WASHINGTON: In separate negotiations, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have agreed with US President Donald Trump to pause planned tariffs for at least a month. Trump’s tariffs against China are still slated to go into effect on Tuesday.
Staffers of the US Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been given broad latitude to investigate the federal government.
A coalition of unions is suing to block billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting operation from accessing the highly-sensitive Treasury payment system that handles Social Security, Medicaid and other government operations.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington contends that Musk’s staffers are using the system in violation of several privacy laws and other statutes that govern who can access the network.
“Granting DOGE-affiliated individuals full, continuous, and ongoing access to that information for an unspecified period of time means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies, and other individuals from all walks of life have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords” the lawsuit alleges, seeking a restraining order keeping them out of the system.
The No. 2 Senate Republican is fine with cutting USAID. But others are not so sure. “I think it’s appropriate for the president and the administration want to hold them accountable and make sure taxpayer money is used wisely,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the GOP whip.
But another Republican exiting the weekly leadership meeting wanted more information about Musk’s ability to simply move into government agencies and undo funding that was already approved by Congress.
“What’s happened in the last 48 hours, I’m still trying to be able to figure out as well what’s fact and fiction,” said Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.
Lankford said while Congress does approve federal funding, the Trump administration is well within its rights to “pause” various programs. He was critical of USAID and said it had been a “mess” for sometime.
US Rep. Jason Crow toured the base in Aurora, Colorado, Monday where officials told him that the facility will be used as a base of operations for federal immigration enforcement agencies but not as a detention center for immigrants in the US illegally.
“I showed up today, started poking around like I like to do, and did discover that indeed the facility is being used for Homeland Security operations, for ICE operations,” said Crow, a Democrat, as he stood in front of the base and its sweep of dry, windblown grass.
Last week, Department of Defence officials said the base would be used to process immigrants, prompting concern from elected leaders. Crow’s visit to the base Monday didn’t turn up any signs that migrants would be housed there, such as cots, he said.
During the presidential campaign, Trump claimed that Aurora was overrun by a criminal gang from Venezuela and used the rhetoric to drive home his plan for mass deportation. Aurora officials said Trump’s statements were overblown.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy became the first among his party to publicly call out the impact Trump’s foreign aid freeze is having on programs like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
In a social media post, Cassidy, a physician-turned-politician, said that he’s being told a waiver issued by the administration last week to ensure that humanitarian aid is not impacted is still stalling the program on the ground.
“PEPFAR is the epitome of soft power. It is a Republican initiative, it is pro-life, pro-America and the most popular US program in Africa,” Cassidy said on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There’s even a waiver acknowledging this, yet I’m told that drugs are still being held at clinics in Africa. This must be reversed immediately!!”