Trump names far-right podcaster Dan Bongino as FBI deputy director: Live – UK Times

I think it’s fair to say Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith was not impressed by the billionaire’s email antics over the weekend.

Katie Hawkinson has her scathing response.

Here’s Madeline Sherratt with a profile of the man Trump has just announced as his new deputy FBI director.

The president is triumphant and conservatives have every reason to celebrate now, writes Eric Garcia after attending the four-day right-wing jamboree.

But, he warns, Republicans are not planning for the future.

The president described the chaotic first month of his new administration as nothing short of liberating the United States from the tyranny of a Democratic-led government that had pushed too far to empower minorities and encourage immigration as he spoke to an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday.

Speaking at the end of the fourth and final day of the annual event in Maryland, Trump bragged about the narrow election victory in last year’s election, which he called “too big to rig” and said his win over Vice President Kamala Harris had “achieved the great liberation of America.”

“We’re liberating our country right now. We’re doing all these things that you’re reading about. We’re liberating our country,” he said.

Here’s a full report from Andrew Feinberg.

The defense secretary appeared on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream yesterday to blame Democrats for “mischaracterizing” the firing spree carried out by the president at the Pentagon and said that the military’s top brass was not at risk of political reprisals.

Trump moved on Friday evening to fire CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the chief of the Navy and vice chief of the Air Force.

Here’s more from John Bowden.

The French president will visit Trump in Washington today, with Ukraine very much top of the agenda, as it will be on Thursday when Sir Keir Starmer follows suit.

Macron has previously bonded with Trump, even joining him to plant a tree in the White House garden (although it subsequently died), and will hope to be able to steer the American away from his current pro-Russia leanings by stressing the imperative of Ukraine remaining an independent democratic nation free from Kremlin tyranny, an outcome with significance far beyond Eastern Europe.

On the Sunday shows, special envoy Steve Witkoff and national security adviser Mike Waltz ducked and dived on the question of Vladimir Putin being solely responsible for his country’s decision to invade Ukraine precisely three years ago today, clearly fearful of contradicting the man behind the Resolute Desk despite his being objectively wrong in suggesting otherwise.

Also on the president’s social media platform overnight, he’s been offering his analysis of Germany’s election, saying the public had grown tired of Olof Scholz’s “no common sense agenda” and swung right, denounced Fire and Fury writer Michael Wolff and cheered the departure “of one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist” Joy Reid from MSNBC.

He also appears to have been watching Bill O’Reilly in the early hours of the morning, which can’t be good for anyone’s mental wellbeing.

Despite proclaiming that the news from Germany marks “a great day” for its people “and for the United States of America under the leadership of a gentleman named Donald J Trump”, he may not like the following comments from incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The world’s richest man caused a further stir over the weekend by sending out an ultimatum email to federal workers, asking them to justify their roles by explaining their accomplishments of the last week in five bullet points or risk being fired, a message that prompted a confused reaction from those in charge of the departments concerned.

Senior intelligence officials Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, for instance, told their staff not to respond.

Later, Musk revealed in an X post that the purpose of the exercise was “basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email”.

Trump meanwhile posted Elon’s own tongue-in-cheek account of his own week in five bullet points, the latest example of the desperate-to-be-liked tech tycoon’s unique brand of humor.

Here’s the latest on a situation that even Musk himself appeared to admit was a “mess” from Oliver O’Connell.

The Trump administration plans to fire 2,000 employees from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and place all but a select few on administrative leave as of midnight on Monday, after a judge cleared the way for Trump and right-hand man Elon Musk to do so.

USAID, the agency that provides humanitarian assistance globally, notified employees on Sunday that all direct-hire personnel – with the exception of employees responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs – would be placed on leave.

Here’s a little more as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its purge unchecked.