Trump expected to sign executive order making English the official US language
Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is expected to sign a historic executive order designating English as the United States’ official language, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.
The order marks the first time the country has ever had a national language.
The executive order rescinds a Clinton-era mandate that required agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide extensive language assistance to non-English speakers. Under the new order, agencies will have the flexibility to decide how and when to offer services in languages other than English.
It’s not yet clear when Trump is expected to sign the executive order.
The move comes amid Trump’s crusade to curb government support for programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. On his first day in office, the president signed an order directing federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants or contracts and later signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI.
The White House is defending the action, saying that while hundreds of languages are spoken across the United States, English is the most widely used. Also, the White House maintains that establishing a national language unifies the country and its citizens.
“Establishing English as the official language promotes unity, establishes efficiency in government operations, and creates a pathway for civic engagement,” the White House wrote in a memo provided to ABC News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates
(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers from both political parties invoked China as a potential winner in international development as the U.S. reviews its foreign assistance programs and non-governmental organizations funded largely by American grants await answers on the fate of funds critical to their missions abroad.
An official for the demining authority in Cambodia on Thursday said he received a notification to “demobilize staff members and operational teams under the support of the U.S.” starting on March 1, calling the loss of the partnership a “critical situation.”
Grantees in Cambodia were ordered to stop work via an email on Jan. 26 from the State Department office which has since 1993 dispersed grants globally to remove landmines and unexploded ordnance.
A State Department spokesperson told ABC News that “each program is undergoing a review with the goal of restructuring assistance to serve U.S. interests,” including the demining grants from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.
In its 2024 annual report, the office said the U.S. was the world’s “top supporter” of weapons destruction projects, including landmine clearance.
‘Clearing unexploded ordnance here for 100 years’
U.S. grants fund 30% of demining work in Cambodia, a vital nationwide effort in the southeast Asian country to remove landmines from its brutal civil war and unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. in the Vietnam War, said Bill Morse, chairman of Cambodian Self-Help Demining.
“We’ll be clearing unexploded ordnance here for 100 years,” he said to ABC News via video call from Cambodia.
In a statement, Heng Ratana, the director of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), which oversees demining operations in the country, pointed to other countries in Asia — such as China and Japan — and western nations like Germany and Canada who continue to fund the Cambodian authority on demining.
CMAC estimates the country is laden with as many as 4 to 6 million landmines and other unexploded ordnance. Nearly 20,000 people have been killed — and 10,000 more have had amputations because of their injuries — in explosions, according to HALO Trust, a leading NGO.
Non-governmental organizations that work in coordination with CMAC are looking for new funding sources amid uncertainty during the freeze, said Morse, whose NGO has received grants from the State Department since 2009.
“We’ll take money from anyone if they help us clear landmines. I’m not going to be picky about it,” Morse said.
Demining is viewed as a key link between the U.S. and Cambodia, a developing nation that has increasingly relied on China for infrastructure investments and is an ally of Beijing.
Flying the American flag in the field
Demining “is a highly visible demonstration of American support for a country,” Morse said. “We fly the American flag in the field. Our uniforms carry the American flag on it. The helmets that we wear have the American flag on it.”
“Most people in the country, in the countryside, what they know of the United States is what we’re doing in the field … They’ve never seen an ambassador in their life. I may be the only American they ever meet.”
China, which has been a partner on demining efforts in Cambodia, dispersed $4.4 million to the demining authority last week, CMAC announced.
Democrats and Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee sparred over U.S. foreign assistance in a Thursday hearing focused on USAID programs, which Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said are “indefensible” and “literally betray America.”
“Your money would’ve been better off if it had simply been thrown into a fireplace,” Mast said to open the hearing.
Yet members from both parties pointed to the rising influence of China, alarmed that China could open a spigot of cash for international aid in areas where U.S. programs cease. “It counters China,” former Republican Rep. Ted Yoho testified, describing development work. “If we’re not there, China will be there.”
Strategic competition with China
The top Republican and Democrat on the panel’s East Asia subcommittee framed the assistance issue in terms of strategic competition with China.
“I worry about what’s happening in the Pacific Islands … we’re ceding our influence there,” said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif. “We’re already seeing China step in and take things over.”
Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., like Bera invoked demining work, citing “reports of CCP officials signaling their willingness to replace USAID in Nepal and demining activities in Cambodia.”
“Even critics of USAID acknowledge the critical soft power value of targeted and efficient programming,” she said.
A House Democratic staffer told ABC News that recipient countries, including allies, of U.S. assistance will be left with little choice but to turn to China.
The U.S. has engaged in Ghana “in part” to limit China’s gains, the staffer said, calling it “a really good U.S. partner” that now has a $156 million gap for which to compensate.
“They don’t want to work with China more. But when you have a country that has such a liquidity crisis — they have a new president, and now they have this huge funding gap — what do you expect them to do?” the staffer asked.
All three expert witnesses at Thursday’s committee hearing agreed that China represents a counterweight to the U.S. in international development.
“The U.S. has owned the space,” the Democratic staffer said, noting Russia’s recent work on mpox and ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, low-visibility assistance that could become more apparent if the U.S. pulls back permanently.
Yoho said good programs run by USAID and the State Department should be “back online as soon as possible” and “mission-driven” projects should be prioritized.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, 17 former ambassadors to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos called for Rubio “to end the 90 day stop work order for U.S. foreign assistance programming that suspends U.S.-funded mine clearance programs” via “a waiver or quick and affirmative review.”
The diplomats said in their letter that U.S.-funded demining work advances national security by ensuring bad actors do not weaponize explosive materials and by fostering important connections in defense and economics.
“As former Ambassadors, we can attest that these programs helped us advance US interests by generating goodwill and providing access to senior government officials,” they wrote.
In its statement to ABC News, the State Department said it was standing up a coordination team to ensure the review of foreign assistance was “accountable” and “transparen[t].”
“Programs that serve our nation’s interests will continue,” the spokesperson said. “However, programs that aren’t aligned with our national interest will not.”
The stakes are life-and-death, Morse said.
“What’s going to happen is, [there’s a] very good chance people are going to die. Next month, they’re going to walk into an area that should have been cleared this month.”
“They’re going to step on a landmine, blow their leg off and bleed out,” he said.
About 81% of cleared land is used for farming, 15% for schools and hospitals and housing, and 4% for energy infrastructure, according to Morse, creating a key second-order effect of development.
“Clearing landmines doesn’t simply save lives,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate is poised to hold a vote to confirm Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of defense, late Friday evening.
Though Hegseth’s nomination has faced scrutiny from a number of Senate Republicans, it is likely that he will have the votes to be confirmed with the support of only Republicans when his nomination comes up for final consideration before the upper chamber.
Hegseth, a former “Fox and Friends” television anchor, was nominated by Trump in November to lead the Defense Department. In the time since his nomination was announced, Hegseth has been scrutinized for a number of accusations made against him, including those of sexual assault and financial mismanagement of two different veterans organizations.
Hegseth has fiercely denied the allegations. He appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for a public hearing earlier this month, where he asserted to the panel that he was a “changed man.”
“I am not a perfect person, but redemption is real,” he told the panel.
During the same hearing, he affirmed his promise to restore the “warfighting ethos” of the DOD, touting his experience in the National Guard.
It was enough to win over the support of most Republicans in the Senate, including several of those who were initially skeptical.
“He articulated a clear vision of the Pentagon, and it was clear to anyone who listened that he is going to bring energy and fresh ideas to shake up the department’s stagnant bureaucracy,” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a floor speech endorsing Hegseth on Thursday. “He will restore a warfighting ethos and relentlessly focused on the military’s core mission: to deter conflict and, if necessary, to win a war.”
The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced his nomination on a party-line vote on Monday. Then, in a closely watched moment on Thursday, Hegseth’s nomination passed a key test vote that set the table for Friday’s vote of final passage.
The nomination only required a simple majority in the Senate to advance, and it cleared the threshold narrowly, with only GOP backing.
But Hegseth did lose the support of two Senate Republicans during that Thursday vote. Those two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, are once again expected to cast votes against Hegseth during a final vote on Friday.
In a statement, Murkowski explained that she could not support Hegseth due to concerns about this character and lack of experience.
“I believe that character is the defining trait required of the Secretary of Defense and must be prioritized without compromise,” Murkowski said in the post. “The leader of the Department of Defense must demonstrate and model the standards of behavior and character we expect of all servicemembers, and Mr. Hegseth’s nomination to the role poses significant concerns that I cannot overlook.”
Collins took issue with comments Hegseth made in the past about his belief that women should not serve in combat roles in the military. Though Hegseth has since changed his tune on that, Collins said she was unconvinced.
“I am also concerned about multiple statements, including some in the months just before he was nominated, that Mr. Hegseth has made about women serving in the military,” Collins said. “He and I had a candid conversation in December about his past statements and apparently evolving views. I am not convinced that his position on women serving in combat roles has changed.”
Trump expressed confidence in Hegseth ahead of the vote on Friday, though he added, “You’ll never know what’s going to happen.”
Two other closely watched Republicans, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former GOP leader, and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, ultimately cast votes in favor of advancing Hegseth’s nomination, though there’s still a chance they change their views during Friday’s final vote, and the president questioned whether McConnell will vote no on Hegseth Friday morning.
Tillis, for example, said he’s still considering the most recent slate of allegations against Hegseth, leveled in an affidavit from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law Danielle Hegseth. In that affidavit, which ABC News obtained, Danielle Hegseth attested that Pete Hegseth’s ex-wife Samantha told her she “once hid in her closet from Hegseth because she feared for her personal safety” in the home they shared during their marriage. It also detailed episodes of binge drinking by Pete Hegseth.
An attorney for Pete Hegseth denied these allegations, and allegations of abuse were also rejected by his ex-wife.
Tillis said he so far has not found credible evidence to back many of the allegations that have be levied against Pete Hegseth but that he’s still doing his vetting on these most recent developments.
“I am in the process of completing due diligence on what appears to be the last allegation. All the other ones I couldn’t conclude had validity,” Tillis said Thursday. “So I’m talking to people that can give me data inputs. It all goes back to the same thing — first-hand, eye-witness, corroborated account.”
Pete Hegseth can afford to lose three Republicans when he is voted on later Friday. If one more Republican flips his or her vote, he will need the tiebreaking vote of Vice President J.D. Vance to be confirmed.
Preisdent Donald Trump attends a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, June 12, 2017. (Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump held the first Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday and In the room, and at times taking center stage, was Elon Musk.
For little more than an hour, Trump sought to tout his administration’s work so far and fielded questions on everything from the status of Musk’s efforts to force federal firings to negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite not being a member of the Cabinet, Musk has outsized influence in the administration as he oversees the Department of Government Efficiency’s work to reduce the size and scope of the government.
“We put together a great Cabinet,” Trump said as he began the meeting. “And we’ve had tremendous success.”
Here are key takeaways from the gathering.
Elon Musk in the spotlight
Musk was the first to speak at the meeting after Trump’s introduction. Donning a “Tech Support” t-shirt and a black “Make America Great Again” cap, Musk stood in the corner of the room to talk about DOGE.
Musk defended the entity’s controversial actions, saying the overall goal is to cut the deficit and warned if cuts aren’t made the country will “become de facto bankrupt.”
“That’s the reason I’m here. And taking a lot of flack, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way,” he said.
His presence among Trump’s agency heads came amid confusion stemming from a Musk-directed ultimatum to federal workers to list their weekly accomplishments or possibly face termination. Senior White House officials were initially caught off guard, ABC News reported, when Musk first posted about the directive and it’s since created tension among Cabinet members as multiple agency heads told employees to hold off on replying.
When Musk was asked by a reporter if any Cabinet members were unhappy, Trump interrupted.
“Is anybody unhappy with Elon?” Trump said to the group, many of whom started laughing.”If you are, we’ll throw him out of here. Is anybody unhappy? They have a lot of respect for Elon and that he’s doing this,” as members started applauding.
1 million workers ‘on the bubble’
Trump said federal employees who didn’t respond to Musk’s email are on a firing “bubble.”
“I’d like to add that those million people that haven’t responded though Elon, they are on the bubble. You know, I wouldn’t say that we’re thrilled about it,” Trump said. He went on to claim, without evidence, that maybe those employees “don’t exist.”
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked Trump about his interest in doing another round of emails demanding federal workers’ accomplishments and what the requirements would be.
“I think Elon wants to, and I think it’s a good idea because, you know, those people, as I said before, they’re on the bubble,” he responded, emphasizing his desire to find out if workers exist,” Trump said.
Not ‘much’ in security guarantees for Ukraine
Trump signaled the United States will not be providing much in security guarantees to Ukraine — a key factor for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in any agreement to bring the conflict to a close.
“Well, I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond, very much,” Trump said. “We’re going to have Europe do that because it’s in you know, we’re talking about Europe is the next-door neighbor, but we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”
Trump later said the mineral resources deal between the U.S. and Ukraine will be “automatic security” because the U.S. will be investing in the nation, suggesting that would be a barrier to Russia.
“Nobody’s going to be messing around with people when we’re there,” Trump said. “And so we’ll be there in that way.”
Trump says Putin will have to make concessions
After weeks of public statements on what Ukraine will likely have to sacrifice in negotiations, including their goal of returning to pre-war borders, Trump indicated for the first time that Russia’s Vladimir Putin may have to make concessions.
“Yeah, he will. He’s going to have to,” Trump said of Putin.
Notably, he did not elaborate on what those would be.
When later asked what concessions Putin would have to make, Trump shifted toward Ukraine and said they could “forget” about NATO membership.
Medicaid and Social Security to be left ‘untouched’
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked Trump about the budget bill that passed in the House Tuesday night — which includes a goal of at least $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory federal spending — and whether Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security would be cut.
“I have said it so many times … This won’t be read my lips anymore. We’re not going to touch it,” Trump responded, echoing the statement George H.W. Bush famously made about “no new taxes” and then later had to reverse.
Trump claimed that there would be a reduction in fraud in those programs. Trump has echoed false claims stemming from Musk that dead Americans are receiving Social Security.
Experts told ABC News that is not true, and that Musk is misreading Social Security’s network of databases when he claims 200-year-olds are in the system.
Trump vows tariffs on the European Union
Trump stressed that he is still planning to push tariffs on foreign countries to improve the economy and claimed the European Union in particular left the U.S. with billions in debt and was formed to “screw the United States.”
“We have made a decision, will be announcing it very soon and it’ll be 25%, generally speaking, and that’ll be on cars and all other things,” he said.
Trump said the tariffs against Mexico and Canada are expected to go into effect next week on April 2, after a monthlong pause.
But then Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested another pause may be possible based on fentanyl prevention and progress on the border.
“If they can prove to the president they’ve done an excellent job,” Lutnick said. Trump quickly jumped in: “It’s going to be hard to satisfy.”
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira and Emily Chang contributed to this report.
