January 28, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

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

Russell Vought testifies before a Senate Budget Committee confirmation hearing on January 22.

Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, said he believes the 2020 election “was rigged” in his questionnaire to the Senate Budget Committee, according to a copy shared with CNN.

When asked by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island whether former President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Vought responded: “I believe that the 2020 election was rigged.”

The committee is currently slated to vote on advancing Vought’s nomination on Thursday.

If confirmed, Vought is likely to face questions related to Trump’s recent, widespread freezing of federal funds.

A budget director during Trump’s first administration, Vought oversaw a widespread deregulation push. More recently, he was one of the key authors of Project 2025 — the conservative blueprint that Trump tried to distance himself from during the campaign.

In response to multiple questions about whether Project 2025 was involved in crafting any of Trump’s executive orders, Vought said: “I was not a member of the President’s Campaign team nor of his Transition team. The President has decided on the policies contained in this Executive Order. I appeared as a nominee to be the OMB Director and, if confirmed, I will faithfully implement the President’s policies, including those set forth in his Executive Orders and other directives.”

Nicole Shanahan speaks during a rally for Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 13, 2024 in Austin, Texas.

Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s one time running mate, is putting senators on notice who oppose Kennedy’s confirmation to be the next secretary of health and human services.

Shanahan, the former wife of Google billionaire Sergey Brin, said in an Instagram video that she donated significantly to the campaigns of Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both of Georgia, in 2020 and will be monitoring how they vote.

She went on to list a host of other senators of both parties, threatening their reelection.

Shanahan’s comments come at a time when Democrats have raised concerns about the outside role billionaires and those with extreme wealth have played in elevating President Donald Trump and his agenda with some describing Trump’s cadre of wealthy backers as oligarchs.

US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan on Tuesday temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s plans to freeze all federal aid.

What to know about the court’s pause: The judge said the pause is administrative, so the court could be fully briefed to decide whether or not to issue a lasting block. The pause lasts through at least 5 p.m. ET next Monday.

The federal judge’s pause on plans to execute a funding freeze came after a day of mixed reactions from lawmakers and concerns expressed by organizations.

Here’s what to know about the funding freeze:

“Confusion, fear and panic” for some programs: Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg, who runs a national anti-hunger service program and advocacy nonprofit, told CNN a freeze on federal aid money could potentially affect the tens of thousands of people his organization serves. “There is confusion, fear and panic that programs targeting the most vulnerable Americans will be illegally stopped” Berg said. He and his team were also trying to determine if staff, many of whom who receive federal grants, would continue to be paid.

Possible impacts to housing: Freezing federal grants would “put every single service that our low-income neighbors rely on in flux,” said Renee Willis, interim president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. Willis noted that at least 10 million people across the country rely on programs funded in part through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. A lot of federal grant recipient reported having trouble accessing funding through the HUD payment system to pay rents for some of their clients. Organizations were scrambling to determine which funding streams were impacted by the freeze.

On combating disease: Dr. Jean Kaseya, the Director General of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that widespread pauses to US foreign aid funding would deal a significant blow to Africa which relies primarily on US aid to support its health sector and to combat HIV and AIDS. It would also raise the risk of a global pandemic, particularly the potential spread of mpox, the illness caused by the monkeypox virus.

Statements from governors: Based on partisan lines, governors continued to react to the funding freeze news throughout the day, from before the court’s temporary pause went into effect until hours after the court issued the stay:

CNN’s Tala Alrajjal, Annie Grayer, Devan Cole, Michelle Watson and Jeanne Sahadi contributed reporting to this post.

The Trump administration is working on recruiting more personnel to assist with immigration crackdowns, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an interview with CBS News.

“It’s not a spectacle. This is our nation’s law enforcement judicial process. The scales of justice are equally applied to everybody. We want transparency on this,” Noem told CBS News on Tuesday. She posted videos and photos on X from an enforcement operation in the Bronx.

When asked whether she’s comfortable with the three dozen law enforcement officers in the Bronx yielding only a handful of arrests, Noem said: “It is absolutely. I won’t doubt what they need for support and backup.”

Noem said the Trump administration is working on increasing personnel to carry out more deportations, saying “we’re going to continue to recruit and ask people to help us.”

A US military aircraft departed for Ecuador Tuesday carrying Ecuadorian nationals who were being repatriated, according to a Homeland Security official.

The flight, which left from Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, included 80 Ecuadorians who had been in Border Patrol custody, according to the official.

This week, the Trump administration began using military aircraft to deport migrants to their origin country, part of a broader immigration crackdown.

Senate Republicans blocked a resolution brought by Democrats condemning pardons for those convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who led the resolution effort, said on the Senate floor she made the language of the resolution “short and clear” in an effort to pass by unanimous consent.

GOP Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming voiced objection, pointing to the presidential pardons of President Joe Biden by comparison.

“In all, more than 8,000 criminals were pardoned or had their sentences reduced by Joe Biden. Now that’s more than any other president in history. It isn’t even close,” Barrasso said. “This resolution that the Senate is asked to consider today does not condemn the Biden abuse of the pardon power. It does not condemn the pardons or the commutations of police officer-killers, of murderers, of rapists.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson takes part in a panel discussion during a House Republican retreat in Doral, Florida, on Tuesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he hopes to leave this week’s House Republican retreat in Doral, Florida, with a broad blueprint for a budget proposal needed to move forward with an aggressive timeline for Republicans’ plan to pass tax and spending cuts through the budget reconciliation process early this year.

Johnson said he expects to have a framework for a budget resolution by the end of the conference Wednesday. An agreement with the conference on a budget blueprint is “exactly on the timeline that we planned,” he added.

Johnson said he originally hoped to include an increase to the debt limit in the reconciliation bill but he is now considering working with Democrats on a bipartisan increase. He said he’ll determine the best strategy for solving the looming debt limit deadline “in the coming week or so.”

“I was originally thinking that we would include it in the reconciliation process, because that’s just a partisan exercise that doesn’t require Democrat votes,” Johnson said, confirming CNN’s earlier reporting on Johnson’s thinking. “I think there’s some concern in the Senate that that might be difficult to do on a partisan basis, and so it may wind up being a bipartisan exercise.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to end federal support for medical procedures aimed at altering sex or gender that involve surgical interventions or the use of puberty blockers or sex hormones in those under 19 years old.

“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” the order states.

Medicine and surgery can be used in the broader practice known as gender-affirming care, but such interventions are typically reserved for adults. International guidelines do not recommend medical or surgical intervention before transgender children reach puberty. Even for older teens and adults, surgery is relatively rare, research shows.

More context: For children, gender-affirming care is defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics as developmentally appropriate, nonjudgmental treatment that’s provided in a safe clinical space. The care is individualized and based on peer-reviewed scientific studies that show its effectiveness.

Major mainstream medical associations — including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Endocrine Society, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry — have affirmed the practice of gender-affirming care and agree that it’s clinically appropriate care that can provide life-saving treatment for children and adults.

The executive order directs federal agencies to withdraw policies based on World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidance, which the order claims lacks scientific credibility, although these guidelines are considered by experts in this practice of medicine to be the gold standard around the world.

The Trump administration has full confidence that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would accept the return of undocumented Venezuelans, according to Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy.

“Maduro will accept all flights of TDA gang members back,” Miller told reporters at the White House on Monday.

When asked whether El Salvador would take in Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang as part of a broader agreement with the US, Miller emphasized that El Salvador has shown “a tremendous degree of cooperation on all things migration.”

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

Twenty-three former officials who served in Republican administrations, including former lawmakers, sent a letter to senators Tuesday opposing Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI.

The group, which includes former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb, outlined their belief that Patel is motivated by revenge and lacks the experience and temperament to lead the FBI.

Patel has heavily criticized the FBI and, in a podcast interview in September, called for the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, to be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state.”

In his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel lambasted “crazed partisans” for hijacking “the law enforcement apparatus” against Trump.

Patel’s confirmation hearing is expected on Thursday.

Justin Bibb, Cleveland Mayor and President of the Democratic Mayor's Association, is seen in Cleveland on October 14, 2024.

Democratic Mayors Association President Justin Bibb called the immigration raids across the United States launched by President Donald Trump “theater” and a “charade.” Despite the criticism in his letter to the group Tuesday, he also said the association is “ready to work with Congressional Republicans” on immigration reform.

Nevertheless, he said, Democratic mayors are ready to work with congressional Republicans on “meaningful reforms” to what he called the broken immigration system.

”While we wait for a federal partner who is ready to actually solve the issues we face, Democratic Mayors will continue to keep our communities safe, including from undue fear, and keep our cities and the nation’s economy running,” Bibb wrote in the letter.

The letter comes a day after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced an investigation into sanctuary city policies and invited the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City to testify before Congress next month. Comer also requested documents and information related to those cities’ policies.

“We’ve been witness to continuous attacks on our communities … including a charade of raids in our cities,” Bibb said. “We are not going to join this show of negligence and fear mongering. We are going to state the facts, continue to be examples of our strongest values, and remain focused on solutions.”

Federal workers who don’t want to return to the office will be offered buyouts Tuesday, a Trump administration official told CNN.

The administration has ordered federal workers — many of whom had flexible work arrandments following the pandemic — back to the office to work in person.

Workers who opt to accept the buyout will need to resign by February 6. They would receive severance paid through September 30.

The heads of the federal agencies were told in just the last day that this would be coming, the official said.

Axios was first to report on the buyouts.

Loren AliKhan, Deputy Solicitor General for the District of Columbia, is seen during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2020.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s plans to freeze all federal aid.

The short-term pause issued by US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan prevents the administration from carrying through with its plans to freeze funding for “open awards” already granted by the federal government through at least 5 p.m. ET on Monday.

AliKhan said that the pause serves as “a way of preserving the status quo” while she considers the challenge to it brought by a group of non-profit groups.

“My sense is that the administrative stay … it’s really for the court’s benefit. It’s really for the court to have full briefing” before deciding whether to issue a more lasting block on the government action, she said.

The hastily scheduled hearing — coming minutes before the administration’s plans were set to take effect — at times underscored the confusion surrounding the Trump administration’s freeze announcement hours earlier.

The judge, too, appeared to not understand how the planned freeze would look in practice. She said that even though it wasn’t meant to impact programs like Medicaid, she saw media reports saying Medicaid portals had been down.

“The government doesn’t know the full scope of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause,” AliKhan said after pressing an attorney for the Justice Department on what programs the freeze would apply to.

This post was updated with additional details from the hearing.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to CNN on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.

The Trump administration is aiming for “at least” 75 arrests at each of the 25 field offices nationwide each day, “but hopefully many more” as part of its crackdown on immigration, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday.

CNN previously reported that ICE field offices across the country have been directed to make 75 arrests a day as part of Trump’s pledge to enact the largest deportation operation in the country’s history.

Miller also did not rule out Trump invoking the Insurrection Act at the border. The law allows the president to deploy the military to suppress insurrections and domestic acts of violence.

Miller said the law “is still being considered based on operational needs on the southern border.” He added the law was being considered “specifically in the context of countering that cartel threat.”

Miller argued that the Trump administration’s strict border policies had already disrupted the operations of criminal organizations by curtailing their revenue streams.

Arrests this week: Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported making 969 arrests on Tuesday and lodging 869 detainers. The numbers are updated daily with the count starting at midnight, according to ICE.

The agency said it made 1,179 arrests on Monday and lodged 853 detainers.

This post has been updated with arrest numbers from ICE and additional comments from Miller.

Border Patrol vehicles drive along two border walls separating Mexico from the United States on January 23 in San Diego.

The Trump administration has not made a decision about whether or not to invoke the Insurrection Act to use the military to go after undocumented immigrants in American cities, according to Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy.

Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday that it is not the plan right now to use the US military for immigration enforcement, however, he didn’t rule it out.

He did say that currently, the Insurrection Act is mostly being considered as a way to deal with cartels, but Trump has not decided yet.

Miller, who served as a senior adviser to Trump and was his lead speechwriter during his first administration, has been a leading advocate for a more restrictive immigration policy.

A longtime hardliner on immigration, Miller was instrumental in setting up immigration restrictions during the first Trump administration, advocating for child separation in migrant detention facilities and a travel ban targeting people from majority-Muslim countries.

More about the Insurrection Act: The main provision states that troops can only be deployed to an American state by the president if the governor or state legislature requests it. Another provision of the law, however, outlines that under certain limited circumstances involved in the defense of constitutional rights, the president can send troops unilaterally.

Trump reportedly considered invoking the Act in 2020 to quell protests after the death of George Floyd.

The city of Atlanta is experiencing impacts across the city due to the funding freeze, from funding to affordable housing to salaries and public safety, Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement Tuesday.

Partner agencies are also not able to access portals essential to conducting business, like paying rent and operational costs, he said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the Liacouras Center at Temple University on August 6, 2024 in Philadelphia.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — the former running mate of former Vice President Kamala Harris — called the pause on federal grants and loans a “reckless action,” by the Trump administration.

“It will not stand, it cannot stand,” Walz said Tuesday. “It’s an outrageous power grab.”

Walz said he’s spoken to Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith for help, along with congressional Minnesota leaders.

There’s less than an hour left before the White House budget office freeze on all federal grants and loans goes into effect, potentially impacting trillions in government spending and halting public programs that affect millions of Americans, possibly including Meals on Wheels and some Head Start programs.

A new Office of Management and Budget memo, obtained by CNN on Tuesday, says the freeze is not across the board and is instead targeted to executive orders that address immigration, foreign aid, climate and energy, DEI initiatives, gender identity and abortion.

Here’s what lawmakers on Capitol Hill are saying:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune: The senator defended the decision and said the White House is providing clarity on the scope of the sweeping directive. “I think this is not unusual for an administration to pause funding and to take a hard look and scrub of how these programs, how they’re being spent, and how they interact with a lot of the executive orders that the president signed.”

Senate Republicans:

House Republicans:

What Democrats are saying:

CNN’s Ali Main, Annie Grayer, Kit Maher, Haley Talbot, Aaron Pellish and Manu Raju contributed to this report

Cars make their way heading east out of Los Angeles during the evening rush hour on January 25, 2024.

Some infrastructure and transportation officials are worried about funding that could potentially be put on a pause after the White House budget office ordered the freeze Monday. Still, they are hoping its only temporary, like an executive order sent last week that halted funding for a short period of time.

Marsia Geldert-Murphey, past-president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said when infrastructure projects are delayed, labor gets more expensive. There’s also still an unknown with what projects will be impacted, regardless of whether or not they’ve already been approved of funding.

The orders from the White House are broad but can be interpreted as freezing the bipartisan infrastructure package, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Signed into law in 2021 under the Biden administration, it authorizes $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure funding.

Even after the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo Tuesday limiting the scope of the freeze, many infrastructure projects could be held up because they run counter to the President’s climate and energy policies.

Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said the AASHTO was immediately concerned about the federal aid highway formula programs which account for more than $40 billion a year in funding distributed to states. It is unique in the sense that it’s a reimbursable program, where states are invoiced for work within their transportation system, then can request to be reimbursed for the invoices through the federal government once the work is complete, he said.

The American Public Works Association is checking to see how or if the freeze will affect members and its public works departments across the country, according to Mark Shade, government affairs media manager at the association.