Today’s recap
A federal judge said he will issue a temporary order to halt the dismantling of USAid. Judge Carl Nichols, a Donald Trump appointee, said federal employees should not be put on administrative leave until legal proceedings come to a close. Two unions representing federal and foreign service workers brought the lawsuit on behalf of USAid’s workers on Friday. This came after a renewed offensive on USAid earlier in the day, which saw the agency’s headquarters being shuttered. Trump also announced a new barrage of tariffs on unspecified countries to come next week.
Here’s what else happened today:
Trump followed Joe Biden’s lead by revoking the former president’s access to classified government information and removing his security clearance and daily intelligence briefings.
Trump appointed himself as chair of the John F Kennedy Center for the performing arts saying he was immediately terminating multiple people from the board of trustees.
Alaskan lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a resolution to halt the renaming of Denali to Mount McKinley.
Trump signed an executive order targeting South Africa, after Marco Rubio accused the country of “anti-Americanism”.
Trump said he is in “no rush” to make his plan to put the United States in charge of the Gaza Strip a reality.
The Health and Human Services Department and agencies under its umbrella – such as the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – may be the next targets of Trump’s mass layoffs.
Trump said he would soon be signing an executive order to end federal support for paper straws, saying they don’t work and to “BRING BACK PLASTIC!”
Job creation across the US slowed, according to new data from the labor department.
Updated
Donald Trump announced on Friday that he was revoking Joe Biden’s access to classified government information. This means Biden will no longer have security clearance or daily intelligence briefings.
“JOE, YOU’RE FIRED,” Trump posted on Truth Social. He referenced a report by the special counsel Robert Hur from last year that described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. Trump said Biden could not be trusted with sensitive information.
When Biden came in to office in early 2021, he did the same thing to Trump. He said Trump shouldn’t get intelligence briefings because of his “erratic behavior”.
In the past, former presidents were granted the ability to continue to receive security clearance and intelligence briefings. On Friday, Trump blamed Biden for setting this new precedent.
Updated
