What Happened Today – Feb 18

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Trump’s grip tightens: Regulators submit, Pentagon staff face purges, science is gutted, and press freedom takes another hit. Meanwhile, feds and supporters braved the cold in Chicago to fight back. Will you? 

Trump ordered independent agencies: SEC, FTC, FCC, NLRB to submit to his control and accept binding DOJ guidance
Trump blamed Ukraine for its own invasion, saying, “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Foreign RelationsWar
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-ukraine-should-have-never-started-war-russia-2033014?
A federal judge declined to block Elon Musk from ordering mass firings or accessing data at seven different agencies
CourtsFederal PersonnelOversight
https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-doge-layoffs-government-data-13653c59c1f6fa0c5ae551f821faafb7
Trump barred the Associated Press from Air Force One and Oval Office events until they refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America’
Foreign RelationsMedia
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/14/ap-trump-white-house-gulf-of-america?
Trump’s administration is pressuring Romania to allow far-right presidential candidate Gorgescu to run despite election security concerns
Foreign Relations
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-19/us-rattles-romania-with-demand-to-let-far-right-candidate-run?f
The National Science Foundation fired 12% of its staff
Federal Personnel
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsf-national-science-foundation-trump-probationary-federal-worker-layoffs-firings
Elon Musk’s team is reviewing Pentagon staffing, targeting employees of less than years with firing
Federal PersonnelOversight
https://apnews.com/article/doge-pentagon-trump-probationary-workers-military-414b369147fdd043af586c76c0b716c9
DC’s top federal prosecutor resigned after refusing Trump admin demands to criminally probe Biden’s $20B EPA climate funding
Justice Dept
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5151223-dc-prosecutor-trump-zeldin-epa-cheung-doj
200 federal workers and supporters protested in single digit temperatures at Chicago’s Federal Plaza
Fighting Back
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/illinois-federal-employees-protest-against-trumps-layoffs