AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Courts and Congress are struggling to keep up with the breakneck pace set by the Trump administration as it dramatically reshapes the American government, national politics and the international order.

GEOFF BENNETT: Today, President Trump promised more cuts and more political payback, even as the courts stepped in to at least temporarily stand in the way of big changes he put in motion days ago.

Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Thank you very much.

LISA DESJARDINS: Standing next to the prime minister of Japan, a question about how President Trump uses power.

He was asked, will he fire every FBI agent who investigated the January 6 assault?

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: No, but I will fire some of them, because some of them were corrupt.

LISA DESJARDINS: Trump later seemed to clarify that he wanted to fire corrupt agents, and that could be those involved in January 6, this as FBI agents involved saw a win.

The Department of Justice agreed not to release the list of agents who worked on January 6 cases without two days' notice.

A court case around the list will continue in the meanwhile, that news coming as Mr. Trump welcomed Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, the second foreign leader to visit the White House since Trump has returned, a world to discuss, North Korea, China, tariffs and the future of U.S. Steel.

QUESTION: Have you changed your mind about the sale of U.S. Steel?

DONALD TRUMP: No, I haven't.

LISA DESJARDINS: U.S. Steel, a Pittsburgh icon, has struggled of late.

Japan's Nippon Steel wants to buy it, but was blocked last month by then-President Joe Biden.

Trump so far has agreed, no sale, but today promised an investment deal is to come.

DONALD TRUMP: They're doing it as an investment, no longer a purchase.

QUESTION: OK. DONALD TRUMP: I didn't want it purchased, but the investment I love.

LISA DESJARDINS: As he extends a hand to some, Trump and efficiency czar Elon Musk are working overtime to push government workers out and literally chip away their agencies.

Workers dismantled the agency sign at what was USAID.

Leadership has been told as few as 300 workers total may be all that are allowed to continue.

Trump was asked about Musk, including his request for access across government.

DONALD TRUMP: We have very smart people going in, so I have instructed him go into education, go into military, go into other things as we go along, and they're finding massive amounts of fraud, abuse, waste, all of these things.

So - - but I will pick out a target and I say go in.

Elsewhere: MAN: We're members of Congress.

Let us in.

LISA DESJARDINS: Democratic members of Congress were turned away at another agency where they said they had unanswered questions.

On Capitol Hill: REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Where is your bill?

Where's your budget proposal?

LISA DESJARDINS: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats are stepping up criticism of Trump and Republicans, who have not come up with their draft for a critical budget deal and, they say, are ignoring funding problems for Head Start, community health centers, and the sudden unraveling of USAID.

REP. HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI): Republicans did that, and Republicans in Congress are doing nothing to stop this chaos.

LISA DESJARDINS: But Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was at the White House yesterday, say they are honing in on major legislation and Trump is getting things done.

That includes 1,500 more active-duty troops that the Pentagon said it's sending to the southern border to block new migrants from crossing into the country.

Also as part of Trump's agenda on immigration, today, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted that she was heading to Guantanamo Bay facilities, where the administration has sent planeloads of undocumented migrants.

The ACLU is suing for information and access to assess their treatment.

As Republicans see a president who turns out new actions every day, his critics look increasingly to courts to slow him down.

And we have seen court action in just the past hour or so.

A federal judge has at least partially blocked the administration's attempted purge at USAID, a move that will protect thousands of workers there.

Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, said that his ruling will hold while other legal matters, lawsuits about that continue.

He called his ruling a temporary, limited pause.

GEOFF BENNETT: So some late-breaking news there, Lisa.

We also heard President Trump talk more about the mandate he says that he's given Elon Musk.

We heard him say that Elon Musk has unearthed fraud across the federal government.

They provided no evidence of that.

But walk us through your reporting.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

This was an important moment, I think, in everything that's happening when Trump was asked about these questions.

First of all, this was public permission by the president that Musk basically can go almost anywhere.

I also want to point out that President Trump specifically mentioned two areas, one, the military, which we hadn't heard that Musk might be trying to access military issues before, and also education.

Now, the court has limited Musk's team's access to Treasury because of a lawsuit there.

But we don't know if Musk's team is following that court order.

As for evidence, if you look at Musk's posts on his X social media, he is constantly posting examples.

For example, today he talked about leases that he says the government is no longer using for empty space.

He talks a lot about DEI initiatives that he says contracts that they have closed.

But one of the issues here is that all of this is being done in the dark.

We don't know exactly who's making these decisions, which contracts are exactly problematic, which ones aren't.

And a lot of these agencies themselves don't know as well.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's shift our focus to Capitol Hill.

Overall, where does the push stand for major Trump-backed legislation?

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes, that's right.

Well, believe it or not, putting together what might be the most complex and large bill in recent history, turns out it's harder than you might predict.

So Republicans are actually having a hard time getting out of the starting gate with this massive Trump bill.

What we know right now is that they met, the House Republicans met at the White House last night to try and figure out their first starting point, which is a budget resolution.

Here's Speaker Johnson talking to reporters after that meeting.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Our message to our friends and colleagues in the Senate is, allow the House to do its work.

We are moving this as quickly and as expeditiously as possible.

But it's very close.

And I think probably by tonight we wrap it all up.

LISA DESJARDINS: OK, that was last night, Geoff.

It's a day later.

We still don't have the budget resolution.

It's hard to do these things.

And they have missed their initial deadline, at least.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what are Republicans trying to accomplish here?

What are the stakes?

LISA DESJARDINS: All right, we're going to talk a lot about this in coming days.

But here's a reminder.

It's big.

It's an ambitious agenda.

First of all, let's take a look at what Republicans want to achieve here.

At the top of that list, they want to extend the tax cuts passed in the first Trump term of office.

But they want to expand those tax cuts, potentially in a lot of different directions.

That's part of the debate here.

At the same time, they want to cut the deficit, those two things, both of which are hard to do together, and, of course, significant border and homeland security measures, a lot of money here involved.

And making all that fit into a package that reduces the deficit is -- the math is very hard.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what determines whether Republicans can actually get this done?

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes, I want our viewers to be able to know the players here that are the most important.

And one of the issues here is, the House wants to do it one way.

They want one giant bill with everything in it.

The Senate says, no, let's just get small things done, first of all, including border security.

So, the House, on that side, you see Speaker Johnson and Ways and Means chair, the tax committee, Jason Smith.

Now, opposing them in how it could go about this, really, are Senate new Majority Leader John Thune and Lindsey Graham.

He's now the chairman of the Budget Committee.

And both of them, actually, while the House was supposed to move this week, they couldn't get it together.

The Senate went ahead and moved its budget resolution, which is something that Trump has not really reined in on.

He's meeting with senators this weekend.

He met with the House members last night.

But he's not making a decision.

And they're trying to let them figure it out.

They're not.

So one problem for Republicans is that they can't even figure out which direction they want to go to get to this ultimate goal yet.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, you have such a way of simplifying all of the confusing stuff.

We're grateful for your insights and your reporting.

Thank you.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.