Interim summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
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Gary Shapley, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has been ousted after treasury secretary Scott Bessent complained to Donald Trump that Shapley had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, according to the New York Times. Citing five people with knowledge of ousting, the New York Times reports that Bessent believed that Musk “had done an end run around him” to get Shapley installed, despite the IRS having to report to Bessent’s department.
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Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Donald Trump said that the US is having good conversations with China amid the ongoing trade war between the two countries. “By the way, we have nice conversations going with China … It’s, like, really very good,” he said. He did not offer additional details, Reuters reports.
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Trump, asked about Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, says he has “no interest in that prisoner”.
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Keir Starmer and Donald Trump spoke about UK-US trade talks and Ukraine in a phone call on Friday, according to Downing Street. A statement from a No 10 spokesperson reads: “The leaders began by discussing the ongoing and productive discussions between the UK and US on trade. The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to free and open trade and the importance of protecting the national interest.”
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Donald Trump and his team will continue to study whether to fire the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, the White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said. “The president and his team will continue to study that matter,” Hassett told reporters at the White House in response to a question.
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The Trump administration has requested records from Harvard University on the money it receives from foreign funding, in the latest step in Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against the university. The education department said it sent a records request from Harvard “after a review of the university’s foreign reports revealed incomplete and inaccurate disclosures”.
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Donald Trump has accepted the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s invitation to pay an official visit to Italy in the “very near future”, a joint statement by the leaders said on Friday. The statement came a day after the two leaders met at the White House in an attempt by Meloni to bridge the gap between the EU and the US amid trade tariff tensions.
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Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency” and the Trump administration have spared the jobs of US Department of Transportation employees who provide support services for spacecraft launches by Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Starlink – a revelation that raises a new round of conflict-of-interest questions around Doge. In its most recent buyout announcement, the transportation department did not note that the positions spared supported Musk’s and others’ space operations.
Key events
US Representative Pramila Jayapal decried the move to remove even more immigrants and send to El Salvador’s notorious prison for alleged gang members.
“SCOTUS ruled that Trump had to give people adequate notice before deporting them. Yet today, there are reports that he’s deporting 177 immigrants with under 24 hours’ notice—not enough time to assert due process. We cannot stand by as this admin continues to disappear people,” she wrote.
Senator Chris Van Hollen speaks live about meeting Kilmar Ábrego García
At the airport in Washington, Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen is currently describing his meeting with Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador on Thursday.
Here is the live video from the senator’s YouTube channel.
Lawyers say Venezuelans have been given 24 hours notice of deportation
In an emergency motion, lawyers for Venezuelan nationals in the US are raising alarm that their clients have been given 24 hours of notice that they will be removed from the US.
The filing is part of the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and the ACLU of the District of Columbia’s larger case challenging the Trump administration over the president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to remove immigrants in the US.
The filing indicates that the government is planning a fresh wave of deportations to El Salvador’s mega-prison, CECOT, where more than 275 immigrants in the US have already been sent. The lawyers are asking for an immediate restraining order mandating that the government give people at least 30 days notice of removals.
In their court filing, lawyers said clients recieved a document Friday from immigration officials, titled “Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal under the Alien Enemies Act”
It reads: “You have been determined to be … a member of Tren de Aragua.”
“You have been determined to be an Alien enemy subject to apprehension, restraint and removal from the United States…This is not a removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the notice reads.
Interim summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
-
Gary Shapley, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has been ousted after treasury secretary Scott Bessent complained to Donald Trump that Shapley had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, according to the New York Times. Citing five people with knowledge of ousting, the New York Times reports that Bessent believed that Musk “had done an end run around him” to get Shapley installed, despite the IRS having to report to Bessent’s department.
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Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Donald Trump said that the US is having good conversations with China amid the ongoing trade war between the two countries. “By the way, we have nice conversations going with China … It’s, like, really very good,” he said. He did not offer additional details, Reuters reports.
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Trump, asked about Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, says he has “no interest in that prisoner”.
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Keir Starmer and Donald Trump spoke about UK-US trade talks and Ukraine in a phone call on Friday, according to Downing Street. A statement from a No 10 spokesperson reads: “The leaders began by discussing the ongoing and productive discussions between the UK and US on trade. The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to free and open trade and the importance of protecting the national interest.”
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Donald Trump and his team will continue to study whether to fire the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, the White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said. “The president and his team will continue to study that matter,” Hassett told reporters at the White House in response to a question.
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The Trump administration has requested records from Harvard University on the money it receives from foreign funding, in the latest step in Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against the university. The education department said it sent a records request from Harvard “after a review of the university’s foreign reports revealed incomplete and inaccurate disclosures”.
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Donald Trump has accepted the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s invitation to pay an official visit to Italy in the “very near future”, a joint statement by the leaders said on Friday. The statement came a day after the two leaders met at the White House in an attempt by Meloni to bridge the gap between the EU and the US amid trade tariff tensions.
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Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency” and the Trump administration have spared the jobs of US Department of Transportation employees who provide support services for spacecraft launches by Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Starlink – a revelation that raises a new round of conflict-of-interest questions around Doge. In its most recent buyout announcement, the transportation department did not note that the positions spared supported Musk’s and others’ space operations.
Wife of Kilmar Ábrego García expresses relief to learn he is alive
From the Guardian’s Edward Helmore and Léonie Chao-Fong and agencies:
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Ábrego García, the man the Trump administration has admitted it mistakenly deported to El Salvador, on Friday expressed relief to learn he is alive after a Democratic US senator managed to meet with him.
“It was very overwhelming – the most important thing for me, my children, his mom, brothers was to see him alive, and we saw him alive,” Vasquez Sura told ABC in an interview.
The Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen revealed on Thursday evening that he had met with Ábrego García at the maximum-security prison in El Salvador known as Cecot, where the autocratic regime holds prisoners without due process. Ábrego García was arrested by immigration agents in Maryland, where he lives and works with his family.
He had been afforded a federal protection order against deportation to El Salvador, which the Trump administration ignored last month when it flew him and more than 200 Venezuelan deportees to El Salvador without warning or a court hearing, in a move that has fallen foul of judges in the US right up to the supreme court.
For the full story, click here:
The White House has released a list of the various activities scheduled for Easter celebrations next Monday.
Part of the celebrations, which will be helmed by first lady Melania Trump, include:
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Be Best Military Card Writing Station, encouraging children to send messages of gratitude to American troops.
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Be Best Hopscotch, for the most energetic young guests.
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Space Exploration Experience, courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).
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Hen to Home Activity, courtesy of the American Egg Board.
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Garden Café for Tasty Treats, courtesy of the American Egg Board.
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Play Garden, courtesy of the Toy Association.
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Bloom Bar and Carrot Planting, courtesy of the International Fresh Produce Association.
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Easter Candy Distribution, courtesy of the National Confectioners Association.
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Reading Nook, courtesy of Amazon.
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Family Photo Opportunity Celebrating Reading, courtesy of Amazon.
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Bunny Hop Stage, courtesy of YouTube.
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AI-Powered Experience and Photo Opportunity, courtesy of Meta.
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Ringing of the Bell Photo Opportunity, courtesy of the New York Stock Exchange.
The children’s celebrations next week come amid Donald Trump’s widespread immigration crackdowns across the country that include efforts by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport unaccompanied immigrant children, as Reuters reported in February.
Additionally, as part of sweeping budget cuts across the federal government, the Trump administration is reported to have cut funding last month to a legal program that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children.
Donald Trump has said the US will ‘take a pass’ on a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine if ‘parties make it difficult’.
The US president made the comments to reporters during the swearing-in ceremony for Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
IRS acting commissioner ousted – report
Gary Shapley, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has been ousted after treasury secretary Scott Bessent complained to Donald Trump that Shapley had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, according to the New York Times.
Citing five people with knowledge of ousting, the New York Times reports that Bessent believed that Musk “had done an end run around him” to get Shapley installed, despite the IRS having to report to Bessent’s department.
The Times further reports that Musk’s so-called “department of goverment efficiency” encouraged Shapley’s appointment through White House channels without consulting Bessent, according to the sources who spoke to the outlet.
The next acting head of the IRS is expected to be the deputy treasury secretary, Michael Faulkender, the Times reported.
He would hold the role until the president’s nominee for the permanent role, former Missouri congressman Billy Long, if approved by the Senate, takes over.
Trump: ‘We have nice conversations going with China’
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Donald Trump said that the US is having good conversations with China amid the ongoing trade war between the two countries.
“By the way, we have nice conversations going with China … It’s, like, really very good,” he said.
He did not offer additional details, Reuters reports.
On Tuesday, China Daily, the country’s official state media published an editorial saying:
“The US is not getting ripped off by anybody… The problem is the US has been living beyond its means for decades. It consumes more than it produces. It has outsourced its manufacturing and borrowed money in order to have a higher standard of living than it’s entitled to based on its productivity. Rather than being ‘cheated’, the US has been taking a free ride on the globalisation train.”
For the full story on China’s latest response to the trade war, read here:
A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a request by the Trump administration to allow it to move forward with removing temporary legal protections for about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants.
Reuters reports that the San Francisco-based ninth US circuit court of appeals declined to pause a lower-court judge’s 31 March order halting homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to terminate the temporary protected status granted to Venezuelans.
Trump says he has ‘no interest’ in Ábrego García
Trump, asked about Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, says he has “no interest in that prisoner”.
He claims Ábrego García’s record is “unbelievably bad” and that he’s “not a very innocent guy”.
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This post was amended to delete Trump saying: “He’s a fake,” which was incorrectly reported to have been a reference to Kilmar Ábrego García. In fact, Trump made the statement about Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen.
Donald Trump insists ‘nobody’s playing me’
Trump said his entire life has been “one big negotiation” and that he can recognize when people are “playing” him.
He tells reporters he needs to see “enthusiasm” from both sides to end the war in Ukraine.
I think I see that enthusiasm. I think I see it from both sides.
“Nobody’s playing me,” he adds.
Trump says US will ‘take a pass’ on Ukraine peace deal ‘if parties make it difficult’
Donald Trump has been speaking to reporters during the swearing-in ceremony for Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
On the subject of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said:
We’re going to get it done ideally. If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult … we’re going to just take a pass. Hopefully we won’t have to do that.
He said he believed there was a “good chance” of “solving the problem”.
A federal judge who blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ruled the agency cannot go forward immediately with plans to fire hundreds of employees.
US district judge Amy Berman Jackson expressed concern that administration officials have not been complying with her earlier order that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the bureau, the Associated Press reported.
Jackson said she will bar the carrying out of any mass firings or cutting off of employees’ access to agency computer systems.
A hearing has been scheduled for 28 April to hear testimony from officials.
Starmer and Trump discuss US-UK trade and Ukraine, says No 10
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump spoke about US-UK trade talks and Ukraine in a phone call on Friday, according to Downing Street.
A statement from a No 10 spokesperson reads:
The leaders began by discussing the ongoing and productive discussions between the UK and US on trade. The Prime Minister reiterated his commitment to free and open trade and the importance of protecting the national interest.
The leaders also discussed the situation in Ukraine, Iran and recent action taken against the Houthis in Yemen.
They agreed to stay in touch.
Hugo Lowell
Faced with a flurry of adverse court orders it would rather not follow, the Trump White House is increasingly deploying a strategy of claiming or even manufacturing its own uncertainty to dodge their effects without appearing to outright defy them.
The Trump administration has faced several major legal setbacks in recent weeks, most notably in its efforts to deport undocumented immigrants without due process under the Alien Enemies Act or in spite of protective orders.
In each of the two cases, when ordered to take specific steps to recall deportation flights or secure the release of a man wrongly deported, the administration has opted to adopt twisted readings of the order rather than comply.
Read the full analysis: Trump officials create uncertainty to evade court orders rather than comply
White House says Ábrego García ‘NOT coming back’ to US
The White House posted an image of a New York Times article about the meeting between Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen and Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador on Thursday.
Addressing Van Hollen, the White House said Ábrego García is “NOT coming back”.
Trump will ‘continue to study’ whether to fire Fed chair
Donald Trump and his team will continue to study whether to fire the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said.
“The president and his team will continue to study that matter,” Hassett told reporters at the White House in response to a question.
Trump lambasted Powell as “always too late and wrong” in a Truth Social post on Thursday, condemning him for not lowering US interest rates.
Trump has claimed Powell would resign if he asked him to. Powell himself has said that he would not resign if asked to do so by the president.
