Trump’s inauguration moving indoors due to weather
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump said his inauguration will move indoors Monday and he’ll be sworn in inside the Capitol Rotunda due to the freezing weather expected in Washington, D.C.
“The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!”
“We will open Capital One Arena on Monday for LIVE viewing of this Historic event, and to host the Presidential Parade,” Trump said. “I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In.”
This inauguration is forecast to be the coldest in 40 years.
A quick-moving storm could bring some snow to D.C. on Sunday afternoon.
When Trump is sworn in at noon on Monday, the temperature will be about 18 or 19 degrees. Due to the wind, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — will be between 5 and 10 degrees.
President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 was also moved inside due to the weather.
The temperature that morning fell to a low of 4 degrees below zero. The temperature was just 7 degrees at noon, marking the coldest January Inauguration Day on record. Reagan’s parade was also canceled.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The email ousting at least one top federal watchdog from their post was so short, it could fit in a tweet.
The two-sentence long letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General Christi Grimm cited “changing priorities” under the President Donald Trump’s new administration, according to a copy of the note obtained by ABC News.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that due to changing priorities your position as Inspector General… is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email read.
The email addressed the inspector general by her first name — “Dear Christi” — with no customary courtesy title, such as “the Honorable,” or even “Ms.”
The same email template was used for the other inspector general firings, sources said.
Late Friday night, Trump fired at least 17 inspectors general at multiple federal agencies.
While inspectors general can be fired by the president, it can only happen after communicating with Congress 30 days in advance. In 2022, Congress strengthened the law requiring administrations to give a detailed reasoning for the firing of an IG.
Trump classified the firings as a “common thing to do” as he talked to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way from Las Vegas to Miami Saturday evening.
“It’s a very standard thing to do, very much like the U.S. attorneys,” Trump said.
The email to Grimm came in at 7:48 p.m. Friday night, and the way the wave of terminations was done surprised many across the inspector general community, even though there had been signs that a firing event like this could happen — as ABC News reported last week.
Among recommendations in the Project 2025 conservative blueprint for a second Trump term was replacing inspectors general under the new administration. As recently as last week, Mick Mulvaney, who was one of Trump’s chiefs of staff in his first term, wrote in an op-ed specifically that “a good place for Trump to start” cleaning out the “Deep State” would be with firing inspectors general.
Still, the HHS Office of Inspector General — and inspectors generals’ offices in most every government agency — had prepared a transition book for the incoming administration laying out what the independent agency does, and to identify areas of focus to make the departments and their programs healthier, more efficient and more effective, according to multiple sources.
On a call Saturday afternoon among the inspector general community, not only was there note-comparing about who got fired, what their email said, and what happens now — there was also discussion of encouraging those acting inspectors general who are remaining to stay independent and not shy away from difficult facts or unflattering findings, according to a source familiar with the call.
There’s a concern among the inspector general community now, given the language about “changing priorities” in the firing emails, that the new administration is cleaning house in order to install personnel aligned with Trump’s political leanings, rather than those who champion the agencies’ guiding mission of independence and oversight, multiple sources said.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to go before the Senate on Wednesday in his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Donald Trump.
Kennedy has frequently promoted views at odds with the consensus of public health researchers and the mainstream scientific community, including falsely claiming that certain vaccines cause autism and calling for fluoride to be removed from drinking water, claiming it harms adolescent development.
The environmental attorney has vowed to crack down on dyes in the food industry and has called for restrictions on ultra-processed foods.
During a charity dinner last year in New York City, Trump pledged Kennedy would “go wild on health” and that Kennedy “wants healthy people, he wants healthy food.”
Here’s a look at where Kennedy stands on several health issues:
Questioning vaccine safety
Although Kennedy has denied he is “anti-vaccine” and has said his children have been vaccinated, he has promoted views on vaccines that experts have refuted.
During a 2023 interview on Fox News, Kennedy said he believes autism comes from vaccines, a myth born from a now-debunked paper from the U.K. in 1998 that claimed the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine caused autism.
The paper has since been discredited by health experts, retracted from the journal in which it was published, and its primary author, Andrew Wakefield, lost his medical license after the paper was discredited and an investigation found he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his research. More than a dozen high-quality studies have since found no evidence of a link between childhood vaccines and autism.
Kennedy has also spread what the medical community has considered to be vaccine misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, falsely claiming the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous.
During a December 2021 Louisiana House of Representatives meeting discussing a proposal to require schoolchildren to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy falsely called the vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
In the same year, Kennedy petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to revoke its authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA denied the petition three months later.
Health officials say COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective following clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people, and have since helped save millions of lives.
Removing artificial dyes from foods
Kennedy has been vocal about his opposition to artificial dyes, calling for them to be removed from foods and beverages.
“The first thing I’d do isn’t going to cost you anything because I’m just gonna tell the cereal companies: Take all the dyes out of their food,” about actions he’d take as a member of the Trump administration, according to a social media post from the non-profit Children’s Health Defense, of which Kennedy is a founder.
Kennedy has frequently cited Froot Loops as an example of a food with potentially harmful dyes, saying the version of the Kellogg’s cereal sold abroad is healthier and has fewer ingredients compared to the U.S. version.
Kellogg’s has insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying the ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Kennedy was wrong about the number of ingredients — Canadian Froot Loops have 17 ingredients compared to 16 in the U.S. However, the two cereals differ when it comes to the use of dyes.
American Froot Loops contain artificial food dyes such as Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Blue 1 while Canadian Froot Loops are colored with concentrated watermelon juice and blueberry juice.
A 2018 report from New York University and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change found artificial food colors may affect children’s behavior and exacerbate symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Recently the FDA said it was moving to ban the use of Red 3 dye in food products, beverages and ingested drugs, in response to a 2022 petition from health groups and activists.
Processed foods and chronic disease
Kennedy has criticized the U.S. food industry and the proliferation of ultra-processed foods, blaming them as one reason for the rise of chronic disease in the U.S.
“Hundreds of these chemicals are now banned in Europe, but they’re ubiquitous in American processed foods,” he said during a September 2024 roundtable discussion on health led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. “We are literally poisoning our children systematically for profit.”
A 2021 joint study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of São Paolo in Brazil found that people who consumed more calories from ultra-processed foods had lower scores on tests measuring cardiovascular health.
Kennedy has also railed against seed oils, calling them “one of the driving causes of the obesity epidemic” and has called on fast food restaurants to fry their products with animal fats instead.
Seed oils contain certain types of healthy fats that are good for the heart when used in moderation, decades of research shows.
Claims that fluoride affects children’s development
In an interview with NPR in November, Kennedy doubled down on his promise that the Trump administration will recommend that local governments remove fluoride from their water supplies.
He has claimed that fluoride in drinking water affects children’s neurological development and that other countries that have removed fluoride from their water supplies have not seen an increase in cavities. Some health professionals have expressed concerns about excessive fluoride intake and potential toxicity.
However, high-quality studies show fluoride prevents cavities and repairs damage to teeth caused by bacteria in the mouth. Fluoride also replaces minerals lost from teeth due to acid breakdown, according to the CDC.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will make her debut at the first press briefing of President Donald Trump’s second term on Tuesday, making history as the youngest in her role to stand behind the podium.
“I look forward to taking the podium into answering questions from all of the voices in the media. They are welcome to cover this White House. We will give them honest and accurate information, and I look forward to doing that,” Leavitt said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday.
When Leavitt, 27, walks out into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on Tuesday, she’ll be the youngest press secretary to do so, since Ronald Ziegler, who held the title in former President Ronald Reagan’s White House at age 29.
She’s said she would ditch the traditional notes binder that her predecessors in both Democratic and Republican administrations, including during Trump’s first term, would carry with them to press briefings.
“I might bring some notes with me, but my binder is in my brain because I know President Trump’s policies, and we have truth on our side at this White House,” she said on “Fox and Friends” the morning after Trump’s inauguration.
Leavitt most recently served as Trump’s spokesperson during his 2024 presidential campaign and his transition and previously worked in his first administration and for GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has since named U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator,” Trump said in a November statement naming Leavitt press secretary. “I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.”
Leavitt has not committed to daily briefings, which grew heated during the first Trump term, with a revolving door of press secretaries, including Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Kayleigh McEnany, going back and forth with reporters. Stephanie Grisham did not hold a press briefing in the nine months she was press secretary.
“We hope there will be decorum, certainly, and we will try to instill that. But we’re not we’re not shy of the hostile media,” Leavitt said on Fox News in November.
Before joining Trump’s campaign in 2023, Leavitt ran for Congress in a competitive district in her home state of New Hampshire, winning a competitive Republican primary that included fellow Trump administration alum Matt Mowers. Leavitt went on to lose the general election to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas by nine points.
And at the start of the new Trump administration, Leavitt, in a flurry of new Federal Election Commission filings, revealed she accumulated more than $210,115 in donations that she not only failed to refund to her supporters for at least two years but also did not disclose the failure as required under federal election law.
Despite making history as America’s youngest press secretary, and vowing to buck some traditions, she joins the streak of moms serving as the U.S. president’s chief spokesperson, following Sanders, Grisham, McEnany, and President Joe Biden’s aides Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre.
“I wish her the best of luck. This is a great job, an amazing opportunity to be standing at this podium, behind this lectern, to go back and forth with all of you and– and speak on behalf of this president, the president of the United States,” Jean-Pierre said of Leavitt earlier this month during her last briefing. “There’s nothing like it. And, and I hope she enjoys the job.”
