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Trump admin live updates: Trump calls Tesla dealership vandals terrorists

"You didn't have anything like that on Jan. 6, which is sort of amazing.

Last Updated: March 21, 2025, 6:17 PM EDT

Billionaire Elon Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday for an 80-minute meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

A U.S. official told ABC News that Musk would attend a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that, among its topics, would touch on China. However, instead of meeting with the Joint Chiefs, Musk met with Hegseth and staffers. Trump and Hegseth denied that Musk was going to be briefed on China war plans after a report from the New York Times.

Meanwhile, fallout continued after Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education. Plus, the legal battle continues over the administration's use of the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans allegedly linked to organized crime.

Mar 19, 2025, 1:36 PM EDT

White House continues to rail against judges who block Trump's agenda

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday continued the administration's heavy criticism of the federal judiciary, even after Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Republican calls to impeach judges.

"Americans can absolutely expect to see the continuation of the mass deportation campaign that has been successfully led by this president," Leavitt said from the briefing podium when asked about the legal battle over deportation flights to El Salvador.

"The judges in this country are acting erroneously," she said. "We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench. They are trying to dictate policy from the president of the United States. They are trying to clearly slow-walk this administration's agenda, and it's unacceptable."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Mar. 19, 2025.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Leavitt added, "And not only are they usurping the will of the president and the chief executive of our country, but they are undermining the will of the American public -- tens of millions of Americans who duly elected this president to implement the policies that are coming out of this White House."

The attacks on judges from the Trump administration and their defiance of a court order over the weekend to turn around deportation planes have sparked concerns of a possible constitutional crisis.

Mar 19, 2025, 12:38 PM EDT

Trump, Zelenskyy call was 'good', 'very productive': Ukrainian official

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call with President Donald Trump was "good" and "very productive," a source in the Office of the Ukrainian President told ABC News.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks, during a joint press conference with Finland's President Alexander Stubb, at the Presidential Palace, in Helsinki, Finland, Mar. 19, 2025.
Heikki Saukkomaa/AP

Zelenskyy also agreed to set up a new meeting for the Ukrainian and U.S. delegations as soon as possible. Both sides will start working on this now, the source said.

-ABC News' Oleksiy Pshemyskiy

Mar 19, 2025, 12:37 PM EDT

Trump wraps up call with Zelenskyy

President Donald Trump provided a small readout with his nearly one-hour call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where he said they focused on his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters at the State Department in Washington, Mar. 18, 2025.
Will Oliver/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The president indicated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz will have more information shortly.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh

Mar 19, 2025, 10:27 AM EDT

Trump escalates legal battle with judge over deportations

The Trump administration is escalating its legal battle after Judge James Boasberg demanded more information about the two deportation flights that took off over the weekend and landed in El Salvador.

According to a filing Wednesday morning, the Department of Justice said it is considering invoking the states secrets privilege to deny the judge this information.

Boasberg ordered the DOJ Tuesday to provide him specific information on the flights, but privately.

The administration said it should not be forced to provide the information privately, despite signaling a willingness in a filing Tuesday to provide the information shielded from public view.

"The underlying premise of these orders, including the most recent one requiring the production of these facts ex parte today at noon, is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security. The Government disagrees. The two branches are coequal, and the Court's continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end," it wrote.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders, Peter Charalambous and Alexander Mallin

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