White House says some employees were fired by mistake
After taking the recent buyout offer, some employees were fired, a source said.
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."
Latest headlines:
- Some employees who accepted buyout offer were fired by mistake: White House
- Trump asks SCOTUS for permission to fire ethics watchdog
- DOE official warns all schools to end 'discriminatory' DEI policies
- 13 soon to be immigration judges, 2 current judges fired by Trump admin, union says
- US floats proposal to own 50% of revenue of Ukraine's rare earth minerals
Courts should ‘take a step back,’ Speaker Mike Johnson says
During a press conference Tuesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “I agree wholeheartedly with Vice President JD Vance because he’s right,” endorsing the vice president’s assertion that “judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.”
“I think the courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” he said, adding that he does not feel uncomfortable with the president’s power and reiterating his confidence in the administration in doing “what’s right by the American people.”
Religious groups sue Trump administration over targeting houses of worship
More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups sued the Trump administration over the removal of the policy that barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement from arresting suspected undocumented in "sensitive areas," including houses of worship.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, the groups said that the removal of the policy violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“The burden imposed on Plaintiffs’ religious exercise by the looming threat of immigration enforcement action at their places of worship and during their religious ceremonies is profound, as is the interference such action causes to Plaintiffs’ expressive association,” the groups wrote in the complaint.
The lawsuit comes three weeks after the Department of Homeland Security announced that federal immigration authorities will be permitted to target schools and churches after President Donald Trump revoked a directive barring arrests in “sensitive” areas.
-- ABC News' Laura Romero
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.
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."
'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.
“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