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The Department of Health and Human Services will cut 10,000 jobs. Combined with earlier buyouts and retirements, HHS will shrink its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 – about a 25% reduction. The cuts will affect key agencies like the CDC, FDA, NIH, and CMS, and will consolidate 28 divisions into 15, including the formation of a new “Administration for a Healthy America.” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the overhaul will “eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments” and claimed it would save $1.8 billion annually. Kennedy called HHS a “sprawling bureaucracy” that had failed to improve health outcomes. (
Wall Street Journal /
NPR /
Axios /
Washington Post /
New York Times /
Associated Press /
Politico /
ABC News /
NBC News)
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The Trump administration is preparing to lay off between 8% to 50% of federal workers across 22 agencies under a February executive order to shrink government to its “minimum essential functions.” The draft plan includes a 50% reduction in staff at Housing and Urban Development, cutting 30% of IRS employees, and reducing the Justice Department workforce by 8%. The effort is led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. Some agencies, like the Social Security Administration, are already experiencing service slowdowns from earlier cuts. The White House called the plan “pre-deliberative” and said final decisions will be announced by agency heads. (
Washington Post)
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Attorney General Pam Bondi said she is unlikely to launch a criminal investigation into a Signal group chat in which Trump officials shared sensitive military plans for a Yemen airstrike. “It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released,” Bondi said. Her comments followed bipartisan calls from Senate Armed Services leaders for an inspector general probe and growing criticism from national security experts, who say the disclosures violated long-standing protocols. Nevertheless, Bondi instead pointed to past Democratic mishandling of classified information, saying, “If you want to talk about classified information, talk about what was at Hillary Clinton’s home.” A
YouGov poll found that 74% of Americans — including 60% of Republicans — viewed the Signal chat incident as a serious problem, with more concern than past polling on Clinton’s email server or Trump’s classified documents case. (
New York Times /
Bloomberg /
Axios /
Associated Press /
Washington Post)
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The private contact information and passwords of top Trump national security officials – including Mike Waltz, Tulsi Gabbard, and Pete Hegseth – were publicly accessible online. Reporters used commercial people-finder tools and leaked data sets to uncover active phone numbers and emails tied to Signal, WhatsApp, and Dropbox accounts – some of which were used to discuss a U.S. military strike. Waltz also left his Venmo account public, exposing a network of military officers, lobbyists, and media figures. (
Der Spiegel /
Wired /
New Republic /
NBC News)
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Trump suggested that he may lower tariffs on China to help secure a deal for the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations, saying “Maybe I’ll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done.” Under a law passed before he took office, TikTok’s parent ByteDance must divest by April 5 or face a U.S. ban. Trump has already delayed enforcement once, and said he could extend it again. “If it’s not finished, it’s not a big deal.” (
Bloomberg /
New York Times /
The Hill)
The midterm elections are in 586 days.
Notables.
- Masked, plainclothes Homeland Security agents detained a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, citing alleged support for Hamas – “a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans” – without evidence. Rumeysa Ozturk held a valid student visa and hasn’t been charged with any crime. Nevertheless, DHS moved her to a Louisiana ICE facility before a federal judge’s order blocked her transfer from Massachusetts without advance notice. (Associated Press / WBUR / Washington Post / ABC News / NBC News)
- Trump withdrew Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador. “With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” Trump said. House Republicans hold a 218–213 edge, and Stefanik’s departure would have triggered a special election in her upstate New York district. Speaker Mike Johnson praised her “selfless decision” and said he would invite her “to return to the leadership table immediately,” though no leadership vacancy currently exists. (NBC News / Axios / Associated Press / Politico / NPR / Washington Post / New York Times)
- A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to cut off funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, saying the executive branch can’t override Congress without explanation. The Trump-appointed U.S. Agency for Global Media adviser Kari Lake had ordered the network’s grant terminated, despite a $142 million congressional appropriation. After the ruling, Lake rescinded the termination, and the Justice Department said the lawsuit was moot. (NPR / The Hill / The Independent / New York Times)
- Trump said the U.S. will “go as far as we have to go” to gain control of Greenland, calling the island essential for “national security and international security.” (ABC News)
