Month: February 2025

On Tuesday, 21 DOGE employees resigned. NPR spoke to one of them who says she felt the new administration was causing “harm to the American people.”

As Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency work to remake the federal government, some of the people tasked with executing his vision have serious concerns about what the changes will do.

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On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.

On the agenda — a deal for Ukraine to share its rich natural resources. The Trump administration wants hundreds of billions of dollars of rare earth metals and other critical minerals. Details are thin on what exactly Ukraine would get in exchange.

The meeting comes as the world marks three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as Trump promises to bring an end to the war.

But bringing an end to the war may not be so simple argues Alexander Vindman.

The Ukrainian-born Vindman was the White House staffer and active duty Army officer, who testified against Trump during his first impeachment trial in 2019.

Trump fired Vindman not long after.

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President Trump’s calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland have sparked alarm and outrage.

Denmark, which is responsible for Greenland’s security, recently announced that it would further boost its defense spending.

And a recent poll found 85 percent of Greenlanders are opposed to being part of the United States.

Parliamentary candidate Naaja Nathanielsen is one of them.

It isn’t clear whether Trump’s ambitions for Greenland will take. But some politicians in the territory are taking his calls for acquisition more seriously than ever before.

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On Friday, Donald Trump fired Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff CQ Brown, along with several other top Pentagon officials.

Now, Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, has a question for the man tapped to succeed him, Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Caine.

Quote — “will he have the ability to speak truth to power?”
Senator Reed is the top democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

The Trump administration says it wants a military built on meritocracy. Critics say it’s building one governed by political loyalty.

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President Donald Trump’s tariffs and comments about turning Canada into the 51st state have tested U.S. relations with the country. One example is the deterioration of longstanding bonds between Detroit, Michigan and its neighbor across the river, Windsor, Ontario.

NPR’s Don Gonyea is a Detroit native and current resident of the city. He’s had a front row view to changing attitudes between the two populations who have long enjoyed a very friendly, symbiotic relationship.

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“The Department of Education is a big con job.”

That’s just one of the things President Trump has said about one of the most high profile departments in federal government — a department Trump says he wants to eliminate.

Trump says he wants to save money, and kill policies he doesn’t like. Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE has already started cutting funding from the department.

The Trump administration wants the Department of Education gone. But can they get rid of it, and what could be lost in the process?

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Earlier this week, President Donald Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia.

Three years ago Russian troops poured over Ukraine’s border, and Russian missiles and drones continue to bombard Ukrainian cities.

Besides being untrue, the comments echoed a popular Kremlin talking point. And Trump’s comments signaled a seismic shift in decades of U.S. foreign policy. Supporters of Ukraine and its allies, both here and abroad, were left shaken.

NPR’s Joanna Kakissis and Greg Myre discuss Ukraine’s future as Russia-U.S. relations thaw.

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Is the United States headed toward autocracy?

That’s a question prompted by a steady stream of executive orders seeking to consolidate power in the White House and upend long held policies and norms.

New York Times Opinion writer M. Gessen lived through much of Russia’s slide into autocracy, and wrote a book about it.

They argue that one of the ways Vladimir Putin consolidated power… was by making a series of arguments that seemed outrageous at the time — like the idea that the LGBT population was a threat to Russian sovereignty.

President Donald Trump’s second term has been marked by a string of policy proposals that would have been unthinkable in any other administration.

Even if they don’t go anywhere, they’re reshaping the boundaries of our democracy.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul, along withother top officials spent much of Tuesday weighing whether to use her power to remove New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office.

It’s a power that no New York Governor has ever used before.

Adams faces growing calls to step down over allegations of corruption – and criticism that Adams’ deepening ties with the Trump administration have compromised his ability to govern independently.

The nation’s biggest city has been all but paralyzed by the legal and political problems of its Mayor. What’s next for Eric Adams, and what does the scandal tell us about the Trump Justice Department?

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An Israeli delegation is in Cairo to hash out details for the second phase of a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages – and Israel said it would free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

NPR’s Jerome Socolovsky looks into why Israel has long accepted lopsided deals to bring back abducted citizens.

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