Trump Administration Live Updates: House Passes Budget Plan, Clearing Path for Trump Agenda

New York Times

26-02-2025

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The building of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Credit... Alyssa Pointer for The New York Times
President Trump's assault on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is provoking heated debate within his administration — and the public health field more broadly — over whether words like 'race,' 'equity' and 'disparity' are too politically toxic to use.
The latest battle erupted on Monday, inside the domain of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., when employees of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received an email instructing them to avoid using more than a dozen 'key words' when writing annual goals for performance evaluations. The disfavored terms, according to copies of the email reviewed by The New York Times, included 'health equity,' 'race,' 'bias,' 'disparity,' 'culturally appropriate' and 'stereotype.'
In Washington, the C.D.C.'s parent agency, the Health and Human Services Department, insisted that there was no 'official or unofficial CDC list of banned words,' and accused C.D.C. officials of trying to undermine Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump by 'intentionally falsifying and misrepresenting guidance they receive.'
The C.D.C. issued a clarifying email saying that the words were still permissible after The Times inquired. But the dispute exposes much deeper tensions, both internal and external, over Mr. Trump's work to reshape the federal government by rooting out what his allies call 'woke ideology.'
Throughout the agency, career scientists and civil servants have been on high alert since Mr. Trump issued a directive for departments to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. A big chunk of the C.D.C.'s work is promoting 'health equity' by narrowing disparities between different groups.
That work does not necessarily involve reducing disparities between white people and other racial groups; there are all kinds of health disparities, including between rich and poor, or rural and urban, that are driven by factors like income, education and access to good housing.
But in a nation where life expectancy is, on average, nearly five years shorter for Black people than for white people, discussions of race in public health are difficult to ignore. The American Public Health Association has declared that racism is a public health crisis.
'In our country, race is a social construct which drives every aspect of our lives,' said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the association, which represents more than 25,000 public health professionals. 'So when we don't use words that have such an enormous impact, its difficult for people to understand what you're talking about.'
But Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, said it is perhaps time for the C.D.C. and public health officials to rethink terms like race and health equity.
Public health, he said, is concerned with the health of populations, not individuals. The ultimate goal, he said, is 'to improve health for all populations' — no matter what you call it.
'I think we have to be careful not to over-invest in words that have become very difficult to have meaningful conversations about, and to take a step back and say, 'What are we trying to achieve?'' Dr. Galea said.
When 'particular expressions are so charged that it is closing people's minds,' he added, 'the way around that is not through endless repetition in a moment when people are not willing to hear.'
Monday's email, according to two people familiar with it, was intended to comply with Mr. Trump's series of executive orders aimed at gutting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which the president views as discriminatory and wasteful. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal.
Mr. Trump's policy is a sharp departure from that of his predecessor, President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who took office at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, which took a devastating toll on people of color. Declaring that racial equity would be at the core of his coronavirus response, Mr. Biden installed a health equity officer in the White House.
Civil rights organizations have sued the Trump administration, arguing that the president's orders are discriminatory and illegal and that they threaten funding for groups that provide critical services to historically underserved groups. Last week, a federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked the enforcement of some of the initiatives.
In Atlanta, the C.D.C. is clearly wrestling with how far to go in discussing matters like race and equity now that Mr. Trump is president.
The agency's five-year strategic plan, adopted in 2022, calls for decreasing 'health disparities' by 2024. The goal, it says, is to 'narrow racial disparities in blood pressure control, focusing initially on Black adults with hypertension, by improving blood pressure control rates in Black adults by 5%.'
But the C.D.C. also has an Office of Health Equity, which defines health equity as 'the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their highest level of health.'
The office's website appears to have been scrubbed of most mentions of race. Its page on National Minority Health Month includes three mentions of Latinos, but no mention of Black or white people.
The omissions are 'astounding,' said David Rosner, a medical historian who co-directs the Center for the History of Ethics and Public Health at Columbia University.
'It's impossible for a public health person to act responsibly without recognizing that African Americans have suffered,' he said, adding, 'Every public health student recognizes in the first year of school that race is a determinative factor of health status. Being poor isn't good, but being Black and poor is terrible — that's what you learn. You can't address public health without being aware of that.'
Apoorva Mandavilli contributed reporting.
Elon Musk, right, with the Newsmax host Rob Finnerty during CPAC, a conservative convention, in Maryland this month. On X, he has been responsive to calls for changes in the government. Credit... Eric Lee/The New York Times
The demand arrived at 4:28 p.m. Eastern time on Valentine's Day.
'The US government only recognizes two sexes: Male and Female. This needs to be changed immediately,' the popular right-wing account Libs of TikTok posted on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
The missive, blasted to the account's 4.2 million followers, was accompanied by screenshots of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the government form that determines eligibility for financial assistance in paying for college or trade school. It allowed students to identify as 'nonbinary' or select 'prefer not to answer' when asked to select their gender.
The account for Mr. Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency replied five hours later with screenshots of the updated form: 'Fixed.'
As his operation targets spending considered unaligned with President Trump's agenda, Mr. Musk has personally appealed to users of his social media platform to help root out what he has termed 'waste, fraud and abuse.' He has been responsive to complaints that go viral, with his team trumpeting the apparent changes pushed through as a result. And for at least two prominent conservative activists, a Trump administration so carefully attuned to right-wing social media has created the opportunity to build an extraordinary pipeline of influence and access.
In multiple instances, viral posts by Chaya Raichik, who is the creator of the Libs of TikTok account and regularly attacks transgender people online, and Christopher Rufo, a writer who has worked to push conservatives further right on education issues, have prompted quick adjustments to public-facing government documents and even policy. Most of their efforts have centered on the Education Department, which Mr. Trump has said he wants to eliminate, though other agencies have become targets, too. Chaya Raichik in 2023. Ms. Raichik, the creator of the Libs of TikTok account, has focused most her efforts on the Education Department. Credit... Michael Brochstein/Sipa, via Associated Press
In the case of the FAFSA form, the Education Department had already planned to make those changes to comply with Mr. Trump's executive order requiring that the government only recognize two genders, according to two people involved with the change. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the internal process.
The updates had been approved and were scheduled, according to the two people. But the Libs of TikTok post set off an evening scramble inside the department to make the change immediately so it could be advertised to the public, with multiple contractors being called back from vacation to hastily push through the change, the people said. Ms. Raichik declined to comment for this article.
The process, as laid out by Mr. Rufo, is straightforward.
'We expose corruption on X. DOGE eliminates it in DC. Rinse and repeat,' Mr. Rufo posted on Feb. 19.
Days earlier, he had posted a video highlighting some educational training material he found objectionable. He said it was produced by the Education Department's little-known Comprehensive Centers program, which helps states address systemic problems in schools.
The video, which Mr. Rufo called 'taxpayer-funded witchcraft,' consisted of a compilation of clips featuring an instructor speaking about how to discuss Native American history with sensitivity.
'Hey @DOGE_ED, let's terminate the contracts for the 'comprehensive centers,'' Mr. Rufo posted, tagging a DOGE sub-account created to share actions related to Mr. Musk's efforts at the Education Department. 'What do you think?' Christopher Rufo, in 2022. 'We expose corruption on X. DOGE eliminates it in DC. Rinse and repeat,' Mr. Rufo posted on social media of the process he and other conservative activists are using. Credit... Chona Kasinger for The New York Times
The next day, the department announced that it would, in fact, terminate grants totaling $226 million to the network of 18 regional and national Comprehensive Centers. The official announcement cited Mr. Rufo's posts.
In emailed answers to questions about his relationship with the Musk operation, Mr. Rufo said he had a 'good relationship with the professionals in the Department of Education,' and was offering recommendations to officials in a 'scholarly and nonpartisan manner.'
'When people truly see what their government is doing with their money, they see that it is not about 'cutting education,' but cutting left-wing ideological activism which masks itself with the word 'education,'' he said.
The Comprehensive Centers serve a variety of functions, but were established by statute in 2002 to help states and school districts triage thorny issues facing school districts — such as problems retaining teachers or improving math scores — that they would otherwise be forced to pay to work out themselves.
Several people and groups associated with the Comprehensive Centers, including the American Institutes for Research, a social sciences research organization, said that defunding them meant that schools wouldn't receive badly needed assistance.
The research organization was selected through a competitive process to operate four of the centers for the next five years, having worked with states on problems like addressing teacher shortages, and applying research to inform literacy interventions in elementary schools.
'The work of the Comprehensive Centers has always been driven by the priorities and needs of the states and districts,' Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the American Institutes for Research, said in a statement. 'Eliminating the Centers will make it harder for state and local educators and policymakers to find evidence-based solutions to the challenges they face and improve outcomes for all students.'
The Comprehensive Centers weren't the first program Mr. Rufo targeted on social media. On Feb. 13, Mr. Rufo criticized Equity Assistance Centers, a similar support program originally created under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to help desegregate schools.
Hours later, the Education Department announced it would wipe out $350 million in contracts, including $33 million in funding for those centers. The Education Department building in Washington. Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Appearing on 'The Ben Shapiro Show' the day after those cuts were made public, Mr. Rufo took credit for galvanizing the department to act, all by appealing to Mr. Musk's team on social media.
'My job is to try to expose it, to bring it to public attention and then to bring it to the attention of the DOGE boys, who are in the Department of Education building right now looking for contracts to terminate,' he told Ben Shapiro, a prominent conservative podcaster.
Over the last month, the Education Department has announced a host of budget cuts, eliminating contracts that help fund research into difficult questions about what teaching methods are most effective in early childhood education and beyond.
In lawsuits challenging the authority and legality of Mr. Musk's team, lawyers for the government have often described the Musk operation as advisory, helping guide the heads of federal agencies with recommendations about programs they can theoretically, through their own authority, cancel. The process through which the Education Department decided to cut its contracts was not immediately clear, nor was the amount of input from Mr. Musk's team.
But the swiftness with which proposals have jumped from prominent conservative figures online to Mr. Musk's team and the various departments has suggested a more or less direct pipeline through which outside activists can lobby for nearly instant changes, all through a handful of keystrokes.
That has allowed activists to translate longstanding hostilities into concrete action.
Mr. Rufo has skyrocketed into a position of influence through years of campaigning against education policy that includes teaching on institutional racism and other ideas about the role of race in American society now commonly generalized as part of 'critical race theory.' Ms. Raichik, who built a substantial following by sharing clips mocking members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community and supporters of L.G.B.T.Q. rights, has worked to stamp out any references to transgender people in government paperwork.
In that pursuit, her Libs of TikTok account has received responses on X from not only Mr. Musk's team but also from Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary. 'All over it,' he replied Monday night, just hours after the account posted what it said were medical forms given to servicemembers that still offered multiple options when it came to 'gender identity' and preferred pronouns.
Both Mr. Rufo and Ms. Raichik have responded by praising Mr. Musk's team to their substantial lists of followers, taking advantage of the public exchanges to elevate their causes. 'The other week DOGE responded to me in less than an hour,' Ms. Raichik gushed in a post on Tuesday.
In some cases, the information pipeline has appeared to flow through Mr. Musk himself.
After Kyle Becker, who is a conservative influencer and former Fox News producer, echoed misleading claims about government agencies supporting media companies through subscriptions this month, Mr. Musk picked up on his post, calling for action. Nine hours later, the DOGE account announced that the State Department had canceled the subscriptions raised by Mr. Becker.
Weeks later, the State Department said it had gotten rid of most news subscriptions, including to The New York Times. In a statement, a Times spokesperson said the government was 'obviously free to cancel any subscriptions it likes,' but added that as a result agencies and offices would 'know far less about what's happening in the world.'
Mr. Musk also appeared to seize on a Libs of TikTok post on his own this month. The account shared a screenshot of what it described as an application for health care benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The image included options such as 'non-binary' or 'a gender not listed here' in a list of answers to a prompt titled 'gender identity.'
Though Mr. Musk was not tagged directly, he found it and passed it along to his team with his own equally public directive: 'Noted @DOGE.'
The next morning, the DOGE account replied with before-and-after pictures showing that it had removed the prompt from the application form entirely.
'Fixed,' it said. 'The Gender Identity section has been deleted.' Appearing on Fox News, Ms. Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said the chats were an 'egregious violation of trust' that violated 'basic rules and standards' of workplace professionalism. Credit... Eric Lee/The New York Times
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said on Tuesday that more than 100 intelligence officers from 15 agencies had been fired for having sexually explicit discussions on a government chat tool.
The chat program was administered by the National Security Agency and intended for discussions of sensitive security matters. But a group of employees used it for discussions that contained sexual themes, intelligence officials said this week. The chats also included explicit discussion of gender transition surgery, officials said.
Transcripts of the chat were first disclosed Monday by Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who writes for City Journal.
Appearing Tuesday evening on Fox News, Ms. Gabbard said she had issued a directive to fire more than 100 people who participated in the discussions and to strip the officers of their security clearances. She said the chats were an 'egregious violation of trust' that violated 'basic rules and standards' of workplace professionalism.
A spokeswoman for the office said on X that Ms. Gabbard had sent a memo to all intelligence agencies asking them to identify all employees who had participated in 'sexually explicit chat rooms' on the N.S.A. tool by Friday.
Ms. Gabbard put her actions in the larger context of her efforts to depoliticize the intelligence community and the Trump administration's efforts to hold employees accountable.
'Today's action, in holding these individuals accountable, is just the beginning of what we are seeing across the Trump administration,' Ms. Gabbard said. She added that officials had moved to 'clean house, root out that rot and corruption, and weaponization and politicization, so we can start to rebuild that trust in these institutions.'
The Central Intelligence Agency and Ms. Gabbard's office have moved to fire an undisclosed number of employees who worked on diversity issues during the Biden administration. That action was paused by a federal judge who was reviewing the action and was expected to make a ruling on Thursday.
Unlike with the explicit chats, there is no allegation of wrongdoing by the officers involved in recruiting and diversity efforts, and the officers have sued the government arguing they should be offered other posts.
In her appearance on Fox, Ms. Gabbard said the Trump administration was going to seek to get rid of officers whose primary loyalty was to themselves, and not to the United States or its Constitution. She said after she took the action to fire the people involved in the chats, other officers came forward to tell her about other inappropriate activity.
'People are stepping forward because they are all on board with the mission to clean house and refocus on our core mission of serving the American people,' Ms. Gabbard said.
The Social Security Administration, which has been in a state of flux, said it had closed two of its offices in two days. Credit... Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press
The Social Security Administration said on Tuesday that it had closed its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, describing the office as redundant and putting its employees on administrative leave.
The closure of the civil rights office, whose workers were responsible for addressing discrimination complaints and working-condition accommodations for disabled employees, came one day after the agency said it had eliminated another small office, which it created in 2023.
'Our focus is supporting President Trump's priorities, which include streamlining functions and prioritizing essential work,' Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The responsibilities of the civil rights office will be passed on to other offices in the Social Security Administration, said Mr. Dudek, whose agency has about 58,000 employees and administers retirement and disability benefits to Americans.
Spokesmen for the Social Security Administration did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Tuesday night.
The agency has been in a state of flux. A week ago, Michelle King, then the agency's acting commissioner, stepped down. She was said to have refused to provide Elon Musk's newly created Department of Government Efficiency with access to an internal data repository that contains extensive personal information about Americans. The agency possesses financial data, employment information and addresses for anyone with a Social Security number.
President Trump then installed Mr. Dudek, a low-profile official from the agency's anti-fraud office, as acting commissioner. Mr. Trump is waiting for the Senate to consider his long-term pick for commissioner, Frank Bisignano, the chairman of the payment processing company Fiserv.
In a statement on Monday announcing the closure of the other office, Mr. Dudek cited a mandate from Mr. Trump to disband inefficient offices, and said that the office was a 'prime example.'
In an internal email Monday, which was reviewed by The New York Times, Mr. Dudek said the Social Security Administration had not improved replacement card turnaround times over the previous 34 years despite spending more than $200 billion. He wrote that he was focused on 'reducing redundancy, waste and bloat.' Supporters of a lawsuit challenging an executive order aimed at refugees gathered outside the federal courthouse in Seattle on Tuesday. Credit... Ryan Sun/Associated Press
A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked an executive order that President Trump signed shortly after he was sworn in that suspended a decades-old program admitting thousands of refugees into the United States each year.
Judge Jamal N. Whitehead of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued a preliminary injunction that ordered the government to effectively restore both the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and funding to refugee assistance organizations while the court considered the merits of a lawsuit to block Mr. Trump's order.
Judge Whitehead said it appeared likely that the Trump administration had exceeded its lawful authority by suspending a program that Congress established by law in 1980. More than 3 million refugees have been admitted to the United States under the program.
The plaintiffs' argument that the White House's order was an 'effective nullification of congressional will' was likely to prevail, Judge Whitehead, who was nominated by former President Joseph R. Biden, said in ruling from the bench.
Laurie Ball Cooper, vice president for U.S. legal programs at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the president's discretion was not limitless. 'The refugee ban is illegal and must be stopped,' she said.
Spokesmen for the White House and the Justice Department did not immediately return requests for comment.
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program had persisted through seven presidencies, including Mr. Trump's first term. The plaintiffs have accused Mr. Trump of violating the law that established the program, as well as the rule-making procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee to due process.
The nine individual plaintiffs include a 22-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who spent two years applying to resettle in the United States, only to have his flight from Nairobi, Kenya, canceled two days after Mr. Trump signed the executive order on Jan. 20. Three organizations that receive federal funding to help refugees resettle in the United States joined them in the suit.
Mr. Trump has said that he is generally inclined to appeal unfavorable court decisions. The government could ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to stay Judge Whitehead's ruling. A stay from the appellate court, or the Supreme Court, would put the executive order back in place while the legal challenge to it proceeds.
But even if Judge Whitehead's preliminary injunction remains in place, it is unclear whether the administration will comply. The Trump administration has faced a wave of lawsuits challenging its actions, and agencies have been systematically finding loopholes to effectively keep Mr. Trump's orders in place despite directives from judges.
In separate cases, two federal judges have granted requests for a 'motion to enforce' — an indication from the court that the government was not promptly complying with its initial order.
While no judge has found administration officials to be in contempt of court, a social media post from Mr. Trump saying that 'He who saves his Country does not violate any Law' has compounded fears that the executive branch could simply refuse to comply with court orders. Legal experts say that open defiance of the judiciary's authority to interpret the law would mean a constitutional crisis.
Hamed Aleaziz and Miriam Jordan contributed reporting.
President Trump said that the White House would be looking at a 'form of a merger' to turn around the Postal Service's financial losses, and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would help with the effort. Credit... Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times
President Trump's attempt to exert more control over the U.S. Postal Service has fueled concerns that those efforts could hurt the agency's ability to reliably deliver mail to all corners of the country, a mandate that is core to its mission.
White House officials have said that Mr. Trump has no imminent plans to seize control of the Postal Service, which has operated as an independent agency for more than a half-century. But the president suggested on Friday that he would consider a major reorganization of the agency, which he has repeatedly criticized and tried to undermine for years.
Many see the effort as a way for the Trump administration to eventually try to privatize the Postal Service, which Mr. Trump previously said he was considering. That prospect has alarmed union officials, advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers, who say that selling off or contracting out major aspects of the service could threaten thousands of postal worker jobs or drive prices higher for customers. Opponents also say the effort would disproportionately affect rural communities, where it is less profitable for private companies to deliver mail.
'We believe it would result in a death spiral for whatever is left,' said Brian L. Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. 'People in rural areas would be particularly hard hit.'
A takeover of the Postal Service could also revive concerns about whether the president could exert control over the delivery of mail-in ballots during national elections. In 2020, when voting by mail spiked during the pandemic, Mr. Trump's political adversaries accused him of purposely trying to manipulate delivery of ballots in Democratic areas.
Millions of Americans vote by mail, relying on the post office to deliver their ballots by the voting deadlines.
On Friday, Mr. Trump said the White House would be looking at a 'form of a merger' to turn around the Postal Service's financial losses, although he said the agency would 'remain the Postal Service.' Mr. Trump said that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who had a 'great business instinct,' would help with the effort.
'We want to have a post office that works well and doesn't lose massive amounts of money,' Mr. Trump said. 'I think it'll operate a lot better than it has been over the years. It's been just a tremendous loser for this country.'
Mr. Trump's comments came after The Washington Post reported last week that he was preparing to issue an executive order that would fire members of the agency's governing board and shift the Postal Service under the Commerce Department.
For Mr. Trump, the Postal Service is a politically rich target to go after. Its employees are mostly unionized workers who have aggressively campaigned against privatizing America's delivery of the mail.
The administration's desire to shake up the Postal Service comes as the agency continues to face persistent financial challenges and declining mail volume. In the 2024 fiscal year, the service lost $9.5 billion, up from $6.5 billion the year before. The agency has recently seen more promising financial results, however, posting a profit for the first quarter of the fiscal year.
Legal and postal experts said the Trump administration's move would most likely break the law. Anne Joseph O'Connell, an administrative law professor at Stanford University, said that folding the agency into the Commerce Department would violate the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Although the Postal Service was once a cabinet-level department, the law converted it into an independent agency run by a board of governors that consists of up to nine governors who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
'They would need congressional permission,' Ms. O'Connell said.
Mr. Trump's plans unnerved union leaders and Democratic lawmakers who have raised concerns about the potential ramifications for millions of Americans across the country who depend on the agency for their mail delivery.
'This shortsighted effort will do nothing to improve delivery performance or set the Postal Service on a path of fiscal sustainability,' House Democrats on the Oversight Committee wrote in a letter on Saturday. 'It could instead subject the Postal Service and the entire mail network to political interference, shifting priorities of administrations and skyrocketing prices.'
The Postal Service did not respond to requests for comment.
Efforts to privatize the post office could lead to a deterioration in the quality of service in rural areas, given that private companies would be less incentivized to deliver to those communities, said James S. O'Rourke, a professor of management and organization at the University of Notre Dame who has studied the Postal Service.
'Mr. Trump has talked about Amazon, UPS and FedEx, but they probably don't want a third of what the U.S. Postal Service delivers,' Mr. O'Rourke said.
The Postal Service's 'universal service obligation' requires the agency to deliver to everyone in the United States at a reasonable price, although the mandate is vaguely defined. The agency delivers to roughly 167 million addresses, covering every state, city and town.
Mr. O'Rourke said he was also concerned about the potential implications for the delivery of mail-in ballots, and whether the Trump administration would continue the service if it controlled the Postal Service.
'I think that's very worrisome, given how many were delivered in the last election,' Mr. O'Rourke said. 'The president in recent years has vigorously criticized vote by mail.'
Some Republican lawmakers have said that major changes are needed to stabilize the agency, and they praised Mr. Trump's ambitions. 'It is no secret that I am a huge critic of the disastrous way the U.S.P.S. has been run,' Representative Rich McCormick, Republican of Georgia, said in a statement. 'It's time for some big changes, and I applaud President Trump for working to solve this problem with outside-the-box solutions.' The postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, announced last week that he would step down. Credit... Tom Brenner for The New York Times
In recent months, both Democrats and Republicans have slammed the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, over what they say is a failed attempt to improve the agency's finances and service. Last week, Mr. DeJoy announced that he would step down and 'start thinking about the next phase of my life' after more than four years in the role.
Mr. DeJoy has been the face of a major 10-year modernization plan that the post office rolled out in early 2021, an effort to shore up an agency that had lost $87 billion over 14 years. The plan, called Delivering for America, included consolidating locations, raising prices and lengthening promised delivery times.
The plan had initially projected that the Postal Service would break even by the 2023 fiscal year. But the agency has continued to lose money, which postal management has attributed to high inflation, increased labor costs and a lack of administrative action that would adjust the agency's pension costs. Although the agency has received some federal relief in recent years, it generally does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses and instead relies on revenue from its sales.
The Postal Service has also struggled with service declines. In the 2024 fiscal year, 81 percent of single-piece first-class letters and postcards were delivered on time, which reflects the mail category that households use most often. That was down from 88 percent the year before, and below the agency's target of 92 percent, according to Postal Service data.
Some who closely watch the Postal Service said there were signs that the agency's finances were improving. They also underscored that its leaders still had several years left to complete the modernization plan, which they said was not intended to immediately fix the agency's longstanding challenges.
'It's not all gloom and doom,' said Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents more than 200,000 Postal Service employees and retirees. 'If this administration wants to help the finances, there are easy ways to do it besides having a coup.' Amy Gleason had worked in the cost-cutting effort's previous use, a digital services office, during President Trump's first term. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Amy Gleason, a former health care investment executive, is serving as the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency, the government-overhaul task force imposing dramatic changes across the federal bureaucracy under the direction of Elon Musk, a White House official said on Tuesday.
For two weeks, the Trump administration had resisted answering inquiries about who was formally leading the effort, which reports to the White House. Mr. Musk, who is the world's richest man and a key adviser to President Trump, has been clearly driving the initiative, including by instigating an email to all federal employees on Saturday that instructed them to list their accomplishments during the last week.
But the White House has insisted in court that Mr. Musk is not the administrator of the cost-cutting team, adding to the sense of opacity surrounding it. On Monday, a federal judge pressed the government for clarity about the billionaire's role, expressing concern that unauthorized individuals were effectively running the office.
On Tuesday, a name was revealed: Ms. Gleason is the temporary leader of what is formally known as the U.S. DOGE Service, according to the White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Mr. Trump created the office on Inauguration Day through an executive order, transforming a White House tech unit that had been established under President Barack Obama. Since then, staffers hired by Mr. Musk and his aides have fanned across the government and sought access to sensitive databases, scrutinized federal employees and even tried to shutter whole agencies.
Ms. Gleason did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She was scheduled to be on vacation in Mexico on Tuesday and told associates that she was not aware ahead of time that the White House planned to make public her role, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
Ms. Gleason, a career official who worked at the digital service unit during Mr. Trump's first term, rejoined the agency late last year, according to people familiar with her role and documents reviewed by The New York Times.
During the first Trump administration, the digital agency — which stations tech workers throughout the federal government to assist with modernization efforts — had posted Ms. Gleason with the Health and Human Services Department, where she worked on Covid response, according to documents seen by The Times.
Ms. Gleason has focused on health care reforms, which she said during a TEDx presentation in 2020 was inspired by her frustrations with the medical system after her daughter was diagnosed with a rare illness. After Mr. Trump's first term, she joined Brad Smith, a health care executive who had worked with Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner on the Covid response, at an investment firm focused on health companies, taking the role of chief product officer.
Late last year, Mr. Smith began advising Mr. Musk's cost-cutting efforts and eventually brought Ms. Gleason, who is based in Nashville, into the discussions, according to people familiar with the situation.
On Dec. 30, more than three weeks before Inauguration Day, Ms. Gleason was reintroduced at the digital service office as a 'new hire' on an internal Slack channel, according to documents viewed by The Times.
'My previous time at USDS was incredibly meaningful — full of challenges, successes, and unforgettable experiences,' Ms. Gleason wrote as part of a 'new hire spotlight' document seen by The Times. 'I'm excited to meet new colleagues and dive into impactful projects once again.' Amy Gleason, in a still frame from a video made during her time in the health care industry. Credit... What's the Fix?!, via YouTube
In January, Ms. Gleason met regularly with Mr. Smith and Steve Davis, a top aide to Mr. Musk, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where Mr. Musk has set up his DOGE offices, a person familiar with her work said.
In recent weeks, Ms. Gleason has overseen the transition of the digital service agency into Mr. Musk's operation. Through executive order, Mr. Trump moved it from the Office of Management and Budget, where it had been housed since its founding, into the White House — a transition that effectively shielded its work from open records laws that could give the public insight into its operations.
During an all-hands meeting with staffers last week, Ms. Gleason told employees that they should adopt a 'one team' mentality and work closely with their new counterparts, including dozens of young engineers and lawyers Mr. Musk recruited to help him overhaul the federal bureaucracy.
But the takeover of the office has not gone smoothly. On Tuesday, 21 employees at U.S.D.S. announced their resignations, protesting the incursion on the federal government by Mr. Musk and his allies.
'We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,' the group wrote in its letter. 'We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE's actions.'
Before Ms. Gleason's role was revealed, reporters had urged the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, to name the agency's administrator on Tuesday at a daily briefing for the news media.
'I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium,' Ms. Leavitt replied. 'I'm happy to follow up and provide that to you. But we've been incredibly transparent about the way that DOGE is working.'
Theodore Schleifer contributed reporting.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York at a news conference last week. Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, has taken an adversarial posture toward the Trump administration. Credit... Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
As the Trump administration cuts thousands of workers and leaves many more in limbo, the governor of New York sees a hiring opportunity.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday invited federal employees to apply for public-sector jobs in New York State, starting a recruitment effort aimed at workers targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which is a cost-cutting effort, not a department. Last month, the Trump administration sent deferred resignation offers to federal employees with the subject line 'Fork in the Road,' and Mr. Musk announced over the weekend that all federal employees would be asked to detail their accomplishments or face possible termination.
New York employs about 180,000 state workers but has more than 7,000 unfilled jobs, according to Ms. Hochul's office, due to the tight labor market and an aging work force.
'The federal government might say 'You're fired,' but here in New York, we say 'You're hired,'' Ms. Hochul, a Democrat who has taken an adversarial posture toward the Trump administration, said in a video announcing the recruitment drive. 'In fact, we love federal workers. Whatever your skills, we value public service.'
At a State Police graduation ceremony, Ms. Hochul also extended an invitation to any F.B.I. employees who were looking for new jobs, saying that 'It would be an honor' to have them. The governor's office said that the state opened a portal on Tuesday morning with resources for potential applicants but that it was too early to gauge the response.
A spokesman for the White House, Harrison Fields, accused New York officials of trying to 'stack their payrolls with more bureaucrats.' He added, 'Growing the public sector is not President Trump's definition of job creation.'
It was unclear how many federal workers in New York had been fired since President Trump returned to office last month. There were about 54,000 federal workers in the state as of December, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress.
Mr. Trump has tasked Mr. Musk with dramatically reshaping the federal government, asserting that the project will make the government more efficient. Since the start of Mr. Trump's second term, the federal government has cut at least 28,000 workers and has effectively frozen entire federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., the main government organization that provides humanitarian aid.
Courts have temporarily blocked some of the firings. Overall, the federal government employs more than two million people. The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's human resources agency, declined to comment on New York's recruitment effort.
Ms. Hochul's initiative drew a skeptical response from William A. Barclay, the Republican minority leader in the New York State Assembly. Mr. Barclay said that he would be pleased to see the state hire qualified employees from the federal government. But he said the recruitment drive seemed more like a 'political statement' than a fix for holes in the state's work force.
Former Gov. David Paterson of New York, however, called Ms. Hochul's approach 'very forward thinking,' predicting that it would attract federal workers who have 'absolutely no relief in sight.'
'She's coming with an alternative,' Mr. Paterson, a Democrat, said in an interview, adding, 'I'm sure that other governors are going to follow in Governor Hochul's footsteps.'
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