Schooling division plans to chop half its workforce as Trump vows to wind company down – US politics reside | Trump administration
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Schooling division to chop half its workers as Trump vows to wind the company down
The US schooling division stated on Tuesday it could lay off almost half its workers, a potential precursor to closing altogether, as authorities businesses scrambled to satisfy president Donald Trump’s deadline to submit plans for a second spherical of mass layoffs.
The terminations are a part of the division’s “ultimate mission,” it stated in a press launch, alluding to Trump’s vow to eradicate the division, which oversees $1.6tn in school loans, enforces civil rights legal guidelines in colleges and gives federal funding for needy districts.
Requested on Fox Information whether or not the firings would result in the division’s dismantling, secretary of schooling Linda McMahon stated “sure,” including that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would go away the division with 2,183 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January, experiences Reuters.
Earlier than asserting the layoffs, the company ordered places of work within the Washington space closed to workers from Tuesday night by way of Wednesday, based on an inner discover seen by Reuters.
An schooling division spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to questions by Reuters in regards to the nature of the safety points prompting the closures.
The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by Elon Musk and his division of presidency effectivity (Doge).
All US authorities businesses have been ordered to provide you with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the following part of Trump’s cost-cutting marketing campaign. A number of businesses have provided staff funds to retire early to fulfil Trump’s demand, experiences Reuters.
Affected schooling division staff shall be positioned on administrative depart beginning on 21 March, the division stated.
Extra on that in a second. In different developments:
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The union representing greater than 2,800 division employees stated it could combat the “draconian cuts” of the schooling division. “What is obvious from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the hundreds of employees who’ve devoted their careers to serve their fellow People,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Authorities Staff Native 252.
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Donald Trump’s commerce battle kicked into the next gear at midnight, as 25% tariffs on all imported metal and aluminum have been scheduled to start. There was widespread confusion about whether or not the tariffs could be delayed, or elevated, amid conflicting statements from the president and his chief commerce adviser, however the White Home stated that the beforehand delayed tariffs would start, even because the inventory marker plunges.
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The detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a authorized everlasting resident, stays in federal custody, regardless of being charged with no crime. Khalil’s spouse stated in a press release earlier than a listening to on Wednesday in Manhattan that he was compelled into an unmarked automotive by immigration officers who refused to indicate a warrant.
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The Republican-controlled US Home of Representatives handed a stopgap funding invoice, which might avert a authorities shutdown if it additionally handed the Senate earlier than midnight on Friday.
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Ukraine agreed to just accept a US proposal for an instantaneous 30-day ceasefire and to take steps towards restoring a sturdy peace after Russia’s invasion, based on a joint assertion by US and Ukrainian delegations assembly in Saudi Arabia. Russia has not commented.
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Canada’s prime minister-designate Mark Carney stated he wouldn’t carry retaliatory tariffs on American items till Washington does the identical.
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At Tuesday’s promotional occasion for Elon Musk’s line of Tesla electrical automobiles on the White Home, Trump refused to drive one of many automobiles, and scoffed at the concept that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had accomplished so at an analogous occasion. There may be video of Biden doing so, in August 2021, at an occasion to advertise electrical automobiles that Musk reportedly was offended at being excluded from over anti-union insurance policies.
Key occasions
Understanding what’s on the thoughts of Donald Trump is a tough factor to do, however it’s honest to say that Republican congressman Thomas Massie seems to at the moment be dwelling lease free in his head.
The president was up into the wee hours of this morning, attacking the Kentucky lawmaker. Why? As a result of he was the only no vote on the Home GOP’s authorities funding invoice yesterday. On Reality Social, his most popular technique of communication regardless of his X account being reactivated, Trump wrote this, at 1.23am:
So Massie can vote for Debt Ceiling AND Funds to be put into the Trump Administration, making them each the Republicans drawback and accountability, however can’t give us a easy Persevering with Decision vote permitting us the time essential to provide you with a “GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL??? Republicans solely “NO Vote. GRANDSTANDER!
The “GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” Trump is referring to is a forthcoming piece of laws he expects Congress to provide that may enact his administration’s priorities, together with extending tax cuts, paying for mass deportations and approving vitality insurance policies that spur oil and gasoline manufacturing.
Passing that invoice is predicted to be a tricky haul for the Republican-controlled Congress, notably within the Home, the place the GOP’s margin is a small as a single seat. A defection by Massie, and maybe different lawmakers, might imperil that upcoming laws’s prospects of enactment, and thus, Trump is warning him and anybody else who oppose the celebration’s line that he’ll assault them personally in the event that they resist.
We’ll be seeing Donald Trump a bit earlier then typical this morning, when he welcomes Micheál Martin, the taoiseach of Eire, to the White Home at 10.45am.
They’re anticipated to take a couple of questions earlier than retiring for conferences. Trump later goes to the US Capitol for the Buddies of Eire Luncheon, then again to the White Home for a St Patrick’s Day reception with Martin.
Huge day for Eire in Washington. Additionally, many alternatives for Trump to take questions from the press and weigh in on no matter it’s that may be on his thoughts.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, stated on Wednesday that the minerals deal will give the US a “vested curiosity’” in Ukraine’s safety.
He added that Europeans will “should be concerned” in Ukraine diplomacy, based on Agence France-Presse.
We now have a separate weblog overlaying the most recent information in Europe, together with the ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine, and you may observe it right here:
This explainer by my colleague, Abené Clayton, breaks down who Mehmet Oz, Trump’s decide to steer Medicare and Medicaid, is and gives a timeline of his questionable medical recommendation and time in politics:
US senator Warren calls for Medicare nominee Mehmet Oz sever trade ties
Donald Trump’s nominee to steer the company overseeing Medicare ought to divest monetary ties to healthcare and pharmaceutical firms that might profit from his coverage choices, Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren stated on Wednesday, based on Reuters.
Tv character and surgeon Mehmet Oz is scheduled to seem on Friday earlier than the Senate finance committee, on which Warren sits. The panel will maintain a affirmation listening to for his nomination to be administrator of the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies (CMS), a wide-reaching company with annual spending of $2.6tn.
In a letter addressed to him seen by Reuters, Warren referred to as on Oz to divest from his monetary holdings associated to industries regulated by the company and decide to sturdy ethics safeguards.
Oz owns healthcare shares in UnitedHealth Group, which administers Medicare Benefit plans, and drugmakers Abbvie and Eli Lilly, which manufacture medicine the company negotiates costs for, his newest ethics disclosure reveals. He owns shares and serves as adviser to a number of firms promoting dietary dietary supplements, medical diagnostic applied sciences and botanical merchandise, in addition to a cardiology apply and a retirement resort, experiences Reuters.
Oz has provided to divest a lot of that and resign his advisory posts, Warren famous with appreciation. “Nonetheless, given your shut ties to the trade that you’d regulate, if you’re confirmed, the general public would have purpose to query your impartiality and dedication to serving the general public’s curiosity,” she wrote, based on Reuters.
Oz should absolutely divest from these conflicts and pledge to not use his place to counterpoint himself or his enterprise associates, she stated. This is able to exceed the legally required divestment. She additionally referred to as for Oz to decide to a four-year lobbying ban after leaving his submit.
Warren has been profitable in getting info out of Trump’s nominees; she pressed secretary of well being and human providers Robert F Kennedy Jr on his conflicts in an analogous letter that led to his updating his ethics settlement and revealing additional conflicts.
Reuters experiences that the letter is unlikely to have an effect on Oz’s probabilities of getting confirmed. Republicans management the Senate and have up to now allowed even essentially the most controversial of Trump’s nominees to sail by way of the method.
The company runs Medicare, the federal medical health insurance programme for individuals aged 65 or older and disabled individuals, and oversees Medicaid, the state-based medical health insurance programme for low-income individuals. The 2 programmes present medical health insurance for greater than 140 million individuals within the US. It additionally runs the primary programme for income-based government-subsidised medical health insurance beneath the Inexpensive Care Act (ACA), also called Obamacare. Oz would take over at a time when Republicans are proposing deep cuts to Medicaid, experiences Reuters.
Peter Beaumont
A rising worldwide transfer to boycott the US is spreading from Scandinavia to Canada to the UK and past as customers flip in opposition to US items.
Most distinguished up to now has been the rejection by European automotive consumers of the Teslas produced by Elon Musk, now a distinguished determine in Trump’s administration as the pinnacle of the “division of presidency effectivity” a particular group created by Trump that has contributed to the precipitous declines in Tesla’s share value. About 15% of its worth was worn out on Monday alone.
The autumn in Tesla gross sales in Europe has been effectively documented, as has a Canadian client boycott in response to commerce tariffs and Trump’s requires Canada to change into America’s 51st state, however the previous week has seen each day experiences of cultural and different types of boycotts and disinvestment.
In Canada, the place the American nationwide anthem has been booed throughout hockey matches with US groups, a slew of apps has emerged with names reminiscent of “purchase beaver”, “maple scan” and “is that this Canadian” to permit consumers to scan QR barcodes and reject US produce from alcohol to pizza toppings.
Figures launched this week recommended the variety of Canadians taking street journeys to the US – representing the vast majority of Canadians who usually go to – had dropped by 23% in contrast with February 2024, based on Statistics Canada.
Whereas Canada and Mexico have been on the frontline of Trump’s commerce battle, the boycott motion is seen far past international locations whose economies have been focused.
In Sweden, about 40,000 customers have joined a Fb group calling for a boycott of US firms – satirically together with Fb itself – which options alternate options to US client merchandise.
“I’ll change as many American items as I can and if many achieve this, it should clearly have an effect on the provision in shops,” wrote one member of the group.
Congressional brinkmanship, together with repeated near-misses with shutdowns and over the nation’s $36 trillion in debt, has contributed to international scores businesses’ strikes to downgrade the US federal authorities’s once-pristine credit standing, experiences Reuters.
Democrats have lengthy chided Republicans for threatening or voting for presidency shutdowns, and Republicans have been fast to name them out for contemplating votes that might danger one.
“Whereas Senate Republicans are working exhausting to forestall a authorities shutdown, it should in the end be as much as Senate Democrats to determine whether or not or not they prove the lights on the federal authorities,” Republican Senate majority chief John Thune of South Dakota stated on X.
Hours earlier than the Home handed its measure on Tuesday, Senate Democrats huddled behind closed doorways in an prolonged lunchtime dialogue on their manner ahead, cognizant that Republicans have been poised responsible them for a shutdown in the event that they block the Home-passed invoice, experiences Reuters.
With out motion by Congress, present federal funds run out at midnight Friday for businesses that oversee programmes for veterans, regulation enforcement, medical researchers, colleges, air site visitors controllers and plenty of others.
Prime Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer’s workplace didn’t reply to requests for touch upon how he deliberate to proceed, accoding to Reuters.
Different Democrats stated they have been not sure on their path ahead. “The very last thing on the planet I need to do is give Elon Musk extra energy than he already has” by voting for this funding invoice, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut instructed reporters after the Home vote. “He’s an unelected autocrat.”
However Blumenthal stated there have been further concerns to weigh earlier than deciding how he’ll vote on the spending invoice.
Nonetheless, different Senate Democrats final week made clear that they don’t favour voting for presidency shutdowns beneath any circumstance, based on Reuters.
Home Republicans have rejected a proposal by a number of Democrats and even some main Senate Republicans to take a center floor by passing a 30-day extension of funding to present the time wanted to finish the common appropriations payments which are extra complete.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut stated he would possibly suggest “some sort of open modification course of” which might give Senate Democrats an opportunity to make adjustments to the invoice.
US Senate Democrats have been wrestling on Wednesday with how to answer a stopgap funding invoice handed by the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives, selecting between voting for a invoice lots of them oppose or permitting a authorities shutdown, experiences Reuters.
President Donald Trump’s Republicans maintain a 53-47 Senate majority, however would wish the assist of no less than some Democrats to satisfy the chamber’s 60-vote threshold to move most laws. It might vote on the measure as quickly as Wednesday, relying on Democrats’ plans, a supply acquainted with the Senate Republican discussions stated.
“There’s a whole lot of dialogue,” stated Senator Angus King, an impartial who caucuses with the Democrats. The Maine lawmaker summed up the selection as voting for “a fairly unhealthy” invoice or casting a vote that will set off a partial authorities shutdown starting on Saturday, at a time when Trump and his adviser Elon Musk are already shifting quickly to slash the federal authorities.
“In the event you’re coping with individuals who would simply as quickly have a shutdown, there’s much less likelihood of getting one thing,” King stated. “They may say we’re going to let the federal government shutdown for months.”
Home Republicans move Trump-backed invoice to keep away from shutdown and ship it to the Senate
Joseph Gedeon
Home Republicans pulled off a close to party-line vote on Tuesday to move their controversial funding invoice to curb the looming authorities shutdown, delivery it off to the Senate, the place it nonetheless will face an uphill battle to move.
The Trump-backed invoice handed 217 to 213, with the Kentucky consultant Thomas Massie casting the only Republican “no” vote, becoming a member of all virtually all Home Democrats who had come out exhausting in opposition to it for slashing social packages and granting the Trump administration broader federal powers. The Democrat Jared Golden of Maine joined Republicans in backing the measure.
The stopgap invoice, revealed by Home Republican management over the weekend, would fund the federal government by way of September and carves $13bn from non-defense spending whereas including $6bn to navy budgets and preserving a $20bn IRS funding freeze – priorities embraced by Donald Trump however denounced by Democrats as an assault on weak People.
The vice-president, JD Vance, in a Tuesday huddle with Republicans on the Hill stated the blame would fall squarely on the Republicans ought to they fail to move the measure, based on Politico.
The Home heads to recess later this week, leaving lawmakers within the Senate with a take-it-or-leave it situation.
The invoice’s priorities align intently with Trump’s agenda, notably its provisions that might grant the administration broader authority to redirect funds between packages – an influence Democrats worry might enable vital reshaping of federal priorities with out congressional approval.
Home Republicans have been dashing to move the invoice earlier than Thursday, once they would then hand the measure off to the Senate earlier than heading house for a week-and-a-half lengthy recess.
The Kremlin stated on Wednesday it wanted to be briefed by the USA on the end result of US-Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia earlier than it could touch upon whether or not a proposed ceasefire was acceptable to Russia.
In line with Reuters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov additionally instructed reporters he didn’t rule out the opportunity of a telephone name between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, which he stated might be organised in a short time if wanted.
Schooling division layoffs met with swift condemnation from Democratic and progressive officers
Abené Clayton
The announcement that the US Division of Schooling intends to put off almost half of its workforce has been met with swift condemnation from Democratic and progressive officers. The Texas consultant Greg Casar wrote in a submit on X that these in cost have been “Stealing from our youngsters to pay for tax cuts for billionaires”.
In a press release, Rosa DeLauro, the rating member of the Home appropriations committee, stated:
Presidents Trump and Musk and their billionaire buddies are so indifferent from how People reside that they can not see how ending public schooling and canceling these contracts kills the American Dream … If youngsters from working-class households wouldn’t have entry to colleges, how can they construct a future?”
Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to shut the Division of Schooling, claiming it had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots and Marxists”. At schooling secretary Linda McMahon’s affirmation listening to, she acknowledged that solely Congress had the facility to abolish the company however stated it may be due for cuts and a reorganisation
The 25% international tariffs on metal and aluminium got here into impact at midnight ET “with no exceptions or exemptions”.
The European Fee responded virtually instantly, saying it could impose counter tariffs on €26bn ($28bn) value of US items from subsequent month.
“We deeply remorse this measure,” European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen stated in a press release in regards to the US tariffs, as Brussels introduced it could be “launching a sequence of countermeasures” in response to the “unjustified commerce restrictions”.
Australian deputy prime minister Richard Marles stated on Wednesday the dearth of exemptions was “actually disappointing”, calling tariffs “an act of sort of financial self-harm”. He instructed radio station 2GB:
We’ll have the ability to discover different markets for our metal and our aluminium and we have now been diversifying these markets.”
You possibly can learn the complete story right here and observe the Guardian’s reside protection of the worldwide response to Donald Trump’s new tariffs with my colleagues Julia Kollewe and Kate Lamb over on the enterprise weblog:
Lisa O’Carroll
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is assembly Donald Trump this morning for the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations, per week early this 12 months due to congressional recess.
He plans to inform Trump that the commerce imbalance raised by secretary of state Marco Rubio in a telephone name with the Irish overseas minister final week masks the complexity of the connection.
He’ll level out that amongst Boeing’s largest clients are Ryanair and Aercap, the world’s largest plane leasing firm, which might now be affected by tariffs.
A ballot launched on Tuesday reveals that US president Donald Trump’s approval ranking has dropped a couple of factors since he first took workplace, experiences the Hill.
Accoding to the Emerson School Polling survey, 47% of voters accredited of Trump’s job efficiency and 45% disapproved. These findings are down from a 49% approval and 41% disapproval ranking at first of Trump’s second time period.
The Hill, reporting on the ballot outcomes, wote:
The general public’s views of the financial system beneath Trump appear to be a drag on his general approval ranking, with a plurality of 48% saying they don’t approve of Trump’s dealing with of the financial system, whereas 37% approve.
Voters give Trump his highest scores for his dealing with of immigration, with 48% approving and 40% disapproving. His weakest areas are the financial system, well being care and cryptocurrency, wherein he has internet approval scores solidly underwater.”
Even earlier than the layoffs, the schooling division was among the many smallest cabinet-level businesses, experiences the Related Press (AP). Its workforce included 3,100 individuals in Washington and an extra 1,100 at regional places of work throughout the nation, based on a division web site.
The division’s employees had confronted growing stress to give up their jobs since Donald Trump took workplace, first by way of a deferred resignation programme after which by way of a $25,000 buyout provide that expired 3 March.
Jeanne Allen of the Heart for Schooling Reform, which advocates for constitution college growth, stated the cuts have been necessary and crucial. Allen stated:
Ending incessant federal interference will unencumber state and native leaders to foster extra alternatives to present colleges and educators true flexibility and innovation to deal with the wants of scholars, wherever they’re educated.”
Some advocates have been skeptical of the division’s declare that its features wouldn’t be affected by the layoffs, experiences the AP. “I don’t see in any respect how that may be true,” stated Roxanne Garza, who was chief of workers within the workplace of postsecondary schooling beneath president Joe Biden.
A lot of what the division does, like investigating civil rights complaints and serving to households apply for monetary assist, is labour intensive, stated Garza, who’s now director of upper schooling coverage at Schooling Belief, a analysis and advocacy organisation. She added:
How these issues won’t be impacted with far fewer workers … I simply don’t see it.”
Schooling division to chop half its workers as Trump vows to wind the company down
The US schooling division stated on Tuesday it could lay off almost half its workers, a potential precursor to closing altogether, as authorities businesses scrambled to satisfy president Donald Trump’s deadline to submit plans for a second spherical of mass layoffs.
The terminations are a part of the division’s “ultimate mission,” it stated in a press launch, alluding to Trump’s vow to eradicate the division, which oversees $1.6tn in school loans, enforces civil rights legal guidelines in colleges and gives federal funding for needy districts.
Requested on Fox Information whether or not the firings would result in the division’s dismantling, secretary of schooling Linda McMahon stated “sure,” including that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would go away the division with 2,183 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January, experiences Reuters.
Earlier than asserting the layoffs, the company ordered places of work within the Washington space closed to workers from Tuesday night by way of Wednesday, based on an inner discover seen by Reuters.
An schooling division spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to questions by Reuters in regards to the nature of the safety points prompting the closures.
The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by Elon Musk and his division of presidency effectivity (Doge).
All US authorities businesses have been ordered to provide you with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the following part of Trump’s cost-cutting marketing campaign. A number of businesses have provided staff funds to retire early to fulfil Trump’s demand, experiences Reuters.
Affected schooling division staff shall be positioned on administrative depart beginning on 21 March, the division stated.
Extra on that in a second. In different developments:
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The union representing greater than 2,800 division employees stated it could combat the “draconian cuts” of the schooling division. “What is obvious from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the hundreds of employees who’ve devoted their careers to serve their fellow People,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Authorities Staff Native 252.
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Donald Trump’s commerce battle kicked into the next gear at midnight, as 25% tariffs on all imported metal and aluminum have been scheduled to start. There was widespread confusion about whether or not the tariffs could be delayed, or elevated, amid conflicting statements from the president and his chief commerce adviser, however the White Home stated that the beforehand delayed tariffs would start, even because the inventory marker plunges.
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The detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a authorized everlasting resident, stays in federal custody, regardless of being charged with no crime. Khalil’s spouse stated in a press release earlier than a listening to on Wednesday in Manhattan that he was compelled into an unmarked automotive by immigration officers who refused to indicate a warrant.
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The Republican-controlled US Home of Representatives handed a stopgap funding invoice, which might avert a authorities shutdown if it additionally handed the Senate earlier than midnight on Friday.
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Ukraine agreed to just accept a US proposal for an instantaneous 30-day ceasefire and to take steps towards restoring a sturdy peace after Russia’s invasion, based on a joint assertion by US and Ukrainian delegations assembly in Saudi Arabia. Russia has not commented.
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Canada’s prime minister-designate Mark Carney stated he wouldn’t carry retaliatory tariffs on American items till Washington does the identical.
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At Tuesday’s promotional occasion for Elon Musk’s line of Tesla electrical automobiles on the White Home, Trump refused to drive one of many automobiles, and scoffed at the concept that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had accomplished so at an analogous occasion. There may be video of Biden doing so, in August 2021, at an occasion to advertise electrical automobiles that Musk reportedly was offended at being excluded from over anti-union insurance policies.
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