White House says some employees were fired by mistake

President Trump is continuing to discuss his conversations with Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump spoke with Putin first, which Zelenskyy said on Thursday was "not pleasant."

Trump defended the move as he took reporters' questions in the Oval Office.

"We had a good talk with President Putin. I had a good talk with President Zelenskyy. Very good talk. And somebody said, oh, I should have called Zelenskyy first. I don't think so," Trump said. "I mean, we have to find out whether or not Russia wants to make a deal. I know that Zelenskyy wants to make a deal because he told me that. But I now know that Russia wants to make a deal."

President Trump, who vowed on the campaign trail to immediately bring down prices for American families, acknowledged that there could be some financial pain associated with tariffs as he signed a memo initiating the process for potential reciprocal tariffs on some U.S. trading partners.

"Prices could go up somewhat short term, but prices will also go down," Trump said as he took questions in the Oval Office.

Trump repeated multiple times that the tariffs will result in job growth, telling reporters "the jobs will go up tremendously." He also argued that they will help American farmers and manufacturers.

"There could be some short-term disturbance, but long term, it's going to it's going to make our country a fortune," Trump said.

Cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik is on a flight back to Moscow, his lawyer confirmed to ABC News.

Vinnik is being released into Russian custody as part of an exchange for American Marc Fogel.

Vinnik was sent to Turkey and is now on a flight to Moscow. His attorney said he didn't know the exact airport of arrival but noted that the arrival would be "in a few hours."

-ABC News' William Gretsky

A group of federal unions is suing the Trump administration to block its attempt to “decimate” the federal workforce through its deferred resignation program and the expected mass firings of hundreds of thousands of government employees.

The unions accuse the Trump administration of attempting to “usurp” Congress’s authority and asked a federal court to order the government to declare the resignation program unlawful as well as block planned reductions in force.

-ABC News' Peter Charalambous