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

At the top of her remarks at Wednesday's White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt tore into Democrats for their conduct during President Donald Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday night.

"It was the most shameful moment in the history of presidential addresses and that beautiful chamber in what was supposed to be a unifying moment for our country," Leavitt said. "Democrat members of Congress instead screamed at the president of the United States, who was just overwhelmingly reelected by their constituents, walked out of the chamber and, worse of all, they disrespected the American people."

Leavitt also took issue with Democrats not applauding as he singled out special guests throughout the evening.

President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on Wednesday for 50 minutes about the issue with tariffs.

Trump claimed on Truth social that nothing in their conversation has convinced him that there's been a decrease in fentanyl crossing the Canadian border, which the president has deemed a "national emergency."

Trump said he told Trudeau "that's not good enough" when the prime minister said it's gotten better and added that the call ended in a "somewhat" friendly manner.

The president also claimed that Trudeau was "unable" to tell him when the Canadian election was taking place. However, as Trudeau is stepping down, the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada will decide when the elections are held, according to Canadian law.

The party is scheduled to name its successor on Sunday.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh and Will Gretsky

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