News Brief: White House Denies Buyout Plan Is a Purge of Federal Government; Pentagon Revokes Milley’s Security Clearance

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on Jan. 28, 2025. Roberto Schimidt/AFP via Getty Images

Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some impactful stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening nationally and around the world.

The White House weighs in on a controversial buyout plan offered to millions of federal employees, the Pentagon revokes the security clearance of a former U.S. general, and President Donald Trump’s nominee for health secretary faces a contentious Senate hearing on Capitol Hill.

Also, the mayor of a large East Coast city says he will not work with ICE on their immigration crackdown, and the latest test scores are in for American students nationwide—we’ll tell you how they did, what it means, and more.

We have a number of stories to brief you on today and we begin here. The Trump administration is defending its recent buyout offer to nearly all federal employees after being met with fierce criticism. More now on our top story.

White House Denies Buyout Plan Is a Purge of Federal Government

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that it’s “absolutely false” to describe the administration’s recent decision to offer buyouts to almost all federal employees as a purge.

In case you missed it, a recent memo sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to more than 2 million federal employees warned them of future downsizing and said they would soon be faced with “enhanced standards” of conduct.

The email went on to say that those employees who voluntarily leave their positions will receive about eight months of salary in return—but that they have to choose to do so by Feb. 6, and that’s just one week from today. The offer was made to all full-time federal employees, except for people in the military, the U.S. Postal Service, and national security positions.

Yesterday, the White House said the memo is only a “suggestion,” giving employees who work remotely now but have to return to in-person work soon a “very generous offering to pay them” eight months salary if they prefer to step down.

Leavitt went on to point out that because of remote work, right now only 6 percent of the federal workforce in Washington actually shows up to the office, which she called “unacceptable.” She said that across the country, law enforcement officers, teachers, and nurses all showed up at the office today, and that it’s time for people in Washington to do the same.

Responding to the memo, the American Federation of Government Employees union, which represents about 800,000 federal workers, said that the Trump administration’s plan should be viewed as an attempt to pressure federal workers to vacate their jobs.

They said that “purging” the federal government of dedicated career federal employees by allegedly creating a “toxic environment” would have widespread unintended consequences, and would cause chaos for millions of Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.

Shocking news from the Pentagon to share with you now regarding a retired U.S. military general who has just been stripped of his security clearance and will no longer receive a security detail. More now on what we’ve learned.

Pentagon Revokes Milley’s Security Clearance

The Pentagon says they’ve just taken the action against retired Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who served as the nation’s highest-ranking military officer during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The Department of Defense (DOD) also says that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has directed their inspector general to conduct an inquiry into Gen. Milley’s conduct so that the secretary can decide whether or not it’s appropriate to reevaluate his military grade.

The chief of staff for Hegseth says that the actions were taken because “undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security.” He also said that under Trump’s leadership, “restoring accountability” is a priority for the DoD.

You may recall that the 66-year-old Milley was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2019 until September 2023, and it was Trump who first nominated him to that post. However, Milley faced significant criticism for telling a Chinese general that the United States was not going to attack China, a move that Trump said was treasonous.

Additionally, at his retirement ceremony, Milley told troops that the military takes an oath to the U.S. Constitution—not to a “wannabe dictator.”

Meanwhile, Milley is protected against any future potential criminal charges because President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to him before he left the White House, saying that Milley admirably served our nation for more than 40 years.

We'll take a look now at President Donald Trump’s nominee for a key Cabinet position and what the nominee just faced during his contentious Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.

RFK Jr. Faces Contentious Senate Confirmation Hearing

During his opening statement, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s Trump’s pick to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, disputed news reports that have described his views as “anti-vaccine.” He said later that he believes vaccines play a critical role in health care, that all of his children are vaccinated, and that he’s simply “pro-safety.”

However, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) accused Kennedy of “pushing conflicting stories” about vaccines, and he pointed to a comment Kennedy made during a 2023 podcast, in which he said that “no vaccine is safe and effective.”

During the hearing, Kennedy also said he agrees with Trump on several aspects of the abortion debate and that he would follow the president’s lead regarding that particular issue. He also revealed that Trump asked him to investigate the safety of the abortion drug mifepristone if he’s confirmed.

However, he pushed back against one suggestion from a senator that he would be a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s agenda, saying that he was picked for the nomination because he’s uniquely positioned to end the nation’s “chronic disease epidemic.”

He compared the U.S. medical system to the Titanic and he said “our ship is sinking.“ He also noted that we have the “highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world,” calling it an “existential threat” to our country’s health and well-being.

Kennedy went on to say that he’s confident that the country can unite to improve America’s health, that his approach to the position would be “radical transparency,” and that if he’s confirmed, he’ll do everything in his power to put the health of Americans “back on track.”

Developing news now coming from the mayor of a big city on the East Coast who says he will not cooperate with ICE agents and that raids are not the answer to his city’s problems. More now on this very pressing story.

Pittsburgh Mayor Vows Not to Work With ICE to Tackle Illegal Immigration

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey says that neither he nor his administration will work in any way with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and that they’ll do “whatever is necessary” to make their city more welcoming.

The mayor says that ICE’s operations to remove illegal immigrants will not solve the border crisis, and that establishing pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the United States is the way forward. He also said the ICE raids are going to make people feel scared and force them into doing things they normally wouldn’t do.

The Trump administration has not publicly commented on Gainey’s statement; however, the president’s border czar, Tom Homan, previously suggested that federal officials could either penalize or jail mayors who refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.

ICE says that so far this week, they’ve already made more than 3,000 arrests, and filed paperwork to keep over 2,500 additional people in custody, following a number of highly publicized operations in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and New York City.

Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order yesterday to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to convert the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba into a facility that can house 30,000 illegal immigrants.

He said that beds are available in Guantanamo to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” and that the move will “double our capacity immediately.”

We have just enough time to share one more story with you today and some troubling news regarding the education of our nation’s youth, whose test scores are moving in the wrong direction. More now on what we know.

Test Scores for American Students Show Cause for Concern

According to nationwide tests given to fourth and eighth graders, American students are performing poorly in both reading and math skills, and they’re failing to regain the ground they lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A federal agency called the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administers the exams. They say that last year, reading scores for both grades dropped compared to 2022; that the most notable challenges were evident in reading comprehension; and that the scores continued a trend that was first reported in 2019—prior to the pandemic.

As for math scores, fourth grade students registered a small gain from 2022. However, this fails to make up for the five-point decline in those scores which occurred from 2019 to 2022. Meanwhile, eighth grade math scores “showed no significant change.”

By the way, these exams are considered our Nation’s Report Card, and they indicate the state of our country’s K-12 education system.

In their assessment of the results, the NCES says that overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance levels, and that any signs of recovery are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students.

Additionally, they say that lower-performing students are struggling, especially when it comes to reading. Last year, 40 percent of fourth graders and one-third of all eighth graders scored below the lowest basic achievement levels for reading skills.

Following the release of the report, one Republican congressman said that when we fail our children, we fail our nation’s future. He said that our nation’s prior education policies were not focused on helping students learn and grow, and that he looks forward to helping reform our education system to better serve our youth.

Almost time for us to wrap things up, but before we go, a few more stories we’re watching very closely here in The Epoch Times News Brief newsroom:

In Washington, the White House says that the Trump administration’s memo that directed a freeze on federal loans, grants, and other financial assistance has been rescinded.

In Florida, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion yesterday to voluntarily dismiss its appeal in the classified documents case previously filed against President Trump along with two co-defendants.

And in Europe, Russian officials say that Ukraine has carried out a wide-ranging drone attack on energy facilities in nine regions of Russia, including one on a nuclear power plant.

And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re gonna call it a wrap for the Thursday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.

To make contact with the News Brief crew, simply reach out to us via email and we’re at [email protected]. You can also leave comments for us on The Epoch Times app which you can download for free on either the App Store or Google Play.

Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.

And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote and this one comes to us from Michael J. Fox who said:

“I can get sad, I can get frustrated, I can get scared, but I never get depressed—because there’s joy in my life.”

Fox played Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties and Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy. He has won five Emmys, four Golden Globes, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy.

For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.

Enjoy the remainder of your day and we’ll see you right back here next time for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.

For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.