Trump administration issues rule making it easier to fire federal workers – live | Donald Trump
Trump administration issues rule that makes it easier to fire federal workers
The Trump administration moved Thursday to issue a rule that would make it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said it was reclassifying certain career civil service roles so agencies can “quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives”.
Traditionally, only political appointees – roughly 4,000 positions – can be dismissed “at will”.
Under the new rule, many nonpartisan roles would be shifted into a category called “Schedule Policy/Career,” effectively treating them as political appointees. That reclassification could allow the administration to remove employees it views as disloyal. The rule – set to be published in the Federal Register on Friday – also states that “personal or political loyalty tests as a condition of employment” are prohibited.
Critics argue the change would open the door to politically motivated purges. “We have successfully fought this kind of power grab before, and we will fight this again. We will return to court to stop this unlawful rule and will use every legal tool available to hold this administration accountable to the people,” said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.
The largest union representing federal workers called the rule “a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service.” In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) president Everett Kelley said OPM is “rebranding career public servants as ‘policy’ employees, silencing whistleblowers, and replacing competent professionals with political flunkies without any neutral, independent protections against politicization and arbitrary abuse of power.”
Trump briefly enacted a similar change at the end of his first term through an executive order known as “Schedule F,” which Joe Biden rescinded upon taking office in 2021. Stripping civil service protections has also been a central plank of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint.
In a statement Thursday, anticipating the rule’s release, OPM director Scott Kupor said the reclassification would bring “much-needed accountability to career policy-influencing positions in the Federal government.”
Key events
US job openings dropped to a five-year low in December 2025, report shows
US job openings dropped to the lowest level in more than five years in December and data for the prior month was revised lower amid a softening in labor market conditions at the end of 2025.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, decreased by 386,000 to 6.542m by the last day of December, the lowest level since September 2020, the labor department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, today.
Data for November was revised down to show 6.928m job openings instead of the previously reported 7.146m. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.20m unfilled jobs. Hiring increased by 172,000 positions to a still-low 5.293m in December.
The data came as other numbers showed a larger-than-expected increase in Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits last week, but the underlying trend remained consistent with a stable labor market.
Here’s the full story:
Bessent says further Russian sanctions depend on peace talks
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said that further US sanctions against Russia depend on talks aimed at ending its nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Bessent, who participated in talks with Russian officials and Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on 31 January, said he would consider sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet.
“We will see where the peace talks go,” Bessent said, noting that the Trump administration’s sanctions against Russian oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil had helped bring Russia to the negotiating table in the peace talks.
Trump administration issues rule that makes it easier to fire federal workers
The Trump administration moved Thursday to issue a rule that would make it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said it was reclassifying certain career civil service roles so agencies can “quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives”.
Traditionally, only political appointees – roughly 4,000 positions – can be dismissed “at will”.
Under the new rule, many nonpartisan roles would be shifted into a category called “Schedule Policy/Career,” effectively treating them as political appointees. That reclassification could allow the administration to remove employees it views as disloyal. The rule – set to be published in the Federal Register on Friday – also states that “personal or political loyalty tests as a condition of employment” are prohibited.
Critics argue the change would open the door to politically motivated purges. “We have successfully fought this kind of power grab before, and we will fight this again. We will return to court to stop this unlawful rule and will use every legal tool available to hold this administration accountable to the people,” said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.
The largest union representing federal workers called the rule “a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service.” In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) president Everett Kelley said OPM is “rebranding career public servants as ‘policy’ employees, silencing whistleblowers, and replacing competent professionals with political flunkies without any neutral, independent protections against politicization and arbitrary abuse of power.”
Trump briefly enacted a similar change at the end of his first term through an executive order known as “Schedule F,” which Joe Biden rescinded upon taking office in 2021. Stripping civil service protections has also been a central plank of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint.
In a statement Thursday, anticipating the rule’s release, OPM director Scott Kupor said the reclassification would bring “much-needed accountability to career policy-influencing positions in the Federal government.”
Melody Schreiber
At least two cases of measles have been confirmed at a major immigration detention center for children and their parents in Texas as cases of the dangerous virus in South Carolina, Arizona, Utah and other US states continue growing and alarming experts.
In January alone, the US saw 25% of the total confirmed in all of last year, and the outbreak shows no sign of slowing as federal officials stay silent on vaccination.
The vast majority of patients are not vaccinated, but there have been no national campaigns announced or recent statements from leaders such as Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Last year, Kennedy positioned measles vaccines as a personal choice and recommended unproven treatments for the highly contagious illness.
The measles outbreak is “frightening” and “very worrisome”, said Jason Bowling, professor of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio and director of hospital epidemiology at University Health.
“I unfortunately do not see this slowing down across the United States,” said Anna-Kathryn Burch, division director of pediatric infectious diseases at Prisma Health Children’s hospital in the Midlands in South Carolina. What’s happening in South Carolina could happen anywhere the vaccination rate dips too low, Burch said. “It’s not a matter of if, but more likely when.”
The Dilley family detention center in south Texas, one of two immigration facilities for children in the US, reported two measles cases on Friday. “We are aware of the cases and are assisting by providing doses of measles vaccine as requested by ICE,” said Chris Van Deusen, director of media relations at the Texas department of state health services, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Amid the various winding comments throughout Trump’s speech today, he said that the Department of Education will officially issue its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in public schools today.
“Now the Democrats will sue us, but we’ll win it,” Trump said, eliciting some laughs from the audience at the National Prayer Breakfast. “They’ll sue us. They sue us for everything. I’m the most sued human being in history.”
The president is now rattling off a number of states who, he says, have cooperated with federal law enforcement. But has now launched into a tirade on Minnesota.
“They won’t work with us,” Trump said, while claiming that he would be able to drive crime down further without the “horrible governor and this horrible fake mayor Frey”.
Trump announced there will be a national prayer event on the National Mall on 17 May. “We’re going to rededicate America as one nation under God,” Trump added.
Trump praises Gabbard for joining FBI search on Georgia election offices
During his speech today, Trump praised Tulsi Gabbard – the director of national intelligence – for her role in the FBI’s search of the Fulton county election offices in Georgia last week. Here agents seized almost 700 boxes of 2020 election documentation.
“She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam’s insistence,” the president said. “They say, ‘why is she doing it’… because Pam [the attorney general] wanted her to do it. And you know why? Because she’s smart.”
Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that Gabbard is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from the justice department investigation.
“Her position has to do with international,” Trump added today.
He went further:
They’ve been saying ‘Russia, Russia, Russia has been screwing our elections’. OK, so let’s assume Russia had something to do with it. They said, ‘no, no, Russia didn’t’… so now they’re saying Russia had nothing to do with it. Because if I say Russia, that it’s perfectly fine. But you could add China and about five other countries.
Trump’s meandered during his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast today. He’s denigrated Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman and his frequent target who co-sponsored legislation to release the full tranche of Epstein files, and voted against the most recent funding bill package that the president signed into law on Tuesday. “There’s something wrong with him,” Trump said. “ They love voting ‘no’. They think it’s good politically.”
The president also touted the military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of the now deposed leader Nicolás Maduro. “We’re getting along fantastically with leadership,” Trump said of the interrim president Delcy Rodriguez.
One note, ahead of the president’s address today, we heard from Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, and a noted Trump ally.
Bukele has worked closely with the Trump administration to accept flights of undocumented immigrants, who they allege are convicted criminals, and hold them in El Salvador’s mega-prison, known as CECOT.
Bukele has described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator” and has overseen one of the largest crackdowns on crime in his country. Critics have branded him an authoritarian leader, that has done away with due process.
Today he called the gangs that he’s worked to eliminate from El Salvador as “satanic”.
“Some of those gangs are here in the United States,” he added. “If God did this for El Salvador he can do this for countries all over the world.”
Donald Trump is in Washington today. As we noted earlier, we’ll hear from the president shortly when he attends the National Prayer Breakfast.
Later today we’ll also hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when she holds a 1pm ET briefing for reporters.
Mass layoffs at the Washington Post have prompted backlash from employees, who have been on “edge” for weeks over the future of the publication.
On Wednesday the publication announced it would be laying off one-third of its workforce, and would be scaling back coverage of sport and foreign news.
“This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” the Post’s celebrated former editor-in-chief Marty Baron said in a statement.
The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr reports that staffers at the Post have been worried for weeks about the rumoured cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.
During a morning meeting announcing the changes, the editor in chief, Matt Murray, told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
Murray acknowledged that the Post had struggled to reach “customers” and talked about the need to compete in a crowded media marketplace. “Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
The affected employees include Caroline O’Donovan, who primarily covers Amazon, the company founded by the Post owner, Jeff Bezos. Other staffers, including the sports journalist Neil Greenberg, have also announced that they were affected.
Read the full report below.
Trump set to deliver remarks at national prayer breakfast
President Donald Trump is set to attend and deliver remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast later today, a spokesperson from the White House confirmed.
The event is held annually in Washington DC on the first Thursday of every February. It aims to bring together leaders in political, social and business sectors from around the country to an event that merges prayer and networking.
“Today, President Trump will unite our country through the power of prayer at the 74th National Prayer Breakfast,” a White House spokesperson said.
“President Trump has made unprecedented strides to protect our God-given rights and has delivered on his promise to reverse Joe Biden’s divisive policies that weaponized the federal government against men and women of faith. President Trump has secured major victories for religious freedom – from defending innocent life to restoring biological truth and protecting parents’ fundamental rights.”
Fox News reports that the president first attended the National Prayer Breakfast in 2017 and returned last year, using his remarks to pledge action against what he called anti-Christian bias tied to the Biden administration.
“While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares, and we will bring our country back together as one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all,” he said during last year’s event.
According to the outlet, other notable attenders set to appear at the 2026 event include house speaker Mike Johnson and attorney general Pam Bondi.
Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Trump says Pretti and Good were ‘not angels’ while signaling ‘softer touch’ on immigration
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump said the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis were both sad incidents that “should not have happened,” but nobody feels worse about both shootings than ICE agents.
“He was not an angel, and she was not an angel,” Trump said of Pretti and Good in a new interview with NBC News. “Still, I’m not happy with what happened there. Nobody can be happy, and ICE wasn’t happy either.
“But I’m always going to be with our great people of law enforcement,” he continued. “We have to back them. If we don’t back them, we don’t have a country.”
This comes as the White House border czar, Tom Homan, says 700 federal agents will leave Minnesota. In the interview, Trump suggested using a “softer touch” in carrying out his aggressive immigration crackdown.
However, Chuck Schumer, the US Senate minority leader, said the reduction of 700 agents wasn’t enough. “ICE’s abuses go beyond the headlines. Residents are afraid to go to schools, to grocery stores, to even step outside. Agents are patrolling the streets like a military operation,” he said. “All of ICE needs to leave Minneapolis now.”
In other developments:
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The second day of US-brokered talks between negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv have been taking place in Abu Dhabi. The discussions come amid increased Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and a continuing war of attrition.
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The Trump administration says it wants to create a critical minerals trading bloc with its allies and partners in order to counter China’s stronghold. This would use tariffs to shore up supplies of critical minerals needed for electric vehicles, missiles and other hi-tech products.
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The British prime minister Keir Starmer has apologised to Epstein victims for giving Peter Mandelson the US ambassador job. Starmer says Mandelson portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew. He expressed regret for believing Mandelson’s lies and appointing him.
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The US Justice Department is under fire for revealing information about Epstein’s victims, and hiding the identities of alleged perpetrators, CNN reports. Survivors have accused the DoJ for “botching” the release of the three million documents which came out last week.
