Axios

President Trump announced on Wednesday that he is once again designating the Houthi rebels in Yemen as a terrorist organization.

Why it matters: Trump's decision reverses a decision by then-President Biden in 2021 to remove the terrorist designation from the Houthis.

The Defense Department announced Wednesday it's sending an additional 1,500 troops to the southern border to carry out President Trump's immigration orders.

The big picture: Soon after being sworn in, Trump signed executive orders declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and calling for more barriers as part of an crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

HHS Secretary designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned $326,000 from the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense and a $100,000 licensing fee for use of the Make America Healthy Again brand, according to financial disclosure forms posted by the Office of Government Ethics.

Why it matters: The forms offer a detailed picture into Kennedy's extensive financial holdings and how he'd resolve potential conflicts of interest if he's confirmed.

The House on Wednesday passed the Laken Riley Act, sending the immigration bill to President Trump's desk for his signature.

Why it matters: The measure, which would require the detention of undocumented immigrants arrested for some crimes, is poised to be the first bill Trump signs into law during his second term.

President Trump's flurry of orders restricting immigration and promising mass deportations violate core Christian principles of caring for the poor and needy, religious leaders in multiple denominations said.

The big picture: Many of the policies championed by Trump during his campaign have roots in Christian nationalism that several churches reject.

The White House has requested that the three Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) resign by end of day Thursday or face termination, a source close to the agency confirmed.

Why it matters: The move will dismantle a key intelligence program watchdog agency, leaving it with just one member as it prepares to help lawmakers navigate a highly contentious debate over whether to keep certain government surveillance powers intact.

Elon Musk's status as the "First Buddy" to Donald Trump is complicating his ongoing rivalries with some of the biggest names in business.

Why it matters: Musk has been at war with OpenAI's Sam Altman, once vowed to fight Mark Zuckerberg and has periodically dissed Jeff Bezos.

The Trump administration is screening the loyalty of approximately 160 career civil servants assigned to the National Security Council, Axios' Ivana Saric and Marc Caputo report.

• Why it matters: The screenings are part of a larger push by President Trump to reshape the federal workforce — including staffing the administration with loyalists and making it easier to fire civil servants.

🧮 Approximately 160 civil servants on the NSC, known as "detailees," are having their employment reviewed.

"Volatile" captures the tech industry's new reality under the second Trump administration.

• With AI booming, social media splintering and crypto inflating, the giant companies that drive today's economy face a huge spike in uncertainty, Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg writes.

Even today, the unpredictability was public.

• Hours after Trump announced $500 billion AI project Stargate, DOGE head Elon Musk undermined it on X, Axios' April Rubin writes.

1. ⚖️ Every state with a Democratic attorney general has sued the Trump administration to block an executive order seeking to undermine the birthright citizenship protections guaranteed by the Constitution. Go deeper.
2. ⚡ ICE leadership has directed employees to return to calling immigrants "aliens" in all "internal and external communications," Axios' Stef Kight scoops.
3. 💸 More than 7% of buyers traded the new president's Official Trump meme coin just two days after it was released, a review of activity on a crypto tax startup found. Go deeper.

A segment on MSNBC featuring Axios chief tech correspondent Ina Fried was nominated for a GLAAD Media award today.

• In the segment, Fried reports from the Paris Olympics on the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khalif.

🥂 The GLAAD Media Awards ceremonies are scheduled for March 27 in Los Angeles. Congrats, Ina!

• Watch the segment, featured on Jonathan Capehart's weekend show on MSNBC ... Full list of nominees.

House Republicans are launching a new committee dedicated to investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and "all events leading up to and after it."

Why it matters: Republicans hope that with allies soon to be leading the Justice Department and FBI, they will be able to dredge up new information that muddies the narrative about the deadly assault.

News publisher Dow Jones is working to avoid hysterics and invest in trusted journalism amid rising concerns about U.S. press freedom, CEO Almar Latour told Axios' Sara Fischer during an event on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Why it matters: The Wall Street Journal's parent company is quite familiar with press freedom issues after reporter Evan Gershkovich spent 16 months behind bars in Russia, and as it campaigns for other imprisoned journalists.

President Trump understands fundamentally how tariffs work, but doesn't believe the argument they'll cause higher prices for U.S. consumers, his former chief economic advisor Gary Cohn tells Axios' Dan Primack in Davos.

Why it matters: Trump has threatened tariffs, as recently as this week, against key U.S. trade partners including China, Canada and Russia.

Police departments across the country are pushing back against President Trump's hardline immigration policies, saying they won't take part in the administration's deportation raids.

Why it matters: Just days into the new administration, Trump's campaign pledge to oversee mass deportations of immigrants is taking shape, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids expected.

The Trump administration is screening the loyalty of approximately 160 career civil servants assigned to the National Security Council.

Why it matters: The screenings are part of a larger push by President Trump to reshape the federal workforce that includes staffing the administration with loyalists and making it easier to fire civil servants.

Hours after President Trump announced a major artificial intelligence investment, it faced skepticism from one of his closest allies: DOGE head Elon Musk.

Why it matters: Musk publicly undermining the $500 billion project, led by OpenAI and other tech titans, could draw Trump's ire.

When Donald Trump's companies released a celebrity meme coin just ahead of the presidential inauguration, it set a new standard for instant hype in a cryptocurrency launch, based on fresh research from a blockchain tax startup.

Why it matters: The meme coin boom of 2024 was just given a nitro boost for the new year by the most powerful man in the world.

Every state with a Democratic attorney general has sued the Trump administration to block an executive order seeking to undermine the birthright citizenship protections guaranteed by the Constitution.

Why it matters: The fast, organized action marks one of the first immediate pushbacks to a project Trump championed during his campaign, which is supposed to begin within a month.

President Trump threatened on Wednesday to levy fresh tariffs on Russia if the Kremlin does not quickly agree to a deal to end its war in Ukraine.

Why it matters: Trump made ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine a key campaign pledge, but its not clear that his new threat will put significant pressure on Russia to change its negotiating posture.

Whatever sufferance President Trump may have enjoyed from congressional Democrats evaporated instantly just hours after his inauguration when he pardoned most Jan. 6 defendants.

Why it matters: Even moderate Democrats who had hoped against hope that they could work with the self-styled dealmaker say the move bodes poorly.

Pinterest's move to support cellphone-free schools is a "bold step," but the social media industry still needs a shift in incentives, tech ethicist Tristan Harris told Axios during an event on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Why it matters: A former design ethicist at Google, Harris founded a nonprofit, the Center for Humane Technology, to call attention to harms caused by social media and AI and identify and advocate for solutions.

President Trump is inheriting an economy that is simultaneously robust and fragile. It's evident in his economic advisers' increasingly vivid warnings of fiscal unsustainability.

Why it matters: The unemployment rate is low, GDP growth is strong and inflation is falling. But those results have been achieved amid high fiscal deficits, the likes of which have only been seen in times of war, pandemic or economic crisis.

President Trump issued a sweeping executive order Tuesday night revoking decades of diversity and affirmative action practices in federal government.

Why it matters: This takes the current anti-DEI activism on diversity, equity and inclusion to a new level — abolishing decades of government standards on diversity and equal opportunity, and seeking to crack down on the same in the private sector.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership has directed employees to refer to foreign nationals as "aliens" in all "internal and external communications," according to an internal memo obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The early Trump move is both in line with anti-DEI and hardline immigration rhetoric.

The House subcommittee overseeing President Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is stacked with some of the most outspoken and ideological lawmakers in both parties, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The House Oversight Committee faced a similar dynamic two years ago, predictably leading to some of the 118th Congress' flashiest, most attention-grabbing hearings.

This chart ☝️ helps explain why President Trump's anti-wind executive order could have limited effects for onshore projects. But offshore, there's far more jeopardy.

Why it matters: Wind is the largest U.S. source of renewable power and provides 10% of the nation's electricity, but growth has slowed in recent years.

President Trump on Tuesday ordered key federal health agencies to pause all external communications, multiple outlets reported and Axios confirmed.

Why it matters: The health agencies' website updates, advisories, and scientific reports provide the public with critical information on a variety of medical issues, including food recalls, infectious diseases and new drug approvals.

A deal will get done to ensure that TikTok remains available in the U.S., General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford told Axios during an event on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Why it matters: General Atlantic is a major investor in TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Ford is on ByteDance's board of directors.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins defended DEI initiatives at the company during an Axios interview on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland.

Why it matters: Robbins also serves as chair of the Business Roundtable, one of America's most powerful corporate trade organizations.

Over just eight hours on Inauguration Day, Presidents Trump and Biden forever stretched the immense public and private power of the presidency to once-unimaginable dimensions:

• Presidents can preemptively pardon family and friends in case of any accusation of grift or crimes.
• Presidents can pardon violent criminals convicted of sedition and violence in defense of their politics.

Republicans from swing states and districts are ducking questions about their openness to cutting Medicaid in order to help pay for an extension of President Trump's tax cuts.

Why it matters: Republican leadership can lose only a handful of votes, making cuts to the safety net program a high-stakes loyalty test that could deliver an early legislative win but result in millions of people losing their health coverage.

President Trump's decision to start withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization puts global health programs in a serious financial squeeze just as disease threats are multiplying.

Why it matters: Trump's reluctance to pay the freight for the global health partnership could come back to bite him if surveillance efforts break down and a regional outbreak turns into another pandemic.

President Trump's sweeping pardons for 1,500 Jan. 6 criminals and defendants were a last-minute, rip-the-bandage-off decision to try to move past the issue quickly, White House advisers familiar with the Trump team's discussions tell Axios.

Why it matters: Trump's move to "go big" on the pardons sheds light on his unpredictable decision-making process, and shows his determination to fulfill a campaign promise to his MAGA base — regardless of political fallout.

"Volatile" is the one word that describes the tech industry's new reality under the second Trump administration.

Why it matters: With AI booming, social media splintering and crypto inflating, the giant companies that drive today's economy face a huge spike in uncertainty.

The Trump administration is directing agencies to move to close federal diversity, equity and inclusion offices and place DEI staff on paid leave by 5pm Wednesday ET ahead of being laid off.

The big picture: The memorandum that the Office of Personnel Management sent to federal agencies on Tuesday follows President Trump's signing of an executive order a day earlier to dismantle DEI initiatives within the federal government.

The top Democrat on the DOGE subcommittee is ready to "fight back" against any attempts to dismantle federal agencies and programs like Social Security and Medicare, she told Axios on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), a former OMB staffer, is very skeptical that DOGE will live up to its public billing.

President Trump's near-total pardon of Jan. 6 rioters was denounced by the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the U.S., and the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Tuesday.

The big picture: The groups said they're deeply discouraged by pardons and commutations made by both the Biden and Trump administrations of individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers.

President Trump on Tuesday announced he signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the unlawful Silk Road marketplace who was convicted of drug trafficking charges.

The big picture: Trump vowed on the campaign trail to commute Ulbricht's sentence as he sought backing to be the Republican Party's presidential nominee from Libertarians, who view the Silk Road founder as a hero.

Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) is new to the Senate — but is already seen as a decisive swing vote for Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to keep an eye on.

Why it matters: Curtis does not think he fits neatly into the Utah senator categories of Mitt Romney or Mike Lee. He plans to do his thing and acknowledges his vote isn't one to be taken for granted.

Senate Democrats from Trump states are starting to vote in tandem, which could make Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) life more complicated for the next two years.

Why it matters: Call it the buddy system for vulnerable Dems. If Senate GOP leader John Thune (R-S.D.) can flip a Democrat who's up for election in 2026, he increases his chance of picking up the other state's Dem senator.

President Trump pushed his top two leaders to play outside the lines in Tuesday's White House meetings.

Why it matters: Trump hasn't shown much interest in resolving the GOP's big internal fight over reconciliation strategy. But he's showing a high level of interest in how to gain leverage over the Democrats.