Live

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, 10:17 PM GMT

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, 10:01 PM GMT

Trump flaunts reported copy of Declaration of Independence in Fox News interview

In his interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Trump showed off what appears to be a copy of the Declaration of Independence that is now hanging in the Oval Office.

The document was initially covered by the blue curtains, which Trump said was to protect the document.

"It's been in the vaults for many, many decades, and they said, we have to do something like drapes or something because the light eventually affects it," Trump claimed.

A photo posted to the POTUS X account of President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, March 17, 2025.
POTUS

The original engrossed version of the document is on permanent display at the National Archives and Records Administration because it is extremely fragile and kept in very strict preservation conditions.

However, there are several historical printings and facsimiles of the document.

ABC News has asked the National Archives for more guidance on the origins of the document hanging in the Oval Office but has not received a response.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle

Mar 19, 2025, 6:07 PM GMT

White House says Ukraine agreed to energy ceasefire

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read aloud a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Michael Waltz on Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The two officials described the conversation between the two leaders as "fantastic" and that Trump "fully briefed" Zelenskyy on his call on Tuesday with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

"The two leaders also agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy," according to the statement shared from the podium. "Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea."

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.
Ben Curtis/AP

Zelenskyy, in his own statement following the call, said he "supported" ending strikes on energy infrastructure and that "Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it."

"We instructed our teams to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire," Zelenskyy said. "Ukrainian and American teams are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue coordinating steps toward peace."

Mar 19, 2025, 5:36 PM GMT

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, 4:38 PM GMT

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

Related Topics

Sponsored Content by Taboola