Trump returns to Philadelphia to attend NCAA wrestling championships with Musk: Live updates

Federal workers stood by their decision to leak information about Elon Musk to the media following his threats to prosecute whistleblowers.

Their defiance follows Musk’s stark warning that Pentagon officials who leak would be prosecuted after reports that he was scheduled to receive a briefing Friday about the U.S. military’s top-secret war plans for China.

The DOGE mogul claimed that the information was “false” and derided the media for allegedly disseminating “propaganda” before issuing a thinly veiled threat to Pentagon officials.

His threats have not deterred everyone. Pushing back, federal workers told Politico that they are speaking out because of the billionaire’s “move fast and break things” approach via the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Leakers are patriots,” one Agriculture Department employee told the outlet and said that they were motivated by “a desire for greater transparency” – the same goal Musk claims through DOGE.

“We are public servants, not Elon’s servants,” a Food and Drug Administration staffer told Politico. “The public deserves to know how dysfunctional, destructive, and deceptive all of this has been and continues to be.”

The Russian president has figured out a way to get Trump’s attention and distract him to such effect it delivers what Russia really wants. By reducing Ukraine to business deals and minerals, there is something much deeper and darker going on, writes Owen Matthews.

Democratic lawmakers have reportedly grown fearful about the future of their party and the midterm elections as they confront frustrated constituents who are angry at what they perceive as Democrats’ lack of action against President Donald Trump and his administration.

Across the country, Democrat voters have expressed deep irritation with their leaders from protesting at town halls to leaving angry voicemails with Democrats’ offices.

Illinois Representative Sean Casten was grilled by constituents during a town hall about standing up to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who joined Republicans in passing a temporary funding bill. One voter asked Casten if he was “prepared for violence” because “nice and civility doesn’t work.”

After facing questions and repeated disruptions from protestors, Casten told Axios a colleague called him crying.

“They hate us. They hate us,” the colleague told Casten.

The Trump administration has cut three offices designed to help migrants saying they are a “roadblock” to immigration reform.

The offices were all part of the Department of Homeland Security, which is the agency responsible for pushing enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a Friday statement that it was implementing a “reduction in force” for three offices: the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman.

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Trump has issued a presidential memo asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to “take all appropriate action” against law firms to file challenges to the Trump administration’s actions.

In the memo, Trump said the lawyers and law firms engage in “unethical” behavior by filing frivolous lawsuits that seek to delay the president’s agenda – rather than challenge its legality.

He asked Bondi to investigate these and refer attorneys to disciplinary action whether it’s terminating a federal contract with a law firm, reassessing security clearances, bringing claims of unethical behavior and more.

Lawyers for Donald Trump’s administration are considering whether his invocation of an 18th-century wartime law allows federal law enforcement officers to enter homes without a warrant.

The president has deployed the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport, without due process, alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, designated a foreign terrorist organization. Officials, however, have admitted that many of the immigrants flown to a prison in El Salvador last weekend don’t have criminal records.

Trump is relying on the law for only the fourth time in U.S. history. It was most recently used to detain Japanese Americans, including U.S. citizens, during the Second World War.

“Terrorists don’t get to hide behind closed doors,” said an official with the Department of Justice in a statement to The Independent from the White House.

Companies that speak out about social justice or protecting the environment are under threat like never before, writes Alan Rusbridger. With Trump in charge, we need to celebrate dissenting voices – not silence them

President Trump demanded that Maine Governor Janet Mills apologize to him after she clashed with him during a governors’ meeting at the White House over allowing transgender athletes to compete.

“While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The Department of Education found that Maine violated Title IX protections by allowing a transgender girl to play in women’s and girls’ sports. It comes after Trump signed an executive order banning trans athletes from competing on the team that aligns with their gender identity.

At the heated meeting last month, Mills told the president, “we’ll see you in court” after clashing over the issue.

“Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled,” Trump wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security said it would revoke legal protections for approximately 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have come to the United States since October 2022 under a humanitarian parole program.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said they would lose legal protections on April 24 – 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

Under the humanitarian program, migrants could come to the U.S. legally if they were from war-torn countries or those facing political instability.