Sen. Mitch McConnell won't seek reelection in 2026, ending long tenure as Republican power broker  —  Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is announcing on Thursday that he won't seek reelection next year, ending a decadeslong tenure as a power broker who championed conservative causes …

The Incompetence of DOGE Is a Feature, Not a Bug  —  A series of mistakes by DOGE shows just how arbitrary and destructive this slash-and-burn strategy can get.  —  Within just the last week or so, Elon Musk's DOGE hit team of mostly young, almost exclusively male engineers and executives have done the following:

Many of Trump's early actions are unpopular, Post-Ipsos poll finds  —  Reviews from Americans on President Donald Trump's second term are mixed to negative, and 57 percent say he has exceeded his authority since taking office.

US objects to calling out ‘Russian aggression’ in G7 statement on Ukraine  —  Trump administration splits with allies on holding Moscow responsible for war  —  The US is opposing calling Russia the aggressor in a G7 statement on the third anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine …

DOGE Cuts 9/11 Survivors' Fund, and Republicans Join Democrats in Rebuke  —  After 20 percent of the World Trade Center Health Program staff was terminated last week, Democratic lawmakers were outraged.  On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers joined them.  —  In a rare pushback against President Donald J …

Trump tells BBC that Russia has ‘the cards’ in peace negotiations  —  Donald Trump says he believes Russia has “the cards” in any peace talks to end the war in Ukraine because Russia has “taken a lot of territory”.  —  The US president told the BBC he trusted that Moscow wants to see an end to the war …

Jesse Watters Makes On-Air Plea to Trump for Veteran Friend Who Got 'DOGE'd' In Pentagon Cuts  —  Fox News host Jesse Watters made an on-air plea that the Trump administration be “less callous” when implementing when laying off federal employees after a military veteran friend was “DOGE'd” in Elon Musk's Pentagon cuts.

My Open Letter to Elon Musk  —  Elon Musk recently posted on his site that another lawyer and I are “undermining civilization.”  He goes on to ask if we suffered childhood trauma and concludes by suggesting we are suffering from “generational trauma.”  This is my response.  —  Mr. Musk,

Ex-NFL punter Chris Kluwe calls MAGA ‘a Nazi movement’ in protest that led to his arrest  —  Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested Tuesday on a charge of disturbing an assembly in Huntington Beach, California, per the city's arrest log.  The incident occurred at a city council meeting.

Trump Team Plans Deep Cuts at Office That Funds Recovery From Big Disasters  —  Staff at the office, a branch of the U.S. housing department that Congress uses to address the worst catastrophes, would be reduced by 84 percent.  —  The Trump administration plans to all but eliminate the office …

“They're Scared Shitless”: The Threat of Political Violence Informing Trump's Grip on Congress  —  With the president smashing norm after norm, even lawmakers within his party have feared for their personal safety, and at least one has told confidants that it has swayed his decision-making.

Texas Banned Abortion.  Then Sepsis Rates Soared.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021 …

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Ends Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders  —  PRESERVING FEDERAL BENEFITS FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to ensure taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration.

Freshman Congressman tells constituent he is powerless to stop Musk's budget cuts  —  At an open house in Fairbanks on Monday, Alaskan Congressman Nick Begich (R) told constituents that there was nothing he could do to stop agency budget cuts being implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Elon Musk.

Elite lawyers sell out the rule of law  —  Sullivan & Cromwell enlist in Trump's assault on the justice system. … ⚖️ 📜 🏛️  —  As Trump moves forward with his assault on the rule of law and our nation's democracy, lawyers must decide if they will stand …

AP's Back-Channel Press  —  News outlets across the political spectrum have united behind the AP, signing a WHCA-backed letter urging the White House to reverse its press ban, a copy of which Status has obtained.  —  On Wednesday, Julie Pace boarded a plane to Florida for a high-stakes meeting.

DOGE Now Has Access to the Top US Cybersecurity Agency  —  DOGE technologists Edward Coristine—the 19-year-old known online as “Big Balls”—and Kyle Schutt are now listed as staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.  —  Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old engineer …

ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account  —  Fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began to spread the day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time.  Posts on social media and Reddit claimed that ICE had already been spotted …

To Russia, With Love, Donald  —  Here at The Bulwark, you might have noticed, we tend to take a pretty cynical view of the current occupant in the Oval Office.  And yet, we confess that not even we had this one on our Week Four bingo cards: … Epic troll, sir!  Very cool!  Happy Thursday.

Trump ends federal leadership program, cutting off key talent pipeline  —  The decades-old Presidential Management Fellows Program was axed as part of the president's workforce purge.  —  The Trump administration ended the Presidential Management Fellows Program in a late-night executive order Wednesday …

IRS plans to lay off 7,000 probationary workers beginning Thursday, AP source says  —  The IRS will lay off roughly 7,000 workers in Washington and around the country beginning Thursday, a person familiar with the plans told The Associated Press.  The layoffs affect probationary employees …

Boeing CEO says Musk ‘helping in a big way’ on timing of Air Force One planes  —  Boeing (BA.N) CEO Kelly Ortberg on Thursday said Elon Musk, the head of its space business rival SpaceX, is “helping us a lot” in navigating through delays in delivering Boeing's Air Force One presidential jet.

‘Discovery will be needed’: Trump must fork over his personal financials if he follows through with Kamala Harris ‘60 Minutes’ lawsuit, CBS says  —  Lawyers for CBS say they plan to demand that President Donald Trump — who is allegedly letting DOGE pillage U.S. treasury data …

Tom Homan's obsession with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a political miscalculation  —  This could be the opening Democrats need to re-engage Latinos who have been waiting for someone to stand up.  —  If President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, thought he could intimidate …

Patel on cusp of confirmation to run FBI as Collins says she'll oppose  —  Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's controversial nominee to lead the FBI, is on track to be confirmed in a matter of hours to run the federal law enforcement agency — but at least one Republican will withhold support.

A judge in Mississippi orders newspaper to remove editorial, so we're publishing it  —  At Scioto Valley Guardian, Ohio's leading news website, we stand unwaveringly for the freedom of the press—a cornerstone of democracy enshrined in the First Amendment.  Today, we are reprinting an editorial …

Judge bars immediate deportation of asylum seekers fleeing torture, rape and other violence  —  The Justice Department says one of them may already be en route.  —  A federal judge has barred the Trump administration from quickly deporting eight foreign nationals who say they are likely …

It's Easy To Save Billions In Taxpayer Funds When Everything Is Made Up  —  Here's a neat trick for saving taxpayers billions of dollars: just make stuff up!  —  I mean, sure, you could do all the hard work of actually finding government waste and fixing inefficient processes.

USDS Engineering Director Resigns: ‘This Is Not the Mission I Came to Serve’  —  “I do not believe that DOGE can continue to deliver the work of USDS, based on their actions so far,” wrote Anne Marshall in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.  —  The director of data science and engineering …

These feds took Trump's ‘fork’ deal.  Then they got fired — creating a government ‘mess.’  —  The Trump administration is racing to fix mistakes after some agencies fired probationary employees who had accepted the deferred resignation offer for federal workers.