Trump becomes the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl.
President Donald Trump's second administration continued its swift recasting of the federal government, prompting pushback from Democrats and legal challenges.
The president said Sunday that he will announce tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum on Monday but didn't say when they'll take effect.
Trump, meanwhile, is at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday night to take in the Super Bowl. Trump picked the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in an interview aired before the game on Fox.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. "stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again," hours after President Donald Trump, in a stunning proposal, said he wanted the U.S. to "take over" the Gaza Strip.
Rubio, who is traveling in South America, posted his message on X.
The buyout offered to federal employees last week was extended to the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday, according to information first reported in the Washington Post and confirmed by ABC News.
The “deferred resignation” offer, as the White House calls it, had originally exempted federal employees in the national security sector.
However, a CIA spokesperson told ABC News that the newly installed director, John Ratcliffe, wanted to ensure his workforce was “responsive to the Administration's national security priorities" and said that “these moves are part of a holistic strategy to infuse the Agency with renewed energy, provide opportunities for rising leaders to emerge, and better position the CIA to deliver on its mission."
A U.S. official also told ABC News that the offer will not be open to everyone at the spy agency. The official explained that there will be a review process of applicants, and if an employee is working a "priority target," then they may not be able to take the buyout.
-ABC News' Cindy Smith
Three unions representing a combined 800,000 federal civil servants are suing the Trump administration over its plan to offer buyouts to federal employees, arguing that it "threatens employees" to take the "arbitrary" offer.
The three unions – the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – argue that the Office of Personnel Management failed to provide a legal basis for the buyout offer, leaving open the possibility that the government might not follow through with the buyout once federal employees agree to resign.
The lawsuit also argues the buyout’s promise of payments through September violates the law, because the current appropriation for federal agencies expires in March. Moreover, the buyout is unfair, the lawsuit argues, because it was made alongside a threat of future layoffs.
“To leverage employees into accepting the offer and resigning, the Fork Directive threatens employees with eventual job loss in the event that they refuse to resign,” the lawsuit said.
Overall, the lawsuit alleged that OPM rushed the offer with a questionable legal basis, largely mimicking Elon Musk’s management style following his takeover of Twitter.
The lawsuit comes as at least 20,000 federal workers -- roughly 1% of the civilian federal workforce -- have accepted the deferred resignation offer since last week, ABC News reported.
-ABC News' Peter Charalambous
Senate Democrats are beginning to weigh in on President Donald Trump's assertion on Tuesday that the United States should "take over" Gaza.
The earliest reactions are those of outrage, with Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota calling the suggestion "horrifying" during a CNN interview on Tuesday night.
"He seems to be completely ignoring the sovereignty and the self-determination of the Palestinian people who have lived in this place for generations, and he's got his eye on some real estate deal because he thinks the coastline of Gaza is going to be great for some new hotel," Smith said. "I mean it's just ridiculous right? It's just ridiculous."
Some, including Smith, asserted that Trump's comments regarding Gaza were meant to distract from Elon Musk being given access to the Treasury's federal payment system.
"I have news for you - we aren’t taking over Gaza. But the media and the chattering class will focus on it for a few days and Trump will have succeeded in distracting everyone from the real story - the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people," Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote in a post on X.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the idea "crazy—but catastrophic" on X, while also noting that it was "deeply destructive" to even suggest it.
Arizona's Sen. Ruben Gallego went so far as to call the president a "warmonger" and asked in a social media post, "What happed to the 'anti war' President?"
No Republican senators have yet publicly issued comments on Trump's remarks concerning Gaza.
-ABC News' Allie Pecorin
