Senate Republicans drop Trump ballroom funding from immigration bill  —  Congressional news Donald Trump Immigration  —  Senate Republicans have formally removed funding for President Donald Trump's ballroom security as part of their sprawling immigration funding package, according to revised legislative text released Wednesday.

Trump Has Given Up  —  Another day of many errands and meetings, so another short, informal post.  —  Donald Trump will never admit that his gratuitous Iran war has been a total disaster.  But the debacle has clearly broken him.  So we are now saddled with a president who has given up governing …

America Broke Something When It Gave Trump a Second Chance  —  The Heritage Foundation's “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” — popularly known as Project 2025 — was much more than a wish list of conservative policy preferences.  It was much more, even, than a blueprint for a second Trump administration.

CBS News Fires Scott Pelley of ‘60 Minutes’  —  Mr. Pelley, a longtime correspondent and former “CBS Evening News” anchor, harshly criticized the show's leadership during a staff meeting on Monday.  —  CBS News fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday, he said, jettisoning one of the network's best-known journalists …

Trump Order Makes It Easier to Fire Agency Staffers At Will  —  President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday stripping job security from nearly 8,000 federal positions, expanding his authority to fire career employees who work on policy matters and accelerating …

Rules of Engagement When the Troops Appear at Polling Sites  —  State election officials can mitigate the perils of federal “armed men” at the polls.  —  Meet The Authors  —  Open, noncoercive, and safe elections are a hallmark of a healthy democracy.  Today, those characteristics are in jeopardy.

G. Elliott Morris  —  This chart from the latest YouGov/Economist poll result is really quite stunning.  Trump's net approval is not only deeply negative, but about 15(!!) points below what it was at this point in 2018.  With this data you'd expect this year's midterms to be even worse …

Aftermath: Something Is Going to Snap  —  This story was first featured in the Aftermath newsletter, a series from David Dayen exploring the economic consequences of the war in Iran.  To have these stories delivered to your in-box as soon as they are published, sign up for the newsletter here.

Ken Calvert, Young Kim Appear Headed To Ugly GOP Runoff For California House Seat  —  Both are currently Republicans in Congress, but Democrats lumped them into a newly redrawn district and made them run against each other.  —  WASHINGTON — Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim appear headed …

Trump says Iran has agreed to not have a nuclear weapon  —  U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran has agreed not to have a nuclear weapon and that he would probably meet with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei at some point if things “work out”.  —  “They've already agreed they're …

GOP Rep. Andy Ogles deletes homophobic social media post, blames staffer  —  The now-deleted comment, which received pushback from both Democrats and Republicans, read: “Homosexuality has no place in America.  Happy Nuclear Family Month.”  —  Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. …

Primaries leave muddled picture of Dems' way ahead … - Iowa's Senate primary: Moderate state lawmaker Josh Turek easily topped Zach Wahls, a progressive endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), with a $10 million assist from an organization often aligned with the Democratic establishment.

Election Live Updates: Races Are Close in California With Many Votes Still to Count  —  Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, and Steve Hilton, a Republican, were leading in the governor's race.  The reality TV star Spencer Pratt could secure a spot in a runoff with Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles.

xAI Asks Court to Strip Alleged Grok Deepfake Nudes Victims of Anonymity  —  Four people suing Elon Musk's AI firm under pseudonyms due to the risks of being identified may face a difficult choice: Reveal your real names, or drop the lawsuit.  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence firm …

U.S. Support for LGBTQ+ Issues Remains Down From Peak  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — After two decades of rising support for LGBTQ+ issues, U.S. attitudes have plateaued and begun to slide back modestly.  Approval of same-sex marriage, moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relations …

Americans' national parks passes will pay for Trump's July 4 plans, documents show  —  Entry fees are going toward a $1.6 million fireworks display and D.C. beautification, while donations will fund a $5 million helipad at the White House.  —  Summary  —  The Trump administration is diverting …

Senate GOP drops $1 billion for White House ballroom from budget package  —  Senate Republicans have stripped language providing up to $1 billion for security upgrades to the proposed White House ballroom from a revised budget reconciliation bill unveiled on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court Just Transformed Its Horrible Voting Rights Ruling Into Something More Calamitous  —  This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate's coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court.  The best way to support our work—and unlock exclusive legal analysis—is by joining Slate Plus.

Trump library says no Twitter DMs can be found, despite evidence he sent them  —  Records show that Trump's first administration opted not to save DMs in its library archives, raising questions about compliance with the Presidential Records Act.  —  Summary

‘Infuriated’ Former Judges Take on Trump  —  Critics say it is unseemly for retired judges to trade on the prestige of their former positions.  —  Judges retain a special status even after they hang up their robes.  Addressing them in a 2020 article, an American Bar Association official …

Thune calls out ‘bizarre’ copycat candidate in Dan Sullivan Senate race: ‘Designed to confuse’  —  A closely watched U.S. Senate campaign in Alaska is stoking controversy after a candidate bearing the same name as one of the major candidates entered the race.

Senate Confirms Trump Court Pick Rated ‘Not Qualified’ To Be A Federal Judge  —  Katie Lane, the first of Trump's judicial nominees to earn the abysmal ABA rating in his second term, now has a lifetime seat on a Montana district court.  —  WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans voted Tuesday …

Feds raid $35M SoCal mansion of tech boss charged with sending secret shipments to Iranian military, nuclear programs  —  See more of our coverage in your search results.  —  Add The California Post on Google  —  Federal agents, in a daring predawn raid Wednesday, pounced on the opulent …

Lawmakers Demand Answers After the White House Initiated a $620M Loan to a Firm Tied to Donald Trump Jr.  —  In a letter, a group of Democratic Congress members wrote that ProPublica's reporting on the deal “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence.”

Was Kash Patel's Winter Olympics Trip for Work or Play?  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Do you remember FBI Director Kash Patel's viral video showing him drinking with the US men's national ice hockey team at the Olympics?  We do, and we think it's time there's some transparency around his winter trip.

Appropriators bicker over Trump's arch  —  The House Appropriations Committee broke into a partisan debate Wednesday over President Donald Trump's arch project.  The panel voted 32-24, along party lines, to block an amendment from Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) that would prevent construction …