Billionaire Elon Musk visited the Pentagon on Friday for an 80-minute meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A U.S. official told ABC News that Musk would attend a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that, among its topics, would touch on China. However, instead of meeting with the Joint Chiefs, Musk met with Hegseth and staffers. Trump and Hegseth denied that Musk was going to be briefed on China war plans after a report from the New York Times.
Meanwhile, fallout continued after Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education. Plus, the legal battle continues over the administration’s use of the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans allegedly linked to organized crime.
The Department of Homeland Security is ending protections for migrants under a Biden era humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV) as early as next month.
According to a notice set to be published on Tuesday in the Federal Register, “parolees without a lawful basis to remain in the United States following this termination of the CHNV parole programs must depart the United States before their parole termination date.”
Over 530,000 migrants have been protected under the program, which allowed people to sponsor migrants in their home countries and bring them to the United States.
President Donald Trump said he had “good conversations” on Friday on efforts to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but he didn’t say whom those conversations were with.
“We are moving along on Russia, Ukraine. We had a couple of good conversations today, and maybe we can get that death march stopped as soon as possible,” Trump said on the South Lawn.
Asked if he gave Putin a deadline, Trump said no.
“Not a deadline, but I think we’ll have one. I think you know they’re going at it pretty heavy right now, as you probably saw both of them, but I think we’ll have it done fairly soon,” Trump said.
Before departing the White House, President Donald Trump was asked about Judge James Boasberg’s question to the Department of Justice on Friday on why the proclamation was “signed in the dark … and why people were rushed onto planes.”
Trump seemed to distance himself from the situation, saying, “Other people handled it.”
“But Marco Rubio has done a great job, and he wanted them out,” he added. “And we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.”
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said Friday that the agency and its law enforcement partners have arrested 68 alleged Tren de Aragua members over the last 48 hours under the president’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation and the designation of the gang as a foreign terrorist organization.
These arrests come as a temporary restraining order prevents the administration from deporting alleged Tren de Aragua members to the notorious prison known as CECOT in El Salvador.
