Trump updates: President warns US may ‘take a pass’ on Ukraine peace talks

Thank you for joining Al Jazeera’s coverage of day 89 of Donald Trump’s second term as president.

For more information about today’s events, please check out this story about the US-China trade war and what products the two countries import from each other.

You can also read our report on how Trump’s immigration crackdown is putting a strain on child and elder care here.

And follow our broader coverage of the Trump administration here.

We hope to see you again soon.

This live page will be closing soon. Here is a recap of today’s major events.

• Donald Trump said civil servants who do not advance his policy interests “should no longer have a job”, adding that the government should run like a business.
• The US president heaped praise on right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after their meeting at the White House on Thursday, calling her “great”.
• The White House confirmed that Trump would visit Italy soon, at Meloni’s invitation.
• During his efforts to check on the wellbeing of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man wrongly deported to El Salvador, Senator Chris Van Hollen said he discovered that Abrego Garcia had been moved to a different prison.
• The White House said Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” despite the outcry and court rulings demanding his return.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US will “need to move on” from Ukraine peace efforts if progress is not made in the coming days.
• During a visit to Paris, Rubio said the US has put forward a proposal to end the war in Ukraine. According to Bloomberg, the plan would entail freezing the conflict and easing sanctions on Russia.
• Physician and TV host Mehmet Oz was sworn in as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The US automaker Ford has said it has paused shipments of SUVs, pick-up trucks and sport cars to China, in light of the ongoing trade war between the two countries.

“We have adjusted exports from the U.S. to China in light of the current tariffs,” Ford said in a statement.

A vast majority of Ford’s vehicles – 80 percent – are sold in the US market. But even so, the carmaker is expected to raise its prices, like other vehicle manufacturers, to absorb the costs of Trump’s tariffs and China’s counter-tariffs.

Ford will continue to export engines and transmissions to China. It also manufactures one of its SUV brands, the Lincoln Nautilus, in China.

Once upon a springtime Friday, a cat joined the White House press corps.

A black-grey feline named Sophie was spotted prowling the North Lawn on Friday, without the proper permission to be intruding on White House property.

White House staff and journalists banded together to corral the cat and call her owner. But while her human travelled to the White House to pick up the offending feline, Sophie was granted a rare honour: entry into the White House.

About a dozen presidents have brought cats to live in the White House, the first being President Abraham Lincoln. But Trump currently has no pets at the presidential mansion.

Journalists on site took it upon themselves to care for Sophie, even bringing her into areas reserved for the press.

Still, an indoor life was not for Sophie: She is part of a programme called Blue Collar Cats, which places feral cats with owners and allows them to roam the city as pest control.

Her owner, Alec Augustine, guesses she probably wandered onto the White House lawn to get away from the capital crowds. But as he spoke to the press, Sophie leapt from his shoulders, sparking yet another chase.

The Pentagon has said it plans to reduce the number of US troops in Syria to about 1,400, framing the withdrawal as a “consolidation”.

In a statement, the Department of Defense said the fact that it is consolidating US troops in Syria “reflects the significant steps” made to degrade the “appeal and operational capability” of ISIL (ISIS).

“As this consolidation takes place, consistent with President Trump’s commitment to peace through strength, US Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of ISIS in Syria,” the department added.

“We will also work closely with capable and willing Coalition partners to maintain pressure on ISIS and respond to any other terrorist threats that arise.”

The US started sending troops to Syria in 2014 with the stated objective of defeating ISIL, but American forces remained in the country after the group’s territorial defeat in 2017.

For years, the Pentagon maintained that it has 900 troops in Syria, but late last year, the US Defense Department said it “learned” that the actual number of American soldiers in the country is closer to 2,000.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Maryland, has returned to the US after travelling to El Salvador to petition for the release of a wrongly deported man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

In a news conference, he explained that his mission had been twofold: to seek Abrego Garcia’s return to Maryland and to meet with him to ensure his safety.

“Getting a meeting with Kilmar was not easy. On Wednesday, I met with the vice president of El Salvador and asked if I could meet with him. The answer was no. I asked, if I returned the following week, whether I could meet with him. The answer was no. I asked if I could call him on the phone. The answer was no,” Van Hollen explained.

He said he drove to CECOT, the maximum-security prison where Abrego Garcia was being held, only to find soldiers blocking his path three kilometres (about 2 miles) away from the detention centre.

“ We were pulled over by soldiers. You could see the rest of the traffic was allowed to go by,” Van Hollen said.

Only at around  8:45pm Eastern Time (00:45 GMT) was he granted access to Abrego Garcia.

During their meeting, which took place at a hotel, Abrego Garcia revealed to the senator he had been transferred from CECOT to a prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador.

“ He said, despite the better conditions, he still has no access to any news from the outside world and no ability to communicate with anybody in the outside world,” Van Hollen said. “His conversation with me was the first communication he’d had with anybody outside a prison since he was abducted.”

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that the Trump administration cannot strip Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from nearly 350,000 Venezuelans living in the US.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is granted when conditions in a foreign national’s home country make it unsafe for them to return, including in cases of natural disaster or political unrest.

The Biden administration had granted thousands of Venezuelans Temporary Protected Status as a result of alleged political repression and economic instability under Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

But Trump has sought to repeal those protections, as part of his broader anti-immigration agenda.

His administration had appealed a lower court’s ruling, saying the sudden revocation of the status was unwarranted – and likely resulted from anti-immigrant prejudice.

“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” that judge, Edward Chen, wrote.

The Trump administration’s appeal was not granted on Friday.

A federal judge has rejected a request for immediate actions to force the Trump White House to comply with a court order to stop blocking The Associated Press from events.

Since Trump took office this year, the White House has banned The Associated Press from the White House press pool, the group of journalists who travel with the president and attend public events.

The Associated Press has long held a spot in the press pool as a widely trusted wire service. But the Trump administration has objected to its continued use of the term “Gulf of Mexico”, despite the president’s efforts to adopt the moniker “Gulf of America” instead.

Judge Trevor McFadden – a Trump appointee – recently ruled that the White House could not retaliate against The Associated Press by blocking it from events.

“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists – be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere  –it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” McFadden wrote.

But just this week, the White House announced it would no longer allow wire services – which serve multiple news outlets around the world – to have a permanent spot in the press pool. The Associated Press has argued that the new policy is yet another sign of retaliation under Trump.

Still, McFadden said today, there is not enough evidence to take immediate action against the White House.

“We are not at the point where we can make much of a determination one way or another,” said McFadden. “I don’t intend to micromanage the White House.”

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump has announced his administration will be unveiling new standards for career civil servants – nonpartisan government employees who ensure the continuity of services, no matter who is in the White House.

“The Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees,” Trump wrote.

His message indicated that civil servants would be expected to adhere to his political agenda – and those that did not would be fired.

“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” Trump continued.

“This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!”

Reclassifying federal employees will make them easier to fire, according to critics.

Citing unidentified European officials, Bloomberg reports that the US has put forward a proposal to end the war in Ukraine that includes lifting sanctions on Russia.

The US plan “would effectively freeze” the conflict, with invaded Ukrainian territories remaining under Russian control, according to the report.

The US court system has warned that insufficient funding would endanger employees “at a time of rising threats to federal judges”.

A statement released on Friday said that the judicial system had petitioned Congress in the last week to address the budget shortfall. It explained that systems like the $750m Court Security programme were operating at budget levels set in fiscal year 2023, a sum inadequate to handle the pressing needs.

“Consecutive years of flat security funding comes at a time when threats against federal judges and courthouses are escalating, making this situation unsustainable in the current environment,” Judges Robert Conrad Jr and Amy St Eve wrote in an accompanying letter.

The statement explains that 67 federal judges handling “high-profile cases” are currently receiving services, including enhanced online security screenings to protect them from doxxing and other malicious attacks.

While the statement does not mention the Trump administration, the US president and his allies have repeatedly criticised judges for unfavourable rulings, suggesting they should be impeached – or that they have circumvented the will of the voters.

At least one district judge has reported receiving a pizza delivery – made in the name of her dead son, who was shot dead by a disgruntled lawyer.

Progressive Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal has slammed the detention of foreign students critical of Israel and the deportation of undocumented immigrants without allowing them a hearing.

Some of those immigrants are being held at a maximum-security prison for “terrorists” in El Salvador, an arrangement for which the US government is paying approximately $6m. Many have not been convicted of a crime, despite Trump’s allegations that they are gang members.

“Trump is disappearing and kidnapping people across this country with zero due process,” Jayapal wrote in a social media post.

“Congress must hold hearings on Mahmoud Khalil, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, Alfredo Juarez, and more. The administration must be held accountable.”

The Trump administration is doubling down on its intention to defy court orders to facilitate the return of a wrongly deported migrant from El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The White House shared a social media post that purported to “fix” a New York Times headline on Senator Chris Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a prison in the Central American country.

It also renewed accusations that Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, saying that he is “never coming back”.

Garcia has never been charged with a crime in the US.

Fixed it for you, @NYTimes.

Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back. pic.twitter.com/VoAphh2ZPY

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 18, 2025

Two Venezuelan men being held in the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, have reported that US officials said they would be imminently deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a court in Texas to intervene.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that, while the Trump administration may use the obscure 18th-century law, it must allow individuals facing deportation to have adequate notice to request a hearing in their cases.

Critics, however, have warned that the Trump administration would seek to make such requests impossible by rapidly deporting immigrants before their cases can be heard.

The Texas case appears to be the first use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations since the ruling.

At a swearing-in ceremony for Mehmet Oz earlier in the day, Trump briefly addressed the issue, saying he did not know the specific individuals in question.

“But if they’re bad people, I would certainly authorise it,” he said of their removal.

Ahead of the second round of talks a between the Trump administration and Iran, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says the negotiations should be “time-bound” and aimed at “verifiably and permanently dismantling” Tehran’s nuclear programme.

“To be effective, these talks must continue to be coupled with the implementation of maximum pressure and a credible threat of military force,” the lobby group said in an email to supporters.

Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson has suspended the Trump administration’s plan to fire nearly 90 percent of the employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

“I am deeply concerned given the scope and speed of the agency’s action,” Judge Berman Jackson ruled.

The sweeping nature of the layoffs – which would affect up to 1,500 of the bureau’s 1,700 employees – raised questions about “whether the agency is now in compliance” with a preliminary injunction Berman put in place, she said.

In March, Berman Jackson issued an order temporarily preventing the Trump White House from closing the CFPB, a watchdog that ensures consumers’ rights are protected in the financial marketplace.

Conservatives have accused the CFPB of overreach, with Trump adviser Elon Musk saying he planned to “delete” the bureau.

An appeals court this week pared back the scope of Berman Jackson’s initial injunction, which prevented staffing cuts in addition to stopping the shuttering of the CFPB. But the appeals court said firings could only take place after a “particularized assessment” of each job cut.

The White House argued on Friday that it complied with that ruling. But Judge Berman Jackson said she would review if the widespread layoffs amounted to a gutting of the CFPB, in violation of her March injunction.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to brief him about a US plan for ending the war in Ukraine, the State Department said.

“The Secretary expressed President Trump’s and the United States’ hopes that this proposal will be accepted and will lead to a durable and lasting peace in Ukraine,” the State Department said.

“The Secretary stressed, while our nation has been committed to helping end the war, if a clear path to peace does not emerge soon, the United States will step back from efforts to broker peace.”

Washington has not released the specifics of the proposed deal, but both Rubio and Trump have said that the US may ditch its efforts to end the war if there is no swift progress in diplomacy.

The US bought $439bn worth of goods from China in 2024 – more than three times the $143.5bn it sold in return. That $295bn gap, known as the trade deficit, is something Trump says he is determined to shrink.

Trump has raised tariffs on China to 145 percent. This means Chinese goods sold to the US are now taxed at 2.45 times their original price, making them much more expensive and less competitive in the US market.

China has retaliated with 125 percent levies on US goods.

The tit-for-tat escalation of tariffs between the world’s biggest trading powers has led to uncertainty about the cost and production of everyday items such as smartphones, semiconductors and clothing.

Read more here about the trade row and what the two countries import from each other.

Speaking at a news conference in the White House, Trump rejected the idea that Russia might be manipulating his efforts to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

“ I have to see my whole life has been one big negotiation, and I know when people are playing us, and I know when they’re not,” he said.

“I have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it. And I think I see that enthusiasm. I think I see it from both sides.”

He emphasised the point later on and added that he thinks the negotiations are reaching a tipping point.

“No, nobody’s  playing me. I’m trying to help,” he said, adding: “I think we have a really good chance of getting it done, and it’s coming to a head right now.”