Pentagon reportedly planning to cut workforce by at least 50,000 – US politics live

Cuts are expected to come from hire freezes, dismissing some probationary workers and by people taking up an offer to resign

Republicans have been put in a bind by Donald Trump’s confrontation with the judiciary and the rebuke handed out by chief justice John Roberts.

On his Truth Social platform, the president called for Judge James Boasberg to be impeached, calling him “a troublemaker and agitator” and “crooked”.

Republicans, by and large, will support Trump publicly because of the situation, we’re dealing with Venezuelan gang members and most Americans agree they should have been deported.

Privately, most congressional Republicans will think this is really going right up to the line on having a constitutional crisis and that situations like this need to be avoided in the future. They do believe in due process.

When you arbitrarily try to cancel the rule of law, which is what Trump is trying to do, and leave by the edict of an individual, whether he is president or not, you’re creating almost a banana republic-type of event.”

How does it affect Republicans? Significantly. Because even though senior Republicans in the Senate may disagree and hopefully would disagree strongly, it’s the president who’s head of the party and is defining the party.