1 day ago
Non-profits and health groups sue Trump administration over federal grant freeze
Four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to freeze federal loans, grants and other financial assistance.
The lawsuit takes aim at a directive the acting head of the US office of management and budget issued on Monday that could disrupt education and health care programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and other initiatives that depend on billions of federal dollars, Reuters reports.
It argues that the pause in funding will have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
“There’s only uncertainty in this room is amongst the media,” said Leavitt, in response to questions about a Monday decision to freeze federal grant funding, blaming the press for anxieties spurred by the measure.
Leavitt claimed the push would not affect funding for “individual assistance”, and said the freeze would primarily target culture war topics like diversity, equity and inclusion measures.
The implications of the pause on federal grants, which fund community programming across the country, remain unclear.
White House to give press credentials to any content creators who make 'legitimate' news content
“Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster – if you are producing legitimate news content, no matter the medium, you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House,” said Leavitt.
It is unclear how long TikTok will remain available in the US, given a law that went into effect last week effectively banning the app.
Leavitt said the White House would welcome non-journalists, such as content creators and podcasters, to cover press briefings and said that her team would review applications for future “new media” members of the press corps.
Leavitt touted Trump’s executive orders attempting to root out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within the federal government and establishing a binary definition of gender.
“Sanity has been restored,” she claimed.
Karoline Leavitt opened her remarks with a nod to Donald Trump’s early executive orders, emphasizing his actions on immigration.
“To foreign nationals who are thinking about trying to illegally enter the United States, think again,” said Leavitt.
White House holds first press briefing of second Trump term
Karoline Leavitt, the youngest US press secretary in history, has begun the first briefing of Donald Trump’s second term.
She will almost certainly face questions about the slew of executive actions that Trump unleashed during his first week in office, and a new measure by the office of management and budget to freeze federal grant money.
Senate votes to confirm Sean Duffy as transportation secretary
The Senate has voted 77 to 22 to confirm Sean Duffy as the new secretary of transportation.
Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin and a co-host on Fox Business, served in Congress from 2011 until 2019. Before being elected to public office, he was district attorney for Ashland county, Wisconsin, from 2002 to 2008.
He was a cast member on The Real World: Boston in 1997 where he would meet his wife, the Fox news contributor Rachel Campos-Duffy.
Duffy will oversee billions of dollars in unspent infrastructure funds and has promised safer Boeing planes, less regulation and help for companies developing self-driving cars.
Non-profits and health groups sue Trump administration over federal grant freeze
Four groups representing non-profits, public health professionals and small businesses have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to freeze federal loans, grants and other financial assistance.
The lawsuit takes aim at a directive the acting head of the US office of management and budget issued on Monday that could disrupt education and health care programs, housing assistance, disaster relief and other initiatives that depend on billions of federal dollars, Reuters reports.
It argues that the pause in funding will have a “devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of grant recipients who depend on the inflow of grant money”.
Bernie Sanders says federal loan freeze will be 'devastating' for millions of Americans
Bernie Sanders, the Democratic senator from Vermont, has warned that the Trump’s administration’s order pausing all federal grants and loans will have “a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing on millions” of Americans.
Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday:
Let’s be clear. The Trump Administration’s action last night to suspend all federal grants and loans will have a devastating impact on the health and well-being of millions of children, seniors on fixed incomes, and the most vulnerable people in our country.
“It is a dangerous move towards authoritarianism and it is blatantly unconstitutional,” Sanders said, adding that “our founding fathers explicitly gave Congress the power of the purse”.
If President Trump wants to change our nation’s laws he has the right to ask Congress to change them. He does not have the right to violate the United States Constitution. He is not a king.”
Transgender rights advocacy groups are preparing to file the first lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s executive order targeting transgender troops.
As we reported earlier, Trump signed an order on Monday that the White House said was intended to eliminate “gender radicalism in the military”. The order directed the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops, and is widely expected to lead to a ban.
Reuters reports that GLAD Law and the Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR) are set to file a joint lawsuit on Tuesday arguing that the order violates the equality guarantees of the constitution.
“The law is very clear that the government can’t base policies on disapproval of particular groups of people,” Shannon Minter, the NCLR’s legal director, told Associated Press.
Using an executive order issued last night, Donald Trump targeted transgender members of the US military.
The executive order invokes the transphobic trope that trans people are somehow falsely representing themselves. “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” the order reads.
The order does not immediately ban trans people from military service and it is unclear how it will impact service members when implemented, but it nonetheless signals hostility toward LGBTQ+ service members.
Google has announced it will rename the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America” on its maps, reflecting Donald Trump’s new name for the body of water.
The Gulf is not exclusively controlled by the United States, and remains globally known as the Gulf of Mexico – but on the widely-used online Google Maps, it could soon appear as the Gulf of America.
“We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources,” the company announced in a post on X.
Google indicated that it would switch the name on its maps when they are changed in the Geographic Names Information System, which is run by the US government.
