White House says some employees were fired by mistake

After taking the recent buyout offer, some employees were fired, a source said.

Last Updated: February 16, 2025, 11:07 PM EST

President Donald Trump's administration, including Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, is continuing its sweeping effort to cut much of the federal government -- but it's being met with legal challenges.

Trump is also making his second administration's first forays on the diplomatic front with calls to Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy on ending the 3-year-old war that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

And a day after Hamas released more hostages taken when it attacked Israel in October 2023, Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the militant organization needs to be "eliminated."

Feb 11, 2025, 10:03 AM EST

Pope letter to US bishops: mass deportations are a 'major crisis'

The Vatican has released the text of a letter sent to U.S. bishops regarding their work with migrants, calling the "initiation of a program of mass deportations" to be a "major crisis."

"The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," the letter reads.

President Donald Trump and Pope Francis meet at the Vatican, May 24, 2017.
Evan Vucci/Pool/Reuters, FILES

While recognizing the right of a nation to defend itself, the letter expresses "disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."

The letter also referred to the current political climate as "delicate moments you are living."

Feb 11, 2025, 9:52 AM EST

'Unlawful course of conduct': Nonprofits sue to stop Trump's foreign aid freeze

A group of nonprofit organizations are asking a federal judge in Washington to issue a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration’s 90-day freeze of foreign aid, arguing the president’s attempt to block aid “antithetical to American values” breaks multiple federal laws and violates the constitution.

The lawsuit alleged that the foreign aid freeze is unlawful, exceeds Trump’s authority as president, and is causing havoc across the globe.

A worker removes the U.S. Agency for International Development sign on their headquarters on Feb. 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

“One cannot overstate the impact of that unlawful course of conduct: on businesses large and small forced to shut down their programs and let employees go; on hungry children across the globe who will go without; on populations around the world facing deadly disease; and on our constitutional order,” the filing said.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous, Katherine Faulders, Will Steakin and Ben Siegel

Feb 11, 2025, 9:11 AM EST

'Adherence to the rule of law is paramount,' American Bar Association says

Amid the flurry of lawsuits and hearings surrounding the Trump administration, the American Bar Association -- the country’s largest legal organization -- issued a stark warning Tuesday about the White House’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law itself.”

“Americans know there is a right way and a wrong way to proceed. What is being done is not the right way to pursue the change that is sought in our system of government,” ABA President William Bay wrote.

The statement noted that lawyers -- who comprise 30 percent of House, more than half of sitting senators, and the vice president -- should remember that while “everything can be more efficient … adherence to the rule of law is paramount."

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

Feb 11, 2025, 9:08 AM EST

Trump criticizes 'highly political judges' slowing efforts to investigate fraud

Trump criticized "certain activists and highly political judges" who he says want to "slow down" or stop his administration's efforts to investigate "FRAUD, WASTE, AND ABUSE."

Trump did not criticize a specific federal judge in his Truth Social post, but it came after he called the blocking of some of his executive actions by court order “bad rulings” in an interview that aired Monday night. It also comes after Vice President JD Vance said on social media that judges "aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power."

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 10, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Trump added: "Losing this momentum will be very detrimental to finding the TRUTH, which is turning out to be a disaster for those involved in running our Government."

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

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