Trump news updates: President orders federal job cuts as Musk defends DOGE

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• US President Trump has signed an executive order calling for a large-scale reduction in the federal workforce, overseen by his adviser, billionaire Elon Musk.
• Separately, a federal appeals court has allowed an order to remain in place that pauses Trump’s federal funding freeze, which the administration had appealed.
• Trump has said he would “always abide by the courts” but promised to appeal the decision, as he accused the presiding judge of aiding “crooked people”.
• Attacks by the Trump administration on federal judges, who have blocked some of the president’s biggest initiatives, continued as Musk accused them of “destroying America” through a “judicial coup”.
• Associated Press reporters have been denied access to an Oval Office event because the news agency has not adopted the term “Gulf of America” to refer to the Gulf of Mexico.
• Paul Martin, the inspector general for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has been removed from his position. The White House gave no reason for his firing.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is ready to swap land in negotiations with Russia after Moscow freed a US prisoner, in what Trump described as a goodwill gesture aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) called the Trump administration’s barring of AP journalists from a White House news briefing for refusing to adopt the name Gulf of America an “alarming attack on press freedom” and “unconstitutional”.

“President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a news organization for using another term. The role of our free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to act as their mouthpiece. Any government efforts to erode this fundamental freedom deserve condemnation,” it said.

Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom. That's viewpoint discrimination, and it's unconstitutional.

President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a… pic.twitter.com/EX0HarvhkW

— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 11, 2025

The US’s special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, said that an American would be freed later today without giving details on who it would be or from where that person would be released.

Asked on Tuesday night by a US television network who that person would be, Boehler said: “Well, that’s going to be a surprise for tomorrow”.

Boehler’s comments came after Russia released jailed US teacher Marc Fogel on Tuesday following an unannounced visit to Moscow by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Asked if the next US citizen to be freed would be from Russia, Boehler said: “I can’t comment on where it’s from”.

We have been reporting on ongoing clashes between the Trump administration and federal judges, who have blocked some of the president’s biggest initiatives, including ending birthright citizenship and attempts to cut federal funding.

Billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk, who leads the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has taken to his platform X to attack federal judges impeding Trump, accusing them of “destroying America” through a “judicial coup”.

In one scathing attack on US District Judge John D Bates – who ordered US health agencies on Tuesday to temporarily restore websites they took offline following an executive order – Musk said “enough is enough”.

“We should at least ATTEMPT to fire this junky jurist. The notion of having a judge job for life, no matter how bad the judgments, is ridiculous!” Musk said.

Truly absurd. Judges as website editors!?

We should at least ATTEMPT to fire this junky jurist.

The notion of having a judge job for life, no matter how bad the judgments, is ridiculous!

Enough is enough. https://t.co/lMPq6zWOj5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2025

Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup.

An activist judge is not a real judge. https://t.co/zRb398NyA0

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2025

We have been reporting on the Trump administration barring access to Associated Press (AP) reporters at an Oval Office event because the news agency has not adopted the term “Gulf of America” to refer to the Gulf of Mexico.

The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Eugene Daniels, on Tuesday labelled the move “unacceptable”.

“The White House cannot dictate how news organisations report the news, nor should it penalise working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions,” Daniels said in a statement posted on X.

The AP’s executive editor, Julie Pace, said the Trump administration’s move violated the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Pace said.

The AP has said it would refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its original name, while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is ready to swap land in negotiations with Russia after Moscow freed a US prisoner in what Trump described as a goodwill gesture aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

“We will swap one territory for another,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper.

The Ukrainian leader also said his country would not be able to enjoy security guarantees just with European partners alone.

“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s comments come ahead of a scheduled meeting on Friday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany with US Vice President JD Vance, who is a vocal critic of US military support for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy has previously refused to cede any territory invaded by Russia but is ready to trade land in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine seized in a surprise offensive last year.

In the first known visit by a member of the new US administration to Russia since Trump returned to office last month, envoy Steve Witkoff secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American jailed in Russia since 2021 on drug charges.

“We were treated very nicely by Russia,” Trump told reporters of Fogel’s release. “Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war,” he said.

Trump in a Fox News interview aired on Monday floated the controversial idea that Ukraine “may be Russian some day”. His comments were quickly welcomed by Moscow.

We have been reporting on the fallout from President Trump’s imposition on Monday of 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US, which he said would be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”.

Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoji Muto announced on Wednesday that his country has requested that the US exempt Japanese companies from those tariffs.

Trump is yet to publicly respond to Tokyo’s request.

Earlier this week, Australia also asked for an exemption from the tariffs, citing its trade deficit with the US. Trump said he would give “great consideration” to the Australian request.

Trump’s planned 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports would combine with other levies on Canadian goods, resulting in tariffs as high as 50 percent on some goods if they’re all enacted, the Reuters news agency reports, citing a White House official.

An unnamed Canadian government source told Reuters that while Canada has not been told about the additive nature of Trump’s proposed tariffs, the threat “sounds plausible”.

Mexico, Canada and the EU condemned Trump’s metals tariffs on Tuesday, describing the move as reckless and counterproductive, and warning that they would respond with their own measures.

Canada has appointed its new fentanyl tsar, former senior police officer Kevin Brosseau, keeping its promise to Trump that it will make every effort to combat flows of the drug across its border in exchange for a pause on trade tariffs.

Brosseau “will work closely with US counterparts and law enforcement agencies to accelerate Canada’s ongoing work to detect, disrupt, and dismantle the fentanyl trade”, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

Recently serving as Trudeau’s deputy national security and intelligence adviser, Brosseau spent more than 20 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, including as commanding officer in Manitoba.

Trump has demanded that Canada increase efforts against cross-border trafficking, though Ottawa has repeatedly asserted that less than 1 percent of fentanyl entering the US comes through its border.

The US president has paused 25 percent levies against Canada for a month after Ottawa promised to step up its efforts against fentanyl as well as undocumented migrants crossing into the US. Ottawa also says that fewer than 1 percent of such migrants enter the US via its border.

Trump boasted last month that his administration had stopped $50m of “bomb-making” condoms being sent to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, as part of a wider campaign led by billionaire Elon Musk to cut waste and fraud from federally funded programmes.

Trump provided no evidence for his claims, which caused widespread confusion. It later emerged that the recipients of the contraceptives may be a province in Mozambique sharing the same name, where USAID funds large-scale HIV prevention programmes.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Musk was asked whether he would correct his previous statements. Here is what he said in response:

“Well, first of all, some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So nobody’s going to bat a thousand. We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes,” he said.

“I’m not sure we should be sending $50m worth of condoms to anywhere, frankly. I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about. That is really an enormous number of condoms, if you think about it. If it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza, I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s not as bad, but still, why are we doing that?’” Musk continued.

Paul Martin, the inspector general for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has been removed from his position, according to news reports.

The White House gave no reason for the firing of Martin, which comes a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2bn in unspent humanitarian funds.

Inspectors general are typically independently funded watchdogs attached to US agencies, who are tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies.

On Monday, Martin’s office issued a flash report warning that the Trump administration’s funding freeze and staff actions within USAID had left the oversight of humanitarian aid “largely nonoperational”.

The Trump administration has purged more than a dozen inspectors general.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it organised naval and air forces to monitor a US destroyer and oceanographic survey ship navigating the Taiwan Strait between February 10 and 12.

The PLA’s Eastern Theatre spokesperson Colonel Li Xi said on Tuesday that the US mission sends the wrong message and increases security risks in the area, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“Troops in the theatre are on high alert at all times and are resolute in defending national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability,” Li said.

The vessels’ operation would be the US’s first mission through the politically sensitive strait since President Trump returned to office.

The US Navy has yet to comment on the incident.

As we reported earlier, a Boston-based federal appeals court has allowed an order to remain in place that pauses Trump’s federal funding freeze, which the administration had appealed.

When asked by a reporter in the Oval Office whether he would adhere to that ruling, Trump responded that he will “always abide by the courts”, but promised to appeal the decision.

“What [the judge] has done is he slowed down the momentum and it gives crooked people more time to cover up the books. You know, if a person’s crooked and they get caught, other people see that and all of a sudden, it becomes harder later on,” Trump said.

“The answer is, I always abide by the courts. Always abide by them and will appeal. But appeals take a long time.”

Seven Republican lawmakers from agricultural states in the US have introduced legislation to safeguard a $1.8bn food aid programme run by the country’s embattled relief agency, USAID.

The legislation would move the Food for Peace programme away from USAID and under the US Department of Agriculture.

US farmers, a politically important bloc for the Trump administration, have been affected by the administration’s freeze of foreign assistance funding.

Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran, who joined in the proposed legislation, over the weekend thanked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for interceding to allow the delivery of $560m in US-grown commodities intended for hunger programmes worldwide.

The US food has been stuck in ports around the world because of Trump’s abrupt cutoff of foreign assistance spending as part of his plan to shutter USAID.

As we have been reporting, the White House announced on Tuesday the release of US teacher Marc Fogel, who had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Russia for possession of 17 grammes (0.6oz) of marijuana.

Photos since his release show Fogel – who was freed after almost three and a half years in custody following an unannounced visit to Moscow by special envoy Steve Witkoff – celebrating as he was being flown back to the US.

Trump also welcomed Fogel at the White House on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reports.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency says its reporters were denied access to an event in the Oval Office because it has not adopted the term “Gulf of America” to refer to the Gulf of Mexico.

On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order proclaiming that the Gulf of Mexico will now be referred to as the “Gulf of America”.

“Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office. This afternoon AP’s reporter was blocked from attending an executive order signing,” the news agency said in a statement.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism. Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

As evening falls in Washington, DC, let’s take a look at what happened today in the White House.

• Trump has signed an executive order calling for a large-scale reduction in the federal workforce, overseen by his adviser, billionaire Elon Musk.
• Joining Trump in the Oval Office for the signing ceremony, Musk defended the cuts, arguing that the government should not be run by “unelected bureaucrats”.
• Earlier in the day, Trump met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, re-emphasising his desire to own and develop Gaza into a “diamond” of the Middle East.
• Iran slammed Trump for “reckless and inflammatory” remarks suggesting that the US could use military force to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
• Senate Democrat Dick Durbin alleged that Trump nominee Kash Patel had coordinated a wave of firings at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), even before he had been confirmed as the bureau’s head.

The National Chamber of the Iron and Steel Industry (CANACERO) in Mexico has expressed disappointment with Trump’s announcement of 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium in a statement.

It added that it hopes the Mexican government will respond in kind.

“The Mexican steel industry rejects the imposition of tariffs by the United States and requests retaliation on steel products if an exclusion for Mexico is not achieved,” the chamber said, warning that the imposition of tariffs put regional competitiveness and economic integration at risk.

CANACERO functions independently from the Mexican government, but is tasked with fostering responsible growth in the iron and steel industry.