A coalition of labor unions representing federal employees have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that Trump’s executive order directing broad swaths of government agencies to end collective bargaining with federal unions is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed late last night in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Trump signed the order in retaliation against the labor unions that have become a major legal obstacle in his efforts to slash the size of the federal government and move its core functions under executive control.
It also claims the order, which invoked a rare national security exemption to instruct 18 federal agencies to end collective bargaining with the unions representing their employees, was illegal because the primary functions of many of the named agencies are not related to national security.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union and the lead plaintiff in the case, promised legal action after Trump signed the order late last month.
“AFGE is not going to be intimidated by a bully who is throwing a temper tantrum because our union is beating them in the court of law and in the court of public opinion,” said Everett Kelley, the National President of AFGE. “Trump’s newest order to revoke union rights is a clear case of retaliation. But I’ve got news for him: we are not going anywhere.”
A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Friday that more than 65,000 votes cast in the contested race for the state Supreme Court in 2024 must be recounted and verified — a win for the Republican candidate in the razor-thin, disputed contest and a decision that could potentially tip the election results in his favor.
In the ruling, the Republican majority involved in the decision ordered that a group of more than 65,000 voters, whose eligibility was challenged by Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin and his lawyers, now have 15 business days to provide state elections officials with the necessary proof of identity that would verify their votes. The court ruled that any voters who don’t respond will not have their votes counted in the race between Griffin and Democrat Allison Riggs, which is still caught in legal battling five months after Election Day.
The arduous task of verifying those voter identities will fall on the North Carolina State Board of Elections. And the decision sets up an appeal to North Carolina’s highest court, the state Supreme Court — the body that the winner of this election will join.
More top vaccine regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have either left or been forced out following the resignation last week of Dr. Peter Marks, the agency’s top vaccine official, according to four former and current government officials familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Experts say the exodus of top talent at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research could hobble the agency’s ability to approve new vaccines and a wide range of other drugs — especially in the wake of the mass layoffs by the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he will extend the deadline for TikTok to find a U.S. buyer or face a ban, giving the China-based owner ByteDance an additional 75 days to reach a deal.
“My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days.”
Trump previously delayed the app’s ban via executive order on his first day in office, effectively giving ByteDance until April 5 — Saturday — to comply with the law.
A group of 16 state attorneys general are suing the Trump administration over disruptions to grant funding for research from the National Institutes of Health.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts on Friday, says that the Trump administration has “engaged in a concerted, and multi-pronged effort to disrupt NIH’s grants” through “across-the-board delays” in reviewing pending grant approvals and “widespread terminations of already-issued grants.”
The slowdown in grant approvals has left researchers across the country uncertain if they would receive funding. It has prompted layoffs and furloughs and disrupted ongoing studies.
Those effects have trickled down to students. The lawsuit says that UMass Amherst has had to reduce its graduate admissions by nearly 30% and rescind financial awards to graduate students as a result of the funding disruptions.
The university has had four grants terminated. But 353 applications for NIH funding remain waiting for review, representing about $848 million in potential funding.
The lawsuit is the second this week taking aim against NIH grant disruptions.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the NIH has conducted an “ongoing ideological purge of critical research projects.”
Neither the National Institutes of Health nor the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services immediately responded to a request for comment.
Aside from climate change and pollution, penguins are now facing one more threat from humanity: Trump’s tariffs.
Trump on Wednesday announced expansive tariffs on more than 180 countries and regions to retaliate against what he characterized as unfair trade practices by other countries.
While Vladimir Putin’s Russia was left out of the long list, Trump slapped 10% tariffs on Heard Island and McDonald Islands, a mostly barren, tiny outpost largely populated by penguins.
The departments of Justice and Education are launching a special investigations team to enforce compliance with Trump’s executive order aimed at banning transgender women from participating in women’s and girls sports, the departments said in a news release.
The “specialized team of investigators” from both departments is tasked with investigating Title IX violations in schools, it said. Title IX is the federal civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
Trump has signed an executive order aimed at barring transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports and instructed his administration to define noncompliance as a Title IX violation.
“This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women’s sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women’s civil rights,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the release.
The Trump administration has begun withholding federal grant money to higher education institutions that it alleges have not complied with the transgender athlete order. Last month, Trump paused $175 million in grant funding to the University of Pennsylvania, alleging the Ivy League university’s policies are “forcing women to compete with men in sports.”
Senate Republicans managed to proceed to debate their massive budget plan last night, but not before an unexpected delay caused by some of their own who have concerns about their strategy on tax cuts and potential cuts to Medicaid.
The delay occurred as those Republicans met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to talk through their concerns. Some more centrist senators are worried about a budget change the party is using to slap a zero-dollar price tag on extending Trump’s tax cuts, which are estimated by the official scorekeeper in Congress to cost $4.6 trillion over a decade.
Reporting from Washington
Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, compared the use of an obstruction of an official proceeding charge against Jan. 6 defendants to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, according to an email obtained by NBC News.
Martin, a “stop the steal” organizer and advocate for Jan. 6 defendants who lacked any prosecutorial experience when Trump named him D.C.’s chief federal prosecutor on an interim basis, has also been nominated to take over the position on a permanent basis. In an email this morning, he said the “special project” he launched into the use of an obstruction statute against Jan. 6 defendants was broadening.
“The 1512 Project is expanded [sic] in scope,” Martin wrote. “We continue to look at exactly how and why so many Jan 6th cases were charged using 1512 which led to the dramatic failure before the Supreme Court. We have contacted lawyers, staff and judges about this — and sought their feedback. One called the bi-partisan rejection of the 1512 charge the ‘greatest failure of legal judgement since FDR and his Attorney General put American citizens of Japanese descent in prison camps — and seized their property.’ I agree and that’s why we continue to look at who ordered the 1512 and why. A lot to do.”
The reference to the internment of Japanese Americans and the Korematsu v. United States case was “grotesque,” one former Jan. 6 prosecutor told NBC News.
“That he would compare the internment of thousands of Americans solely based on their ethnicity to the targeted arrest of individuals who committed crimes on video is sickening,” the former Jan. 6 prosecutor said.
The internment of Japanese Americans was the last time that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was used until this year, when it was invoked by the Trump administration to justify the deportation of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members to El Salvador. That case is currently making its way through the court system.
Martin also wrote that they have “been asked to look into leaks that took place during January 6th prosecutions,” and claimed that “leaks of evidence, tactics, and other aspects of the effort damaged the parties, witnesses, and LEOs and all of this was used by the media and partisans as misinformation.”
“It was bad all around. (One participant said she believed the media was in a frenzy for attention like during the OJ Simpson trial.),” he wrote.
Martin represented several Jan. 6 defendants and was on the grounds of the Capitol on Jan. 6. The day before the attack, he gave a speech in front of the Capitol saying that “die-hard true Americans” would fight until their “last breath” to “stop the steal.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking California’s long-standing trading partners to exclude his state’s products from their retaliatory measures they they react to Trump’s sweeping new tariffs by hiking their own.
“California is not Washington, D.C.,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in an announcement on his request.
“California leads the nation as the #1 state for agriculture and manufacturing — and it’s our workers, families, and farmers who stand to lose the most from this Trump tax hike and trade war,” Newsom said in the release. “To our international partners: As the fifth largest economy in the world, the Golden State will remain a steady, reliable partner for generations to come, no matter the turbulence coming out of Washington.”
Newsom argued Trump’s imposition of high tariffs will ultimately lead to higher priced products, meaning consumers will be forced to foot the bill.
The major U.S. stock indexes dropped sharply just minutes into trading today as Trump’s historic tariffs announcement — and fresh retaliatory duties imposed by China — sent further shock waves through the global economy.
The S&P 500 fell more than 3%, deepening a decline that began in February. The index, which tracks 500 of the leading U.S. companies, is now down almost 15% from its peak.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin announced today the launch of the “People’s Cabinet,” a new initiative bringing together policy experts, lawmakers and other leaders to offer counterarguments to the Trump administration’s agenda.
The initiative plans to give briefings to the press and coalition partners, speak with Americans across the country at town halls, produce digital content and engage in rapid response “to counter the lies and disinformation from the Trump administration,” according to a news release.
“Trump has stacked his Cabinet with out-of-touch billionaires and know-nothing loyalists who are wreaking havoc on the lives of working people across this country,” Martin said in the release. “The People’s Cabinet is made up of experts, leaders, and everyday Americans from across the country who will equip communities with the reliable, accurate information they need to fight back against the worst of the Trump and Republican agenda.”
The DNC will announce additional members and programming for the People’s Cabinet in the coming weeks.
Some Republicans are expressing reservations about Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs, including Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, who warned that keeping high tariffs in place for an extended period would not be good economic policy. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for “TODAY.”
The Senate is expected to hold an unlimited “vote-a-rama” on the Republican budget resolution, in which lawmakers from both parties spend hours offering amendments to the measure.
Democrats will use the opportunity to force votes on amendments aimed at attacking Trump’s and the larger Republican agenda. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last night that Democrats’ speeches and amendments will focus on six themes: Medicaid cuts, “tax breaks for billionaires,” tariffs, veterans, national security and “the unprecedented corruption Donald Trump has unleashed on our government.”
“The Republican bill that now sits before the Senate is poison,” Schumer said about the budget resolution. “Democrats will expose the dark corners of the Republicans’ plan. We’ll explain the devastating consequences and highlight the many injustices the Republicans will inflict on people’s health, on their financial security, on their children’s future, and in fact, on the very dream, the very future of the American dream itself.”
The Senate voted yesterday to begin debate on the budget blueprint for a multitrillion-dollar spending package to implement Trump’s agenda. The measure proposes a steep tax cut and a spending increase for immigration enforcement and defense, alongside unspecified spending cuts and a $5 trillion debt limit increase. It would likely significantly increase the budget deficit.
The resolution is nonbinding, but it would instruct certain committees to craft a bill that reflects the blueprint and could eventually become law.
Trump said he backs an effort to allow remote voting by House lawmakers who are new parents, directly inserting himself into a Republican dispute that brought legislative business to a halt this week.
The push for remote voting is being led in part by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who has clashed with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., over his opposition to the measure.
The Trump administration abruptly fired the top two officials at the National Security Agency yesterday. It comes after the White House also fired at least three National Security Council officials after a meeting between Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer, who pushed for their firings, telling the president that the officials were disloyal. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for “TODAY.”
Investors plowed into government bonds in anticipation of global growth slowing dramatically in response to China slapping tariffs on imports from the U.S.
Yields on bonds fell to 3.90%, the lowest level since before election day. When traders anticipate reduced growth, they demand so-called safe-haven assets like bonds that pay fixed income. When demand for bonds increases, their prices rise and yields fall.
The lower yields also coincide with increased bets that the Federal Reserve will be forced to cut interest rates to soften the blow from reduced economic activity.
While Trump has sought both lower bond yields — which influence other borrowing rates in the economy, like mortgage rates — and lower interest rates from the Fed, it may end coming at a high cost.
China is “trying to replicate” USAID programs in Africa as the Trump administration dismantles the agency, the commander of the U.S. Africa Command told lawmakers.
Massive cuts to USAID, which administers civilian foreign aid, have jeopardized programs such as Pepfar, an anti-HIV/AIDS initiative that has been credited with saving more than 26 million lives globally — mostly in Africa, where Chinese influence has been growing.
“There’s a number of programs that we see that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to replicate,” Gen. Michael E. Langley told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
Though Langley declined to comment on Trump administration policy, he said of the USAID programs, “Those capabilities are needed for the U.S. to maintain a strategic advantage over the Chinese Communist Party, because we do it best.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio today defended Trump’s tariffs and said that the U.S. will know soon whether Russia is serious about reaching a peace deal with Ukraine.
“We need to get back to a time when we were a country that can make things. And to do that we have to reset the global order of trade,” Rubio told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where he was attending a meeting with foreign ministers. “We have to be able to make things to provide jobs for Americans.”
“The president rightly has concluded that the current status of global trade is bad for America and good for a bunch of other people,” he added. “And he’s going to reset it, and he’s absolutely right to do it.”
On talks on a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, Rubio expressed hope that peace is possible, saying Trump wants to end the war but Russian President Vladimir Putin would need to show he wants peace as well.
“We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not,” Rubio said. “I hope they are. It would be good for the world if that war ended, but obviously we have to test that proposition.”
The federal government will release the latest monthly jobs report today — but in the wake of Trump’s shock announcement Wednesday seeking to disrupt the global economy with broad tariffs on U.S. imports, the new labor market data for March will essentially end up reflecting a different era.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the survey at 8:30 a.m. ET. Estimates from Dow Jones showed forecasts for about 140,000 net new payrolls, compared with 151,000 previously, with the unemployment rate unchanged for the month at 4.1%.
Trump expressed public support for Marine Le Pen, a far-right French politician who was convicted of embezzlement earlier this week and sentenced to four years in prison.
The conviction also means a five-year ban from public office for Le Pen, who was seen as a front-runner in the 2027 French presidential election and whose anti-immigration and other policies have drawn comparisons to Trump.
“The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going so far as to put that Opponent in prison,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “It is the same ‘playbook’ that was used against me.”
“FREE MARINE LE PEN!” he added.
Economic fallout is growing after stocks plummeted yesterday in response to Trump’s sweeping new reciprocal tariff plan. JP Morgan is now predicting a 60% chance of a global recession if the tariffs continue. NBC’s Christine Romans reports for “TODAY.”
The ripple effects of Trump’s new wave of sweeping tariffs announced this week will be felt the most by lower-income Americans, who are heavily reliant on products from countries hit the hardest by Trump’s tariffs and have less disposable income to absorb higher prices.
Trump is placing some of his highest tariffs on goods coming from countries making the low-cost products that line the shelves of discount retailers. Products from Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, for instance, will have a more than 40% tariff — that is, now importers will need to pay 40% of the value of those goods to Customs and Border Protection at ports of entry to get them into the country. Goods from China will have a total of more than 70% worth of additional tariffs.
