Trump's handpicked board votes to rename Washington performing arts center the Trump-Kennedy Center  —  President Donald Trump's handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington's leading performing arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center, the White House said.

'Don's Best Friend': How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women  —  The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship.  Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance.  Female bodies were currency.

Democratic National Committee blocks release of its 2024 election autopsy … Former President Joe Biden's decision to run for reelection, despite his advanced age — and his disastrous debate performance — were not mentioned in the some excerpts of the report's findings, which were shared with POLITICO.

Trump Moves to End Gender-Related Care for Minors, Threatening Hospitals That Offer It  —  Proposed new rules would punish the hospitals by pulling all federal financing.  Advocates say lawsuits will follow.  —  The federal government on Thursday acted to put an end to gender-related care …

Trump will sign order to ease marijuana restrictions  —  President Trump said Thursday he'll sign an executive order to relax federal restrictions on cannabis, instructing agencies to reclassify it as a less dangerous drug. … But the Wall Street Journal reported in August that Trump …

Trump Media Targets Nuclear Fusion Through Merger With TAE  —  Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the company behind Truth Social, is getting into nuclear fusion.  —  The company said Thursday it will merge with TAE Technologies Inc., a closely held fusion developer founded in 1998, in a transaction valued at more than $6 billion.

Trump rebrands Congressionally-approved troop housing subsidy as ‘warrior dividend’ bonus  —  President Donald Trump's $1,776 checks for more than a million troops, announced Wednesday, come from Congressionally-allocated reconciliation funds intended to subsidize housing allowances for service members …

Bari Weiss' Next CBS News Move: Town Halls With JD Vance, Sam Altman and Debates About God and Feminism  —  The news division is also planning a town hall with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in the ‘Things That Matter’ series, with Bank of America lined up as a sponsor.

Transcript: Mike Johnson Unnerved as ACA Revolt Worsens: “Bullshit!”  —  The following is a lightly edited transcript of the December 18 episode of the Daily Blast podcast.  Listen to it here.  —  Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

Stephen Miller's hard-line Mexico strategy morphed into deadly boat strikes  —  The Trump administration originally planned to go after Mexican drug cartels, but pivoted to Venezuela, according to current and former officials.  A trio of legal documents and directives have subsequently authorized an unorthodox lethal campaign.

Inflation spikes 2.7 percent despite Trump's claims ‘prices are down’  —  Prices on numerous goods spike as the labor market continues to be sluggish  —  Inflation spike 0.2 percent in November and 2.7 percent in the past 12 months, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report.

We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine.  It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.  —  Anthropic's Claude ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom.  It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI agents. … You'd toss Claudius's résumé in the trash immediately.

Arrest warrant issued in Brown shooting as authorities probe connection to MIT professor's killing, sources say  —  Law enforcement is investigating possible connections between the mass shooting at Brown University on Saturday afternoon and the targeted killing of an MIT professor two days later, sources tell CBS News.

The Americans Who Saw All This Coming—but Were Ignored and Maligned  —  Imagine I sent you back in time to July 2015 with the goal of saving liberal democracy in America.  Donald Trump announced his candidacy a month ago, the polls are showing him with a narrow lead, and the media …

Trump Pressed Georgia Speaker to Overturn State's Election Vote in 2020 Call  —  During much of the 12.5-minute call, President Trump reiterated his claims that he had won Georgia, a state he lost by more than 11,000 votes that year.  —  In a newly obtained recording of a phone call from late 2020 …

Exclusive: Frustration mounts at Justice Department as it races to redact some Epstein files, sources say  —  Frustration is mounting inside the Justice Department as it races to redact thousands of pages of files related to Jeffrey Epstein before they must be released Friday, multiple sources familiar with the process told CNN.

This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like  —  Donald Trump delivered a fear-drenched rant live from the White House.  —  The president of the United States just barged into America's living rooms like an angry, confused grandfather to tell us all that we are ungrateful whelps.

US Approves $11 Billion Arms Sale to Taiwan, Drawing China's Ire  —  The US has approved a package of arms sales to Taiwan worth up to $11 billion — one of its biggest ever — a move that drew criticism from Beijing.  —  The approvals announced late Wednesday by the State Department cover …

November consumer prices rose at a 2.7% annual rate, lower than expected, delayed data shows … Consumer prices rose less than expected in November, giving investors hope that inflationary pressures may be cooling enough for the U.S. monetary policy to be eased more than Wall Street anticipates.

Trump administration prepares sweeping crackdown on leftist networks  —  The Justice Department's program to root out violent “antifa” extremism is raising First Amendment concerns. … The Trump administration is embarking on an expansive effort to root out what it sees …

Illegal Immigrant Arrested for Murder One Day After Being Released from Jail  —  An illegal immigrant from El Salvador was arrested Wednesday after police say he shot a man to death inside a Reston, Va., home—just one day after being released from jail.  —  Authorities identified the suspect …

Bishop Hicks, Chicago ally of Pope Leo XIV, named to lead New York after Dolan era  —  VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Leo XIV tapped Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, to lead the influential Archdiocese of New York, replacing Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who led New York's 2.8 million Catholics for 16 years.

More photos from Epstein's estate released by House Democrats as deadline to release DOJ files looms  —  Congressional news Federal agencies Homes  —  Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released photos from Jeffrey Epstein's estate Thursday — the latest in a series of intermittent disclosures …

Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence.  This Is the Story of Her Life  —  The Minnesota Speaker's closest friends and family open up for the first time  —  et me tell you about Melissa Hortman.  —  It's the early 2000s.  She and her husband, Mark …