A federal judge who blocked Donald Trump's administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ruled that the agency can’t go forward immediately with plans to fire hundreds of employees.
Also, Trump said Thursday that the administration is looking at the tax-exempt status not just of Harvard, but environmental groups and specifically the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. It could be a devastating financial blow to the nonprofit organizations — and his perceived political foes.
Here's the latest:
Judge won’t take further steps to enforce his order in AP case against Trump administration
The federal judge has denied a request by The Associated Press that he take further steps to enforce his order last week that the White House stop blocking AP’s access to cover events because the outlet won’t rename the Gulf of Mexico in its reports.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, who handed the AP a victory last week in its efforts to end the ban, said it’s too soon to say the Trump administration is violating his order — as the AP suggests.
“We are not at the point where we can make much of a determination one way or another,” said McFadden, ruling from the bench.
For two months, the White House has essentially banned AP reporters and photographers from their traditional spot covering events in smaller spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP says it’s a violation of its free-speech rights to punish a news outlet for an editorial decision — an argument McFadden has endorsed.
Trump calls Kilmar Abrego Garcia ‘unbelievably bad’
After days of denying that he knew much about Abrego Garcia, Trump on Friday said he knew Abrego Garcia was “unbelievably bad” and called him an “illegal alien” and “foreign terrorist.”
Trump, while speaking to reporters, had an aide fetch a piece of paper he said had information about Abrego Garcia. He said it came from the State Department and “very legitimate sources.”
“I’m just giving you what they handed to me but this is supposed to be certified stuff,” he said.
He said Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, though Abrego Garcia has never been criminally charged in the U.S. with gang involvement. He also highlighted how the man’s wife admitted she once filed a protective order against him despite now advocating for his return.
“This is the man that the Democrats are wanting us to fly back from El Salvador to be a happily ensconced member of the USA family,” Trump said.
Trump says Ukraine-Russia talks ‘coming to a head’ and ‘no one is playing’ him in push to end war
President Trump on Friday said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the grinding war.
The comments from Trump came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned earlier Friday that the U.S. may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there’s no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.
“If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re going to say you’re fools, you’re foolish, and we’re just going to take a pass,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
▶ Read more about the Russia-Ukraine war
Trump’s Q-and-A session with reporters ends abruptly after guest of Dr. Oz appears to faint
Trump was answering questions about Iran’s nuclear program when reporters were suddenly told it was time to leave.
A young girl and member of Oz’s family had collapsed and appeared to faint in the Oval Office. Oz rushed over. The girl was able to stand but appeared unsteady as she was helped out of the office.
A ceremony had been held in the Oval Office to swear in Oz as head of the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid, and Trump was answering reporters’ questions on various subjects when the girl fainted.
The White House did not identify her but later said she was doing OK.
Trump agrees with Rubio that a Ukraine-Russia peace deal must be done ‘quickly’
“I have no specific number of days but quickly. We want to get it done,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday.
He called the war a “vicious battle” but said he thinks he has a “good chance of solving the problem.”
“If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people and we’re going to just take a pass,’” he said. “But hopefully we won’t have to do that.”
He did not offer specifics about what progress he would need to see to keep from dropping the effort to broker a peace deal.
The president was asked if he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling and said, “I hope not.”
TV’s ‘Dr. Oz’ is sworn in as head of the agency responsible for Medicare and Medicaid
As head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the 64-year-old former heart surgeon and TV talk-show host will manage health insurance programs for roughly half the country, with oversight of Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage.
Dr. Mehmet Oz steps into the role as Congress debates cuts to Medicaid, which aids millions of poor and disabled people.
Trump looked on as Oz was sworn in Friday by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a ceremony in the Oval Office.
The president repeated his promise of “no cuts” to Medicare and Medicaid and thanked Oz for the “big commitment” he’s making.
Melania Trump publicly thanks staff readying for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll
The first lady lauded her team’s “tireless effort” in preparing for Monday’s event, which is attended by thousands of people.
The tradition dates to 1878 and “brings joy, storytelling, and laughter to America’s children,” she wrote in a Good Friday social media post.
“I look forward to watching all of the smiles light up this memorable day, on Monday. May this Good Friday inspire hope and faith for all Americans and our friends around the world,” the first lady said.
21 people whose death sentences were commuted sue Trump over expected transfer to Supermax prison
Their death sentences were commuted by former President Joe Biden.
The group filed the lawsuit earlier this week. They say President Trump was angry about Biden’s commutation, and in retaliation issued an executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General to punish them by housing them “in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes.”
The plaintiffs say they were reassigned from housing in high-security prisons or federal medical centers to the Administrative Maximum prison in Florence, Colorado, which is generally reserved for the nation’s most violent offenders. They say prison is the most restrictive in the country and that the transfer plans violate their due process rights and pose mental and physical health risks.
But Christopher Edelman, the attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, says the men’s housing assignments haven’t yet been finalized. A preliminary injunction hearing is expected in May.
Federal judge pausing Trump administration’s plans for mass layoffs at the CFPB
A federal judge who blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ruled the agency can’t go forward immediately with plans to fire hundreds of employees.
During a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson expressed concern that administration officials aren’t complying with her earlier order that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the bureau.
Jackson said she’ll bar officials from carrying out any mass firings or cutting off employees’ access to agency computer systems Friday. She scheduled a hearing on April 28 to hear testimony from officials.
▶ Read more about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Congress members pay an unofficial visit to Damascus as US mulls sanctions relief
The pair of Republican Congress members were in the Syrian capital Friday on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit, the first by U.S. legislators since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.
Also Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in his first visit since Assad’s fall and the beginning of the Syrian uprising-turned-civil-war in 2011.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida visited the Damascus suburb of Jobar, the site of a historic synagogue that was heavily damaged and looted in the civil war, and the Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma, where they met with Christian religious leader. They also were set to meet al-Sharaa and other government officials.
The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government, led by al-Sharaa, an Islamist former insurgent who led a lightning offensive that toppled Assad. Washington hasn’t yet lifted harsh sanctions that were imposed during Assad’s rule.
▶ Read more about the U.S. relationship with Syria
Vance having Vatican meetings after tangle with the pope
In Vatican City, Vance, a Catholic convert, attended Good Friday services with his wife and three children in St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday afternoon and was scheduled to meet over the weekend with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
No meeting with Pope Francis was announced and the pontiff wasn’t on hand at the start of the solemn Good Friday service, which was presided over by a Vatican cardinal. The 88-year-old pope has sharply cut back his work schedule as he recovers from a near-fatal case of double pneumonia, and his participation in the weekend’s Easter services is uncertain.
Francis and Vance have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport migrants en masse. Just days before he was hospitalized in February, Francis blasted the administration’s deportation plans, warning they would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity.
AP and the Trump administration argue over presidential access before appeals judges
The Associated Press and the Trump administration returned to a courtroom Thursday — and will be in another on Friday — as part of the high-stakes battle over who can control which journalists are able to question the president.
Lawyers argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals about putting in place a lower court order last week that the administration stop excluding the AP from covering events in places like the Oval Office and Air Force One. It’s not clear when those judges will make their determination.
The two sides are going before the author of last week’s decision, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden. The AP has asked him to enforce his ruling.
AP reporters and photographers have been blocked since President Trump objected to the outlet’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico. McFadden said last week the AP shouldn’t be excluded just because Trump disagrees with them. Since then, AP says the White House is ignoring the order and continuing to keep its journalists out; Trump’s team says it has put a new rotation system in place for these events, and it hasn’t been AP’s turn yet.
▶ Read more about the hearing
Judge again declines to pause takeover of US Institute of Peace and firing of its employees
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell declined Thursday to issue an temporary restraining order in a case about the takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonprofit think tank established by Congress.
In this case, USIP employees, a donor and grantees or contractors asked the court to prevent the firing of most employees, the cancellation of grants and contracts and the return of USIP’s building to the nonprofit’s possession. The newly installed USIP president, a DOGE staffer, transferred ownership of the building to the General Services Administration.
In her ruling, Howell said the fundamental nature of USIP, whether it’s an executive agency or an independent nonprofit, is still unclear. She also said there was a mismatch between the harm alleged by the employees and the relief they were requesting from the court.
In creating USIP, Congress mandated that it carry out certain functions but Howell said it wasn’t yet clear that USIP could not carry out its mission, even in its much reduced state.
Cat wanders onto the White House grounds
The gray cat was wearing a collar and a name tag that said “Sophie.”
After the cat meandered through the North Lawn on Friday morning, news reporters scooped it up and brought it into the press area for safekeeping while the feline’s owner was called to come pick it up.
Trump floats US-Europe meeting as Vice President JD Vance visits Italy for 2nd day of tariff talks
Vance met with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday and the White House suggested a broader U.S.-Europe summit was under consideration when Trump visits.
“I’ve been missing you,” Meloni jokingly told Vance as he entered the courtyard of Chigi Palace, the premier’s office.
They had seen each other just the previous day in the Oval Office, where Trump lavished praise on the Italian leader for her crackdown on migration but didn’t yield on tariff plans that have increased tensions with the European Union and stoked fears of recession.
The White House and Meloni’s office on Friday issued a joint statement that said Trump would visit Italy “in the very near future.”
“There is also consideration to hold, on such occasion, a meeting between U.S. and Europe,” the statement said.
▶ Read more about the Trump administration’s relationship with Europe
Approximately 10,000 pages of records related to 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy released
The Friday release continues the disclosure of national secrets ordered by President Trump. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says in a statement the RFK files’ release will “shine a long-overdue light on the truth.”
Gabbard says, “Nearly 60 years after the tragic assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the American people will, for the first time, have the opportunity to review the federal government’s investigation thanks to the leadership of President Trump.”
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration posted roughly 229 files containing the pages on its website.
▶ Read more about the RFK assassination files
US intelligence contradicts Trump claims linking gang to Venezuelan government to speed deportations
The new intelligence assessment found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government, contradicting statements Trump administration officials have made to justify their invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan migrants, according to U.S. officials.
The classified assessment from the National Intelligence Council, released this month, is more comprehensive and authoritative than an earlier intelligence product released Feb. 26 and reported last month by The New York Times, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the assessment. They weren’t authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new assessment draws input from the 18 agencies that comprise the intelligence community. It repeatedly stated that Tren de Aragua, a gang that originated in a prison in Venezuela, is not coordinated with or supported by the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, or senior officials in the Venezuelan government. While the assessment found minimal contact between some members of the gang and low-level members of the Venezuelan government, there was a consensus that there was no coordination or directive role between gang and government.
▶ Read more about the U.S. intelligence assessment on Tren de Aragua
— Michelle L. Price and Mary Clare Jalonick
Education Department is demanding records related to foreign funding at Harvard
It’s the latest attempt to ramp up pressure on the university. The department sent a records request to Harvard on Friday asking for, among other things, a list of all foreign gifts, grants, and contracts from or with foreign sources.
The records request followed a review that Education Secretary Linda McMahon said showed Harvard has “not been fully transparent or complete in its disclosures, which is both unacceptable and unlawful.”
The move comes after the Trump administration threatened to block the university from enrolling international students and the president called for withdrawing Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The Trump administration has also frozen nearly $2 billion in grants and loans after Harvard rejected the administration’s demands related to activism on campus, antisemitism and diversity.
FDA scrambling to hire contractors to replace fired staff who supported safety inspections
It’s the latest example of the chaotic fallout from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to slash the size of the federal health workforce.
Kennedy said last month that inspections would not be affected by thousands of layoffs at the Food and Drug Administration. But dozens of staffers who helped support that work have been eliminated, including those who handled travel to remote regions of Asia where most pharmaceutical ingredients are produced.
The disruption comes as the FDA struggles to retain inspectors.
▶ Read more about cuts at the FDA
The US has a single rare earths mine. Chinese export limits are energizing a push for more
America’s only rare earths mine heard from anxious companies soon after China responded to Trump’s tariffs this month by limiting exports of those minerals used for military applications and in many high-tech devices.
“Based on the number of phone calls we’re receiving, the effects have been immediate,” said Matt Sloustcher, a spokesperson for MP Materials, the company that runs the Mountain Pass mine in California’s Mojave Desert.
The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies could lead to a critical shortage of rare earth elements if China maintains its export controls long-term or expands them to seek an advantage in any trade negotiations. The California mine can’t meet all of the U.S. demand for rare earths, which is why Trump is trying to clear the way for new mines.
Rare earth elements are important ingredients in electric vehicles, powerful magnets, advanced fighter jets, submarines, smartphones, television screens and many other products.
▶ Read more about the tariffs and rare earths mines
New US ambassador to Japan says he’s optimistic a tariffs deal can be reached
George Glass arrived in Tokyo on Friday.
Glass, a prominent businessperson known for his background in finance, investment banking and technology, arrives as Washington and Tokyo are negotiating Trump’s tariff measures, which have triggered worldwide concern about their impact on the economy and global trade.
“I’m extremely optimistic ... that a deal will be get done,” Glass told reporters after landing at Tokyo’s Haneda international airport.
His arrival comes a day after the two countries held their first round of tariff talks between their top negotiators in Washington where both sides agreed to try to reach an agreement as quickly as possible and hold a second round of meetings later this month.
▶ Read more about the new U.S. ambassador to Japan
Strange sell-off in the dollar raises specter of investors losing trust in the US under Trump
Among the threats tariffs pose to the U.S. economy, none may be as strange as the sell-off in the dollar.
Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry the recent drop in the dollar is so dramatic that it reflects something more ominous as President Trump tries to reshape global trade: a loss of confidence in the U.S.
The dollar’s dominance in cross-border trade and as a safe haven has been nurtured by administrations of both parties for decades because it helps keep U.S. borrowing costs down and allows Washington to project power abroad — enormous advantages that could possibly disappear if faith in the U.S. was damaged.
▶ Read more about tariffs and the falling U.S. dollar
It could be a rare day where the president doesn’t appear publicly
He’s slated to participate in a swearing in ceremony for Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was confirmed by the Senate to serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But there’s not expected to be press access and there’s nothing else on Trump’s public schedule.
Rubio says the US will drop Ukraine-Russia peace efforts if no progress within days
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.
He spoke in Paris after landmark talks among U.S., Ukrainian and European officials produced outlines for steps toward peace and appeared to make some long-awaited progress. A new meeting is expected next week in London, and Rubio suggested that could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.
“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told reporters upon departure. “Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on.”
“It’s not our war,” Rubio said. “We have other priorities to focus on.” He said the U.S. administration wants to decide “in a matter of days.”
▶ Read more about Rubio’s comments
Law firms, universities and now civil society groups are in Trump’s sights for punitive action
First the nation’s top law firms. Then its premier universities. Now, Trump is leaning on the advocacy groups that underpin U.S. civil society.
Trump said Thursday that the administration is looking at the tax-exempt status not just of Harvard, but environmental groups and specifically the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.
The president’s remarks began to confirm what advocacy groups have been quietly warning: Trump’s campaign of retribution is coming next for them.
Trump and his team have been working their way through the nation’s institutions, threatening to chisel away at the independence and autonomy of the law firms, college campuses and now advocacy groups — or putting them at risk of losing their federal funds or professional livelihood.
▶ Read more about Trump’s plans to go after law firms and universities
Trump administration seeks explosive expansion of nation’s immigration detention system
If Trump’s administration has its way, the capacity to hold tens of thousands more migrants will soon be added around the country as the U.S. seeks an explosive expansion of what is already the world’s largest immigration detention system.
Trump’s effort to conduct mass deportations as promised in the 2024 campaign represents a potential bonanza for private prison companies and a challenge to the government agencies responsible for the orderly expulsion of immigrants. Some critics say the administration’s plans also include a deliberate attempt to isolate detainees by locking them up and holding court proceedings far from their attorneys and support systems.
The acting director of the ICE, Todd Lyons, said at a border security conference in Phoenix last week that the agency needs “to get better at treating this like a business” and suggested the nation’s deportation system could function “like Amazon, trying to get your product delivered in 24 hours.”
▶Read more about the administration’s plans
Trump administration takes aim at Harvard’s international students and tax-exempt status
The Trump administration has escalated its ongoing battle with Harvard, threatening to block the university from enrolling international students as the president called for withdrawing Harvard’s tax-exempt status.
The moves raise the stakes of the showdown between the White House and the nation’s oldest, wealthiest and arguably most prestigious university, which on Monday became the first to openly defy the administration’s demands related to activism on campus, antisemitism and diversity.
“I think Harvard’s a disgrace,” President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday.
By taking action against international students and the school’s tax status, the administration struck at two pillars of Harvard, where international students make up 27% of the campus, and the majority of the student body is in graduate school, often conducting globally prominent research. The school has risen to distinction by attracting the world’s top talent and large tax-deductible gifts from the country’s richest donors.
The federal government has already frozen more than $2 billion in grants and contracts to the Ivy League institution.
▶ Read more about the battle between Trump and Harvard
The Associated Press
