Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Tearful workers clear desks as Trump cleans house at USAID
Employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development were clearing out desks at the agency's headquarters on Thursday, as President Trump's efforts to curtail foreign assistance spending took hold. Published February 27, 2025
Trump DOJ tells Supreme Court that fired special counsel is delaying other firings
The Trump administration complained to the Supreme Court that one of the people it's trying to fire, special counsel Hampton Dellinger, is positioning himself to block firings of other employees. Published February 27, 2025
Social Security employee given two-year sentence for using fake kids, dead person to get benefits
A Social Security employee has been slapped with a two-year prison sentence after he admitted to stealing government benefits by creating profiles for fake children and a dead person. Published February 27, 2025
Supreme Court backs Trump in dispute over USAID funding
The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a lower court order telling the Trump administration to pay nearly $2 billion by midnight in a fight over its hold on U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) money. Published February 26, 2025
ICE tallies 20,000 arrests in one month
The government's deportation force made more than 20,000 arrests in a single month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday. Published February 26, 2025
‘Dumbest statement of the year’: White House mocks Michael Moore over defense of illegal immigrants
The White House mocked filmmaker Michael Moore on Wednesday for his suggestion that the U.S. might be missing out on a future cure for cancer because it's deporting illegal immigrants. Published February 26, 2025
GOP turns up heat on USAID, highlights foreign aid for fashion shows and meals for terrorists
Republicans piled on new evidence Wednesday in their battle to reel in USAID, pointing to millions of dollars the foreign aid agency shipped to Ukraine to pay to promote a dog collar manufacturer and send fashionistas to a fashion show in London. Published February 26, 2025
House GOP to hold hearing pushing use of tech to speed deportations
The Biden administration used technology to help hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants enter the U.S., and now Republicans want to harness technology to get them out. Published February 26, 2025
Trump’s firing powers on the line in special counsel court battle
A federal judge grappled Wednesday with the extent of President Trump's power to fire people in his administration, in a case that will shape the White House's ability to carry out its remake of the federal bureaucracy. Published February 26, 2025
Lawyer booted from case after submitting AI-generated bogus brief
A judge has kicked a lawyer off a case after he submitted a brief that contained false case citations fabricated by artificial intelligence. Published February 26, 2025
USAID wasted millions on Ukrainian pet products and fashion junkets, Sen. Ernst says
At first blush, it might be difficult to connect dog collars with Ukraine's war against Russia. But according to data compiled by Sen. Joni Ernst, the U.S. Agency for International Development spent $300,000 of American taxpayers' money in 2022 to boost the Ukrainian pet alliance, which markets the country's products in the West. Published February 26, 2025
Judge blocks Trump’s pause on refugee admissions
A federal judge issued an injunction Tuesday halting President Trump's attempt to pause refugee admissions. Published February 25, 2025
‘Self-deport’: Noem vows to flex immigration laws on the books but never enforced
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that her department will begin to enforce laws that allow consequences to be delivered to illegal immigrants who have resisted leaving the country or who otherwise defied U.S. laws. Published February 25, 2025
Democratic congressman punished for calling Trump ‘grifter in chief’
A Republican House committee chair threatened to call the sergeant-at-arms Tuesday to silence a Democratic congressman who repeatedly called Elon Musk the president and referred to President Trump as the "grifter in chief." Published February 25, 2025
Judge stiffens hold on Trump’s funding pause, warning of ‘potentially catastrophic harm’
A federal judge stiffened her order blocking President Trump from carrying out his general government funding pause by issuing a preliminary injunction Tuesday. Published February 25, 2025
Supreme Court tosses murder conviction of man who sat on death row for decades
Richard Glossip was about to be executed in 2015, saved at the last minute only because of a mix-up in the lethal injection drugs Oklahoma had planned to use. Published February 25, 2025
Office of Special Counsel wants 45-day delay in Trump firings
The government's top cop for policing federal workers' rights has urged the Merit Systems Protection Board to hit pause on the Trump administration's attempt to fire some probationary workers, saying it appears the ousters are "impermissible." Published February 25, 2025
Trump’s tally: 38,000 feds fired so far, 6,000 of them veterans
House Democrats have calculated that more than 38,000 federal workers have been canned so far as part of President Trump's early moves to remake the federal bureaucracy, and nearly 6,000 of them are veterans. Published February 25, 2025
DHS sees best border numbers in 15 years
The Border Patrol saw its best single day in more than 15 years with just 200 illegal immigrants nabbed at the southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday. Published February 24, 2025
Trump wins first round vs. AP in fight over ‘Gulf of America’
A federal judge declined Monday to order the White House to restore The Associated Press' special access to presidential news coverage, delivering the first round of the legal battle to President Trump. Published February 24, 2025
