Tracking Trump: Zelensky friction, the power grab and IVF access
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President Trump announces reciprocal tariffs on Feb. 13, 2025, in the Oval Office. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/ AFP via Getty Images
President Trump has unleashed a torrent of policy changes and executive actions, rapidly reshaping the political landscape.
- Here's our recap of key developments the past week.
Trump and Zelensky tension escalates
By all evidence, Trump was putting it mildly when he said Friday at a White House meeting with U.S. governors that he's "had not such good talks with Ukraine."
- Trump falsely suggested Ukraine started the war with Russia on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Trump called President Volodymyr Zelensky "a dictator without elections," leaving the Ukraine leader out of hours-long talks with Saudi Arabia on ending the conflict with Russia.
Reality check: "Zelensky was democratically elected in a fair and free election," Axios' Barak Ravid writes.
The Ukrainian president said on Wednesday Trump "lives in a disinformation space" the Kremlin created.
Trump's war of words against media
The Trump administration sent a memo on Friday closing the Pentagon briefing room to media taping, writing or recording when a briefing isn't happening.
- The memo penned by Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot is the latest administrative action restricting media access. Previously, Trump banned the Associated Press from the Oval Office over its stylebook, which still uses the Gulf of Mexico instead of his preferred Gulf of America.
- The White House Correspondents' Association condemned the decision last week as an "outrageous and a deeply disappointing escalation" restricting constitutionally protected press freedoms.
- The Associated Press filed suit over the ban Friday afternoon.
Trump asserts authority
Trump has claimed in an executive order he has direct authority over several federal agencies that have historically been independent.
- The order Trump signed Tuesday expands his control over the SEC, CFTC and FDIC, as well as the Federal Reserve's banking regulation role, but it explicitly excludes monetary policy decisions.
- The order maintains that the Office of Management and Budget director will set performance standards for independent agency heads and control budgets, including restricting spending.
- That essentially "turns the OMB director into a kind of uber-regulator, with power over agency heads across the government, including those who historically operated with little White House meddling," Axios' Neil Irwin writes.
Widening IVF access
Trump put a call out via executive order Tuesday for more ideas to reduce the costs of in vitro fertilization because, as the president put it campaigning last year, "we want more babies."
- IVF can range between $12,000 and $25,000 a cycle and is "often not fully covered by health insurance," the White House said in a fact sheet.
- About a quarter of employers offer some coverage for the procedure, per the White House.
Trump axes cop misconduct database
Trump shut down the first national database tracking misconduct among federal law enforcement officers — an idea the president initially supported after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020.
- The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database was created as part of an executive order by former President Biden, and now the site has an update atop it explaining: "User agencies can no longer query or add data to the NLEAD."
- The closure, first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, ends a defining moment of earlier Black Lives Matter demonstrations, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
Trump picks confirmed this week
Trump's Cabinet and West Wing nominees are steadily clearing Senate confirmation, solidifying this administration's leadership team.
- Howard Lutnick, the billionaire former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO, was confirmed as Commerce secretary in a 51-45 vote on Tuesday.
- The Senate confirmed MAGA ally Kash Patel as FBI director on Thursday in a 51-49 vote.
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