President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed prosecutors to criminally probe state and local officials who resist, obstruct or fail to comply with his immigration enforcement efforts.
That’s according to a memo seen by Reuters, written by the deputy U.S. attorney general.
“It's an escalation of the use of the Justice Department's criminal investigative power. Obviously, you know, people who are living in the country illegally or people who are employing those people illegally have always faced potential criminal investigation. This adds a new category of people who could face investigation, which is city and state officials, some of them Democrats, some of them in Democratic, very heavily Democratic constituencies and some in communities that have declared themselves to be sanctuary communities that didn't want to go along with federal immigrations crackdowns and warning them that they, too, could face criminal consequences.”
California's Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, dismissed Trump's directive as a "scare tactic" during a Wednesday interview on CNN.
Still, it sets up potential confrontations with local officials in so-called sanctuary cities.
"The first Trump administration, they came out of the gate very quickly with some policies that very quickly ran into opposition in Democratic cities and states ... and this is a sign that they're trying to plan ahead and they're trying to eliminate things that could serve as barriers."
Shortly after taking office, Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency.
A U.S. official said on Wednesday that the military would send 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the southern border.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday designated Yemen's Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a "foreign terrorist organization", the White House said in a statement.
The move imposes harsher penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the Iran-aligned group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against U.S. warships defending the critical maritime chokepoint.
"The Houthis' activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade," the White House said in a statement.
U.S. policy, it said, would be to work with regional partners "to eliminate Ansar Allah’s capabilities and operations, deprive it of resources, and thereby end its attacks on U.S. personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea."
President Donald Trump said on Jan. 20 that his administration would likely stop buying oil from Venezuela.
“It was a great country 20 years ago, and now it’s a mess,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, hours after his inauguration.
“We don’t have to buy their oil. We have plenty of oil for ourselves.”
Trump on Monday laid out a plan to maximize U.S. oil and gas production, including by declaring a national energy emergency. He also signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.
Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, with more than 300 billion barrels as of the end of 2023, according to OPEC.
U.S. crude oil imports from Venezuela slumped in 2019 when the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.
Expanded sanctions imposed by the first Trump administration in 2019 significantly restricted Venezuela’s oil industry. The Biden administration later eased some restrictions, maintaining company-specific licenses that allowed companies such as Chevron to operate under limited conditions in Venezuela.
The United States eased sanctions in November 2022 when The Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces economic and trade sanctions, granted waivers to Chevron.
In April 2024, the United States reimposed oil sanctions on Venezuela over election concerns.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Jan. 10 after a contentious election.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado called Maduro’s inauguration a “coup d'état” and a violation of the nation’s constitution.
The Chinese Communist Party has been a supporter of Maduro. In a July 2024 statement, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said, “China will, as always, firmly support Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard sovereignty, national dignity, and social stability.”
On Jan. 15, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), now secretary of state, said the United States should reconsider Chevron’s sanctions waiver that allows the oil company to operate.
“The Biden administration has allowed oil to flow. [Maduro] stole the election, completely violated what Biden told him he would do,” he said.
He said that Venezuela “sadly, is not governed by government.”
“It’s governed by a narco-trafficking organization that has empowered itself of a nation state. And we have seen, I believe, upwards of seven, eight, nine million Venezuelans have just left the country, more are expected to leave,” he said.
‘New President’s Unpredictability’
Tamas Varga, an oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, told the Epoch Times that OPEC, with its massive spare capacity, “could easily replace lost Venezuelan barrels.”
OPEC consists of 12 member countries: Venezuela, Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during the swearing-in ceremony at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 10, 2025. Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images
Varga said that sanctions on Venezuela must be viewed through the prism of the Biden administration’s sanction package on Russia’s shadow fleet, which impacts Venezuelan exports.
On Jan. 10 the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, many of which are in the so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers operated by non-Western companies.
“If reversed, Venezuelan oil will keep flowing, most likely to China and Iran,” he said.
If the sanctions stay, he said, the impact on the global oil balance will be minimal. Varga said that whether U.S. oil and gas production grows or not will be more of the “function of market economics than Trump.”
He added that if the dollar remains strong during Trump’s presidency, it will make oil more expensive in other currencies and consequently lower demand.
“When we draw a line here, we conclude that the current snapshot is unfavorable for oil prices and at the same time acknowledge that given the new president’s unpredictability, the picture could change swiftly,” Varga said.
A spokeswoman for Chevron told The Epoch Times that Chevron “conducts its business in Venezuela in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
“We have been a constructive presence in Venezuela for over a century, where we have dedicated investments and a large workforce,” she said. “We remain committed to the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families, the integrity of our joint venture assets, and the company’s social and humanitarian programs that continue to positively impact the lives of Venezuelans.”
"People argue is it inflationary and not inflationary. I would put it in perspective: If it's a little inflationary, but it's good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it," Dimon said while speaking with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Tariffs "are an economic tool. That's it. They're an economic weapon, depending how you use it, and why [you] use it," he added.
Not that Dimon has completely dropped his long-running worries about other inflationary forces that could affect the US economy.
"I do have a little more caution around a bunch of subjects," Dimon said Wednesday. "What I’m a little cautious about is the deficit spending; it’s a global issue, not just an American issue," he said. "And the related [question], ‘Will inflation go away?’ I’m not so sure."
Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo ·REUTERS / Reuters
After the election, he said that people in his industry were "dancing in the street" as they anticipated more favorable treatment from a Republican administration.
Dimon said Wednesday he hopes "pro-growth strategies" could help balance out some concerns he has about certain elements of the economy.
"Asset prices are kind of inflated" in the stock market, he said. "You need fairly good outcomes to justify those prices, and we’re all hoping for that. I think having pro-growth strategies helps make that happen, but there are negatives out there and they can tend to surprise you."
Dimon also discussed billionaire Elon Musk and the role he is playing in the new administration as he leads a cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency. Dimon said he and Musk have "settled some of our differences" and he wishes Musk the best in the new effort.
Donald Trump greets JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, left, at the White House in 2017. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) ·Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images
The two men feuded for a number of years beginning in 2016 after JPMorgan refused to underwrite leases for Musk’s electric vehicle maker, Tesla (TSLA).
"I think it is completely rational for someone to look at our government and say it’s been ineffective," Dimon said. "Government needs to be more accountable, it needs to be more efficient, it should be outcomes-based."
It also announced a management shuffle that raised questions over who will be Dimon's ultimate replacement when he eventually decides to leave the bank. He told analysts a week ago that the base case for him stepping away as CEO is a few years from now.
The Chinese regime’s cyberespionage campaign will likely become more sophisticated in targeting key adversaries in 2025, particularly the United States, experts have warned. The situation calls for collaborative counteroperations among Quad alliance partners—the United States, India, Japan, and Australia. These nations are targeted by Beijing, but several gaps currently impede their collective efforts, analysts said.
In the past several weeks, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hackers have been in the headlines.
The latest disclosure came on Jan. 8, as Japan linked more than 200 cyberattacks over the past five years to CCP hacking group MirrorFace. Japan detailed the group’s tactics and called on government agencies and businesses to reinforce preventive measures.
Those cyberattacks targeted Japan’s foreign and defense ministries and its space agency. Politicians, journalists, private companies, and think tanks were also attacked.
Early last month, CCP cyberattackers hacked into the U.S. Treasury Department’s workstations remotely and stole documents.
In the breach, described as a “major incident” by the Treasury Department, Chinese regime-backed hackers compromised a third-party software service provider, Beyond Trust, and accessed unclassified documents.
The December incident happened amid cybersecurity breaches by another Beijing-backed hacking group, Salt Typhoon, which has been involved in a cyberespionage campaign since 2022. These attacks have already affected nine telecom companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies.
Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, highlighted the geopolitical context of Beijing’s increasing cyberespionage in a Jan. 15 blog post titled “Strengthening America’s Resilience Against the PRC Cyber Threats.”
“A crisis in Asia, precipitated by an invasion of Taiwan or a blockade of the Taiwan Strait, could have very real consequences for the safety and security of American citizens here at home,” Easterly wrote.
Such an invasion, she wrote, could be followed by disruptive attacks against “everything, everywhere, all at once.” Those attacks could hit transportation nodes, telecommunications services, power grids, water facilities, “and likely much more,” she wrote.
According to Easterly, the CCP’s goal in such a campaign would be “inducing societal panic and deterring our ability to marshal military might and citizen will to expend American blood and treasure in defense of Taiwan.”
Neehar Pathare, CEO of 63SATS, a cybersecurity company that stated it has thwarted 20 million attacks on its platforms in the past two decades, told The Epoch Times that state-sponsored attackers often infiltrate systems stealthily, waiting for opportune moments to strike.
According to Pathare, Taiwanese government departments in 2024 faced 2.4 million cyberattacks daily, predominantly from the Chinese regime.
“China’s state-affiliated cyber operations focus on intellectual property theft and strategic espionage, aiming for long-term access,” Pathare said. “Increased investments in cyber ranges and critical infrastructure signal China’s readiness for future disruptions, posing risks to India, the U.S., and Europe.”
He cited the hacking group RedEcho, which was linked to CCP military intelligence and was responsible for targeting India’s power grid after 2020’s bloody Galwan conflict between Indian and Chinese regime troops.
Cyberthreats to Quad Nations
Microsoft’s 2024 Digital Defense Report highlights the need for the Quad nations to come up with robust joint counterespionage operations.
According to the report, “The United States is consistently among the countries most impacted by the nation-state cyber threat activity that Microsoft observes.”
In the Indo-Pacific, India is the third most targeted country, after Taiwan and South Korea. Australia is the sixth most targeted, while Japan is the eighth most targeted.
“This past year, nation-state affiliated threat actors once again demonstrated that cyber operations—whether for espionage, destruction, or influence—play a persistent supporting role in broader geopolitical conflicts,” the report states.
The United States continues to be one of the countries most affected by nation-affiliated cyberattacks.
Easterly wrote that Beijing’s “sophisticated and well-resourced cyber program” is a threat to the United States’ critical infrastructure, including power grids and gas pipelines.
According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the hackers target 16 critical infrastructure sectors linked with digital infrastructure.
Thirty-three percent of the overall CCP threat activity was aimed at the United States. East Asia and the Pacific received 39 percent of the onslaught, while South Asia received 4 percent, according to the Microsoft report.
Nishakant Ojha, a senior adviser to the Washington-based Global Policy Institute and an expert in cyberaerospace and national securities, told The Epoch Times that the Chinese regime’s Ministry of State Security plays a central role in orchestrating its cyberespionage campaign. It often hires contractors to conduct cyberintrusions.
“Looking ahead to 2025, China’s cyber capabilities are expected to become increasingly sophisticated,” Ojha said. “The integration of artificial intelligence into cyber operations is anticipated to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of cyber espionage activities.”
He said that innovation in Chinese cybertechnologies will likely create new targets and new startups for developing such technologies.
According to Ojha, the Chinese regime’s military goals for 2025 include enhancing military capabilities, heightening military exercises near Taiwan, cyberwarfare and cyberespionage, strategic military planning, and regional power projection. The aim is to gain military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific and challenge the United States and its partners in the region.
“These developments suggest that by 2025, [China’s military] will be better equipped and more assertive, potentially destabilizing regional security dynamics and increasing the likelihood of military confrontations,” Ojha said. Cyberespionage campaigns will be part and parcel of these confrontations.
Counteroperations by Quad
According to experts, the emerging and heightened geopolitical situation facing the Quad countries requires that they strengthen collective cyber counteroperations.
Pathare cited the Quad’s set of guiding principles aimed at enhancing the development of critical infrastructure cybersecurity, supply chain risk management, software security, and workforce development.
The Quad’s senior cybergroup also announced the continuation of the alliance’s “cyber challenge” in October 2024. The theme of the current challenge is “promoting cybersecurity education and building a strong workforce” in the Indo-Pacific. The challenge was launched last year to “promote responsible cyber habits across [Quad partners’] nations, regions, and beyond,” the State Department stated at the time.
Satoru Nagao, a nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times that cybersecurity comes under the aegis of national security cooperation. While the Quad is not a military alliance, its leaders have emphasized the military aspects of their partnership.
In some areas, military cooperation has also progressed, he said. This obviously has geopolitical undertones.
All four Quad countries are also involved in various military exercises involving each other. Thus, joint cyber counteroperations are feasible and attractive to them, according to the Tokyo-based expert.
“One of the purposes of the Quad is to cooperate with India,” Nagao said. “Because India is the main supplier of software, this area is an attractive area of cooperation for the other three countries with India.”
He said that cybercooperation has wider potential, including for software development, cyberdomain awareness, and cyberwarfare.
The joint statement of the Quad 2024 summit highlights the need for protecting critical infrastructure from increasing cyberthreats.
“We plan to coordinate joint efforts to identify vulnerabilities, protect national security networks, and critical infrastructure networks, and coordinate more closely including on policy responses to significant cyber security incidents affecting the QUAD’s shared priorities,” the joint statement reads.
Nagao said the statement highlights that cybersecurity cooperation is part of the wider matrix of cooperation between Quad nations.
According to Pathare, new rules mandate that attacks be immediately acknowledged and reported. This can help identify threats in a timely manner and enable swift countermeasures.
“Economic penalties and cyber countermeasures should be aligned to deter aggressive state actors effectively,” he said.
Ojha said that despite growing cooperation, several gaps hinder a joint effective counterespionage strategy. These gaps, he said, include a historical lack of trust in intelligence sharing and asymmetric cybercapabilities among the four nations. The United States leads in infrastructure development, while India is still working on its framework.
Other hindering factors include diverging legal and policy frameworks, gaps in resources and technology, and differences in strategic priorities.
“Addressing these bottlenecks requires building mutual trust, harmonizing legal frameworks, closing capability gaps through capacity-building initiatives, and fostering equitable technological collaboration,” Ojha said.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted on Jan. 21 with Republicans to advance the nomination of Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, but said that he will not switch to the Republican Party.
Fetterman was the only member of the Democratic Party to join Republicans in passing a motion to proceed with Hegseth’s nomination. Every other Democrat who voted, as well as the two independents in the Senate, voted against advancing the nomination.
Fetterman’s vote was not required to move the nomination forward because Republicans hold 53 seats in the 100-member chamber, and a simple majority was needed. However, the vote marks the latest instance in which Fetterman has taken a position that differs from many members of his party.
Fetterman met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago recently, appearing to be the only lawmaker from the Democratic Party to do so. He has also said he would vote for Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, joined Trump’s social media website, Truth Social, and attended Trump’s inauguration.
Fetterman said in a new interview that he will not be switching parties or even leaving the Democratic Party.
“If they think, ‘oh, it’s going to be like a Manchin or a Sinema play,’ that’s just not true, and that’s not going to happen,” Fetterman told Semafor. “It’s not gonna happen.”
Fetterman said that he has informed leaders of the Democratic Party that his party affiliation and his membership in the Senate Democratic caucus is not going to change.
Former Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), during the most recently completed session of Congress, left the Democratic Party to become independents.
Neither senator caucused with Republicans, although they each cast some votes with the GOP.
Fetterman said on Truth Social before Trump was sworn in that it was “appropriate and the responsibility of a U.S. Senator to have a conversation with President-elect Trump’s nominees.”
He added later: “My votes will come from an open-mind and an informed opinion after having a conversation with them. That’s not controversial, it’s my job.”
The Jan. 21 full Senate vote followed a party-line vote by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 20 to advance Hegseth’s nomination to all senators.
The final vote on Hegseth is expected in the coming days.
Other Democratic Party senators have expressed opposition to the nomination.
“The Secretary of Defense is one of the most important roles for keeping our country safe and we need someone who is ready to step into the job and succeed on day one. Pete Hegseth doesn’t bring the kind of experience that prepares someone to do this massive job,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said this week.
Republicans, on the other hand, have said they still support Hegseth.
“The President’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Mr. Hegseth, has impressive academic qualifications, conducted himself very well in the Senate Armed Services hearing, and has a commendable record of service in uniform. He assured me he will surround himself with a strong support team,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said in a statement. “I will vote for his confirmation.”
President Donald Trump has begun delivering on a central promise of his historic 2024 campaign by removing officials who obstruct his America First agenda.
Numerous top officials have been fired at the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees the country’s immigration courts,NBC News reports. The firings, which occurred late Monday evening, include the following officials: chief immigration judge, Sheila McNulty; the acting director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, Mary Cheng; the office’s general counsel, Jill Anderson; and its head of policy, Lauren Alder Reid, the news outlet noted.
Reid told the outlet that she was 'severely disappointed' that nobody gave her a heads up.
"My career Senior Executive Service colleagues and I are shocked and severely disappointed in the decision to remove us from our positions without notice or cause,” she bitterly told NBC News. “We have dedicated our careers to upholding the rule of law, regardless of the administration. Our continued pursuit of justice will not be diminished.”
The terminated officials were all civil servants, not political appointees.
Additionally, some DOJ officials were reassigned to different roles within the agency, sources familiar with the developments told the Associated Press. Bruce Swartz, veteran head of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, has been shifted to another job - while George Toscas, a longtime deputy assistant attorney general in the National Security Division, was reassigned. Toscas played roles in both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information and Trump’s classified documents probe.
Nearly two dozen officials have been moved to new roles, AP said.
Trump, who recently faced twin (now closed) investigations from Biden-DOJ-appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith, vowed through his latest White House campaign to “demolish the ‘deep state.”
“We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” Trump pledged in Windham, New Hampshire in a 2023 speech.
Nonetheless, Trump’s efforts to improve the DOJ is already being met with resistance and chicanery from the Left.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Pam Bondi by one week due to an unnamed Democrat lawmaker. The hearing, originally planned to advance Bondi's nomination for a full Senate vote, has been rescheduled for January 29th.
Bondi, who served as Florida’s first female Attorney General, has vowed to restore a “one tier of justice for all” if confirmed to lead the DOJ.
“My overriding objective will be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals, and that includes getting back to basics, gangs, drugs, terrorists, cartels, our border and our foreign adversaries,” she testified during her confirmation process. “I believe we are on the cusp of a new golden age where the Department of Justice can and will do better if I am confirmed.”
