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Trump admin live updates: Trump strikes deals with law firms totaling $600M

The agreements were with five law firms for pro bono work.

President Donald Trump held a Cabinet meeting with his top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as Elon Musk, on Thursday.

It follows Trump on Wednesday changing course on his tariff policy, instituting a 90-day pause in higher taxes for most countries while ramping up the rate against China to 145%.

On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders pushed through a budget blueprint to fund Trump's domestic agenda despite some GOP hard-liner opposition.


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Trump to meet with GOP holdouts on Senate budget plan: Sources

President Donald Trump is slated to meet with several House Republicans who are opposed to or skeptical of the Senate-approved budget blueprint at the White House Tuesday at 1 p.m ET, according to multiple sources.

This comes as House GOP leaders are trying to rally their conference around the budget blueprint so lawmakers can start drafting legislation and outline spending and tax cuts. The budget is central to Trump's domestic agenda.

"The president has been our best advocate to help get it passed," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told ABC News as he entered a closed-door House Republican conference meeting on Tuesday morning.

On Monday, President Trump endorsed the measure and urged House Republicans to approve the plan "quickly." Speaker Mike Johnson is not expected to attend the White House meeting today, according to a source.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller, Katherine Faulders and Arthur Jones II


RFK Jr. walks back comments on HHS cuts

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that certain programs at HHS had been mistakenly cut in the effort to reduce the workforce by 10,000 roles, adding that the administration was willing to acknowledge when it made mistakes and remedy them.

But officials soon walked back Kennedy's comments and no significant numbers of employees have been hired back.

Asked on Monday whether any reinstatements were planned, Kennedy instead sought to describe programs as "consolidated" and insisted no "core" roles had been cut.

He didn't say, as he did last week, that roles were mistakenly cut or that they would be reinstated.

"We didn't cut any core programs or any critical care programs or any scientific programs," Kennedy said in response to a question from ABC News. "Those programs are being consolidated in the new agency that is going to make America healthy again."

Last week, when asked why a CDC program that monitored lead exposure among children was almost entirely gutted, Kennedy told ABC News that the department's work with DOGE meant "80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we'll make mistakes."

"And one of the things that President Trump has said is that if we, if we make mistakes, we're going to admit it and we're going to remedy it, and that's one of the mistakes," Kennedy said.

But soon after, an HHS official clarified that the specific program Kennedy was asked about was not going to be brought back. The work would be moved to the newly-formed Administration for a Healthy America, the official said.

And later that week, a source confirmed that there were not, in fact, any further plans to hire back HHS employees agency wide, despite Kennedy's comments implying wider efforts to reinstate people.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett


DHS offers 3 options for its employees to leave

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday night offered employees the option to take one of three options to leave, including a buyout of up to $25,000.

In an email titled "Reshaping of the DHS workforce," Noem offered three voluntary routes for DHS employees to take advantage of if they wanted to leave the department. The email was obtained by ABC News.

The three initiatives are called the "workforce transition program," and the program has been approved for "immediate implementation."

The first is called the deferred resignation program, and it offers employees a "brief period of administrative leave" to complete "key tasks, submit retirement documentation and prepare for departure," according to the email.

The second is the early retirement program, which allows those eligible to retire early.

The final option is called the "Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment," according to the email.

"Often referred to as a 'buyout' this option offers a lump-sum payment of up to $25,000 (or an amount equal to severance pay) for employees in roles slated for voluntary departures," according to the email.

Noem said in the email that the department intends to provide "flexibility" for employees who "may be considering a change."

"If you believe any or all of these programs might be right for you, please watch for further announcements from your Component leadership or Human Resources office, where you will find more specific eligibility criteria, detailed instructions, and timelines. Your decision to apply for any of these programs will be due NLT 11:59 ET on April 14, 2025," the email said.

Law enforcement officers are generally exempt from the offers, Noem added.

Individual agencies have already started offering guidance about how the program applies to their workforce.

-ABC News' Luke Barr


Supreme Court allows Venezuelan deportations to continue, but with due process

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Monday evening allowed Trump to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, but said detainees must be given due process to challenge their removal.

The unsigned per curiam opinion said a federal district court in Washington lacks the jurisdiction to address the matter, lifting a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg.

The migrants "claims fall within the core of the writ of habeas corpus and thus must be brought in habeas," the court said.

Four justices dissented: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett.

The court's majority made clear, however, that migrants removed under the AEA authority must be given notice and "afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs."

Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by Kagan, Jackson and Barrett, called the decision "suspect" and without any "mention of the grave harm Plaintiffs will face if they are erroneously removed to El Salvador or regard for the Government’s attempts to subvert the judicial process throughout this litigation."

"The Government’s conduct in this litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law," Sotomayor writes. "That a majority of this Court now rewards the Government for its behavior with discretionary equitable relief is indefensible. We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this. I respectfully dissent."

-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer