President Donald Trump is preparing to make one of the controversial personnel changes laid out in the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for his second term.

He plans to reclassify 50,000 federal employees under what’s known as Schedule F, which means they’ll have less civil service protection. The proposal follows an executive order signed at the beginning of his term, and it’s expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday afternoon.

Trump announced the move on social media before the rule was published Friday.

“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’”

Administration officials argue that it’s necessary to increase accountability in the workforce. The change is expected to make it easier to replace career employees who have “important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties,” according to a White House fact sheet. Details were first reported by Axios.

Once the rule is finalized, the president plans to sign another executive order to conclude the process.

Courts keeps TPS program alive for now

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday left in place a lower court’s order blocking the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Department of Homeland Security’s request for an emergency stay as they appeal. The court wrote that the government has “not demonstrated that they will suffer irreparable harm absent a stay.”

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in March found that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had unlawfully reversed protections granted by the Biden administration that allow an estimated 350,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the U.S. Those temporary protections were set to expire earlier this month.

Noem also had announced the end of Temporary Protected Status for an estimated 250,000 Venezuelans in September and for 500,000 Haitians whose TPS protections are set to expire in August.

Judge blocks cuts to consumer agency

President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire nearly everyone at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was paused on Friday by a federal judge, who said she was “deeply concerned” about the plan.

The decision leaves in limbo a bureau created after the Great Recession to safeguard against fraud, abuse and deceptive practices. Trump administration officials argue that it has overstepped its authority and should have a more limited mission.

On Thursday, the administration officials moved to fire roughly 1,500 people, leaving around 200 employees, through a reduction in force that would dramatically downsize the bureau.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she was worried the layoffs would violate her earlier order stopping the Republican administration from shutting down the CFPB. She’s been considering a lawsuit filed by an employee union that wants to preserve the bureau.

Jackson scheduled a hearing on April 28 to hear testimony from officials who worked on the reduction in force, or RIF.

Harvard questioned on federal compliance

The Trump administration on Thursday accused Harvard University of failing to report large foreign donations to the federal government as required by law, part of a widening effort to target the institution after it refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s demands.

In a letter to Alan M. Garber, the university’s president, the Education Department told Harvard to provide names of foreign donors and all records of communication with them from the beginning of 2020.

The department also asked for a swath of records pertaining to foreigners who had spent time at Harvard, including any students Harvard had expelled or those who had their credentials canceled, going back to 2016.

The request included details on visiting researchers, scholars, students and faculty from other countries beginning from 2010, along with their last known addresses.

Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, disputed the notion that the university had not been complying with laws requiring them to file reports disclosing foreign donations of more than $250,000.

“Harvard has filed Section 117 reports for decades as part of its ongoing compliance with the law,” he said in a statement.

Federal COVID-19 website points to China

The covid.gov website shows a photo of President Trump walking between the words “lab” and “leak” under a White House heading. It mentions that Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus first began spreading, is home to a research lab with a history of conducting virus research with “inadequate biosafety levels.”

The web page also accuses Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of pushing a “preferred narrative” that COVID-19 originated in nature.

The origins of COVID have never been proven. Scientists are unsure whether the virus jumped from an animal, as many other viruses have, or came from a laboratory accident.

A U.S. intelligence analysis released in 2023 said there’s insufficient evidence to prove either theory.

The United States has continued to record hundreds of COVID deaths each week in recent months.

No decision in AP access case

A federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to stop blocking The Associated Press from presidential events refused Friday to take immediate steps to get White House officials to comply — an incremental development in a two-month dispute between the global news agency and administration officials over access.

The case, which has significant free-speech implications under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, centers on the government blocking AP’s access to cover events because the outlet won’t rename the Gulf of Mexico in its reports.

U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who handed the AP a victory last week in its efforts to end the ban, said it’s too soon to say that President Donald Trump is violating his order — as the AP suggests.

“We are not at the point where we can make much of a determination one way or another,” said McFadden, ruling from the bench. “I don’t intend to micromanage the White House.”

The AP’s lawyer, Charles Tobin, wouldn’t comment about the judge’s decision after the proceedings. The White House issued no immediate comment.

— From news services