President Donald Trump and his cabinet have kept the ball rolling in Washington, D.C., as new leadership positions have been confirmed, along with decisions regarding federal buildings.
In his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 22, Trump revealed that his team was looking to remove The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from its headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building and give possession of the property over to U.S. Customs and Border Control. This comes after hundreds of employees were fired at USAID over the last few days, according to The New York Times. Both of these actions seem to align with the State Department’s memo earlier this month that USAID may undergo reorganization under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to Fox News.
“The United States Agency for International Development has long strayed from its original mission of responsibly advancing American interests abroad, and it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States,” the State Department said in a press release.
Across the country in San Francisco, the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building will also be undergoing major changes. Unlike the Ronald Reagan Building, this property may be leaving the government’s possession as Trump potentially looks to sell it. The building was designed to be a “green” building, with the intent to be energy efficient, despite the cost of the structure totaling $144 million upon its opening. The sale would attest to DOGE’s primary mission to remove federal bureaucracy, according to Fox News. The Nancy Pelosi Building currently holds the offices for Pelosi, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Labor and three other departments.
As several federal buildings undergo change, so will the leadership in D.C. Kash Patel was confirmed as the new head of the FBI in a 51-49 vote Feb. 21, according to the Washington Post. Just two days after being sworn in, it was reported that he may also be named the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to Newsmax. Gun rights groups, such as Gun Owners of America, consider his confirmation as the head of the FBI to be a major win for gun owners, while gun control groups, such as Brady, consider Patel to be a “known gun rights extremist,” according to Newsmax. According to CNBC, Patel will be sworn in as the new director of ATF.
Unlike Patel, who will be taking on more responsibility, some senior officers in the Pentagon will be seeing a drastic decrease in their workload. Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. was removed as the Joint Chief of Staff Feb. 21 and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that there may be more firing to come, according to Newsmax.
“Nothing about this is unprecedented,” Hegseth said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president deserves to pick his key national security advisory team.”
Hegseth and Trump have made it clear that they look to completely remove DEI practices from the military, and Trump is not the first president to fire military officers to achieve their vision of a world-class defense force. Hegseth reminded Fox during his interview that Roosevelt, Bush and Obama all made similar changes when they first began their presidencies.
“(Brown) is an honorable man,” Hegseth said during his interview. “(But) not the right man for the moment.”
At the present time, it appears that Trump favors Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to take over Brown’s position, although Caine retired from service December 2022, according to Newsmax.
All facts of the article are correct at the time of publishing.
McKinnon is the off-campus news editor for the Liberty Champion.