NEW YORK — George Santos is defending his recent social media tirade to a federal judge who will be sentencing the disgraced former New York congressman later this week on fraud charges.

In a lengthy letter ahead of the Friday court date, Santos, 36, said he remains “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but protests that the seven-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors as “ridiculous” and overly harsh.

“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” wrote the former Republican lawmaker, who pleaded guilty last summer. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”

Prosecutors, in a filing last week, argued Santos “remains unrepentant” and has not shown genuine remorse, as his lawyers have claimed in their own filing seeking a lighter, two-year prison stint.

They cited a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, in which he disparaged the U.S. Department of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and cast himself as a victim of prosecutorial overreach.

Santos, who admitted he deceived donors and stole the identities of nearly a dozen people to fund his congressional campaign, countered that his “colorful” posts are being wrongly “repurposed as a sword against me” by prosecutors.

“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence is not the same as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech because it questions punishment should trouble anyone who values fair prosecution over personal vindication,” he wrote.

Santos said calling himself the “scapegoat” in social media posts was in reference to prosecutors claiming he was the “organizer/leader” of his campaign’s financial fraud and warranted a stiffer sentence. He argued his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who has also pleaded guilty and faces sentencing next month, shares equal part in the blame.

“If I were the criminal mastermind they portray, I would be the clumsiest in modern memory: leaving a trail of screenshots pointing directly back to myself,” he wrote in the Saturday letter.

Santos also pushed back at prosecutors’ claims that he has not made efforts to pay the roughly $580,000 owed as part of his plea deal, saying he’s “liquidated personal assets, reduced my living expenses, and tried as hard as I could to raise some money for restitution.”

He added that he has not asked any of his friends or family to write letters to the court on his behalf, nor did he expect any supporters to attend Friday’s sentencing in Long Island federal court out of embarrassment and shame.

“I don’t want to bring anyone else in my life into this mess,” Santos wrote. “This is mine to deal with and mine alone.”

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.

Santos was elected in 2022 to represent parts of Queens and Long Island but served barely a year before being ousted by his House colleagues.

Santos fabricated much of his life story, leading to questions about how the political unknown had funded his winning campaign.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

WASHINGTON — The infighting and backstabbing that plagued President Donald Trump’s first term have returned as a threat to his second, with deepening fissures over trade, national security and questions of personal loyalty.

The latest turmoil threatens to engulf the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed out top advisers and faces fresh controversy over sharing sensitive information about airstrikes in Yemen outside of classified channels. A former Pentagon spokesperson who was ousted last week wrote in Politico that Trump should fire Hegseth for presiding over a “full-blown meltdown.”

The interpersonal drama is not — at least yet — a dominant plot line of Trump’s return to the White House. But its reemergence after a period of relative discipline in his ranks reflects a turbulent management style that has been suppressed or papered over, not reformed.

Trump’s national security team was recently rattled by an Oval Office visit from Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has been questioning his staff’s trustworthiness. The Republican president fired some of the officials, emboldening Loomer to continue scrutinizing people across the administration.

In an interview with independent journalist Tara Palmeri released on Monday, Loomer mocked the idea that the White House is “one big happy family.”

“The advisers don’t get along with each other,” she said. “The heads of agencies don’t get along with each other.”

Much of the tension is connected to Trump’s determination to use tariffs to rebalance the global economy, with officials often contradicting each other and occasionally turning to insults. Trump adviser Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur whose companies could suffer from higher costs brought on by import taxes, sharply criticized Peter Navarro, Trump’s top counselor on trade, as “dumber than a sack of bricks.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the idea of growing dissension within the administration, saying there are “far more examples of the president’s team working together enthusiastically and collaboratively to advance the administration’s goals.”

“The numbers and results of this administration speak for themselves,” she said. “The president and his team are getting work done.”

Trump has always had a high tolerance for chaos, shunning traditional policy deliberations to entertain divergent opinions and viewing unpredictability as a negotiating tool. He’s spent years fostering a competitive atmosphere among his staff members, who are often chosen for their devotion and penchant for aggression.

But now the increasing strife underscores the risks for more turmoil in the months ahead, as Trump presses forward with a dramatic overhaul of the federal bureaucracy, international trade, foreign policy and more.

John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in Trump’s first term before writing a tell-all book critical of the president’s inner circle, said the drama reflects the lack of a consistent ideology and the inexperience of many administration officials.

“The only thing they have in common is the belief that they should show personal fealty to Trump,” Bolton said. “That got them the job. That may in fact keep them in the job. But it shows how fundamentally unserious they are.”

The situation is a test for Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, who helped run Trump’s presidential campaign last year. She earned a reputation for imposing an unusual level of order on Trump’s chaotic orbit — though she carefully avoided trying to control Trump or his impulses — and he praised her as “the ice maiden.”

During Trump’s first term, he had four chiefs of staff — one of them serving in an acting capacity for more than a year. The second, former U.S. Marine Gen. John Kelly, became a sharp critic of the president after he left the job, describing him as a fascist during the 2024 election.

With his new administration, Trump has surrounded himself with loyalists, and he’s been reluctant to throw anyone overboard in response to negative coverage from the mainstream media, which he considers to be an enemy. Allies say the hesitance to make personnel changes in this term is meant to deny giving a win to critics, even if it means leaving troubled officials in place.

On Monday, the president brushed off reports that Hegseth participated in a second group chat to talk about pending airstrikes in Yemen last month. The first chat, which used the encrypted messaging application Signal, involved top administration officials as well as the editor of The Atlantic, who was accidentally included in the discussion.

The second, first reported by The New York Times on Sunday, included Hegseth’s wife, who does not have a government job, and his brother and his personal lawyer, both of whom work at the Pentagon.

“Same old stuff,” Trump said when reporters questioned him about it during the White House Easter egg roll. He said Hegseth is “doing a great job” and “it’s just fake news.”

Leavitt, in an appearance on Fox News Channel, defended Hegseth with a swipe at the people who work for him.

“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and against the monumental change that you are trying to implement,” she said. Leavitt’s comment was shared by an official Defense Department social media account.

However, some of those speaking out were among Hegseth’s top advisers.

John Ullyot, who served as a Pentagon spokesperson until he was asked to resign, wrote in Politico that “it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer.” He added that “the president deserves better” and “many in the secretary’s own inner circle will applaud quietly” if Hegseth is fired.

The disorder extends through the Pentagon’s senior ranks. Three officials — Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick — were recently pushed out, and they issued a statement saying people “have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”

Hegseth did not deny the reports about his use of Signal. But he added: “What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out.”

Trump’s tariff plans have also been a source of stress inside the administration, often leading to mixed messages and policy confusion. Navarro insisted there weren’t going to be any negotiations, contradicting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s insistence that import taxes were about strengthening the White House’s negotiating position.

The president partially retreated from his plans, but not before Navarro and Musk began openly feuding. Navarro said Musk was “protecting his own interests” by opposing tariffs, and he described Musk’s electric automaker Tesla as a “car assembler” that’s dependent on importing parts from overseas.

Musk, who advises Trump on ways to downsize the federal bureaucracy, responded by saying that Navarro was “truly a moron.”

Leavitt downplayed the dispute by saying “boys will be boys.”

“We will let their public sparring continue,” she told reporters. “And you guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history.”

Trump often appears more interested in fealty than veracity. During part of last year’s campaign, he traveled with Loomer, who has a history of making racist attacks on Trump’s opponents and once claimed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were an inside job.

After Trump won, Loomer became frustrated that she wasn’t allowed to help vet administration personnel. She eventually secured an Oval Office meeting with the president, bringing research on national security officials whom she believed were disloyal.

After Trump fired some of them, Loomer has continued her work. Last week, she accused Bessent of inviting a “Trump hater” to work with him on financial literacy efforts.

“I am going to personally tell President Trump and personally show him these receipts,” Loomer wrote on social media, adding “shame on” Bessent.

Musk shared her post and chimed in with his support — “troubling,” he wrote.

As drivers on U.S. highways cross from one state to another, they often are greeted by a large “Welcome to ….” sign.

But not all drivers are welcome in every state.

In Florida, motorists with special out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to those in the U.S. illegally are not welcome to drive. Wyoming’s governor enacted a comparable ban this year. And Tennessee’s governor said he will sign similar legislation sent to his desk recently.

The message, though not literally printed on metal, is clear: “The sign says, `Welcome to Tennessee, illegal immigrants are not welcome,’” Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth declared during debate.

As President Donald Trump cracks down on illegal immigration, Republican lawmakers in many states are pushing new laws targeting people lacking legal status to live in the U.S. The measures contrast with policies in 19 other states and Washington, D.C., which issue driver’s licenses regardless of whether residents can prove their legal presence.

The Justice Department is seeking to strike down one such law in New York, which shields its driver’s license data from federal immigration authorities.

States are taking drastically different approaches to licensing drivers even as the federal government attempts to standardize the process.

On May 7, the U.S. will start enforcing a law passed 20 years ago that sets national standards for state driver’s licenses to be accepted as proof of identity for adults entering certain federal facilities or traveling on domestic commercial flights. Licenses compliant with the REAL ID Act are marked with a star and require applicants to provide a Social Security number and proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residency.

But states remain free to issue driver’s licenses to residents who don’t provide documentation for a REAL ID, so long as they meet other state requirements such as passing a vision exam or a driving laws test. In most states that issue licenses to people illegally in the U.S., there is no way currently to know from looking at the license whether the person is unlawfully present or simply chose not to apply for a REAL ID.

But at least some states do make a distinction. Connecticut and Delaware place special markings on driver’s licenses issued to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

In 2023, Florida became the first state to invalidate some other states’ licenses. A law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis made it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and potential jail time to drive in Florida with a type of license “issued exclusively to undocumented immigrants” or with markings indicating the driver didn’t provide proof of lawful presence.

As applied, the law has a limited scope. Only specially marked licenses from Connecticut and Delaware are deemed invalid, according to the website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Connecticut has issued nearly 60,700 “drive-only” licenses to immigrants unable to prove lawful presence. Delaware has not responded to an Associated Press request for such data.

Bidding to avoid Florida’s ban, Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont last year proposed to end the special license designation for immigrants in the U.S. illegally and instead give them the same type of license as others not receiving a REAL ID. But the legislation never came to a vote.

In addition to Wyoming and Tennessee, at least a half-dozen other Republican-led states have considered legislation this year to invalidate certain types of out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to immigrants illegally in the U.S. Such legislation passed at least one chamber in Alabama, Montana and New Hampshire and was proposed in North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

“We want to discourage illegal immigrants from coming to or staying in Alabama,” said state Sen. Chris Elliott, sponsor of the Alabama bill that awaits House consideration. If someone illegally in the U.S. drives to Alabama, “they should turn around and go somewhere else.”

Frustrated about the legislation, Democratic Alabama state Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison added an amendment requiring highway welcome signs to contain a notice about the prohibited driver’s licenses.

“We have people that come here for a lot of events — tourists, vacation, what have you — that could be caught in this. So we need to let people know,” she told AP. “I think some of our laws are mean-spirited, and sometimes I think we just have to call it like it is.”

The legislation targeting driver’s licenses is part of a “trend of states getting involved in federal immigration enforcement issues,” said Kathleen Campbell Walker, an immigration attorney in El Paso, Texas.

It’s unclear if the laws carry much substance. Some Florida advocates for immigrants said they are unaware of specific instances where the driver’s license ban has been enforced.

But “it is a concern,” said Jeannie Economos, of the Farmworker Association of Florida, “because some people who are undocumented have specifically gone to other states where driver’s licenses are legal to get driver’s licenses to have them here.”

California is among the states where immigrants unlawfully in the U.S. can get driver’s licenses. Trump’s immigration policies have created “anxiety and fear,” said Robert Perkins, a Los Angeles area attorney who helps immigrants gain legal status.

“Even the ones that might have a California driver’s license, they’re terrified to go anywhere,” Perkins said.

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Associated Press writers Susan Haigh and Kimberlee Kruesi contributed to this report.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program will move Wednesday to what’s known as the “expert level” — a sign analysts say shows that the talks are moving forward rapidly.

However, experts not involved in the talks who spoke with The Associated Press warn that this doesn’t necessarily signal a deal is imminent. Instead, it means that the talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff haven’t broken down at what likely is the top-level trade — Tehran limiting its atomic program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

“Agreeing to technical talks suggests both sides are expressing pragmatic, realistic objectives for the negotiations and want to explore the details,” said Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association who long has studied Iran’s nuclear program.

“If Witkoff was making maximalist demands during his talks with Araghchi, such as dismantlement of the enrichment program, Iran would have no incentive to meet at the technical level.”

That technical level, however, remains filled with possible landmines. Just how much enrichment by Iran would be comfortable for the United States? What about Tehran’s ballistic missile program, which U.S. President Donald Trump first cited in pulling America unilaterally out of the accord in 2018? Which sanctions could be lifted and which would be remain in place on the Islamic Republic?

“The most important determinant of expert talks’ value lies in whether there is a political commitment to do something and experts just need to figure out what,” said Richard Nephew, an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who worked on Iran sanctions while at the U.S. State Department during negotiations over what became the 2015 nuclear deal.

“If the experts also have to discuss big concepts, without political agreement, it can just result in spun wheels.”

The 2015 nuclear deal saw senior experts involved in both sides of the deal. For the U.S. under President Barack Obama, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz reached an understanding working with Ali Akbar Salehi, then the leader of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Both men’s technical background proved key to nailing down the specifics of the deal.

Under the 2015 agreement, Iran agreed to enrich uranium only to 3.67% purity and keep a stockpile of only 300 kilograms (661 pounds). Today, Iran enriches some uranium up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency put Iran’s overall uranium stockpile in February at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds).

The deal also limited the types of centrifuges Iran could spin, further slowing Tehran’s ability to rush for a bomb, if it chose to do so. It also set out the provisions of how and when sanctions would be lifted, as well as time limits for the accord itself.

Reaching limits, relief and timelines require the knowledge of experts, analysts say.

“A nonproliferation agreement is meaningless if it cannot be effectively implemented and verified,” Davenport said. “The United States needs a strong technical team to negotiate the detailed restrictions and intrusive monitoring that will be necessary to ensure any move by Iran toward nuclear weapons is quickly detected and there is sufficient time to respond.”

It remains unclear who the two sides will be sending for those negotiations.

Both the Americans and the Iranians have been tightlipped over exactly what’s been discussed so far, though both sides have expressed optimism about the pace. However, there has been one noticeable dispute stemming from comments Witkoff made in a television interview, suggesting Tehran could be able to enrich up to 3.67% purity. However, analysts noted that was the level set by the 2015 deal under Obama.

Witkoff hours later issued a statement suggesting that comparison struck a nerve: “A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal.”

“Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program,” Witkoff added.

Araghchi responded by warning that Iran must be able to enrich.

“The core issue of enrichment itself is not negotiable,” he said.

Despite that, experts who spoke to the AP said they remained positive about the talks’ trajectory so far.

“Although still early stages, I’m encouraged so far,” said Alan Eyre, a former U.S. diplomat once involved in past nuclear negotiations with Tehran. “The pace of negotiations — to include starting expert level meetings this Wednesday — is good.”

He added that so far, there didn’t appear to be any “mutually exclusive red lines” for the talks as well — signaling there likely wasn’t immediately any roadblocks to reaching a deal.

Nephew similarly described reaching the expert level as a “positive sign.” However, he cautioned that the hard work potentially was just beginning for the negotiations.

“They imply the need to get into real details, to discuss concepts that senior (officials) might not understand and to answer questions. I also think too much can be read into them starting,” Nephew said. “Expert talks can sometimes be a fudge for seniors to avoid working on tough issues — ‘let’s have experts discuss it while we move on to other things’ — or to sidestep big political decisions.”

Corey Hinderstein, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former U.S. government nuclear expert, described herself as feeling “cautious optimism” over the expert talks beginning.

“Heads of delegation are responsible for setting strategic goals and defining success,” she said. “But if there is a deal to be made, the technical experts are the ones who will get it done.”

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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

PHOENIX, Ariz. — President Donald Trump added another endorsement in next year’s Republican primary for Arizona governor, saying Monday that he was backing U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs in addition to his previously announced endorsement of housing developer Karrin Taylor Robson.

Trump’s endorsement of Robson late last year angered some of his biggest allies in the state, who are suspicious of her longstanding ties to the Republican business establishment and preferred a candidate with deep roots in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

A former chair of the U.S. House’s hard-right Freedom Caucus and former state Senate president, Biggs has long been a close ally to Trump and supported his false claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen. Biggs represents a deep red district including cities like Queen Creek and Gilbert, and has ties to the party’s grassroots.

Biggs has had no problem with defying party leadership — such as when he and seven other House Republicans helped oust Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker in 2023.

“When Andy Biggs decided to run for Governor, quite unexpectedly, I had a problem — Two fantastic candidates, two terrific people, two wonderful champions, and it is therefore my Great Honor TO GIVE MY COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT TO BOTH,” Trump said Monday in a post on Truth Social.

In a failed 2022 race for governor, Robson was closely aligned with old guard Arizona conservatives. She campaigned with Republicans who had fallen from Trump’s good graces, including former Gov. Doug Ducey and former Vice President Mike Pence, while Trump campaigned for former television news anchor Kari Lake. Lake won the GOP primary and lost to current Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

This time around, Robson has been looking to eliminate daylight between herself and the president, eagerly embracing him and his policies while touting herself as the Trump-endorsed candidate.

In reaction to the dual endorsement, Robson expressed her gratitude to Trump for his support.

“I cannot wait to be in the Governor’s Office as a partner to his conservative, America First agenda,” she said in a statement. “Onward!”

Sean Noble, general consultant with Biggs’ campaign, said the campaign is “thrilled” for the endorsement but also expected it to be for both candidates given Trump’s earlier support of Robson.

“Given that Robson had leaned so heavily on the endorsement as her very premise for being in the race, it does call into question whether she should stay in the race,” he said.

Trump is no stranger to dual endorsements. Since 2017, he’s supported multiple candidates vying for the same post in six races, including Robson and Biggs, according to analysis by The Associated Press. In the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Missouri, he endorsed “Eric,” the first name of two GOP candidates vying for the nomination. A triple endorsement came in 2024 in the Missouri governor’s race when Trump backed Jay Ashcroft, Mike Kehoe and Bill Eigel.

The Democratic Governors Association called the dual endorsement as a “huge blow” to Robson. The winner of the GOP primary will face likely face Hobbs, who has no serious challenger for the Democratic nomination.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian attacks during the 30-hour Easter ceasefire unilaterally declared by President Vladimir Putin over the weekend killed three people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, the local governor said Monday.

Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram that the casualties occurred over the last 24 hours, adding that three others were wounded.

Overall, Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram statement in the early hours on Monday. Zelenskyy said that Russian forces carried out 96 assault operations along the front line, shelled Ukrainian positions more than 1,800 times and used hundreds of drones during the course of the ceasefire.

“The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirror-like: we will respond to silence with silence, and our blows will be a defense against Russian blows. Actions always speak louder than words,” he said.

Putin announced a temporary Easter truce on Saturday, citing humanitarian reasons. Ukraine said that it would reciprocate any genuine ceasefire by Moscow, but voiced skepticism over the Kremlin’s intentions. Both sides traded accusations of violations shortly after. The ceasefire expired at midnight (2100 GMT) following Easter Sunday.

Overnight into Monday, the Russian forces fired three missiles at Ukraine’s southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, as well as 96 Shahed drones targeting other parts of the country, Ukraine’s Air Force reported. It said it downed 42 drones, while 47 others were jammed mid-flight.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian drones sparked a fire at an “outbuilding” and a “food enterprise,” Gov. Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram. No one was injured in the attack, he said. An unspecified infrastructure object was damaged in the Cherkasy region overnight, Gov. Ihor Taburets said on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry, in a statement on Monday, maintained that Moscow’s forces “strictly observed the ceasefire and remained at previously occupied lines and positions.” It accused Ukraine of violating the ceasefire 4,900 times, including six attempts at assault operations, 1,404 attacks from artillery, multiple rocket launchers and mortars, and 3,316 drone strikes targeting Russian troops.

The ministry said that once the ceasefire expired, the Russian military “resumed the special military operation” in Ukraine.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

BEIJING — China on Monday warned other countries against making trade deals with the United States to China’s detriment.

Governments including those of Taiwan, Japan and South Korea have begun negotiations with Washington after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs against almost all of America’s trading partners on April 2. The import taxes were quickly paused against most countries after markets panicked, but he increased his already steep tariffs against China.

“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement. “If this happens, China will never accept it and will resolutely take countermeasures in a reciprocal manner. China is determined and capable of safeguarding its own rights and interests.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month the countries currently negotiating trade deals with the U.S. should “approach China as a group” together with Washington.

The U.S. tariffs against other countries are economic bullying, the ministry said in the statement attributed to an unnamed spokesperson.

“Appeasement cannot bring peace, and compromise cannot win respect,” it added. “For one’s own temporary selfish interests, sacrificing the interests of others in exchange for so-called exemptions is like seeking the skin from a tiger. It will ultimately only fail on both ends and harm others without benefiting themselves.”

China said it’s open to talks with Washington but no meetings have been announced.

Trump made China the target of his steepest tariffs, imposing several rounds of tariffs totaling 145% duties on Chinese imports. Beijing has retaliated with tariffs of 125% on U.S. imports.

The tariffs have spooked exporters and stalled shipments, while threatening to drag on the global economy.

Moments after Daniris Espinal walked into her new apartment in Brooklyn, she prayed. In ensuing nights, she would awaken and touch the walls for reassurance — finding in them a relief that turned to tears over her morning coffee.

Those walls were possible through a federal program that pays rent for some 60,000 families and individuals fleeing homelessness or domestic violence. Espinal was fleeing both.

But the program, Emergency Housing Vouchers, is running out of money — and quickly.

Funding is expected to be used up by the end of next year, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and obtained by The Associated Press. That would leave tens of thousands across the country scrambling to pay their rent.

It would be among the largest one-time losses of rental assistance in the U.S., analysts say, and the ensuing evictions could churn these people — after several years of rebuilding their lives — back onto the street or back into abusive relationships.

“To have it stop would completely upend all the progress that they’ve made,” said Sonya Acosta, policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which researches housing assistance.

“And then you multiply that by 59,000 households,” she said.

The program, launched in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden as part of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act, was allocated $5 billion to help pull people out of homelessness, domestic violence and human trafficking.

People from San Francisco to Dallas to Tallahassee, Florida, were enrolled — among them children, seniors and veterans — with the expectation that funding would last until the end of the decade.

But with the ballooning cost of rent, that $5 billion will end far faster.

Last month, HUD sent letters to groups dispersing the money, advising them to “manage your EHV program with the expectation that no additional funding from HUD will be forthcoming.”

The program’s future rests with Congress, which could decide to add money as it crafts the federal budget. But it’s a relatively expensive prospect at a time when Republicans, who control Congress, are dead set on cutting federal spending to afford tax cuts.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who championed the program four years ago, is pushing for another $8 billion infusion.

But the organizations lobbying Republican and Democratic lawmakers to reup the funding told the AP they aren’t optimistic. Four GOP lawmakers who oversee the budget negotiations did not respond to AP requests for comment.

“We’ve been told it’s very much going to be an uphill fight,” said Kim Johnson, the public policy manager at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Espinal and her two daughters, aged 4 and 19, are living on one of those vouchers in a three-bedroom apartment with an over $3,000 monthly rent — an amount extremely difficult to cover without the voucher.

Four years ago, Espinal fought her way out of a marriage where her husband controlled her decisions, from seeing her family and friends to leaving the apartment to go shopping.

When she spoke up, her husband said she was wrong, or in the wrong or crazy.

Isolated and in the haze of postpartum depression, she didn’t know what to believe. “Every day, little by little, I started to feel not like myself,” she said. “It felt like my mind wasn’t mine.”

When notices arrived in March 2021 seeking about $12,000 in back rent, it was a shock. Espinal had quit her job at her husband’s urging and he had promised to cover family expenses.

Police reports documenting her husband’s bursts of anger were enough for a judge to give her custody of their daughter in 2022, Espinal said.

But her future was precarious: She was alone, owed thousands of dollars in back rent and had no income to pay it or support her newborn and teenage daughters.

Financial aid to prevent evictions during the pandemic kept Espinal afloat, paying her back rent and keeping the family out of shelters. But it had an expiration date.

Around that time, the Emergency Housing Vouchers program was rolled out, targeting people in Espinal’s situation.

A “leading cause of family homelessness is domestic violence” in New York City, said Gina Cappuccitti, director of housing access and stability services at New Destiny Housing, a nonprofit that has connected 700 domestic violence survivors to the voucher program.

Espinal was one of those 700, and moved into her Brooklyn apartment in 2023.

The relief went beyond finding a secure place to live, she said. “I gained my worth, my sense of peace, and I was able to rebuild my identity.”

Now, she said, she’s putting aside money in case of the worst. Because, “that’s my fear, losing control of everything that I’ve worked so hard for.”

NEW DELHI — U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in India on Monday for a four-day visit as New Delhi looks to avoid U.S. tariffs, negotiate a bilateral trade deal with Washington and strengthen ties with the Trump administration.

Vance will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the first day of his largely personal visit. The two leaders are expected to hold discussions on bilateral ties outlined in February when Modi met President Donald Trump in Washington.

The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner and the two countries are now holding negotiations aiming to seal a bilateral trade agreement this year.

They have set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. If achieved, the trade deal could significantly enhance economic ties between the two countries and potentially strengthen diplomatic ties as well.

Vance’s first visit to New Delhi comes amid the backdrop of Trump’s now-paused tariff program against most countries, including India. It also coincides with a rapidly intensifying trade war between Washington and Beijing, which is New Delhi’s main rival in the region.

Modi and Vance are expected to “review the progress in bilateral relations” and “exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” India’s Foreign Ministry said last week.

“We are very positive that the visit will give a further boost to our bilateral ties,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

Vance was greeted with an Indian classical dance performance after he arrived at New Delhi’s Palam airport on Monday, following his visit to Rome, where he met Pope Francis on Easter Sunday. He is accompanied by his wife, Usha Vance, a practicing Hindu whose parents are from India, along with their children and officials from the U.S. administration.

The couple and their three young children visited the Akshardham Hindu temple in New Delhi after their arrival and are expected to tour the iconic Taj Mahal monument and the 12th-century Amer Fort — a UNESCO world heritage site — during their trip.

India is a close partner of the U.S. and an important strategic ally in combating the rising influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region.

It is also part of the Quad, which is comprised of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia and is seen as a counterbalance to China’s expansion in the region. Trump is expected to attend a summit of Quad leaders in India later this year.

Modi established a good working relationship with Trump during his first term in office and the two leaders are likely to further boost cooperation between their countries.

He was among the first leaders to visit the U.S. and hold talks with Trump after he returned to the White House. During his visit, Modi hailed a “mega partnership” with the U.S., and kickstarted a negotiation process to minimize the possible fallout of Trump’s tariffs.

The two leaders also said they planned to grow their defense partnership, with India signaling compliance with the Trump administration’s demands, saying it will purchase more oil, energy and defense equipment from the U.S.

Regardless, Trump targeted India with a 26% levy, part of which has since been paused. However, he has continued to call India a “tariff abuser” and “tariff king.”

The trade negotiations are especially urgent for New Delhi as it could be hit hard by Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, particularly in the agriculture, processed food, auto components, high-end machinery, medical equipment and jewelry sectors.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In her 28 years working for the federal government, Shea Giagnorio provided day care for the children of U.S. soldiers, training for employees and oversight for safety net programs.

Public service took her from Germany to Alaska to Kansas City, Missouri, where she moved last year for a long-sought promotion.

But when she reported to a downtown federal building for work one day last month, her access card did not work. After a co-worker let her into the building, she checked her email: Her entire office had been let go in the latest mass firing ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The 46-year-old single mom has canceled her apartment lease, is selling her new furniture and may have to pull her daughter of college. She wonders what will happen to the at-risk populations her team helped serve at the Administration for Children and Families, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Not only me, but all these peoples’ lives are turned upside down,” Giagnorio said.

The impact of the cuts by Trump appointees and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency can be found everywhere in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which has long been a major hub for federal agencies about 1,000 miles away from Washington, D.C. Money once promised to the region for public health, environmental, diversity, food aid and an array of other programs has been axed, and thousands of local jobs are in jeopardy.

With nearly 30,000 workers, the federal government is the largest employer in the region. One longtime Kansas City economic researcher said he believes the region could lose 6,000 good-paying federal jobs, which in turn would wipe out thousands of others in service industries.

An IRS worker said thousands of her coworkers fear they will lose their jobs, even as they put in overtime processing tax refunds in a building so crowded that they struggle to find desks. Under pressure, hundreds more agreed this week to retire early or take a buyout.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant revocation disrupted a historically Black neighborhood’s plan to expand its program growing fresh produce in a food desert. A nearby pantry reduced its monthly grocery allotment for those in need after federal cuts left food banks shorthanded.

The withdrawal of federal funding for new lab equipment and vaccines means the city may be less prepared for the next pandemic.

A landlord may have to sell an office building for a loss after his federal tenants were among several that abruptly canceled local leases, adding a glut of real estate to the market.

And the city’s Tesla showroom has become a spot of weekly protest. Activists are seeking to have it closed by pushing a referendum intended to drive Musk’s electric car company out of Missouri.

The nation’s health department is slashing its full-time national workforce from 82,000 to 62,000. Among them were Giagnorio and her colleagues in her agency’s 10 regional offices around the country that helped deliver services through programs such as Head Start and emergency assistance for low-income families.

“The poor will become even more poor now,” Giagnorio said. “If we’re taking away social safety nets, what is the end result? If we’re not helping homeless people anymore, will they freeze to death in the winter? Is that what we want?”

Giagnorio, who spent most of her career as a U.S. Department of Defense civilian employee at bases in Germany and Alaska, is on paid leave until her June 2 termination. She wasted no time looking for another position after being locked out of her office, visiting a job fair hours later that Kansas City hosted for displaced federal workers.

But she doubts she will be able to find a public sector salary anywhere near the $117,000 she made and doesn’t know how her skills translate to the private sector. She worries about losing the health insurance that covers her family and having to pull her daughter out of Maastricht University in the Netherlands after her first year.

For now, she can’t get any answers from the agency to basic questions about her financial future. Does she still qualify for an early retirement buyout offer that had been extended? How much would she receive and when?

The days leading up to the April 15 tax filing deadline were always going to be busy for workers at the IRS processing center near Union Station, but this year, they were particularly stressful.

The IRS is considering a downsizing that could cut as many as 20,000 employees, or 25% of its workforce, in the coming weeks. The roughly 6,000 employees in Kansas City faced agonizing choices: decide whether to accept resignation or early retirement offers by April 14 or risk losing their jobs later.

“It’s a kick in the stomach to people that are doing everything they can to meet what’s required of them,” said Shannon Ellis, a longtime IRS customer service representative and president of the union representing local workers.

By Thursday, at least 238 Kansas City workers had taken the buyout offers and were expected to leave the agency in coming weeks. Ellis noted many of those same workers had been told they were essential and required to work overtime during tax season, some seven days per week.

Their building has been overcrowded since the IRS ordered remote employees back to the office in March. Workers sometimes struggle to find open desks. Some have to bring their own ink pens and share date stamps to perform basic job functions after budget cuts have depleted supplies.

Ellis said IRS workers share the public’s disdain for taxes but understand that collecting them is necessary to support important programs like Social Security. She said she’s decided to take a “roll of the dice” and stay in her job, spurning an early retirement offer.

“I love my job,” she said. “I’m not going to let the bully force me out.”

Urban farmer Rosie Warren grew 2,500 pounds of fruits and vegetables last year in community gardens to help feed the Ivanhoe neighborhood, where many Black families were concentrated under housing segregation policies of much of the 20th century.

Warren harvested greens, potatoes and watermelons as part of an effort to address food insecurity and health concerns in a neighborhood challenged by blight, crime and poverty. She was ecstatic last fall when the USDA awarded the neighborhood council a three-year, $130,000 grant to expand the gardens and farmers’ market serving the area.

Plans called for hiring an assistant to help Warren with growing more food and to add another market day aimed at serving more low-income older adults, mothers and children.

In February, the council received a notice terminating the grant. The USDA had determined the award “no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and activities.”

On a recent morning, Warren took a break from preparing the soil for planting to ponder the USDA’s decision.

“What do you do if you don’t support providing access to food to people who don’t have it? Wouldn’t this make your job easier?” she said. “I think it’s absurd. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Other food aid in the neighborhood has taken a hit at a time when demand is rising.

At the Bishop Sullivan Center food pantry, hundreds of low-income families are getting fewer groceries in their monthly pickups after USDA halted $500 million worth of deliveries to food banks. That included a planned order for 41,000 cases of meat, dairy and other commodities to a bank serving Kansas City.

“It just means giving families less food,” said pantry director Christopher Lowrance, who said he’s able to provide less chicken and other meat products. “It’s as simple as that.”

The Kansas City Health Department’s laboratory is badly in need of an upgrade, with equipment dating to when the building opened in the 1990s.

One basement space is water damaged and rarely used. Another has equipment that is so inadequate that the city has to ship samples to a state laboratory 150 miles away, causing inefficiencies, agonizing waits for results and delayed response times.

Kansas City’s health director, Dr. Marvia Jones, made it a top priority to modernize the labs this year after studying their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her agency planned to use federal funding to purchase new microscopes and testing equipment.

“That early disease detection allows you to do more rapid intervention, more rapid treatment, more rapid isolation,” she said.

But the funding for lab upgrades was abruptly eliminated last month as part of the Trump administration’s $11.4 billion cancellation of federal grants to states for public health. That news “crushed” the department’s carefully laid plans, Jones said.

Jones said the cuts, $3 million and counting for her department, mean the city will also have fewer vaccines to administer to low-income residents.

“It would be a sad shame for us to be in a worse position than we were before the pandemic,” she said. “We had processed all of our lessons learned, and then now this happens.”

Amir Minoofar was surprised when two federal agencies notified him that they planned to vacate the office building he’s owned for a decade in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.

Minoofar said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had recently agreed to extend its lease until 2029. The National Labor Relations Board, meanwhile, was paying month to month.

Minoofar said the government initially notified him the agencies would be out of the building in August, part of a DOGE-led blitz of hundreds of lease cancellations that has been marked by errors and subsequent reversals.

In the Kansas City metropolitan area, the government is moving to cancel 10 leases totaling 219,000 square feet that cost more than $4 million in annual rent, according to DOGE’s online “Wall of Receipts.”

Minoofar said he was more recently told the agencies will likely have to stay past August and their departure date is now unclear. He said he may have to sell the building, which has an appraised value of $2.9 million, and take a loss because of the difficult office market.

But he said he understands why the government would unload the space, which he said has often been sparsely used since the rise of telework during the pandemic.

“Businesswise, it makes sense for government to cut costs,” he said. “A lot of people are going to be unhappy but it’s a huge gigantic family and they need to take care of it. You cannot keep everybody happy.”

With liberal anger growing at Musk’s role in the government, protesters have gathered Saturdays outside his Tesla dealership in Kansas City to denounce the cuts.

State records show Tesla sales there have dropped amid calls for a boycott. Now, enough voter anger could even force the business to close.

Organizers of a newly launched “Unplug Musk” initiative are seeking to use democracy to strike at the world’s richest man by changing state law to ban car manufacturers from selling directly to consumers.

They say they plan to soon begin gathering the 111,000 signatures of registered voters that they would need to put the change on the statewide ballot in November 2026. If approved by voters, it would force the closure of the Tesla showrooms in Kansas City and St. Louis.

Missouri’s governor, Republican Mike Kehoe, a former auto dealer himself, sponsored a 2014 bill when he was a state senator aimed at requiring manufacturers like Tesla to sell through local dealers. The bill passed the Senate but died in the House after Tesla lobbied against it. The referendum revives that plan.

“There’s not a soul in this country who’s against trying to weed out government inefficiency but just taking a chain saw to people’s lives and their health care is a ridiculous way to achieve that. And it is going to cause some devastating impacts,” said organizer Brad Ketcher, a prominent Democrat and lawyer who helped draft the state’s 2022 marijuana legalization referendum.

An HHS spokesperson said the agency’s downsizing, including cutting jobs and consolidating divisions, would save money and make the organization more efficient. As for the $11.4 billion in grant funding cuts, the spokesperson said, “HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

The IRS has offered a similar rationale for its downsizing, saying it is making process improvements that will ultimately more efficiently serve the public.

Musk said last year that Trump’s budget cuts would cause a “temporary hardship” that would soon put the economy on stronger footing.

One local economic researcher said it remained unclear just how deep that hardship will be in Kansas City, including whether it will just slow growth or cause population losses.

“It’s a big burden that’s being placed on a narrow group of people,” said Frank Lenk, director of the Office of Economic Development at the Mid-America Regional Council, a nonprofit of city and county governments in the Kansas City region. “It will definitely take some of the steam out of the local economy.”

Trump has credited DOGE with helping end “the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars,” saving billions to help improve the nation’s finances.

The White House didn’t respond to questions about Kansas City. But Trump said recently he would invite the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House to make up for a 2020 Super Bowl victory celebration that was canceled during the pandemic.

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Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth contributed to this report.