Supreme court backs Trump administration on withholding USAid cash
The US supreme court has backed the Trump administration in an action over payments due by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), with chief justice John Roberts issuing an “administrative stay” that means the $1.5bn worth of payments can still be delayed.
Donald Trump had ordered the payments to be stopped, but a federal judge had set a deadline for the agencies to release funds for work already carried out. Roberts responded to an emergency appeal by the administration by allowing the payments freeze to continue.
Workers at the agency have described Trump’s proposed cuts as a “catastrophic blow” which will lead to “shuttering life-saving and important programs forever.”
Associated Press reports that after USAid placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday some have been told they are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces. Each worker is being given just 15 minutes at their former workstation.
Virginia Democratic Rep Gerald Connolly said in a statement that the attack on USAid employees was “unwarranted and unprecedented”.
Key events
Trump is using the presidency to seek golf deals. Hardly anyone’s paying attention
Mohamad Bazzi
In his first month in office, Donald Trump destroyed federal agencies, fired thousands of government workers and unleashed dozens of executive orders. The US president also found time to try to broker an agreement between two rival golf tournaments, the US-based PGA Tour and the LIV Golf league, funded by Saudi Arabia.
If concluded, the deal would directly benefit Trump’s family business, which owns and manages golf courses around the world. And it would be the latest example of Trump using the presidency to advance his personal interests.
On 20 February, Trump hosted a meeting at the White House between Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, and Yasir al-Rumayyan, chair of LIV Golf and head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, along with the golf star Tiger Woods. It was the second meeting convened by Trump at the White House this month with PGA Tour officials involved in negotiating with the Saudi wealth fund.
A day before his latest attempt at high-level golf diplomacy, Trump travelled to Miami to speak at a conference organized by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is managed by Al-Rumayyan but ultimately controlled by the kingdom’s de facto ruler and crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump’s sports diplomacy in the Oval Office and cozying up to Saudi investors in Miami did not get much attention compared with his whirlwind of executive orders and new policies. But these incidents encapsulate Trump’s transactional and corrupt approach to governing – and the ways that wealthy autocrats including Prince Mohammed will be able to exploit the US president. While Trump will often boast he is making good deals for the US, his relationship with Saudi Arabia and its crown prince is largely built on benefits for Trump’s family and its extensive business interests.
You can read the full report here:
Putin says first contacts with US inspire hope
Vladimir Putin told the FSB security service on Thursday that initial contacts with the administration of Donald Trump gave grounds for hope, Reuters is reporting.
The Russian president said in televised comments that Russia and the United States were ready to establish cooperation but some Western elites would seek to undermine the dialogue between them.
French finance minister Eric Lombard said on Thursday that the European Union would “do the same” if the United States maintains 25% tariffs announced by Donald Trump, Agence France-Presse reports.
On the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers meeting in Cape Town, Lombard said:
It is clear that if the Americans maintain the tariff hikes, as President Trump announced, the EU will do the same.
Even if it is not in the general interest, we too must protect our interests and the interests of the countries of the Union.
Diplomats from the G7 countries spoke to Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, on Thursday morning, telling him that “tariff wars lead to inflation, lower growth and are not a solution”, Lombard said.
Bessent did not travel to Cape Town for the G20 talks, but attended the G7 meeting virtually.
“Minister Bessent told us that negotiations would start on April 2,” Lombard said, adding the EU would “represent the European countries with the aim of reaching a fair agreement”.
Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest ‘should scare every American’, experts say
Peter Stone
As Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk work zealously to slash tens of billions in federal spending by axing thousands of jobs and gutting some government agencies, Musk faces mounting claims he has conflicts of interest and no oversight, legal and ethics experts say.
Trump’s largest campaign donor and the world’s wealthiest man, Musk was tapped by the president to lead the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) in a radical and opaque cost-cutting drive that allows him to keep control of SpaceX, Tesla and other huge companies with billions of dollars in federal contracts.
Critics note that Doge, which Musk touted broadly to Trump in August as he was writing seven figure checks to help him win, is gutting agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has investigated complaints about the car company’s debt collection and loan policies.
Meanwhile, Tesla, SpaceX and other Musk businesses have been investigated or fined by about a dozen regulatory agencies including the CFPB, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration, which suggest how Doge’s work at these agencies and others could benefit Musk financially, say critics.
Read the full report here:
More on the Russia-US meeting taking place in Istanbul.
Russia says it expects Thursday’s talks between Russian and US diplomats to be the first in a series of meetings that will bring the two countries closer to solving problems in their relationship, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Zakharova, briefing, reporters, said the purpose of the talks in Turkey was to remove “irritants” in relations, Reuters reports.
She said:
We expect that today’s meeting will be the first in a series of such expert consultations that will bring us closer to overcoming the disagreements that have arisen with the American side, strengthening confidence-building measures.
The talks are focusing on ways to normalise the operation of their respective embassies after rounds of diplomats’ expulsions in the past years.
Donald Trump’s pick to oversee a consumer watchdog is due to face a grilling from Democrats in the US Senate on Thursday as the White House presses ahead with aggressive efforts to dismantle the agency, Reuters reports.
Jonathan McKernan, nominated to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on his selection, Reuters reports.
There, he will face off against Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the panel who also helped establish the watchdog after its creation in 2010.
Thursday’s hearing will mark the first time Democrats, incensed at the dismantling of an agency they view as a critical safeguard for consumers using financial products, will be able to directly press a Republican official on the future of the agency.
Under the acting leadership of Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, the CFPB has been effectively shuttered, with the agency’s doors locked and most staff placed on administrative leave.
Signs on the agency’s headquarters next to the White House have been removed, and its lease is being cancelled in a bid to create a more “streamlined” agency, according to court filings. The agency has also begun dropping lawsuits it had filed against financial firms under previous leadership.
Republicans terrified of crossing Trump due to physical threats, Democrat says
Robert Tait
Republicans on Capitol Hill are shying away from criticising Donald Trump’s policies over fears for their physical safety and that of their families, a Democratic member of Congress has said.
Eric Swalwell, a Democratic representative from California, said his Republican colleagues were “terrified” of crossing Trump not only because of the negative impact on their political careers, but also from anxiety that it might provoke physical threats that could cause personal upheaval and require them to hire round-the-clock security as protection.
Swalwell’s comments came in a webinar chaired by the journalist Sidney Blumenthal in response to a question on whether Republicans might be driven to rebel against or even impeach Trump.
“I have a lot of friends who are Republicans,” he said. “They are terrified of being the tallest poppy in the field, and it’s not as simple as being afraid of being primaried and losing their job. They know that that can happen.
“It’s more more personal. It’s their personal safety that they’re afraid of, and they have spouses and family members saying, ‘Do not do this, it’s not worth it, it will change our lives forever. We will have to hire around-the-clock security.’ Life can be very uncomfortable for your children.
“That is real, because when [Elon] Musk [Trump’s most powerful ally] tweets at somebody, or Trump tweets at somebody, or calls somebody out, their lives are turned upside down.
You can read the full report here:
Europe needs to respond firmly but proportionately to Donald Trump’s latest tariffs threats, French industry minister Marc Ferracci said on Thursday, adding that these threats were “worrying but not surprising”.
Ferracci was speaking at a news conference on the future of the European steel industry in Paris.
Donald Trump threatened to slap 25% tariffs on the European Union at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, saying he would release details soon.
“We have made a decision and we’ll be announcing it very soon. It’ll be 25%,” he said.
You can read more about Trump’s tariffs threats here:
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk on Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump’s remark that the European Union “was formed in order to screw the United States.”
Tusk said on X:
The EU wasn’t formed to screw anyone. Quite the opposite. It was formed to maintain peace, to build respect among our nations, to create free and fair trade, and to strengthen our transatlantic friendship. As simple as that.
Russia believes that dialogue with the United States can move forward with political will on both sides, but there are no quick and easy solutions, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin welcomed what he called US President Donald Trump’s willingness to listen, Reuters reports.
Peskov said on Thursday:
What we are seeing is that President Trump himself speaks and is ready to listen to others.
No one expects solutions to come easily and quickly. The problem at hand is too complex and neglected. But with the two countries’ political will, with a willingness to hear and listen to each other, I think we will be able to get through this working process.
Peskov also said that one topic of possible US-Russia cooperation would be the extraction of resources in the Arctic.
UK PM Starmer to meet Trump for Ukraine talks
Andrew Sparrow
UK prime minister Keir Starmer is in Washington where later today where he will have his first meeting with President Trump since the inauguration.
With Trump aligning with Moscow even more explicitly than he did during his first administration, and threatening to wind down the Nato guarantees that have underpinned the security of western Europe since the second world war, the stakes could not be higher.
Starmer, despite leading a party whose activists mostly loathe Trump and everything he represents, has managed to establish a warm relationship with the president and today will give some clues as to what extent he can sustain that, and protect the UK from the tariff warfare that Trump is threatening to unleash on the EU.
But Starmer is one of three European leaders in Washington this week (Emmanuel Macron was there on Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is there tomorrow) and today’s meeting is also part of a wider story about the fracturing of the US/Europe alliance. It is definitely in trouble; but what is not yet clear is whether after four years of Trump it will still be functioning effectively.
Starmer spoke to reporters on his flight to the US on Wednesday. Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s UK political editor, was on the plane and, as she reports, Starmer said he wants Trump to agree that, in the event of a peace settlement in Ukraine, the US will offer security guarantees that will make it durable. He has already said that Britain would contribute troops to a European so-called “tripwire” peace-keeping force, there to defend Ukraine and deter Russia. But European soldiers would need US air and logistical support to be effective, and Starmer is looking for assurances on this topic.
You can follow all the latest from Starmer’s DC visit in our dedicated live blog:
Supreme court backs Trump administration on withholding USAid cash
The US supreme court has backed the Trump administration in an action over payments due by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), with chief justice John Roberts issuing an “administrative stay” that means the $1.5bn worth of payments can still be delayed.
Donald Trump had ordered the payments to be stopped, but a federal judge had set a deadline for the agencies to release funds for work already carried out. Roberts responded to an emergency appeal by the administration by allowing the payments freeze to continue.
Workers at the agency have described Trump’s proposed cuts as a “catastrophic blow” which will lead to “shuttering life-saving and important programs forever.”
Associated Press reports that after USAid placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday some have been told they are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces. Each worker is being given just 15 minutes at their former workstation.
Virginia Democratic Rep Gerald Connolly said in a statement that the attack on USAid employees was “unwarranted and unprecedented”.
Welcome and opening summary …
Welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of US politics and the second Donald Trump administration. Here are the headlines …
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Thousands of US Agency for International Development (USAid) workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces.
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The Trump administration said it is eliminating more than 90% of USAid contracts and $60bn in overall US assistance around the world. The supreme court hasbriefly paused a lower court’s ruling ordering the administration to pay for $1.5bn of work already carried out.
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Trump used the first full cabinet meeting of his second term to emphasize his administration’s focus on drastically reducing the size of the federal government, and signed an executive order expanding the power of Elon Musk’s Doge “agency”.
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Trump may be pursuing a mineral rights deal with Vladimir Putin and Russia as well as with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine, a top Senate Democrat has warned.
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Transgender service members will be separated from the US military unless they receive an exemption, according to a Pentagon memo filed in court on Wednesday.
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer is due to visit the White House to discuss Trump’s efforts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine directly with Russia.
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Diplomats from Russia and the US will meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss the operation of their respective embassies in Moscow and Washington.
