Judge Orders Officials to Testify on DOGE; Zelenskyy in Washington for Minerals Deal Talks | NTD Good Morning (Feb. 28)

A district judge is ordering Trump administration officials to clarify, under oath, the inner workings of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). A DOGE employee will be asked to explain who’s leading the department and making decisions, and what employees are tasked with doing. In a separate case, a California judge has ruled that mass firings of probationary federal workers are likely illegal and that some workers will be reinstated.

President Donald Trump is expected to close a minerals deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Friday. Exact details of the deal have not yet been made public, but Zelenskyy says they’ll be discussed during the talks. Meanwhile, a U.S. delegation met with Russian counterparts in Turkey on Thursday to restore the operation of the countries’ respective embassies in Washington and Moscow.

Twenty-nine defendants charged with drug-related crimes in Mexico are now in U.S. custody. They include a notorious drug lord believed to have been involved in the 1985 kidnapping and murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. The transfer followed Trump’s warnings of 25 percent tariffs on Mexican goods.