Trump admin updates: White House asks court to stay deportation flights TRO

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that attempts to decrease the federal government's size by eliminating "unnecessary government entities" determined by the president.

The action furthers the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to identify billions in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

According to a fact sheet provided by the White House, the president has eliminated the following entities: the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, the Minority Business Development Agency and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh

After a week of legal losses for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court handed the president a win on Friday night by allowing enforcement of a pair of executive orders that sought to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs from the federal government.

A panel of three judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found the Trump administration was likely to prevail in challenging a lower court’s ruling that Trump’s DEI executive orders -- one abolishing DEI in government and another requiring that grant recipients not operate DEI programs -- were unconstitutional.

The judges -- two of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents -- are allowing the Trump administration to enact the policy while they consider a final decision about whether the orders violate the Constitution.

In a concurring opinion, Judge Albert Diaz issued a warning about the political messaging surrounding DEI, which he called "a monster in America’s closet." The people working to enact DEI policies "deserve praise" because they are trying to create an "environment and culture where everyone is respected and valued," he wrote.

"From boardrooms to courtrooms to operating rooms to classrooms, previously marginalized Americans are thriving in spaces long closed to them. And we are the better for it," he wrote. "As with most monsters in the closet, what lurks is but a mere shadow, for which the remedy is simply light."

-ABC News Katherine Faulders and Peter Charalambous

Some probationary federal workers at the General Services Administration who had been terminated received notices on Friday that their employment had been temporarily reinstated and that they were being placed on administrative leave, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In an email sent Friday afternoon, terminated probationary GSA employees were told that they would be reinstated effective March 17 through "at least March 27" and that their "accrued leave and benefits will be reinstated," according to multiple emails obtained by ABC News.

The email states that the temporary reinstatement was issued to comply with a March 13 temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge James Bredar in a lawsuit filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia against the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary federal employees.

On Thursday, the judge ruled that the administration had failed to provide the legally required 60-day notice before attempting the mass layoffs. He also barred the administration from carrying out further mass terminations without proper notice.

-ABC News' Soo Rin Kim, Will Steakin, Cheyenne Haslett and Ben Siegel

President Donald Trump visited the Department of Justice headquarters Friday with Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel and repeated his now familiar accusation that the Justice Department was "weaponized" to attack him.

"We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls. Unfortunately, in recent years, a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated that trust and goodwill built up over generations," he said.

The event, which mirrored his campaign rallies, included props such as bags of drugs and boxes labeled "DEA EVIDENCE" in large font.

-ABC News' Alexander Mallin