software engineers in their early 20s working under DOGE appear to lack government experience, their resumes detail impressive accomplishments in the tech field.

US President Donald Trump speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

President Donald Trump announced an aggressive plan Friday evening to gut the existing board of trustees at the Kennedy Center and oust its chairman, billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, a remarkable move aimed at remaking the nation’s cultural center.

Trump said he would be appointing himself as chairman of the board.

Presidents appoint members to the board on a rolling basis. It was not immediately clear who would be impacted by the news.

Trump has sought to reshape the use of executive authority since taking office last month, and this effort amounts to a striking and personal example of retribution aimed at political enemies. Rubenstein, the board’s current chairman, is an ally of former President Joe Biden.

Trump’s move also dove directly into the culture wars as he called out the center’s programming, including past drag shows, in his post Friday.

CNN has reached out to the Kennedy Center, as well as several members who were appointed by Democratic presidents for comment. One member of the board who was appointed by a Democratic president said they had not yet received any communication from the center about their status on the board.

CNN has also reached out to a spokesperson for Shonda Rhimes, who serves as the board’s treasurer.

Current members appointed by Trump include Lee Greenwood, Paolo Zampolli, and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center’s president, stepped down last week. The board had started a search for her replacement and retained a headhunter. Choosing her successor, it appears, will fall to the president.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

A recently surfaced memo instructing New York City employees on how to respond if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or other non-local law enforcement show up on city property has drawn the ire of advocates and lawmakers who say the guidelines create confusion and cede authority to federal agencies in violation of the city’s sanctuary city laws.

The memo, first reported by the digital publication Hell Gate, was distributed among the city’s public agencies last month. It advises city employees to request the officers’ name, badge number and business card; ask officers if they have a warrant and call a city lawyer for assistance. CNN has not independently obtained the memo but city officials have confirmed its contents.

While that guidance is not entirely different from what employees have been recently told to do as the Trump administration ramps its immigration enforcement, another instruction within the memo has caused added concern for advocates who say the directive will create confusion and further discourage immigrant communities from seeking services.

The memo specifically instructs workers to comply with an officers’ request or allow them to enter the site if at any time the employee feels “threatened” or if there is a “fear for your safety of the safety of others around you.”

The guidance also warns city employees against impeding the work of federal law enforcement, discourages employees from arguing with any law enforcement officer and makes it clear that harboring an undocumented person is a federal crime.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called the memo’s directive a “betrayal” of New Yorkers in a Friday statement. Adams also urged New York City Mayor Eric Adams to rescind the guidance and suggested he is focused on catering to the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump on Friday said he was removing former President Joe Biden’s access to classified information by revoking his security clearance and stopping his daily intelligence briefings.

In a Truth Social post, Trump argued that Biden set a precedent in 2021 by instructing the Intelligence Community to limit his (Trump’s) access to national security details after leaving office, which Trump said he views as an unfair action.

The president also cited the Hur Report, which, although it did not charge Biden with a crime, painted a picture of a forgetful commander in chief who failed to properly protect highly sensitive classified information, as CNN reported.

Trump concluded by stating that he would prioritize protecting national security and sarcastically declared, “Joe, you’re fired,” ending with his signature slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Some background: Then-President Biden barred his predecessor from receiving intelligence briefings traditionally given to former presidents, citing concerns over Trump’s “erratic behavior” before the January 6 Capitol attack, claiming that he could not be trusted with sensitive information.

The move was the first instance of a former president being excluded from receiving the intelligence briefings, which are given both as a courtesy and for situations when a sitting president seeks guidance.

However, Trump is taking it one step further by claiming he wants to revoke Biden’s security clearance as well.

The practical effect of Trump’s claim to revoke Biden’s security clearance is an open question. Former presidents do not have security clearances unless they had one from a previous role. As president, they have access to all classified information. Upon leaving office, they do not.

Trump can, however, stop Biden’s access to daily intelligence briefings, as Biden did to Trump in 2021.

This post was updated with more details and background on Trump’s actions.

US President Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States in Washington, DC, on January 20.

President Donald Trump signed more executive actions on Friday, aiming to review and potentially roll back policies that restrict Second Amendment rights and creating a new faith office at the White House.

Gun control: The order directs the attorney general to review and assess any actions taken by the federal government between January 2021 and January 2025 — during the Biden administration — that they view as infringing upon Second Amendment rights.

This includes evaluating regulations, international agreements and actions by agencies such as the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), as well as reports related to gun violence prevention.

After that review, the order states the attorney general should “present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.”

Faith office: Another order establishes the White House Faith Office, aimed at strengthening the relationship between the federal government and faith-based entities. The office will be led by a senior adviser and will work closely with other offices in the executive branch, the order said.

“The executive branch is committed to ensuring that all executive departments and agencies (agencies) honor and enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty and to ending any form of religious discrimination by the Federal Government,” the order said.

Aid to South Africa: Trump also signed an executive order to freeze assistance to South Africa over a law which allows the government to seize farmland from ethnic minorities without compensation. It also emphasized that US actions are in response to these human rights violations and the potential national security threats posed by South Africa’s foreign policy decisions, including its ties with Iran and its stance on Israel.

According to the order, the US will no longer support South Africa with foreign aid if these policies continue. It also directs the US to assist Afrikaners who are fleeing South Africa due to discrimination, including helping them resettle in the US through refugee programs. Additionally, US agencies are told to stop providing any aid to South Africa unless it’s deemed necessary for other reasons.

This post has been updated with details on the executive order on freezing aid to South Africa.

Ed Martin, the acting US Attorney for Washington DC, said on Friday he is planning to investigate a list of people referred to him by Elon Musk, according to a letter posted by Martin on X.

Martin emphasized in the letter that anyone who the Justice Department determines has broken the law or “acted simply unethically” will be investigated.

The letter comes as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has caused chaos and confusion for many government employees in the past few weeks, taking actions including gaining access to government software, encouraging mass resignations and seeking to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.

Martin concluded his letter to Musk by saying that he was “proud” to protect DOGE employees as they have been implementing the changes during the first weeks of the second Trump administration.

Last week, Martin also posted a letter addressed to Musk saying the Justice Department, “will protect DOGE and other workers no matter what.”

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

Federal funding for education, environmental and health programs remains blocked despite a court order against President Donald Trump’s funding freeze, several Democratic states told a federal judge Friday.

The court, in Rhode Island, previously blocked the administration from implementing plans to freeze outgoing funds to states under an Office of Management and Budget memo. The court also told the Trump administration it can’t use any work-arounds.

But the states argued on Friday that’s what is happening — with them being deprived of funds that should have been received because of other initiatives, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act.

In particular, the states say Head Start programs, environmental initiatives and health programs are not receiving federal funding that was due to them this week.

The Trump administration has been ordered to respond by Sunday.

A call between US President Donald Trump and his Panamanian counterpart José Raúl Mulino, was postponed on Friday because of changes in Trump’s schedule, according to a statement from Panama’s President’s Office.

The statement, posted on X on Friday, said that White House officials had communicated with the Panamanian Foreign Ministry to postpone the call “due to last minute changes in the American president’s agenda.”

“The Foreign Ministry will inform details about the new date once it is coordinated between the two countries,” the president’s office said in the statement.

Some background: The call was scheduled to take place days after the US State Department claimed that US government vessels were able to transit the Panama Canal without paying fees. The claim prompted a strong denial from Mulino, who called it an “intolerable” falsehood.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked back the State Department’s assertion on Thursday, saying that the US “expects” Panama to remove the fees but acknowledged that “Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow as it relates to the Panamanian port.”

Correction: An earlier version of the headline incorrectly attributed the statement of the postponement, which came from Panama’s President’s Office.

US President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in Washington, DC, on Friday.

US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba held a joint news conference at the White House after meeting earlier this afternoon.

Trump said he and the prime minister spoke “long and hard about a vital economic relationship between our two countries and the continuance of that relationship.”

Ishiba is the first Asian leader to meet Trump since his return to office on January 20.

Here’s some of what was said at the news conference:

• Reciprocal tariffs: Trump reiterated he will be making an announcement on reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week, “so that we’re treated evenly with other countries.” Trump said reciprocal tariffs are the “only fair way to do it, that way nobody’s hurt.”

He said he expects to meet about them Monday or Tuesday and make an announcement. The statement shook financial markets Friday after what had been a relatively quiet week for stocks.

• Trump on Musk’s influence: Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he has directed Elon Musk to review “just about everything” including Pentagon and education spending. When pressed further by reporters on if there is anything Trump has told Musk that he cannot touch, the president said, “we haven’t discussed that much,” but that he does dictate what areas he wants Musk to work in.

• Comments on DOGE staffer: Trump said he agreed with Vice President JD Vance about bringing back a recent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer. Twenty-five-year-old recent employee Marko Elez, according to the Wall Street Journal, resigned from his role at DOGE following the newspaper’s reporting that linked him to a social media account with posts supporting racism and eugenics.

The staffer is returning to the department, Elon Musk said in a post on X Friday shortly after Trump publicly supported his reinstatement.

• FBI shakeup: Trump also said at the news conference that he plans to “fire some” of the FBI agents who worked on the January 6 insurrection investigations, because he claimed “some of them were corrupt.”

• North Korea relationship: Trump also said he plans to continue to have a relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his second term in office.

• Nippon Steel developments: Trump told reporters Friday that Nippon Steel is looking at an “investment rather than a purchase” of US Steel, though the president appeared to say Nissan instead of Nippon in his remarks.