White House says some employees were fired by mistake

A federal appeals court denied the Trump administration's request to lift a lower court’s order that blocked the president from unilaterally freezing billions in funding.

In a 2-page order, a panel of three judges on the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s request for an administrative stay of the lower court’s temporary restraining order, deferring to the district court to issue clarification about its earlier order.

Each of the three judges who made the decision were nominated to the bench by Democratic presidents.

In making their decision, the judges noted that lawyers for the Department of Justice "do not cite any authority in support of their administrative stay" or articulate the harm they suffered from the lower court’s order.

"This Circuit has not addressed whether or when an administrative stay of the sort being requested here may be issued, and there is well-recognized uncertainty as to what standards guide the decision to issue one or not," the judges added.

The court will consider issuing a stay pending appeal later this week, the order said.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous

The White House informed The Associated Press that it would be barred from "accessing an event in the Oval Office" if it did not align its editorial standards with Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement.

The AP said one of their reporters was “blocked from attending an executive order signing” this afternoon.

The statement added that it is “alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism” and argued that this “plainly violates the First Amendment.”

Following the news that American hostage Marc Fogel has been freed from Russia, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Fogel will be at the White House at around 10 p.m. tonight.

When asked if Trump asked Russia for anything in return, Trump said, “Not much, no. They were very nice. We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually,” reiterating the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday afternoon that enforces DOGE’s work and enables Musk to implement his plans of reducing the federal government and increasing workplace efficiency.

According to a White House fact sheet, the order seeks to "significantly reduce the size of government" and will undertake "large-scale" job reductions.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart