Utah Rep. Maloy offers tepid criticism of some White House spending cuts at town hall

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy received applause at a Thursday town hall in Salt Lake City when she told the crowd she’s concerned about the country drifting toward authoritarianism “if we don’t get the executive branch under control.”

But the cheers turned to boos when she added those worries weren't specific to Republican President Donald Trump.

“When Biden was president, I had the same concern," she said, referring to former Democratic President Joe Biden.

Maloy's comments summed up her careful approach to criticizing Trump throughout the event, which she held with Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy. The Utah lawmakers are among a handful of Republicans who have held public meetings against the recommendation of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who encouraged them to skip out after others drew protesters.

The boisterous audience in liberal Salt Lake City repeatedly urged Maloy to denounce Trump’s sweeping federal budget cuts. Maloy wields power over federal funding as a member of the House Appropriations Committee. She and Kennedy said they opposed some of the administration's cuts, including to the National Park Service. But Maloy also said tough spending decisions are necessary.

“We are not going to get out of the situation we’re in financially without all of us feeling some pain,” she said.

Maloy said she and Kennedy held the town hall because they believed Utah could set an example on how to hold civil discussions about tough issues. Questions were sent in to a message board and attendees could vote for which should be asked.

One man shouted out to ask Maloy if she shared his concern that the country is careening toward authoritarianism.

“I do have a concern that if we don’t get the executive branch under control, we drift toward authoritarianism,” she responded.

On Friday, she sought to clarify her comments.

“Do I think America is drifting towards authoritarianism? No. I have only hope and optimism about the direction our country is headed. Do I think the executive branch is too powerful? Absolutely. It’s been growing for decades," she posted on X.

"We need smaller federal agencies and we have a unique opportunity to do something about it. The president is doing the tough work of trimming back the executive branch,” she added.

Meanwhile, Kennedy faced jeers when he defended Trump’s actions in his first three months in the White House, including the president's move to end foreign aid contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“We need to make sure that our own house is in order," he said. “We’re spending money off in foreign lands on things that may or may not be meritorious. In this case, our grandchildren will be paying back with economic disaster.”

Maloy took a more tepid approach, telling the crowd she sees a need for more checks on the executive branch as Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders.

She said she called the White House to express concern about an order that directed federal agencies to lay off hundreds of thousands of probationary employees. Judges recently ordered the workers to be rehired. She said she supports broad efforts to shrink the size and scope of the federal government but thinks the mass firing of probationary workers was the wrong approach.

Many questions focused on how federal budget cuts might impact Utah's vast public lands, including its five national parks. Both lawmakers said they opposed the Trump administration's reductions of National Park Service staff, but that they had little power to influence his decisions. Some jobs have been restored.

Maloy, who lives just north of Zion National Park, began her career at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working to conserve natural resources, improve water quality and manage nutrients in the farmlands of southwest Utah. In Congress, she has served on subcommittees focusing on water resources and rural development. Her district includes many rural towns known for outdoor recreation.

Kennedy is a family doctor and former state senator. His district spans the entire eastern border of the state and groups vastly different communities, from the winter resort town of Park City, to the urban center of Provo, down to the red rock recreation hub of Moab.

Voters from both parties said after the town hall they had hoped to hear more about Social Security. Dozens of the program’s offices across the country are slated to close because of actions taken by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Not everyone in the crowd opposed Trump's actions. Andrew Turner, a 30-year-old Republican and engineering student, said he wished the lawmakers had more time to address the future of Social Security and criticized the audience for shouting over Maloy and Kennedy as they tried to answer questions.

“Something will have to be done about Social Security because otherwise it’s going to collapse,” he said. “I know as somebody who’s younger, at the current trajectory, I’m probably not going to be able to use the program. So I support the budget cuts Trump is doing.”

A participant holds a sign during a GOP town hall meeting with Reps. Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Participants stand up to ask questions over the noise of the crowd during a GOP town hall meeting with Reps. Mike Kennedy and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Reps. Mike Kennedy and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, answer questions during a GOP town hall meeting Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Owen Brings shouts a question to Reps. Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, during a GOP town hall meeting Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Concerned citizens raise their hands during a GOP town hall meeting with Reps. Celeste Malloy and Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Megan Allen listens to Reps. Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, during a GOP town hall meeting Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Michael Bretz raises his voice over the commotion to make a comment during a GOP town hall meeting with Reps. Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Reps. Mike Kennedy and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, speak during a GOP town hall meeting Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)

Iran eased some restrictions on its people and, for the first time in days, allowed them to make phone calls abroad via their mobile phones on Tuesday. It did not ease restrictions on the internet or permit texting services to be restored as the toll from days of bloody protests against the state rose to at least 646 people killed.

Although Iranians were able to call abroad, people outside the country could not call them, several people in the capital told The Associated Press.

The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said SMS text messaging still was down and internet users inside Iran could not access anything abroad, although there were local connections to government-approved websites.

It was unclear if restrictions would ease further after authorities cut off all communications inside the country and to the outside world late Thursday.

Here is the latest:

Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said he summoned Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands “to formally protest the excessive violence against peaceful protesters, large-scale arbitrary arrests, and internet shutdowns, calling for immediate restoration of internet access inside the Islamic Republic.

In a post on X, Weel also said the Dutch government supports EU sanctions against “human rights violators in Iran.”

The United Nations human rights chief is calling on Iranian authorities to immediately halt violence and repression against peaceful protesters, citing reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested in a wave of demonstrations in recent weeks.

“The killing of peaceful demonstrators must stop, and the labelling of protesters as ‘terrorists’ to justify violence against them is unacceptable,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement Tuesday.

Alluding to a wave of protests in Iran in 2022, Türk said demonstrators have sought “fundamental changes” to governance in the country, “and once again, the authorities’ reaction is to inflict brutal force to repress legitimate demands for change.”

“This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue,” he added.

It was also “extremely worrying” to hear some public statements from judicial officials mentioning the prospect of the use of the death penalty against protesters through expedited judicial proceedings, Türk said.

“Iranians have the right to demonstrate peacefully. Their grievances need to be heard and addressed, and not instrumentalized by anyone,” Türk said.

Finland’s foreign minister says she is summoning the Iranian ambassador after authorities in Tehran restricted internet access.

“Iran’s regime has shut down the internet to be able to kill and oppress in silence," Elina Valtonen wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding, “this will not be tolerated. We stand with the people of Iran — women and men alike.”

Finland is “exploring measures to help restore freedom to the Iranian people” together with the European Union, Valtonen said.

Separately, Finnish police said they believe at least two people entered the courtyard of the Iranian embassy in Helsinki without permission Monday afternoon and tore down the Iranian flag. The embassy’s outer wall was also daubed with paint.

Iranian security forces arrested what a state television report described as terrorist groups linked to Israel in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

The report, without providing additional details, said the group entered through Iran’s eastern borders and carried U.S.-made guns and explosives that the group had planned to use in assassinations and acts of sabotage.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the allegations.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate hailed people who have “long warned about this repression, at great personal risk.”

“The protests in Iran cannot be separated from the long-standing, state-imposed restrictions on girls’ and women’s autonomy, in all aspects of public life including education. Iranian girls, like girls everywhere, demand a life with dignity,” Yousafzai wrote on X.

“(Iran’s) future must be driven by the Iranian people, and include the leadership of Iranian women and girls — not external forces or oppressive regimes,” she added.

Yousafzai was awarded the peace prize in 2014 at the age of 17 for her fight for girls’ education in her home country, Pakistan. She is the youngest Nobel laureate.

The French Foreign Ministry said it has “reconfigured” its embassy in Tehran after reports that the facility's nonessential staff left Iran earlier this week.

The embassy's nonessential staff left the country Sunday and Monday, French news agency Agence France-Presse reported.

The ambassador remained on site and the embassy continued to function, the ministry said late Monday night.

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed from Paris.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believes the Iranian government is in its “final days and weeks,” as he renewed a call for Iranian authorities to end violence against demonstrators immediately.

“If a regime can only keep itself in power by force, then it’s effectively at the end,” Merz said Tuesday during a visit to Bengaluru, India. “I believe we are now seeing the final days and weeks of this regime. In any case, it has no legitimacy through elections in the population. The population is now rising up against this regime.”

Merz said he hoped there is “a possibility to end this conflict peacefully," adding that Germany is in close contact with the U.S. and European governments.

The Israeli military said it continues to be “on alert for surprise scenarios” due to the ongoing protests in Iran, but has not made any changes to guidelines for civilians, as it does prior to a concrete threat.

“The protests in Iran are an internal matter,” Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin wrote on X.

Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear program over the summer, resulting in a 12-day war that killed nearly 1,200 Iranians and almost 30 Israelis. Over the past week, Iran has threatened to attack Israel if Israel or the U.S. attacks.

Mobile phones in Iran were able to call abroad Tuesday after a crackdown on nationwide protests in which the internet and international calls were cut. Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press.

The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back.

Witnesses said the internet remained cut off from the outside world. Iran cut off the internet and calls on Thursday as protests intensified.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the latest death toll early Tuesday. The agency relies on supporters in Iran to cross-check information.

The agency said 512 of the dead were protesters and 134 were security force members.

More than 10,700 people have been detained over the two weeks of protests, the agency said.

This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdownon the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)

This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)

This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)

Protesters hold up placards and flags as they demonstrate outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Shiite Muslims hold placards and chant slogans during a protest against the U.S. and show solidarity with Iran in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)

Activists carrying a photograph of Reza Pahlavi take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

People attend a rally in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (Boris Roessler/dpa via AP)

A picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set alight by protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)