Latest news with #executiveorder
Washington Post
6 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
DOGE vowed to make government more ‘efficient' — but it's doing the opposite
Somewhere in the world last month, a State Department employee began the routine process of hiring a vendor for an upcoming embassy event — but quickly ran into a problem. The vendor was refusing to sign paperwork certifying that it did not promote diversity, equity and inclusion, or 'DEI,' a new requirement under President Donald Trump's executive order eradicating DEI from the government. The State employee — who spoke on the condition that neither he nor the location of his embassy be named, for fear of retaliation — sighed.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
NPR lawsuit aims to strike a blow for press freedom against Trump's attacks
In the Trump administration's unprecedented war on the American media, a lawsuit brought by public broadcasters could mark a much-needed strike back for press freedom. The lawsuit, brought by NPR and three Colorado-based public radio stations, challenges an executive order that cut federal funding to what Donald Trump described as 'biased media', with lawyers arguing that the order violated the first amendment right to free speech. The decision by NPR, KSUT, Roaring Fork and Colorado Public Radio to take on Donald Trump comes as the president has targeted multiple news organizations through lawsuits and investigations – and as experts warn some outlets are acquiescing to Trump's war on the media. NPR's lawsuit could be a prominent pushback against that. The lawsuit argues that Trump's executive order, signed on 1 May, violates the first amendment by targeting NPR for news coverage the president considers 'biased'. NPR and its partners are aiming to have the order, which would strip direct and indirect funding from NPR and PBS, permanently blocked and declared unconstitutional. Experts believe NPR has a strong case, and that it could be Trump's attacks on public media that could hand NPR a win. The president and the White House have described NPR and PBS as being 'leftwing propaganda', and has criticized the network for discussing LGBTQ themes. 'Trump's honesty about why he wants to eviscerate federal funding for NPR and PBS could be his legal downfall,' Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and host of the Passing Judgment podcast, wrote in an op-ed for MSNBC. 'NPR has thus argued that Trump admitted that he's using his power as head of the executive branch of our government to target NPR and PBS because he disagrees with the content of their speech.' Levinson wrote: 'The Trump administration isn't targeting NPR because it covers political news. To the contrary; the administration appears to have explicitly admitted that it's targeting NPR because of what Trump considers to be its bias as it covers political news. NPR's lawsuit argues that, therefore, Trump's executive order is 'textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination.'' Trump's pursuit of NPR follows a pattern of the president's second term, with Trump keen to target media organizations he believes have reported on him negatively. The Associated Press, one of the world's premier news agencies which is relied upon by thousands of news outlets, was banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One after it refused to use Trump's preferred term of 'Gulf of America' to refer to the Gulf of Mexico. Trump is suing the owner of CBS News for $10bn, alleging the channel selectively edited an interview with Kamala Harris, which the network denies, and the Des Moines Register newspaper, which he accuses of 'election interference' over a poll from before the election that showed Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa. NPR has been vocal in its opposition to the lawsuit. 'It is evident from the president's executive order, as well as statements released by the White House and prior statements by the president that we are being punished for our editorial choices,' Katherine Maher, the CEO of NPR, said in an interview with the station this week. Maher added: 'We are not choosing to do this out of politics. We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the first amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.' The funding cut, NPR said, 'would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation', adding: 'Locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.' 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting [which distributes funds NPR and other public media] is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime,' Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. 'Therefore, the president is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The president was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.'
Washington Post
2 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Migrants criminally charged after failing to register with U.S. government
The Justice Department is wielding a little-known law to criminally charge unauthorized immigrants who have failed to register their presence in the country, threatening them with potential jail time and fines under a new Trump administration initiative. The first prosecutions came just days after authorities on April 11 resurrected a federal registration requirement, used during World War II, to meet the goals of an executive order from President Donald Trump. Administration officials described the regulation, which mandates that people 14 and older provide fingerprints and home addresses, as a national security precaution that will allow authorities to more closely track the whereabouts of millions of immigrants in the United States.
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
PBS Sues Trump Administration Over Plan to Pull Funding
PBS filed a lawsuit Friday challenging President Trump's executive order to end funding of public media, saying the order stands to 'upend public television.' The filing comes just days after National Public Radio took similar action. PBS's suit said the Constitution and laws prevent Trump 'from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.'
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans
In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power. Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm. The Trump administration has expanded Palantir's work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.) Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies — the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — about buying its technology, according to six government officials and Palantir employees with knowledge of the discussions. The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department. Widely adopting Foundry, which organizes and analyzes data, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies, the government officials said. Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
