President Donald Trump is remaking the traditional boundaries of Washington, asserting unprecedented executive power and daring anyone to stop him.
Here's the latest:
Democrats determined not to let congressional Republicans move on from Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters during a Thursday news conference: “Shame on my House Republican colleagues. What happened to backing the blue?”
Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes for participating in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters previously that the president made his decision, and “I don’t second guess those.”
“The release of violent felons who brutally beat police officers and women doesn’t make America safer,” Jeffries told reporters.
USDA nominee promises equal treatment toward California
U.S. Department of Agriculture nominee Brooke Rollins said Thursday she would support giving California the help it needs fighting fires regardless of the state’s political differences with the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal disaster aid from Los Angeles unless California officials change how the state manages its water resources.
Given that, California Sen. Adam Schiff asked Rollins if she would commit to equal treatment from the U.S. Forest Service, overseen by the Agriculture Department.
“Are you committed to employing the same emergency resources to fight wildfires in blue states as would be deployed to fight wildfires in red states?” Schiff asked.
Rollins responded that she would not discriminate against any state.
“Obviously, but it bears saying since you asked, 100% yes,” Rollins said. “To watch the devastation in your beautiful state has been heartbreaking for all of us, no matter if we’re from red states or blue states.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee has set a date for Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing
Gabbard is President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next director of national intelligence.
She’ll go before the committee on Jan. 30, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, the committee’s chairman, announced Thursday.
Gabbard’s nomination has alarmed some current and former national security officials who’ve questioned her past comments supportive of Russia as well as meetings she had in 2017 with former Syrian President Bashar Assad. Gabbard is a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who’s since joined the Republican Party.
The Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on the confirmation of John Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to be the next director of the CIA.
‘We only have the merit discussion when we’re talking about a Black person or other person of color’
Dorothy Brown, a law professor at Georgetown who specializes in the convergence of race and tax law, served on the Inaugural Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity created during the Biden administration.
The webpage for the committee has been taken down.
Brown says Trump’s DEI executive order aims to ultimately overturn the Civil Rights act of 1964 and all the rights that made it illegal to discriminate against people based on race.
“What the Trump administration has said, and what his minions have said — is the minute someone is a person of color, someone is Black or Hispanic, they are labeled a DEI hire which means they are unqualified regardless of qualification,” whereas he has filled his cabinet with white Americans “for positions they are in no way qualified for.”
Now, she says “we only have the merit discussion when we’re talking about a Black person or other person of color.”
Brown, whose membership in the Treasury committee ended in October 2024, said the portion of the executive order that targets private firms’ hiring practices is an example of big government intervention — and will ultimately be challenged in court.
“Conservatives would say it is wrong to target someone based on their race — but that is exactly what Trump is doing.”
Trump repeats desire to meet with Putin to discuss Ukraine war and criticizes OPEC+
“One thing very important: I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended,” Trump told the Davos audience. “We really have to stop that war. That war is horrible”
Earlier in his address to the forum, Trump laid blame on the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries for keeping the price of oil too high for much of the nearly three-year-old war. Oil sales are the economic engine driving Moscow’s economy.
“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately,” Trump said. He added about OPEC+, “They are very responsible to a certain extent for what’s taking place.”
Oil prices have more recently slumped due to weaker than expected demand from China as well as increased production from countries such as Brazil and Argentina that aren’t in OPEC+.
USDA secretary nominee says she supports Trump’s mass deportation effort
Asked about the possible deportation of farm workers, U.S. Department of Agriculture nominee Brooke Rollins said Thursday that she supported President Donald Trump’s agenda and acknowledged if could be a hardship for U.S. farmers.
“The president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support,” Rollins said.
Rollins added, “That is my commitment, is to help President Trump deploy his agenda in an effective way while at the same time defending if confirmed as secretary of agriculture our farmers and ranchers across this country.
Rollins said she would support efforts to make temporary immigrant farm worker programs more effective.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said estimates are that up to 40% of farm workers are not in the country legally and that mass deportations could be devastating to farmers.
“I just wonder if we should give fair warning to farmers and ranchers across America that if you have immigrant labor, you should expect federal agents to come search your property,” Durbin said.
Trump says he would ‘demand’ lower interest rates once inflation drops
Talking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said he would “demand that interest rates drop immediately” because his policies would bring down oil prices.
Trump says increased oil production would put downward pressure on energy costs, reducing inflation. It wasn’t clear how he could demand lower interest rates, which are largely determined by the financial markets and the policies of the Federal Reserve, which has used higher rates to reduce inflationary pressures.
Trump has a contentious relationship with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, having criticized the head of the U.S. central bank during his first term because Powell kept rates higher than Trump would have liked in order to reduce inflationary risks.
Trump says AI means the US needs to double its energy capacity
Speaking to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump said the United States will “need double the energy we currently have” in order to develop artificial intelligence technologies.
AI requires massive amounts of electricity for its data centers, meaning a boom in the construction of power plants that Trump promised he can make happen with an emergency declaration “so that they can start building them almost immediately.”
Trump says he wants the power plants next to the data centers and talked up coal as an energy source that can survive a bomb.
Israel’s prime minister says Elon Musk is being unfairly criticized over his straight-arm gesture
Many social media users said the gesture Musk made earlier this week looked like a Nazi salute. Musk lashed out at the criticism, though right-wing extremists embraced his salute.
In a post on X, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Musk has been “falsely smeared.” He described the world’s richest man as a “great friend of Israel.”
Agriculture nominee promises to explain the effect of tariffs
Senators in U.S. Department of Agriculture nominee Brooke Rollins’ confirmation hearing Thursday repeatedly implored her to ensure the Trump administration understands the effect of planned tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, said farmers and ranchers see little prospect for improving their economic condition other than expanding exports. Bennet implored Rollins to make the case to Trump that higher tariffs will devastate efforts to increase exports.
Rollins said she always would speak up for the needs of farmers and ranchers.
“My role is to defend, to honor, to elevate our entire agriculture community in the Oval Office around the table, through the interagency process and to ensure that every decision that is made in the coming four years has that front of mind as those decisions are being made,” Rollins said.
Trump tells Davos his tariffs would bring ‘trillions’ into US treasury
President Donald Trump on Thursday told business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that his tariffs “will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury.”
Trump has been persistent on his plans to impose new import taxes on allies such as Canada and Mexico as well as potentially on geopolitical rivals such as China. But his remarks in Davos stressed that the tariffs would raise revenues “strengthen our economy and pay down debt.”
The risk of higher tariffs is that consumers could face higher inflation as manufacturers, importers and retailers adapted to the likely disruptions in global supply chains. But Trump is betting the tariffs would lead to more factory jobs.
Rollins lays out priorities if confirmed as Agriculture Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary nominee Brooke Rollins laid out four priorities Thursday as she opened her Senate confirmation hearing.
She said she would focus on distributing disaster assistance to farmers and working to deal with outbreaks of animal disease. She also called for modernizing the Agriculture Department and spending time to ensure rural development programs were effective.
Asked about her vision for increasing U.S. exports, Rollins noted the country has seen an increasing agriculture trade deficit. She acknowledged Trump has proposed to impose tariffs on some trading partners, a move that has worried many farming organizations.
Rollins also expressed support for federal nutrition programs, such as the SNAP program, but called for ensuring they are run effectively.
Trump is scheduled to speak Thursday afternoon with the El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele
The call is Trump’s second call with a foreign leader since taking office, according to the White House, after Trump late Wednesday spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
Bukele has declared a war on gangs in his county and attended a conservative political gathering in Washington last year. The Biden administration had been critical of his strong-arm governing style.
Three more Trump nominees advance to a full vote in the Senate
Trump’s three nominees to lead energy and environmental agencies — and carry out Trump’s strategy for “energy dominance” — cleared Senate committees Thursday.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee advanced former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency, while the Senate Energy and Natural Resources panel backed formed North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department and business executive Chris Wright to be Energy secretary.
Zeldin’s nomination was endorsed, 11-8, while the votes for Burgum and Wright were 18-2 and 15-5, respectively.
The nominations now head to the full Senate, where all three men are expected to be confirmed.
Trump has a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman
It was Trump’s first call with a foreign leader since taking office. But it’s not clear if he plans to make his first foreign trip to the oil rich kingdom, as Trump had hinted at earlier this week.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday she wasn’t aware of any plans for the president to travel to Saudi Arabia.
Leavitt also said Trump was expected to have another call with a foreign leader Thursday but didn’t have additional details about which leader he would call.
Trump’s nominee to lead the Agriculture Department will have a confirmation hearing Thursday
Brooke Rollins is scheduled to appear before the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee at 10 a.m. The agriculture chief oversees a sprawling agency that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition.
Rollins served as President Donald Trump’s domestic policy chief during his first administration, a portfolio that included agricultural policy. She later was president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group that helped lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration.
The Kremlin is closely monitoring Trump’s ‘statements and rhetoric’
The response from the Kremlin came Thursday after the US president threatened Moscow with further sanctions if an agreement isn’t reached to end the fighting in Ukraine.
In a post to his Truth Social site on Wednesday, Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war.”
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump added in the post.
During his regular call with journalists on Thursday morning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said these threats were nothing new. “Trump, in his first iteration of his presidency, was the American president who most often resorted to sanctions methods. He likes these methods,” Peskov said.
Peskov added that Moscow “remains ready for an equal dialogue, for a mutually respectful dialogue.”
Trump uses a false premise to justify conditioning California wildfire relief
In an interview aired Wednesday night, Trump said he may withhold aid to California until the state adjusts how it manages its scarce water resources. He falsely claimed that California’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Local officials have said the conservation efforts for the delta smelt had nothing to do with the hydrants running dry as firefighters tried to contain flames around Los Angeles. They cited limited municipal systems, which are not designed to battle such massive blazes.
“Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it. All they have to do is turn the valve,” the president said.
Cracks emerge in House GOP after speaker’s threat to saddle California wildfire aid with conditions
California Republicans are pushing back against suggestions by President Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans that federal disaster aid for victims of wildfires that ravaged Southern California should come with strings attached, possibly jeopardizing the president’s policy agenda in a deeply divided Congress at the outset of his second term.
Several Republicans who narrowly won California House seats in November have expressed dismay that the state relief could be hitched to demands in exchange for helping the thousands of Californians in their districts still reeling from this month’s disaster.
“Playing politics with people’s livelihoods is unacceptable and a slap in the face to the Southern California wildfire victims and to our brave first responders,” Republican Rep. Young Kim, whose closely divided district is anchored in fire-prone Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles, said in a statement.
▶ Read more about Trump’s threat to withhold wildfire aid
House passes immigrant detention bill that would be Trump’s first law to sign
The House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that requires the detainment of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes, marking the first legislation that President Donald Trump can sign as Congress, with some bipartisan support, swiftly moved in line with his plans to crackdown on illegal immigration.
Passage of the Laken Riley Act, which was named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man, shows just how sharply the political debate over immigration has shifted to the right following Trump’s election victory. Immigration policy has often been one of the most entrenched issues in Congress, but a crucial faction of 46 politically vulnerable Democrats joined with Republicans to lift the strict proposal to passage on a 263-156 vote tally.
“For decades, it has been almost impossible for our government to agree on solutions for the problems at our border and within our country,” said Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican. She called the legislation “perhaps the most significant immigration enforcement bill” to be passed by Congress in nearly three decades.
Still, the bill would require a massive ramp-up in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s capabilities, but does not include any new funding.
▶ Read more about the Laken Riley Act
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The Associated Press has removed an item from US-Trump-The-Latest about an NSA diversity official being laid off. It was based off a social media post that the person said was a joke.
The Associated Press
