Trump bans trans athletes from women’s sports as Musk’s Treasury access blocked: Live

Donald Trump’s outlandish proposal to assume control of Gaza and remove much of its Palestinian population has sparked a fierce global backlash – with residents of the besieged territory making clear that if 15 months of brutal war was not enough to make them leave, the US president’s bullish rhetoric means nothing.

Arab nations across the Middle East and Europe moved swiftly to condemn Trump’s remarks from the White House, where he said that the US “will take over the Gaza Strip” with a “a long-term ownership position” – estimating that about 1.8 million of the near-2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza would have to be relocated to achieve his vision of turning what he called a “hell hole” into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

Here’s more on the international reaction from Nedal Hamdouna in northern Gaza plus Sam Kiley and Bel Trew.

The president’s “outrageous” plans for Gaza caught officials off guard and even his top advisers were unaware it was coming, according to CNN.

While the president’s plans for the U.S. to take ownership of Gaza and turn it from “a hellhole” to a “Middle Eastern Riviera” was reportedly formulated “over time,” his unveiling of the idea on Tuesday night came as a shock to some of his inner circle.

Trump, who revealed the plans alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not rule out sending American troops to the war-torn enclave.

One Middle East adviser to the president, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they were “stunned” and had not heard about the plans until Trump revealed it during his press conference.

But others reportedly heard about the plans in the days before the meeting with Netanyahu.

Discussions around the ceasefire and wider tensions in the Middle East had been discussed with senior Republicans in recent weeks, however, aides said that the specific Gaza proposal had not come up in private meetings between Trump and Republican members of the Armed Services Committees.

Speaking of Musk, as we so often must, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced yesterday that DOGE will take part in upgrading the U.S. aviation system following last week’s deadly air crash in Washington D.C.

“Big News,” Duffy wrote on X. “Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”

Musk reposted Duffy’s message, adding: “With the support of President Donald Trump, the DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.

“Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!”

Gustaf Kilander has more.

Justice Department attorneys have agreed to temporarily block staffers belonging to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing information in the Treasury Department’s payment system.

The Treasury was sued by a group of union members and retirees who alleged that providing DOGE access to the government’s giant payment and collections system and the personal data housed within it violated federal privacy laws.

The Trump administration filed a motion on Wednesday night entering a proposed order detailing the agreed-upon terms, which now needs to be signed off by a judge.

“The defendants will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service,” the order says.

It allows for exceptions for two special government employees at the Treasury, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, saying they should be granted access “as needed” to perform their duties, “provided that such access to payment records will be ‘read only.’”

The restricted access will remain in effect pending a subsequent hearing on the lawsuit.

Here’s Rhian Lubin on why Musk’s unfettered access was always dangerous.

Donald Trump has signed a sweeping executive ordering banning schools and athletic organizations from allowing transgender women to take part in women’s sports.

The order – which falsely categorizes trans women as “men” – fulfills the president’s campaign promise to end “the dangerous and unfair participation of men in women’s sports” by directing federal law enforcement agencies to take “immediate action” against schools and associations that “deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.”

In remarks from the White House on Wednesday while surrounded by young girls, Trump claimed that the “radical left” has “waged an all-out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology.”

Alex Woodward has the story.

Maryland District Judge Deborah L. Boardman granted a temporary restraining order on Wednesday after a group of 16 pregnant women sued the Trump administration in the hours after the president signed an order that seeks to deny citizenship to certain American-born children of immigrants.

Trump’s order “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth” and likely violates Supreme Court precedent, which “has resoundingly rejected” the president’s characterization of the 14th Amendment, Boardman said.

Alex Woodward has the details.

The Central Intelligence Agency offered its entire workforce a buyout this week, as President Donald Trump seeks to overhaul the federal government in his vision.

It is unclear how many CIA employees have accepted the buyout. The exact number of CIA employees is not public information.

Several Fox News hosts on Wednesday heaped praise on Donald Trump’s proposal to “take over” Gaza and forcibly relocate nearly 2 million Palestinians to build the “Riviera of the Middle East,” saying the plan — that’s been labeled “ethnic cleansing” by many — shows the president is playing “four-dimensional chess.”

Justin Baragona has the story.

Without ruling out military intervention, Trump declared that the U.S. will “own” the war-torn territory, which has seen vast destruction and around 47,000 deaths in the 15-month conflict between Israel and Hamas. He also suggested millions of displaced Palestinians resettle in “areas where the leaders currently say no.”

By some, Trump has been accused of propagating the idea of “ethnic cleansing,” while several of his MAGA faithful have praised his plans to “Make Gaza Beautiful Again.”

Here are the key reactions to Trump’s divisive comments from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.

[Karoline] Leavitt’s statement that any relocation of Palestinians currently in Gaza would not be a permanent displacement was a 180-degree reversal from what Trump had said during a press conference on Tuesday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.