Trump asks supreme court to allow Elon Musk’s Doge access to social security data
The Trump administration is looking to the supreme court to settle whether or not the so-called “department of government efficiency” can have access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database.
In a court filing on Friday, the government asked the supreme court to lift a federal judge’s order to block Doge from access to the data. The US district judge Ellen Lipton Hollander had issued an order in March that restricted Doge’s access to the SSA and required Doge representatives to “destroy and delete” any data they’d already gathered.
“The district court’s orders have already stopped the Executive Branch from carrying out key policy objectives in an important federal agency for more than a month,” the US solicitor general D John Sauer wrote in the court filing. “The government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs.”
Doge had sought access to SSA data to try to find evidence of fraud, something Doge head Elon Musk has been preoccupied with for months, saying at one point that social security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”.
The data Doge wants access to includes social security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, driver’s license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates and home and work addresses, according to Hollander.
“Defendants, with so called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government,” she said in her March order to block access.
Key events
Today’s recap
The Trump administration had a busy end of the week. The White House unveiled its budget blueprint, which shows massive cuts to social programs and an increase of spending on defense. Donald Trump also signed an executive order to pull funding from NPR and PBS; NPR has since indicated that it may sue the administration over the order. The president additionally asked the supreme court to grant Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) access to the Social Security Administration’s database. This came after a federal judge had previously ruled to restrict access.
Trump also lost a couple of battles on Friday. A federal judge ruled the president’s executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie was unconstitutional; and the Trump administration settled a lawsuit with Maine over transgender rights.
Here’s what else happened today:
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The Trump administration has plans to eliminate 1,200 positions at the CIA in a major downsize for the agency. The move is not related to any cuts imposed by Doge.
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The state department has designated two gangs in Haiti as foreign terrorist organizations and warned that any individuals supporting the groups could face removal from the US. The administration is also exploring whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the US as “enemy combatants”.
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Speculation over who will take over Mike Waltz’ national security adviser role has grown, with reports that Stephen Miller is gathering momentum or that Marco Rubio may hold the job permanently.
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Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers spoke out saying every American should be concerned about “chilling” suggestions from Trump’s top border adviser that he could be arrested.
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A mother deported to Cuba reportedly had to hand over her 17-month-old daughter to a lawyer while her husband, a US citizen, stood outside unable to say goodbye.
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Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, who defended Hunter Biden against criminal charges, created a new law firm to represent former government officials targeted by the Trump administration.
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Trump said the US economy is in a “transition stage”, citing strong employment and his tariff plan. This followed the release of data that showed US job growth marginally slowed in April.
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Trump said again he would be “taking away” Harvard’s tax-exempt status as a non-profit in a legally questionable move that escalates his ongoing feud with the elite university.
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Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Mark Carney, confirmed he will be meeting with Trump at the White House next week.
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Trump said he plans to rename 11 November – Veterans Day – as “Victory Day for World War I”. Several veterans groups decried the announcement.
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Trump will host a military parade to commemorate the US Army’s 250th birthday. The date, 14 June, coincides with his 79th birthday.
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US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully rejected what she called “relentless attacks” on the federal judiciary.
Trump administration agrees to halt funding freeze for Maine schools over transgender rights
The state of Maine has notched a win in its battle over whether trans girls can participate in girls’ sports. The state reached a settlement on Friday with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which had previously said it would withhold funds for a child nutrition program if transgender youth continued in sports.
“It’s good to feel a victory like this,” Janet Mills, Maine’s governor, said at a press conference, the Portland Press Herald reported. “I stood in the White House and when confronted by the president of the United States, I told him I’d see him in court. Well, we did see him in court, and we won.”
Mills and Donald Trump had a public tit-for-tat at a White House meeting with governors in February. It came after the USDA had suspended funding from Maine. The state then sued the agency to maintain its funding.
Under Friday’s settlement agreement, USDA funding will be restored in Maine in exchange for the state dropping its lawsuit.
The law firm Perkins Coie has responded to its win in its court case against the Trump administration over an executive order targeting the firm. A federal judge ruled on Friday that the order was unconstitutional. The statement reads:
Today, the Court permanently blocked the unlawful Executive Order targeting our firm. This ruling affirms core constitutional freedoms all Americans hold dear, including free speech, due process, and the right to select counsel without the fear of retribution. We are pleased with this decision and are immensely grateful to those who spoke up in support of our positions. As we move forward, we remain guided by the same commitments that first compelled us to bring this challenge: to protect our firm, safeguard the interests of our clients, and uphold the rule of law.
The justice department has the option of appealing the judge’s order.
Trump reportedly planning to eliminate thousands of CIA positions
The Central Intelligence Agency is getting a downsize. The Trump administration is looking to eliminate 1,200 positions at the CIA, along with thousands of other cuts in other US intelligence agencies, according to the Washington Post. Among those is the National Security Agency, which specializes in online espionage.
The move comes as Donald Trump has promised to reduce the size of the federal government, but this reduction in staff is not part of the work of Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, according to the Post.
The CIA did not immediately return request for comment.
Opponents to the downsizing of the CIA and other spy agencies say that the reduction in force could threaten national security and make the country less safe.
John Ratcliffe, the CIA’s director, sent a memo to staff at the end of March saying the years of growing budgets and resources were a thing of the past, according to the New York Post. “Moving forward,” he said, “you will be part of a smaller, more elite and efficient workforce.”
Federal judge rules Trump’s executive order targeting law firm was unconstitutional
In a setback for the administration, a federal judge struck down Donald Trump’s executive order that targeted the law firm Perkins Coie on Friday. In a court order, Judge Beryl Howell wrote that the order violated free speech and due process.
The executive order “is unlawful because it violates the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the US Constitution and is therefore null and void”, Howell wrote. She directed the attorney general Pam Bondi to immediately cease any investigations of Perkins Coie.
In a separate 102-page opinion, Howell said: “Settling personal vendettas by targeting a disliked business or individual for punitive government action is not a legitimate use of the powers of the US government or an American President.”
The White House and Perkins Coie did not immediately return requests for comment.
Trump signed the executive order in March, seeking to stop Perkins Coie’s lawyers from accessing government buildings and threatened to withdraw its clients’ federal contracts. Perkins Coie sued the government less than a week later, saying the order violated the firm’s core constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
“At the heart of the order is an unlawful attack on the freedom of all Americans to select counsel of their choice without fear of retribution or punishment from the government,” Bill Malley, a managing partner for Perkins Coie, said at the time.
The Trump administration has gone after several high-powered law firms that have worked on legal challenges against him or his actions. Nine of these firms have reached deals with Trump, but three also sued the government seeking to block the executive orders, according to Reuters. Howell’s decision on Friday was the first legal ruling in any of these cases.
NPR will challenge Trump’s executive order ‘using all means available’
National Public Radio is indicating it may sue the Trump administration over the executive order aimed at cutting funding for public broadcasters. The NPR CEO Katherine Maher issued a statement on Friday saying the public radio broadcaster “will challenge this Executive Order using all means available”.
“We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,” Maher said.
Donald Trump signed the executive order late Thursday night accusing both NPR and PBS of leftwing bias. The order directs the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds the two broadcasters, to “cease federal funding”. Both broadcasters have minimal funding from CPB, but many local member stations heavily rely on CPB.
The order comes after Maher and Paula Kerger, the president and CEO of PBS, were called to testify before a House oversight and government reform subcommittee in March in a hearing called Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable. It was held by Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican representative from Georgia.
Kerger said earlier on Friday that Trump’s executive order was “blatantly unlawful” and that PBS was “exploring all options” to continue serving all Americans.
In her statement, Maher said: “The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR … It is also an affront to the First Amendment rights of station listeners and donors who support independent news and information.”
She added that NPR’s mission is to inform the public and that an “informed public is essential to a functioning democracy”.
Marco Rubio is slated to keep his dual roles as secretary of state and national security adviser for at least six months and the positions could even become permanent, according to Politico. Rubio’s placement was not meant to be a temporary slot-in, reports Politico, which cites three senior White House officials.
The move is in contrast with earlier reports that Stephen Miller had been gathering momentum for the role.
According to Politico, Rubio did not raise his hand for the role but both Donald Trump and chief of staff Susie Wiles tapped him to take “more fulsome control” of the government’s foreign-policy branches. They reportedly see the positions as being complementary.
It’s highly unusual for one person to serve in both roles, one of which requires diplomacy and the other devising national security policy. The last, and only, appointee to do so was Henry Kissinger under the Nixon and Ford administrations.
Marco Rubio designates two groups in Haiti as terrorist organizations
Marco Rubio has designated two groups in Haiti as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “specially designated global terrorists”. The groups, Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif, have taken control of much of Haiti, including the capital, Port-au-Prince. They have been known for carrying out human rights atrocities and massacres nationwide.
“They are a direct threat to US national security interests in our region,” Rubio said in a statement on Friday. “Their ultimate goal is creating a gang-controlled state where illicit trafficking and other criminal activities operate freely and terrorize Haitian citizens.”
The designation comes as the Trump administration is working on its mass deportation plan. Many of the immigrants the government says it’s deporting have gang affiliations, which has not been substantiated in most of the high-profile cases. In February, the US designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and El Salvador’s Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, as global terrorist organizations.
In his statement, Rubio said the terrorist designations for the Haitian groups shows the Trump administration’s commitment to fighting dangerous gangs. He added: “Individuals and entities providing material support or resources to Viv Ansanm or Gran Grif could face criminal charges and inadmissibility or removal from the United States.”
Trump asks supreme court to allow Elon Musk’s Doge access to social security data
The Trump administration is looking to the supreme court to settle whether or not the so-called “department of government efficiency” can have access to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) database.
In a court filing on Friday, the government asked the supreme court to lift a federal judge’s order to block Doge from access to the data. The US district judge Ellen Lipton Hollander had issued an order in March that restricted Doge’s access to the SSA and required Doge representatives to “destroy and delete” any data they’d already gathered.
“The district court’s orders have already stopped the Executive Branch from carrying out key policy objectives in an important federal agency for more than a month,” the US solicitor general D John Sauer wrote in the court filing. “The government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs.”
Doge had sought access to SSA data to try to find evidence of fraud, something Doge head Elon Musk has been preoccupied with for months, saying at one point that social security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”.
The data Doge wants access to includes social security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, driver’s license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates and home and work addresses, according to Hollander.
“Defendants, with so called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government,” she said in her March order to block access.
Veterans’ groups push back against effort to rename Veterans Day into Victory Day
Several veterans’ groups are pushing back on Donald Trump’s plan to rename Veterans Day. The president announced late Thursday that the holiday, which is on 11 November, will now be called “Victory Day for World War I”.
“Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, honoring the end of World War I – then it was changed to honor ALL who served,” VoteVets, a left-leaning group that works to get veterans elected to office, wrote on X on Friday. “Veterans don’t need rewritten history. They need respect – and the benefits they earned.”
Another group, the Disabled American Veterans, simply posted “No” to its website.
The American Legion, which is one of the biggest veterans’ groups in the US, has not posted publicly about the name change and did not immediately return request for comment.
Veterans Day was first established in 1919 as “Armistice Day” to recognize the end of the first world war, and Congress made it a federal holiday in 1938. In 1954, Congress passed a law that formalized the holiday as Veterans Day to honor veterans who have served in all armed conflicts.
Dharna Noor
Puerto Rico has voluntarily dismissed its 2024 climate lawsuit against big oil, a Friday legal filing shows.
The move came just two days after the US justice department sued two states over planned litigation against oil companies for their role in the climate crisis.
Puerto Rico’s lawsuit, filed in July, alleged that the oil and gas giants had misled the public about the climate dangers associated with their products. It came as part of a wave of litigation filed by dozens of US states, cities and municipalities in recent years.
Donald Trump’s administration has pledged to put an end to these cases, which he has called “frivolous” and claimed are unconstitutional. In court filings on Wednesday, his justice department claimed the Clean Air Act “displaces” states’ ability to regulate greenhouse gas outside their borders.
The agency specifically targeted Michigan, whose Democratic attorney general last year tapped private law firms to work on such a case, and Hawaii, whose Democratic governor filed its suit on Thursday. Officials from both states condemned the justice department’s filings.
Friday’s filing from Puerto Rico did not list a reason for the lawsuit’s dismissal. The Guardian has asked officials whether it came in response to the Trump administration’s moves on Wednesday.
Climate-accountability litigation has also faced recent attacks in the media. Last month, an oilfield services executive published an op-ed in Forbes saying the Puerto Rico lawsuit “may derail” efforts to improve grid reliability. Groups tied to far-right legal architect Leonard Leo have also campaigned against the lawsuits.
Puerto Rico in November elected Republican governor Jenniffer González-Colón, a Trump ally. In February, González-Colón tapped Janet Parra-Mercado as the territory’s new attorney general.
In December, a California-based trade association of commercial fishers voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit accusing big oil of climate deception.
In two earlier lawsuits, thirty-seven Puerto Rico municipalities and the capital city of San Juan accused fossil fuel companies of conspiring to deceive the public about the climate crisis, seeking to hold them accountable for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria.
The day so far
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Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, is gathering momentum inside the White House as a top candidate to be the next national security adviser, five sources familiar with the situation have told Axios. The White House deputy chief of staff and architect of Trump’s intense and highly contested immigration crackdown, is one of the president’s longest-serving and most trusted aides.
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Trump is proposing huge cuts to social programmes like health and education while planning substantial spending increases on defence and the Department of Homeland Security, in a White House budget blueprint that starkly illustrates his preoccupation with projecting military strength and deterring migration. The – largely symbolic – “skinny budget” suggests a whopping $163bn cut to non-defense spending. Now Congress must haggle over which of these cuts to include in its budget.
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Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers said on Friday that every American should be concerned about “chilling” suggestions from Donald Trump’s top border adviser that he could be arrested over guidance he issued to state employees about what to do if confronted by federal immigration agents. Asked about Evers’s memo, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said: “Wait to see what’s coming.” “I’m not afraid,” Evers, a Democrat, said in response in an extraordinary video posted on YouTube. “I’ve never once been discouraged from doing the right thing and I will not start today.”
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A mother deported to Cuba reportedly had to hand over her 17-month-old daughter to a lawyer while her husband, a US citizen, stood outside unable to say goodbye. Heidy Sánchez was told she was being detained for deportation to Cuba when she turned up at her scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) check-in appointment in Tampa, Florida, last week.
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Trump’s administration is exploring whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the US as “enemy combatants” as a possible way to detain them more easily and limit their ability to challenge their imprisonment, multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations told CNN.
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The top Washington lawyer Abbe Lowell, who defended Hunter Biden against criminal charges, has created a new law firm to represent former government officials and others targeted by the Trump administration.
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said Trump’s executive order instructing it to cease funding to NPR and PBS is “unlawful” as it is not subject to the president’s authority and is “exploring all options”. Trump signed the order late on Thursday, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting, his latest move to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with.
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Trump said the US economy is in a “transition stage”, citing strong employment and his tariff plan while reiterating his call for the US Federal Reserve to lower its interest rate. It followed the release of data that showed US job growth slowed marginally for April.
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Trump said again that he would be “taking away” Harvard’s tax-exempt status as a non-profit in a legally questionable move that escalates his ongoing feud with the elite university. “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in a more direct message than a post in April when he said “perhaps” the college should lose its tax-exempt status. Federal law prohibits the president from directing or influencing the Internal Revenue Service to investigate or audit an organization. The White House previously said that the IRS would “independently” decide whether to investigate or act on the university’s status.
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Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Mark Carney, confirmed he will be meeting with Donald Trump at the White House next week. The Canadian leader said he had a “very constructive” call with Trump this week where they agreed to meet next week. “My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada,” he said.
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Trump said he wanted to rename 11 November – Veterans Day – as “Victory Day for World War I” and name 8 May “Victory Day for World War II”. The 8 May date is an interesting choice for a US president to mark victory in the second world war as American soldiers famously continued fighting Japan in the Pacific theatre for another three months after the war in Europe against Nazi Germany had been declared over. Japan did not surrender until 2 September 1945.
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And Fox News confirmed an earlier report from the Associated Press that Trump will host a military parade in June to honor military veterans and active-duty service members and commemorate the US Army’s 250th birthday. The date, 14 June, is also Trump’s 79th birthday. Trump has long wanted a military parade, and AP’s report details proposals for more than 6,600 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians to take part. High costs halted Trump’s push for a parade in his first term and AP estimates it would likely cost tens of millions of dollars to put on a parade of that size.
