Trump praises Doge in first cabinet meeting and claims ‘billions’ in savings without evidence – live

The Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that under the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” executive order signed by Donald Trump last month undocumented immigrants must also provide their fingerprints, while parents must ensure children under 14 are registered. The department will provide “evidence” of their registration and those 18 and over must carry that document at all times.

The announcement comes as Trump has sought to harshly crackdown on immigration and implement a mass deportation campaign. Since taking office, his administration has attempted to suspend a refugee resettlement program (a judge blocked the cancellation), moved to cut off legal aid for immigrant kids (although it later walked back that decision), sought to allow immigration raids in schools and churches (another judge blocked such efforts in some houses of worship) and has begun sending undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo.

Under the program announced this week, undocumented immigrants 14 and older in the US for 30 days or more will be required to register and undergo fingerprinting. Parents and guardians must register children under 14, and once children reach that age they must reapply and be fingerprinted, DHS said on its website. Those who do not comply can face criminal penalties, including misdemeanor prosecution, and fines.

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The Trump administration announced it will take control of the White House press pool, stripping the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding role in deciding which journalists have access to the president in intimate settings.

The move has immediately triggered an impassioned response from members of the media – including a Fox News correspondent who called it a “short-sighted decision”.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made the announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing, framing the move as democratizing access to the president.

“A group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.

“Not any more. Today, I was proud to announce that we are giving the power back to the people.”

The announcement upends over 70 years of established protocol of journalists themselves – not government officials – determining the rotating reporters who travel with the president on Air Force One and cover events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room.

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Erum Salam

Senate confirms Donald Trump’s pick for US trade representative

In a 56-43 vote, Jamieson Greer was confirmed as the country’s top trade negotiator.

Of those who voted in favor of Greer’s confirmation, five were Democrats: Senators John Fetterman, John Hickenlooper, Gary Peters, Elissa Slotkin and Sheldon Whitehouse.

Greer is a former lawyer for the air force and served as the chief of staff for Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative during Trump’s first term. Greer will play a key role in Trump’s tariff plans.

Senator Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate finance committee, opposed Greer’s confirmation and said: “Mr Greer will be a rubber stamp for the Trump Tax, the kneejerk decision to slap tariffs on nearly everything Americans buy and make high prices even higher.”

Here were some of the key moments during the public portion of Trump’s first official cabinet meeting of his second term.

• Trump opened his meeting by announcing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington DC on Friday to sign an agreement regarding rare earth minerals.

• Trump spoke about the costs of eggs, and how his administration was working to “get the prices down”.

• During the meeting, Trump praised Doge and said, without evidence, that the initiative had cut billions and billions of dollars.

• Trump then asked Elon Musk to stand up and deliver some remarks about his work with Doge. In his remarks, Musk thanked the administration for its support and claimed that if costs don’t get cut, the country will go “bankrupt”. Musk also described himself as “tech support” and said that Doge was doing lots of work to “fix the government computer systems”.

• Musk acknowledged that Doge “won’t be perfect” and said that Doge accidently cancelled an Ebola prevention effort, but “restored it immediately and there was no interruption”.

• Musk said that Doge will send another ultimatum email to federal workers. “We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said. Trump also told the room that the federal employees who have not responded so far are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.

• Trump said that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to cut up to 65% or so of its employees.

• Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether he would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force. The US president then went on to say that he has a great relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

• Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, spoke about the new “gold card” plan and said that 200,000 of them could add up to $1tn.

• During the meeting, Trump heavily criticized former president Joe Biden, and criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal and the southern border.

• Trump once again said that he wanted Canada to become the 51st US state.

• Trump said that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon. “It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”

• Trump described Putin as a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”. He also said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.

• Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, said that two people had died from a measles outbreak, but did not provide details about the deaths. Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that one child had died of measles.

Trump calls Russian President Vladimir Putin a “very cunning person” and a “very smart guy”.

During remarks, Trump said that he thinks “we are going to have a deal” regarding the war in Ukraine and said that Putin will “have to” make concessions.

Trump also said that he has “great respect” for the fighters in Ukraine, and called them “great fighters”.

“But without our equipment, that war would have been over, like people said, in a very short period of time.” Trump said.

Canada’s Liberal party, which looked bound for a loss only weeks ago, is seeing a significant comeback amid US president Trump’s threat of tariffs.

The Liberals are now tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls.

Among them is an Ipsos survey showing the left-leaning Liberals have 38% public support and the official opposition right-of-center Conservatives have 36%. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks while running advertisements comparing Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, to Donald Trump.

Read more about it here:

Trump states that he will not be stopping tariffs on Canada or Mexico and that he will be announcing tariffs on the European Union soon.

“It’ll be 25% generally speaking,” Trump said. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things.”

During the meeting, Musk said that he is going to send another email, referring to the email he sent last week asking federal workers to list five things they did last week or risk termination.

“We want to give people every opportunity to send an email,” Musk said on Wednesday.

Trump told the room that the federal employees who have not responded are “on the bubble” and later added, “maybe they’re going to be gone”.

Yesterday, the White House said that more than 1 million federal workers responded to the ultimatum email.

The email caused confusion this week and the US office of personnel management (OPM) directed agencies that responses to the email were optional.