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.
DOGE members working at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been working at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The DOGE representatives have access to payment and contracting systems but have not been given access to databases that include the identifiable personal health information of enrollees, the sources said.
CMS provides health coverage to more than 160 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Marketplace.
– ABC News' Rachel Scott, Will Steakin and Katherine Faulders
Feb 05, 2025, 4:28 PM EST
Duffy plans to make aviation 'safer' and 'more efficient' with DOGE
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed officials at the AASHTO Washington Briefing attendees Wednesday afternoon, expressing a desire for "aggressive change" and outlining some of the plans he has for the Transportation Department, particularly in regard to working with DOGE to upgrade aviation systems that was announced today.
"We're going to remake our airspace, and we're going to do it quickly, and we have the support of the Congress, I think, right now to say, you know what, we're using, like 1960s, World War II technology in much of the components of the airspace," Duffy said. "We're going to upgrade it and make sure that America has the most innovative, technologically advanced air system, air traffic control system. That's going to make it safer, and it's going to make it more efficient.”
Duffy said he spoke with Musk Tuesday, calling him a "pretty remarkable guy" who "thinks differently than … probably a lot of us."
Sean Duffy, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Transportation, testifies before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee during his confirmation hearing, Jan. 15, 2025 in Washington.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
He also spoke about the investigation the DOT will have to examine military helicopter operations, improve safety and address air traffic control shortages.
Duffy said the department will consider whether military helicopters should be restricted to different times of the day -- or whether they should be flown at all.
"Get in a damn suburban and drive you don't need to take a helicopter. We need a whole upgrade of the airspace," he said.
– ABC News' Ayesha Ali
Feb 05, 2025, 4:19 PM EST
Trump signs executive order banning transgender athletes in women's sports
Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes in women's sports Wednesday afternoon, telling the crowd, "The war on women's sports is over," and fulfilling a promise that was at the center of his 2024 campaign.
"We've gotten the woke lunacy out of our military. And now we're very importantly getting it out of women's sports," he said in his opening remarks.
President Donald Trump speaks at an event, where he will sign an executive order banning transgender girls and women from participating in women's sports, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, Feb. 5, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
The order will establish sweeping mandates on sex and sports policy and will direct federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to interpret federal Title IX rules as prohibiting the participation of transgender girls and women in female sports categories, according to a White House document on the executive order obtained by ABC News.
Two House Democrats barged into speaker's office during Bessent meeting
As House Speaker Mike Johnson was meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Republicans' plan on taxes, two House Democrats -- Reps. Judy Chu of California and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin -- barged into the speaker’s office to confront Johnson about the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Treasury Department payment systems.
"This is unprecedent. It is illegal," Moore said.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson holds a bill signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act in the US Capitol in Washington, Jan. 23, 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
"Now we have a young man who has walked into the Treasury Department -- stuck in a thumb drive that can be used on remote laptop computers. And we don’t know why they’ve accessed this information, what information that they have, including sensitive military spending and activities. We don’t know. And what was most disturbing to me is that the speaker has no idea what they are doing," Moore added.
Chu said she got in the speaker’s office right behind Moore -- who was confronting Johnson about the treasury secretary.
Johnson paused his meeting with Bessent to speak with the two Democrats in his private office.
