Trump 2nd term live updates: Trump defends tariffs, declines to comment on Ukraine aid

The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to lay off as many as 80,000 workers in the coming weeks in the latest phase of the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the federal workforce, according to an internal memo obtained by ABC News.

In a March 4 memo to senior agency leaders, agency chief of staff Christopher Syrek said the VA's "initial objective is to return to our 2019-end strength numbers of 399,957 employees" as part of the Department of Government Efficiency-led wave of large-scale firings and reorganization of agencies.

As of last fall, the VA had more than 482,000 employees, according to data from the Office of Personnel Management. The potential cut, while not finalized, would lead to the removal of almost 1-in-5 agency workers.

Already, the VA has said it has dismissed 2,400 probationary workers -- although some were subsequently hired back to the agency, workers and lawmakers told ABC News.

-- ABC News' Ben Siegel and Nate Luna

Current and former federal workers, speaking on a Zoom call Wednesday organized by the Federal Unionists Network, responded to President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress by criticizing the president for not focusing on the workers losing their jobs or the programs being cut in the governmental reductions.

"The one thing that he [Trump] did say that was true was when he finally admitted that Elon Musk is the one who's in charge of DOGE and when he got everyone to stand up and clap for the richest man in the world who's in the process of stealing Americans' data right now and stealing their government from them right now. And that's just really, it's frankly disgusting," Paul Osadebe, a union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees and a federal attorney, said.

Chris Wicker, a veteran who had been laid off from his role as deputy director of the Minnesota Small Business Administration Office, was a guest of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., at the joint address, which he framed as "basically a campaign rally."

Wicker pointed to what he did not hear from Trump: "I didn't hear anything that appealed to the broader public and as a fired federal worker, I didn't hear anything about how I was going to be able to continue my public service..."

Tiffany Montes, who had been fired from her role at the National Park Service, said that she had been hoping to hear some remorse from the president over the job cuts.

-- ABC News' Oren Oppenheim

Elon Musk will join Senate Republicans during their closed-door lunch at the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, a person familiar confirms.

This comes less than one week after a contingent of Senate Republicans huddled with Musk at the White House.

Musk is separately expected to speak with House Republicans at 7 p.m.

--ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Billionaire Elon Musk's political action committee, America PAC, has placed its first-ever $1 million nationwide TV ad, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The 60-second ad will run in the Washington media market and across the country during the week after Trump's joint address to Congress, the source familiar with the buy told ABC News.

Notably, the ad begins by attacking former President Joe Biden, showing clips of him stumbling on the stairs while boarding Air Force One. A voice-over states, "After four long years of humiliation, of failure at home and embarrassment abroad. Our long national nightmare is finally over."

The ad then echoes some of what Trump highlighted in his joint address, claiming the president has "delivered the lowest level of illegal immigration in history." America PAC does not mention DOGE or Musk by name in the ad, but the ad appears to allude to their work, stating: "He's draining the swamp, slashing billions in waste at home, while closing the spigot of American tax dollars to foreign regimes."

Musk spent roughly $250 million on his pro-Trump super PAC, America PAC, in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. According to Federal Election Commission filings, Musk was the largest donor of the 2024 election cycle to either party.

-ABC News' Will Steakin