Some IRS employees from the Philadelphia office have begun receiving letters laying them off, per Alex Jay Berman, the executive vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 71. These are probationary employees.
He expects the total today to be 400 employees here locally. Not everyone works the same shift, so not everyone will get word at the same time.
The Senate has narrowly voted, 51-49, to confirm Kash Patel to be FBI director. Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined all 47 Democrats in voting no.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, announced in a post to X that she will oppose Patel’s nomination for FBI director.
“My reservations with Mr. Patel stem from his own prior political activities and how they may influence his leadership,” Murkowski said in a post to X. “The FBI must be trusted as the federal agency that roots out crime and corruption, not focused on settling political scores.”
Another moderate Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, also announced today that she would vote against Patel. Four Republicans would need to vote against his nomination for it to fail.
“I truly hope that he proves me wrong about the reservations I have of him today,” Murkowski said.
Reporting from Washington, D.C.
Democratic governors in town for the National Governors Association conference railed against Republican proposals to cut billions of dollars in Medicaid funding, warning that it could imperil millions of children and patients in rural areas.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, who is a physician, warned that if Congress passes a bill with significant cuts to Medicaid, “the hospitals, the rural hospitals all across the red part of America especially, will close.”
“People will die if we break this healthcare system, especially in rural America,” Green told reporters during a press conference organized by Protect Our Care and the Democratic Governors Association.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham highlighted the fact that hundreds of rural hospitals across the U.S. have already closed in recent years, but this phenomenon would be accelerated with cuts to Medicaid.
“The right answer is to invest in a meaningful health care system that protects every American, regardless of age or coverage,” Lujan Grisham said, adding that cuts to Medicaid wouldn’t just mean that individuals lose healthcare coverage, but that entire healthcare facilities would close.
“No more independent practices, no more long term care facilities, no more behavioral health, no more school based health centers,” she said. “All of it, one is impacted by another, and when you have that kind of intricate aspect, your economies simply fail.”
The Democratic governors pointed out that none of their Republican colleagues were joining them at the press conference, but hoped that some will eventually speak out on the issue.
“It’s going to be up to all of us to express our feelings to the Republican majority in the Senate and to get them to vote in a way that will protect the essential core services that we need. Medicaid is up next,” Green said.
“I think Republican governors will get there as well,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek told reporters, suggesting that she and her Democratic colleagues would press this issue with governors on the other side of the aisle while in Washington.
“We have the opportunity over the next couple days to work and have private conversations with governors who might not be in our party, but who understand what it means to lead their state,” she said, adding: “When it comes to Medicaid, I think we’re all on the same page. We’re just saying a little louder right now.”
Trump will host the first Cabinet meeting of his new term on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at today’s news briefing.
Leavitt, who laid out some of the highlights of Trump’s first month back in office, also announced that two European leaders would be visiting next week.
Trump will host French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, she said. Those meetings come amid concern in Europe about the direction of talks on ending Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The Pentagon is in the cost-cutting crosshairs of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth orders officials to find $50 billion in cuts to the defense budget. Meanwhile, an appeals court rules that Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship will remain blocked. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for “TODAY.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s decision not to run for re-election in Kentucky next year opens up his Senate seat for the first time since 1984 — and it is already drawing interest from heavy hitters looking to fill the seat.
Former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who served as a McConnell aide before launching his own career in elected office, including a run for governor in 2023, announced his Senate candidacy less than an hour after the news about McConnell’s retirement broke.
And Republican Rep. Andy Barr reiterated his interest in the seat too, saying that the state “deserves a Senator who will fight for president Trump and the America First Agenda” and teasing a decision “soon.”
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee meeting scheduled for next week — the first since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in — has been postponed, a senior HHS official said.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, was scheduled to meet Feb. 26 through 28. The group of independent experts convenes three times a year on behalf of the CDC to weigh the pros and cons of newly approved or updated vaccines.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., condemned Trump’s comments yesterday that the District of Columbia should be moved under direct federal control, which would strip D.C. of quasi-independent governance and leave its laws solely up to Congress.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday that he thinks “we should take over Washington, D.C., make it safe,” echoing his campaign trail rhetoric about crime in America’s capital city. “I think that we should govern the District of Columbia.”
Trump said D.C. officials are “not doing the job,” saying “there’s too much crime” and “too many tents on the lawns.”
The comments prompted swift reaction from Norton and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who have long advocated for the federal territory to be granted statehood. Currently, D.C. has some autonomy to implement its own laws but is overseen by Congress.
Moving the city under full federal control, Norton argued, would leave D.C. residents “to depend on members of Congress elected by other jurisdictions to run the District.”
“We have made significant progress in our historic march toward making D.C. the 51st state, and President Trump’s comments, a continuation of the anti-democratic rhetoric from Republicans concerning the District of Columbia, despite their basis in falsehoods, is evidence of that progress,” said Norton, who is a nonvoting member of Congress and has sponsored legislation to make D.C. a state. “These types of remarks are attempts to remove what small measure of democracy the more than 700,000 D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and brown, have.”
Bowser held an emergency press conference today to address Trump’s remarks. The mayor told reporters D.C. will collaborate with congressional efforts to crack down on violent crime, but that the district’s lack of autonomy leaves it vulnerable to “the whims of the Congress or a president.”
“The only way we’re not in this position is when we become a state, as long as we have limited home rule in this city … we’re always vulnerable,” she said.
Alina Habba, a counselor to Trump, said during a CPAC panel that the administration would be firing IRS employees today.
“It happens to be tax season, so everybody’s filing their taxes, going, ‘If I don’t pay the correct amount or miss a couple cents, they’ll threaten to throw me in prison, and now’s a great time — ,” the panel host was saying before Habba jumped in.
“Don’t worry, we’re firing a bunch of the IRS today, so don’t worry,” Habba said, laughing.
The Associated Press has reported that the IRS plans to lay of thousands of workers starting today.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told NBC News today that he was concerned about the IRS layoffs and its potential effect on tax refunds.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts received a bomb threat this morning, according to D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, which said it received reports of the threat at 10:44 a.m.
The U.S. Park Police, the primary law enforcement agency on scene, has shut down several streets around the center as it investigates the incident.
The performing arts center was thrust into the national spotlight after Trump gutted its board of trustees, fired its longtime president and became the center’s new chairman. Multiple artists have canceled performances at the center and artistic advisers have resigned in the wake of the leadership changes.
The U.S. Park Police referred NBC News to the Kennedy Center for comment on the bomb threat.
A center spokesperson said in a statement that it “evacuated due to a bomb threat targeting Shen Yun performances. Security acted swiftly, following existing protocols.”
The Senate voted 51-47 to advance Kash Patel’s nomination for FBI director to a final confirmation vote.
Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, was the only Republican senator to oppose Patel’s confirmation. Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and John Fetterman, D-Pa., missed the vote.
The Senate will take the final confirmation vote on Patel’s nomination at around 1:45 p.m.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the longest-serving Senate leader in history, announced today on his 83rd birthday that he won’t seek re-election next year, bringing an end to his four-decade career in the chamber.
McConnell, first elected in 1984, climbed his way up to the Senate Republican leader position in 2007 and remained there until early 2025, serving during four administrations in the majority and the minority.
He will leave behind a complex legacy and a party that has transformed away from traditional conservatism into one led by Trump, with whom the Kentucky Republican has long had a frosty relationship.
“Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of my lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time,” McConnell said on the floor. “My current term in the Senate will be my last.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, announced that she will vote no on Kash Patel’s nomination to serve as the director of the FBI.
Collins, a moderate Republican, said that “there is a compelling need for an FBI Director who is decidedly apolitical.”
“Mr. Patel has made numerous politically charged statements in his book and elsewhere discrediting the work of the FBI, the very institution he has been nominated to lead,” she said in a statement. “These statements, in conjunction with the questionnaire sent to thousands of FBI employees, cast doubt on Mr. Patel’s ability to advance the FBI’s law enforcement mission in a way that is free from the appearance of political motivation.”
The Senate is voting today on Patel’s nomination.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been put on the schedule for a fireside chat at CPAC this afternoon. He will appear at around 2:50 p.m., after Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., speaks and before Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., appears.
Vance defended his vision of masculinity in remarks at CPAC today, decrying a “cultural message” that he said “wants to turn everybody … into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same and act the same.”
Vance’s comments came during a question-and-answer session at the conference for conservative activists.
“I think that our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge, you should try to cast aside your family, you should try to suppress what makes you a young man in the first place,” said Vance, responding to a question from CPAC’s Mercedes Schlapp, who asked what message he had for the surge of young men who voted for him and Trump last fall.
“And I think that my message to young men is: Don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends or because you’re competitive,” Vance said.
After his “androgynous idiots” remark, Vance added: “This is why the media went after him [Trump] so hard. Because when I think about what is the essence of masculinity, you could answer this in so many different ways. But when I think about me and my guy friends, we really like to tell jokes to one another — like, we like to laugh.”
Schlapp then interrupted to ask who is funnier, Trump or Vance? Vance gave the nod to Trump.
“I think this is why young men in particular are so inspired by President Trump,” Vance said. “Because he doesn’t allow the media to tell him he can’t make a joke, or he can’t have an original thought. President Trump just says what’s on his mind. That’s a damn good thing, and it’s a good example to set for young men in America.”
Schlapp also asked about second lady Usha Vance’s influence and the best advice the vice president has received from her.
“One piece of advice she gave me like a week ago was, ‘You should be nicer on social media,’” Vance said, prompting knowing laughs from those familiar with his combative presence on X. “I don’t know that I’ll take that advice. Some advice is good … but you don’t have to always take it.”
Vance then struck a more serious tone.
“The best advice she gave me when it came to politics is, ‘Don’t let them filter you,’” he said. “And in politics, you’ve got consultants and you’ve got media professionals, you’ve got pollsters, you’ve got a lot of people who try to tell you what to say or how to behave or what to do. And Usha just said, ‘Just be yourself. Be authentic. Go out there and say what’s actually on your mind — maybe a little nicer from time to time.’”
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have pushed the committee vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination for deputy attorney general to next week, as panel members are allowed to do. The nomination was on the agenda for today but will now be next Thursday.
The Democrats made the same move on Pam Bondi’s nomination for attorney general and Kash Patel’s nomination for FBI director.
The vice president said Republicans are “on track” to pass a budget reconciliation bill, full of Trump’s policy priorities, “in May or in June.” But he acknowledged that is a very aggressive timeline.
Vance’s remarks at CPAC came a day after Trump endorsed the House’s one-bill strategy over the Senate’s rival two-bill proposal. The Senate plans to vote today on its budget resolution to kickstart its reconciliation process, which will allow the GOP to pass its agenda without Democratic votes.
At CPAC, Vance detailed the conversation he had with Trump yesterday about why he thinks “one big beautiful bill” is better than two.
“So the Senate obviously has its own approach, and the president has been very clear that his preference is to put everything in one bill, and part of that is just simple legislative strategy,” Vance said.
“I think the president has learned a lot about how D.C. works. And I actually talked to the president about this yesterday, and he said to me, ‘Look, it’s very rare that you can get two reconciliation bills done in one Congress,’ which is why he thinks we’ve got to do a lot with that one big, beautiful bill, that first reconciliation package that we’re going to get through the House and the Senate,” Vance continued.
“This stuff takes time to put together. If you had a record pace reconciliation bill, we would get this thing done in May or in June. I think we’re on track to do that.”
During his appearance at CPAC, Vance said he believes the “biggest threat” to countries in Europe was “unvetted foreign migrants” and criticized the Biden administration for its handling of immigration and his foreign leadership.
Just before voting no on Linda McMahon’s nomination for secretary of education, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cautioned fellow Senate HELP committee members against Trump’s plans to dismantle the Department of Education.
“The other day, the president, whether facetiously or not — and I suspect not quite facetiously — talked about being a king,” Sanders said, referring to Trump’s recent Truth Social posts where he proclaimed, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” and likened himself to a “king” after rescinding New York City’s plan for congestion pricing.
“When you’re trying to, quote, unquote, save the country, you don’t have to worry about the law,” Sanders said. “Well, that is not what this country is about. That’s not what the Founding Fathers did in their brilliance. … They understood you don’t give one branch all the power.”
Trump’s posts come as critics have accused him of exceeding the executive authority afforded him by the Constitution and subverting Congress with a series of executive orders.
“I’m here to say: New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years and we sure as hell are not going to start now,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement yesterday just after Trump’s post. Hochul was swiftly joined by other Democratic governors and lawmakers expressing their concern.
Trump cannot dismantle the Department of Education without Congress’ agreement through legislation, which would be unlikely given the slim majority Republicans hold in Congress.
One of Donald Trump’s allies isn’t buying his suggestion that Ukraine is to blame for the country’s war with Russia.
Nigel Farage, the populist British politician, is attending the Conservative Political Action Conference today outside Washington, D.C.
When NBC News asked Farage if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bears responsibility for starting the war with Russia, Farage gave a succinct reply.
“No,” he said. “The invasion was sparked by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and nobody else.”
Elon Musk will make an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC senior fellow Mercedes Schlapp announced this morning.
“We have a very special guest who’s going to be here during the conference. You know, kind of like a tech titan, maybe, responsible for DOGE,” Schlapp teased onstage as the audience cheered. “Yes, ladies and gentlemen — ’cause thank God we’re back to two genders — Elon Musk will be here on the CPAC stage.”
Schlapp did not provide details on what day or time Musk will be speaking.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has voted to advance Linda McMahon’s nomination as the secretary of education in a 12-11 party-line vote.
McMahon’s nomination now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
A decorated K-9 named Hurricane, who was credited with protecting the White House from an intruder in 2014, has died, the administration announced yesterday.
“Hurricane was a true American hero,” the White House said in an Instagram post. “The most decorated K-9 in U.S. history, he bravely defended the White House and spent retirement helping other working dogs through @K9Hurricane. His legacy of courage and loyalty will live on.”
In 2014, Hurricane stopped an intruder who scaled a fence to enter the White House lawn, The Associated Press reported. The dog was injured but stopped the intruder, allowing Secret Service agents to arrest him. Then-President Barack Obama was home at the time, according to the AP.
Tyler Hansford, superintendent of schools in rural Union, Mississippi, voted for Donald Trump three times.
But Hansford, 36, who leads a district of just under 1,000 students, disagrees with the president on one big issue: using public money to send children to private schools.
“School choice,” as its proponents call it, is a Trump priority that has divided Republicans, drawing support from many conservative governors who see it as an issue of parents’ rights but opposition from small communities concerned about losing much-needed public school funding. Hansford also worries that the private school tuition support proposed in Mississippi wouldn’t help local families who are unable to drive to reach those schools and may not find the special education services they rely on once they get there.
“How is it ‘choice’ when there’s no transportation or special education services provided?” Hansford wrote recently on Facebook about the Mississippi bill. “School choice with no transportation for families without a car is no choice at all.”
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — A long line of Conservative Political Action Conference attendees were in the queue hours before this morning’s opening speaker, Vice President JD Vance, was set to appear at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.
Secret Service agents oversaw Transportation Security Administration agents who conducted uncharacteristically minute inspections, flipping through people’s wallets, passing laptops by bomb-sniffing dogs. The security inspections were notably more in-depth than when Trump has spoken in years past.
Typically, Thursday mornings at CPAC are reserved for C-list speakers and the earliest and most bushy-tailed arrivals, but this year, after Trump stormed into his second term, CPAC is opening with one of its top headliners, Vance, which will only be topped by Trump’s appearance Saturday evening.
At 8 a.m., two hours before Vance was set to appear, attendees were lined up outside and sprinted in when the doors opened. In the hallways, conservative broadcasters set up their booths and crowds accumulated as figures like Britain’s Nigel Farage appeared.
Today marks Trump’s first full month back in office, which has seen him sign more than 100 executive actions and hold a handful of meetings with world leaders, including three joint press conferences.
Trump has signed more executive orders in his first month than any recent president has in his first 100 days.
Here’s the breakdown:
Executive Actions: 108 total
- 73 executive orders. Top 5 categories: government (20), foreign affairs (10), culture (8), immigration (8), trade (6).
- 23 proclamations.
- 12 memorandums.
- Meetings with four world leaders: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Jordan’s King Adbullah II and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Thirteen calls with foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
- Trump has held three joint news conferences with world leaders.
- Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has held four White House news conferences.
- This number does not include Trump taking reporters’ questions outside of formal news conference venues, which he does often.
- Jan. 25-27 at Trump National Doral golf club in Miami.
- Jan. 31-Feb. 2, Feb. 7-9, and Feb. 14-19 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump’s special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, is in Ukraine, where State Department officials say he is working to advance Trump’s goal of securing peace even as the president escalates his criticisms of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
A State Department spokesperson said Kellogg plans to meet with Ukrainian government officials and private citizens “who have bravely endured almost three years of war.”
Kellogg has already met with at least one official, Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelenskyy. In a post on X, Kellogg said the two had a “useful conversation.”
The visit comes as Trump has sharpened his attacks on Zelenskyy, whom he labeled a “modestly successful comedian” and “a dictator without elections” during a speech in Miami Beach, Florida, yesterday.
In his remarks, Trump accused Zelenskyy of reneging on an agreement that would have granted the U.S. 50% ownership of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as a form of repayment for U.S. aid.
“We had a deal based on rare earth and things, but they broke that deal,” Trump said.
Trump floated the idea yesterday of returning some of the savings recouped by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to U.S. citizens, with an equal amount going to pay down the federal debt.
“There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20% goes to paying down debt, because the numbers are incredible,” Trump said.
Trump made the remarks at an event in Miami Beach, Florida, a day after Musk indicated on X that he would ask Trump about a “DOGE dividend,” described as a tax refund check sourced from the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle parts of the federal government.
The start of Trump’s second term has been a blur of activity. Each week brings fresh White House directives, orders and statements. Americans say they like the energy so far, according to a CBS News poll.
Yet, a peril of Trump’s perpetual motion machine is that policies and pronouncements may collide head-on. Fulfilling one could snuff out another.
As a candidate, Trump promised to impose tariffs on nations he says have shortchanged the United States. He also promised that people would pay lower prices. Either may be possible, but together the goals are incompatible, economists say.
On another front, Trump wants to extend his multitrillion-dollar tax cut from the first term and simultaneously curb “the unsustainable path of federal debt.” A president can do one or the other but not both, according to budget analysts.
Whatever savings Elon Musk’s effort to shrink the government workforce achieve won’t be nearly enough to offset the cost of the tax cuts, said Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on the nomination of Kash Patel to serve as the director of the FBI.
Patel has been among Trump’s most controversial nominees, with several Democrats expressing consternation over conspiracy theories previously espoused by Patel and an “enemies list” of roughly 60 people he named in a memoir.
As they did with Trump’s other Cabinet picks, Senate Republicans appear ready to coalesce around Patel and have supported him throughout his confirmation process with minimal pushback.
During his confirmation hearing, Patel notably broke with Trump on the issue of Jan. 6 pardons, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that he would not have pardoned anyone who committed a violent crime.
“I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement,” he said, specifically referring to violence against law enforcement on Jan. 6. “I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.”
Vice President JD Vance will be speaking today at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the nation’s largest gathering of conservatives.
Vance is expected to deliver the day’s opening speech. He last spoke at the conference in 2022 during his run for Senate.
Vance is one of several Trump officials expected to speak at the conference this week. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Border Czar Tom Homan and Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, are all slated to address the gathering.
