The fallout from President Donald Trump’s actions against any diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within the federal government continues.
The Air Force is removing training courses that included videos of its Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the female World War II pilots who ferried warplanes for the military. This comes as agencies and departments scramble to comply with Trump’s crackdown on DEI efforts.
The Air Force said in a statement that it “will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency and in alignment with national security objectives.”
This comes as Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said in an interview broadcast Sunday that there will be mass deportation every day for Trump’s term and that the numbers will grow each week.
“I want to go back to those military flights going south,” ABC’s Martha Raddatz said. “We have never seen that before. Is that going to be a constant commitment from the US military every single day to take deportees out?”
Homan had a simple response: “Yes.”
Key Points
- Trump demands California voter ID law for wildfire relief; threatens future of FEMA
- Trump says he wants to ‘clean out’ Gaza as he restarts policy to give Israel new bombs
- Even Republicans are questioning Trump’s ‘illegal’ midnight purge of inspector generals
- More DEI fallout: Air Force scraps course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots
More DEI fallout: Air Force scraps course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots
16:48
,
AP
The Air Force has removed training courses with videos of its storied Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs — the female World War II pilots who were vital in ferrying warplanes for the military — to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The videos were shown to Air Force troops as part of DEI courses they took during basic military training.
In a statement, the Air Force confirmed the courses with those videos had been removed and said it “will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency and in alignment with national security objectives.”
The problem may not be with the historical videos themselves, but that they were used in Air Force basic military training DEI coursework. However, the lack of clearer guidance has sent the Air Force and other agencies scrambling to take the broadest approach to what content is removed to make sure they are in compliance.
The Tuskegee Airmen, known as the “Red Tails” were the nation’s first Black military pilots who served in a segregated WWII unit and their all-Black 332nd Fighter Group had one of the lowest loss records of all the bomber escorts in the war.
They flew P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang and other fighter aircraft to escort American bombers on dangerous missions over Germany. Before the fighter escorts began accompanying the slow and heavy U.S. bombers, losses were catastrophic due to getting dive-bombed and strafed by German aircraft.
In a statement late Saturday, Tuskegee Airmen Inc. the nonprofit foundation created to preserve the legacy of those pilots, said it was “strongly opposed” to the removal of the videos to comply with Trump’s order.
The stories of the Tuskegee Airmen and the WASPs “are an essential part of American history and carried significant weight in the World War II veteran community. We believe the content of these courses does not promote one category of service member or citizen over another. They are simply a part of American military history that all service members should be made aware of,” the group said.
Even Republicans are questioning Trump’s ‘illegal’ midnight purge of inspector generals
16:46
,
Gustaf Kilander
Some Republicans are concerned about President Donald Trump’s late-night firing Friday of more than a dozen inspectors general without giving the proper notification to Congress.
The new Trump administration fired about 17 inspectors general on Friday from a number of departments and agencies, including State, Defense and Transportation. The inspectors general are there to work against fraud, corruption and abuses of power.
Congressional Democrats were quick to slam the firings, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying that the action came in the “dark of night” and that it was a “chilling” indication of what the next four years would look like.
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Trump says he wants to ‘clean out’ Gaza as he restarts policy to give Israel new bombs
16:46
,
Alex Lang, Zeke Miller, Will Weissert
President Donald Trump said he would like to see Gaza “just cleaned out,” allowing a clean slate for the war-torn region on the back of the ceasefire deal.
Trump called for Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations to increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting. His hope is they take enough to allow the area to start anew.
Trump has built his political career around being unapologetically pro-Israel. On his larger vision for Gaza, Trump told reporters on Air Force One he had call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said in a Saturday meeting with reporters. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”
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‘I like him a lot’: Donald Trump praises Keir Starmer for doing ‘very good job’
16:30
,
Millie Cooke
Donald Trump said he has a “very good relationship” with Sir Keir Starmer, adding the prime minister has done a “very good job thus far”.
It comes despite the pair’s turbulent relationship since Sir Keir took office, amid rows with Mr Trump’s ally Elon Musk, who has publicly criticised the UK PM, and anger over Labour helping Kamala Harris in the US election.
But speaking to the BBC on board Air Force One, Mr Trump said the pair would have a phone call “over the next 24 hours”.
“I get along with him well. I like him a lot,” Mr Trump said.
“He’s liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he’s a very good person and I think he’s done a very good job thus far.
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Ontario premier threatens to ban US liquor in stores, shut off power to Americans on border
16:00
,
Mary Papenfuss
Ontario’s take-no-prisoners Premier Doug Ford is threatening to ban U.S. alcohol in stores and cut power to American homes and businesses close to the border in his war on Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs.
“I’m a street fighter in politics,” Ford, wearing a blue MAGA-type hat reading “Canada is not for sale,” told Politico in an interview earlier this week. “If someone throws a punch at me, I’m going to hit him back twice as hard.”
Ford, 60, said he would like to work with Trump, but that doesn’t look likely now, even though there’s “no one that loves the U.S. up here in Canada more than I do.”
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Vance defends Gabbard as he claims U.S. intelligence bureaucrats are ‘out of control'
15:36
,
Gustaf Kilander
Vice President J.D. Vance claimed that U.S. intelligence bureaucrats are “out of control” in an interview with CBS as he defended Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence.
"The bureaucrats at our intelligence services have gotten completely out of control," Vance told Face the Nation.
"They’ve been part of the weaponization of our political system, the weaponization of our justice system,” he added. "We need to have good intelligence services who keep us safe, but part of that is restoring trust in those services, and we think Tulsi is the right person to do it."
"Two things that are important to know about Tulsi. First of all, she is a career military servant who’s had a classification at the highest levels for nearly two decades," said Vance. "She has impeccable character, impeccable record of service, and she also is a person who I think is going to bring some trust back to the intelligence services."
Trump calls for shutting down FEMA even as red states collect top funds
15:30
,
Mary Papenfuss
A key population harmed by Donald Trump’s proposed shutdown of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would be Americans living in “tornado alley” in the central U.S. and the flood and hurricane states of the southeast, which include a huge percentage of the president’s MAGA supporters.
Three red states — Texas, Louisiana and Florida — collected the most funds from 2015 to August 2024 from FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program, according to data from the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database. IHP provides “financial and direct services to eligible individuals and households affected by a disaster.”
Texas residents have received $2.3 billion. Louisiana residents collected $2.4 billion, and Florida residents received $2.5 billion.
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North Korea says it tested cruise missile system and vows 'toughest' response to US
15:00
,
Hyung-Jin Kim
North Korea said Sunday it tested a cruise missile system, its third known weapons display this year, and vowed “the toughest” response to what it called the escalation of U.S.-South Korean military drills that target the North.
The moves suggested North Korea will likely maintain its run of weapons tests and its confrontational stance against the U.S. for now, even though President Donald Trump said he intends to reach out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim observed the test of sea-to-surface strategic cruise guided weapons on Saturday.
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Trump plays Vegas: President basks in laughter turning rally from policy talk to improv comedy performance
14:30
,
Kelly Rissman
President Donald Trump arrived in Las Vegas, a city known for its unique shows, and delivered a speech-turned-comedy show of his own.
Trump began his speech like he began most of his campaign rallies: boasting about his own success before disparaging the Biden administration.
After becoming president on Monday, Trump said he’s “been moving with urgency and historic speed to fix every single calamity of the Biden administration,” referring to the raft of executive orders that he’s signed and Biden-era policies that he’s reversed.
But before long, his infamous scowl — so persistent that it even appeared in his official portrait — was completely erased, replaced by a white-toothed grin. Trump seemed to be having fun as his first week back in office came to a close — while many Americans are anxious about what his onslaught of orders could mean for them.
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Bill Gates admits many government agencies need budget slashed by 15% - but rejects Musk DOGE’s widespread cuts
14:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Bill Gates said in a wide-ranging interview with The Wall Street Journal that many government departments can cut 10 to 15 percent of their budgets while cautioning against getting rid of entire groups.
Gates was asked about the shift in Silicon Valley from the focus on tech nerds to tech bros. Industry leaders have made clear that they want to be in President Donald Trump’s good graces, with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all attending Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
“Well, I think they’re still nerds. As I can tell, they don’t deserve some new term, Jesus. They’re just as nerdy as they ever were,” said Gates.
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Trump administration wants ‘regime change’ in the UK as Starmer replaces Trudeau as hate figure
13:00
,
David Maddox
For those who were carefully listening, Nigel Farage had an interesting message in his speech at the Stars and Stripes Union Jack party three days before the inauguration.
He told an audience of leading rightwing Brits, a GB News film crew and a plethora of Trump supporters including members of the incoming president’s trusted circle that he believed he will win the next general election. But, he, added: “I just hope it happens while Donald Trump is still president.”
Trump’s presidency is set to run out in 2028, a year before Keir Starmer has to go to the country in the UK. So was it Farage optimism or was there something else at play? This was not just a piece of wishful thinking said in a vacuum, it reflected a virulent mood amongst Trump’s supporters and advisers.
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Kristi Noem confirmed as Homeland Security secretary to oversee Trump’s deportation plan
12:00
,
Kelly Rissman
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was confirmed by the Senate.
The Senate confirmed her on Saturday morning in a vote of 59-34.
The 53-year-old will now lead the agency integral in Trump’s plan to crack down on immigration. She will oversee 22 agencies with duties that range from securing the border to responding to natural disasters.
“President Trump needs to achieve this mission because two-thirds of Americans support his immigration and border policies, including the majority of Hispanic Americans,” Noem said in her opening statement.
“I was the first governor to send National Guard troops to our southern border when Texas asked for help and when they were being overwhelmed by an unprecedented border crisis. If confirmed as secretary, I’ll ensure that our exceptional, extraordinary Border Patrol agents have all the tools and resources and support that they need to carry out their mission,” she continued.
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VOICES: Freezing aid to Ukraine shows Trump is no ally to the West
11:00
,
Sam Kiley
Donald Trump said he was going to do it. His foreign policy and his defence team gave due warning that they’d do it. And yet, as Marco Rubio smashed a fist into the solar plexus of an already battered Ukraine, there’s still stunned surprise.
In a memo sent to embassies and agencies who rely on US funding, to a tune of $72 billion at last count, the new US secretary of state ordered a stop order on American worldwide aid funding for up to 90 days.
Excluded from this move are Israel and Egypt. They’re fine.
Ukraine is a democracy that’s been identified by the highest court on the planet, the International Criminal Court, as being the victim of war crimes. But aid from the US, both civilian and military, appears to have been cut overnight with the sweep of a pen.
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Trump fires 17 government watchdogs in middle of the night - but a key one remains in his post
10:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
President Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general on Friday in a late-night purge of the internal government watchdogs that monitor federal agencies.
The measure didn’t remove Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, according to The New York Times.
One of the fired officials told The Post, “It’s a widespread massacre.”
“Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system,” the official added.
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State Department halts new funding on nearly all US aid programs worldwide
09:00
,
Shahana Yasmin
The State Department has ordered a freeze on almost all funding for foreign assistance programs, days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to pause aid for 90 days.
The Friday order from the State Department, accompanied by a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, includes exceptions for emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt.
On Monday, Trump ordered a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance to review its efficiency and ensure it aligned with his foreign policy.
The memo from Rubio asked staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards”, CNN reported.
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More DEI fallout: Air Force scraps course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots
08:00
,
Tara Copp
The Air Force has removed training courses with videos of its storied Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs — the female World War II pilots who played a vital role in ferrying warplanes for the military — to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The videos were shown to Air Force troops as part of DEI courses they took during their basic military training.
In a statement, the Air Force confirmed the courses with those videos had been removed and said it “will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency and in alignment with national security objectives.”
Read more:
More DEI fallout: Air Force scraps course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots
The trouble with Billy Ray Cyrus: Divorce, Trump and rivalry with daughter Miley
07:00
,
Kevin E G Perry
Soon after Billy Ray Cyrus took the stage at President Trump’s inaugural Liberty Ball in Washington DC on Monday, it quickly became apparent that something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t just the sound system, which cut out so that the 63-year-old country star couldn’t hear his guitar, or the rattle in his voice as he croaked: “How good was it to see our President back in command?” The trouble seemed to run deeper, as Cyrus’s family members have since spoken out about it.
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CIA believes COVID likely originated from a lab, but agency has low confidence in its own finding
06:00
,
David Klepper
The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump‘s pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director.
The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency’s assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
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President Trump says ‘nobody knows’ America’s population (it’s 331 million)
05:00
,
Kelly Rissman
President Donald Trump claimed that “nobody knows” how many people make up the American population.
Speaking at the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon, Trump boasted about the flurry of executive orders he signed and Biden-era policies he reversed during his first week back in the White House. One of those was withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
“We paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year despite a much larger population,” he told the crowd, he erupted in cheers after Trump reminisced on the WHO withdrawal.
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‘We are American warriors’: Pete Hegseth gives troops their mission hours after being confirmed as Defense Secretary
04:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Just hours after his confirmation as defense secretary on Friday night, Pete Hegseth issued his “message to the force” in a Pentagon press release.
He said it was the “privilege of a lifetime to lead the warriors of the Department of Defense,” and he urged his new subordinates to “put America first” and “never back down.”
The mission instruction from Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump is to “achieve peace through strength,” according to Hegseth.
“We will do this in three ways — by restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence,” the 44-year-old said in a release reminiscent of the opening statement at his confirmation hearing.
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Trump promised to leave abortion to the states. He capped his first week by targeting reproductive rights
03:15
,
Kelly Rissman
President Donald Trump has wasted no time in carrying out his anti-abortion agenda.
The president signed a pair of executive orders Friday reviving two anti-abortion policies from his first term - despite his pledges that abortion should be left to the state’s discretion.
To end his first week, Trump resurrected the enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. Former President Biden had reversed the policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In his executive order, he said: “The previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs.”
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Deadmau5 slams DJ 3LAU for performing at Trump inaugural ball
02:30
,
Kevin E G Perry
Deadmau5 has slammed fellow DJ 3lau for his decision to play at one of President Donald Trump’s inaugural balls.
Deadmau5 told his fellow musician that while nobody in the administration will remember the performance “everyone in [the music business] will remember that you stood behind nazis and convicted felons.”
3lau, real name Justin David Blau, 34, posted pictures of his performance at President Trump’s Starlight Ball — one of the three inaugural presidential balls typically attended by major donors — to his Instagram account.
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US has not stopped military aid to Ukraine, Zelenskyy says
01:45
,
Samya Kullab
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday the U.S. has not stopped military aid to Ukraine after newly sworn in U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he would pause foreign aid grants for 90 days.
Zelenskyy did not clarify whether humanitarian aid had been paused. Ukraine relies on the U.S. for 40% of its military needs. “I am focused on military aid; it has not been stopped, thank God,” he said at a press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu.
The two leaders met in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss the energy needs of Moldova’s Russian-occupied Transnistria region, which saw its natural gas supplies halted on Jan. 1 due to Ukraine’s decision to stop Russian gas transit. Ukraine has said it can offer coal to the Transnistrian authorities to make up for the shortfall.
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Trump again attacks media as 'enemy of the people' in latest rant targeting liberal journalists
01:09
,
Justin Rohrlich
Just six days into his second, and, theoretically final, term as president, Donald Trump once again lashed out at the free press in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
“Wow! Rachel Maddow has horrible ratings,” Trump posted on his flagging Twitter clone, Truth Social, at 1:05 am. “She’ll be off the air very soon. MSNBC IS CLOSE TO DEATH. CNN HAS REACHED THE BOTTOM. This is a good thing. They are the Enemy of the people!”
The ratings-obsessed Trump has long gone after the media when it has not treated him with the obsequiousness he prefers. Maddow, who is once again hosting her eponymous MSNBC show Monday through Friday, averaged two million viewers this past week, according to Nielsen. That’s, in fact, up from the 1.4 million Maddow averaged in the aftermath of Trump’s electoral victory in November.
CNN’s ratings declined by some 11 percent in primetime over the past week, and has announced plans to lay off roughly six percent of its staff, primarily from the television side of the operation.
Democratic states weigh more support for immigrants as Trump administration cracks down
01:00
,
David A. Lieb
As President Donald Trump tightens the nation’s immigration policies, lawmakers in Democratic-led states are proposing new measures that could erect legal obstacles for federal immigration officials and help immigrants lacking legal status avoid deportation.
The resistance efforts in California, New York and other states are a counterpoint to the many Republican-led states advancing measures to aid Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, highlighting a national divide.
In just his first week in office, Trump’s administration has halted refugee arrivals; fast-tracked deportations; sent military troops to the southern border; lifted longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools, churches and hospitals; attempted to end birthright citizenship; and ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who they believe are interfering with his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Read more:
Trump promised to leave abortion to the states. He capped his first week by targeting reproductive rights
00:15
,
Kelly Rissman
President Donald Trump has wasted no time in carrying out his anti-abortion agenda.
The president signed a pair of executive orders Friday reviving two anti-abortion policies from his first term - despite his pledges that abortion should be left to the state’s discretion.
To end his first week, Trump resurrected the enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. Former President Biden had reversed the policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Read more:
Trump takes credit for recent Israeli hostage release - despite deal being reached before he was sworn in
Saturday 25 January 2025 23:30
,
Gustaf Kilander
President Donald Trump took credit for the Saturday release of Israeli hostages as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas - a deal reached before he took the Oval Office.
“Today the world celebrates as President Trump secured the release of four more Israeli hostages who were, for far too lo
