Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from the last few hours:
After delivering a brutal ideological assault on Europe, accusing its leaders of suppressing free speech, JD Vance met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.
Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting off federal funding for schools and universities that require students be vaccinated against Covid-19 to attend classes. He signed another order today establishing an “Energy Dominance Council” led by the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, and energy secretary, Chris Wright.
News of massive federal layoffs continued today, including reports from within the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs. The Trump administration agreed to postpone mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, pending a legal battle in DC district court.
The newly formed, so-called “department of government efficiency” published classified information on its website today, the Huffington Post reports. The news came as a federal judge extended a temporary order blocking the department from accessing treasury records that contain sensitive personal data such as social security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans.
Also on Friday, a treasury department watchdog announced it would undertake an audit of the security controls for the federal government’s payment system, after Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” gained access to it.
The deputy White House chief of staff Taylor Budowich said that Associated Press journalists will no longer be allowed on Air Force One or in the Oval Office until the news agency begins referring to the Gulf of Mexico as “the Gulf of America”.
A coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general issued a statement condemning JD Vance’s recent remarks that judges were not allowed to control the president’s “legitimate power”. Vance’s comments came after several federal judges issued rulings temporarily blocking some of Donald Trump’s most contentious executive orders.
Updated
A federal judge ordered lawyers for eight inspectors general to withdraw their motion seeking a temporary restraining order over the watchdogs’ firings during a hearing today.
Judge Ana C Reyes of the US district court for the District of Columbia expressed frustration that the plaintiffs waited 21 days after the firings to file suit requesting emergency same-day relief. Both sides ultimately agreed to an expedited hearing schedule.
“Why on earth this could not have been handled with a five-minute phone call is beyond my comprehension,” Reyes said.
She and her clerk had been “working around the clock on really monumental, time-sensitive issues”, such as a lawsuit challenging Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military, she said.
More than 30 lawsuits against the Trump administration are pending in federal court in Washington.
Updated
