Trump 2nd term updates: Trump excludes low-value shipments from looming tariffs

Transgender U.S. service members will be separated from the military unless they receive an exemption, according to a new Pentagon policy.
According to the memo, the Pentagon must create a procedure to identify troops who are transgender within 30 days (March 26) and then separate them from the military no later than June 25.
The memo specifically describes these individuals as having gender dysphoria and who are receiving some form of treatment, hormones or have gone through a gender reassignment surgery.

The new policy was included as an exhibit in the case Talbott v. Trump, a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order that lifted the previous policy allowing transgender service members to serve in the military.

Service members who will be separated will receive honorable discharges except where the service member's record warrants a lower discharge, according to the memo.

According to a defense official 4,240 active duty, Guard and Reserve service members have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

One day after the Department of Veterans Affairs celebrated an estimated $2 billion in savings on canceled contracts, the agency began reversing some of the cancellations that may have affected veterans' medical care and other benefits, according to multiple sources familiar with the contracts and agency records reviewed by ABC News.

The hundreds of contracts set for cancellation included some for legally required technical inspections of medical equipment that produce radiation at VA facilities, including CT scanners, MRI machines and dental X-ray units.

Without annual inspections, some of which are conducted by contractors in part to save the agency money, VA staffers are not permitted to use the equipment.

The VA has already gone through two rounds of layoffs: The first affected 1,000 workers, and the second, announced this week, affected 1,400 "non-mission critical positions," according to the agency's statement.

Some of those terminated employees were asked to return to work days later, workers told ABC News.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel, Soo Rin Kim and Nathan Luna

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has completed his review of foreign aid contracts and grants distributed by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development "as of this morning" and that he intends to end nearly 10,000 of the awards, the overwhelming majority of them, permanently within the coming days.

The filing said almost 5,800 USAID awards and approximately 4,100 awards distributed through the State Department will be terminated, while about 500 USAID awards and roughly 2,700 State Department awards will be retained.

The news was revealed in a joint status report filed Wednesday in a court hearing over the federal case over the $1.9 billion foreign aid freeze.

"USAID is in the process of processing termination letters with the goal to reach substantial completion within the next 24-48 hours," according to the defendant's statement included in the filing. "As a result, no USAID or State obligations remain in a suspended or paused state."

Three officials familiar with the situation told ABC News the numbers of awards to be retained and cut listed in the document were accurate.

The timeline for the review was originally slated for 90 days, but what's unclear is whether the process was rushed as part of the legal proceedings.

One official cast doubt on the review process, asserting it was a ruse and that the administration always intended to cut the majority of aid awards.

-ABC News' Shannon Kingston

During the Cabinet meeting, Musk and Trump notably walked back a campaign promise, saying that he wants DOGE to save the government $1 trillion rather than the $2 trillion previously promised on the trail.

"We're looking to get it maybe to $1 trillion, if we can do that. We're going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets," Trump said. "And that's a big -- whether it's this year or next year, I think we'll be very close to balancing budgets."

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart