April 21, 2025 – Donald Trump presidency news | CNN Politics (2025)

Rep. Byron Donalds speaks during a town hall in Estero, Florida on Monday.

GOP Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida faced frequent shouting from the crowd at a contentious town hall on Monday with a number of attendees asking critical questions about the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency.

The congressman repeatedly asked the crowd to let him speak, saying, “do you want to yell, or do you want to hear?” At another point, he told one attendee that she was being disrespectful for disrupting.

During the event, Donalds was asked what oversight he is imposing on Elon Musk and DOGE as a member of the House Oversight Committee – to loud applause, cheering and whistling.

The reaction from the crowd was mixed throughout the event as Donalds received applause alongside boos at various points.

“We actually have to let the DOGE actually finish its work. What they are examining right now is inefficiency in the federal system,” the congressman said.

Donalds then began to say that President Barack Obama also wanted to look at inefficiency within the federal government during his time in office, attempting to draw a parallel between that and what Musk is doing – an assertion that prompted loud shouting from the crowd.

The event comes as relatively few Republicans have held in-person town halls compared to Democratic lawmakers during the current congressional recess period. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have faced frustrated constituents, with Republicans facing criticism over the Trump administration and Democrats facing criticism that the party is not doing enough to counter the administration.

Read the full report here.

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In this still from a video obtained by CNN, Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi is detained by immigration officials on April 14.

Vermont Sen. Peter Welch met Monday with Mohsen Mahdawi, a prominent organizer of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University who was detained during his final citizenship interview last week.

Welch, a Democrat, posted a video on X of him sitting with Mahdawi, the second Palestinian student at Columbia with a green card who has been detained by immigration authorities for removal. Mahdawi, wearing a green prison uniform, thanked Welch and said his visit reassured him.

“I’m staying positive by reassuring myself in the ability of justice and the deep belief of democracy,” he said when Welch asked how he is doing. “This is the reason I wanted to become a citizen of this country because I believe in the principles of this country.

Immigration officials detained Mahdawi on April 14 at a US Citizenship and Immigration Services facility in Colchester, Vermont, where he lives. A Vermont District judge has since issued a temporary restraining order preventing his removal from the US or Vermont.

Mahdawi, who grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank and has been a lawful permanent US resident for a decade, told Welch that his activism “has been centered on peacemaking” and that most of his partners on “Columbia’s campus and beyond” are Jews and Israelis.

“My hope and my dream is to see this conflict, if one might say, to see an end to the war, an end to the killing, to see a peaceful resolution between Palestinians and Israelis. How could this be a threat to anybody except the war machine that is feeding this?” he said.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media after delivering an address on antisemitism at the West Side Institutional Synagogue in New York on April 1.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer said Monday he had referred a potential criminal case involving former New York Democratic governor and current NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo to the Department of Justice, alleging he lied to Congress.

“Let’s be clear: lying to Congress is a federal crime. Mr. Cuomo must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The House Oversight Committee is prepared to fully cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into Andrew Cuomo’s actions and ensure he’s held to account,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement.

At issue is Cuomo’s truthfulness regarding his role in the writing and review of a state health department report from June 2020 that underestimated the nursing home death count by nearly half. Last year, the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic asked then-US Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Cuomo related to the matter.

“This is nothing more than a meritless press release that was nonsense last year and is even more so now,” Richard Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said. “As the DOJ constantly reminds people, this kind of transparent attempt at election interference and law-fare violates their own policies.”

CNN is reaching out to the Justice Department.

Dan Caldwell, who was one of three senior Pentagon officials fired last week, denied ever leaking information to reporters in an interview with Tucker Carlson released Monday on X.

“Did you leak classified information against the wishes of your superiors to media outlets?” Carlson asked Caldwell.

“Absolutely not,” Caldwell responded.

“Did you photograph classified material and then text pictures of that material to an NBC News reporter?” Carlson asked.

“Absolutely not,” Caldwell said. “And I have not spoken to an NBC reporter while at the Pentagon.”

Caldwell told Carlson that he and the other fired officials have still not been told what they were being investigated for, if the investigation was still open, or if there even was an investigation. Caldwell also said he has never been polygraphed.

Caldwell said his access to classified information was never limited, and the day he was escorted out of the Pentagon he was still dealing with highly classified information.

Some background: Caldwell was one of three senior Pentagon officials who were placed on administrative leave last week amid an apparent investigation into alleged unauthorized disclosure of information. Caldwell and the other two officials – Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll – were then fired.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday slammed who he referred to as “disgruntled former employees” and “leakers with axes to grind.”

This post has been updated with additional details.

El Salvador told the Trump administration that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported last month, is “in good conditions and in an excellent state of health,” a State Department official told the federal judge overseeing his case on Monday.

“On April 20 and 21, our Ambassador requested an update from the Salvadoran government regarding the physical location and custodial status of Mr. Abrego García. The Salvadoran government responded on April 21 that Mr. Abrego García is being held at the Centro Industrial penitentiary facility in Santa Ana, ‘in good conditions and in an excellent state of health,’” Michael Kozak said in a declaration submitted to US District Judge Paula Xinis.

The attestation was made as part of the daily updates Xinis has ordered the Trump administration to give her on what the government is doing to comply with her order that it “facilitate” Abrego Garcia return from El Salvador.

During much of the litigation, which has played out at several federal courts in the US, including the Supreme Court, it was understood that Abrego Garcia was being held in one of El Salvador’s notorious mega-prisons.

But Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, traveled to the Central American nation last week push for Abrego Garcia’s release and had said Abrego Garcia told him he had been moved to another detention center and described being “traumatized” by his time in the mega-prison, known as CECOT.

People cross the Harvard Yard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 17.

Harvard University sued the Trump administration Monday, according to a letter addressed to the university community, in a new escalation of the fight over federal funding for the Ivy League school, institutional oversight and independence.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the lawsuit.

The Trump administration is demanding Harvard University give it access to all university reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus generated since October 2023, as it ramps up a confrontation with the school that risks billions in federal money amid a broader push to bring elite US colleges in line with its political ideology.

Harvard, which has emerged as a symbol of defiance against the Trump administration across campus and beyond, must turn over all reports generated by school task forces on combatting antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias on campus, including drafts never released to the public, a letter Saturday from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights to Harvard leadership says.

The letter comes as some Jewish organizations and students at Harvard say the White House’s recent threats — from pulling research funding to ending its eligibility to host international students — are not making them safer but instead, as some wrote, “pawns in a broader political agenda.”

The Trump administration has said it would freeze more than $2.2 billion in grants and contracts after the Ivy League school refused to submit to demands, including it eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, ban masks at campus protests, enact merit-based hiring and admissions reforms, and reduce the power of faculty and administrators the White House has said are “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

President Donald Trump criticized the US Supreme Court on Monday over a weekend order that temporarily blocked his administration’s efforts to deport Venezuelan nationals under the Alien Enemies Act.

The president said he cannot give every person the White House wants to deport a trial, saying, “because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years.”

Trump went on to accuse the “radical Left,” without evidence, of pressuring the judicial system, comparing them to people who try to sway a referee’s decisions in sports. He argued that the judicial system does not have the capacity to provide individual trials for every immigrant due for deportation.

“We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the Country. Such a thing is not possible to do,” Trump added.

Four House Democratic lawmakers who traveled to El Salvador to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia were denied an opportunity to see the mistakenly deported man, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost said Monday.

“We formally requested to see him today,” but were told “the government here has denied our request to see him,” Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost said during a news conference in San Salvador.

Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon joined Maxwell on the trip.

The group met with US Embassy officials earlier Monday, Frost said, adding that they left the meeting with “absolutely zero indication that the administration is going to facilitate or wants to facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

Ansari told reporters the group has written a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding daily proof of life, access to counsel and Abrego Garcia’s “safe return home.”

“We’re not going to be the last members of Congress to be here in El Salvador fighting and demanding the return of Abrego Garcia and a lot of the folks who were sent here without due process at all,” Frost said.

“This is not just about Kilmar,” Ansari said. “We need Kilmar to come home, but we are so concerned that if this is allowed to fly, that the Trump administration will be emboldened to continue.”

Remember: The lawmakers’ visit comes days after Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, whom he described as “traumatized.”

President Donald Trump directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to help a Long Island school fight a court order that says it must give up the name Massapequa Chiefs.

“I agree with the people in Massapequa, Long Island, who are fighting furiously to keep the Massapequa Chiefs logo on their Teams and School. Forcing them to change the name, after all of these years, is ridiculous and, in actuality, an affront to our great Indian population,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Monday afternoon.

Trump compared the team’s name to the Kansas City Chiefs, who Trump recently invited to the White House to celebrate their 2020 Super Bowl win, which occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It has become the School’s identity and, what could be wrong with using the name, ‘Chief’? I don’t see the Kansas City Chiefs changing their name anytime soon!” The president added.

The Massapequa school district had challenged a State Board of Regents’ ban on the use of Native American imagery at New York public schools. A judge ruled in late March against Massapequa.

The White House crackdown on higher education could cause financial trouble at colleges and universities that rely on federally funded research, S&P Global Ratings warned on Monday.

“Material cuts to federal research funds could create operating pressures,” S&P said in a report.

The warning comes after the Trump administration froze about $2.2 billion of federal grants and contracts at Harvard University last week and canceled $400 million in grants and contracts for Columbia University earlier this month.

S&P said institutions with very high research spending and doctoral production are “disproportionately affected” by the funding changes and could “experience financial pressure.”

To offset federal funding cuts, S&P said university management will need to consider budget options, including layoffs, spending cuts and reduced research programs.

S&P added that proposals to cap indirect cost recovery rates for research grants at 15% from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy would further squeeze institutions financially.

“We believe the universities affected by these announcements have adequate reserves to provide flexibility should material cuts transpire, especially as they could be phased in over several years,” S&P said, adding that it will continue to monitor federal policy changes on a case-by-case basis.

Pope Francis, right, speaks with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the Vatican, in May 2017.

President Donald Trump announced today that he and first lady Melania Trump will be attending the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome.

The pope died of a stroke followed by heart failure Monday, the Vatican’s press office said in a statement. Francis’ death was also affected by other ailments, including a “previous episode of acute respiratory failure,” arterial hypertension and type II diabetes, according to the statement, which was signed by the Director of the Health and Hygiene Directorate of the Vatican City State, Andrea Arcangeli.

Pope Francis’ death garnered worldwide attention and widespread support — dozens of world leaders praised the pontiff after the 88-year-old’s passing. Trump ordered flags flown at half-staff earlier Monday in honor of the pope’s death.

In 2005 — the last time a sitting pope died — then-president George W. Bush attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush joined him.

Follow our coverage of the pope’s death here.

A nonprofit watchdog group on Monday asked a federal judge to order the Trump administration to keep messages included in a second Signal chat used by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from being erased.

The request from the advocacy group American Oversight comes as Hegseth faces political scrutiny for his use of the Signal chat, in which he detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen in messages sent from his personal phone to his wife, lawyer and brother.

Last month, the watchdog group successfully convinced US District Judge James Boasberg to order the preservation of messages sent in a separate Signal chat Hegseth used to communicate with Cabinet officials about military plans.

In an updated version of the lawsuit brought in that case, the group on Monday argued to Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal trial-level court in Washington, DC, that the messages in both chats “are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations.”

American Oversight is also asking Boasberg to order several agency heads to implement “adequate recordkeeping programs applicable to Signal messages to ensure compliance” with relevant federal record-keeping laws.

Some background: Earlier this month, Boasberg, an Obama appointee, directed the administration to provide more details about how it is complying with his order to preserve messages sent in the other Signal chat after American Oversight complained that officials had not adequately explained in court documents how various agencies were keeping the records intact.

President Donald Trump has displayed another portrait of himself at the White House — this one matching his Truth Social profile picture — as he continues to redecorate the space to his taste.

After first tripling the number of portraits inside the Oval Office and moving President Barack Obama’s portrait in the Grand Foyer to install his own, Trump has now hung a picture of his face with the American flag emblazoned across it inside the Booksellers Hall. It hangs between two portraits of former first ladies: Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton.

The painting is signed Maga Langelo, the pseudonym adopted by the pro-Trump artist Lena Ruseva who touts her relationship with the president on her website. She says Trump has four of her paintings, as do several of his allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Tom Homan.

“I am the only one artist in whole world whose art President of the USA has as a profile picture on his social media!” she says on her website.

The White House declined to comment. Ruseva did not respond to a request for comment.

Doug McMillon, chief executive officer of Walmart Inc., speaks during the CES trade show in Las Vegas, in January 2024.

President Donald Trump is meeting today with the CEOs of Walmart, Target, Lowe’s and Home Depot at the White House to discuss tariffs, a White House official told CNN.

A Walmart spokesperson confirmed that CEO Doug McMillon is at the meeting with Trump. Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Trump’s tariffs have put huge pressure on the retail sector. Companies source everyday products from other countries, including China. A consumer slowdown from tariffs, inflation and a sluggish economy also threaten the industry.

Bloomberg first reported on the meeting with the retailer executives.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to the press at the White House in Washington, on April 15.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied a report that the White House has begun the process of looking to replace Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling it “fake news” in a Monday social media post.

“This @NPR story is total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about,” Leavitt wrote on X.

“As the President said this morning, he stands strongly behind @SecDef,” she added.

NPR reported that the White House has started to look for a new secretary of defense, attributing it to an anonymous US official, amid separate reports of a second Signal chat controversy involving Hegseth. CNN reported that Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen in a group chat in the app that included his wife, lawyer and brother.

President Donald Trump and Hegseth spoke Sunday night on the phone, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported earlier today. Hegseth addressed the story with Trump directly, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

During his first public appearance on Monday, Hegseth vilified leakers and the press for publishing “hit pieces.” Trump publicly defended Hegseth shortly after, blaming the reports on the Signal chat on “disgruntled employees.”

People walk on the campus of the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 15.

The Trump administration’s battle with Harvard University has helped to unite the previously divided campus, a Harvard employee told CNN on Monday.

Harvard President Alan Garber rejected White House demands last week to make key policy changes, making the Ivy League school the first elite US university to forcefully push back.

More context: Harvard found itself, along with other higher education institutions, embroiled in controversy over antisemitism on campus and how its leaders have handled it.

Harvard hired Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with deep ties to President Donald Trump, in January as it prepared for scrutiny from the incoming Trump administration, according to federal lobbying disclosures. Ballard has deep ties to Trump and previously employed White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Since Trump’s re-entry into the White House, his administration has said it would freeze billions in federal funding to Harvard and threatened to rescind the university’s tax-exempt status and take away its ability to host international students.

The standoff with the Trump administration has thrust a “mild-mannered” Garber and publicity-shy Harvard into a confrontation with the White House.

“This was not part of a plan to captain the resistance to the Trump administration. It’s simply not in the DNA of the university. Harvard did not seek out this confrontation but now Harvard will have to see it through,” the employee said. “Every university president is watching because they know if Harvard falls, they’re next.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends the White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington, on Monday.

President Donald Trump denied today that the Pentagon has become dysfunctional with Secretary Pete Hegseth at the helm.

“There’s no dysfunction at all. Ask the Houthis how much dysfunction they have,” Trump said in response to a question from CNN’s Betsy’s Klein at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

CNN reported earlier Monday morning that Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen on a second Signal group chat, this one on his personal phone and including his wife, lawyer and brother. Meanwhile, some of Hegseth’s closest advisers, including three former senior officials he fired last week, have been warning that the Pentagon has descended into chaos.

“Pete’s doing a great job. Everybody’s happy with him,” Trump continued. “It’s just fake news. They just make up stories. I guess it’s — sounds like disgruntled employees. He was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. You don’t always have friends when you do that.”

Trump and Hegseth spoke Sunday night on the phone after The New York Times and CNN reported on his sharing of detailed military operation plans in a second Signal chat with his wife, lawyer and brother, a person familiar with the conversation tells CNN. Hegseth addressed the story with Trump directly, this person said.

This post has been updated with reporting on Trump and Hegseth’s call.

Guests visit the Meta tent during the White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington, on Monday.

This year’s White House Easter Egg Roll is brought to you by big tech.

While the event has long had corporate sponsors, this year marks the first time that there has been outward branding and logos on event signage, which according to legal and ethics experts goes against long-established regulations prohibiting the use of public office for private gain.

Reporters at the Egg Roll are kept in a pen far from some of the branded activities. But CNN observed unprecedented logos across the South Lawn – from the YouTube stage to the Meta photo opportunity to the Amazon reading nook – featuring the logos of big businesses, some more subtle than others.

Last month, CNN first reported on a pitch document circulated to potential sponsors from an outside event production company called Harbinger promising logo and branding opportunities ranging from $75,000 to $200,000.

Among the promises, according to that document: “naming rights for key areas or elements,” “sponsor logos featured on event signage,” “custom-branded baskets, snacks/beverages, or souvenirs,” and “mentions in official event communications and social media posts.”

All funding raised by Harbinger will go to the White House Historical Association, and any leftover money will support other events on the White House South Lawn, including Halloween and Fourth of July festivities.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the move Monday, saying there have “always” been corporate sponsors at the event and cast blame on media.

Watch CNN’s Betsy Klein report from the White House:

President Donald Trump welcomed visitors to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, heralding his efforts to “(bring) religion back” at the traditional springtime event.

“Easter is special and it’s one of our favorite days. It’s one of our favorite periods of time. We’re honoring Jesus Christ, and we’re going to honor Jesus Christ very powerfully, powerfully throughout our lives,” he said as he addressed attendees from the Blue Room Balcony.

“We’re bringing religion back in America. We’re bringing a lot of things back, but religion is coming back to America. That’s why you see the kind of numbers that you see, the spirit and the kind of numbers that you see,” he continued.

Trump thanked the Marine Corps Band, the National Park Service, and first lady Melania Trump, who joined him on the balcony alongside the Easter Bunny.

But the president took a veiled political swipe during his remarks.

“Our country is doing very well, we had the highest number of recruits, enlistments. … Since November 5 it’s all happened. … We were setting records. Six months ago we couldn’t get anybody and now we’re setting records,” he said.

The president and first lady, joined by Donald Trump, Jr. and his five children and girlfriend Bettina Anderson, led children in egg rolling, blowing a whistle to start the races. The president also spent several minutes at a picnic table where children were coloring.

“Happy Easter and enjoy your lives,” he told the crowd, which is expected to crack 42,000 today, according to the president.