Trump did not provide any timing on when Alexander is expected to be released.
The White House said on Sunday that it reached a trade deal with China as the two countries negotiated for a second day in Switzerland. China has yet to comment on Sunday's talks.
"We’re confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward resolving that national emergency,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters in Geneva. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said "substantial progress" had been made but stopped short of touting a full deal.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the United Kingdom -- the first in what the White House said it hopes will be a flurry of agreements while the reciprocal tariff pause is in effect. With UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on speaker phone in the Oval Office, the leaders conceded that they are still working out the details of the agreement.
During his opening remarks, Bessent pushed Congress to make Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent.
"We expect to see even more positive results over the next few months. Key to expanding economic opportunity for all Americans is making the Trump tax cuts permanent," he said.
Bessent also claimed that the cuts and deregulation would "raise real incomes for families and businesses."
-ABC News' Isabella Murray
The president issued a proclamation that May 8, 2025, is a "day in celebration of Victory Day for World War II," which commemorates the 80th anniversary of Germany's surrender during World War II.
"On this Victory Day for World War II, we celebrate the unmatched might, strength, and power of the American Armed Forces, and we commit to protecting our sacred birthright of liberty against all threats, foreign and domestic," he said.
Trump added that he is "steadfastly devoted to stopping the endless foreign wars," and thanked the service members for their sacrifice.
"The millions of souls senselessly lost serve as a reminder of why we must pursue peace through strength," he said.
Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch grilled Bessent over his participation in the Signal group chat that discussed military plans in Yemen.
Bessent said he did not discuss any sensitive material and preserves his records, however, the congressman criticized the Treasury secretary for being in the unsecured chat in the first place.
"You could have intervened. You could have brought it up," Lynch said.
"This buffoonery needs to stop," he added.
New York Democrat Rep. Gregory Meeks questioned Bessent on the Trump administration's claims that the trade deficit is an "emergency" and thus needed to institute tariffs.
Meeks noted that the country has had a trade deficit for the last four decades, but Republican and Democratic presidents didn't determine it to be an emergency.
"It says to me that we need to bring tariffs back to the United States Congress so that we can make that determination as the Constitution has said," the congressman said.
