The Senate has confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
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America First Policy Institute president confirmed as agriculture secretary
The 72-28 vote for Brooke Rollins puts a close ally of President Donald Trump into a key Cabinet position as mass deportation plans could lead to farm labor shortages and tariffs could hit agricultural exports.
Rollins served as chief for domestic policy during Trump’s first administration. Now she must oversee nearly all aspects of the nation’s food system, including standards on farming practices and livestock rearing, federal subsidies to farmers or agribusinesses and setting nutrition standards for schools and public health officials nationwide.
She acknowledged that deporting people could lead to labor shortages on farms that count on migrants to harvest crops. But she said “the president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support.”
▶ Read more about Trump’s agriculture secretary
McConnell explains his ‘no’ vote against Kennedy
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans as they confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s’ appointment as health secretary.
“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,” his statement says. “I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”
The rest of the GOP, however, has embraced Kennedy’s focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.
“We’ve got to get into the business of making America healthy again,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.
Trump to create MAHA commission to Make America Healthy Again
Kennedy will be sworn into office later Thursday in the Oval Office, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
She also said Trump will sign an executive order to create a “MAHA” commission, to study how to Make America Healthy Again.
Kennedy has talked a lot about how unhealthy the United States is as a nation.
▶ Read more on the health secretary’s confirmation
Defense secretary says NATO’s military spending goals shouldn’t apply to the US
Pete Hegseth once again suggested that the U.S. isn’t willing to meet the defense spending goal that he and Trump have said other NATO allies must hit.
He began his remarks to reporters at the alliance headquarters Thursday saying that it isn’t enough for NATO countries to spend 2% , 3% or 4% of GDP on defense, and that it should be “more like 5%.”
When asked later if the U.S. – which spends nearly 3.4% -- would also meet the 5%, he demurred: “3.4% is a very robust investment, larger than most.”
Europe, he said, must spend more to defend its own countries, otherwise the U.S. is forced to “be everywhere for everybody, all the time.”
Linda McMahon defers on questions about DEI order’s impact on schools
President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary said she’s not certain whether classes on African-American history would run afoul of his executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
McMahon was addressing questions from Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat who defeated her in a 2012 race for U.S. Senate.
She said schools should not be discouraged about holding events marking Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But she said she would need to look into it further to know the impact on clubs supporting students of similar ethnicity and classes such as African-American history.
US defense secretary denies making concessions to Putin ahead of talks
Pete Hegseth is telling reporters at NATO that neither Russia or Ukraine will “get everything that they want” in the negotiations to end the war.
He faced repeated questions at the Brussels headquarters about whether the U.S. took bargaining chips off the table when he said Wednesday that Ukraine cannot join NATO and can’t expect to return to its former borders.
“Everything is on the table,” he said, but “realism” can’t be ignored.
“Simply pointing out realism like the borders won’t be rolled back to what everybody would like them to be in 2014 is not a concession to Vladimir Putin,” he insisted.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as Trump’s health secretary after a close Senate vote
The Senate’s vote confirming Kennedy puts the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political — and Democratic — families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence.
All Democrats were opposed.
▶Read more about RFK Jr.’s confirmation
US Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota will not seek reelection, dealing a blow to Democrats
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota made the announcement on a video posted to social media. The 66-year-old said she wants to spend more time with her family after 20 years of work in the public sector.
Trump’s pick for education chief says an act of Congress is needed to shut down the department
Linda McMahon also told senators that the Trump administration wants to “do this right” and craft a plan that senators will support.
McMahon used softer language than Trump has invoked in his pledge to close the Education Department. If confirmed, she vowed to “reorient” the department without ending some of its core work, adding that “defunding is not the goal here.”
“We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better functioning Department of Education,” McMahon said.
Capitol Police removed a person in the audience who disrupted the hearing by speaking about the importance of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to protect students with disabilities.
▶ Read more on McMahon’s confirmation hearing
NATO is in disarray after the US announces that its security priorities lie elsewhere
In just one speech by the U.S. defense secretary, the most powerful member of NATO has thrown the world’s biggest military alliance into disarray, raising troubling questions about America’s commitment to European security.
Pete Hegseth told almost 50 of Ukraine ’s Western backers that he came “to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”
“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must — and we are — focusing on security of our own borders,” he said.
NATO’s credibility is underpinned by Article 5, its collective security guarantee to come to the aid of any member whose sovereignty or territory might be under attack. Hegseth has now raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to that pledge, although he did say that his country is not planning to leave the alliance.
▶ Read more about NATO’s reaction to new Trump policy
Elon Musk wants to ‘delete entire agencies’ from the federal government
Elon Musk spoke about his push under President Donald Trump to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities in a wide-ranging videocall Thursday to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
Musk has consolidated control over large swaths of the government with Trump’s blessing since assuming leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
▶ Read more about Musk’s speech to Dubai summit
Russia rejoices at Trump-Putin call
Russian officials and state media are striking a triumphant tone after President Donald Trump jettisoned years of U.S. policy and announced he would likely meet soon with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump’s change seemed to identify Putin as the only player who matters, sidelining Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as European governments in any peace negotiations.
Putin has been ostracized by the West since invading its neighbor and faces an international arrest warrant alleging war crimes.
“I am sure that in Kyiv, Brussels, Paris and London they are now reading Trump’s lengthy statement on his conversation with Putin with horror and cannot believe their eyes,” senior lawmaker Alexei Pushkov wrote on his messaging app.
A headline in the pro-Kremlin Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda: “Trump signed Zelenskyy’s death sentence.”
▶ Read more about reaction in Russia to Trump’s pressure on Ukraine
Turkey’s Erdogan voices rare criticism of Trump
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says President Donald Trump’s “challenges” to the world — including a proposal to expel Palestinians from Gaza — pose a threat to global peace.
Erdogan and Trump referred to each other as friends during Trump’s first term, despite often-strained ties between the two NATO countries.
“To tell the truth, I do not find Mr. Trump’s behavior in the past period and his current statements and challenges to many countries in the world to be right, and I do not see these as a positive development,” Erdogan said.
The Turkish president’s interview with Indonesian television anchor Najwa Shihab aired on YouTube on Thursday.
▶ Read more about Erdogan
FEMA yanks back $80 million meant for migrant hotel costs from New York City bank account
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has clawed back more than $80 million from New York City, escalating a dispute between the Trump administration and the nation’s largest city over money for sheltering migrants.
The move came as a federal judge said he wouldn’t stop FEMA from reclaiming the funds.
City Comptroller Brad Lander said the money was discovered to be missing Wednesday, and no one in his office had been aware that the federal government had access to the city’s bank account.
New York’s Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said the city is seeking an emergency meeting with FEMA and exploring legal options. Adams also said he would discuss the matter with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, when they meet in New York Thursday.
▶ Read more about federal funding for New York’s migrant hotels
Trump’s education nominee seeks approval to lead an agency he wants her to destroy
Linda McMahon faces an unusual test at her confirmation hearing Thursday as she seeks Senate approval to lead the Education Department.
A plan being considered by the White House would direct her to dismantle as much as legally possible while asking Congress to abolish it completely.
Democrats plan to grill McMahon on her willingness to execute Trump’s plan, which they say would undermine public education.
Trump hasn’t said whether he would preserve the core work of the agency, which sends billions of dollars a year to schools, manages a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and enforces civil rights in education.
The Education Department has fired at least 39 employees including civil rights workers, special education specialists and student aid officials who were in a one-year probation period, according to a union that represents agency workers. Termination letters sent Wednesday said their further employment would not be in the public interest. A department spokesperson said the agency “does not comment on personnel matters.”
▶ Read more on McMahon’s confirmation hearing
Shonda Rhimes, Renee Fleming, part ways with Kennedy Center
Television writer and producer Shonda Rhimes, who was appointed to the Kennedy Center board by former President Barack Obama, announced she's leaving now that a new Trump-appointed board ousted the Kennedy Center's chairman and president and installed Trump as chairman.
Opera icon Renee Fleming also announced her resignation as artistic advisor at-large and praised the leadership of former Chairman David Rubenstein and former President Deborah Rutter.
“They have both been an inspiration to me; and out of respect, I think it right to depart as well,” Fleming said in a statement.
Rubenstein, who served as chairman for 14 years, didn't mention Trump in a post on X Thursday morning that thanked the center's staff.
“President Kennedy would be proud of your selfless work, your long hours, your commitment to excellence, and your dedication to the performing arts,” Rubenstein wrote.
Protesters interrupt House hearing to defend popular AIDS program known as PEPFAR
Demonstrators interrupted a Republican-led hearing in the House on Thursday to protest the Trump administration’s shutdown of U.S. foreign aid programs — a widely praised HIV/AIDS program in particular.
Protesters in the audience blew whistles at the start of the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that Chairman Brian Mast called to look at allegations of waste by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“Restore foreign aid! PEPFAR saves lives,” they chanted. The Presidents’ Emergency Plan for Aids Relief is credited with saving more than 20 million lives in Africa and elsewhere over the last two decades.
Mast responded that the administration had exempted PEPFAR. USAID officials and aid groups dispute that, saying no USAID funding is reaching the PEPFAR programs despite the waivers.
▶ Read more about how volunteers are documenting the impact of the aid freeze
JD Vance is visiting the Dachau concentration camp memorial before meeting with Zelenskyy
The U.S. vice president will visit the Dachau concentration camp memorial ahead of talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are due to sit down Friday with the Ukrainian president at the Munich Security Conference to discuss Trump’s intensifying push for Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
But first Vance is stopping at the memorial, a powerful reminder of the Nazis’ World War II-era atrocities and the U.S. and Western allies’ slowness to take decisive action to confront Adolf Hitler and the rise of his violent nationalist ideology.
Dachau was established the year Hitler took power. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there in horrendous conditions; more than 40,000 of them died.
▶ Read more about Vice President JD Vance in Europe
US wholesale prices up a hotter-than-expected 0.4% as progress against inflation stalls
U.S. wholesale prices came in hotter than expected last month at a time when progress against inflation appears to have stalled, undercutting expectations for lower interest rates this year.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which tracks inflation before it reaches consumers — rose 0.4% from December and 3.5% from January 2024. Forecasters had expected a 0.2% change month over month and 3.2% year over year.
Inflation flared in 2021 as economies rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, then began tumbling — from a four-decade high 9.1% in June 2022 to a low of 2.4% in September. The Fed was satisfied enough to repeatedly cut interest rates. Then, the improvement stopped: Year-over-year consumer prices have risen for four straight months.
▶ Read more about U.S. inflation
EU foreign policy chief: Appeasement has never worked
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, expressed surprise that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and U.S. President Donald Trump had listed what appeared to be concessions to Russia even before talks have begun in earnest.
“We shouldn’t take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started, because it plays to Russia’s court,” she said.
“Why are we giving them everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it is crucial that the “peace deal is enduring, that Putin knows that this is the end, that he can never again try to capture a piece of Ukraine.”
NATO allies insist Ukraine and Europe must be in peace talks as Trump touts Putin meeting
Several NATO allies are stressing that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's lengthy phone call that his country cannot accept ‘any agreements without us.’ U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, denied that the United States is betraying the war-ravaged country.
European governments are reeling after the Trump administration signaled that it is planning face-to-face talks with Russia on ending the Ukraine war without involving them, insisted that Kyiv should not join NATO, and said it’s up to Europe to protect itself and Ukraine from whatever Russia might do next.
“There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told reporters at NATO headquarters as the organization’s 32 defense ministers met for talks on Ukraine.
▶ Read more on NATO’s view of Trump’s moves on Russia-Ukraine war
Trump says he’s signing an order for sweeping tariffs today
The president posted on social media that his executive order increases U.S. tariffs to the rates other countries charge on imports.
“TODAY IS THE BIG ONE: RECIPROCAL TARIFFS!!!” Trump said on his social media site Truth Social. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
A dramatic hike on tariffs could send shockwaves through the world economy, possibly depressing growth while causing inflation to intensify. Trump has maintained that such tariffs will help to create domestic factory jobs, but most economists say they would effectively be a tax increase on U.S. consumers that would add to inflationary pressures.
Trump has not specified yet how he defines the term “reciprocal” and whether his order would apply only to matching tariffs or to address other foreign taxes he views as barriers to American exports.
▶ Read more on Trump and tariffs
Senate to vote on vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to become nation’s health secretary
The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent lawyer and vocal vaccine critic, as the nation’s health secretary, controlling $1.7 trillion in spending for vaccines, food safety and health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
Despite several Republicans expressing deep skepticism about his views on vaccines, Kennedy is expected to win confirmation, absent any last-minute changes.
But with the backing of Republican President Trump, Kennedy believes he is “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.
Republican senators have largely embraced Kennedy’s vision, reciting his newly hatched slogan to “Make America Healthy Again” in speeches.
▶ Read more about RFK Jr.’s expected confirmation
Trump’s third-term musings seem more a tease than a pledge
Trump has just started his second term, his last one permitted under the U.S. Constitution. But he’s already started making quips about serving a third one.
Over the years, Trump and his supporters have often joked about him serving more than his two constitutionally permitted terms. But his musings often spark alarm among his critics, given that he unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss and has since pardoned supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But Trump, who will be 82 when his term ends, has repeatedly said that this will be his last term. Trying for another also would flatly violate the Constitution.
▶Read more about Trump’s occasional comments about a third term
What to know about the federal workforce under Trump
Carrie Muniak joins a rally in front of the Office of Personnel Management, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Since Trump began his second term last month, he has focused on dramatically reducing the federal workforce at a breakneck pace.
From dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development to offering a mass deferred resignation plan, Trump’s Republican administration has released executive orders and memos aimed at substantially reshaping the size of government and where its employees work.
A federal judge on Wednesday removed a key legal hurdle stalling President Donald Trump ’s plan to downsize the federal workforce with a deferred resignation program.
The Boston-based judge’s order in the challenge filed by a group of labor unions was a significant legal victory for the Republican president after a string of courtroom setbacks.
▶ Read more about the federal workforce, its job protections and the process of cutting back on its ranks
What to expect during Modi’s visit to Washington
T rump is expected to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has heaped praise on him and is hoping to avoid tariffs that the new administration has slapped on other countries in its opening weeks.
Modi is a nationalist and has talked up his warm relationship with Trump during his first term while cheering his winning back the White House. The Indian leader is looking to improve relations with Washington and the West overall, which have been frosty lately after Modi refused to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine.
The White House visit isn’t likely to be all smiles, though.
Trump has already imposed tariffs on China and says more are coming against the European Union, while threatening similar against Canada and Mexico and expanding tariffs on steel and aluminum he initially imposed during his first term.
Trump has repeatedly dubbed India a “tariff king.” In response, New Delhi has shown a willingness to buy more American oil while lowering its own tariffs on U.S. goods, including on some Harley-Davidson motorcycles, from 50% to 40%.
▶ Read more about what to expect in Trump and Modi’s meeting
The Associated Press
