President Donald Trump’s third week kept up his fast-paced effort to drastically remake the federal government, even as he faces pushback in court.
So far, Trump has succeeded in giving billionaire federal contractor Elon Musk a free hand to take control of crucial payment and personnel systems at several agencies.
But judges have ordered the administration to halt some of its other efforts, including one to end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
And other Trump efforts — such as a proposal to create a sovereign wealth fund — remain largely for show.
Here’s what the Trump administration did in his third week in office, through Tuesday:
• Put nearly all U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff on leave amid plans to reduce it from 10,000 to about 290.
• Gave Musk’s team access to key payment and contracting systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
• Rehired a member of Musk’s team who resigned after old social media posts saying he was “racist before it was cool” were reported.
• Ordered staffers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop working immediately.
• Paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American companies from bribing foreign officials.
• Imposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel and aluminum, restarting a trade war he waged in his first term.
• Sent the first two groups of migrants to Guantanamo Bay and released a photo of migrants being boarded onto a military plane.
• Dramatically narrowed the kinds of corporate crime the Justice Department will investigate.
• Sent a memo saying the Justice Department will criminally investigate private companies’ diversity efforts.
• Set up a task force to review federal policies and practices for “anti-Christian bias.”
• Signed an executive order to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council and bar funding for the U.N. relief agency for Gaza and Palestinian refugees.
• Signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing it of improperly targeting the U.S. and Israel.
• Signed an executive order that denies federal funds to schools that allow transgender athletes in women’s and girls sports.
• Moved to fire the Democratic chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, who said it was invalid and refused to step down.
• Stopped accepting packages from Hong Kong and China through the U.S. Postal Service, then restored service a day later.
• Signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund. However, it was not clear how it would be funded.
• Blocked members of Congress from USAID, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Treasury and Education departments.
• Sued the city of Chicago for allegedly impeding federal immigration enforcement efforts.
• Posted on the Federal Communications Commission website raw footage and transcripts of a CBS interview with Kamala Harris over which Trump sued.
• Opened an investigation into San Francisco radio station KCBS for its coverage of immigration enforcement actions.
• Ordered the General Services Administration (GSA) to begin ending leases on roughly 7,500 federal offices around the country.
• Ordered the GSA to cancel all news subscriptions amid a conservative conspiracy theory.
• Suggested that some federal debt might be fraudulent, raising the prospect that the U.S. might selectively default.
• Floated the idea that the executive branch might ignore court rulings with which it disagrees.
• Floated a plan to house migrants in shipping containers typically used for construction site storage and office space.
• Floated a plan to shut down everything except for core functions of the Education Department.
• Said he would continue supplying military aid to Ukraine if the country gave the U.S. access to rare earth and critical minerals.
• Said the U.S. should “take over the Gaza Strip,” perhaps through military action, and redevelop it as the “riviera of the Middle East.”
• Said he was considering sending U.S. convicts to other countries’ prisons for a small fee after an offer from El Salvador’s president.
• Blamed former President Joe Biden for lower-than-expected U.S. job gains in January.
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