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The Trump administration is facing a growing legal battle as a federal judge is now questioning whether his order halting the deportation of undocumented migrants was ignored. The Justice Department is expected to answer key questions about the deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador without due process. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for “TODAY.”
Reporting from New Delhi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has joined Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, making him among the only world leaders to do so.
It comes as India is also among the few countries to offer pre-emptive trade concessions to the U.S., hoping to avoid tariffs. Modi and Trump have a personal relationship that goes back years, and are seen as having similar worldviews, especially as the U.S. looks to India as a counter to China.
In his first post on Truth Social, the Indian leader posted a picture of himself with Trump during the “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston during his 2019 visit to the U.S., saying he was “delighted” to join the platform.
Modi has been making an effort to appeal to Trump supporters lately, including by appearing on Lex Fridman’s podcast, the link to which was shared by Trump yesterday.
Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, a probationary employee with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who was fired Feb. 14 as part of the cuts pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency, was reinstated today, according to an email shared exclusively with NBC News.
Spitzer-Stadtlander was one of several employees who was working on a warning radar system for Hawaii to detect incoming missiles, through a program that was in part funded by the Defense Department. The program was part of the FAA’s National Airspace System Defense Program and involves radars providing longer-range detection around the nation’s borders.
The email states that the Transportation Department is “rescinding” Spitzer-Stadtlander’s “probationary/trial period termination” and explains that the department is taking this action to be “in compliance with the order issued March 13 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.” The email goes on to say he will be “reinstated with pay and benefits” to his previous position and will receive backpay for the period in which he was previously terminated.
Spitzer-Stadtlander told NBC News he plans to return to his job.
“I’m returning to my job because I love serving the American people and working for national security. It’s an honor of my lifetime,” he said. “I want to be able to do my job without chaos and uncertainty. Public service and national security are not places for politics or instability.”
“Though I’m glad to be reinstated, it’s important to remember that two courts found that the termination of probationary employees en masse and for a false reason of poor performance was unlawful,” he added. “What happened was incredibly hurtful and traumatic. But since I work for the American people and in service of the mission, that’s all that matters and all that I’m keeping my focus on.”
Spitzer-Stadtlander declined to answer how his case will move forward as he has a pending appeal related to his initial termination.
The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to reverse his decision to block the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants.
The move, which came in an overnight filing, is the latest development in the legal battle over whether the administration can deport alleged gang members using the authority of a rarely invoked act.
The administration argued in the filings that the “court lacks jurisdiction” over the claims of the Venezuelan plaintiffs, and that those suing the administration “have not shown the requisite irreparable harm.”
“The alleged harms to Plaintiffs are overwhelmingly outweighed by the President’s interest in using his statutory and constitutional authority to address what he has identified as an invasion or predatory incursion by a group undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare,” the filing said.
The judge had previously ordered any flights carrying deportees subject to Trump’s proclamation to turn around, but it was later revealed that the planes had arrived in El Salvador, raising questions about the timing of the flights and custody handover.
More than half of Americans want the U.S. to help Ukraine regain territory it has lost since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, even if that means prolonging the conflict, new research shows.
An opinion poll from Gallup released this morning found 53% of respondents support the U.S. aiding Ukraine’s defense efforts, compared to 45% who want a quick end to the conflict even if that means conceding land to Russia.
Trump has sharply turned U.S. away from former President Joe Biden’s policy of pledging huge financial and military aid to Ukraine, claiming that he actively supports neither side and is working toward a peace deal. A national NBC News poll found yesterday that a majority of Americans, 61%, support Ukraine over Russia and that most believe Trump favors Russia.
“Looking ahead, this increase in public preference for stronger U.S. involvement may pressure the Trump administration to recalibrate its Ukraine policy, especially if Russia violates potential ceasefire agreements,” Gallup said in its analysis of the figures.
Yesterday’s Gallup poll also showed that a record number of people believe the U.S. isn’t doing enough to help Ukraine in its war effort; 46% said assistance wasn’t enough, a rise of 16 points since December, in a sign some voters are turning against Trump’s self-described neutral stance.
Support for Ukrainian aid is highest among Democrats and independent voters, but the 56% of Republicans who feel the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine is a fall of 11 points in the last three months.
Gallup’s research was carried out between March 3 and 11, after the chaotic and divisive meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Feb. 28. That meeting was scheduled to discuss a possible rare-earth minerals deal between the countries but ended in acrimony as the American leaders chastised Zelenskyy for not showing enough gratitude for the billions of dollars in U.S. support to date.
Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Kyiv’s NATO aspirations and land will likely be on the table this morning when Trump tries to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
The two leaders are set to speak on a phone call scheduled for between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET that will go on for “as long as they deem necessary,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said today.
Read the full story.
The State Department has reauthorized scholarship funding for Afghan women studying in Oman who said they faced persecution by the Taliban if their program was canceled and they were deported to Afghanistan.
Last Wednesday, the U.S. government authorized the continuation of funding to the American University of Afghanistan and Texas A&M University until June 30, a State Department spokesperson said. It is unclear whether funding would then be further extended for the program, which is administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The women had appealed for urgent help to allow them to continue their studies abroad, saying that their return to Afghanistan, where the Taliban has severely curtailed women’s rights, “would mean the permanent loss of our education and exposure to severe risks, including oppression, insecurity, and a future without opportunities.”
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, has retweeted a post by a far-right commentator who praised the dismantling of Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded news outlets.
Ian Miles Cheong, a contributor to the Russian state media outlet RT, claimed that Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other outlets run by the U.S. Agency for Global Media “produced and disseminated far-left propaganda, including media hostile to conservatives in Central European countries such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary” and perpetuated “pro-war narratives against Russia.”
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent U.S. government agency, was one of seven entities Trump designated for elimination in an executive order last Friday, in a move critics said was a win for authoritarian regimes such as China, where state media cheered the decision to shut the outlets known for their reporting on issues such as human rights and religious freedom.
Speaking earlier today, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on Chinese state media reports or U.S. domestic policy, but said “it is not a secret that those U.S. media outlets make biased reporting on China.”
The issue of diversity, equity and inclusion programs is among the most tightly divided and polarizing questions in the United States, with wide gaps emerging along partisan and racial lines, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
Trump has made dismantling DEI programs an early focus of his administration, and voters are split over the future of DEI programs in the workplace, with deep differences depending on their political party.
Half of registered voters (49%) in the NBC News poll say DEI programs should be eliminated “because they create divisions and inefficiencies in the workplace by putting too much emphasis on race and other social factors over merit, skills and experience.”
And 48% say DEI programs in the workplace should continue “because diverse perspectives reflect our country, create innovative ideas and solutions, encourage unity and make our workplaces fair and inclusive.”
Read the full story here.
Trump is expected to speak today with Putin as the United States tries to mediate a diplomatic solution to end Russia’s three-year war with Ukraine.
“We have tremendous things to report tomorrow, speaking with President Putin of Russia to save some soldiers who are in deep trouble. They’re captured,” Trump told reporters yesterday afternoon.
Trump said that “it’s a bad situation” in both Ukraine and Russia.
“What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it. I’m speaking to President Putin tomorrow morning,” he said.
He later posted on Truth Social, “Many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remain.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at yesterday’s briefing that “we’ve never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment.”
Trump said Sunday that he and Putin will discuss “land” and “power plants, because that’s a big question.”
“But I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets. They’ve been working on that,” Trump said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Putin can’t be trusted because Russia hasn’t stuck to its previous agreements with Ukraine. That was the message he communicated to Trump in late February when he clashed with Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House. Trump, meanwhile, recently threatened to ramp up sanctions on Russia until it reached a peace agreement.
The Democratic National Committee has launched a six-figure investment in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in support of liberal candidate Susan Crawford.
The investment comes exactly two weeks ahead of the technically nonpartisan April 1 election that will determine the state Supreme Court’s ideological balance for the second time in two years and coincides with today’s kickoff of early voting.
The DNC describes the move as the party’s earliest-ever electoral investment after a November election.
Party officials said the investment, which will officially go to the Wisconsin Democratic coordinated campaign, is intended to help counter the millions of dollars spent so far by outside groups with ties to Elon Musk.
“When I went to Wisconsin to knock doors last month, folks told me they don’t want billionaires like Elon Musk running our federal government and they certainly don’t want him buying our elections,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “After what I heard on the ground, we’re investing earlier than ever before. The best way to curb Elon Musk’s influence is to organize everywhere, win races, and stop him in his tracks.”
The investment, which will also aid the Democratic candidate in the battleground’s state school superintendent race, will help fund grassroots organizing efforts aimed at phone and text banking to reach voters.
The race features a face-off between Brad Schimel, a conservative state judge in Waukesha County who previously was the state’s Republican attorney general, and Crawford, a liberal state judge in Madison.
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