Republican House speaker Johnson backs dismantling education department
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said his lawmakers would support dismantling the department of education.
Donald Trump signaled he supported the idea yesterday, saying, “What I want to do is let the states run schools.”
At a press conference today, Johnson was asked if he would support passing a law to codify the department’s abolition, if Trump were to have it closed by executive order. “I think that is an idea whose time has come,” Johnson replied.
“Like everything else, you gotta wait for more details to be laid out, but you’re going to see a lot of support among House and I think Senate Republicans for the general idea of pushing the decisions down, back down to the local level. I think that’s something that would serve us all well.”
Key events
Pam Bondi sworn in as attorney general
Pam Bondi has been sworn in as attorney general by supreme court justice Clarence Thomas in an Oval Office ceremony.
Donald Trump was also in attendance.
In brief remarks after she took the oath, Bondi told Trump:
I will not let you down. I am truly honored, honored, that you have asked me to take on this role, and I will make you proud and I will make this country proud.
…
I will restore integrity to the Justice Department and I will fight violent crime throughout this country and throughout this world, and make America safe again.
Second federal judge blocks Trump from ending birthright citizenship
Donald Trump’s executive order curtailing birthright citizenship has been blocked by a second federal judge, Reuters reports.
Maryland-based district judge Deborah Boardman issued a nationwide injunction against the executive order Trump signed shortly after taking office, which will go into effect 19 February. The judge ruled in favor of two immigrant rights groups as well was five pregnant women who had argued their children would be unconstitutionally denied citizenship.
“Today, virtually every baby born on US soil is a US citizen upon birth,” said Boardman, an appointee of Joe Biden. “That is the law and tradition of our country. That law and tradition are and will remain the status quo pending the resolution of this case.”
Her decision came after a similar injunction was handed down by a federal judge in Seattle, just days after Trump signed the order:
In theory, House Republicans have a quick way to abolish the department of education: they could pass the legislation congressman Thomas Massie has introduced to do just that.
But in practice, that legislation is almost certain not get the 60 votes needed to overcome an inevitable Democratic filibuster in the Senate, and it remains to be seen if it could even get through the House, where the GOP currently cannot afford a single defection on its bills.
What’s more likely to happen is that Donald Trump will attempt to abolish the department by executive order, triggering a court fight over whether he can actually do that. Here’s more about what we know about his plans:
Republican House speaker Johnson backs dismantling education department
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said his lawmakers would support dismantling the department of education.
Donald Trump signaled he supported the idea yesterday, saying, “What I want to do is let the states run schools.”
At a press conference today, Johnson was asked if he would support passing a law to codify the department’s abolition, if Trump were to have it closed by executive order. “I think that is an idea whose time has come,” Johnson replied.
“Like everything else, you gotta wait for more details to be laid out, but you’re going to see a lot of support among House and I think Senate Republicans for the general idea of pushing the decisions down, back down to the local level. I think that’s something that would serve us all well.”
Beyond targeting transgender athletes who play women’s sports, Donald Trump has also attempted to prevent hospitals across the United States from offering gender-affirming care to transgender youth.
Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it would sue over Trump’s executive order, even as hospitals across the country announced they were suspending the treatments. Here’s more on that:
Rights group warns Trump’s anti-transgender athlete order threatens young people with ‘harassment and discrimination’
LGTBQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign has warned that the executive order Donald Trump will sign today meant to stop transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports could create a hostile environment for students nationwide.
“We all want sports to be fair, students to be safe, and young people to have the opportunity to participate alongside their peers,” the group’s president Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
She continued:
But an attempted blanket ban deprives kids of those things. This order could expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look. And it comes at a time when the Trump Administration continues to distract and divide the country, handing the keys to the federal government to unelected billionaires and refusing to address urgent issues that the country is facing. Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And for so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids – not partisan policies that make life harder for them.
ABC News has more details on “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” the executive order that Donald Trump will sign this afternoon targeting transgender athletes in women’s sports:
The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” sources said, will mandate immediate enforcement, including against schools and athletic associations that “deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms,” according to the document, and will direct state attorneys general to identify best practices for enforcing the mandate.
The White House expects sports bodies like the NCAA to change their rules in accordance with the order once it is signed, according to a senior administration official.
“We’re a national governing body and we follow federal law,” NCAA President Charlie Baker told Republican senators at a hearing in December. “Clarity on this issue at the federal level would be very helpful.”
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“We want to take actions to affirmatively protect women’s sports,” deputy assistant to the president and senior policy strategist May Mailman told ABC News, who said that the executive order is designed to further overturn Biden-era policies that required schools and athletic organizations to treat gender identity and sex as equivalent. She noted that a court ruling determined such requirements were not necessary, and that the president’s executive order would explicitly ban them.
Trump administration to review transgender visa applicants for ‘fraud’
As part of its campaign against transgender athletes, the Trump administration plans to review visa applications from transgender people for “fraud”, Reuters reports.
Citing a White House official, Reuters also reports that the education department will also investigate the implementation of Title IX, the federal law that prevents sex discrimination at schools.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Department of Commerce appear to be the next targets of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports:
Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency.
“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.”
Project 2025, written by several former Trump staffers, has called for the agency to be “broken up and downsized”, claiming the agency is “harmful to US prosperity” for its role in climate science.
Rosenberg noted it had been a longtime goal of corporations that rely on Noaa data to prevent the agency from making the data public, instead of giving it directly to private corporations that create products based on it, such as weather forecasting services.
He also argued there was no legal authority to abolish Noaa or reduce its budget, outside of reducing it through Congress.
“There’s no real transparency. They just show up wherever they want, do whatever they want. They’re following through on major budget cuts and major staffing cuts,” Rosenberg added. “I think the strategy here is: ‘Well, we’re just going to do it and dare somebody to stop us, and by the time they stop us, we’ll have destroyed it.’”
Trump to sign executive order targeting transgender athletes in women’s sports
Donald Trump will sign an executive order to prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports at 3pm today, the White House said.
Dubbed “No Men in Women’s Sports”, the order will change how the administration interprets Title IX, a civil rights law that addresses sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding, including in athletics.
After finding success in his presidential campaign by attacking transgender rights, Trump moved swiftly to roll back federal protections for the group after being sworn in. Here’s more on that:
Trump to meet with California governor, Democratic rival Gavin Newsom
Donald Trump is scheduled to meet at the White House today with Gavin Newsom, the Democratic California governor who is thought to have presidential aspirations.
Newsom is a rival of Trump’s, and the president has in the past taken to referring to him as “Newscum”, though he has more recently held off on that after the Los Angeles area was struck by deadly and destructive wildfires.
Newsom is expected to discuss the possibility of federal aid to help southern California recover during his behind-closed-doors meeting with the president, which is scheduled for 4pm ET. One wonders if Trump might also raise his proposal floated yesterday to investigate the slow-moving project to build a high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.
US Postal Service resumes receiving packages from China and Hong Kong
The US Postal Service now says it will take packages coming to the United States from China and Hong Kong, in a reversal of a policy it had announced just hours prior following Donald Trump’s tariffs on Beijing.
“Effective February 5, 2025, the Postal Service will continue accepting all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts. The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery,” USPS said on its website.
David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, has made clear that the UK does not agree with Donald Trump’s proposal to remove Palestinians from Gaza and put the territory under US control, though stopped short of criticising the US president’s plan.
Asked whether the policy would be a breach of international law at a press conference in Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday, Lammy began by praising Trump for wanting to rebuild Gaza.
“Donald Trump is right,” Lammy said. “Looking at those scenes, Palestinians who have been horrendously displaced over so many months of war, it is clear that Gaza is lying in rubble.”
But he added: “We have always been clear in our view that we must see two states and we must see Palestinians able to live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza, in the West Bank. That is what we want to get to.”
Read the full story here:
Bondi to begin first day as attorney general after Senate approval
The new US attorney general, Pam Bondi, is set to begin her first day on the job after being approved by the US Senate on Tuesday.
Bondi, a strong Trump ally, graduated in 1987 from the University of Florida and earned her law degree in 1990 from Stetson University.
She was a county prosecutor in Florida before successfully running for Florida attorney general in 2010.
The justice department has already made sweeping personnel changes to senior leadership positions since Trump’s White House return.
Last week, at the direction of the president himself, it fired the prosecutors who worked on the criminal cases brought against him in recent years.
Bondi is widely expected to order a review of the more than 1,500 criminal cases brought in connection to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, CNN reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.
During her confirmation hearing, Bondi insisted the justice department would remain independent and continue a policy that restricts interactions with the White House.
The US Postal Service has suspended incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong until further notice, the latest escalation of a growing trade war between the US and China.
The service did not give a reason for the suspension, but the Trump administration has already imposed sweeping tariffs on goods from China and eliminated duty-free exemptions for low-value parcels.
In 2023, a US government report said 30% of small packages coming into the US were from just two Chinese e-commerce companies, Shein and Temu. The USPS declined to answer further questions.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian called on the US to “stop the unreasonable suppression of Chinese companies”.
Trump earlier signalled that talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, could take place this week, but speaking on Tuesday he said he was in “no rush” to speak with him.
Read the full story here:
Here’s more on the latest remarks from China responding to the 10% tariffs imposed on all Chinese goods by the Trump administration.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said China “expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the tariffs.
He also called for “fair and mutually respectful dialogue and consultations”.
Beijing has already introduced retaliatory tariffs on a range of US goods, including a 15% tax on coal and liquified natural gas from the US as well as a 10% tax on agricultural machinery and some vehicles.
“The measures taken by China are necessary to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Lin said.
“There are no winners in a trade war or a tariff war.”
Today, the US Postal Service has also suspended all incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong until further notice. More on that in the next post.
Trump calls for ‘verified peace agreement’ with Iran
Donald Trump has called for a “verified peace agreement” with Iran that would allow the country “peacefully grow and prosper”.
“I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon,” he said on his Truth Social platform.
“Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.”
Ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump signed a memorandum restoring his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which includes efforts to drive the country’s oil exports to zero to discourage it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Trump continued: “I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper.
“We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed. God Bless the Middle East!”
During his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal, which had been agreed with Iran by the US, the UK, France, China, Russia, and the EU.
The deal limited Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions, but faced widespread opposition on the American right.
More now on those reports that the Trump administration has offered the entire staff of the CIA a payoff if they quit their jobs.
A spokesperson told CNN the decision was taken to “ensure the CIA workforce is responsive to the administration’s national security priorities” and that it was “part of a holistic strategy to infuse the agency with renewed energy”.
The White House last week offered two million civilian full-time federal workers an opportunity to stop working this week and receive pay and benefits through 30 September.
Including the CIA in that programme seems to have been a recent decision taken personally by the CIA’s director, John Ratcliffe, CNN reported.
The agency has also frozen the hiring of job applicants already given a conditional offer, the WSJ reported.
Read the full story here:
Opening summary: CIA staff ‘offered payoffs to quit’ as China warns of ‘no winners’ in trade war
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog. Early news is being dominated by Donald Trump’s claim that the US could “take over” Gaza and Palestinians should move to neighbouring countries.
His comments have sparked condemnation at home and abroad and you can follow developments in our Middle East blog here:
But there is plenty of other news for us to follow today, including reports that the CIA has offered its entire staff a payoff to quit as part of Trump’s purge of federal government.
The move is part of aim to bring the agency in line with Trump’s priorities, the Wall Street Journal and CNN have reported.
The US spy agency is also freezing the hiring of job applicants already given a conditional offer, the WSJ reported, quoting an aide to CIA director John Ratcliffe.
The aide, not named in the report, said some of those frozen offers were likely to be rescinded if the applicants did not have the right background for the agency’s new goals, which include targeting drug cartels, Trump’s trade war and undermining China.
In other China news, the country’s foreign ministry has expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the 10% tariffs Trump has imposed on all Chinese goods. Spokesman Lin Jian called for “fair and mutually respectful dialogue” and said there were “no winners in a trade war or a tariff war”.
And a federal judge in Maryland is due to hear arguments in a case brought by immigrant rights group seeking to pause Donald Trump’s executive order ending the right to citizenship for anyone born in the US.
The plaintiffs argue that the principle of birthright citizenship is a “foundation of our national democracy… and has shaped a shared sense of national belonging for generation after generation of citizens”.
Stay with us for more on all that and the latest developments throughout the day.
