In separate negotiations, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump to pause planned tariffs for at least a month. Trump’s tariffs against China are still slated to go into effect on Tuesday.
Staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been given broad latitude to investigate the federal government.
Here's the latest:
Republican lawmaker joins Democrats in calling out foreign aid freeze
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy became the first among his party to publicly call out the impact Trump’s foreign aid freeze is having on programs like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
In a social media post, Cassidy, a physician-turned-politician, said that he’s being told a waiver issued by the administration last week to ensure that humanitarian aid is not impacted is still stalling the program on the ground.
"PEPFAR is the epitome of soft power. It is a Republican initiative, it is pro-life, pro-America and the most popular U.S. program in Africa,” Cassidy said on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There’s even a waiver acknowledging this, yet I’m told that drugs are still being held at clinics in Africa. This must be reversed immediately!!”
Top Republican applauds announcement of USAID merging with State
Sen. Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the Trump administration’s decision to “reorganize” USAID under the State Department.
“The idea of merging USAID and the State Department has been floated by nearly every administration since USAID was established by Congress in 1998,” the Idaho Republican said. “I’m supportive of the Trump Administration’s efforts to reform and restructure the agency in a way that better serves U.S. national security interests.”
DOGE is putting Americans’ most sensitive information at risk, Schumer says
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Elon Musk’s DOGE “unlawful power grab” in accessing the Treasury payment system is putting Americans’ most private Social Security and taxpayer information at risk.
“Donald Trump basically handed DOGE the Social Security data of virtually every American citizen,” Schumer said.
“Trump gave DOGE access to America’s “personal tax refund data. He gave DOGE access to people’s Medicare and Medicaid benefits, disability payment data, veterans benefit data,” he said.
Schumer said, “Worst of all, we don’t know what DOGE intends to do with this.”
Schumer is calling on the Treasury Secretary to revoke the Musk team’s access to the Treasury department’s payment system.
“We must halt this unlawful and dangerous power grab,” Schumer said.
Trump administration ‘most corrupt’ ever, top Democrat says
Two weeks in, and the Trump administration is the “most corrupt” ever, a top Democrat said.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said the Trump-DOGE shutdown of already approved funds for USAID and other federal programs is putting “trust at the lowest level” seen in a lifetime,
“What funds will Elon target next? Lifesaving medica research? Housing assistance? Food banks?” Murray said.
She said Musk’s actions when he stands to profit from his own government contracts is making the Trump administration the “most corrupt” ever.
It all comes ahead of March 14 federal funding deadline and Murray pleaded with her Republican colleagues to stand up to Musk and Trump to avoid a government shutdown.
Rubio names hardliner from Trump’s first term to oversee USAID
In a letter to lawmakers obtained by The Associated Press, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has designated Peter Marocco to carry out administrative duties for the agency.
Marocco is a political appointee whose short stint at USAID in the first Trump administration generated unusual staff protests for pushing program cuts and investigations that ambassadors and other senior officials complained slowed work to a crawl.
Rubio said Monday that Marocco was now heading USAID after a purge of top officials there.
The Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk are moving to dismantle the agency, setting up a constitutional battle with congressional Democrats.
__Farnoush Amiri and Ellen Knickmeyer
Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Canada for a month
President Donald Trump on Monday held off on his tariff threats against Mexico and Canada for 30 days after the two U.S. neighbors agreed to boost border security efforts.
Trump on Saturday had directed that 25% tariffs on most imports from the two American partners — and 10% on Canadian energy products — go into effect at midnight Tuesday. The two nations threatened retaliation of their own, raising the prospects of a broader regional trade war.
In a statement on X, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that on a call with Trump he pledged additional cooperation on border security. It follows similar moves by Mexico earlier Monday.
“Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together,” Trudeau said.
Senate Democrats highlight economic toll of Trump's tariffs on constituents
Senate Democrats are highlighting the economic toll that President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico will have on their constituents as they rallied against his efforts on Monday.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said consumers in her state are being informed by suppliers that tariffs on home heating oil would be passed on to them.
“This could increase home heating costs in New Hampshire by hundreds of dollars per year,” Hassan said.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, citing a report from the Budget Lab at Yale University, a policy research center, said that the average American household would see their yearly expenses rise more than $1,200 because of the increased tariffs.
“If these tariffs go through, they’ll be felt everywhere, from the grocery store to the gas pump to local businesses, even your upcoming Super Bowl party,” Schumer said.
What is USAID? Explaining the US foreign aid agency and why Trump and Musk want to end it
Dozens of senior officials put on leave. Thousands of contractors laid off. A freeze put on billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to other countries.
Over the past two weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has made significant changes to the U.S. agency charged with delivering humanitarian assistance overseas which have left aid organizations agonizing over whether they can continue with programs such as nutritional assistance for malnourished infants and children.
Then-President John F. Kennedy established the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, during the Cold War. In the decades since, Republicans and Democrats have fought over the agency and its funding.
▶ Read more about USAID and the changes made since
Hawaii senator to stall State Department nominees
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz’s office confirmed to the Associated Press on Monday that the Democrat would be placing a “blanket hold” on all of Trump’s State Department nominees until the administration reverses course on the changes made in recent days to USAID.
It is the most aggressive move by Democrats yet to combat Trump’s executive actions since coming into office two weeks ago and it threatens the president’s ability to get his national security team in place in time.
Trump’s tariff threat sends crypto prices falling
Cryptocurrency prices took a hit from the prospect of a trade war between the U.S. and its major trading partners, with some well-known digital assets seeing values fall more than 10%.
Bitcoin fell below $100,000 after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans Saturday to start putting large tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency fell to about $92,000 Sunday night before rebounding to around $99,000 by Monday morning after Trump announced a pause on the tariffs on Mexican goods.
▶ Read more about the impact on other cryptocurrencies
Lawmakers denied access into USAID building after DOGE take over
Congressional Democrats were denied entry Monday to the USAID building as federal law enforcement officers blocked the doors, restricting lawmakers’ access to even the public lobby of the agency’s headquarters. The move came after Democrats blasted Elon Musk and members of the so-called DOGE from demanding and gaining access to the internal government systems despite not being an official government agency.
“Elon Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial payment systems of the United States Department of Treasury, but you don’t control the money of the American people. The United States Congress does that,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said at the press conference.
Trump renews suggestion US could retake Panama Canal by force
“We either want it back, or we’re going to get something very strong. Or we’re going to take it back,” Trump said on Monday. “And China will be dealt with.”
Trump added, “China’s involved with the Panama Canal. They won’t be for long.”
Trump said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had discussions with Panama and was “trying to work a deal with them.”
He said there was a call coming on Friday with Panama officials and “they’ve agreed to certain things but I’m not happy with it.”
Trump says ‘no guarantees’ of Israel-Hamas truce holding
The president offered a dour assessment as his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, was set to meet later Monday with Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in Washington on the second phase of the 42-day ceasefire agreement.
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday. The ceasefire and hostage deal are expected to be at the top of the leaders’ agenda as Netanyahu faces pressure from far-right members of his governing coalition to abandon the truce and resume fighting until Hamas is eliminated in Gaza.
“There’s not assurances that it will hold,” Trump told reporters during an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold.”
Witkoff offered more optimism, saying that the truce was holding and that “hopefully a peaceful settlement” to end the nearly 16-month conflict can be reached.
Congress members blocked from entering USAID’s building
Congressional Democrats are now attempting to enter the U.S. Agency for International Development building to talk directly to staff about the changes Elon Musk and DOGE have implemented but are currently being blocked at the door.
USAID staff were instructed to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters, and yellow police tape and officers blocked the agency’s lobby on Monday after billionaire Elon Musk announced President Donald Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.
United Autoworkers union says Trump has pursued an ‘anti-worker policy’
The United Autoworkers union has called Trump’s tariffs “a good first step to undoing decades of anti-worker trade policy” but says it doesn’t endorse ”using factory workers as pawns in a fight over immigration or drug policy.”
The UAW said in a statement on Monday that since returning to the White House two weeks ago, Trump has pursued an “anti-worker policy at home” by not honoring labor agreements and “gutting the National Labor Relations Board.”
The union says the White House must supplement its moves on tariffs by pushing for talks to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and “a full review of the corporate trade regime that has devastated the American and global working class.”
The announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico would disrupt the U.S. automobile industry as well since car companies have supply chains that extend across all three nations.
Trump has said his planned tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China were partly aimed at combating the illicit flow of fentanyl into the U.S. The synthetic opioid is among the class of drugs responsible for the majority of U.S. overdose deaths.
‘China is cheering’
Democrats made the argument Monday that the changes at the U.S. Agency for International Development would weaken American diplomacy around the world and allow for adversarial countries like China and Russia to flood the zone and gain geo-political influence.
“China is cheering at this action today,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said at the news conference. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said that USAID is not just about saving other countries from starvation and disease.
“There is a reason that USAID is an arm of American foreign policy, and it is because we understand that a stable world means a stable America,” he said.
Rubio casts USAID as uncooperative, says he’s taken over as acting director
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke for the first time about thousands of USAID employees who have been laid off and programs that have been shut down.
Speaking to reporters in San Salvador, El Salvador, Rubio said on Monday he had taken over the position of acting director of the agency, though he said he had delegated the duties to someone else.
He cast USAID as an uncooperative and opaque agency that he said had failed to answer questions about its funding and operate in line with the policy agenda of the new Trump administration.
“And that sort of level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct the sort of mature and serious review that I think foreign aid writ large, should have,” Rubio said.
Congressional Democrats blast Trump’s USAID changes
Several lawmakers spent the weekend meeting and chatting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about their concerns, pleading with their former colleague to take action to restart vital humanitarian aid programs that were impacted by Trump’s foreign aid freeze.
“We will do everything in our power in the Senate and the House to stop this outrage. And in the meantime, since we don’t have many Republican colleagues who want to help us, we are doing everything we can with our colleagues through the courts to make sure that we uphold the rule of law, stop this illegal shutdown of AID,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said during a Monday press news conference.
Republicans have also expressed concerns in private as some of the aid contracting companies are run by Republican organizations and individuals and have targeted humanitarian programs that have maintained strong bipartisan support for decades.
EPA warns over 1,100 workers their employment could be terminated
An email sent to Environmental Protection Agency staffers hired within the past year says they are on probationary status, and that the agency “has the right to immediately terminate you.’′
Once a notice of termination is received, “your employment is ended immediately,’′ the email said.
The email was sent to employees by Kimberly Patrick, principal deputy assistant administrator for mission support at the EPA. A copy of the email was obtained by The Associated Press.
Staffers who received the email work on climate change, air pollution and other programs.
The email says some employees may be able to appeal their removal to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency in the executive branch. The ability to appeal “will depend on whether you meet the definition of an ‘employee’” under federal law and whether the worker meets other requirements that grant appeal rights, the email said.
The EPA hired thousands of employees under the Biden administration after staffing levels were sharply reduced in Trump’s first term.
Trump signs order to create sovereign wealth fund
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create what he described as a sovereign wealth fund, a vehicle that could use proceeds from U.S. national resources to make investments. Saudi Arabia and Norway both have sovereign wealth funds for their energy revenues, among other nations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, would be responsible for establishing the fund over the next 12 months.
“I think it’s going to create value and be of great strategic importance,” Bessent told reporters at the signing.
Canadians doubt that Trump will agree to pause his tariffs
With U.S. President Donald Trump set to tariff imports from Canada on Tuesday, a senior Canadian official said the country is not confident it can avoid the looming tariffs as Mexico did with a one-month pause for negotiations. That’s because it feels like Trump’s goalposts shift more for Canada than for Mexico. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump is slated to speak at 3 p.m. EST with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The two leaders spoke Monday morning and Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office on Monday that Canada had not been treating the United States well.
—Robert Gillies
Trump praises Elon Musk for ‘finding tremendous waste’ in the federal government
“We’re trying to shrink government,” the president said in the Oval Office on Monday.
Trump added that Musk “has some very good ideas” but emphasized that he has the final say over what happens.
“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval,” he said. “He reports in.”
Trump hits pause on tariffing Mexico, but imports from Canada and China could still face new taxes
President Donald Trump is pausing his tariffs planned for Mexico by one month, giving time for negotiations as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would deploy 10,000 members of her country’s national guard to the shared border to stop drug trafficking.
But as of now, the taxes on imports from Canada and China are still scheduled to go forward on Tuesday. Trump said he plans to speak at 3 p.m. EST with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Their previous conversation on Monday morning led to a social media post by Trump that attacked Canada for not allowing U.S. banks as he continues to list grievances.
Both Canada and Mexico have counter-tariffs prepared should Trump impose the taxes.
The tariffs carry the risk of higher inflation and slower economic growth. But Trump has said he also plans to threaten tariffs against countries in the European Union.
China renews threat to retaliate against US tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada, Mexico and China is ramping up over the production and importation of the opiate fentanyl, along with trade surpluses and illegal border crossings by migrants from across the globe.
China, meanwhile, has reiterated its threat to take “necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests” following Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on China for allegedly doing too little to stem the production of precursor chemicals for fentanyl.
▶ Read more about what Beijing says about it
Import taxes still in place for Canada and China
Trump’s tariffs against Canada and China are still slated to go into effect on Tuesday. He posted on social media that he spoke Monday morning with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and would “be speaking to him again at 3:00 P.M.”
Wall Street is paring its losses after Mexico announces tariffs delay
Wall Street is paring its losses after Mexico’s president said the United States will delay its tariffs on Mexican imports by a month, easing some of the worries about a potential trade war.
The S&P 500 was down 0.7% in Monday morning trading after being down as much as 1.9% earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 99 points, or 0.2%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% lower.
▶Read more about the stock market today.
Mexico to send National Guard to its northern border
“Mexico will reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard immediately, to stop drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, in particular fentanyl,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on the social platform X.
She added that the U.S. had committed to “work to stop the trafficking of high powered weapons to Mexico.”
US and Mexico agree to delay tariffs
Mexico and the United States have agreed to suspend the threatened tariffs for one month as Mexico immediately deploys 10,000 members of its National Guard to their shared border to battle drug trafficking, especially fentanyl.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mexico had requested a call with Trump since Friday. The U.S. president called at 8 a.m. (Mexico) on Monday. He and Sheinbaum spoke for more than half an hour.
The U.S. committed to doing more to stop the trafficking of guns into Mexico and both countries have established teams to continue discussing security and trade issues going forward, Sheinbaum said.
Trump asked how long she wanted to pause it and she suggested forever, but he said Mexico could have a month to show results.
The Associated Press
