March 23, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

Elon Musk meets with Senate Republicans in the US Capitol building on March 5.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul is touting his plan to let Congress vote on cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency, saying Sunday that Elon Musk “seemed enthusiastic” about the strategy at a recent lunch with GOP lawmakers.

“It’s called rescission. I did mention this to Elon Musk. He seemed enthusiastic. It can be done,” Paul said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

A rescissions package makes changes to funding that was appropriated by Congress and only requires a simple majority vote in the Senate and a majority vote in the House.

Why this matters: Paul’s comments come as Republican lawmakers look to reassert their power of the purse in the coming months.

While Republicans have control of both chambers, the votes would force senators to go on the record for cuts that could be unpopular with their constituents.

When asked if it was possible to get 51 Republicans on board with this plan, Paul said President Donald Trump “is going to have to use, effectively, his bully pulpit and his popularity to convince all Republicans to do it.”

Paul, who has long advocated for shrinking the government, also said Sunday that he believes Musk’s cuts could be protected from the courts if they went through Congress.

Border czar Tom Homan speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 4.

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan on Sunday pushed back against critics who have raised concerns about the legal rights of migrants after the president invoked an 18th century wartime law to give him broad authority on deportations.

“Due process? What was Laken Riley’s due process?” Homan said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to a nursing student who was killed by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to fly hundreds of people allegedly tied to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan trans-national gang, to a high-security prison in El Salvador. The move is now the subject of a tense legal battle.

“Where were all these young women that were killed and raped by members of TDA — where was their due process?” Homan said.

Some key context: Administration officials have provided little information that could allow outsiders to independently assess claims that the people who were deported are affiliated with violent gangs or have extensive criminal records.

Officials have not revealed the deportees’ identities or evidence against them, prompting complaints from rights groups who say the actions are trampling on civil liberties. Family members have described a murky and ham-fisted process that disappeared people they say have no ties to organized crime.

Homan claimed every migrant on the deportation flights to El Salvador was affiliated with a criminal gang, according to information given to him by field agents.

“A lot of gang members don’t have criminal histories, like a lot of terrorists in this world,” Homan said. “We have to count on social media, we have to count on surveillance techniques, we have to count on sworn statements from other gang members.”

CNN’s Michael Williams contributed to this report.

Talks between the United States and Ukraine are underway in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Sunday.

“We’ve started the meeting with the American team in Riyadh,” Umerov wrote on X, saying that his delegation is implementing President Volodymyr Zelensky’s directive “to bring a just peace closer and to strengthen security.”

“The agenda includes proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure,” he added.

Talks with Moscow will follow: Russian officials are also set to meet with US delegates in Saudi Arabia starting tomorrow.

Those discussions will “mainly” focus on reviving the Black Sea grain initiative, the Kremlin said Sunday.

The deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey and aimed to allow Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain exporters before Russia’s full-scale invasion, to ship produce safely. Russia allowed the deal to lapse in 2023, saying its demands had not been met.

Russian delegates “will be ready to discuss the nuances” around reviving the deal, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV in an interview that aired Sunday, saying there are “a huge number” of details to iron out.

Catch up on the state of US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine diplomacy here.

Constituents seen grilling lawmakers at recent town halls are “justified” in their anger with President Donald Trump’s administration and the Democratic response to its actions, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have faced backlash at recent town halls for not taking more aggressive action against the administration’s decision to cut thousands of federal jobs. Maryland has a high concentration of federal workers.

Moore said he believes people elected Trump because they wanted “disruption” and have instead “gotten destruction.”

The governor said elected Democrats need to focus less on shifting their language and stressed they need to “deliver results” for their constituents.

“You’ve got to make it easier for people right now,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to put more money in their pockets, you have to make things more affordable. If we can do that, then I think you’re actually answering the calls and the cries that people have right now.”

Retired federal appeals court judge and prominent conservative legal scholar J. Michael Luttig rebuked President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric against the federal judiciary in a scathing op-ed that claimed the president is “declaring war” on the judicial system.

Luttig warned that without an “independent judiciary” to hold Trump accountable, there is no check on either the president or lawmakers, arguing that Republican majorities in Congress “have already demonstrated their fealty to him.”

Remember: In recent weeks, Trump has called to impeach judges who rule against him, prompting Chief Justice John Roberts to weigh in and push back against the president in an unusual move. Trump has also targeted other elements of the legal establishment, going after lawyers and staff at top law firms and law schools.

Republican lawmaker weighs in: GOP Sen. John Curtis told NBC’s “Meet the Press” he wouldn’t take the same approach as Trump when it comes to decisions that go against him in federal courts.

“If it were me, I probably — we wouldn’t be poking the people that are going to make decisions about me. But that’s me, and the president is going to do what the president does,” Curtis said Sunday.

He added that Trump can talk about impeaching judges, but it would take two-thirds of the Senate and, “We know that’s not going to happen.”

CNN’s Aileen Graef contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated to add Curtis’ remarks.

Second lady Usha Vance attends the presidential inauguration in Washington, DC, on January 20.

Second lady Usha Vance will travel to Greenland this week for what the White House is describing as a visit to watch the country’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity” — a trip that comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex the Arctic island.

Usha Vance, a statement from the office of the vice president says, “will travel to Greenland with her son and a United States delegation to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.”

“I’m also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our nations, and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years,” Vance said in a post to Instagram Sunday.

Some context: Before and after taking office, Trump expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion, most recently during remarks to a joint session of Congress.

“I think we’re going to get it one way or the other,” he said in the address earlier this month.

Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory.

It is unclear whether the US has ever sent a delegation to the Avannaata Qimussersu, much less one featuring a second lady. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., made headlines with a visit to Greenland in January.

This will mark the third international trip and second solo international trip for the second lady. The former lawyer has been assembling a small team of staff, transitioning her three children to life at the Naval Observatory, and settling into the role, for which she will have her own platform and responsibilities.

CNN’s Lauren Kent contributed to this report.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon sidestepped a direct question Sunday about whether it is a federal responsibility to ensure every child in the US has access to a good education after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education.

Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” if this responsibility falls on the federal government, McMahon responded broadly.

While McMahon did not clarify whether the federal government should be primarily responsible for education, she reiterated her and the administration’s stance that restructuring the Department of Education could improve the system by reducing red tape and restrictions, allowing states to be more creative with how they allocate resources.

“The president believes, as I do, that the best education is that that’s closest to the students,” McMahon said.

On RFK Jr. and vaccinations: McMahon also did not clarify when asked whether Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a long history of spreading health misinformation, will be involved in decisions surrounding the vaccination of children at schools.

Trump on Friday said “special needs funding” for students will be overseen by HHS as part of his effort to strip responsibility from the Education Department.

McMahon said vaccinations would be “a little bit outside” the responsibilities currently tabbed for RFK Jr.’s department, though when pressed by Bash whether that was a firm “no” to the question, the education secretary said, “That’s not necessarily a no.”

President Donald Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff sought Sunday to dismiss concerns about the administration’s approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling Fox News he doesn’t view the Russian leader in “black and white” terms and voicing confidence Putin’s territorial ambitions don’t extend to all of Europe.

Witkoff, who has met twice with Putin in recent weeks as Trump works to end the war in Ukraine, expressed confidence that talks in Saudi Arabia this week between American, Russia and Ukrainian officials would yield positive results, including on a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea.

Despite concerns in Europe that Trump is placing too much confidence in Putin as a negotiating partner, Witkoff said he believed the Russian leader was genuine in seeking a peace agreement to end the war.

“This is a much different situation that there was in World War II.”

“I take him at his word in this sense,” Witkoff added.

Asked about trusting a leader who’s invaded his neighbors and whose rivals are killed or disappeared, Witkoff suggested Western skepticism of Putin lacks nuance.

More from Witkoff this week: The foreign envoy gave a sprawling podcast interview with right-wing host Tucker Carlson in which he echoed the Kremlin’s argument that Ukraine’s Russia-occupied eastern territories want to become part of Russia — a line of thinking fiercely refuted by Kyiv.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer leaves the Democratic caucus lunch on March 13, in Washington, DC.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’s not stepping down as some Democrats sour on his leadership after his lack of resistance to the Republican-crafted funding bill to avoid a government shutdown that passed earlier this month.

Schumer maintained that the risk of a government shutdown where the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could determine which services were “essential” was too great, and would pose risks to food assistance programs and other vital services.

Schumer said he did believe the United States was in a constitutional crisis as President Donald Trump calls for judges who have issued orders against his policies to be impeached and said it would require “extraordinary action,” but did not specify what the action would be.

Democratic lawmaker weighs in: Rep. Jim Himes said Sunday that Democrats can do better with leadership in the wake of bitter infighting over the government funding bill, adding that both Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will need to be more unified.

“What I do know is that it was not a good look for the two congressional Democratic leaders to be on opposite sides of the continuing resolution that created a great deal of agita out there, legitimately so,” he said.

CNN has reported that Jeffries is facing new pressure to forgo his cautious demeanor and lead the charge against the White House, taking the reins of his party’s strategy from Schumer.

CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

This post has been updated with comments from Himes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may have spoken more times than have been publicly announced, the Kremlin said.

So far, there have been two announced phone calls between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House: First on February 12, then on March 18.

After the first call, the US president said negotiations to end the Ukraine war would start “immediately.” Two weeks later, delegations from the US and Russia met in Saudi Arabia.

In the second call, the two leaders discussed a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. Putin did not agree to the US proposal, though Kyiv and Moscow did pledge to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.

Some context: Peskov’s comments point toward a potentially deepening relationship between the two leaders, and come a day after US envoy Steve Witkoff revealed that Putin commissioned a portrait of the US president — which Witkoff delivered to him — and that the Russian president prayed “for his friend” after the assassination attempt against Trump.

The prospect of unannounced conversations between Trump and Putin will likely further trouble Western leaders, who are grappling with the growing rapprochement between Moscow and Washington while the US leaves its traditional European allies out in the cold.

In his interview with Zarubin, Peskov confirmed a Russian delegation is headed for Riyadh for further talks with US officials, who are set to meet Ukrainian representatives today.