Trump 2nd term updates: Trump says USAID is run by 'radical lunatics'

The comments came amid turmoil as DOGE took over USAID offices last week.

President Donald Trump made good on his threats to impose tariffs on some of the U.S.'s trading partners, announcing Saturday that he will levy 25% tariffs on some goods from Canada and Mexico and 10% on Chinese goods.

Experts have warned that tariffs of this magnitude will likely increase prices paid by U.S. and Trump appeared to acknowledge that “some pain” might be possible in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee announced it will meet Tuesday, when it is expected to vote on the controversial nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services.

Jan 29, 2025, 3:19 PM EST

Trump to sign executive order to use Guantanamo Bay as migrant facility

President Trump said Wednesday he plans to sign an executive order to permit the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to use Guantanamo Bay as a migrant facility.

"We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people," he said.

"Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back," he continued. "So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately."

Jan 29, 2025, 3:02 PM EST

Trump signs Laken Riley Act

President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act Wednesday afternoon, his first piece of legislation since assuming his second presidency.

"It's going to save countless innocent American lives," he said, calling it a "landmark law."

"I want to thank every House Republican, every Senate Republican, as well as the 12 Senate Democrats and the 48 House Democrats who voted to pass this vitally important bill," he added.

"Laken was a brilliant and beautiful 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia, the best in her class," Trump said. He also addressed her parents who were present for the signing.

The president said that under this law, the "Department of Homeland Security will be required to detain all illegal aliens who have been arrested for theft, burglary, larceny, shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, murder, or any crime that results in death or serious injury."

Jan 29, 2025, 2:32 PM EST

Trump says funding freeze reversal was intended to address ‘abuse,’ blames media for confusion

“There was a short-term pause or funding freeze on certain discretionary spending payments, such as government grants, only for us to quickly look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that's taken place in our government for too long,” Trump said while delivering remarks prior to signing the Laken Riley Act.

“And, restating right now to correct any confusion that the media has purposely and somehow, for whatever reason, created Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have not been affected by any action we're taking in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse,” he added, before divulging into an argument about money sent to Gaza.

Trump said that “these were the payments and types of payments affected by the temporary freeze,” emphasizing that “the American people strongly support these efforts.”

Jan 29, 2025, 1:58 PM EST

OMB reversal ‘not a rescission of the federal funding freeze,' WH press secretary says

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the policy on social media, saying Trump still plans to implement a funding freeze without specifying what mechanism the president plans to use.
"This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X defending the administration's announcement to reverse the directive. "It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo."

"Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injunction," she said. "The President's EO's on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented."