President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department to fire all U.S. attorneys left over from the Biden administration.
“We must “clean house” IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.” America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System – THAT BEGINS TODAY!”
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President Donald Trump called the Department of Education a “con job,” saying he saw a report that the nation ranks 40th in the world in education but is No. 1 in cost per pupil.
Trump spoke with reporters Wednesday afternoon from the Oval Office and was asked how soon he wanted the Department of Education (DOE) closed.
“Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately. Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job,” he answered. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40.”
Trump said the last time he looked at where the U.S. ranked in education, it was 38th, but then he looked two days ago, and the country had fallen to No. 40.
DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’
President Trump said he would like the Department of Education to close immediately. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)
He even noted that China had ranked in the top five.
“As big as it is, it’s ranked in the top five, and that’s our … primary competitor,” Trump said. “So, if we’re ranked No. 40, that means something’s really wrong.”
The president has ordered the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the department led by Elon Musk, to find ways to slash wasteful spending, and the DOE made the chopping block this week.
TRUMP PUTS HIGHER EDUCATION ON NOTICE FOR ‘DANGEROUS, DEMEANING, AND IMMORAL’ DEI TEACHINGS
The U.S. Department of Education building Aug. 21, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)
DOGE announced Monday that $881 million related to 89 DOE contracts was being cut.
Of that $881 million, DOGE identified $101 million that was being used for DEI training, including teaching educators to “help students understand/interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis.”
“Your tax dollars were spent on this,” Musk wrote of the DOE spending.
Last month, Trump signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT), and another to support school choice.
TRUMP EDUCATION DEPT LAUNCHES PROBE INTO ‘EXPLOSION OF ANTISEMITISM’ AT 5 UNIVERSITIES
Critical race theory (CRT) has emerged as a polarizing topic in recent years. (Robert Gauthier)
The teaching of CRT and other controversial content in schools has sparked backlash from parents at school board meetings across the nation over the past several years. During his presidential campaign, Trump pledged to cut federal funding for schools that promote CRT, transgender ideology and “any other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”
Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting federal funding for schools as test scores continue to drop, according to the Nation’s Report Card.
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Trump administration officials are also reportedly weighing a plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, according to a Wall Street Journal report published last week.
Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: President Trump’s newly sworn in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought will emphasize to Republican senators the urgent need for border security funding on Tuesday, telling them an immediate $175 billion is necessary.
At a weekly Senate GOP lunch, Trump’s budget chief will speak to lawmakers, stressing that more money and resources are needed to secure the border and to continue undoing Biden-era immigration policies, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital exclusively.
NOEM, HEGSETH, BONDI PLEAD WITH CONGRESS FOR MORE BORDER FUNDING AMID LARGE-SCALE DEPORTATIONS
Vought will tell GOP senators there is a pressing need for $175 billion in border funding. (Getty Images)
In his presentation, Vought will detail what the administration requires for “robust and sustained” border security and immigration enforcement, according to the official.
Vought will explain that given Trump’s significant actions to address illegal immigration, money is running out. And for the administration to keep enforcing the new policies and conducting operations across the country, those resources must be renewed.
LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER: THE LITTLE-KNOWN TRUMP NOMINEE WHO MAY NEED TO RELY ON DEMS
A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the US illegally rush a border wall Thursday, March 21, 2024. In the process, the migrants knock down Texas National Guardsmen before they are halted by the border wall. (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)
The funding being sought would go toward ramping up personnel across agencies, expanding detention capacity and reinstituting the “Remain in Mexico” program.
It would also include border wall construction and building border infrastructure, deploying innovative surveillance technology to the border, deporting migrants, military support for deportation operations, enhancing the Coast Guard’s role in border enforcement and giving state and local governments the financial and operational resources to deal with the effects of large-scale illegal immigration, per the official.
TRUMP NOMINEE TULSI GABBARD CLEARS LAST HURDLE, HEADS FOR FINAL CONFIRMATION VOTE
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (Getty Images)
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This will be relayed to the Republican senators by Vought during the GOP lunch.
The $175 billion topline request has already been factored into Senate Committee on the Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham’s reconciliation bill, which is slated to go through the key committee this week.
A federal judge on Friday said he would not immediately block the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing systems at the Labor Department.
U.S. District Judge John Bates said he had concerns about DOGE but that the labor unions who sued to block their access to the systems have not yet provided evidence of any legal injury.
“Although the court harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct, it must deny plaintiffs’ motion at this time,” Bates wrote.
The Labor Department has investigated companies like SpaceX and Tesla that are owned by Elon Musk, who leads DOGE, and keeps records on these investigations. The department also has information about these companies’ competitors’ trade secrets, the unions said in the lawsuit.
FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS LIMITED DOGE ACCESS TO SENSITIVE TREASURY DEPARTMENT PAYMENT SYSTEM RECORDS
Elon Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has investigated and fined SpaceX and Tesla over worker safety, the unions said.
The Labor Department’s systems contain medical and financial records of millions of Americans, including those who have filed safety complaints about their employers.
The ruling comes after the Trump administration agreed earlier this week that DOGE would not receive access to the Labor Department until this court decision.
The Justice Department said there are three DOGE staffers assigned to the Labor Department and reporting to its acting secretary, although they have been made special government employees and are required to follow the law with any sensitive information about corporations or workers as they conduct a review.
Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Musk’s DOGE team had gained access to sensitive Treasury Department payment systems, although a judge has since blocked that access to Treasury records containing sensitive personal data such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans. DOGE has also largely dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and offered financial incentives to millions of federal workers to resign.
“At every step, DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action, to crucial protections for government data collected and stored on hundreds of millions of Americans,” labor union lawyers represented by the advocacy group Democracy Forward wrote.
ELON MUSK DUNKS ON SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, DECLARING ‘HYSTERICAL REACTIONS’ DEMONSTRATE DOGE’S IMPORTANCE
Elon Musk attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany on March 22, 2022. (Patrick Pleul/Pool Photo via AP)
Labor Department leadership told a union member this week that DOGE would be visiting and workers should let them do “whatever they ask, not to push back, not to ask questions,” the unions wrote.
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The Justice Department said there is no evidence of wrongdoing and the judge should not issue “a sweeping, prophylactic order … based on plaintiffs’ rank speculation that DOL will violate the law.”
Nineteen states have sued over DOGE’s access to federal payment systems.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Fitbit will pay a civil penalty of $12.25 million after it “knowingly failed to immediately report” a defect in its Ionic smartwatches that caused dozens of people to sustain burn injuries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said Thursday.
Fitbit agreed to pay the penalty after reaching a settlement with the CPSC.
The commission brought charges against the company for not following the law in reporting a defect that could create a product hazard or cause risk of injury or death.
FITBIT RECALLS 1.7M SMARTWATCHES OVER BURN HAZARD
Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 civil penalty after reaching a settlement with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who charged the company with not reporting a known defect in its Ionic smartwatch. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Consumers began reporting overheating issues with the Ionic smartwatches to Fitbit in 2018. The reports continued into 2019 and 2020, with some consumers telling the company that they sustained second- and third-degree burns on their arms or wrists from the defect.
In 2020, Fitbit launched a firmware update to “mitigate the potential for battery overheating,” but it did not stop the problem and reports of burns continued to roll in.
“Despite possessing information that reasonably supported the conclusion that the smartwatches contained a defect that could create a substantial product hazard or created an unreasonable risk of serious injury, Fitbit did not immediately report to the Commission as required,” the CPSC said.
There were 118 reports of burn injuries from the Fitbit Ionic worldwide – 78 in the United States and 40 elsewhere. (Consumer Product Safety Commission / Fox News)
FITBIT USERS WILL BE REQUIRED TO LOG IN THROUGH GOOGLE BY 2025
Though Fitbit stopped producing the Ionic smartwatches in 2020, they were recalled by the CPSC and Fitbit on March 2, 2022 – impacting approximately 1.7 million units worldwide.
The recall stated that there were at least 115 reports of the smartwatch’s battery overheating in the United States, causing burn injuries to 78 Americans. Two people reported third-degree burns while four reported second-degree burns.
Fitbit and the CPSC issued a joint recall in 2022 of the Ionic smartwatch, impacting 1.7 million units worldwide. (Consumer Product Safety Comission / Fox News)
In addition, there were 59 reports of overheating made internationally causing burn injuries to 40 people.
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The settlement also requires Fitbit to “maintain internal controls and procedures designed to ensure compliance.”
Fitbit also agreed to submit annual reports on its enhanced compliance program and internal controls, as well as an internal audit on the effectiveness of compliance policies, procedures, systems and training.