The Trump Fantasy Is Unraveling  —  The essence of President Trump's pitch to the American people last year was simple: They could have it both ways.  —  They could have a powerful, revitalized economy and “mass deportations now.”  They could build new factories and take manufacturing jobs …

Confronting a Fuller Picture of Charlie Kirk's Killer  —  Attorney General Pam Bondi learned a tough lesson yesterday: There are still some pieties of the old right that conservatives aren't ready to abandon, and bristling at the concept of “hate speech” is one.

Paul gets into testy exchange over vaccines with fired CDC director  —  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) got into a heated exchange about vaccines with former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez.  —  During a Wednesday hearing about Monarez's ouster from the agency …

Bessent, Like Fed Governor, Made Contradictory Mortgage Pledges  —  US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that President Donald Trump …

Kash Patel says court orders bar him from releasing the Epstein files.  Judges have said otherwise.  —  FBI Director Kash Patel claimed Wednesday that he is barred by recent court orders from releasing thousands of documents connected to disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Pam Bondi Needs a Free Speech Tutorial  —  The Attorney General seems to think ‘hate speech’ is illegal.  Charlie Kirk knew better.  —  Is a basic understanding of the First Amendment too much to expect from the nation's Attorney General?  Progressives have spent years trying to create and define a category called “hate speech.”

Trump officials pressuring federal prosecutors to bring criminal charges against NY AG Letitia James: Sources  —  Prosecutors have not found clear evidence James committed a crime, sources say.  —  New York State Attorney General Letitia James makes an announcement at the Office …

Four arrested after photos of Trump and Epstein projected onto Windsor Castle during president's U.K. visit  —  Trump, who arrived in the U.K. for a state visit, is scheduled to spend most of Wednesday at Windsor Castle with members of the royal family.  —  Police in the U.K. arrested four people …

America Loves Cocaine Again—Mexico's New Drug King Cashes In  —  The Trump administration's war on fentanyl created an opening for ‘El Señor Mencho’ to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. by the ton  —  From a heavily guarded mountain hideout in the heart of the Sierra Madre, 59-year-old Nemesio …

Fed approves quarter-point interest rate cut and sees two more coming this year  —  WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve on Wednesday approved a widely anticipated rate cut and signaled that two more are on the way before the end of the year as concerns intensified over the U.S. labor market.

Ronny Jackson to Newsmax: Trans People Need Treatment  —  Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a physician and former White House doctor, told Newsmax on Tuesday that he believes inpatient mental health facilities should play a role in treating transgender people, whom he said have underlying psychiatric issues.

Foreign disinformation about Charlie Kirk's killing seeks to widen US divisions  —  Russia moved to amplify online conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk's killing just hours after it happened, seeding social media with the frightening claim that America is slipping into civil war.

Suspect in custody after driver rams car into FBI building gate in Pittsburgh  —  A suspect has been taken into custody after a driver rammed a car into a security gate at the FBI building in Pittsburgh early Wednesday, then removed an American flag from the back seat and threw it over the gate before leaving, authorities said.

Evergreen H.S. shooter hinted at his plans online, ADL says  —  The attacker, who shot and wounded two students, reposted a photo of a revolver and a box of ammunition two hours beforehand, research by the group's Center on Extremism shows.  —  DENVER — The 16-year-old who shot and wounded …

Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement  —  For release at 2:00 p.m. EDT  —  Recent indicators suggest that growth of economic activity moderated in the first half of the year.  Job gains have slowed, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remains low.  Inflation has moved up and remains somewhat elevated.

Ex-CDC director: RFK Jr. planning September vaccine changes  —  Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during an August meeting that the childhood vaccine schedule will be changing starting in September, former Centers for Disease Control director Susan Monarez told a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Exclusive Focus Group: Trump Bleeding Latino Voters  —  LATINO VOTERS FLOCKED TO DONALD TRUMP in surprisingly large numbers last November to help him retake the White House.  But a year later, the same cohort has soured on his presidency, with many saying they regret their vote.

Ezra Klein Accidentally Shows How the Media Brought Us Trump  —  It's easy to unequivocally condemn the killing of MAGA activist/podcaster/organizer Charlie Kirk as an act of political violence without making up a false version of Kirk to praise.  The wrongness of murder does not depend on what I think of the victim's political views.

CDC stops work-from-home disability accommodations  —  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer allowing remote work for employees with disabilities or those with temporary health issues, including those who've requested to work from home since the Aug. 8 attack on the agency's Atlanta headquarters .

Top Trump Ally May Soon Control TikTok and CNN  —  Neither of these deals have been realized.  But I want to flag something on the horizon that is potentially a very big deal.  Yesterday, the Wall the Street Journal broke the news that the White House has negotiated a purchase of TikTok …

House Judiciary to vote to subpoena major banks in Epstein case  —  The House Judiciary Committee will vote Wednesday on whether to subpoena the CEOs of four major global banks to investigate their relationships with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.  The subpoena would include Jamie Dimon …

Former GOP officials fear US strikes on alleged drug smugglers aren't legal … Yoo, now a professor at the University of California Berkeley, authored the Bush administration's legal justification for enhanced interrogation techniques against suspected al Qaeda terrorists in the early years of Bush's war on terror.

Lab tests show Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned, his wife says  —  Russian authorities said Navalny died last year after feeling unwell following a walk around the high-security Arctic penal colony where he was serving a combined 30 ½-year jail sentence.

Obama calls Kirk murder ‘horrific,’ says a president should ‘pull people together’  —  He said President Donald Trump's rhetoric is part of a broader problem.  —  Former President Barack Obama attends the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington.

Dem voters want shutdown fight, poll shows  —  The Scoop  —  Democrats have new polling to chew over as they rail against Republicans' government funding bill.  It's unlikely to make them more eager to cave.  —  A new survey from the progressive firm Data for Progress and research firm Grow Progress …

EU unveils plan to hit Israel with tariffs, sanctions amid Gaza war outcry  —  BRUSSELS — Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas unveiled plans on Wednesday to downgrade trade ties with Israel and sanction top officials over findings of human rights abuses in Gaza, marking a major shift in the bloc's approach to the Middle Eastern nation.

A New Democratic Think Tank Wants to Curb the Influence of Liberal Groups  —  Led by a former aide to Senator Harry Reid, the Searchlight Institute is hoping to persuade Democrats to play down causes like climate change and L.G.B.T.Q. rights to appeal to more voters