Raw Story

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday blasted Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s nominee to again lead the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, over his involvement in Project 2025 and called on their colleagues to reject his nomination.

Vought wrote the chapter on the executive office of the president in the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 900-page conservative blueprint, which seeks to dramatically reshape the federal government and drew much attention throughout Trump’s presidential campaign as Democrats sought to tie the document to him.

Though Trump has repeatedly disavowed Project 2025, he asked several people who were part of the conservative agenda to serve in his second administration.

Vought was the OMB director during Trump’s first administration after serving as deputy director and acting director of the office responsible for administering the federal budget and overseeing the performance of departments throughout the federal government.

During a Thursday press conference, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Vought is “at the levers of power to implement these dangerous, dangerous proposals” outlined in Project 2025, dubbing the nominee its “chief cook and bottle washer.”

The New York Democrat said that while a “good number” of Trump’s Cabinet nominees are “very, very troubling,” Vought is “probably at the very top of the list in terms of how dangerous he is to working people and to America.”

Schumer highlighted how the OMB director “holds one of the most critical positions in the federal government,” adding that “it affects every federal agency, every local economy, every town, city, every American family — so someone in this position has to understand what working families in America need.”

Programs ‘on the chopping block’

Multiple Democrats on the Senate Committee on the Budget — including ranking member Jeff Merkley of Oregon as well as Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico — also lambasted Vought and his involvement in Project 2025.

Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, said Vought “has made very clear that as Trump’s budget director, he will put everything … on the chopping block, from programs that people rely on, to the checks and balances that our democracy is actually founded on.”

“Given his extremism and his clear disdain for the rule of law, we should not hand Vought power that he has made clear he will abuse to help billionaires get ahead at working people’s expense,” she added.

Impoundment belief

Vought sat Wednesday for a confirmation hearing in the Senate Budget Committee.

Last week, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to be vetted for the post.

During that hearing, Vought expressed his and Trump’s beliefs that the president has the sole authority to withhold funding Congress has approved through impoundment.

Impoundment refers to when the president withholds funds Congress has already approved. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the president “has no unilateral authority to impound funds.”

In a November announcement of the nomination, Trump said that during his first White House term, Vought “did an excellent job” serving as the OMB director.

He described Vought as an “aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies.”

Donald Trump made the economy a major focus of his 2024 campaign, repeatedly blaming then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris for inflation. And that messaging worked: — Trump defeated Democratic nominee Harris and returned to the White House.

The price of eggs was often mentioned during the 2024 race, and a recurring message from Trump was that he was "going to get the prices down" for "groceries, cars, everything."

But according to The New Republic's Edith Olmsted, the price of eggs has not decreased since Trump's inauguration. In fact, Olmsted — citing Consumer Price Index data — notes that egg prices hit an all-time high on the third day of Trump's second presidency.

READ MORE:'Hard stop': How Trump is plans to 'give the death blow' to a key government program

Egg prices in the United States, Olmsted warns in an article published on Thursday, could become even higher if the Trump administration drops the ball with the bird flu.

"Donald Trump's decision to press pause on communications from health organizations amid an escalating bird flu breakout could take America's soaring egg prices and make them even worse," Olmsted wrote.

"The consumer price index found that egg prices have increased 36.8 percent from this time last year, and experts believe the increase in price is the result of avian influenza, which is rapidly depleting the supply of chickens."

The New Republic reporter adds, "If one bird is infected, farms are required by law to cull the entire flock."

In an Axios article published on January 21, reporters Nathan Bomey and Kelly Tyko report that the "escalating bird flu crisis is ravaging the nation's supply of eggs, leading to increased prices and presenting an immediate challenge for the Trump Administration.

READ MORE: 'Where did he get this idea?' MAGA think tank behind 'reckless and ruthless' Trump policy

According to Bomey and Tyko, "Some retailers are limiting how many eggs consumers can purchase while others are having a hard time keeping shelves stocked."

Jason Hart, CEO of grocery chain Aldi, told Axios, "It's really a crazy situation and an unfortunate situation for consumers because the supply situation is what it is due to the bird flu."

READ MORE: 'It’s a free country' — but some White House staffers are facing these new rules: report

The highest-ranking attorney at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) quit on Thursday while snubbing Elon Musk, the agency's chairman.

The Wall Street Journal reported Bill McGinley was first named to DOGE in December by President Donald Trump. The attorney said he intended to return to the private sector.

While McGinley praised Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, he failed to mention Musk.

"I support President Trump, Vice President Vance, and the great teams in the White House and across the administration one hundred percent," he told the Journal in a statement.

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"I am in discussions regarding a number of private sector opportunities and will have something to announce in the next couple of weeks," McGinley said.

The resignation comes after co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy also quit DOGE this week.

President Donald Trump responded on Thursday to reporters asking him about the federal judge who blocked his executive order gutting birthright citizenship — taking a jab at the judge and confirming he'll fight the decision.

"A U.S. judge temporarily blocks the birthright citizenship order. Do you have any reaction?" one reporter asked.

"No," said Trump. "Obviously, we'll appeal it. They put it before a certain judge in Seattle, I guess. Right. And there's no surprises with that judge."

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Trump appeared to imply the decision was biased against him because it came from a judge in a liberal, West Coast city. The judge in question, Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan.

Trump's order seeks to redefine the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to all people born in the United States and "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," by declaring that children without citizen or permanent resident parents are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States — even though legal experts broadly agree that is not what "jurisdiction" means.

Under Trump's directive, children of undocumented immigrants, or even certain non-citizens in the country legally, could not be issued passports or other federal documents affirming their U.S. citizenship.

Over a dozen states almost immediately sued to block this order from taking effect.

President Donald Trump may have signaled that he's growing tired of his so-called co-president Elon Musk, according to MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle.

The president on Tuesday announced a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure related to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, but the CEO of one of those companies is the archenemy to Musk, who poured at least $277 million of his own money into Trump's re-election campaign and has been at his side as a key adviser since the election.

"I will make one, maybe it's a political point but it's worth pointing out, [at] the press conference yesterday, [OpenAI CEO] Sam Altman, standing behind the presidential seal with president Trump standing next to him," said CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. "Think about that just for a moment, and the reason I say think about that, Sam Altman is Elon Musk's nemesis, and there has been a long conversation about whether we thought that Elon Musk was going to have influence over president Trump, and he was going to use his influence to thwart and hurt his enemies, and I think it was a surprise. I don't know if it's surprising or not, but I think it was remarkable, just worth remarking upon that Sam Altman and president Trump standing there next to each other. I should also mention Sam Altman spent $1 million during the inauguration, but the truth is that clearly the president, president Trump, behind this in a major way, and I think that that has a lot of folks sort of looking at this, trying to understand what it all means."

ALSO READ: Inside the parade of right-wing world leaders flocking to D.C. for Trump's inauguration

"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough agreed the partnership, which Musk undercut Wednesday by claiming the tech companies didn't have the money to carry out its plans, was noteworthy, saying the two moguls had feuded publicly since he pulled out of the company behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT.

"We've heard about this rivalry for quite some time and Elon Musk, using his position close to Donald Trump to sort of box Sam Altman out," Scarborough said. "So, yeah, I would say that is news. I don't think we over-read it, but certainly all of the words that were written talking about how Musk is going to be able to keep Altman away from the incoming president disproven yesterday in that press conference. So I'm just saying when I saw it, I was like, whoa – that's news."

Ruhle thought the news conference was noteworthy for another reason.

"I think it's less about Sam Altman and it's more about Donald Trump saying, 'I'm the daddy here, there's only one president.' Remember, over the last few weeks, as Elon Musk has been glued to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, going to have an office just potentially down the road from the White House, this is Donald Trump potentially putting Elon Musk on notice and saying to the world, 'There are not co-presidents, I'm the only one in charge – don't get too comfortable here, Elon, Sam's around the corner.'"

"But I would say Elon Musk saying, 'I don't even think they have the money,' this is something important," she added. "It's not that Joe Biden was anti-AI – he wasn't. His executive order was extensive, he talked about it in his final remarks. [National security adviser] Jake Sullivan did, too. One of the things that the former White House acknowledged, they didn't have the money yet. So Donald Trump gets in the job, pulls out all the regulations, right... So I just think what Trump announced yesterday kind of encapsulates the two administrations, that Joe Biden was potentially too careful, too bound by so many restrictions that some would say flew in the face of innovation, and Donald Trump rolls in and it's like, 'Money or not, I'm announcing it – we're doing it, animal spirits. Let's go.' It was the two of them in a nutshell."

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by Sebastien Ash

A knife attacker in Germany killed a two-year-old child and a man and seriously wounded two other people on Wednesday, said police, who arrested an Afghan suspect at the scene.

It is the latest in a series of deadly knife attacks to have shaken Germany in recent months, fuelling concerns over public safety.

The stabbings happened in a public park in the centre of the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg at around 11:45 am (1045 GMT), police said.

The attacker targeted a group of children from a daycare centre who were in the park, according to German media.

"Two people were fatally injured," police said, while another two were seriously hurt and receiving treatment in hospital.

The suspect, a 28-year-old man from Afghanistan, was arrested "in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene", police added, without indicating a motive.

German media reported that the man was said to have had psychological issues for which he had received treatment. The suspect lived in an asylum centre in the area, news outlet Der Spiegel reported.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said she was "deeply shocked" by the attack.

"The investigation will clarify the background to this terrible act of violence," she said in a statement.

Following the attack police said there were "no indications of other suspects" and no further danger to the public.

A second person who was held by police was being treated as a witness.

Authorities had cordoned off the park in Aschaffenburg, around 36 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of Frankfurt in the west of Germany.

Police said train traffic around the scene had been suspended, with services delayed or diverted.

The suspect had tried to flee across the train tracks, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported.

- Shaken by stabbings -

Germany has been rocked by a spate of high-profile attacks, including the death of a policeman in June after he intervened in a knife attack at an anti-Islam rally in the city of Mannheim.

A man from Afghanistan was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the stabbing.

In August, three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree at a street festival in the western city of Solingen.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group, and police arrested a Syrian suspect.

The presumed Islamist motive behind the stabbing in Solingen and the suspect's status as a migrant who was facing deportation fueled a bitter debate over immigration.

The government responded to the incident by tightening controls on knives, limiting benefits for asylum seekers and handing the security services new powers of investigation.

Wednesday's attack in Aschaffenburg comes as Germany prepares for national elections on February 23.

The conservative CDU/CSU alliance currently leads in the polls on around 30 percent, with the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) in second with 20 percent.

Both parties have promised to crack down on illegal immigration.

The conservatives have also pledged a "de facto" ban on new asylum requests at the border.

In response to the latest attack, the co-leader of the AfD Alice Weidel posted a message on X urging "remigration now!" -- using a term that the far right have adopted to call for the mass deportation of migrants.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democrats sit third in the polls with around 16 percent of support.

© Agence France-Presse