Trump live updates: Department of Justice seeks to remove judge who challenged deportation flights

With the U.S. launching strikes against Houthi militants following a vow by the rebels to target American ships, the president is seeking to put renewed pressure on Iran for allegedly backing them.

In a Truth Social post yesterday, the president wrote that, going forward, his administration will consider Houthi acts of aggression against U.S. vessels, interests and allies to be carried out with the direction or support of Iran.

“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!” Trump wrote.

His post followed similar rhetoric leveled over the weekend but also signified an escalation as it marked the first time the U.S. threatened military retaliation against the Iranian government over actions taken by the Houthis.

Consumers joining a growing movement across Europe and Canada to boycott American products are saying it’s the only power at their disposal to fight back against Donald Trump’s trade war policies.

The terms “Boycott USA” and “Boycott America” have spiked in online search results in recent weeks since Trump announced new tariffs against other countries, according to Google Trends, with feeling running particularly strong, for obvious reasons, in Denmark, Canada and France.

The U.S. Institute of Peace says employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have entered its headquarters, despite protests from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch and is instead an independent agency.

CEO George Moose reported the forced entry, stating: “DOGE has broken into our building.”

Police were present at the scene in Washington on Monday evening, which took place at the institute’s headquarters across the street from the State Department in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of the city.

The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts on Monday and after having been turned away on Friday, according to reports, but what they were doing or looking for is not immediately clear.

Also on DOGE, The L.A. Times reports that it is seeking to close nearly two dozen environmental offices in California, the organization is claiming to have deleted the names of 3.2m fictional people aged north of 120 from Social Security databases and Musk’s boast that his operatives work 120-hour weeks is being challenged in Fortune magaziner on the basis that they therefore can’t be getting enough sleep.

Further, here’s an interesting messaging note courtesy of Brian Kilmeade on Fox News, who appeared to be attempting to shift the responsibility for DOGE away from Musk and towards the mysterious Amy Gleason after the billionaire’s recent troubles.

Here’s more on the Institute of Peace furore.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the contract to Granite Construction Co., a California-based firm listed on the S&P 600, to extend the president’s unfinished U.S.-Mexico border wall and “close critical openings” after the Biden administration froze the project.

The heavy civil construction contractor has been tasked with extending the wall by seven miles in a section of the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Hidalgo County, Texas.

Also in the Briefing Room yesterday, Karoline Leavitt urged illegal immigrants to “actively self-deport” or risk appearing in “fun” round-up videos and got into a tangle over French history after Raphael Glucksmann, an MEP from that country, suggested the United States should return the Statue of Liberty to Paris since the current administration’s values no longer align with its message.

Here’s more from James Liddell.

The former UFC champion was welcomed by Trump in the Oval Office yesterday in time for St Patrick’s Day, a matter of days after the president referred to him as his favorite Irishman.

McGregor used an appearance in the White House Briefing Room alongside Karoline Leavitt to complain about conditions in his homeland, ranting: “Our government has long since abandoned the voices of the people of Ireland, and it’s high time that America is made aware of what is going on in Ireland.

“What is going on in Ireland is a travesty. Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability.

“Our money is being spent on overseas issues that have nothing to do with the Irish people. The illegal immigration racket is running ravage on the country. There are rural towns in Ireland that have been overrun in one swoop, that have become a minority in one swoop.”

In response to McGregor’s comments, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the fighter’s claims were “wrong” and did not reflect the views of the Irish people.

Deputy premier Simon Harris added that McGregor was not in the U.S. to represent Ireland, that he did not speak for his countrymen and “has no mandate to”.

Here’s Alex Pattle’s report on his visit.

The president has been trailing his phone call with his Russian counterpart this morning, once more striking an optimistic note.

Here’s Mark Almond on what to expect.

As America braces itself for thousands of declassified CIA documents, former intelligence officer John Kiriakou explains why there isn’t much light left to shed on the presidential assassination – but we should expect intriguing detail about the ‘second gunman’ theory in the killing of his brother Robert.

Speaking at the Kennedy Center yesterday, the D.C. liberal arts institution he has taken over with the intention of “MAGA-fying”, Trump pledged to release 80,000 pages of unredacted files related to the assassination of John F Kennedy, the man the venue was named to honor.

“You’ve got a lot of reading, the president said.

“I don’t believe we are going to redact anything… It’s many pages, approximately 80,000 pages. It’s a lot of stuff– and you’ll make your own determination.”

The commander-in-chief has announced that he is revoking the Secret Service protection afforded to Joe Biden’s children Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden, saying as much on Truth Social last night.

Also on his social media platform, Trump followed up on his campaign promise to back “beautiful, clean coal” – the environment be damned – launched an extraordinary attack on The Atlantic magazine in the course of which he claimed to have won the presidency three times (Narrator: “He didn’t”) and hailed April 2, when his reciprocal tariffs policy comes into effect, as “Liberation Day”.

Here’s more on Trump’s latest move against the Bidens