Playbook scoop: Lobbyist married to Pruitt's ex-landlord speaks out as EPA administrator's troubles deepen  —  FIRST IN PLAYBOOK ... STEVE HART SPEAKS — the lobbyist who is married to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's former landlord: “Williams & Jensen has always been committed …

What's Driving Trump's Attacks on Amazon?  It's Personal  —  President's attacks on e-commerce company stem from its CEO Jeff Bezos's ownership of the Washington Post, which Trump says covers him unfairly, say people close to the White House  —  Early in President Donald Trump's term …

Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity  —  WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in consultation with the Department of State, today designated seven Russian oligarchs …

Trump says trade war is “already lost,” and he “probably won't” attend White House Correspondents Dinner  —  President Trump said in a radio interview aired Friday that the U.S. isn't in a trade war because the trade war is “already lost,” and said he “probably won't” attend …

Facebook retracted Zuckerberg's messages from recipients' inboxes  —  Facebook says it was for security, but is it a breach of user trust?  —  You can't remove Facebook messages from the inboxes of people you sent them to, but Facebook did that for Mark Zuckerberg and other executives.

Will We Stop Trump Before It's Too Late?  —  Fascism poses a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II.  —  On April 28, 1945 — 73 years ago — Italians hung the corpse of their former dictator Benito Mussolini upside down next to a gas station in Milan.

For Trump and his generals, ‘victory’ has different meanings … President Trump's pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria “very soon” has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals.  —  Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq …

Republican Trey Gowdy Was Known For Being Hyperpartisan — Until Trump (HBO) … South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy is retiring from Congress an unhappy man.  He's even counting the number of trips to the airport he has left until he can leave DC for good.

April House Overview: Ratings Changes in 13 Districts  —  The good news for Republicans is that President Trump's approval rating has, on balance, ticked up from 38 percent to 40 percent since January as attention has shifted from unpopular GOP proposals on healthcare and taxes to the economy, tariffs and Stormy Daniels.

Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter's meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources  —  Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year …

‘Concerned’ Evangelicals Plan To Meet With Trump As Sex Scandals Swirl  —  As allegations continue to swirl about the president and a payout to a porn star to cover up a sexual encounter, evangelical leaders are organizing a sit down with President Trump in June, four sources with knowledge of the planned meeting tell NPR.

If taxes aren't working, will desperate Republicans keep turning to race-based attacks?  —  The Republican 2018 messaging crisis, explained: They “backpedaled into cultural issues and it looked desperate.”  —  Republicans are trying to get Americans excited about their tax bill, but it's a tough sell.

Trump threat of $100 billion tariffs will ‘wake up’ China, Mitt Romney says  —  SANDY — U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney sees President Donald Trump's proposed $100 billion in new tariffs on China as a shot across the bow but doesn't think it would lead to trade war.

Michelle Obama: My husband was ‘the good parent’ compared to Trump  —  likened her husband's presidency to having “the good parent” at home at a women's leadership conference on Thursday.  —  At the Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston, Obama appeared to take shots at President Trump

Without data-targeted ads, Facebook would look like a pay service, Sandberg says  —  Users' data are the lifeblood of Facebook, and if they wanted to opt out of all of the platform's data-driven advertising, they would have to pay for it, Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, told NBC News.

Anthony Scaramucci on Bannon and back-stabbing in DC  —  It has taken a Herculean effort to pin down Anthony Scaramucci.  Our lunch was originally scheduled for last November.  Then Scaramucci stumbled on an old tweet by the FT's editor, Lionel Barber, which compared the language he used …

A key Virginia GOP state senator says he is willing to break ranks and vote to expand Medicaid … RICHMOND — Virginia could be on the cusp of expanding Medicaid to 400,000 low-income residents, after a veteran Republican state senator said Friday he is willing to split with his party …

Saudi crown prince says Jared Kushner handed him U.S. intelligence  —  Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman bragged of receiving classified US intelligence from Jared Kushner and using it as part of a purge of ‘corrupt’ princes and businessmen, DailyMail.com can disclose.