April 18, 2025 - Donald Trump presidency news

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has moved here.

The exterior of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters is seen on February 10, in Washington, DC.

The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order tonight that paused the termination of nearly 1,500 of the 1,700 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson put the terminations on hold so that she could scrutinize whether the layoffs violated a court order imposing certain limits on mass firings at the agency while litigation over President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle it continues.

A federal appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, placed a pause on plans by a judge in DC to move forward with contempt proceedings against the Trump administration for how it allegedly defied his orders in a high-stakes deportation dispute.

With the hold the court put on Judge James Boasberg’s plans, DC US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered briefs to be filed next week on whether the appeals court should allow the proceedings to go forward.

The ruling was 2-1. Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both appointed by President Donald Trump, voted for the administrative stay. Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, said she would not have granted the stay.

Boasberg canceled a hearing on the issue scheduled for Monday afternoon.

A federal judge in DC told lawyers for migrants in Texas who believed the Trump administration is about to swiftly deport them under the Alien Enemies Act that he did not have the power to pause the deportations, even though he was concerned about the administration’s actions.

During the hearing, a Justice Department attorney said that while no flights are planned, the Department of Homeland Security said it reserves the right to remove people tomorrow.

He said that, under a recent Supreme Court ruling, only the courts with jurisdiction over the Texas detention center where the migrants were being held had the power to intervene.

A woman walks past a mural depicting a soldier with the Russian flag in Simferopol, Crimea, on October 2, 2024.

The Trump administration is ready to recognize Russian control of Crimea as part of a proposal to help end to the war with Ukraine, according to an official familiar with the framework. The proposal would also put a ceasefire in place along the front lines of the war, the source said.

The framework was shared with European and Ukrainian officials who met in Paris yesterday, the source said. It was also communicated in a phone call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out. The US plans to work with Europe and Ukraine on that next week in London, the source said.

The Trump administration is simultaneously planning another meeting between President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian officials to get Moscow on board with the overall US framework, the source said.

Remember: Russian forces seized control of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and Moscow annexed the territory in a move considered illegal by a vast majority of the international community. The move presaged Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A lawyer for the Department of Justice is not aware of any deportation flights using the Alien Enemies Act tonight or tomorrow, he told a federal judge during an emergency hearing over Zoom tonight.

Judge James Boasberg is now giving Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign 30 minutes to touch base with the government to ensure that no flights will leave until Sunday.

How we got here: This hearing, which is currently in recess and is scheduled to resume at 7:20 p.m. ET, is due to an emergency appeal over President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a sweeping 18th century wartime authority. This case centers specifically on the fate of Venezuelans currently held in Texas.

The American Civil Liberties Union alleges more men are being deported under Trump’s use of the act without due process.

More from the hearing: ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said detainees received notice of their removal less than 24 hours ago, with no option to challenge. Gelernt alleges they are now being moved on buses toward flights.

Ensign said last month’s Supreme Court ruling on the Alien Enemies Act said that the government must give notice of removal under the law, but that they do not need to provide a space to challenge. He says that anyone who says they want to challenge their removal are given a process to do so.

Gelernt said that the notice is only being given in English, which Ensign said is not true, according to his sources, although he has only seen the notice in English.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen is seen meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Thursday, in an image that Van Hollen shared via social media

On his arrival back on US soil today, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen detailed his meeting yesterday with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador described being “traumatized” by his time at the country’s notorious CECOT prison and has since been moved.

The US lawmaker traveled to the Central American nation in a push for the man’s release. Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, and his case has been at the center of the fight over the Trump administration’s hardline deportation push.

During a news conference this afternoon, Van Hollen called for the end to what he called Abrego Garcia’s “illegal abduction” and argued that his case has broad significance for due process rights for all Americans.

Here’s what you should know:

More on Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia:

Trump’s response to Van Hollen’s meeting:

Here’s other immigration news from today:

CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Lauren Fox, Aditi Sangal, Samantha Waldenberg, Kit Maher, Tori B. Powell, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Jake Tapper and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this post.

A group of Venezuelan migrants in Texas asked the Supreme Court today to halt their removal under the Alien Enemies Act.

The emergency appeal is the second time President Donald Trump’s use of the sweeping 18th century wartime authority has landed at the high court.

Last week, the court permitted Trump to use the authority, but said migrants being removed under it needed to receive notice they are subject to the act and an opportunity to have their removal reviewed by the federal court where they are being detained.

In the appeal brought today, lawyers for the migrants say they are “at risk of imminent removal” under the law and that officials haven’t provided the migrants with the sufficient notice the Supreme Court said must be given.

The Supreme Court effort is separate from the emergency hearing being held by District Judge James Boasberg this evening, though both involve the Venezuelan migrants in Texas.

The emergency appeal comes a day after a federal judge in Texas denied a similar request for a temporary order blocking the deportations. US District Judge James Hendrix, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, wrote that the government had “answered unequivocally” that it did not intend to remove two identified (but unnamed) migrants and so they were not at immediate risk of removal.

But the attorneys for the men are seeking to certify a class that would include all individuals who are at risk of being deported under the Alien Enemies Act. The Venezuelan detainees who appear to be imminently subject to the authority are being held at the Bluebonnet detention facility in Anson, Texas.

Some background: The 1798 law has been invoked three times before — most recently as a justification for some internments during World War II.

This time, the administration says it targeting Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, declaring that its members “have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”

In March, the Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. CNN previously reported that the administration has been preparing to send more migrants to El Salvador’s notorious mega prison.

A federal judge has scheduled an emergency hearing for 6:15 p.m. ET on an alleged Trump administration effort to deport more Venezuelans, currently held in Texas, under wartime power.

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing after lawyers of Venezuelan migrants alleged that the administration was about to deport the migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, the law at the heart of several ongoing legal disputes about aggressive efforts to quickly deport migrants.

Judge James Boasberg, based in Washington, DC, will hold the hearing over Zoom at 6:15 p.m. ET.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said upon his return to the US from meeting mistakenly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia that he learned during his travel to El Salvador that “the Trump administration has promised to pay $15 million dollars to detain these prisoners, including the illegally abducted Kilmar.”

“My best information … to date, they’ve paid out more than $4 million of that $15 million,” the Maryland Democrat added.

Van Hollen continued that while he is aware of some sort of document between the White House and El Salvador’s government, he isn’t sure whether there is an official agreement that lists all the commitments.

Images posted on X by El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele shows US Sen. Chris Van Hollen meeting with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen said Salvadoran government officials had placed the additional glasses on the table and the two men did not take a sip.

In response to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s taunts that Sen. Chris Van Hollen and mistakenly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia were sipping margaritas during their meeting yesterday, the Maryland Democrat said Salvadoran government officials had placed the glasses on the table and the two men did not take a sip.

“When I first sat down with Kilmar, we just had glasses of water on the table and I think maybe some coffee. And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice and I don’t know if it was salt or sugar around the top. But it looked like margaritas,” Van Hollen said.

Posting photos from Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia’s meeting, Bukele said in a post on X last night: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!”

The US will withdraw roughly half of its troops in Syria in the coming months as part of a “consolidation” of forces there, the Pentagon announced today.

The statement confirms CNN’s reporting on Wednesday that troop levels in Syria will be reduced to just under 1,000 in the coming months, down from the approximately 2,000 currently in the country.

The change will result in US troops being less spread out across Syria, following peace talks between the new Syrian government and the Kurdish, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, officials told CNN this week.

Parnell said the US will continue to help allies fight ISIS in Syria and the broader region.

“U.S. Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of ISIS in Syria,” Parnell said. “We will also work closely with capable and willing Coalition partners to maintain pressure on ISIS and respond to any other terrorist threats that arise.”

President Donald Trump has long been skeptical of the US troop presence in Syria and moved to withdraw all US forces from the country in 2019. They were later moved back into the country following pushback from the Pentagon.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was first detained in El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, CECOT, was moved to another detention center nine days ago, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

“He’s no longer at CECOT,” Van Hollen said. “He’s at a different prison which is pretty far outside of San Salvador.”

The Maryland senator said that Abrego Garcia, the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, told him about this move during their meeting yesterday.

The “conditions are better” in this detention center that’s in Santa Ana, Van Hollen said, but “he still has no access to any news from the outside world.”

CNN’s Tori B. Powell contributed reporting.

Thinking of his family is what gave Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador, the strength to keep going as litigation regarding his return to the US continues, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

“He said that thinking of you, members of his family, is what gave him the strength to persevere, to keep going day to day even under these awful circumstances,” Van Hollen said of his conversation with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador yesterday.

He went on to say that Abrego Garcia spoke “several times” about his five-year-old son who has autism and who was in the car when Garcia was pulled over by immigration agents.

Upon his detention, Abrego Garcia detailed to the Maryland senator being handcuffed and put on a plane with others where they were unable to see where they were going. The plane eventually landed in El Salvador and he was then taken to the CECOT mega-prison, Van Hollen said.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Van Hollen’s news conference.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Thursday, said the mistakenly deported man from Maryland described his deportation to El Salvador and being held at a maximum-security mega-prison there.

“He told me that he was taken to Baltimore first. I assume that was the Baltimore Detention Center. He asked to make a phone call from there to let people know what had happened to him but he was denied that opportunity,” Van Hollen said. “He said he was later taken with some others from Baltimore to a detention center in Texas and some point thereafter — I don’t know if it was hours or days — he was handcuffed, shackled and put on a plane along with others where they couldn’t see out of the windows.”

Van Hollen continued that when Abrego Garcia was taken to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT, he believes he had been placed in a cell with about 25 people.

The Maryland Democrat also described a phone call with Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer, saying: “I told her what he said to me, which was first and foremost, that he missed her and his family. And as he said that, you could see a tear come down.”

Van Hollen said he did not get the sense that Abrego Garcia had been abused.

“You never know, but I asked him if he was OK. And he said he has a like a blood pressure condition, he has seen a doctor,” the senator added, noting that this conversation happened with a lot of cameras around.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen holds a press conference at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Friday.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen argued that the case of the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador has broad significance for due process rights for all Americans.

“This case is not just about one man, it’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America,” Van Hollen said today after meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. “If you deny the constitutional rights of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone else in America.”

He went on to accuse the Trump administration of lying about what Garcia’s case is truly about.

“They want to change the subject,” he said. “They want to make it about something else.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who returned to the United States Friday after meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said the “illegal abduction” of the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to the Central American nation must end.

The Trump administration has admitted that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported there and sent to El Salvador’s mega-prison, CECOT. However, the White House and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have said that Abrego Garcia will not be returned to the United States.

Ford has stopped shipping vehicles to China in the face of 125% tariffs that China has placed on US goods.

“We have adjusted exports from the US to China in light of the current tariffs,” a Ford spokesperson told CNN. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The automaker shipped about 5,500 vehicles from its US plants to China last year, which is down from an average of 20,000 a year during the previous decade.

US exports make up only a fraction of the 400,000 cars and trucks Ford sells in China. Most of those vehicles are built in the Chinese factories it operates with joint venture partners.

American automakers have been losing market share in China, the world’s largest car market, in recent years as Chinese automakers become more competitive and Chinese buyer shift toward purchasing electric vehicles.

Ford confirmed it continues to ship the Lincoln Nautilus SUV from China to the United States despite stacked tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods and 25% on autos. That is the only vehicle the company imports from China.

The border wall is pictured in Sunland Park, New Mexico, in January.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will not recommend invoking the Insurrection Act in a memo that the Pentagon and DHS are preparing to send to President Donald Trump about the conditions at the southern border, multiple US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN.

The Insurrection Act is a 19^th century law that would allow the president to use active-duty troops within the United States to perform law enforcement functions such as arresting migrants. Trump issued an executive order in January declaring an emergency at the southern border that ordered Hegseth and Noem to send him a report within 90 days about the conditions there, and whether to invoke the Insurrection Act to help obtain “complete operational control” of the border.

The deadline for Hegseth and Noem’s recommendation is Sunday, but the Pentagon and DHS are expected to send the memo with their findings to the White House next week, officials said.

Hegseth and Noem are expected to tell Trump that border crossings are currently low and that they don’t need additional authorities at this point to help control the flow of migrants, officials said. Migrant crossings at the US southern border have been under 300 a day, according to a Homeland Security official — a dramatic drop from recent years when unlawful crossings were well over 1,000 or more a day.

President Donald Trump says his administration is making it easier to fire career government employees who “refuse” to advance his policy interests, reviving a controversial rule from his first administration that would strip civil service protections from thousands of federal workers.

Some background: An executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office revived an order he signed shortly before the 2020 election, which had created a category for federal employees involved in policy — known as Schedule F — making those workers easier to fire.

President Joe Biden had quickly reversed that order and then last year finalized a new rule that further bolstered protections for career federal workers.

Trump’s 2020 order left many federal employees fearing for their jobs. It would have given him and his agency appointees more leeway in the hiring and firing of federal staffers deemed disloyal, a move that critics say politicizes civil service and could lead to career officials being pushed out for political reasons and replaced with those committed to the president.