April 17, 2025 - Donald Trump presidency news

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

A federal judge ruled tonight the Social Security Administration could not, for now, grant affiliates of the Department of Government Efficiency sweeping access to the sensitive records of Americans held by the agency.

The new preliminary injunction from US District Judge Ellen Hollander extends previous restrictions she placed on DOGE’s access to Social Security data in an earlier temporary restraining order.

Hollander wrote that the Trump administration had failed “to make clear why members of the DOGE Team need unfettered access to a wide variety of SSA systems of record that contain personal, sensitive, and private information of millions of Americans.”

Today’s ruling sets the stage for the case — one of several challenges to DOGE’s efforts to obtain the keys to closely-guarded data systems across the federal government — to be appealed.

An appeals court rejected an earlier administration request that it pause Hollander’s initial temporary restraining order, finding that it was procedurally premature to do.

In a thorough, 148-page opinion, Hollander said that the agency had not established a “need” for the DOGE affiliates to be granted sweeping access to the sensitive data, as required by the Privacy Act.

Hollander has asked the parties to file briefs on a Justice Department request that her new ruling be paused while it is appealed.

Veteran Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn asked crowd during a town hall in Summerton, South Carolina, tonight to pray that the US “will not allow itself to go the way of Germany in the 1930s.”

He read a famous quote by Martin Niemöller, a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany during World War II. Niemöller, initially a Nazi sympathizer, spent almost eight years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps after repeatedly criticizing Adolf Hitler’s interference in the Protestant Church.

Throughout the evening, Clyburn emphasized that Democrats are limited in what they can do since they are in the minority in Congress, urging town hall attendees to speak out and vote to help tip the scales and the balance of power.

When asked why Congress wasn’t doing more to stop Trump from enacting the tariffs, Clyburn told the crowd that Democrats don’t have the numbers.

“People are going to have to speak out, because we don’t have 218 votes in the House,” the congressman said, acknowledging the Democrat minority in the House and Senate. “We need 218. We don’t have 60 votes in the Senate. We need 60 votes.”

CNN’s Sylvie Kirsch contributed to this report.

White House border czar Tom Homan talks with reporters at the White House, on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan argued tonight that the court order explicitly prohibiting the removal of a Maryland man to his home country of El Salvador is “meaningless” because the Trump administration has designated the MS-13 gang as a terrorist organization.

Homan repeatedly pushed questions to the Justice Department about why the administration has yet to provide evidence in court tying Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the MS-13 gang despite arguing in news conferences and television appearances that they have plenty of it.

District Judge Paula Xinis has argued that the administration has not proven that, writing in a recent filing: “No evidence before the Court connects Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization.”

Pressed on why the administration has not included evidence tying Abrego Garcia to MS-13 in a court filing, Homan referred questions to the Department of Justice.

“Admitting it in a court — that’s the job of the Department of Justice,” Homan told CNN. “I’m in Homeland Security, and I enforce immigration law, the Department of Justice litigates. So, if there’s something that needs to be, you know, given to the court as evidence to the court, then I leave it up to DOJ.”

Trump was in office when an immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia protected status in 2019. It was not contested then by the Department of Justice.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said he met tonight with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador.

The Maryland Democrat traveled to El Salvador to meet Abrego Garcia but told reporters earlier in the day he had been “stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint about three kilometers” from the notorious CECOT prison where Abrego Garcia is being held.

Van Hollen declined to comment further to CNN about his meeting with Abrego Garcia, and said a full readout will be given tomorrow.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said Abrego Garcia is back in custody after the meeting.

“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Bukele said on X.

The Salvadoran president posted several photos earlier of Van Hollen shaking hands with Abrego Garcia and the two seated alongside a third man.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” Bukele wrote on X in a swipe at US Democrats critical of Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, CECOT.

This post was updated with details from President Bukele’s and Van Hollen’s statement.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks as she meets with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday.

Prime Minister Georgia Meloni visited the White House today, where she said that President Donald Trump has accepted her invitation to come to Italy for an official visit, adding that he would have the opportunity to meet with other European leaders as well.

This comes as the Trump administration is engaged in trade negotiations with the European Union and also ceasefire negotiations with Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine signed a memorandum with the US as a step toward a proposed minerals deal between the two countries, according to Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Here’s what to know:

On trade deals: Trump told reporters that he thinks he can negotiate trade deals with every country, including China, “over the next three or four weeks.” He also expressed “100 percent” confidence that the US would reach a trade deal with the European Union before his 90-day pause on tariffs is over.

On federal spending cuts: President Donald Trump has extended the federal hiring freeze through July 15, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields wrote in a post on X. Separately, the Trump administration announced today that it will look to sell the Washington, DC, headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Case of the mistakenly deported man: The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the Trump administration’s request that it halt the next steps that federal Judge Paula Xinis is seeking to take in the case concerning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who wrongly deported to El Salvador. The Trump administration’s assertions in the case “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear,” Judge Harvie Wilkinson said in the seven-page ruling.

Ending birthright citizenship case: Trump said he was “so happy” that the Supreme Court agreed today to hear oral arguments over his request to enforce a plan to end birthright citizenship against all but a handful of individuals, though it deferred a request from the administration that would have allowed it to implement its plan immediately. The high court will hear arguments in the case on May 15.

More than 1000 revoked student visas: More than 1,000 international students and recent graduates at more than 130 schools in the US have had their visas or statuses revoked in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System this year, according to university statements and spokespeople. Attorneys for more than 100 foreign students whose international visas have been revoked argued in federal court today to stop the process. The judge hearing the case did not immediately rule on the request, but did indicate she plans to grant some form of temporary relief.

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

The Trump administration is laying off most of the staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a move that has already prompted action in court.

About 1,500 out of 1,700 employees are being let go, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the agency’s staffers. Workers started receiving the reduction in force, or RIF, notices on Thursday.

The CFPB was an early target of the Trump administration’s downsizing efforts, but its undoing was largely blocked in federal court. However, a federal appeals court last week said the administration could further shrink the agency but not shutter it completely. The order made clear that the administration cannot trim the bureau down so much that it cannot carry out its statutory functions.

Already, the unions and other groups that initially sued have asked a judge to hold an emergency hearing on the sweeping layoffs, alleging that the mass terminations violated the court order. They argued that it was “unfathomable that cutting the Bureau’s staff by 90 percent in just 24 hours” wouldn’t interfere with its obligations to carry out the mandates set by Congress.

The NTEU said in a statement the appeals court required the agency to “make a ‘particularized assessment’ with respect to employees if it was going to carry out a reduction in force.” The union questioned whether that could have been done in less than four business days.

A RIF notice viewed by CNN said that the employee would retain access to the computer systems and work email until 6 p.m. Friday and then be put on administrative leave until mid-June.

“The RIF action is necessary to restructure the Bureau’s operations to better reflect the agency’s priorities and mission,” the notice read.

Harvard’s School of Public Health is taking steps to address its budget crisis after the Trump administration said it would freeze more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts.

The school had already made some layoffs in recent months due to other cuts in federal funding that aren’t related to the freeze announced this week, the statement said. And as part of cost-cutting initiatives, the school has been consolidating its footprint to the campus core, including winding down two leases outside that area.

Harvard’s School of Public Health has received three stop-work orders because of the funding freeze, according to the statement. This includes ending research projects on tuberculosis, the relationship between coffee intake and cancer and breast cancer tumor sequencing.

The school faculty has also had 19 grants for research terminated over the past few months because the work no longer aligns with administration priorities, Simon said in the statement.

The statement adds that federal funding makes up 46% of the Harvard Chan School budget, so in view of the policy changes being proposed at the federal level, the school has been working for months to make structural changes to align expenditures with revenue.

CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, headquarters of HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is seen in an undated photo in Washington, DC.

The Trump administration announced today that it will look to sell the Washington, DC, headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The move comes more than a month after the Trump administration said that it was considering selling off hundreds of “non-core” federal properties to ensure taxpayers “no longer pay for empty and underutilized federal office space.”

The building has been added to a list of federal buildings identified for “accelerated disposition,” in an effort “to engage the market and explore HUD’s relocation options,” the General Services Administration said in a news release. The Washington, DC, metropolitan area remains “a top priority,” the agency added.

“We’re committed to rightsizing government operations and ensuring our facilities support a culture of optimal performance and exceptional service as we collaborate with our partners at GSA to deliver results for the American people,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement.

HUD’s potential relocation also echoes promises President Donald Trump made during his 2024 campaign, where he vowed to move tens of thousands of federal jobs out of Washington, DC, and into “places filled with patriots who love America.”

US Attorney General Pam Bondi looks on during her first press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on February 12.

A Justice Department attorney said today that Attorney General Pam Bondi could potentially take “criminal action” against states that count mail ballots that arrive at election offices after Election Day.

Michael Gates from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division said this in court while defending an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month that attempts to unilaterally overhaul how elections are run, including with provisions targeting states with post-Election Day receipt deadlines for mail ballots.

One such provision is instructing the attorney general to “take all necessary action to enforce” an Election Day deadline for mail ballots. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly grilled Gates on how the attorney general might implement it.

Gates said Bondi could take any number of actions, including “criminal actions.” But, as Kollar-Kotelly pressed him for specifics, including the possibility Bondi would file lawsuits against states for their policies, the Justice Department lawyer suggested that the judge was asking him to look into a “crystal ball” by demanding that he predict what actions the attorney general might take.

Kollar-Kotelly did not issue a ruling from the bench today, but said she was hoping to issue her ruling by April 24 — a deadline requested by some of the challengers.

Some background: Roughly 20 states currently have laws for counting mail ballots received within a certain period after Election Day — and typically require a postmark or some other indication confirming the ballot was mailed by Election Day or earlier.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department did not respond to previous CNN inquiries about the instruction to the attorney general in question.

President Donald Trump has extended the federal hiring freeze through July 15, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields wrote in a post on X.

The move is part of the president and Elon Musk’s aggressive efforts to cut spending within the federal government.

What the memo includes: The president signed the initial executive action implementing the hiring freeze on his first day in office. The original action dictated that no new federal civilian positions could be created and no vacant positions could be filled. It specifies that it does not prohibit hirings to “maintain essential services, and protect national security, homeland security, and public safety.”

Ukraine has signed a memorandum with the US as a step toward a proposed minerals deal between the two countries, according to Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that a memorandum related to the deal could be signed remotely today.

“This document is the result of the professional work of the negotiating teams, which recently completed another round of technical discussions in Washington,” Svyrydenko said. “Ahead is the finalization of the text of the agreement and its signing — and then, ratification by parliaments.”

“There is a lot to do, but the current pace and significant progress give reason to expect that the document will be very beneficial for both countries,” Svyrydenko concluded.

An earlier iteration of the minerals deal went unsigned following a public argument between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in February.

Details of the proposed deal have since been in flux, with Treasury officials meeting a Ukrainian delegation in Washington this week to hammer it out, sources told CNN.

CNN’s Elise Hammond contributed to this reporting.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he wants to negotiate trade deals with every country, including China.

“We’re going to make a deal with everybody,” he said. “I would think over the next three or four weeks, I think maybe the whole thing could be concluded.”

Trump’s comments come a week after he enacted a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of nations, which now instead face a baseline 10% tariff. The big exception, however, is China, which faces a whopping 145% tariff. China’s responded with a 125% tariff on American goods, heightening tensions between the two largest economies in the world.

Trump compared the United States to “a big, beautiful department store before that business was destroyed by the internet.”

“Everybody wants a piece of that store,” Trump said, referring to other countries wanting to gain access to American markets to sell their products.

“At a certain point, if we don’t make a deal we’ll just set a limit, we’ll set a tariff … and we’ll say, ‘Come in and shop.’” If trading partners don’t like those tariffs, Trump said, they don’t have to “shop at the store of America.”

President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that he was invited by King Charles to visit the United Kingdom in September.

“It’s an honor to be, you know, a friend of Charles. I have great respect for King Charles and the family, William. We have just, really, just a great respect for the family,” the president said. “And I think they’re setting a date for September.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a letter from King Charles to Trump in February during a trip to the White House, inviting the president for a second state visit. Trump accepted and said he’d plan the trip soon.

Starmer told Trump in the Oval Office that two state visits for one world leader has “never happened before.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday called a shooting at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, that left two dead and five injured “a shame,” but said he was unlikely to seek changes to the nation’s gun laws.

During his first term in office, Trump suggested he’d be open to expanding background checks for purchasing firearms but later seemed to walk back those comments after meeting with then-National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre at the White House.

In remarks from the campaign trail, Trump told supporters in October 2024 the Second Amendment “is under siege,” touting his endorsement from the NRA.

President Donald Trump speaks as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday.

President Donald Trump singed two executive orders Thursday related to opening up protected areas for fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

Mongabay, a conservationist news website, has previously reported that Amata Radewagen, a US delegate who represents American Samoa, had asked the Trump administration to “reopen … an enormous marine protected area in the Central Pacific Ocean to industrial fishing.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the move, which affects tuna fishing, “common sense.”

“We’re going to open all of these markets and we’re going to let our fishermen thrive and prosper. And we’re going to have lower cost fish, more of it, and the freshest fish in the world,” Lutnick said.

Peter Navarro, one of the president’s top advisers, told Trump during the signing that he would have a similar order related to Maine lobster on the president’s desk next week.

“It’s incredible,” Trump said. “Canada fishes there and we’re not allowed to … I did it last time and they undid it. That’s why we have to stay president for a long time.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration is speaking with Chinese officials in an effort to work on a trade deal.

This comes after he slapped a 145% tariff on China, prompting China to retaliate with a 125% tariff on American goods.

Trump declined to say if he’s spoken directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping but told reporters that government officials who report to Xi have reached out “a number of times.”

“I believe we’re going to have a deal with China,” Trump said after an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office said Thursday “Harvard is a disgrace” when asked why the Internal Revenue Service is making plans to rescind the tax-exempt status of the Ivy League university.

“Because I think Harvard’s a disgrace. I think what they did was a disgrace. They’re obviously antisemitic,” he said, citing former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony at a hearing focused on antisemitism on campus. “Tax-exempt status is a privilege, it’s really a privilege. And it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard.”

While Trump said lawyers working on the matter haven’t made a final decision, he warned that schools must be careful.

President Donald Trump said he was “so happy” that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments over his day-one request to enforce a plan to end birthright citizenship.

The high court will hear arguments in the case on May 15.

Some background: Past presidents and courts for more than a century have read the 14th Amendment to guarantee citizenship to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States,” but Trump campaigned on ending it, and he signed an executive order that would have barred the government from issuing or accepting documents recognizing citizenship for people born in the US to foreign parents. It was subsequently wracked with lawsuits and sweeping injunctions.

Asked today about the Supreme Court agreeing to hear arguments, Trump claimed that birthright citizenship “is about slavery,” appearing to tie the constitutional right to its Civil War-era context. The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868.

CNN’s John Fritze contributed to this report.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Donald trump meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had a tightrope to walk at the White House today — and it looks like she succeeded.

Meeting President Donald Trump at a time when the relationship between Europe and the US is at one of its lowest points in decades, Meloni needed to play into her good relationship with Trump while also standing up for European interests.

Trump has previously criticized Europe for “screwing” the US by running a trade surplus. The threat of Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” coming into effect has already caused havoc to the European economy, forcing the European Central Bank to cut interest rates earlier today.

Meloni opened today’s meeting by making it clear that she was on the same wavelength as Trump. She proclaimed that her goal was “to make the West great again,” and said she was in on Trump’s “fight against ‘woke’ and DEI ideology that would like to erase our history.”

The meeting progressed in a relaxed atmosphere, with Trump repeatedly praising Meloni as a “great” leader and a “friend” who is doing “fantastic job.”

While this was Meloni’s first meeting with Trump at the White House, the two share a warm relationship. Trump hosted her at Mar-a-Lago after his reelection and she was the sole European leader invited to his inauguration.

In the Oval Office, Meloni capitalized on her relationship with Trump while lobbying for Europe. She said she was in Washington to “help make a deal,” while Trump responded by saying he believed there was a “100%” chance of an EU tariff deal.