Trump admin live updates: White House drops NASA nominee with Musk ties
The Senate was expected to vote on Jared Isaacman next week.
President Donald Trump on Friday claimed China violated its trade agreement with the U.S. and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said talks between the world's two largest economies stalled.
This week, Trump's global tariff policy hit a major roadblock as two federal courts ruled he does not have the power to unilaterally impose some levies. The tariffs can stay in place, for now, as the court considers the administration's appeal.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is leaving his role as a "special government employee" but is expected to remain an unofficial adviser to Trump.
Latest headlines:
HHS cancels over $700 million in funding for Moderna’s flu pandemic vaccines
Moderna was notified its funding to research and license vaccines set to protect against future flu pandemics -- including bird flu -- has been terminated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The funding was originally signed with the Biden administration and consisted of an initial contract of over $150 million and a second contract of nearly $600 million.
It comes while Moderna announced positive results from their early trial of an mRNA bird flu vaccine.
Antibody titers, a sign of immune protection, increased nearly 45-fold in those vaccinated. A total of 300 adults participated in the trial.
At least 70 people in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu after the virus was found in cows for the first time early last year. One person has died since. Health officials say the current risk of the virus is low, but are monitoring for further spread or any mutations that would change that assessment.
Moderna noted they would "explore alternatives for late-stage development and manufacturing" of their bird flu vaccine program.
-ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud
Here's who Trump pardoned today
In addition to reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, President Donald Trump issued a slew of pardons on Wednesday.
-ABC News' Hannah Demissie
Stephen Miller tells ICE to step it up on arrests
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, was at ICE headquarters last week along with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and urged senior leaders at ICE and Homeland Security Investigations to step up their deportation efforts, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
The meeting was attended by senior ICE leaders and special agents in charge of Homeland Security Investigations and took place in person at ICE headquarters in Washington. Border czar Tom Homan was not at the meeting.
Miller told senior ICE leaders that the administration wants to triple the daily number of arrests that agents were making to 3,000 per day, according to sources.
Noem and special government employee Corey Lewandowski also spoke at the meeting and took a milder approach than Miller, who sources described as stern with agents.
In response to a question from ABC News about the meeting, a DHS spokesperson said,
"Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump and the American people's mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe."
The meeting was first reported by Axios.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Trump lashes out when asked about Wall Street analysts claiming he 'chickens out' of tariff threats
President Donald Trump was visibly irritated when asked about Wall Street analysts creating a new term called the "TACO" trade.
"They're saying Trump always chickens out on the tariff threats," the reporter said.
Trump grew visibly angry and called the question "nasty." He argued that it was all part of his negotiations with the countries.
"You mean because I reduced China from 145%, [then] I said down to 100, then down to another number? And I said you have to open up your whole country and because, I gave the European Union a 50% tax tariff, and they called up and they said, 'Please, let's meet right now, please, let's meet right now.' ... You call that chickening out?" he said.