Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who ran unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as FBI deputy director.

President Donald Trump announced the appointment Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.” He called the announcement “great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice.”

The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats have raised alarms that the Republican president could seek to use the FBI to target his adversaries. Bongino would serve under Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who was sworn in as FBI director at the White House on Friday and who has signaled his intent to reshape the bureau, including by relocating hundreds of employees from its Washington headquarters and placing greater emphasis on the FBI’s traditional crime-fighting duties.

The deputy director serves as the FBI’s second-in-command and is traditionally a career agent responsible for the bureau’s day-to-day law enforcement operations. The position does not require Senate confirmation. But Bongino, like Patel, has never served in the FBI, raising questions about their experience level when the U.S. is facing escalating national security threats.

Patel also takes on acting ATF role

New FBI Director Kash Patel was sworn in Monday as acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, taking the helm of two separate and sprawling Justice Department agencies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Patel was sworn in at ATF headquarters just days after he became director of the FBI, said the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It’s not clear if President Donald Trump intends to nominate Patel for the ATF post, or what the administration’s plans are for the agency that has long been the target of Republicans. Justice Department and White House officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Patel will now oversee the bureau of roughly 5,500 employees that’s responsible for enforcing the nation’s laws around firearms, explosives and arson.

AP freeze out kept in place for now

A federal judge refused to immediately order the White House to restore The Associated Press’ access to presidential events, saying the news organization had not demonstrated it had suffered irreparable harm in the matter. But he urged the government to reconsider its two-week-old ban, saying that case law “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.”

U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden’s decision was only for the moment. He told attorneys for the Trump administration and the AP that the issue required more exploration before ruling.

Judge blocks ICE from houses of worship

A federal judge on Monday blocked immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship for Quakers and a handful of other religious groups.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chang found that the Trump administration policy could violate their religious freedom and should be blocked while a lawsuit challenging it plays out.

The preliminary injunction from the Maryland-based judge only applies to the plaintiffs, which also include a Georgia-based network of Baptist churches and a Sikh temple in California.

They sued after the Trump administration threw out Department of Homeland Security policies limiting where migrant arrests could happen as President Donald Trump seeks to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations.

The policy change said field agents using “common sense” and “discretion” can conduct immigration enforcement operations at houses of worship without a supervisor’s approval.

Trump: Canada, Mexico tariffs still ready to go

President Donald Trump said Monday that his tariffs on Canada and Mexico are starting next month, ending a monthlong suspension on the planned import taxes that could potentially hurt economic growth and worsen inflation.

“We’re on time with the tariffs, and it seems like that’s moving along very rapidly,” the U.S. president said at a White House news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

While Trump was answering a specific question about the taxes to be charged on America’s two largest trading partners, the U.S. president also stressed more broadly that his intended “reciprocal” tariffs were on schedule to begin as soon as April.

“The tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule,” Trump said.

Trump has claimed that other countries charge unfair import taxes that have come at the expense of domestic manufacturing and jobs. His threats of tariffs have already raised concerns among businesses and consumers about an economic slowdown and accelerating inflation. But Trump claims that the import taxes would ultimately generate revenues to reduce the federal budget deficit and new jobs for workers.

“Our country will be extremely liquid and rich again,” Trump said.

FDA asks some fired staffers to come back

Barely a week after mass firings at the Food and Drug Administration, some probationary staffers received unexpected news over the weekend: The government wants them back.

Beginning Friday night, FDA employees overseeing medical devices, food ingredients and other key areas received calls and emails notifying them that their recent terminations had been “rescinded effective immediately,” according to messages viewed by The Associated Press.

Four FDA staffers impacted by the decisions spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity because they planned to continue working for the agency and weren’t authorized to discuss its internal procedures.

The reversal is the latest example of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s chaotic approach to cost-cutting, which has resulted in several agencies firing, and then scrambling to rehire, employees responsible for nuclear weapons, national parks and other government services.

The FDA reinstatements followed pushback by lobbyists for the medical device industry, which pays the agency hundreds of millions of dollars annually to hire extra scientists to review products. The industry’s leading trade group said Monday “a sizable number” of device reviewers appear to be returning to FDA.

Judge: Trans women inmates can stay put

Most transgender women inmates now assigned to federal women’s prisons can stay there, a judge ruled Monday, thwarting the Trump administration’s plans to move them to men’s prisons.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., expanded his preliminary injunction to apply to a dozen prisoners who faced relocation to men’s prisons under President Trump’s executive order rolling back transgender protections.

The judge ordered the federal Bureau of Prisons to continue their “housing status and medical care,” including hormone therapy, as they existed immediately prior to Jan. 20, Trump’s first day back in the White House and the day he signed the executive order.

Lamberth noted at a hearing this month that there are only about 16 transgender women housed in women’s facilities in the federal prison system. T

The Bureau of Prisons declined comment.

Johnson: Stefanik held back for GOP majority

House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed on Monday why Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York has yet to have her confirmation vote to serve as ambassador to the United Nations: He cannot afford to lose another Republican vote in the House.

Johnson, R-La., is under pressure this week to hold his fractious conference together to pass a budget resolution, with potentially only a single vote to spare. Stefanik, a former member of House leadership, is a team player whose support could be crucial, given the difficult math.

“If we get the budget resolution passed this week, which is the plan, then it’s possible that Elise Stefanik would go ahead and move on to her assignment at the U.N. as the ambassador there,” Johnson said Monday during a talk at the America First Policy Institute. It was a blunt acknowledgment of the political reality of trying to pass a budget to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda after he raided the House Republican ranks to fill out his administration.

A spokesperson for Johnson said the timing of Stefanik’s confirmation was a matter for the White House and the Senate to resolve and that the speaker was supportive of their timeline.

Embarrassing footage in HUD hack was fake

Monitors at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Monday briefly displayed a fake video depicting President Donald Trump sucking the toes of Elon Musk, according to department employees and others familiar with what transpired.

The video, which appeared to be generated by artificial intelligence, was emblazoned with the message “Long Live the Real King.”

The looping video greeted housing department employees on the first day that all workers were expected to be back at their headquarters full time, to comply with Trump’s orders ending remote work for federal workers. Leaders could not immediately identify how monitors had been hacked to display the images, and ended up simply unplugging several devices, according to two people familiar with what transpired.

“Another waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. Appropriate action will be taken for all involved,” said Kasey Lovett, a spokesperson for the department.

— From news services