Trump speaks at Saudi-backed occasion in Miami; IRS to fireplace over 6,000 staff in DOGE cull forward of tax season: Live

Fox News reports, citing a White House official on background, that one of the executive orders being signed by President Donald Trump this evening is designed to terminate any and all federal taxpayer benefits going to illegal migrants.

The order will direct every federal agency and department to identify all federally funded programs currently providing financial benefits to migrants in the country illegally and “take corrective action”, ensuring that any federal funds to states and localities “will not be used to support sanctuary policies or assist illegal immigration.”

Additionally, the executive order will mandate improvements in eligibility verification to prevent federal benefits from going to anyone in the US illegally.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance that updates its official definitions of terms such as sex, female, and male, following President Donald Trump’s executive orders that limit transgender rights.

The guidance reiterates the Trump administration’s stance that males and females are the only two sexes and that they cannot be changed. It was one of the first actions taken by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following his confirmation last week as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Kennedy said. “The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”

Trump aims to eliminate what he describes as the government’s endorsement of “gender ideology,” a broad term frequently used by conservative groups to refer to beliefs that advocate non-traditional perspectives on sex and gender. Rights activists perceive this term as an anti-LGBTQ trope and dehumanizing.

With reporting from Reuters

His comments were trumpeted by Russian state media, while Ukrainians of all political stripes rallied behind their president. Members of Trump’s party have barely raised a peep.

Eric Garcia reports from Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump has doubled down on his attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while speaking at a Saudi-backed investment forum in Miami.

“He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls … the only thing he was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle … a dictator without elections, Zelensky gotta move fast or he won’t have a country left.”

On Zelensky’s complaints that he was left out of talks between Russian and US leaders in Saudi Arabia, Trump claims: “He could’ve come if he wanted to.”

Here’s Andrew Feinberg’s reporting on Trump’s initial attacks on Zelensky that have outraged Ukraine’s other allies.

Trump is continuing to spread misleading claims about scores of very old Americans getting Social Security checks despite the new acting head of the agency saying that is not the case.

The president repeated false claims Wednesday about the program providing benefits to millions of people ages 110 or older.

Lee Dudek, who was named acting chief of the Social Security Administration by Trump, seemed to confirm Wednesday that confusion had arisen about people older than 100 receiving benefits because of the default settings on the agency’s database.

“The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits,” he wrote.

The layoffs targeting 6,700 probationary employees — that is, those employed for less than a year — come in the middle of tax season. That group of workers represents a little over one-third of all probationary employees.

Katie Hawkinson reports.

Here’s our earlier reporting on what the White House said two days ago:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration is looking into the possibility of returning 20 percent of the savings identified by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to the American people.

Speaking at a meeting of global financiers and technology executives hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Miami, Trump stated that he is also considering using an additional 20 percent of the savings to reduce the federal government’s debt.

The president did not say where the other 60 percent of savings would go.

Axios reports that President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Wednesday to eliminate or dramatically diminish some federal advisory committees.

The outlet reported, citing unidentified Trump administration officials, that the executive order will target organizations like the United States Institute of Peace and the Inter-American Foundation.