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:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk appeared on Fox News this evening in their first joint televised appearance. The pair repeated frequent talking points in an obsequious interview with Sean Hannity.
The Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department, and voted to advance Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI, setting up a vote later this week.
Trump said his administration could soon hit foreign cars with tariffs of around 25%, and added that semiconductor chips and drugs are set to face higher duties.
Responding to Ukraine’s frustration at being left out of talks between the US and Russia in Saudia Arabia today, Trump told reporters the country had an opportunity to join talks for the previous three years and implied that Ukraine had started the war, which began when Russia invaded the country.
The Pentagon is preparing a list of probationary employees to turn over to the “department of government efficiency”, with layoffs expected to begin as soon as this week. Thousands more are expected to be fired across the federal government, including at the Internal Revenue Service just as tax season begins.
Trump signed two executive orders today: one ordering research “on protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment” and the other reestablishing “the longstanding norm that only the president or the attorney general can speak for the United States when stating an opinion as to what the law is”.
Elon Musk is not in charge of the so-called “department of government efficiency”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing today. She did not say who is the lead administrator of the agency. Furthering the confusion, Trump said “call him whatever you want”.
The Trump administration has begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day.
The head of the food division at the US Food and Drug Administration has quit in protest over sweeping staff cuts that he warns will hamper the agency’s ability to protect public health.
Updated
Elon Musk told Sean Hannity “I haven’t asked the president for anything ever,” seeking to reassure listeners that he would recuse himself from any political decisions that involved his companies, which hold many lucrative government contracts. Donald Trump reiterated that Musk wouldn’t be involved in any decisions involving his companies.
Since Musk spent $250m on Trump’s reelection, the president has formed a deep connection with the tech billionaire, naming him to lead the newly formed “department of government efficiency”. Doge is currently overseeing mass layoffs at the defense department and other agencies that have contracts with Musk companies such as SpaceX and Starlink.
