February 19, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

A US military aircraft is seen before carrying detained migrants to a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, on February 4.

The Trump administration has transferred more than 140 people to Guantanamo Bay, according to federal data shared with CNN, as officials race to set up a camp to house tens of thousands of migrants.

As of Wednesday, there have been 13 flights sending 142 individuals to the military base in Cuba, according to the data.

CNN previously reported that high-risk detainees are being held in the base’s maximum-security prison, while others with final removal orders are being held at the migrant operations center.

It’s unclear how the administration is choosing people to be transferred. So far, all have been men and all deemed to have what was described as “criminality,” ranging from being alleged members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang to more basic immigration law violations.

The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t identified people sent to the facility.

A federal judge in Baltimore spent nearly three hours today hearing arguments over whether to temporarily block a pair of executive orders from President Donald Trump that aim to remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the government and private sector.

US District Judge Adam Abelson did not rule from the bench on a request from several education associations and the city of Baltimore for a temporary restraining order. But he appeared skeptical of arguments pushed by the Justice Department lawyer, who at times struggled to speak to the potential reach of Trump’s executive orders.

The Trump administration argued that it would be wrong to block the executive orders without any examples of contracts by the plaintiffs actually being terminated as a result of the orders. They couldn’t defend clear definitions for “equity related grants” or whether teaching about Jim Crow on computers purchased with government-funded grants would constitute contract terminations.

“I just want to clarify that the government is not saying the plaintiffs will never have these claims, but I’m just saying they don’t have these facial claims now,” the Justice Department attorney said.

The plaintiffs in the case claim that the two orders violate constitutional separations of power that give Congress the “power of the purse” and are vague. They also say the alleged vagueness violates the Fifth Amendment and is an intentional restriction on the First Amendment, to impede organizations from talking about DEI at all.

Abelson did not say when he would rule on the TRO request.

Steve Bannon arrives to speak during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 24.

Steve Bannon, a chief White House strategist during President Donald Trump’s first term, criticized Elon Musk and other tech billionaires in the president’s circle as oligarchs and questioned their support of the MAGA movement.

While Bannon said he backs Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, he warned that “concentration of power is very dangerous” and suggested the billionaires could abandon Republicans in the future.

“They’ve abandoned the progressive left. They will abandon us in the same thing,” Bannon said. “They seek power.”

Some context: Oligarch was the term for Russian businessmen who became rich by being close to the seat of power during the breakup of the Soviet Union, but it’s now used more broadly. In his final address before leaving office, President Joe Biden warned of a developing “oligarchy” in America.

Just four years after Zuckerberg banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram, the Meta CEO donated $1 million to the president’s second inaugural fund. CNN previously reported that Amazon said the company would donate $1 million in cash to the inauguration.

Both Zuckerberg and Bezos met Trump at Mar-a-Lago following his election and attended the inauguration last month, sitting close to the president at the US Capitol while many notable lawmakers had to watch the swearing-in from the overflow room due to lack of space.

Read more on how Bannon is playing MAGA enforcer from the outside.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday pointed to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine as he warned that “World War III” is “not so far away,” but said his presidency will prevent it from happening.

The president thanked Saudi Arabia, who backed Wednesday’s summit, for hosting negotiations between the US and Russia this week, calling the talks “a big step,” while dinging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “a modestly successful comedian” and “a dictator without elections,” parroting Russian talking points about the Ukrainian president.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump and Zelensky sparred over social media, with Zelensky saying his American counterpart “lives in this disinformation space” and is “(helping) Putin out of his isolation.”

President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, in Palm Beach, Florida.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that the government may seek alternate solutions to Boeing for two new chronically delayed Air Force One jets.

Delays during the pandemic limited staffing at the Texas facility where security features required by the Air Force were being added to the 747 jets. Problems in Boeing’s supply chain also pushed back the delivery time frame. Already, Boeing has identified $2.25 billion in losses for the two jets in previous financial results, and last month took another $1.7 billion charge for military contracts, including the VC-25B, although it did not break out how much of that cost came on the Air Force One jets.

Elon Musk stopped by Boeing in December to look into the long-delayed efforts. Boeing has said it is trying to get the plane delivered sooner but declined to confirm a new delivery date, saying it is in discussions with Air Force.

“The president wants the airplane sooner, and so we’re working with Elon and the team to figure what can we do to pull up the schedule of that aircraft,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said on CNBC last month. He called the talks with Musk “constructive.”

But in a call with investors in late January, Ortberg said that there was “no silver bullet” for the Air Force One program, technically known as VC-25B. Air Force One is the designation only when the president is on board a plane.

President Donald Trump continued to claim remote workers are slacking on the job, playing tennis and golf, hours after he played golf in Miami.

Trump’s motorcade arrived at his golf course in Miami just after 9:30 a.m. and an aide confirmed that he played golf ahead of his remarks at a Saudi-backed conference.

As CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Kevin Liptak reported Tuesday, Trump followed a routine of golfing nearly every day on an extended Presidents’ Day weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

President Donald Trump, echoing a false claim from Elon Musk, incorrectly stated Wednesday that the Social Security Administration is making payments to millions of dead people – including one person who is older than the United States itself and more than 1,000 people between the ages of 220 to 229.

“3.47 million people are on Social Security from the age of 120 years old to 129 years old,” Trump said. “3.9 million are on Social Security from 130 years old to 139 years old.”

His claim appears to be based on the so-called Numident list, which is a limited collection of personal data, according to Kathleen Romig, who used to work at the SSA, first as a retirement policy analyst and more recently as a senior adviser in the Office of the Commissioner. The list includes names, Social Security numbers, and a person’s birth and death dates. But the Numident list does not reflect the death dates for 18.9 million people who were born in 1920 or earlier.

That’s a known problem, which the Social Security inspector general in a 2023 report has already recommended the agency correct. That same report, however, also noted that “almost none of the 18.9 million number holders currently receive SSA payments.”

Elon Musk speaks about his federal cost-cutting efforts as US President Donald Trump looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on February 11.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he put Elon Musk “in charge” of the Department of Government of Efficiency, after a court filing from the administration earlier this week said the tech billionaire is not an administrator or employee.

The court filing from the administration, which said Musk is an adviser to the president working within the White House as a special government employee, spurred confusion surrounding Musk’s role.

Pressed by CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Tuesday on whether Trump is serving as DOGE’s administrator, deputy chief of staff or policy Stephen Miller said, “No.”

“DOGE is the – what was formerly US digital services, is an agency the federal government that reports into the office of the Executive Office of the President, which reports to the president of the United States,” Miller said. “The way that Article II works is a president wins an election and then he appoints staff, including myself, including Mike Waltz, including Susie Wiles, including Elon Musk, and those staff report to him.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that “Elon Musk is a special government employee here at the White House, working under the direction of President Donald Trump.”

President Donald Trump said he is considering a plan that would give savings uncovered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency back to Americans.

Trump claimed DOGE was “saving taxpayers billions and billions of dollars every single day” by identifying instances of fraud and abuse in the government.

“We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens and 20% down to pay back debt, pay down debt,” Trump reiterated.

Some background: On Tuesday, Musk said on X that he would “check with the President” on the idea of sending money back to Americans.

He was replying to a post from James Fishback, the CEO of investment firm Azoria, proposing the so-called “DOGE Dividend.” In Fishback’s post, the CEO floated the idea of sending a “tax refund check to every taxpayer” with money from DOGE’s cutting efforts.

The state of the national debt: The US national debt totaled $35.5 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year, a $1.4 trillion increase from 2023, according to the Treasury Department. Additionally, the US debt-to-GDP ratio rose by 2 percentage points in fiscal year 2024 from 2023, a sign the US debt burden is increasingly weighing on the economy.

CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald contributed reporting to his post, which has been updated with additional background.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday touted that his election was the most “consequential election” in 129 years and suggested he had wanted to “get a couple of more years tacked on.”

CNN has reached out to the White House about the president’s quote.

This headline and post have been updated to better characterize Trump’s remarks.