Trump says Musk was at Pentagon for DOGE and reveals Boeing will build F-47 jets for Air Force: Live updates
As backlash over billionaire Elon Musk’s role in administration grows, president says he was at Pentagon on DOGE cost-cutting business, not to see secret plans for combat with China as reports said
Donald Trump has awarded the sixth-generation F-47 fighter jet program contract to Boeing, a much-needed win for the troubled aviation giant.
In an Oval Office announcement alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the president also again denied claims in a report that Elon Musk was to receive a briefing about the U.S. military’s top-secret plans for combating aggression from China, saying he was at the Pentagon on Friday morning for DOGE.
Earlier on Truth Social, he raged: “The Fake News is at it again, this time the Failing New York Times. They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China,’” he said, adding: “How ridiculous?”
On Thursday, the president signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “begin eliminating” the Department of Education in favor of leaving decision-making up to individual states.
Trump said on Friday that special needs and nutrition programs will now come under the health department and student loans will become the remit of the Small Business Administration.
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Trump administration is seeking to deport Indian academic at Georgetown as part of State Department crackdown
Trump’s overstepping the law gets crickets — or praise — from Republicans
Eric Garcia writes:
When President Donald Trump signed his executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, it should have caused consternation from the United States Congress. Presidents cannot unilaterally abolish cabinet departments; they require an act of Congress.
But rather, Trump received praise from almost all Republican lawmakers despite the fact that he subverted their power and took away their authority.
Only a few, like Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, who helped put Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary over the finish line, alluded to proposing legislation.
But it’s just the latest example of Congress utterly abdicating its duties in the name of Trump.
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Trump’s overstepping the law gets crickets — or praise — from Republicans
Judge refuses to pause ruling forcing Trump admin to reinstate purged federal workers
A U.S. appeals court has refused to pause a judge's ruling requiring President Donald Trump's administration to reinstate 25,000 workers across 18 federal agencies who lost their jobs as part of Trump's purge of the federal workforce.
A panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, stated there was no reason to delay the decision, as the judge in Baltimore, Maryland, is expected to decide next week whether to extend it further in a lawsuit filed by 19 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C.
On March 17, the Trump administration indicated in court filings that the agencies were working to reinstate the terminated employees while temporarily placing them on paid leave. Friday's decision will remain in effect pending the outcome of the administration's appeal.
The 18 agencies involved in the case include the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Treasury Department.
Typically, probationary employees have less than one or two years of service in their current roles, though some are long-time federal employees.
Most agencies have reported that they fired several hundred probationary workers, while others terminated significantly more. The Treasury Department dismissed about 7,600 individuals, the Department of Agriculture approximately 5,700, and the Department of Health and Human Services more than 3,200, according to court filings.
On March 13, U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore, Maryland, stated that the agencies should have followed procedures for conducting mass layoffs and ordered the reinstatement of the workers pending further litigation.
On the same day, a judge in San Francisco separately ordered that probationary workers at six agencies be reinstated, but based on different legal grounds. This case involves five of the agencies subject to Bredar's ruling and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Trump administration has appealed that decision and requested a San Francisco-based appeals court to pause it pending the outcome of the case.
The judges' rulings did not prohibit agencies from terminating probationary workers entirely but raised concerns about the way the layoffs were conducted.
With reporting from Reuters
Trump fires almost entire Homeland Security civil rights division, report says
In a move gutting a government office responsible for conducting oversight of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Trump administration fired nearly the entire civil rights branch of the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, The New York Times reports.
The more than 100 staff members were informed they would be placed on leave for 60 days to find another job within the administration or risk being fired in May, according to five current and former government officials. The president also shut down the ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, another office responsible for overseeing the administration’s legal immigration policies.
This is Trump’s latest effort to eliminate civil rights divisions and oversight mechanisms in government agencies. However, the closure of the Homeland Security Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties stands out, especially considering the lack of transparency regarding the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The president is committed in his second term to ensuring that his administration consists of loyalists who will not attempt to obstruct his agenda.
Columbia agrees to Trump demands on campus antisemitism to win back $400 million federal funding: report
Columbia University has reportedly agreed to a series of sweeping changes the Trump administration demanded from the Ivy League university to restore $400 million in suspended federal funding.
The university will give police new powers to arrest students, ban face masks at protests, and appoint a university official to oversee changes at its department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and Center for Palestine Studies.
Josh Marcus reports.
Columbia agrees to Trump demands to win back $400 million federal funding: report
Trump admin lawyers seeks to remove judge in law firm case
President Donald Trump's administration requested that the federal judge overseeing the challenge to Trump's executive order aimed at the law firm Perkins Coie recuse herself from the case, alleging a “pattern of hostility” toward the president.
Justice Department lawyers said U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell's impartiality could “reasonably be questioned.” They referenced her previous rulings against Trump and comments made in cases involving his supporters related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“This Court has not kept its disdain for President Trump secret,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing. “It has voiced its thoughts loudly—both inside and outside the courtroom.”
Last week, Howell temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing much of its order against the Democratic-linked firm Perkins Coie, determining that it likely violated the U.S. Constitution.
The Trump administration has escalated its criticism of federal judges in recent weeks as courts have at times sought to limit Trump's broad use of presidential power.
With reporting from Reuters
Dropkick Murphys singer breaks silence after confronting Trump fan in a MAGA hat at concert
Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey has broken his silence after branding a Donald Trump supporter in the audience a “cult” member for waving around a MAGA hat.
The lead singer of the punk band, known for their 2005 signature hit I’m Shipping Up to Boston, confronted a fan during one of three performances at the MGM Music Hall beside Boston’s Fenway Park over St Patrick’s Day weekend.
James Liddel has the story.
Dropkick Murphys break silence after confronting Trump fan at concert
Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses Jasmine Crockett of Tesla 'terrorism'
MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused Rep. Jasmine Crockett of orchestrating “political violence and terrorism” and has made her concerns known to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
“A Member of Congress is organizing political violence and terrorism,” the controversial Georgia congresswoman wrote on X Thursday in response to a live stream titled TeslaTakedown.
The stream included several speakers on Wednesday, including Crockett, who discussed plans for non-violent political protests against Elon Musk’s billion-dollar Tesla enterprise.
Madeline Sherratt reports.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses Rep. Jasmine Crockett of ‘terrorism’
Deportation flights judge says using Alien Enemies Act takes U.S. down dangerous road
ACLU attorney Lee Gerlent and Judge James Boasberg both agree that a major question about this case is how the administration determines who is a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has classified as a foreign terrorist organization.
“This is a very dangerous road we’re going down where the Alien Enemies Act can be invoked against a gang,” Gerlent said.
“The policy ramifications of this are incredibly troublesome and problematic and concerning,” Boasberg said. “It’s an unprecedented and expanded use of an act that has been used … in the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II when there was no question there was a declaration of war and who the enemy was.”
Gerlent also says several people on the flights were returned to the United States because the Salvadoran government wouldn’t take them. There will be incoming affidavits on the docket about those people.
The administration has said that the third plane contained immigrants who were not deported under the Alien Enemies Act. All had final orders for removal from the U.S., according to the Justice Department.
Boasberg asks why, then, were Venezuelans deported to El Salvador. The Justice Department can’t say, just that they had orders for removal.
Boasberg asks if the administration is prepared to tell the court that everyone on the flights was a member of Tren de Aragua.
The Justice Department says they don’t have authorization to do so, and any challenges for their detention would have to be raised in a habeas petition.
Boasberg says under the government’s arguments, if a Chinese fisherman comes into U.S. waters, and the president calls that an invasion and orders the detention of all Chinese fishermen, “that’s fair game, nothing we can do, right?”
“Even you … would agree that’s alarming,” he tells the Justice Department.
The hearing has now concluded.
Judge rejects Trump admin's latest bid to cut funding to refugee programs
A judge has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to block a preliminary injunction that prevents the government from suspending funds to refugee resettlement groups.
And here’s the background to the case :
Trump loses three times – on USAID, refugees and frozen funds – within 90 minutes
Trump’s border czar wants Supreme Court to ‘finally’ answer birthright citizenship question
...which it did in 1898.
And multiple times in the century since.
Here’s Josh Marcus to explain:
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