CNN Politics
Trump to sign more executive orders as government overhaul moves forward
Elise Hammond Aditi Sangal Tori B. Powell
By Antoinette Radford, Elise Hammond, Aditi Sangal and Tori B. Powell, CNN
Updated 3:36 PM EST, Fri February 21, 2025
Haberman on what could shorten Elon Musk’s long haul with Trump
01:01 - Source: CNN
What we're covering
• Trump again slams Zelensky: President Donald Trump continued to rail against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a radio interview Friday, even as his own US envoy to Ukraine struck a different tone, calling Zelensky an “embattled and courageous leader.” Trump admitted Russia attacked Ukraine, but blamed former President Joe Biden and Zelensky for not stopping the war. He said Zelensky “has no cards” and is not “important to be at meetings.”
• In the courts: Trump is expected to sign more executive orders this afternoon as several of his moves to reshape the government face legal challenges. A judge is expected to rule today on the administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID, a significant early test of Trump’s power to reduce the federal workforce and shutter an agency.
• Pentagon purge on pause: The Defense Department has temporarily paused a plan to carry out mass firings of civilian probationary employees until Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel can more thoroughly review the impacts such firings could have on US military readiness, defense officials told CNN.
All
Federal Agencies
Ukraine
15 Posts
Sort by
Latest
6 Newer Posts
2 hr 54 min ago
Trump says Zelensky "has no cards" and is not "important to be at meetings"
From CNN's Michael Williams and Alejandra Jaramillo
President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has “no cards” and is not “important to be at meetings,” as he warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could take all of Ukraine “if he wanted” on Friday.
“I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” after Kilmeade pressed him on Russia being to blame for the war.
“He’s been at a meeting for three years, and nothing got done. So, I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you,” Trump continued about Zelensky. “He makes it very hard to make deals. But look what’s happened to his country, it’s been demolished.”
The US president also said Putin could take all of Ukraine “if he wanted,” adding that’s why Zelensky should be working toward a deal with the nation that invaded nearly three years ago.
“He wants to make a deal,” Trump said of Putin: “And he doesn’t have to make a deal, because if he wanted, he’d get the whole country.”
Trump slammed former President Joe Biden and Zelensky, accusing them of not doing enough to work toward a compromise that could have averted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Putin could have been talked out of that so easy, but they didn’t know how to talk,” Trump said. Trump said he was “not trying to make Putin, like, nicer or better,” but added the war never should have happened.
He also expressed disappointment with Zelensky’s rejection of the rare earth minerals deal.
3 hr 7 min ago
Patel to begin first day as FBI director amid ongoing upheaval at the bureau
From CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz
Kash Patel testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 30, in Washington, DC.
Kash Patel testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 30, in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Kash Patel is set to begin his first day as the director of the storied Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday.
Patel, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, will be sworn in at the White House and then will begin his tenure at the bureau’s J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, DC.
Patel was confirmed to the post in a close Senate vote on Thursday.
His first days in the position coincides with a continuing upheaval at the bureau over a list of details of more than 5,000 FBI employees’ who worked on January 6-related cases that was gathered as part of a survey and handed over to Justice Department leadership. The FBI is also dealing with a stream of senior officials who either resigned or were asked to leave.
In a letter to his new colleagues obtained by CNN, Patel said that his “commitment has always been — and always will be — to pursuing justice and upholding the rule of law.”
“My priorities for our organization are twofold,” Patel wrote. His first priority is giving agents the “tools” to keep America safe, including efforts to streamline the FBI’s “operations at Headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation and collaborating even more closely with our essential partners in state and local law enforcement.”
Second, he said, is “to ensure we rebuild the American people’s trust in the FBI.”
Patel’s nomination faced intense scrutiny from Democrats on Capitol Hill who have warned that he is poised to use the position to seek retribution against Trump’s perceived political enemies.
CNN’s Josh Campbell contributed reporting to this post.
2 hr 54 min ago
Trump admits Russia attacked Ukraine, but blames Biden and Zelensky for not stopping war
From CNN's Alejandra Jaramillo
President Donald Trump on Friday repeatedly ignored questions on Fox News radio about Russia being to blame for the war in Ukraine before eventually admitting, “Russia attacked,” and then going on to fault the Biden administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Russia attacked, but there was no reason for them to attack, you could have talked him out,” Trump said of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with Fox host Brian Kilmeade. “That whole thing was going on for years, there was no reason he was going in. It should have never happened.”
The remark came after Kilmeade repeatedly told Trump that Putin was to “to blame” for the war, saying it was an “unwarranted invasion” and asking repeatedly, “You agree, right?”
Trump claimed Russia would have not invaded Ukraine if he were in office, arguing that former President Joe Biden’s administration mishandled communications with Russia. “Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things,” Trump said.
Trump claimed Russia “would have been talked out of that war so easy.”
Trump also said in the interview Friday that French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer “haven’t done anything” to end the war. Trump is set to meet Macron on Monday and Starmer on Thursday. The meetings come as European leaders are scrambling to respond to Trump’s decision to negotiate with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Remember: Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago after months of military buildup and brinkmanship on its side of the border.
Moscow’s rhetoric in support of the invasion echoed that of its 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea, which it seized after mass protests in Kyiv forced out a Russia-friendly president. Russia also fomented a separatist rebellion in Ukraine’s east, which seized control of part of the Donbas region.
Putin has cast the expansion of NATO toward its borders, and the potential that Ukraine could eventually join the Western military alliance, as an existential threat to Russia.
4 hr 16 min ago
Democrats demand details on Justice Department's moves to drop corruption probes
From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz
The top Democrats on four separate House committees issued an emphatic letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday seeking information on whether the Justice Department’s new policies on corruption investigations will affect investigations into corruption by public officials both within the United States and abroad.
“Far from rooting out corruption and fraud in our government, as President Trump likes to claim, the Trump administration and DOJ’s actions constitute an unprecedented assault on the laws, government agencies and people fighting corruption,” the letter, which was sent to the Justice Department Friday morning, reads.
It is signed by Rep. Gerald Connolly of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Summer Lee of the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, Rep. Jamie Raskin of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Lucy McBath of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance.
Since Inauguration Day, the Justice Department has paused all investigations into corporate foreign bribery, curtailed enforcement of a foreign agent registration law and deemphasized the criminal prosecutions of Russian oligarchs, CNN has reported.
And Trump officials have seriously considered eliminating the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, from which at least four prosecutors resigned as part of the fallout to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The four Democrats cited Trump’s purging of inspectors general, the department’s abandonment of criminal cases against former Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry and Rep. Andy Ogles, and the Trump’s pardon for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The firings were “patently illegal,” the letter says, and dropping the cases “shielded” the president’s allies from criminal exposure.
The letter requests all communications around DOJ decision to drop those cases and the Blagojevich conviction; to specify which cases surrounding a US business bribing a foreign official will be prosecuted; and to specify the number of cases brought by the department’s Task Force KleptoCapture that involve assets linked to nationals of Russia and China.
CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
4 hr 20 min ago
At CPAC, some January 6 rioters are received "like gods" by attendees, while others are thrown out
From CNN's Steve Contorno and Donie O’Sullivan
Richard Barnett, the convicted January 6th rioter famous for putting his feet on Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk, at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on Thursday. Annabelle Gordon/CNP/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
This week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was expected to serve as an informal homecoming for those granted clemency in President Donald Trump’s near-blanket pardoning of people charged or convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
“The J6ers are here at CPAC,” Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist and nationalist populist, said Thursday during his remarks to raucous cheers from attendees.
But some were initially denied entrance to the conference on Wednesday, including Richard Barnett, whose photograph — feet propped on a desk inside then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office — became one of the most enduring images of the riot.
“I am considered a national hero,” Barnett said in a video he posted to social media after he was turned away from CPAC. “I’m a J6er and I have an unlimited, unconditional presidential pardon from President Trump,” he continued. “I went when he called me, I stood up. I spent all this time in prison for my country.”
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was also initially denied entry.
“I have no idea what the rationale is,” he said in a video posted on social media, “there’s a two-tier system still, on the conservative side too, if you’re a disfavored patriot you’re purged by the left and you’re purged by the right.”
As a vocal contingent of Rhodes’ and others’ supporters began to complain online, CPAC responded Thursday on X, saying that it is “untrue that we are not allowing people to come to CPAC because of their involvement with J6. In fact, CPAC has been a constant supporter of this persecuted community, and we support wholeheartedly President Trump’s pardons of the J6 victims.”
Barnett, Rhodes, and others returned to the conference on Thursday and this time were granted entry.
“We’re like gods,” Joe Biggs, a leader of the Proud Boys, who was serving a 17-year sentence for his role in the Capitol, told CNN Thursday when asked how he was received by CPAC attendees.
But still, others were not so lucky. At least one other person charged with January 6-related crimes was denied entry from the conference on Thursday. It was not clear specifically why, but in a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for CPAC said the conference “will not tolerate those who only seek to disrupt our great event.”
The spokesperson declined to elaborate on the nature of the disruptions.
CNN’s Sean Clark contributed reporting to this post.
4 hr 49 min ago
CIA dismisses intelligence officers for working on diversity issues
From CNN's Katie Bo Lillis
The CIA late last week moved to fire more than a dozen officers for working on diversity issues, in what amounts to a deeply unusual round of mass firings at the agency, according to court filings and current and former officials familiar with the effort.
In a court filing, the government suggested that further dismissals may be imminent, and a current official familiar with the matter confirmed that agency officials are in the process of working on recommendations for further cuts. A final number has not yet been decided, that person said.
Some of the fired officers are now challenging their dismissal in court on the grounds that it violated federal workforce laws, and a federal judge in Virginia is expected to hold a hearing to weigh a temporary restraining order against the move on Monday. Kevin Carroll, a lawyer and former CIA officer, said he represents 21 officers who have been fired.
“None of these officers’ activities was or is illegal, and at no time have the agencies employing Plaintiffs contended that they individually engaged in any misconduct, nor are they accused of poor performance,” those officers claim in a complaint against CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. “Plaintiffs are being fired because of their assumed beliefs about a domestic political issue, and losing their property interest in their employment without due process of law.”
According to the filing, the officers were only on temporary assignments working on diversity issues — the agency routinely assigns officers to different roles as part of their career development — and in some cases, they were not working on diversity issues at all.
“Plaintiffs are not somehow ‘DEIA officers,’” the filing read. “Plaintiffs are career intelligence officers of different career services who Defendants believe, in some cases inaccurately, now serve in temporary positions related to DEIA.”
The CIA declined to comment.
2 hr 54 min ago
In contrast to Trump's rhetoric, US top envoy for Ukraine calls Zelensky an "embattled and courageous leader"
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 20.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 20. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
US special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy “the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war” — a sharp contrast from the rhetoric of President Donald Trump.
“A long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine,” Kellogg said in a post on X Friday that also shared Zelensky’s video message about their meeting Thursday in Kyiv.
“Extensive and positive discussions with @ZelenskyyUa, the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his talented national security team,” Kellogg said.
His words of praise for the Ukrainian president are a far cry from those of Trump, who has repeatedly railed against Zelensky and called him a “dictator.”
5 hr 36 min ago
Defense Department temporarily pauses plan to carry out mass firings of civilian employees, officials say
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky
Birds fly near the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, on December 14, 2024.
Birds fly near the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, on December 14, 2024. Tom Brenner/The Washington Post/Getty Images
The Defense Department has temporarily paused a plan to carry out mass firings of civilian probationary employees until Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel can carry out a more thorough review of the impacts such firings could have on US military readiness, two defense officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
Remember: The pause comes after CNN reported on Wednesday that the mass terminations, which could impact over 50,000 civilian employees across the Pentagon, could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the US code. Following that report, Pentagon lawyers began reviewing the legality of the planned terminations more closely, the officials said.
That law says that the secretary of defense “may not reduce the civilian workforce programmed full-time equivalent levels unless the Secretary conducts an appropriate analysis” of how those firings could impact the US military’s lethality and readiness. The law also says that mitigating risk to US military readiness takes precedence over cost.
A senior defense official told CNN on Wednesday that such an analysis had not been carried out before military leaders were ordered to make lists of employees to fire.
5 hr 36 min ago
Acting Social Security head rose to the position after giving information to DOGE
From CNN’s Tami Luhby
Leland Dudek, now the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, acknowledged in a now-deleted LinkedIn post that he had worked with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency prior to his being elevated to the leadership position.
He replaced Michelle King, a longtime agency staffer who departed last weekend after tussling with DOGE staffers over access to the agency’s sensitive records on millions of Americans. Frank Bisignano, the CEO of Fiserv and President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.
Dudek, a career employee who had worked in the agency’s anti-fraud office, wrote that he had been cooperating with the DOGE, which resulted in his being placed on administrative leave before the shakeup at the department.
“I confess. I helped DOGE understand SSA. I mailed myself publically accessible documents and explained them DOGE,” he wrote in the post, which CNN viewed. “I confess. I moved contractor money around to add data science resources to my anti-fraud team to examine Direct Deposit Fraud.”
“I confess. I bullied agency executives, shared executive contact information, and circumvented the chain of command to connect DOGE with the people who get stuff done,” he posted.
Elon Musk, who leads DOGE and incorrectly implied this week that millions of dead people are collecting Social Security benefits, praised Dudek on X on Wednesday.
More context: DOGE’s gaining access to Social Security’s data, which contains reams of personal information on hundreds of millions of Americans, has raised red flags among experts and consumer advocates.
Dudek sought to allay some concerns on Wednesday, saying in a statement that “DOGE personnel CANNOT make changes to agency systems, benefit payments, or other information. They only have READ access.” He also noted that that the DOGE team cannot access data related to a court-ordered temporary restraining order, current or future. He also noted that there are people older than 100 who do not have a date of death associated with their record, but they are not necessarily receiving benefits.
The Social Security Administration didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
6 hr 53 min ago
Reading, snacking, books and virtual tours: What do senators do during a marathon voting session?
From CNN’s Morgan Rimmer
On a night that often amounts to a lot of hurry-up-and-wait between votes, senators found ways to stay entertained as the hours dragged on while the chamber stayed in session overnight for a marathon vote series leading up to a final vote on the Senate GOP budget resolution, the first step to advancing President Trump’s sweeping agenda.
As the Senate kicked off its late-night votes on Thursday, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis grabbed a large bowl of popcorn and walked into the Republican cloakroom.
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin took time between presiding over the floor and casting votes to give a virtual tour of the Capitol to his followers on X, posting dispatches from the Capitol’s rotunda and crypt throughout the night.
“As you heard: we’re doing vote-a-rama in the Senate. I don’t mind fighting, but for what? The liberals KNOW they won’t win,” he captioned one video of the rotunda. “Anyway, here’s another mini tour.”
Mullin is also the current occupant of the Senate candy desk, and whichever senator is assigned the desk is tasked with keeping it stocked full of treats for their colleagues. However, he noted that he’s getting “a little blowback” for the green, St. Patrick’s Day-themed candy he provided.
“I think I’m going to have to pivot to Easter,” he joked.
2 hr 54 min ago
Former Russian minister says Kremlin is "totally astonished" by Trump’s concessions to Putin
From CNN’s Kathleen Magramo
The Kremlin appears to be surprised by how quickly US President Donald Trump has made concessions to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin even before beginning negations to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine, a former Russian deputy minister told CNN.
The Kremlin had expected Trump would make certain demands of Russia and Moscow was “preparing some sort of offers here and there to make what they call a deal,” said Vladimir Milov, Russia’s former deputy minister of energy and a former adviser to the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
Speaking in exile in Vilnius, Lithuania, Milov told CNN’s Kim Brunhuber that, based on what he’s heard, “everybody in Moscow is totally astonished by now that they were given all the concessions they wanted, even before the negotiations started.”
“This is a shocking result, even by Vladimir Putin’s standards,” Milov said.
The long-fraught relationship between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky tore apart this week.
Trump parroted Moscow’s talking points, wrongly accusing Ukraine of starting the war and saying that the Ukrainian president should hold an election that was suspended due to the conflict.
After Zelensky hit back, accusing him of being in a “disinformation space,” Trump escalated the war of words and called the Ukrainian president a “dictator.”
Perhaps emboldened by the falling out between Ukraine and the US, Moscow’s demands appear to be accelerating in the past few days, Milov noted, saying “Moscow is clearly encouraged by Trump’s lack of willingness to impose any conditions on Russia.”
Russia has long claimed that expansion of NATO put its security under threat, necessitating its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. That claim has been dismissed by Western leaders as a bogus justification for launching its war.
7 hr 29 min ago
Analysis: One month into his tenure, Trump has yet to deliver on bringing prices down
From CNN's Elizabeth Buchwald
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump vowed repeatedly that he’d bring prices down “starting on Day One” if elected. It’s been a month since he took office and he has yet to deliver.
Consumer prices rose 0.5% last month compared to December — the fastest monthly increase in prices since August 2023, according to Consumer Price Index data. And it could soon get even worse with wholesale prices remaining elevated, often a precursor to higher consumer prices.
The pain is most acute at the grocery store, where consumers are confronting soaring egg prices — if they’re lucky enough to come across any eggs — due to avian flu outbreaks nationwide. And despite Trump’s promise to “drill, baby, drill” to bring gas prices down, Americans are paying four cents more for a gallon of regular fuel on average than when he returned to the White House on January 20, according to AAA data.
Unsurprisingly, Americans aren’t pleased. A new CNN poll shows 62% of Americans feel Trump hasn’t done enough to tackle inflation. Nearly the same share of Americans view inflation as “a very big problem,” according to a Pew Research poll published on Thursday.
Read more about what team Trump’s doing about it here.
7 hr 46 min ago
Trump's Friday includes signing even more executive orders
From CNN's Max Rego
President Donald Trump’s Friday will begin with him speaking at the Governors Working Session at 11 a.m. ET, according to a news release from the White House.
He will have lunch with Vice President JD Vance at 1 p.m. and then attend a swearing-in for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at 2:30 p.m. in the Oval Office.
He will sign executive orders at 3:30 p.m.
7 hr 53 min ago
Senate and House Republicans look set to clash over Trump's budget agenda after late night "vote-a-rama"
From CNN's Clare Foran, Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett
Senate Republicans took a major step to advance President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda early Friday morning, voting to adopt a budget blueprint that sets up a clash with House Republicans, who have put forward a competing plan.
Remember: The budget resolution is a non-binding blueprint that does not carry the force of law. But the framework needs to be adopted first before Senate Republicans can pass legislation on a party-line vote without the support of Democrats through a process known as reconciliation.
Republicans are planning to use that mechanism to pass what they hope will be Trump’s signature legislative achievements.
Here’s what to know about the overnight”vote-a-rama”:
• Overnight vote seals the deal: The final vote in favor of Trump’s agenda came after a rare overnight work session for the Senate that started Thursday evening and wrapped up close to 5 a.m. ET on Friday after lasting just short of 10 hours.
• How many people voted for the agenda? The final tally was 52 to 48, with GOP Sen. Rand Paul joining Democrats to oppose the resolution.
• What was voted through? Senate Republicans have put forward a budget resolution that would bolster funding for immigration enforcement, national security and energy production. In contrast, House Republicans have a more far-reaching plan that would allow them to address tax policy, a critical issue that Senate Republicans want to take up later as part of a second legislative package.
House Republicans, with a razor-thin majority, want to address all of the party’s major priorities in a single bill in a bid to get everything done at once. Senate Republicans, on the other hand, want the party to score an early win on issues important to voters, like the border, before moving on to address tax policy, a thorny issue that may take longer – and prove more challenging - for the party to thread the needle.
Read more about the Senate’s budget blueprint.
8 hr 2 min ago
Trump hostage envoy calls on Hamas to release all remaining hostages or "face total annihilation"
From CNN's Lucas Lilieholm
A Hamas fighter stands guard as Red Cross vehicles arrive at the site where four coffins were handed over to Israel, in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, on Thursday.
A Hamas fighter stands guard as Red Cross vehicles arrive at the site where four coffins were handed over to Israel, in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, on Thursday. Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s Envoy for Hostage Affairs has called on Hamas to release the body of Shiri Bibas and all the remaining hostages held in Gaza or “face total annihilation” after Israel said a body that did not match any Israeli hostages had been handed over as part of the ceasefire deal.
“If I were them, I’d release everybody or they’re going to face total annihilation,” Adam Boehler told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday night.
Boehler described the incident as “a clear violation” of the deal and expressed disbelief at the revelation calling it “absolutely stunning.”
“I don’t know what they thought when they put the body of someone else in a coffin and said that it was the mother of two kids that have been brutally murdered,” he said, echoing a statement made by Israel earlier in the day that forensic evidence and intelligence suggested the boys were murdered.
Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir and Ariel Bibas were killed along with their mother in an Israeli airstrike. On Friday, the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office in Gaza said Shiri Bibas’ body was “mixed up” with other bodies under rubble as a result of the airstrike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would pay “the full price” for its failure to hand over Shiri Bibas’ remains.
No comments:
Post a Comment