IRS reportedly set to fire 6,000 workers at the height of tax-filing season – US politics live | Trump administration

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers slated for termination received emails on Wednesday afternoon instructing them to report to the office and bring with them their government-issued equipment.

“Under an executive order, IRS has been directed to terminate probationary employees who were not deemed critical to filing season,” according to an email seen by multiple outlets.

“We don’t have many details that we are permitted to share, but this is all tied to compliance with the executive order.”

The reported layoffs come in the middle of tax filing season and follow years of effort by the Biden administration to beef up the agency’s workforce, modernize its technology and improve customer service using tens of billions from the Inflation Reduct Act – money that Republicans have aimed to cut.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is expected to fire thousands of its probationary employees as early as today, according to reports on Wednesday.

About 6,000 IRS employees are reportedly slated for termination, with further reductions in the size of the agency expected as part of the Trump administration’s push to downsize the federal work force.

The terminations will reportedly target relatively recent hires who do not enjoy as much job protection. They are described as largely auditors and support workers involved in compliance work, CNN reports.

The move would come during peak tax-filing season in the US.

If confirmed in a Senate vote this afternoon, Kash Patel would take over an FBI gripped by turmoil while facing allegations that he played a key role in a purge of the bureau’s agents while his nomination was pending.

Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, claimed last week that he had “highly credible information” that Patel had given orders to sack senior personnel when he had no power to do so as a private citizen.

Durbin called the alleged misconduct “absolutely beyond the pale” and demanded an immediate investigation. “Although Mr Patel is President Trump’s nominee to be FBI Director, he is still a private citizen with no role in government,” Durbin wrote in a letter to the justice department inspector general, Michael Horowitz.

It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other dedicated, nonpartisan law enforcement officers.

The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on whether to confirm Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s controversial nominee as FBI director.

Patel, a longtime Trump adviser who served in his first term, is expected to be confirmed unless more than three Republican senators vote against him, which is seen as unlikely. He cleared the Senate judiciary committee last week by a 12-10, party-line vote.

During his confirmation hearing last month, Patel faced questions about previous provocative public remarks attacking the FBI and his ability to resist political pressure from the White House.

Critics have said Patel, one of Trump’s most loyal lieutenants, would weaponise the FBI against the president’s political opponents if he becomes the agency’s director.

Trump’s first month in office could be described as whiplash-inducing – and his flurry of executive actions have drawn criticism from several quarters.

But how do Trump voters view the whirlwind start to his second term?

My colleague Joseph Gedeon spoke to some Trump voters in Georgia to find out. Here’s what one of them, construction worker Jeff Clay, told him:

“He’s coming at everything just a whirlwind. You don’t know what he’s going do next. I mean, he’s basically covered about everything he said he was going to do, or he’s trying, and I’m sure there’s more that could be done. He needs to drain the swamp up there at the Capitol.”

Donald Trump is receiving widespread backlash after he likened himself to a “king” on social media following his administration’s decision to rescind New York City’s congestion pricing program.

On Wednesday, following a letter issued by his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, that ended the transportation department’s agreement with New York over a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, Trump wrote on Truth Social:

“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

The White House then proceeded to share Trump’s quote on social media, accompanied with a computer-generated image of Trump grinning on a fake Time magazine cover while donning a golden crown, behind him the skyline of New York City.

In response to Trump’s comments, Hochul issued a statement, saying: “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king.” She added: “Public transit is the lifeblood of New York City and critical to our economic future – as a New Yorker, like president Trump, knows very well.”

Good morning US politics readers. Today marks a full month since Donald Trump’s inauguration – and in that month the 47th president and his administration have fundamentally reshaped the federal government and driven a truck through international relations.

Trump is sure to celebrate at this year’s CPAC, which is held at the National Harbor in Maryland. As my colleagues David Smith writes, the conference will be a vivid demonstration of how his “Make America great again” (Maga) movement has gone from the margins to the mainstream.

The vice-president, JD Vance, is expected to address the conference at 10am ET. We’ll follow it live and bring you the key moments of his speech.

Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship may be headed to the supreme court after an appeals court declined to grant a justice department request that would have lifted a lower court’s order blocking the president’s executive order.

The US 9th circuit court of appeals decision means the case may be headed to the nation’s highest court, one month after Trump signed the executive order.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• After Trump escalated his rift with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president is trying to move the difficult conversation with the US forward ahead of today’s meeting with Trump envoy Keith Kellogg. In his regular video update on Wednesday night, he said it was “crucial that this discussion and our overall cooperation with the US remains constructive”. We’re covering the latest developments in our Europe live blog:

• Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, is set to be confirmed today around 1.45pm.

• At 1pm, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will brief reporters.

• At 3pm, Trump is expected to address a White House reception for Black history month.

• At 7.20pm Trump speaks at a reception for Republican members of the National Governors Association.