Trump lines up next agencies to cut as cull of federal workers continues: Live

Organisers are encouraging Tesla owners to sell their cars and for people to dump stock.

The electric car giant has already seen shares plunge since the start of the year as the firm comes under pressure from Chinese rivals amid calls for a boycott over Musk’s close ties with US President Donald Trump and far-right causes.

George Lithgow has the story:

Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s president last month appeared to mark a very public realignment of America’s sympathies – away from Europe and towards Russia in a manner that few could have imagined during the Cold War years.

The Republican Party, now dominated by Trump’s “America First” MAGA movement, once considered the former Soviet Union “the evil empire” under Ronald Reagan and relished its collapse.

Today, the GOP stands accused of parroting Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric and some even refuse to admit the plain fact that Moscow began the war by invading its neighbor.

An agent honored by Donald Trump during his address to Congress in 2019 was one of the officers who arrested Mahmoud Khalil in New York City, according to attorneys for the Columbia University student and lawful permanent resident who is now facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestine campus protests.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Khalil’s biometrics after his arrest, an agent said “the White House is requesting an update,” lawyers wrote in a court filing in Manhattan on Thursday.

More details from Khalil’s arrest and detention in the latest court filings:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reportedly already $2 billion short to keep up its current pace of operations through the end of this fiscal year, as it races to keep up with the Trump administration’s promises to rapidly deport millions of undocumented migrants.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has moved to shutter the Pentagon office that helped military leaders plan for possible future wars.

A memo signed by Hegseth dated March 13 reportedly said that civil employees in the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment will be reassigned to other “mission critical positions” as it is dismantled. The office is often referred to as the Pentagon’s internal think tank.

After reports of the memo were published, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell issued a statement about the “restructuring.”

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina is being sued for defamation by one of the four men she publicly accused of sexual abuse in a speech she made on the floor of the House of Representatives last month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is seeking to expel South Africa’s ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool after the official criticized Donald Trump during a forum on Thursday.

Arlington National Cemetery has purged dozens of pages of information about famous Black, Hispanic and female veterans from its website to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order purging diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government.

The White House has said that Mahmoud Khalil, who is not formally accused of breaking any laws, is deportable because a rarely used portion of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act lets the Secretary of State deport people deemed to risk “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Khalil’s lawyers and supporters, meanwhile, argue he is being unlawfully targeted for exercising his First Amendment rights.

Thirty years ago, another figure voiced concerns over the same provision at issue today: Donald Trump’s sister, federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry.