The Latest: Trump meets with UK’s prime minister about drifting US support for Ukraine
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the White House on Thursday to try to convince U.S. President Donald Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.
Meanwhile, Trump says he plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Tuesday, in addition to doubling the 10% universal tariff charged on imports from China.
Federal agencies also must develop plans to eliminate employee positions, according to a memo distributed by Trump’s administration. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now his administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.
Here's the latest:
Five former secretaries of defense are calling on Congress to hold immediate hearings on President Donald Trump’s recent firings of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several other senior military leaders, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The five — who represented Republican and Democratic administrations over the past three decades — said the dismissals were alarming, raised “troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military” and removed legal constraints on the president’s power.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has defended the firing of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, saying that other presidents made changes in military personnel and that Trump deserves to pick his own team.
The letter was signed by William Perry, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Jim Mattis and Lloyd Austin.
Trump said he was “very receptive” to reaching a trade deal with the United Kingdom after being asked whether British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried during their White House meeting to persuade him not to impose tariffs on the nation.
“He tried. He was working hard. I would tell you that he earned whatever the hell they pay him over there,” Trump said. “I think we could very well end up with a real trade deal and where the tariffs wouldn’t be necessary. We’ll see.”
Trump has threatened a variety of tariffs, including the so-called reciprocal tariffs, that could affect countries around the world including those producing steel.
Earlier this month, Trump told reporters that the import taxes will “definitely happen” with the European Union and possibly with the United Kingdom as well.
Earlier this week, a federal judge in Seattle blocked President Donald Trump’s suspension of the nation’s refugee admissions system.
But on Thursday, the aid groups — including Church World Service and the Jewish refugee resettlement organization HIAS — say they later received notifications that their contracts with the State Department were being canceled effective immediately.
The groups are asking the judge for an emergency hearing to discuss the impact of the termination notices, or to make clear that Tuesday’s ruling also applies to these new notices.
The State Department acknowledged receipt of an email from The Associated Press but did not otherwise respond to questions about the matter.
Cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration appear to be happening in two rounds, one of 500 and one of 800, said Craig McLean, a former NOAA chief scientist who said he got the information from someone with first-hand knowledge. That’s about 10% of NOAA’s workforce.
The first round of cuts were probationary employees, McLean said.
There are about 375 probationary employees in the National Weather Service — where day-to-day forecasting and hazard warning is done — and employees there so far don’t know of any of them who have been spared the layoff knife yet, though some might be.
Dozens and perhaps hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status were fired Thursday, multiple sources told The Associated Press.
Federal workers not let go said the afternoon layoffs were in the tens or dozens so far, with people just getting their notices and no firm number available. They include meteorologists who do crucial local forecasts in National Weather Service offices across the country.
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is the ranking minority member in the House Natural Resources Committee, put out a statement saying it was “hundreds of scientists and experts at NOAA.”
Trump praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his defense against Russia’s invasion and said they would have a “very good meeting” Friday at 11 a.m. But he did not answer a question on whether he’ll apologize for calling him a dictator earlier this month.
“We have a lot of respect. I have a lot of respect for him. We’ve given him a lot of equipment and a lot of money, but they have fought very bravely,” Trump said in a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
President Donald Trump says a peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war is possible but that it must be concluded quickly or else it may fail.
“If it doesn’t happen quickly, it may not happen at all,” Trump told reporters at a White House news conference with visiting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump has already spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his ideas for an agreement to end the 3-year-old conflict. He will meet Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday to further discuss prospects.
Starmer said he and Trump did not discuss the president’s repeated remarks that Canada should become a 51st U.S. state and ignored a question about whether King Charles III, the monarch of Canada, was concerned about the comments.
“I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist,” Starmer said in response to a question from a reporter.
Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is appealing to Trump to reach a “historic peace deal” to support Ukraine in the war with Russia, while cautioning they need to side with the peacemaker and “not the invader.”
“There can’t be peace that rewards the aggressor,” Starmer said.
Trump says the deal between the United States and Ukraine that he expects to be signed this week will contribute to both Ukraine’s security and that of Europe more broadly.
Speaking at a White House news conference with visiting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said the deal will “build the basis for a more sustainable future relationship between the United States and Ukraine” and help rebuild Ukraine’s prosperity. He added that he it would become the foundation of a “long-term peace agreement that will return stability to eastern Europe.”
Trump also said the mineral deal will effectively reimburse U.S. taxpayers for the money spent helping Ukraine defend itself, “which by and of itself is a very worthy thing to do.”
Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday to witness the signing of the agreement under which Ukraine will give the U.S. access to rare earths and critical minerals in part to pay for past and continued U.S. military support in its war with Russia.
___
This item has been updated to correct an erroneous explanation of what the quote “worthy thing to do” was regarding. Trump said Ukraine’s defense of itself, not the mineral deal, was a “worthy thing to do.”
Elon Musk told Republican senators at a White House meeting Thursday that they could call his team if they found problems with his sweeping efforts to lay off federal employees and cut government contracts.
“Elon said himself, ’Look, if there’s somebody that gets laid off, whether probationary or not, and they shouldn’t, we want to get that corrected as quick as we can,'” said Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican who was in the meeting.
The pledge underscored how the Department of Government Efficiency initiative has been at times clunky, with federal workers being laid off only to be rehired when officials determine their job was essential. Republicans have come under increasing pressure to explain Musk’s changes, facing Democrat’s attacks and anger from constituents impacted by the slashing.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has issued an executive order instructing state police to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in detaining migrants.
In a news release, Youngkin said his order required the state’s Secretary of Public Safety to contact every official in charge of local or regional jails to ensure their full cooperation with ICE.
“This order will allow Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections to partner with President Trump’s administration on federal immigration enforcement," Youngkin said in a statement. "Dangerous criminal illegal immigrants should not be let back into our communities to assault, rape and murder. They should be sent back where they came from.”
United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. is examining the cuts after the Trump administration’s announcement that it is ending 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s contracts.
Dujarric told reporters that the U.N. is grateful to the U.S. government for its support over the years to its humanitarian and development work, “which we feel has improved the state of the world.” The U.S. contributions have also served U.S. interests in promoting a safe and more stable world, he noted.
He said the U.N. has often called on other member nations to support its humanitarian and development work.
The first immigrant detention center of Trump’s new administration will be a 1,000-bed facility in New Jersey, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
The GEO Group confirmed in a statement Thursday that it will operate the facility at Newark’s Delaney Hall, part of a $1 billion, 15-year contract. The company said it expects to reopen the facility, which had previously served as an immigrant detention center under the Obama administration, in the second quarter of this year.
Trump campaigned on promises of deporting millions of people without legal authority to be in the country. The Trump administration has not publicly said how many immigration detention beds it needs to achieve its goals, or what the cost will be. However, an estimated 11.7 million people are living in the U.S. illegally, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has the budget to detain only about 41,000 people
Shaun Douglas says he was placed on administrative leave after working for U.S. Agency for International Development for five months and was “waiting to see what comes next.”
Workers were clearing out the desks Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington after being fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID.
He said the inside of the building had been stripped of references to USAID.
Douglas, 53, said he was an Army veteran who previously worked for the Defense Department for nearly 10 years and has been undergoing cancer treatments. He says he isn’t worried about medical care because he can use the VA but others being let go aren’t so fortunate.
Citing a renewed focus on aviation safety after recent air disasters and close calls Thursday, Duffy announced the plan that includes giving students at the FAA’s training academy in Oklahoma a 30% raise and streamlining the hiring process.
“We don’t have enough air traffic controllers in our system, and we have to do something to bring more controllers online into towers,” Duffy said after touring the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, where students are trained to become air traffic controllers.
Duffy also cited a dire need for technology infrastructure upgrades at the Oklahoma facility and at control towers across the country, and said he plans to seek congressional authorization for billions of dollars of spending for the upgrades.
“We use floppy disks. We use 1956 phone jacks in our towers,” Duffy said. “This is not acceptable. We’re the greatest country in the world and this is the system we use?”
In the letter brought by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, King Charles III invited Trump to visit Balmoral, a royal estate and castle in Scotland that was the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favorite residence, or Dumfries House, which is near one of his golf clubs in Turnberry, Scotland.
The letter captured by photographs and shown partially by Trump to reporters in the Oval Office says the British monarch remembers with “great fondness” Trump’s visit during his first term.
Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, said Thursday in downtown Washington that she was encouraged by the meeting between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron and was optimistic about the meeting between Trump and Starmer.
Asked if the EU can provide security guarantee for Ukraine, she said much more needs to be done, including increased defense spending and preparedness. As for the peace talks, she said she’s hoping for lasting peace.
“What I would hope to see in the next few days, whatever the shape of any agreement is, but also for us not to live under the question of whether it’s going to happen again,” Metsola said.
Conservative political commentators were spotted at the White House holding binders that read “The Epstein Files” hours after Attorney General Pam Bondi promised the release of documents about wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who sexually abused underage girls.
It was not immediately clear what was in the binders, which have not been released publicly by the Justice Department.
The binders read “declassified,” but it was not immediately clear whether the information contained in the binders ever had been classified. Among those holding the binders was political commentator Rogan O’Handley, also known as DC Draino.
Bondi said Wednesday on Fox News that the documents would include flight logs and “a lot of names,” though it was unclear whether there would be details not already publicly known.
Epstein’s crimes and connections to famous people have long been a subject of public fascination and media scrutiny. Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, his criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.
▶ Read more about the “Epstein Files”
An American project to deal with Ebola outbreaks in Uganda was among the U.S. Agency for International Development contracts getting termination notices, despite assurances from cost-costing chief Elon Musk that the effort was being spared.
The Associated Press on Thursday obtained a contract cancellation notice sent to a Baylor College of Medicine Ebola project in Uganda. The program ordinarily would be responding to current cases of the infectious disease and aiding survivors.
The Trump administration and Musk this week had sent out notices canceling what officials said were more than 90% of USAID’s contracts abroad. Musk had said Wednesday that the administration had accidentally canceled Ebola prevention funding but quickly restored.
▶ Read more about the dismantling of USAID.
Trump said going through the “Russia hoax” ordeal with Vladimir Putin gives him confidence that he can trust the Russian leader if an agreement is reached to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Early in Trump’s first term as president, the Republican was dogged by a special counsel-led investigation looking into the FBI’s probe of Russian interference in his 2016 campaign for the White House.
Trump made the comments during an exchange with reporters at the start of his meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The freshman senator from Michigan was one of the Democrats who prevailed in a statewide race in a state Trump carried in November.
It was announced by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. They also announced that congressman Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., will deliver the Democratic Spanish-language response.
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The speech is not considered a state of the union address, which the last seven presidents have only customarily given after at least a year in office, according to the Congressional Research Service.
It’s traditional for the party out of power to respond to a president’s remarks before Congress. The speeches are typically observed as a sign of how the opposing party is crafting its message and policy priorities.
The leases of roughly 120 Internal Revenue Service offices across the country will be terminated or allowed to expire, including sites that provide taxpayer services, according to a person familiar with the closures who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The latest plan to end leases of IRS offices — which include public-facing taxpayer service centers— comes in the middle of tax season, when the IRS expects more than 140 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 deadline.
Last week, roughly 7,000 probationary IRS employees — who largely worked in compliance — were laid off in a move that experts and former workers say will likely mean reduced customer service and the end of the agency’s plan to go after high-wealth tax dodgers.
Some of the office closures are detailed on the DOGE website. The site states that leases for IRS sites in Knoxville, Tennessee; Beaumont, Texas; Sioux City, Iowa; Bend, Oregon; Salem, Oregon; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Brattleboro, Vermont; Hilo, Hawaii; and Lowell, Massachusetts have been or will be ended.
— Fatima Hussein
Starmer said letter he delivered Thursday during their meeting at the White House was an invitation for a second state visit.
“This is a very special letter” Starmer said.
Trump said he accepted the invitation.
The Education Department launched an “End DEI” portal Thursday, describing it as a platform “to submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in publicly-funded K-12 schools.”
It asks students, parents and others for a brief description of the practice in question, which the agency said it will use to guide investigations.
The website went live as schools and colleges nationwide face a Friday deadline to end diversity programs the Trump administration views as racial discrimination.
A Feb. 14 memo from the Education Department ordered schools to remove consideration of race from their practices or risk losing federal money.
▶ Read more about Trump’s push to eliminate DEI in schools.
Trump shook Starmer’s hand to greet him. Asked how confident he was in getting a deal with Ukraine and Russia, Trump said, “We can. We will.”
The president then gave a thumbs-up before heading inside for the meeting, which is set to be one of the most significant days of the U.K. leader’s seven months in office as he tries to push for U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine.
British officials are nervous but optimistic about the talks, citing Trump’s affection for Britain — land of his mother’s birth and location of two of his golf courses — and the genuine warmth between the president and Starmer in their few meetings and calls.
The British side hopes Trump’s respect for Starmer’s directness and lack of pretension will let the prime minister raise difficult questions without raising the temperature.
Roberta Mestola, president of the European Parliament, said EU member nations, which have increased defense spending since 2021, will continue boosting their defense budget to “match the level of threat we are facing.”
Mestola said at a speech Thursday morning in downtown Washington that the EU wants peace in Ukraine but said peace must achieved with dignity, justice and principles and that Ukraine must be part of the peace talks, “because we know that peace must be a lasting one.”
With the U.S. Capitol in the background, Mestola refrained from criticizing the Trump administration by name but appealed to the shared values across the Atlantic Ocean and warned against isolation. She said the EU is ready to respond “firmly and immediately against unjust barriers to free and fair trade.”
A U.S. Agency for International Development worker is mourning the loss of what she called her dream job.
Workers are clearing out the desks Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington after being fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID.
Juliane Alfen, 25, became emotional as walked out with a small bag that included a stuffed rabbit, saying she was fired Monday after about a year-and-a-half.
She called it “heartbreaking. I love the work. I felt like we made a difference, and to see everything disappearing before our eyes in a matter of weeks is very scary.”
The committee voted Thursday to advance the nomination of Trump’s choice to head the Department of Labor, one of the agencies named in lawsuits over moves by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team to access federal data systems.
Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions voted 13-9 to recommend Chavez-DeRemer ’s confirmation by the full Senate.
Although the former Republican congresswoman from Oregon is widely viewed as comparatively pro-labor, some Democratic senators have said they would oppose all of Trump’s remaining Cabinet picks as a way to protest his administration’s far-reaching efforts to reshape the U.S. government.
▶ Read more about Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination
Health groups and non-governmental organizations expressed surprise and outrage Thursday and said many humanitarian programs would collapse after the Trump administration’s decision to cut 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts.
The move, barely a month after Trump announced a 90-day review of spending, will permanently defund programs across the world that fight hunger and disease and provide other life-saving help for millions.
“Women and children will go hungry, food will rot in warehouses while families starve, children will be born with HIV — among other tragedies,” said the InterAction group, an alliance of NGOs in the United States that work on aid programs across the world.
“This needless suffering will not make America safer, stronger, or more prosperous. Rather, it will breed instability, migration, and desperation.”
▶ Read more about the global reaction to USAID cuts
During his Thursday meeting at the White House, Starmer is expected to try to convince Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine will endure only if Kyiv and European leaders are at the table as negotiations move forward with Moscow.
Starmer’s trip, coming a few days after French President Emmanuel Macron’s own visit, reflects the mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump’s aggressive push to find an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump said Wednesday as he held the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. “For Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much (land) back as possible.”
▶ Read more about UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House
And Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from Elon Musk about whether staffers at his Department of Government Efficiency have shared national security secrets over insecure communication channels.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia were joined by several other Democrats on a letter Thursday that asserts reckless actions by Musk and Trump’s cost-cutting initiative present a threat to national security by exposing secrets about America’s defense and intelligence agencies.
Such information would present huge advantages to U.S. adversaries by giving them critical information about Washington’s defense priorities and the resources assigned to various missions and objectives, the lawmakers said.
▶ Read more about questions on DOGE’s access to intelligence
If confirmed as Secretary of Labor, former U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer would be tasked with enforcing policies on workplace discrimination based on pregnancy status and outcome. But advocates on both sides of the abortion debate are speaking up against her nomination as she faces a hearing Thursday in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Abortion rights groups have warned that Chavez-DeRemer has previously supported anti-abortion bills while in Congress.
Meanwhile, abortion opponents are pointing to a questionnaire in which Chavez-DeRemer said she’d worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic for just over a year in her early 20’s as reason to oppose her nomination. Chavez-DeRemer asserted in the questionnaire that she doesn’t personally support abortion and would not promote policies supporting abortion rights, NBC News reported.
The national anti-abortion group Students for Life Action called her nomination “extremely disappointing.”
Posting on Truth Social, Trump says illicit drugs such as fentanyl are being smuggled into the United States at “unacceptable levels” and import taxes would force other countries to crackdown on the trafficking.
“We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump wrote. “China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date.”
The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil — with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if America’s two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are slapped with taxes. The prospect of higher prices and slower growth could create political blowback for Trump.
▶ Read more about Trump’s tariffs
Schools and colleges across the U.S. face a Friday deadline to end diversity programs or risk having their federal money pulled by the Trump administration, yet few are openly rushing to make changes. Many believe they’re on solid legal ground, and they know it would be all but unprecedented — and extremely time-consuming — for the government to cut off funding.
State officials in Washington and California urged schools not to make changes, saying it doesn’t change federal law and doesn’t require any action. New York City schools have taken the same approach and said district policies and curriculum haven’t changed.
Leaders of some colleges shrugged the memo off entirely. Antioch University ’s chief said “most of higher education” won’t comply with the memo unless federal law is changed. Western Michigan University’s president told his campus to “please proceed as usual.”
▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s effect on education
And the European Union warned it would vigorously fight any wholesale tariff of 25% on all EU products.
The tit-for-tat dispute following the vitriolic comments of Trump aimed at an age-old ally and its main postwar economic partner further deepened the trans-Atlantic rift that was already widened by Trump’s warnings that Washington would drop security guarantees for its European allies.
Thursday’s EU pushback came after Trump told reporters “the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it,” adding that it would stop immediately under his presidency.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, went on a counteroffensive.
“The EU wasn’t formed to screw anyone,” Tusk said in an X post. “Quite the opposite. It was formed to maintain peace, to build respect among our nations, to create free and fair trade, and to strengthen our transatlantic friendship. As simple as that.”
▶ Read more about Trump and the European Union
Applications for U.S. jobless benefits rose to a three-month high last week but remained within the same healthy range of the past three years.
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose by 22,000 to 242,000 for the week ending Feb. 22, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts projected that 220,000 new applications would be filed.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs.
▶ Read more about the latest unemployment numbers
California Democrat Rep. Sam Liccardo, a freshman congressman who represents Silicon Valley, said he’s surprised the first piece of legislation he’s sponsoring takes aim at President Donal Trump’s meme coin.
“That wasn’t my plan when I ran for office, I can assure you,” said Liccardo, the former mayor of San Jose.
But the president’s launch of a meme coin just before taking office last month needed some kind of response, said Liccardo. Those who bought the meme coin right after launch made out, but the price quickly dropped leaving others with big losses. Even Trump-supporting crypto enthusiasts found the launch distasteful.
“That behavior is so self-evidently unethical that it raises the question why isn’t there a clear enough prohibition,” he said, adding that Trump’s meme coin raises concerns about transparency, insider trading and improper foreign influence.
▶ Read more about Liccardo’s proposed legislation
The Trump administration’s demand that federal agencies plan to radically downsize is driven by a key figure in the conservative movement who has long planned this move: Russell Vought.
In Trump’s first term, Vought was a largely behind-the-scenes player who eventually became director of the influential but underappreciated Office of Management and Budget. He is back in that job in Trump’s second term after being the principal author of Project 2025, the conservative governing blueprint that Trump insisted during the 2024 campaign was not part of his agenda.
The memo Vought co-signed Wednesday is the clearest assertion of his power and the latest seminal writing for a man who argues the federal bureaucracy is an existential threat to the country itself and that it should dramatically downsize.
▶ Read more about Russell Vought’s vision for federal government
Building lethality in the military may be the buzzword for the new Trump administration, but busywork and paperwork have become the reality at the Pentagon, as service members and civilian workers are facing a broad mandate to purge all of the department’s social media sites and untangle confusing personnel reduction moves.
On Wednesday, the department’s top public affairs official signed and sent out a new memo requiring all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that “promote diversity, equity and inclusion.”
If they can’t do that by March 5, they have been ordered to “temporarily remove from public display” all content published during the Biden administration’s four years in office, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Associated Press.
▶ Read more about the Pentagon’s DEI purge
The Department of Veterans Affairs has temporarily suspended billions of dollars in planned contract cuts following concerns that the move would hurt critical veterans’ health services, lawmakers and veterans service organizations said Wednesday.
The pause affects hundreds of VA contracts that Secretary Doug Collins a day earlier described as simply consulting deals, whose cancellation would save $2 billion as the Trump administration works to slash costs across the federal government.
▶ Read more about the VA cuts
The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.
The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in what are ongoing court battles with the administration.
The Trump administration outlined its plans in both an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and filings in one of those federal lawsuits Wednesday.
The Supreme Court intervened in that case late Wednesday and temporarily blocked a court order requiring the administration to release billions of dollars in foreign aid by midnight.
▶ Read more about the U.S. foriegn aid cuts
The early scene at the USAID headquarters in Washington D.C. was quiet and somber. Few people were there for the first scheduled shift to retrieve their personal belongings.
A small group of supporters stood outside under heavily overcast skies to thank workers for their service but declined to give their names for fear of retribution. There was a small bucket of flowers for the memorial inside to USAID employees who have died in service to the country.
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
