A D.C. federal judge sided with USAID workers Thursday, granting their request to extend a restraining order that prevents the Trump administration from effectively shutting down the foreign aid agency. 

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, said he would extend by one week the temporary restraining order, with plans to issue a final decision on a request to block President Donald Trump’s action on Feb. 21. 

His new order instructs the government to reinstate any USAID employees put on administrative leave and forbids the Trump administration from implementing any new administrative leave on USAID employees.

The hearing Thursday centered on the level of ‘irreparable harm’ alleged against Trump’s executive action in court. Nichols asked plaintiff’s attorneys detailed questions about the impact of a stop work order that placed virtually every USAID employee on leave. 

Karla Gilbride, representing the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees, told the judge that USAID employees had suffered harm both due to their own safety concerns and concerns for their well-being.

‘These are not a few isolated incidents, this is an unprecedented dismantling of a congressionally created agency,’ she said. Plaintiffs ‘are being harmed by actions that are unconstitutional… This is a coordinated and unconstitutional effort to dismantle the agency.’

Meanwhile, the Justice Department attorney, Eric Hamilton told Nichols that the USAID grievances are a matter of ‘personnel nature,’ arguing that they should be handled via the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) appeals process, rather than the federal court system.

Hamilton also pushed back on the claims of ‘irreparable harm,’ telling Nichols that the government is ‘committed to their safety.’

‘98% of those placed on administrative leave were in the US and the remaining were in developed nations like the UK,’ Hamilton said. 

He pointed to a Wednesday night ruling from U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Massachusetts allowing the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program – colloquially known as the ‘fork in the road’ resignation offer – to stand, arguing that this action is similar.

Last week, Nichols granted a request from U.S. Agency for International Development employees to temporarily block the Trump administration’s order, which would have placed some 2,200 USAID employees on leave as of last Friday, and given all employees living abroad just 30 days to return to U.S. soil at government expense. 

The order also temporarily reinstated some 500 employees that had been placed on administrative leave by Trump. 

Nichols said in his decision last week that, barring court intervention, the abrupt order would cause ‘irreparable harm’ to employees affected by the withdrawal orders. 

He had paused the Trump administration’s plans through Friday, Feb. 14, which Nichols said would allow for ‘expedited’ arguments to help the court determine the legality of the actions. 

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., penned a letter to newly sworn-in Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, warning that the United Kingdom’s reported new order demanding backdoor Apple data jeopardizes Americans.

The letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, referenced recent press reports that the U.K.’s home secretary ‘served Apple with a secret order last month, directing the company to weaken the security of its iCloud backup service to facilitate government spying.’ The directive reportedly requires the company to weaken the encryption of its iCloud backup service, giving the U.K. government the ‘blanket capability’ to access customers’ encrypted files. 

Reports further state that the order was issued under the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016, commonly known as the ‘Snoopers’ Charter,’ which does not require a judge’s approval. 

‘Apple is reportedly gagged from acknowledging that it received such an order, and the company faces criminal penalties that prevent it from even confirming to the U.S. Congress the accuracy of these press reports,’ Wyden and Biggs note. 

The United Kingdom has been increasingly cracking down on British citizens for opposition commentary, especially online posts and memes opposing mass migration. As riots broke out in the U.K. last August after a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event left three girls dead and others wounded, London’s Metropolitan Police chief warned that officials could also extradite and jail U.S. citizens for online posts about the unrest. 

The letter, however, described the threat of China, Russia and other adversaries spying on Americans.

Wyden, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Biggs, who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, asked Gabbard to ‘act decisively to protect the security of Americans’ communications from dangerous, shortsighted efforts by the United Kingdom (U.K.) that will undermine Americans’ privacy rights and expose them to espionage by China, Russia and other adversaries.’ 

The Washington Post was among the outlets to report about the U.K. order. 

‘These reported actions seriously threaten the privacy and security of both the American people and the U.S. government,’ Wyden and Biggs wrote. ‘Apple does not make different versions of its encryption software for each market; Apple customers in the U.K. use the same software as Americans. If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans’ phones, tablets, and computers, undermining the security of Americans’ data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products.’ 

The letter also references a Chinese hacking operation known as ‘Salt Typhoon.’ Last year, the Biden White House admitted the Chinese hacked at least nine U.S. telecommunications companies. 

‘The Salt Typhoon hack of U.S. telephone carriers’ wiretapping systems last year – in which President Trump and Vice President Vance’s calls were tapped by China – provides a perfect example of the dangers of surveillance backdoors,’ the letter says. ‘They will inevitably be compromised by sophisticated foreign adversaries and exploited in ways harmful to U.S. national security. As the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI confirmed last November, People’s Republic of China (PRC)-affiliated actors were involved in ‘copying of certain information that was subject to U.S. law enforcement requests pursuant to court orders.’’ 

‘While the U.K has been a trusted ally, the U.S. government must not permit what is effectively a foreign cyberattack waged through political means. If the U.K. does not immediately reverse this dangerous effort, we urge you to reevaluate U.S.-U.K. cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as U.S. intelligence sharing with the U.K.,’ the letter says.

Citing a December 2023 report by the U.K. Parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, the letter states that the U.K. benefits greatly from a ‘mutual presumption towards unrestricted sharing of [Signals Intelligence]’ between the U.S. and U.K. and that ‘[t]he weight of advantage in the partnership with the [National Security Agency] is overwhelmingly in [the U.K.’s] favour.’ 

‘The bilateral U.S.-U.K. relationship must be built on trust. If the U.K. is secretly undermining one of the foundations of U.S. cybersecurity, that trust has been profoundly breached,’ Wyden and Biggs wrote. 

At her confirmation hearing, Gabbard stated that ‘backdoors lead down a dangerous path that can undermine Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and civil liberties.’ In written responses to senators’ questions, she also said, ‘mandating mechanisms to bypass encryption or privacy technologies undermines user security, privacy, and trust and poses significant risks of exploitation by malicious actors.’

‘We urge you to put those words into action by giving the U.K. an ultimatum: back down from this dangerous attack on U.S. cybersecurity, or face serious consequences,’ Wyden and Biggs wrote.

The letter asks Gabbard specifically whether the Trump administration was made aware of the reported order, either by the U.K. or Apple, prior to the press reports and, if so, when and by whom. They also ask what the Trump administration’s understanding is of U.K. law ‘and the bilateral CLOUD Act agreement with regard to an exception to gag orders for notice to the U.S. government.’ Wyden and Biggs asked what the Trump administration’s understanding is ‘of its obligation to inform Congress and the American public about foreign government demands for U.S. companies to weaken the security of their products, pursuant to the CLOUD Act?’ The letter asked that unclassified answers be provided by March 3. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Apple and the White House regarding the letter, but neither immediately responded.

President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, passed a key procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday, clearing the path for his final confirmation vote. 

The Senate’s vote this afternoon to invoke cloture ended the debate on Lutnick’s nomination and paved the way for his confirmation as Commerce secretary. Senators advanced his nomination by a 52-45 vote. Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 majority. 

Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a co-chair of Trump’s 2024 presidential transition team, needed a majority vote to bring his final confirmation vote to the Senate floor. 

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted 16-12 on February 5 to advance Lutnick to the procedural vote. Lutnick testified for over three hours before the Senate Commerce Committee on January 29. 

If confirmed, Lutnick will become one of the wealthiest people to serve in a presidential administration, along with Elon Musk and Trump himself. During Lutnick’s confirmation hearing, he committed to selling all of his interests and assets if confirmed. 

‘My plan is to only serve the American people. So I will divest — meaning I will sell all of my interests, all of my business interests, all of my assets, everything,’ Lutnick said. ‘I’ve worked together with the Office of Government Ethics, and we’ve reached agreement on how to do that, and I will be divesting within 90 days upon my confirmation.’

Lutnick said selling his businesses would prevent a conflict of interest. 

‘Upon confirmation, my businesses will be for sale and someone else will lead them going forward,’ Lutnick added. 

Trump announced Lutnick’s nomination two weeks after he was elected president. 

‘I am thrilled to announce that Howard Lutnick, Chairman & CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, will join my Administration as the United States Secretary of Commerce. He will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative,’ Trump said. 

Trump applauded Lutnick’s leadership during the presidential transition, saying he ‘created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest Administration America has ever seen.’

With Lutnick teed up to lead Trump’s ‘Tariff and Trade agenda,’ he faced questions during his confirmation hearing about tariff policy. Lutnick said the argument that tariffs create inflation is ‘nonsense.’ 

‘We are treated horribly by the global trading environment. They all have higher tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies. They treat us poorly. We need to be treated better. We can use tariffs to create reciprocity,’ Lutnick said.

Lutnick testified that he shares Trump’s stance on tariffs, adding he prefers an ‘across-the-board’ strategy to ‘country-by-country’ tariffs. 

Trump on Monday announced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from all countries, adding up to a 35% tariff for Chinese steel and aluminum imports. The tariffs are set to go into effect on March 12. 

Roughly 75,000 federal employees have accepted President Donald Trump’s deferred resignation program, after the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts in January to leave their jobs or be forced to return to work in person.

Employees who accepted the so-called ‘fork in the road’ offer will retain all pay and benefits and be exempt from in-person work until Sept. 30, a move that’s part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to downsize the federal government. 

‘We have too many people,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday in a press briefing. ‘We have office spaces occupied by 4% — nobody showing up to work because they were told not to.’ 

The White House confirmed to Fox News Digital that numbers had climbed to 75,000 as of Thursday morning. 

It previously said it expected 200,000 people to accept the offer.

The Trump administration’s offer faced scrutiny, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s plan from advancing amid challenges from labor union groups who voiced concerns that the law didn’t require the Trump administration to hold up its end of the deal.

However, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole of Massachusetts ruled in favor of the White House Wednesday evening, asserting the plaintiffs in the case aren’t directly impacted by the Trump administration’s offer. 

They ‘allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members’ questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm,’ O’Toole wrote.

‘The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees,’ O’Toole wrote. ‘This is not sufficient.’

The Trump administration praised the court’s decision, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described it as ‘the first of many legal wins for the president.’ 

‘The court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing,’ Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.’

The buyout program is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has unveiled to cut down the federal workforce. On Tuesday, Trump also signed an executive order instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal workforce staffing numbers. 

The order instructs DOGE and federal agencies to work together to ‘significantly’ shrink the size of the federal government and limit hiring new employees, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Specifically, agencies must not hire more than one employee for every four that leave their federal post. 

Agencies also are instructed to ‘undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force’ and evaluate ways to eliminate or combine agency functions that aren’t legally required, the fact sheet said. 

Fox News’ Andrea Margolis, Jake Gibson, Jacqui Heinrich and Patrick Ward contributed to this report. 

A number of hospitals and clinics across the country that provide transgender surgeries or medication for minors are giving a giant middle finger to President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ‘protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation.’ 

Mass General Brigham and other Boston-area hospitals and clinics confirmed to Boston public radio that they plan to continue providing transgender medical treatments as normal. A spokesperson for Mass General Brigham said the hospital was ‘reviewing the federal actions to determine what impact they would have if implemented.’

Oregon Health & Science University, one of the state’s largest providers of transgender surgeries, has stood firm against Trump’s order and said that they expect no interruptions to their services, according to local outlet Oregon Live. 

In Minnesota, multiple hospitals confirmed they will continue to offer transgender medical treatments, and no hospitals in the state have publicly announced any cuts, according to local news outlet The Bemidji Pioneer.

Defiance from these hospitals comes in the face of conflicting directives from state and national leaders who have either determined Trump’s executive order is unlawful, or called on hospitals to ignore the directive. New York Attorney General Letitia James warned New York hospitals that complying with Trump’s order would violate state discrimination laws. 

Simultaneously, attorneys general from 15 states have argued that a court ruling determining Trump’s broad federal funding freeze was unlawful, ultimately rendering his threat to slash funding from hospitals illegal. ‘We will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump Administration to restrict access to [transgender operations and treatment] in our jurisdictions,’ they said.

While some hospitals have chosen to do nothing in the face of these conflicting directives, others have taken limited steps to comply. 

At Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago’s largest children’s hospital, puberty blockers, hormones and mental health services will continue for all current and new patients, but surgery will no longer be offered.

In East Hollywood, California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will stop accepting new patients seeking transgender medications but will continue providing these medications to existing patients who have already been receiving them. Gender-reassignment surgery was not something they offered at the time of Trump’s order.

At Wisconsin Children’s located in Milwaukee, the parent of a transgender patient told TMJ4 News that the hospital said it will not be accepting new patients seeking transgender medical care but there ‘should be no changes’ to the ‘healthcare’ that their child or other current patients receive. Fox News Digital reached out to Children’s Wisconsin for comment but did not receive a response.

A spokesperson for Denver Health told Fox News Digital that while it is terminating all transgender surgeries, patients who have been receiving hormone therapy can continue to do so ‘through the end of February.’ 

While hospitals are reacting differently over what to do next, the Trump administration is being taken to court by state attorneys general, transgender patients and their families, and even a clinic providing transgender treatment. 

In a move that showed what Trump’s executive order could do when hospitals do not comply, the administration withdrew a $1.6 million grant that was supposed to go to St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles to provide funds for its transgender treatment services. While two judges recently ruled that Trump’s federal funding freeze was unlawful, the decisions do not apply to Trump’s executive order on transgender medical services that is preventing St. John’s from accessing the money, according to Cal Matters.

St. John’s intends to sue, Cal Matters noted, and will not be cutting any of its services at this time. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the clinic said Republicans ‘in particular,’ should be concerned about Trump’s ‘overreach’ and ‘attempts to create false narratives about gender-affirming care that go against decades of science.’

‘The attacks on trans health care are blatant attempts by the federal government to interfere in peoples’ private lives — including in doctor-patient relationships and in parent-child relationships — and should alarm all of us.’

President Donald Trump took to social media on Thursday morning to showcase his frenetic pace since reentering the White House on Jan. 20.

‘THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER,’ the president touted.

Trump has signed 64 executive orders since his inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any presidential predecessors during their first weeks in office.

While Trump is never shy about advertising his accomplishments, new polling indicates Americans are divided on the job he is doing so far in his second administration.

Trump stands at 48% approval and 47% disapproval in a national survey conducted for AARP.

The poll is the latest to indicate an early split when it comes to public opinion regarding Trump.

Some surveys, including Pew Research, indicate Trump’s approval ratings are slightly underwater, while others, including a poll from CBS News/YouGuv, suggest the president’s ratings are in positive territory.

Trump’s poll position among Americans stands in stark contrast to his first term in office, when he started out underwater in surveys and remained in negative territory for all four years in the White House.

‘His approval rating is higher than it was at any point in time during his first term,’ veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told Fox News.

Newhouse, pointing to the president’s frenetic pace since returning to power, noted that Americans are ‘giving him positive marks right now, based not just on the perception of what he is going to do, but what he has done already.’

The surveys are in agreement when it comes to the massive partisan divide over Trump.

The AARP poll indicates Trump holds a net approval of 83 points with Republicans, a net disapproval of 76 points among Democrats and that he is underwater by 19 points among independent voters.

‘Trump’s ratings are stronger among men, white voters, and those without college degrees. He is seen more negatively by women, Hispanic and Black voters, and those with college degrees,’ the survey’s release highlighted.

While Trump’s approval ratings for his second term are a major improvement from his first term, his numbers are below where his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, began his single term in office.

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House, with his disapproval in the upper 30s to low to mid 40s. 

However, Biden’s numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.

Biden’s approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.

Fox News’ Mary Schlageter contributed to this report.