Elon Musk has poured cold water over a multi-billionaire dollar AI project announced by Donald Trump on Monday.
The US president yesterday announced a joint venture between tech firms OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to build up to $500bn (£405bn) of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States.
Named Stargate, the project is under construction in Texas and reportedly has an initial budget of $100bn, rising to $500bn in the coming years.
The president hailed the investment as “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history” and said it would help keep “the future of technology” in the US.
However, the Tesla billionaire, who is charged with slashing federal spending as head of the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), shot down the project, claiming the tech firms cannot raise the money required.
“They don’t have the money,” Mr. Musk wrote on X in response to the announcement. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
His comments mark a rare criticism by the world’s richest man of Mr Trump’s policy plans.
Mr Musk helped found Open AI and has a running feud with Sam Altman, its CEO, whom he has sued for antitrust violations.
Mr Altman refuted Mr Musk’s analysis on X, writing: “Want to come visit the first site already under way?”
09:45 PM GMT
That’s all for now
Thanks for following our live coverage of the new Trump administration. This live blog is now closed.
09:44 PM GMT
Watch: JD Vance visits Oval Office for the first time
As we gathered for our meeting at the White House yesterday, JD Vance mentioned to us that he had never before visited the Oval Office. I told him and President Trump that I HAD to capture the moment on video. Only in America can a hardworking young man from Appalachia rise from… pic.twitter.com/H4aHOyyfVt
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) January 22, 2025
08:46 PM GMT
Trump tells Putin: Stop this ridiculous war or face the consequences
Donald Trump has ordered Vladimir Putin to stop his “ridiculous war” with Ukraine or face fresh tariffs and sanctions from the US.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” the president said on his Truth Social network.
Mr Trump went on to warn Putin about the damage that would be inflicted on Russia’s “failing” economy if the Kremlin continued to pursue its grinding war. “Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, today said any peacekeeping force deployed in Ukraine after the war ends will need to include US troops as a deterrent.
Prior to his inauguration on Monday, Mr Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war before even taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make concessions to Moscow.
However, the president now appears to be focused on applying pressure on Putin.
On Monday, Mr Trump declared that Putin is “destroying Russia” in some of his most scathing criticism to date.
08:39 PM GMT
Trump ‘asked if he wanted to pardon himself’
Elsewhere in his interview, Donald Trump said he had been asked if he wanted to pardon himself before leaving office in 2021.
“They said, sir, would you like to pardon everybody including yourself?” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“I said I’m not going to pardon anybody we didn’t do anything wrong. And we had people that suffered, they’re incredible patriots.
“We had people that suffered, you had Bannon put in jail, you had Peter Navarro put in jail. We had people that suffered. And far worse than that, they lost their fortunes. They lost their, whatever, nest egg.”
Mr Trump faced four criminal indictments between leaving office as 45th President and his inauguration on Monday as 47th President.
08:35 PM GMT
Trump: I won because of the Left’s ‘horrible’ policies
Short excerpts have been released from Donald Trump’s interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, which will be broadcast at 9pm EST this evening.
In one clip, the new US President uses his first interview since his return to office to complain about the “horrible” policies of the “radical Left”.
Hannity: Let’s talk about the moment. You walked back in this office. This desk, this room, your carpet. How do you feel?
Trump: Well, it was a lot of work and as you know, I felt that we shouldn’t have had to necessarily be here. It could have been done, a lot of work could have been done, it would have been over. We wouldn’t have inflation, we wouldn’t have had the Afghanistan disaster, we wouldn’t have Oct 7th in Israel where so many people were killed and you wouldn’t have a Ukraine war going on. But with all that being said, I think it’s bigger. It’s bigger than if it were more traditional.
Hannity: Only the second time in history somebody didn’t have consecutive terms.
Trump: Yeah, well, they say it’s historically bigger. I don’t know about that. But I can say it showed us a couple of things. It showed us that the radical Left, their philosophies and polices are horrible.
08:17 PM GMT
Inside Musk’s White House power grab
Elon Musk was itching to get to work at his new US government department dedicated to slashing red tape and bureaucratic spending. As Donald Trump became president, Musk’s axe had already fallen on his first victim: Vivek Ramaswamy, his co-leader at the new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
Mr Ramaswamy, the 39-year-old entrepreneur who made his fortune in biotech, was meant to be one of two bosses leading Doge.
By the end of Mr Trump’s inauguration on Monday, and after months of behind-the-scenes jockeying with Mr Musk for power and influence, he was effectively fired from the drive to slash bureaucracy and reduce government spending by trillions of dollars.
Details about their falling out have conveniently been leaked to multiple US media outlets, a first sign of friction within Mr Trump’s camp.
Read the full story here.
07:27 PM GMT
Reports: Trump to attend Republican retreat
Donald Trump is expected to attend a retreat for Republicans in the House of Representatives on Monday, US media reports. It will take place at one of his Florida hotels, Trump National Doral Miami.
07:14 PM GMT
Musk casts doubt on Trump’s $500bn AI investment
Elon Musk has cast doubt on a multi-billion dollar AI investment announced by Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Mr Musk, in a rare public break from the US President, said he did not believe a new joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle – named “Stargate” – could provide between $100bn and $500bn in financing.
“They don’t have the money,” the Tesla billionaire wrote on X, his social media platform. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
06:59 PM GMT
‘May God bless you,’ Biden tells Trump in Oval Office letter
Donald Trump has revealed the contents of a letter that Joe Biden left for him upon departing the Oval Office earlier this week.
The letter, addressed “Dear President Trump”, was left for the new president by his predecessor in the drawer of the Resolute Desk.
It read: “As I take leave of this sacred office I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years. The American people – and people around the world – look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history, and my prayer is that in the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation.
“May God bless you and guide you as He has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding.”
The letter was signed “Joe Biden” and dated Jan. 20, 2025.
Mr Trump today disclosed the contents of the letter to Fox News, having discovered a white enveloped addressed to “47” in the drawer of the desk on Monday.
The newly-appointed president described the letter as “inspirational” and said it reinforced “how important the job is”.
06:44 PM GMT
Comment: The MAGA movement has found its next leader
By James Orr
Eight years after President Trump first upended Western politics, what was once dismissed as a shock populist surge has matured into something far more substantial. In the wake of The Donald’s Second Coming, an ideological movement has arisen with the resilience and momentum to endure well past the point its founder steps away.
For only the second time in the history of the American Republic, a President has moved back into the White House for a second non-consecutive term. Unlike Grover Cleveland, however, Trump knows that he is embarking on his final presidency, barred as he is by the Twenty-Second Amendment from running again.
Soon, attention will turn to what comes next. As late as last year, it was fashionable for Beltway commentators to argue that MAGA was a personality cult that could not outlive its founder. As with so much Washington orthodoxy, that view now seems hard to defend.
Read the full column here.
06:38 PM GMT
Hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested in 24 hours, says ‘border tsar’
Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border tsar”, said this morning that immigration authorities have arrested hundreds of “serious criminals” in the last 24 hours.
“Some of them were murderers. Some of them were rapists. Some of them raped a child,” he told Fox News.
A source told NBC News that the arrests made were part of “routine operations” rather than a large-scale raid in any one location.
06:08 PM GMT
Pentagon to deploy 1,500 troops to southern border
The Pentagon will begin deploying up to 1,500 active duty troops to the southern border in the coming days to enforce Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, US officials have revealed.
Acting Defence Secretary Robert Salesses was expected to sign the deployment orders on Wednesday, but its not yet known which troops will go or what their role would be, AP reported.
The forces are expected to be used to support border patrol agents, with logistics, transportation and construction of barriers.
If troops are made to carry out law enforcement responsibilities, it would place them in a new role not seen in recent history.
05:40 PM GMT
‘I was trying to speak a truth’: Pro-trans Bishop responds to Trump criticism
The bishop who scolded Donald Trump for his plans on transgender and immigrant rights has said she was “trying to speak a truth”.
The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde was labelled “nasty” and “not smart” by the new president after she urged him to show “mercy” to illegal migrants and LGBTQ+ people in a sermon the day after the inauguration.
Rev. Budde today responded to Mr Trump’s criticism on The View, claiming she wanted to “counter the narrative that is so divisive and polarising in which people are being harmed”.
She declined to address his request for an apology, but said she would consider a one-on-one meeting with the president if he personally invited her to one.
Rev. Budde added that she had a “great amount of respect” for Mr Trump’s office.
In a symbolic service at Washington Cathedral on Tuesday, Rev. Budde addressed Mr Trump directly, telling him that ‘there are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives”.
Her comments were met with a dead pan response from the president at the time, but he later hit back on his Truth Social platform, calling the bishop a “Radical Left hardline Trump hater”.
05:15 PM GMT
Trump cancels flights of 10,000 incoming refugees
Around 10,000 refugees have had their flights to the US cancelled following Donald Trump’s executive order suspending their entry, according to reports.
“All previously scheduled travel of refugees to the United States is being cancelled, and no new travel bookings will be made,” read a State Department memo seen by CNN.
“RSCs [refugee community services] should not request travel for any additional refugee cases at this time.”
The memo stated that “all refugee case processing and pre-departure activities” have been suspended, effectively shuttering the programme that allows more than 60,000 people facing persecution to enter into the country every year.
The Justice Department has directed prosecutors to investigate officials who attempt to block Mr Trump’s beefed-up enforcement of immigration laws, according to a leaked memo seen by The Associated Press.
The memo instructs Justice Department employees to help identify laws that “threaten to impede” the Trump administration’s efforts, adding that prosecutors shall “take all steps necessary to protect the public and secure the American border by removing illegal aliens from the country and prosecuting illegal aliens for crimes”.
Mr Trump on Monday signed a flurry of anti-immigration executive orders just hours after returning to The White House, including suspending refugee admissions, declaring an emergency at the southern border and ending birthright citizenship.
04:34 PM GMT
Trump administration threatens departments who ‘disguise’ DEI policies
The Trump administration has issued a letter threatening government departments who fail to disclose DEI policies.
A memo from the US Office of Personnel Management has warned of “consequences” for federal workers who fail to report diversity initatives.
The circular from OPM director Charles Ezell said DEI programmes, many of which were implemented by Joe Biden, had “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination”.
It said that under new protocols, federal department and agency bosses will be required to ask “employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these (DEI) programs by using coded or imprecise language”.
Failure to report the requested information within 10 days “may result in adverse consequences,” the template email continued.
04:21 PM GMT
Federal DEI jobs scrapped from tonight
US federal employees working in diversity offices must be put on paid leave by Wednesday evening, the White House has said, after Donald Trump ordered a crackdown on the programmes.
“Send a notification to all employees of DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility] 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 program,” said a US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) memo posted on X by a CBS reporter.
The memo from acting OPM director Charles Ezell directed all department and agency heads and acting heads to send workers notice by 5pm today.
The message continued: “President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin.”
It comes after Mr Trump signed a slew of executive orders on his first day in office, several of which overturned government DEI policies.
04:13 PM GMT
Marco Rubio pledges to State Department climate programmes
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has has pledged to scrap work on climate and “cultural” issues and return to the “basics of diplomacy”.
“We must leverage our strengths and do away with climate policies that weaken America,” Rubio said, while promising still to support “sensible environmental protections”.
The move marks a sharp policy divergence from the Biden administration, which made clean energy and international assistance top priorities.
“We must return to the basics of diplomacy by eliminating our focus on political and cultural causes that are divisive at home and deeply unpopular abroad,” Mr Rubio continued.
“This will allow us to conduct a pragmatic foreign policy in cooperation with other nations to advance our core national interests.”
On the subject of immigration, Mr Rubio also pledged that his department would “no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration,” in an apparent reference to its work resettling refugees.
In his confirmation hearing yesterday, the former Florida senator promised to move the United States away from its post-Cold War emphasis on a “liberal global order” and instead pursue raw US national interests, saying that rivals such as China are doing likewise.
03:51 PM GMT
Mexican authorities build tent city to house deported migrants
Mexican authorities are building a tent city on the border to house migrants deported by Donald Trump.
The temporary shelters in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, will have the capacity to house thousands of people and should be ready in a matter of days, local authorities reported.
The tents in Ciudad Juarez are part of the Mexican government’s plan to ready shelters and reception centres in nine cities across northern Mexico, after Mr Trump signed a flurry of executive orders to support his drive to deport “millions” of migrants.
Authorities at the site will provide deported Mexicans with food, temporary housing, medical care, and assistance obtaining identity documents, according to a government document outlining the strategy, called “Mexico embraces you”.
An estimated five million Mexicans are living in the United States without documents, according to an analysis by Mexican think tank El Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
03:39 PM GMT
Europe should welcome Trump’s calls to boost military spending
Europe should welcome rather than rebuff Donald Trump’s call for other NATO members to ramp up their military spending, said Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister.
“We shouldn’t be irritated. We shouldn’t be appalled,” Tusk told the European Parliament on Wednesday. “Some think it’s extravagant or it is a brutal or malicious warning.”
Mr Tusk added that Europe’s “time of comfort” was over and urged European leaders to bear a greater share of responsibility for its own security.
”Only an ally can wish another ally to get stronger. This is not what an opponent of Europe would say,” he said.
03:35 PM GMT
‘Get over it,’ says CEO of world’s largest bank on tariffs
The CEO of the world’s largest bank has dismissed concerns over tariffs, telling business leaders to “get over it”.
Tariffs are “an economic tool” or “an economic weapon,” depending on how they’re used, said Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase CEO. “I would put in perspective: If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it.”
Mr Dimon’s comments came in an interview with CNBC from Davos, Switzerland, where business leaders have gathered for the World Economic Forum.
Businesses worldwide and mainstream economists are fretting about higher prices as President Donald Trump appears poised to move ahead with plans to impose sweeping tariffs on Chinese, Mexican and Canadian goods by the end of the month.
Mr Dimon suggested the threats are a negotiating tactic to “bring people to the table”.
03:20 PM GMT
‘F–k it! Release ‘em all’, Trump said before freeing Jan 6 prisoners
Donald Trump swore at his aides as he demanded sweeping pardons for 1,500 Jan 6 rioters and commuted the sentences of 14 others, White House advisers have revealed.
The blanket clemency for those convicted and accused of storming the US Capitol four years ago was reportedly the result of an eleventh hour intervention by the president.
As Mr Trump’s team agonised over the optics in the run-up to the inauguration, “Trump just said: ‘F*** it! Release ‘em all’,” an adviser familiar with the discussions told Axios.
The president’s aides and vice-president JD Vance are said to have been surprised by the decision, as Mr Trump had initially been wary of pardoning violence against police officers.
Mr Vance, echoing what he believed to be Mr Trump’s stance eight days before the inauguration, told Fox News: “If you committed violence that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
The onerous process of reviewing each case and the mounting resonance Mr Trump felt with rioters as his own legal problems piled up is said to have convinced the president.
02:52 PM GMT
Trump ‘likely’ to impose fresh sanctions on Russia
Donald Trump has suggested he would consider imposing fresh sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“Sounds likely,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if the United States would apply additional sanctions on Moscow if the Russian president did not come to the table.
01:57 PM GMT
Pictured: Migrants halted at border after Trump cancels app
01:45 PM GMT
Trump inauguration attracted smallest TV audience since Obama
Donald Trump’s inauguration attracted the smallest television audience since Barack Obama.
An estimated 24.6 million television viewers watched Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the smallest audience for the ceremony since Mr Obama’s second inauguration in 2013, according to the Nielsen Company.
The viewing figures for Mr Trump returning to office were down from Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, which reached 33.8 million, and Mr Trump’s first move into the White House, seen by 30.6 million in 2017.
Inauguration viewership has varied widely over the past half-century, from a high of 41.8 million when Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 to a low of 15.5 million for the start of George W. Bush’s second term in 2004.
As the figure represents the average number of people tuning in to coverage on one of 15 networks throughout the day, Mr Trump’s coverage may have been hampered by the length of the ceremony and people tuning in through alternative media.
01:05 PM GMT
What is an executive order?
An executive order is an instruction issued by the president which does not require congressional approval and can’t be directly overturned by lawmakers.
Authority for the order is rooted in Article II of the US constitution, which states: “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.”
Congress can still block an order from being fulfilled by denying funding to agencies or creating other hurdles, such as passing laws which override the order – though the president retains veto power.
The Supreme Court can present legal challenges that a president has strayed from the bounds of the Constitution, while individuals, civil rights groups and attorneys general can also file lawsuits against executive orders.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the highest number of executive orders at 3,721, averaging 307 a year.
12:37 PM GMT
Russia sees ‘window of opportunity’ for negotiating with Trump
Moscow has said there is a “small window of opportunity” to negotiate with Donald Trump’s administration.
“We cannot say anything today about the degree of the incoming administration’s capacity to negotiate, but still, compared to the hopelessness in every aspect of the previous White House chief (Joe Biden), there is a window of opportunity today, albeit a small one,” said Sergei Ryabkov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, according to the Interfax news agency.
“It’s therefore important to understand with what and whom we will have to deal, how best to build relations with Washington, how best to maximise opportunities and minimise risks,” he said, speaking at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies, a think-tank in Moscow.
12:15 PM GMT
Watch: Moment Trump pardoned Jan 6 rioters
At a ceremony in the Oval Office, Donald Trump claimed those who had been convicted and charged after the Jan 6 riots were “hostages”, having previously referred to the riot as a “day of peace of love”.
Mr Trump’s executive order issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to anyone connected with the attack, apart from 14 people who saw their sentences commuted.
The move “ends a grave national injustice” and “begins a process of national reconciliation”, according to the text of the mass pardon Mr Trump signed on Monday evening.
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11:55 AM GMT
BBC claims Donald Trump’s election victory fuelled by ‘fear’
The BBC is embroiled in a fresh row over bias after it reported that Donald Trump’s election was built on “fear” and a “misconception” over illegal migration.
John Sudworth, the senior North America correspondent, told viewers “it was fear that gave Mr Trump his mandate” in a report that featured an interview with an illegal migrant but was not balanced by any pro-Trump voices.
It came as an MP warned the BBC that its “careless approach” to impartiality over the past year could affect negotiations over the licence fee as ministers prepare to discuss the renewal of its royal charter, which runs out in 2027.
Read the full story here.
11:19 AM GMT
Federal agencies begin removing DEI web pages
Federal government departments have started to take down public web pages associated with diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on Tuesday directing agencies to remove DEI-focused web pages, as well as place DEI staffers on paid leave and end DEI-related training by 5pm on Wednesday.
The US Treasury, Department for Labor, Agency for International Development and the General Services Administration have so far appeared to heed the order by taking down their DEI landing pages.
10:52 AM GMT
Trump ramps up tariff threats
Donald Trump has threatened a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports, citing the huge amount of highly addictive fentanyl that he said was coming from China via Mexico and Canada.
The president told reporters at a news conference last night that his administration could implement the punitive duty as soon as Feb 1.
Mr Trump suggested Canada and Mexico could face 25 per cent tariffs if they failed to stem the trafficking of illegal migrants and fentanyl, adding that the EU was also in line for tariffs.
“The European Union is very, very bad to us. So they’re going to be in for tariffs. It’s the only way,” he said.
The Chinese foreign ministry has responded by saying it will defend its “national interests”.
“We have always believed that there are no winners in a trade war or a tariff war,” the department’s spokeswoman Mao Ning said, adding that China remained “firmly committed to safeguarding national interests”.
10:22 AM GMT
Employees encouraged to report attempts to disguise DEI
The US Office of Personnel Management has encouraged employees at federal agencies to inform on those attempting to disguise diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.
Federal department and agency bosses are required to ask “employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these (DEI) programmes by using coded or imprecise language”.
The memo issued on Tuesday included a template email for bosses to send to employees, which asks them to report to OPM if they are “aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 (Election Day) to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies”.
The memo added that DEI programmes “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination”.
09:59 AM GMT
Buoys deployed to stem migrant crossings
Workers in Texas have installed more buoys in the Rio Grande river to deter crossings from Mexico.
“I look forward to continuing to work closely with President Trump to secure the border. America is back!” Governor Greg Abbott wrote on social media.
The Biden administration sued Texas to remove the floating barriers in 2023, claiming the buoys violated federal law.
A district court initially sided with the federal government, but the decision was overruled by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The governor shared a letter written to Donald Trump on Monday, in which he sounded the alarm over the “invasion” of Texas.
“The en masse entry into this country by violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors smuggling weapons and drugs like deadly fentanyl, trafficking women and children, and raping and murdering at will is an invasion, as FBI officials told Congress just last year,” he wrote.
The governor noted that Operation Lone Star has so far apprehended over half a million illegal immigrants, repelled over 140,000 attempted illegal entries, made over 50,000 arrests and seized over half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl.
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09:36 AM GMT
Panama president: ‘Everything Trump says about Canal is false’
Jose Raul Mulino, the president of Panama, has reiterated that the Panama Canal was not a gift from the US, after Donald Trump threatened to take it “back”.
“We reject in its entirety everything that Mr Trump has said. First because it is false and second because the Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama. The Panama Canal was not a concession or a gift from the United States,” Mr Mulino said during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
09:05 AM GMT
‘Trump is right, we don’t spend enough on defence,’ says EU
The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas has urged the bloc to heed Donald Trump’s demand to spend more on defence, as she told members to prepare for war with Russia.
“President Trump is right to say that we don’t spend enough. It’s time to invest,” Ms Kallas said, adding that the United States must remain Europe’s “strongest ally”.
“Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow and for as long as we underinvest in our defence,” she said during a speech at the annual conference of the European Defence Agency.
Mr Trump said earlier this month NATO members should spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence – a huge increase from the current 2 per cent goal and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently reaches.
“Time is not on Russia’s side. But it’s not necessarily on ours either. Because we are not yet doing enough. There should be no doubt in any of our minds that we must spend more to prevent war. But we also need to prepare for war,” Ms Kallas said.
08:44 AM GMT
Rubio vows to restore ‘meritocracy’
Marco Rubio has pledged to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from the State Department and restore “strict meritocracy”.
“There is tremendous talent and expertise in this Department – I have seen it first-hand in missions across the globe – and upholding strict meritocracy is essential to securing our nation’s future,” Mr Rubio, who was confirmed as Secretary of State yesterday, said in a memo to the diplomatic corps.
He added that he would follow Donald Trump’s executive order to ban diversity programmes “in both letter and spirit”, and that his new department must stop “pushing political and cultural causes that are divisive at home and deeply unpopular abroad”.
08:26 AM GMT
Republican calls for bishop to be deported
Republican Mike Collins has demanded the bishop of Washington be deported after she urged the president to “have mercy” on immigrants and the LGBTQ community.
The 57-year-old congressman, who was elected to represent Georgia’s 10th Congressional District in 2023, wrote on X: “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.”
08:13 AM GMT
State Department removes page on selecting gender
The State Department appears to have removed the “selecting your gender marker” page from its website.
Where previously those applying for or updating a passport were advised on selecting between male (M), female (F), or unspecified or another gender identity (X), now the page redirects applicants to a general passport information page.
The move comes a day after Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing all government agencies to ensure official documents such as passports and visas “accurately reflect the holder’s sex”.
The order also declared that the US government would recognise only two sexes, male and female, as part of a wider campaign to end “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Read more on the executive order here.
08:05 AM GMT
Trump ‘open’ to Musk buying TikTok
Donald Trump has said he is open to Elon Musk buying TikTok to keep the social media platform running.
Asked by reporters in the White House if he would be in support of the world’s richest man acquiring the app, the president responded: “I would be.”
He added that he had met with TikTok’s owners and outlined a deal that could see its net worth reach a “trillion dollars” if it sold half its stake to the US.
TikTok still could not be downloaded from the Apple and Google app stores in the US on Tuesday, as it remained trapped in legal purgatory.
Mr Trump signed an executive order on Monday delaying the enforcement of a ban on the Chinese-owned popular short-video app by 75 days.
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07:53 AM GMT
Trump demands apology from ‘nasty’ bishop
Donald Trump has branded a Washington bishop “nasty”, “very boring” and “not very good at her job”, after she told the president he was sowing fear among the country’s immigrants and LGBTQ people.
“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” the president wrote on Truth Social of the Rt Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, who delivered the sermon at Washington National Cathedral.
Rev Budde had urged the president to show compassion to illegal migrants, who he intends to deport in large numbers, and the LGBTQ community.
“She brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way,” the president said, adding: “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people.”
Mr Trump demanded Rev Budde and her church apologise to the public, adding that the service was “very boring and uninspiring”.
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07:40 AM GMT
Washington prison vigil turns into MAGA rally as Jan 6 rioters are freed
Two years ago, William Sarsfield was arrested by the FBI, detained and convicted of felony and misdemeanour charges for his role in the Capitol riot of Jan 6.
But after Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon of more than 1,500 men and women charged with joining the insurrection, he now stands a free man, albeit still wearing prison-issued sweatpants.
“When I looked out the window and saw my girlfriend, my truck with the flag in the back, sitting on the side of the road with a bunch of other people that were there to pick us up, it was all part of God’s plan and healing,” he said outside the Washington DC Central Detention Facility.
Read the full story here.
07:36 AM GMT
Trump and Vance ambushed by bishop pleading for ‘mercy’
A bishop urged Donald Trump to “have mercy” on transgender children and immigrants during an inauguration church service attended by the president and his family.
The Rt Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, delivered the sermon at a prayer service on Tuesday morning attended by Mr Trump, his wife Melania, JD Vance and his wife Usha.
Directly addressing the newly appointed president, who was sitting in the front pew, Rev Budde said: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.
“There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.”
Read the full story here.
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07:35 AM GMT
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage
Donald Trump has wasted no time since he returned to the White House, signing off on a flurry of executive orders and directions for his new government.
Here is a round up from the first full day of his second term:
