Trump agrees USAID should be shut down — Musk – DW – 02/03/2025

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Monday called US President Donald Trump’s demand that NATO allies spend 5% of GDP on defense, “unaffordable.”

Speaking with German public broadcaster ZDF, Pistorius said, “We don’t have to jump every time Donald Trump tells us to.”

Still, Pistorius said EU countries would have to exceed Trump’s previous calls for 2% GDP spending on defense due to threat posed by Vladimir Putin at the bloc’s doorstep. “In view of the new threat that Putin brings, it is absolutely clear that 2% cannot be enough. It must be significantly more,” he said.

Pistorius said spending must be increased to sustainable levels, hinting at 3-4%, and aimed at expanding the European defense industry.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Sunday called on Germany to increase military spending: “We must prepare for war. This is the best way to avoid war.”
 

The European Union must remain united to respond to US President Donald Trump’s threats to levy tariffs on its products, Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Monday.

The EU was open to trade and in favor of a globalized world market, Cuerpo said in an interview with Spanish radio, according to Reuters news agency. 

The bloc should not be “naive” and protect its companies and should make sure they were in a position to compete in equal conditions with rivals from other countries, he said.

Cuerpo’s comments came a day after Trump repeated his threat to impose tariffs on European goods. 

On Sunday, the US president said that new tariffs on the EU will “definitely happen.”

in the past months, Trump has warned that the EU needed to purchase more oil and gas from the US to make up for the bloc’s trade deficit with the US.

The US was the most common destination for good exported from the EU in 2023, according to the European Commission.

The UK looks like it may escape Donald Trump’s tariff cudgel, according to comments the US president made to BBC early Monday. 

“The UK is out of line, but I’m sure that one … I think that one can be worked out,” he told the broadcaster. Trump said that he and Prime Minister Kier Starmer have: “had a couple of meetings. We’ve had numerous phone calls. We’re getting along very well.”

A UK government spokesperson said of the threat of tariffs, “The US is an indispensable ally and one of our closest trading partners, and we have a fair and balanced trading relationship which benefits both sides of the Atlantic.”

Prime Minister Starmer, however, was cautious when speaking to reporters on Sunday, saying: “It is early days. What I want to see is strong trading relations. In the discussions that I have had with President Trump, that is what we have centered on — a strong trading relationship.”

Unlike other partners, the UK has no trade deficit with the US. 

The situation for the EU is different, with Trump railing about how unfairly the bloc treats the US. He said Washington will “definitely” level tariffs on the EU, calling the US trade deficit with the bloc “an atrocity,” and noting, “they take almost nothing from us and we take everything from them.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk formed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in cooperation with the new Trump administration with the goal of streamlining government efficiency and slashing federal regulations.

Renaming the Obama-era US Digital Service as the US DOGE Service was among the barrage of executive orders that US President Donald Trump signed on his first day back in the Oval Office.

Deviating from initial announcements that DOGE would operate as an external advisory body staffed by volunteers, the newly created DOGE has been designated as a “temporary organization” within the Executive Office of the President, scheduled to sunset on July 4, 2026.

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that members of DOGE have been granted access to the federal payments system that distributes Social Security benefits and tax benefits to millions of Americans.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Washington where he is expected to begin talks on Monday on negotiating a second phase of the truce with Hamas as he meets with the new Trump administration. 

Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to visit US President Donald Trump since his inauguration last week. “I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” the Israeli prime minister said on Sunday before his departure. 

Netanyahu also told reporters that “victory over Hamas, contending with Iran and the freedom of all hostages” would be discussed in his expected meeting with Trump on Tuesday.

According to his office, Netanyahu will begins talk on Monday with Trump’s Middle East Ambassador Steve Witkof over the conditions for the next phase of the ceasefire. 

Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have both claimed credit for the Gaza ceasefire deal after 15 month sof a devastating war. On Sunday, Trump said that mediations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were “progressing.”

“Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled,” the US president said.

Tech billionare Elon Musk said Monday that President Donald Trump agrees with his idea of shutting down US foreign aid agency USAID.

Musk on Sunday called the organization a “criminal organization,” reitering his stance on Monday.

Musk on Sunday was responding to the news that senior officials at USAID attempted to block representatives from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from gaining access to restricted parts of the building.

The Trump administration since removed two top security officials there, putting them on administrative leave, the New York Times reported.

USAID provides humanitarian assistance to countries impacted by conflicts and assists developing countries in many ways. 

In fiscal year 2023, the US disbursed $72 billion of assistance worldwide on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments and anti-corruption work.

It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024.

Thousands of people marched in southern California to protest against mass deportations planned by US President Donald Trump.

On Sunday afternoon, protesters blocked the US 101 highway in Los Angeles.

It took over five hours for the highway to fully reopen, California Highway Patrol officer Matt Gutierrez was cited by the Associated Press as saying.

The CHP and the Los Angeles Police Department said there had been no reports of arrests.

US President Donald Trump said that he was reconsidering the future of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

“[USAID] has been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out… and then we’ll make a decision (on its future),” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk called USAID a “criminal organization” in a post on his platform X.

The Reuters and Associated Press news agencies reported that two top security chiefs at USAID were put on leave after they refused to hand over classified material to members of Musk’s advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

USAID is an independent agency established by an act of Congress and manages a budget of €41.8 billion ($42.8 billion) meant for humanitarian relief and development assistance around the world.

Trump ordered a foreign aid freeze on his first day in office.

FBI employees were ordered to answer a detailed list of questions about any work they may have done related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

It comes two days after Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove fired eight senior FBI officials.

Bove also wrote a memo demanding that the FBI send him a list of every employee who worked on criminal cases pertaining to the attack on the Capitol.

As one of his first official acts following his inauguration, President Donald Trump pardoned almost all 1,600 people who had been criminally charged over their involvement in storming the Capitol.

Those pardoned were mostly Trump supporters who believed Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election, in which he lost to former President Joe Biden, was fraudulent.

US President Donald Trump said he would end funding to South Africa due to alleged mistreatment of “certain classes of people.” 

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” he said.

Trump did not provide evidence for the assertion or specify which group of people was being affected by the alleged mistreatment.

The United States sent nearly $440 million (€430 million) in assistance to South Africa in 2023, according to US government data.

Last month South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a bill that stipulated that the government could expropriate property without compensation under certain circumstances.

In 2018, during Trump’s first term, he accused South Africa of “seizing land from white farmers” and spoke of “large scale killing of farmers” amid Pretoria’s plans to enact land reform

US President Donald Trump said that he was planning on holding talks with leaders of Canada and Mexico on Monday.

He also told reporters that he would slap Europe with tariffs “very soon.”

Trump had previously referred to the EU as a “mini China,”promising to pass a “Trump reciprocal trade act” targeting the bloc.

Trump’s Sunday statement comes after he imposed 25% tariffs on its two closest neighbors.

The president’s order also imposed a 10% duty on goods from China.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed retaliatory tariffs in response.

sdi/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)