Some military service members will be discharged and dismissed under new Trump administration rules. And one week into the new administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement wastes no time rounding up migrants who are in the U.S. illegally. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.
Trump signs orders making major changes to US military
President Donald Trump signed more new executive orders Monday, Jan. 27, reshaping the nation’s military. The orders included banning transgender service members; getting rid of the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and reinstating service members who were discharged for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine with back pay.
This comes after Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as secretary of defense on Saturday, Jan. 25, and had his first day on the job Monday. Hegseth has long said he would make major cultural changes to the military, including ending DEI practices and removing so-called “woke” service members.
“There are more executive on — executive orders coming that we fully support: removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of COVID mandates, iron dome for America. This is happening quickly,” Hegseth told reporters on his first official day on the job.
Trump banned transgender Americans from serving in the military during his first administration, but President Joe Biden issued an order repealing the ban.
Hours after being sworn in for his second term last week, Trump signed an order to undo Biden’s. That order goes even further, outlining new military standards regarding gender pronouns.
ICE arrested 3,500 illegal immigrants during Trump’s first week in office
Trump’s second presidency enters its second week, and his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in the U.S. have already resulted in the arrests of more than 3,500 migrants. Yet, Trump administration officials issued new quotes to increase immigration enforcement operations to 1,200 to 1,500 arrests daily.
ICE announced Monday that a multi-agency immigration operation led to more than 1,100 arrests in a single day — a record for the new administration, so far.
ICE said on Sunday, Jan. 26, alone, law enforcement officers arrested 956 people and lodged 554 detainers, which means “there’s probable cause to believe that the person is removable from the United States under federal immigration law.”
In a weekend interview on ABC News, Border Czar Tom Homan said daily deportation numbers are set to rise in the coming weeks as the Trump administration begins expanding its operations. Homan went to Chicago to oversee operations where Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to keep the city’s sanctuary status.
ICE officials said those considered threats to public safety and national security remain the agency’s top priority. However, immigration authorities can now arrest people who are living in the U.S. illegally if they run across them while looking for migrants targeted for removal. These so-called “collateral arrests” were banned during the Biden administration.
Quakers sue over Trump order allowing immigrant arrests at religious sites
The Department of Homeland Security faces lawsuits from five Quaker congregations over last week’s policy reversal allowing immigration agents to conduct searches and arrests in “sensitive areas” like churches and schools.
The Quaker groups, known as the Religious Society of Friends, said the policy change harms congregations by deterring immigrants from worshipping in person, thus violating First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, said Quaker worship involves multiple congregants sitting together in silence to await a message from God.
The Quakers are the first religious organization to challenge the new policy. The DHS, now led by newly confirmed former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, said it does not comment on pending litigation.
DOJ launches ‘special project’ to investigate Jan. 6 prosecutors
The Trump administration started a so-called “special project” to investigate prosecutors who charged some Jan. 6 Capitol rioters with obstruction. In a memo issued Monday, interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, ordered prosecutors to hand over information related to the charges to two officials he appointed, who must issue a report on the probe by Friday, Jan. 31.
This move comes as the Trump administration fired more than a dozen federal employees who worked on criminal investigations into the president.
Straight Arrow News reporter Lauren Taylor explains how that’s related to this “special project” here.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration placed at least 56 senior officials in the U.S. Agency for International Development on administration leave Monday amid an investigation into alleged efforts to ignore the president’s executive order last week.
It stipulated a 90-day pause on most American foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department.
New Chinese AI startup puts US stocks in a tailspin
Eyes are on the stock market Tuesday to see if the Nasdaq can rebound from a manic Monday after a surprise advancement by the Chinese startup artificial intelligence company DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the tech market.
DeepSeek released its large language ChatGPT-like model called R1. It supposedly has all the capabilities of OpenAI, as well as Google’s and Meta’s AI models.
However, the Chinese version can operate at a fraction of the cost, compared to its American counterparts. That sent the Nasdaq spiraling downward Monday as chipmaker Nvidia lost almost $600 billion in value as DeepSeek makes in-roads in the tech industry.
The Nasdaq fell 600 points. As of Tuesday morning, futures were up.
Google to rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’
Google is getting behind Trump’s plan to change the names of some of America’s most iconic landmarks. The search engine giant announced Monday it will be changing the names of the Gulf of Mexico and Denali on its maps for American users as soon as the federal government makes the switch.
Under an executive order signed by Trump on his first day in office, the Gulf of Mexico would become the Gulf of America. Alaska’s Denali, the highest mountain in North America, would become Mount McKinley.
The president directed the interior secretary to make the changes within 30 days. Trump does not yet have an official interior secretary, but the Senate is considering his nominee, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.