White House says some employees were fired by mistake

The White House informed The Associated Press that it would be barred from "accessing an event in the Oval Office" if it did not align its editorial standards with Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement.

The AP said one of their reporters was “blocked from attending an executive order signing” this afternoon.

The statement added that it is “alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism” and argued that this “plainly violates the First Amendment.”

Following the news that American hostage Marc Fogel has been freed from Russia, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Fogel will be at the White House at around 10 p.m. tonight.

When asked if Trump asked Russia for anything in return, Trump said, “Not much, no. They were very nice. We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually,” reiterating the need to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday afternoon that enforces DOGE’s work and enables Musk to implement his plans of reducing the federal government and increasing workplace efficiency.

According to a White House fact sheet, the order seeks to "significantly reduce the size of government" and will undertake "large-scale" job reductions.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

Musk says he is not in a conflict of interest with the Pentagon despite the contracts he has with the Department of Defense.

When pressed by ABC News’ Rachel Scott about whether his investigation into the DOD presents a conflict of interest due to his personal contracts with the Pentagon, Musk said, “No.”

"No, because you have to look at the individual contract and say, first of all, I'm not the one, you know, filing the contract. It's people at SpaceX," he said, referring to his aerospace comapany.