Trump defying court orders and is still mass firing people, Chuck Schumer’s disastrous decision, DOGE loses on court, and more

Socialite Life is a lively celebrity and pop culture website that offers a daily dose of divas, drag queens, hot male celebrities, models, and all the latest celebrity news. Given that our democracy is currently in turmoil, we feel compelled to keep everyone informed about the chaotic situation the Trump administration is creating in this country.

In Democracy Watch, we’ll share a roundup of the most alarming and mostly illegal activities that the Trump administration engages in a few times a week, along with some ridiculous things that Donald Trump and co-president Elon Musk are attempting to do.

We’ll also offer some useful resources to keep you informed about current events and guide you on how you can help prevent the United States from becoming the next Russia.

A federal judge has dealt a blow to Elon Musk’s DOGE agenda. On Thursday (March 13, 2025), Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said that the firing of tens of thousands of federal probationary workers had been based on a “lie” and that the government had conducted the expulsions illegally—further calling the initiative a “sham.” Alsup ordered that the workers be reinstated immediately. Probationary workers—that is, workers who are new to the workforce and haven’t received more advanced benefits and protections—have suffered massive cuts across the government, as DOGE and the Trump regime have attempted to greatly reduce the federal workforce. The case before Alsup concerns litigation brought by union groups representing those workers. [Gizmodo]

White House officials call court rulings to reinstate fired federal workers’ judicial activism. Federal agencies — from the Department of Defense to the Energy Department — are giving wildly varied guidance. Even sacked workers don’t know if they’ll return to the job. Far from clarifying the issue, the White House and federal agencies are handling two sweeping Thursday court rulings to rehire fired probationary federal workers with disparate responses — a sign that the confusion created by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will likely continue as the administration vows to continue its push to overhaul Washington. At the White House, officials were unfazed by a major legal setback to Musk. Two people familiar with the White House plans, granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, say the administration plans to appeal the rulings. But in the meantime, they say this is not going to impact how the White House does business. When it comes to reducing the size of government, “planning is moving full steam ahead,” one of the people said. In fact, they say the court rulings are helpful communication tools to build a “narrative about out of control liberal judges telling the executive who they can hire and fire.” [Politico]

The Trump regime has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday (March 15, 2025) blocking the deportations, but lawyers told him there were already two planes with migrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order. “Oopsie…Too late,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally who agreed to house about 300 migrants for a year at a cost of $6 million in his country’s prisons, wrote on the social media site X above an article about Boasberg’s ruling. That post was recirculated by White House communications director Steven Cheung. [AP]

The Trump regime asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to narrow nationwide injunctions that have blocked the president’s plan to end automatic birthright citizenship. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in three concurrently filed emergency applications in different cases that it was a “modest” request. Notably, she is not asking the court to issue a decision on the merits of the plan that would apply nationwide. Instead, the government wants to the court to limit lower court injunctions to individuals or groups that sued over President Donald Trump’s order, and potentially to people who live in the Democratic-led states that challenged it. [NBC News]

Johns Hopkins University, one of the country’s leading centers of scientific research, said on Thursday (March 13, 2025) that it would eliminate more than 2,000 workers in the United States and abroad because of the Trump regime’s steep cuts, primarily to international aid programs. The layoffs, the most in the university’s history, will involve 247 domestic workers for the university, which is based in Baltimore, and an affiliated center. Another 1,975 positions will be cut in 44 countries. They affect the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school, and an affiliated nonprofit, Jhpiego. [The New York Times]

Tesla is now a MAGA brand. [Axios]

President Donald Trump’s regime on Saturday (March 15, 2025) began making deep cuts to Voice of America and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night (March 14, 2025), shortly after Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia, and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning (March 15, 2025), Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate whom Trump named a senior adviser to the agency, posted on X that employees should check their email. That coincided with notices going out placing Voice of America staff on paid administrative leave. [AP]

House Democrats from across the party’s ideological spectrum — united in their fury at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — are engaged in a campaign to get Senate Democrats to defy their leader. [Axios]

Symphony orchestra audiences aren’t known for their rowdiness, but Thursday night’s (March 13, 2025) concert at the Kennedy Center by the National Symphony Orchestra was a brief exception. As Vice President Vance and second lady Usha Vance entered the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, audience members booed loudly. Videos of the episode have gone viral on social media.