Hegseth confirmed as Trump’s defense secretary in tie-breaking vote despite turmoil over his conduct

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s defense secretary late Friday in a dramatic tie-breaking vote, swatting back questions about his qualifications to lead the Pentagon amid allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women.

Rarely has a Cabinet nominee faced such wide-ranging concerns about his experience and behavior as Hegseth, particularly for such a high-profile role atop the U.S. military. But the Republican-led Senate was determined to confirm Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran who has vowed to bring a “warrior culture,” rounding out President Donald Trump’s top national security Cabinet officials.

Vice President JD Vance arrived to break the 50-50 tie, highly unusual for Cabinet nominees and particularly defense secretaries, who typically win wider bipartisan support. Hegseth himself was at the Capitol with his family.

“We have a great secretary of defense and we’re very happy,” Trump said as he boarded Air Force One after surveying fire devastation in California.

Trump said he didn’t care about the dissent from Sen. Mitch McConnell, the influential former Republican leader — who joined two other Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, in voting against Hegseth — because the “important thing is winning.”

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Trump proposes ‘getting rid of FEMA’ while touring disaster areas

LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Donald Trump surveyed disaster zones in California and North Carolina on Friday and said he was considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offering the latest sign of how he is weighing sweeping changes to the nation’s central organization for responding to disasters.

In fire-ravaged California, the state’s Democratic leaders pressed Trump for federal assistance that he’s threatened to hold up, some setting aside their past differences to shower him with praise. Trump, in turn, pressured local officials to waive permitting requirements so people can immediately rebuild, pledging that federal permits would be granted promptly.

Instead of having federal financial assistance flow through FEMA, the Republican president said Washington could provide money directly to the states. He made the comments while visiting North Carolina, which is still recovering months after Hurricane Helene, on the first trip of his second term.

“FEMA has been a very big disappointment,” the Republican president said. “It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow.”

Trump was greeted in California by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Trump critic whom the president frequently disparages. The duo chatted amiably and gestured toward cooperation despite their bitter history.

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Trump ends Fauci’s security detail and says he’d feel no responsibility if harm befell him

FLETCHER, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump has ended the federal security detail for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised him on the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

Fauci is the latest in a string of former Trump aides-turned-critics to see their federal protection canceled despite ongoing threats to their lives.

Speaking to reporters in North Carolina on Friday, Trump said he wouldn’t feel any responsibility if harm befell the former government officials. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said that Fauci’s federal security detail was ended on Thursday and that he has since hired private security.

When asked about Fauci and former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump said, “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security, too.”

Trump, a Republican, earlier this week revoked protection details for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, as well as Bolton. All have faced threats from Iran since they took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic during Trump’s first administration and fell out with him in the years after he left office in 2021.

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5 economic forces that could shape the first year of Trump’s presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like most presidents, Donald Trump faces an economy that seldom bends to political ambitions.

The Republican has promised strong growth, high tariffs, income tax cuts and booming oilfields. But despite the solid job market and low 4.1% unemployment rate, he has to contend with headwinds like inflation, a budget deficit, increased tensions over trade, the fallout from his plans to curtail immigration and a persistent wealth gap.

Each of these issues could help to shape how voters feel about a president they returned to the White House with the specific goal of fixing the economy.

For his part, Trump wants to blame all the challenges before him on his predecessor, Joe Biden, who in turn blamed Trump in 2021 for the problems his own administration had to tackle.

“This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration,” Trump told the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

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Oath Keepers founder Rhodes is barred from entering Washington or Capitol without court’s permission

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday barred Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from entering Washington without the court’s approval after President Donald Trump commuted the extremist group leader’s 18-year prison sentence in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the seditious conspiracy trial of Rhodes and other Oath Keepers, issued the order two days after Rhodes visited Capitol Hill, where he met with at least one lawmaker, chatted with others and defended his actions the day of the riot.

Mehta’s order applies to seven other defendants who were charged in one of the most serious conspiracy cases brought by the Justice Department over the riot. The order also prohibits them from entering the Capitol building or surrounding grounds without the court’s permission.

Ed Martin, who has been serving as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia since Trump’s inauguration on Monday, argued that Trump’s commutations mean Rhodes and others are no longer subject to the court’s supervision. In a court filing that bears only his name and signature, Martin urged the judge to vacate Friday’s order.

Martin has served as a board member of the Patriot Freedom Project group, which portrays the Jan. 6 defendants as victims of political persecution. He’s now overseeing the office that prosecuted the hundreds of riot defendants.

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Israel and Hamas are set to swap more hostages for prisoners in another test of the Gaza ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel and Hamas were expected to swap more hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, the second such exchange since a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip last weekend and another test for the deal.

The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and the militant group. The fragile deal has so far held, quieting airstrikes and rockets and allowing for increased aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory.

When the ceasefire started Sunday, three hostages held by the militants were released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners. On Saturday, four hostages are expected to be freed for 200 prisoners, including 120 who are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis. They will likely be released into Gaza or sent abroad.

The four Israeli soldiers, Karina Ariev, 20; Daniella Gilboa, 20; Naama Levy, 20; and Liri Albag, 19, were captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war.

They were taken from Nahal Oz base near the border with Gaza when Palestinian militants overran it, killing more than 60 soldiers there. The female abductees had all served in a unit of lookouts charged with monitoring threats along the border. A fifth female soldier in their unit, Agam Berger, 20, was abducted with them but not included in the list.

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Federal agencies begin removing DEI guidance from websites in Trump crackdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agencies have begun removing resources for underrepresented Americans from their webpages following President Donald Trump’s executive order cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Agencies also have been cancelling staff trainings and shuttering diversity offices to comply with the order from Trump, who has called for all DEI staff to be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.

Documents on DEI have been removed from websites at agencies including the Office of Personnel Management, State Department and Department of Homeland Security. Web addresses that once led to DEI pages now display “Page Not Found — 404” messages or notes above archived material explaining the change.

At some agencies, the drive to remove diversity mentions was creating widespread questions and confusion. Lacking clear guidance, Defense Department staff members were pulling websites down in often inconsistent ways.

The Army, as an example, temporarily removed its sexual assault guidelines — raising questions about what message that might be sending, considering that Trump’s defense nominee Pete Hegseth has been involved in sex assault allegations, which he denies. The guidelines were back up late Thursday.

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What Americans think about Trump and Musk’s plans for the federal government: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans see the federal government as rife with corruption, inefficiency and red tape — but they’re less sure about whether Elon Musk is the right person to fix it.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults strongly or somewhat approve of President Trump’s creation of an advisory body on government efficiency, which Musk is helming. About 4 in 10 disapprove, while the rest were neutral or didn’t know enough to say. (The poll was conducted before Vivek Ramaswamy announced he would no longer be involved in the group.)

The goal of the advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is to expose fraudulent and wasteful spending across the federal bureaucracy, and its leaders have floated a range of possible ways to cut costs, including eliminating entire agencies. But although most agree that the federal government is facing major problems, many Americans also have an unfavorable view of Musk and are hesitant about the Republican president relying on billionaires for advice about government policy.

As the plans take more concrete shape, the poll shows that Americans are ambivalent about some of the changes that Trump and his team have mentioned in the past few months — including eliminating large numbers of federal jobs and moving federal agencies outside Washington. Substantial shares don’t have an opinion, indicating that there’s plenty of room for opinion to shift in either direction.

A return-to-office policy for federal workers — which was one of Trump’s first executive actions on Inauguration Day — is fairly popular.

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Supreme Court will weigh approval for US’ 1st publicly funded religious charter school, in Oklahoma

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take on a new culture war dispute: whether the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school should be allowed to open in Oklahoma.

The justices said they would review an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that invalidated a state board’s approval of an application by the Catholic Church in Oklahoma to open a charter school.

The conservative-dominated high court has issued several decisions in recent years signaling a willingness to allow public funds to flow to religious entities. At the same time, conservative-led states have sought to insert religion into public schools, including Louisiana’s requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms.

The case probably will be argued in late April and decided by early summer. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is not taking part in the case, but did not explain why.

Last June, Oklahoma’s top court held by a 7-1 vote that a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the part of the First Amendment that prohibits government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

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Colombia president decrees emergency powers to restore order in coca region wracked by rebel combat

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s president issued a decree Friday giving him emergency powers to restore order in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela that has been wracked in recent days by a deadly turf war among dissident rebel groups.

President Gustavo Petro’s decree, which can be extended, gives him 90 days to impose curfews, restrict traffic and take other steps that would normally violate Colombians’ civil rights or require congressional approval.

It is the first time in more than a decade that a Colombian president has used such an extreme measure and underscores the seriousness of the current conflict in a country that for decades was paralyzed by political violence.

However, it applies only to the rural Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela, where the Colombian state has struggled for decades to gain a foothold. In the past week, at least 80 people have been killed and an estimated 36,000 more displaced as fighting intensifies between the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and holdouts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Petro’s conservative opponents have criticized the move, accusing the former guerrilla of riding roughshod over the constitution. But some activists have celebrated it, saying they are hopeful the move translates into better infrastructure, health care and schools in the traditionally lawless region.