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President Donald Trump named her as the youngest White House press secretary in history. And Karoline Leavitt unveiled a Gen Z-style shake up as she made her debut at the famed podium Tuesday.The 27-year-old immediately announced that she was opening up the briefing room to TikTokers and creating a seat for “new media,” echoing her boss’s wider overhaul of the US government.After Trump focused on podcasters in his election victory and bashed “legacy” news organizations, Leavitt said she would be following his “revolutionary media approach.”But some things don’t change. Leavitt admitted that the garrulous former reality TV star Trump will end up taking much of the limelight himself.”The president is the best spokesperson that this White House has,” Leavitt said in her first briefing since Trump’s inauguration eight days ago.”And I can assure you that you will be hearing from both him and me as much as possible.” As reporters’ hands shot up, Leavitt then took questions, starting with two of the so-called new media, Axios and Breitbart, before mixing up traditional news organizations with right-wing outlets.- ‘Smart, tough’ -Leavitt was already a polished presence, with her social media profile mixing shots of life as a young working mother with clips of her on Fox News going after the “fake news” media.Trump said when he appointed her shortly after his election win in November that Leavitt was “smart, tough” and would “excel at the podium.”And Leavitt is nothing if not a Trump loyalist. Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, she sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticized Trump in class.Eight years later she has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of Trumpworld, thanks partly to her aggressive defense of her 78-year-old boss on the airwaves.A veteran of the press office in his first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform. An Instagram post at the time showed her firing a machinegun on a range with the caption: “@joebiden come and take it”, referring to then-president Joe Biden.Then her steely appearances on television as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman earned her the job as press secretary.In one notable exchange, a CNN interviewer cut Leavitt off after she criticized the network’s moderators chosen to oversee a debate between Trump and Biden.- ‘Wonder woman’ -Her loyalty was such that she returned to work four days after the birth of her first child when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a political rally last June.”I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,'” Leavitt told The Conservateur magazine in an article titled “Wonder Woman.” It remains to be seen how often Leavitt will step up to the podium in future. Before the briefing she had only had a brief encounter with reporters on the White House driveway and a single “gaggle” on Air Force One, reserving most of her appearances for Fox News.But she has still caused a stir, with conservative commentator Mary Rooke posting a picture of her driveway appearance with two similarly coiffed aides and saying: “We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.”Her first briefing showed a practised performer who was mostly comfortable exchanging jabs with the media. Unlike her predecessor, Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, she made no use of the heavy “binder” where spokespeople often have key lines set out. She also avoided the fate of Trump’s first press secretary, Sean Spicer, who was widely ridiculed after falsely insisting during his first briefing that the crowd for Trump’s 2017 inauguration was the largest history. Three other spokespeople followed during Trump’s first term with one of them, Stephanie Grisham, failing to make a single appearance at the podium.

The healthcare system for millions of low-income Americans and rafts of other programs were thrown into disarray Tuesday after President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on federal funding, a move opponents blasted as unconstitutional.It was Trump’s latest radical step since he took office a week ago, vowing to force the US government and its employees to back his right-wing political goals or face retribution.Potentially trillions of dollars in federal grants, loans and other aid were frozen by the White House order set to take effect Tuesday at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT), casting a shadow over everything from education to small businesses.Online portals used to access the Medicaid health insurance program for poor families and disabled individuals were quickly inaccessible.”This is a blatant attempt to rip away health insurance from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed,” Oregon Senator Ron Wyden posted on X.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the website would be fixed soon and that “no payments have been affected.”She defended the drastic move as part of Trump’s bid to make the government “good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”The freeze is not a “blanket” stop on spending, but a tool to check that “every penny that is going out the door is not conflicting with the executive orders and actions that this president has taken,” Leavitt said.She said the temporary pause would not impact individual Americans but would instead target programs to weed out anything “illegal.”She listed as examples racial equality and climate change programs that Trump has vowed to eradicate — and did not answer a question about whether Medicaid recipients would be cut off.The extraordinary measure follows a similar freeze on most US foreign aid.- Constitutional challenge -The order, signed by acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Matthew Vaeth, did not make clear how such a pause on disbursements of funding will work or for how long.Several non-profit groups have filed suit in federal court seeking a temporary halt to the order until its legality is assessed.Federal spending included more than $3 trillion in financial assistance like grants and loans in fiscal year 2024 — all of which was approved by Congress.Democrats accused Trump of usurping Congress’ constitutionally mandated control over budget spending as part of a broader attempt to force the government to bend to his personal will.This has included firing independent government watchdogs and several career prosecutors who were involved in an official probe of his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.The Trump administration says the funding stoppage is just a way to enforce compliance with the administration’s policies.This is “certainly within the confines of the law,” Leavitt said, citing the White House legal team, and claiming Trump “has the power to fire anyone” in the administration.- ‘Sweeping halt’ -Democratic Senator Patty Murray called the White House spending order “a brazen & illegal move.””The law is the law — Trump must immediately reverse course, follow the requirements of the law, & ensure the nation’s spending laws are implemented as Congress intended,” she posted on X.Another Democratic senator, Richard Blumenthal, said the “illegal” order will create “havoc” in medical and research facilities, which receive major government funding.The White House memo stated that “federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities.”It stated that Social Security and Medicare benefits — used by retirees — were excluded from the pause.Areas that might be impacted, it said, include “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal” — references to racial equality and climate change programs that Trump has vowed to overturn.The Sierra Club, an environmental organization, said the freeze could jeopardize funding for everything from disaster relief to home heating subsidies, safe drinking water programs, and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.”In issuing a sweeping halt to federal funding, grants and loans, Donald Trump has… immediately and significantly put Americans in danger,” Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous.

It has been 10 years since a teenage Shamima Begum and two friends secretly left Britain to marry Islamic State group fighters in Syria.Over the past decade Nadia Fall, a British theater director of Muslim heritage, has watched the polarizing and vitriolic debate about Begum’s infamous case, online radicalization, and who is to blame.”We kept thinking ‘well these are girls, these are children really, legally,'” said Fall, who began work on a film project with writer Suhayla El-Bushra.”The stories never really were (told) from their point of view.”The resulting new drama, “Brides,” which premiered at the US-based Sundance festival and is loosely inspired by their story, is an attempt to change that.As much a road movie about friendship as it is political, the film follows two fictional Muslim teenagers on their journey through Turkey, to Syria.”Brides” does not concern itself so much with what happens in Syria, but how and why the girls traveled there in the first place.Doe and Muna suffer racist bullying at school. They live in a neighborhood where graffiti scrawled on the wall says “Behead All Muslims.” Their parents are abusive, emotionally or physically.They convince each other that the men waiting for them in Syria will treat them with more respect than they experienced back home. “This is not an apologist film,” said Fall.But “teenage brains are hardwired to take risks,” and the girls “were duped” by shadowy online voices who falsely purported to represent Islam, she said.- ‘Empathize’ -The subject matter continues to be divisive.Last year, Begum lost a high-profile bid to appeal the stripping of her British citizenship.She was 15 years old when she travelled to Syria. Now 25, Begum has not been able to return from a refugee camp in northern Syria.Tabloid newspapers, who have consistently called Begum a “vile fanatic” who has “no place on our soil,” celebrated the latest court ruling.Rights groups argue that Begum should answer for any crimes in her home country.While the film’s characters are not specifically based on Begum, the influence is clear.Actress Safiyya Ingar grew up in London’s Hackney, “ten minutes from where those girls are from.”Co-star Ebada Hassan listened to a BBC podcast to study Begum’s infamous case.”I thought it was imperative to get a person’s point of view who’d been through that, instead of just using what I’ve seen in the media for this portrayal,” she said.”It was nice to hear her voice. I tried to empathize with her before filling these shoes. But, she added, “I’m not trying to pretend to be her — at all.”- ‘Monsters’ -Fall believes that young people including Begum have been treated differently by the UK government, legal system and media due to their faith and skin color.”We didn’t want to regurgitate stories about radicalization and so on. But we just thought it was our story to tell,” said Fall.Like most films at Sundance, the movie is up for sale to potential distributors.Fall believes the subject remains urgent, as the divisive forces that drove the girls’ terrible decisions are stronger than ever.”It’s not gone away, this idea of ‘us versus them’, ‘these people are different,’ and trying to exploit other people feeling marginalized,'” said Fall.”It doesn’t have to be Syria,” she warned.

Donald Trump’s new press secretary on Tuesday invited TikTokers and podcasters to apply for White House press passes, in an effort to reach beyond the mainstream media that the US president often slams.In her first time at the White House podium, Karoline Leavitt said an additional seat for “new media voices” had been reserved at the front of the cramped briefing room.Trump has repeatedly criticized traditional media as the “enemy of the people,” and he credits a series of podcast appearances for aiding his return to the White House. “As the youngest press secretary in history, thanks to President Trump, I take great pride in opening up this room to new media voices,” the 27-year-old Leavitt told a packed briefing room.”Whether you are a TikTok content creator, a blogger, a podcaster, if you are producing legitimate news content… you will be allowed to apply for press credentials to this White House,” she said.The shake-up was more modest that some news organizations had feared, after the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. talked in November about “opening up” the press room.The 49 seats in the room are allocated to a number of news organizations, including AFP, that are members of the White House Correspondents Association.Reporters without seats are allowed to stand at the side if there is space — as they did for Leavitt’s packed-out debut on Tuesday.The new press secretary also vowed to hold reporters accountable for what she said were “lies” about Trump.”We know for a fact there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that,” she said.The briefing at the iconic White House podium was Leavitt’s first since Trump was inaugurated eight days ago. She has so far largely spoken to conservative television outlets including Fox News.Trump sidestepped interviews with some major US TV networks during the election campaign, opting instead to speak to several largely right-wing podcasts including the hugely popular Joe Rogan Experience.

General Motors faced questions Tuesday about the impact of potential moves by the Trump administration targeting trade and the environment, with the uncertainty overshadowing the company’s latest results. The big US automaker reported a quarterly loss due to costs from restructuring a China initiative, though that was offset by a 2025 earnings forecast that topped analyst expectations. However its projections did not try to quantify the effects of new tariffs that Trump has threatened on key markets in which GM operates, such as Mexico, or the White House’s planned rollback of policies promoting electric vehicles.Acknowledging the “uncertainty,” Chief Executive Mary Barra said the company had been “proactive” in engaging the Trump administration and Congress.”We have stressed the importance of a strong manufacturing sector and American leadership in advanced technologies,” Barra said in a letter to shareholders. “It’s clear that we share a lot of common ground, and we appreciate the dialogue.”Barra pledged to be “agile” in responding to any shifts.GM shares tumbled around 10 percent shortly after midday. Shares rose nearly 50 percent in 2024.In the fourth quarter, GM reported a loss of $3.0 billion compared with profits of $2.1 billion a year ago.Revenues rose 11 percent to $47.7 billion.The company projected 2025 earnings of between $11 and $12 per share, above analyst expectations.GM garnered higher auto sales in the fourth quarter led by its home market, where pricing remained strong. But the earnings were dented by a $4 billion in non-cash costs from revamping the SAIC General Motors Corporation. The company had signaled the hit in early December as it sought to bring down costs and clear out inventory in China.- Scenario planning -GM’s 2025 outlook includes the full-year availability of sport utility vehicles revamped in 2024, as well as new EVs under the Cadillac brand set to launch.But executives faced multiple questions about how the fast-changing policy landscape affects its outlook.Barra said the company has been studying “multiple scenarios” on tariffs. Trump has threatened punishing 25 percent duties on all goods from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on goods from China, starting February 1.GM builds trucks in both Canada and Mexico, but “we have the capacity in the United States to shift some of that,” she said.The company is “encouraged” that Mexico’s leader, Claudia Sheinbaum, has indicated that they are working to avoid tariffs, she said.”But we’re doing the planning… and have several levers we can pull.”GM also faced questions over EVs, which have emerged as a punching bag of the new White House.GM officials are targeting production of 300,000 EVs in 2025. One of Trump’s executive orders last week pledged to undo policies that disadvantage gasoline-powered cars, and opened the door to removing tax credits for EV purchases and to a fight over California’s strict climate policies.”There’s a lot of moving parts out there,” said Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson, who described GM as having “multiple playbooks” to respond.”The reason that we guided to the status quo is because there are really infinite permutations on policy,” Jacobson said. “But rest assures … we’ve got plans in place, and we’re continuing to work proactively with the administration and with Congress on what we think are the right things to do, which is preserve American jobs and preserve American innovation.”

The United Nations confirmed Tuesday it had received notification from Washington of its withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement, a key campaign pledge of US President Donald Trump.On his first day back in the White House, Trump announced the United States would leave the accord, which is managed by the UN climate change body. It brings together almost all the world’s nations and aims to keep global average temperature rise below a critical threshold.”I can confirm to you that the United States has notified the secretary-general, in his capacity as a depository, of its withdrawal on January 27 of this year from the Paris agreement,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.”According to Article 28, paragraph two, of the Paris agreement, the withdrawal of the United States will take effect on January 27, 2026.”The move comes as global average temperatures over the past two years surpassed the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold for the first time, underscoring the urgency of climate action.  Trump previously withdrew the United States from the Paris accord during his first term. Despite this, the agreement — adopted in 2015 by 195 parties to curb greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change — appears poised to endure.Washington typically provides 22 percent of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs for 2024-2025 projected at $96.5 million.Billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg has announced that his foundation will step in to meet the shortfall.The secretariat is tasked with supporting the global response to climate threats, and organizes international climate conferences, the next of which will be COP30 held in Brazil in November.Dujarric told a media briefing that “we reaffirm our commitment to the Paris agreement and support all effective efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”Since coming back to office, Trump has also declared a “national energy emergency” to expand drilling in the world’s top oil and gas producer, said he would scrap vehicle emissions standards, and vowed to halt offshore wind farms.Critics warn the Paris withdrawal undermines global cooperation on reducing fossil fuel use and could embolden major polluters like China and India to weaken their commitments, while Argentina, under libertarian President Javier Milei, has also said it is “reevaluating” its participation.

The “doomsday clock” symbolizing how close humanity is to destruction ticked one second closer to midnight Tuesday as concerns on nuclear war, climate and public health were jolted by US President Donald Trump’s return.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which set up the clock at the start of the Cold War, shifted the clock to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been, a week after Trump’s inauguration.The clock was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over nuclear-armed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was originally placed at seven minutes to midnight in 1947.”At 89 seconds to midnight, the doomsday clock stands closer to catastrophe than at any moment in its history,” said former Colombian president and Nobel Peace laureate Juan Manuel Santos, chair of The Elders, a group of major former leaders.”The clock speaks to the existential threats that confront us and the need for unity and bold leadership to turn back its hands,” he told a news conference in Washington to present the findings from the board of experts.”This is a bleak picture. But it is not yet irreversible,” he said.Just days into his second presidency, Trump has already shattered norms on international cooperation.Santos welcomed Trump’s pledges for diplomacy with Russia and China. Trump has vowed to end the Ukraine war, which has raised fears of Russian use of nuclear weapons, by pressing both sides.But Santos said that the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and World Health Organization set back the planet on two top risks.The world just experienced another record-breaking year of high temperatures and major disasters.Other countries could soon say that if the United States, the world’s largest economy, “is not going to make an effort to limit the carbon emissions, why should I?” Santos said.And with many people’s memories fading of Covid-19, “we have to remind them what happened — and what will happen will be worse, according to all the scientists,” Santos said.- Threats, and benefits, from AI -Suzet McKinney, a public health expert on the board of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said the risks of infectious disease was confounded by advances in artificial intelligence, which increase the risks that rogue actors could unleash biological weapons.”As nation-states around the world and even our own government engage in practices that are sure to encourage rogue behavior and/or cripple our ability to curb the spread of infectious diseases, novel or otherwise, we cannot hide our heads in the sand,” she told the news conference.But Robert Socolow, a physicist who also serves on the board, said that the unveiling of Chinese intelligence firm DeepSeek — which has rattled the United States — could ultimately also pay dividends by reducing energy demand from the fast-growing field of AI.The Chinese breakthrough may mirror “the kind of progress in semiconductor chips that reduce the energy demands of ordinary computing” in the analogue era.But the experts also warned that artificial intelligence risked worsening disinformation.”All of these dangers are greatly exacerbated by a potent threat multiplier — the spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories that degrade the communication ecosystem and increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood,” said Daniel Holz, chair of the board.

Dozens of Colombian illegal migrants arrived home from the United States Tuesday, grateful for an end to a grueling deportation ordeal at the heart of a bitter row between the countries.Bogota sent two air force planes to fetch some 200 of its nationals, including children, from California and Texas after initially turning back two US military planes carrying the same.Colombian President Gustavo Petro refused the first planes after taking umbrage at the treatment meted out to expelled Brazilian migrants flown home from the United States last week, handcuffed and shackled at the ankles.Petro posted photographs on social media Tuesday of his compatriots disembarking in Bogota without cuffs, and wrote: “They are Colombians, free and dignified, and in their homeland where they are loved.”He added: “The migrant is not a criminal but a human being who wants to work and progress, live life.”Carlos Gomez, one of the deportees, said he had left with his 17-year-old son for the United States two weeks ago seeking “a better future.”What he found was not that.”It is not an American dream, it is an American nightmare,” Gomez told journalists on his return to Bogota.At the migrant detention center where they were held, Gomez claimed the food was “horrible,” the guards abusive, and the conditions “worse than (those of) a prisoner.”Then came the attempted initial deportation from San Diego, with Gomez claiming he and his teenage son were handcuffed and shackled.”He cried to me: ‘Daddy it hurts’,” he recounted.- ‘America is respected again’ -Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, on Sunday stepped back from the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States after Trump threatened sanctions and tariffs on exports despite a free-trade agreement between the two countries.The US embassy in Bogota suspended visa applications.Petro insisted he would only accept migrants who were not treated “like criminals.”Another deportee, who identified himself only as Daniel, told reporters at Bogota’s El Dorado airport that he and other migrants were roughly treated by deportation officials: their few belongings seized before they were cuffed and chained for one of the rejected US flights “as if we were… wanted criminals.”Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo insisted Tuesday that none of the deportees, including 21 children and two pregnant women, were wanted for a crime in either country.Petro, a former guerrilla, was the first Latin American leader to defy Trump over his mass deportation plans.He threatened retaliatory steps, but his resistance fizzled in the face of Trump’s threats and an outcry at home over what many saw as a hot-headed handling of the dispute.”On both sides, they made mistakes. They insulted each other, and they took decisions that should not have been taken,” Colombian ex-president Juan Manuel Santos told AFP Tuesday at an event in Washington.”Fortunately, they ended up doing the right thing, which they should have done from the beginning — sit down and talk.”Trump claimed victory Monday, telling a lawmakers’ retreat in Miami that “America is respected again.” He insisted that “we’ve made it clear to every country that they will be taking back (their) people, that we’re sending out the criminals… the illegal aliens coming from their countries.”Brazil on Monday summoned the top US envoy to the country to explain the “degrading treatment” meted out to its own nationals.The Republican’s plans for mass migrant deportations has put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America — the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.Since he took office a week ago, thousands of people have been sent back to countries including Guatemala and Mexico.While previous US administrations also routinely expelled illegal migrants, Trump has vowed the biggest deportation wave in history.Honduras has called an urgent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Thursday to discuss migration issues.

She’s the face of a Trump-supporting Gen Z movement and the youngest White House press secretary in history. Now Karoline Leavitt is stepping up to the podium for the first time.The 27-year-old is already a polished presence, with her social media profile mixing shots of life as a young working mother with clips of her on Fox News going after the “fake news” media.But it has taken more than a week into Donald Trump’s second term for Leavitt to make her debut before the press in the James S. Brady briefing room at the White House.It reflects the difficulties that Trump’s spokespeople face to emerge out of the shadow of their limelight-loving boss, with the president already having had several long interactions with the media since returning to power.”See you at the podium!” Leavitt said on X ahead of the briefing.Trump said when he appointed her shortly after his election win in November that Leavitt was “smart, tough” and would “excel at the podium.”- ‘Wonder woman’ -Leavitt is nothing if not a Trump loyalist. Raised in New Hampshire, where her family ran an ice cream shop, she sent a letter to her university newspaper in 2017 to protest against the fact that a professor had criticized Trump in class.Eight years later she has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of Trumpworld, thanks partly to her aggressive defense of her 78-year-old boss on the airwaves.A veteran of the press office in his first term, she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Congress in New Hampshire in 2022 on a pro-Trump, pro-gun ownership platform. An Instagram post at the time showed her firing a machinegun on a range with the caption: “@joebiden come and take it.”Then her steely appearances on television as Trump’s 2024 campaign spokeswoman earned her the job as press secretary.In one notable exchange, a CNN interviewer cut Leavitt off after she criticized the network’s moderators chosen to oversee a debate between Trump and then-president Joe Biden.Her loyalty was such that she returned to work four days after the birth of her first child when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a political rally last June.”I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work,” Leavitt told The Conservateur magazine in an article titled “Wonder Woman.” – Sparring -The White House briefing room will be a different experience, with its rough-and-tumble sparring with journalists.Since Trump returned to power, she has so far only had a brief encounter with reporters on the driveway outside the West Wing, followed by a single “gaggle” on Air Force One as Trump traveled to California.Her television appearances have almost exclusively been reserved for Fox News and the conservative Newsmax channel.But she has still caused a stir, with conservative commentator Mary Rooke posting a picture of her driveway appearance with two similarly coiffed aides and saying: “We are finally entering our Blonde Supremacy era.”As she steps up to the podium on Tuesday, Leavitt will be seeking to avoid the fate of Trump’s previous spokespeople.His first, Sean Spicer, was widely ridiculed after falsely insisting during his first briefing that the crowd for Trump’s 2017 inauguration was the largest history. Three other spokespeople followed during the first term with one of them, Stephanie Grisham, failing to make a single appearance at the podium.

President Donald Trump ordered a freeze starting Tuesday on potentially trillions of dollars in federal funding to Americans, impacting everything from education grants to small businesses loans — and sparking accusations that he is violating the constitution.The order was issued by the White House budget office in a memo a week into Trump’s second term.It was not clear in the memo, signed by acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Matthew Vaeth, how such a pause on disbursements of funding will work or for how long.The extraordinary measure follows a similar announcement that US foreign aid is frozen.Trump won the presidency in part on promises to dismantle large sections of the US government and to slash spending.However, the aggressive shake-up is also aimed at making sure that federal spending programs — and government employees — support his right-wing political goals.A senior Trump administration official told reporters that the funding stoppage was a tool to enforce compliance. Programs that did not conflict with Trump would see their funding continue.The order instantly sowed fear and confusion among federal grant recipients.It also sparked accusations from Democrats that the Republican president is violating the constitution by usurping Congress’s power to control the US budget.- ‘Political vandalism?’ -Federal spending included more than $3 trillion in financial assistance like grants and loans in fiscal year 2024 — all of which was approved by Congress.The senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the pause was being enacted in a way that was in line with the law.However, Democratic Senator Patty Murray called the White House order “a brazen & illegal move.””The law is the law — Trump must immediately reverse course, follow the requirements of the law, & ensure the nation’s spending laws are implemented as Congress intended,” she posted on X.Another senator, Richard Blumenthal, said the “illegal” order will create “havoc” in medical and research facilities, which receive major government funding.”This is political vandalism. Taking a wrecking ball to federal agencies does nothing to make government more efficient but it is already doing grave damage to people and programs throughout the country,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said on X.The OMB memo stated that “federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance and other relevant agency activities.”It excluded Social Security and Medicare benefits — used by retirees — from this pause.Areas that might be impacted, it said, include “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal” — references to racial equality and climate change programs that Trump has vowed to eradicate.Vaeth said that financial aid should be “dedicated to advancing Administration priorities,” issues like easing the burden of inflation, unleashing US energy and manufacturing, and “ending ‘wokeness.'”The Sierra Club, an environmental organization, said the freeze could jeopardize funding for everything from disaster relief to home heating subsidies, safe drinking water programs, and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.”In issuing a sweeping halt to federal funding, grants and loans, Donald Trump has… immediately and significantly put Americans in danger,” Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous.