Friday, Apr 04th
Last update06:54:23 AM GMT
Political Glance
On Presidents Day, demonstrators across the U.S. descended upon state capitol buildings and other locations to protest actions by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is implementing significant changes to the federal government.
In Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, thousands of people gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool chanting "Where is Congress?" and urging members of Congress to "do your job!" despite nearly 40-degree temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts.
The Social Security Administration ‘s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend — after more than 30 years of service — was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday.
The White House has replaced her as acting commissioner with Leland Dudek, who currently works at the SSA, the people said.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields released a statement Monday night saying: “President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner.”
About 400 recently hired support staff employees at the Federal Aviation Administration were fired over the weekend as part of the Trump administration's mass terminations of federal workers, according to the union representing the employees.
The dismissals come less than three weeks after a midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Washington killed 67 people and brought new scrutiny to air traffic controllers and their workloads.
Like others across the federal workforce, the terminated FAA employees were probationary workers hired or promoted within the past year.
The Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.
Probationary employees across the FDA received notices on Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The total number of positions eliminated was not clear on Sunday, but the firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency’s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products – which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted.
Amid the Trump administration's crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion, Julianne Moore is speaking out on the recent censorship of one of her books.
In a lengthy Instagram post Sunday, the Oscar-winning actress and children's book author reacted to the news that her book "Freckleface Strawberry" was reportedly removed from schools within the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).
"It is a great shock for me to learn that my first book, Freckleface Strawberry, has been banned by the Trump Administration from schools run by the Department of Defense," wrote Moore, whose father is a Vietnam War veteran.
In a Feb. 10 memo, the Department of Defense announced that several books and learning materials had been removed from class curriculums and flagged for review, according to The Washington Post and The Guardian. Such titles include Moore's book, as well as "Becoming Nicole," a biography of transgender actress Nicole Maines.
The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency team continue to crash into more federal agencies– shutting down ongoing work and firing thousands of federal employees.
The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve some 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year.
The U.S. absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the Trump administration’s commitment to common defense and demands for increased European military spending.
The US agency charged with overseeing nuclear weapons is looking to contact workers who were fired on Thursday as part of the Trump administration’s federal cost-cutting measures, but are now needed back.
Officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) attempted to notify some probationary employees who had been let go that they are due to be reinstated – but they struggled to find them because their contact information was missing.
“The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel,” the agency said in an email, obtained by NBC News.
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