“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” -U.S. Constitution, First Amendment.

In an address to Congress this month, President Trump claimed he had “brought free speech back to America.” But barely two months into his second term, the president has waged an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment rights of journalists, students, universities, government workers, lawyers and judges.

This story explores a slew of recent actions by the Trump administration that threaten to undermine all five pillars of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedoms concerning speech, religion, the media, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government and seek redress for wrongs.

THE RIGHT TO PETITION

The right to petition allows citizens to communicate with the government, whether to complain, request action, or share viewpoints — without fear of reprisal. But that right is being assaulted by this administration on multiple levels. For starters, many GOP lawmakers are now heeding their leadership’s advice to stay away from local town hall meetings and avoid the wrath of constituents affected by the administration’s many federal budget and workforce cuts.

Another example: President Trump recently fired most of the people involved in processing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for government agencies. FOIA is an indispensable tool used by journalists and the public to request government records, and to hold leaders accountable.

The biggest story by far this week was the bombshell from The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who recounted how he was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat with National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and 16 other Trump administration officials discussing plans for an upcoming attack on Yemen.

One overlooked aspect of Goldberg’s incredible account is that by planning and coordinating the attack on Signal — which features messages that can auto-delete after a short time — administration officials were evidently seeking a way to avoid creating a lasting (and potentially FOIA-able) record of their deliberations.

“Intentional or not, use of Signal in this context was an act of erasure—because without Jeffrey Goldberg being accidentally added to the list, the general public would never have any record of these communications or any way to know they even occurred,” Tony Bradley wrote this week at Forbes.

Petitioning the government, particularly when it ignores your requests, often requires challenging federal agencies in court. But that becomes far more difficult if the most competent law firms start to shy away from cases that may involve crossing the president and his administration.

On March 22, the president issued a memorandum that directs heads of the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to “seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States,” or in matters that come before federal agencies.

The POTUS recently issued several executive orders railing against specific law firms with attorneys who worked legal cases against him. On Friday, the president announced that the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meager & Flom had agreed to provide $100 million in pro bono work on issues that he supports.

Trump issued another order naming the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which ultimately agreed to pledge $40 million in pro bono legal services to the president’s causes.

Other Trump executive orders targeted law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, both of which have attorneys that worked with special counsel Robert Mueller on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. But this week, two federal judges in separate rulings froze parts of those orders.

“There is no doubt this retaliatory action chills speech and legal advocacy, and that is qualified as a constitutional harm,” wrote Judge Richard Leon, who ruled against the executive order targeting WilmerHale.

President Trump recently took the extraordinary step of calling for the impeachment of federal judges who rule against the administration. Trump called U.S. District Judge James Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic” and urged he be removed from office for blocking deportation of Venezuelan alleged gang members under a rarely invoked wartime legal authority.

In a rare public rebuke to a sitting president, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a statement on March 18 pointing out that “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

The U.S. Constitution provides that judges can be removed from office only through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate. The Constitution also states that judges’ salaries cannot be reduced while they are in office.

Undeterred, House Speaker Mike Johnson this week suggested the administration could still use the power of its purse to keep courts in line, and even floated the idea of wholesale eliminating federal courts.

“We do have authority over the federal courts as you know,” Johnson said. “We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts, and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act, so stay tuned for that.”

FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

President Trump has taken a number of actions to discourage lawful demonstrations at universities and colleges across the country, threatening to cut federal funding for any college that supports protests he deems “illegal.”

A Trump executive order in January outlined a broad federal crackdown on what he called “the explosion of antisemitism” on U.S. college campuses. This administration has asserted that foreign students who are lawfully in the United States on visas do not enjoy the same free speech or due process rights as citizens.

Reuters reports that the acting civil rights director at the Department of Education on March 10 sent letters to 60 educational institutions warning they could lose federal funding if they don’t do more to combat anti-semitism. On March 20, Trump issued an order calling for the closure of the Education Department.

Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been detaining and trying to deport pro-Palestinian students who are legally in the United States. The administration is targeting students and academics who spoke out against Israel’s attacks on Gaza, or who were active in campus protests against U.S. support for the attacks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Thursday that at least 300 foreign students have seen their visas revoked under President Trump, a far higher number than was previously known.

In his first term, Trump threatened to use the national guard or the U.S. military to deal with protesters, and in campaigning for re-election he promised to revisit the idea.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” Trump told Fox News in October 2024. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

This term, Trump acted swiftly to remove the top judicial advocates in the armed forces who would almost certainly push back on any request by the president to use U.S. soldiers in an effort to quell public protests, or to arrest and detain immigrants. In late February, the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the top legal officers for the military services — those responsible for ensuring the Uniform Code of Military Justice is followed by commanders.

Military.com warns that the purge “sets an alarming precedent for a crucial job in the military, as President Donald Trump has mused about using the military in unorthodox and potentially illegal ways.” Hegseth told reporters the removals were necessary because he didn’t want them to pose any “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.”

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

President Trump has sued a number of U.S. news outlets, including 60 Minutes, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other smaller media organizations for unflattering coverage.

In a $10 billion lawsuit against 60 Minutes and its parent Paramount, Trump claims they selectively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris prior to the 2024 election. The TV news show last month published transcripts of the interview at the heart of the dispute, but Paramount is reportedly considering a settlement to avoid potentially damaging its chances of winning the administration’s approval for a pending multibillion-dollar merger.

The president sued The Des Moines Register and its parent company, Gannett, for publishing a poll showing Trump trailing Harris in the 2024 presidential election in Iowa (a state that went for Trump). The POTUS also is suing the Pulitzer Prize board over 2018 awards given to The New York Times and The Washington Post for their coverage of purported Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Whether or not any of the president’s lawsuits against news organizations have merit or succeed is almost beside the point. The strategy behind suing the media is to make reporters and newsrooms think twice about criticizing or challenging the president and his administration. The president also knows some media outlets will find it more expedient to settle.

Trump also sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for stating that the president had been found liable for “rape” in a civil case [Trump was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll]. ABC parent Disney settled that claim by agreeing to donate $15 million to the Trump Presidential Library.

Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Facebook blocked President Trump’s account. Trump sued Meta, and after the president’s victory in 2024 Meta settled and agreed to pay Trump $25 million: $22 million would go to his presidential library, and the rest to legal fees. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced Facebook and Instagram would get rid of fact-checkers and rely instead on reader-submitted “community notes” to debunk disinformation on the social media platform.

Brendan Carr, the president’s pick to run the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has pledged to “dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.” But on January 22, 2025, the FCC reopened complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC over their coverage of the 2024 election. The previous FCC chair had dismissed the complaints as attacks on the First Amendment and an attempt to weaponize the agency for political purposes.

According to Reuters, the complaints call for an investigation into how ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between Trump and Biden, and appearances of then-Vice President Harris on 60 Minutes and on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Since then, the FCC has opened investigations into NPR and PBS, alleging that they are breaking sponsorship rules. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a think tank based in Washington, D.C., noted that the FCC is also investigating KCBS in San Francisco for reporting on the location of federal immigration authorities.

“Even if these investigations are ultimately closed without action, the mere fact of opening them – and the implicit threat to the news stations’ license to operate – can have the effect of deterring the press from news coverage that the Administration dislikes,” the CDT’s Kate Ruane observed.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to “open up” libel laws, with the goal of making it easier to sue media organizations for unfavorable coverage. But this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge brought by Trump donor and Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn to overturn the landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, which insulates the press from libel suits over good-faith criticism of public figures.

The president also has insisted on picking which reporters and news outlets should be allowed to cover White House events and participate in the press pool that trails the president. He barred the Associated Press from the White House and Air Force One over their refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico by another name.

And the Defense Department has ordered a number of top media outlets to vacate their spots at the Pentagon, including CNN, The Hill, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC News, Politico and National Public Radio.

“Incoming media outlets include the New York Post, Breitbart, the Washington Examiner, the Free Press, the Daily Caller, Newsmax, the Huffington Post and One America News Network, most of whom are seen as conservative or favoring Republican President Donald Trump,” Reuters reported.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Shortly after Trump took office again in January 2025, the administration began circulating lists of hundreds of words that government staff and agencies shall not use in their reports and communications.

The Brookings Institution notes that in moving to comply with this anti-speech directive, federal agencies have purged countless taxpayer-funded data sets from a swathe of government websites, including data on crime, sexual orientation, gender, education, climate, and global development.

The New York Times reports that in the past two months, hundreds of terabytes of digital resources analyzing data have been taken off government websites.

“While in many cases the underlying data still exists, the tools that make it possible for the public and researchers to use that data have been removed,” The Times wrote.

On Jan. 27, Trump issued a memo (PDF) that paused all federally funded programs pending a review of those programs for alignment with the administration’s priorities. Among those was ensuring that no funding goes toward advancing “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”

According to the CDT, this order is a blatant attempt to force government grantees to cease engaging in speech that the current administration dislikes, including speech about the benefits of diversity, climate change, and LGBTQ issues.

“The First Amendment does not permit the government to discriminate against grantees because it does not like some of the viewpoints they espouse,” the CDT’s Ruane wrote. “Indeed, those groups that are challenging the constitutionality of the order argued as much in their complaint, and have won an injunction blocking its implementation.”

On January 20, the same day Trump issued an executive order on free speech, the president also issued an executive order titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” which froze funding for programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Among those were programs designed to empower civil society and human rights groups, journalists and others responding to digital repression and Internet shutdowns.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), this includes many freedom technologies that use cryptography, fight censorship, protect freedom of speech, privacy and anonymity for millions of people around the world.

“While the State Department has issued some limited waivers, so far those waivers do not seem to cover the open source internet freedom technologies,” the EFF wrote about the USAID disruptions. “As a result, many of these projects have to stop or severely curtail their work, lay off talented workers, and stop or slow further development.”

On March 14, the president signed another executive order that effectively gutted the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees or funds media outlets including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America (VOA). The USAGM also oversees Radio Free Asia, which supporters say has been one of the most reliable tools used by the government to combat Chinese propaganda.

But this week, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, temporarily blocked USAGM’s closure by the administration.

“RFE/RL has, for decades, operated as one of the organizations that Congress has statutorily designated to carry out this policy,” Lamberth wrote in a 10-page opinion. “The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down — even if the President has told them to do so.”

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

The Trump administration rescinded a decades-old policy that instructed officers not to take immigration enforcement actions in or near “sensitive” or “protected” places, such as churches, schools, and hospitals.

That directive was immediately challenged in a case brought by a group of Quakers, Baptists and Sikhs, who argued the policy reversal was keeping people from attending services for fear of being arrested on civil immigration violations. On Feb. 24, a federal judge agreed and blocked ICE agents from entering churches or targeting migrants nearby.

The president’s executive order allegedly addressing antisemitism came with a fact sheet that described college campuses as “infested” with “terrorists” and “jihadists.” Multiple faith groups expressed alarm over the order, saying it attempts to weaponize antisemitism and promote “dehumanizing anti-immigrant policies.”

The president also announced the creation of a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias,” to be led by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Never mind that Christianity is easily the largest faith in America and that Christians are well-represented in Congress.

The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, issued a statement accusing Trump of hypocrisy in claiming to champion religion by creating the task force.

“From allowing immigration raids in churches, to targeting faith-based charities, to suppressing religious diversity, the Trump Administration’s aggressive government overreach is infringing on religious freedom in a way we haven’t seen for generations,” Raushenbush said.

A statement from Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the task force could lead to religious persecution of those with other faiths.

“Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws,” said Rachel Laser, the group’s president and CEO.

Where is President Trump going with all these blatant attacks on the First Amendment? The president has made no secret of his affection for autocratic leaders and “strongmen” around the world, and he is particularly enamored with Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort twice in the past year.

A March 15 essay in The Atlantic by Hungarian investigative journalist András Pethő recounts how Orbán rose to power by consolidating control over the courts, and by building his own media universe while simultaneously placing a stranglehold on the independent press.

“As I watch from afar what’s happening to the free press in the United States during the first weeks of Trump’s second presidency — the verbal bullying, the legal harassment, the buckling by media owners in the face of threats — it all looks very familiar,” Pethő wrote. “The MAGA authorities have learned Orbán’s lessons well.”

The Trump administration has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, hoping to get permission to fire the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers.

The emergency appeal, obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, could likely be the start of a steady stream of court filings by lawyers of President Donald Trump and his administration aimed at reversing lower court rulings that have delayed his priorities for his second term in office.

The appeal seeks to prevent Hampton Dellinger from resuming his role as the head of the Office of Special Counsel.

A lower court judge previously temporarily reinstated Dellinger to his position, which he was appointed to by former President Joe Biden. Now, the Department of Justice is calling on the high court to lift the judge’s order.

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Dellinger has argued that by law, he can only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.

The Trump administration’s petition came hours after an appeals court refused to lift the order on procedural grounds, which was filed last Wednesday and is expected to expire on Feb. 26.

The case is not expected to be placed on the docket until the Supreme Court returns after the Presidents' Day holiday weekend. Once filed, the earliest the justices will be able to act will be Tuesday.

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Dellinger sued the Trump administration in D.C. federal court last Monday following his firing on Feb. 7. 

The Trump administration has been met with a wave of lawsuits since Inauguration Day, and legal experts say many of them will likely end up in the Supreme Court's hands. 

"President Trump is certainly being aggressive in terms of flexing executive power and not at all surprised that these are being challenged," John Malcolm, vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital last week.

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Trump kicked off his second term with a flurry of executive orders and directives that have since been targeted by a flood of legal challenges.

Since Trump's first day back in the Oval Office, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed over the administration's actions, including the president's birthright citizenship order, immigration policies, federal funding freezes, federal employee buyouts, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and legal action against FBI and DOJ employees.

In one of the most recent developments, a Rhode Island federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funds, claiming the administration did not adhere to a previous order to do so. The Trump administration appealed the order to the First Circuit shortly thereafter, which was ultimately denied. 

Many of these lawsuits have been filed in historically left-leaning federal court jurisdictions, including D.C. federal court. Various challenges have already been appealed to the appellate courts, including the Ninth and First Circuits, which notably hand down more progressive rulings. The Ninth Circuit, in particular, has a higher reversal rate than other circuit courts.

Fox News Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A San Diego migrant shelter is closing its doors and laying off more than 100 employees because of funding and policy changes under the Trump administration.

The Jewish Family Service of San Diego, which has operated a regional migrant shelter for over six years, announced it will close its facility and lay off 115 employees due to "changes in federal funding and policy."

"Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) is working to meet the evolving needs of the community in response to recent and anticipated federal policy changes," the organization previously said.

The non-governmental organization (NGO) said they have not received new asylum-seeking families or individuals since the CBP One phone app went down on Jan. 20. 

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The app, which ultimately allowed immigrants to be paroled into the U.S., was created during the first Trump administration to assist with scheduling cargo inspections. 

It expanded in 2023 to allow migrants to make an appointment at a port of entry to be allowed in, initially due to an exception from the Title 42 public health order. Since May, they had the potential to be paroled into the U.S. as part of the Biden administration’s expansion of "lawful pathways." 

As of the end of December, more than 936,500 individuals had made appointments to be paroled through the app, according to Customs and Border Protection.

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"With migrants no longer able to use the CBP One application, the San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN) Migrant Shelter Services, operated by JFS, has not received new asylum-seeking families and individuals released from short term federal custody into our care. Due to these changes in federal funding and policy, the SDRRN Migrant Shelter Services will be paused until there is better understanding of future community needs," the statement continued.

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The organization added that they were "focusing its immigration efforts on providing pro bono legal services and community support resources."

"We’ve been preparing for these changes in federal policies and enforcement," said CEO Michael Hopkins. "While there are no longer individuals or families seeking asylum released from short-term federal immigration custody to our Shelter Services, we are seeing increased needs for immigration legal assistance and other social service supports to vulnerable San Diegans. We’re also continuing to collaborate with our community partners to explore new ways to offer assistance."

The organization received $22,077,365 in taxpayer-funded FEMA money in Fiscal Year 2024 despite claiming they received no funds, according to grant records on the FEMA website.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Jewish Family Service of San Diego and FEMA but did not immediately receive a statement. 

Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr slammed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for claiming Trump administration "incompetence" is putting Americans "at risk," pointing to a multi-billion dollar project under the Biden administration that he said yielded no results. 

"You worked for an Administration that got $42 billion to connect millions of Americans to the Internet," Carr said in an X post on Saturday responding to Buttigieg. "1,163 days later, that Admin exited without connecting even 1 person & without turning even 1 shovel worth of dirt."

"If we need expertise in incompetence, will reach out," he added, accompanied by the peace sign emoji. 

Carr was responding to a message Buttigieg posted on Friday that took issue with the Department of Government Efficiency, which has become a common target of Democrats as Elon Musk and the DOGE team work through federal government agencies in its quest of extinguishing government fraud and overspending. 

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"Incompetence in Washington puts every American at risk, no matter how you voted. No one should be happy that the DOGE team - the same folks who randomly published classified U.S. security information online today - wants access to your bank account & Social Security numbers," Buttigieg posted to X on Friday, referring to accusations DOGE posted classified information to its website, which the White House has refuted. 

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The Biden administration in 2021 approved a $42.5 billion provision in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was directed to a program intended to deliver internet to underserved and rural areas of the nation. Four years later, however, the program has not connected users to the internet, the Washington Policy Center found in a report last year. 

States were required to submit plans to the federal government by 2023 related to the investment and deployment of the internet services. Former President Joe Biden, upon the states submitting their plans, celebrated the internet initiative as similar to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1936 Rural Electrification Act, which brought electricity to homes nationwide. 

"What we’re doing is, as I said, not unlike what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he brought electricity to nearly every American home and farm in our nation. Today, Kamala and I are making an equally historic investment to connect everyone in America — everyone in America to high-speed Internet by — and affordable high-speed Internet — by 2030," Biden said at the White House in June of 2023. 

Carr has frequently taken issue with the $42.5 billion program, including citing it in X posts before President Donald Trump's election win in November, and the president subsequently appointing the Republican FCC commissioner as chair of the government agency. 

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"In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans," wrote on X back in June "Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest."

Carr explained to Fox Business back in June that while the funds were allocated to states to deliver internet services through the program, the Biden administration was at fault for the lack of progress. 

"There's no question that the 2021 law put some process in place, but the Biden administration decided to layer on top of that a Byzantine additional set of hoops that states have to go through before the administration will approve them to actually get these funds and start completing the builds," Carr told FOX Business in an interview in June. 

He added that while some high-speed internet projects had connected people during the Biden administration, none were funded through the $42.5 billion allocation from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. 

Fox News Digital's Breck Dumas contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump announced three new members of his administration on Sunday, including Judge Jason Reding Quiñones, who the president has nominated as the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

"A former Federal prosecutor and Justice Department National Security Official, Judge Reding Quiñones currently serves as a highly respected State Trial Judge in Miami, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "As the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Reding Quiñones will restore Law and Order, prosecute violent crimes and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN."

Along with Quiñones, the president announced that Jim Byron will serve as the senior advisor to the acting national archivist, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Having already worked with the NARA, Trump said Byron understands the responsibility that goes into preserving the country’s history.

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In his role, Byron will manage the archives on a day-to-day basis as the Trump administration continues its search for a full-time archivist.

Trump also nominated John Jovanovic to serve as the chairman and CEO of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM).

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"John will utilize his extensive experience in finance, investments, and business building across the Energy, Commodities, and Critical Infrastructure sectors to Make America Energy and Manufacturing DOMINANT Again," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Jovanovic is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his master’s in business administration in finance and management.

He also attended Princeton University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in politics.

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"He will work tirelessly to protect all of the gains from our strong Tariff Policies, guarantee that our Exports receive fair treatment, and always put American companies, and our Energy exports, FIRST," Trump said. "Congratulations John!"

President Donald Trump and his administration are set to have another busy week as negotiations over ending the Russia-Ukraine war get underway. 

Trump is sending a handful of U.S. officials to Saudi Arabia this week to begin negotiating a potential peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News on Sunday morning that he and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also set to travel to Saudi Arabia after his attendance of the international Munich Security Conference last week and meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday. 

The meeting in Saudi Arabia comes after Trump announced last Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to "immediately" begin peace talks.

"Next week, there's a meeting in Saudi Arabia," Trump told the media during a press conference on Thursday. "Not with myself nor President Putin, but with top officials. And Ukraine will be a part of it, too. And we're going to see if we can end that war. That was a horrible war. It's a vicious, bloody war. We want to end it."

Russia and Ukraine have been at war since February 2022, when Russia first invaded its neighboring nation. Trump had said while on the 2024 campaign trail that he would end the war if re-elected, while claiming it would never have begun if he had been in the Oval Office at the time. 

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Trump charged his team of U.S. officials to hold the peace meetings at his direction in Saudi Arabia, Witkoff said on Sunday to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. 

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"I am going tonight. I'll be traveling there with the national security advisor, and we'll be having meetings at the direction of the president. And hopefully we'll make some really good progress with regard to Russia, Ukraine," Witkoff said. 

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Stateside, Trump spent his weekend in Mar-a-Lago in Florida before heading to the Daytona 500, where fans erupted into cheers when Air Force One flew over Daytona International Speedway. Trump is the first sitting president to attend two Daytona 500 races at Daytona International Speedway, previously attending the 2020 race.

Trump’s schedule this week could also include meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who requested a visit with the president at the White House. 

Trump told the media on Friday that he did speak with the U.K. prime minister and that he accepted a request to meet at the White House. 

"We're going to have a friendly meeting, very good. We have a lot of good things going on. But he asked to come and see me, and I just accepted his asking," Trump said. 

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Trump said the meeting would be held "very soon," suggesting it would happen either this coming week or the following week. No details have been revealed as to what the upcoming meeting will focus on, though it comes on the heels of Trump announcing a "reciprocal tariff" plan on Thursday that will impose "fair and reciprocal" tariffs on all major U.S. trading partners. 

"On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them, no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff, and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff, very simple," Trump said at the White House of the tariff plan. 

On the energy policy front, Trump created the National Energy Dominance Council on Friday, which is expected to "unleash" energy independence. 

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"We have more energy than any other country, and now we are unleashing it," Trump said Friday from the Oval Office when he signed an executive order establishing the energy council. "I call it liquid gold under our feet, and we’re going to utilize it."

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council under the second Trump administration, previewed that the council will quickly work to make the U.S. energy dominant, even with actions as early as this coming week. 

"What I expect you to see, sir, is action as early as next week that is going to shock people about how good it is for Americans," Hassett told Trump from the Oval Office on Friday. 

Trump’s fourth week in office follows him already signing 65 executive orders, including 26 on his first day in office alone.

The Trump administration dismissed fewer than 50 workers from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) over the weekend after fears of wider layoffs that caused chaos among staff were quickly rescinded.

Reuters learned from sources on Friday that 325 NNSA workers were sent notices that they had been laid off from the agency, which is responsible for maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

The NNSA reportedly employs about 2,000 people and works around the world to secure nuclear materials, including in Ukraine, despite its ongoing war with Russia.

Hours after receiving the notices on Friday, some of the layoffs were rescinded, creating a chaotic situation at NNSA offices in Washington, D.C., and other places around the country as many employees were worried about their employment status, sources told the wire service.

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On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy confirmed with Fox News Digital that fewer than 50 employees were actually dismissed from their positions.

"Less than 50 NNSA employees were dismissed. These staff members were probationary employees and held primarily administrative and clerical roles," the DOE spokesperson said. "The Energy Department will continue its critical mission of protecting our national security and nuclear deterrence in the development, modernization, and stewardship of America's atomic weapons enterprise, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nonproliferation."

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The cuts are the result of the Trump administration’s push to cut wasteful spending across the federal government.

President Donald Trump has tasked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with seeking out and producing a solution to cut wasteful spending, and part of that has included the reduction of workforce in places like the Departments of Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services.

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An NNSA source told Reuters that managers were called on Thursday evening to inform employees they had been let go, though on Friday they received emails saying things had suddenly changed.

Democratic lawmakers have blasted the NNSA layoffs, calling them "shocking."

"Until such time as we are briefed on these developments, we will not know the damage to our country and the world as a result of these haphazard and thoughtless firings," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said in a release.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump spoke about his plans to end the Russo-Ukrainian War during a press gaggle on Sunday, stating that he believes the leaders of both countries "want to stop fighting."

Speaking on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, Trump said that he's currently in the process of "trying to get peace with Russia, Ukraine."

"And we're working very hard on it," he said. "It's a war that should have never started."

When asked if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to be involved in the conversations, Trump replied in the affirmative.

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"He will be involved, yes," Trump said. When asked by a reporter, Trump also said he would allow Europeans to purchase American-made weapons sold to Ukraine.

The Republican president went on say that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin, who began the war in February 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and escalated it in February 2022 by invading Ukraine, wants to bring the war to an end.

"I think he wants to stop fighting," Trump said. "They have a big, powerful machine, you understand that? And they defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. You know, he's been fighting a long time…I think he would like to stop fighting."

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"Zelenskyy wants to end it, too."

Talks between the U.S. and Russia are expected to begin in Saudi Arabia this week, though it was previously reported that Ukraine was not expected to be directly involved. Trump's national security advisor Michael Waltz said on "Fox News Sunday" that negotiations will involve "key tenants," in order to guarantee a "permanent end to the war."

"The United States and Europe have supported [the Ukrainian] effort, but the United States unquestionably has borne the brunt of that support over the years, but now President Trump is clear it needs to come to an end," Waltz said Sunday. 

 Trump's comments came shortly after a "Meet the Press" interview with Zelenskyy aired on NBC, in which the Ukrainian leader discussed Putin and claimed that he "fears" Trump.

"I said that [Putin] is a liar," Zelenskyy said of a recent phone call to Trump. "And he said, 'I think my feeling is that he's ready for these negotiations.' And I said to him, 'No, he's a liar. He doesn't want any peace.'"

"But I think he's really a little bit scared about the President Trump," Zelenskyy added. "And I think the president has this chance, and he's strong. And I think that really, he can push Putin to peace negotiations. Yes, I think so. I think he can, but don't trust him. Don't trust Putin. Don't trust just words about ceasefire."

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton, Danielle Wallace and Brooke Curto contributed to this report.

MSNBC's Michael Steele unloaded on Democrats during a rant on Saturday, demanding they start to show they care about people "losing their jobs" and President Donald Trump's early actions as president. 

"I’d just like you to show that you give a damn!" Steele, a former RNC Chair turned MSNBC host, said. "That you get a little emotional about the fact that people are losing their jobs indiscriminately! That this individual sitting down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has given absolute power to one man, who brings his son into the Oval Office, whose son says to him, ‘you’re not the president! You shouldn’t be in that chair!’ Now, where did he get that from? He got it from his daddy! Because that’s what his daddy thinks of the man who brought him into the Oval Office."

Steele and his fellow MSNBC colleagues discussed a piece from The Nation, a progressive outlet, headlined "The Courts can't stop the Trump-Musk coup," which deemed the pair to be "barbarians at the gate," and argued that they would defy orders from the courts. 

"They’re in your bedrooms!" Steele continued. "They’re in your living rooms! They’re in your businesses! They’ve got they got your data, dumb a--! They got all your stuff! Elon Musk has his tentacles in everything you’re doing! Not just off of X, but he’s in the Treasury Department! He’s in the Labor Department! He’s in Department of Homeland Security!"

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"And nobody seems to give a damn! So that’s all I want — somebody to show that they care enough to get off their fat a-- and say something about it!" he said. 

Co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend also issued a warning during the discussion.

"I am thoroughly concerned about how we survive. And it just makes me think about this movie that I saw on the plane a couple months ago, ‘Civil War.’ It wasn’t necessarily great, but in the movie ‘Civil War,’ like all hell is breaking loose in Washington D.C. and in places all across the country. And there were people in the middle of the country that were just living their lives like nothing was happening. And I think that that is actually where we are, and there are going to be a lot of people that are going to continue to just go on about their daily lives as though Rome is not burning," she said. 

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Musk has been focused on weeding out government waste through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been met with pushback from the media and from Democratic lawmakers.

However, former Democratic lawmaker Dean Phillips said members of the party looked pathetic.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Phillips admitted that Democrats are being "steamrolled" by the X owner who has begun conducting internal investigations into the spending of various government agencies, while liberal lawmakers have been loudly protesting on the sidelines. Phillips urged the party to change their strategy.

"And all I‘m saying is that sometimes it’s better to join [DOGE, Trump] and actually play a role in how the strategy works, rather than so pathetically, frankly, try to combat something that clearly is a steamroller," the former Minnesota lawmaker told CNN’s Laura Coates.

Fox News' Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.

The administration asked some of the agency’s workers, who were part of last week’s massive layoffs across the federal government, to come back.

© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A high-stakes decision for public corruption prosecutors at the Justice Department revealed a generational difference.

© Kent Nishimura for The New York Times

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said for the first time on Sunday that he was “ready and willing” to deploy troops to help guarantee Ukraine’s security.

© Eric Lee/The New York Times

Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, told NBC News that he’d warned President Trump that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is a “liar.”

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The American president’s foreign policy, and a divisive speech by his vice president, drew attention away from an attack by a refugee that some expected would fan political tensions over migration.

© Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters