USAID workers send message to Trump on boxes while leaving office for last time
Sacked United States Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers left their Washington, D.C., offices for the last time on Friday, with some carrying boxes scrawled with messages that seemed to be directed at President Donald Trump, who is slashing the agency’s workforce. Thousands of staffers were notified weeks ago of their pending dismissals, while a federal judge on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to follow through with the mass layoffs as it aims to eliminate waste throughout the federal bureaucracy. “We are abandoning the world,” read one message on a box being hauled out by a grinning staffer as she walked out of USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs office. ‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’: DOGE’S TOP FIVE MOST SHOCKING REVELATIONS Another smiling staffer’s box had a more upbeat tone, with her message reading: “You can take the humanitarians out of USAID but you can’t take the humanity out of the humanitarians.” The staffers were greeted outside the offices by a small group of well-wishing supporters and former USAID workers who carried signs reading, “We love USAID” and “Thank you for your service, USAID.” Other workers were seen leaving the offices in tears. The Trump administration plans to gut the agency and intends to leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of the current 8,000 direct hires and contractors. They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for the time being. USAID has come in for particular criticism under the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for alleged wasteful spending. For instance, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman, recently published a list of projects and programs she says USAID has helped fund over the years, including $20 million to produce a Sesame Street show in Iraq. Several more examples of questionable spending have been uncovered at USAID, including more than $900,000 to a “Gaza-based terror charity” called Bayader Association for Environment and Development and a $1.5 million program slated to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.” SECRETARY OF STATE RUBIO CONFIRMS BECOMING ACTING USAID CHIEF Trump has moved to gut the agency after imposing a 90-day pause on foreign aid. He also has appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the acting director of USAID. Government employee unions had sued to stop the mass layoffs, but U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols on Friday lifted a temporary restraining order he had issued at the outset of the case and declined to issue a longer-term order keeping the employees in their posts. Nichols, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, also wrote that because the affected employees had not gone through an administrative dispute process, he likely did not have jurisdiction to hear the unions’ case or consider their broader arguments that the administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by shutting down an agency created and funded by Congress. The judge said the issue was jurisdictional, that federal district courts should not be involved at this stage, and that the matter should be handled administratively under federal employment laws. “The court concludes that plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they or their members will suffer irreparable injury absent an injunction; that their claims are likely to succeed on the merits; or that the balance of the hardships or the public interest strongly favors an injunction.” The unions can now go to the Washington, D.C., federal appeals court for emergency relief to have the TRO put back into place, or possibly a preliminary injunction. Fox News’ Bill Mears, Andrew Mark Miller, Aubrie Spady, Deirdre Heavey, Morgan Phillips and Emma Colton as well as Reuters contributed to this report.
DOGE takes a chainsaw to federal spending with 7 major victories this week: ‘Got to be done’
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spent another week slashing hundreds of millions in spending by the federal government, while dodging various legal attempts to block its cost-cutting efforts. Here are some of DOGE’s big wins this week: On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, shot down a request from several federal labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), to pause the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration. NTEU and four other labor unions representing federal employees filed a complaint Feb. 12 challenging the firing of probationary employees and the deferred resignation program, which gives workers the option to agree to work from an office or resign. EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’ Cooper denied the request to stop the firings, saying the court lacked jurisdiction over the unions’ claims. Instead, Cooper ruled the unions must pursue their challenges through the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which provides for administrative review by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. DOGE was handed another victory by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who denied a request to issue a temporary restraining order preventing Musk and DOGE from accessing data systems at the Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce. The agencies were asking Chutkan to forbid both Musk and DOGE from terminating, furloughing or putting on leave any of their employees. Chutkin ruled that DOGE can continue to operate as it is now. The judge also issued a court briefing schedule for plaintiffs and defendants to file motions for discovery, preliminary injunctions and dismissals, which stretches through April 22. DOGE scored a win in court after a federal judge declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing sensitive data from at least three federal agencies. Unions and nonprofits attempted to stop Musk’s DOGE from accessing records at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The efforts were blocked by District Judge John Bates, who wrote in an opinion that the government was likely correct in categorizing DOGE as an agency, thereby allowing it to detail its staff to other government departments. Musk praised the decision on X with the caption: “LFG,” an abbreviation for “Let’s [expletive] go.” DEFENSE SECRETARY HEGSETH WORKING WITH DOGE TO CUT THE ‘BS’ Earlier this week, DOGE announced it had discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments, that was oftentimes left blank. “The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),” DOGE wrote in a post on X. “In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.” The agency thanked the U.S. Treasury for its work in identifying the optional field. According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and are also referred to as the “account.” Schools spent hundreds of billions of COVID relief funds on expenses that had “little” impact on students, such as Las Vegas hotel rooms and the purchase of an ice cream truck, according to the Trump administration’s cost-cutting department. DOGE revealed Thursday that schools have spent nearly $200 billion in COVID relief funds “with little oversight or impact on students.” WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES WHERE DOGE SAVINGS COULD GO AFTER TRUMP FLOATS RETURNING 20% TO AMERICANS Granite Public Schools in Utah spent COVID relief funds on $86,000 in hotel rooms at Caesars Palace, a ritzy Las Vegas Casino, while Santa Ana Unified spent $393,000 to rent a Major League Baseball stadium, according to a report by Parents Defending Education and shared by DOGE. The cost-cutting department also revealed that schools spent $60,000 in COVID relief funds on swimming pool passes, while a California district used its funds to purchase an ice cream truck. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is working with DOGE to make cuts within his department, saying he believes it will find waste “not core to our mission.” “They’re here, and we’re welcoming them,” Hegseth said in a recent video released Thursday. “They’re going to have broad access, obviously, with all the safeguards on classification. “They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all.” Hegseth, who said many DOGE workers are veterans, met with Musk’s team and said they have already started their review of the Department of Defense. DOGE revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. government has more than 4 million active credit cards on its books. “The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,” DOGE said in a post on X. The cost-cutting department broke down multiple federal agencies and their credit card use, with the DOD leading the way in both the number of transactions, about 27.2 million, and the number of individual accounts, roughly 2.4 million. Musk delivered a speech to conservatives Thursday in which he touted the accomplishments of DOGE and, at one point, stood on the stage holding a golden chainsaw given to him by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, symbolizing the cuts being made to government spending, to the delight of the crowd of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “We’re fighting Matrix big time here,” Musk said. “It has got to be done.” Fox News’ Alex Nitzberg, Emma
Wisconsin Democratic governor proposes replacing ‘mother’ with ‘inseminated person’ in state law
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, is facing backlash for introducing a budget recommendation that changes the word “mother” to “inseminated person,” and “paternity” to “parentage” in certain parts of state law. The Evers administration’s budget recommendation for the 2025-2027 fiscal period advises several other gendered terms be changed, as well. References to “wife” or “husband” are changed to “spouse” in the proposal. In other places, the word “father” is changed to “parent,” and “mother” is swapped out for the phrase “parent who gave birth to the child.” The budget was introduced by the state Senate’s Joint Committe on Finance on Tuesday. JUDGE BLOCKS PARTS OF TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS TARGETING DEI, CITING FREE SPEECH Wisconsin radio host Dan O’Donnell noted the language change in a post on X, calling it “beyond parody.” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, commented on the post, writing simply “red flag!” The Republican Governors Association (RGA) issued a statement in response to the language changes. Evers’ “latest left-wing push” is “offensive to mothers,” RGA executive director Sara Craig said in a statement. “Being a mother is the greatest privilege I will have in my lifetime, and every mother I know feels the same. If Tony Evers can reduce motherhood to an ‘inseminated person’ then our society is lost.” When introducing the budget proposal, Evers said his plan would eliminate income tax on tips, prevent homeowners from seeing property tax increases and improve the state’s infrastructure, among other things. However, he made no mention of the language in the bill. WISCONSIN BANS TRANS ATHLETES FROM GIRLS’ SPORTS, FOLLOWING TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER The cultural battle over gendered language has raged for the last few years with debates over the use of terms like “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” or “birthing person” instead of “mother.” On his first day back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump attacked the issue head-on with an executive order called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” In the order, President Trump makes it official government policy “to recognize two sexes, male and female,” saying they are “not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The order also explicitly states that “’sex’ is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender ideology.’” Earlier this month, Trump issued another order on gender ideology called “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports.” The order is designed to prevent transgender athletes from competing against women. On Friday, during an event at the White House, the president had a heated exchange with Gov. Janet Mills, D-Me., in which he threatened to pull federal funding if the state does not comply with his order. The exchange ended with both saying they would see the other in court over the issue. READ THE BUDGET RECOMMENDATION – APP USERS, CLICK HERE: Fox News Digital reached out to Evers’ office for comment.
‘Not American’: Dem governors lash out at Elon Musk’s ‘cruel’ DOGE efforts
Democrats proved on Thursday during a press conference about protecting Medicaid that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has become an inevitable policy discussion under President Donald Trump’s second term. Ahead of the National Governors Association’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, Democratic and Republican governors huddled within their respective parties to strategize and discuss policy. Democratic governors held a press conference on Tuesday, sounding the alarm on Trump’s threat to Medicaid and signaling a Democratic messaging priority. “This is a life-and-death situation for so many of our citizens in all of our states. I’m more worried about DOGE,” Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn., said. “I find the Department of Government Efficiency is leaking its way into HHS and everyplace else.” DOGE headlines dominated Trump’s first month back in the White House as Democrats protested weekly and called his executive orders a “constitutional crisis.” When asked by Fox News Digital whether there’s a consensus among Democratic governors that its a “constitutional crisis,” Lamont said, “It’s a budgetary crisis.” WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES WHERE DOGE SAVINGS COULD GO AFTER TRUMP FLOATS RETURNING 20% TO AMERICANS Lamont said it’s impossible to plan for unpredictable and last-minute budget cuts, adding that cutting Medicaid would cost $2 billion. “It’s not DOGE. It ought to be called dodge, a way to just push the costs on to our people,” Lamont said. The Connecticut governor said he supports rooting out fraud in the federal government, but he said that if DOGE expects states to pick up the costs on things like Medicare or Medicaid, then it would put people at risk. DOGE UNCOVERS OVER 4M GOVERNMENT CREDIT CARDS RESPONSIBLE FOR 90M TRANSACTIONS “DOGE is pretty cruel. Let’s be blunt about that,” Gov. Josh Green, D-Hawaii, added. “These are people in our states that have worked long careers, very dedicated servants, and they’re getting kicked out of their lives.” Green said he launched an initiative in Hawaii yesterday to hire employees who have been fired by the federal government. “We’re hoping to bring good people into the fold and help them heal through this process, and we will hire them. But at the end of the day, if there are deep cuts in budgets, we will all suffer and struggle to do that. There’s a lot of great human capital out there, and this is just not the right way to go about things,” Green said. Fox News Digital asked the governors whether they had agreed on a messaging strategy to combat DOGE. “It’s just not American. Honestly, I don’t know how they came up with the plan to slash trillions of dollars in order to pay for tax breaks. Most Americans are going to be really upset when they lose fundamental services. My message is, we can be caring about our country and not just play to bombastic news moments,” Graham said. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said that governors work to make government more efficient every day. “I think another unified message is we all want efficient, effective government,” Grisham said. “I predict it will spend more on itself than it actually saves or finds cost savings or fraud. You know who finds fraud in health care and any number of other things? Governors do! And then we work with the federal government to make sure that we stamp that out across the country. If they were really interested in that, they would be working with us.” The Democratic governors urged more Republicans to stand up against Trump’s agenda. In the meantime, Grisham said that Democratic governors will continue to hold them accountable. “They’re not telling us the truth. They’re using this effort to line the pockets of one or a few Americans and companies, and they have not found any significant waste or fraud. They have to keep correcting, or at least we’re going to hold them accountable, and correcting those numbers. You want help making government meaningful and effective and efficient? You’re looking at a team that delivers on that every single day,” Grisham said.
‘He is delivering’: Trump’s first month flips script on radical Biden-Harris border policies
President Donald Trump unleashed an earthquake on the U.S. immigration system during his first full month in office, quickly overturning Biden-era policies and overhauling how authorities conduct enforcement in the interior and at the border. An order late Wednesday, which was implemented a day ahead of the administration’s one-month mark, directed all federal agencies to identify all federally funded programs currently providing any financial benefits to illegal immigrants and “take corrective action.” The order is intended to ensure that any federal funds to states and localities “will not be used to support sanctuary policies or assist illegal immigration.” But it was just the latest in what has been a battery of overhauls to the U.S. immigration system. TRUMP FREEZES APPLICATIONS FOR BIDEN-ERA MIGRANT PROGRAMS AMID FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS Trump, who ran his campaign centered on border security and cracking down on illegal immigration, got to work on day one of his administration — signing executive orders that declared a national emergency at the border and deployed the U.S. military. He also signed orders ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, suspending refugee admissions and also ending the use of the CBP One app at the southern border to admit migrants via humanitarian parole. Other orders included moves to restart border wall construction, which had ended under the Biden administration. It wouldn’t take long before the moves were followed up by additional decisions from Cabinet agencies. The Pentagon quickly deployed troops to the southern border and also opened up Guantánamo Bay to flights of migrants. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also issued orders that ended limits on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposed by the Biden administration on “sensitive” places, and also took limits on the use of expedited removal, allowing the rapid-fire removal process to be used more broadly after being limited by the prior administration. Another order allowed ICE to review the parole status of migrants brought in under parole, opening them up to deportation. DHS has also gone after federal funding to migrant causes. Most recently, four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees were fired and tens of millions of dollars taken back from New York City designated for hotels where migrants are being housed. “Secretary [Kristi] Noem has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Meanwhile, the administration quickly moved to ramp up interior arrests and deportations. A number of high-profile raids were quickly launched across the U.S., particularly in “sanctuary” cities that do not cooperate with ICE agents. Daily arrests quickly moved above 1,000 a day, and officials pointed to a number of criminals and gang members that were picked up in the process. According to DHS data, obtained by Fox News Digital, there were 11,791 interior ICE arrests from Jan. 20 to Feb. 8, compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024. That’s a 137% increase. Arrests of aliens with criminal histories have soared by nearly 100% from 4,526 in the same period in 2024 to 8,993 under Trump this year. Arrests of fugitive aliens at-large, meanwhile, have gone up from 2,164 to 5,538, a 156% increase. Arrests of criminal aliens in local jails have risen 59%. DHS SAYS IT ‘CAN, SHOULD AND WILL’ ADMINISTER POLYGRAPH EXAMS AMID ICE RAID LOCATION LEAKS The new Trump era has seen the rapid unwinding of a number of Biden-era programs. Fox News Digital confirmed on Wednesday that DHS has now paused pending applications for three Biden-era programs: Uniting for Ukraine; parole processes for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV); and family reunification programs. Trump had already ordered an end to the use of some Biden-era parole programs on day one, including CHNV. He had also ordered the end to the practice of paroling migrants at ports of entry who had made appointments on the CBP One app. At the time, the Biden administration touted the expansion of “lawful pathways,” claiming they were part of an effort to reduce illegal crossings, but Republicans accused the administration of abusing limited parole power and allowing in migrants who should not legally have entered. The Trump administration has also suspended refugee resettlement, which had expanded under the Biden administration. It has also frozen funding to foreign nations, which was a cornerstone of the “root causes” strategy championed by the prior administration. Migration strategies often require foreign cooperation, and the Trump administration used diplomacy and tariff threats to secure additional cooperation with neighbors and other countries in the region. Both Canada and Mexico agreed to ramp up their border security efforts after Trump floated new tariffs on incoming goods from their countries. Meanwhile, both Venezuela and Colombia agreed to take back their immigrants being deported, with Colombia’s president backing down after a public clash with President Trump. Guatemala, separately, agreed to accept deportees from other countries as part of a deal hashed out with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE So far, there are indications that border numbers continue to trend lower with the new administration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended just 29,116 illegal immigrants along the southern border during the month of January, down from 47,000 in December and hitting a low mark not seen since May 2020, when 32,349 arrests were made at ports of entry, according to a White House press release. Meanwhile, border czar Tom Homan said this week that Border Patrol “has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border” in a single day and rallied around President Trump, saying, “He is delivering.” “That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden,” he said. “I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984, and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low.” Fox News’ Michael Lee and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
‘Saved the country’: CPAC attendees see silver lining after Elon Musk’s DOGE speech
Elon Musk’s remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday drew praise from those who were pleased with the cuts being made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “I wasn’t really that interested in being political. It’s just like there was at a certain point no choice,” Musk said at the event in Maryland while wearing a black MAGA hat and sunglasses. “The actions that we’re taking, with the support of the president and the support of the agencies, is what will save Medicare, what will save Social Security.” “That’s the reason I’m doing this,” he added. “Because I was looking at the big picture here, and it’s like, man, it’s getting out of control.” ELON MUSK MAKES SURPRISE APPEARANCE AT CPAC “A country is no different from a person,” he continued. “[A] country overspends, a country goes bankrupt in the same way as a person who overspends usually goes bankrupt. So, it’s not optional to solve these things, it’s essential.” Matthew Kochman, a New York Real Estate broker, said that DOGE cuts “probably saved the country from financial collapse.” “I thought it was all just common sense,” Kochman said of Musk’s comments. When attendees were asked about the proposal to use 20% of the money from the cuts across the board to go toward a stimulus check for American taxpayers, some raised questions about whether the funds should help pay down over $36 trillion in national debt. DOGE STIMULUS CHECKS: JOHNSON SIDE-STEPS QUESTION ON TRUMP PLAN, SAYS US HAS ‘GIANT DEFICIT’ “I’m not sure I agree with the sending money back. I would just assume money going to pay down our debt, because it is an existential threat,” Angie Carrai, of Vienna, Virginia, said, adding that Musk’s comments have “tapped into what a lot of people feel” about taxes being wasted on “ridiculous” programs. However, Kochman said he believes that taxpayers should get some of their money back but thinks it should also help pay off the debt. Speaker Mike Johnson has also raised concerns about the pitch from Musk and Trump, saying that the United States needs to “pay down the credit card” with the $2 trillion objective amount to be slashed through DOGE. Pat Dennis, President of the left-wing American Bridge 21st Century opposition research firm, told Fox News Digital after watching Musk’s remarks that he’s concerned about cuts to programs that benefit Americans. “He was talking about cutting programs that everyday Americans rely on, things like Medicaid,” Dennis said. “The implication that massive percentages of these programs just can be unilaterally cut because they’re fraud is not real.” “People rely on these, voters rely on these, families rely on these, people in Republican districts rely on these,” he added. DOGE made headlines in recent weeks for taking aim at spending through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as well as grants doled out through various cabinet agencies. Fox News’ Peter Pinedo and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
Biden sent $2 billion to Stacey Abrams-linked group in green energy ‘scheme,’ EPA says
A climate group linked to high-profile Democrat Stacey Abrams was granted $2 billion by the Biden administration in a “scheme” of “wasteful” spending, the Trump administration’s leading environmental agency has revealed. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently made a revelation that the Biden administration was allowing just eight entities to distribute $20 billion of taxpayer dollars “at their discretion.” Included in the funds was a $2 billion grant to Power Forward Communities, a nonprofit with ties to former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams that seeks to “reduce our impact on the climate” by financing the replacement of household appliances in lower-income communities with green alternatives. Abrams, who lost the Georgia gubernatorial race in the 2022 midterms, reportedly “played a pivotal role” in establishing the group, according to a LinkedIn post by Ian Magruder, who works at one of the coalition’s partners, Rewiring America. ‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’: DOGE’S TOP FIVE MOST SHOCKING REVELATIONS “If you care about clean air, land and water, if you think there are some communities that have been left behind, then why aren’t you spending a dollar actually remediating that issue instead of paying off your friend,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. The $2 billion was used for the “decarbonization of homes” in low-income communities and paid for new household appliances, such as water heaters, induction stoves, solar panels, EV chargers, and weatherization, according to an April 2024 press release from Power Forward Communities. Zeldin told Fox News that in 2023, Power Forward Communities reported just $100 in revenue but was later granted $2 billion by the Biden-era EPA in 2024. TRUMP TO SIGN EXECUTIVE ORDER INSTRUCTING AGENCIES TO HUNT DOWN REGULATIONS THAT VIOLATE CONSTITUTION The climate group was given only 21 days to distribute the $2 billion, and another 90 days to complete a training session called “How to develop a budget,” Zeldin said. “I would say that if an organization needs to take a training on how to develop a budget, one, they should be taking the training before they are spending a dollar, but they definitely shouldn’t be getting two billion [dollars],” the administrator told Fox News. “The entire scheme as set up is fraud, it’s wasteful, it’s abuse,” he said. Zeldin also noted the EPA found a potential “conflict of interest” payment of $5 billion to the former director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund under Biden. “All this money was put up front,” Zeldin said. “It was ‘here is $20 billion.’ And it was going to their friends on the left.” The news that the Biden administration gave $2 billion to a climate group linked to Abrams was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon. Fox News Digital reached out to Rewiring America, Power Forward Communities and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for comment.
NYC sues after Trump admin claws back $80M migrant housing grant
New York City filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday seeking to wrestle back more than $80 million previously sent to the city via the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house migrants. The suit argues that the funds were previously approved and then paid out by FEMA, only to be removed from a city bank account on Feb. 11 without notice or administrative process. The funding had been revoked after Elon Musk claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency found a $59 million FEMA payment to New York City that was being used on luxury hotels to house illegal migrants. Trump later repeated Musk’s claim and argued that “massive fraud” was happening. New York City was awarded two separate grants during the Biden administration – one for $58.6 million and another for $21.9 million – as the city attempted to pay to house migrants, many of whom were sent by Texas officials who were frustrated with the Biden administration’s handling of the influx of migrants entering the U.S. through the southern border. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS HE WILL RUN FOR RE-ELECTION AS A DEMOCRAT The payments were made under the Shelter and Services Program (SPP) that Congress appropriated $650 million for last year to help local governments respond to the migrant crisis. There are currently fewer than 45,000 migrants staying at taxpayer-funded shelters in New York City, up from a high of 69,000 more than a year ago. Friday’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the city’s law department, which handles the city’s legal affairs, against President Donald Trump, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit accuses the federal government of violating federal regulations and the terms of the SSP grant, as well as abusing the federal government’s authority and obligations to implement congressionally approved and funded programs. The suit argues that on Feb. 19, the federal government belatedly provided the city with a “noncompliance” letter that did not identify any noncompliance by the city. “Rather, it announced ‘concerns,’ which are unfounded and do not comport with how the city has managed the unprecedented crisis brought to its doorstep,” the law department said. Citing the government’s actions as a “money grab,” the law department said the letter was a “mere cover” to mask the federal government’s real purpose, which is to permanently withhold the funds because it opposes their use on migrants. The city is looking to recoup the funds and is seeking a motion for a preliminary and permanent injunction, and motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO). New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended and supported the lawsuit in a series of posts on X late Friday, writing that the $80 million was approved, paid for and then rescinded – all while the city spent more than $7 billion of its own taxpayer money to tackle the crisis over the last three years. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO DROP CASE AGAINST NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS “We are going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed,” Adams wrote in on post. “Without a doubt, our immigration system is broken, but the cost of managing an international humanitarian crisis should not overwhelmingly fall onto one city alone. We have skillfully shouldered the cost of this humanitarian crisis almost entirely on our own, with more than 231,000 people entering our city seeking shelter.” Meanwhile, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander claimed the suit came about after he forced Adams’ hand on the matter. Adams has come under fire from New York Democrats over his decision to be more cooperative with federal immigration agencies in apprehending criminal illegal migrants amid the Justice Department efforts to dismiss corruption charges against him. “After my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the City’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the City’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back,” Lander said in a statement. “The lawyers who are standing up to President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve praise and we look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.” Lander is running against Adams in the mayoral election later this year. READ THE LAWSUIT BELOW: APP USERS CLICK HERE. Fox News’ Landon Mion, Maria Paronich and Jennifer Johnson contributed to this report.
Top Trump official rallies behind president amid backlash for ‘dictator’ attack on Zelenskyy
Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for special missions, defended Trump’s recent criticism of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as being a “dictator,” saying that the president is focused on what is best for the American people. While speaking at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on Friday, Grenell said: “I’m so thankful that we have a president who’s concentrating on peace. And that’s what Donald Trump has just said: ‘You know, let’s stop.’” “Remember that we handed Joe Biden total peace in the Middle East and total peace in Europe. He handed us a war in the Middle East and a war in Europe,” he added. GOP SENATORS BACK TRUMP’S DEMAND FOR UKRAINE ELECTIONS, BUT WON’T CALL ZELENSKYY ‘DICTATOR’ Grenell is a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and previously served as Trump’s Acting National Intelligence Director. Pressed by a reporter on whether he stood by Trump recently calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator,” Grenell said, “I think when you reject having elections, and you’re not moving towards that way that people get angry about that.” “I think the American people are really frustrated with Zelenskyy. I think that there’s a big frustration that he’s not making great choices for peace,” he added. “And again, when the American people are spending hundreds of billions of dollars, there is a frustration.” TRUMP’S FRUSTRATIONS WITH ZELENSKYY ESCALATE AS US TURNS UP PRESSURE ON UKRAINE TO REACH PEACE DEAL “What President Trump is saying very clearly: ‘We have to stop this war,’” he explained. “He’s somebody who is concentrating on saying to both sides: ‘Let’s talk to both sides and figure out how we stop this.’” “But I want to say that’s really important in this conversation is Donald Trump has done something different than Republican foreign policy leaders have done for 25 years,” he emphasized. “We articulate very clearly under Donald Trump, we don’t do regime change. We are going to deal with the countries that are in front of us. And our criteria is not how do we make that country better [but] how do we make America better, stronger and more prosperous for the people that live here.” TRUMP AND ZELENSKYY WAR OF WORDS HEATS UP EVEN AS US LOOKS TO WIND DOWN WAR IN UKRAINE Grenell, who is a resident of California, also shared that he “may not be able to resist” running against former Vice President Kamala Harris if she decides to run to be California’s next governor. “Honestly, it’s not in my plan unless Kamala Harris runs for governor,” he said. “I mean, here’s the thing. We already know who she is. We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars to define who Kamala Harris is,” he went on. “If she thinks that she’s going to run for governor of California, but a Republican is going to win, and I may not be able to resist trying to run against her.” VP JD VANCE SPEAKS ON ‘FUNDAMENTAL GOAL’ OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AT CPAC ADDRESS Grenell has previously floated running for California governor as a Republican. He expressed interest in running to replace current Governor Gavin Newsom during the recall vote against the Democrat in 2021. Despite the state’s notoriously liberal and leftist policies, Grenell has said that California is a “magnificent state” and expressed: “We deserve better than the failed leadership and partisan politics of our elected officials.” Grenell also criticized California political leaders for botching the response to the recent Los Angeles wildfires. LOS ANGELES MAYOR KAREN BASS SACKS FIRE CHIEF WHO SAID CITY FAILED RESIDENTS IN WILDFIRES He said that the Trump administration will be attaching strings on future federal funding to California to ensure such a disaster does not happen again. “There are going to be conditions,” he said. “As a Californian, I’m all for it because I don’t have faith that if we went back and we just gave California hundreds of millions of dollars, they were going to go back to their same old ways of not giving us enough water [and] having dangerous situations on the ground when it comes to forestry. It’s going to happen again.”
Here’s what happened during President Donald Trump’s 5th week in office
President Donald Trump and his administration continued to advance negotiations with Ukraine and Russia his fifth week in office in an attempt to reach a peace deal to end the conflict between the two countries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz met with Russian officials in Riyadh Tuesday to discuss ways to end the war, while U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg met with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv about a peace deal Wednesday. The meetings increased tension between the U.S. and Ukraine when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Turkey that “nobody decides anything behind our back,” claiming Ukraine wasn’t invited to the meeting between the U.S. and Russia. Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine won’t agree to a deal unless Ukraine is part of the talks. TRUMP’S FRUSTRATIONS WITH ZELENKSYY ESCALATE AS US TURNS UP PRESSURE ON UKRAINE TO REACH PEACE DEAL In response, both Trump and Zelenskyy exchanged barbs. Although Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Trump insinuated that Ukraine started the war and called Zelenskyy a “dictator.” Meanwhile, Zelenskyy claimed Trump was dispersing Russian “disinformation.” Even so, the Trump administration has defended its decision to meet with Russia, claiming it’s necessary to advance the negotiations. “How are you going to end the war unless you’re talking to Russia?” Vice President JD Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation’s capital Thursday. “You’ve got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting. If you actually want to bring the conflict to a close.” Here’s what also happened this week at the White House: Trump signed an executive order Wednesday requiring federal agencies to assess regulations that could violate the Constitution as the administration seeks to cut red tape. Senior administration officials told Fox News Digital the order is first of its kind and an attempt to ensure the government isn’t weaponized against the American people. It will require agencies to submit a list to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the next 60 days of all regulations that could be unconstitutional. OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will oversee the effort and examine federal agencies’ regulations. TRUMP TO SIGN EXECUTIVE ORDER INSTRUCTING AGENCIES TO HUNT DOWN REGULATIONS THAT VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION DOGE officials at federal agencies will compose an inventory of regulations that could violate the Constitution and deliver the list to OMB. After the 60 days, the OIRA will go through the list of regulations and make individual decisions on which are unconstitutional and will launch the process of repealing the regulations on a case-by-case basis. OIRA oversees executive branch regulations, while the newly created DOGE aims to eliminate government waste, fraud and spending. Trump signed an executive order Tuesday requesting the Domestic Policy Council to examine ways to make in vitro fertilization, known as IVF, more affordable and accessible for Americans. “Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options, as the cost per cycle can range from $12,000 to $25,000,” the executive order said. “Providing support, awareness, and access to affordable fertility treatments can help these families navigate their path to parenthood with hope and confidence.” ‘PROMISES KEPT’: TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO ‘AGGRESSIVELY’ MAKE IVF MORE AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE The assistant to the president for domestic policy will provide policy recommendations with the goal of “protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment” within 90 days. Trump also signed an executive order that ensures taxpayer benefits do not go toward illegal immigrants, in an attempt to better protect the interests of American citizens. The directive requires federal agencies to determine if any federally funded programs are providing financial benefits to illegal immigrants and immediately take “corrective action” so that these federal funds don’t bolster illegal immigration. Likewise, the order instructs agencies to implement stricter eligibility verification to ensure that these benefits don’t go to those in the U.S. illegally. The order did not identify specific benefits, and notes that illegal immigrants are largely barred from qualifying for welfare programs. However, the order states without providing evidence that past administrations have “repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources.” “My Administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” the order states. “President Trump is committed to safeguarding Federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” a White House fact sheet on the executive order said.