February 2, 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.

Sen. Mitch McConnell arrives at the U.S. Capitol on January 24.

Former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell questioned the decision to place tariffs on the US’ top trading partners during an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. The leaders of all three countries soon announced they would take retaliatory measures.

McConnell also called Trump’s decision to pardon more than 1,000 people charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol a “mistake.”

“I think pardoning the people who’ve been convicted is a mistake,” McConnell said. He dismissed Trump’s claim of the events as a “day of love,” saying, “No, it was an insurrection.”

McConnell became emotional during the interview as he recalled what he told his staff after the attack on the Capitol.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been speaking Sunday with Sen. Bill Cassidy, whose support is crucial for his nomination as Health and Human Services secretary, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Cassidy, a medical doctor who is already facing a primary challenge in 2026, said at Kennedy’s confirmation hearing last week that he was “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination. The Louisiana Republican acknowledged that Kennedy is now trying to downplay his anti-vaccine rhetoric despite an extensive, recorded history of his linking vaccines to autism in children.

“It’s no secret, I have some reservations about your past positions on vaccines and a couple other issues,” Cassidy said. “Your past of undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me. Can I trust that that is now in the past?”

If Cassidy votes against the nomination when the Senate Finance Committee votes Tuesday, it would almost certainly derail Kennedy’s chances from winning the powerful post. But if he supports Kennedy, it would likely be enough to send his nomination to the full Senate.

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House on Thursday in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump is on the verge of hitting America’s three biggest trading partners with sweeping tariffs, a far more aggressive use of his favorite economic weapon than anything he did during his first term.

The looming import taxes on Mexico, Canada and China will be a major test of Trump’s unorthodox use of tariffs, which he’s described as “the greatest thing ever invented.”

It’s an enormous gamble, arguably a bigger one than any economic policy Trump enacted during his four-plus years in the White House. And this strategy has the potential to upend the thing many voters care about the most: the economy and the cost of living.

But Trump’s tariffs pose a big risk: They could backfire, lifting already-high consumer prices at the grocery store, rocking the shaky stock market or killing jobs in a full-blown trade war.

“This may be the biggest own-goal yet,” Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told CNN in a phone interview. “This is a huge gamble. It’s a recipe for slowing down the economy and increasing inflation.”

The Wall Street Journal went a step further, publishing a scathing op-ed on Saturday titled: “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”

Read more analysis here.

President Donald Trump said Sunday he is cutting off all aid to South Africa until a full investigation of the country “confiscating land” is carried out.

“Terrible things are happening in South Africa. The leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things. So that’s under investigation right now,” he later said to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday night.

Trump has long held the complaint, tweeting about the issue in 2018 during his first administration.

Some background: Trump’s complaint goes back to the complex land reform in South Africa.

Racist policies of the past forcefully removed Black and non-White South Africans from the land for White use. There has been a land redistribution and restitution provision in the country’s constitution since South Africa emerged from its apartheid era and held its first democratic elections in 1994.

However, unemployment and poverty remain acute among Black South Africans, who make up around 80% of the population, yet own a fraction of the land.

In January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a bill into law that sets forth new guidelines for land expropriation, including enabling the government to expropriate land without compensation in some cases.

Constitutional protections against expropriation without compensation still remain in place, and experts believe South Africa’s ruling party will face legal challenges if it seeks to implement the policy.

US Marines have arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to “prepare to expand the Migrant Operations Center,” according to a Sunday tweet from the Department of Defense.

Their arrival comes after President Donald Trump signed a memorandum last week directing the federal government to prepare the US Naval base to house tens of thousands of migrants — an effort to uphold a key campaign promise to crackdown on immigration.

The process of expanding the holding facility is expected to last weeks, and is likely to fall short of Trump’s stated goal of 30,000 people, given space constraints, as CNN previously reported.

Earlier Sunday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said it’s “not the plan” to hold migrants at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely.

President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, on Thursday, in Washington.

President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday the US is “going to take” back the Panama Canal or “something very powerful is going to happen.”

Trump’s repeated and publicly stated desire for the US to retake control of the key waterway has already caused a diplomatic stir, with Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino stating that Panama’s sovereignty over the canal is not up for debate.

Some context: There are valid questions about Chinese influence over infrastructure on and around the Panama Canal. Most notably, a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company operates a port at each end of the waterway. But Panama has run the canal itself since the US handed it over to the country in 1999. Specifically, the canal is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, whose administrator, deputy administrator and 11-member board are Panamanians selected by Panama’s government. And other canal ports are operated by companies that are not Chinese — including one run by an American-Panamanian joint venture.

Rubio’s visit: Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Panama this weekend for his first trip as the United States’ top diplomat and met with Mulino on Sunday. Rubio told Mulino that China’s “control” over the Panama Canal may mean the US has to “take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty.”

President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that his administration has “meetings and talks” set with Ukraine, Russia and “various parties.”

CNN has asked the White House for additional details.

Some background: Trump’s comments come after an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a “more in-depth approach” from Kyiv’s allies. Those remarks followed recent comments from the Trump administration that appeared to call for new elections in Ukraine alongside a plan to broker a potential ceasefire deal with Russia.

In a Saturday interview with Reuters, the newly appointed US envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that postponed Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections “need to be done.”

“Most democratic nations have elections in their time of war. I think it is important they do so,” Kellogg told Reuters. “I think it is good for democracy. That’s the beauty of a solid democracy, you have more than one person potentially running.”

Zelensky’s adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said it was hard to “fully assess” Kellogg’s views but warned that “if his plan is just a ceasefire and elections, it is a failed plan.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

President Donald Trump told reporters that he plans to speak with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday morning, less than a day before the US’ tariffs on the country are scheduled to go into effect.

Trudeau said Saturday he’d been trying to reach Trump since the inauguration, but his calls have not been returned.

Trump announced over the weekend that tariffs will amount to a significant 25% duty on all imports from Mexico and most goods from Canada, and a 10% tariff on Chinese goods imported into the United States. The three countries soon announced they would take retaliatory measures.

On Sunday evening, Trump also threatened to enact additional tariffs on the European Union — accusing the EU of being “really out of line.”

“They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing, and we take everything from them, millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products,” Trump said.

Fact check: It’s not true that the EU doesn’t buy US farm products. The US government says the EU bought $12.3 billion worth of US agricultural exports in the 2023 fiscal year, making it the fourth-largest export market for US agricultural and related products.

And according to a December 2023 report from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the EU is the second-largest market for US vehicle exports — importing 271,476 US vehicles in 2022, valued at nearly 9 billion euro.

Amid the expected threat of termination for FBI employees who worked on investigations involving Donald Trump and the January 6, 2021, riot, an FBI agent advocacy group is urging employees not to voluntarily resign.

As CNN reported, thousands of FBI employees received a questionnaire from the Department of Justice on Sunday regarding their involvement in January 6 investigations, which employees believe is meant to gather information in anticipation of firings.

The organization said employees should also indicate: “To the best of my ability and belief, I have performed my duties in accordance with [investigative guidelines], federal statutes and the Constitution of the United States and the matters I worked on were properly predicated under [guidelines] and were opened and investigated at the direction of the Department of Justice.”

A trader works at his desk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the first session of the new year on January 2.

US stock market futures plunged Sunday, one day after President Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on China set to go into effect on Tuesday.

Dow futures were down 1.4%, or more than 600 points, while S&P 500 futures dropped 1.9%. The futures traded for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite were down 2.4% as of 6:36 p.m. ET. Bitcoin was also down 3.5% over the last 24 hours.

Hours after the Trump administration announced the tariffs, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country will impose retaliatory tariffs, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced “far-reaching” retaliatory levies. China’s Commerce Ministry said it will file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and “take corresponding countermeasures,” without elaborating.

Economists warned that American families may bear the burden of these tariffs — and Trump posted to his Truth Social account that Americans could face “some pain.” The tariffs will make groceries more expensive because Mexico and Canada are the main sources of America’s imported agricultural goods. Gas, steel and cars are among other goods expected to be more expensive for American consumers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington, DC, on Sunday for his meeting with President Donald Trump this week, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday, according to the prime minister’s office, making him the first world leader to have a formal meeting with the US president since his inauguration last month.

Netanyahu was welcomed at Blair House, the president’s official guest quarters.

The shadow of a Philippine Army personnel is cast on boxes of relief items from USAID for the victims of super typhoon Haiyan, at Villamor Air Base in Manila on November 13, 2013.

Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have demanded that Secretary of State Marco Rubio explain why Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency officials have been able to access the US Agency for International Development’s main headquarters, “American citizens’ data and classified spaces.”

The letter, dated Sunday, comes after two top security officials at USAID were put on administrative leave for refusing to allow DOGE officials to access the agency’s systems, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Three sources told CNN that the DOGE personnel were eventually able to access the headquarters.

The letter also argues that because Congress created USAID as an independent agency, separate from the Department of State, “any effort to merge or fold USAID into the Department of State should be, and by law must be, previewed, discussed, and approved by Congress.”

On Saturday, USAID’s website went dark, and a new page for the agency appeared on the State Department website. USAID’s X account also went offline.

A general view of the Department of Education headquarters in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2019.

Dozens of employees at the Education Department were placed on paid administrative leave Friday as part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to rid the federal workforce of employees associated with diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts, two sources familiar with the move told CNN.

The department sent letters to employees informing them that their email accounts were being suspended but that they would continue to receive paychecks for an indefinite period, the sources said.

The department cited guidance from the White House’s Office of Personnel and Management, issued on January 21, that directed government agencies to notify “all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.”

At least 55 Education Department employees, including senior-level career workers who have served at the agency for decades, were notified Friday night that they’d been placed on paid leave, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing the agency’s career officials.

According to the union, these employees do not hold job titles nor official duties related to DEIA. But Sheria Smith, union president for Department of Education career employees, told CNN the employees had attended a two-day diversity training seminar in 2019 during the first Trump administration “that was required for senior-level employees and strongly encouraged for others,” as well as similar training under the Biden administration.

Read more here.

The Panamanian president said a migrant repatriation flight agreement with the United States could be expanded, but the US would have to shoulder the costs.

Panamanian authorities spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday about the possibility of expanding the US-funded program to remove foreign nationals who don’t have the legal basis to be in Panama, President José Raúl Mulino said.

The program, signed in July, aims to reduce irregular migration through the Darien Gap, a mountainous rainforest region connecting South and Central America. The 66-mile (106-kilometer) hike through the Darien Gap brings migrants from Colombia to Panama and is a crucial passage for those hoping to reach the United States and Canada.

Mulino said Sunday that those who will be repatriated could include migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and elsewhere.

Venezuelan migrants wait in line for food from a food truck at a migrant processing center on May 9, 2023 in Denver, Colorado.

The Trump administration ended a form of humanitarian relief for Venezuelans already residing in the United States, according to a Homeland Security official, marking the latest in a series of moves to strip temporary protections for certain migrants.

Some Venezuelans granted what’s known as Temporary Protected Status in 2023 will lose protections in April after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decided not to grant an extension. Republicans have argued the program, meant to be temporary, has allowed migrants to remain in the US for longer periods.

The move comes days after the administration reversed a Biden-era decision that extended deportation protections for Venezuelans, issuing a major blow to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who anticipated having those protections until at least the fall of 2026.

In its final days, the Biden administration extended Temporary Protected Status, which applies to people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict or natural disasters, for hundreds of thousands of immigrants residing in the United States.

That extension, which was rolled back by Noem, would have shielded Venezuelans from deportation for another 18 months and allowed them to remain in the US with work permits.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said his country would not renew a 2017 memorandum of understanding to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, suggesting the agreement could end early. He said Panama would seek to work with the US on new investments, including infrastructure projects.

Mulino reiterated on Sunday that the country’s sovereignty over the Panama Canal was not up for debate, saying that he addressed the United States’ concerns over China’s presence around the canal during talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

According to a readout of the meeting, Rubio had informed Mulino and Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez that China’s “control” over the Panama Canal may mean the US has to “take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty.”

Mulino said Sunday he doesn’t think there is a real risk that the US would use military force to retake the canal, despite President Donald Trump threatening to do so.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government would announce details on its retaliatory tariffs on US goods on Monday.

Sheinbaum previously said the plan would include tariff and non-tariff measures in response to the US imposing a series of tariffs, including a 25% duty on all imports from Mexico. The US’ steep tariffs are expected to take effect on Tuesday.

Sheinbaum rejected the Trump administration’s accusation that Mexico’s government has ties to drug cartels and said the US has done little to fight drug trafficking.

She also addressed Mexican migrants in the US, saying her country would welcome them if they decide to return.

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Justice Department is instructing thousands of FBI employees to provide information about their work investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, multiple sources told CNN.

On Sunday, employees who were identified as taking part in the massive January 6 case began receiving a questionnaire requiring them to explain their role in the investigation.

The questionnaire sent Sunday has caused consternation among FBI employees, who fear it will be used to amass of list of people to be fired for their work on cases involving January 6 rioters and Donald Trump, sources said.

Some background: The unusual demand for FBI employees to explain their role in an investigation comes as CNN has reported the Trump Justice Department is considering expanding its purge of bureau personnel.

Leaders of the FBI were instructed Friday to provide the Justice Department by Tuesday information about all current and former bureau employees who “at any time” worked on January 6 investigations, according to an email from acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll and obtained by CNN.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will visit Joint Task Force North in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, according to the Pentagon, to meet with military members working to support the Trump administration’s crackdown on the US-Mexico border.

Hegseth, who was narrowly confirmed by the Senate last month, has reiterated his support for Trump’s hardline immigration policy. On Friday, the Pentagon announced it is preparing to deploy around 1,000 additional active-duty troops to help border protection efforts.