Trump seeks to dismantle Education Department as he gives tariff reprieve to US automakers
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• Cuts to key agencies: White House officials have prepared an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the department, sources said. President Donald Trump could sign the document as early as today, but plans have not yet been finalized. Meanwhile, the administration is planning to cut tens of thousands of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
• Tariff delay: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that Trump will likely announce later today a one-month tariff delay on all products that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty. Trump also granted an exemption on auto tariffs on Mexico and Canada for a month, the White House press secretary announced Wednesday, a major, albeit temporary, concession on a key part of his administration’s economic plan.
• Ukraine policy: Amid a growing gulf between the US and Ukraine, officials from both sides have agreed to meet “in the near future,” President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide said following a phone call with Trump’s national security adviser. Meanwhile, the heads of the 27 European Union nations and Zelensky are meeting today to discuss a path forward in the conflict.
A federal judge declined on Thursday to block the Trump administration from firing scores of contractors working for the US Agency for International Development.
The decision by US District Judge Carl Nichols is the latest ruling from the judge against efforts by unions representing aid workers who want to pump the brakes on President Donald Trump’s plans to dismantle USAID. Last month, Nichols cleared the way for the administration to terminate direct hires of the agency.
Nichols, a Trump appointee, said during a hearing on Thursday that a union representing personal services contractors employed by USAID had not demonstrated that any of its members would suffer “imminent irreparable harm” from the government’s actions absent the temporary restraining order it was seeking.
The judge rejected an argument from the union that the case was not a contractual dispute, but rather a broader constitutional case challenging the administration’s authority to fire the contractors.
At one point, he described their case as “essentially a federal contract dispute” and said they were unlikely to prevail at a later stage in the litigation because he believed their claims should be funneled through the Court of Federal Claims or the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals.
“The (Personal Service Contractor Association) has not carried its burden of establishing the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction here,” Nichols said.
There are more than 1,000 personal service contractors both in the US and abroad, and the Trump administration has already approved the termination of nearly 800 of the contractors working in middle- and high-income countries like the US and Moldova, and Thailand.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he believes the House GOP will pass a stopgap funding bill on their own next week to avoid a government shutdown — without Democratic votes.
“I believe we’ll pass it along party lines, but I think every Democrat should vote for the CR,” Johnson told reporter, referring to a continuing resolution. “A clean CR with a few minor anomalies is not something they should vote against.”
Johnson’s leadership team plans to unveil stopgap bill text this weekend, with plans to vote early next week.
Asked about Trump’s plan to unwind the Department of Education, Johnson said he hasn’t yet seen the executive order but is generally supportive.
“I haven’t had a chance to review it yet. But I’ll tell you that the more we push control of education down to parents and local school board and authorities, the better off we are,” he said.
The US House of Representatives on Thursday censured Rep. Al Green for his protest during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress this week — a formal condemnation of the Texas Democrat’s actions.
The final vote to censure Green was 224-198, with 10 Democrats joining with Republicans to censure Green. Among the Democrats voting to censure were: Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called the House into recess following Green leading a group of Democrats in singing “We Shall Overcome” in response to the censure.
Censure amounts to a significant rebuke of a member of Congress, though it does not carry an explicit penalty beyond a public admonition of a lawmaker and is not as severe as expulsion. Censure, which was once considered rare in the House chamber, has been used more frequently in recent years.
Democrats previously failed to kill the effort.
Green, 77, disrupted Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, prompting Johnson to remove the Democratic lawmaker from the chamber. Green on Wednesday told reporters he’d “suffer the consequences” of his protest and that he would do it all again.
The House speaker earlier Thursday criticized Green’s behavior during the speech as “shameful and egregious,” saying it “disgraced the institution of Congress.”
“He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort,” Johnson said in a morning post on X.
This post has been updated with additional reporting on the censure vote.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that President Donald Trump will likely announce later in the day a one-month tariff delay on all products that are covered by the USMCA free trade treaty.
In an interview with CNBC, Lutnick said tariffs on all treaty-compliant products will probably go into effect on April 2 unless Mexico and Canada show significant progress in fighting fentanyl crossing the border to the United States.
A federal judge issued a scathing opinion Thursday extending his block on the Trump administration’s attempt to enact a government-wide freeze on federal grants and assistance programs.
“Without the injunction, Congressional control of spending will have been usurped by the Executive without constitutional or statutory authority,” Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote, granting a preliminary injunction sought by several Democratic state attorneys general.
The administration’s funding freeze — which it attempted to implement via a sweeping memo from the Office of Management and Budget — has been put on hold by courts for several weeks. The administration also rescinded the memo on its own in an apparent effort to head off the litigation. There have also been disputes in the legal challenges over whether the administration was fully complying with the previous orders halting the grant freeze.
“In light of the unrebutted evidence that the States and their citizens are currently facing and will continue to face a significant disruption in health, education, and other public services that are integral to their daily lives due to this overly broad pause in federal funding, the Court finds that the public interest lies in maintaining the status quo and enjoining any categorical funding freeze,” McConnell wrote Thursday.
His ruling found the challengers were likely to succeed in their arguments that the OMB memo violated a federal law known as the Administrative Procedure Act which sets certain standards for how agencies carry out executive branch policy.
But McConnell, an Obama appointee who sits in Rhode Island, also framed the dispute as one striking at the heart of the balance of powers and Congress’ authority over spending.
The Central Intelligence Agency has fired some probationary employees as part of the Trump administration’s broad efforts to shrink the federal government, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
The agency has been reviewing employees who have worked for the CIA for two years or less, a group that includes everything from analysts to young officers training to work under cover overseas and has now terminated some of those people.
“Our officers face unique pressures from working in situations that are fast-paced and high-stakes — it’s not for everyone,” the spokesperson said in a statement confirming the firings.
It is not clear how many officers have been let go. The New York Times first reported the firings.
The CIA had already moved to fire more than a dozen officers for working on diversity issues last month, in what amounted to an initial round of mass firings at the agency. Those officers challenged their dismissal in court but were rebuffed by a federal judge who ruled last week that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had the right to fire officers at will.
Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, CNN has previously reported.
The intelligence indicates that foreign adversaries are eager to exploit the Trump administration’s efforts to conduct mass layoffs across the federal workforce.
The rocky week on Wall Street continues.
US stocks opened lower Thursday as investors and businesses grappled with the uncertain outlook of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, data revealing the extent of recent layoffs and renewed concerns about spending on artificial intelligence.
The Dow opened lower by 400 points, or 0.94%. The broader S&P 500 opened 1.34% lower and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.92% lower.
Futures tied to the Dow had tumbled in early trading as new economic data showed unease in the labor market. US-based employers last month announced plans to slash 172,017 jobs, a 103% increase from January and the highest February total since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s latest monthly job cuts report.
Futures tied to the Nasdaq 100 also fell in early trading as companies focused on the AI trade posted mixed earnings results and guidance for this year. Marvell Technologies (MRVL), a chipmaker, fell 18% in early trading and opened sharply lower.
Thursday’s decline is a reversal of the rally on Wednesday afternoon, highlighting that investors lack clarity and confidence about the next developments in the brewing trade war between the US and its biggest trading partners.
“For now, tariff-induced inflation amid slower growth could bring the economy dangerously close to stagflation,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL financial, in a note Wednesday.
Investors will be closely attuned to the government’s monthly jobs report Friday, set to be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 a.m. ET. and giving investors more insight about how the economy is doing.
“Extreme fear” has been the sentiment driving investors for the past week, according to CNN’s Fear and Greed Index.
The number of initial applications for first-time unemployment benefits fell last week, but economists expect that to change in the weeks and months to come as the Trump administration continues its widescale slashing of government jobs.
There were an estimated 221,000 jobless claims filed for the week ending March 1, according to seasonally adjusted data released Thursday by the Department of Labor. That’s 21,000 down from the prior week’s tally and also below economists’ estimates for 235,000 claims.
The number of first-time jobless claims settled back down after unexpectedly surging the week before, underscoring that the prior week’s increase was likely due to one-off factors such as a holiday, a deadly winter storm and frigid temperatures.
Thursday’s report showed that continuing claims, which are filed by people who have received at least one week of unemployment benefits, rose by 42,000 to 1.897 million for the week ending February 22.
Initial claims data — while one of the timeliest indicators of labor market health — also can be quite volatile and fluctuate from week to week due to factors such as weather, temporary layoffs, other state-level factors, and holidays.
What could come: Still, the weekly report is becoming even more closely watched because the Trump administration is making massive employment cuts throughout the federal government and cutting off spending, sending ripple effects through the private sector as well.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department provided the first hint of what could come.
The number of federal workers who filed initial claims under the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program totaled 1,634 for the week ending February 22; that’s up 1,020 filings from the week before.
Also, it’s possible that hundreds of thousands of government workers could be laid off as the Department of Government Efficiency slashes roles. However, the impact on US labor market data might not happen in one fell swoop, economists say.
While some federal employees have been laid off in recent weeks, others are serving out a paid notice period where they essentially quit but won’t be unemployed weeks or even months from now.
The US House is expected to hold a vote during a 10 a.m. ET vote series today to censure Democratic Rep. Al Green for his protest during President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this week. Exact vote timing is approximate and fluid.
In a post on X Thursday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Green’s “shameful and egregious behavior” during Trump’s Tuesday night address had “disgraced the institution of Congress.”
“He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy,” he added.
What that means: The censure of a member of Congress amounts to a significant rebuke but does not carry an explicit penalty beyond a public admonition of a lawmaker. It isn’t as severe as expulsion.
Government by chaos is back.
One day, President Donald Trump imposed a punishing tariff regime against Canada and Mexico. The next, he froze auto duties for a month after suddenly realizing that – as everyone had predicted – they could wreck a quintessential American industry.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to the Oval Office to sign a rare-earth minerals deal that Trump billed as a triumph for the US. But Zelensky was provoked by Vice President JD Vance and kicked out of the White House. European leaders have spent days trying to fix the debacle.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, is taking his chainsaw to the bureaucracy, indiscriminately firing workers and feeding agencies into the wood chipper – pitching citizens and industries who rely on government payments into uncertainty just as the economy softens and is more vulnerable to such shocks.
At first, Trump’s early-term energy on multiple fronts was a bolt of energy as he scratched his Sharpie across executive orders and chased away the lethargy that marked President Joe Biden’s waning months in office.
Six weeks in, however, as Trump makes gut-check calls to dismantle post-Cold War national security arrangements, the global free trade system, and the federal machine – all of which helped make the US a superpower – a new realization is dawning.
There doesn’t seem to be a plan. And the world is once again left hanging on the “America first” president’s whims and obsessions.
Read more about how world leaders are responding here.
The US is “destroying” the current world order, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has said, warning that Russia’s next target could be Europe.
His comments come after US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a spat in the Oval Office, prompting the Trump administration to pause aid to Ukraine and at least temporarily stop sharing intelligence with the European nation.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who was dismissed as Ukraine’s military chief last year in a major shake up before taking up the diplomatic post and is seen as a possible presidential candidate warned against the US trying to meet Russia “half way.”
“It’s not just the ‘axis of evil’ and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order,” Zaluzhnyi said, speaking on a panel at British think tank Chatham House.
Zaluzhnyi said that the US government’s actions had “questioned” the unity of the Western world.
“Now Washington is trying to delegate the security issues to Europe without participation of the US.”
He cast doubt over the future of the NATO military alliance, saying; “We can say that in the near future NATO likewise could stop existing.”
“We see now the White House takes steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them half way, so the next target of Russia could be Europe,” he added.
President Donald Trump could decide this week to take the first steps to eliminate the Department of Education, people familiar with the matter said, as he looks to dramatically shrink the size of the federal government.
White House officials have prepared an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the department, the sources said. Trump could sign the document as early as Thursday, but plans had not yet been finalized.
Trump has long signaled his intention to close the department, but fully eliminating it will require Congress to act, McMahon said during confirmation hearings earlier this year. She was confirmed Monday.
CNN previously reported the administration was drafting an order to launch the process of closing the Department of Education. Trump also plans to push for Congress to pass legislation to end the department.
The draft order directs McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department” while operating to the “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
“The experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support — has failed our children, our teachers, and our families,” the draft order reads.
While calls to abolish the Education Department or merge it with another federal agency are not new, the move has historically failed to get support from Congress.
Keep in mind: Even if Trump succeeded in ending the department, it’s possible some programs and funding could be retained and shifted to other agencies, which is where they were housed before the department was created in 1979.
Federal funding programs for K-12 schools that help support the education of students from low-income families and children with disabilities, for example, predated the creation of the Department of Education.
When President Donald Trump declared in the House Chamber this week that executives at the nation’s top automakers were “so excited” about their prospects amid his new tariff regime, it did not entirely reflect the conversation he’d held with them earlier that day.
Ford Motors, GM and Stellantis argued on that call that the new 25% tariffs the president applied on Canada and Mexico earlier this week could disadvantage their American-based businesses in favor of foreign carmakers — appealing directly to Trump for a reprieve, administration officials said.
The message seemed to break through. A day later, after the automakers talked to Trump again, the White House announced a one-month exemption from the tariffs for autos coming into the United States.
“The president is happy to do it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday, announcing the change.
For as often as Trump talks about tariffs, he is often talked out of imposing them – especially if the pressure is coming from titans of industry or the market, a barometer that Trump carefully follows.
And as he works to realign global trade using his favorite tool, the president has made clear the threat of tariffs is as much a motivator as the actual thing.
Read more about why Trump delayed auto tariffs here.
For the first time today, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce is scheduled to brief media, according to the department’s public schedule.
Under President Donald Trump’s first term, State Department briefings were conducted sparsely and irregularly, while they were held almost daily under the Biden administration.
Before we get into Thursday’s events, here’s a recap of what took place Wednesday:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday imposed blanket 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and doubled tariffs on those from China.
In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would implement a 25% tariff on $20.7 billion ($30 billion Canadian) of US goods immediately, followed by an additional $86.2 billion ($125 billion Canadian) in 21 days’ time.
Here’s what else you should know:
A call with Trudeau:
Auto tariff delay:
Tariff disturbance:
Mexico’s response:
The Trump administration appears to have ordered at least a partial halt to the crucial intelligence that the US shares with Ukraine to defend against the Russian invasion, following a clash in the Oval Office between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump last week.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not say Wednesday if the pause on intelligence sharing is temporary or permanent. Statements from national security adviser Mike Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliffe indicated that a pause is in place, but the extent of the limitations was not clear. Both officials also suggested that the halt may be short-lived if the president can be satisfied that Ukraine has taken steps toward negotiations to end the war.
Ukrainian and US officials have agreed to meet “in the near future,” Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak said Wednesday following a phone call with US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.
Kyiv and its allies are meanwhile scrambling to come up with a plan to shore up its defense capabilities after Trump suspended military shipments to Ukraine on Monday.
Given the continued tensions, here’s how Europe is responding:
First steps to a plan for ending the war: Kyiv and Europe are working on a plan for the first steps toward ending Russia’s war, Zelensky said. Ukraine and European countries shared “a common vision for ending the war and ensuring security guarantees,” he said, reiterating the importance of Europe, Ukraine and US negotiating together. The president said he had discussed the plan with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
Macron speaks about a “new era”: Europe is “entering a new era” in the wake of its long-standing ally, the US, changing its position on Ukraine, “casting doubt on what will happen next,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday. Macron stressed that Europe has to “continue to help the Ukrainians to resist” Russia’s attempts to claim control of their country. He issued a stark warning about the difficult path facing Europe. “I want to believe that the United States will remain by our side, but we need to be ready if that were not the case,” Macron said, highlighting that the current “moment demands decisions without precedent.”
Meeting of European leaders: Macron announced his plan to invite European leaders to Paris next week to work on a plan to deliver a “durable peace” for Ukraine. He said he plans to gather the leaders of countries who may end up deploying peacekeeping troops to Ukraine “once peace has been signed” to prevent Russia from re-invading.
The top financial officer of Washington, DC, said the Trump administration’s mass layoffs could plunge the district into a “mild recession” by next year. More agencies announced plans to cut thousands of jobs across the country Wednesday — while others are being reinstated.
In the midst of the changes, Congressional Republicans looking for clarity about the Department of Government Efficiency were engaging directly Wednesday with Elon Musk directly in a pair of meetings on Capitol Hill.
Here’s the latest on government changes:
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What we’re covering here
Federal judge declines to block Trump administration’s firing of USAID contractors
Johnson believes House Republicans will pass a spending bill without Democratic votes
House censures Democratic Rep. Al Green for protest during Trump speech
Commerce secretary says tariffs on nearly all products from Mexico and Canada will likely get delayed
Judge says administration “put itself above Congress” as he continues a block on Trump’s funding freeze
CIA fires some recently hired employees
US stocks slide at market open as tariff uncertainty continues
Weekly jobless claims remain low for now — but that’s expected to change
The House is expected to vote on censure of Rep. Al Green this morning
Analysis: The world is growing weary of Trump’s whiplash leadership
The US is “destroying” world order, Ukrainian ambassador warns
Trump is preparing to sign an executive order to dismantle the Education Department
Trump delays tariffs on automakers amid market pressure and GOP pushback
As we start the day, catch up on what you missed yesterday
Trump and Trudeau have “constructive” conversation following steep tariffs. Here’s what you should know
France warns of a new era in Europe after recent setbacks in US-Ukraine ties. Here’s the latest
Here’s the latest on the mass layoffs facing federal agencies
Trump expected to sign order to close Dept. of Education
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would dissolve the U.S. Department of Education. The order could come as soon as Thursday, but it will likely be challenged in court.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX Television Stations
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Trump Administration Live Updates: Order to Close Education Dept. Would Push Limit of Executive Power
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