Trump Threatens to Fire Powell if He Does Not Resign From Fed  —  Although Jerome H. Powell's term as Fed chair officially ends on May 15, he can stay on as a governor until 2028 and said he would not leave until a criminal investigation was over.  —  President Trump on Wednesday vowed …

U.S. sends thousands more troops to Mideast as Trump seeks to squeeze Iran  —  The deployment includes sailors and Marines due to arrive as the administration attempts to enforce a maritime blockade against the regime in Tehran.  —  Summary  —  The Pentagon is sending thousands …

Vance Says the Pope Should Be More Careful When Talking About Theology  —  The vice president, who is Catholic, took issue with Pope Leo XIV's statement that disciples of Christ are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

Scoop: Dems file 5 impeachment articles against Hegseth  —  House Democrats will introduce five articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday accusing him of abuse of power, war crimes and other serious wrongdoing. … - Democrats previously pushed …

Trump Spirals Into Fury at Bad Iran News as Polls Hit Shocking New Low  —  Donald Trump is now raging at a staunch ally, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.  After she sided with the pope's criticism of the Iran war, which had infuriated Trump, he unloaded again, ripping her as “unacceptable” …

Longtime Immigration Court Interpreter Arrested by ICE at South Texas Airport … Last month, Meenu Batra, 53, who has lived in the South Texas border colonia of Laguna Heights since 2002, was on her way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work another case.  She's been a court interpreter for over 20 years …

MAGA Is Starting to Look Beyond Trump  —  A seemingly endless torrent of criticism directed toward Trump from former MAGA allies suggests the president is losing support from his base.  —  For months now, it seems that every day brings with it a new faction of MAGAworld getting angry …

How Eric Swalwell rose to the top of Democratic politics as rumors followed him  —  Allies like Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Ruben Gallego say they knew nothing about the misconduct allegations, with Gallego saying the congressman led a “double life.”  —  Summary

Senate Democratic candidates are posting some huge fundraising hauls  —  Democrats running for the Senate posted some massive fundraising hauls in the first quarter.  The most striking number so far came from Texas.  James Talarico brought in an eye-popping $27 million over the past three months …

Tax Day arrives with Republicans struggling to sell their cuts … That's one reason why Republicans are still doing everything they can to keep last year's tax cuts top of mind this Tax Day, even as they also might be guilty of overpromising on refunds.  —  GOP officials also have another problem …

New CBS Boss to Host Fancy Dinner ‘Honoring’ Trump  —  TAKES THE CAKE  —  David Ellison's friendly ties with the president have horrified staffers.  —  Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is hosting an intimate event to honor Donald Trump's White House, along with correspondents from the now-MAGA-friendly CBS News.

There are signs the political game has changed in the United States since Hungarian voters rejected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's leadership on Sunday, April 12.  His party's loss of control of the government to a supermajority of its opponents undermined the belief that right-wing authoritarianism …

Autocracy = Corruption  —  What the U.S. resistance can learn from Hungary  —  There will be many post-mortems on the demise of the Orbán regime.  The stunning victory of Hungary's opposition was delivered by an electoral surge so large that it swamped the anti-democratic breakwaters …

Why House Republicans are protecting Cory Mills … But key leaders and several rank-and-file members from both parties signaled this week they will wait for the conclusion of an active House Ethics Committee investigation into Mills before moving to punish him.

Iran's Regime Has Changed—for the Worse  —  The U.S.-Israeli attack fast-tracked the ascent of hard-liners and apocalyptic religious followers, raising doubts about a lasting peace  —  On March 13, a massive billboard appeared in Tehran's Enqelab Square.  It showed Iran's newly selected …

Elise Stefanik's endgame  —  Presented by With additional help from Gelila Negesse  —  GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING.  This is Nick Reisman in Albany.  No budget deal is on the horizon at the statehouse.  But there is plenty to discuss with the Empire State's raucous House races …

The Presidential Records Act is Constitutional  —  On April 1, 2026, the Department of Justice issued an opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) concluding that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) is facially unconstitutional because it exceeds Congress's constitutional powers and aggrandizes …

Iran used Chinese spy satellite to target US bases  —  Leaked documents show IRGC secretly acquired system and used it to guide strikes during war in March

Wounded Trump, 79, Scrambles to Downplay Stinging Defeat  —  🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️  —  The president insisted he wasn't actively campaigning for his ally.  —  Donald Trump awkwardly brushed off his ally Viktor Orban's crushing defeat …

Ship ‘Spoofing’ in Strait of Hormuz May Compound Confusion  —  A new pattern of deceptive activity by some vessels around the critical waterway suggests the new American blockade is changing how some ships linked to Iran are behaving.  —  Maritime intelligence experts are starting to see a new pattern of …

Trump makes last-minute plea for GOP to ‘stick together’ on key surveillance powers vote  —  President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure for Republicans to “unify” behind a clean, 18-month extension of a key spy power — making a last minute plea to GOP holdouts refusing to bend without certain amendments.

Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka seeks top counterterrorism job  —  The maneuvering comes a month after Joe Kent, the National Counterterrorism Center's previous director, resigned in protest over the Iran war.  —  Summary  —  Sebastian Gorka, a national security aide to President Donald Trump …

Dave Chappelle Knocks Republican Party for “Weaponized” Transgender Jokes: “That's Not What I Was Doing”  —  After being called out for transphobic jokes, the superstar comedian told NPR that Lauren Boebert and other Republicans are politicizing his humor.  —  Dave Chappelle has called …

Trump's Go-To Justification for Contentious Decisions: National Security  —  The administration has invoked national security in a variety of matters, including the White House ballroom and offshore wind farms, drawing rebukes from some judges.  —  President Trump offered a surprising justification …

Jared Kushner's Mysterious Role in the Trump Administration  —  Is the president's son-in-law carrying out the public's business or pursuing his own private interests?  —  In 2021, shortly after he left his role as a senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner let it be known that he had loved …

Let's Finally Do Something About the Bulldozer That Killed My Daughter  —  Bernie Sanders is trying to end the shipment of US bulldozers to Israel—like the one that crushed my daughter, Rachel Corrie, to death 13 years ago.  —  Pocket  —  Our daughter, Rachel Corrie, was killed in 2003 in Gaza …

Hegseth set to meet lawmakers on Pentagon's $1.5 trillion budget ask  —  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to head to Capitol Hill next week to meet with top House and Senate lawmakers and hash out the Pentagon's proposed $1.5 trillion budget.  —  Hegseth will meet Monday with the so-called …

Utah House Dem hopeful mocked sexual assault, Mormons … Welcome to Punchbowl News AM!  We're glad to have you here.  —  Want to get more of what you need?  Share a bit more about yourself to help us tailor your reader experience.