January 21, 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.

Commuters flow past the Meta sign in Mountain View, California, on November 9, 2022.

Facebook and Instagram users may be surprised to find posts from President Donald Trump or Vice President JD Vance on their feeds, but the routine transfer of ownership of the White House, president and vice president’s pages happens every four years, according to Meta.

Spokesperson Andy Stone addressed the confusion in a post on X on Tuesday, explaining Meta’s standard practice during presidential transitions.

Stone wrote that the “POTUS” and “White House” accounts “are managed by the White House and they change when the occupant of the White House changes.” If users followed these accounts during one administration, they will continue to follow them even when the administration turns over.

Upon taking office, Trump and his team gained access to a list of official government accounts across Facebook and Instagram, including @POTUS, @WhiteHouse, @VP and @FLOTUS. The accounts of previous administrations are archived, as are their posts and followers. The followers are then transferred to the new official accounts hence why users see the move as “automatic.”

Users can expect this transfer across nearly all branches of government under new leadership and again in four years.

The US Department of Health and Human Services sign in Washington, DC, on February 9, 2024.

The Trump administration has asked federal health agencies to pause external communications, such as regular scientific reports, updates to websites and health advisories, according to sources within the agencies.

The orders were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the US Department of Health and Human Services, including to officials at the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the story.

The direction came without warning and with little guidance as to what it covered, according to sources inside the affected agencies who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to share the information. One source said the reason for the pause and its duration were not communicated.

A source familiar with the directive said that, while it wasn’t entirely unheard of for an incoming administration to ask for a pause to review information before it’s publicly released, the scope of the order appeared to be unusual.

Some background: America’s health agencies routinely release information on food recalls, drug and medical device approvals, as well as updates on evolving public health threats, including natural disasters and infectious diseases.

The direction was given by Stefanie Spear, a deputy chief of staff at HHS who joined the agency this week, according to the Post. Spear was the press secretary for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2024 presidential campaign. Kennedy is Trump’s pick for HHS secretary but must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming the role.

The White House has released a “fact sheet” on an executive order ending DEI consideration in federal contracting and “directing federal agencies to relentlessly combat private sector discrimination.”

The order “enforces long-standing federal statutes and faithfully advances the Constitution’s promise of colorblind equality before the law,” the White House said.

Here’s a look at the actions of the executive order from the White House “fact sheet”:

A sign stands outside of the Theodore Roosevelt Building, headquarters of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in Washington, D.C., on June 5, 2015.

Employees in any Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility offices will be placed on paid administrative leave “effective immediately,” according to a post from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

A memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management instructed agencies on Tuesday to notify DEI staffers “no later than 5:00pm EST on Wednesday” that they were being placed on administrative leave effective immediately as “the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.”

The memo also directs agencies to remove the offices’ websites and social media accounts and to cancel any DEI-related trainings.

The move comes just one day after Trump signed an executive order banning DEI programs. On a briefing call with reporters Monday, an official pledged yesterday’s executive order would “dismantle the DEI bureaucracy, and this includes environmental justice programs, equity related grants, equity action plan, equity initiatives.”

CBS News first reported the memo.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivers a sermon during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who called for President Donald Trump to “have mercy on the people in the country who are scared” during a sermon Tuesday, said she did it to speak on their behalf.

Buddle used her sermon at the National Cathedral’s interfaith service earlier Tuesday to plead with the president to have mercy on immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community.

Budde, who serves as the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, is an “advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation,” according to the church’s webpage.

Following the sermon, Trump criticized Budde’s remarks to reporters, saying he “didn’t think it was a good service.”

Budde said that Trump’s response was respectful.

“He didn’t like it. He said so, he said we could do better. Some of the other comments I’ve received haven’t been as kind or has been as muted, shall we say. And one of the things I was trying to get across is that we can actually have these conversations in a respectful way,” she said.

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Bishop who pleaded to Trump for mercy on immigrants speaks out

05:38 • Source: CNN

Bishop who pleaded to Trump for mercy on immigrants speaks out

05:38

A seal reading "Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation" is displayed on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, DC, on August 9, 2022.

The Trump administration is paving the way for promised changes at the FBI, assigning Tom Ferguson, a former FBI agent who served as an aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, to return to the agency that Trump claims has become politicized, according to people briefed on the matter.

Jordan is one of the FBI’s harshest critics and led a subcommittee focused on so-called weaponization in the bureau and other agencies.

Ferguson is one of several new civilian hires at the FBI since Trump took office Monday that officials say are expected to help prepare for the arrival of Kash Patel, whose nomination for FBI director is awaiting Senate confirmation.

It’s unclear what Ferguson’s specific position would be, but he is expected to serve as an adviser to Patel, the sources said.

The FBI declined a request for comment on the new hires.

Ferguson worked at the FBI for more than 22 years, according to his LinkedIn profile, including as a Supervisory Special Agent. He left the agency in 2022. Since then, Ferguson worked as a senior advisor on the House Judiciary Committee for almost two years, his LinkedIn profile shows, and assisted the House Task Force investigating the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Posts on Ferguson’s account show him railing against socialism, “woke” ideology, and what he says is political overreach from leftist politicians and activists.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump is off and running on his first full day in office on Tuesday.

Trump kicked off his term with a series of sweeping immigration executive actions, including language that leaves the door open for him to invoke the Insurrection Act at the southern border. State and city officials have been making preparations for the inevitable immigration crackdown.

In Congress — where Republicans control both chambers — leaders are working to figure out how to pass Trump’s full agenda and quickly confirm key Cabinet nominees.

Here are the top headlines today:

Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the website Silk Road, appears in an undated photograph presented as an exhibit during his 2015 criminal trial in New York federal court.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that had granted a pardon to the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace.

Ross William Ulbricht, who was accused of creating the shadowy e-commerce site the Justice Department had described as “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today,” had been serving a life sentence on charges related to the operation.

“I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump called Ulbricht’s sentence “ridiculous,” claiming that it was disproportionate to the crime. He went on to express frustration with the legal figures involved in Ulbricht’s conviction, referring to them as “scum” and accusing them of being among the same individuals responsible for the “weaponization of government” against him during his time in office.

The FBI shut down Silk Road in October 2013 and arrested Ulbricht after he allegedly posted his email address online. He was found guilty in February 2015 on a variety of charges including money laundering, drug trafficking and computer hacking.

Trump’s act of clemency makes good on a campaign promise. In May 2024, Trump pledged in remarks to the Libertarian Convention in Washington, DC, to commute Ulbricht’s sentence immediately upon taking office.

The Southern District of New York declined to comment on the pardon. CNN has reached out to Bharara.

CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

A central part of President Donald Trump’s meeting with House and Senate GOP leadership was about the future of disaster aid and how to pay for it, according to a person in the room.

Trump spoke extensively about aid for California’s wildfires and disasters in North Carolina. He also talked about how and whether to pay for what is expected to be billions of dollars.

Multiple GOP leaders stressed they needed to be “cognizant of how we pay for the bills.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s message, according to the attendee, about the next Congress: “We have got to get our spending under control.”

GOP Rep. Don Bacon said Tuesday that he disagrees with President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon people accused of committing violent acts at the Capitol on January 6, including those who assaulted police officers.

“Some of those who went inside the Capitol with the open door. There was no violence, no vandalism, I could see showing mercy to someone in that kind of situation,” he told CNN.

Trump signed a proclamation Monday pardoning nearly all 1,270 people convicted in the January 6 attack, directing the Justice Department to drop about 300 pending cases, and ordering the release of a small group of 14 other defendants who were charged in the most serious sedition cases.

Bacon said he thinks the pardons “should be more targeted.”

Asked about the message sent to Capitol police officers, Bacon said he supports law enforcement.

“I watched rocks being thrown and … getting hit with metal objects and a metal trash can being thrown. There’s a lot of different videos out there, and you can’t go doing that,” he said.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been directed to hold migrants in custody and not release them, even if that means they’ll keep them longer, in an attempt to swiftly remove those who aren’t eligible for asylum, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN.

On Tuesday morning, CBP informed the Catholic Charities of San Diego they will no longer be releasing migrants to their care, its CEO Appaswamy “Vino” Pajanor told CNN.

The federal agency only provided an explanation saying that “policy has changed at the federal level,” Pajanor said. His non-profit used to receive an average of 200 to 300 migrant daily, he said.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized what Republicans call “catch and release,” referring to a practice of releasing migrants into the US while they wait for their immigration court date. On Monday, Trump said during his inaugural address: “I will end the practice of catch and release.”

CNN has reached out to CBP along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for comment.

Spain on Tuesday defended its contributions to NATO after US President Donald Trump criticized it for not spending enough on defense — and mistook it for a member of the BRICS bloc of emerging economies.

Trump appeared to confuse Spain with another country after being asked by a journalist about countries that do not spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense — the target minimum for members of the NATO alliance.

“Spain is very low,” Trump said Monday in reference to the country’s defense spending, before going on to wrongly identify it as a member of the BRICS bloc, which he has threatened to impose high tariffs on.

Spain’s Education Minister Pilar Alegría corrected the mistake, and said Spain was the eighth-biggest economic contributor to the alliance, with more than 3,800 troops deployed.

“We have demonstrated from the beginning that we are a loyal, responsible and above all committed partner … We will continue with that commitment,” she said.

Remember: While Spain does not belong to the BRICS bloc — named after the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — it is a member of NATO. According to the military alliance, it spent 1.28% of its GDP on defense last year.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday.

Trump administration officials rolled out a spate of policies Tuesday that are expected to pave the way for the president’s deportation pledge by giving federal immigration officers more authority and casting a wider net of undocumented immigrants who can be swiftly removed.

White House border czar Tom Homan told CNN’s Dana Bash Tuesday that targeted enforcement operations by ICE were already happening, but this time, he argued, agents have greater latitude.

Former President Joe Biden’s enforcement priorities that Trump officials said set up too many hurdles to arresting individual were rescinded. A new directive was issued allowing ICE to conduct enforcement actions in or near sensitive areas like schools and churches. And the pool of undocumented immigrants who could be subject to a fast-track deportation procedure was expanded.

Combined, the policies begin to paint a picture of how the Trump administration plans to carry out its deportation operation.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” acting Homeland Security secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a statement.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Trump administration also brought back a 2019 policy to swiftly deport undocumented immigrants.

Officials expanded a procedure to speed up deportations to include undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US who cannot prove they’ve lived in the US continuously for two years or more.

The fast-track deportation procedure, known as “expedited removal,” allows immigration authorities to remove an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge. In doing so, the administration is provided greater latitude in quickly deporting undocumented immigrants.

Pete Hegseth is seen walking after a meeting in the Russell Senate Office Building on December 17, 2024.

Pete Hegseth’s former sister-in-law gave an affidavit to the Senate Armed Services Committee, accusing him of being “abusive” toward his second ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, according to a copy of the affidavit obtained by CNN.

The allegations against Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, became public Tuesday, a week after his confirmation hearing and one day after the Senate Armed Services Committee approved his nomination on a party-line vote, sending it to the full Senate.

Danielle Hegseth, who was married to Hegseth’s brother from 2011 to 2019, did not specify the nature of the abuse and said she did “not personally witness physical or sexual abuse by Hegseth.

Danielle Hegseth wrote that Samantha Hegseth at times feared for her safety, and she said that Samantha Hegseth had a code word if she needed help to get away from her husband.

She once received a text from Samantha Hegseth with the code word sometime in 2015 or 2016, she added. The affidavit also alleged that she witnessed Hegseth abusing alcohol at multiple family gatherings, and that she also witnessed him drinking to excess in public twice during 2013.

CNN has reached out to Samantha Hegseth for comment. She said in a statement to NBC News, which first reported the affidavit: “There was no physical abuse in my marriage. This is the only further statement I will make to you, I have let you know that I am not speaking and will not speak on my marriage to Pete. Please respect this decision.”

Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Pete Hegseth, said in a statement that Danielle Hegseth is a lifelong Democrat and used to pick fights with family because she was a Democrat.

Samantha Hegseth filed for divorce from Pete Hegseth in 2017, one month after Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet gave birth to Hegseth’s baby. Hegseth and Rauchet married in 2019. Records from the divorce case show the couple accused each other of saying hurtful things to their children about the other parent. A judge’s order filed in the divorce stated, “Neither parent claims to be a victim of domestic abuse.”

Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies during his Senate Armed Services confirmation on January 14.

Hegseth’s nomination has already been endangered by allegations including sexual assault and excessive drinking in the workplace that emerged after he was selected by Trump to lead the Pentagon in November. Hegseth has repeatedly denied all allegations of misconduct, including having a drinking problem, but has said he would not drink while serving as secretary of defense if he’s confirmed.

While the vote is expected to be close, there’s no indication yet whether the new allegations would impact Hegseth’s chances of winning confirmation.

CNN’s Paula Reid, Jim Scuitto, Natasha Bertrand, Kit Maher, Curt Devine and Ali Main contributed to this story.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that even more tariffs could be coming as soon as next week: This time China was his target, as Trump threatened to unleash a wave of higher taxes on imports from America’s second-biggest trading partner.

In an Oval Office news conference that echoed similar off-the-cuff remarks on Monday, Trump said that he is considering a 10% across-the-board tariff on all Chinese goods starting as early as February 1. On Monday, Trump threatened 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada but deflected on China, noting that former President Joe Biden left in place extensive tariffs that Trump imposed during his first administration.

It’s unclear what prompted such a rapid change in Trump’s tariff policy, although he had promised as much as a 60% tariff on all goods imported from China during his campaign. Trump said Tuesday that too much fentanyl is coming into the United States from China via Mexico and Canada and that the threat of tariffs could get China to crack down on the deadly drug.

Read more about Trump’s tariffs

Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of Donald Trump at the Capitol on Monday.

President Donald Trump expressed his openness to the idea of Elon Musk purchasing TikTok during remarks from the White House.

When asked if he would support the tech mogul acquiring the app, Trump responded, “I would be.” Trump also emphasized the significance of securing a US government permit for the social media platform, claiming that without it, TikTok is essentially “worthless.”

Trump claimed he met with “the big owners” of the app and detailed a potential deal in which TikTok’s value could soar to “a trillion dollars” if the US granted the necessary permits.

“I met with owners of TikTok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit. It’s not like, Oh, you could take the US. The whole thing is worthless with a permit. It’s worth, like, a trillion dollars. So, what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit,” Trump proposed.

According to Trump, this arrangement would make TikTok more valuable by aligning with the US government as a strategic partner, ensuring long-term profitability and success.

Hours after his inauguration Monday, Trump issued an executive order delaying for 75 days the enforcement of a controversial law, which requires that TikTok be banned in the US unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies.

Trump in recent days has repeatedly suggested that he could be open to an American buyer purchasing half of the company and running it as a 50-50 joint venture with its current Chinese owner ByteDance.

CNN’s Simone McCarthy contributed to this report.

The nation’s top police organizations say they are “deeply discouraged” by the pardons granted recently by President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden.

On his first day back in the White House, Trump pardoned individuals who committed violence against police officers during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

He issued full pardons to approximately 1,500 people, dropped charges for those with prosecutions still pending in courts and commuted the sentences of 14 people, including the high-profile leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted for their roles in the attack.

President Joe Biden, in the final hours of his presidency, issued a commutation to Leonard Peltier, an indigenous activist who was convicted in the killing of two FBI agents in 1975. The commutation says the 80-year-old will serve the remainder of his sentence at home.

Stewart Rhodes speaks during a rally outside the White House in 2017.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the right-wing Oath Keepers who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for actions around the January 6 US Capitol attack, said he had no regrets and continued to claim the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump hours after his presidential commutation.

Rhodes was convicted of several counts including seditious conspiracy after a long and winding trial where prosecutors showed the jury hundreds of messages between Rhodes and his fellow Oath Keepers discussing how to keep Trump in power. The group also set up a “quick reaction force” in Virginia on January 6, where they stored numerous guns.

Rhodes, who was released from federal prison in Maryland, said outside of the prison Tuesday he may “hang up my spurs” from the Oath Keepers. But when asked about violence against police that day, he said that Trump supporters were “provoked” by police.

Still, when asked how he feels now about the events of January 6, Rhodes said it was a “mix” and that he didn’t think people should have entered the Capitol because it made it difficult to challenge the results in a procedural way.

Rhodes also said entering the Capitol that day was “understandable” because people were mad over the stolen election.

“I always knew he was going to do it,” Rhodes said of Trump’s pardons.

The Capitol Building is seen on January 2.

Top GOP leaders returned from the White House on Tuesday vowing to move quickly on President Donald Trump’s agenda, with the House planning to try to advance his massive agenda in one major piece of bill they hope to pass this spring.

Scalise and other top Republicans plan to use the budget process — known on Capitol Hill as reconciliation — that can’t be filibustered in the Senate, meaning it can pass with just GOP votes.

But the leaders haven’t reached an agreement on how to move on some of the more complicated items, such as raising the national debt limit and avoiding the nation’s first-ever default. Plus, they expect the White House to request an emergency aid package to respond to the California wildfires, but it’s unclear how GOP leaders will handle that request or what conditions they’ll attach to it.

Yet, sequencing the bills has been a source of debate between House leaders and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has pushed for a narrower bill that includes immigration and energy measures and to wait on moving a more complicated tax overhaul to a later date.

Returning from the White House, Thune would not commit to a one-bill strategy for passing the president’s agenda, instead saying it is “predicated on what we can get done.”

Speaker Mike Johnson declined to comment on how they would proceed with the Trump agenda, but he said: “We do have a strategy that we’re all working on together. It will be bicameral and there’s a lot of excitement about that.”