March 19, 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.

President Donald Trumps talks with Fox News' Laura Ingraham that aired on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump previewed plans to pave over the White House Rose Garden in an interview with Fox News that aired tonight, telling Laura Ingraham, “Grass, it just doesn’t work.”

CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins and Jeff Zeleny reported over the weekend on Trump’s plans to transform the iconic space at the White House into a patio-style seating area, much like the one where he holds court at Mar-a-Lago.

The president personally reviewed the plans for the Rose Garden recently with White House curators.

In the Fox interview, Trump also showed off the Oval Office’s new gold-detailing, pointing to diminutive gold cherubs CNN has reported were shipped in from Mar-a-Lago and now detail pediments over the doorways in the Oval.

“Actually, they’re gold, all gold,” he said. “And you know the, it’s angels. They say angels bring good luck, and we need a lot of luck in this country with what they’ve done over the last four years.”

Community members rally in front of the Department of Education with school desks to protest budget cuts on March 13, in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump is poised to sign an executive order tomorrow to start the process of dismantling the Department of Education, administration officials told CNN, a move that will begin fulfilling a major campaign promise.

The president is set to make the move in an afternoon event at the White House.

While entirely shuttering the Department of Education would require an act of Congress, the president will direct Secretary Linda McMahon to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the states,” one of the administration official said.

USA Today was first to report the expected signing.

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said today that a federal judge’s ruling temporarily halting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act had not slowed the administration’s efforts to deport migrants from the United States.

Homan said he “couldn’t believe it,” after US District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday temporarily halted the administration’s deportation flights under the sweeping wartime authority.

Earlier today, Boasberg extended his deadline for the Justice Department to provide the court with information about deportations carried out last weekend under the Alien Enemies Act, or decide if it will invoke “state-secrets privilege” to avoid divulging the information.

Separately, Trump administration officials have provided little information that could allow outsiders to independently assess its claims that the scores of immigrants who were deported last weekend are affiliated with violent gangs or have extensive criminal records.

Salvadoran police officers escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua recently deported by the US government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center prison, as part of an agreement with the Salvadoran government, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout image obtained on Sunday.

The Justice Department faces a deadline tomorrow to provide a federal judge with more information about deportations the Trump administration carried out last weekend under the Alien Enemies Act, or decide if it will invoke “state-secrets privilege” to avoid divulging the information.

On Saturday evening, US District Judge James Boasberg temporarily blocked the deportations under the act — and verbally ordered any planes in the air carrying some of those migrants to turn back to the US. The Trump administration then announced Sunday that hundreds of mostly Venezuelan alleged gang members were deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador. President Donald Trump defended his use of the act and the White House said the administration did not violate the judge’s order because it was issued after the migrants in question had left the US.

Here is the latest on the legal battle:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that the proposed pause in attacks on Ukrainian and Russian targets would “most likely” apply to “energy facilities” — but that “civilian infrastructure” was also under discussion.

Previous readouts of the call Tuesday between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in which the proposed pause was discussed, differed in their wording — with the Kremlin saying it had agreed to halt “energy infrastructure” attacks, while the White House talked of a “energy and infrastructure ceasefire.”

At a news conference Wednesday evening, Zelensky said that “we have received the signals from the American side that we are most likely talking about the energy facilities ceasefire, not to strike on the energy facilities of both countries, and energy infrastructure.”

“Also, they are talking about civilian infrastructure,” he said, adding that he had told Trump that “civilian infrastructure” is a “very broad subject.”

The Ukrainian president said that the two leaders “made an agreement that we from our end will do everything to prepare a list of objects that we find as a priority and that we take as civilian infrastructure.”

Earlier Wednesday, following a call between Zelensky and Trump, a readout from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz said that the two leaders had “agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy,” but did not mention civilian infrastructure.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, left, and Energy Secretary Christ Wright speak to members of the media on Wednesday.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wouldn’t weigh in on a suggestion from President Donald Trump that the United States take ownership of Ukrainian electrical and nuclear power plants.

The two secretaries today told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins they had “no comment” on the suggestion.

But later in an interview with Fox News, Wright said that while the US has the expertise to run those plants, he didn’t believe the move would require American troops on the ground.

He said as Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio work to bring the war to an end, if they felt the need for the US to “run nuclear power plants in Ukraine? No problem. We can do that.”

The administration first floated the suggestion in a readout from Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier today. Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz wrote in the readout that Trump “discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants” and “said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise.”

“American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” the statement added.

Pressed in a follow-up on more details regarding the United States’ approach to Ukraine’s energy plants, Burgum told reporters: “We got no comment on Ukrainian nuclear” remarks. Wright also added: “Yeah, no comment on that.”

A frame from a Ukrainian Railways' video shows a fire burning after Russia reportedly carried out a missile strike on railway infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky spoke on the phone today, a day after Trump spoke to their Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that the call, which lasted about an hour, was “very good” and the discussion was focused on aligning “both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs”

Zelensky also described the phone call as a “positive, very substantive and frank conversation.” He adopted a measured and grateful tone in his statement following the call, thanking Trump for “a good and productive start to the work.”

In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz said the two leaders “agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy.”

At a news conference later, Zelensky said he had long hoped Trump would visit Ukraine. “I would like him to see it on his own. To feel it and make his own conclusions like an experienced person,” he said.

Here’s what the two leaders discussed:

The next talks planned on a ceasefire and end to the war in Ukraine won’t involve top US cabinet level officials and will be at a technical level with expert officials, the State Department said.

Meanwhile, here’s what else is happening in Ukraine:

CNN’s Mick Krever, Lauren Izso, Christian Edwards, Catherine Nicholls and Max Saltman contributed to the report.

A view of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters on March 18, in Washington, DC.

A federal judge today declined to remove officials with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from the US Institute of Peace building, despite expressing grave concern about the use of armed law enforcement in gaining access.

While district Judge Beryl Howell expressed extreme disappointment in DOGE’s use of armed law enforcement to enter the USIP building, the Obama-appointed DC judge did not grant a temporary restraining order to reinstate USIP board members and to remove DOGE from the building.

The case has revealed DOGE’s use of FBI enforcement, US Department of State officers and Metropolitan Police Department officers in days-worth of attempts to get into the building. The FBI also threatened the removal of contracts from a private company and former contractor of USIP that had a key to the building; the private company complied, according to court filings.

“Are you the least bit offended by how this was executed,” Howell asked US Attorney Brian Hudak.

“I’ll answer the question this way…” Hudak began before she cut him off.

Howell, however, said she needs further briefing on whether the charitable organization is functioning under the executive branch and whether the violated statute outlining how board members are removed is actually lawful on its own.

She asked the counsels to discuss a schedule for expedited briefing.

The Trump administration confirmed in a federal court Wednesday that there are “ongoing discussions” between the Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service over sharing highly confidential taxpayer data that could lead to deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Undocumented immigrants can register with the IRS and pay taxes, and the agency is required to keep their private information confidential, except in very specific circumstances specified in the tax code. Two immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from turning over this data to immigration authorities as they ramp up deportations.

“There are ongoing discussions … about information sharing” between the IRS and Homeland Security, Justice Department lawyer Andrew Weisberg said Wednesday during a hearing in DC federal court.

Weisberg refused to provide additional details when pressed by a judge. But he said the IRS would only divulge information about undocumented immigrants if Homeland Security submitted individual requests for data on a specific person that fall under provisions allowing legal disclosures.

Several news outlets reported in in February that the IRS rejected a request from Homeland Security to provide the home addresses of 700,000 people suspected of being in the country illegally. A senior IRS privacy official said in a sworn affidavit earlier this week that the agency hasn’t turned over any information to Homeland Security about the 700,000 people in question.

Spokespeople from the IRS and Homeland Security didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment.

District Judge Dabney Friedrich on Wednesday declined to issue an emergency order blocking the IRS from sharing this data, concluding that the groups who sued the administration didn’t present enough evidence that this was at risk of happening immediately and that Homeland Security’s data requests would violate the law.

Nebraska GOP Rep. Mike Flood speaks during a town hall in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.

Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska told CNN he sees “a lot of value to what happened” in a town hall he held last night in his home district, despite facing intense heckling, booing, and jeering during the event.

The lawmaker said “a lot of the concerns” he heard during the town hall were about the federal spending cuts that tech billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are making.

And while he defended DOGE’s government cuts, Flood acknowledged the process hasn’t been perfect.

“I think last night was an opportunity for me to say, ‘Hey, these cuts are necessary if we want to get back on track.’ Is it a perfect process? No,” he said.

“One of the things that I wanted people to take away from that last night is that if you tell me what you’re concerned about, and I look into it, if I see an issue that needs to be brought to the attention of the executive branch, or to be dealt with in our appropriations committee, or in Congress, I’m going to do that,” Flood said.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seen as he casts his vote for the snap presidential election at the Imam Khomeini Husseiniya on June 28, 2024 in Tehran, Iran.

President Donald Trump, in a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing negotiations on a new nuclear deal, made clear that Iran has a two-month deadline to reach an agreement, a source familiar with the letter’s contents told CNN.

The directive comes as Trump has said he would like to reach a deal with Iran to gain more control over their nuclear capabilities. Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff delivered the letter to the president of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan while he was in Abu Dhabi last week, the source said. The UAE later gave the letter to the Iranians.

Axios was the first to report on the contents of the letter.

Trump also discussed a potential nuclear deal with Iran during his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, according to a White House readout of the call.

Earlier this month, Trump told Fox News that there “are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal, because I’m not looking to hurt Iran.”

It is unclear how the US would respond if Iran fails to enter direct talks regarding its nuclear program. However, senior US officials have not ruled out potential military action, whether through the US or Israel, on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the future.

The next talks planned on a ceasefire and end to the war in Ukraine won’t involve top US Cabinet-level officials, but instead will be at a technical level with expert officials, the State Department said.

That contradicts what Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz would be going back to Jeddah for meetings on Sunday.

That hasn’t been planned, according to officials.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said today that the talks will be attended by “technical teams.”

“It will not be principals going to those negotiations,” she said at briefing, adding it would be “senior staff addressing technical frameworks.”

Earlier, Waltz said he had spoken with his Russian counterpart today and that the meeting between the US and Russian teams will take place in Riyadh “in the coming days.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said in a statement today that officials from his country “are ready” to meet in Saudi Arabia with American counterparts in the next few days.

“We instructed our advisors and representatives to carry out this work as quickly as possible,” Zelensky said in a post on X following his call with US President Donald Trump.

It is unclear whether all three teams would meet together, which would be the first time since the Trump administration launched the effort to end the war. Trump administration officials have approached these discussions directly with each country, hoping to eventually to narrow the gaps and get both sides together at the negotiating table.

This March 2022 photo shows a Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Germany.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked President Donald Trump for additional Patriot missile systems, and Trump told him he’d help him find what was available “particularly in Europe,” according to a readout of the two leaders’ call from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

The statement also noted that the two leaders “agreed to share information closely between their defense staffs,” with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who first read the statement at today’s press briefing, telling reporters that intelligence sharing for defense will be shared between the US and Ukraine.

Trump also “discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants,” according to the statement and suggested American ownership.

“He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” the statement said.

Trump “fully briefed” Zelensky on his phone call yesterday with Russian President Putin, with the statement saying that the nations agreed to what it called “a partial ceasefire against energy.”

“Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire. They agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war and ensuring security. President Zelenskyy was grateful for the President’s leadership in this effort and reiterated his willingness to adopt a full ceasefire,” Waltz and Rubio said.

What else to know about the call: Trump and Zelensky also discussed Ukrainian air defenses, prisoners of war and children abducted by Russia, a source told CNN, saying the call was ““not just a recall of yesterday’s conversation” with Putin. The telephone call was longer than initially expected, the source said. “President Trump asked many questions, including which (air defense) systems are the best, what can really work and how to help,” the source added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted judges who she said are “acting erroneously” and are “partisan activists from the bench” trying to “derail” President Donald Trump’s agenda, as she brushed off the suggestion that US District Judge James Boasberg may eventually rule in the administration’s favor over its widespread deportation agenda.

In the days since Boasberg temporarily blocked the administration’s deportation flights to El Salvador, members of the administration—including Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller—have lambasted the district judge, even calling for his impeachment.

But Leavitt also took the opportunity Wednesday to criticize other judges who she claims stymied parts of Trump’s domestic agenda, including judges who temporarily halted the administration’s ban on transgender service members in the military and who ruled Trump’s dismantling of USAID violated the Constitution.

“If you just look at the injunctions that this president has faced, deporting foreign terrorists from our homeland, hiring and firing of executive branch employees,” she told Zeleny. “You also see an injunction by a partisan activist judge when it comes to the Secretary of Defense trying to determine the readiness of our troops and the qualifications of our troops in our armed forces. Does a single district court judge really have more authority over the commander in chief and the Secretary of Defense to determine who should serve in our United States Armed Forces? Absolutely not.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday it’s prepared to take legal challenges over the Trump administration’s abrupt firing of two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission all the way to the Supreme Court, telling reporters during the press briefing, “The time was right to let these people go.”

“The president absolutely has the authority to do it, and they were given ample notice,” Leavitt said. “The goal was to let these individuals go — if we have to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, we certainly will.”

In a pair of statements posted to X Tuesday, Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter wrote they’d been “illegally fired,” from the FTC, which was formed 111 years ago to enforce consumer protection and antitrust laws.

Former Biden FTC Chair Lina Khan called the firings an “illegal attempt” to remove the commissioners, adding that the dismissals are “a gift to corporate lawbreakers that squeeze American consumers, workers, and honest businesses” in a post on X.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky described his lengthy phone call with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday as a “positive, very substantive and frank conversation.”

The call was the first known conversation between Trump and Zelensky since the two leaders’ blowup in the Oval Office 19 days ago, and it came a day after Trump spoke to the Russian President Vladmir Putin.

Zelensky adopted a measured and grateful tone in his statement following the call, thanking Trump for “a good and productive start to the work.”

The statement did not comment on the fact that Trump’s call with Putin ended without the Russian leader formally agreeing to a ceasefire deal.

“We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky did, however, touch on one of the issues that became a sticking point between Ukraine and the US, specifically mentioning that “in further meetings, the (US and Ukrainian) teams can agree on all necessary aspects of advancing toward lasting peace and security guarantees.”

The Trump administration has rejected Ukraine’s demands for security guarantees in exchange for a ceasefire agreement, and the issue of whether security guarantees would be part of a natural resources deal between the two countries was one of the reasons why the Oval Office meeting between Zelensky and Trump collapsed last month.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today that the White House readout of the call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which stated that the Kremlin agreed to temporarily halt attacks on “energy and infrastructure” targets in Ukraine, is the “truth.”

Leavitt was asked by CNN’s Jeff Zeleny to clarify the discrepancy between the the Kremlin’s readout of the call and the White House version:

“The US statement said ‘energy and infrastructure.’ The Kremlin said ‘energy infrastructure.’ What is your understanding of what the actual substance of that disagreement was?” Zeleny asked.

Following Tuesday’s call between Trump and Putin, the Kremlin said Russia would temporarily halt attacks on energy infrastructure targets in Ukraine, but Putin stopped short of agreeing to a broader temporary ceasefire. Ukraine and Russia exchanged aerial assaults overnight.

Earlier today, Trump had a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he said was “very good.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters today that Americans can expect to see more deportations, but stopped short of saying the administration would continue deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act like those to El Salvador that the administration carried out last weekend despite a judge’s order temporarily blocking them.

Pressed, however, if the administration plans to continue deportation flights like the ones transporting migrants to El Salvador, Leavitt told reporters, “We don’t have any flights planned specifically, but we will continue with the mass deportations.”

Trump has taken to Truth Social to blast Boasberg as “crooked” and call for his impeachment, prompting a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

“Look, the president has made it clear that he believes this judge in this case should be impeached,” Leavitt said, adding that while the president “has great respect for Chief Justice Roberts,” he believes “it’s incumbent upon the Supreme Court to rein in these activist judges.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told House Democrats in a private call today that he had a “frank and honest” conversation with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about party unity going forward, according to two people who listened to the call.

Jeffries told members that he disagreed with Schumer’s decision to back down from a funding fight with President Donald Trump. And he stressed in future fights, Democrats “need to be united,” those on the call said.

The Democrats’ conference call is the first time that Jeffries has personally addressed his caucus since Schumer’s decision to clear a path for the GOP funding bill last week, opening a party-wide schism over strategy to counter Trump. Jeffries and Schumer met in Brooklyn over the weekend.

Today’s conversation mostly focused on House Democratic messaging efforts and the importance of talking about potential cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and holding community events.

One Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland, suggested the party should pick a new leader in the Senate during a town hall last night. He said Democrats in the House had “Hakeem Jeffries lead the fight against the” stopgap bill, while “Schumer was on the other side.”

“I respect Chuck Schumer. I think he’s had a great, long-standing career. He’s done a lot of great things. But I’m afraid that it may be time for the Senate Democrats to pick new leadership as we move forward,” he added.

This post has been updated with comments from Rep. Ivey and CNN’s Brian Todd contributed reporting.