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What to know today
- The Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick as President Donald Trump's commerce secretary. Earlier in the evening, senators advanced Kash Patel's controversial nomination for FBI director.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Russian foreign minister met in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending the war in Ukraine after Trump said last week that he had held phone conversations with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on the subject.
- Trump signed three more executive orders this afternoon as he continues an aggressive agenda-setting effort that includes governmentwide cuts to federal agencies.
Trump calls Musk ‘a leader,’ despite DOJ's view that he has no real power
Trump portrayed Musk in their Fox News interview as a “leader” who is central to their plan to slash government spending, despite a Justice Department filing a day earlier downplaying the extent of Musk’s authority.
When Fox News host Sean Hannity referred to the tech billionaire Musk as Trump’s “tech support,” echoing a T-shirt that Musk was wearing, the president corrected him.
“He’s much more than that. He gets it done. He’s a leader,” Trump said in the taped interview.
Trump described Musk as a kind of enforcer for his executive orders that he said “don’t get done” when they’re distributed to government offices.
“He would take that executive order that I’d signed and he would have those people go to whatever agency it was,” Trump said, referring to Musk and others working for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Trump mimicked the voices of DOGE workers talking to career government employees: “‘When are you doing it? Get it done! Get it done!’ And some guy that maybe didn’t want to do it, all of a sudden, he’s signing,” he said.
Musk and Trump, sitting side-by-side, spent much of the joint interview talking about cost-cutting efforts that Trump attributed to Musk. The interview broke little new ground but marked a very public sign that Trump and Musk were keeping a united front as DOGE remains under fire from lawsuits, street demonstrations and Democrats in Congress.
The Justice Department, in a court filing yesterday for a lawsuit that relates to the extent of Musk’s power, said that Musk has no authority of his own in his role with DOGE.
“Musk ‘has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself’ — including personnel decisions at individual agencies,” DOJ lawyers told the court, quoting a sworn statement from Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration. Musk “only has the ability to advise the President, or communicate the President’s directives, like other senior White House officials,” the lawyers wrote.
The lawsuit in question was brought by Democratic attorneys general and argues that Musk is exercising government power beyond what he's legally or constitutionally authorized to have. A federal judge today declined to immediately halt DOGE's activity, even as she called it "troubling."
Trump: 'Inflation is back...I had nothing to do with it'
Trump said in tonight's Fox News interview that "inflation is back," a reference to January's consumer price index that showed inflation rising faster than anticipated.
Trump added: "I had nothing to do it."
Prices and mortgage rates began rising before Trump took office over concerns in the markets about the president's promise to impose tariffs on top U.S. trading partners. Some economists also worry what major immigration policy changes could do to the strength of the labor market.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, appointed by Trump in 2017, recently said he sees "some elevated uncertainty" due to these proposed policies. At the end of 2024, it was expected that interest rates would be cut twice in 2025. However, it is now widely expected that there will be just one rate cut due to economic uncertainties.
Trump says Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid 'won't be touched' in federal cuts
Trump said during tonight's interview with Elon Musk on Fox News that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would largely be left untouched as his administration moves to cut federal spending and reshape the government.
"Social Security won't be touched, other than this fraud or something we’re going to find," Trump said. "It’s going to be strengthened, but won’t be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched."
Trump added that his administration would work to remove any undocumented immigrants from the system, saying "we’re going to get them out of the system, and all of that fraud."
Musk says SpaceX to launch in four weeks to bring home astronauts
Musk said in the Fox News interview tonight that SpaceX planned to launch a mission in four weeks to bring home two NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since their Boeing spacecraft ran into problems in June.
"When are you going to launch?" Trump asked Musk in the taped interview.
"I think it's about four weeks to bring them back," Musk said, adding that the company was being "extremely cautious."
Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, a major government contractor and rival of Boeing.
Musk says some DOGE workers are federal employees instead of 'earning millions of dollars a year'
Elon Musk said during an interview that aired tonight on Fox News that some workers from the Department of Government Efficiency are federal employees, but argued that DOGE's software engineers "could be earning millions of dollars a year" elsewhere.
Fox News’ Sean Hannity had asked Musk during a joint interview with Trump, to confirm that "nobody at DOGE gets paid a penny."
"Well, actually, some people are federal employees," Musk said. "But it’s fair to say that the software engineers at DOGE could be earning millions of dollars a year instead of earning a small fraction of that as federal employees."
Trump says part of Elon Musk's role is implementing executive orders
Trump said part of billionaire Elon Musk and his advisory body DOGE’s role in the federal government is to implement executive orders.
“You know, when you sign these executive orders, a lot of them don’t get done, and maybe the most important ones. And he would take that executive order that I’d signed, and he would have those people go to whatever agency it was ... And some guy that maybe didn’t want to do it, all of a sudden, he’s signing,” Trump told Sean Hannity during a taped interview alongside Musk that is airing on Fox News tonight.
Trump's remarks come a day after the White House said in a court filing that Musk is not running DOGE.
Federal judge temporarily halts the firing of 11 intelligence officers
A federal judge today ordered spy agencies to put on hold for five days the firing of 11 CIA and other intelligence officers who had been told to resign or face imminent dismissal because of their temporary assignments working on diversity, equity, inclusion and access programs.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga’s order gives the Trump administration until Thursday to file its response to a request from the intelligence officers for a temporary restraining order on their firing. The judge’s decision allows for the intelligence officers to continue to receive full pay and benefits while on administrative leave.
Chuck Schumer previews Democrats’ strategy to fight GOP budget plan
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tonight previewed the Democratic strategy to combat the Republican budget reconciliation push, as the GOP-controlled chamber voted 50-47 to proceed to the measure, triggering a “vote-a-rama” for later this week.
Speaking to NBC News ahead of the vote, Schumer said Democrats will unify around attacking the effort as a ploy to give tax cuts to the wealthy and pay for it by cutting middle class programs like Medicaid.
“They want to give their billionaire buddies tax breaks and the working families of America are paying for it,” Schumer said.
Democrats will offer amendments about prohibiting tax cuts for the wealthy and protecting benefits, he said. Schumer summed up one amendment by saying, “If they cut even $1 from Medicaid, no one whose income is above $1 million can get any tax reduction.”
“We’re putting these guys on the spot… This is affecting their own constituencies so many different ways,” Schumer said. “The amendments will come to haunt them in 2026. And we’re looking at that in that way as well… There’s a lot of support for this, a lot of enthusiasm for this. It unites the caucus, from Bernie [Sanders] to the most conservative members. No one wants tax breaks for billionaires. And certainly they don’t want to pay a price in their housing costs and their health care costs and anything else for it.”
Schumer, setting expectations, said he doesn’t expect Democrats to have the votes to stop the measure, at least in the Senate given the 53-47 Republican majority. But he said they can highlight the unpopularity of Trump’s agenda in a way that impacts his approval ratings. He likened it to Democrats’ strategy in 2018, when they ran against the Trump tax law and the failed attempt to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.
DOJ opposes dismissal of case against Jan. 6 rioter who plotted to murder FBI employees
The Justice Department is opposing the dismissal of case against Jan. 6 rioter Edward Kelley, who was separately convicted by a federal jury in Tennessee of plotting to murder FBI employees who investigated him over his assault of law enforcement and his breach of the Capitol.
The filing from federal prosecutors in Tennessee came after they consulted with others at the Justice Department, prosecutors wrote.
Kelley’s attorney had argued that Trump’s mass pardon of Jan. 6 rioters should apply to Kelley’s conviction in the murder plot because it “directly relates to the events at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
In the new filing, federal prosecutors said Kelley “devised a plan to murder federal, state, and local law enforcement in East Tennessee,” “drew up a list of the people he intended to assassinate, including agents, officers, and employees of the FBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Maryville Police Department, Blount County Sheriff’s Office, and Clinton Police Department,” and “solicited others to reconnoiter and murder them at their offices, near their homes, and in public places.”
Kelley was the fourth rioter to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, and federal prosecutors said during his Capitol attack trial in Washington, D.C., that he was armed with a handgun when he breached the building.
Senate moves closer to 'vote-a-rama' for budget reconciliation measure
The Senate voted 50-47 tonight to proceed to its budget reconciliation resolution, starting the clock on 50 hours of debate on the measure.
When time expires, the Senate will begin what's known as a “vote-a-rama,” where any senator can bring an unlimited number of amendments to the budget-related measure, forcing a vote on each one. Democrats will use the opportunity to force votes on topics they typically don’t have the authority to put on the floor. The amendments are largely a protest effort, as Democrat-introduced measures are almost guaranteed to fail.
The vote-a-rama will end once all amendments have received a vote. The Senate will then vote on final passage of the budget reconciliation bill. The legislation is not subject to the typical 60-vote threshold and needs only a simple majority to pass.
The House will still have to pass a budget measure, and it’s not clear if the Senate passing its own measure would push House Republicans to take up the legislation. House Republicans have been at odds with Senate Republicans over reconciliation strategy.
