The Headlines - Judge Moves to Limit Musk’s Power, and a Social Security Shake-Up

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Plus, the tale of a stolen golden toilet. On Today’s Episode:Musk’s Role in Dismantling Aid Agency Likely Violated Constitution, Judge Finds, by Zach MontagueJudge Blocks Policy That Would Expel Transgender Troops, by Dave PhilippsRebuking Talk From Trump, Roberts Calls Impeaching Judges Over Rulings Improper, by Adam LiptakPutin Agrees to Limits on Energy Targets but Not Full Ukraine Cease-Fire, by David E. Sanger and Paul SonneThe Social Security Administration Says It Will Stop Allowing Changes Made by Phone, by Tara Siegel BernardHighlights From Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Return to Earth, by Kenneth Chang and Thomas FullerTwo Men Found Guilty in Theft of $6 Million Gold Toilet, by Alex MarshallTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, March 19th. Here's what we're covering. In the past 24 hours, President Trump and his administration have faced a flurry of pushback from the courts. There have been three significant developments. A federal judge ruled that Elon Musk's efforts to shut down USAID likely violated the Constitution in multiple ways. In the ruling, the judge said that Musk was acting as a government official without being properly appointed, and that he was stepping on Congress's right to manage an agency that it had created.

The order appears to be the first time a judge has tried to directly reign in Musk himself and challenge the power that he's been exerting over federal agencies. The judge ordered Musk and his team to stop all work related to the shutdown of USAID and for its operations to be partly restored. That's likely to have a limited impact since the agency has already been stripped down to a skeleton staff and nearly all of its contracts have been canceled.

Also yesterday, another federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from pushing transgender people out of the military. The Department of Defense, following President Trump's lead, had adopted a policy saying trans people were not fit to serve because they were not living honorable, truthful lives. The judge forcefully rejected that argument,

saying the administration had used derogatory language to target a vulnerable group. She also said that the data the Defense Department used to try and justify the ban was cherry-picked and quote, totally grossly misleading. At the moment about 0.2% of the armed forces identifies as transgender. The ruling means that for now they will be able to continue serving, though some of them have said that since Trump took office they've already been denied medical care, sent home from deployments, or put on administrative leave.

And Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to directly rebuke President Trump yesterday after he lashed out at a lower court judge. Trump had called the federal judge who's been in a showdown with the administration over recent deportation flights a, quote, radical left lunatic and said he should be impeached. Hours later, Roberts put out a public statement saying that, quote, impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. Roberts issues public statements very rarely and only when he is apparently really upset.

Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court for the Times. Chief Justice Roberts wasn't taking sides over an important dispute. What he was saying though, was that there's a right way and a wrong way to express your displeasure with a judicial decision that you lose. The right way, he says, is to appeal it. The wrong way is to try to impeach the judge whose decision you disagree with. We had a great call. It lasted almost two hours.

Talked about a lot of things and toward getting it to peace. And we talked about other things also. President Trump had a call with Vladimir Putin yesterday in which the Russian president said he is open to pausing some of his military strikes on Ukraine. He said Russia would stop hitting energy infrastructure, like power plants or oil fields, as long as Ukraine does too. But Putin did not agree to a broader ceasefire the US and Ukraine have been pushing, saying he was for it in principle, but didn't agree with all the terms.

The reason he's packaging it that way is because he wants to continue the warm relations with Donald Trump and with this White House. And so the easiest thing for him to do is to say, yes, absolutely, I agree with you, but here are some conditions that you would have to take into account for me to sign on to this. Paul Soni covers Russia for the Times. He says the conditions that Putin is demanding are ones that he knows Ukraine will reject. And that may be the point.

I think the broader fear here is that Putin is playing for time, right? That he is trying to keep these talks going while he presses his advantage on the battlefield and while relations sour between the United States and Ukraine, which will make Ukraine weaker over time. One of the things that came out of the summaries of the calls that the Kremlin and the White House released yesterday was that Putin reiterated his maximalist demands. He said the, quote, key condition to solving this conflict is the complete cessation of any military aid or intelligence assistance by the West to Ukraine. And what does that actually mean in practice? You know, Ukraine is a country that has a much smaller population, much fewer resources. If the West is not allowed to give them any assistance, any military

assistance or intelligence aid, they're perpetually vulnerable to Moscow, which is what Putin wants. The Social Security Administration has announced that people who want to file for benefits or make updates to how they get their payments will no longer be able to do that over the phone. As of the end of the month, they'll need to go online or visit a Social Security office in person. The agency said the change is intended to help protect against fraud. For the past few months, President Trump and Elon Musk have frequently repeated false claims about

dead people collecting benefits. The change will likely make it harder for older Americans or those with disabilities to access services. They're often not as mobile or struggle with technology. And it could add new stress to a system that's already strained. The average callback time to make an in-person appointment is more than two hours, and the waiting list for those appointments is over a month long. Social Security staffers tell the Times that the situation may only get worse. The Trump administration has plans to cut more than 10% of the agency's workforce when staffing's already at a 50-year low. The changes won't affect the amount people

get in their benefits. That's up to Congress. But they could delay or disrupt those payments. The Dragon capsule just minutes ago was going over 17,000 miles per hour and now gently coasting to a soft splashdown. After a much longer trip to space than anyone expected, astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore have finally made it home. And splashdown, crew nine, back on Earth. The pair landed safely last night off the Gulf Coast of Florida after technical troubles kept them on the International Space Station for over nine months. Some harnessing being placed around the capsule. Wow, we got a cute little pod of dolphins. It wasn't just one or two.

Their craft was briefly swarmed by a group of curious dolphins as the recovery team took a boat out to meet them. The astronauts were lifted onto gurneys. Their bodies are still readjusting to gravity. Then they were flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for medical evaluation. NASA said they'd be reunited with their families as soon as possible. And finally, convictions have come down in the case of a stolen solid gold toilet. The toilet was a conceptual art piece made of 18-karat gold, and it was on display at a palace near Oxford, England when it was nabbed in 2019. Prosecutors say the thieves smashed into the palace

one early morning, dislodged the toilet, rolled it to their car, and placed it in the trunk. It weighed over 200 pounds. Security footage from the scene shows one of the thieves carrying just the solid gold toilet lid as he heads back to the getaway car. Yesterday, a jury found two defendants guilty of stealing, dismantling, and selling off

parts of the toilet. A third man had previously pleaded guilty after police found his DNA at the scene, as well as hundreds of gold fragments on a pair of his sweatpants. The artist who originally made the toilet is Mauricio Catalán, the same mind behind the banana duct tape to the wall that sold for six million dollars, sparking a lot of headlines recently. Of the toilet, Catalan said it was intended as an absurd statement on inequality. Before it was stolen, the toilet was functional.

One of the men found guilty yesterday admitted that he'd gone to the palace to see it on display and used it, as visitors were permitted to. When asked what it was like he said, quote, splendid. Those are the headlines today on The Daily. More on President Trump's showdown with the courts. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.