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Here are the top news stories for Wednesday:

• The Trump Administration finally shared the text a deal they’ve signed with Iran

• Trump told his DNI nominee not to show up for his confirmation hearing

• At least 776,000 children have lost SNAP benefits in the last year, thanks to Republicans

• Georgia Republicans have backed down from gerrymandering their map, for now

DONE DEAL

After intense pressure to release the details of the memorandum of understanding with Iran, a Trump administration official — granted anonymity — read the agreement aloud to reporters Wednesday.

Later, after wrapping up the G7 summit, Trump attended a dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. Trump told reporters afterward that he had formally signed the agreement while there.

The final text is largely the same as the version we discussed in yesterday’s newsletter, which was obtained by Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-owned news organization.

There are two notable differences: one involving Iran’s nuclear program and another involving the Strait of Hormuz. Both provisions are more detailed in the version shared with reporters Wednesday:

• Nuclear material: In addition to recommitting not to produce a nuclear weapon, the U.S. and Iran “have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpile enriched material pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon in accordance with the schedule mentioned in paragraph seven with the minimum methodology to be down blending on site under the supervision of the IAEA.”

  • Unlike the version reported Tuesday, this text specifically says the minimum method for dealing with Iran’s existing stockpile of enriched nuclear material would be “down blending” under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

• Strait of Hormuz: In addition to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and removing barriers to navigation, including mines, Iran will “conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussion with other Persian Gulf littoral states, in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz.”

  • In other words, passage through the strait would remain free for the 60-day duration of the agreement. After that, Iran and Oman, in consultation with other Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates, would determine how the strait is administered and what maritime services are provided. It’s unclear whether that could include fees.

Some notable things Trump said about the deal throughout the day:

• Some people wanted him to continue bombing Iran, but that could cause a “worldwide depression” and tank the global economy.

• Notably, the agreement says nothing about Iran’s ballistic missiles, which the Trump administration has said is a huge concern. Asked about the gap, Trump argued Iran can keep its ballistic missile program because it would be unfair to deny Iran missiles while neighboring countries have them. “If Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I would ‌say ⁠in relative proportion, I think it’s okay.” With that logic, Israel also has nuclear weapons, so …

• If the deal is not completed within 60 days: “We go back to bombing.”

• Defending a provision that tasks the U.S. with overseeing a reconstruction and development fund worth at least $300 billion, Trump said it was fair because Iranians should not “starve to death.”

The White House had hoped releasing the preliminary text would strengthen its argument that Iran’s benefits are tied to its compliance. Instead, it’s clear some financial relief appears to be available upfront. Republicans are divided. Here’s what some of them have had to say over the last day:

• Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said that, based on what he has “seen so far,” the deal looks “awful,” adding: “This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder.”

  • “Iran has learned that if they’re willing to grab that Strait of Hormuz and choke it off, they can get the Western world to dance to their tune. I think the deal is a deep mistake.”

  • Worth noting: Cassidy recently lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.

• Former Vice President Mike Pence said the deal “smacks of appeasement.” He said the U.S. should continue pressuring Iran and, “if need be, let our armed forces get back to work.”

• Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, responding to a report that the U.S. would lift sanctions on Iran, said: “If this is true, Iran wins. There should be zero sanctions relief day one.”

• Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon said: “Keep the sanctions, because if we lose that, it will take forever to get back.”

DNI NO-SHOW

Trump announced on Truth Social that he was “cancelling” the Senate confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton, his nominee for director of national intelligence, just hours before it was set to begin. Except Trump does not have the authority to cancel a Senate hearing. He effectively ordered Clayton not to appear, forcing Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton to postpone it. Cotton called Trump’s decision “regrettable” and said he looked forward to moving ahead with Clayton’s confirmation.

• How we got here: After Tulsi Gabbard announced she was stepping down as DNI, Trump tapped Bill Pulte to serve as acting director. Pulte currently runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He has zero — like, literally zero — intelligence or national-security experience. Federal law requires a permanent DNI nominee to have “extensive national security expertise.” The DNI oversees the country’s 18 intelligence agencies, which would seem to require knowing WTF you are doing.

  • Pulte’s appointment drew opposition from Democrats and some Republicans. Democrats see him as a Trump lapdog who has already shown that he is willing to do the president’s dirty bidding — and may be willing to do it again. They said they would not renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, unless Trump guaranteed that Pulte would not serve as acting DNI.

  • Facing that pressure, Trump nominated Jay Clayton as the permanent DNI. Clayton is currently the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York — arguably the most important federal prosecutor’s office in the country. He previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission and, like Pulte, has no intelligence experience. But Clayton is viewed as more moderate, and Democrats appeared more open to supporting him. As U.S. attorney, he oversaw the indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last year.

  • Republicans were trying to confirm Clayton quickly, before Pulte took over and before the fight over him further derailed FISA. Trump accused them of falling into a Democratic “trap,” claiming — without evidence — that Democrats would probably oppose FISA even after getting Pulte out.

  • Then, “to add a slight bit of intrigue,” Trump introduced another demand: He said he would refuse to approve FISA unless Congress also passed the SAVE America Act, which would impose new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration. It does not have enough Republican support to pass.

  • Trump’s end-game is meddling with the midterms, afraid that Republicans will lose control of the House and/or Senate. And a DNI in Trump’s pocket could be useful.

    “The agency has had the important role in recent elections during the Trump and Biden administrations of gathering information from the nation’s spy agencies about attempts by foreign adversaries to influence the vote.The Trump administration and Democrats in Congress have differed on how far the powers of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence go in terms of election security. Democrats have said they are limited to foreign threats. The Trump administration has claimed a larger mandate, looking at broader security concerns.” - The New York Times

• At least 776,000 children have lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program one year after Republicans cut the program through the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, ProPublica reports. Arizona and Louisiana have experienced the largest declines in children receiving benefits, at 25% and 22%, respectively. Republicans imposed tougher work requirements, pushing millions of people and their families off the program.

• Six companies — Caterpillar, Volvo, Hyundai, Doosan, Hitachi and Komatsu — are supplying Israel with construction equipment being used to demolish homes and critical infrastructure in Lebanon, The Guardian reports.

  • “Human rights experts said that supplying the construction equipment that enables the Israeli military to destroy homes and villages in south Lebanon could make these companies complicit in any war crimes and potentially lead to their executives facing legal consequences. Foreign companies should stop supplying heavy construction equipment to Israel until they are assured that it will not be used in war crimes, the experts said.”

• Georgia Republicans have decided not to redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of 2028 — a move that could have diluted Black voting power — following a push from Gov. Brian Kemp.

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Here are the top news stories for Tuesday, June 16:

UNCLED SAM

If President Trump had secured a deal with Iran that was really as great as he claims, we’d have seen it by now.

Instead, the “Memorandum of Understanding” — or MOU — that the US and Iran agreed to last week, extending the ceasefire for another 60 days, still has not been released. When asked Tuesday why it hadn’t been shared, Trump told reporters, “I’d like to get a formal setting first.”

That “formal setting” happens Friday, when the deal is scheduled to be signed in person by Vice President JD Vance and Iranian officials in Switzerland.

Until then — and without the text of the deal — there’s plenty of time for Trump and his minions to spin it as a major triumph of a man who claims to be an expert in the “art of the deal.”

Okay, let’s argue that he doesn’t want to share it with the world. What about Congress? Well, they haven’t seen it either.

There is a bipartisan push for lawmakers to review the agreement, Semafor reports. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the White House hadn’t even briefed the “Gang of Eight” — the bipartisan group of congressional leaders and intelligence committee members typically apprised of matters like this, Reuters reports.

Trump, who is in France attending the G7 Summit, said he “liked the idea,” of sharing it with Congress as if congressional review were some novel suggestion rather than a routine part of how the executive and legislative branches work together in a democracy.

In fact: “Trump could be legally obligated to involve Congress. Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, a 2015 U.S. law passed as Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration finalized an Iran nuclear agreement, any such agreement must be submitted to Congress for review ​before sanctions can be eased. That review ​leaves open the possibility that lawmakers ⁠could try to block parts of the deal,” Reuters writes.

Gotta love leaks, though, because details are beginning to emerge:

• The US would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports and Iran would be allowed to begin selling its oil immediately, The Wall Street Journal reports. The US had blocked those sales out of concern that the revenue would help Iran fund the war against the US and Israel. Two supertankers connected to Iran have already crossed the US blockade this week — the first since April — confirming the reporting.

• This also tracks with what Al Arabiya — a Saudi state-owned outlet — is reporting, based on a copy of the MOU it claims to have obtained. According to that document:

The US and Iran, immediately:

• End all hostilities, including in Lebanon.

• Won’t engage in hostile action toward each other from “now on".”

• Won’t threaten to use force against each other.

• Will respect each other’s sovereignty.

• Won’t interfere in each other’s internal affairs.

Iran:

• “reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons.” (Notice they use the word “reiterate” here — a reminder from Iran that this promise is not new).

• Reopens the Strait of Hormuz and clears all mines and other obstacles.

In addition to lifting its blockade on Iranian ports and allowing the sale of Iranian oil, the US:

• Lifts all sanctions on Iran based on an agreed upon schedule

• Withdraws all US forces from surrounding areas 30 days after the final deal is signed.

• Oversees a rehabilitation and economic development fund for Iran of no less than $300 billion, in coordination with “regional partners.”

Additionally:

• The agreement says the issue of Iran’s nuclear program and enriched material will be discussed over the next 60 days.

There’s a teensy problem here… Israel. The MOU calls on the US and “their allies” to end all hostilities permanently, “including Lebanon.” Israel wasn’t a party to the deal. And Iran has made it clear from the get-go that ending hostilities in Lebanon is a deal-breaker.

“As of Tuesday evening, Netanyahu had not seen the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, said a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door details,” the AP reports.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump was unusually critical of Israel, claiming its attacks on Lebanon went overboard and that, without the US, “Israel would have been blown of the face of the earth, one hundred percent.”

By Tuesday night, as pressure mounted to release the MOU, unnamed Trump administration officials were spinning the situation to CNN:

“People shouldn’t read too much into the language of the MOU,’ one US official told [CNN], describing the agreement as a ‘political document.’ What’s more important than the actual document is the understandings we have with each other... We came up with language that allows (Iran) to say what they need to say for their domestic politics.”

If you say so!

Related:

• Senate Democrats, with the help of four Republicans, tried Tuesday to pass a resolution calling on Trump to end US military action in Iran. It failed 47–48. A similar resolution passed the House last month. “GOP leaders have dismissed the war power votes as performative and aimed at embarrassing Trump. They also said the move is unnecessary given the impending peace plan, set to be signed Friday,” Politico reports.

• Trump has quietly invoked the Defense Production Act, which requires private companies to expedite government orders. For example, it was invoked so pharmaceutical companies could quickly produce COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. In this case, the orders are for defense companies to quickly produce munitions that are in short supply after being depleted by the war with Iran — something military leaders warned the administration would happen before going to war.

  • This contradicts what the administration has said publicly. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have insisted that US stockpiles are not low. On Sunday, Hegseth told CBS News that reports of depleted stockpiles were a “manufactured story that the media wants to peddle,” adding that US stockpiles are “great.”

  • But in the June 11 order, Trump says he “hereby finds that low munitions” which are “required for the national defense” may “pose a direct threat to the national defense or its preparedness programs.”

  • Specifically, the administration may be concerned about Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal reports. “Some administration officials think that the high munitions-expenditure rates could complicate the Pentagon’s ability to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion in the near term.”

• American taxpayers will foot about half of the now-$600 million bill for Trump’s ballroom project, despite his claims that private companies would pay for all of it, The Washington Post reports. Yes, it’s ballooned to $600 million — three times what the White House initially claimed.

  • Turns out, when Trump made that promise for the first time last year, the government had already paid the contractor, Clark Construction, tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. Oh, and at that time, the president claimed the ballroom would cost about $200 million.

  • In an effort to get the Secret Service budget to cover some of the renovation costs, a “White House lawyer explained in an email to colleagues on July 30 that she had added a line to contract language ‘to tie the project more closely to security-related issues since USSS [U.S. Secret Service] is providing the funding.’”

  • By March [2026], Clark told the Trump administration that the project would cost $600 million with only $293 of it being covered by private donors. The rest would be paid for with taxpayer funds.

• The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to dismantle the Department of Education. Key offices responsible for assisting the country’s students are being parceled out to other departments, the AP reports. “Advocates said the changes would create uncertainty around services relied upon by millions of students and families.”

  • Only Congress can formally shutter the department. But by shrinking it and scattering its responsibilities across the government, the administration is essentially rendering it useless.

• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) says the House Judiciary Committee has received “troubling reports” that FBI Director Kash Patel used more than $1 million in agency funds to pay close aides in exchange for engaging in “misconduct.”

  • In a letter to Patel released by Raskin’s office, the lawmaker says the payments are “unlawful,” in part because they exceed salary caps for agents.

  • “We can also confirm you have depleted the FBI reserve accounts for bonus payments at such a frenzied rate that some of the payments have bounced back from exhausted accounts. Why are these agents receiving extra pay simply for doing their jobs? Are they, in fact, collecting bonus compensation for engaging in actions outside of their duties and outside of the law?” Raskin writes.

• Meanwhile, Patel announced details of an ongoing investigation on Twitter/X before he was supposed to, tipping off the suspects and angering the Secret Service, which was working on the case with the FBI, MS NOW reports.

  • The agencies were “partnered on the investigation into a group of individuals discussing plans for a drone attack at the White House in the last week, and had discussed unsealing the case and making an announcement later that day. The problem with Patel’s social media announcement, the sources say, was the case had been sealed in court and roughly ten suspects had not yet been arrested and placed in custody at the time Patel made his public social media post.”

    

• The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saga continues. Workers were seen dumping gallons of hydrogen peroxide into it Tuesday, hoping to kill the algae that has emerged over the past few days and turned the water puke green.

  • Just last week, Trump was boasting about spending $14 million to paint the bottom of the pool “American flag blue” ahead of the country’s 250th birthday next month. The government claims the algae is merely residue from pipes that sat unused during construction.

  • One expert tells Reuters that hydrogen peroxide might provide a temporary, quick fix but is unlikely to solve the problem long term.

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Here are the top news stories for Monday, June 15:

HEADLINE #1

The Trump administration and Iran say they have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding — or MOU — that could eventually lead to a permanent deal ending hostilities between the two countries.

For now, the agreement appears to extend the ceasefire for 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz starting Friday. But the biggest issues — including Iran’s nuclear stockpile and nuclear program — appear to be pushed down the road. And because the text has not been released, it is hard to make sense of the contradictory claims coming from people who should know what is in the deal. Like… the President of the United States.

For example, Trump claimed the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to all ships and be “toll-free.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, however, said Iran and Oman will charge fees. “It’s full services that will be offered in order to keep and maintain the environment. So many other services will be offered by Iran and Oman, and this will cost money. Accordingly, the fees will be there and this is clear.”

Trump also claimed Iran promised not to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials, however, say those discussions will take place in the coming weeks.

And when reporters asked when the public would get to see the MOU, administration officials said it would be released in one to two days. Trump, however, said it would come “sometime after Friday,” when the deal is scheduled to be officially signed in person in Geneva.

At best, this deal appears to take us back to the status quo of February 27, the day before the war began: the Strait of Hormuz open, Iran not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, and no permanent resolution to the deeper conflict. Except now, thousands more innocent people are dead, including 13 U.S. service members.

This is not what Trump promised. “Back then, Mr. Trump said the United States intended to ‘annihilate’ Iran’s military capabilities, abolish its nuclear ambitions, topple its theocratic leadership and liberate its people, whom he encouraged to take over their government when the fighting had stopped. Just one week after the strikes started, he said Iran’s only path to a deal was an ‘unconditional surrender,’” The New York Times reports.

Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens this week, it could take months for supply and prices to return to normal, the AP reports. “‘It’s going to take time for people to feel comfortable and for insurance to be in place ... particularly to get people on the ground to restart some of these assets,’ said Daniel Evans, global head of fuels and refining research at S&P Global Energy.”

That, plus new data showing U.S. oil reserves have fallen to their lowest level since 1983, could mean higher gas prices leading up to the critical midterm elections.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly caught off guard by the deal and was not consulted. At a press conference Monday, Netanyahu tried to sell it as a win, telling an Israeli public that largely wants the war to continue that the nuclear threat from Iran had been averted. But the deal also reportedly includes language about Israel leaving Lebanon, and Netanyahu said he told Trump that Israel has its “own interests” and would remain there. Iran has made clear that any Israeli aggression in Lebanon would be a deal-breaker.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel’s policy is clear: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are pursuing a clear policy under which the military will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza for an unlimited period of time in order to protect the border and Israeli communities from there against jihadist elements,” Al Jazeera reports.

As of Monday, Israel has killed 3,798 people in Lebanon.

Related:

• After a lengthy investigation, Sky News says it has identified everyone killed in an apparent U.S. missile strike on a school in Minab, Iran, on the first day of the war. The outlet says it verified that 120 students and 26 teachers were killed. The U.S. says it is investigating the strike, where U.S. missile parts were reportedly found, but has not released the outcome of any investigation four months later.

• Gulf states are reassessing their reliance on US protection after the war on Iran didn’t produce the outcome Trump promised and the Iranian regime largely in tact and in a stronger position than ever. Reuters reports: “Gulf capitals ‌may welcome a ⁠pause in fighting, but many are drawing a sobering conclusion: neither U.S. nor Israeli force has removed the Iranian challenge, while the costs of confrontation have fallen disproportionately on those caught in between. ‘More and more Gulf states are coming to realise that Iran is here to stay, that it retains the capacity to disrupt the regional order,’ said Middle East scholar Fawaz Gerges.”

• Former President Obama told ABC that he doubts any deal will be “significantly different” from the agreement he secured with Iran in 2015 — which Trump tore up during his first term.

• The Israeli military fatally shot a 3-year-old boy in his father’s arms in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports. Rayan was being carried by his father when he was shot in the head. His father was shot in the leg and left to bleed for hours before the Israeli military allowed him to go to the hospital. “My grandson, Rayan, was killed by a gunshot to the head; the bullet entered his head and exited through his eye… His mother is devastated by what happened,” Rayan’s grandfather told Al Jazeera. Israel has killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians since the so-called “ceasefire agreement” took effect, and more than 73,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

• Eight people are dead after a B-52 bomber crashed after takeoff in Southern California on Monday. Six service members and two contractors were on board. The cause of the crash is unknown. The AP reports: “Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down around 11:20 a.m. during a routine test mission at the base, which is north of Los Angeles. Black smoke rose from a large swath of charred desert near what appeared to be a runway on the base, with emergency vehicles nearby.”

• White House officials are worried that New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have audio from a Situation Room meeting that they plan to reveal in their new book, Regime Change, which is set to be released June 23. “We’re afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded,” an administration source told Axios. “And we have no idea which ones.” Also troubling: that journalists would withhold critical reporting from the public for months so it could be published in a book they will profit from.

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the Justice Department is investigating him and his wife. Newsom claims it is because he is considering running for president. His office said FBI and IRS agents have contacted associates and former employees and issued subpoenas for documents, including financial records related to his wife, Jennifer, who runs a film production company and a nonprofit focused on gender equity, Politico reports. “A Justice Department representative declined to comment. But a person familiar with the matter said the government has been investigating Newsom’s orbit for roughly a year. Investigations run out California’s eastern district and originating with whistleblower tips have focused, respectively, on the first partner’s taxes and on Newsom’s former chief of staff and potentially current aides, the person said.”

• President Trump is calling a July 4 rally at the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument a “TRUMP RALLY” and a “‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA.’” Because, of course, everything needs to be about him.

  

• Speaking of the Lincoln Memorial: Trump spent millions painting the Reflecting Pool “American flag blue” to supposedly fix an algae problem, which he blamed on Biden and Obama. One week later, the pool is once again covered in algae. “CNN spotted a worker clearing the algae from the bottom of the recently filled pool while shooting a video on Wednesday. Asked for comment, an Interior Department spokesperson said the algae is ‘residual’ and a normal part of the early process of restarting operations at the Reflecting Pool.”

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Here are the top news stories for Thursday, June 11:

ROUND-AND-ROUND WE GO.

Even if you’ve been living under a rock the last few months, you know the rhythm by now: Trump escalates threats against Iran, then backs down at the last minute, insisting a deal to end the war is imminent. (Of course, the deals have not materialized).

True to that rhythm, Trump claimed on Thursday that Iran had agreed to a deal, with a signing possibly days away, possibly in Europe — days after boasting he’d hit Iran “very hard“ for refusing to sign one sooner. (Also, if it does happen, Trump says he’ll send JD Vance. Trump is planning to host a cage fight on the White House lawn in honor of his birthday on Sunday).

Iran hasn’t confirmed any such deal, and the Commander-in-Chief’s word isn’t worth the self-tanner on his face. One of these days he’ll be right — hopefully. Is it today? This weekend? No one knows. Maybe not even Trump.

Here’s what we do know: the ceasefire is broken, whether the administration admits it or not — and getting Iran to a deal could be harder than ever.

After accusing Iran of downing an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, the US struck targets inside Iran on Tuesday and Wednesday. Iran — which denies downing it — hit back at US assets in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.

Trump then threatened to seize Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles roughly 90% of the country’s crude oil exports, per the Council on Foreign Relations. Taking it would demand extraordinary force — boots on the ground and a sustained operation to seize and hold it. Possibly, more US casualties. He’d made the same threat earlier in the war and never followed through. File that with the deal that’s always “imminent.”

What did happen was a strike on a water plant serving 20,000+ Iranians — a lifeline in summer, when temperatures reach triple digits. The US won’t acknowledge the strike, and intent is unclear, but a New York Times investigation points to Washington.

Targeting civilian infrastructure with no military objective is a war crime under international law — and one expert tells The Guardian the plant sits in a remote area with little else around, making it hard to say what else the strike could have hit. Iranian state media reported the structure was repaired within 12 hours; US Central Command says it’s investigating.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said the reason almost doesn’t matter. “Iran is one of the most water-challenged countries in the world right now, and we’re in the hottest part of the year where damages to civilian water access are going to have the most acute consequences. Whether it was a mistake in targeting or intentional targeting, this is not a minor matter.”

Kaine also raised the possibility that the military is using AI to choose its targets — with grave consequences when it’s wrong. “We are obviously deeply concerned about the role that AI may have played in the Minab strike, and we will have the same questions about the water strike,” he said.

The Trump administration may have forgotten Minab — Iranians have not, and never will. In the first days of the war, a US strike killed 168 children and teachers at a girls’ school there, clearly marked, with playgrounds visible on public satellite images. The US still hasn’t released its investigation, despite overwhelming evidence the strike was American.

Two questions hang over both Minab and the water plant: did a machine pick the target? And what other tragedies lie around the corner if this keeps up?

• The man Trump wants running 18 spy agencies has never worked in intelligence — and, just this week, pushed a baseless election-fraud claim on TV. On Truth Social, Trump named Jay Clayton — current US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former SEC Chairman — as his pick for Director of National Intelligence, the post created after 9/11 to oversee the entire intelligence community. NBC News and others report the suggestion came from CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

  • On CNBC’s Squawk Box Clayton implied, without evidence, that because California’s vote count runs longer than other states’, it was open to fraud. It isn’t: the state held its primary last week and is still counting because it accepts mail ballots postmarked by Election Day — so legitimate votes keep arriving after Election Night and still have to be tallied.

  • Clayton is the second unqualified pick in a row. Last month Trump nominated Bill Pulte, his federal housing finance director, who also has zero intelligence or security background. The pick drew opposition from Democrats but also Republicans who didn’t think he was right for the job. The fear, via Reuters: “Democrats and some Republicans have expressed concerns that Pulte could ‘weaponize’ top-secret intelligence to attack Trump’s perceived political foes. They cited Pulte’s earlier ​use of confidential mortgage data to push fraud probes against New York Attorney General Letitia James, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and others. None of ​the probes have resulted in ⁠criminal charges.”

  • To protest the Pulte pick, Congress refused to extend Section 702 of FISA — the authority that lets the intelligence community spy on foreign targets’ phones and emails without a warrant — unless Trump nominated someone qualified. He didn’t put Clayton forward until after the extension already failed.

  • Section 702 — which expires at midnight on Friday — also sweeps up Americans’ communications, with no clear rules for handling that sensitive information — which is exactly the reform both parties say they want. But if it lapses, lawmakers warn of a gap in the intelligence that makes up the bulk of the president’s daily threat briefing. With the US at war and the World Cup drawing millions into the country, they worry that it’s a bad time to go dark.

  • Tulsi Gabbard is currently serving as DNI and plans to step down on June 19. She cited her husband’s battle with cancer as the reason for leaving.

• Trump is still relitigating the past. He and Republicans are exploring ways to expunge his two impeachments — the most of any president — The Wall Street Journal reports. It would be symbolic only: “the Constitution provides no procedure for undoing an impeachment,” experts told the Journal.

• Inflation hit 4.2% in May — the highest in three years. Trump’s response when asked? “I love the inflation,” he said — before insisting gas prices will come crashing down soon and all will be well in La-La Land again.

• DC officials are investigating a mysterious message on the lawn of the National Mall in DC, The Washington Post reports. Someone tried to imprint “86-47” in the grass. “The term ‘86’ is restaurant industry slang that generally refers to the unavailability of an item or a customer’s removal. Trump allies have argued it can also mean to kill someone. Trump is the 47th president of the United States, so the digits have been used to show opposition to Trump and have been seen by some as a threat against him… The Justice Department alleged in an indictment of James B. Comey that a 2025 social media post by the former FBI director showing seashells arranged into the numbers ‘86 47’ was an expression of intent to harm Trump.” Comey said he wasn’t aware that it implied something sinister and removed the post, later apologizing. His trial begins in October.

• Almost none of Trump's pardons and commutations met the bar. A Reuters investigation finds 96% of the people he pardoned or commuteed “didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests.” For scale: that was 1% under Biden, and 14% in Trump’s own first term.

• Republicans want to make “Department of War” official. The rename of the Department of Defense is tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act — the bill that sets the department’s budget and priorities — which still needs to pass Congress. The department has already spent millions rebranding, even though only an act of Congress can actually change the name.

• Trump saw 22 doctors at his last checkup — and the White House won’t say why. That’s a record, and nearly double the number who evaluated him in prior years, per The Washington Post. “It is an extraordinary number,” said Jonathan Reiner, a longtime cardiologist for former vice president Dick Cheney. “What specialties do they represent? Why so many?” Trump turns 80 on Sunday.

• The Kennedy Center — now run by Trump loyalists — will challenge a court ruling that ordered his name removed from the building, website, emails, and other official materials by Friday, June 12. Only Congress can officially rename it.

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Please note: The Fifth Daily will not publish on Wednesday, June 10. For news updates, please follow The Fifth on Instagram, here.

Here are the top news stories for Tuesday, June 9, 2026:

WAR ON IRAN

The U.S. struck Iranian targets on Tuesday after an Army Apache helicopter went down over the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman, according to CENTCOM. CENTCOM said the strikes were retaliation for the helicopter’s downing. Two U.S. soldiers were rescued and are in stable condition, CENTCOM said on X.

Earlier in the day, Trump said Iran was responsible and that the U.S. would respond. Iran denied targeting the helicopter.

But the circumstances remain unclear. The AP reports that the helicopter collided with an Iranian drone, and it is not clear whether the collision was intentional or accidental.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded on X: “Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered. Leave our region if you want to be safe.”

Iran also reported that two soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, per Al Jazeera.

• Israeli forces attacked the city of Tyre in Lebanon, killing at least eight people, The New York Times reports, citing the country’s health ministry. Israel issued evacuation orders beforehand, including — for the first time — for the Christian quarter, suggesting the offensive was widening, the Times reports. Other areas were struck without warning. Israel claimed Hezbollah was operating there but did not present evidence.

  • Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said it was ceasing operations at local hospitals because of “unsafe and chaotic conditions,” Reuters reports.

• Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says it has obtained two videos showing what happened when an Israeli soldier fatally shot 7-month-old Sam Abu Haikal and injured his parents.

  • On June 5, the Palestinian family was driving in Hebron when an Israeli soldier ordered them to stop. Sam’s father, Fahed, who was driving, was slowing the car when the soldier opened fire, according to B’Tselem.

  • “After the shooting, the soldier who fired and another soldier who was with him left the scene without checking the car or offering any assistance to the critically wounded baby or to his mother,” B’Tselem says. “In the past two and a half years, Israel has killed tens of thousands of children in Gaza and the West Bank. The immunity it gets from the international community has led to a reality where, under Israeli rule, Palestinian lives are entirely disposable – even a seven-month-old baby.”

  • The Israeli military says it is investigating the killing. It claims the soldier thought the car was accelerating toward him.

• Vice President JD Vance — who leads the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud — says he has referred former vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Attorney General Keith Ellison to the DOJ for a criminal fraud investigation. A House Oversight Committee report alleges they failed to stop fraudulent payments for social services and retaliated against whistleblowers. Both deny the allegations. Ellison called the probe politically motivated.

• Social Security will be critically low on funds by 2032 — one quarter earlier than expected — the program’s trustees say, according to The Washington Post. Trump’s new tax laws have cut revenue, while lower fertility rates and reduced immigration mean less tax revenue flowing into the system. Beginning in 2033, 69 million qualified recipients could see a 22% cut in benefits unless Congress acts by raising taxes, borrowing, or reducing benefits. “There have not yet been serious public conversations about what they might do,” Kathleen Romig, a senior fellow at the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told The Wall Street Journal.

• The House voted 214-212 to approve a $70 billion immigration enforcement funding package, ending a four-month funding gap. The bill now goes to Trump’s desk. The money is expected to fund ICE and CBP through the end of Trump’s term in 2028. Democrats opposed the funding after CBP agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis — Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Republicans had delayed voting on the bill amid anger over Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund and $1 billion in funding for a ballroom and Secret Service upgrades. Now that both appear to be tabled, Republicans moved forward with the bill. Its passage ends the longest DHS shutdown in history.

• Trump announced that Bill Pulte — director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — will take over as acting director of national intelligence on June 19.

• Epstein’s longtime assistant, Lesley Groff, testified behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday. Groff, who claims she did not know about Epstein’s illegal activities and said she connected calls between Epstein and Trump. Per Politico: “Groff also said she believed that Epstein “had been set up” with regards to the allegations that led to his 2008 conviction, so she continued to work with him long after the case resolved, according to the prepared remarks. She added that she did not know that she had been named a potential co-conspirator in that non-prosecution agreement until after Epstein was convicted.” Bill Gates is expected to testify before the committee on Wednesday.

• ICE detained an average of 25 children age 3 and younger every day between January 2025 and March 2026 — a sharp increase from the Biden administration, when the average was fewer than three, MSNOW reports. “‘Our immigration system is breaking children,’” said Marsha Griffin, a pediatrics professor and co-founder of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health.

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Here are the top news stories for Monday, June 8:

ISRAEL’S WAR ON LEBANON

Israel attacked two apartment buildings in a Beirut suburb on Sunday without warning, just days after Israel and Lebanon extended an agreement to respect each other’s sovereignty. The strikes killed two people and injured more than 20, the BBC reports.

Lebanon says Israel has bombed the country nearly 3,500 times during the ceasefire period, Reuters reports.

Iran, as promised, retaliated, striking Israel for the first time since the U.S. and Israel agreed to a so-called ceasefire in April. “This response is a warning to stop their evil; any new action will be met with a more crushing response and heavier costs,” military advisor to Ayatullah Khamenei Mohsen Rezaee wrote on X.

President Trump reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warned him not to respond. “I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon,’” Trump told Axios. After the call, Axios reports that Netanyahu canceled additional strikes. Israel and Iran both vowed to strike again if the other did.

It was the second time in a week Trump reportedly tried to rein Netanyahu in: Last week, Trump said he reached out to Netanyahu and urged him not to strike Beirut’s suburbs. At that time, Netanyahu held off, too.

Trump and Netanyahu have opposing incentives. Trump needs to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Netanyahu needs to keep fighting to satisfy his far-right coalition. Netanyahu faces reelection in September. Trump’s party faces difficult midterms in November.

“The sentiment is pervasive. In war-weary border villages, on prime time talk shows, within the political opposition and among Netanyahu’s supporters, Israelis are pushing their prime minister to fight — and stay — in Lebanon, which could undermine U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war against Iran,” The Washington Post reports.

• Meta says Israeli spyware company NSO Group is linked to phishing attempts tricking WhatsApp users into clicking malicious links that lead them off the app — violating a court order. Meta, which owns WhatsApp, is now asking a court to hold NSO in contempt for violating a 2025 injunction barring the company from targeting WhatsApp and its users. According to TechCrunch, WhatsApp said the activity was similar to a 2024 phishing campaign in Jordan that led targets to be infected with Pegasus. Pegasus is NSO’s spyware, sold to governments and used to surveil journalists, politicians, activists, and dissidents. The U.S. blacklisted NSO in 2021.

• Journalist Ken Klippenstein reports that the U.S. secretly deployed members of the 82nd Airborne — a unit of paratroopers — to Israel. “A military source involved in war planning tells me the deployment is tied to new U.S.-Israeli joint contingency plans, completed since February, for seizing Kharg Island and carving out coastal territory inside Iran,” Klippenstein reports. It’s unclear what the unit’s mission is, but the 82nd Airborne is a “premier quick reaction force, trained to parachute into hostile territory.”

• Trump abruptly ended an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker for Meet the Press after she pressed him to offer evidence for his claim that the California gubernatorial primary is rigged because vote counting is taking longer than he thinks it should.

• Speaking of which… California finished tallying primary votes on Monday. Two Democrats will advance to a runoff in the Los Angeles mayor’s race: Nithya Raman and incumbent Karen Bass. Meanwhile, officials are still counting votes in the governor’s race. Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced, while Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer are competing for second place.

• Trump officially nominated his former personal attorney and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve in the role permanently. Blanche has been in the job since Trump fired Pam Bondi. He is responsible for overseeing Trump’s settlement with the IRS that established a controversial “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that faced bi-partisan backlash. Blanche would need almost every Senate Republican to approve his nomination. Sens. Thom Tillis (NC) and John Cornyn (TX), both of whom are not facing reelection, say they have concerns about Blanche.

• A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas, ruling it is unlawful because the president does not have the authority to impose it. Companies use the program to recruit top talent from other countries.

• Two private citizens have filed a lawsuit with the support of the Public Integrity Project challenging Trump’s UFC fight scheduled for June 14 on the White House lawn. “The lawsuit says such approval violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands, Congress did not consent to the towering arch overlooking the event space and no environmental review was conducted before the construction,” Politico reports.

• Trump pardoned former congressman Stephen Buyer, who was convicted of insider trading and served two years in prison. Republicans claimed Buyer was targeted because he served as a prosecutor during former President Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial, NBC News reports.

• Greg Bovino, the former chief of Customs and Border Patrol who led raids in Chicago and Minneapolis — where innocent bystanders Alex Pretti and Renee Good were killed by agents — has formed a 2028 presidential exploratory committee, The Daily Beast reports. An exploratory committee allows a potential candidate to raise funds “to test the waters” for a possible campaign, including polling and travel expenses.

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Here are the top news stories for Thursday, June 4:

ISRAEL’S WAR ON LEBANON

Hezbollah rejected calls on Thursday for its fighters to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, called the negotiations “absurd, humiliating and insulting.” He said the agreement’s demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean “surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy’s goals.” Kassem said Hezbollah’s priority is “an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” underscoring that the group has not committed to stop fighting. “So long as our villages are not safe and are being bombed and destroyed and our people are killed,” he said, northern Israel “will not be safe.”

PULLING PULTE

Bill Pulte will not be Trump’s permanent replacement for Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence after all. “He’s not going to be permanent because, you know, I don’t think he’d want to be permanent,” Trump told reporters Thursday. There was bipartisan pushback against Pulte, who has no intelligence experience and currently runs the government’s Federal Finance Housing Agency.

• Trump’s National Security Advisor from his first term — John Bolton — whom he fired, is expected to plead guilty to one count of retaining classified information, the AP reports. Under a deal with the DOJ — and pending a judge’s ruling — Bolton may have to pay a $2.25 million fine and face up to five years in prison — although it’s expected he won’t serve any time. Bolton is accused of sending sensitive information to his wife and daughter.

• Trump lashed out at the four Republicans who voted with Democrats on Wednesday to pass a war powers resolution on Iran for the first time since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran. “Who would do such an unpatriotic thing?” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday.

• Energy executives say they’ve warned the Trump administration that gas prices are likely to skyrocket after the industry spent the last three months drawing down reserves because of the war with Iran, Politico reports, citing four unnamed sources. The White House denied the report.

• The Trump administration is separating families at the border — again. An AP investigation found that the government has “re-separated dozens of children from their families, despite a landmark legal settlement meant to keep them together. Some of their parents have been locked in immigration detention facilities for months, others deported back to their home countries after being taken from their families once again. In some cases, immigration officials conducting interior arrests deported people despite discovering they were legally off limits for removal, according to emails obtained by AP.”

• Where there is a will, there is a way. The Justice Department is looking for alternative ways to compensate people who claim they were targeted by the government for political reasons, The Wall Street Journal reports.

  • “We’re on it,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote in a now-deleted social media post responding to a suggestion from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that the government use existing laws to compensate people who claim they were harmed.

• Now that Blanche has said the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will not proceed, Senate Republicans have moved ahead with a vote on a $70 billion immigration enforcement spending bill. Before leaving for recess last month, Senate Republicans pushed off the vote in protest of Trump’s then-newly announced fund.

  • If approved, the money would fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2028. Sen. Chuck Schumer introduced an amendment that would ban the weaponization fund outright — rather than simply taking Blanche’s word that the Justice Department will not pursue it. The amendment failed 49-50. Three Republicans voted to support it.

• By a vote of 213-210, the House voted to cut SNAP/WIC funding. The program “would lose $141 million in funding for fruit and vegetable benefits for the nearly 5.4 million children and pregnant and postpartum women enrolled, according to an estimate from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.” Breastfeeding mothers would see their monthly fruit and vegetable stipend drop from $52 to $13, while the stipend for young children would fall from $26 to $10, The Washington Post reports

• Ninety-seven of the 1,500 people — about 1 in 16 — who were granted clemency by President Trump for their roles in the January 6 insurrection have been charged with new crimes, Lawfare reports.

  • Many of the charges were lower-level offenses. “But one January 6 pardonee was convicted in February 2026 of child molestation and sentenced to life in prison. Another was convicted in 2025 of reckless homicide.” Fourteen were charged with sex crimes, including crimes involving child sex abuse material. Six had domestic violence charges, and another 20 had DUI charges. Five of the people convicted were released from prison as a result of Trump’s clemency.

• Finasteride, a medication Trump’s past medical records showed he was taking to prevent male-pattern hair loss, is no longer included in his medical records, The Washington Post reports. Experts told the Post the omission is unusual and raises transparency questions. One doctor said the public should know whether Trump is still taking the drug because it can increase depression, which could affect his ability to do the job.

• The dumpster fire at CBS is still raging, with the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, blaming now-fired correspondent Scott Pelley for the debacle. Weiss told staffers on a phone call leaked to The New York Times. “We did not want that other happen, but that’s the path that he chose,” Weiss said. In a statement, Pelley said: “Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true.”

• Turns out deploying the National Guard to D.C. to reduce crime did not work. And guess what? They are going to do it again this summer — with twice as many troops. A new study found that the Guard had little effect on violent crime, NPR reports. At the current level of roughly 2,800 troops per day, the deployment costs taxpayers $1.5 million a day.

• Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche may be another doomed nominee. Yesterday, Trump announced he would nominate Blanche to the role permanently. Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who votes with Republicans on many issues, said he will not confirm Blanche because of the weaponization fund. “It’s a bizarre thing,” Fetterman said, The Hill reports.

• Speaking of Bondi: She testified behind closed doors last week about the Epstein files, and the transcript of that interview has now been released. During her testimony, Bondi placed much of the responsibility for handling the Epstein files on Blanche, whom she called “one of the most highly ethical individuals I know.” Which… isn’t saying much. Bondi also said she had no idea Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell had been transferred to a lower-security prison until after it happened, per The Guardian. Asked whether Maxwell should receive a pardon, Bondi replied “no,” adding that Maxwell was a “monster.” “I believe she should die in prison,” Bondi said.

• Albanian officials have frozen the bank accounts of a company tied to Jared Kushner’s $4 billion luxury resort on the currently uninhabited island of Sazan in the country. Thousands of Albanians have been protesting this week against a planned luxury resort by Kushner and his wife and First Daughter Ivanka Trump and say it will destroy protected wetlands and pristine coastline.

• About half of the companies that donated to Trump’s $400 million ballroom project have seen their own business grow by about $50 billion in the last six months, according to a new report by the nonprofit group Public Citizen. “Most of those same companies are also facing federal enforcement actions over alleged wrongdoing or have had such actions suspended by the Trump administration since the start of Trump’s second term, the nonprofit found,” The Washington Post reports.

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Here are the top news stories for Wednesday, June 3:

WAR POWERS

The House passed a resolution calling on President Trump “to remove” the US military “from hostilities with Iran” unless Congress approves further military action. It’s the fourth time the House has voted on an Iran war powers measure — and the first time it’s passed.

The final vote was 215-208. Four Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (KY), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Tom Barrett (MI), and Warren Davidson (OH) — joined Democrats to support it.

The resolution now goes to the Senate. If passed, it would go to Trump, who would almost certainly veto it — and Congress would need a two-thirds majority to override, which looks very unlikely. For now, the vote is largely symbolic: it signals Republican fractures on the war and puts every lawmaker on record.

ISRAEL-LEBANON

The State Department announced Wednesday that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to an extension of the ceasefire deal signed last month — the one Israel didn't actually honor, continuing strikes and ignoring commitments to respect Lebanese sovereignty. The announcement came after a second day of meetings in DC between Israeli, Lebanese, and US officials.

These deals are hard to follow or understand, really. Hezbollah is not a party to them. Lebanon is not fighting Israel. Israel wants assurances that Hezbollah will disarm and stop all attacks before the ceasefire takes effect — but makes no reciprocal commitments.

The State Department said they’ll revisit the agreement the week of June 22.

Meanwhile, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir claimed all of Beirut was a Hezbollah partner and called the deal a “grave mistake,” The Times of Israel reports.

Hours after the deal was announced, journalists on the ground for Al Jazeera reported things were slightly quieter — though Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange fire.

• Speaking of ceasefires that aren’t ceasefires, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza City killed nine people, including four children, Al Jazeera reports citing sources at Al Shifa Hospital. There was no warning.

  • Palestinian officials say Israel has violated the ceasefire more than 3,000 times, killing 900 people and injuring 2,000 more. “People say they went to sleep believing they were living through a period of relative calm, only to wake up to explosions, fire and scenes of devastation.”

• The HHS released new Medicaid work requirement rules this week — and they’re stricter than expected, according to public health officials who reviewed the guidelines, NPR reports.

  • The changes are part of the GOP-backed Big Beautiful Bill, which cut $900 billion from Medicaid. Starting January 1, recipients will need to prove they work, volunteer, or attend school at least 80 hours a month — or lose coverage.

  • “What the rule says, as published, is that that’s actually not enough,” says Adrianna McIntyre, assistant professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The condition or the disease needs to be actively interfering with your ability to work. So people with early-stage cancer who are in radiation treatment but still have the capacity to work, or people who have HIV but can still technically work, are not exempted from the work requirement.”

• Trump will permanently appoint his former defense lawyer and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the role, CNN reports. Blanche has been acting AG since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April.

• Trump told reporters he has no idea what’s happening with his $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — raising concerns he may backtrack on Blanche’s claim that the fund is dead. At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) asked Blanche to put that in writing by rescinding the May 18 memo that established it. Blanche refused: “I’m not committing to putting anything in writing.” Meng: “You established it in writing, so it just makes sense to rescind it in writing.”

  • Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on X: “This is EXACTLY why @SenateDems will be forcing a vote this week to outlaw Trump’s MAGA slush fund permanently.”

• President Trump signed an executive order effectively making thousands of senior government workers “at-will” employees — meaning his administration can fire them at any time for not complying. Typically, these employees would be immune from political meddling. About 8,000 employees are affected, with that number potentially growing.

  • “The people responsible for protecting our public health, safeguarding our environment, delivering our mail, managing our airports, protecting our public lands, and enforcing our laws should be allowed to do their jobs, not targeted by the same government they serve,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, one of the organizations suing over the rule said. “When government experts can be fired without cause, it’s not just federal workers who are harmed — it’s the people across the country who rely on these essential services every day.”

• A group of Jewish professors at Columbia University filed claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging their employer created a hostile work environment — because they’re Jews who oppose Zionism.

  • After anti-genocide protests began at Columbia following the October 7 Hamas attack, the Trump administration threatened to cut the school’s federal funding unless it ended them and compensated people who said they’d been discriminated against because of them. In turn, Columbia agreed to establish a $21 million fund. The deadline to file claims was this week — and the professors who did say they filed to challenge the university’s own narrative: that antisemitism on campus was a problem created by pro-Palestinian protesters. These professors say the hostility came from the university itself, directed at Jewish faculty who dissented from its pro-Israel institutional position.

  • In a publicly released letter, the professors say they were doxxed, threatened, stalked, and harassed for their advocacy. One wrote: “Thanks to the hostile climate created for dissenting Jewish faculty like myself, I no longer consider Columbia University a safe place to work for Jews who dare to dissent from the political agenda of its most ardently pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian donors and trustees.”

  • Another said: “Jewish faculty (experienced) a climate of fear and concern about repercussions the university might take against Jewish faculty who did not embrace the university’s official position on how Jewish affiliates understood this political crisis.”

“Some of the people who filed claims on Tuesday said the university did nothing to protect them and in some cases contributed to the hostility. Several noted that after two dozen Jewish faculty members signed an April 2024 letter condemning the university’s response to student protests, Columbia’s antisemitism taskforce falsely claimed in a report that they had called ‘for an end to the state of Israel’, listing the faculty’s names in a footnote and prompting a torrent of abuse against them. (The taskforce later edited the report but issued no apology or retraction, and the old version continues to circulate.)” — The Guardian

• Albanians are protesting a new seaside development led by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Albania’s government — including its socialist prime minister — is reportedly working with the Kushners to develop a luxury resort on one of the country’s islands. Environmentalists say the land is protected and would be destroyed by development. The country’s anti-corruption agency is investigating the deal.

  • The AP reports that Kushner had a similar deal in Serbia, which collapsed after four local officials were charged with falsifying documents to fast-track approval. Kushner backed out.

  • Two pieces I’m reading on this, both from Judd Legum’s Popular Information: Kushner’s Serbian boondoggle collapses amid corruption scandal and Kushner’s Albanian resort faces corruption probe, mass protests.

• Coming up on Thursday, per Marc Elias of Democracy Docket: two Supreme Court opinions expected Thursday — one on mail-in voting, one on campaign finance.

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Before we dive into today’s news, two notes:

Several key primaries are taking place on Tuesday in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. For live results, follow the AP’s election results page here.

Coming up: CNBC will interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu live on Wednesday at 10 am ET.

And now, here are the top news stories for Tuesday, June 1:

IRAN + LEBANON

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the Senate on Tuesday — the first time since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.

  • Rubio denied reports that the US would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz. “That’s not been discussed, that’s not been offered,” he said. (So what incentive does Iran have?)

  • Rubio told Congress that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive and “increasingly engaging” in negotiations. Khamenei was reportedly severely injured in the strike on his compound that killed his wife, son and father, former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This comes one day after Iran suspended talks with the US over Israel's continued attacks on Lebanon.

• On the ground in the Middle East:

  • After the US hit military sites in Iran, Tehran responded with strikes on American military bases in Kuwait. Sirens warning of incoming attacks were also heard in Bahrain, according to Al Jazeera. So much for the war being “over!”

  • The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, with reports that Iran has hit ships trying to pass through. Jean-Cedric Meeus, who runs logistics for UNICEF, said the closure is disrupting the delivery of critical humanitarian aid: “The disruption to the global humanitarian supply chain is impacting children across all the globe, with continued congestion in global supply chain routes and higher costs.”

  • Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed at least 11 people Tuesday — one day after President Trump claimed both Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to stop fighting.

NO-SO-INTELLIGENT PICK

• President Trump nominated Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to replace Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Yes, you read that right. Pulte’s current job is overseeing the US housing finance system, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

  • The ODNI is responsible for overseeing 17 additional federal intelligence agencies and organizations and requires “extensive national security expertise.” Pulte has none. Doesn’t seem like a great pick — especially when the US is at war in Iran.

  • Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune said “we don’t need a weaponized” DNI. “Thune pointed out that Pulte, who has come under sharp criticism from Democrats for pulling up mortgage information to investigate Trump’s political opponents, would have to undergo the Senate confirmation process to permanently take over as director,” The Hill reports.

• The DOJ is dropping plans to create a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that would use taxpayer dollars to pay people who claim they were politically prosecuted, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress on Tuesday. The fund was part of a settlement the DOJ reached with Trump after he sued the IRS over a government contractor’s leak of his tax returns. A federal judge had already paused payments while legal challenges play out. But, Blanche said another provision will remain: a bar on Trump and his family being audited or investigated over past IRS filings.

  • Coming up: A federal judge has ordered Trump’s lawyers to respond to allegations that they used the lawsuit — filed after the statute of limitations had expired — to defraud the court. Responses are due June 12.

• Police in Kenya opened fire and killed two people protesting the US’ new Ebola quarantine facility to be built at a local air base, as the East Africa outbreak continues to spread. The facility is meant to treat Americans affected by the virus instead of bringing them home to be treated at already established state-of-the-art facilities. A Kenyan court blocked the US from continuing construction, but “U.S. military aircraft have continued to fly in staff and equipment in recent days, according to a U.S. official and diplomatic sources,” Reuters reports.

• The Trump administration wants to more tightly control who gets government grants by introducing ideological and political litmus tests, The New York Times reports. The administration would dictate things like who grant recipients can work with and even which conferences they can attend.

  • “The restrictions echo the string of executive orders that Mr. Trump signed shortly after returning to office, many of which have been challenged or blocked in court. This time, however, the White House has pursued its restrictions by proposing a regulation, which is expected to become final after the government solicits public comment. The result could be applied far more broadly, and perhaps in ways that are harder to fight legally or undo later, according to budget experts.”

• CBS News anchor and longtime 60 Minutes Correspondent Scott Pelley has been fired after a heated exchange with the new executive producer of the show, Nick Bilton. Pelley confronted Bilton during a staff meeting on Monday, accusing him and the network’s Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering” the legendary news program and firing long-time, beloved colleagues.

  • In a letter to Pelley on Tuesday, Bilton wrote: “‘Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated effective immediately.’”

  • CBS’ parent company Paramount merged with David Ellison’s Skydance Media last year — a deal that has raised serious concerns about editorial independence. A lawsuit alleged Skydance curried favor with the Trump administration to win approval of the merger and agreed to “align CBS News’ editorial posture” with the White House.

    

• The Trump administration is gutting a program that monitors how climate change is reshaping oceans — data that scientists rely on to predict extreme weather, track coastal flooding, and protect collapsing marine ecosystems, The New York Times reports. The Ocean Observatories Initiative will begin pulling more than 900 deep-sea instruments deployed across US waters and near Greenland and Iceland.

  • A government spokesperson says the move will make the organization “nimbler.” A former NOAA scientist called it further evidence that the administration does not understand “scientific value and scientific merit.”

  • “Scientists have used the system’s data to track how oceans absorb greenhouse gases, how marine heat waves affect fisheries, and what drives coastal flooding along the East Coast.”

  • The entire program costs $48 million a year.

• A man convicted of participating in the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol has been hired to work in a highly sensitive Pentagon department that handles “irregular warfare and counterterrorism,” The Washington Post reports. “Two people characterized the work as among the most delicate that the Pentagon performs. All positions, they said, require a top-secret security clearance.”

• The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) for allegations of sexual misconduct. Sources tell CNN the panel has learned of numerous allegations, including that he kissed the staffer of another member of Congress. Gomez apologized for his behavior after reports surfaced in The New York Post. He says the interaction was consensual.

• The White House Correspondents’ Association announced its annual dinner has been rescheduled to July 24. The dinner, last held in April, was stopped midway by a shooting. President Trump says he will attend.

• And finally, social media is rife with speculation: Trump hasn’t been seen in public in nearly a week. And Wednesday’s schedule shows no public events, either.

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Here are the top news stories for Monday, June 1:

Lebanon

Israel threatened on Monday to strike Beirut after accusing Hezbollah of violating a ceasefire agreement that Hezbollah did not sign. About 2 million people — roughly one-third of Lebanon’s entire population — live in Beirut. Israeli officials warned them to leave.

People were seen fleeing in cars, on bikes, and on foot. “Where do they go? Some people will have rented places outside, because they knew this moment would come. Other people will just go to open places, under bridges, near the park, on the beach – anywhere where they can put a tent,” Ali Hashem reported for Al Jazeera from Beirut.

The pace of Israel’s invasion over the last week has been so alarming that French President Emmanuel Macron called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. During that meeting on Monday, every country but the US called on Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

“At the Council meeting, some of the sharpest criticism of Israel’s actions came from France, Britain, Russia and China, all permanent members of the Council. The United States, which started the Iran war with Israel in February and is the fifth permanent member of the Council, focused its comments on blaming Iran and Hezbollah,” The New York Times reports.

Israel’s latest threat comes after it forcibly displaced more than 1 million people during the war. Since the ceasefire was signed in April, Israel has continued to use military force to control Lebanese territory — in violation of the agreement it signed with Lebanon.

After Israel threatened to bomb Beirut, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he had a “productive call” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and representatives of Hezbollah. Trump said both sides had “agreed that all shooting will stop” and that Israel would pull back troops headed toward Beirut.

Lebanese officials confirmed Hezbollah’s agreement to the US terms. “Under the proposed arrangement, Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs would cease in exchange for Hezbollah refraining from carrying out attacks against Israel, with the ceasefire framework to be expanded to encompass all Lebanese territories,” the Lebanese Embassy in Washington posted on X.

But Netanyahu offered a different readout of the call. “Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens—Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut. This stance of ours remains unchanged,” Netanyahu posted to X. “In parallel, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reminded Netanyahu on X to stop answering to Trump. “Mr Prime Minister, you said that a strong prime minister tells the president of the United States – ‘yes’ when possible, and ‘no’ when necessary. This is the time to tell our friend, President Trump—’no,’” he wrote.

As of this writing — there appears to be no further escalation, yet. But, as we have seen time and again — anything is possible.

Even if this ceasefire holds, analysts warn Israel’s ambitions in Lebanon extend well beyond stopping Hezbollah rocket fire.

Mohamed Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says “we should not lose sight of Israel’s grand project, the Greater Israel project.”

Israel has “multiple objectives with respect to the current incursion into Lebanon and one of them is related to territorial expansion. The Israelis have their sight set on at least south of Lebanon, probably that area south of the Litani River, possibly even beyond,” he said.

Coming up: Diplomatic meetings between Israel and Lebanon have been scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at the State Department.

IRAN

There is still no extension of the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran — even though the Trump administration kept insisting last week that one was close. In fact, on Monday, Iran said it was cutting off diplomatic conversation with the US as Israel ramps up its invasion of Lebanon.

“Over the past two days, we have seriously pursued efforts to stop Israel’s attacks. If these crimes continue, we will not only suspend the negotiation process, but we will also stand against the Zionist regime,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said according to state TV. “If an agreement is reached to end the war between Iran and the United States, it will include a halt to attacks on all fronts, especially in Lebanon,” NBC reports.

Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, warned that if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon do not stop “completely, the consequences will be severe for the Zionist regime and U.S. forces in the region. They are fully aware that this is not an empty threat, and we are prepared for a military response.”

• The DOJ says it will comply with a judge’s order barring them from dispersing any funds from the $1.8 billion so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” set up by the administration to pay out supporters who claim they were wrongly targeted by the government.

  • Behind the scenes, Republican lawmakers were worried the fund would taint the midterm elections and called on the White House to nix it altogether.

  • The federal judge overseeing the IRS lawsuit that led to the fund’s creation is separately investigating whether Trump and his lawyers may have defrauded the court, and has given Trump’s team until June 12 to respond. As part of the settlement, in addition to the fund, the government agreed not to investigate Trump or audit his tax returns.

• Congress is taking a step toward making US support for Israel less visible and harder to unwind. A new House bill would deepen ties between the Pentagon and Israel’s defense industry as the current $4 billion-a-year aid agreement nears its 2028 expiration.

  • A new Quincy Institute report warns that future support could move away from a clearly labeled annual aid package and instead flow through weapons contracts, joint research, co-production deals, software, and licensing.

  • Once Israeli firms and technology are built into US weapons systems, future Pentagon spending could keep benefiting Israel without looking like aid — making it harder for Congress to track, debate, cut off, or condition that support over human rights abuses or violations of international law.

• The UK revoked the travel authorizations of TV host Cenk Uygur and (his nephew) political influencer Hasan Piker, barring them from entering Britain to attend SXSW London and speak at the Oxford Union.

  • The government cited concerns their presence would not be “conducive to the public good.” Uygur and Piker attributed the ban to their criticism of Israel.

  • “This eleventh-hour call signals much more than democratic decline — it is a direct threat to free expression,” the Oxford Union said.

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — an architect of settlement expansion and ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank — appeared at New York's Israel Day Parade over the weekend, marching alongside Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Rep. Jerry Nadler and others.

  • Organizers claim Smotrich was not invited and "crashed at the last minute," marching in the back of the parade with the Israeli delegation rather than alongside New York officials.

  • Hochul, who led the march, subsequently said she "strongly condemns his participation," calling his rhetoric "fundamentally at odds with the values we hold dear in New York."

  • New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani boycotted the parade — the first mayor to do so since the event began in 1965.

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Here are the top news stories for Thursday, May 28:

US-IRAN CEASEFIRE TALKS

Multiple news outlets are reporting — based on unnamed sources — that US and Iranian negotiators have agreed to extend the existing ceasefire by another 60 days. Iranian and US leaders, including President Trump, have not signed off on the deal.

According to Axios, the proposed agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, require Iran to clear all mines from the strait within 30 days, and gradually ease the US blockade on Iranian ports. The US would lift some sanctions on Iran, though not all. Over the next 60 days, the US and Iran would continue talks over nuclear enrichment and broader sanctions relief.

The agreement would also extend the ceasefire to Lebanon, though Israel would still be allowed to do what it wants. 🤔

In Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister is escalating attacks, forcing displacement, and ethnic cleansing — leaving any eventual deal to inherit as much death, dispossession, and destruction as he can inflict before time runs out. On Thursday:

• Israeli attacks killed at least 19 people, Al Jazeera reports. At least five were women and children, according to the AP.

• One strike on an apartment building killed five people, including Hossan Zeidan, a former correspondent for al-Alam, Iran’s Arabic-language network.

• In Adloun, an Israeli drone strike hit a car, killing six — among them two children and their parents.

• Israel also struck a residential building in a dense part of Beirut.

• All told, Israel says it hit more than 135 targets, The New York Times reports, some of which it called “rocket launch sites and training camps.” Many of those strikes landed in residential areas and hit civilians, the paper reports.

• Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect last month was “just ink on paper” — the south remained “very much an active warzone.” The past three or four days, she added, brought some of the heaviest bombardment since the current round of fighting began in early March.

And in Gaza:

• Israeli strikes killed at least 10 people, among them five children, during Eid al-Adha; more than 20 were wounded. Israel said it was targeting two Hamas fighters.

• Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel will press ahead with the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza — what officials call “voluntary migration,” The Guardian reports. But, “human rights activists describe as a long-term plan for ethnic cleansing by making living conditions inside Gaza intolerable.”

• Netanyahu said Thursday he had ordered the military to expand control to 70% of Gaza — up from the roughly 60% he says it already holds, and well past the line Israel agreed to under the ceasefire with Hamas.

• The DOJ is investigating E. Jean Carroll, the writer who successfully sued Trump — and won millions in damages — for sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room in 1996.

  • “The Justice Department is scrutinizing a statement Carroll made in the course of the civil litigation that no one else was paying her legal fees. It later became public that a Chicago-based organization backed by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, had helped fund Carroll’s case. Trump’s lawyers in the civil case accused Carroll of concealing that information, which they said called into question whether the case was politically motivated,” AP News reports.

• A federal judge refused to block a Trump executive order directing DHS to create a list of voters it deems eligible and ordering USPS to deliver mail-in ballots only to those people.

  • The Trump-appointed judge said there was no need to rule against the order yet because no concrete actions have been taken. The judge said the plaintiffs could return to court if the White House moves forward, NPR reports.

• The Trump administration is defending its decision to build a new healthcare facility for Americans suspected of having Ebola — or infected with the virus — at an air base in Kenya, instead of bringing them home to be treated at state-of-the-art medical facilities that already exist.

  • At an off-the-record briefing with reporters, Trump administration officials said the decision was made in the interest of their health, Politico reports.

• Shortly after buying between $1 million and $5 million in Dell stock, Trump told his supporters to buy the company’s computers. Weeks later, Dell’s stock surged after the company was awarded a $9.7 billion Defense Department contract for Microsoft software, which Dell partners with, The Washington Post reports. Watchdog groups say this smells like… trouble. Trump claim his portfolio is managed by a third party.

• ProPublica reports that White House adviser and Trump family friend Peter Navarro pressured the Defense Department to award a $620 million loan to Vulcan — a start-up with connections to the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

  • “The loan was a massive financial commitment from the Pentagon” and “a dramatic win for Vulcan, a North Carolina rare-earth magnet company launched just two years earlier. Estimates of its valuation grew tenfold after the deal was announced. It was also a win for Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, which took a stake of undisclosed size in Vulcan about three months before the Pentagon announced the deal... The call came from the White House: ‘We have to get this done,’ [one] person said.” The company denied any favoritism.

• In honor of the country’s upcoming 250th birthday, the Treasury Department wants to print a new $250 bill with… you guessed it, Trump’s face.

  • “Starting last year, two political appointees at the Treasury Department — U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and his senior adviser, Mike Brown — repeatedly urged staff at the agency’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to prepare prototypes of the note, according to the employees, who said the move raised concerns because federal law currently allows only deceased people to appear on bills,” The Washington Post reports.

  

• Oops: after claiming a number of stars were scheduled to perform at the Trump administration’s 250th anniversary fair in DC this summer, many of them are backing out — including C+C Music Factory’s frontman, Freedom Williams — who backed out after the above graphic was made. 🤪 Williams “said in an Instagram video that he was not informed of the Great American State Fair’s affiliation with President Trump when he was booked for the event,” USA Today reports.

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Here are the top news stories for Wednesday, May 27.

THREATENING IRAN. AND OMAN. AND ARAB COUNTRIES.

The Trump administration is denying reports that a draft deal between the US and Iran to end the war would lift a naval blockade of Iran’s ports and allow Iran to manage the Strait of Hormuz with Oman. Iranian state TV first reported the details of the supposed plan. The White House called the story “a complete fabrication.”

Answering questions from reporters during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump claimed no country will control the strait. “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to ⁠blow them up. They understand that.”

For context: “Oman, which is known for its neutrality, has not said it wants to join Iran in controlling Hormuz. The US and Oman are close allies with a relationship that stretches more than 200 years,” Al Jazeera writes.

Trump also told PBS that the US will not lift sanctions on Iran — which have crippled the country — in exchange for Iran giving up its enriched uranium. Trump is demanding they do so no matter what.

Asked about his demand that Middle Eastern countries normalize relations with Israel as part of any deal, Trump said: “I think they owe that to us, to be honest.” Axios reported Tuesday that Trump made the demand during a weekend call with Arab leaders, leaving them stunned.

Trump also warned that if Iran does not give the US what it wants, then “the man on my left is going to finish them off,” referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was seated next to him during the meeting.

TRUMP’S TROPHY.

During the meeting, Trump also responded to Tuesday night’s Republican primary elections in Texas, where state Attorney General Ken Paxton — whom Trump endorsed — defeated four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

Trump is treating the result as proof that whatever he is doing on Iran — dragging out the war, losing, driving up gas prices, and generally acting like a madman — will not hurt Republicans in the midterms five months from now.

“I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump said. “Look, what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms. People understand it. They know that — very simple — Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Paxton will face Democrat state Rep. James Talarico in the general election.

No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994 — but that doesn’t mean Republicans aren’t worried.

Congressional Republicans are angry with Trump for endorsing Paxton, who is mired in corruption allegations, a nasty public divorce involving accusations of infidelity, and fundraising struggles. They say Paxton is a weaker candidate, and now the party will have to spend time and money defending a race that should have been a slam dunk.

Paxton “was indicted on felony securities fraud charges, he was impeached, he was once accused of stealing a $1,000 pen, his wife is in the midst of divorcing him on biblical grounds… He organized a legal effort to try to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election Mr. Trump lost, and Mr. Paxton spoke at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally near the White House just before Mr. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol,” The New York Times reminds us.

Trump’s not entirely delusional — he’s having a winning May.

Cornyn is the second Republican incumbent senator to lose his primary this month to a Trump backed candidate. Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy lost, too.

In total this month, Trump has backed at least 10 challengers against incumbent Republicans who opposed him. Eight have won their races so far, NBC News reports.

HEADLINES

• At least 10 people — all men — have died by suicide while being detained at ICE facilities since January 2025, an AP investigation finds. Since the fiscal year began in October, “seven deaths have been classified as suicides, a number that is already the most for any fiscal year in the agency’s history. ICE has usually recorded one or no such deaths annually.” All of the men were Hispanic except for one Chinese citizen.

  • The reasons for suicide in the centers are “complex” given the circumstances of immigration detention but “experts say well-run lockups should have few, if any, suicides. That’s because staff can take steps to mitigate the chances that detainees harm themselves by identifying those at risk, getting them care and monitoring them closely, the experts said... AP’s investigation found that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE’s own standards.”

  • Many of the facilities are run by private contractors — whose bottom line is profit rather than honoring rights and protections. “The AP found that staff in the facilities ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment and failed to monitor detainees who were already deemed at risk. They also permitted detainees to have access to materials that could be used for self-harm, according to AP’s review of ICE inspection reports and death records.”

• Uganda has closed its border with Congo after health care workers were exposed to the Ebola virus from patients who had crossed over, the AP reports. Ebola cases in Congo topped 1,000 on Wednesday. At least 220 people are suspected to have died from the virus. Uganda has at least seven confirmed cases and at least one death.

• The DOJ is cooling investigations into Venezuela’s President Delcy Rodriguez, the AP reports. Rodriguez has not been accused of or indicted in any crimes but she has “consistently surfaced’ in DEA investigations dating back to 2018. “The directive to pause scrutiny into Rodríguez was meant to avoid upsetting the administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other reasons, the official said. It was not clear whether the White House, which deferred comment to the Justice Department, was involved in the decision.”

• House Democrats — led by Reps. Don Beyer (VA) and Dina Titus (NV) — introduced legislation to block Trump’s planned 250-foot arch, which Trump is trying to build without the necessary congressional approval.

  • The structure that stands taller than Paris’ L’Arc de Triomphe, would block views from Arlington National Cemetery. Beyer’s district includes the cemetery, and his office says his parents, grandparents, and sister are buried there.

  • “The Democrats’ bill faces long odds in Congress, where Republican leaders have hesitated to publicly oppose Trump’s construction projects,” The Washington Post reports. “But some Republicans have begun to signal concerns about Trump’s swift remaking of Washington and have balked at committing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to security-related costs for his planned White House ballroom.”

• The US has extended Temporary Protected Status for roughly 11,000 Lebanese people in the country for another six months, Reuters reports. TPS is an immigration designation that allows people from certain countries to remain in the US legally when conditions in their home countries — including conflict or disaster — make it unsafe to return. The Trump administration has ended similar protections for people from countries including Venezuela and Afghanistan, despite ongoing conflicts there.

• Hamas confirms that the leader of their armed wing in Gaza was killed in an Israeli air strike this week, despite a ceasefire agreement.

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Here are the top news stories for Tuesday, May 26:

IRAN

The U.S. and Iran have not agreed to end the war, despite an array of confusing claims by President Trump over the holiday weekend.

Trump claimed on Saturday that a deal with Iran was “largely negotiated” and that the details would be “announced shortly.”

Then, on Sunday, he said the deal wasn’t “even fully negotiated yet.”

By Monday, Trump was calling people questioning the deal “losers” and claiming that talks with Iran were “proceeding nicely.”

And on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed a deal would take a while — and also, not that long at all. While wrapping up a trip to India, Rubio told reporters that a deal “may take a little while, I mean, a few more days.”

Ah, ok. Thanks for clarifying!

Meanwhile, Iranian officials were in Qatar on Monday to continue negotiations. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran and the U.S. “have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the discussion topics,” but warned that “this does not mean that the signing of an agreement is imminent,” Al Jazeera reports.

So both sides seem to agree that much of the underlying work has been done. But Trump is claiming they are close to a deal, while Iran is still saying one is far off. Three major obstacles are contributing to that gap.

First, Iran doesn’t trust the Trump administration, which has already attacked Iran twice during previous peace negotiations.

At a press conference on Monday, Baghaei was asked whether Trump could be trusted to honor his commitments.

“No. There is no assurance the U.S. president will honor his commitments. The only assurance is our military capabilities,” Baghaei said.

Second, Trump keeps moving the goalposts.

Baghaei told reporters: “The United States has a record of changing its position at the last minute.”

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump demanded that Muslim nations normalize diplomatic relations with Israel as part of a deal with Iran.

Axios’ Barak Ravid reported that during a phone call between Trump and leaders of several Muslim-majority countries on Saturday, the demand caught them off guard. “The leaders, especially those of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan who don’t have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, were surprised by Trump’s request. ‘There was silence on the line, and Trump joked and asked if they are still there,’ one of the U.S. officials said.”

Third, both sides are still shooting at each other. The U.S. said Monday it hit southern Iran in “self-defense strikes.” Iran accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire.

But “Iranian sources told Al Jazeera that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had targeted a vessel at sea before the US strikes. Several IRGC personnel were killed in the attacks, according to the sources.”

Baghaei also confirmed that including Lebanon in a ceasefire deal is a must. So if a deal is close, it may explain why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he was ordering the Israeli military to increase the pace of its attacks on Hezbollah there. Intensifying attacks now may be his way of getting in as much destruction as he can before the terms are locked in.

By Tuesday, Israel had struck more than 120 times, killing at least 31 people and injuring 40 more, Reuters reports.

More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks since early March, when fighting began. Israel says 23 soldiers, a contractor and two civilians have also been killed.

Lebanon and Israel entered into a so-called ceasefire agreement — but Hezbollah was not a direct party to it, even though Hezbollah is the force Israel is fighting.

Not to be forgotten, Gaza: Israel continues to strike Gaza in violation of a ceasefire agreement.

On Tuesday, Israel said it killed Hamas member Mohammed Odeh in an attack on a residential building in a heavily populated neighborhood. Hamas has not confirmed the claim. Three others were killed in the strike and dozens more were injured.

Over the weekend, Israeli airstrikes on a refugee camp killed three people, including an infant, Al Jazeera reports. In another attack, five police officers and a teenager were killed.

“Earlier this month, the Gaza Government Media Office said it had documented at least 2,400 Israeli violations in the first six months of the ceasefire, including more than 1,100 air raids and at least 921 shootings targeting civilians,” Al Jazeera reports.

• Protesters and Democratic lawmakers spent the weekend at a privately run ICE facility in New Jersey calling for it to be shut down, as detainees report inhumane treatment and are now reportedly on a hunger strike.

  • Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) — who was hit with pepper spray by federal agents — said he was allowed inside and spoke to detainees who said the food is rotten and medical care is inadequate. Families of the detained said they are not allowed to communicate with their loved ones. “New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said families described ‘heartbreaking’ conditions inside the facility and praised New Jersey’s congressional delegation for using federal oversight powers to pressure ICE officials,” the New Jersey Globe reports.

  • DHS denies anyone was targeted with pepper spray and accused protesters of “rioting.” “We remind the public that rioting is dangerous—obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called it a “political stunt” and denied there was a hunger strike.

• Instead of bringing Americans infected or at risk of contracting Ebola back to the country’s top medical facilities for treatment, the Trump administration is working on sending them to Kenya, The New York Times reports.

  • “We know that their chances of getting through an Ebola infection would be higher in specialized units that have been designed to care for them,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The US has at least two specialized care facilities in the US.

  • Instead, the U.S. will set up a facility in Kenya. Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that “the facility, which Tuesday was pending signoff from the Kenyan government, is primarily intended for Americans who are exposed to or at high risk of testing positive for the virus in the region, as well as Americans who test positive.”

  • There are about 930 Ebola cases most in Congo and about 223 deaths. One American doctor working in the region who tested positive was sent to Germany for treatment.

  • “We have a strong ethical commitment to care for them with the best possible care in the U.S.,” Inglesby said.

  • Ebola has roughly a 50-50 survival rate, though outcomes can vary depending on the outbreak, access to care and how quickly patients are treated.

• Two key redistricting losses for Republicans on Tuesday:

  • A federal three-judge panel ruled that Alabama can’t use its new Republican-drawn maps because the plan “represents an intentional effort to crack the Black population in Alabama.” Two of the three judges are Trump appointees. The judges wrote that they could not require “Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

  • In South Carolina, the state senate voted 26-18 — including 14 Republicans — to kill an effort to gerrymander their map and strip Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Black Democrat, of a seat he’s held for more than 30 years. Republicans resisted in part because early voting had already begun Tuesday and turnout was surging. “Neither my conscience nor my common sense will allow me to stop an election underway,” said Sen. Richard Cash of Anderson County.

• The Trump administration is looking into making all government employees sign non-disclosure agreements, claiming they are necessary to stop leaks to the press, The New York Times reports. “Lawyers who represent public workers said the requirement could be vulnerable to legal challenges on First Amendment grounds, noting that a government employee’s speech is protected if the person is speaking as a private citizen.”

• Construction is underway for a UFC fight on the White House lawn, scheduled for June 14 — Trump’s birthday — The New York Times reports. Some tickets are selling for as much as $1.5 million. Thousands of others will be distributed to military members, the administration said. Apparently, the UFC is picking up the cost of the event.

• Axios reports that Trump has appointed ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi to an AI advisory committee. The outlet also reports that Bondi was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

• Trump proclaimed himself “perfectly” healthy after a physical on Tuesday, his third in the last 13 months. However, one medical professional told NPR that it’s not uncommon for someone Trump’s age. The president turns 80 in June.

• In his first papal letter to the world’s Catholics, Pope Leo XVI warned about the dangers of AI and urged tech companies to work together for the good of humanity. Don’t have time to read the 40,000+ word manifesto? The New York Times has highlights here. 🎁

• The Pope also issued an apology for the church’s role in slavery. “Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave ‘infidels,’” the AP reports.

• A former Indiana University employee was awarded a $225,000 settlement after she was fired over a Facebook post in which she said "If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can't be friends." The school said the comments were damaging to its reputation. Hundreds of people have been fired for social media posts or comments about Kirk — this is at least the third settlement in recent weeks, and more are pending.

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A heads up! The Fifth (daily and weekly) will be off until Tuesday for Memorial Day.

Here are the top news stories for Thursday.

“STUPID ON STILTS”

Looks like President Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is in trouble not just with Democrats — but with Republicans, too.

Sensing a revolt, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was “rerouted” from an event in Minnesota on Thursday to meet with angry and confused Republicans on Capitol Hill, CNN reports. But the meeting “was described as an ‘absolute sh*tshow’ by two people briefed on it,” Semafor reports. .

During the meeting, retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) “upbraided Blanche over the fund,” Semafor adds.

Some Republicans said they were angry they weren’t consulted — or even told about the fund — before it was announced, CNN reports. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who recently lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed opponent, wrote on X Wednesday evening that “Congress should have a role in how this is set up.”

Republicans also “peppered” Blanche with questions, including who would be eligible for the money and what guardrails would exist “to prevent people convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, from benefiting,” The Washington Post reports..

After the meeting, Senate Republicans were still not swayed.

Tillis later called the whole thing “stupid on stilts.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told The New York Times his colleagues characterized the deal as a “galactic blunder.”

Shortly after the meeting, the Senate adjourned for the Memorial Day recess, even though Republicans still needed to work on a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill that Trump wanted on his desk by June 1.

But that bill had become a political trap.

The immigration funding bill and the payout fund are technically unrelated. But Democrats could have introduced amendments to curb the fund as part of the immigration debate. Based on what Republicans have said publicly and privately, those amendments had a real chance of passing with even a few Republicans joining Democrats.

But, NPR reports that “[a]nother Republican aide with knowledge of the discussions, downplayed that scenario, and said Republican leadership simply recognized the caucus had many concerns about the fund” and that postponing the debate would help address them.

And that wasn’t the only issue they were trying to avoid. The bill also included an additional $1 billion in Secret Service funding tied to Trump’s ballroom that Republicans are not happy with.

DNC AUTOPSY FAIL

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats were dealing with an internal mess.

DNC Chairman Ken Martin released a draft copy of the party’s 2024 election “autopsy” report on Thursday.

Martin originally said he would release the report, then changed his mind, arguing that doing so would be “distracting.” But after CNN and NBC began reporting on frustration inside the DNC that members still hadn’t received sections they were promised, Martin went on Pod Save America podcast, where his nonsensical answers raised even more questions about the secrecy.

Well, Martin released the 192-page report Thursday.

“I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards, and it won’t meet your standards. I don’t endorse what’s in this report, or what’s left out of it. I could not in good faith put the DNC’s stamp of approval on it,” Martin said in a statement. “But transparency is paramount. So, today I am releasing the report as I received it — in its entirety, unedited and unabridged — with annotations for claims that couldn’t be verified.”

The DNC’s annotations throughout the document flag unsourced claims and disputed information. Democrats were also incensed that the report ignored some of the most obvious blunders and oversights that contributed significantly to Harris’ loss.

The report “sidesteps some of the most controversial elements of the 2024 campaign. The report does not address former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection, the rushed selection of Harris to replace him after he dropped out, or the party’s acrimonious divide over the war in Gaza,” the AP points out.

Martin apologized and said the staffer who prepared the report — which didn’t even include an executive summary or conclusion — no longer works for the DNC. Martin also told Pod Save America the staffer was “unpaid.”

I mean, for a “free” product, what did they expect?

But Democrats, now convinced Martin can’t lead the party through one of the most consequential midterm elections in decades, want him gone.

• The U.S. will pause a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan because of low inventory — a consequence of Trump’s war on Iran, something military leaders warned the Administration about before going to war. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao informed Senators on Thursday.

  • “Cao’s remarks appear to contradict President Trump’s stated reason for the pause; last week he indicated he may hold off on the arms sale to Taiwan as a ‘negotiating chip’ with China,” The Hill reports.

  • Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress the U.S. has “plenty of what we need.”

• What makes this last story even more troubling is this one, also on Thursday: “The U.S. military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves, according to Defense Department assessments described to The Washington Post.” 🎁

  

• Incidents of self-harm are on the rise inside ICE detention centers, NBC News reports. More than 1,000 calls to 911 have been made, including 28 for “serious incidents,” across six facilities in the U.S.

  • At least five people have died by suicide — the most in two decades. “One man swallowed a razor blade, another drank cleaning chemicals, and at least three cut their own wrists.”

  • Ten other major centers did not send their records to NBC.

• Federal prosecutors in Chicago dropped charges against six protestors — known as the “Broadview Six,” including former Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abugazalah — in a surprise decision after lawyers from both sides met with the judge in private.

  • The prosecutor, Andrew Boutros — first appointed by former Attorney General Pam Bondi — admitted to the judge misconduct by his office during the grand jury process but insisted these were “mistakes” and not intentional.

  • According to a transcript of the meeting, the judge was shocked to learn — among other things — that “an initial grand jury refused to indict the defendants, and the case was later presented again after prosecutors kicked out certain grand jury members who disagreed with the case, according to defense attorneys,” local news outlet WTTW reported.

• ICE recruiting material was so racist that it could be perceived by white supremacist extremists as creating “a permissive environment to engage in vigilante action and/or violence against individuals perceived to be immigrants,” The Intercept reports. The warning came from the Colorado Information Analysis Center, one of a network of federal counterterrorism tracking hubs known as “fusion centers.”

  • “The bulletin from the Colorado fusion center is notable in that it is the first indication that state officials in the U.S. counter-terrorism establishment are concerned about the messaging of DHS under Trump.”

• House Republicans cancelled a planned vote on clipping Trump’s war powers in Iran. “The decision to shelve the war powers resolution came after Republicans had lost control of the floor during an earlier unrelated vote, with several of their members defecting and several more absent. As the House chamber descended into chaos, leaders wary of risking another public defeat on a far more politically consequential vote abruptly scrapped the Iran war measure,” The New York Times reports. The Senate approved a similar measure on Wednesday, 50-47 with the support of four Republicans.

• Oddly, President Trump says he’s not sure if he’ll make it to his son Don Jr.’s Bahamas wedding this weekend. “This is not good timing for me,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “Everything called Iran and other things.”

• Rep. Thomas Kean (R-NJ) who hasn’t shown up for work for three months has finally resurfaced, kind of. His office said he was ill but no one else has seen or heard from him. The New Jersey Globe says they spoke to him; he’s alive and plans on returning to work soon. “My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean told the paper.

• A Trump-appointed commission has approved his plans to build a 250-foot arch that’s taller than Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. Building a thing like that would need Congress’ approval, but the Trump administration is “arguing that they do not need it because lawmakers a century ago authorized a somewhat similar project that was never built,” The Washington Post notes.

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Here are the top news stories for Wednesday, May 20:

REMEMBER HIM?

Two police officers who defended the Capitol from a violent insurrection by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021 filed a lawsuit against the president and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday over their so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

In court filings, Officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges called the taxpayer funded ATM controlled by Trump allies for Trump allies announced on Monday a “brazen act of presidential corruption,” that endangers them personally.

“First, by its very existence, the Fund encourages those who enacted violence in the President’s name to continue to do so. Dunn and Hodges already face credible threats of death and violence on regular basis; the Fund substantially increases the danger,” their legal teams wrote in court filings.

“Second, if allowed to begin making payments, the Fund will directly finance the violent operations of rioters, paramilitaries, and their supporters who threatened Plaintiffs’ lives that day, and continue to do so.”

Meanwhile, Peter Ticktin, an attorney representing more than 400 January 6 defendants, said the fund may not be enough.

“People lost multi-million dollar businesses while they were locked up,” he said. “I don’t think the DOJ is ready for us yet.”

You know, losing your business and getting locked up might happen if you are implicated in a crime. Just saying.

Other developments:

• In Congress, at least one Republican lawmaker is publicly objecting to the whole thing. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) called the deal “bad news.” In a letter he said he sent to Blanche, Fitzpatrick on Wednesday called the fund “a dangerous backsliding in the transparency of our institutions and our commitment to the American taxpayer.”

• Meanwhile, House Republicans refused to order those involved in creating the fund to testify before Congress.

• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Wednesday introduced a bill that if passed would prevent Trump from creating the slush fund altogether.

  • “The ‘No Taxpayer-Funded 5 Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2026 ‘ would bar the use of any federal funds to back the settlement. It would also create new restrictions on payouts generally, including barring anyone convicted of rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6 from receiving funds,” The Hill reports.

• Also: “Raskin is eyeing a discharge petition as a backup option to force a vote on his measure if House Republican leadership blocks it from coming to the floor, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios.”

CUBA-NO.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment of Raúl Castro — Cuba’s 94-year-old former president and younger brother of the country’s other former president, Fidel — over the 1996 shootdown of two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Florida-based Cuban exile group.

Castro, who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time, faces charges including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and four counts of murder. The attack killed four people, including three U.S. citizens.

Related: More on how U.S. policy has created inhumane conditions for millions of Cubans here.

NO BALLROOM FUNDING.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune will remove the Secret Service’s $1 billion budget request from the immigration funding bill after the Senate parliamentarian ruled the provision violated Senate rules, Politico reports..

The request had already become politically radioactive. Earlier this month, after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) added the provision to the bill, saying the money would fund new security features to protect Trump. Grassley said it would not cover the ballroom’s $400 million construction cost, which Trump says is being privately funded by corporations.

But, Republicans were not comfortable with the whole thing even after the Secret Service briefed them last week on what the request included. One of the proposed security features appeared to be a “drone port that would protect all of Washington,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

Then, over the weekend, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that the funding could not be included in the immigration bill because it has nothing to do with immigration.

Approving the money this way was a shortcut. Now that it has failed, they’ll have to try the regular route — where passing it will be much harder.

“Republicans are privately bracing for a furious Trump reaction to the decision to drop the security funding, according to two people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations. Even before Senate GOP leaders made the decision, the president called for MacDonough’s firing in a Truth Social post.”

“The Dumocrats cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us. We need THE SAVE AMERICA ACT passed, and NOW — And, likewise, kill the Filibuster, which would give us everything! If we don’t pass at least one of these two provisions quickly, you will never see another Republican President again,” Trump wrote.

• There were 528 suspected cases of Ebola and 132 deaths from the disease as of Wednesday morning, the World Health Organization said. The WHO also says it has not yet found “Patient Zero.”

  • People at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo say masks and disinfectant are difficult to find or have skyrocketed in price.

  • An Air France flight headed to Detroit was diverted to Montreal on Wednesday after the airline said it discovered that a passenger who had recently been to the DRC was on board, the Detroit Free Press reports. The flight appeared to land in Detroit later.

  • The U.S. imposed temporary entry restrictions Monday on non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan, citing the Ebola outbreak. The order applies to people who were in those countries within 21 days of trying to enter the US.

• A federal judge has ruled that President Trump must continue to comply with the Presidential Records Act, despite a DOJ opinion claiming the law imposes on presidential power. Records are essential for transparency and for maintaining an accurate record of history.

• A former DOJ lawyer has been indicted for emailing herself copies of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigative report on Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after his first term. The lawyer allegedly tried to pass the documents off as recipes by titling them “Chocolatecakerecipe.pdf” and “BundtCakeRecipe.pdf.” CNN points out that Blanche — who defended Trump in this case — also signed off on the indictment.

• A 67-year-old police officer who spent more than a month in jail for refusing to take down a Facebook post joking about activist and commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination has been awarded an $835,000 settlement.

• James Murdoch, the son of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, is buying parts of Vox Media in a deal reportedly worth more than $300 million. The sale includes Vox.com, New York Magazine and Vox Media’s podcast network. This does not mean Vox becomes Fox. James Murdoch has publicly broken with his father’s politics. But it does put another influential media brand in billionaire hands.

• Former congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) — the first openly gay member of Congress and co-author of the historic financial reform law known as the Dodd-Frank Act — died Tuesday. He was 86.

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Here are the top news stories for Tuesday, May 19:

TRUMP V. TRUMP, THE FINE PRINT.

The story was bad enough on Monday: the DOJ had cut a deal with President Trump to settle his lawsuit against the IRS by creating a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded pot of money for people he says were wronged by the “government.”

On Tuesday, it got worse: The DOJ filed an addendum to the agreement barring the IRS from ever investigating Trump, his family or his businesses again.

And, according to The New York Times, the IRS didn’t even want to roll over. They thought they had a case.

“I.R.S. officials prepared a 25-page memorandum outlining what they saw as flaws in Mr. Trump’s suit and advising the Justice Department to move to dismiss it, according to two people familiar with the memo… The existence of the internal memo, which has not been previously reported, shows that the Trump administration disregarded readily available defenses to a lawsuit filed by the president against an agency he controls.”

Among the problems the IRS reportedly flagged: the statute of limitations for filing a case against them had expired and it was unclear whether the IRS could even be held liable for the conduct of a contractor who leaked the documents Trump was suing over.

But the DOJ did not even test those defenses in court. The Times reports that DOJ lawyers never appeared in the case and chose instead to make a deal with Trump.

The Justice Department was supposed to defend the IRS. Instead, it negotiated terms that personally benefit the president and shield him, his family and his businesses from future scrutiny and accountability.

While some Republicans are uneasy about the optics — including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said he wasn’t a “fan,” of the deal — Trump loyalists doubled-down.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — looking slightly disheveled in a sign that maybe he is at least troubled by the whole situation — defended the deal Tuesday while testifying before the Senate at a budget hearing. When asked about the fund, Blanche refused to say whether Trump supporters who attacked police officers on January 6 would be ineligible for payments. “Anybody in this country can apply,” Blanche said.

An interesting development to watch: The New York Times reports that Brian Morrissey, a Trump appointee and the top lawyer at the Treasury Department resigned hours after the deal was announced.

• Ebola Outbreak. The death toll from the Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is up to 131.

  • WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is “deeply concerned about the scale ‌and ⁠speed of the epidemic.” The CDC says the risk of Ebola spreading in the U.S. is “low.”

  • Could the U.S. be partly to blame for how quickly the virus is spreading? Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official under Obama, tells NPR:

    • “This outbreak has a lot of momentum… The U.S. invested in disease surveillance capacity in Congo because it is such a hotbed of known novel outbreak risks. That disease detection surveillance architecture has been badly weakened.”

    • In addition to dismantling USAID, who can forget when DOGE head Elon Musk accidentally cut Ebola prevention programs by accident.

  • And an update from yesterday: The American doctor working in the DRC who tested positive for Ebola has been evacuated to Germany, NBC reports.

• Election Night Recap. Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania all held primaries on Tuesday night.

  • Most notable, in Kentucky: Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein beat Rep. Thomas Massie, who had worked with Democrats to force the release of the Epstein files.

    • “Massie’s loss is a reminder for Republicans in Washington and statehouses across the country that even with Trump’s approval rating slipping into the mid-30s and one of his most reliable demographics turning on the president, he is the party’s leader, he holds the power to force those who don’t follow him to pay a steep political price and he is eager to wield it.” — CNN

  • You can get the latest results from the AP here.

• Politics of Iran. The Senate voted 50-47 to advance a measure that would begin debate on whether to curb Trump’s war powers under the War Powers Resolution.

  • The measure still has to clear additional Senate votes before it could pass. But it matters because senators had tried seven times since the war began on February 28 to clear this hurdle. This was the first time they succeeded.

  • Four Republicans — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — joined all but one Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, to advance the measure. Cassidy’s vote was especially notable: he flipped after losing his Senate primary over the weekend. Three Republican senators were absent: John Cornyn of Texas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

  • The War Powers Resolution says war cannot continue after 60 days unless Congress authorizes it. The cutoff for Iran was May 1 — but the Trump administration continues to engage in hostilities.

  • Even if the measure passes the Senate, it would still have to clear the House. Trump would almost certainly veto it, and Congress would need a two-thirds vote to override him.

• War on Iran. Trump kept up his threats on Tehran Tuesday, warning them to accept a deal soon or face renewed bombing. Most of the time, Trump sounds like he has no clue what he’s doing. But, could this be just Trump stalling until Israel is ready to strike again?

  • The Times of Israel reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled an expected court appearance on Wednesday after a five-hour meeting with his security cabinet on Tuesday. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, has previously launched major attacks on days he was scheduled to be in court.

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• Mosque Shooting. The two teenagers suspected of shooting up an Islamic center in San Diego — killing three people — met online, expressed “white supremacist views” and hatred for Muslims, Jews and President Trump, according to police.

  • The suspects, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, died by suicide. Police found at least 30 guns in their possession.

  • The victims have been identified as Amin Abdullah, 51, the mosque’s security guard; Mansour Kaziha, 78, the caretaker; and Nadir Awad, 57.

  • According to video footage, police say Abdullah confronted the shooters and exchanged gunfire with them. He also called over the radio for the school to go into lockdown. The AP has the details on what we know so far.

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Here are the top news stories for Monday, May 19:

SHOOTING AT SAN DIEGO ISLAMIC CENTER.

Two teenagers opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, killing three men, police say, before later dying by self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

Two hours before the shooting, the mother of one of the suspects reported him missing, along with several weapons and a car. The mother also found a note but police haven’t released the contents of it.

One of the victims was the mosque’s security guard, Amin Abdullah. Police say his heroic actions prevented more deaths. The center also encompasses an Islamic school. The mosque’s Imam Taha Hassane confirmed that none of the children were hurt.

“My community is mourning,” Hassane said. “The religious intolerance and the hate that unfortunately exists in our nation is unprecedented.”

President Trump called it a “terrible situation.”

Far-right Trump ally and advisor Laura Loomer spent the day spewing anti-Muslim hate on X — calling for the deportation of all Muslims and saying she hates Islam.

SURPRISE! YOU’LL BE PAYING FOR TRUMP’S SLUSH FUND.

The DOJ announced it will create a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “Anti-Weaponization Fund” in exchange for Trump dropping lawsuits he filed against the US government, including a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his personal tax records, along with lawsuits tied to the Russia investigation and the Mar-a-Lago search.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the fund will be run by a five-person committee. Four members will be chosen by Blanche, and the fifth will be chosen in consultation with “congressional leadership.” Trump can remove any of them at any time.

“‘This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history,’ said Donald K. Sherman, president of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He noted that although Trump sued the IRS as a private citizen, the officials representing the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department in settlement negotiations ultimately report to him.”

— The Washington Post

The DOJ did not share basic details about how the fund will work, including how claims will be processed, who qualifies, or whether any information about the committee’s work will be made public.

Blanche is expected to testify before Congress on Tuesday about the DOJ’s budget request. Should be interesting.

More backstory on the lawsuits is in Wednesday’s newsletter here.

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• An American physician who works in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reportedly tested positive for Ebola, CNN reports. Over the weekend, the WHO declared Ebola a “public health emergency of international concern” but said it does “not meet the criteria of pandemic emergency.” More than 100 people have died in the latest outbreak.

  • “There are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” the WHO said.

• In a truly weird but sadly not surprising post to Truth Social, Trump said he was planning to attack Iran on Tuesday but changed his mind after the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates urged him not to, apparently because “a Deal will be made” with Iran that “will be very acceptable” to the US. The Washington Post reports that the US and Iran are still negotiating over Iran’s uranium enrichment program.

• An ICE agent has been charged by Minnesota prosecutors with second-degree assault and three other crimes in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg earlier this year during ICE’s operation there, The New York Times reports. “Minnesota prosecutors have acknowledged that they face formidable practical and legal challenges in prosecuting federal agents for on-duty conduct. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution gives federal officials broad immunity from state prosecution, but Minnesota officials say those protections are not absolute.”

• Trump is pressuring Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fire Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough after she ruled that Republicans cannot use the fast-track budget reconciliation process to pass $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding, including money tied to Trump’s ballroom project, Semafor reports. Budget reconciliation lets legislation pass with a simple majority, but Senate rules limit what can be included.

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Here are the top news stories for Thursday, May 14:

On Day Two of Trump’s visit to China, President Xi Jinping warned him that Taiwan remains “the most important issue in China-U.S. relations” and could create a “highly dangerous situation” if mishandled, according to The Wall Street Journal. Taiwan wants to maintain its independence; China has long said it will reclaim the island by force if necessary — something the U.S. has historically opposed.

Trump — perhaps to claim a concession in return for the blatant threat — told FOX News that China had agreed not to sell weapons to Iran, something US intelligence learned they were considering. (See Wednesday’s newsletter for more background).

Trump went to China hoping Xi would help with Iran and pressure them into reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked for more than two months — cutting off gas and oil and causing an uncomfortable rise in gas prices.

After today’s talks, CNN reports that China agreed the strait should remain open but stopped short of committing assistance. Ouch.

Trump arrived hoping to wheel and deal with Xi but leaves China on Friday to head back to the U.S — it seems — empty handed.

Who goes snorkeling at what is basically an underwater cemetery?

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• The Trump administration abruptly canceled the deployment of 4,000 U.S. troops to Poland — after soldiers and equipment had already begun arriving for a planned nine-month mission, in part, to deter Russian aggression in the region. Officials reportedly scrambled to halt departing troops and to return personnel already overseas, Politico reports. The reversal is confusing on its face: Trump recently called Poland a “model ally” for meeting its NATO defense spending obligation. But it looks like punishment.

  • The one thing Poland hasn’t done is back the U.S. war on Iran. For this same reason, Trump said he was pulling 5,000 American troops from Germany, even though, according to The Washington Post, it has been “a vital hub for U.S. operations against Iran, including its hospitals at U.S. bases in country for severely injured personnel evacuated from the Middle East.”

  • Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) called the Poland reversal “really troubling,” warning it could embolden Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. The Pentagon defended the move as deliberate, not last-minute.

• CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana to warn Cuban officials they have a limited window to stabilize the country’s economy and cooperate with the Trump administration — or risk consequences similar to those in Venezuela, according to The Wall Street Journal.

• The Supreme Court ruled that mifepristone, a drug commonly used in abortions, will remain available by mail while legal challenges continue through lower courts.

  • NBC notes that anti-abortion groups have been pushing to restore in-person dispensing requirements for the drug despite studies finding the medication safe and effective for at-home use.

  • Journalist Jessica Valenti, who writes Abortion, Every Day on Substack, said several abortion rights leaders see the ruling as the court delaying an eventual restriction “for as long as possible. Or at least until after the midterms.”

• President Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a $1.7 billion fund to compensate people he claims were unfairly targeted by the Biden Administration, ABC News reports.

  • “The commission overseeing the compensation fund would have the total authority to hand out approximately $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone who alleges they were harmed by the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of the legal system, including the nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as well as potentially entities associated with President Trump himself.”

  • For more background, check out Tuesday’s newsletter.

• FBI Director Kash Patel is facing accusations of manipulating FBI arrest statistics to inflate the bureau’s record on violent crime and immigration enforcement, according to MS NOW.

  • At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Patel claimed the FBI had arrested people on its most-wanted list at twice the rate the Biden administration did. But sources told the outlet that at least four of those individuals were added to the list shortly before being arrested, suggesting they may have been added because arrests were already imminent.

  • The FBI is also reportedly double-counting arrests made during joint operations with ICE and local police — arrests the bureau had not previously categorized as its own. The FBI denies manipulating the numbers.

• Questions about ethics and conflicts of interest are growing around Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy after The Wall Street Journal reported that at least two companies regulated by his department —Boeing and Toyota — contributed $1 million each to fund his family’s road-trip reality show.

  • Duffy says the project is meant to encourage Americans to take road trips during the country’s 250th anniversary celebrations this summer; the DOT says it was funded through a nonprofit and filmed during his personal time. The trip has since been repackaged into a YouTube reality show.

  • The DOT inspector general is now reviewing a complaint filed by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) over whether the arrangement violated ethics rules governing gifts and travel.

  • The Journal noted that Boeing has faced ongoing complaints over “safety and quality lapses,” while Toyota — which sponsored the car the Duffy family traveled in — is dealing with emissions violations and recalls.

• The Trump administration appears to be trying to fast-track construction of Trump’s proposed “arch” near Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., by bypassing the traditional public bidding and approval process.

  • According to emails obtained by The Washington Post, officials discussed folding the project into an unrelated engineering contract tied to White House grounds, despite the proposed structure being more than a mile away.

  • The planned 250-foot arch — more than 80 feet taller than Paris’ Arc de Triomphe — would block the sightline to Arlington National Cemetery. A spokesperson said any leaked correspondence reflected “draft/deliberative conversations” and not a final decision.

• The House failed to pass a war powers resolution related to Iran on a 212-212 vote, with three Republicans joining nearly all Democrats. A similar Senate resolution failed yesterday.

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Here are the top news stories for Wednesday, May 13:

A NEW WORLD ORDER.

President Trump and his entourage arrived in Beijing, China on Wednesday. The visit was originally scheduled for March but was delayed after the US and Israel launched a war on Iran.

Trump was greeted with plenty of pomp and by China’s Vice President Han Zheng, who holds a mostly ceremonial role. Both are signs that China knows how to play to Trump’s ego while mildly disrespecting him at the same time.

In addition to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, more than a dozen leaders from top US companies are on the trip, including executives from Apple, Boeing, Nvidia, Goldman Sachs, and Elon Musk of Tesla. Trump’s son Eric and his wife Lara are also there for reasons that remain unclear, along with Brett Ratner, who directed the documentary Melania, which the Trumps sold to Amazon for about $40 million. (Bezos is apparently not on the trip).

At this hour, it’s Thursday morning in China and Trump is meeting with President Xi Jinping. The two leaders are expected to discuss trade and convincing China to convince Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. And given the number of US executives accompanying Trump, it’s to make some business deals, too.

Those are the public goals.

Behind the scenes, China is making plans to sell weapons to Iran, US intelligence has learned, The New York Times reports. The Trump administration reportedly does not want to “complicate” the trip by publicly escalating the issue, but officials “believe that efforts by China to provide military equipment to Iran are unacceptable and want the Chinese government to block any arms transfers.”

At the same time, The Washington Post reports that US intelligence believes China is using America’s war on Iran to “maximize its advantage” across four key sectors: diplomatic, informational, military, and economic — referred to as DIME. Specifically, China is selling weapons to Gulf countries under attack from Iran while stepping into economic and diplomatic gaps left by a US that many allies in the region increasingly see as distracted or unreliable. China is also helping countries struggling as oil and gas shipments stall in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Experts said the finding provides new insights on China’s reaction to the war, such as its provision of weapons to U.S. allies, while reinforcing the growing consensus that the conflict is tilting the balance of power in Beijing’s favor.”

So, China is like the guy waiting in the wings for your boyfriend to screw you over so he can swoop in and save the day?

• Vice President JD Vance announced he is heading up a new mission to ostensibly root out fraud in state Medicaid programs.

  • “Vance, a potential 2028 White House hopeful, has used the high-profile assignment from Trump to remind Americans struggling with high costs that he is trying to claw back taxpayer dollars. Vance has promoted the task force’s work during campaign stops for Republican candidates and is expected to focus on the effort Thursday in Maine, which has closely watched primary races scheduled for June 9,” the AP reports.

  • The administration says it will withhold federal funding from states it claims are not doing enough to address fraud.

• In redistricting news:

  • Welp. Word has it that South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to call the state legislature back into session to take up gerrymandering, WIS News reports. See yesterday’s newsletter for more details.

  • In Maryland, Democrats are revisiting the idea of redrawing congressional maps after the Supreme Court ruled against Virginia’s redrawn map, which could have given Democrats up to four additional House seats, NOTUS reports.

    • “Many in the party concede that the odds of enacting a redraw before the midterms are remote, with in-person early voting in the state’s primary elections under a month away. They privately acknowledge that getting Maryland ready to gerrymander ahead of 2028 is the more plausible scenario,” Politico adds.

  • In Tennessee, Republicans are kicking Democrats off House committees for the remainder of the year for peacefully protesting the state’s racial gerrymandering plan passed last week, Tennessee Lookout reports. The state Senate is considering similar actions against Democrats.

  • In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) is calling the state legislature back into session on June 17 to begin work on a long-term redraw of the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2028 elections. Kemp is thinking ahead and is “taking action now in case Republicans lose control of the governor’s office or the State Legislature in November,” The New York Times reports.

• The Senate on Wednesday:

  • failed to pass a resolution to rein in Trump’s war powers in Iran. The vote was 49-50. This was the seventh such attempt since the conflict began. All have failed.

    • Republican Lisa Murkowski (AK) switched sides this time — voting with Democrats and two other Republicans who have supported the resolution before: Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Rand Paul (KY). Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is the only Democrat who continues to vote with Republicans.

    • The Trump administration continues to claim the war effectively ended right at the 60-day deadline, even as the US continues to block Iranian ports. Democrats (and experts on the War Powers Resolution) argue that blocking the strait is itself an act of war and say Trump is playing games to skirt congressional oversight.

  • Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to restore consumer financial protections rolled back by the Trump administration. One amendment would have reinstated a Biden-era rule requiring customers to opt in to overdraft protection. Without opting in, banks would simply decline transactions instead of approving them and charging overdraft fees. The amendment failed 47-53.

    • In 2023, after the Biden administration passed the consumer protections, bank profits from overdraft fees dropped 50% and consumers saved $6 billion, the CFPB reported.

  • confirmed Kevin Warsh 54-45 as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing Jerome Powell. All Democrats except Fetterman voted against Warsh’s nomination.

• Trump, Florida and Miami Dade College trustees are being sued after the state transferred nearly three acres of downtown waterfront land belonging to the school worth at least $67 million to the Trump library foundation for $10, The Washington Post reports.

  • The plaintiffs, who include a Miami Dade College student, argue the deal violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause by effectively giving Trump a massive financial benefit while in office. The lawsuit points to Trump’s own comments suggesting the “library” will largely function as a luxury hotel.

  • The controversy is also drawing scrutiny because companies including ABC, Meta, Paramount, and X reportedly pledged tens of millions of dollars to the library project after settling disputes with Trump following the 2024 election. Senate Democrats want to know what happened to all that money after the library fund was dissolved for failing to filing annual reports.

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s spokesperson, Rich Danker, resigned Wednesday over the agency’s approval of letting manufacturers sell fruit-flavored vaping products popular with kids.

  • In his resignation letter obtained by The New York Times, Danker praised Trump but said the approval undermined the administration’s own warnings that the products “appeal to children and expose them to nicotine addiction, lung damage, and higher risk of cancer.”

• In honor of democracy (of course) and the country’s 250th anniversary, President Trump is reportedly considering pardoning 250 people, The Wall Street Journal reports.

  • The paper notes that pardons and clemency have historically been used by “kings and popes” as shows of grace. Trump, however, has a history of pardoning people accused of violent crimes, including hundreds of January 6 insurrectionists. He’s also reportedly considering doing it on his birthday, June 14.

  • Last month, the WSJ also reported that Trump is promising pardons to staff members — a sign that breaking the law to help him may not carry consequences… awesome.

• Judges have ruled against the Trump administration in more than 10,000 immigration detention cases — or about 90% of the time — according to a new analysis by Politico.

  • “Trump’s unprecedented detention policy, which is almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court, infuriated lower courts in ways no other modern issue has. It ruptured the relationship between the Justice Department and the judiciary; pitted the administration against itself; and upended innumerable lives — not just of the people swept up by immigration agents, but of their spouses and children, many of whom are U.S. citizens,” Politico writes. You can see their database here.

  • The Trump administration has criticized the judges, calling them activists. BTW, a majority of Trump-appointed judges have ruled against the administration. So, yeah.

• Florida plans to shut down the detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz — not because of concerns about inhumane treatment, but because it’s too expensive, The New York Times reports. The state plans to move detainees out sometime in June and shut the facility down shortly afterward. There is no word yet on where those detainees will go.

• Darn. Australia says it will not move forward with plans for a Trump Tower because the president’s brand is now “toxic,” CNN reports. The project was announced just three months ago, but the war on Iran appears to have soured people Down Under on the development.

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Hi! Here are the top stories for Tuesday, May 12:

TRUMP V. TRUMP.

The DOJ is considering settling with President Trump after he sued the IRS for $10 billion, accusing the agency of not doing enough to prevent the leak of his tax returns during his first term, The New York Times reports tonight.

Anytime someone sues the federal government, the DOJ has discretion over whether to fight the case or settle it — based on the merits, cost, and government interest.

That “someone” usually isn’t the president. Meaning, n-e-v-e-r.

Obama-appointed Judge Kathleen Williams last month ordered both sides — Trump’s legal team and the DOJ — to file briefs by May 20 on whether the case should proceed, given the conflict of interest.

“One such employee of the executive branch, the Attorney General, has a statutory obligation to defend the IRS when it is hailed into court, but then is ostensibly required by executive mandate to adhere to the President’s opinion on a matter of law in such a case. This raises questions over whether the Parties here are truly antagonistic to each other,” Williams wrote in April, referring to a February 2025 executive order Trump issued claiming federal agencies must answer to him.

She also “appointed a group of six well-respected lawyers not otherwise involved in the case to provide her with their views on whether Mr. Trump’s lawsuit is legitimate.”

Williams set a subsequent court hearing for May 27 — one week after the briefs are due — to discuss the case. If she dismisses it as collusive, there’s nothing left to settle.

But, if the DOJ and Trump’s team reach a settlement before then, the case ends on their terms and the judge has no say. So, the DOJ — led by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is reportedly desperate to impress Trump — finalizing a settlement around now would makes sense.

But as Taylor Swift writes in Karma, “cash ain't the only price.” (Sorry, not sorry).

“One of the settlement options the Justice Department and White House officials are reviewing is the possibility of the I.R.S. dropping any audits of Mr. Trump, his family members or businesses, according to two of the people,” the Times reports.

Which brings us back to the origins of this case.

In 2023, IRS contractor Chris Littlejohn pleaded guilty to leaking Trump’s records — along with others — to two unnamed publications, presumed to be ProPublica and The New York Times. The Times article, published weeks before the 2020 election, showed Trump had paid little to no income tax in 10 of the previous 15 years. (Sounds like he should be audited, right? See below).

“The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public,” the Times wrote. “His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.”

Read that last line again.

Nearly six years later, the story of Trump’s second-term grift — threatening and suing news networks, hocking everything from Bibles to gold coins with his name and likeness, cryptocurrency ventures, Middle East business deals, and more — has netted him more than a billion dollars in profit in the last 12-15 months.

In January, The Times dove into the Trump family’s windfall. “A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.”

Even if Trump doesn’t get a financial payout, the ostensible consolation prize of immunity from IRS audits leaves the door open to more swindling of the American taxpayer, potentially netting him more than any settlement with an agency under his own control ever could.

And maybe… that’s the point.

NO SURRENDER IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

South Carolina won’t be gerrymandering its congressional map — at least not yet.

Five Republican senators voted against a measure on Tuesday that would have given them time to redraw the state’s congressional map in their favor before November’s midterm elections. Despite pressure from President Trump to pass it, the amendment failed 29-17, two votes short of passing.

“BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!… Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday night before the vote.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey was one of the five Republicans who voted no. “’If we don’t consider the concerns of South Carolina, there is no one left,’ Massey said. ‘We are the last line. I have too much southern blood in me to surrender.’”

South Carolina currently has six Republican-held districts and one Democratic district, represented by Rep. James Clyburn.

The proposed map would have created seven Republican-leaning districts by redrawing Clyburn’s 6th District — currently D+13 — into a seat with roughly a 3-point GOP advantage. It would have added three counties Trump won handily in 2024 and dropped four that went for Kamala Harris.

Some GOP senators, including Massey, worried the redraw could backfire: spreading enough Democrats into surrounding districts to flip them, leaving Republicans with a 5-2 or even 4-3 split instead of 7-0.

The state’s legislative session ends Thursday. Passing the amendment would have extended the session, giving lawmakers more time to draw a new map. The House — which already passed the amendment — could theoretically still send something to the Senate before then, but that appears unlikely.

Another remaining option: Republican Gov. Henry McMaster could call a special session. But even he seems reluctant. “The General Assembly still has two full days in which to finish its important work, including giving full consideration – as sought by the people – to the important question of redistricting. I urge the General Assembly to finish its work according to the U.S. and South Carolina constitutions and the best interests of the people,” McMaster said.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is running for governor, criticized McMaster: “We need a Governor who the statehouse will fear and listen to.”

South Carolina’s primary is scheduled for June 9.

FBI Director Kash Patel testified before Congress Tuesday and sparred with Sen. Chris Van Hollen over Patel’s reported drinking problem.

“Reports of your being so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home are extremely alarming,” Van Hollen said. “If true, they represent a gross dereliction of your duty.”

Patel responded by offering to take an alcohol screening if Van Hollen did, accusing the senator of being a lush for spending $7,000 at a DC bar.

Patel then pulled Van Hollen’s FEC filing and posted it to X.

Van Hollen’s response:

• Saudi Arabia secretly struck Iran in late March after Iran hit targets inside Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports, citing sources from both countries. “The Saudi attacks, not previously reported, mark the first time that the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil and show it is becoming much bolder in defending itself against its main regional rival… Saudi Arabia made Iran aware of the strikes and this was followed by intensive diplomatic engagement and Saudi threats to retaliate further, which led to an understanding between the two countries to de-escalate.”

• Asked whether Americans’ economic pain factors into his Iran decision-making, Trump said: “Not even a little bit… I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” Not exactly ideal timing. Inflation has risen 3.8% since last April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported — up from 2.4% year-over-year in February and 3.3% in March. Energy prices were the biggest driver, up 18% from last year. Core inflation, which strips out food and energy, rose 2.8% over the same period. The BLS also reported that real average hourly earnings — wages adjusted for inflation — fell 0.5% from March to April, and are down 0.3% over the year.

• Some Republicans aren’t sold on the White House’s $1 billion taxpayer ask for Trump’s ballroom project. The Secret Service briefed Republicans on the plan Tuesday, Politico reports, but lawmakers said they need more information before signing on. Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) noted Trump previously said the estimated $400 million ballroom would be privately financed: “’It was one thing when private dollars were doing it. If you’re asking me for a billion dollars, I have some really hard questions,’” he said.

• In Missouri, the state Supreme Court ruled that a Republican-drawn congressional map giving the GOP a stronger advantage did not violate the state constitution. Republicans engineered the map to shift the delegation from a 6-2 advantage to 7-1. The court also rejected a challenge from state Democrats.

• FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is out, just over a week after reports surfaced that Trump and his allies were unhappy with him, Politico reports. Makary and the MAHA crowd reportedly clashed over approving fruit-flavored vapes. Makary had been reluctant to approve them “because he was worried about the public health risks,” specifically to children who favor the flavors, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. But after push back from Trump, Makary approved the products days later. Trump told reporters HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the decision and the president signed off.

• Also out: FEMA’s acting chief Karen Evans, Politico reports. Trump has nominated Cameron Hamilton instead — who briefly held the job last year before being pushed out by then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who herself was fired in March and was replaced by Markwayne Mullin.

• An appeals court agreed to delay Trump’s payment of more than $83 million to E. Jean Carroll until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear his appeal. If he loses, Trump will owe the settlement plus more than $7 million in interest. Carroll sued Trump for defamation and won after he accused her of fabricating her account that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in 1996.

• Finally, Nicholas Kristof’s investigative piece for The New York Times on widespread sexual abuse of Palestinians is getting lots of attention — and not the good kind. I’ll have more on it later this week. But, if you’d like to read it first, here is a gift link: The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians. As it turns out, it’s not met with silence — but denial.