As prisoners stand looking out from a cell, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The White House has withdrawn Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a stunning turnaround for Trump’s Cabinet pick after her confirmation had been stalled over concerns about Republicans’ tight margins in the House.

In a major overhaul, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community health centers across the country.

Government lawyers say a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University was moved to a Louisiana detention center before a judge ordered her kept in Massachusetts. A federal judge gave the Trump administration until Friday to explain in court why she's being detained.

Leaders of Canada and Mexico are grappling with Trump’s auto tariffs. Prime Minister Mark Carney calls them a “direct attack” on Canada and says the trade war is hurting Americans, whose consumer confidence is at a multi-year low.

And The Associated Press returned to a Washington courtroom to ask a judge to restore its full access to presidential events.

Here's the Latest:

Trump withdraws Rep. Stefanik’s UN Ambassador nomination to maintain tight House majority

The White House has withdrawn Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a stunning turnaround for Trump’s Cabinet pick after her confirmation had been stalled over concerns about Republicans’ tight margins in the House.

Trump confirmed the decision in a Truth Social post on Thursday, saying that it was “essential that we maintain EVERY Republican Seat in Congress.”

“We must be unified to accomplish our Mission, and Elise Stefanik has been a vital part of our efforts from the very beginning. I have asked Elise, as one of my biggest Allies, to remain in Congress,” he said.

Trump had tapped Stefanik, a New York Republican, to represent the U.S. at the international body shortly after winning reelection in November. She was seen as among the least controversial Cabinet picks, and her nomination advanced out of committee in late January.

It had seemed as if Stefanik’s nomination would advance to the Senate floor in recent weeks, given two U.S. House special elections in Florida in districts that Trump easily won in 2024.

Filling those vacant GOP seats would have allowed Stefanik to finally resign from the House and given Republicans, who currently hold 218 seats, a little more breathing room on passing legislation in a growingly divided Congress. Democrats hold 213 seats.

? Read more about Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination

Trump to join Florida special elections’ telephone town halls

Two GOP congressional candidates running in Florida’s special elections say that Trump will be joining telephone town halls later Thursday to help their campaigns as Democrats have outraised them by millions in these heavily Republican districts.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who’s running in the 1st District, and state Sen. Randy Fine, in the 6th District, both posted on X announcing their telephone town halls with Trump. They are looking to replace Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz, both tapped for roles in the Trump administration. Waltz is the national security adviser and Gaetz withdrew from consideration to be attorney general amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Trump endorsed both Patronis and Fine.

They are heavily favored against Democrats Gay Valimont in the 1st District and Josh Weil in the 6th District. Some national Republicans have expressed concern about Fine’s fundraising and overall campaign.

A lawsuit brought by former FTC commissioners has broad implications

Two members of the Federal Trade Commission fired by Trump have sued the administration, arguing that their removal was illegal. The case has implications for other independent agencies such as the Federal Reserve.

Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Democratic members of the five-person FTC, said their March 18 firing would mean that officials at many other independent agencies could also be removed. Their lawsuit says that the firing violates a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision that found the president couldn’t fire members of independent agencies, such as the FTC, without cause.

“We make rules that require tech companies to protect children’s privacy online. We promote competition in the pharmaceutical industry to drive prices down,” Slaughter said in a news release. “And we can do all of this because the FTC can’t be bought with campaign contributions or bullied by politicians.”

Should the firing of the two FTC commissioners be upheld by the courts, it could pave the way for Trump or future presidents to fire members of the Fed’s governing board, analysts say, threatening its highly prized independence.

Trump’s economic officials, however, have said the White House has no intention to fire the chair, Jerome Powell. Last week, Trump criticized the Fed for not cutting its key interest rate.

‘My jaw drops at this news’: Experts say HHS overhaul undermines overdose progress

Under the plan announced Thursday by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would be absorbed into a new Administration for a Healthy America.

Experts told The Associated Press that eliminating SAMHSA could stall progress on overdose deaths. The agency funds distribution of naloxone, oversees methadone clinics and supports prevention efforts in all 50 states.

“There’s a reason why we have reduced overdose in this country: It’s because SAMHSA has been doing its job so well,” said Dr. Ruth Potee, who oversees seven methadone clinics in Massachusetts. “My jaw drops at this news.”

Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said millions of Americans use services supported by SAMHSA, “even if they have never heard the name of the agency.”

Tufts University doctoral student is latest Palestinian supporter swept up in US crackdown

Government lawyers said in a court document Thursday that Rumeysa Ozturk of Turkey was moved to a Louisiana detention center before a judge ordered her kept in Massachusetts.

A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said her visa is revoked because she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”

Hundreds of supporters protested her detention Wednesday night. They say her only known activism was co-authoring an op-ed in the student newspaper calling on Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

Ozturk’s lawyer said no charges have been filed against her. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani told the government to explain by Friday why she’s detained.

? Read more about the Tufts University student’s detention

Anti-abortion groups urge Congress to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in budget bill

Over 150 anti-abortion groups signed onto a letter calling for Planned Parenthood and other centers that provide abortions as well as other health care to be the next target of “cost saving measures by Elon Musk.”

“In an era of reexamining federal funding, Congress should start by cutting funding for Big Abortion in the upcoming reconciliation bill,” the letter said.

“Today is a historic moment where the pro-life movement stands united behind one message: Defund Planned Parenthood,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, as they rallied on Capitol Hill. “Our tax money has continued to pour into the abortion giant.”

Students from across the country held up a larger sign with the words “DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD” behind the speakers.

The group’s executive vice president, Tina Whittington, told The Associated Press that Planned Parenthood is a perfect target for the Department of Government Efficiency’s work targeting waste, fraud and abuse.

Trump has said abortion is an issue for the states to decide.

? Read more on the Capitol Hill anti-abortion demonstration

Justice Department eyes combining the DEA and ATF

Justice Department leaders are proposing eliminating some offices and dramatically restructuring the department, including combining the two agencies responsible for enforcing drug and gun laws, according to a memo reviewed by The Associated Press.

The memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche seeks feedback on a reorganization plan that proposes combining the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into a “single component agency to achieve efficiencies in resources, case deconfliction, and regulatory efforts.”

The plan also calls for combining policy offices and eliminating Main Justice field offices around the country, such as Environment and Natural Resources Division offices in Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Sacramento.

House Democrats demand answers over Musk’s gutting of financial protection bureau

The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee is demanding information from the Trump administration about DOGE’s dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans from unfair actions by banks and other entities.

Rep. Maxine Waters of California and other committee Democrats are using a unique legislative tool — the resolution of inquiry — to force the House to conduct oversight on Musk, whom she called “an unelected billionaire who clearly does not have the interest of our nation’s consumers in mind.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees are making similar moves. If House Republicans who control the panels fail to take up the requests, Democrats can launch a process forcing a vote by the full House.

Nonprofits sue federal govt over axing of legal help for migrant children traveling alone

The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Immigrant Defenders Law Center and Justice Action Center say 26,000 children could lose their lawyers and tens of thousands of others will not get legal help if the Trump administration succeeds in ending its contract that supports a national network of providers.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in California seeks to immediately restore access to the programs. Otherwise, it says children who crossed the border without a parent or guardian will be forced to navigate the complex legal system alone, denying them due process and leading to systemic chaos and delays.

The contract with the Acacia Center for Justice supports legal representation to unaccompanied migrant children under 18 and conducts legal orientations — often referred to as “know your rights” clinics — to children in federal shelters.

AP renews request for reinstatement to White House press pool

A lawyer for The Associated Press is asking a federal judge to reinstate the agency’s access to the White House press pool and some other events for its reporters and photographers. Charles Tobin says that “AP has now spent 44 days in the penalty box.”

The news agency and the Trump administration are in court in a disagreement over the White House’s removal of AP reporters and photographers from the small group of journalists in the pool who follow the president.

A lawyer for the government, Brian Hudak, said AP hadn’t shown irreparable harm. “There is no showing of exclusion,” he said, adding that AP can still access events in the East Room and people leaving and coming outside the White House.

In actuality, AP has been able to access East Room events only occasionally, at the discretion of the White House.

AP photographer Evan Vucci testified that the agency was “basically dead in the water on major news stories.”

Vucci took a famous and widely distributed photo of Trump immediately after an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last summer. Tobin held up a book published by Trump with the same photo on its cover.

Elon Musk awards $1 million to a voter in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race. Opposition calls it ‘corrupt’

The billionaire announced the award ahead of Tuesday’s conclusion of a fiercely contested state Supreme Court election that has broken spending records and become a referendum on Musk and the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.

The payment to a Green Bay man is similar to a lottery Musk’s political action committee ran last year in presidential battleground states.

The election to fill the seat of a retiring justice has become a proxy battle over the nation’s politics. The result could keep Wisconsin’s highest court under 4-3 liberal control or flip it to a conservative majority.

The Democratic-supported candidate’s campaign blasted Musk’s payment as an illegal attempt to buy influence on a court that could end up deciding a pending Tesla lawsuit.

AP and Trump administration back in court over access dispute

The Associated Press and the Trump administration are in court for arguments over the White House’s banning of the news agency from its press pool earlier this year. The AP sued three administration officials including the president’s press secretary after its reporters were barred.

The administration says it’s because AP is ignoring an executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The AP has said it’s sticking with Gulf of Mexico while also acknowledging Trump’s name change in its news stories, because it has a global audience and the body of water is not solely under the purview of the United States.

The AP’s stylebook is influential and is followed by many news organizations and others.

The court proceeding started at 9:40 a.m. No communications devices are allowed into federal court.

? Read more about the AP and the Trump administration in court

French president pledges retaliation if tariffs are imposed

Speaking after a summit about Ukraine in Paris, Emmanuel Macron said that while Trump is asking Europeans to make greater military efforts to ensure their own security, “this is not the time to be imposing tariffs on us.”

“It’s not coherent,” Macron said. “Imposing tariffs means breaking value chains, creating inflation in the short term and destroying jobs. It’s not good for the American economy, nor for the European, Canadian or Mexican economies.”

Macron insisted he would find it quite paradoxical if the U.S. imposes more taxes on their main allies. Europeans would retaliate to protect themselves, with the goal of trying “to dismantle all these tariffs.”

Former top intelligence and military officials assess risks from Signal chat exposure

The National Security Leaders for America says the full transcript of Signal chat conversations Trump officials had shows how dangerous it was for them to use the communications app to discuss an upcoming military operation.

“It is even more evident that this remarkable disregard for operational security presented significant risks to the mission and the lives of the men and women serving in the region,” the group’s statement says.

The group released an assessment of how the mission could have been compromised, including allowing an enemy to target the USS Harry S. Truman during the aircraft launch as well as allowing air defenses to prepare for the incoming flights.

California faces federal investigation over LGBTQ+ student privacy law

The Trump administration says it believes California schools are violating federal student privacy laws by following a new state law that forbids districts from requiring staff to notify parents about changes to their child’s gender identity.

The U.S. Education Department on Thursday said it’s opening an investigation into California’s state education office for alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act. It said FERPA supersedes state law and gives parents the right to access their children’s education information. Violating FERPA can lead to a termination of federal money, the department warned

“Teachers and school counselors should not be in the business of advising minors entrusted to their care on consequential decisions about their sexual identity and mental health,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

Senate Armed Services leaders request Defense inspector general to investigate Signal leak

The top Republican and Democrat, in a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, are sending a letter to the inspector general at the Department of Defense to formally request an investigation into how top Trump national security officials used Signal to discuss military strikes.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the committee, along with Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat, signed the letter that asks for an inquiry into the potential “use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”

Senators Wicker and Reed want Steven Stebbins, the acting inspector general at the Department of Defense, to:

— account for what was communicated and any actions to follow up on the communication

— assess the Pentagon’s policies for sharing sensitive and classified information, as well as its policies for classification and declassification

— identify any discrepancies in the classification policies between the White House, Pentagon, intelligence community and other agencies

— evaluate whether anyone transferred classified information on Signal

— make recommendations to address any problems identified.

Mexico seeks preferential treatment for autos to protect jobs

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that Mexico does not want to be drawn into taking positions with each new U.S. tariff. She cited Trump’s taxes on aluminum and steel as well as his new ones on imported automobiles and auto parts.

“There shouldn’t be any tariffs, that is the essence of the commercial treaty” the first Trump administration signed with Mexico and Canada, she said.

Updating the Mexican people on his team’s efforts in Washington, Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said they had more than half a dozen meetings with top Trump officials, but once Trump was moving ahead, they shifted gears to seek preferential treatment.

Now he said both sides are discussing how that could work: The basic idea is that automobiles exported from Mexico would not face the full 25% tariff, but rather would be taxed based on where their components came from.

White House spotlights UAW cheering Trump’s auto tariffs

The Trump administration is eagerly noting that United Auto Workers union president Shawn Fain, who endorsed the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, is welcoming Trump’s 25% auto tariff.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Fain “wasn’t the greatest fan” of Trump, but still has “applauded the president for this move.”

Fain on Wednesday said of Trump’s tariffs announcement, “Ending the race to the bottom in the auto industry starts with fixing our broken trade deals, and the Trump administration has made history with today’s actions.”

Attorney General seems disinclined to investigate top Trump administration officials over Signal chat exposure

When asked at an unrelated news conference what the Justice Department plans to do about top national security officials using a messaging app to discuss details of a planned military attack, Pam Bondi declined to comment and deflected.

She also insisted that none of the information shared on Signal was classified, even though officials have provided no evidence that that’s the case.

Espionage Act statutes require the safe handling of closely held national defense information even if it’s not marked classified.

Bondi, who has pledged not to play politics with the department, quickly pivoted to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Joe Biden, who were investigated for allegations that they mishandled classified information but were not charged. Both Democrats were subject to extensive criminal investigations and the FBI and Justice Department have long track records of such inquiries.

The US Health and Human Services agency says it will eliminate 10,000 jobs

Thursday’s announcement by the agency responsible for monitoring infectious diseases, inspecting foods and hospitals and overseeing health insurance programs for nearly half the country says its workforce will shrink from 82,000 to 62,000 positions.

The cuts include layoffs, early retirements and voluntary separations, encouraged through buyout offers and will mostly affect the public health agencies:

1. the Food and Drug Administration, responsible for setting standards for Americans’ foods and medications, will shed 3,500 workers

2. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks infectious disease outbreaks, will cut 2,400 positions.

3. the National Institutes for Health, the world’s leading public health research agency, will lose 1,200 people.

4. the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees health coverage for older and poor Americans, will shed 300 jobs.

1. the Food and Drug Administration, responsible for setting standards for Americans’ foods and medications, will shed 3,500 workers

2. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks infectious disease outbreaks, will cut 2,400 positions.

3. the National Institutes for Health, the world’s leading public health research agency, will lose 1,200 people.

4. the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees health coverage for older and poor Americans, will shed 300 jobs.

Vaccines group Gavi says US has not confirmed it will end funding

The global vaccines group that helps immunize more than half the world’s children against infectious diseases could lose more than $1 billion in pledged U.S. funding, according to a USAID spreadsheet that leaked this week.

But the Gavi alliance ’s chief executive said Thursday that the U.S government hasn’t confirmed the proposed cuts.

Dr. Sania Nishtar said Gavi is “engaging with the White House and Congress,” to secure the funding.

The 281-page spreadsheet detailing plans to terminate 5,341 awards to dozens of groups was first reported on by The New York Times.

Gavi says it has averted nearly 19 million deaths by helping to vaccinate more than 1 billion children in 78 poorer countries against diseases including measles, Ebola and malaria.

Europe lashes out over Trump auto tariffs and the economic threat to both continents

European automakers, already struggling with tepid economic growth at home and rising competition from China, on Thursday decried the U.S. import tax on cars as a heavy burden that will punish consumers and companies alike on both sides of the Atlantic.

The new 25% import tax announced by Trump “will hurt global automakers and US manufacturing at the same time,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ association said in a statement.

The head of Germany’s auto industry association, VDA, said the tariffs would weigh on car makers and every company in the deeply interwoven global supply chain “with negative consequences above all for consumers, including in North America.”

“The consequences will cost growth and prosperity on all sides,” Hildegard Müller said in a statement.

The stakes are enormous for BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Stellantis and their vast network of suppliers, as well as the entire European economy.

? Read more about the impacts of tariffs on Europe

Defense secretary minimizes Signal chat exposure

There are no signs that the Signal chat controversy will fade soon for Trump, who has said he stands by his national security team and has assailed the credibility of the reporter who broke the story.

Pete Hegseth told reporters in Hawaii he had not texted “war plans” or “attack plans” in the Signal group, pointing out he had called his post a “team update.”

“My job, as it said atop of that (post), everybody’s seen it now - ‘TEAM UPDATE’ - is to provide updates in real time, general updates in real time, keep people informed,” he said before boarding a plane for Guam without taking follow-up questions. “That’s what I did. That’s my job.”

Trump furious that judge whose impeachment he’s called for assigned Signal lawsuit

The president showed his fury on social media early Thursday, declaring it “disgraceful” that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has been assigned another hot button case involving the Trump administration.

Cases are randomly assigned to the 20 judges in the Washington court.

Boasberg was assigned on Wednesday to preside over a lawsuit filed by the group American Oversight against several Trump administration officials and the National Archives and Records Administration. It alleges they violated federal recordkeeping laws when they used a Signal chat group to discuss military strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Boasberg’s assignment to the Signal lawsuit came just two days after the Trump administration, in the Venezuela deportation case, invoked the “state secrets” privilege to refuse to share details with the judge about the timing of deportation flights to El Salvador.

“There is no way for a Republican, especially a TRUMP REPUBLICAN, to win before him,” Trump said. He added that Boasberg is “Highly Conflicted.” Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg.

US cities located in states won by Trump would be most hurt by Canadian tariffs, an analysis finds

The U.S. cities most vulnerable to a trade war with Canada turn out to largely be in the states that helped return Donald Trump to the White House — a sign of the possible political risk he’s taking with his tariff plans.

A new analysis released Thursday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce detailed the areas most dependent on exports to Canada, with San Antonio and Detroit topping the list of 41 U.S. metro areas. The findings show that the United States’ 25% tariffs on Canada and Canada’s retaliations could inflict meaningful damage in key states for U.S. politics.

The analysis was conducted before Trump announced Wednesday that he was placing additional 25% tariffs on imported autos and parts starting on April 3.

? Read more about how tariffs will impact cities in the U.S.

Trump has begun another trade war. Here’s a timeline of how we got here

Long-threatened tariffs from Trump have plunged the country into a global trade war — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.

Trump is no stranger to tariffs. He launched a trade war during his first term, taking particular aim at China by putting taxes on most of its goods. Beijing responded with its own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products ranging from fruit to automotive imports. Trump also used the threat of more tariffs to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate a North American trade pact, called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, in 2020.

Fast-forward to today and economists stress there could be greater consequences on businesses and economies worldwide under Trump’s more sweeping tariffs this time around — and that higher prices will likely leave consumers footing the bill. There’s also been a sense of whiplash from Trump’s back-and-forth tariff threats and responding retaliation, including some recently-postponed taxes on goods from America’s largest trading partners.

? Read more about the timeline of how we got here

Canadian prime minister says Trump’s auto tariffs are a ‘direct attack’ on his country

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he needs to see the details of Trump’s executive order before taking retaliatory measures. He called it unjustified and said he will leave the election campaign to go to Ottawa on Thursday to chair his special Cabinet committee on U.S. relations.

Carney earlier announced a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.

Autos are Canada’s second largest export, and Carney noted it employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries. Carney says it is appropriate that he and Trump speak on the phone. The two have not spoken since Carney was sworn in March 14.

? Read more about Carney’s response to Trump’s tariffs

AP returning to court in suit against the Trump administration

The Associated Press is returning to a Washington courtroom Thursday to ask a judge to restore its full access to presidential events. That’s weeks after the White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following President Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

In a previous hearing last month, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden refused the AP’s request for an injunction to stop the White House from barring reporters and photographers from events in the Oval Office and Air Force One. He urged the Trump administration to reconsider its ban before Thursday’s hearing. It hasn’t.

The AP has said it needs to take a stand against Trump’s team for punishing a news organization for using speech that it doesn’t like. The news outlet said it would still refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its style guidance to clients around the world, while also noting that Trump has renamed it the Gulf of America. The White House said it has the right to decide who gets to question the president.

“For anyone who thinks the Associated Press’s lawsuit against President Trump’s White House is about the name of a body of water, think bigger,” Julie Pace, the AP’s executive editor, wrote in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal. “It’s really about whether the government can control what you say.”

The president has dismissed the AP as a group of “radical left lunatics” and said that “we’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2025