Trump says 3rd term isn't a joke, despite term limit

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that war plans were sent over a Signal group chat in his first comments about The Atlantic story that broke while he was en route to Hawaii.

"I've heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that," Hegseth told reporters in brief remarks after arriving in Honolulu for a layover on a trip to Asia.

He also criticized Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, the article’s author, as "a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again."

"This is the guy that pedals in garbage. This is what he does," he added.

Top Democrats have called for an investigation into the incident.

"The leak of sensitive national security information by the Trump administration on a non-classified system is completely outrageous and shocks the conscience," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

The portrait of President Donald Trump in the Colorado State Capitol will be removed, according to the Colorado House Democrats, a day after the president called for what he says is a "distorted" painting of himself to be taken down.

"Republican leadership asked for it to be taken down," a spokesperson for the Colorado House Democrats said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. "The Speaker and Majority Leader are focused on keeping Coloradans safe and reducing costs, not hanging portraits. If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol, then that’s up to them."

The spokesperson provided ABC News with a copy of a letter from the legislature's Executive Committee of the Legislative Council directing staff "to immediately remove the portrait of President Donald Trump from its current display location on the third floor of the Capitol. The removed portrait shall be stored in a secure and appropriate location, as determined by the Director of Research of Legislative Council Staff, until further notice."

Colorado state Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, confirmed in a statement to ABC News that he requested that Trump's portrait be taken down be replaced with one that "depicts his contemporary likeness."

ABC News has reached out to the Colorado governor's office.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump attacked the artist of the painting, claiming "she must have lost her talent as she got older" and that people from Colorado have complained about the work.

-ABC News' Oren Oppenheim

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who attracted scrutiny in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election over his handling of mail-in voting but later earned bipartisan support for his stewardship of the enormous federal postal agency, announced his resignation on Monday.

In a lengthy statement, DeJoy said he informed the Postal Service Board of Governors on Monday that this would be his last day, which comes a month after he told them of his intention to retire.

"I believe strongly that the organization is well positioned and capable of carrying forward and fully implementing the many strategies and initiatives that comprise our transformation and modernization, and I have been working closely with the Deputy Postmaster General to prepare for this transition," he said.

"While our management team and the men and women of the Postal Service have established the path toward financial sustainability and high operating performance -- and we have instituted enormous beneficial change to what had been an adrift and moribund organization -- much work remains that is necessary to sustain our positive trajectory," the statement continued.

Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino will assume his role until a permanent successor is named, and a search is already underway, DeJoy said.

A group of teachers unions and public school districts are asking a federal judge in Massachusetts to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Department of Education, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.

The lawsuit argued that Trump -- who signed an executive order last week directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to close the DOE -- lacks the authority to shutter a department that was created through an act of Congress.

The group of unions and school districts argued that the Trump administration’s actions -- both the executive order and plans to terminate half the department’s employees -- would "hobble" the Department of Education and prevent it from conducting its statutorily mandated duties.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Myong Joun, a Biden appointee.

The lawsuit marks the second case that seeks to block the dismantling of the Department of Education. Earlier this month, a group of Democratic attorneys general filed a similar lawsuit to block the termination of thousands of DOE employees.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous