Democrats sound alarm over ‘extremist’ Project 2025 architect tapped to lead Trump’s budget office – live | Trump administration

Key events

A judge has moved to block Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship in the US, the second such ruling in two days.

On Thursday, the Seattle judge, John Coughenour, told reporters, “It has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals.”

Wednesday, a judge temporarily paused Trump’s order, which sought to prevent the US-born children of undocumented immigrants from obtaining automatic citizenship. The fourteenth amendment protects birthright citizenship, a right that was recognized by the US supreme court in 1898.

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Donald Trump is meeting with congressional Republican leadership Thursday to discuss a budget bill that has generated conflict within the GOP caucus.

The proposed spending bill will attempt to turn Trump’s agenda into legislation, touching on immigration, energy and taxes, and while the senate Republican leadership has signaled they are ready to move forward with a two-part piece of legislation, Trump has suggested he prefers a single measure to deliver his agenda.

The conflict underscores how narrow the Republicans’ majority in the house is: with 218 Republicans to 215 Democrats, the Republicans need nearly every vote to pass legislation.

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The Heritage Foundation funded the group compiling a list of federal employees to be targeted for firing under the Trump administration, the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang reports:

A rightwing group that has created a series of blacklists to target federal workers it believes the Trump administration should fire has received funding for the project by the thinktank behind Project 2025.

A recent list created by the American Accountability Foundation called the “DEI Watch List” includes mostly Black people with roles in government health roles alleged to have some tie to diversity initiatives. Another targets education department employees in career roles who “cannot be trusted to faithfully execute the agenda of the elected President of the United States”. One calls out the “most subversive immigration bureaucrats”.

Tom Jones, the president of the American Accountability Foundation, said the organization had plans to add to its existing lists and create more. The group was designed to go after the “DC bureaucrats and leftist organizations” that had been allowed “to subvert, obstruct, and sabotage the America First agenda”, according to its website.

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Summary of the day so far

Here’s a recap of developing news today so far:

The Senate appears poised to confirm the nomination of Russell Vought to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget, despite intense Democratic opposition. Senate Democrats held an overnight floor session in the senate to deliver speeches decrying Vought, an architect of Project 2025 who would likely attempt to further consolidate executive authority under Trump if confirmed.

Trump attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an annual gala, where he said he had plans to create a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” and floated possible changes to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The deadline for federal workers to accept offered buyouts approaches tonight, leaving federal employees to wonder whether the promised benefits are really on offer, and whether they will be laid off if they choose to stay – a possibility floated to the press by top Trump officials.

CNN reported that top associates of Elon Musk sought to use the highly-sensitive Treasury payment system to block funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), sparking fears of overreach by the unelected government employee and his staff.

Trump is expected to sanction the International Criminal Court in an executive order, accusing the court of improperly investigating the US and Israel. In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Hamas leadership.

A federal judge said he stood ready to enforce his order for the Trump administration to end its freeze on federal grant funding. States have reported programs like Head Start still struggling to access their funding despite the Trump administration rescinding its pause on such funding and a court order to do the same.

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A federal judge on Thursday said he stood ready to enforce an order he issued blocking Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal grants, loans and other financial assistance after Democratic-led states said billions of dollars in funding was still being tied up, Reuters reports.

US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, during a virtual court hearing, said state agencies had a “rightful concern” that they were still not able to fully access money nearly a week after he issued his temporary restraining order.

He issued that 31 January order at the behest of Democratic attorneys generals from 22 states and the District of Columbia, determining it was necessary even after the White House’s Office of Management and Budget rescinded its wide-ranging directive that had announced the funding freeze.

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The Trump administration sued the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago in federal court Thursday, accusing both of impeding the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

On Wednesday, US attorney general Pam Bondi, issued a memo announcing her plan to withhold federal funding from “sanctuary cities” that refrain from aiding the administration in its deportation efforts.

The lawsuit invokes Trump’s day one executive order to declare an emergency at the southern border of the US and claimed the jurisdictions had launched an “intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law.”

Illinois and Chicago policies limit local law enforcement officers’ ability to aid federal immigration enforcement efforts.

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Trump to sanction ICC in new executive order – report

Donald Trump will reportedly sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) by executive order Thursday over the court’s investigations into the US and Israel.

The ICC issued simultaneous arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister and top Hamas military leadership in November 2024. The US rejected the court’s warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest and Netanyahu visited the country this week.

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Updated at 12.02 EST

Musk sought to use Treasury system to block USAid funding – report

According to new reporting by CNN, associates of Elon Musk sought to use the highly-sensitive Treasury payment system to block funding for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the report, a Musk associate asked the acting Treasury secretary, David Lebryk, to stop USAID payments using the Treasury’s internal payment system. When Lebryk pushed back, saying he lacked the “legal authority” to do so, Musk’s lieutenant suggested it would be illegal for Lebryk not to comply.

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Updated at 11.43 EST

The Trump administration ramped up pressure on US government workers on Thursday to accept a buyout offer ahead of a midnight deadline as labor unions urged members to remain in their jobs and sought to block the proposal in court, Reuters reports.

In emails sent out on Thursday, the administration emphasized that the offer expires at 11:59 p.m. eastern time and told workers that those who do not accept it could still lose their jobs.

“At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position,” the message read, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

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Trump says attorney general will lead task force to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’

Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the US, announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians, the Associated Press reports.

Speaking at pair of events in Washington surrounding the the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.”

Trump said Bondi would also work to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.”

The president’s comments came after he joined the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, a more than 70-year-old Washington tradition that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship, and told lawmakers there that his relationship with religion had “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year and urged Americans to “bring God back” into their lives.

An hour after calling for “unity” on Capitol Hill, though, Trump struck a more partisan tone at the second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty, criticizing the Joe Biden administration for “persecution” of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.

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Updated at 11.42 EST

Senate Democrats’ marathon session to oppose Russell Vought’s confirmation as head of the Office of Management and Budget continued through Thursday morning.

During the session, senators described the Trump administration’s efforts to sharply curtail congressionally-appropriated funding for federal grants as unconstitutional – and pointed to Vought’s support for such policies.

“At stake is our very notion of self-government, a notion that Mr. Vought appears to disdain,” said New Hampshire senator Maggie Hassan. “The right of congress, the first of the three branches of government provided for in the constitution, to make laws and appropriate funds, was made clear first in our constitution and then in the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.”

Vought’s think tank, Center for Renewing America, has called the Impoundment Control Act – which limits the president’s ability to temporarily withhold congressionally-approved funding – unconstitutional.

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Democrats sound alarm about Project 2025 architect in leading budget role

During their protest of Russell Vought’s confirmation, Senate Democrats sounded the alarm about Vought’s role in drafting Project 2025 and his support for vastly expanding the power of the president.

Vought, said Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin at 10:30 pm eastern time on Wednesday, “has openly called for the president to defy congress and take control of federal funding decisions that are constitutionally vested in the legislative branch.”

Schiff accused the Trump administration of unlawfully attempting to break down the separation of powers and said Vought would play a role in aiding that effort.

“This is an effort to try to consolidate power, all the power of this government, in the hands of Donald Trump and a few of his hand-picked very wealthy, billionaire friends,” said California Democrat Adam Schiff.

“Russell Vought is an extremist who will betray working families, will betray your family, and there’s simply no other way to put it,” said Nevada senator Jacky Rosen Thursday morning. “After all, he was the main architect behind (the) Project 2025 agenda.”

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Updated at 11.42 EST

Democrats have objected strongly to Vought’s nomination, boycotting a vote by the Senate budget committee to pass his nomination along to the full Senate and holding overnight speeches from Wednesday to Thursday in protest.

“Why on earth would any one of us confirm someone whose entire game plan is to break the law and dare the world to stop him?” said Senator Patty Murray, the Washington Democrat who serves as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Who is Russell Vought, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget?

Russell Vought, a key Trump ally who helped architect the Heritage Foundation’s notorious Project 2025 – a strategy document laying out plans for a rightwing presidency – is an experienced Washington operative. He filled the role of OMB director at the end of Trump’s first term and when the president left office, founded a thinktank and began plotting out policy ideas for a possible second Trump term.

His think tank, called Center for Renewing America, has advocated for the use of the Insurrection Act to send the military to the US-Mexico border, and for the president to take unprecedented control over the budgetary process – which is legally controlled by Congress.

In addition to his experience in DC, Vought is known for his far-right and Christian nationalist beliefs, and has reportedly planned to infuse them into Trump’s administration.

According to reporting by ProPublica and the research group Documented, Vought has advocated for a strategy to demoralize and reduce the size of the civil service by villainizing them.

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” he reportedly said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

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Updated at 09.53 EST

The Trump administration appears to be gaming Google to create the impression of mass deportations, by updating the timestamps on old Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) press releases, the Guardian’s Dara Kerr reports:

News of mass immigration arrests has swept across the US over the past couple of weeks. Reports from Massachusetts to Idaho have described agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) spreading through communities and rounding people up. Quick Google searches for Ice operations, raids and arrests return a deluge of government press releases. Headlines include “ICE arrests 85 during 4-day Colorado operation”, “New Orleans focuses targeted operations on 123 criminal noncitizens”, and in Wisconsin, “ICE arrests 83 criminal aliens”.

But a closer look at these Ice reports tells a different story.

That four-day operation in Colorado? It happened in November 2010. The 123 people targeted in New Orleans? That was February of last year. Wisconsin? September 2018. There are thousands of examples of this throughout all 50 states – Ice press releases that have reached the first page of Google search results, making it seem like enforcement actions just happened, when in actuality they occurred months or years ago. Some, such as the arrest of “44 absconders” in Nebraska, go back as far as 2008.

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