IRS to lay off 7,000 workers beginning today – report
We reported earlier that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is expected to fire thousands of its employees starting today.
About 7,000 IRS workers in Washington and around the country will be laid off beginning Thursday, Associated Press reports, citing a source.
The layoffs affect probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency and largely include workers in compliance departments, the news agency reports.
The reported layoffs come in the middle of tax filing season and it is unclear how they may affect tax collection services this year.
Key events
We reported earlier that Elon Musk is scheduled to address the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Musk is expected to meet with Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, who is in Washington to attend the rightwing conference, Associated Press reports.
Milei is a prominent fan of Donald Trump who became the first foreign leader to meet with him after his election victory. He was one of three Latin American presidents to attend Trump’s inauguration at the Capitol, alongside El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa.
Republican senator Mitch McConnell is expected to deliver a speech later today announcing that he will not seek re-election in 2026.
“Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,” McConnell said in prepared remarks provided in advance to the Associated Press.
Every day in between I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.
McConnell, first elected in 1984, intends to serve the remainder of his term ending in January 2027, the news agency reports.
Mitch McConnell to announce retirement from Senate
Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky, will announce that he won’t seek re-election next year, according to multiple reports.
McConnell is the longest serving Senate party leader in US history. He told the Associated Press of his decision before he was set to address colleagues in a speech on the Senate floor.
Republican senator Susan Collins says she will oppose Patel nomination as FBI director
Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, said she will be voting against the confirmation of Kash Patel as FBI director.
The Senate is scheduled to vote this afternoon on whether to confirm Patel, after he cleared the Senate judiciary committee last week by a 12-10, party-line vote.
In a statement, Collins said Patel’s nomination comes at a time where is “compelling need” for an FBI director who is “decidedly apolitical”.
Patel has made numerous politically charged statements in his book and elsewhere discrediting the work of the FBI, the very institution he has been nominated to lead. These statements … cast doubt on Mr Patel’s ability to advance the FBI’s law enforcement mission in a way that is free from the appearance of political motivation.
Patel’s recent political profile “undermines his ability to serve in the apolitical role of Director of the FBI”, she said, concluding:
“Therefore, I will vote against his nomination.”
The White House said national security adviser Mike Waltz, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and national economic council director Kevin Hassett will address reporters as part of the press briefing today.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the officials will be at the briefing “to discuss the President’s accomplishments so far”, on the one month anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Senate committee advances Linda McMahon as Trump’s nominee for education secretary
The Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions have voted 12-11 along party lines to advance Linda McMahon’s nomination to serve as Donald Trump’s education secretary.
McMahon, the billionaire co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), was co-chair of Trump’s transition team and served in his cabinet in his first administration as the administrator of the Small Business Administration.
McMahon chaired America First Action, a Super Pac that backed Trump’s re-election campaign. McMahon is the former chief executive of WWE, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince McMahon.
Her nomination now advances to the Senate floor.
JD Vance, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), was asked about efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
“Everything is on the table,” the vice-president said, adding that Donald Trump “wants to bring last peace to Europe”.
How are you going to end the war unless you’re talking to Russia? You’ve got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting.
“Peace is in the interest of Russia. It’s in the interest of Ukraine. It’s in the interest of Europe. But most importantly, peace is in the interest of the American people,” he added.
Vance described Trump as the “president of peace”.
JD Vance received a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) for his speech last week at the Munich security conference.
“I’ll take a standing ovation for a speech I already gave,” Vance said to the audience in Maryland. “I think not everybody liked it.”
Vance stunned European leaders last Friday during a brutal chastising speech accusing leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs.
His remarks were met with shock at the conference and were later condemned by the EU and Germany.
JD Vance kicks off CPAC
JD Vance has taken to the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland.
The vice-president said it was “hard to believe” that he and Donald Trump had only been in office for a month.
“We’ve done more in a month than [Joe] Biden in about four years,” he said. “It’s been a hell of a lot of fun the past month.”
CPAC organizers announced earlier that Elon Musk was scheduled to address the conference.
Ewan Murray
Donald Trump’s involvement in professional golf’s peace talks have ramped up further, with Tiger Woods among those due to be afforded an audience with the US president at the White House this afternoon.
Woods is expected to join the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, fellow board member Adam Scott and representatives of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a meeting hosted by Trump amid increasing hopes the fractured sport can unite over the coming months.
Trump holds a significant role not only because of his love for golf but because of influence he can exert on the US Department of Justice, which under Joe Biden’s presidency was seen as a potential stumbling block to the PGA Tour and Saudis forming alliance.
The meeting is slated to begin at 12pm ET today.
US envoy cancels press conference with Zelenskyy in Kyiv
Luke Harding
The US envoy Keith Kellogg has cancelled his press conference following a meeting with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Kellogg would not be taking questions from the press, Ukrainian officials said, and would only appear for a photocall and protocol handshake.
The cancellation means we will not hear from either of the two leaders after today’s Ukraine-US talks in Kyiv, at least for now, as they were meant to hold a joint press conference.
Kellogg’s three-day trip to Kyiv came as Donald Trump accused Zelenskyy of being a “dictator” and blamed him for his country’s war with Russia. Zelenskyy had suggested on Wednesday Trump was living in a Russian “disinformation bubble”.
One senior Ukrainian source described Zelenskyy as engaged and “highly motivated”. He said it was unclear if Kellogg would take up the president’s invitation to visit the frontline together. Kellogg is due to leave Kyiv on Friday evening.
IRS to lay off 7,000 workers beginning today – report
We reported earlier that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is expected to fire thousands of its employees starting today.
About 7,000 IRS workers in Washington and around the country will be laid off beginning Thursday, Associated Press reports, citing a source.
The layoffs affect probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency and largely include workers in compliance departments, the news agency reports.
The reported layoffs come in the middle of tax filing season and it is unclear how they may affect tax collection services this year.
David Smith
Liz Truss, the former British prime minister, told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that her country was “failing” and needed a Donald Trump-style “Maga” movement to save it.
Truss was speaking at the rightwing conference at the National Harbor in Maryland on Wednesday, alongside rightwing populists from around the world planning deeper ties and cooperation.
“We now have a major problem in Britain that judges are making decisions that should be made by politicians,” the ex-prime minister said, claiming that the judiciary is “no longer accountable” because of reforms by her predecessor Tony Blair, who gave power to an “unelected bureaucracy”. She continued:
There’s no doubt in my mind that until those changes are reversed, we do not have a functioning country. The British state is now failing, is not working. The decisions are not being made by politicians.
Truss, who was prime minister for only 49 days and lost her seat in last year’s general election, has become an increasingly marginal figure in British politics but found safe harbour at CPAC, a once mainstream conservative gathering that has embraced Trump’s brand of nativist-populism.
JD Vance is set to kick off this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with a speech to begin shortly. We’ll follow it live and bring you the key moments of his speech.
Other speakers scheduled to speak at the conference include attorney general Pam Bondi, House speaker Mike Johnson, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at CPAC on Saturday.
