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President Donald Trump revealed his intentions to reshape the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order Thursday that targets funding to programs with “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”

Trump said there has been a “concerted and widespread” effort over the past decade to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

He signed an executive order putting Vice President JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo.

Read the full story here.

 A U.S. judge in Washington state has blocked enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order banning transgender people from serving in the military — the second nationwide injunction against the policy in as many weeks.

The order Thursday day from U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma came in a case brought by several long-serving transgender military members who say the ban is insulting and discriminatory, and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., similarly issued an order blocking the policy last week but then put her own ruling temporarily on hold. Following further legal briefing, she declined to dissolve that injunction, which is now set to take effect Friday.

In a more limited ruling on Monday, a judge in New Jersey barred the Air Force from removing two transgender men, saying they showed their separation would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could repair.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing a key part of Trump’s executive order aimed at curbing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts among federal contractors and grant recipients.

Judge Matthew Kennelly issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Labor Department from requiring federal contractors or grant recipients from certifying that they don’t operate any DEI programs that violate the country’s anti-discrimination laws.

Kennelly’s declined to extend the temporary restraining order to other federal agencies.

The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by Chicago Women in Trades, a non-profit with several contracts with the Department of Labor.

Trump signed an executive order today establishing a task force comprising key government agencies that will work to increase law enforcement presence in Washington, D.C., and "restore and beautify" federal buildings and monuments in the city.

The task force is directed to surge law enforcement in public areas and strictly enforce laws regarding drug use, vandalism and unpermitted demonstrations; maximize immigration enforcement to apprehend and deport immigrants in the country illegally; expedite concealed carry licenses for citizens and crack down on fare evasion on the D.C. metro.

Trump's order also authorizes the creation of a program to "restore and beautify" federal buildings, monuments, statues, memorials, parks, and roadways, remove graffiti from commonly visited areas, and ensure the cleanliness of public spaces and parks.

This creation of the task force comes as Trump and congressional Republicans have more aggressively scrutinized the performance of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat. Trump last month directed Bowser to clear homeless encampments near federal buildings.

The Department of Education started an investigation today into a new California law that bars public schools from disclosing to parents the sexual orientation of their children.

If the three-month-old law were to be found in violation of federal rules and the Trump administration acted on threats to withhold funding, the state could lose up to $7.9 billion, California Department of Education officials said.

The investigation is the latest move by the Trump administration to address gender identity and sexual orientation in schools and beyond. In January, Trump signed an executive order saying the U.S. would recognize only two sexes, male and female.

At issue is California Assembly Bill 1955, which prohibits schools and their staffs from disclosing a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

President Donald Trump’s executive orders restricting and repealing diversity, equity and inclusion policies bring a rash of uncertainties about what lies ahead for women and other minority groups in the workforce.

These changes create a particularly fraught environment for women in skilled trades — occupations such as construction, welding and carpentry.

Skilled trades offer competitive salaries and benefits, especially so for those without a college education, but they have some of the smallest shares of female workers among all occupations in the U.S., according to a government survey. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which compiled data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, also reported that in 2023, women comprised 4.3% of workers in construction and extraction occupations, which include construction laborers, carpenters and electricians.

Kina McAfee, who has been involved in the skilled trades for 40 years, said she has seen discrimination persist across the trades. Harassment is common, she said, and at smaller worksites, a tradeswoman will often find herself the sole female worker.

Read the full CNBC story here

As part of a push to undo dozens of environmental regulations, the Trump administration set up an electronic mailbox and asked coal-fired power plants and other industrial polluters to send an email by Monday, seeking a presidential exemption to bypass Biden-era rules requiring them to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.

The Clean Air Act enables the president to temporarily exempt industrial sites in the interest of national security or if necessary technology isn’t widely available. Environmentalists denounced the email address as a “polluters’ portal” that could allow hundreds of companies to evade laws meant to protect the environment and public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s offer was first reported by The New York Times.

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A federal judge today ordered Trump administration agencies involved in a group chat on an attack on Yemen to “preserve all Signal communications between March 11 and March 15.” 

 U.S. District Judge James Boasberg directed the government to provide him a status report by Monday laying out what steps they've taken to preserve the records.

The judge issued the order after the watchdog group American Oversight filed suit to make sure the records are preserved. The judge noted the group is not seeking the messages, many of which were disclosed after a reporter for the Atlantic was included in the group chat.

“The plaintiff here is not asking me to require the government to disclose the Signal communications,” Boasberg said. “Disclosure is not part of the suit.”

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Trump expressed frustration with national security adviser Michael Waltz in his conversations with people today about his decision to withdraw Stefanik’s nomination to be the United Nations ambassador, according to two GOP sources with knowledge of the conversations.

Trump’s frustration is two-fold, the sources said. First, the president is angry that Waltz fumbled the Signal group chat and created a multi-day controversy for the White House. But secondly, Trump is annoyed that the race to replace Waltz’s seat in Florida is shaping up to be tighter than it should be for Republicans — an opportunity that only opened up because Trump selected Waltz for the national security job.

Even though GOP leaders are confident the Republican candidate in that special election race, Randy Fine, will pull off a win, Trump is still worried that the optics are fueling a negative narrative and making Republicans look bad, the sources said. Trump is doing a tele-town hall for both Republican special election candidates tonight. 

Democratic senators said in a Thursday hearing that the Trump administration is undermining its own goal of addressing antisemitism on college campuses by firing the federal staffers who investigate civil rights issues in schools.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has opened dozens of investigations into colleges as part of an effort to wipe out antisemitism at universities. It also took the unprecedented step of canceling $400 million in research funding for Columbia University on the grounds that it had not done enough to combat discrimination against Jewish students. The school agreed to change some of its policies following that move.

At the same time, however, the Department of Education terminated half the staff in its Office for Civil Rights, the congressionally mandated arm of the agency that investigates failures by schools to address discrimination. As of mid-January, the office had 12,000 open investigations but recently stopped updating its list of pending cases.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said slashing staff at the Office for Civil Rights while trying to crack down on discrimination is like axing the fire department while trying to fight fires. 

Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill into law Wednesday that will phase out the state's universal vote-by-mail system.

Under the new law, registered voters will have to opt in to receive a mail ballot instead of automatically receiving one, starting in 2029. Voting rights advocates said it marks the first time a state has rolled back a universal mail-in voting policy.

Utah is one of eight states with a universal mail ballot system, and the only one of the group that is solidly Republican.

Read the full story here on NBCNews.com.

Justice Department leadership is proposing combining the two agencies responsible for enforcing drug and gun laws as part of a dramatic restructuring of the department, according to a memo reviewed by The Associated Press.

The memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche seeks feedback on a reorganization plan that would combine the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into a single agency “to achieve efficiencies in resources, case deconfliction, and regulatory efforts.”

It’s part of a broader push by the Trump administration to shrink and reshape the federal government that has already led to a slew of legal challenges. President Donald Trump has directed agencies to develop plans for eliminating employee positions and consolidating programs.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he was pulling the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, citing concerns about the House's slim margin to enact his legislative agenda.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Stefanik "will stay in Congress," months after he announced his intent to appoint her to the position in his administration.

"I have asked Elise, as one of my biggest Allies, to remain in Congress to help me deliver Historic Tax Cuts, GREAT Jobs, Record Economic Growth, a Secure Border, Energy Dominance, Peace Through Strength, and much more, so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat. The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day."

"There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations," the president continued. "Therefore, Elise will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People. Speaker Johnson is thrilled!"

Just 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, in Nuuk, the world’s northernmost capital, locals were preparing to receive U.S. Vice President JD Vance with what they were calling the “Arctic cold shoulder,” a nod to the diplomatic fallout sparked by President Donald Trump’s repeated suggestions that the U.S. should take over Greenland. 

“We have always looked at America like the nice big brother to help you out and now it’s like the big brother in bullying you,” Anders Laursen, 41, the owner of a local water taxi company, told NBC News on Thursday.

"Growing up you see Hollywood movies, all the heroes and then you feel backstabbed and you feel like an ally that’s just gone the other way round and you’re like, ‘This can’t be happening, this is not the America we knew,’” added Laursen. 

Read the full story here on NBCNews.com.

Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the two Democratic Federal Trade Commissioners fired from their posts by Trump earlier this month, filed a joint lawsuit challenging the administration over the legality of their firings.

Bedoya and Slaughter argue in the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today, that their dismissals without cause violate a nearly 90-year old Supreme Court precedent that insulates commissioners at the FTC and other regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, from being fired for political reasons. 

“We make rules that require tech companies to protect children’s privacy online. We promote competition in the pharmaceutical industry to drive prices down,” Slaughter said in a statement this afternoon. “And we can do all of this because the FTC can’t be bought with campaign contributions or bullied by politicians.” 

Bedoya added that “if the President can ignore a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling to fire us with no cause, it won’t just shatter norms. It’ll ripple through the whole economy,” noting that Americans benefit from stable leadership in the regulatory institutions that are designed to protect their financial interests. 

Under the plan announced Thursday by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would be absorbed into a new Administration for a Healthy America.

Experts told The Associated Press that eliminating SAMHSA could stall progress on overdose deaths. The agency funds distribution of naloxone, oversees methadone clinics and supports prevention efforts in all 50 states.

“There’s a reason why we have reduced overdose in this country: It’s because SAMHSA has been doing its job so well,” said Dr. Ruth Potee, who oversees seven methadone clinics in Massachusetts. “My jaw drops at this news.”

Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said millions of Americans use services supported by SAMHSA, “even if they have never heard the name of the agency.”

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President Donald Trump is preparing to pull the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, according to one congressional source and another GOP source familiar with the matter.

The move comes amid ongoing concerns about House Republicans' razor-thin majority.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said he was told by the White House Thursday that they were withdrawing Stefanik’s nomination.

This morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed the claim by other Trump administration officials that the information shared in the Signal chat that The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg seemed to be inadvertently invited to was not classified.

While talking to reporters in Manassas, Virginia, about the arrest of an alleged gang member, Bondi was asked if the Department of Justice is involved in the Signal chat controversy.

Bondi didn't answer the question, but said, "It was sensitive info — not classified — and inadvertently released. What we should be talking about is it was a very successful mission. Our world is now safer because of that mission. We’re not going to comment any further on that."

She then tried to shift the story to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Bidens. "If you want to talk about classified information, talk about what was at Hillary Clinton’s home," referring to the private email server she maintained as secretary of state that Republicans had castigated her over for years. She was never charged.

"Talk about the classified documents in Joe Biden’s garage that Hunter Biden had access to," she said, referring to the documents Joe Biden kept in his home after he served as vice president. He was never charged either.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services manages government-funded health insurance programs, monitors infectious diseases, inspects foods and hospitals, and more.

Speaking after a summit about Ukraine in Paris, Emmanuel Macron said that while Trump is asking Europeans to make greater military efforts to ensure their own security, “this is not the time to be imposing tariffs on us.”

“It’s not coherent,” Macron said. “Imposing tariffs means breaking value chains, creating inflation in the short term and destroying jobs. It’s not good for the American economy, nor for the European, Canadian or Mexican economies.”

Macron insisted he would find it quite paradoxical if the U.S. imposes more taxes on their main allies. Europeans would retaliate to protect themselves, with the goal of trying “to dismantle all these tariffs.”

Trump is reiterating his desire for the U.S. to acquire Greenland ahead of a high-profile trip by Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, who arrive tomorrow. It originally was supposed to be a cultural visit for the second lady, but now the trip has a sharper focus on national security.

NBC’s Molly Hunter reports for "TODAY" from Nuuk.

The Department of Government Efficiency website's lease termination listings for as many as eight Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offices is raising questions from Congress about whether the terminations flouted standard protocol.

A group of House Democrats sent a letter yesterday to acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, whom Trump renominated for another five-year term this week, urging the agency to “reverse course on any plan to terminate leases at EEOC’s field offices.”

The letter also says the lease terminations are “deeply concerning” because the independent agency is without a quorum to approve any changes. Trump fired two Democratic commissioners in January, leaving the anti-discrimination watchdog agency with just two remaining commissioners.

“The Commission must approve changes to the boundaries of field offices by vote," the lawmakers wrote. "As you are aware, the Commission lacks a quorum and cannot approve such changes unilaterally.”

The agency's five-person commission must approve changes to "jurisdictional boundaries of any EEOC field activity," according to a 2006 EEOC memo obtained by NBC News. "No jurisdictional boundaries can be established or changed, even temporarily, without Commission approval," the memo says.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this morning that it is cutting 10,000 more employees as part of its latest restructure.

Combined with other cuts, HHS is being reduced from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000.

Twenty-eight divisions are being consolidated into 15 and regional divisions will go down from 10 to five.

"We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. asserted in a written statement. “This Department will do more -- a lot more -- at a lower cost to the taxpayer." 

The cuts will save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually as part of a "dramatic restructuring" that will "streamline the functions" of HHS, the department said. The statement was not clear on what services will be directly impacted.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is holding a hearing this morning to address antisemitic attacks and harassment against Jewish students on college campuses.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the committee, introduced legislation in January that would penalize colleges that do not adequately combat discrimination due to heritage and better teach students how to report alleged civil rights violations.

The hearing comes as the Trump administration aggressively targets alleged incidents of antisemitism at schools, using them in part to justify the deportation of several foreign students who participated last year in pro-Palestinian protests.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon this month threatened 60 colleges with “potential enforcement actions” if they failed to protect the Jewish students on their respective campuses.

Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders this afternoon in the Oval Office, according to the White House.

The new directives from Trump come after he signed orders this week to place new tariffs on U.S. automobile imports and implement new guidelines on federal elections. While announcing the auto tariffs at the White House yesterday, Trump told reporters he planned to implement additional tariffs over the next week.

“We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back,” Trump said, adding “we will be putting a tariff on lumber.”

This evening, Trump will participate in an Iftar dinner at the White House to commemorate the Muslim month of Ramadan. The event is scheduled to take place in the State Dining Room.

Former senior national security officials and Democratic lawmakers rejected on Wednesday the Trump administration’s continued assertion that detailed U.S. airstrike plans inadvertently shared with a journalist were not classified.

They cited The Atlantic's publication of a full transcript of the Signal text exchange where the administration's top national security officials discussed planned U.S. airstrikes in Yemen.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the magazine, shared the precise timing of planned fighter jet and drone launches, when bombs would hit their targets and disclosed a U.S. attempt to kill a "target terrorist." Hegseth, though, did not include specific targeting locations for the strikes in Yemen.

But four former national security and intelligence officials who handled legal matters told NBC News that information about an upcoming military attack on an adversary — including types of weapons and the timing of airstrikes — is considered classified.

Read the full NBC News article here.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's auto tariffs are a “direct attack” on his country and that the trade war is hurting Americans, noting that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low.

Trump said earlier Wednesday that he was placing 25% tariffs on auto imports and, to underscore his intention, he stated, “This is permanent.”

“This is a very direct attack,” Carney responded. “We will defend our workers. We will defend our companies. We will defend our country.”

Carney said he needs to see the details of Trump's executive order before taking retaliatory measures. He called it unjustified and said he will leave the election campaign to go to Ottawa on Thursday to chair his special Cabinet committee on U.S. relations.

Carney earlier announced a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.

Trump is threatening "far larger" tariffs if EU and Canada unite to do "economic harm" to the U.S.

"If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!," Trump posted on the social media platform Truth Social on Thursday.

The United Auto Workers praised the 25% tariff Trump announced for automobile imports today, saying in a statement that it could lead to more blue-collar jobs, spur investment in domestic manufacturing and correct trade agreements it characterized as "allowing automakers to offshore U.S. jobs and drive a race to the bottom."

“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working class communities for decades. Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement also calling for stronger rights for all autoworkers.

“These tariffs are a major step in the right direction for autoworkers and blue-collar communities across the country, and it is now on the automakers, from the Big Three to Volkswagen and beyond, to bring back good union jobs to the U.S,” Fain added.

The praise for Trump marks a shift in tone for a union that emerged as one of his loudest critics last year, when it ultimately decided to endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Canadian and European leaders are slamming Trump's announcement today of 25% tariffs on all automobiles made outside the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at a news conference that the move was a "direct attack" on Canadian workers. He said he is awaiting further details to assess the full impact the tariffs will have on the Canadian economy, but he called them "entirely unjustified."

"This will hurt us, but through this period, by being together, we will emerge stronger," Carney said, adding that he is considering additional retaliatory tariffs and that a conversation with Trump would be "appropriate."

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said the tariffs will "do nothing more than increase costs for hard-working American families."