Karen Travers

Administration officials had said the target to accept was 5-10% of the federal workforce.

75,000 workers = 3.125%

I asked Leavitt why they didn't extend offer.

"We put a deadline on that. And the deadline was reached. 75,000 people accepted the offer."

White House says 75,000 fed workers took deferred resignation offer

Press Sec Karoline Leavitt tells me:
"I’m not so sure we didn’t hit the numbers. 75,000 people accepted the buyout program. That’s going to save millions of dollars for the American taxpayers. And that’s exactly what we wanted."

Paul Martin, USAID Inspector General, was fired tonight by White House

Comes a day after his office released a report saying USAID lost the ability to track & monitor more than $8 billion in unspent aid and risked spoiling $500 million in US grown food aid as a result of Trump’s changes to agency.

The last bridge toll-taker in Cape May County nears the end in a booth above Townsends Inlet After more than 40 years collecting tolls from Shore drivers, Rick Shetler stands sentry a little longer before E-ZPass takes over entirely on April 1.

"Rick Shetler has worked in the booth on the bridge above the Jersey Shore inlet since that summer of 1980, back when the toll was 30 cents and he thought he’d be an accountant."
www.inquirer.com/news/new-jer...

Fox29 reporter at a NE Philly bakery with an E-L-G-S-E-S pastry

Go Birds

It’s fun to read my text chains from that time

There’s nothing better than strangers seeing your 🦅 hat & shouting “Go Birds!” as you go about your day (in Washington DC) 💚

One current USAID official is based in Asia and is pregnant.

She broke down in tears on the call, explaining how she doesn't know what is going to happen to her family, worried the administration is going to "abandon" her overseas or back in the U.S.
"We have a nursery painted with a crib ready."

All USAID humanitarian work has effectively stopped, current and former officials say Current and former USAID officials blasted the Trump administration's gutting of the agency, saying it has left critical partners in the lurch and staff in limbo.

Current & former officials, speaking anonymously due to fear of retribution, blasted the Trump administration's gutting of USAID.

In addition to the humanitarian work that has been halted, USAID workers living abroad are also seeing their lives turned upside down.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/usa...

Trump calls USAID a ‘tremendous fraud.’ His wife and daughter promoted its work President Donald Trump has denigrated the aid agency as a "tremendous fraud."

In 2018 Melania Trump praised what she described as "successful" USAID programs.

Ivanka Trump led the $50M “Women's Global Development and Prosperity" Initiative distributed by USAID.

President Trump now says the agency is made up of “radical left lunatics.”

abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...

Trump calls USAID a ‘tremendous fraud.’ His wife and daughter promoted its work President Donald Trump has denigrated the aid agency as a "tremendous fraud."

In 2018 Melania Trump offered praise for what she described as "successful" USAID programs.

Ivanka Trump led the $50M “Women's Global Development and Prosperity" Initiative distributed by USAID.

Pres Trump now says agency made up of “radical left lunatics.”
abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...

Turmoil inside USAID: DOGE reps take over offices, senior officials placed on leave Amid ongoing turmoil inside the U.S. Agency for International Development, sources say that Department of Government Efficiency staffers have moved to take over offices.

When shown Musk’s posts on X targeting USAID, a senior official for the agency told ABC News, “The warp-speed of this mafia-like takeover has shaken USAID staff to the core.”

abcnews.go.com/Politics/tur...

More from Pres Trump:
We want the most competent people, especially in those positions. And, you know, you're talking about extremely complex things, and if they don't have a – a great brain, a great power of the brain, they're not going to be very good at what they do, and bad things will happen.

I asked Pres Trump in the Oval-"To be clear, are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy?"

Pres Trump: "It may have, I don't know. Incompetence might have played a role. We'll – we'll let you know that. But we want the most competent people. We don't care what race they are."

DC plane crash live updates: No survivors expected An American Airlines regional jet went down in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

No survivors are expected from the plane crash, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said.

Crews are switching to a recovery operation.

Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered, including 27 from the plane and one from the Black Hawk helicopter, Donnelly said.
abcnews.go.com/US/live-upda...

Trump's strict foreign funding freeze sparks panic among international aid groups Nearly 60 senior USAID employees were placed on leave.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...

Holy wooder 🦅

No way the Eagles lose after this

Overhead announcement at DCA that a flight is now boarding for Philly and someone at my gate (to Boston) yells “Go Birds!!” 🦅

Yes

hi - yes I am

Inside the frantic White House switch on Inauguration Day The residence staff has just hours to move the Bidens out and the Trumps in.

"Organized chaos" - How fmr White House chief usher Gary Walters describes the process of moving one First Family out, another in on Inauguration Day.

Around 100 staffers work frantically over 5 hours to get the residence & Oval Office prepared for the new President
abcnews.go.com/Politics/ins...

The Ballet Class (flipped, also from the @philamuseum), by Edgar Degas, 1880

That wasn’t pretty. But Go Birds 🦅

I asked him in the Oval Office after his briefing with Gov Newsom, Mayor Bass and FEMA Admin Criswell if he's been told the death toll is likely to increase significantly.

Pres Biden tells me the death toll in LA fires-right now at least 10 people-is likely to increase.

"There’s still a lot of people unaccounted for. We don’t know where they are. I think this toll is likely to go up. Whether it’s significant or not, I pray to god it’s not but it could be."

This would blow Lucille Bluth's mind

UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting latest: Person of interest Luigi Mangione under arrest Police are questioning Luigi Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as a person of interest in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

[Mangione] was on a Greyhound bus traveling through Altoona on Monday morning, sources said, when he got off and walked into a McDonald's where a witness recognized him from the images of the suspect circulated by police. abcnews.go.com/US/unitedhea...

Israel and Hezbollah Agree to Ceasefire Start Here · Episode

Great talking to my friend @stevenportnoy.bsky.social on today's Start Here podcast. We dive into Trump's tariffs threat - what it means for the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, how it could impact prices for American consumers and what our neighbors are saying
open.spotify.com/episode/5dpU...

Trump's tariff plan could raise prices, blow up his own trade deal with Mexico and Canada Trump's plan for tariffs against Canada and Mexico could dramatically raise prices for Americans and threaten a trade agreement negotiated by his own administration.

Trump late Monday said he would put a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada until action is taken by those country to stem illegal immigration and the flow of drugs across the border.

What that could mean for consumers->
abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...