What to know today
- A federal judge heard arguments this evening in a tense hearing on the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport people accused of being members of a Venezuelan gang. The judge chided a Justice Department lawyer for refusing to answer certain questions about the deportations.
- President Donald Trump this morning baselessly claimed then-President Joe Biden's pre-emptive pardons of members of the House Jan. 6 committee are invalid because they were done by autopen. The now-defunct committee investigated the 2021 attack on the Capitol and Trump's role in events leading up to it.
- Trump met with the Kennedy Center's board of trustees this afternoon. Numerous shows have been canceled or rescheduled since Trump appointed White House officials and allies to the Washington performing arts center's board of trustees and became its chairman.
Semisonic blasts use of ‘Closing Time’ in White House deportation video
Semisonic said it did not authorize and does not condone the White House’s using its hit “Closing Time” in a video that appears to depict deportation, the band said in a statement today.
The video, posted on the White House’s official social media accounts today, features a handcuffed man being patted down while the song plays in the background: “Closing time, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
In the next shot, the audience can see “BORDER PATROL” in capital letters as people climb up stairs to an airplane in the background, seemingly to be deported from the United States. The rest of the song’s verse continues: “I know who I want to take me home.”
The Minneapolis rock band was quick to denounce the use of its 1998 hit.
Judge in Alien Enemies Act case chides DOJ lawyer over refusal to answer key questions about deportations
A federal judge pressed a Justice Department lawyer today over why the Trump administration did not comply with his order to temporarily halt deportations under an 18th century law and asked why key information about the flights from over the weekend was being withheld.
In a tense hearing, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington, D.C., summarized the administration’s position on his court order Saturday as “we don’t care, we’ll do what we want.” Boasberg had directed any planes in the air carrying deportees to return to the United States.
The Justice Department attorney, Abhishek Kambli, said the administration had complied with the written order, which came hours after Boasberg’s oral ruling at an emergency hearing Saturday. Kambli argued the written ruling took precedence over the one issued from the bench, adding, “We believe that we’ve complied with the order.”
The judge said an order is an order.
Trump says he 'never liked' the hit play 'Hamilton' after the show cancels its run at the Kennedy Center next year
Ahead of his first board room meeting at the Kennedy Center today, Trump said he was never a fan of "Hamilton," which recently canceled its scheduled run at the arts institution next year.
"I never liked 'Hamilton' very much," Trump said. "But we are going to have some really good shows."
A reporter had question about programming plans for the Kennedy Center, where Trump recently overhauled the leadership and appointed himself as chairman of the board of trustees.
“Hamilton,” a Broadway hit, canceled its run at the Kennedy Center for 2026 after Trump ousted the existing leadership.
“The thing that does well are Broadway hits, and we have some beauty, I guess we have 'Les Mis' coming, and we have some others, but the Broadway hits have done very well," Trump said.
White House dismisses French official's request to return the Statue of Liberty to France
The United States won't be returning the Statue of Liberty to France, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at today's briefing following a request from a French member of the European Parliament.
Raphaël Glucksmann said yesterday that the United States should return the statue — a gift from France in 1884.
Leavitt said the United States will “absolutely not” return the statue.
“My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. So they should be very grateful to our great country,” Leavitt said.
Glucksmann said that the statue had been a gift but that the United States did not appreciate its meaning.
“We are going to tell the Americans who have chosen to take the side of tyrants, to the Americans who turned away researchers for their scientific freedom, we are going to say two things to the Americans: First, return to us the Statue of Liberty. We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you don’t appreciate it. So she will be just fine here, with us,” Glucksmann said in a speech before members of his political party.
First to NBC News: Campaign finance complaint filed against Musk-associated group's involvement in Wisconsin Supreme Court race
A bipartisan coalition alleges that a political group affiliated with Elon Musk violated state campaign finance laws as part of its spending efforts in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, according to a complaint filed today.
The complaint, filed by longtime Wisconsin Republican activist Tracy Mangold with the support of a Democratic strategist-led group that's focused on supporting the party’s legal efforts around election protection, alleges that Building America’s Future violated campaign finance laws in failing to properly disclose various expenditures and disbursements related to the “Progress 2028” campaign.
Representatives for Musk and for Building America’s Future didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the complaint.
The complaint is related to a series of digital ads put out by a group identifying itself as Progress 2028 that have tied the liberal candidate in the technically nonpartisan race, Susan Crawford, to a variety of liberal policy ideas. Some ads, for example, call Crawford a “progressive champion,” while others contend she will “stand up for immigrants” and give convicted criminals “second chances.”
The Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have reported that the ads, which appear largely on Facebook and other social media sites, were funded by Building America’s Future, a Musk-aligned group. (Building America’s Future isn’t required to disclose its donations, but Reuters and The Wall Street Journal have reported that Musk helped fund it in the past.) The group is one of two associated with Musk — the other is Musk's America PAC — that have together spent more than $8 million to boost the conservative candidate in the race, Brad Schimel.
Today's complaint alleges that Building America’s Future hasn’t properly disclosed the disbursements to fund the campaign — known as express advocacy disbursements — as would be required under Wisconsin campaign finance law.
The complaint asks the Wisconsin Ethics Commission to review and investigate the alleged violations.
“Elon Musk’s PAC has dumped millions into this race in an apparent attempt to buy a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — and now it appears the PAC has broken the law while doing it,” Norm Eisen, a co-founder of State Democracy Defenders Action, the group involved in filing the complaint, said in a statement today.
The April 1 election will determine the state Supreme Court’s ideological balance for the second time in two years. Early voting kicks off tomorrow.
Trump teases release of all remaining JFK files
During a tour of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump said his administration tomorrow will release “all of the Kennedy files,” about 80,000 pages of records related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination. The Kennedy Center was named after JFK in 1964.
"We have a tremendous amount of paper. You've got a lot of reading," Trump told reporters. "I don't believe we're going to redact anything. I said, 'Just don't redact. You can't redact.'"
Trump, who made the release a campaign promise, added, “I’m a man of my word.”
The hearing on Trump's deportations is starting
U.S. District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, D.C., is about to begin hearing arguments on the Trump administration's decision to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of people suspected of being members of a Venezuelan gang.
Earlier today, the court denied the government’s request to vacate the hearing.
Are we heading into a recession? Here’s what the data shows
Trade tensions have torn into the markets. With stocks sliding into correction territory in the last week, a question emerges: Is a recession next?
Traders on prediction markets — where people wager on such events as the likelihood of a recession — are increasingly betting on an economic downturn. Polymarket, for example, places the odds on a recession this year at 40% — a sharp jump of nearly 20 percentage points in under a month.
Trump admin expels South African ambassador, saying he must leave this week
The United States is expelling the South African ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, over comments he made about Trump and his political movement, the State Department said.
“South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X. “Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS.”
A State Department spokesperson said that “we made the embassy aware that Ambassador Rasool has been found unacceptable by the United States to be a representative of his country” and that “he must depart by March 21.”
In his post on X, Rubio linked to a Breitbart article detailing the ambassador's remarks to the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection in Johannesburg analyzing the best approach to dealing with the Trump administration and its own approach to South Africa.
During the discussion, Rasool, who was an anti-apartheid activist, attributed some of the MAGA movement's hard immigration policies to fears about changes in U.S. demographics.
"We see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white," he said. "And that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon."
He added: "That needs to be factored in, so that we understand some of the things that we think are instinctive, nativist, racist things. I think that there’s data that, for example, would support that, that would go to this wall being built, the deportation movement."
The State Department spokesperson also criticized the South African government’s “aggressive positions” toward the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel of genocide in the International Court of Justice.
Rubio boycotted the G20 ministerial in Johannesburg last month, accusing South Africa of doing “very bad things” and saying the forum would be used to promote “DEI and climate change.”
The South African Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Trump faces new legal battle after deporting Venezuelan immigrants
Trump is defending his administration’s controversial deportation of around 300 people accused of being members of a Venezuelan gang to a prison in El Salvador. The White House claimed authority for the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a statute last invoked during World War II. NBC News’ Garrett Haake reports for "TODAY."
Chinese state media cheer Trump’s decision to ax Voice of America
Reporting from Hong Kong
Chinese state media is celebrating Trump’s move to gut Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded news outlets that push back against authoritarian regimes.
His executive order Friday dismantling Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other outlets has been criticized as another blow to long-standing U.S. soft power efforts, amid fears that eroding U.S. influence abroad could create opportunities for governments such as those of China and Russia to promote their values, instead.
FDA staffers describe 'chaos' in return to office
Food and Drug Administration staff members face long lines and overcrowded buses, with some even being turned away, as they return to White Oak, the agency’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, today, according to two employees. The campus has around 10,000 workers.
Today is the first official day of the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate for FDA employees, requiring all staff members living within 50 miles of an agency facility to work on-site. Employees have been concerned about the availability of space as some office sites were shuttered during the pandemic.
One employee reported that the shuttle taking FDA staffers to campus was completely full by 7 a.m., including all standing room. The employee reported never having seen the shuttle more than 40% full before.
An employee described a “tidal wave” of workers trying to enter the White Oak campus from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET, with a line beginning to form around 6:30 a.m. Some teams had to find chairs for staffers.
“This is completely inadequate preparation,” the employee said.
Parking has also become an issue, the employees said, with some staff members resorting to parking in unpaved areas because of a lack of available spots. People may have trouble leaving the lot, they fear, once the workday is over.
“It’s chaos,” an employee said. “People are parking in the grass like we’re here for a Beyoncé concert.”
Chuck Schumer postpones book events due to ‘security concerns’ amid Democratic backlash over shutdown fight
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is postponing several events across the country this week to promote his new book amid Democratic backlash to his handling of last week’s government funding fight.
“Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled,” said a statement provided by Risa Heller, who is handling communications for Schumer’s book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.”
Hearing over deportation of a Brown professor of medicine is canceled
A hearing over the deportation of a Brown professor of medicine, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, will no longer take place today, according to a court filing.
The delay came after a request from Alawieh's side, as her team of lawyers is changing and requested more time to submit filings and respond.
Alawieh's team filed a lawsuit alleging that she was deported after returning from a trip to Lebanon, despite having a U.S. visa — and after a judge ordered Friday that authorities should not deport Alawieh without 48 hours' notice and a reason for doing so that the court could consider.
But a lawyer for Alawieh confirmed that she is now back in Lebanon, which filings from her lawyers alleged were in violation of the court order.
Trump warns Houthis they will be met with 'great force' if they launch more attacks
Trump warned in a Truth Social post this morning that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels will be "met with great force" if they continue to launch attacks in the Middle East and that Iran would be held accountable.
"Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!" he said.
Trump ordered a series of airstrikes on Houthi-held areas in Yemen on Saturday, which killed at least 53 people and injured 98. Since the airstrikes, Houthis have tried twice to attack the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the northern Red Sea.
The Houthis have been launching attacks on shipping vessels and ships in the region since Israel began its military offensive in Gaza following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Top Trump adviser says there will 'absolutely' be more economic uncertainty over tariffs
Trump’s top economic aide warned of more economic uncertainty stemming from the United States’ evolving tariff agenda.
“Absolutely, between now and April 2, there’ll be some uncertainty,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” referring to the date on which Trump says he will unveil “reciprocal” tariff plans.
The remark acknowledges what many analysts and business leaders have complained about for weeks, as Trump’s sweeping tariff announcements — and subsequent revisions to them — sow confusion in the markets.
Sen. Adam Schiff says Trump's threat on Biden pardons won't 'intimidate' him and other former Jan. 6 panel members
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a post on X this morning that he and other former members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol won't be intimidated by Trump's threat to reverse President Joe Biden's pardons of them.
"The members of the Jan 6 Committee are all proud of our work. Your threats will not intimidate us. Or silence us," wrote Schiff, who served on the committee and was among those Biden pre-emptively pardoned before Trump's inauguration.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who also served on the committee, wrote on X, "Donald, bring it. I’m so tired of your victimy whiney belly aching crap. You friggin won and you STILL are complaining all the time. BRING IT YOU SMALL LITTLE BOY."
Trump claimed without evidence in a post on Truth Social overnight that Biden's pardons of them and others are "void" because he used an autopen. The president said that, as a result, they are "subject to investigation at the highest level."
Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor visits the White House
Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor stopped by the White House briefing room with press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a St. Patrick’s Day visit, saying he visited to “raise the issues the people of Ireland face.”
McGregor argued that "Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness" due to the "illegal immigration racket."
The fighter also referred to Ireland and the U.S. as siblings, adding, "We wish to be taken care of by the big bro."
"The United States should look after its little bro. And that’s how we feel," he said.
Schumer and Jeffries met this weekend in Brooklyn
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met this weekend in Brooklyn, according to spokespeople for both New York lawmakers.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of increased tension in the Democratic Party, in the wake of Schumer’s decision to allow a continuing resolution to the floor to be voted on under a simple majority, suspending the 60-vote threshold normally needed for passage of most legislation in the Senate. The bill ultimately passed and was signed into law.
House Democrats voted against the measure that ultimately averted a government shutdown.
Punchbowl was the first to report the news of the Schumer-Jeffries meeting.
Contractors fired at VOA as news broadcasts go quiet
The Trump administration has told contractors working at Voice of America they will be terminated as of March 31, according to one of the employees and another source with knowledge of the matter.
The move came after most of the workforce was placed on administrative leave on Saturday morning. Since late Friday, VOA news broadcasts have gone quiet.
Misha Komadovsky, the White House correspondent for VOA’s Russian-language service, wrote in a post on social media that he was one of those terminated.
“Contractors, including myself, at Voice of America have just received an email notifying us that our contracts will be terminated effective March 31, 2025,” Komadovsky wrote on X.
VOA delivered news around the world in nearly 50 languages and had an estimated audience of more than 354 million people, according to its website.
VOA was launched in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda with accurate and unbiased news.
Steve Herman, a veteran VOA reporter who worked abroad and covered the White House, wrote on Substack that the mass firings amounted to a “betrayal” of the principles that led to the creation of VOA more than 80 years ago.
“To effectively shutter the Voice of America is to dim a beacon that burned bright during some of the darkest hours since 1942," he wrote.
Judge orders hearing over deportations under Alien Enemies Act
A federal judge in Washington has ordered a 5 p.m. hearing on the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport people it alleges are Venezuelan gang members.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said the government should be prepared to answer questions about the timing of the deportation flights and changing of custody.
Boasberg had ordered flights carrying deportees removed under the Alien Enemies Act to return to the U.S., but the administration said yesterday that flights carrying deportees landed in El Salvador, raising questions about whether the administration defied the court order.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that "the written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict."
Trump admin touts deportations under Alien Enemies Act after a judge temporarily blocked its use
Trump administration officials Sunday announced the deportation of hundreds of immigrants they allege are members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under the wartime Alien Enemies Act, after a judge temporarily blocked the effort Saturday.
“The president invoked this authority to deport nearly 300 of them who are now in El Salvador, where they will be behind bars where they belong, rather than roaming freely in American communities,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
What latest polls say about Trump’s job performance
Steve Kornacki joins "TODAY" to break down a new NBC News poll on President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, more than 50 days since he was sworn in. His job performance is rated as 47% approve while 51% disapprove.
Poll: Trump faces early challenges on the economy as a united GOP backs big change
Voters are starting 2025 sour on the state of the economy and President Donald Trump’s handling of it so far, even as his election to a second term sparked an upswing in positive feelings about the direction of the nation, according to a new national NBC News poll.
Buoyed by jubilant and unified Republicans, who are standing in lockstep with Trump and the expansive agenda he and congressional leaders are pushing in Washington, more registered voters see the U.S. as heading in the right direction than at any point since early 2004, though a majority still say the country is on the wrong track. Trump’s approval rating also equals his best-ever mark as president (47%), though again, a majority (51%) disapproves of his performance.
Meanwhile, driven in part by a pessimistic shift among Democrats since Trump’s election, just 18% of voters rate the economy as “excellent” or “good” — not as low as the poorest economic marks during the Biden administration, according to CNBC polling from 2022, but within a handful of points and as low as that mark has been in NBC News polling since 2014. Majorities of voters disapprove of Trump’s early job performance on the economy (54% disapprove, 44% approve) and how he’s handling inflation and the cost of living (55% disapprove, 42% approve).
It’s a new development for Trump, who never previously had a majority against his handling of the economy in a national NBC News poll. Now, he is confronting jittery markets and businesses amid his early moves to put tariffs on U.S. neighbors and other allies. Trump also faces questions from voters about whether he is sufficiently focused on their core issue of costs as he pursues other projects like reshaping the federal bureaucracy.
Trump claims Biden’s pardons for Jan. 6 committee are ‘void’ because he used an autopen
Trump claimed without evidence today that his predecessor’s pardons for members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol are invalid because then-President Joe Biden didn’t use a real pen.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social online platform.
Trump went on to allege that Biden didn’t know about the pardons or approve them, and said that therefore all the committee members would be “subject to investigation at the highest level.”
It wasn’t clear if the president was planning imminent action or an investigation against the committee members. The White House was contacted for comment.
Trump set to speak with Putin as he pushes for ceasefire
Trump is preparing to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a ceasefire deal with Ukraine. “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But I think we have a very good chance,” Trump says. NBC’s Keir Simmons reports for "TODAY."
The cost of being in Trump’s crosshairs: Public humiliation
It’s not only that the Trump administration is firing government employees en masse, or trying to swallow up neighboring Canada, or squeezing Ukraine, a democratic nation fighting off Russia’s invasion.
For those in the crosshairs, no small part of the ordeal is the public humiliation they’ve endured. The new administration has been rushing to execute its agenda and along the way has left a roadside trail of unsuspecting and, in some cases, helpless casualties.
In recent weeks, the world has seen images of federal workers leaving their building for the last time, tearfully clutching boxes with small plants and other belongings after abruptly learning they’re out of a job. Some of them were given just 15 minutes to clear out their desks.
Justice Department officials perceived to be not fully on board with the Trump agenda were escorted out of the building by law enforcement or security guards as if they had committed wrongdoing.
Poll: Americans are rooting for Ukraine. But more think Trump prefers Russia.
A majority of American voters say their sympathies lie more with Ukraine than with Russia in the war between the two countries. At the same time, nearly half say they think Trump favors Russia, while most of the remainder believe he favors neither, according to the new national NBC News poll.
Sixty-one percent of registered voters choose Ukraine when asked which of the two countries has their sympathies more, while just 2% say Russia. Another 35% say they are more sympathetic to neither side, while 2% are not sure.
When asked where they believe Trump’s sympathies are, 49% choose Russia, 40% say they think Trump favors neither side, and 8% choose Ukraine. Another 3% say they are not sure.
Trump himself has publicly adopted the idea of not favoring either side, saying in February, “If I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal.”