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What's going on today
- President Donald Trump suffered a legal setback this evening when a judge blocked him from terminating DEI-related grants, arguing the term “equity-related” programs was too vague to be enforced.
- Trump announced today he had dismissed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, from his position amid a wave of other major Pentagon shakeups.
- Trump signed two memoranda this evening. One promises tariffs on any country that imposes any charge "that is discriminatory, disproportionate, or designed to transfer significant funds or intellectual property from American companies to the foreign government," and another aims to promote foreign investment while protecting America’s national security interests.
- The Senate adopted a $340 billion budget resolution that includes money for Trump's immigration enforcement efforts, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voting with Democrats against the measure. The House plans to take up its budget proposal next week.
Trump scored big legal wins this week, but his efforts to reshape the government still face hurdles
The Trump administration’s efforts to swiftly remake the federal government notched some big wins in court this week — including a ruling that allows its firing spree to continue — but a number of the president’s other initiatives are facing significant roadblocks.
Among the victories in dozens of cases filed against the administration across the country since Trump took office include judges denying restraining orders in a pair of cases brought against Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The losses include an appeals court denying Trump’s bid for an emergency order allowing him to implement his planned restrictions on birthright citizenship — and the court won’t hear arguments on the case until June.
Trump’s hostility toward Ukraine creates a conservative rift
Trump’s recent show of hostility toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has opened a rift in Republican circles, with traditional conservatives defending the war-time leader who is struggling to repel Russia’s invasion.
A few days after taking office, Trump noted approvingly that Ukraine was ready to “make a deal” to end a war that began three years ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tanks rolling across the border.
CFPB worker rehired after going public about potentially-fatal health concerns
Katherine Royce, 27, was roughly six months into her role as an honors attorney for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when she was fired earlier this month. Yesterday, however, she received an email stating her job was reinstated, she said today, noting that she has yet to find another laid-off colleague who has also been reinstated.
“I was bewildered because the email didn’t give me a reason for my reinstatement, just as the previous one hadn’t given me a reason for my termination,” she told NBC News. “My colleagues were illegally fired just as I was. It is unfair that they have not gotten the same redress.”
The decision by the federal government to reinstate Royce comes after she went public with health concerns related to her Cushing’s disease diagnosis two years ago, which resulted in her having surgery to remove a brain tumor. Doctors have told her she’ll require yearly MRI scans to “make sure nothing is coming back,” she said.
“I had scheduled that for April under the health insurance I had from work. I had to cancel that appointment because I won’t be able to pay for it on my own,” she said.
Royce said she has “no idea” whether going public is what helped her regain her job or whether it truly was a mistake on the part of the “DOGE boys.”
“It could just be that they made a mistake when they were going through all of our personnel records. It could just be luck of the draw. There’s really no rhyme or reason to anything that’s happened in the last four weeks at the CFPB,” she said.
CFPB did not return a request for comment.
Her reinstatement has brought a degree of “relief” but has not fully absolved her concerns, she added.
“I don’t know when my health insurance will end if I’m fired again. I was fired arbitrarily. I was unfired arbitrarily. I might be fired again arbitrarily. Even assuming I stay on, my supervisors are under a stop-work order. We’re locked out of our offices.”
Trump fires Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown
President Donald Trump announced he was terminating Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the country’s highest-ranking military officer, from his position.
Brown Jr.’s dismissal comes amid a wave of administration shakeups as part of the president’s crusade to reshape the federal government.
Judge blocks Trump administration from terminating DEI-related grants
A federal judge in Maryland today blocked the Trump administration from terminating federal grants and contracts related to DEI as called for in executive orders signed by Trump.
“Plaintiffs have amply established a likelihood that they will succeed in proving that the Termination Provision invites arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement over billions of dollars in government funding,” U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled.
Supreme Court maintains pause on Trump bid to immediately fire watchdog agency head
The Supreme Court for now prevented Trump from firing the head of a watchdog agency in the first legal showdown to reach the justices over the administration’s efforts to dramatically remake the federal government.
In an unusual, tentative move, the court neither granted nor denied an emergency request filed by the Trump administration after lower courts had blocked the effort to fire Hampton Dellinger, who heads the Office of Special Counsel.
Instead, in a brief order, the court said it would not immediately act because lower court proceedings are moving quickly. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 26.
The court, which said it was holding the Trump request “in abeyance,” could act after that.
Trump deflects questions on whether Putin is a dictator, says instead Putin needs to meet with Ukraine's Zelenskyy
After presiding over the swearing in of Howard Lutnick as Secretary Commerce, Trump deflected questions from the White House press pool on whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin is a dictator.
“Do you think that President Putin of Russia is also a dictator?” a reporter asked.
“I think that President Putin and President Zelenskyy are going to have to get together, because you know what? We want to stop killing millions of people,” Trump said.
The question comes amid Trump’s suggestions earlier this week that Ukraine, a long-standing U.S. ally, is responsible for Russia’s invasion of its own borders three years ago. After Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy expressed concern that his country was not offered a seat at the table during Tuesday’s U.S.-Russia peace talks in Saudi Arabia, Trump attacked Zelenskyy on Truth Social and said he is a “dictator without elections.”
The answer was a sharp turn from statements Trump made just days ago at his Mar-a-Lago estate, when he said Zelenskyy “should have never started it” and “could have made a deal” with Russia by now to end the war, noting the Ukrainian president has “been there for three years.”
Trump’s comments echoed misinformation from the Kremlin, which falsely claims Ukraine is to blame for its invasion of the sovereign country and stoked widespread fears among European leaders.
Trump administration to investigate Maine's education department
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights initiated investigations into Maine in the wake of Trump's tense spat with the state's governor.
The administration initiated a Title IX investigation of the Maine Department of Education into whether it allows transgender students to compete in female athletics and use female locker rooms. The department will also investigate Maine School Administrative District #51, in Cumberland, over reports that a transgender student is competing in girls' categories.
Craig Trainor, the acting head of the department's civil rights office, emphasized in a statement that Maine's federal education funding is at risk if the state continues to "trample the rights of its young female athletes." The agency, he said, "will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators."
The department announced the probe hours after Trump clashed with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, at a White House meeting. Trump called out Mills during remarks and asked whether her state would follow his executive order barring transgender athletes from participating in single-sex competitions or on teams that do not match their birth sex.
When Mills said her state would follow state and federal law, Trump responded, "You better comply. Otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding."
Since January, the Education Department has opened several investigations under the gender equality law Title IX into colleges, school districts and state athletics organizations over their rules regarding transgender athletes.
These investigations are usually resolved by the department ordering certain policy changes if it finds that the school does not comply with federal civil rights rules. If they do not reach an agreement, the department can refer the case to the U.S. Department of Justice to initiate proceedings to cut off federal funding for the school, which has not happened since the George H. W. Bush administration.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, issued a statement today pushing back on Trump's threat to cut off funding for the state's schools.
"I oppose the President’s attempt to curtail funding for Maine, and will advocate vigorously for our fair share of federal funding for Maine schools," she said.
Trump loyalist Kash Patel sworn in as FBI director
Kash Patel was sworn in as FBI director this afternoon by Attorney General Pam Bondi in the Indian Treaty room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Trump did not attend the ceremony, but several Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were there.
Patel was narrowly confirmed yesterday in a 51-49 vote, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining all 47 Democrats in voting no.
At the swearing-in ceremony, Patel praised Trump and called his new role the result of the American dream.
"Anyone that thinks the American dream is dead, just look right here: You’re talking to a first-generation Indian kid who’s about to lead the law enforcement community, the greatest nation on God’s green earth. That can’t happen anywhere else," Patel said.
He also laid out his plans for the bureau.
"There will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight starting this weekend," Patel said.
Patel today also ordered a major redeployment of FBI agents in the field.
Stocks now down since Trump's inauguration
The three most closely watched U.S. stock indices are now down since Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.
The broad-based S&P 500 and the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell more than 1% today, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped more than 2%. It was the Dow's worst day of the year.
A combination of factors weighed on stocks, reflecting concerns about potential Trump policy risks to the economy. Yesterday, Walmart, the nation's biggest retail and grocery chain, forecast weaker sales growth than Wall Street had been hoping for — and said it wouldn't be "immune" to tariffs. Today, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment reading fell to 64.7 for February from 71.7 last month due in large part to concerns about U.S. tariffs adding to already-stubborn inflation.
