Key events
Our video team has put together this set of clips from Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
IRS staffing could halve – reports
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of US politics and the Donald Trump administration. I’m Tom Ambrose.
We start with news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is considering reducing its workforce by as much as 50%, according to reports. The agency has already laid off about 7,000 of its 90,000 employees since Donald Trump came to power.
Federal agencies have been given until 13 March to formulate cost and staff reduction plans and submit them to the White House.
Associated Press reports that, according to two anonymous sources familiar with IRS plans, it is proposing “a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts” will deliver the huge cut in headcount.
John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner, has said that cuts on this scale would render the IRS “dysfunctional”.
In his marathon address to Congress last night, a jocular Donald Trump touted his administration’s “swift and unrelenting action” and praised the work of his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who has led his administration’s efforts to dramatically downsize the federal government through his so-called “department of government efficiency”. Democratic lawmakers protested with placards that read “lies” and “false” through the speech, which lasted an hour and 40 minutes.
You can read our story here
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The president’s speech was littered with false claims he has previously been corrected on but continues to repeat – here are some of those “facts” checked
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He doubled down on his expansionist rhetoric, saying the administration was in the process of “reclaiming the Panama canal” and repeating his threat to take control of Greenland: “One way or the other, we’re going to get it”. The president has also recently stated that the US will “own” the Gaza Strip
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The dollar has fallen to the lowest level since November, after Trump said his new tariffs will cause “a little disturbance” in his Congress speech
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Responding to Trump’s speech, Sen Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said that Ronald Reagan “must be rolling in his grave” after last week’s Oval Office spat with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump “cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin”, and asserted that Trump would have “lost” the cold war
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Democratic Rep Al Green of Texas was ejected for an outburst during Trump’s speech. He later told the media “It’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president”
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The Trump administration has listed over 300 federal buildings for sale. It describes the properties as “not core to government operations”
