After DOGE crackdown on USAID, Trump’s House allies want this Cabinet agency on chopping block
Congressional allies of President Donald Trump have rallied around his and Elon Musk’s efforts to roll back the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Now, they’re urging the administration to set its sights on another core agency. “I think the conversation about the Department of Education getting drastically cut is the right conversation,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. “I trust the Tennessee General Assembly to craft curriculums for Tennessee students more than I do the California or the D.C. legislative bodies. And I think we all face that back home.” Republican lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital this week named several federal offices that they wanted to see audited or scaled back by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., rattled off a list of suggestions when speaking to Fox News Digital, “OSHA, EPA, Department of Education, ATF.” SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN But most coalesced around the Department of Education as a worthy next target, amid rumors that Trump could soon sign an executive order dismantling the Cabinet agency. “In order to get buy in, you could eliminate the Department of Education, but you would take at least a portion of the money and give it back to the states in the form of block grants or something like that,” Biggs suggested. Freshman Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said, “I think we need to get rid of the Department of Education. We need to get rid of the ATF. I’ve co-sponsored bills to do that for both of those.” He said the Department of Education was a “good place to start,” accusing it of sinking millions of taxpayer dollars into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and other progressive causes. “I mean, the American people are sick of funding left-wing activism with their taxpayer dollars,” Gill said. Conservatives have long been critical of the Cabinet department, which first opened its doors in 1980 after President Jimmy Carter split it off from what is now the Department of Health and Human Services. “Education Department should’ve been gone or reined in a long time ago,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. He said he hoped Musk would “put a dollar tag on it, trace the money, where it’s going.” A bill introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., this week to eliminate the Department of Education already has 30 House GOP co-signers. BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., suggested on Wednesday there was an appetite for Congress to back up Trump if he follows through with an executive order on the department. “The teachers unions will viciously fight, of course, any idea of disbanding the federal Department of Education. But I think the principle is one whose time has come. We’ve all seen the ratings. I mean, the U.S. is falling far behind other countries because the system is not working,” Johnson said in response to a question by Fox News Digital. The speaker stressed that further details were necessary, but added, “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.”
Federal judge orders limited DOGE access to sensitive Treasury Department payment system records
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from obtaining access to certain Treasury Department payment records. Treasury officials “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service,” Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a temporary restraining order. That program handles an estimated 90% of federal payments. The order comes after the Justice Department on Wednesday agreed in a proposed court order to limit access to the sensitive records to only two “special government employees” within DOGE, who will have read-only permission. Kollar-Kotelly approved the motion in a brief order Thursday. USAID STAFFERS STUNNED, ANGERED BY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DOGE SHUTDOWN OF $40 BILLION AGENCY Several government employee unions brought suit over who could access the material as part of a government-wide evaluation of programs and systems, led by DOGE. The lawsuit claimed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent allowed improper access to Elon Musk’s team, potentially exposing personal financial information to unauthorized individuals. ‘AMERICA HAS DOGE FEVER’: STATES FROM NEW JERSEY TO TEXAS DRAFT SIMILAR INITIATIVES AS FEDERAL LEADERS CELEBRATE Under the order, only Musk ally Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez – an engineer and former Musk company employee — will continue to have access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but they will not be allowed to make any changes to the program. The order identifies both Krause and Elez as “Special Government Employee[s] in the Department of the Treasury.”
Civil rights officials probe four US medical schools over antisemitism at 2024 commencement ceremonies
The Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced investigations into four medical schools over alleged antisemitic incidents during their 2024 commencement ceremonies. While HHS did not identify the schools subjected to these investigations, the Wall Street Journal reported that Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Johns Hopkins medical schools were the targets. The investigations will come after a school year riddled with what critics have described as antisemitic incidents after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. “After October 7, we saw Jew-hatred explode not just on college campuses and city streets, but in the medical profession. This has caused a lot of concern that anti-Jewish bias in medicine endangers the lives of Jewish patients – and these concerns have not been conclusively addressed to date,” said Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at The Lawfare Project, which provides pro bono legal services to protect the civil rights of the Jewish community. “The investigations announced by HHS are a crucial first step towards addressing these concerns.” ISRAELI HARVARD STUDENT SPEAKS OUT ON ANTISEMITISM BEHIND LATEST SETTLEMENT Harvard’s 2024 commencement ceremony was ridiculed over the school’s decision to tap media CEO Maria Ressa as the school’s commencement speaker following a year of incidents that included an assault against an Israeli student by pro-Palestinian protesters, scores of alleged antisemitic displays and chants, including some that praised Hamas, and numerous civil rights allegations from Jewish students. In addition, Harvard was accused by its own students of turning a blind eye to antisemitism. Ressa, not long after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, penned an op-ed comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, and during her commencement address complained that she had been attacked over her pro-Palestinain advocacy “by power and money because they want power and money,” which people construed as promoting antisemitic stereotypes. Ressa was also accused of praising pro-Hamas demonstrations happening on campus during her address. JEWISH COMMUNITY RESPONDS TO TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER VOWING TO DEPORT PRO-HAMAS ACTIVISTS WITH STUDENT VISAS The commencement ceremony was allegedly so bad that a campus Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi felt compelled to confront Ressa during the event and subsequently walked offstage. According to media reports, Zarchi later described the ceremony as a “really vile program.” Harvard Medical School spokesperson Ekaterina Pesheva said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the school “condemns antisemitism and remains committed to combating all forms of discrimination and harassment.” Pesheva added that Harvard would “continue to advance our efforts to ensure that all community members feel they belong” and said the school is currently reviewing HHS’s civil rights request and will cooperate to address the agency’s questions regarding the 2024 commencement ceremony. Columbia, Johns Hopkins and Brown similarly faced a slew of complaints over alleged antisemitism on their campuses and the universities’ failure to address them. The environment at these schools was so hostile, reportedly, that some Jewish students who were admitted to these Ivy League schools decided to go somewhere else. A rabbi at Columbia went so far as to tell Jewish students to leave campus for their safety. President Donald Trump has moved quickly to challenge antisemitism in the U.S., with news of the investigations coming the same day the Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced the formation of a multi-agency task force to combat antisemitism. News of the probe also came after Trump signed an executive order several days after taking office seeking to combat antisemitism, particularly on college campuses. “HHS has been so quick to implement President Trump’s Executive Order is tacit recognition of the failure on the part of these universities to address antisemitism, despite several lawsuits and congressional investigations,” Filitti said. “The Biden Administration, for all its rhetoric, failed to do nearly as much as President Trump has in only one week to address Jew-hatred, and we now have a President clearly willing to use the power of the executive branch to take concrete action to stamp out antisemitism and protect the civil rights of Jewish Americans – and all Americans.” PATRIOTS OWNER ROBERT KRAFT LAUNCHING ‘NO REASON TO HATE’ SUPER BOWL AD, COMBATING ANTISEMITISM In addition to facing potential consequences over the school’s failure to address antisemitism on their campuses, Trump has also threatened to withhold millions of federal dollars in research grants if they do not comply with new orders quashing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. “Antisemitism has no place in American society, least of all in medical schools,” said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the nonprofit Do No Harm, which seeks to root out identity politics in medical education. “Medical schools, especially those who push a DEI agenda have become hotbeds of antisemitism, the department of Health and Human Services is right to raise concerns about blatantly antisemitic protests.” On Monday, the Department of Education also launched a slew of additional civil rights investigations into Columbia, Northwestern, the University of California – Berkeley, the University of Minnesota and Portland State universities. Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Johns Hopkins for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
First 10 ‘high threat’ illegals to arrive to Guantanamo Bay are all Tren de Aragua members
The Department of Defense (DOD) confirmed the arrival of the first 10 “high threat” illegal migrant criminals to the U.S.’s most secure prison – the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp – in Cuba, all of whom are members of the violent Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua (TdA). TdA is an international criminal group that has been terrorizing U.S. communities from New York City to Colorado. As one of his first actions, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 instructing the State Department and other government agencies to move to designate TdA as a “foreign terrorist organization.” On Thursday, ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies conducted a series of raids in Aurora, Colorado, resulting in the arrest of over 100 TdA members. MEXICAN TROOPS BEGIN ARRIVING AT US-MEXICO BORDER FOLLOWING DEAL MADE TO PAUSE TRUMP-APPROVED TARIFFS The 10 high-threat migrants arrived at Guantánamo Bay on Thursday, the DOD confirmed in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also confirmed the migrants’ arrival and stated that all 10 are members of Tren de Aragua. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE The DOD stated that these migrant criminals are being housed in vacant detention facilities. The DOD said that is only a temporary arrangement being made to “ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination.” DHS clarified that the Guantánamo Bay prison will be used to house only “the worst of the worst” criminals. TRUMP HAS BECOME ‘GAME-CHANGER’ IN CONFRONTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRISIS: TOM HOMAN Commenting on the arrests of the over 100 TdA members on Wednesday, Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and an expert on TdA, told Fox News Digital that Trump’s latest moves are “tremendously significant” that shows that there is a “new attitude” against TdA in the U.S. “That’s what’s needed to be able to dismantle them and eventually deport them from the United States,” he said. “This is a foreign terrorist organization that has been spreading throughout the United States for the last couple of years and doing it so very rapidly, so I think the impetus is on the United States to use all the elements of our national security to be able to dismantle them from within.”
Trump DOJ slaps Illinois, Chicago with lawsuit over sanctuary laws
The Department of Justice on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago for allegedly interfering with federal immigration enforcement – the latest escalation in the battle between the Trump administration and Democrat-led cities and states on the administration’s mass deportation operation. The lawsuit filed in Illinois, against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and others, claimed that several state and local laws are “designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law in violation of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.” The lawsuit comes a day after Attorney General Pam Bondi signed a directive to limit funding to sanctuary cities. Sanctuary jurisdictions typically limit or forbid state and local law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers – requests that illegal immigrants in custody be transferred to ICE. This is a breaking news alert; check back for updates.
Dems delay Patel committee vote, deride Trump FBI pick as danger to US security
Democrats succeeded Thursday in delaying a committee vote to advance the confirmation of FBI director nominee Kash Patel until next week at least. The vote, which was supposed to happen at 10:15 on Thursday, was pushed back after Senate Democrats demanded a second hearing from the Trump-aligned former Defense Department official. In a statement Tuesday night, Grassley said attempts by top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin, Ill., and others to force Patel to testify again were “basesless” as he’d already sat before the committee for more than five hours and disclosed “thousands of pages” of records to the panel, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers’ written questions. This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
House Republicans push to reroute frozen USAID funding into deporting illegal immigrants
EXCLUSIVE: A group of House Republicans is pushing for Congress to reroute foreign aid funding frozen by President Donald Trump into enhanced deportation efforts of illegal immigrants in the U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., is unveiling his Restoring American Sovereignty Act on Thursday, backed by fellow House Freedom Caucus members Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Tom Tiffany, R-Wis. “Americans were put last at nearly every turn during the Biden administration. This was evidenced by the criminal crossing crisis at our southern border and the wasteful distribution of taxpayer dollars by agencies like USAID,” Ogles said. SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN He said his bill would “utilize the USAID funding paused by President Trump to deport illegal aliens from the United States.” Tiffany said the bill “ensures our tax dollars fund Americans’ security” and called the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) an “international money laundering scheme.” “America has spent billions of taxpayer dollars funding Democrats’ pet projects in countries that despise us and everything we stand for,” Biggs said. Trump paused most foreign aid for a period of 90 days to give his new administration time to evaluate what money going overseas aligns with his agenda. He and Secretary of State Marco Rubio included carve-outs for emergency needs. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiated a crackdown on USAID earlier this week. As of Friday, Feb. 7, nearly all of USAID’s overseas employees will be put on administrative leave. Republicans have argued that USAID has long been mismanaged and that it was sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to LGBTQ initiatives and other social causes overseas. They have also accused the agency of stonewalling GOP oversight efforts. Democrats have heavily criticized the rollback, attacking Musk as an un-elected bureaucrat whose businesses also rely on government contracts. They’ve also argued that freezing USAID funding imperils critical initiatives like cancer and HIV research in Africa. BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS Ogles’ bill is a brief two pages, stating that “funds paused pursuant to” Trump’s executive order on foreign aid “may be made available and used by the President to deport illegal aliens from the United States,” according to legislative text viewed by Fox News Digital. The Tennessee Republican is one of Trump’s most vocal allies in the House of Representatives. Last month, he introduced a bill to authorize Trump to buy Greenland and a constitutional amendment paving the way for him to have a third White House term.
Indian deportees recall traumatic conditions on military flight from US
[unable to retrieve full-text content] At least 104 Indian citizens were deported from the US and sent to India in shackles aboard a US Air Force plane.
Thousands in Gaza struggle in tents amid cold, stormy weather
Strong winds, rain and winter are adding to the suffering of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, with thousands of families living in worn-out tents after their homes were destroyed in Israel’s bombardment of the coastal enclave. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza since a ceasefire came into effect last month, pausing Israel’s 15-month assault on the territory. But most people found their homes destroyed or heavily damaged. Families have since struggled to find shelter amid mounds of debris and destruction across the besieged enclave. A spokesperson for the Gaza City municipality told Al Jazeera that the city did not have enough resources to help the displaced amid the storm, adding that sewage and rainwater entered hundreds of tents and shelters. Speaking to Al Jazeera from a makeshift encampment in the courtyard of a school in Gaza City, Mahmoud Riyad Khalil al-Fayoumi said he has been living in a tent alongside three other families. “The blankets are very wet,” said al-Fayoumi, explaining that he sent his two-month-old baby and his brother, who has a spinal cord injury, to stay with other people due to the harsh weather conditions. Advertisement “We don’t know what to do. We don’t know where to go. This is our situation here.” Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said heavy rain and wind had forced many Palestinians to leave a makeshift encampment in the western part of the city. Basic supplies such as warm clothing also are not widely available, worsening the situation. “People right now here are not only lacking shelter, but also the very essential supplies that provide them some warmth and protection from these terrible weather conditions,” Mahmoud said. In its latest update on Wednesday, the United Nations humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said with more than 500,000 people returning to the Gaza and North Gaza governorates, “the need for food, water, tents and shelter materials in that area remains critical”. Despite increased deliveries of humanitarian aid since the ceasefire took hold on January 19, shelter assistance has been limited. Earlier this week, the Gaza Government Media Office accused Israel of restricting the flow of aid and shelters into the territory. “Securing shelters has become an urgent humanitarian need that cannot be delayed. It is the most pressing need at this moment,” it said in a statement earlier this week. Tess Ingram, a communications manager at UNICEF, the UN’s child rights agency, said Palestinians in Gaza are ill-equipped to withstand the cold weather because they have lost so much during the war. The situation is particularly dangerous for children, Ingram told Al Jazeera from Gaza City. Advertisement “For kids in these conditions, it’s not only frightening to be outside, exposed and in the cold, but it’s also very dangerous for their wellbeing,” she said. “We’ve had a number of children in Gaza die of hypothermia and it’s clear here when you meet with families that they don’t have what they need to protect them from that cold. Families are lacking warm clothes for their children. There’s many children without shoes.” Displaced Palestinians also continue to face harsh conditions in other parts of Gaza, as well. “The tent flew away and the people were in disarray,” Saqer Abdelal told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in the central part of the enclave. “We’re now transporting our belongings to a man who agreed to host us until the winter ends.” “This is more difficult to us than displacement,” said Anwar Hellis, another Palestinian in Deir el-Balah. “We woke up at night and found our tents destroyed due to the wind. Our clothes and food were filled with sand.” In southern Gaza, the Rafah municipality has called for 40,000 additional tents and emergency shelter units for residents. The city is still hosting thousands of displaced people whose homes have been destroyed in other areas. The municipality also said it does not have enough heavy machinery, which is hindering the reopening of roads and the clearing of rubble. Adblock test (Why?)
Could Trump’s tariffs upend the world’s economic order?
US President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Mexico and Canada are on hold for now, but the trade dispute with China rumbles on. United States President Donald Trump has delayed imposing tariffs on his closest trading allies for a month after Canada and Mexico gave him guarantees on border security and fentanyl trafficking. Trump’s supporters say his strategy to leverage the US economy to force concessions from other nations has notched a win. China has hit back against Trump’s additional tariffs with its own measures due to take effect on Monday. That could give the world’s two largest economies some time to step back from an escalating trade dispute. India bets on its middle class to revive the economy. Plus, is China winning the AI race? Adblock test (Why?)