Trump 2nd term updates: Trump excludes low-value shipments from looming tariffs

One day after the Department of Veterans Affairs celebrated an estimated $2 billion in savings on canceled contracts, the agency began reversing some of the cancellations that may have affected veterans' medical care and other benefits, according to multiple sources familiar with the contracts and agency records reviewed by ABC News.

The hundreds of contracts set for cancellation included some for legally required technical inspections of medical equipment that produce radiation at VA facilities, including CT scanners, MRI machines and dental X-ray units.

Without annual inspections, some of which are conducted by contractors in part to save the agency money, VA staffers are not permitted to use the equipment.

The VA has already gone through two rounds of layoffs: The first affected 1,000 workers, and the second, announced this week, affected 1,400 "non-mission critical positions," according to the agency's statement.

Some of those terminated employees were asked to return to work days later, workers told ABC News.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel, Soo Rin Kim and Nathan Luna

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has completed his review of foreign aid contracts and grants distributed by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development "as of this morning" and that he intends to end nearly 10,000 of the awards, the overwhelming majority of them, permanently within the coming days.

The filing said almost 5,800 USAID awards and approximately 4,100 awards distributed through the State Department will be terminated, while about 500 USAID awards and roughly 2,700 State Department awards will be retained.

The news was revealed in a joint status report filed Wednesday in a court hearing over the federal case over the $1.9 billion foreign aid freeze.

"USAID is in the process of processing termination letters with the goal to reach substantial completion within the next 24-48 hours," according to the defendant's statement included in the filing. "As a result, no USAID or State obligations remain in a suspended or paused state."

Three officials familiar with the situation told ABC News the numbers of awards to be retained and cut listed in the document were accurate.

The timeline for the review was originally slated for 90 days, but what's unclear is whether the process was rushed as part of the legal proceedings.

One official cast doubt on the review process, asserting it was a ruse and that the administration always intended to cut the majority of aid awards.

-ABC News' Shannon Kingston

During the Cabinet meeting, Musk and Trump notably walked back a campaign promise, saying that he wants DOGE to save the government $1 trillion rather than the $2 trillion previously promised on the trail.

"We're looking to get it maybe to $1 trillion, if we can do that. We're going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets," Trump said. "And that's a big -- whether it's this year or next year, I think we'll be very close to balancing budgets."

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

President Donald Trump signed an executive order that issues new DOGE cost-cutting instructions to agencies, according to the Trump administration's rapid response X account.

The president was expected to sign executive orders in the Oval Office this afternoon. However, the signing was not open to reporters.

The new DOGE-related executive order requires that agencies promptly submit a brief that would justify payments and travel expenses. The order states that these payments will be posted publicly.

It also requires agencies to work with the DOGE team to terminate or modify any contracts that were deemed unnecessary.

The order also indicates that all credit cards held by agency employees will be frozen for 30 days, until Friday, March 28, unless the employee is utilizing the card for disaster relief or other critical services as determined by the agency leader.

Lastly, the order instructs the General Services Administration to create a plan to offload any real estate that is no longer needed.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh