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Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

A first-term Democratic congresswoman defended herself in a Maryland town hall on Tuesday after one attendee called her “milquetoast” and challenged the lawmaker to “meet the moment.”

“I want to know what you are going to do to meet the moment,” one woman asked 36-year-old Rep. Sarah Elfreth, who is only 102 days into her congressional career.

“This is personal to me. It’s personal to my family,” the woman said, identifying herself as a military spouse who had to quit her federal government job because a return-to-work order made her life “impossible.”

“You say you’re not going to be out there being mad. Most people don’t vote because they don’t feel inspired. Being milquetoast and not inspiring people to believe that you can change something for them won’t inspire them to vote. So, what are you going to do with the megaphone that you’re given in the House? Because that’s really all you have in the minority?” the woman asked.

It’s a familiar criticism of Democratic Congress members: that their party isn’t fighting hard enough and has a messaging problem.

“I’m using every tool that I have available to me,” Elfreth said. “I apologize if those tools aren’t going to result in the things that this group wants. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you and promise you things that I cannot deliver for you. If you want that, please vote for somebody else. But that’s not how I’m going to handle this.”

“I hear the criticism,” Elfreth told CNN in an interview after the town hall. “I also don’t agree that all 215 members of the Democratic Party need to be activist, loud members. I think we need all sorts, and all kinds, and all styles.”

Hongkong Post, the postal service in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, will stop handling packages coming from or going to the US amid an escalating trade war.

The government of Hong Kong cited US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to eliminate the so-called “de minimis” exception for postal items sent from the city to the US.

“The US is unreasonable, bullying and imposing tariffs abusively,” the government said in a statement announcing the decision. “The public in Hong Kong should be prepared to pay exorbitant and unreasonable fees due to the US’s unreasonable and bullying acts.”

The postal service will stop accepting packages transported by sea with immediate effect and stop taking air-borne packages starting April 27, the Hong Kong government said.

Read more about the suspension.

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars meant to finance climate and infrastructure projects across the country.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, sided with conservation and nonprofit groups and issued a preliminary injunction until she rules on the merits of the lawsuit. The injunction is nationwide.

McElroy concluded that the seven nonprofits demonstrated that the freeze was “arbitrary and capricious” and that the powers asserted by the federal agencies, including the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, in halting the payouts were not found in federal law.

“Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” she wrote today.

Diane Yentel, the president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, welcomed the decision.

It is the second legal victory for the organization, after a judge in February prevented the administration from issuing a broad freeze on all federal grants and contracts.

The nonprofits said that an executive order issued by Trump resulted in projects funded by these two laws being put on hold.

As a result, funding from many federal agencies has been frozen for everything from urban forestry projects to weatherization programs to lead pipe remediation and has resulted in “serious and irreversible harm” to many groups.

An attorney for a Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador celebrated a federal judge’s decision to allow for expedited fact finding in the case to see whether the Trump administration is complying with her order to “facilitate” Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s return to the US.

“We’ll never be satisfied until Kilmar is back. So, no, the fight is not over,” attorney Rina Gandhi told CNN today. “But I do consider this day to be a win. We did get our expedited discovery granted. And we have a plan.”

Discovery, she continued, normally takes months to years, “so the fact that we’re getting this done in two weeks, while an unimaginable hardship to the family and to him, is fast.”

Gandhi’s comments come hours after District Judge Paula Xinis said some of the discovery could come in the form of depositions taken by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys of the administration officials who have been submitting daily sworn statements detailing what the government has been doing to carry out her directive.

When asked about comments from Trump administration officials who say that even if they were to bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salavdor, the government would just deport him again, Gandhi said that they are “100%” prepared for that scenario.

“However, bring him back and let’s have the actual proper procedure that should have happened. If this was their allegation, there is a proper way to remove someone’s withholding of removal grant. That’s not impossible. But he was not given that opportunity. They decided they were the judge for him,” she said.

A federal judge said today that there is no evidence that the Trump administration is complying with her ruling to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

The hearing was the latest in the case as the battle over Abrego Garcia’s return intensifies. Both El Salvador’s president and the White House have made it clear they will not return Abrego Garcia.

Here’s the top immigration headlines today:

• Hearing today: US District Judge Paula Xinis rejected the Trump administration’s argument that her directive requiring the government to “facilitate” the release of a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador only means “removing domestic obstacles.” She said said she would issue a written order that “expands on my definition of the word facilitate” and allow for expedited discovery into whether the administration is complying with the order.
• White House doubles down: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to call Abrego Garcia a “foreign terrorist” despite the administration conceding in court documents that he was mistakenly deported. She also did not provide any evidence for her claims that he was a member of MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have disputed those claims. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said even if he came back to the US, he will just be “detained and removed again.”
• Deporting US citizens: President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox Noticias that aired today that he “would love” to deport American criminals to El Salvador. Leavitt said Trump is exploring the legality of potentially sending the most “violent” and “egregious” US criminals to a mega-prison in the country. The president first mentioned this idea during a meeting yesterday with Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele. Homan wouldn’t weigh in on the president’s suggestion.
• Salvadoran immigrant convicted: Trump today called the man convicted of murdering Rachel Morin, a mother of five from Maryland, an “illegal criminal” and “a monster” on social media. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly mentioned the case and also met with Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin.
• Southern border: The administration plans to expand the “new national defense area” established by presidential memorandum last week along the US-Mexico border by 90 miles, Leavitt said. The move is aimed at securing the border. The additional area will be added in Texas.

Three people were arrested, including two men who were subdued with a stun gun, at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s town hall today in Cobb County, Georgia, after disruptions at the event.

“Officers used force that was necessary to gain compliance and control the situation,“ according to Acworth Police Sgt Eric Mistretta. A woman was also arrested, Mistretta said. She was not stun-gunned, he said.

Officers used the stun guns after physical scrums with male attendees as they tried to remove them from the building. It was not immediately clear what they – and others removed from the event – were protesting.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s response: She attempted to head off protests, telling attendees that she was holding a town hall — not a political rally. But she did not take any live questions from the audience, and instead read them from a screen. The far-right ally of President Donald Trump mocked the critical questions, repeatedly accusing questioners of being “brainwashed.”

The Trump administration’s Social Security Administration accused former President Joe Biden of “lying to Americans” about Social Security after he made the program the focus of his first public remarks since leaving office.

Biden, during the speech, highlighted the importance of protecting Social Security, calling it a “sacred promise” and touted measures he took to protect it during his presidency. He criticized the Trump administration without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, pointing to cuts in the federal workforce.

Following Biden’s remarks the Social Security Administration made five claims in a series of posts on X. Here’s what SSA said:

• Social Security said none of its field offices have been permanently closed and added that half of its technology department hasn’t been laid off.
• The administration said it “is taking commonsense steps to transform how we serve the public,” including AI-tools and updated phone services.
• SSA accused Biden of finding billions of dollars in improper payments between the fiscal years 2015 and 2022.
• The administration said “Trump has repeatedly promised to protect Social Security and ensure higher-take home pay for seniors by ending taxation on Social Security benefits.”
• Social Security also claimed that in 2024’s fiscal year, more than 2 million illegal aliens were given Social Security numbers.

CNN’s Aditi Sangal and Elise Hammond contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order today that paves the way for government agencies to relocate their offices outside of Washington, DC.

The order, which is the latest step in the administration’s effort to reshape the federal government, revokes two orders from former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton that encouraged government facilities to be located in central business districts and historic properties and districts.

“Revoking these orders will restore common sense to Federal office space management by freeing agencies to select cost-effective facilities and focus on successfully carrying out their missions for American taxpayers,” the new Trump executive order reads.

“The American people are spread across more than 3.8 million square miles in urban, suburban, and rural areas. To provide the highest quality services in an efficient and cost-effective manner, executive departments and agencies (agencies) must be where the people are,” the order reads.

There are about 2.4 million federal workers in the United States, excluding those employed by the military and the Postal Service, 17% of whom live in the DC metropolitan area, according to government data.

Without mentioning his successor by name, former President Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration today during his first public remarks since leaving office, saying it has wrought “so much damage and so much destruction.”

“In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking,” he said at the 2025 Conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD).

He pointed to the cuts in the federal workforce, citing it as a reason for why the Social Security Administration’s website is crashing and people can’t log into their accounts.

He emphasized the importance of protecting Social Security as many Democrats stage a national day of action against feared cuts to the program.

Former President Joe Biden emphasized the importance of protecting Social Security, calling it a “sacred promise” in his first public remarks since leaving office. It comes as many Democrats stage a national day of action against feared cuts to the program.

“Social Security is more than a government program, it’s a sacred promise we made as a— a sacred promise,” Biden said at the 2025 Conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD).

He said the millions of people who have been paying into the program since they started working are relying on it being paid out for them when they need it.

We “must never, ever betray that trust or turn our back on an obligation,” Biden said, touting measures he took to protect Social Security during his presidency.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised $9.6 million during the first quarter of the year, a record-breaking haul for the progressive Democrat as she establishes herself as a leading voice against President Donald Trump in the first months of his second administration.

Ocasio-Cortez’s fundraising in the first three months of the year more than doubled her previous quarterly record of $4.4 million, from the third quarter of 2020.

“I cannot convey enough how grateful I am to the millions of people supporting us with your time, resources, & energy. Your support has allowed us to rally people together at record scale to organize their communities,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.

The blockbuster fundraising by Ocasio-Cortez — in a safe House seat that she won by nearly 40 points last year — reflects her growing stature within the Democratic Party as it looks to chart a path forward in the wake of losses in 2024 while facing demands for generational change from some of its voters.

And the $9.6 million that the New York Democrat raised is in the realm of House leadership, who raise tens of millions through a network of allied committees, and battleground Senate candidates.

Ocasio-Cortez’s position as a progressive leader in the party was further underscored by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ decision to bring her on several stops of his nationwide “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has drawn sizable crowds to rallies across the country. The congresswoman’s early appearances on the tour overlapped with the fundraising period. Her campaign manager wrote on X that 64% of the campaign’s donors were first-time contributors.

For his part, Sanders raised $11.5 million in the first quarter of the year, further reflecting the energy among progressive donors.

The US would not sign a Group of Seven (G7) statement regarding Ukraine, a senior Canadian government official told CNN today.

“We are not reading too much into this at the moment but it is true that the US would not sign a statement on Ukraine that the other members of the G7 had agreed to,” the official said.

Global Affairs Canada told CNN that it does not comment on G7 processes.

Today, Bloomberg reported that the US would not endorse a statement from the G7 condemning a deadly Russian strike on Sumy, Ukraine, because US officials feared it would harm ongoing negotiations with Moscow.

Brian Hughes, US National Security Council spokesperson, told CNN in a statement that the Sumy strike “is a clear and stark reminder of why President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to try and end this terrible war comes at a crucial time. Our hearts go out to the victims, their loved ones, and all those impacted.”

Another instance of US shift: Similarly, at the end of February, the US joined Russia to vote against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning its war in Ukraine.

The vote against the resolution saw the US at odds with its longtime European allies and instead aligned with the aggressor in the war on the three-year anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. At that time, Trump was also pursing discussions with Russia to end the war.

This post has been updated with a statement from the National Security Council spokesperson.

President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast today that he “would love” to deport American criminals to El Salvador, repeating a comment he made in the Oval Office yesterday while sitting next to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.

“I call them homegrown criminals,” Trump told Fox Noticias in an interview taped yesterday at the White House. “We are looking into it and we want to do it. I would love to do that.”

Trump praised Bukele for making El Salvador “a very safe place,” and alluded to the country’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, which Bukele has invited the US to use to jail deportees for a fee.

A fourth federal judge in Washington, DC, on Tuesday said that, for now, the Trump White House can’t limit a law firm’s access to parts of the federal government.

The ruling by Judge Loren AliKhan of the DC District Court blocks most of the executive order President Donald Trump placed on the litigation law firm Susman Godfrey last week to punish it for political reasons.

Three other judges in the same court — Beryl Howell, John Bates and Richard Leon — issued similar decisions in recent weeks that curtail the White House’s orders on the other large law firms Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block and Wilmer Hale.

AliKhan’s order siding with Susman Godfrey aims to restore the firm’s lawyers’ access to federal buildings and its ability to represent clients who are also government contractors — the same types of restrictions the other firms have faced, sued over and won back so far.

Susman’s attorneys argued to the court that the administration was illegally retaliating against the firm in a way that violates Constitutional protections and was risking a severe loss of business because of the president’s order.

“This fight is bigger and more important than any one firm. Susman Godfrey is fighting this unconstitutional executive order because it infringes on the rights of all Americans and the rule of law. This fight is right, it is just, and we are duty-bound to pursue it,” Susman Godfrey said in a statement.

The White House has maintained the president should control the federal government as he wishes and has said it targeted Susman because of its legal work related to elections, among other things.

A federal judge today firmly rejected the Trump administration’s argument that her directive requiring the government to “facilitate” the release of a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador only means “removing domestic obstacles” that would impede his ability to return to the US.

“When a wrongfully removed individual from the United States is outside the borders it’s not so cut and dry that all you have to do is remove domestic barriers,” US District Judge Paula Xinis said during a hearing this afternoon.

The administration’s understanding of “facilitate,” Xinis said, “flies in the face of the plain meaning of the word.”

Xinis, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said she would issue a written order that “expands on my definition of the word facilitate.”

She also said she would allow for expedited discovery to help her figure out whether the Trump administration is complying with her order. So far, Xinis said she was unsatisfied with the sworn statements she’s been given by administration officials detailing what the government has been doing to carry out her directive.

“I do need evidence in this regard because to date what the record shows is nothing has been done,” the judge said.

Xinis said some of the discovery could come in the form of depositions taken by attorneys for Abrego Garcia of the administration officials who have been submitting daily sworn statements. At one point, she said that every day Abrego Garcia was detained “is a day of irreparable harm.”

This post has been updated with more details from the hearing.

Indiana and Arkansas have become the latest states seeking to prevent food stamp recipients from buying soda and candy with their benefits, drawing praise from US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who pushed such bans as part of his Make America Healthy Again campaign.

Kennedy appeared at an event with Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mike Braun today to urge other states to follow. Braun signed an executive order banning the purchase of the items as part of a package of measures aimed at improving residents’ health.

“I also want to take this moment to encourage governors all over the country to follow the lead of Indiana and to file with Brooke Rollins, who’s my partner in this (as) head of (the US Department of Agriculture),” Kennedy said.

The USDA oversees food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Rollins met today with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who submitted a similar waiver to the agency.

“Banning soda and candy from food stamps will remove some of the least-healthy, most-processed foods from the program and encourage low-income Arkansans to eat better,” the Republican governor said in a statement.

Kennedy last month appeared with West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who said he would request a waiver to ban soda purchases with food stamps.

Republicans have long sought to prevent food stamp recipients from buying soda and other unhealthy food, while opponents of the idea say it would be hard to implement and would be unlikely to change people’s consumption.

Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was placed on administrative leave over an alleged “unauthorized disclosure” of information, a defense official said today.

Reuters first reported that Dan Caldwell was placed on leave and escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday.

The investigation comes just weeks after it was discovered Hegseth disclosed sensitive information about a military operation in a Signal group chat with other national security officials, which included a reporter. Caldwell was identified by Hegseth in the Signal chat as his point of contact for the operation, according to The Atlantic. It also comes after a March 21 memo from Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, ordering an investigation of unauthorized disclosures in the Defense Department.

In his first public speech since leaving office, former President Joe Biden plans to present Social Security as a sacred promise for recipients and discuss what is happening to the program under President Donald Trump’s administration, a source familiar with his remarks said.

It’s unclear whether Biden will mention Trump by name or veer into other issues in his remarks. The former president is expected to make final edits to the speech in the hours before his appearance.

The Social Security Administration is undergoing a massive reorganization as part of DOGE’s government downsizing efforts, including cutting thousands of jobs. The agency’s technology systems have faced additional strains in recent months and phone lines have been flooded by Americans with questions about the state of their benefits.

Biden’s speech on Social Security coincides with Democratic congressional leaders launching a day of action around preserving the program amid fears of cuts under Trump’s watch, signaling a potential messaging focus for Democrats ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

White House border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that if the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador returns to the United States, he will be “detained and removed again.”

“Now the court said we got to facilitate. We’ll facilitate, but, but, but El Salvador has full authority on this again, a terrorist threat,” Homan said on Fox News about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

“Now if somehow he comes back and that happens, he’s going to be detained and removed again. He’s an MS-13 gang member based on our intelligence and El Salvador’s intelligence. He will be detained and he will be deported,” Homan added, without providing details of that intelligence.

The United States could legally send Abrego Garcia to another country if he does return to the United States. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, entered the US illegally sometime around 2011, but an immigration judge in 2019, after reviewing evidence, withheld his removal. That meant he could not be deported to El Salvador but could be deported to another country.

Homan’s comments come as El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele told reporters in the Oval Office Monday that while he has the power to release Abrego Garcia, his administration isn’t “very fond of releasing terrorists” being detained in his country.

US officials have alleged that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. His attorneys, however, dispute the claim and at least one federal judge has voiced skepticism toward it.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting.