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President Donald Trump is set to sign a sweeping executive order Monday that aims to cut prescription drug costs in the U.S. by aligning what the government pays for certain medications to the prices paid in other countries.

The order, experts say, is a reimagined and far more aggressive version of Trump’s policy during his first term to cut drug costs, which failed to take effect after a federal judge blocked it.

Like the original policy, health policy experts expect it will meet significant pushback from the drug industry.

The new order directs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to come up with price-cutting goals within 30 days, White House officials said on a call Monday. The move will kick off a round of negotiations between Kennedy and the drug industry.

Should talks stall, Kennedy will move to enforce the “most favored nation” pricing model, capping the U.S. prices at the lowest rates paid by other wealthy nations.

Most notably, officials said the policy will not be limited to certain drugs under Medicare, as it was in original version, but will also target medications covered by Medicaid and private insurance.

Weight-loss drugs expected to be targeted

The administration hasn’t singled out a specific class of drugs for price cuts, but officials said it’s fair to expect that GLP-1s — a class of drugs that includes Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound — will be included among them. Last month, the administration rejected a Biden-era proposal for Medicare to cover weight loss drugs. The move would have saved patients money but cost the government about $25 billion over 10 years.

The Food and Drug Administration will also consider expanding the importation of prescription drugs from countries beyond Canada, where prices are often cheaper than in the U.S, officials said, and the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission will be directed to act against “anti-competitive” actions by drugmakers that they say keep drug prices high.

”The president is dead serious about lower drug prices,” an official said on the call.

Prescription drug prices are notoriously high in the U.S. Although the country makes up less than 5% of the global population, it accounts for nearly three-quarters of global pharmaceutical profits, officials said Monday. According to the Rand Corporation, a public policy think tank, Americans pay up to 10 times more for medications than people in other similarly wealthy nations.

Will the drug pricing plan work?

While experts backed Trump’s approach, they questioned how the administration would legally pursue price reductions for drugs under private insurance. They also worried about its ability to withstand legal pushback from the drug industry.

“If this touches all drugs for all people, it’s far more ambitious, but the ripple effects are far more uncertain,” said Tricia Neuman, executive director for the program on Medicare policy at KFF, a health policy research group. “I would expect the drug industry to throw every legal argument at this proposal.”

Arthur Caplan, the head of the medical ethics division at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said the administration may need to set more realistic expectations for what it can achieve.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump claimed that prescription drug costs would be reduced “almost immediately” by 30% to 80% and that the U.S. “will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.”

In a follow-up post Monday, Trump said drug prices would be cut by 59%.

Caplan said immediate relief would be great — but argued it’s impossible for the U.S. to achieve the lowest prices in the world.

“We are not going to get the price paid by South Africa, Peru, Egypt, Bolivia and Laos,” Caplan said. “Drug companies usually give whopping discounts to very poor countries on humanitarian grounds they won’t give rich countries. The prices paid in the poorest nations have no chance of being the price paid by the Trump administration.”

Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, worried the policy might harm doctors and pharmacies if the price cuts were immediate.

“For retail pharmacies or clinician administered drugs, they buy their drugs ahead of time to stock the shelves or have them available to treat patients,” she said. “What the pharmacy or clinic paid to acquire their drugs is likely higher than the proposed new price, which means they would lose money when those drugs were filled.”

On Monday’s call, an official appeared to clarify Trump’s Sunday remarks, saying that drugmakers are expected to be “coming to the table very soon” and that the administration anticipates “action” and “relief very soon.”

Officials didn’t say how this would affect the ongoing Medicare drug pricing negotiations, a policy signed into law by President Joe Biden through the Inflation Reduction Act.

In the final days of the Biden administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the next round of drugs up for price negotiations. The first round of negotiations is estimated to save Medicare $6 billion in 2026, when the prices go into effect.

But officials argued that the lower prices achieved through the Biden administration were “inadequate” and that Trump’s new policy would achieve more aggressive price cuts.

“We’ll be taking action to go beyond what was achieved under the Inflation Reduction Act,” an official said.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug industry trade group that filed a lawsuit against Trump’s original policy, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement last week, Alex Schriver, a spokesperson for the group, said the Trump administration should instead focus on so-called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to address high drug costs.

PBMs, also known as middlemen, work with insurance companies to negotiate discounted prices from drug companies in exchange for including the drugs in their coverage. In theory, PBMs are supposed to save patients money, but they’ve been the target of U.S. lawmakers after government findings accused them of inflating the price of drugs.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Travel woes persisted Monday at beleaguered Newark Liberty International Airport Airport in New Jersey with a ground delay in effect.

The Federal Aviation Administration said departures from Newark would be delayed an average of 19 minutes through 9 p.m. ET.

There were over 45 delays at the airport and over 80 cancellations as of 9:30 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware data.

Passengers waited patiently for their flights at the airport, which has been at the center of a spate of issues, including a ground stop on Sunday, Mother’s Day.

“I was so nervous to fly into Newark,” one passenger said waiting for her flight Sunday told NBC New York. “Overhauling the whole system I think is going to take a lot — maybe we can just start with Newark.”

Newark experienced radar outages on Friday and Sunday, leading to dozens of cancellations and delays. 

Both cases were traced to the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) network out of Philadelphia that guides flights in and out of Newark airspace. 

In the Friday outage, radar screens serving Newark went black shortly before 4 a.m. EDT for about 90 seconds on a limited number of sectors, the FAA said. 

And on Sunday, Newark said it issued a ground stop “due to FAA equipment outages” that lasted about 45 minutes. The FAA said there was a telecommunications issue at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, and the facilities backup system worked as it was intended, but the FAA slowed traffic to make sure it remained stable. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on “Meet The Press” on Sunday he was concerned about the events at Newark, and cast blame on telecommunications issues and glitches in software.

He said the system for monitoring airspace and flights is outdated, said the airport will be “up and running in short order.”

But the transportation secretary assured the public it’s safe to fly in and out of Newark.

In the interim, Duffy said Newark will experience “reduced capacity” in the coming weeks, and he’ll convene a meeting of all the airlines that serve Newark about that reduction.

People may come back to the church in part because it now has an American-born leader, Pope Leo XIV told NBC News’ Lester Holt at the Vatican on Monday.

Holt was part of NBC News’ team covering a news conference for some 6,000 journalists from around the world when he conducted a brief interview with the new pope.

“At the end of his remarks, he stood up and he went into the crowd,” Holt said on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “He came down several aisles, and eventually came to me, and I asked him I think the question a lot of people have, ‘What’s the importance of having an American pope?’ And he said to me, ‘You tell me.’”

“Then he went on to offer an anecdote he had heard that suggests that people are coming back to the church because there is an American pope,” Holt said.

As for whether the Chicago-born leader is coming back to visit his hometown soon, that seems unlikely. “I don’t think so,” he told Holt.

“And that falls in line with much of what we’ve heard from experts here, that he’s got a lot of work to do on this end, at the Vatican before we see him on the road,” Holt added.

The NBC Nightly News anchor, who has reported from across the world, described the unexpected encounter a “highlight-of-the-career type moment for me.”

The pontiff spoke with Holt after he made an impassioned plea for peace and expressed solidarity with imprisoned journalists in his first news briefing since becoming the pope Monday. Leo called for “the precious gift of free speech and of the press” to be protected.

Leo, 69, was elected last week as the first pope born in the United States. The 69-year-old Augustinian led Sunday prayers at the Vatican.

Some have asked whether Leo, who is seen as a progressive within the Catholic Church, could become an influential voice in the U.S. on the febrile debate over immigration.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities said Russian attacks against Ukraine continued on Monday, including an overnight assault using more than 100 drones, despite a ceasefire proposed by Europe and Ukraine that Russia did not agree to abide by.

The leaders of four major European powers traveled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin, implicitly rejecting the offer, instead proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul that he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Sunday that the ceasefire offer remained on the table and that he was still waiting for a response from Moscow, but that Ukrainian forces would respond in kind if Russia flouted it.

The air force said in its morning readout that Ukraine came under attack overnight from 108 long-range combat drones starting at 11 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), an hour before the ceasefire was due to kick in. Attacks of this kind unfold over the course of hours, as drones fly much slower than missiles.

“As of 08:30 (1:30 a.m. ET), it was confirmed that 55 Shahed attack (drones)… were shot down in the east, north, south and center of the country,” it said, adding that 30 others had been lost on radars and caused no damage.

A woman was injured by a strike drone in the small port city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsk in the Black Sea region of Odesa overnight, the regional governor said.

Russia also launched guided bombs at targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the northern Sumy region, the air force said.

The Ukrainian railway company said a Russian drone attacked a civilian freight train in the east.

“The truce proposals are being ignored, hostile attacks on railway infrastructure and rolling stock continue,” it wrote in a statement on Telegram.

The train’s driver received a shrapnel wound in his leg after the train was struck by a drone, it said. “His life is currently no longer in danger,” it added.

The state of play on the sprawling front line was not immediately clear. The military has not yet given a readout that specifically addresses the period from midnight.

Russia and Ukraine are both trying to show U.S. President Donald Trump that they are working toward his objective of reaching a rapid peace in Ukraine, while trying to make the other look like the spoiler to his efforts.

Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the U.S. military backing it received from Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world’s biggest economy.

Europe, meanwhile, is doing its best to preserve good relations with Trump despite him imposing tariffs, hoping it can persuade him to swing more forcefully behind Ukraine’s cause, which they see as central to the continent’s security.

A group of European foreign ministers and E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas were set to hold talks in London on Monday.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland on Saturday threatened Russia with new sanctions if the truce was violated, though it is unclear what firepower they are able to muster on that front in the near term.

Putin dismissed what he said was an attempt to lay down “ultimatums.” His foreign ministry spelled out that talks about the root causes of the conflict must precede discussions of a ceasefire.

With Russian forces grinding forward, the Kremlin chief has offered few, if any, concessions so far. Russia says a ceasefire would allow Ukraine to catch its breath and rebuild its military.

Zelenskyy initially responded guardedly on Sunday after Putin, in a nighttime televised statement that coincided with prime time in the U.S., proposed direct talks in Istanbul this Thursday.

But after Trump told Zelenskyy to agree to Putin’s offer “immediately,” the Ukrainian leader challenged the Kremlin chief to meet him in person in Istanbul on Thursday.

It was far from clear, however, if Putin meant he would attend in person. Putin and Zelenskyy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

U.S. Treasury yields moved higher on Monday after the U.S. and China agreed to slash tariffs on each other’s goods, in a move welcomed by investors.

At 5:09 a.m. ET, the 10-year Treasury yield was up nearly 6 basis points to 4.433%, while the 2-year Treasury yield jumped 10 basis points to 3.996%

One basis point is equal to 0.01% and yields and prices move in opposite directions.The U.S. and China negotiated a trade deal to lower tariffs, with both countries announcing on Monday the suspension of most levies implemented on each other’s imports.

Tariffs between both countries will come down from 125% to 10%, according to the terms of the deal. The U.S.′ 20% duties on Chinese imports relating to fentanyl are still in place, bringing total tariffs on China to 30% currently.

Previously U.S. tariffs on China stood at 145%, while China implemented 125% levies on U.S. goods.

“We had very productive talks and I believe that the venue, here in Lake Geneva, added great equanimity to what was a very positive process,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a news conference, after holding talks in Switzerland with China’s trade representatives over the weekend.

“We have reached an agreement on a 90-day pause and substantially move down the tariff levels. Both sides on the reciprocal tariffs will move their tariffs down 115%,” Bessent said.

Investors will also be looking ahead to a batch of economic data this week, which will offer an outlook on how trade tensions have impacted the economy since U.S. President Donald Trump implemented “reciprocal” tariffs on global trade partners in early April.

Investors will parse through the consumer price index reading for April, due on Tuesday morning. They will also await the producer price index and retail sales data on Thursday.

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To hear him tell it in sermons, Campbell has experienced trials and triumphs so epic, his life could be a tale out of the Old Testament.

He was 21 when he made a bargain with God after being ejected 56 feet in a car crash. His body slammed into a stop sign, he says, breaking his neck. Lying on a train track, he remembers praying: “You give me another chance … I will do anything you ask me to do.”

God spared him, he says, and in the years after, blessed him with the power of the Holy Spirit. He was given the gifts of prophecy and faith healing. Once, he says, he raised a man from the dead.

And in 1988, he convinced the men leading the Assemblies of God district council to take his side, just as Jackson had feared. They shared their conclusion in a letter, which Kloefkorn said he reviewed, and allowed Campbell to continue leading Versailles First Assembly.

Seven months after the hearing, he invited a new child into his home.

Phaedra Creed had never met her father. Her mother struggled with addiction and was living in another state. But her pastor wanted to take her in. She remembers jumping up and down and screaming after Campbell told her. 

He and his wife went to court to make the guardianship official, and, in September 1988, they set up a room for Creed in the basement of their parsonage, a ranch home across a parking lot from the church.

The 14-year-old had caught Campbell’s attention while singing in the church choir, she said. He told her God had special plans for her. “Many are called,” he would say, quoting scripture, “but few are chosen.”

One night she was lying awake clutching her Bible after seeing Campbell cast a demon out of a man at church, shouting: “In the name of Jesus!” It terrified her. That night, the pastor came to comfort her, and she felt safe in his arms.

Within weeks, though, she wondered if the real demon was the one tucking her in at night.

It started with a bedtime kiss on the lips, she said, and quickly escalated. Three months later, Creed sat in an interview room at the Versailles Police Department. Afterward, the police chief typed his notes:

THE SUBJECT JOE CAMPBELL ENTERED THE VICTIMS BEDROOM AND HAD INTERCOURSE…

BETWEEN 15 AND 20 DIFFERENT TIMES…

CAMPBELL COMMENTED SEVERAL TIMES ON HER BEING HIS PRECIOUS BABY…

A doctor’s examination confirmed Creed had been penetrated. Campbell was arrested and released on $25,000 bond. After a preliminary hearing, a judge found sufficient evidence to send the case to trial. 

While it was pending, Creed went to Springfield to testify in the same room where Jackson had stood. Confronted by the results of their earlier decision to let Campbell continue preaching, the Assemblies of God’s Southern Missouri District Council banned him from the denomination.

The months that followed were hell, Creed said. She moved in with her mother, who had returned to Missouri. Some church members accused Creed of seducing Campbell, whispering insults behind her back at the grocery store. They said Satan was using her to take down the church.

Back in Tulsa, Jackson and Williams said they received subpoenas to testify. The girls weren’t told the name of the alleged victim, but they were eager to support her.

They never got the chance. 

Weeks before the case was set for trial in October 1989, Creed’s therapist warned her mother, Rita Aye, that testifying might break her daughter, who had moved to a group home for children suffering severe psychological distress. “She had gone through enough,” Aye said of their decision to not continue with the case. 

When the charges were dismissed, Campbell’s lawyer accused Creed of fabricating the story, telling a local newspaper the teen did it to retaliate after “Mr. Campbell denied her request to marry a 32-year-old man.”

For years afterward, Creed panicked anytime a thunderstorm rolled in; it had been raining, she said, the night Campbell took her virginity. Eventually she learned to bury the memories, pushing the pain deep inside.

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After being ousted from the Assemblies of God, Campbell says God gave him a new assignment: to start a church of his own and build a children’s camp on 40 remote acres in the Missouri Ozarks.

The Family Worship Center of Marshfield — later renamed Lakeside Family Worship — had only a handful of members when it opened in an old Methodist church in 1990 but grew into the hundreds. Campbell soon launched Camp Bell on a wooded lot 20 minutes away. Volunteers added a swimming pool, showers and dorms for the thousands of children who visited.

“For one week the kids are separated from the world and can focus on God, and it changes their lives,” Campbell told a newspaper years later. “They’re never the same.”

As he was rebuilding his career, the women who say he abused them were starting families and quietly struggling to cope with the lingering harm. Cheryl Almond, who says Campbell molested her around 1978, thought for decades she was the only one.

After returning to Eastland to raise her own children, Almond finally built the courage to tell someone. She confided in her spiritual mentor, a longtime church member. 

The woman gasped: “Oh my gosh, you too?”

Almond froze: “What do you mean, ‘You too’?”

The woman told her about Jackson, whose family had long since left the church, and about others who had accused Campbell of abuse. Horrified to learn he’d found a new flock of believers in Missouri, Almond sent Campbell a letter at Lakeside Family Worship in 1999.

“After years of hiding this awful sin, God has instructed me to write this letter,” Almond wrote. “Such a great pain you have caused to me, my family, and so many other great children.”

She received no reply.

A year later, Almond felt God nudging her again: It was time to find Jackson.

Jackson was 27, newly divorced, raising a first grader and struggling with panic attacks that hit with such ferocity, they left her hyperventilating and vomiting. The first one came as she was walking near a forest; the smell reminded her of Campbell’s family farm in Missouri. Ever since, she’d been begging God to help her forget. Now Almond was on the phone, asking to meet. 

Jackson invited Almond to her house; Williams joined them. Around a kitchen table, they shared their stories, finding parallels. After years of feeling trapped by grief that no one else could understand, each of them felt empowered. Together, they decided to channel their pain into holding Campbell accountable.

Remembering the subpoena she’d received in 1989, Jackson called authorities in Versailles and convinced someone to pass her number to the victim in the case. A few days later, Creed called.

And then there were four.

“Just knowing that I wasn’t alone,” Creed wrote to the women the next day. “I can’t even express those feelings.”

Over the following decade, emails between the women describe a flurry of efforts to alert authorities in Oklahoma and Missouri. A message to the FBI went unanswered. Tulsa police told them the statute of limitations had passed and suggested they file a report where Campbell lived now. When Jackson tried calling the sheriff’s office in Webster County, Missouri, she thought she heard Campbell’s brother on the other end. He worked in dispatch, they learned. They filed reports nonetheless, but it didn’t matter.

Years rolled by, with no results.

Hamas said early Monday that it will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who is believed to be the last living U.S. citizen held captive in Gaza by the Palestinian militant group, in the coming hours.

“The Al-Qassam Brigades have decided to release the captive Zionist soldier who holds American citizenship, “Idan Alexander,” today, Monday, May 12, 2025,” a Hamas spokesperson said in a brief statement early Monday.

Hamas had previously suggested such a release would be a signal of goodwill as part of “the steps being taken to achieve a ceasefire, open the crossings, and allow aid” into the Gaza Strip.

If successful, the release will come the day before President Donald Trump is set to travel to the Middle East in a trip that is expected to intensify efforts to bring a pause to Israel’s sweeping military offensive in Gaza, from which aid has been cut off for several weeks.

Trump’s trip is not expected to include a stop in Israel.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Monday that it was only committing to a safe corridor to allow Alexander’s release, rather than any ceasefire or release of Palestinian prisoners or detainees.

“We are in critical days, during which Hamas has a proposal before it that would allow for the release of our hostages,” the statement said, adding, “Negotiations will continue under fire and alongside preparations to intensify the fighting.”

The Israeli security cabinet last week approved a plan to capture the entire enclave under which more than 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza would be “moved” out of the strip as Israel’s military launched operations to defeat Hamas.

Alexander, 21, was born and raised in New Jersey and was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured by Hamas during its terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, along with around 250 others.

Israeli officials say 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas-led attacks, which marked a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.

More than 51,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip since then, according to health officials in the enclave, which has been run by Hamas since 2007.

Alexander is one of at least 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, according to Israeli officials, although less than half are believed to be alive. His family confirmed in a statement Sunday that it was expecting his release.

The bodies of two people were removed from the scattered debris after after neighbors say a New Jersey home exploded early Sunday.

Two bodies were removed from the scene Sunday morning after fire crews responded to the intersection of Orion Way and Tranquility Court in Washington Township, in Gloucester County, after the blast.

Officials said the bodies were those of a man and a woman. The pair has not been identified.

Officials said the incident happened at about 2 a.m. Surveillance footage that shows the home erupting into flames. Officials are investigating the incident as an “intense fire,” not an explosion, police said.

However, a neighbor said she was sitting in her home, watching a movie with her boyfriend when she heard a blast and saw flames shooting from the other property.

“I was terrified, absolutely terrified,” Susan Pinto said. “Because, I never heard an explosion like that in my life and it just was, the house was, basically, burning to the ground very, very quickly.”

Pinto said she called 911 immediately, and firefighters arrived at the scene within minutes.

Within 10 minutes of the initial explosion, the home was engulfed in flames, neighbors said.

Two homes nearby were damaged in the incident, officials said.

Officials have not provided further information on the deceased, but one neighbor said he would see the man who lived in the home when he walked his dog.

“He was nice. He was a good guy. Always walked his dog and stuff like that. He was a great guy to talk. He’ll say hi, conversations here and there,” the neighbor said.

An investigation into what may have caused the explosion is ongoing, officials said.

Amber Heard is a now a mother of three.

To mark Mother’s Day, the “Aquaman” actor announced Sunday on Instagram that she has welcomed twins, daughter Agnes and son Ocean.

“This year I am elated beyond words to celebrate the completion of the family I’ve strived to build for years,” Heard captioned the post, in part. “Today I officially share the news that I welcomed twins into the Heard gang. My daughter Agnes and my son Ocean are keeping my hands (and my heart) full.”

“When I had my first baby girl Oonagh four years ago, my world changed forever,” she continued. “I thought I couldn’t possibly burst with more joy. Well, now I am bursting times three!!!”

Referencing her own journey to have children, Heard wrote that being a mother “on my own terms despite my own fertility challenges has been the most humbling experience of my life.”

To conclude her message, Heard celebrated all mothers “wherever you are today and however you got here,” signing the post, “A x.”

As with daughter Oonagh Paige, 4, Heard has not publicly identified a father of the twins. The actor filed for divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016.

After Oonagh was born in April 2021, Heard called herself the baby’s “mom and dad” in an Instagram post with her daughter. At the time, Heard emphasized her independent route to motherhood on social media and said she’s creating a family “on my own terms.”

“I now appreciate how radical it is for us as women to think about one of the most fundamental parts of our destinies in this way. I hope we arrive at a point in which it’s normalized to not want a ring in order to have a crib,” Heard wrote in 2021.

Heard announced in December 2024 that she would be adding onto her family, though she did not give additional details at the time. 

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has fired the nation’s top copyright official, Shira Perlmutter, days after abruptly terminating the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office.

The office said in a statement Sunday that Perlmutter received an email from the White House a day earlier with the notification that “your position as the Register of Copyrights and Director at the U.S. Copyright Office is terminated effective immediately.”

On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress, as part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.

Hayden named Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020.

Perlmutter’s office recently released a report examining whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted materials to “train” their AI systems and then compete in the same market as the human-made works they were trained on.

The report, the third part of a lengthy AI study, follows a review that Perlmutter began in 2023 with opinions from thousands of people including AI developers, actors and country singers.

In January, the office clarified its approach as one based on the “centrality of human creativity” in authoring a work that warrants copyright protections. The office receives about half a million copyright applications per year covering millions of creative works.

“Where that creativity is expressed through the use of AI systems, it continues to enjoy protection,” Perlmutter said in January. “Extending protection to material whose expressive elements are determined by a machine … would undermine rather than further the constitutional goals of copyright.”

The White House didn’t return a message seeking comment Sunday.

Democrats were quick to blast Perlmutter’s firing.

“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis,” said Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee.

Perlmutter, who holds a law degree, was previously a policy director at the Patent and Trademark Office and worked on copyright and other areas of intellectual property. She also previously worked at the Copyright Office in the late 1990s. She did not return messages left Sunday.