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(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, under investigation for mishandling sensitive military information, traveled to Michigan on Tuesday alongside President Donald Trump in what appeared to be a show of support for the Pentagon chief whose rocky tenure has prompted calls by Democrats for his resignation.

Speaking at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Trump introduced his secretary of defense to the Guard members, telling them Hegseth was doing “a really great job.”

In brief remarks following Trump, Hegseth praised the president.

“Only because the commander in chief invited me,” Hegseth said, gesturing to Trump. “Mr. President, thank you for restoring the warrior ethos inside our formations, for rebuilding our military, reestablishing deterrence around the world and making Americans proud to wear the uniform.”

Hegseth later added: “All I ever wanted when I was in combat was to know that my commander had my back no matter what, and with Donald J. Trump, that commander has your back.”

Hegseth’s office declined to answer questions about why he was added to Trump’s entourage as part of the president’s trip to celebrate his 100 days in office. Hegseth’s involvement was not previously announced.

Trump was to speak later to a rally crowd in Warren, Michigan, to tout his achievements during his first 100 days. He was joined at the base by Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as he announced that Selfridge would receive 21 F-15 fighters which will bolster its future.

An infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, Hegseth deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving the service with the rank of major, according to military records.

“From Day One, our overriding objectives have been clear: restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence,” said Sean Parnell, a senior adviser to Hegseth. “In 100 days, the Department of Defense and our warfighters have delivered historic victories for the American people.”

Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, was narrowly confirmed by the Senate earlier this year following allegations of financial mismanagement at a veterans nonprofit, sexual assault and heavy drinking — all allegations he denies and says were aimed at smearing his reputation.

Two months after Hegseth took the helm at the Pentagon, The Atlantic reported he was using the commercial messaging app Signal to update other national security officials, including Vice President JD Vance, with detailed plans for a military attack on the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Hegseth then used a second Signal chat to provide sensitive details to his wife, brother and personal lawyer, ABC News confirmed.

The Pentagon’s independent watchdog, DOD acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins, said he would investigate the use of Signal by Hegseth and others.

Trump later told The Atlantic that he spoke with Hegseth following the reports.

“I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump said of Hegseth. “I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.”

Adding to the tumult is the departure of several top aides to the secretary. Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, recently stepped down, moving into a part-time advisory role. Hegseth fired three other close aides for what he said was leaking, although the aides say they have not been approached by investigators and remain unclear what the allegations are. And a fifth adviser resigned, writing a scathing opinion article calling Hegseth’s handling of the Pentagon “total chaos.”

For his part, Hegseth said he’s fighting to enact the president’s agenda. On Tuesday, shortly before leaving on his trip with the president, Hegseth said he “proudly” ended a small Defense Department program aimed at bolstering the participation of women in helping to resolve overseas conflicts, calling the effort a “woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative.”

The program — called “Women, Peace and Security” — was signed into law by Trump during his first term in 2017 after several Republicans, including current Trump Cabinet members Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio, who were lawmakers at the time, sponsored the bill.

In 2019, the Trump administration outlined a strategy for implementing the program, including insisting upon female representation by other countries during peace talks. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, was among its supporters.

“Peace processes and peacebuilding efforts are more successful when women have influential roles,” the Trump administration wrote at the time.

But according to Hegseth, the program never worked.

“Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it,” Hegseth insisted.

Hegseth acknowledged in a subsequent post that the effort was indeed a Trump initiative with Republican support. He then accused the Biden administration of ruining it.

In 2021, President Joe Biden and Congress put $5.5 million in DOD spending toward implementing the law, including hiring and training personnel.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge blasted the Trump administration’s termination of immigration records for thousands of foreign students in the United States as “arbitrary and capricious,” demanding that the government provide detailed explanations as to why and how the records were terminated and what this means for students.

“I think we all agree it was arbitrary and capricious,” Judge Ana Reyes said about the Trump administration’s move to terminate records of foreign students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a database that schools and government agencies used to confirm if foreign students are abiding by the conditions of their stay, during a court hearing for an international student’s case in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

“This was not ideal by any stretch of the imagination,” she continued.

Akshar Patel, a computer science student from India, sued the Trump administration after his SEVIS record was recently terminated based on a speeding ticket from a few years ago. On the heels of the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it is reinstating SEVIS records for some international students whose records had been terminated, Patel sought a preliminary injunction to ensure he can maintain his status and won’t be detained or deported.

“It still boggles my mind that we’re firing tens of thousands of federal workers on no notice and then take 10 to 20 of them to run a bunch of names through a database to see if there are students — if they have a speeding record,” Reyes said.

Reyes, who is overseeing Patel’s case, did not rule on the motion for a preliminary injunction from the bench on Tuesday after hearing from the government that Patel’s legal status as a student has not been terminated and that he’s not facing any immediate threat of deportation. The judge suggested that the plaintiff and the government could come up with language to ensure Patel’s status in the United States.

During the court hearing, Andre Watson, a senior official at the National Security Division of Homeland Security Investigations, explained that Patel was terminated due to a speeding ticket from a few years ago, was one of roughly 6,400 international students who were referred to the State Department after his team checked the records of nearly 1.3 million international students through the National Crime Information Center as part of its Criminal Alien Program initiative, which is aimed at identifying and removing migrants lacking legal status to be in the U.S. who also have criminal records.

The thousands of international students who were referred to the State Department, and subsequently returned to the Department of Homeland Security, including Patel, came up on the NCIC database but did not necessarily have criminal records. Watson did not elaborate on how exactly the government combed through the names to decide whom it flagged.

The judge was highly critical of the administration’s process of terminating these students’ immigration records and visas, taking particular notice of the sweeping nature of the mass terminations.

“After careful consideration for 15 minutes, terminate everybody, right?” the judge questioned as she walked through the government’s process of filtering through students’ records and determining whose records to terminate. “Can you and I agree that nowhere in this entire process has anyone done an individualized determination of any of these individuals before their names were terminated in SEVIS?”

“I mean, no one looked at Mr. Patel’s case and said that, yeah, here’s somebody who should no longer be in the United States, right?” Reyes continued.

Noting that Patel had only received a citation in Texas for reckless driving but was never charged, Reyes said, “You and I both agree that if we deported every single individual in this country who’s been tasked for speeding, there’d be very few people left, and almost all of them would not have driver’s license.”

“You and I both know that Mr. Patel is not a criminal, right?” she said, adding that Patel had even disclosed the speeding ticket in his visa petition. “The United States government had already assessed this speeding ticket and had found it not to be a reason to kick him out of status.”

U.S. attorney Johnny Walker maintained that the SEVIS termination was merely a “red flag” to the school notifying it of the student’s record, saying it is up to the school to terminate his student status.

While Patel, who is scheduled to graduate in a few weeks, has continued to attend classes to finish his degree, lawyers representing other affected international students have said some schools saw it as more than a red flag — thinking this meant their students needed to leave the country.

While declining to rule from the bench after assurances from the government that Patel’s student status is active, the judge criticized the administration’s actions, describing it as an “utter lack of concern for human individuals.”

“Aside from the utter lack of concern for human individuals who we have invited into our country and who have made our communities richer by being students who have contributed to our colleges and who have paid our colleges — the reason I’m concerned and particularly troubled is because those plaintiffs lawyers, like all lawyers, have to get paid, and so now we’ve got thousands of people who are having to pay plaintiff’s attorneys to have litigation, to file briefs, to appear in court, prepare for court, to get the information, and that’s not cheap, right?” Reyes said.

“And all of this could have been avoided if individuals had taken a beat and instead of just rushing things,” she continued.

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(WASHINGTON) — After being in a detention center for several months in Texas, Yorely Bernal Inciarte got the news she had been praying for: She was going to be deported back to her home country.

But when she boarded her deportation flight to Venezuela last week, her worst nightmare came true, she said: Her two-year old daughter was not on the flight.

“I started yelling at the officers asking where my baby was,” Inciarte told ABC News. “[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers ignored me.”

When Inciarte, her partner Maiker Espinoza Escalona and their child entered the U.S. last year and surrendered to authorities, the three were separated, Inciarte told ABC News.

Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, Inciarte said. She told ABC News she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone.

The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order to be reunited with their child, who is not a U.S. citizen, one of their attorneys told ABC News.

But that would never happen. Escalona was transferred to Guantanamo Bay and then sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8 authorities, according to the family and their attorney.

“When I saw him in a video in El Salvador, I was in shock,” Inciarte said. “I couldn’t stop crying and yelling.”

Last week, Inciarte was deported to Venezuela without her daughter, a move that has outraged government officials in Venezuela. The Department of Homeland Security over the weekend labeled Inciarte and Escalona as “Tren de Aragua parents,” alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan gang.

“The child’s father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house,” DHS said in a statement over the weekend. “The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.”

“The child remains in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and is currently placed with a foster family,” DHS added.

Inciarte, her attorney and the family deny the accusations by DHS.

“If it’s true, release the evidence,” Inciarte told ABC News. “Release the proof that we are Tren de Aragua. They took a child away from their mother and they’re telling lies about us.”

According to Inciarte, she and Escalona were never released from detention in the U.S. A DHS document obtained by ABC News shows that Inciarte entered the U.S. on May 14 and did not present a valid entry document.

Venezuelan documents provided by their family appear to show the two do not have criminal records in their home country.

When asked about the evidence the agency has on Escalona and Inciarte, DHS sent ABC News the statement posted over the weekend.

An ABC News review of county and federal records found no cases associated with Escalona. ABC News located a federal criminal case against Inciarte for improper entry into the U.S. in 2024. According to the documents, Inciarte pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served and one business day.

Over the weekend, a top official in the Venezuelan government accused the U.S. of “kidnapping” the child.

“The U.S. government is robbing Venezuelan children,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on a radio show.

Inciarte’s family previously told ABC News they believe the couple was accused of being members of Tren de Aragua because of their tattoos.

“My daughter has a tattoo of the year I was born and the year her dad was born,” Inciarte’s mother told ABC News. “She also has the name of her son and some flowers on her chest. Maiker is a tattoo artist and he would do her tattoos.”

Marly, who is Escalona’s sister, said her brother was also a barber and traveled to the U.S. for a better life.

“My brother is a 25-year-old guy, a dreamer, like all Venezuelans,” Marly said in Spanish. “He loves cutting hair. He finished high school, he took courses in barbering and set up his barbershop in Venezuela. But things got a bit tough in Venezuela, so he emigrated to have a better life.”

The Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that has custody of the 2-year old, referred ABC News to DHS for questions about the child.

Inciarte told ABC News she does not know who to contact and what to do to get her daughter back.

“I wouldn’t wish this on any mother,” Inciarte said.

ABC News’ Jared Kofsky contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — In an exclusive interview with ABC News to mark his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he “could” secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man his administration said in court was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

“Now the Supreme Court has upheld an order that you must return him to the– facilitate his return to the United States. What are you doing to comply?” ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran asked Trump in the Oval Office.

“Well, the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us– should not have said that, should not have said that,” Trump argued. The president then said that Abrego Garcia is a member of the criminal MS-13 gang and “is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland.” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have maintained he’s not MS-13 and has not been charged with or convicted of a crime.

“I’m not saying he’s a good guy. It’s about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir,” Moran told the president.

“He came into our country illegally,” Trump maintained.

“You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk,” Moran told Trump, pointing to the phone on the Resolute Desk.

“I could,” Trump conceded.

“You could pick it up, and with all–” Moran began to say.

“I could,” Trump said again.

“–the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back right now,’” Moran explained.

“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump offered, before saying, “I’m not the one making this decision.”

“You’re the president,” Moran told him.

“I– no, no, no, no. If– follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is—” Trump said.

“The Supreme Court says what the law is,” Moran said.

Trump replied, referencing immigration, saying he “was elected to take care of a problem” that was an “unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man,” – an apparent jab at President Joe Biden.

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(WASHINGTON) — Doug Emhoff, the former second gentleman of the United States, said on Tuesday that he had been dismissed from the board of trustees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Emhoff was dismissed from the board by President Donald Trump’s administration, which has the power to appoint and remove members.

“President Trump looks forward to appointing new individuals who will not only continue to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, but who are also steadfast supporters of the State of Israel,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News.

According to the museum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, which serves as the board of trustees of the museum, has 55 president-appointed members, as well as members from the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the departments of Education, Interior and State.

Emhoff was appointed in January to the council by then-President Joe Biden.

“Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff said in a statement to ABC News.

“To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous,” he continued, “and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”

The dismissal of Emhoff from the board is the latest example of Trump removing people from what were traditionally nonpartisan roles appointed by presidents and other officials.

In February, Trump announced he would be removing board members from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — and also installed himself as chair.

The New York Times was the first to report that a number of board members — including Emhoff — had been dismissed from the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which the White House confirmed to ABC News.

Emhoff, who is Jewish and has talked extensively about the Holocaust and antisemitism, has previously spoken in support of Israel, and he supported Biden’s efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Israel-Hamas war.

In remarks to Jewish supporters on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, he framed then-Vice President Kamala Harris as “somebody who knows our community, will continue to support us and Israel, and make sure that just the world is free of hate, including antisemitism.”

The Holocaust Memorial Museum gave a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, saying, “At this time of high antisemitism and Holocaust distortion and denial, the Museum is gratified that our visitation is robust and demand for Holocaust education is increasing.”

“We look forward to continuing to advance our vitally important mission as we work with the Trump Administration,” the statement continued.

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