Trump order targeting law firm struck down; supreme court asked to allow Musk’s Doge access to social security data – as it happened

The Central Intelligence Agency is getting a downsize. The Trump administration is looking to eliminate 1,200 positions at the CIA, along with thousands of other cuts in other US intelligence agencies, according to the Washington Post. Among those is the National Security Agency, which specializes in online espionage.

The move comes as Donald Trump has promised to reduce the size of the federal government, but this reduction in staff is not part of the work of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, according to the Post.

The CIA did not immediately return request for comment.

Opponents to the downsizing of the CIA and other spy agencies say that the reduction in force could threaten national security and make the country less safe.

John Ratcliffe, the CIA’s director, sent a memo to staff at the end of March saying the years of growing budgets and resources were a thing of the past, according to the New York Post. “Moving forward,” he said, “you will be part of a smaller, more elite and efficient workforce.”

In a setback for the administration, a federal judge struck down Donald Trump’s executive order that targeted the law firm Perkins Coie on Friday. In a court order, Judge Beryl Howell wrote that the order violated free speech and due process.

The executive order “is unlawful because it violates the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the US Constitution and is therefore null and void”, Howell wrote. She directed the attorney general Pam Bondi to immediately cease any investigations of Perkins Coie.

In a separate 102-page opinion, Howell said: “Settling personal vendettas by targeting a disliked business or individual for punitive government action is not a legitimate use of the powers of the US government or an American President.”

The White House and Perkins Coie did not immediately return requests for comment.

Trump signed the executive order in March, seeking to stop Perkins Coie’s lawyers from accessing government buildings and threatened to withdraw its clients’ federal contracts. Perkins Coie sued the government less than a week later, saying the order violated the firm’s core constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.

“At the heart of the order is an unlawful attack on the freedom of all Americans to select counsel of their choice without fear of retribution or punishment from the government,” Bill Malley, a managing partner for Perkins Coie, said at the time.

The Trump administration has gone after several high-powered law firms that have worked on legal challenges against him or his actions. Nine of these firms have reached deals with Trump, but three also sued the government seeking to block the executive orders, according to Reuters. Howell’s decision on Friday was the first legal ruling in any of these cases.

National Public Radio is indicating it may sue the Trump administration over the executive order aimed at cutting funding for public broadcasters. The NPR CEO Katherine Maher issued a statement on Friday saying the public radio broadcaster “will challenge this Executive Order using all means available”.

“We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,” Maher said.

Donald Trump signed the executive order late Thursday night accusing both NPR and PBS of leftwing bias. The order directs the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds the two broadcasters, to “cease federal funding”. Both broadcasters have minimal funding from CPB, but many local member stations heavily rely on CPB.

The order comes after Maher and Paula Kerger, the president and CEO of PBS, were called to testify before a House oversight and government reform subcommittee in March in a hearing called Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable. It was held by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican representative from Georgia.

Kerger said earlier on Friday that Trump’s executive order was “blatantly unlawful” and that PBS was “exploring all options” to continue serving all Americans.

In her statement, Maher said: “The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR … It is also an affront to the First Amendment rights of station listeners and donors who support independent news and information.”

She added that NPR’s mission is to inform the public and that an “informed public is essential to a functioning democracy”.

Marco Rubio has designated two groups in Haiti as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “specially designated global terrorists”. The groups, Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif, have taken control of much of Haiti, including the capital, Port-au-Prince. They have been known for carrying out human rights atrocities and massacres nationwide.

“They are a direct threat to US national security interests in our region,” Rubio said in a statement on Friday. “Their ultimate goal is creating a gang-controlled state where illicit trafficking and other criminal activities operate freely and terrorize Haitian citizens.”

The designation comes as the Trump administration is working on its mass deportation plan. Many of the immigrants the government says it’s deporting have gang affiliations, which has not been substantiated in most of the high-profile cases. In February, the US designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, as global terrorist organizations.

In his statement, Rubio said the terrorist designations for the Haitian groups shows the Trump administration’s commitment to fighting dangerous gangs. He added: “Individuals and entities providing material support or resources to Viv Ansanm or Gran Grif could face criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States.”

The Trump administration is looking to the supreme court to settle whether or not the so-called “department of government efficiency” can have access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database.

In a court filing on Friday, the government asked the supreme court to lift a federal judge’s order to block Doge from access to the data. The US district judge Ellen Lipton Hollander had issued an order in March that restricted Doge’s access to the SSA and required Doge representatives to “destroy and delete” any data they’d already gathered.

“The district court’s orders have already stopped the Executive Branch from carrying out key policy objectives in an important federal agency for more than a month,” the US solicitor general D John Sauer wrote in the court filing. “The government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs.”

Doge had sought access to SSA data to try to find evidence of fraud, something Doge head Elon Musk has been preoccupied with for months, saying at one point that social security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”.

The data Doge wants access to includes social security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, driver’s license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates and home and work addresses, according to Hollander.

“Defendants, with so called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government,” she said in her March order to block access.

Several veterans’ groups are pushing back on Donald Trump’s plan to rename Veterans Day. The president announced late Thursday that the holiday, which is on 11 November, will now be called “Victory Day for World War I”.

“Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, honoring the end of World War I – then it was changed to honor ALL who served,” VoteVets, a left-leaning group that works to get veterans elected to office, wrote on X on Friday. “Veterans don’t need rewritten history. They need respect – and the benefits they earned.”

Another group, the Disabled American Veterans, simply posted “No” to its website.

The American Legion, which is one of the biggest veterans’ groups in the US, has not posted publicly about the name change and did not immediately return request for comment.

Veterans Day was first established in 1919 as “Armistice Day” to recognize the end of the first world war, and Congress made it a federal holiday in 1938. In 1954, Congress passed a law that formalized the holiday as Veterans Day to honor veterans who have served in all armed conflicts.

Fox News has confirmed an earlier report from the Associated Press that Trump will host a military parade on in June to honor military veterans and active-duty service members and commemorate the US Army’s 250th birthday. The date, 14 June, is also Trump’s birthday.

Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers said on Friday that every American should be concerned about “chilling” suggestions from Donald Trump’s top border adviser that he could be arrested over guidance he issued to state employees about what to do if confronted by federal immigration agents.

“I’m not afraid,” Evers, a Democrat, said in the extraordinary video posted on YouTube. “I’ve never once been discouraged from doing the right thing and I will not start today.” He went on:

We now have a federal government that will threaten or arrest an elected official, or even everyday American citizens who have broken no laws, committed no crimes and done nothing wrong. And as disgusted as I am about the continued actions of the Trump administration, I’m not afraid.

At issue is guidance Evers’s administration issued last month in response to state workers who asked what they should do if agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) showed up at their offices.

Evers’s guidance advised them to contact an attorney immediately and to ask the officers to return if an attorney is unavailable. It also advises state workers not to turn over paper files or give Ice officers access to computers without first consulting the state agency’s attorney, not to answer questions from the agents, and not to allow Ice officers to access non-public areas.

The recommendations are similar to guidance that Connecticut’s Democratic governor issued in January. The guidelines also mirror what the National Immigration Law Center and other advocacy groups have said should be done when immigration officials show up at a workplace.

Republican critics argued that the guidance was an order from Evers not to cooperate with Ice agents, an accusation the governor denied in Friday’s video. The goal was to give state employees “clear, consistent instructions” to ensure they have a lawyer present to help them comply with all applicable laws, he said:

I haven’t broken the law, I haven’t committed a crime, and I’ve never encouraged or directed anyone to break any laws or commit any crimes.

Tom Homan, Trump’s top border czar, was asked about the Evers memo by reporters outside the White House on Thursday. Homan said: “Wait to see what’s coming.”

Some Republicans embraced the possibility of Evers being arrested. On X, the Republican Wisconsin state representative Calvin Callahan reposted a clip of Homan’s warning, adding the caption: “Arrest, Arrest, Arrest!”

It comes a week after the Milwaukee county circuit judge Hannah Dugan was arrested at the courthouse on two felony charges. She is accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities by escorting him and his attorney out of her courtroom through the jury door as federal officers sought his arrest.

A mother deported to Cuba reportedly had to hand over her 17-month-old daughter to a lawyer while her husband, a US citizen, stood outside unable to say goodbye.

Heidy Sánchez was told she was being detained for deportation to Cuba when she turned up at her scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) check-in appointment in Tampa, Florida, last week.

She was told her child, who has health problems and is still breastfeeding, had to stay in the US but could visit her in Cuba, NBC reported.

The Trump administration is embroiled in controversy for removing children who are US citizens from the United States with a parent when the adult is deported. In this case, the child was reportedly not allowed to leave with her mother even though it was what both parents said they wanted.

The administration’s anti-immigration crackdown has put many people in a difficult position because they risk being summarily detained and deported when turning up for routine Ice check-ins. Many people have followed this process without issue for years, and do not have a criminal record – but failing to turn up can bring an order for forcible removal from the US.

“They never gave me the option to take my daughter,” Sánchez told NBC.

The Trump administration is exploring whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the US as “enemy combatants” as a possible way to detain them more easily and limit their ability to challenge their imprisonment, multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations have told CNN.

One of the sources told CNN the administration was only considering ways to use the label against suspected members of the eight groups Trump has designated as foreign terrorist organizations, including Tren de Aragua and MS-13.

“This hinges on the idea that they are designated terrorists,” this person said.

Legal experts told CNN that applying the enemy combatant label to immigrants deemed terrorists would not be the easy solution some Trump officials think it could be. There would be no legal basis for it in the first place, they said, because the “enemy combatant” designation has only ever applied to the Taliban, al-Qaida and associated forces.

Steve Vladeck, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and CNN legal analyst, said:

It’s taking two distinct topics in national security law and hoping no one knows they are distinct. You can’t just bend them together without recognizing their myriad substantive differences … there is no good-faith legal argument here.

Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, is gathering momentum inside the White House as a top candidate to be the next national security adviser, five sources familiar with the situation have told Axios.

The White House deputy chief of staff and architect of Trump’s intense and highly controversial immigration crackdown, is one of the president’s longest-serving and most trusted aides.

He is also already the administration’s homeland security adviser and is an aggressive defender of the administration’s legal push for immediate deportations of unauthorized immigrants without court hearings.

One source told Axios that Miller might not want the job “if it takes him away from his true love: immigration policy”. Another said: “If Stephen wants the job, it’s hard to see why Trump wouldn’t say yes.” Axios couldn’t reach Miller for comment.

A prominent lawyer in Washington who defended Hunter Biden against criminal charges has created a new law firm to represent former government officials and others targeted by the Trump administration, Reuters reports.

Abbe Lowell left his large law firm Winston & Strawn to launch Lowell & Associates, which will defend clients including individuals, institutions and others that are “facing politicized investigations, civil and administrative actions”, the firm said in a Friday statement.

The new firm also includes two former lawyers at Skadden Arps who quit over its response to Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting the legal profession.

Skadden is one of nine firms that cut deals with the administration to avoid the president’s crackdown on the legal industry. Four other firms have sued to block Trump’s orders, which restricted their business over the president’s claims that they had “weaponized” the legal system against him or his allies.

One of the ex-Skadden lawyers, Rachel Cohen, said there is a need for attorneys “willing to stand up to the government when it oversteps”. Two other lawyers are also joining the new firm from Winston & Strawn.

Lowell is representing New York attorney general Letitia James after the Trump administration referred her to the Justice Department for allegedly falsifying real estate records. James has denied the allegations.

The new firm said it is also representing clients fighting the cancellation of grant funding by the so-called “department of government efficiency” and the federal government.

Lowell represented Hunter Biden, former president Joe Biden’s son, against criminal gun and tax changes before he was pardoned in December. His clients have also included former US senator Bob Menendez, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

The new firm comes amid a broader effort to mount and sustain legal challenges to the Trump administration. There are more than 200 lawsuits opposing key Trump policy initiatives, including efforts to curtail transgender and immigrant rights, and eliminating agency and grant funding.

Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Mark Carney, has confirmed he will be meeting with Donald Trump at the White House next week.

Carney, speaking at his first news conference since his election victory on Monday, said he will travel to Washington on Tuesday.

The Canadian leader said he had a “very constructive” call with Trump this week where they agreed to meet next week.

“My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada,” Carney said, adding:

Our old relationship, based on steadily increasing integration, is over. The questions now are how our nations will cooperate in the future and where we in Canada will move on.

Donald Trump unveiled his budget proposal blueprint – or “skinny budget” – for the 2026 fiscal year, which would include a $163bn cut to federal spending, eliminating more than a fifth of the non-military spending excluding mandatory programs, according to a release by the office of management and budget (OMB).

The proposed budget would raise defense spending by 13% and homeland security spending by nearly 65% compared with 2025 enacted levels, according to the office. Non-defense spending would be reduced by roughly 23%, the lowest level since 2017. It is thus very much in line with the second Trump administration’s efforts to drastically shrink the size of the federal government through staffing cuts and office closures, and its aggressive anti-immigration agenda.

Russ Vought, OMB director, said in the statement:

At this critical moment, we need a historic Budget—one that ends the funding of our decline, puts Americans first, and delivers unprecedented support to our military and homeland security.

The “skinny budget” is a summary of budget proposals that presidents often release in their first term, followed later on by the traditional full budget books that include all spending and revenue projections. It isn’t binding and it is down to Congress to craft legislation, but per Politico “it gives Hill leaders a loose roadmap of Trump’s budget request as they gear up to move on the fiscal 2026 appropriations process”.

Per NPR: “While it is Congress’ job to appropriate money, the president is required by law to send lawmakers a budget proposal each year. The proposal is not binding – it is more of a list of the president’s policy priorities, with price tags attached.

“Congress does not have to abide by what a president wants. But this particular budget may be more meaningful than usual, precisely because this Congress has not been inclined to ignore President Trump’s wishes.”

NPR also notes that the cuts proposed this morning are for spending that Congress authorizes each year – which does not include spending on safety nets like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

But the blueprint does come at a time when congressional Republicans are fighting to bridge internal divisions over proposed cuts in federal spending in order to pay for Trump’s landmark tax-cut bill. As Politico notes: “The fate of the megabill, at this point, appears to hinge almost entirely on the Medicaid question: Are deep cuts to Medicaid something to be avoided? Or are they the whole point of pursuing the legislation? That clash is playing out in both public and private as lawmakers race to stamp Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ before Memorial Day.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said Trump’s executive order instructing it to cease funding to NPR and PBS is “unlawful” as it is not subject to president’s authority and is “exploring all options”.

Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO, said:

The President’s blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years. We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.

Trump signed the order late on Thursday, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting, his latest move to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other federal agencies to “cease Federal funding” for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations.

The CPB, which funnels public funding to the two services, said that it is not a federal executive agency subject to Trump’s orders. The president earlier this week said he was firing three of the five remaining CPB board members - threatening its ability to do any work - and was immediately sued by the CPB to stop it.

The vast majority of public money for the services goes directly to its hundreds of local stations, which operate on a combination of government funding, donations and philanthropic grants. Stations in smaller markets are particularly dependent on the public money and most threatened by the cuts of the sort Trump is proposing.

In a statement, CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison, said:

CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.

In creating CPB, Congress expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors…’ 47 U.S.C. § 398(c).

Canada’s newly-elected prime minister Mark Carney is set to meet Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Bloomberg News (paywall) is reporting, amid rising tensions over Trump’s tariff war and annexation threats to Canada.

Shortly after his election last week, Carney said that when they did meet he the US president would speak “like two sovereign nations”. Carney’s victory was largely propelled by Trump’s repeated – and seemingly earnest - suggestions about annexing Canada and making it the 51st US state. In his victory speech Carney said:

President Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never - that will never, ever happen.

In an interview with the BBC the day after his win, Carney said his country deserves and expects respect from the US and will only enter trade and security talks with Trump “on our terms”. He added that he would only visit Washington when there was a “serious discussion to be had” that respected Canada’s sovereignty.

Talks with Trump would be “on our terms, not on their terms,” he said, adding:

There is a partnership to be had, an economic and security partnership … It’s going to be a very different one than we’ve had in the past.

Canada was the “biggest client for more than 40 states” in the US, Carney noted:

We deserve respect. We expect respect and I’m sure we’ll get it in due course again, and then we can have these discussions.

Trump said the US economy is in a “transition stage”, citing strong employment and his tariff plan while reiterating his call for the US Federal Reserve to lower its interest rate. It followed the release of data that showed US job growth slowed marginally for April.

He wrote on Truth Social:

Gasoline just broke $1.98 a Gallon, lowest in years, groceries (and eggs!) down, energy down, mortgage rates down, employment strong, and much more good news, as Billions of Dollars pour in from Tariffs. Just like I said, and we’re only in a TRANSITION STAGE, just getting started!!! Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!! DJT

Speaking of the military, last night Trump said he wanted to rename 11 November – Veterans Day – as “Victory Day for World War I” and name 8 May “Victory Day for World War II”.

The 8 May date – not currently a federal holiday and Trump wasn’t clear if he wanted it to become one – is an interesting choice for a US president to mark victory in the second world war. While 8 May is indeed marked as Victory Day in Europe as Trump points out (for Russia it’s 9 May), American soldiers famously continued fighting Japan in the Pacific theatre for another three months after the war was declared over against Nazi Germany. Japan did not formally surrender until 2 September 1945.

There’s also no doubt that Trump’s claim that the US “did more than any other country, by far, in producing a victorious result” will not sit well with former allied powers who suffered heavy losses and casualties as well as considerable damage from German bombing.

Veterans Day, meanwhile, started out as a commemoration of the armistice on 11 November 1918, not as a celebration of American “victory” as Trump is framing it. The scope of the holiday was later widened to honor all US veterans, including of modern wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Trump’s post makes no mention of those conflicts.

Here’s the post from Truth Social:

Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II. I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I. We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!

Detailed army plans for a potential military parade on Donald Trump’s birthday in June call for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians, the Associated Press reports.

The planning documents, obtained by the AP, are dated 29 and 30 April and have not been publicly released. They represent the army’s most recent blueprint for its long-planned 250th anniversary festival on the National Mall and the newly added element – a large military parade that Trump has long wanted but is still being discussed.

The army anniversary just happens to coincide with Trump’s 79th birthday on 14 June.

While the slides do not include any price estimates, it would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size. Costs would include the movement of military vehicles, equipment, aircraft and troops from across the country to Washington and the need to feed and house thousands of service members.

High costs halted Trump’s push for a parade in his first term, and the tanks and other heavy vehicles that are part of the army’s latest plans have raised concerns from city officials about damage to roads.

Asked about plans for a parade, army spokesperson Steve Warren said Thursday that no final decisions have been made.

Others familiar with the documents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been finalized, said they represent the army’s plans as it prepares for any White House approval of the parade. The White House did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment.

President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration will strip Harvard University of its tax exempt status.

“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump said in a post on his social media platform.

Democrats plan to put the squeeze on four of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress as the GOP gears up to pass a massive bill that may slash the social safety net to pay for tax cuts.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Friday announced the “Fight to Save Medicaid”, a pressure campaign that aims to derail the bill’s passage in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold only a three-seat majority.

The plan targets Nebraska’s Don Bacon, New York’s Mike Lawler and Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, all of whom represent districts that Kamala Harris carried in last November’s election. Also in the cross-hairs is Tom Barrett, a freshman lawmaker whose district in Michigan went for Trump by only a slim margin.

The DNC will organise “people’s town halls” in the four lawmakers’ districts this month, in partnership with its House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

The party will also encourage voters to call and email the lawmakers to share their views on the bill, hold in-person gatherings and post on social media, all tactics to which Democrats nationwide have lately turned as they look to claw back power in Washington.

Washington’s envoy has warned that US president Donald Trump could skip the upcoming Nato summit if other members of the defence alliance do not act on burden-sharing, the Spiegel news magazine reported on Friday, citing European diplomatic sources.

Germany in particular has come under pressure to boost its defence spending considerably, with US defence secretary Pete Hegseth having spoken with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius on the issue last week, the report added.

Beijing is “evaluating” an offer from Washington to hold talks over US president Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs, China’s commerce ministry said on Friday, although it warned the United States not to engage in “extortion and coercion.”

Washington and Beijing have been locked in a cat-and-mouse game over tariffs, with both sides unwilling to be seen to back down in a trade war that has roiled global markets and upended supply chains, Reuters reported.

The commerce ministry said the United States has approached China to seek talks over Trump’s tariffs and Beijing’s door was open for discussions, signalling a potential de-escalation in the trade war.

The statement comes a day after a social media account linked to Chinese state media said Washington had been seeking to start talks, and a week after Trump claimed discussions were already under way, which Beijing denied.

“The US has recently taken the initiative on many occasions to convey information to China through relevant parties, saying it hopes to talk with China,” the statement said, adding that Beijing was “evaluating this”. “Attempting to use talks as a pretext to engage in coercion and extortion would not work,” it said.

The US should be prepared to take action in “correcting erroneous practices” and cancel unilateral tariffs, the commerce ministry said, adding that Washington needed to show “sincerity” in negotiations.

Good morning and welcome to the US live blog amid news that Donald Trump has pulled funding from news outlets NPR and PBS, accusing them of being biased.

NPR and PBS are only partly funded by the US taxpayer and rely heavily on private donations.

The US president has long had an antagonistic relationship with most mainstream news media, previously describing them as the “enemy of the people”.

A notable exception is the powerful conservative broadcaster Fox News, some of whose hosts have taken on leading roles in his administration.

“National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) receive taxpayer funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB),” Trump said in his executive order. “I therefore instruct the CPB board of directors and all executive departments and agencies to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”

You can read our story from Agence France-Presse here:

In other news:

• Mike Waltz was relieved of his duties after clinging on for more than a month after the news broke that he had accidentally invited a journalist Trump hates to join a Signal group chat to plan strikes on Yemen in March.

• After a morning of reporting on Waltz’s firing, the administration, put out a new line: Waltz had not been fired but promoted, since he had been nominated to be the new US ambassador to the UN. That framing was delivered on Fox News by Peter Doocy, a network correspondent, and then JD Vance, the vice-president.

• A Reuters photograph of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting that was previously overlooked showed that Waltz was still using Signal on his phone as recently as yesterday, to communicate with senior officials including Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff, Tulsi Gabbard and JD Vance.

• Waltz appears to have installed third-party software on his phone that allows Signal to be archived, but also makes it less secure.

• US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully rejected what she called “relentless attacks” on the federal judiciary.

• The US Army has developed detailed plans for a potential military parade on President Donald Trump’s birthday in June

• Senate Democrats responded to the firing of Waltz by calling for another participant in the chat, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, to be fired.

• Hegseth’s use of Signal to share confidential attack plans with his wife and brother is reportedly under investigation by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general.