Top social security official quits after clash with Musk’s Doge over sensitive data request – US politics live | US news

People attending recent mandatory immigration check-ins or court appearances have been escorted out in federal custody after the Trump administration allegedly tricked, lied to, or otherwise deceived them as part of its mass deportation campaign.

Amid a blitz of immigration-related policy changes over the last few weeks, Donald Trump and his subordinates have greenlit the ability of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to conduct potential civil enforcement operations at courthouses, including in immigration courts.

They have also reportedly set daily arrest quotas between at least 1,200 and 1,500 and gotten angry when agents have not consistently met those targets – pressure from the top that is probably incentivizing officers on the ground to go after the lowest-hanging fruit instead of people with serious criminal records.

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A federal judge has ordered US prosecutors to appear in court this week to explain why they are seeking to dismiss criminal charges filed against New York mayor Eric Adams and the “scope and effect” of the mayor’s consent, Reuters reports.

The hearing comes after a justice department official appointed by Donald Trump ordered prosecutors to seek dismissal of the case, which is widely seen as a reward for his help with Trump’s immigration agenda. At least a half-dozen federal prosecutors resigned rather than obey the order, but other officials eventually formally sought dismissal on Friday.

US district judge Dale Ho ordered the parties to appear at a hearing on Wednesday at 2pm EST to discuss the matter.

Four deputies to Adams plan to resign in a withdrawal of support for the embattled Democratic mayor, as the growing chaos engulfs his three-year-old administration.

Adams, who has warmed to Trump since being indicted last year on charges of taking bribes from Turkish officials, has pleaded not guilty.

In ordering prosecutors to dismiss the case, acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove said the charges were distracting Adams from helping Trump crack down on illegal immigration, one of the administration’s top priorities.

Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration is as a White House employee and senior adviser to the president, and is not an employee of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and has no decision-making authority, the White House said in a court filing on Monday.

Although the tech billionaire is said to be leading Trump’s administration’s sweeping cost-cutting efforts, according to a filing signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration at the White House, Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president’s directives.

“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” it said.

Fisher’s filing, made in a case brought against Musk by the state of New Mexico, said that Musk was not an employee of the US Doge Service, or the US Doge Service Temporary Organization.

In his declaration to the court, Fisher said:

In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors.

Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.

Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.

Fisher compared Musk’s role to that of Anita Dunn, who served as a senior advisor to former president Joe Biden.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, later said the two sides had agreed to start “as soon as possible” the process for Ukraine peace talks, and Russia will be waiting for the US to confirm its representatives for the talks and then appoint their own.

He then echoed Rubio’s sentiments about “creating conditions” for broader US-Russia cooperation, including on “resuming consultations on geopolitical issues,” and “removing the artificial barriers in the way of mutually beneficial economic cooperation.”

My colleague Jakub Krupa reports that the US state secretary Marco Rubio has said part of the focus of the talks with Russia is on “ensuring that our diplomatic missions can function” and lead “vibrant diplomatic” relations.

He then said the second element is to conduct peace talks on Ukraine, which will include “engagement and consultation” with Ukraine and “partners in Europe”.

But ultimately, at the third step, the US wants to move to “engage in identifying the extraordinary opportunities that exist should this conflict come to acceptable end … to partner with Russians geopolitically, on issues of common interest, and frankly economically,” Rubio said.

Obviously, the diplomatic one is one we think we hope to move pretty quickly on, because this involves the treatment of our respective missions.

The second one will be difficult, which is the question of Ukraine and the end of that conflict.

But I think that’s essential in order for the third to even be possible, which is our ability to work together on other geopolitical matters of common interest, and, of course, some pretty unique, potentially historic, economic partnerships as well.

The key that unlocks the door for those opportunities, however, is the end to this conflict.

US Food and Drug Administration employees reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were fired over the weekend as part of a broader purge of the federal workforce, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

The cuts included about 20 people in the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices, several of whom worked on Neuralink, according to the two sources, who asked not to be identified because of fear of professional repercussions.

That division includes reviewers overseeing clinical-trial applications by Neuralink and other companies making so-called brain-computer interface devices, the sources said.

Both sources said they did not believe the employees were specifically targeted because of their work on Neuralink’s applications.

The loss of roughly 20 employees will hamper the agency’s ability to quickly and safely process medical device applications of all sorts, including Neuralink’s, according to the sources and outside experts.

“It’s intimidating to the FDA professionals who are overseeing Neuralink’s trial,” said Victor Krauthamer, a former FDA official for three decades, including a stint as acting director of the office that reviews human-trial requests for brain implants.

“We should be worried about the whole trial, and the protection of the people in the trial.”

The FDA, White House and Musk did not immediately respond to comment requests. Trump has said that Musk will excuse himself from any conflicts of interest between his various business interests and his efforts to cut costs for the federal government.

The full story is here:

Lauren Aratani

A quarter of Americans have dumped their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration, according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian.

Four out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll.

• 31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year – a sentiment especially felt by younger (gen Z: 37%), Black (41% v white: 28%), and Democratic consumers (35% v 29% of independents and 28% of Republicans).

• A quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics (Black: 35%, gen Z: 32%, Democratic: 31%).

More Democrats (50%) indicated they were changing their spending habits compared with Republicans (41%) and independents (40%). Democrats were also more likely to say they have stopped shopping at companies that have opposing political views to their own – 45% of Democrats indicated so, compared with 34% of Republicans.

It’s a sign that consumers with liberal views are starting to use their wallets in response to politics in the private sector. Most recently, this has been seen with a backlash against Target – the seventh-largest retailer in the US that has enjoyed a typically favorable reputation among liberal consumers.

In January, Target announced it was ending some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, including a program that helped the company carry more Black- and minority-owned brands in its stores, saying it was trying to “stay more in step with the evolving external landscape”.

You can read the full story here:

The US delegation is now speaking to the media. My colleague Jakub Krupa reports that Michael Waltz, the US national security adviser, has said the Ukraine talks with Russia will include discussion of territory and security guarantees, adding:

This needs to be a permanent end to the war, and not a temporary end, as we’ve seen in the past.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, went on to say that the agreement must be acceptable to all sides:

What’s important to understand is two things. The first is [that] the only leader in the world who can make this happen, who can even bring people together to begin to talk about it in a serious way, is President Trump.

The second thing I would say is that in order for a conflict to end, everyone involved in that conflict has to be okay with it has to be it has to be acceptable to them.

He added:

The goal is to bring an end to this conflict in a way that’s fair, enduring, sustainable and acceptable to all parties involved. What that looks like? Well, that’s what this what the ongoing engagement is going to be all about.

For more on that head over to our Europe live blog:

The United States and Russia agreed on Tuesday to address “irritants” to the US-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the State Department said, making clear the effort was in its early stages.

“One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said after meetings in Saudi Arabia.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters of the talks: “I think it is too early to talk about compromises, we can say that the sides started communicating with each other, started listening to each other, started the dialogue.”

He said Russian and US officials had a separate discussion on future economic cooperation, including global energy prices.

The talks between Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia have wrapped up, a senior Kremlin official told Russian state TV on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks in Riyadh alongside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, told Russia’s Channel one that no date has been set yet for a meeting between Putin and Trump, the Associated Press reports.

He said the meeting was “unlikely” to take place next week.

“The delegations of the two countries need to work closely together. We are ready for this, but it is still difficult to talk about a specific date for the meeting of the two leaders,” Ushakov said

Michelle King, the top official at the Social Security Administration, left her position on Sunday after refusing a request from Elon Musk’s Doge to access sensitive government records at the agency, The Washington Post reports.

King had spent several decades at the agency and was made acting commissioner last month.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields confirmed King’s departure in a statement.

“President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks,” Fields said.

“In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner. President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.”

Donald Trump appointed Leland Dudek, a manager in charge of Social Security’s anti-fraud office as acting commissioner while Bisignano is vetted by the Senate.

DNC chair outlines pro-worker, union focus in first memo in fight against Trump

Lois Beckett

The newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, has warned his party that the Republicans are now seen as the party of the working class and vowed to win back the trust of American workers as the Democrats seek to rebuild after their losses in the 2024 presidential election.

In his first memo in the role, seen by the Guardian, Martin said, after the election, “for the first time in modern history, Americans now see the Republicans as the party of the working class and Democrats as the party of the elites”.

The memo, titled “Democrats Will Fight Against Trump’s War on Working People”, comes as Martin is set to meet with United Steel Workers members in Pittsburgh today.

“By joining together in a union, working people have secured better wages, workplace protections, healthcare and the weekend. Because here’s the thing: unions expand opportunities for all workers – not just those who are members,” Martin wrote.

Read the full report here:

Trump nominates January 6 activist to serve as top DC prosecutor

Lois Beckett

A conservative activist who has consistently defended the January 6 storming of the Capitol has been nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the permanent top federal prosecutor in the city where it happened.

Trump named Ed Martin for US attorney for the District of Columbia, the top prosecutor for all serious local crimes by adults in the district. His appointment must be confirmed by the US Senate.

Martin has echoed Trump’s baseless and incorrect claims that the 2020 election was stolen, including speaking at a “Stop the Steal” rally in DC on 5 January, and consistently defended the actions of the insurrectionists.

He has said he was part of the crowds of Trump supporters who gathered near the White House in Washington DC on 6 January to hear Trump urge them to march on the US Capitol, where many engaged in a attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and keep Trump in power.

Read the full report here:

Four deputies to New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, resigned on Monday as the growing chaos following a justice department request to drop corruption charges against him, widely seen as a reward for his help with Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, engulfs his three-year-old administration.

According to reports, four of Adams’ deputies – first deputy mayor Maria Torres Springer, deputy mayor for operations Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for health and human services Anne Williams-Isom, and deputy mayor for public safety Chauncey Parker – said they were stepping down.

“I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future,” Adams said in a statement.

Torres-Springer, Williams-Isom and Joshi issued a joint statement, citing “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks” and “oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families” as what led them to the “difficult decision” to leave.