President Donald Trump said Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for U.S. “ownership” of the war-torn territory, contradicting other officials in his administration who’ve sought to argue Trump was only calling for the temporary relocation of its population.
He also said he’ll announce Monday that the United States will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week.
Here’s the latest:
DOGE cuts $900 million in Education Department contracts
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut about $900 million in Education Department contracts after concluding they were a waste of taxpayer money, officials said.
The Education Department said DOGE’s cuts spanned 90 contracts at the Institute of Education Sciences, a research branch of the federal agency. It included $1.5 million that went to a contractor to “observe mailing and clerical operations” at a U.S. Census facility in Indiana, the department said.
The Education Department did not immediately release further details about the contracts.
A spokesperson said the cuts won’t affect core operations at the Institute of Education Sciences, including the College Scorecard, which provides data about the cost and outcomes of U.S. universities
It wasn’t clear what time frame the $900 million in cuts covered. Congress appropriated the institute about $800 million in 2024, according to federal records.
New USAID official says ‘insubordination’ and ‘noncompliance’ led to near-agencywide shutdown
A Trump appointee at the heart of the sweeping changes at the U.S. Agency for International Development is defending the near-shutdown of the agency, saying Trump officials have been faced with “noncompliance” and “insubordination” from staff.
Peter Marocco, the deputy administrator at the aid agency, submitted a statement Monday in a lawsuit brought by groups representing government employees.
Marocco is accusing agency employees of stalling and resisting the new administration’s freeze on funding for foreign aid and its attempts to review each program in depth.
Marocco says that makes it necessary to pull all but about 600 of the agency’s staffers off the job. The employees groups are urging a federal judge to restore USAID to its status before the administration.
Top Justice Department official orders prosecutors to drop charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams
A top official at the U.S. Department of Justice has ordered federal prosecutors to drop charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has cultivated a warm relationship with Trump.
In a two-page memo obtained by The Associated Press, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, an alumnus of the Manhattan office that brought the case, said the decision to dismiss the charges was reached without an assessment of the strength of the prosecution and was not meant to call into question the attorneys who filed the case.
Bove wrote that the pending prosecution has “unduly restricted” Adams’ ability to “devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that has escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.”
▶ Read more about the Justice Department’s order
Top Trump advisers are set to meet with Zelenskyy in Germany
Trump’s senior advisers are expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss the path toward ending Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, told The Associated Press that the White House is ironing out details of the highly anticipated talks.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kellogg are among the Trump officials traveling to Germany, and all could be involved.
Trump said Monday that he’d “probably” speak with Zelenskyy this week.
Trump uses executive orders to ban paper straws and loosen foreign bribery rule
Trump has signed an executive order banning paper straws, which he said was a “No. 1 trending” issue.
“We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said.
The order rolls back a push by the Biden administration to phase out single-use plastic across the federal government.
Trump also signed an order loosening the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which was designed to keep U.S. officials from bribing foreign counters. Trump said the act was a “disaster” for American business interests overseas.
He also ordered funding ended for a federal management and executive training programing dating to the Johnson administration.
Trump calls Rod Blagojevich ‘a very fine person’ as he signs pardon
The Republican president said the Democratic former governor’s conviction and prison sentence “shouldn’t have happened.”
“I’ve watched him. He was set up by a lot of bad people, some of the same people I had to deal with,” Trump said at the White House as he signed the pardon.
▶ Read more about Blagojevich’s pardon
Trump says ceasefire should be canceled if Hamas doesn’t release all hostages by Saturday
Trump says the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas should be canceled if Hamas doesn’t release all the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza by midday Saturday.
In comments to reporters as he signed a series of executive orders, Trump said it was ultimately up to Israel. But he warned that “all hell is going to break out” if the remaining hostages aren’t released, adding that he feared many were dead.
“I’m speaking for myself,” Trump said. “Israel can override it.”
