President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon announced a new F-47 fighter jet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and signed a series of presidential actions before departing the White House for his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The actions included one rescinding the security clearances of several former Biden officials and political opponents.
Earlier Friday, Billionaire Elon Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday for an 80-minute meeting with Hegseth.
Meanwhile, fallout continued after Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education.
DOGE blocked from accessing sensitive Social Security records
A federal judge has blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive records maintained by the Social Security Administration.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander issued a temporary restraining order that requires Elon Musk and DOGE to destroy any information from the SSA in their possession that identifies individual taxpayers.
Hollander is continuing to allow DOGE to access anonymized data from the Social Security administration.
-ABC News' Peter Charalambous
Mar 20, 2025, 1:07 PM EDT
White House says Department of Education will 'greatly' reduce in scale and size
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke with reporters on the White House North Lawn about the president's executive order expected later Thursday aiming to dismantle much of the Department of Education.
Leavitt said the department will not be completely shut down and a smaller agency will continue to carry out "critical functions" such as Pell Grants, student loans, enforcing laws against discrimination, providing funding for low-income students and special education.
White House Press Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC on March 20, 2025.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
"The Department of Education will be much smaller than it is today," Leavitt said. "When it comes to student loans and Pell grants, those will still be run out of the Department of Education. But we don't need to be spending more than $3 trillion over the course of a few decades on a department that's clearly failing in its initial intention to educate our students."
The executive order needs congressional approval to dismantle the Department of Education altogether. When asked if the president intends to instruct Congress to do so, Leavitt refused to get ahead of Trump. "I'll leave it to the president to speak on that later," she said.
-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh
Mar 20, 2025, 12:13 PM EDT
European Union delays tariffs on US to mid-April
The European Union will delay planned tariffs on the U.S. in response to the U.S. tariffs on the EU President Donald Trump has previously announced, the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic said during a joint hearing of the Committee on International Trade on Thursday.
The EU tariffs are now planned to take effect in mid-April, Sefcovic said.
This photograph taken on March 19, 2025 shows European flags outside the EU headquarters in Brussels.
Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images
"In the light of the recent announcement that the US is planning to introduce additional tariffs on 2 April, we are now considering to align the timing of the two sets of EU countermeasures, so we can consult with member states on both lists simultaneously. It also gives us extra time for negotiations to try to find a mutually agreeable resolution," he said.
-ABC News' Clark Bentson
Mar 20, 2025, 9:57 AM EDT
Trump says the Fed should cut rates
As the Federal Reserve holds rates steady, Trump is pressing the central bank to cut rates.
"The Fed would be MUCH better off CUTTING RATES as U.S. Tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy," Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday night. "Do the right thing. April 2nd is Liberation Day in America!!!"
April 2 is when Trump's reciprocal tariffs go into effect. Trump says this means what other countries "charge us, we charge them." Trump officials are currently undertaking the massive task of trying to sort through how to determine the tariff rates for hundreds of countries and territories that the U.S. trades with.
