Shortly after being sworn in at high noon today, President-elect Trump plans to revoke security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 saying emails from Hunter Biden's laptop carried "classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.
We're told Day 1 will bring about 200 executive actions of various sorts, including executive orders.
Day 1 actions are expected to include declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, Jan. 6 pardons, a TikTok reprieve, and executive orders to increase fossil fuel development and reduce civil service protections for federal workers.
Why it matters: The action on security clearances is a Day 1 sign that Trump plans to use his formidable tools of office in his war with what he calls the "intelligence apparatus," which he blames for the "Russia collusion hoax."
"The threats have real teeth to them," a transition source told me.
The big picture: During the 75-day transition, Trump's team put a huge focus on prepping a Day 1 barrage to tell the story of "promises made, promises kept" โ before he's even had a full day in the Oval Office.
"I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country," Trump said yesterday at a Make America Great Again Victory Rally at Capital One Arena in Washington.
"Before even taking office, you are already seeing results that nobody expected to see," he added. "Everyone is calling it the ... I don't want to say this โ it's too braggadocious. But we'll say it anyway, the Trump effect. It's you, you're the effect. Since the election, the stock market has surged, and small business optimism has soared ... Bitcoin has shattered one record high after another."
Charlie Kirk โ founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, and one of the most powerful MAGA podcasters โ calls this "Liberation Day."
Steve Bannon, whose "War Room" podcast is powerful with Trump's base, told me it's a "tsunami this time ... flood the zone." Bannon said the fusillade will mean "the media is so overwhelmed with so much activity on so many fronts that it cannot process."
We hear Ratcliffe pushed the idea of revoking the security clearances, and Trump loved the idea.
Reality check: A former U.S. official told us that some of the 51 officials are fully retired, and sees the move as largely symbolic โ "none of these people are going to lose their day job."
Hollywood was already drifting out of Hollywood, and the destructive wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles dealt another blow to the city's attempt at winning back film and TV productions.
Why it matters: The city's biggest economic driver is still recovering from a challenging decade that has already included a pandemic and twin labor strikes.
State of play: LA-based film and TV production had its second worst year in terms of shooting days, according to FilmLA, a non-profit group that hands out filming permits in the city.
Last year featured 23,480 shooting days, coming only ahead of 2020.
Overall production last year was down 31% compared to its five-year average (not including 2020).
Although many studio facilities were relatively untouched by the fires, production was still halted, though some shows have picked back up.
The big picture: Over the past decade-plus, Hollywood has increasingly moved production outside of Southern California to places like Georgia, New York, New Jersey and New Mexico due in large part to generous tax breaks.
Many big budget films are also increasingly choosing to shoot outside of the U.S. For example, 2022's "The Batman" was filmed almost entirely in England and Scotland and used Warner Bros.' Leavesden studio in England.
Many TV shows choose to film in Toronto or Vancouver to save costs.
What's next: California Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed to double the state's film and TV tax credit from $330 million to $750 million annually. That would take it past states like New York.
In December, a new coalition made up of over 30 different local organizations, including studio operators and payroll firms, called the California Production Coalition, formed to lobby the state on how it can stop productions from leaving.
President-elect Trump said Thursday that he'd appoint three actors โ Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight โ as "special ambassadors" in order to help bring "Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK!"
It's unclear what the three โย Gibson is also a director โย can actually do to reverse the trend.
Zoom in: Additionally, there are multiple studio renovation projects in various stages of planning and development that could total nearly $3 billion.
The morning before the fires started, the Los Angeles City Council approved Hackman Capital's $1 billion proposal to expand the famed Television City studio. Hackman has a separate $1 billion proposal to renovate Radford Studio Center.
Warner Bros. is nearly finished with a $500 million renovation of its Ranch Lot and East End Studios is building a $230 million studio in the Arts District.
The bottom line: Given that Hollywood is likely to play a starring role in Los Angeles' recovery efforts, there may be even more incentive now to bring filmmaking back home.
President-elect Trump's opening flurry of executive orders will declare a "national energy emergency" to juice higher production and lower consumer costs, an incoming administration official tells Axios.
The wave of moveson day 1 or shortly after is also expected to include an executive order to "unleash Alaska's natural resource potential." The order will support liquefied natural gas exports from the 49th state, with an eye toward helping Asia-Pacific allies.
Why it matters: Trump wants to send an instant message of "promises made, promises kept" โ and signal a much friendlier climate for businesses across the board.
Trump's energy executive actions will create "conditions that facilitate investment, that facilitate job creation, that facilitate the production of America's natural resources, and the result will be lower prices for the American people," an incoming White House energy adviser told us.
"National security is a key issue here," the adviser said. "Energy is fundamental to our foreign policy, and reducing American energy production curtails our ability to exercise our foreign policies."
Threat level: Trump's attempted reversal of Biden-era policies could boost U.S. greenhouse gas emissions โ or at least slow down projected reductions.
Future focus: The power to fuel AI โ which requires energy-thirsty data centers โ is top of mind for the incoming White House, which is vowing to "unleash" U.S. energy.
The emergency order is expected to focus on electricity generation. U.S. power demand is rising quickly after staying largely flat for the last 15 years.
Friction point: "We're in an AI race with the People's Republic of China and other nations," the incoming energy adviser said.
"It's fundamental that we're able to produce the necessary electricity here in the United States so that we can win that race and protect our nation."
The big picture: Trump's team aims to ease construction of fossil-fuel infrastructure, such as pipelines. The new administration also is expected to overturn a suite of Biden-era policies:
A major slowdown of oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and new bans in other coastal waters.
EPA greenhouse gas regulations on power plants, vehicles, and oil and gas infrastructure.
A "pause" on new LNG export licenses to major markets.
Restrictions on oil, gas and mineral projects in Alaska.
Reality check: Trump's "dominance" agenda will confront market and process barriers โ and plenty of litigation.
U.S. oil output is already at record levels. Tepid global demand growth makes producers in Texas and elsewhere unlikely to flood the market.
Gasoline and diesel costs are tethered to oil prices set on global markets, while electricity costs tend to be highly regional and dependent on weather and other forces.
Executive orders can make some instant policy. Often they're a symbolic opening of the long, legally fraught bureaucratic slog of formally unwinding agency rules and policies.
The intrigue: It's unclear precisely what the "emergency" declaration and other orders will entail.
"We're going to cut the burdensome red tape and bureaucracy that have inhibited our economy for four years now," the incoming energy adviser said.
Presidents can use emergency authorities to redirect resources and push the private sector to boost or maintain critical supplies.
Between the lines: The oil and gas industry will cheer Trump's opening moves. But executives are wary of his plans for tariffs, which could raise project costs โ and spur retaliation from buyers of U.S. exports.
The bottom line: The first moments and days of Trump 2.0 will ignite a U-turn from President Biden's expansive climate agenda.
But turning those ambitions into on-the-ground reality is a far longer, trickier task.
President-elect Trump on Monday becomes the second president in U.S. history (after Grover Cleveland) to deliver a second, non-consecutive inaugural address.
Why it matters: Although Trump's first inaugural address was the shortest in modern history, it was memorable for the graphic and violent imagery he used about the country.
During his most recent campaign, Trump called his stream-of-conscious oration "the weave," saying he intentionally delves in and out of topics.
His rhetoric during the campaign was often violent and included threats to seek retribution against his perceived enemies.
President Biden's inaugural address was the longest in modern history since Ronald Reagan's second term in 1985. Biden's speech focused on unity and the resilience of democracy.
Who gave the longest inauguration speech
Zoom out: Every president since George Washington has delivered an inaugural address, per the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
William Henry Harrison delivered the longest one at 8,445 words, in 1841. He died a month later of pneumonia, some said brought on by exposure to the elements during his ceremony.
Washington's second inaugural address was the shortest, at 135 words. Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourthin 1945 was the next shortest, at 559 words, according to the committee.
Trump inauguration speech 2017
Flashback: Trump's 2017 inauguration speech was widely seen by opponents as radical and divisive. But his first-term focus on immigration and the economy served as a foundation for his second victory โ and today's Republican Party.
He used the term "American carnage" to describe urban poverty, deserted factories, violent crime and a broken education system.
The intrigue: In December, fundraising for Trump's inauguration was set to surpass that of all past ceremonies.
Contributions from companies like Meta, Apple, OpenAI, Uber and Amazon have been seen a an effort to build bridges with the incoming administration.
Donald Trump's second presidency is already off to a blazing start โ partly from how aggressively he's seized power, but also because his rival, President Biden, has given Trump a head start on realizing some of his big campaign promises.
Why it matters: The most consequential pre-presidency in recent U.S. history has left Trump uniquely positioned to quickly impose his plans to boost executive power, reshape foreign policy, deport millions of undocumented immigrants and juice the economy.
Trump's also ignited a rightward tilt of corporate America, the removal of social media speech guardrails and significant geopolitical shifts.
Zoom in: This week, Biden's White House hailed a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal โ one that was made possible partly by Trump's imminent arrival.
Biden's team worked for months to secure peace, but Israel was willing to close the deal only with Trump's backing, Axios' Barak Ravid reported.
Trump has sent ripples through several countries with his -pre-inauguration musings on foreign policy.
Justin Trudeau's resignation was triggered in part by divisions within Canada's government over how to respond to Trump's 25% tariff threat.
The Overton window on U.S. expansionism quickly shifted as Trump mused about taking back the Panama Canal, claiming Greenland and invading Mexico, promptingfrazzledresponses from foreign leaders.
Iran put a retaliation plan against Israel on the back burner, signaling it wants to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Trump.
The Trump effect has hit tech at a head-spinning pace.
The incoming president is trying to resuscitate TikTok, signaling that he'll sign an executive order Monday to keep the social media app alive โ at least temporarily.
In a matter of weeks, Meta morphed into a Trump-hugging, MAGA-aligned fount of "masculine energy."
The company's blitz of moves included loosening speech restrictions, dropping DEI efforts, appointing the UFC's Dana White to its board and putting Republican Joel Kaplan in its chief public affairs role. CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be at Trump's inauguration today.
These effects are cascading through Corporate America.
Several of the country's biggest companies have unwound their DEI efforts, with many others talking about the topic less.
Top executives, including Zuckerberg, sense a new permission structure to speak their minds, unshackled.
Zoom out: Trump has cast Biden as weak, but on some policy fronts โ namely immigration and the economy โ Biden is leaving Trump a stronger hand than the Republican admits.
As Biden departs, border crossings are down, deportations are up and the economy is humming along, with inflation trending down.
State of play: Trump enters office with plans to deport millions of immigrants at a time when U.S. immigration courts already are on pace to decide record numbers of deportation casesโ and order the most removals in five years โ under Biden's push to fast-track asylum decisions.
Immigration courts are predicted to rule on 852,000 deportation cases from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, according to an analysis of data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
If that pace continues, immigration judges will rule on more deportation cases in 2025 than in any previous year on record.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported more than 271,000 people last fiscal year โ a 90% increase from 2023, the most in nearly a decade and more than Trump did in any year of his first term.
Illegal border crossings also havedeclined steadily in 2024 aftera sharp drop early in the year, according to Department of Homeland Security data obtained by USA Today and CBS News.
Documents obtained by the ACLU show that ICE under Biden has considered proposals to expand its immigration detention capacity in at least eight states.
Those proposals could give Trump a running start for a key part of his mass-deportation plan.
On the economy, encouragingconsumer price index reports indicate inflation is relenting, a dramatic improvement from 2022 โ although food and energy costs remain relatively high.
Jobs reports also have been strong under Biden, whose post-pandemic recovery added more jobs in a single four-year term than Presidents Bush and Obama (two terms each) and Trump's first term.
A majority of Americans are already giving Trump credit for these economic improvements, according to an Axios/Harris poll. A similar number of respondents, roughly 55%, said they were optimistic about the government's ability to manage the economy and lower prices.
Trump's challenge in the Middle East will be to help maintain the fragile peace established in Biden's hostage and ceasefire deal, which paused 15 months of war in Gaza.
Biden's team dismisses the notion that Trump's impending return helped clinch the deal. Asked by reporters whether Trump should get credit, Biden said: "Is that a joke?"
Optimism for the year ahead has dropped significantly among people of color, LGBTQ+ Americans and many women as President-elect Trumpreturns to the White House, a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll finds.
Why it matters: The disparities between demographic groups in terms of how they're feeling heading into 2025 reflect the fact that while Trump's return fills some Americans with hope, many others are deeply concerned.
The big picture: Two-thirds (68%) of all Americans say they're more concerned about violence by U.S. citizens domestically than in years past. That share climbed slightly among women and LGBTQ+ Americans.
59% of all Americans say they're more concerned about the state of U.S. democracy now than in recent years.
By the numbers: 63% of Americans overall said 2025 will be better than 2024. That's barely changed from December 2023, when 66% said they were more optimistic about 2024 than 2023.
But among Black Americans, optimism dropped from 80% to 61%.
Optimism among Hispanic Americans fell from 78% to 67%.
LGBTQ+ Americans' outlook dropped from 76% to 60%. AAPI respondents' optimism slipped from 67% to 60%. Women's optimism dipped from 65% to 58%.
68% of U.S. men said they're more optimistic about this year, compared with 67% a year ago. White Americans' optimism barely changed, now 63% compared with 65%.
Zoom in: 63% of LGBTQ+ respondents, 57% of AAPI and Black Americans, and 55% of Latinos say they're concerned about their personal safety.
64% of Black Americans and 61% of LQBTQ+ Americans cite concerns about their personal civil rights.
Gen Z and Millennials also expressed outsized concerns about the safety and civil rights.
What they're saying: "It's clear that there are groups within America for whom the potential policies of the new administration are going to directly impact their lives," said John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll.
Between the lines: During the campaign, Trump used racist language and anti-trans tropes and has promised to roll back some civil rights protections and programs aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion in the federal government.
Some of his supporters are urging him to reverse an executive order issued by President Lyndon Johnson 60 years ago that targets discrimination by federal contractors.
Trump said he would slash the Department of Education and vowed to cut funds to schools teaching elements of critical race theory or engaging in certain pro-transgender approaches.
Methodology: The findings in this Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll are based on a nationally representative sample of 2,128 U.S. adults conducted online Jan. 3-5, 2025, among which 1,337 identified were identified as employed.
The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval.
For this study, the data for the overall population is accurate to within +/- 2.4 percentage points using a 95% confidence level, and +/- 3.0 percentage points for respondents within the registered voters
The Gaza ceasefire saw three hostages held by Hamas since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel released on Sunday, along with 90 Palestinian prisoners.
The big picture: In the first hostage-for-prisoner swaps to occur since the ceasefire began Sunday, Israelis Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher and dual British-Israeli national Emily Damar were freed and Israel released a group of prisoners that mostly comprised women and minors.
Newly released 17-year-old Palestinian prisoner Roz Huwais reunites with her family in Jerusalem on Jan. 20. Photo: Saeed Qaq/Anadolu via Getty Images
Members of the Israeli security and medical personnel transport the three released hostages upon their arrival at Sheba Medical Center, also known as Tel HaShomer Hospital, in Ramat Gan, Israel. Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
A Palestinian woman embraces her freed son upon his arrival in Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Photo: Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
Friends reach out to freed hostage Emily Damari as she arrives at Sheba Medical Center on Jan. 19. Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
A freed Palestinian prisoner embraces a relative in Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah, on Jan. 20. Photo: John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
One of the Israeli hostages exits a vehicle to be handed over to the Red Cross during the hostage-prisoner exchange operation in Gaza City on Jan. 19. Screen grab: AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
A Palestinian woman cries as she embraces a loved one who was released from prison on Jan. 20 in Beitunia. Photo: Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
The released Israeli hostages leave a van before boarding an Israeli Air Force military transport helicopter near Reim in southern Israel on Jan. 19. Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images
The uncle of freed 17-year-old Palestinian prisoner Qassem Jaafra kisses his forehead upon his arrival home in the Silwan neighborhood of east Jerusalem early on Jan. 20. Photo: Ahmad GharabliH/AFP via Getty Images
Supporters and relatives of hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attacks watch a live television broadcast on the release of the hostages, at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 19. Photo: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
Palestinian men waving Hamas (green) and Hezbollah (yellow) flags sit on top of a Red Cross bus carrying released prisoners from Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank are met by a crowd of family members and friends in Beitunia on Jan. 20. Photo: John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
Two days after her president-elect husband generated potentially tens of billions of dollars with a new meme coin, first-lady-in-waiting Melania Trump launched her own coin Sunday night: MELANIA.
Why it matters: The Trump family became crypto billionaires this weekend, simultaneously raising difficult questions about the boundaries between their official roles and personal profits.
By the numbers: The details on this new coin are sketchier, but we can see that it also has a supply of a billion tokens. It's not clear how many are on the market now.
According to the token's site, the team is only setting aside 35% for themselves, but it will also only take 13 months for it all to unlock.
More than 22,000 wallets held it early Sunday evening, shortly after launch, according to Solscan, a site for checking the details of assets on the Solana blockchain.
What we're watching: The token for Trump's wife is rising in price fast, quickly breaking $5 on Dexscreener (with a fully diluted market cap of more than $5 billion).
Which would mean something well over $1.5 billion for the team's allocation.
Concurrently, TRUMP fell about 36% on the news that there was more than one family coin out there, from $72 to $44 on CoinGecko, at press time.
President-elect Trump pledged during a pre-inauguration victory rally in Washington, D.C. to act when he begins his second term from Monday "with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country."
The big picture: Trump claimed at Sunday's rally in Capital One Arena on the eve of his inauguration that "before even taking office, you are already seeing results that nobody expected to see."
"And as of today, TikTok, is back," he said, in reference to the company's move to restore the video app in the U.S. after Trump vowed to sign an executive order on his first day in office to delay enforcing the ban of the platform that's owned by Chinese firm ByteDance.
"This agreement could only have happened as a result of our historic victory in November," Trump said.
Zoom in: Trump promised during his speech that people are "going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy, lots of them" when he takes office on Monday and renewed his vow for a hardline crackdown on immigration.
"I will outline in my inaugural address tomorrow ... the most aggressive, sweeping effort to restore our borders the world has ever seen," Trump said.
"By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt and all the illegal border trespassers will, in some form or another, be on their way back home."
Meanwhile, incoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-leader Elon Musk appeared briefly onstage at the rally with his son X, pledging to "make significant changes" and "cement those changes and set the foundation for America to be strong for a century, for centuries, forever."
In photos: Supporters rally for Trump
Trump dances on stage while the Village People perform "YMCA" on stage at his victory rally at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 19. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Elon Musk and his son X appear on stage at Trump's victory rally at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 19. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
A cutout picture of Trump is held up by people waiting in line at Capital One Arena for the victory rally on Jan. 19. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Trump supporters wait in line at Capital One Arena on Jan. 19. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Trump supporters gather at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 19. Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump supporters gather at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 19. Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump supporters gather at the Capital One Arena on Jan. 19. Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
On Sunday, millions of U.S. TikTok users were sent a message less than 24 hours after the app went dark: "As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!"
Yes, but: While Trump's vow to delay the app's divestment deadline might earn him some likes online, key GOP lawmakers who pushed for a ban over national security concerns could be a bit ticked off.
And despite Trump's vow to issue an executive order on day one to delay the enforcement of a bipartisan law, TikTok still might be racing against the clock to strike a deal.
Here's what you may have missed when newsmakers hit the airwaves this Sunday, Jan. 19.
1. MAGA's TikTok turnaround
Rep. Mike Waltz speaks about the law banning TikTok in the U.S. on CNN's "State of the Union" on Jan. 19.
"We know the Chinese Communist Party are using this as a data collection bonanza," he said, contending the campaign's presence on the platform as "a superhighway" for election interference.
"I've called for a full-on ban," Waltz said at the time, calling action on TikTok "long overdue."
Trump, who once spearheaded the effort to ban the app, eventually joined TikTok as well.
The latest: But on Sunday, Waltz, now the incoming national security adviser, said he's confident the Trump administration can "save TikTok" while protecting U.S. user data.
That could mean "an outright sale," as is stipulated in the bipartisan law that set the stage for the app's ban, or "some mechanism of firewalls to make sure that the data is protected here on U.S. soil," Waltz said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"So it's possible China will still own [TikTok]?" host Dana Bash asked, adding, "Isn't that totally capitulating to China?"
Waltz replied that it's "not capitulating at all." He continued, "TikTok can continue to exist ... whether that's in American hands, owned by an American company, or whether the data and the algorithms are fully protected from Chinese interference."
Zoom out: But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told NBC's "Meet the Press" that "we will enforce the law," and Trump's vows to "save TikTok" mean the president-elect wants to see "a true divestiture."
"It's the Chinese Communist Party and their manipulation of the algorithms," Johnson said. "They have been flooding the minds of American children with terrible messages, glorifying violence and antisemitism and even suicide and eating disorders."
The only way to extend the deadline, Johnson said, is if there's an "actual deal" in the works. But he noted, "We don't have any confidence in ByteDance," TikTok's parent company.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) noted on CNN that presenting a remedy other "than someone else purchasing TikTok who's not affiliated with the Chinese communist party" would mean there would have to be "some kind of change in the law."
Yes, but: Trump's vision may look a little different.
"[My]y initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose," Trump wrote in his social media statement expressing his intent to issue an executive order pushing back the apps' lights-out date.
It's clear that ByteDance does not want to sell its famous algorithm. And there is no evidence of an in-progress deal, though investor Kevin O'Leary said he's made a $20 billion offer.
What we're watching: Trump 2.0 โ and perhaps, the path to TikTok 2.0 โ start Monday.
And as White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer made clear Sunday on ABC's "This Week," the ball is in Trump's court.
2. Israel-Hamas ceasefire commences
Brett McGurk speaks during a Jan. 19 interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation."
The early hours of the Gaza ceasefire saw three female Israeli hostages released from Hamas captivity after more than 470 days.
The latest: Some 800 aid trucks are set to enter Gaza today, said Brett McGurk, the lead U.S. negotiator on the hostage deal โ a dramatic increase from daily averages.
As of Friday reporting from Reuters, UNRWA data showed 523 aid trucks had entered Gaza in January.
Janti Soeripto, the president and CEO of Save the Children, said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that there are some 300,000 children in Gaza who are in "real acute need of malnutrition treatment."
Her organization is also trying to reconnect more than 17,000 children separated from their families during a war that has seen more than 45,000 Palestinians killed.
What they're saying: "This was not put together in the last week," McGurk said. "This was put together really since May when President Biden laid out this framework."
McGurk said the Biden administration has been working "seamlessly" with the incoming Trump team.
"This is a testament to President Biden and to President Trump allowing us to work together," he said, characterizing his partnership with Trump Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as "historic."
Waltz characterized the hostage return as a "Reagan moment" for Trump, referencing the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
The terms of the deal were "inherited" from the Biden administration, Waltz said, but he contended "this deal would have never happened had President Trump not been elected."
The bottom line: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the question over whether Trump deserves some credit for the deal is one "historians will have to answer moving forward."
3. Johnson: Trump isn't behind Turner's ousting
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks on NBC News' "Meet the Press" during a Jan. 19 interview.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) denied Sunday that his decision to oust Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) as the House Intelligence Committee chair was prompted by President-elect Trump.
The intrigue: Turner's ousting has generated frustration and disbelief from Republicans who fear their razor-thin majority would shrink further if the Ohio congressman decides to vote against the GOP agenda in retaliation for Johnson's actions.
What they're saying: Johnson told NBC News' Kristen Welker that "the notion that this was directed by the incumbent administration is just simply false."
Yes, but: Turner told CBS News that Johnson said "concerns from Mar-a-Lago" were among the reasons for his removal.
State of play: Johnson said he feels he can still count on Turner's vote as he's a "team player."
The speaker added that he and Turner are "good friends, trusted friends and colleagues. He will still be one of the top leaders in the House. In fact, I reappointed him and asked him to serve again, and he graciously agreed."
Turner will be the chairman of the U.S. delegation for NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, a position he previously held in 2011. He was president of the assembly from 2014 to 2016. He also serves on the Armed Service and Oversight and Government Reform committees.
An invasion of frigid air from the Arctic is sweeping south from the Plains and Ohio Valley Sunday, moving towards the Southeast and East.
Threat level: The colder-than-average temperatures threatens public health for those exposed to the wind and cold, and may harm water and power infrastructure from North Dakota to Texas, on eastward.
The extreme cold has links to the polar vortex, which is a feature of the winter climate during winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
"Life-threatening" wind chills down to minus-55ยฐF are likely in the Plains and Upper Midwest, the NWS warns, mentioning the risk of hypothermia and frostbite for people exposed to the cold for too long.
Sub-zero wind chills are forecast to affect the Ohio and Tennessee Valley Sunday night through midweek, with the possibility of similar cold spreading into portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in the wake of a winter storm.
Along with the cold, a snowstorm is affecting areas from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast on Sunday into Monday. It is poised to potentially become the heaviest snowstorm so far this year for Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, with 5 to 10 inches possible in this broad region.
What they're saying: "This will be the coldest air of the winter season thus far, and in many cases the coldest in several years," the NWS warns.
Zoom in: The hazardous cold will be especially disruptive in the South and Southeast, where temperature departures from average will be significant and persistent.
A rare winter storm is set to deliver a severe snow and ice storm from Houston to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, eastward towards the Carolinas beginning Monday.
As of Sunday morning, the National Weather Service was calling for about 3 inches of snow to fall in Houston, with up to 5 inches in parts of the metro area.
About 2 to 3 inches of snow are expected to fall in New Orleans, with 4 to 6 inches in Baton Rouge.
The intrigue: The NWS forecast office in New Orleans is urging residents to "Exercise extreme caution if travel cannot be avoided" due to the cold and snow that is expected.
"Given the rare southerly track of this winter storm, major traffic and travel disruptions are likely through mid-week," the NWS stated in an online forecast discussion.
By the numbers: Here's how some cities will be affected early next week:
Minneapolis: A high of minus-5ยฐF with a low of minus-13ยฐF on Jan. 22.
Denver: A high of 6ยฐF and a low of minus-4ยฐF on Jan. 20.
Dallas: A high of 33ยฐF and a low of 23ยฐF on Jan. 21.
New York City: A high of 18ยฐF and a low of 10ยฐF on Jan. 21.
Washington, D.C.: A high of 21ยฐF and a low of 11ยฐF on Jan. 21.
The intrigue: The cold air may also spill westward into the Great Basin, setting up yet another period of strong, offshore Santa Ana winds in Southern California.
The Storm Prediction Center has issued a rare, "extremely critical" wildfire risk outlook for Monday across some of the same areas hit by the devastating wildfires earlier this month.
Zoom out: The factors behind this cold outbreak include a strong high pressure area or "ridge" in the jet stream across the eastern Pacific north to Alaska. Meanwhile, there's a dip, or "trough," in the jet stream across central portions of the U.S.
It is expanding southward and helping to promote the flow of air from northern Canada southward toward the continental U.S., said Judah Cohen, a meteorologist at Atmospheric & Environmental Research.
Zoom out: The polar vortex in the stratosphere is altering the jet stream one atmospheric layer down, in the troposphere. This is where most weather takes place.
Three Israeli female hostages were released by Hamas on Sunday, six hours after the Gaza ceasefire came into effect.
Why it matters: This is the first hostage release since November 2023, when the first deal led to the release of more than 100 people.
The released hostages, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, spent more than 470 days in captivity. Damari is a dual British-Israeli national.
Driving the news: Hamas armed militants released the three hostages in the center of Gaza City with hundreds of cheering Palestinians encircling the cars.
They were then transferred to the Red Cross, which drove them in a motorcade to an IDF force in the southern Gaza Strip and from there to Israeli territory.
What they're saying: "Today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," Biden said in a speech Sunday where he presented the ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza as vindication of his policy for the last 15 months.
"I worked in foreign policy for decades and this is one of the toughest negotiations I have been part of. ... The road to this deal has been not easy at all and a long road, but we reached this point today because of the pressure Israel built on Hamas, backed by the United States," Biden said.
He said that unlike what his critics say, without his support for Israel there would have been a wider war in the region.
Biden added that the region has been transformed with Iran weakened, a new president in Lebanon without ties to Hezbollah and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
Between the lines: Hundreds of aid trucks have entered Gaza to bring supplies to civilians, and on the 16th day of the ceasefire the second phase of negotiations will begin, Biden said.
That phase, he said, will include "the release of Israeli soldiers and a permanent end of the war without Hamas in power or able to threaten Israel."
What's next: "Now it falls on the next administration to help implement this deal. I was pleased to have our teams speak as one voice in the final days - it was effective and unprecedented. ....I am looking forward to this deal being fully implemented," Biden said
President-elect Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz on Saturday told the families of American Israeli hostages that the Trump administration is committed to making sure all phases of the hostage-release and ceasefire deal are implemented by Israel and Hamas.
At least two American citizens being held by Hamas are expected to be released in the coming weeks under the ceasefire terms, Biden said Sunday.
State of play: 30 other hostages are expected to be released over the next 42 days as part of the first phase of the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal which was brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt and signed on Thursday.
90 Palestinian women and teenagers were released on Sunday from Israeli prisons.
Zoom out: More than 46,000 Palestinians and more than 1,600 Israelis โ most of them civilians โ have died since the war began following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
Editors' note: This story has been updated with comments from President Biden and Mike Waltz.
TikTok announced it is restoring service Sunday, just hours after President-elect Trump said he would sign an executive order on his first day in office to delay enforcing the U.S. ban of the social media platform.
The big picture: The app went dark Saturday night, but by Sunday afternoon services were restored for many users, complete with a notification reading, in part, "as a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!"
Trump, who once spearheaded the effort to see TikTok banned, has spent weeks pushing for the app to be saved as the deadline, decided by a bipartisan law, neared.
TikTok said in a statement that it was resuming services as Trump's Sunday post on the matter provided "the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans."
A TikTok notification welcoming U.S. users back to the app after a brief shutdown as a result of the U.S. ban. (Screenshot: Avery Lotz)
The latest: The decision to begin restoring services less than 24 hours after the app effectively shut down was made "in agreement with our service providers," the platform said in a statement on its TikTok Policy X account.
"It's a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship," the statement read. "We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."
Driving the news: Trump wrote in a Sunday Truth Social post that he will "issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security."
He added the order will also "confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order."
Trump said he'd like the U.S. to have a "50% ownership position" in a joint venture "between the current owners and/or new owners" to save TikTok.
"By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to [stay] up," he wrote. "Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok."
Reality check: The law, which President Bidensigned in April, required that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, sell the app to an approved buyer by Jan. 19 to avoid being banned.
It's unclear if Trump wants the U.S. government or a U.S. company to have 50% ownership, and how exactly he plans to circumvent the law as an executive order can't override it.
The White House said in a statement Friday that given the timing, the "actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration."
But Republican Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), the chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a joint Sunday statement with Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) that there's no legal basis for any extension of the law's effective date now that it's taken effect.
Context: The divest-or-ban law does allow the president to initiate a 90-day extension, but only if there is "significant progress" toward divestiture and binding legal agreements in place to facilitate a deal.
There is no known deal in the works for purchasing TikTok, though investor Kevin O'Leary has offered $20B.
ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has stood firm against the ban, arguing the forced divestment is unconstitutional. And the company does not want to sell its famed, powerful algorithm.
Our thought bubble: TikTok's restoration of service means that both the company and some of its back-end U.S. service providers โ Oracle, Akamai and Amazon Web Services โ have decided that Trump's assurances about exempting them from liability are good enough to go on. That also means the app will presumably be running on Trump's inauguration day.
As of this writing, neither Apple nor Google have restored the availability of the TikTok app in their app stores, meaning new users can't sign up. This suggests that neither company's lawyers are sufficiently persuaded by Trump's statement.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from TikTok and additional context.
Why it matters: The conservative media firebrand, a leading MAGA voice, has already noted his dissent against Trump's alignment with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk โ but the president-elect has seemingly sided with the world's richest man.
"I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day," Bannon said in a recent interview with Italian outlet Corriere della Sera, characterizing Musk as a "truly evil guy."
Driving the news: "They're there as supplicants," Bannon said on ABC's "This Week" of Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos attending Trump's inauguration. "They're not there as the oligarchs."
He continued, "I look at this and I think most people in our movement look at this as President Trump broke the oligarchs, he broke them and they surrendered."
Zuckerberg, who once banned Trump from his platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, is set to cohost a reception Monday with other billionaire GOP donors for Trump's inauguration, the AP reported.
"That guy will flip on President Trump and he'll flip on us in the second," he contended about Zuckerberg. "When it's convenient for him. He will flip."
Zoom out: Zuckerberg is just one of several big-name tech leaders who will attend Trump's inaugural events โ and who made large donations for the inauguration.
After a stream of CEOs stopped by Mar-a-Lago following Trump's election victory, the president-elect declared "everybody wants to be my friend."
But Bannon sees it differently: "[T]hey're trying to get a landing slot to get in there and be a supplicant."
Conor McGregor, the mixed martial arts champ known as Notorious, was spotted making the scene at STK Steakhouse in Washington this weekend.
Other Ultimate Fighting Championship stars are expected at a black-tie reception Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg โ a UFC fan and Brazilian jiu-jitsu medalist โ will co-host Monday night before the inaugural balls.
Why it matters: The fighters are part of a celebrity influx since President-elect Trump's last inauguration. Giddy MAGA insiders crow that Trump is culturally cool โ or at least socially acceptable โ after a stretch of toxicity.
Alex Bruesewitz โ CEO of X Strategies LLC, based in Palm Beach, who advises Trump's inner circle on alternative media โ told Axios between parties this weekend: "President Trump is cool again."
"He's reclaimed that image he had his entire adult life before he ran for president โ sitting courtside at New York Knicks games and lighting Kate Moss's cigarette," Bruesewitz said. "That Donald Trump is back, and now he's going to the White House. It's now socially acceptable to support it."
Behind the scenes: Bruesewitz helped lead the charge on VIP outreach for the inauguration. As the celebrity liaison, he drew on his personal relationships and input from other Trump friends to help build a glittery roster for this weekend's festivities.
Bruesewitz told me part of the reason is that as celebrities met Trump personally, and as people hear him on long-form podcast interviews, they found him at odds with the portrayal in much of the media: "He was charming and hilarious, not crazy and angry."
Trump's inaugural weekend roster is expected to include:
Data: Solscan, Bloomberg Billionaires; Note: As of 7 a.m. ET Sunday Jan. 19; $TRUMP wealth excludes any income Trump made from selling 200 million memecoins on Jan. 17; Chart: Axios Visuals
The $TRUMP memecoin โ a financial asset that didn't exist on Friday afternoon โ now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump's net worth.
Why it matters: The coin (technically a token that's issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump's political fortunes.
After another massive overnight rally, as of Sunday morning Trump's crypto holdings were worth as much as $58 billion on paper, enough -- with his other assets -- to make him one of the world's 25 richest people.
Where it stands: While the Biden administration broadly took the view that memecoins like $TRUMP are securities subject to SEC regulation, the incoming Trump administration has pledged to be much more crypto-friendly and to regulate such coins with a light or nonexistent touch.
For the record: The coin's official website, GetTrumpMemes.com, urges visitors to buy coins with either dollars or crypto in order to "Celebrate Our Win & Have Fun!"
The coin is "not intended to be... an investment opportunity," per the site, which says that it "has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office."
That hasn't stopped investors from making millions by speculating on the price of the coin, which was launched while Trump was reportedly hosting a "Crypto Ball" in Washington.
By the numbers: Some 200 million of the 1 billion total coins have already been released and are being actively traded. The rest, which are owned by Trump-controlled entities, will be able to be sold at various points over the next three years, starting in April.
On average, Trump's companies will be able to sell some 24 million coins per month into the market, which at current prices (which keep moving), would amount to an income of $1.73 billion per month, or $20.7 billion per year. (Although no one has a clue what the value of the coin will even be this afternoon, let alone three years from now.)
Flashback: During the first Trump administration, there were worries that individuals were able to enrich the president by staying at his hotel in Washington.
Since then, Trump has listed a meme stock where he controls more than 50% of the shares โ and, now, has a meme coin that's even less tethered to reality.
Both of them represent a much more direct way of funneling money to Trump than staying at his hotel did.
Between the lines: The emoluments clause of the Constitution, written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme.
In the present day, it's impossible to track who's going to be buying this coin over the next three years and thereby directing their money directly at Trump.
Given the Supreme Court's expansive view of presidential immunity, there's a good chance that any such action will be deemed lawful.
The bottom line: Trump has just delivered a masterclass in the ability of a president to turn power into wealth.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the $TRUMP coin's latest prices.
Architects of the leading generative AI models are abuzz that a top company, possibly OpenAI, in coming weeks will announce a next-level breakthrough that unleashes Ph.D.-level super-agents to do complex human tasks.
We've learned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman โ who in September dubbed this "The Intelligence Age," and is in Washington this weekend for the inauguration โ has scheduled a closed-door briefing for U.S. government officials in Washington on Jan. 30.
Why it matters: The expected advancements help explain why Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and others have talked publicly about AI replacing mid-level software engineers and other human jobs this year.
"[P]robably in 2025," Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan 10 days ago, "we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of midlevel engineer that you have at your company that can write code."
"[O]ver time, we'll get to the point where a lot of the code in our apps, and including the AI that we generate, is actually going to be built by AI engineers instead of people engineers," he added.
Between the lines: A super-agent breakthrough could push generative AI from a fun, cool, aspirational tool to a true replacement for human workers.
Our sources in the U.S. government and leading AI companies tell us that in recent months, the leading companies have been exceeding projections in AI advancement.
OpenAI this past week released an "Economic Blueprint" arguing that with the right rules and infrastructure investments, AI can "catalyze a reindustrialization across the country."
To be sure: The AI world is full of hype. Most people struggle now to use the most popular models to truly approximate the work of humans.
AI investors have reason to hype small advancements as epic ones to juice valuations to help fund their ambitions.
But sources say this coming advancement is significant. Several OpenAI staff have been telling friends they are both jazzed and spooked by recent progress. As we told you in a column Saturday, Jake Sullivan โ the outgoing White House national security adviser, with security clearance for the nation's biggest secrets โ believes the next few years will determine whether AI advancements end in "catastrophe."
The big picture: Imagine a world where complex tasks aren't delegated to humans. Instead, they're executed with the precision, speed, and creativity you'd expect from a Ph.D.-level professional.
We're talking about super-agents โ AI tools designed to tackle messy, multilayered, real-world problems that human minds struggle to organize and conquer.
They don't just respond to a single command; they pursue a goal. Super agents synthesize massive amounts of information, analyze options and deliver products.
A few examples:
Build from scratch: Imagine telling your agent, "Build me new payment software." The agent could design, test and deliver a functioning product.
Make sense of chaos: For a financial analysis of a potential investment, your agent could scour thousands of sources, evaluate risks, and compile insights faster (and better) than a team of humans.
Master logistics: Planning an offsite retreat? The agent could handle scheduling, travel arrangements, handouts and more โ down to booking a big dinner in a private room near the venue.
This isn't a lights-on moment โ AI is advancing along a spectrum.
These tools are growing smarter, sharper, and more integrated every day. "This will have huge applications for health, science and education," an AI insider tells us, "because of the ability to do deep research at a scale and scope we haven't seen โ then the compounding effects translate into real productivity growth."
The other side: There are still big problems with generative AI's Achilles heel โ the way it makes things up. Reliability and hallucinations are an even bigger problem if you're going to turn AI into autonomous agents: Unless OpenAI and its rivals can persuade customers and users that agents can be trusted to perform tasks without going off the rails, the companies' vision of autonomous agents will flop.
Noam Brown, a top OpenAI researcher, tweeted Friday: "Lots of vague AI hype on social media these days. There are good reasons to be optimistic about further progress, but plenty of unsolved research problems remain."
What to watch: Two massive tectonic shifts are happening at once โ President-elect Trump and MAGA are coming into power at the very moment AI companies are racing to approximate human-like or human-surpassing intelligence.
Look for Congress to tackle a massive AI infrastructure bill to help spur American job growth in the data, chips and energy to power AI.
And look for MAGA originals like Steve Bannon to argue that coming generations of AI will be job-killing evil for managerial, administrative and tech workers. The new models "will gut the workforce โ especially entry-level, where young people start," Bannon told us.
Axios' Scott Rosenberg, managing editor for tech, contributed reporting.
President Biden will leave office having presided over a very strong stock market, but not quite as strong as either of his two predecessors.
The big picture: The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all gained more during Trump's first term than during Biden's.
By the numbers: The S&P 500 gained 66.5% under Trump and 57.9% under Biden.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 56.8% under Trump and 40.2% under Biden.
The Nasdaq composite gained a whopping 137.5% under Trump, and 47.1% under Biden.
Flashback: Trump had warned in 2020 that the stock markets would "crash" were Biden elected. That didn't happen.
The bottom line: Presidents don't determine stock market performance, but often their supporters like to use the markets as an economic measuring stick.
After a three hour delay, the ceasefire in Gaza began at 11:15 a.m. local time (4:15 a.m. ET) with Israel and Hamas agreeing to stop the fighting for 42 days.
Why it matters: This is the first ceasefire in the Gaza war since November 2023, when the first hostage deal led to an 8-day pause in the fighting.
The war, which started with the Hamas terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, has been the bloodiest period in the Israel-Palestinian conflict since 1948.
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's health ministry. And more than 1,600 Israelis have been killed. Most of the casualties on both sides have been civilians.
The war created a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, displacing around two million Palestinians and destroying tens of thousands of buildings โ making the Gaza strip close to uninhabitable.
Driving the news: The ceasefire was supposed to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. ET) on Sunday.
But after Hamas failed to submit a list of the three hostages it is going to release on Sunday, Israel announced the ceasefire will not come into force.
Hamas claimed the delay was due to technical reasons, mainly the security situation on the ground.
Israeli jets conducted several air strikes in Gaza on Sunday morning local time with at least 8 Palestinians killed.
Hamas finally submitted the list around 10:30 a.m. local time, and the ceasefire began 45 minutes later.
Catch up quick: The ceasefire deal was signed in Doha earlier this week after months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas with Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediation.
The deal also includes the release of 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including about 275 prisoners who have been convicted of murdering Israelis.
The hostage and prisoners release is expected to begin on Sunday 4 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET). Three Israeli women and 90 Palestinian women and teenagers are supposed to be released.
The latest: On Saturday, ahead of the ceasefire, the Israeli Defense Forces started redeploying some forces in Gaza โ moving them outside of the enclave or east towards the buffer zone on the Gaza-Israel border.
On Sunday morning, even before the ceasefire started, Palestinian civilians started moving back to northern Gaza and to the city of Rafah in the southern tip of the enclave.
Hamas armed militants and Hamas police started moving into to the streets after months of going underground in fear of Israeli strikes.
The big picture: The conflict in Gaza spread into a regional war engulfing Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the West Bank and Yemen. But fighting has stopped or appears to be stopping soon on each front.
The ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, signed last November, isolated Hamas and was one of the factors that pushed the group to agree to the hostage deal in Gaza.
The Israeli strike on Iran in late October deterred the Iranians from further retaliating and led the Shia militias in Iraq to stop their attacks on Israel.
The collapse of the Assad regime in Syria led to the departure of Iranian forces from the country and closed that front.
The last active front in the war, which is in Yemen, is also about to close as the Houthi rebels announced they will suspend their attack against Israel as a result of the Gaza ceasefire.
Zoom in: According to the agreement, 33 hostages will be released in the first phase of the deal, including women, children, men over the age of 50 and men under the age of 50 who are wounded or sick. Israel's assessment is that most of those 33 hostages are alive.
The hostages will be released gradually throughout the first phase of the agreement, beginning on the first day of the six-week ceasefire in Gaza.
During the first phase, Israeli Defense Forces will also gradually withdraw to a buffer zone in Gaza, near the border with Israel. The IDF will leave the Netzarim corridor in the center of the Gaza Strip and most of the Philadelphi corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Palestinians will also be allowed to return to northern Gaza. Those who walk won't go through security checks but vehicles will be checked by Qatari and Egyptian officials to ensure no heavy weapons are transferred to Gaza.
More than 700 Palestinian prisoners will also be released, including about 275 who are accused of murdering Israelis and are serving life sentences. More than 1,000 other Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the IDF during the war but didn't participate in the Oct. 7 attack will also be released.
Starting today, the first day of the ceasefire, 600 aid trucks, including 50 fuel trucks, will enter Gaza every day. In addition, 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes will be delivered for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
The agreement stipulates that Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. will serve as guarantors for the implementation of the agreement.
On the 16th day of the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which is supposed to include the release of the remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Most U.S. adults (9 in 10 Republicans and close to half of Democrats) say they support mass deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally โ but that enthusiasm quickly erodes when presented with options over how to carry them out, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll.
Why it matters: President-elect Trump has vowed to initiate one of the "largest mass deportations in U.S. history" starting early in his return to the White House. Beyond the logistical obstacles, costs and possible pain to the U.S. economy, the survey suggests Americans could quickly sour on deportations depending on how they are carried out.
By the numbers: Two-thirds of all Americans surveyed said they support deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Among Republicans, support was at 93%, followed by 67% for independents and 43% for Democrats.
But just 38% of Americans support using active-duty military to find and detain undocumented immigrants in U.S. cities and towns; and only 28% want to use money allocated for the military to pay for deportations.
Just one in three endorse separating families or sending people to countries other than their country of origin in the interest of speed. And just one in three support deporting those who came to the U.S. as children.
The trends largely track with findings from a Ipsos-Syracuse University poll from November from which the questions were replicated. But the new survey shows even less support for use of active-duty military, or military funds, than the survey from two months ago.
What they're saying: "There's essentially broad agreement with Trump's position on these topics, but as soon as you start pushing into specifics, a lot of that dissipates," said Chris Jackson, Ipsos pollster and senior vice president.
The concept of mass deportations may work better for Trump in the abstract than in reality, Jackson said. "Immigration, in reality, is complicated, messy and difficult."
"The real question is going to be... does that level of support maintain or fragment as they confront the reality of what it means."
The other side: About one in 10 Americans โ and close to 1 in 5 Republicans โ said they'd support deporting immigrants who are in the country lawfully.
Context: Trump has said he would use the military to round up undocumented immigrants and would consider putting them into camps.
Trump also has said he would deport American citizens if that means it would keep families together since he wanted to deport their undocumented parents or spouses.
And he has indicated interest in deporting Haitian immigrants who currently have Temporary Protected Status.
The bottom line: To remove a sizable proportion of the estimated 11 million or more undocumented immigrants from the country, Trump would need not only broad but sustained public support.
Methodology: This Axios/Ipsos Poll was conducted Jan. 10-12, 2025, by Ipsos' KnowledgePanelยฎ. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,025 U.S. adults age 18 or older.
The margin of sampling error is ยฑ3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample.