Democracy Now!

Netanyahu Threatens to Resume Gaza Assault as Israel Continues to Violate Ceasefire, Trump Hosts Jordan's King Abdullah at White House, Repeats Threat to Own" Gaza, Family Says Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Was Tortured by Israeli Captors, Trump Orders Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers and Installs DOGE Team Leads" at Agencies, Trump and Elon Musk Defend DOGE in Bizarre Oval Office Press Conference, White House Fires USAID's Inspector General After Scathing Report, Court Orders Trump Administration to Halt Plans to Gut National Institutes of Health, Senate Democrat Accuses Trump FBI Nominee Kash Patel of Perjury, No Uniforms, No Badge, No ID": Shocking Surveillance Video Shows Plainclothes ICE Raid, M23 Rebels Resume Attacks in DRC, Breaking Pause in Fighting That's Killed Thousands, Trump Welcomes Marc Fogel to White House After Fair Deal" Wins His Release from Russian Prison, Reporter Barred from White House Event After AP Refuses Trump's Moniker Gulf of America", Trump Orders U.S. Mint to Halt Production of Pennies, Trump Revokes Water- and Power-Saving EPA Standards and Bans Paper Straws

We speak with the acclaimed Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd on the publication day for his new book, Perfect Victims. It comes at a time of heightened censorship and attacks on Palestinian expression in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as in the United States and elsewhere. Perfect Victims explores ongoing Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation and human rights abuses and the impossible demand made of the Palestinians" to be sympathetic in the eyes of international observers. He says that pressure leads to curating yourself in a way that is not offensive to the Western gaze." El-Kurd also discusses U.S. attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement, President Donald Trump's calls for ethnically cleansing Gaza, Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank and his own family's history of fighting eviction from their home in East Jerusalem.

We look at a victory for immigrant rights, after a federal judge temporarily blocked the U.S. government from deporting three Venezuelan men to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the Trump administration has started to send thousands of immigrants for detention. Our guest, Baher Azmy, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, sought an emergency order to protect the three men, who had been held for about a year at the Otero detention center. The men say they left Venezuela to request asylum in the United States but were rejected. When they saw others from the detention center transferred to Guantanamo, they feared they could be next and asked the judge to preemptively block their transfer. This all comes as the Trump administration recently withdrew temporary protected status for Venezuelans living in the United States. We decided we had to move and prevent their transfer, their rendition, to the lawless space in Guantanamo," says Azmy. We also speak with Vince Warren, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Warren says that the United States is facing a constitutional crisis on a range of issues, and it's just not clear to any of us whether this administration will actually comply with the rule of law in any context."

Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez describes how immigrant communities are organizing to fight back against the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants. Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance," he says. It's obvious that the neofascist coup we are witnessing will not be defeated simply by legal challenges in the courts. It will have to be confronted in the streets."

We look at the Trump administration's escalating attacks on press freedom, and how the media has responded with bended knee in some cases, with Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The Trump administration has threatened journalists and media outlets for their coverage, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS and NPR over its funding sources. Meanwhile, a number of major news organizations face accusations of surrendering to Trump's threats. In December, ABC settled a defamation suit brought by Trump by making a $15 million donation to his future presidential library. CBS's parent company Paramount is reportedly in talks to settle a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Trump, who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump initially sought $10 billion in the lawsuit and is now seeking $20 billion. What I see here is media organizations that have the power to fight back against Trump but aren't doing it. I think that's a failure of courage," says Jaffer. Every time one of those media organizations settles a case, the next organization finds it more difficult to resist Trump."

Gaza Ceasefire on the Brink of Collapse After Hamas Cites Israel's Violations, Trump Says Mass Expulsion Plan for Gaza's Palestinians Doesn't Include the Right of Return, Trump Threatens to Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt Unless They Accept Palestinians Expelled from Gaza, Israeli Forces Raid East Jerusalem Bookseller and Seize Books Critical of Occupation, Federal Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Defied Order to Unfreeze Federal Funds, Lawmakers Join Protests at Shuttered Office of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Court Extends Deadline for Elon Musk's Offer of Buyouts for Federal Workers, Trump Halts Enforcement of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Fires Head of Government Ethics Office, Trump Administration Will Use IRS Criminal Unit to Pursue Undocumented Immigrants, Eric Adams Sold Us Out": DOJ Orders Prosecutors to Drop Case Against NYC Mayor, Trump Pardons Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, 5 Years After Commuting Sentence, Senate Advances Nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, Sam Altman and Elon Musk Troll Each Other over OpenAI; Vance Warns EU Against Tech Regulation, Pentagon Issues Ban on Transgender Troops; Education Dept. to End Programs for Trans Students

Israel has moved the war from Gaza to the West Bank," says the Palestinian National Initiative's Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who joins us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military's ongoing assault there has displaced over 35,000 Palestinians through evictions, destruction of infrastructure and indiscriminate attacks resulting in over 80 deaths. Barghouti also condemns Donald Trump's declaration that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip. He calls both the theft of Gaza" and the military campaign in the West Bank war crimes.

President Trump's targeting of South Africa is clearly tied to his influential adviser Elon Musk and a coterie of wealthy U.S. oligarchs, all of whom in some way or other grew up in South Africa as children." These men are known as the PayPal mafia" due to their involvement in the founding of the financial tech company PayPal, explains reporter Chris McGreal. McGreal, a former South Africa correspondent for The Guardian, outlines Musk's pro-apartheid and neo-Nazi family history, which appears to form the basis of his adherence to a right-wing ideology that believes white South Africans are the victims of the end of apartheid" and at risk of a white genocide."

President Trump has ordered a freeze on all foreign aid to South Africa in an executive order he signed Friday, claiming that a new land reform law amounts to government-sponsored race-based discrimination." The country's white minority still owns the vast majority of farmland decades after the end of apartheid rule. Trump also criticized South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ and said the United States would accept white South Africans as refugees facing what he characterized as persecution. The cuts to aid are already causing widespread suffering in South Africa, where after 30 years of democracy, not much has changed in terms of wealth ownership" and a white population with colonial roots is using politics, ideology, misinformation and propaganda ... to maintain the status quo," says South African activist Trevor Ngwane.

We look at how Elon Musk's executive branch agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, known as "DOGE," is wreaking havoc, with young male software engineers slashing government services and funding in what legal experts are saying could amount to a constitutional crisis." Most of the DOGE staffers are pulled from Musk-linked tech companies and have limited work and educational experience. Even if these young men are very technically gifted ... some of them seem to have questionable backgrounds," says Wired reporter Vittoria Elliott, who has revealed key details about the staffers in a series of articles. One DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, resigned and was later reinstated after he was traced to racist social media posts. DOGE's lack of oversight, training and transparency poses an incredible risk," adds Elliott, as its unvetted and underqualified staffers take control of the sensitive data of Americans.

Constitutional Crisis: Trump Admin Hints It Will Ignore Judge's Ruling to Block Musk from Treasury Records, Freed Palestinians Say They Were Held by Israel in Torture Center" Without Food, Water, In Occupied West Bank, Israel Kills Two Women, Including One 8 Months Pregnant, U.N. Warns U.S. Cuts Could Lead to 6 Million AIDS-Related Deaths as Trump Moves to Dismantle USAID, National Institutes of Health Moves to Cut $4 Billion in Biomedical Research, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Brink of Being Shuttered After Saving Consumers $21 Billion, Trump Announces 25% Tariff on Steel and Aluminum, U.S. Judge Blocks Transfer of Venezuela Immigrant Detainees to Guantanamo, NBC: Trump Preparing to Relaunch Immigrant Family Detention Policy, Trump Freezes U.S. Aid to South Africa over Unjust Racial Discrimination" Against Whites, African Leaders Call for Ceasefire, Direct Talks with Rebels Amid Escalating Eastern Congo Conflict, Sam Nujoma, Namibia's First President, Who Led His Country to Independence, Dies at 95, Ecuador's Daniel Noboa and Luisa Gonzalez Headed for Rematch in April Presidential Runoff, Mass Anti-AfD Protests Continue in Germany as Far Right Gathers for Make Europe Great Again" Summit, Trump Fires Kennedy Center Board Members, Announces Plan to Install Himself as New Chair, Halftime Performer Stages Super Bowl Protest, Holding Up Flags of Sudan, Palestine, Louisiana Spent $17.5M to Remove Unhoused People to Cold Warehouse Ahead of Super Bowl

The Trump administration is planning to shutter the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights at the Environmental Protection Agency and has placed nearly 170 employees on administrative leave. I'm very concerned about the deregulation and the focus on corporate profits," says Mustafa Santiago Ali, the former head of the environmental justice program at the EPA. He resigned in 2017 to protest a Trump administration proposal to severely scale back the size and work of the agency. Any time that we place profit over people, then we are putting a crosshair on our most vulnerable, our most marginalized," says Ali.

A lawsuit by a coalition of labor unions Thursday prompted the Labor Department to agree not to release any sensitive economic and privacy data to DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. Musk's group has already gained access to sensitive files and computer systems across other key agencies as part of a push to restructure much of the federal government. There are huge problems with what Elon Musk and his team are doing to access the most critical personal data that this country owns," says Rob Shriver, senior adviser to the accountability group Democracy Forward, which filed the lawsuit over Labor Department data, and a former acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. Legal challenges have also reversed the Trump administration's executive order to freeze trillions in federal funding, delayed a buyout offer sent to most of the federal workforce to encourage mass resignations, and at least partially blocked Musk from accessing the Treasury Department's payment system. We also speak with Public Citizen's Robert Weissman, who calls Musk's actions an authoritarian rampage through the government ... designed to access information, surveil the country, destroy the institutions of government and advance corporate interests without restraint."

We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California about the Trump administration's ongoing assault on the federal bureaucracy and the gutting of various agencies, led by the president's unelected billionaire adviser Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.No DOGE employee should have access to any of Americans' sensitive, confidential information, and they should not have access to be able to stop payments," he says. Khanna calls Musk's actions unconstitutional" and says the Trump administration must be held accountable. There is a movement now which is pushing back. We did not have that for a couple months, I acknowledge that. But the Democratic Party in this last week has had a new energy and a new resolve to stand up."Khanna also comments on the use of Guantanamo Bay to detain immigrants, Trump's colonial proposals to seize Gaza and other foreign territories and more.

Trump Sanctions ICC over War Crimes Investigations Against Israel, Trump Says Palestinians Will Be Happy, Safe and Free" After Mass Expulsion from Gaza, Senate Votes to Confirm Project 2025 Architect Russell Vought as White House Budget Chief, DOGE Staffer Marko Elez Resigns over Racist and Hateful Social Media Posts, Lawmakers Denied Access to EPA as Trump Admin Shutters Environmental Justice Office, Scott Turner Confirmed as HUD Secretary as DOGE Prepares to Slash Billions from Housing Department, First Female Coast Guard Commandant, Linda Fagan, Evicted from Home After 3-Hour Notice, Rights Groups Condemn NCAA over Ban on Trans Women in Sports, January 2025 Was Hottest on Record, Hitting 1.75 Degrees Above Preindustrial Levels, Trump Nominates Sharpiegate" Scientist to Reprise Role at NOAA, Mourners at Memorial for Altadena Fire Victims Demand Equity in Rebuilding Process, Trump Administration Shackled Indians for 40 Hours Aboard Deportation Flight

As the Trump administration, led in part by his unelected adviser Elon Musk, sets its sights on cutting the Department of Education, we speak to longtime educator Jesse Hagopian about what he calls an extremist, authoritarian power grab to dismantle public education and enforce ideological conformity." Hagopian, whose new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, traces the history of racist educational censorship, adds, This isn't about protecting children. We know that dismantling the Department of Education is really about imposing ... the violence of organized forgetting."

We speak to Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart about his new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, which is addressed to my fellow Jews" and criticizes what he characterizes as the increasing privileging of Zionism as a part of Jewish identity. The Jewish community is structured to basically make the existence of a Jewish state, a state that privileges Jews over Palestinians, sacred, ... elevat[ing] ethnonationalism - a Jewish state - over Judaism itself," Beinart says. In response, he challenges the erasure of Zionism's explicitly colonial roots and political myths about majoritarian rule, arguing for the acceptance of more critical stances toward the state of Israel within Jewish communities.

World leaders are rebuking Donald Trump's proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip, ethnically cleansing the region of Palestinians. There's no question that even though the entire region would reject it ... the fundamental reality is that we are heading to the complete destruction of Palestinian society in Gaza as a matter of status quo," says our guest Omar Baddar. Baddar, a Palestinian American political analyst and member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute, also discusses Trump's recent statements signaling a potential breakdown of the official ceasefire in Gaza.

Protests Erupt Against Trump and Musk Takeover of Gov't Agencies, NOAA Receives Order to Halt International Engagements"; HHS Workers Placed on DEI Hit List", Sen. Brian Schatz Warns Against Creeping Fascism" as He Leads Filibuster Against OMB Nominee Vought, Unions Sue to Prevent DOGE from Accessing Labor Dept. Data, CIA Sends White House Email with Names of Recent Hires; DOJ Official Accuses FBI of Insubordination", Trump Signs Order Banning Trans Women and Girls from School Sports, Judge Blocks Trump's Cruel and Unusual" Order to Move Trans Women Prisoners to Men's Wards, Federal Court Puts Indefinite Hold on Trump's Order Ending Birthright Citizenship, Texas Empowers National Guard Soldiers to Arrest Asylum Seekers at U.S. Border, ICE Agents in Colorado Go Door to Door Demanding IDs and Asking People to Turn In Their Neighbors, Protests Nationwide Denounce Trump Administration's Immigration Raids, First Deportation Flight Carrying Immigrant Prisoners Arrives at Guantanamo, Guatemala Agrees to U.S. Demands to Accept Deportees from Other Countries, Israeli Defense Minister Orders Plans for Voluntary Departure" of Palestinians from Gaza, Swedish Gunman Kills 10 at Adult Education Center That Serves Immigrants, Panama Canal Authority Denies Trump's Claim of Free Passage for U.S. Ships, Javier Milei Withdraws Argentina from World Health Organization, Blasts Social Justice Groups, Ecuador's President Slaps Tariffs on Mexican Goods, Mirroring Trump's Authoritarian Moves, Trump's Release of Water from California Dams Won't Help Farms or L.A. Firefighters

We speak with Karla Gilbride, the former general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who was fired by President Trump in late January along with two commissioners at the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace. The EEOC was created as part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and is tasked with investigating discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex and other characteristics, but the Trump administration is gutting the agency as part of its larger assault on DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion. The EEOC says it will no longer focus on anti-trans discrimination and vows to uphold a binary view of sex and gender.

The Trump administration claims an order to withhold funds from hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to transgender youth is already having its intended effect" as hospitals announce a halt to gender-affirming care for trans patients. The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and others filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of transgender youth who say the order is depriving them of medical care solely on the basis of their sex and transgender status." ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio says the situation is catastrophic for transgender people of all ages, particularly transgender youth," and notes Trump's near-daily attacks are targeting a community that makes up less than 1% of the U.S. population. We need to see people standing up." We are also joined by pediatrician Dr. Jeffrey Birnbaum, who has vowed to keep working with transgender youth patients in New York. Keep politics out of science," says Dr. Birnbaum.

As President Trump continues to sign new executive orders attacking transgender people and their rights, we hear voices of protest from New York, where hundreds of people rallied Monday outside NYU Langone Hospital in Manhattan to demand it continue providing gender-affirming care for trans patients, after news that some patients had been dropped by the hospital. This comes after the Trump administration signed an order withholding federal research and education grants from hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to transgender people under 19.

President Donald Trump met at the White House Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where Trump again suggested ethnically cleansing Gaza of its Palestinian population. Trump has already mused about moving Gaza's population to Jordan and Egypt, which those countries have flatly rejected, but on Tuesday he went even further and said the United States should own" Gaza and develop it into a seaside tourist destination. Nothing has been more destabilizing for the region over the last eight decades than the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel, and nobody at any level is going to sign up for a continuation of that," says Palestinian American analyst Yousef Munayyer, who calls Trump's plan ethically and morally repugnant." We also speak with former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, who says Israeli society is currently giddy with excitement" over Trump's presidency. But he adds that perhaps Israel's greatest Achilles' heel is if it actually falls for the idea that America is all-powerful."

Trump Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Entire Gaza Strip and for U.S. to Take Over", U.S. Ignores ICC Arrest Warrant Seeking Netanyahu's Arrest for Crimes Against Humanity, A Serious Violation of International Law": Palestinians Reject Trump's Gaza Takeover Bid, Palestinian Poet Refaat Alareer, Killed in 2023 Israeli Strike, Finally Laid to Rest in Gaza City, Trump Places 10,000 USAID Workers on Leave and Orders Them to Return to U.S., Trump Orders U.S. Withdrawal from U.N. Human Rights Council and U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Federal Workers Sue DOGE, Alleging Musk Illegally Compromised Personal Information, Democratic Lawmakers Protest Elon Musk's Hostile Takeover" of U.S. Government, Ukraine's Zelensky Accepts Trump's Bid to Trade U.S. Arms for Rare Earth Minerals, Senate Confirms Trump Loyalist Pam Bondi as Attorney General, Proud Boys Lose Trademark Rights to Historic Black Church It Attacked in 2020, ACLU Sues to Block Trump's Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth, Senators Advance Nominations of RFK Jr. for Health Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Intelligence Chief, Hundreds of Women Raped and Burned to Death as M23 Rebels Seize Eastern DRC's Goma, Philippine Congress Impeaches Vice President Sara Duterte over Corruption, Assassination Threats

An executive order that purports to combat antisemitism on university campuses is likely to chill free speech and target students for pro-Palestine, antiwar and anti-racist views. The order, signed by President Trump, threatens to deport noncitizen college students and other international visitors who take part in protests considered antisemitic under a broad and contested definition of the term. Though the order gives them new teeth, these threats of deportation are not new, as our guest Momodou Taal, a doctoral student at Cornell University who was threatened with deportation last year, can attest. While public outcry forced Cornell to lift Taal's suspension and allow him a limited return to campus, he is still effectively banned from campus life and blocked from teaching positions. There's somewhat of a great irony that students who were protesting apartheid are now subject to forms of exclusion bordering on apartheid," says Taal about his ongoing exclusion.Rights groups and legal scholars say the new executive order violates constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges if implemented. This is basically a textbook authoritarian playbook meant to stifle any criticism of what's going on in Israel," explains our other guest, Etan Nechin, a New York correspondent for Haaretz. Students like Taal, however, say they will not allow the government and their administrations to prevent them from speaking out. Taal says his pro-Palestine activism comes out of his obligations as a human being" and that when fascism is at the door, what we do is come together and unite even stronger."

Before Guantanamo became what it's known for - the forever prison in the war on terror" - its ambiguous sovereignty" as a U.S. military base was long utilized to incarcerate Caribbean asylum seekers to the U.S. We speak to scholar Miriam Pensack, who researches the history of Guantanamo, in light of President Trump's recent proposal to once again imprison asylum seekers at the base's prison complex. Pensack says that existing racist anti-migration policies in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic's detention and deportations of people with Haitian ancestry, suggest a likely collaboration with Trump's anti-immigrant agenda.

As Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Latin America on his first foreign trip in his new post, we look at the Trump administration's policy orientation toward the right-wing government of El Salvador and the left-wing government of Guatemala with journalist Roman Gressier. Rubio is visiting both countries during his trip, which is expected to cement Trump's ties to Salvadoran strongman enthusiast Nayib Bukele and to the conservative opposition in Guatemala. Rubio's top agenda items are anti-immigration enforcement and U.S. competition with China.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is visiting Latin America on his first foreign trip in his new post. One of his stops is Panama, where President Trump has threatened to invade and take over control of the critical trade route of the Panama Canal in response to its growing ties to China. It is a deeply unpopular proposition in Panama, seen as a reversion to the mid-20th century imperial encroachment that Panama so intentionally confronted over the course of the Canal transition." It is also, on a logistical level," essentially impossible," according to Panama City-based scholar Miriam Pensack. In what Pensack calls a troubling" development, Panama has announced it will more closely cooperate with Trump's policing of migration from Central America to the United States as a diplomatic concession to his threats.

Trump Suspends Trade War with Canada & Mexico; China Hits U.S. with Retaliatory Tariffs, Democrats Protest Outside USAID Headquarters as Trump Seeks to Dismantle Agency, Federal Judge Extends Injunction on Federal Spending Freeze, Trump Administration Freezes Work of Consumer Protection Agency as Elon Musk Deletes" Free IRS Tax Preparation Software, Trump Administration Deactivates Famine Early Warning System Network, M23 Insurgents Declare Humanitarian" Ceasefire in Eastern DRC After Bloody Seizure of Goma, Israeli PM Netanyahu Says No Guarantees" Gaza Ceasefire Will Hold Ahead of White House Visit, Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, Including Oscar-Nominated Director Basel Adra, Israel Builds Military Bases in Syria After Ouster of Bashar al-Assad, Three Students Sue Columbia After Their Suspension for Palestinian Rights Activism, Senate Confirms Climate Change-Denying Fracking Exec. Chris Wright as Energy Secretary, Bukele Agrees to Lock Up U.S. Citizens, Deportees in Mega-Prison Rife with Abuse, U.S. Businesses Close Doors for A Day Without Immigrants" Amid Trump Crackdown, Competent White Men Must Be in Charge": White Supremacist Darren Beattie Gets State Department Role, German Protesters Condemn Chancellor Front-Runner Merz for Working with Neo-Nazi Party

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and unelected adviser to President Donald Trump, is asserting control over much of the federal bureaucracy and sensitive government computer systems despite lacking clear authority. The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department was pushed out after refusing to hand Musk's team the keys to the government's entire payment system and the $6 trillion in payments the system processes annually, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and Medicare benefits. Musk and his team have also seized control at the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, key institutions that function as the central nervous system of the U.S. government. In any other situation, this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it," says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, who writes in a new blog post that Elon Musk is staging a coup. We also speak with Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, who warns that Musk could be laying the groundwork for major tax cuts Republicans have promised that will disproportionately benefit corporations and wealthy people like him. Elon Musk is going to pay for his tax cut with your Social Security," says Owens.

The future of USAID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is uncertain after Elon Musk said President Trump had agreed to shut it down. The Tesla billionaire and presidential adviser has inserted himself into the inner workings of the federal government, gaining access to sensitive computer systems and making sweeping changes for which he has no clear authority. Over the weekend, the USAID website and social media channels were taken offline, and two top security officials at the aid agency were placed on administrative leave after attempting to block members of Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing USAID's classified systems, including personnel files. Musk claimed in a series of posts on his website X that USAID is a viper's nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America," and staff were instructed to stay away from the agency's Washington headquarters on Monday. What we are seeing ... are attacks against it as a corrupt and illegal organization by people who know nothing about it. They are manufacturing these things out of whole cloth," says former senior USAID staffer Jeremy Konyndyk, now president of Refugees International. It's really important to understand that a lot of what USAID does saves lives every single day."

We speak with longtime trade policy expert Lori Wallach about President Donald Trump's move to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China - the three largest trading partners of the United States. It has sent global stocks tumbling and raised fears of more inflation. Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on goods from China, set to take effect Tuesday (After our broadcast, Mexico announced Trump had paused the new tariffs on Mexico for a month). Energy resources from Canada will carry a lower 10% tariff. Canada and Mexico have vowed to enforce retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., upending decades of economic integration under free trade agreements. Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union. Wallach says that while tariffs can be an effective tool as part of a larger economic package, Trump's approach is likely to do more harm than good, even on his own stated goals of curbing immigration and drugs. We certainly don't want to hold on to the old, devastating neoliberal trade agenda, but the random tariffs on Mexico and Canada ... aren't going to get you the outcome you want," says Wallach, director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project and board member of the Citizens Trade Campaign.

Trump Launches Trade War Against Canada, Mexico & China, Time for It To Die": Musk Pushes for Trump to Shut Down USAID, Musk & Associates Gain Access to Treasury's Federal Payment System, Over 30 Jan. 6 Prosecutors Fired; FBI Agents Questioned over Ties to Insurrection Probes, Trump Doubles Down on Threat to Illegally Seize Panama Canal over China Ties, South African Official Floats Cutting U.S. Off from Minerals After Trump Aid Threat, Trump Hosts Netanyahu in D.C.; Arab Leaders Reject U.S. Call to Force Palestinians into Egypt and Jordan, Israel Escalates Attack on Jenin, Blows Up 23 Homes on Residential Block, RSF Air Attack on Omdurman Market Kills 54 People, Fighting in Eastern DRC's Goma Kills 733 in One Week; Hospitals and Morgues Overwhelmed, U.S. Warplanes Strike Northern Somalia, Northwest Syria in Separate Attacks, Trump to End TPS for 300,000 Venezuelans as Caracas Agrees to Start Receiving Deportation Flights, Hegseth Visits Southern Border; ICE Seeks Access to Database of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Protesters Take to the Streets in U.S. Cities in Defense of Immigrants' Rights, Hospitals in NY, D.C., VA and CO Cancel Young Trans Patients' Care After Trump Order, 8,000+ Pages from Gov't Websites Taken Offline, Including Crucial Info for Trans and Queer People, Louisiana Seeks Arrest of New York Doctor Who Prescribed Abortion Pill Online, DNC Elects Moderate Ken Martin as New Chair, Shunning Calls from Progressive Base

President Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congressmember from Hawaii, is facing major qualms from her former colleagues. During her Senate confirmation hearing, Democrats grilled her over her refusal to label whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor." We discuss Snowden's case and what it revealed about government surveillance of the American public with Chip Gibbons.

President Donald Trump's nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who has promoted right-wing conspiracy theories, is one of Donald Trump's most disturbing picks" who seems poised to use the office to go after journalists and other Trump critics, says Chip Gibbons of the civil liberties organization Defending Rights & Dissent.

Author and investigative journalist Brian Deer, who debunked disgraced ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent claims that vaccines were linked to autism, says that Wakefield and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of health and human services, are major leaders of the anti-vaccine movement. They basically run this movement together," he says.

The second day of confirmation hearings for Trump's secretary of health and human services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. again focused on his long record of vaccine skepticism, his shifting position on abortion and his professional inexperience in public health. Kennedy was questioned about his role in a deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019. Dr. Alec Ekeroma, the director general of Samoa's Health Ministry, says Kennedy promoted anti-vaccine misinformation in the country, leading to the deaths of 83 people, the majority of whom were young children. He is the preeminent anti-vax campaigner in the world," adds investigative journalist Brian Deer, who has been following the anti-vaccine movement for years. Kennedy has no medical or scientific qualifications at all."

Donald Trump is blaming DEI for the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades, when a regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided over a Washington, D.C. airport, killing 67 people. We have a long list of problems that need to be addressed. ... Instead, we're talking about a nonsensical issue that is not based in fact," says FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher Bill McGee, who says criticisms of DEI distract from and work against a critical staffing shortage at the FAA. McGee also discusses the dangerous politicization of the FAA and the increasing influence of Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, over the aviation industry.

Trump Blames DEI for D.C. Crash Amid Reports of Understaffing, Recent Patterns of Landing Troubles, RFK Jr. Denies COVID Vaccine Saved Millions; Errs on Basic Info About Medicaid, Medicare, Kash Patel Refuses to Rule Out Targeting Trump Critics as Head of FBI, Senators Press Tulsi Gabbard on Ed Snowden Comments, Russia, Syria, Paramount Could Settle in 60 Minutes" Lawsuit as Major Networks Bow to Trump, Meta Agrees to $25 Million Settlement over Suspending Trump's Accounts, Trump's New FCC Chair Launches Probe into NPR & PBS, Judge Lifts D.C. Travel Ban for Oath Keepers Leader After Trump's Mass Clemency for Jan. 6 Convicts, Trump Withdraws Security for Gen. Mark Milley, Trump's Education EOs Target Transgender Rights, Critical Race Theory and Public School Funding, Israel Frees Palestinian Captives, Completing Third Round of Prisoner Swaps, M23 Rebels Prepare to March on Bukavu After Seizing Eastern Regional Capital, New Ebola Outbreaks Confirmed in Uganda, Suspected in DRC, Protests Erupt as German Mainstream Parties Join Far-Right AfD to Pass Anti-Immigrant Bill, Russia Seizes More Territory in Ukraine's Donbas, Kills 9 Civilians in Attack on Sumy, Rebel Commander Ahmed al-Sharaa Named Interim President of Syria, Trump Promises 25% Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican Imports Beginning Saturday, Quakers Sue to Block ICE Raids on Schools, Hospitals and Houses of Worship, Democratic National Committee Gathers to Elect New Chair

We speak with Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada about the ceasefire in Gaza, which has allowed half a million displaced people to return to what's left of their homes in the north of the territory, as Israel's ban on UNRWA goes into effect. Hamas militants released another three Israeli captives Thursday, as well as five Thai nationals, all of whom were taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023, attack. In exchange, Israel will release another 110 imprisoned Palestinians, including 30 children. But while the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire continues to hold, Israeli forces are ramping up attacks on the occupied West Bank, particularly in the Jenin refugee camp. Israel is trying to turn [Jenin] into a clone of Gaza - ethnic cleansing, pushing people out and destroying homes systematically, one after the other. All of it is to explode the West Bank, to use it as a pretext for a major war to push Palestinians out," says Shehada.

Rescue workers in Washington, D.C., have launched a massive recovery operation in the Potomac River after a regional passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair late Wednesday, with both aircraft crashing into the water. American Airlines Flight 5342 had 60 passengers and four crew members on board and was en route to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Wichita, Kansas. The Black Hawk helicopter had three soldiers on board conducting a training flight. Officials believe there are no survivors. The deadly crash comes amid upheaval and staffing changes in the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration due to President Donald Trump's ongoing purge across federal government agencies. Journalist David Sirota of The Lever says the airport also recently had its air traffic increased by lawmakers despite objections. There is a very deep safety concern at this airport because there had been a series of near misses," says Sirota. These warnings about expanding the flight traffic at this airport came just a few months ago." He also discusses the first 10 days of the Trump administration.

We continue our conversation with Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who responds to President Donald Trump's freezing of trillions in federal funding this week, which the White House walked back just a day later. Wyden helped pressure the administration to abandon the plan after publicizing how it disrupted Medicaid payments in states across the country. The credit deserves to go to the whistleblowers who brought it to us," he says. Wyden also discusses the confirmation hearings for former Democratic Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick for director of national intelligence, as well as the growing influence of Big Tech oligarchs and the deadly air crash in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, was questioned by lawmakers Tuesday in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, which largely focused on his decades of anti-vaccine activism, as well as his views on abortion and other healthcare issues. We play excerpts from the contentious hearing and speak with the ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who says Democrats successfully highlighted his controversial views, potentially putting his confirmation at risk despite the Republican majority in the Senate. This is one of the most important positions in the world as it relates to healthcare," says Wyden. He cannot be trusted, ... and he's unprepared." Kennedy faces a second day of questioning today before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

67 Feared Dead After American Airlines Jet Collides with Army Helicopter Near Washington, D.C., Trump Says D.C. Crash Should Have Been Prevented," Days After Gutting Airline Safety Committee, White House Rescinds Memo Freezing Trillions of Dollars of Federal Grants and Loans, Trump Tells Pentagon to Prepare Mass Detention Camp for 30,000 Immigrants at Guantanamo, Guatemalans Deported by Trump Administration Recount Fear and Family Separations, Trump Cancels Protected Status for Hundreds of Thousands of Venezuelan Immigrants, Senate Confirms Fossil Fuel Ally, Anti-Regulation Advocate Lee Zeldin as Head of EPA, Confirmation Proceedings for AG Nom Pam Bondi, Small Business Nom Kelly Loeffler Advance in Senate, Hamas Frees 3 Hostages, Israel Set to Free 110 Palestinian Prisoners After Brief Delay, Trump Issues EO Targeting Noncitizens for Deportation over Pro-Palestine Protests, Israeli Airstrikes Kill Two Palestinians in Gaza as Israel Continues to Violate Ceasefire, Israeli's Escalation in Occupied West Bank Kills at Least Another 10 Palestinians, A Nightmare Scenario": Israel's Ban on UNRWA Takes Effect, Disgraced Ex-Senator Bob Menendez Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Corruption, Reports: DOJ in Talks to Dismiss Corruption Charges Against NYC Mayor Eric Adams

For a fraction of the cost, Chinese startup DeepSeek's free, open-source artificial intelligence is outcompeting the world's previous leading AI model, OpenAI's ChatGPT, upending the financial predictions of Silicon Valley and causing major turmoil in the U.S. stock market. This comes just after President Trump announced a $500 billion private sector investment plan to boost AI infrastructure in the United States and amid the threat of a major trade war between the U.S. and China. For more, we're joined by information studies scholar Ramesh Srinivasan, who says DeepSeek's success is a major disruption to the dominant Silicon Valley model" of technological development, which has heavily relied on proprietary data and private investment - and contributed to the rise of a tech oligarchy with increasing influence over the state.

We take a look at Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's first 100 days in office with Edwin Ackerman, an expert on Mexican politics. Sheinbaum has proved enormously popular with the Mexican public, championing populist reforms and issuing forceful rebukes of Donald Trump's scapegoating and demonization of Latin America, including his attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America" and his threat to enact crushing tariffs on Mexico, the U.S.'s second-largest trading partner. Sheinbaum may be at the forefront of a renewed pink tide," says Ackerman, referencing a wave of progressive, left-wing Latin American governments that first took shape at the beginning of the 21st century.

As Senate confirmation hearings begin Wednesday for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, his cousin Caroline Kennedy has published a video slamming him as holding dangerous and willfully misinformed" views on vaccines and other public health issues. Caroline Kennedy is the former U.S. ambassador to Japan and Australia and daughter of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s uncle.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has temporarily halted President Trump's attempt to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, including university and nonprofit funding, food assistance, Medicaid, veterans' benefits and more. The Trump administration said the shocking move was a part of its assessment of whether various government programs align with its agenda. Since assuming office, Trump and his allies have launched a highly publicized purge of initiatives aimed at tackling historical and structural inequality within the federal government. It's just been complete chaos" and completely illegal," says our guest Sam Bagenstos, who explains that the policy is an attempt to raise a challenge to Congress's power of the purse and nullify all the limitations that have been placed on the president's power." Bagenstos previously served as general counsel to the Office of Management and Budget, the agency that announced the freeze Monday night.

Federal Judge Temporarily Halts Trump's Radical Plan to Freeze Federal Grants and Loans, Unions Condemn Trump's Deferred Resignation" Offer to Buy Out 2.3 Million Federal Workers, Trump Ousts National Labor Relations Board Leaders Who Support Workers' Rights, Immigration Raids Accelerate as Trump Sets Quota of at Least 1,200 Arrests Per Day, Senate Confirms Climate Denier Sean Duffy as Transportation Secretary, Senate Confirms Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary, Caroline Kennedy Calls HHS Nominee RFK Jr. a Predator" Ahead of Senate Confirmation Hearings, Trump Admin Freeze on HIV/AIDS Prevention Program Creates Chaos, Threatens Lives, As Palestinians Return to Northern Gaza, Israel Launches Fresh Attacks on West Bank and Lebanon, Senate Democrats Block Bill to Sanction ICC over Arrest Warrants for Israeli Leaders, Protesters in DRC's Capital Storm Embassies to Protest Escalating Violence in Eastern Congo

Holocaust survivors on Monday marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Nazi Germany exterminated over 1 million Jews and other minority groups between 1940 and 1945. The commemoration comes as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles worldwide and far-right forces gain strength across Europe and the United States. For more, we speak with Israeli American historian Raz Segal, who says the academic field of Holocaust studies has a blind spot when it comes to Israel and its actions in Palestine, from the 1948 Nakba to the genocidal assault on Gaza. Since October 2023, so many Holocaust scholars have gone out of their way to protect Israel," says Segal. It's very grotesque."