Trump 2nd term live updates: Trump defends tariffs, declines to comment on Ukraine aid

President Trump signed an executive order to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve on Thursday evening, according to social media posts from White House officials.

"The Reserve will be capitalized with Bitcoin owned by the federal government that was forfeited as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings. This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime," White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks said in a post announcing that the order was signed.

Trump previously announced intentions to create the reserve. The order also comes as the White House is set to host the first-ever Crypto Summit Friday.

"The U.S. will not sell any bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency often called “digital gold.” Premature sales of bitcoin have already cost U.S. taxpayers over $17 billion in lost value. Now the federal government will have a strategy to maximize the value of its holdings," Sacks added.

With the Trump administration battling more than a hundred lawsuits in court, the president issued a memorandum directing his agency heads to push back against the litigation by trying to make it costlier to sue the administration.

President Donald Trump instructed the heads of the federal agencies to request that the parties suing the administration issue a sum of money equivalent to the cost the government would incur fighting the case and damages from whatever relief the court orders.

The policy comes as a response to what Trump called a "anti-democratic" series of lawsuits that resulted in judges "inserting themselves into the executive policy making process and therefore undermining the democratic process."

While individual judges will determine if the plaintiffs suing the Trump organization need to post a security, the move could make it costlier to bring cases challenging Trump's executive actions.

"Federal courts should hold litigants accountable for their misrepresentations and ill-granted injunctions," the memo said.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Peter Charalambous

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to strip security clearances from attorneys working at a law firm that previously represented Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign -- and was later linked to opposition research that included many salacious and now-discredited allegations about Trump's ties to Russia.

The executive order mandates that lawyers working for Perkins Coie have their security clearances stripped and aims to terminate any government contracts that might exist with the firm or other entities that it represents.

It is not clear how many attorneys at the firm have active security clearances or whether it has any ongoing contracts with the government.

A spokesperson for Perkins Coie did not respond to a request for comment.

-ABC News' Alexander Mallin

President Donald Trump was asked in the Oval Office for an update on the mission to bring back astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams from the International Space Station.

The astronauts were part of Boeing's Starliner test flight mission last year and were forced to stay on the station after tests showed the craft was not safe for a return flight.

Trump claimed Elon Musk is ready to go up in two weeks to bring the astronauts back.

"We're going to get them out. We're coming up to get you. I've authorized Elon," he said, without going into further details.

Trump continued to blame former President Joe Biden for the situation.

Last month, Wilmore told CNN that he and Williams "do not feel abandoned."

"I understand why others may think that, but we came prepared. We came committed. That is your human spaceflight program. It prepares for any and all contingencies that we can conceive of, and we prepare for those. So let's change the narrative to we are prepared and we are committed," he said.