Trump administration announces review of Harvard
The Trump administration has announced a review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University over allegations of antisemitism.
The Task Force will review the more than $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard University, its affiliates and the Federal Government. The review also includes the more than $8.7bn in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates,” the Education Department, Department of Health and the General Services Administration said in a joint statement, Reuters reports.
Key events
The Trump administration’s announcement of a review of Harvard over allegations of antisemitism comes 10 days after another major university caved to Trump’s demands.
In a January Executive Order, Donald Trump announced his administration would be probing various universities and colleges for allegations of antisemitism.
Columbia University was the first institution targeted by the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, made up of various government agencies. To preserve federal funding, Columbia caved to many of the Trump administration’s demands, as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding.
Columbia acquiesced in a memo that laid out measures including banning face masks on campus, empowering security officers to remove or arrest individuals and taking control of the department that offers courses on the Middle East from its faculty, Reuters reported.
Harvard is the latest institution targeted by the Trump administration.
The federal government will collaborate with relevant contracting agencies to assess whether Stop Work Orders should be issued for any identified contracts. Any institution found to be in violation of federal compliance standards may face administrative actions, including contract termination,” the Departments of Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the US General Services Administration (GSA) said in a joint statement.
Trump administration announces review of Harvard
The Trump administration has announced a review of federal contracts and grants at Harvard University over allegations of antisemitism.
The Task Force will review the more than $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard University, its affiliates and the Federal Government. The review also includes the more than $8.7bn in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard University and its affiliates,” the Education Department, Department of Health and the General Services Administration said in a joint statement, Reuters reports.
Summary of the day so far
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Donald Trump refused to say whether he was planning to leave office in 2029, after an interview with NBC where he said he was not joking about the possibility of seeking a third term.
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Trump said Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” when he announces reciprocal tariffs on nearly all US trading partners. Global stock markets were a sea of red on Monday and investors fled to gold amid recession fears.
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The White House said “this case has been closed” when asked about the status of the investigation into the now-infamous Signal chat in which officials conducted a high-level military operation on the unclassified commercial app and inadvertently included a journalist.
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Attorney general Pam Bondi directed the justice department to dismiss a Biden-era lawsuit challenging a Republican-backed Georgia election law that was passed after Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.
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The US sent 17 more people accused of being gang members to El Salvador without providing their names or any other identifying information, the latest move in the Trump administration’s controversial method of deporting people to be imprisoned abroad without due process in the US.
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The US announced sanctions against six Chinese and Hong Kong officials over their role in extraterritorial enforcement of the territory’s national security law, one of the first moves by the Trump administration to punish China over its crackdown on democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
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Trump issued a full pardon to another person involved with the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and commuted the sentence of a former business associate of Hunter Biden.
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An official allied with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been put in charge of the US Institute of Peace, a congressionally created and funded thinktank targeted by Donald Trump for closure.
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The headquarters of the Republican party of New Mexico was set on fire on Sunday and “ICE=KKK” spray painted on the building in what the party called “a deliberate act of arson”.
Marina Dunbar
Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to another person involved with the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and commuted the sentence of a former business associate of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s scandal-plagued son.
Thomas Caldwell, 69, of Berryville, Virginia, has been granted a pardon for his alleged role in the Capitol attack following a series of pardons Trump has given out to those involved with or present during the events on 6 January 2021.
Caldwell, a navy veteran, stood trial earlier this year alongside leaders of the Oath Keepers militia. He was acquitted by a jury in Washington’s federal court of seditious conspiracy and two other conspiracy offenses, but was sentenced in January to time served with no probation. The US Department of Justice previously described the actions of the Oath Keepers militia as “terrorism”.
Trump has also issued a commuted sentence for Jason Galanis, who had been serving a 14-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to a multimillion-dollar scheme involving fraudulent tribal bonds. He is the second former business partner of Hunter Biden to be granted clemency.
The US has announced sanctions against six Chinese and Hong Kong officials over their role in extraterritorial enforcement of the territory’s national security law.
A statement by the state department said the six officials, which include Hong Kong’s secretary of justice and its police commissioner, “have engaged in actions or policies that threaten to further erode the autonomy of Hong Kong in contravention of China’s commitments, and in connection with acts of transnational repression”. It added:
Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence, and harass 19 pro-democracy activists who were forced to flee overseas, including a US citizen and four other US residents.
The sanctions mark one of the first moves by the Trump administration to punish China over its crackdown on democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
White House says Signal chat case ‘closed’
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt was asked about the status of the investigation into how a journalist was added into a high-level group chat about US military plans in Yemen.
“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” Leavitt told reporters.
She said that Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, “continues to be an important part of his national security team”.
“There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can, obviously, not happen again,” she added.
Donald Trump will announce plans to place reciprocal tariffs on nearly all US trading partners at a Wednesday event in the Rose Garden, the White House said.
Trump will be joined in the Rose Garden by his cabinet, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said.
Leavitt said Trump believes “it’s time for reciprocity” but said the details of the announcement are up to the president to announce.
Joseph Gedeon
The US has sent 17 more people accused of being gang members to El Salvador without providing their names or any other identifying information, the latest move in the Trump administration’s controversial method of deporting people to be imprisoned abroad without due process in the US.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio announced the overnight military transfer on Monday, asserting that the group included “murderers and rapists” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs, which the Trump administration has recently labeled foreign terrorists.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele posted on social media that the deportees were “confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists”.
Approximately 300 immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, were recently deported to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), a mega-prison notorious for brutal conditions.
Family members have repeatedly denied gang affiliations, while the administration has refused to provide evidence, invoking “state secrets” privilege.
An official allied with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been put in charge of the US Institute of Peace, a congressionally created and funded thinktank targeted by Donald Trump for closure, according to a federal court filing.
Two board members of the Institute of Peace have authorized replacing its temporary president with Nate Cavanaugh, Associated Press reports.
The action follows a Friday night mass firing of nearly all of the institute’s 300 employees.
An executive order last month from Trump targeted the institute, which seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, and three other agencies for closure. Board members, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and the institute’s president were fired. Later, there was a standoff as employees blocked Doge members from entering. Doge staff gained access in part with the help of the Washington police.
A nearly two-century-old tree with a history tied to the former president Andrew Jackson will be removed from the White House grounds because it is deteriorating, Donald Trump said on Sunday.
The southern magnolia stands near the curved portico on the south side of the building. It is where foreign leaders are often welcomed for ceremonial visits, and where the president departs to board the Marine One helicopter.
According to the National Park Service website, “folklore tells us” that Jackson brought the tree’s seeds from his home near Nashville, Tennessee. It was apparently planted in honor of his wife Rachel, who died shortly before he took office in 1829.
“The bad news is that everything must come to an end, and this tree is in terrible condition, a very dangerous safety hazard, at the White House Entrance, no less, and must now be removed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
“This process will take place next week, and will be replaced by another, very beautiful tree.”
New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams has asked a federal judge to drop the criminal corruption charges against him before a Thursday deadline to proceed with his re-election bid.
An attorney for Adams, in a letter to US district judge Dale Ho, said the mayor wants the case dropped before petitions to get on the June primary ballot are due on 3 April.
“With the petition-filing deadline just days away, we respectfully urge the Court to issue its decision as soon as practicable,” he wrote.
Adams was indicted in September on charges alleging he accepted over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and others seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president.
He faces multiple challengers in June’s Democratic primary. He has pleaded not guilty and insisted he is innocent.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, will deliver a “major speech” in Washington on Thursday to lay out her vision to “build America’s manufacturing might and protect our national defense”, her office said.
A press release announcing her visit to the capital said Whitmer “will outline her bipartisan approach to bring supply chains home from China, create more good-paying jobs, and invest in our defense industry”. The release continues:
The governor is focused on a long-term strategy that puts America at the forefront of manufacturing and strengthens our national defense. Governor Whitmer will continue to work with anyone to continue getting things done, grow the economy, and protect our nation.
The governor will sit down with the former Fox News host, Gretchen Carlson, after her speech.
José Olivares
Despite a federal government hiring freeze, the office of personnel management, the human resources agency leading efforts to drastically reduce the federal workforce, has hired its first new career employee: a driver to transport leaders of OPM.
The OPM has been carrying out the efforts of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), the new executive office led by billionaire Elon Musk seeking to cut back on government agencies and programs.
Even though there is a federal government-wide hiring freeze, the acting director of the OPM, which is carrying out Doge’s attacks, authorized the new driver’s hiring, emails reviewed by Reuters say.
“It is becoming increasingly obvious that Musk’s & Doge’s mission has absolutely nothing to do with efficiency, and instead is aimed at enabling Musk to use – and abuse – power within the federal government,” said Kathleen Clark, a professor of ethics at Washington University in St Louis. “Authorizing a Musk-controlled agency like OPM to hire a driver while slashing essential federal workers who actually help Americans in need is a good example.”
According to Reuters, the OPM said it has “ongoing security concerns” that required the hiring of the new driver. The acting director of the agency said he has received death threats.
One of Trump’s first acts as president was to create Doge, a Musk-led initiative to root out “waste, fraud and abuse”. The initiative has mostly pursued long-time rightwing policy objectives, slashing employment at oversight and aid agencies.
Joanna Walters
The headquarters of the Republican party of New Mexico was set on fire on Sunday and “ICE=KKK” spray painted on the building in what the party called “a deliberate act of arson”.
Fire officials in Albuquerque, the largest city in Democratic-controlled New Mexico, were called to the blaze around 6am and put it out in five minutes, Reuters reports.
The single-story structure suffered damage to its entryway and smoke damage throughout, Albuquerque Fire Rescue said on social media.
The FBI said it was leading the investigation to find the “culprit(s) responsible,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement.
The fire comes after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) said it arrested 48 immigrants, 20 of them with criminal convictions, during raids in Albuquerque, state capital Santa Fe and Roswell, New Mexico, earlier this month.
BREAKING: The entryway of the Republican Party of New Mexico’s headquarters in Albuquerque was destroyed in an apparent deliberate act of arson, NMGOP said in a statement. Whoever did this also spray painted the words ‘ICE=KKK’ on the NMGOP building.
APD, ATF, and federal… pic.twitter.com/rUPHZ5UzkZ
— Zach Rael (@ZachRaelNews) March 30, 2025
The graffiti appeared to equate the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan hate group to Ice, the agency Donald Trump has tasked to deport millions of illegal immigrants. Ice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Republican party of New Mexico chair, Amy Barela, said in a statement:
Our state leaders must reinforce through decisive action that these cowardly attacks will not be tolerated.
Justice department drops challenge to Georgia election law
Attorney general Pam Bondi has directed the justice department to dismiss a Biden-era lawsuit challenging a Republican-backed Georgia election law that was passed after Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.
The law, signed by Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp in 2021, makes it illegal to provide food or water to voters standing in lines to cast their ballots. The lawsuit, filed under Joe Biden, alleged the law was intended to suppress Black voter turnout.
Bondi, in a press release on Monday announcing the lawsuit’s dismissal, accused the Biden administration of pushing “false claims of suppression”.
“Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us,” she said. She claimed Black voter turnout in Georgia “actually increased” after the law was passed.
Analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that while the number of ballots cast by Black voters increased from 2020 to 2024, Black turnout actually declined by 0.6% because the increase in the number of ballots did not keep up with population increases, Associated Press reports.
Oliver Milman
More Republican voters think that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, should resign than those who think he should remain in his job, according to a poll conducted after he and other Trump administration officials shared sensitive military attack plans with a journalist who was accidentally added to a message group chat.
A firestorm of controversy over the error appears to have affected the perception of Hegseth – an army national guard veteran and former Fox News host – among voters, including Republicans.
A new poll found that 54% of all registered voters think Hegseth should leave his role as head of the Pentagon, with 22% believing he should remain and 24% not sure.
A total of 38% of Republican voters agree that Hegseth should quit, compared to just a third who think he should retain his job. A majority of independents, at 54%, also think he should resign, according to the poll, which was released on Friday and conducted by JL Partners on behalf of the Daily Mail.
The Signal group chat controversy follows a difficult start to the Trump administration for many of the president’s cabinet picks, who faced criticism from Democrats over their lack of experience or extreme views.
Polling conducted before this latest controversy showed that a majority of US voters are disappointed with Trump’s cabinet members, registering a record level of dissatisfaction in the last four presidential administrations in which NBC has taken such polling.
José Olivares
The Trump administration has asked the supreme court to intervene in six cases during its first two months in office, in an attempt to lean on the conservative-majority high court to carry out its policy decisions.
During Trump’s first term, he nominated three conservative justices and similarly requested emergency decisions from the supreme court. Since Trump stepped into office this year, the administration has requested that the supreme court rule in their favor, to challenge decisions by lower courts that have blocked Trump agenda policies, the Associated Press reports.
The administration has had varied success with these type of emergency appeals, called a “shadow docket”. A Georgetown University law professor found that during his first term, the Trump administration made 41 emergency appeals, winning all – or part of all – in 28 cases. Prior to that, Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush filed emergency appeals in just eight cases over 16 years.
Last Friday, the Trump administration filed its most recent emergency appeal to the supreme court in a contentious immigration-related case. The administration asked the court to overrule a federal judge and appeals court, in an effort to continue expulsions under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime measure recently used to send nearly 300 Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
