White House rescinds federal aid freeze as Cabinet picks face Senate grilling

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Kash Patel appears onstage at the Presidential Parade in Capital One Arena during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, DC, on January 20.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the FBI, is expected to highlight missteps by the agency when he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow, according to his opening remarks, which were adapted into a commentary piece for The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

According to his expected remarks, Patel will also call for a sharp focus on thwarting violent crime as he seeks to make his case to lawmakers to lead the key law enforcement agency.

Patel, a staunch Trump ally, has been heavily critical of the FBI in his recent memoir and in podcast interviews. He’s expected to continue that criticism during his confirmation hearing Thursday, where he will highlight the “erosion of trust” in the FBI and past warrant abuses.

Patel plans to tell the committee he “spearheaded the investigation which proved the violations of FISA — a tool I had previously used to hunt down terrorists — unlawfully used to spy on political opponents,” referencing his role in the House Intelligence Committee’s work to undercut the FBI’s 2016 probe into the Trump campaign and the bureau’s misuse of FISA warrants.

“Such misconduct is unacceptable and undermines public trust,” Patel plans to say.

Patel previously suggested the FBI should scale back its intelligence activities and in his opening remarks, the former Trump administration official is set to repeat his refrain that the FBI should focus on letting “good cops be cops.”

While Patel previously called for the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, DC, to be turned into a museum of the amorphous and so-called “deep state,” he appears to take a more toned-down approach in his statement to the committee, telling senators he will “focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation.”

Like others who Trump has nominated to lead the federal government, Patel will also highlight the need for transparency with Congress.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly at the State Department in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed border and energy security Wednesday in a meeting with his Canadian counterpart.

Rubio met with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly on Wednesday, and the two leaders discussed “how the United States and Canada can collaborate on shared global challenges, such as secure borders and energy security,” according to a State Department readout of the meeting.

The meeting comes as President Donald Trump has threatened to impose massive tariffs on Canada.

Rubio and Joly also “reaffirmed cooperation to enhance safety and prosperity for both countries,” according to the readout.

Sean Duffy is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on December 11, 2024.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday moved to roll back a variety of policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion, bringing the agency in line with the Trump administration’s effort to clamp down on the practice.

In a memo, Duffy directed agency officials to eliminate Biden administration policies, programs and regulations that “reference or relate in any way to climate change, ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice, or the Justice 40 initiative.”

Along with signing an order intended to ensure the department’s policies and activities are based on “sound economic principles,” Duffy, according to the release, also began the process of rescinding the Biden administration’s greenhouse gas measurement rule, which required state transportation departments to measure and set declining targets for carbon dioxide emissions on federally supported highways.

Duffy, a former US representative and Fox Business host who has little to no experience in the transportation field, was confirmed Tuesday in a bipartisan 77-22 vote.

Since his inauguration, Trump has moved aggressively to stamp out DEI programs and policies in the federal government, all part of promises he made on the campaign trail last year. So far, Trump has signed an executive order banning DEI programs, ordered government DEI employees to be placed on administrative leave and ended the use of DEI in hiring and federal contracting. Federal agencies have also been told to move to eliminate DEI offices and positions within 60 days.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

After watching Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony Wednesday in front of the Senate Finance Committee, leaders of some high-profile medical and social issue associations said they had reservations about President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Here’s what some of those leaders said:

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said during a news conference Wednesday the hearing showed Kennedy has a dearth of management experience, a lack of knowledge about how HHS runs and questionable judgment about what is and is not settled science. Benjamin’s organization sent a letter to the Senate committee last week expressing “deep concerns” over Kennedy’s nomination.

Dr. Sue Kressly, American Academy of Pediatrics president, expressed her concerns center around the impact Kennedy would have on access to vaccines and on Medicaid.

Dr. Julie Sweetland, a sociolinguist and a senior adviser at the FrameWorks Institute, a nonprofit that studies how people think and talk about social issues, expressed concern at Wednesday’s briefing that Kennedy had a tendency to oversimplify complicated health problems and mischaracterized the way health systems work in the US.

Kennedy claimed without evidence, Sweetland said, that 77% of Americans don’t trust the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that most people on Medicaid don’t like it.

The Trump administration’s biggest swing at radically reshaping federal spending lasted just under 45 hours.

A sweeping freeze on trillions in federal spending for grants and loans, issued Monday night by the White House budget office to federal agencies without fanfare, sparked outrage and confusion — even among fellow Republicans. The impact touched all corners of the country, with state Medicaid funding portals briefly shuttered and programs like Meals on Wheels and Head Start scrambling to figure out if they were about to lose their funding.

The White House insisted that the confusion was a media-led creation. But on Wednesday the Office of Management and Budget issued a terse two-sentence memo rescinding the directive it had issued just two days prior, and just over 20 hours after a federal judge ordered a halt to the freeze.

The withdrawal of the federal freeze was a stunning about-face for President Donald Trump’s White House, which has so far pushed the envelope to reshape the federal government in Trump’s mold, sowing chaos and confusion that comes with firing career civil servants, pausing foreign aid programs and offering federal workers a buyout.

Get the full inside look into the brief life and quick death of Trump’s federal spending freeze.

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders Wednesday covering a variety of issues from education to hate speech.

Here’s a look at each executive order signed today:

This post has been updated with additional information on executive orders signed by the president.

Lee Zeldin testifies before a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on his nomination to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 16.

The Senate has confirmed another one of President Donald Trump’s picks to join his administration on Wednesday: Lee Zeldin the new head the Environmental Protection Agency.

It comes as Trump’s controversial nominee to head Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was on Capitol Hill earlier today for his confirmation hearing.

Some of Trump’s other picks will face their own questions from Senators in a slate of hearings on Thursday, including Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel to lead the FBI.

Here’s the latest news on Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other top roles in his administration:

This photo reviewed by the US military shows flags flying at half-staff at Camp Justice in August 2021 at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CNN that resources to host migrants at Guantanamo Bay are something that President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are evaluating.

Trump on Wednesday announced an executive action ordering the federal government to prepare the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house tens of thousands of migrants.

Management of a Guantanamo Bay detention facility for migrants would be overseen by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), two of Trump’s top immigration advisers told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday — moments after Trump signed an executive order putting detention beds at the center.

The center — which is separate from where terrorist suspects are held — has been used before. In 2010, for example, the US military prepared the site in anticipation of Haitians fleeing the earthquake-stricken country. CNN reported last year that the Biden administration considered using the Guantanamo Bay migrant facility to process Haitian migrants.

Meanwhile, here’s the other latest news on immigration:

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives prior to the inauguration of Donald Trump at the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.

There have been communications between Southern District of New York and New York City Mayor Eric Adams lawyers about possibly dropping the case against him, an official at the Justice Department confirms to CNN. These conversations have been routed through the office of the acting deputy attorney and President Donald Trump’s former criminal lawyer Emil Bove.

CNN has reached out to Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro, who is also the personal attorney of Elon Musk, one of Trump’s closest advisors.

The New York Times was first to report the communications.

CNN has previously reported in December that Adams and President Trump had been in direct communications, although the specific topics of the communications were not clear.

More on Adams and Trump’s relationship: Adams, a Democrat, has been working to curry favor with Trump and some of his top Cabinet officials. The mayor attended the inauguration in Washington, DC, and sat in a overflow room watching the festivities. He traveled to Florida to meet with Trump near his Mar-a-Lago estate days before his inauguration and held a meeting at Gracie Mansion with Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, saying the city was willing to work with the new administration on immigration, specifically around undocumented people arrested for violent crimes.

Days after Trump’s inauguration Adams also declined to publicly criticize Trump saying he would share his disagreements directly with the president. Over and over Adams has said he wants to “work with the president, not war with the president.”

Adams, who pleaded not guilty to federal corruption and bribery charges in September, has said the prosecution was politically motivated because of his criticism of the Biden administration and its handling of the migrant crisis.

That accusation has caught the attention of Trump, who has said he would be willing to consider a pardon for the mayor of his hometown and expressed sympathy with him during the Al Smith charity dinner in New York last year.

“I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders,” Trump said. “We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric.”

Morning commute traffic streams past the Meta sign in Mountain View, California, on November 9, 2022.

President Donald Trump signed a settlement agreement at the White House Wednesday ending the lawsuit he brought against Meta after the company suspended his account in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Trump signed the agreement that, according to a preliminary draft, requires Meta to pay out roughly $25 million — $22 million of which will go to a fund for Trump’s forthcoming presidential library. The remaining amount goes to attorneys’ fees and the other plaintiffs, a person familiar with the matter said.

The settlement comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has worked to ingratiate himself with Trump since he won the 2024 election, donating $1 million to his inauguration and then attending as he sat alongside Cabinet members. He also relaxed new content moderation rules on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, scrapping partnerships with third-party fact-checking groups and move toward an X-style “community notes” system instead.

Trump and Zuckerberg specifically discussed the lawsuit when he visited Trump’s club in November following the election, the source said.

The relationship has come a long way from when Trump threatened to send Zuckerberg to prison.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the agreement. CNN has reached out to Meta for comment. The White House declined to comment.

A federal judge said Wednesday that he would issue another block against the Trump administration’s plans to freeze federal grants and loans, rejecting arguments from the Justice Department that its recession of the plans hours earlier rendered a legal challenge moot.

McConnell said he would hold off on issuing a temporary restraining order against the administration until he sees a proposed order from the group of 22 states and Washington, DC, as well as the response to it from lawyers at the Justice Department.

Sarah Rice, an attorney for Rhode Island, told the judge that the states and DC needed the order because “the harm” from Monday’s OMB order “is still ongoing.”

“Our state agencies are in desperate need of clarity,” Rice said. “They’re in desperate need of a pause to even put on the evidence that might be required to take a closer look at this.”

But an attorney for the Justice Department pushed back on those claims and argued that the now-rescinded memo meant that there was no live issue before the court. The judge ultimately did not buy that argument.

In a separate challenge brought by non-profits against the OMB memo, a federal judge in DC on Tuesday issued an administrative hold on the government’s plans, pausing the aid freeze through Monday while the litigation moves to the next steps.

Wednesday’s recession also did not moot that case, according to lawyers involved in the lawsuit.

Already under fire from Democratic senators that think he is unqualified to be Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. misstated several times how Medicare and Medicaid — two massive public health programs that cover senior citizens and low-income Americans, respectively — operate during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

If confirmed as to lead the department, Kennedy would oversee these programs, which cover more than 150 million Americans.

Kennedy stumbled during an extended exchange with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is a doctor, over potential reforms to Medicare and Medicaid. Cassidy leads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which holds its confirmation hearing on Kennedy on Thursday. The senator will be a pivotal vote on Kennedy’s nomination.

At one point, Kennedy said that Medicare is “fee for service,” meaning that the federal government pays providers to care for enrollees, and that the program is paid for by employer taxes. However, just more than half of Medicare enrollees — including Kennedy himself, he noted later in the hearing — are in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers who are paid by the government to care for beneficiaries. Also, Medicare has multiple funding streams, including enrollee premiums and government support.

On the other hand, Kennedy said that Medicaid is fully funded by the federal government and is not fee for service. In fact, Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal government and states. Also, while most Medicaid enrollees are in managed care plans run by private insurers, some remain in fee for service payment models.

Also, Kennedy said that premiums and deductibles in Medicaid are too high. However, only one state, Iowa, is believed to charge premiums to certain enrollees, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization. Georgia has received a federal waiver to levy premiums, though KFF does not believe the state is currently doing so.

Many states do charge nominal copays for certain services, such as prescription drugs and in-patient hospital care, according to KFF.

The federal government limits the premiums and cost sharing, including deductibles and copays, that states can impose on enrollees.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign the Laken Riley Act at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 29.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Laken Riley Act into law at the White House, the first bill of his second term.

The moment marks a significant step toward addressing his administration’s long-standing immigration detention measures. The legislation introduces a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening border security and enforcing immigration laws.

The bill mandates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detain undocumented immigrants who are arrested or charged, or those convicted of offenses such as burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.

Trump began his remarks at the bill signing by celebrating his success, attributing his election win to his immigration agenda and expressing gratitude to both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who helped pass the bill.

“That’s why I’m here instead of somebody else. Actually, it’s the biggest reason,” Trump said.

During the signing ceremony, Trump described the bill as a tribute to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia whose death inspired the legislation. Trump called Riley a “brilliant and beautiful” young woman who had touched the lives of many.

The president signed the law with the Riley family by his side, along with GOP Sen. Katie Britt, GOP Rep Jim Jordan, and GOP Sen. John Barrasso. Following the signing, Trump embraced Laken’s mother.

The bill is the first piece of legislation to cross Trump’s desk for a signature since his return to the Oval Office, and marks his first major win for a top priority for congressional Republicans.

More on the bill: The Senate passed the bill early last week and the House followed suit, passing the law 263 to 156, with 46 Democrats voting in favor.

CNN has reported that it requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented migrants who are in the US unlawfully or without legal status if they have been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or have admitted to certain criminal offenses, including theft and burglary. The Senate adopted amendments to expand the list of criminal offenses covered under the bill to include assault on law enforcement officers and crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

CNN’s Clare Foran, Haley Talbot and Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post. This post has been updated with more details on the bill.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has rescinded the federal aid freeze, according to a memo from a Trump administration official obtained by CNN.

A federal judge had also temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants and loans Tuesday, just hours before it was set to take effect, as a slew of advocacy groups, charities, foreign aid and public health programs warned of its potential to upend American lives on an unprecedented scale.

The original pause sparked an uproar by Democrats, who said that it affected important programs that help kids, veterans and the elderly. Republicans downplayed the effects, saying it was just an initial step as President Donald Trump attempts to clean house.

Here’s how some lawmakers are reacting:

See which states recent the most — and least — proportion of their budgets from federal funds:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emphasized during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing that chronic disease is his priority, but said he would make “appropriate resources” available to prevent pandemics — including against the threat of bird flu.

In 2023, Kennedy had said that if he was president, he would tell scientists at the National Institutes of Health to “give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”

Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, reminded Kennedy that the ongoing bird flu outbreak has resulted in the death of one person in the United States and made 67 people sick, in addition to deaths of more than 100 million birds and infections in cows and other mammals.

When asked by Smith what causes bird flu, Kennedy said he believes that it was caused by a virus.

In the past, Kennedy has posed questions on the causes of infectious diseases. For example, despite decades of well-established science, Kennedy has said that he does not believe the HIV virus causes AIDS. Instead, he has claimed that AIDS is caused in part by recreational drug use among the gay male community and that scientists at the NIH, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, deliberately made up an infectious disease and did “crooked studies” so they could “take control of it.”

Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota harshly criticized nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., over previous comments linking school shootings to the use of antidepressants.

“There’s no time in American history or human history that kids were going to schools and shooting their classmates. It happened, you know, it really started happening conterminous with the introduction of these drugs, with Prozac and the other drugs,” Kennedy previously said on the podcast “Club Random with Bill Maher” in 2023.

Smith asked Kennedy if he believed antidepressants caused school shootings.

Kennedy further insisted that there is no data on antidepressant use and its role in school shootings because such information would be protected by HIPAA, the federal law that protects patients’ health information.

Some context: There has been no link between the use of antidepressants and school shootings. In an advisory from the surgeon general in 2024 on firearm violence, it stated, “Findings suggest that perpetrators of mass homicides are more likely to experience mental health challenges than perpetrators of single homicides, research also supports that one’s mental health diagnosis or psychological profile alone is not a strong predictor of perpetrating violence of any type, including a mass shooting.” The advisory noted that “people with serious mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of violence compared to the general population.”

Smith who referenced her own struggle with depression, said Kennedy’s words have “impact.”

“So Mr. Kennedy, these statements that you have made linking antidepressants to school shootings, they reinforce the stigma that people who experience mental health every day face every single day,” she said. “And I’m very concerned that this is another example of your record of sharing false and misleading information that actually really hurts people.”

Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who grilled Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his confirmation hearing today, said that President Donald Trump’s nominee is peddling “half-truths” and Americans deserve a leader at Health and Human Services who follows the science.

“There’s a long record here, and there’s a lot in that record that he’s trying to cover up with the opening statement that you heard and with his claim that he’s quote-unquote pro-vax now,” he told CNN about RFK Jr.’s shifting stance on vaccines.

Bennet said he agrees with Kennedy Jr. about the myriad of challenges facing the American healthcare system, which he characterized a moral question. But Bennet argued that works against Kennedy Jr.

“There are many things about the diagnoses of the challenges that we face in healthcare that I agree with, in the sense that we’re the richest country in the world and our health outcomes are nowhere near what they should be. And he said, that’s a moral question. And I actually believe it is a moral question, which is why we need somebody in this job who is not peddling the kind of half-truths that Mr. Kennedy has made a career out of,” Bennet told reporters.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced his first Senate confirmation hearing today.

After addressing a multitude of key issues, such as vaccines, abortion, chronic diseases and migrant kids, in the morning, he was further questioned on his financial interests, shifting stances and other topics this afternoon. Read a recap of the morning session here.

Here are key lines from the rest of RFK Jr.’s hearing:

Financial interests: Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts asked him if he would pledge to not take any compensation from lawsuits against drug companies while he is secretary or for four years afterward, as his personal financial stake in some lawsuits has come under scrutiny. Kennedy said, “I will certainly commit to that while I’m secretary. But I do want to clarify something, because you’re making me sound like a shill.” As Warren’s line of questioning continued, Kennedy’s answers became more vague. “I’m not going to agree to not sue drug companies or anybody,” Kennedy said, later adding, “I’ll comply with all the ethical guidance.”

Shifting stance on abortion rights: Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire pointed to RFK Jr.’s “long record of fighting for women’s reproductive freedom.” When Kennedy responded that he agrees with Trump that “every abortion is a tragedy,” Hassan said, “you are willing to sacrifice your values, your knowledge, if President Trump tells you to do that. That, to me, is unacceptable in his secretary of Health and Human Services.”

On nursing home staffing requirements: A Biden administration mandate requires all nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding provide more nursing care per resident per day, and nursing homes must have a registered nurse onsite at all times. This would be “a disaster,” especially in rural areas, RFK Jr. said. Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming told Kennedy on Wednesday that the rule would lead to nursing home closures across his state because there aren’t enough registered nurses to comply with it.

On bird flu cases: RFK Jr. said he would make “appropriate resources” available to prevent pandemics — including against the threat of bird flu. When asked by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith what causes bird flu, Kennedy said he believes that it was caused by a virus. In the past, Kennedy has posed questions on the causes of infectious diseases. He has said that he does not believe the HIV virus causes AIDS, instead claiming it is caused in part by recreational drug use among the gay male community.

CNN’s Annie Grayer, Tami Luhby, Ali Main, Jen Christensen and Aileen Graef contributed reporting to this post.

As some of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks faced Senate confirmation hearings today, his administration continued its nationwide crackdown of undocumented immigrants across parts of the US.

The administration is aiming for every US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office to make at least 75 arrests a day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller previously told CNN.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is also revoking the extension of protections for people coming from Venezuela.

Here’s the latest on the president’s immigration actions:

Watch CNN’s reporting from Guatemala City, Guatemala:

CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Danny Freeman, Hanna Park, Eric Levenson, Ray Sanchez, Rafael Romo, DJ Judd, Priscilla Alvarez, Verónica Calderón and Michael Rios contributed reporting to this post.