US President Donald Trump said Thursday he is open to extending the April 5 deadline for TikTok’s sale in the country if necessary. Speaking at the White House, Trump noted “a lot of interest” in the deal but stated that an extension is not currently required. “We have a lot of interest in TikTok. And China is going to play a role, so hopefully China will approve of the deal, but they are going to play a role,” he said, without specifying potential buyers. A bipartisan law had initially set a Jan. 19 deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations, but Trump granted a 75-day extension, running until April 5. He has also expressed support for brokering a sale and suggested the US government should receive a 50% stake in the video-sharing platform. It remains unclear if further extensions are legally possible. [Bloomberg]
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says 83% of USAID programs canceled – KYMA
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83% of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs have been canceled, according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In a social media post Monday, Secretary Rubio said after a six-week review, 5,200 contracts have been canceled, and the programs “did not serve, and in some cases, even harmed” the national interests of the United States.
Rubio went on to say the remaining 18%, or about 1,000 contracts, will “now be administered more effectively under the State Department.”
However, Rubio did not provide details about which programs had been cut, and which will remain in place.
He also thanked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his staff for the “overdue” reforms.
Rubio Keeping 1,000 USAID Programs, Slashing 5,200 Contracts– legalinsurrection.com
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the department will only keep 1,000 USAID programs and canceling 5,200 contracts.
Rubio wrote on X:
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department.
Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform.
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
Justice Alito’s USAID dissent is a map for Trump – Salon
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In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court disparaged Trump’s claim that presidents can do whatever they want, by ordering the administration to disburse $2 billion in USAID grants in compliance with lower court rulings. Although the narrow ruling has been widely applauded as at least a temporary victory for the rule of law, the victory is overshadowed by ominous signaling in the dissent.
In response to a one-paragraph ruling, Justices Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch wrote lengthy and strident dissents. Of the four justices, at least two are ethically compromised by their refusals to recuse from cases involving their own billionaire benefactors. Justices Alito and Thomas have also faced credible impeachment demands following their partisan embrace of Trump’s MAGA ethos.
They did not just dissent in the USAID ruling, they dissembled. They lied about both the court record and the district judge, and they drew a map to show Trump how to frustrate the case going forward.
The majority protected the legislature’s role
The Court’s 5-4 majority opinion, in which Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices to narrowly protect Congress’ power of the purse, holding that under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, since Congress had already appropriated the USAID and it was already signed into law, Trump could not legally freeze it. In other words, a president does not have the power to break, disregard or rewrite laws just because he disagrees with them.