The Latest: Hegseth says Ukraine must abandon hope of restoring pre-war borders
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a major shift in U.S. policy on Ukraine: The way forward, he told allies in Brussels, is to abandon the “illusory goal” of a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders and prepare for a negotiated settlement with Russia, backed up with an international force that won’t include U.S. troops.
In the U.S., bad inflation numbers came in just as President Donald Trump planned to upend global trade by signing a broad reciprocal tariffs order.
And Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s longstanding friendly rapport with Trump could be tested as his visit to Washington kicks off.
Here's the latest:
The newly filed affidavits of U.S. Agency for International Development workers describe a lieutenant of Trump ally Elon Musk and other outsiders directing the immediate termination of hundreds of assistance programs, allegedly without required authorization or justification.
The groups are suing to roll back the dismantling of USAID by Trump’s Republican administration and Musk’s government-cutting teams.
The affidavits were filed late Tuesday. One says that when USAID contract officers emailed agency higher-ups on Monday asking for the authorization and justification needed to cancel USAID programs abroad, a lieutenant of Musk's responded by asserting that the decisions came from the “most senior levels.”
Trump is clearly pressing the boundaries of the relationship between the executive and judicial branches. And that may test one of the most foundational cases in American constitutional law, Marbury v. Madison, which established the courts as the law’s final arbiters.
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in the 1803 ruling that while Congress makes the laws and the president enforces them, the courts decide whether the other branches have gone too far.
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,” Marshall wrote.
So is the court supreme? Notably, the court lacks any independent means of enforcing its decisions. But Americans have come generally to believe that court decisions should be obeyed, even amid sharp disagreement.
▶ Read more about court precedent on the balance of powers
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and the subcommittee’s chair, described excessive spending as an existential threat to the country at Wednesday’s hearing, saying, “The American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt.”
She said the federal government needs to be held accountable, saying there are “no consequences” for bad financial management or service to citizens.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Maryland Democrat and the subcommittee’s ranking member, said Trump wasn’t interested in addressing waste and fraud because he was instead firing inspectors general.
“We have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here?” she said.
Stansbury also said it was wrong to let “Elon Musk and his hackers” gain access to sensitive databases like the U.S. Treasury payment system.
With history teacher Marc Vogel safely back in the U.S., Trump said another American, someone “very special,” would be released on Wednesday, though he declined to name the person or say from what country.
The president also wouldn’t say if he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin about Fogel, who had been jailed in Russia three years ago after being caught with medical marijuana. But Fogel praised the Russian leader as “very generous and statesmanlike in granting me a pardon.”
Trump called the deal “Very fair, very, very fair, very reasonable. Not like deals you’ve seen over the years. They were very fair.”
The president did not say what the United States exchanged for Fogel’s release.
▶ Read more on the prisoner swaps
In sweeping remarks in Brussels, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested the way forward is for Ukraine: Abandon the “illusory goal” of a return to its pre-2014 borders, and prepare for a negotiated settlement with Russia, backed up with an international force of troops.
Allies have been waiting to hear how much continued military and financial support Washington intends to provide to Ukraine’s government.
What the Ukraine Defense Contact Group of about 50 countries supporting Ukraine heard: Trump is intent on getting Europe to assume the majority of the financial and military responsibilities for the defense of Ukraine. The peacekeeping force would not include U.S. troops.
▶ Read more about Hegseth’s speech on Ukraine
“It’s time to be reciprocal,” Trump said earlier this week as he prepared additional actions to upset the world trade system.
With the tariffs he’s unleashed so far, Trump has fully taken ownership of the path of the U.S. economy, betting that he can eventually deliver meaningful results for voters, even if by his own admission the import taxes could involve some financial pain in the form of inflation and economic disruptions.
With imports totalling $4.1 trillion last year, a broad reciprocal tariffs order could amount to a substantial tax hike to be shouldered largely by U.S. consumers and businesses. Should job gains never materialize and inflation stay high, it’s an easy line of attack for Democrats: that Trump helped the ultrawealthy at the expense of the middle class.
▶ Read more on Trump’s big bet on the economy
Rising prices on groceries, gas, and used cars make it less likely that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates anytime soon.
The consumer price index increased 3% in January from a year ago, Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed, up from 2.9% the previous month. It has increased from a 3 1/2 year low of 2.4% in September.
Candidate Trump pledged to reduce prices. Most economists worry that his proposed tariffs could at least temporarily increase costs.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will likely be asked Wednesday by the House Financial Services Committee what the Fed will do.
Trump posted on social media early Wednesday that interest rates should be lowered to “go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!!”
▶ Read more about consumer prices and inflation
Witkoff gave some of the credit to Mohammed bin Salman, saying Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was “instrumental” in the negotiations.
“He has a very strong friendship with President Trump, and, behind the scenes, he was encouraging and pushing and looking for the right result. It was helpful, it really was.”
Asked if the crown prince was pushing the Russians, Witkoff said he was more of a “cheerleader.”
“He was a cheerleader for this rapprochement where the two leaders would come together and that’s what happened, so thank God. Sometimes you don’t get a good result. Here we got a very good result. Mark Fogel is the evidence of that.”
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, declined to reveal Marc Fogel ’s whereabouts but told reporters that Fogel had spoken with his wife, his two children and his 95-year-old mother.
Trump sent Witkoff to bring home the schoolteacher, who had been detained in Russia after his arrest in August 2021. Fogel was brought to the White House late Tuesday so Trump could officially welcome him home.
Trump gave Fogel a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom — as he had promised, Witkoff said.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that a Russian citizen was freed in the United States in exchange for Fogel’s release, but refused to identify him until he arrives in Russia.
▶ Read more about what Russia got from the deal
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence.
The military veteran and former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii faced criticism that was initially bipartisan over comments sympathetic to Russia and her past support of government leaker Edward Snowden, as well a 2017 meeting with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
Democrats remain opposed to her nomination, but Republican support has fallen into line following a pressure campaign by Trump allies including Elon Musk.
▶ Read more about impacts on intelligence sharing with U.S. allies
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started laying off probationary employees by distributing a form letter that doesn’t include their names.
“MEMORANDUM FOR (EmployeeFirstName) (EmployeeLastName),” the letter says. “This is to provide notification that I am removing you from your position of (JobTitle).”
“Unfortunately, the Agency finds that that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”
Probationary employees have less civil service protection because they’ve been on the job for less than a year. The bureau, which says it has obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers, is the latest target as President Trump and Elon Musk dismantle federal regulators.
▶ Read more on Trump’s effort to shut down consumer protection bureau
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s longstanding relationship with Trump could be tested as the Indian leader kicks off a visit to Washington on Wednesday, eager to avoid tariffs that have been slapped on others and threats of further taxes and imports.
India, a key strategic partner of the United States, has so far been spared any new tariffs, and the two leaders have cultivated a personal relationship. Modi — a nationalist criticized over India’s democratic backsliding — has welcomed Trump’s return to the White House, seeking to reset India’s relationship with the West over his refusal to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine.
But Trump has repeatedly referred to India as a “tariff king” and pressed the South Asian country on the deportation of migrants. In response, New Delhi has shown a willingness to lower its own tariffs on U.S. products, accept Indian citizens back and buy American oil.
But as tariff threats loom, the question remains how much a good rapport between two leaders matters and how far India will go to cut a deal.
▶ Read more about what to expected ahead of Modi and Trump’s meeting at the White House
Elon Musk made a rare public appearance at the White House on Tuesday to defend the swift and extensive cuts he’s pushing across the federal government while acknowledging there have been mistakes and will be more.
Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk with his young son as Trump praised Musk’s work with his Department of Government Efficiency, saying they’ve found “shocking” evidence of wasteful spending. The Republican president signed an executive order to expand Musk’s influence and continue downsizing the federal workforce.
Despite concerns that he’s amassing unaccountable power with little transparency, Musk described himself as an open book as he took questions from reporters for the first time since joining the Trump administration as a special government employee. He joked that the scrutiny over his sprawling influence over federal agencies was like a “daily proctology exam.”
He also claimed that DOGE’s work was being shared on its website and on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. However, the DOGE website has no information, and the postings on X often lack many details, including which programs are being cut and where the organization has access.
The White House has also been moving to limit independent oversight. The inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired a day after warning that it had become nearly impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in humanitarian funds after DOGE began dismantling the agency.
▶ Read more about Musk’s comments on DOGE
President Donald Trump is taking additional action to upset the world trade system, with plans to sign an order as soon as Wednesday that would require that U.S. tariffs on imports match the tax rates charged by other countries.
The president had suggested that the order would come on Tuesday or Wednesday. But when Tuesday passed without the tariffs being officially announced, Trump was asked if he would sign the order on Wednesday and Trump answered: “We’ll see what happens.”
A reciprocal tariffs order could amount to a substantial tax hike to be shouldered largely by U.S. consumers and businesses as the Census Bureau reported that the country had total imports of $4.1 trillion last year. The tariffs could set off retaliatory measures by trading partners that could roil growth around the globe and reset where the United States stands with allies and rivals alike.
By signing the order, Trump would fulfill his long-standing pledge to raise taxes on most imported goods, a clear break with his recent White House predecessors who saw tariffs as either targeted tools to use strategically or barriers worth lowering. Trump has broken with that precedent by saying he wants to return the United States to the 1890s when taxes on imports were the government’s dominant source of revenues.
The White House fired the inspector general for the USAID on Tuesday, U.S. officials said, a day after his office warned that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the organization had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in unspent humanitarian funds.
The White House gave no reason for the firing of Inspector General Paul Martin, one of the officials said. The officials were familiar with the dismissal but were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The dismissal, which was first reported by CNN, is the latest action by the Trump administration affecting the aid agency, including efforts to pull all but a fraction of its staffers worldwide off the job. Trump and ally Elon Musk say its work is out of line with the president’s agenda.
By Ellen Nickmeyer
▶ Read more on the latest regarding USAID
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