Biden gives farewell remarks: ‘We’re not leaving the fight’
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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Joe Biden told his staffers, “We’re not leaving the fight,” during farewell remarks following Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Biden referenced President Donald Trump’s inauguration remarks, which offered a scathing rebuke of the Biden administration while laying out Trump’s immediate plans upon returning to office.
“We have a lot more to do. We heard the inaugural address today,” Biden said in his remarks at Joint Base Andrews before getting on a plane with former first lady Jill Biden.
“We’ve got a lot more to do,” Biden continued, before making the sign of the cross to laughs.
The former president urged his staffers to stay “engaged,” whether that’s in the public or private sector, academia or running for office themselves.
“We’re leaving office, but we’re not leaving the fight,” Biden said. “You’re smart, you’re skilled, you’re passionate and the country needs you again.”
He said his dad taught him that a measure of a person is how quickly they get back up after getting knocked down.
“That’s what we have to do right now. We’ve always done our best as Americans. We never, never, never give up, ever,” he said.
He said he hopes his staffers look back on the past four years with “the same pride I have of all you’ve done.”
“You did it upholding core values of honesty, decency, integrity,” he said. “You represent the best of who we are as Americans. And that’s not a joke. That’s real.”
Biden also expressed optimism that their term wouldn’t be undone.
“Just as I’ve said of the laws we’ve enacted, our seeds are gonna grow and bloom for decades to come,” he said.
He closed by expressing his gratitude for his staffers and their families and the chance to serve with them.
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years, you’re the best group of people,” Biden said to cheers. “It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president.”
He also quoted from the Seamus Heaney poem, “The Cure at Troy,” saying, “Once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice will rise up and hope and history rhyme.”
“You made it rhyme louder than it’s rhymed in a long time,” he said. “We’re on the cusp of real change, so let’s help hope and history rhyme.”
(WASHINGTON) — The theme of President Donald Trump’s high-profile address to Congress and the nation on Tuesday night is “Renewal of the American Dream,” but he’s also expected to remark on what his second-term agenda may mean for the rest of the world.
According to a White House official, the president will lay out his vision for “peace around the globe.”
“He’s going to dive into foreign policy, talk about his intention to end the war in Ukraine, talk about his plan to bring all of the hostages out of Gaza home,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Tuesday.
But the president’s speech comes at a particularly contentious time. The aftermath of his heated Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy still hangs over Washington, and there are signs that both Israel and Hamas may be preparing to resume fighting as the future of the Gaza ceasefire deal appears to be in jeopardy.
And as the Trump administration levies new tariffs against adversaries and allies alike after turning U.S. foreign policy on its head during his first six weeks back in office, the international community will be listening closely as fellow work leaders try to divine what the next four years may have in store.
Here are some things to watch for:
Will Trump mend his rocky relationship with Ukraine?
After Trump expelled Zelenskyy from the White House and declared the Ukrainian leader was “not ready for peace,” his administration paused the pipeline of U.S. military assistance to the country — further ramping up pressure on Kyiv.
Zelenskyy initially declined to apologize to Trump, but in an address on Tuesday, he called the meeting “regrettable,” adding, “It is time to make things right.”
As part of that, he proposed a partial ceasefire with Russia that he said Ukraine would be willing to implement immediately.
“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree a strong final deal,” he declared.
But whether this is enough to get back in the president’s good graces remains to be seen.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said later on Tuesday there is still “an open door” for Zelenskyy, while applauding Trump.
“This is the end result of what happens when you make it clear to someone that there is one way to move forward,” she said.
A positive sign for Zelenskyy emerged Tuesday afternoon, when two sources briefed on discussions inside the White House told ABC News that the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the mineral deal that was supposed to be inked on Friday as soon as Tuesday.
One source said Trump indicated he would like to sign the deal before the speech but cautioned nothing is final.
But if Zelenskyy’s comments aren’t ultimately enough for the president, it’s possible he could go even further — potentially by attempting to cut off Ukraine from shipments of new weapons from American arm suppliers that were already paid for with money given to Kyiv by the Biden administration or by halting intelligence-sharing with the country.
Others have said they feel like no matter what, the damage has already been done.
“By canceling military aid to Ukraine, Trump doesn’t make peace any closer. It’s not even a blackmailing but rather conscious pressure on Ukraine to capitulate to Russia’s demands, after which Trump can “declare peace,” said Mariia Zolkina, the head of regional security and conflict studies at Ukraine’s Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank.
“[Trump] can’t make a good deal now and defines Ukraine as ‘guilty’ for this,” she added.
Can the fragile peace in the Middle East last?
After members of his incoming administration worked with members of the Biden administration to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza, Trump was able to reenter the White House with a major diplomatic win already under his belt.
Now, 44 days after that agreement went into effect, it seems to be at greater risk of falling apart than ever.
Israel revealed on Sunday that the U.S. had offered up another proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which would significantly speed up the release of hostages.
After Hamas rejected the plan, Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, a move the Trump administration has backed but other key mediators, such as Egypt and Qatar, have decried as a violation of humanitarian law.
The State Department said on Monday that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, is planning to travel to the Middle East this week and that he would seek either to “work out a way to extend phase I or advance to phase II” of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
Trump’s address on Tuesday may offer clarity on what the president would actually like to see happen next in the peace process — beyond his outlandish plan to build what has called the “Riviera of the Middle East” in Gaza.
If the Israel-Hamas war doesn’t get airtime during Trump’s speech, that, too, could be telling about the president’s focus. But on Tuesday, Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to “underscore that the United States’ steadfast support for Israel is a top priority for President Trump,” according to the State Department.
How will Trump handle the tariffs trouble?
On the day of Trump’s address, the president’s long-threatened 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico went into effect, prompting both countries to vow to take retaliatory economic measures — and subsequently leading to the president promising to raise tariffs further.
At the same time, the U.S. introduced another 10% tariff on Chinese imports, and Beijing hit back with its own tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and other measures targeting American business interests.
The immediate impact of the multifront trade wars has been a blow to the U.S. stock market, which Trump often uses as a barometer of his own success.
Economists say U.S. consumers may feel the crunch from tariffs more acutely as time goes on, as retailers are expected to offset costs by raising prices.
Beyond inflating prices, Joshua P. Meltzer, a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, argued the tariffs will also run counter to the Trump administration’s other economic aims.
“These tariffs will also harm the Trump administration’s goal of developing more secure supply chains and competing with China,” he said. “The tariffs are directly at odds with deeper economic integration across North America. In fact, China will benefit from a trade war across North America as it undercuts efforts to reshore supply chains away from China.”
Meltzer also said the move will hurt American credibility.
“They signal to the world that any international agreement with the U.S. is not worth all that much, raising difficult questions for all U.S. allies and trading partners about the value of trade agreements with the U.S.,” he said.
Trump’s address will provide a high-stakes opportunity for the president either to alleviate or exacerbate those concerns among U.S. trading partners.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Rachel Scott as contributors.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump’s administration guts the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), former federal workers are being told to say goodbye to their desks — and to do so quickly.
USAID leadership sent an email to agency staffers on Tuesday instructing them that they will have 15 minutes to enter their former offices at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C., to retrieve their personal belongings.
“This Thursday and Friday ONLY–on February 27 and 28, 2025 –USAID staff will have one opportunity to retrieve their personal belongings,” the message reads, which was also posted to USAID’s government website.
“Staff will be given approximately 15 minutes to complete this retrieval and must be finished removing items within their time slot only,” the message continues.
The email includes a timetable giving staff a window in which they can collect their belongings based on their bureau or independent office.
For some, the timeframe is as long as an hour and a half; for others, it’s just half an hour.
The email also contains a lengthy list of prohibited items that USAID staff are not allowed to bring onto the premises, including BB guns, drills, knives, sabers, swords, nunchucks, ski poles, chlorine and liquid bleach.
According to the message, the items referenced “are, and have always been, prohibited from entering the Ronald Reagan Building facility through a security screening post,” which is typically only used by uncredentialled visitors who are subject to additional rules and regulations.
Several USAID officials told ABC News that including this list illustrates how agency employees who dedicated their professional lives to foreign assistance are now being treated like violent criminals.
“It sounds like they think we’re going to try to stage a Jan. 6-style ‘peaceful protest’,” an official said.
The latest directive from USAID leadership comes as 1,600 workers in the humanitarian aid bureau received termination notices over the weekend and thousands more abroad were put on administrative leave.
Prior to Trump’s second administration, more than 10,000 people worked at USAID.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reinstate former Department of Education employees who were critical to the nation’s federal student aid process or else borrowers will suffer “dire consequences,” according to a letter Warren sent to McMahon on Wednesday.
“The Department of Education (ED) appears to be abandoning the millions of parents, students, and borrowers who rely on a functioning federal student aid system to lower education costs,” Warren and a group of Democratic senators wrote in a letter to McMahon.
“ED should immediately restore all fired [Federal Student Aid] employees responsible for reviewing student aid complaints and refrain from taking any measures to deter the submission of complaints,” the senators added.
The Education Department intended to remove the “Submit a Complaint” button from FSA’s website, according to the letter. It found a senior employee at the department called the move an “overall win” as the change would decrease the volume and number of complaints. But more than 90% of the office’s complaints were submitted online last year.
“ED’s actions will hurt parents trying to understand how to submit the FAFSA correctly so that they can afford to send their child to college, veterans whose loan repayment status has been processed incorrectly due to their deployment, and students whose aid is being improperly withheld by predatory for-profit schools,” the letter said.
The letter alleges the FSA website changes — like moving the submit a complaint function — weakens FSA’s capacity to resolve complaints and puts borrowers at risk of loan scams. Warren, D-Mass., and the senators demand answers about the agency’s complaint backlog, why the department fired the civil servants, and how much influence Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency had on the firings.
“Donald Trump is telling students that if you’re scammed by your student loan servicer or have a problem getting the aid you need to go to college, he doesn’t care,” Warren said in a statement to ABC News. “Secretary McMahon is helping Trump rip opportunities away from kids who just want a good education, and as a result, real people will get hurt. Democrats in the Senate are not going to roll over and give up on our kids — we’re fighting back,” Warren added.
This comes as President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to gut the U.S. Department of Education at the White House on Wednesday, multiple sources familiar told ABC News. The president’s order will direct McMahon to take all necessary steps permitted by law to dissolve department, according to the sources familiar. It would take 60 votes in the Senate to dismantle the agency that Congress created.
The education department took its first steps to eliminate nearly half the agency’s workforce last week through a massive reduction in force, deferred resignations and retirement buyouts, according to the agency. After a federal judge ordered that former probationary employees be reinstated, dozens were rehired. A source familiar told ABC News that most of the reduction in force impacted the offices for Civil Rights and Federal Student Aid. FSA civil servants are tasked with helping the nation’s students achieve higher education, including overseeing a $1.6 trillion portfolio of student loans.
FSA received nearly 300,000 complaints in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the letter. The office had about 1,400 employees before the layoffs and hundreds will be lost after last week’s cuts.=
Still, the department will continue to administer its statutory functions that students from disadvantaged backgrounds rely on, including grants, formula funding and loans, McMahon stressed recently.
“We wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people, the good people, to make sure that the outward-facing programs, the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met and none of that is going to fall through the cracks,” she said on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News.
FSA’s operations have already been impacted, according to a source familiar. The federal student loan website was down briefly last week. Less than 24 hours after being fired, IT employees were called frantically to join an hours-long troubleshooting call, according to the source.
Throughout President Joe Biden’s tenure there were widespread issues with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form. During a House Committee on Appropriations hearing last spring former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the department was working on fixing the botched rollout of the form “around the clock.” McMahon’s department touted a 50% increase on the number of FAFSA applications submitted compared to this time last year.
Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the ranking member on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, were among the 11 lawmakers who signed the letter. The deadline for the administration to respond is March 25.
A former FSA attorney, who did oversight and enforcement in the borrower defense unit, said they were heartbroken when they were let go from their dream job on Valentine’s Day.
Since the checks stopped coming in last month, the former employee said it’s been difficult living on unemployment benefits. The former employee described making about a fifth of what they brought in before being fired.
However, they said the letter to McMahon gives them renewed hope.
“If I could get my job back I would take it in a heartbeat,” the former FSA attorney told ABC News, adding, “I loved the work that we did.”
