April 25, 2025 – Donald Trump presidency news

Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted a picture on X of Judge Hannah Dugan, the Milwaukee County Circuit judge who was arrested by the FBI on Friday and charged in federal court for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest.

FBI Director Kash Patel posted a picture on X of the Milwaukee County Circuit judge who was arrested by the FBI today and charged in federal court for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest.

Assistant Director for Public Affairs at the FBI, Ben Williamson, confirmed to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the image Patel posted this evening was Judge Hannah Dugan.

In the image, you can see Dugan being escorted to a car in handcuffs.

Dugan was arrested by the FBI and charged in federal court with two charges for obstruction and concealing the individual from arrest. She made an initial appearance in court and was released.

Patel, in the social media post, wrote, “No one is above the law.”

Dugan’s attorney said in court that “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” according to the AP.

President Donald Trump said today that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we’ve got to be good to Gaza” as Netanyahu continues to block humanitarian aid from entering the war-stricken territory.

When taking questions from reporters en route to the Vatican for Pope Francis’ funeral, the president was asked whether the topic of aid for Gaza came up during his recent conversation with Netanyahu.

Early last month, Israel, in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting new terms for an extension of a ceasefire agreement, imposed a blockade on humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, cutting off food, medical supplies and other aid to the more than 2 million Palestinians.

Trump, since taking office, has expressed his desire for the US to take control of Gaza.

Earlier this month, Trump — in remarks from the White House alongside Netanyahu — called the Palestinian enclave “an incredible piece of important real estate.”

This photo shared with the Associated Press, shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021.

A federal district court judge in Vermont denied a Department of Justice motion to stay a court order requiring the transfer of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk back to Vermont.

In his decision, Judge Williams Sessions III wrote the government’s motion to stay his order “recycled” the same arguments that he had already considered and rejected.

Sessions also noted Öztürk’s transfer to Vermont will not impact the ongoing immigration proceedings against her.

Instead, Sessions wrote that moving her back to Vermont will ensure a speedy resolution to the petitions Ozturk’s attorneys have filed in court, which seek her release on bail and challenge the legality of her detention.

“The government is now obligated to ensure that Ms. Öztürk is transferred to ICE custody within the District of Vermont no later than May 1, 2025,” Sessions wrote in the order issued yesterday.

A bail hearing on Öztürk’s case is scheduled for May 9 at 9:30 a.m. in the Burlington court.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters on Air Force One as he travels to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, on Friday in Rome.

President Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” that would end the war and is calling on the two sides to meet “at very high levels.”

“A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off,’” he wrote on Truth Social after landing in Rome tonight ahead of the pope’s funeral.

Trump’s post comes after one of his top envoys met today with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and before both Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend the funeral tomorrow.

Where things stand: There were two diverging versions of a peace deal at the heart of recent negotiations as Trump envoy Steve Witkoff prepared to meet Putin: one supported by Ukraine and its European allies, and another backed by the Trump administration.

A European official familiar with the different drafts said the Ukrainian and European proposal envisaged a ceasefire followed by discussions about territory, with Kyiv receiving defense guarantees from its allies along the lines of those found in NATO’s Article 5.

Witkoff’s version proposed the recognition of Crimea as Russian by the United States, “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine, Kyiv not joining NATO and sanctions against Russia being lifted, the official said.

Trump’s call for high-level talks also comes after Witkoff and Putin discussed the idea of resuming direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh contributed reporting.

Sen. Jon Ossoff speaks during a town hall in Cobb County, Georgia on Friday.

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff said today that he strongly agrees that President Donald Trump needs to be impeached.

Ossoff, perhaps the nation’s most endangered Senate Democrat who is charting a path for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024, is just the latest in his party to face critical questions during Congress’ two-week break from Washington.

The senator told attendees that “there is no magic button” he can push to unwind the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal agencies and overhaul of the federal workforce – drawing an impassioned response from one voter.

“Why are there no calls for impeachment? This is unacceptable,” the woman shouted to cheers from the crowd. “I will not live in an authoritative country, and neither will any of these people. You can do more! Think outside the box! He needs to be impeached.”

The woman, who said she has a father who is a retired Army colonel, a son with autism and kids who attend a Title 1 school, urged Ossoff to be brave.

“I like you, and I will vote for you if you are brave, and you do what we need,” she said. “We need him [Trump] to be impeached. We need him to be removed.”

Ossoff said he agreed, but the senator noted the unlikelihood of such an action in Congress, saying the only road to Trump’s impeachment is through a majority vote in the GOP-controlled House.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and members of diplomatic missions to Ukraine visit the site of a Russian missile strike on a residential area where multiple children and adults were killed in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded that Ukraine lacks the military might needed to retake Crimea by force but urged the international community to maintain pressure on Russia, which has illegally occupied the peninsula since 2014.

Last week, the White House unveiled a treaty framework that hinged on the US recognizing Russian control over Crimea and additional Ukrainian territory occupied since the invasion began in 2022, according to an official familiar with the framework. Trump told Time magazine today that “Crimea will stay with Russia. And Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time.”

The Ukrainian president reiterated that Ukraine’s constitution prevents him from legitimizing Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

“Our position cannot contradict the Constitution of Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “This [territory] is not my property. This is the property of the Ukrainian people.”

Zelensky also said today that he will travel to the Vatican for the pope’s funeral if he can make it in time to attend after numerous war-related meetings.

Regardless, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will represent Ukraine there.

“If I don’t have time (to get to the Vatican), Ukraine will be represented at a decent level. The foreign minister and the first lady will be there,” Zelensky said at the briefing.

The major sticking points between the US and Ukraine over a framework to drive an end to the Ukraine War include security guarantees for Ukraine and the US stance on recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea, according to a source close to the Ukrainian government who has seen both frameworks.

Ukraine wants security guarantees not only from Europe but also from the US, while the initial US framework said that robust security guarantees for Ukraine would only come from Europe. And the US proposal for the US to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea is something that the Ukrainians outright reject. They also want discussions on Russia keeping territory seized since the invasion in 2022 after a ceasefire, the source said.

Ukraine’s counterproposal was also signed by the French, British and Germans and presented to US President Donald Trump’s top Ukraine Envoy Keith Kellogg.

The counterproposal also made clear that Ukraine wants a ceasefire to come before any other actions are taken. The need for both sides to commit to a full and unconditional ceasefire is listed at the top of the proposal.

Yet, Ukraine also largely agreed to a number of the points in the initial US framework including: removing of sanctions on Russia which were put into place since 2014 which the Ukrainians say should happen gradually after peace plan is enacted, Ukraine not joining NATO, the freezing of the frontlines, and Ukraine regaining control of the area around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

While differences remain, the steps the Ukraine has taken to effectively engage in the talks are significant, officials said.

“For Ukraine to be willing to engage in talk about territory is huge, but if Trump does not think it is much of a concession, that is a problem,” the source said.

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper was named the acting director of National Institutes of Health.

The National Institutes of Health has announced six officials to temporarily lead agencies overseeing infectious diseases, children’s health, nursing and minority health research.

The new appointments come weeks after the agency fired several institute directors or placed them on administrative leave. Several other NIH officials have retired or quit in recent weeks, citing reorganization plans led by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

All of the acting directors currently work at the NIH, according to an email announcement viewed by CNN. The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ new acting director, Dr. Jeff Taubenberger, is a longtime viral disease researcher who studied the 1918 flu outbreak.

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper, the current deputy director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, will step into the acting director role. Hooper’s background includes research on cancer disparities.

The National Institute of Mental Health will be led by Dr. Andrea Beckel-Mitchener, who has also worked on disparities research and on rural access to mental health resources. Dr. Alison Cernich, who led children’s medical rehabilitation at the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, will step into the acting role there.

Dr. Courtney Aklin, who has been a senior adviser to the NIH director and, more recently, acting associate deputy director, will lead the National Institute on Nursing Research.

NIH leadership also tapped Dr. Carolyn Hutter, a longtime genetics researcher with the agency, to lead the National Human Genome Research Institute.

President Donald Trump attacked judges for wanting to hold trials for people who his administration intends to deport, charging that the “courts are holding us back.”

“We’re having a very hard time with judges because they don’t want people to be moved out of the country,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels to Rome for the pope’s funeral.

“There’s never been a time when this has ever become an issue, when they talk about due process – when you have millions of people that you’re moving out, that are really bad people, very dangerous people, and you have a judge who wants every single one of them to have a trial. So they want us to have millions of trials therefore, and how long does the trial take? Weeks?” Trump asked.

He went on to accuse judges of simply trying to “show how big and important they are,” adding, “They shouldn’t be allowed to do it, you know, we have hundreds of thousands of people that we want to get out of the country, and the courts are holding us back.”

Last weekend, the Supreme Court paused the deportation of immigrants potentially subject to the Alien Enemies Act, freezing action in a case involving a group of immigrants in Texas who say the administration was working to remove them and that they had not been provided sufficient notice to challenge their deportation.

President Donald Trump said today aboard Air Force One that he probably would not grant another pause on his steep so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations.

That means those countries have 90 days to strike a deal with the United States or face steep tariffs of up to 50%.

Trump said another delay to those tariffs, which are not technically reciprocal, was “unlikely.”

The timeframe for higher tariffs remains unclear.

Trump in a Time interview published today said countries would have three or four weeks to negotiate before facing higher tariffs. In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said the timeframe for a deal was two to three weeks before the United States would set a tariff on countries.

It’s unclear whether those new tariffs would be temporary until the reciprocal tariffs are un-paused in July or if they would be permanent replacements for the reciprocal tariffs.

President Donald Trump is slamming Kyiv for having not yet signed a rare earths deal with the US, though he claims work on an overall Russia-Ukraine peace deal is going well.

“Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not signed the final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States. It is at least three weeks late. Hopefully, it will be signed IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social today while traveling aboard Air Force One to Rome for the pope’s funeral.

The president’s post comes as he nears his 100th day in office, and as CNN has reported, he’s frustrated that his efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine have fallen short.

“Work on the overall Peace Deal between Russia and Ukraine is going smoothly. SUCCESS seems to be in the future,” Trump added.

Remember: Trump has positioned a deal giving the US more access to Kyiv’s valuable rare earth minerals as critical to securing Ukraine’s security by further intertwining the country’s economic interests. Ukraine has hoped such a deal will solidify Trump’s support for the country and help it secure more concrete security guarantees.

President Donald Trump says he plans to meet “with some people in Rome” while attending the pope’s funeral tomorrow, but emphasized that he’ll be on a tight schedule and that plans are not set in stone.

Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One today that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is among the dignitaries he plans to speak with.

He would not say whether he plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which has been a closely watched possibility given the state of peace talks on Russia’s war.

Trump said he’s unlikely to meet with his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, whom CNN reported is also attending the funeral. “It’s not high on my list, it’s really not,” Trump said.

The president said he’ll be on a tight timeline, with plans to return to the US after the ceremony.

“It’s a little tough, because we don’t have much time,” Trump told reporters. “I think that we’re going to try to see a couple of people that are important to what we’re doing,” he added.

Trump said he felt it was important to attend the pope’s funeral service, “out of respect,” touting his support among Catholic Americans in the 2024 election.

President Donald Trump told reporters traveling with him to Rome today that he won’t drop tariffs on China “unless they give us something that’s substantial,” suggesting he’d like to see China open to US trade.

“I’m not going to drop them unless they give us something that’s, you know, substantial – otherwise, I’m not going to drop them,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “It’ll all work out, those things always work out.”

Pressed on what would constitute a “substantial” concession, Trump told reporters, “Well, free up China.”

During his first term in office, Trump signed an initial trade deal with China that included a pledge from Beijing to double purchases from American farmers in its first year. But ultimately, China fell short of those targets, while the Covid-19 pandemic further depressed global trade just weeks after the phase one deal was signed.

Trump also once again refused to say if he’s spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that “Trump’s team continues to correspond with their Chinese counterparts. The President remains optimistic about securing a fair trade deal with China.”

President Donald Trump’s approval rating on immigration has declined since the start of the year, according to multiple new surveys released in the last few days.

Taken together, the surveys suggest broad support for actions taken at the border, but less public backing for other policies, including threatening to deport international students.

The numbers: Both a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll and an AP-NORC poll released today find Trump’s approval rating among adults on handling immigration under water at 46%, with 53% of Americans disapproving. That represents a decline from earlier this year, when both pollsters found public opinion effectively split (50% approved, 48% disapproved in a February Post/Ipsos poll on the issue; 49% approved and 50% disapproved in a March AP-NORC survey.)

A third new poll, from Fox News, finds registered voters close to evenly divided on Trump’s overall handling of immigration: 47% approve, 48% disapprove. A 55% majority approve of his handling of “border security,” dropping to 45% for his administration’s handling of “the deportation of illegal immigrants.”

International students: Both surveys find opposition to immigration actions targeting international students. The polls were conducted before the Trump administration backed down today in a legal fight over canceling some international students’ status records.

Two diverging versions of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine were at the heart of recent negotiations as US envoy Steve Witkoff prepared to meet with Putin today: one supported by Ukraine and its European allies, and another backed by the Trump administration.

A European official familiar with the different drafts said the Ukrainian and European proposal envisaged a ceasefire followed by discussions about territory, with Kyiv receiving defense guarantees from its allies along the lines of those found in NATO’s Article 5.

Witkoff’s version proposed the recognition of Crimea as Russian by the United States, “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine, Kyiv not joining NATO and sanctions against Russia being lifted, the official said.

The full details of the competing versions were first reported by Reuters.

More on the talks: During his meeting with Putin, Witkoff likely discussed an amended peace proposal that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said emerged from a week of diplomatic wrangling. Zelensky has said US President Donald Trump received a fresh document proposing a path forward in negotiations more amenable to Ukraine and European leaders.

A senior Russian negotiator told reporters earlier today that the two also discussed resuming direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow. That possibility would likely require further discussion, delaying the diplomacy the Trump White House has hoped would yield concrete results in a matter of days.

The Trump administration is backing down in a multi-state legal fight over sweeping actions taken by US Immigration and Enforcement earlier this month that jeopardized and potentially terminated the immigration status of thousands of international students studying in the United States.

In dozens of cases across the country, international students have sued the administration over ICE’s move to cancel their immigration records. These records are used by schools to track whether the students are meeting the requirements of their educational visas. The move appeared to have the effect of terminating the students’ immigration status.

This morning, the administration informed courts and lawyers for the students that it was changing its posture. It did so as judges were getting ready to put ICE officials on the stand to question them about the administration’s actions.

According to the statement from the Justice Department, the student records in question — known as SEVIS records — were being reinstated for the students who sued. The statement said “ICE is developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations.”

The cases had revealed that ICE was justifying the records terminations by saying they were for students who had an alleged “criminal history” — but it also included people who were arrested and never charged, or who had their charges dismissed.

The resolution of these disputes will not affect the State Department’s cancelation of student visas.

President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, according to a senior Kremlin aide.

The meeting at the Kremlin — which lasted three hours — was “constructive and very useful,” Yury Ushakov, a key Putin aide who was at the talks, told reporters.

“This conversation allowed the US positions to be further brought closer together, not only on Ukraine, but also on a number of other international issues,” he said.

Ushakov is former longtime Russian ambassador to the US and has been a key part of Moscow’s diplomatic team.

“In accordance with agreements between Putin and Trump, the process will move forward in an active manner,” he added.

Some context: The talks came as Washington officials floated the possibility of recognizing Russian control of Crimea — which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014 — to reach a potential ceasefire with Kyiv. The move, which would roll back decades of US policy, has been fiercely criticized by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and viewed with alarm by US allies.

In this 2016 photo, Hannah Dugan speaks during a forum at the Milwaukee Bar Association in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Milwaukee County Circuit judge today, bureau Director Kash Patel said on social media, accusing her of helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest.

Judge Hannah Dugan is facing two charges for obstruction and concealing the individual from arrest, a law enforcement official told CNN.

In a quickly deleted post on X, Patel said:

Dugan is in federal custody as she awaits an initial court appearance, the law enforcement official said.

An arrest warrant and criminal complaint are not yet publicly available. CNN has reached out to the Justice Department and FBI for comment.

The arrest on federal charges is an escalation in the Trump administration’s focus on judges’ conduct. The Justice Department has repeatedly asserted that it will investigate any local officials who do not assist federal authorities on immigration matters.

This post has been updated with additional details.

People walk by the New York Stock Exchange on April 2, in New York City.

Americans are still dreading a recession and rising inflation, even after President Donald Trump paused his massive tariff hike on dozens of countries.

Consumer sentiment plunged 8% in April from the prior month, to a final reading of 52.2, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released today. That was a slightly smaller decline than a preliminary reading from earlier this month, which didn’t capture people’s reaction to Trump’s 90-day tariff delay announced on April 9.

Sentiment in April was the fourth-lowest level on records going back to 1952.

Trump’s unpredictable trade war has weighed on Americans’ attitudes toward the economy over the past few months, and now the Federal Reserve and Wall Street are watching to see if that means consumers become more cautious with their spending, or even pull back entirely.

Consumer spending powers the vast majority of the US economy, so such a development would inherently mean weaker economic growth or even a recession.