Kojo Nnamdi

1 month ago | wamu.org | Esther Ciammachilli |Jackson Sinnenberg |Kojo Nnamdi

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich is saying, “people are the collateral damage,” in response to the latest Trump administration’s firing of thousands of federal employees, including many at the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration offices in White Oak. On April 1st, thousands of Montgomery County residents were laid off by Elon Musk’s DOGE agency.

1 month ago | wamu.org | Esther Ciammachilli |Jackson Sinnenberg |Kojo Nnamdi

President Donald Trump signed executive orders this week that take aim at how American history is being presented at Smithsonian Institutions, and at an alleged crime problem in D.C.“President Trump has long vowed to crack down on crime in D.C., even though violent crime here is lower than it’s been in 30 years,” said WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi in a conversation about top stories from this past week. “Trump created the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful” task force, made up exclusively of federal officials.

2 months ago | wamu.org | Esther Ciammachilli |Kojo Nnamdi

The Kennedy Center board elected President Donald Trump as its new chairman. Trump moved to install himself as the head of the nation’s premiere performing arts center earlier this week, and on Wednesday, the board voted to make it official. “This has never happened in the more than 50 year history of the Kennedy Center,” said WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi in conversation about some of the week’s top stories. “We know Trump has never been to the Kennedy Center.

Feb 7, 2025 | wamu.org | Matt Blitz |Kojo Nnamdi

A federal judge paused the Trump administration’s “deferred resignation” offer hours before the Thursday deadline. Many of the particulars of the offer remain unclear, including if it is even lawful. U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D) joins the show to weigh in on what it means for the region and what lawmakers are doing to help local federal workers.

Feb 7, 2025 | wamu.org | Esther Ciammachilli |Jackson Sinnenberg |Kojo Nnamdi

The deadline on the “deferred resignation” offer given to civilian federal workers has been moved to Monday, Feb. 10. Federal workers were originally given until Thursday to make a decision on the offer from the Office of Personnel Management. But a federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily paused the deadline. “The federal employees were given just nine days to decide whether to accept an offer to resign and get paid through September 30th, or face the possibility of losing their jobs.