AFP USA

Rainbow flags flooded Washington’s streets on Saturday as the US capital celebrated WorldPride with a massive show of support for LGBTQ rights, which are facing an assault by the Trump administration.”We just have to show this administration, that we are united, that we cannot be broken,” said Amy Froelich, a 46-year-old artist and teacher, dressed in a rainbow-colored jumpsuit. “We need to be an ally to our brothers and sisters and our trans community,” she said, seated next to her wife on green chairs near the starting line for a massive parade that marks the culmination of weeks of festivities.”All of our laws and any protections that we’ve been working so hard for (are) getting reversed.”The WorldPride festival, a rotating global event advocating for LGBTQ equality worldwide, is being hosted in Washington this year — a stone’s throw from the White House and a president seemingly intent on rolling back rights hard-won by that community.Since returning to power in January, Donald Trump and his administration have slapped back LGBTQ rights gained in recent decades, in particular by members of the trans community. On his first day in office, Trump declared the federal government would recognize only two genders — men and women — and he has since targeted transgender people in a slew of other orders.Transgender American actress Laverne Cox, best known for her role in the series “Orange is the New Black,” addressed the crowd at the parade starting line.”I knew I had to be here, surrounded by community, because you give me so much hope,” she said.”I don’t have any faith in our government… but I have faith in you.”- ‘Big dark cloud’ -A few meters away, standing on the roof of the first bus in the parade, Yasmin Benoit, who came from Britain to show support for the US LGBT community, waved to the crowd. “We are literally on Trump’s doorstep right now, and I’m sure he’s not thrilled about all of this,” the 28-year-old model and activist told AFP.Benoit said she had been detained by border police upon her arrival in the United States, but was finally allowed to enter.”It’s definitely not the easiest place to come to, but I feel like that makes it a little more important to try,” she said.Trump’s policies are on the minds of many taking part in this year’s festival.”It’s been a big dark cloud since he was elected really,” said Ginny Kinsey, sitting in the shade with a friend.Her wife, she said, had been working as a federal civil servant, but had been forced to change careers amid government funding cuts.”My wife just switched jobs in the government, and she made the decision to not be out at her new job, (as) she was in her previous job,” she said.”People are just hiding again.”- ‘Unfair’ -Trying to cool off with his fan under the blazing Washington sun, Bill George, 74, said he had come “to celebrate who we are.””We’re as human as anybody else.”The retiree, who came out in 1975, has taken part in a number of demonstrations for LGBTQ rights, as well as for human rights and civil rights over the years.”Conservatism is a wave, that is actually attacking us again,” he told AFP, adding that he was furious with the Trump administration.”We will protest everything that he’s doing that we think is unfair.”

US President Donald Trump threatened his former advisor Elon Musk with “serious consequences” Saturday if the tech billionaire seeks to punish Republicans who vote for a controversial spending bill.The comments by Trump to NBC News come after the relationship between the world’s most powerful person and the world’s richest imploded in bitter and spectacular fashion this week.The blistering break-up — largely carried out on social media before a riveted public on Thursday — was ignited by Musk’s harsh criticism of Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” spending bill, which is currently before Congress. Some lawmakers who were against the bill had called on Musk — one of the Republican Party’s biggest financial backers in last year’s presidential election — to fund primary challenges against Republicans who voted for the legislation. “He’ll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that,” Trump, who also branded Musk “disrespectful,” told NBC News on Saturday, without specifying what those consequences would be. He also said he had “no” desire to repair his relationship with the South African-born Tesla and SpaceX chief, and that he has “no intention of speaking to him.”Just last week, Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).But their relationship cracked within days as Musk described as an “abomination” the spending bill that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump’s second term in office. Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe and from, there the row detonated, leaving Washington stunned.With real political and economic risks to their falling out, both had appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, with Trump telling reporters “I just wish him well,” and Musk responding on X: “Likewise.”- ‘Old news’ -Trump spoke to NBC Saturday after Musk deleted one of the explosive allegations he had made during their fallout, linking the president with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.Musk had alleged that the Republican leader is featured in unreleased government files on former associates of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while he faced sex trafficking charges. The Trump administration has acknowledged it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos and investigative material that his “MAGA” movement says will unmask public figures complicit in Epstein’s crimes.Trump was named in a trove of deposition and statements linked to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024. The president has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.”Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X.”That is the real reason they have not been made public.”Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about and offered no evidence for his claim.He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”However, he appeared to have deleted both tweets by Saturday morning. Trump dismissed the claim as “old news” in his comments to NBC on Saturday, adding: “Even Epstein’s lawyer said I had nothing to do with it.”Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base allege that Epstein’s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself. No official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the as yet unreleased material.Trump knew and socialized with Epstein but has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex.”Terrific guy,” Trump, who was Epstein’s neighbor in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of the financier.”He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

US Jewish groups are unified over the need to fight mounting anti-Semitic incidents across the country, but many are bitterly opposed to how President Donald Trump is seeking to counter the scourge.A string of incidents has targeted Jews in the United States in recent weeks. Two Israeli embassy workers were murdered in Washington, Molotov cocktails were thrown at an event in Colorado, and tensions persist on university campuses.The conservative Heritage Foundation think-tank, behind the “Project 2025” roadmap for radically overhauling and shrinking the government, published in October “Project Esther” — a blueprint on combatting anti-Semitism.The project seeks to “dismantle” so-called “anti-Israel,” “anti-Zionist,” or “pro-Palestinian” organizations allegedly part of a “Hamas support network” that has “infiltrated” universities including Columbia and Harvard.The text advocates the dismissal of professors, barring some foreign students from campuses, expelling others outright, and withholding public funding from universities.Robert Greenway, a Project Esther co-author, recently told The New York Times it was “no coincidence that we called for a series of actions to take place privately and publicly, and they are now happening.”The Heritage Foundation refused an interview request.Stefanie Fox, director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), said “Project Esther sets out a blueprint for the Trump administration to sharpen the legal regimes that will best advance (his) ‘Make America Great Again’ goals.”The JVP, a Jewish organization that leads demonstrations against “genocide” in Gaza, is named in Project Esther as a member of the so-called Hamas support network.”These assumptions are baseless, paranoid, laughable,” said Fox, whose group is on the left.- ‘Weaponizing’ anti-Semitism? -Although 89 percent of the 7.2 million US Jews say they are concerned about anti-Semitism, 64 percent disapprove of Trump’s efforts to combat it, according to a recent Jewish Voters Resource Center poll.”There is anti-Semitism on those campuses… But to give the broad claim that the thrust to fight anti-Semitism is to go after higher education is just absolutely ridiculous,” said Kevin Rachlin.He is a prominent figure in the Nexus Project formed in opposition to Project Esther that seeks to counter anti-Semitism without impairing freedom of speech.Trump’s strategy “doesn’t keep Jews safe.” Rather, it seeks to separate the Jewish minority from others in the country and ignores right-wing anti-Semitism, Rachlin argues.”We as Jews are safer when we’re in coalition with other groups and other minorities,” he said, adding that combatting anti-Semitism through education was more viable than targeting universities.Traditional Jewish groups have aligned more with Trump’s Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unlike the “majority” of American Jews, claims author Eric Alterman.”What’s happened in Gaza has been very hard for most American Jews — particularly young American Jews — to stomach. Young American Jews are now roughly evenly divided between supporting Israel and supporting the Palestinians,” he told AFP.Alterman added most US Jews are not anti-Zionist — but don’t like the war in Gaza or Israel’s West Bank strategy.”They’re kind of caught in the middle.”Some Jewish groups warn that when Trump targets higher education purportedly combatting anti-Semitism, he is actually “weaponizing” the sensitive issue to stifle freedom of expression.In recent weeks, ten major Jewish organizations criticized the Trump administration in a letter, saying they reject the “false choice” between “Jewish safety” and “democracy.””There should be no doubt that anti-Semitism is rising” but access to “higher education, and strong democratic norms… have allowed American Jewry to thrive for hundreds of years,” the letter states.  One of the signatories, rabbi and former ambassador for religious freedom David Saperstein, said there was “appreciation” for Trump prioritizing anti-Semitic violence and rhetoric — but opposed the clampdown on universities, media and judges.He added: “Ironically, they are targeting democratic institutions that have given the Jewry in America more rights, more freedom, more opportunities than we have ever known in our 2,600 years of diasporic history.” 

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has deleted an explosive allegation linking Donald Trump with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that he posted on social media during a vicious public fallout with the US president this week.Musk — who just exited his role as a top White House advisor — alleged on Thursday that the Republican leader is featured in unreleased government files on former associates of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while he faced sex trafficking charges. The Trump administration has acknowledged it is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, videos and investigative material that his “MAGA” movement says will unmask public figures complicit in Epstein’s crimes.Trump was named in a trove of deposition and statements linked to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024. The president has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.”Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X as his growing feud with the president boiled over into a spectacularly public row.”That is the real reason they have not been made public.”Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about and offered no evidence for his claim.He initially doubled down on the claim, writing in a follow-up message: “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”However, he appeared to have deleted both tweets by Saturday morning. Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base allege that Epstein’s associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others.They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, although not at Trump himself. No official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the as yet unreleased material.Trump knew and socialized with Epstein but has denied spending time on Little Saint James, the private redoubt in the US Virgin Islands where prosecutors alleged Epstein trafficked underage girls for sex.”Terrific guy,” Trump, who was Epstein’s neighbor in both Florida and New York, said in an early 2000s profile of the financier.”He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”Just last week, Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).But their relationship imploded within days as Musk described as an “abomination” a spending bill that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump’s second term in office. Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe and from there the row detonated, leaving Washington and riveted social media users alike stunned by the blistering break-up between the world’s richest person and the world’s most powerful. With real political and economic risks to their row, both then appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, with Trump telling reporters “I just wish him well,” and Musk responding on X: “Likewise.”But the White House denied reports they would talk. 

Masked and armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles Friday, while others pounced on migrants at a New York courthouse in forceful displays of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on people without papers.From courthouses to hardware store parking lots in two of the most diverse cities in the world, federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles.Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people.At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported.- ‘Terror’ -“As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.”These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who grew up in LA’s Santa Monica, insisted on social media platform X that Bass had “no say in this at all.””Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced.” Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports. “Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,” Huerta said in a statement after his release. Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country.Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported. The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported.- NY courthouse arrests -Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday.AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lay face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested.It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested.Trump was elected to a second term with broad support for his promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants.ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks.The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents’ access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January.One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said.”He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen,” the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him.The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom.The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid.- ‘Sound the alarm’ – Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency.”They’re illegal abductions,” said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants.”We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they’re trying to detain and send away,” she told AFP.Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Elon Musk had “lost his mind” but insisted he wanted to move on from the fiery split with his billionaire former ally.The blistering public break-up between the world’s richest person and the world’s most powerful is fraught with political and economic risks all round.Trump had scrapped the idea of a call with Musk and was even thinking of ditching the red Tesla he bought at the height of their bromance, White House officials told AFP.”Honestly I’ve been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran… I’m not thinking about Elon Musk, I just wish him well,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to his New Jersey golf club late Friday.Earlier, Trump told US broadcasters that he now wanted to focus instead on passing his “big, beautiful” mega-bill before Congress — Musk’s harsh criticism of which had sparked their break-up.But the 78-year-old Republican could not stop himself from taking aim at his South African-born friend-turned-enemy.”You mean the man who has lost his mind?” Trump said in a call with ABC when asked about Musk, adding that he was “not particularly” interested in talking to the tycoon.Trump later told Fox News that Musk had “lost it.”Just a week ago Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after four months working there.- ‘Very disappointed’ -While there had been reports of tensions, the sheer speed at which their relationship imploded stunned Washington.After Musk called Trump’s spending bill an “abomination” on Tuesday, Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe on Thursday in which he said he was “very disappointed” by the entrepreneur.Trump’s spending bill faces a difficult path through Congress as it will raise the US deficit, while critics say it will cut health care for millions of the poorest Americans. The row then went nuclear, with Musk slinging insults at Trump and accusing him without evidence of being in government files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Trump hit back with the power of the US government behind him, saying he could cancel the Space X boss’s multi-billion-dollar rocket and satellite contracts.Trump struck a milder tone late Friday when asked how seriously he is considering cutting Musk’s contracts. “It’s a lot of money, it’s a lot of subsidy, so we’ll take a look — only if it’s fair. Only if it’s to be fair for him and the country,” he said.Musk apparently also tried to de-escalate social media hostilities.The right-wing tech baron rowed back on a threat to scrap his company’s Dragon spacecraft — vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.And on Friday the usually garrulous poster kept a low social media profile on his X social network.But the White House denied reports that they would talk.”The president does not intend to speak to Musk today,” a senior White House official told AFP. A second official said Musk had requested a call. – Tesla giveaway? -Tesla stocks tanked more than 14 percent on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company’s market value, but recovering partly Friday.Trump is now considering either selling or giving away the cherry red Tesla S that he announced he had bought from Musk’s firm in March.The electric vehicle was still parked on the White House grounds on Friday. “He’s thinking about it, yes,” a senior White House official told AFP when asked if Trump would sell or give it away.Trump and Musk had posed inside the car at a bizarre event in March, when the president turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla showroom after viral protests against Musk’s DOGE role.But while Trump appeared to hold many of the cards, Musk also has some to play.His wealth allowed him to be the biggest donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign, to the tune of nearly $300 million. Any further support for the 2026 midterm election now appears in doubt — while Musk could also use his money to undermine Trump’s support on the right.

The Salvadoran migrant at the heart of a row over President Donald Trump’s hardline deportation policies was returned to the United States on Friday and arrested on human smuggling charges.Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States from El Salvador and charged with trafficking undocumented migrants, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.”Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Bondi said at a press conference.The US Supreme Court had ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia after he was mistakenly deported in March to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador.But Bondi insisted to reporters that his return to the United States resulted from an arrest warrant presented to Salvadoran authorities.”We’re grateful to (Salvadoran) President (Nayib) Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” she said.In a post on X, Bukele said “we work with the Trump administration, and if they request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn’t refuse.”Trump, in remarks to reporters Friday, described Abrego Garcia as a “pretty bad guy” and said he “should’ve never had to be returned.”White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said Abrego Garcia’s return “has nothing to do with his original deportation.””There was no mistake,” Jackson said on X. “He’s returning because a new investigation has revealed crimes SO HEINOUS, committed in the US, that only the American Justice System could hold him fully accountable.”Abrego Garcia, 29, was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Most of the migrants who were summarily deported were alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.- ‘Administrative error’ -Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, said the government had returned him to the United States “not to correct their error but to prosecute him.””Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “This is an abuse of power, not justice.”Bondi alleged that Abrego Garcia had “played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring” and was a smuggler of “children and women” as well as members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.She said Abrego Garcia, who was indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee, would be returned to El Salvador upon completion of any prison sentence.Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen visited Abrego Garcia in April in El Salvador and welcomed his return to the United States.”For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution,” the senator from Maryland said in a statement.”Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States,” he said.”The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia was involved in smuggling undocumented migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and other countries into the United States between 2016 and earlier this year.

US agents pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a New York courthouse Friday, wrestling them to the ground in a forceful display of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on people without papers.The two men had just attended a scheduled hearing when plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, some wearing black face masks, grabbed them.The officers yelled for the men not to move or put up resistance and forced them to lay face-down on the ground as they tied their hands behind their backs and arrested them.The immigrants were then whisked away into an elevator on the 12th floor of the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in Manhattan.The routine appointment they hoped would be a step toward life in America ended in shock and detention.AFP was on hand to witness these events because there was a similar arrest at the same courthouse earlier in the week and the agency suspected more might be imminent.It was not immediately clear exactly why these two men were arrested nor the fate that awaits them.    Trump was elected to a second term largely on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants and Americans largely support the idea.But polls show they also find tactics like surprise courthouse arrests by agents with black masks to be harsh.In recent weeks ICE agents have intensified operations like this in and around American immigration courts.After Trump swept back into power in January, the Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents’ access to protected areas like the courts.One of the men arrested was a 34-year-old Dominican named Joaquin Rosario who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered with authorities as he came in, and had his first immigration hearing Friday, said a relative of his, Julian Rosario, who declined to say how they were related.”He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen,” said the relative, who was still visibly upset by what he had witnessed as agents threw the other man to the ground.Rosario was so unworried he did not even bother to have a lawyer with him, the relative said.The other detainee looked to be Asian. He arrived on his own and was accompanied by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk with such immigrants to and from the courtroom. The idea is to make them feel safe.This time the volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but this did nothing to halt the raid.Before this arrest other immigrants with appointments, including entire families, came and went with no problem.A pair of Venezuelans who refused to give their names were jubilant because their next appointment is not until 2027 — that’s how backlogged the US immigration court system is.- ‘Sound the alarm’ – Human rights groups are outraged by these operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain US residency.”They’re illegal abductions,” said Karen Ortiz, herself a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against these sudden arrests of migrants.”We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they’re trying to detain and send away,” Ortiz told AFP.Since returning to power Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power as he cracked down on foreigners without papers, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.

A divided US Supreme Court on Friday granted President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to the social security data of millions of Americans.The decision came after the Trump administration appealed to the top court to lift an April order by a district judge restricting DOGE access to Social Security Administration (SSA) records.”SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the top court said in a brief unsigned order.The three liberal justices on the Supreme Court dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson saying the move poses “grave privacy risks for millions of Americans.””Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, bank-account numbers, medical records — all of that, and more, is in the mix,” Jackson said.”The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now — before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE’s access is lawful,” she said.In her April ruling, District Judge Ellen Hollander banned DOGE staff from accessing data containing information that could personally identify Americans such as their social security numbers, medical history or bank records.Social security numbers are a key identifier for people in the United States, used to report earnings, establish eligibility for welfare and retirement benefits and other purposes.Hollander said the SSA can only give redacted or anonymized records to DOGE employees who have completed background checks and training on federal laws, regulations and privacy policies.The case before Hollander was brought by a group of unions which argued that the SSA had opened its data systems to unauthorized personnel from DOGE “with disregard for the privacy” of millions of Americans.DOGE, which has been tasked by Trump with slashing billions of dollars of goverment spending, was headed at the time by SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has since had a very public falling out with the president.Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting his fury at court rulings at various levels that have frozen his executive orders on multiple issues.