Marc Fogel, American teacher held in Russia for 3.5 years, is released
An American schoolteacher held by Russia for three and a half years will be released and allowed to come home, the White House said today.
Marc Fogel had been sentenced to 14 years in prison by Russia and was considered “wrongfully detained” by the United States.
“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” national security adviser Mike Waltz said Tuesday in a statement.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II offers to take in thousands of Palestinian children
Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Tuesday that he would take in 2,000 Palestinian children from Gaza who are very sick or have cancer in response to a plan by Trump to resettle the residents of the war-torn strip.
Trump called the offer a “beautiful gesture” and said he believed “99%” that something could be worked out with Egypt, another regional partner that had bristled at the president’s surprise plan. “We’ll have some others helping,” Trump added.
Seated with Trump in the Oval Office, Abdullah said they must ensure a plan that satisfies all parties, a not-insignificant obstacle as questions remain about how each country might move to relocate a swell of people who have suffered months of devastation, and which some fear will further undermine efforts to create a Palestinian state.
More than 1 million Palestinians remain without homes, and the king declined to say whether he would be willing to take in refugees in larger numbers. “We have to look at the best interests of the United States, of the people in the region, especially to my people of Jordan,” he said.
House Republicans remain divided over budget proposal
House Republicans remain divided over their budget blueprint for Trump’s agenda, but GOP leaders are pushing ahead with a committee markup on the proposal this week.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the House Budget Committee, told NBC News “we’ll see” when asked if they can reach a deal by Thursday, when the committee has scheduled a markup of the legislation.
“There’s still a lot of variables left unanswered,” Roy said.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, said the House should take up Sen. Lindsey Graham’s, R-S.C., budget resolution if the Senate passes it. Graham favors a two-bill approach to passing Trump’s agenda through a special budget process called reconciliation, with a border-energy-defense bill being considered first and a tax portion coming later.
“If the Senate moves on a priority, especially when concerning border security, defense resources that we need, then I think the responsible thing is to put that up, get that voted on, and then we continue our conversations around tax policy,” Donalds told NBC News.
That strategy conflicts with House Speaker Mike Johnson's plan, which would be to try to advance a single bill. Johnson, R-La., said today that the Senate budget reconciliation plan is a "nonstarter."
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., said a $4.7 trillion reconciliation instruction for his committee, which is currently under discussion, isn't enough to achieve their tax priorities.
“According to (the Congressional Budget Office), in order to do a 10-year extension of just the expiring tax cuts, is over $4.7 trillion,” Smith told reporters.
The lack of unity from key House Republicans signals there is still a lot of work to do to reach consensus by Thursday. If they don’t reach a deal, the committee markup could be postponed.
Bessent to meet with Zelenskyy in Ukraine, Trump says
Trump announced he is sending Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social this afternoon. “The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show. WHEN AMERICA IS STRONG, THE WORLD IS AT PEACE.”
Last week, Trump said he would continue sending aid to Ukraine in exchange for access to the country’s critical minerals — an idea previously floated by Republican senators.
“I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Former NYC mayor agrees charges against Eric Adams should be dismissed
Former New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said today that he agrees with the Justice Department’s move to dismiss the federal indictment against the city’s current mayor, Eric Adams, saying the corruption charges "were not strong enough."
"I don’t think they should have been brought, but I’m not comfortable, of course, with what’s happening in Washington, with the Justice Department," De Blasio, a Democrat, told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera, adding that the case needed to be resolved before the June Democratic primary for mayor. "I’m not comfortable with what Donald Trump is doing to our institutions and how he’s undermining our democracy."
Adams, a Democrat and Trump ally who is up for re-election, faced counts including bribery and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
In ordering the dismissal, Emil Bove, the acting U.S. deputy attorney general and former Trump lawyer, said the indictment fell too close to the upcoming election and would hinder Adams' ability to enforce Trump’s immigration agenda in New York City. But the charges could be revisited by a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney after the November election, Bove said.
De Blasio said Adams now "has a chance to actually show people what he’s going to do for the city and make his case, and also how he’s going to challenge Trump when Trump does something that hurts in New York City."
Adams has signaled support for Trump’s mass deportation plans and has noted he would work with the administration. The mayor visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in January and met with Trump’s "border czar," Tom Homan, in December.
Elizabeth Warren says Musk will take advantage of Americans after shuttering Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed the Trump administration's efforts under Elon Musk to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying the move contradicts Trump’s campaign trail promise of improving the financial prospects for Americans.
“Instead of doing that, he’s turned around, he’s actually cutting the parts of government that help bring down costs for American families, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the perfect example,” Warren told MSNBC’s Ali Vitali.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency charged with safeguarding Americans against predatory financial practices from banks and lenders, was proposed by Warren when she was a professor at Harvard Law School and formed under the Obama administration following the 2008 financial crisis.
Warren warned Musk’s use of the Department of Government Efficiency to shutter the agency is a way for him to collect on his hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Trump and Republicans in the last election by doing away with the CFPB just as he launches X Money, a financial service.
“He faces one problem, though, and that is the financial cop on the beat, the CFPB that stands behind him, looks over his shoulder and says, ‘You can’t just cheat people,’” Warren said. “So, he says, let’s shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Let’s take those financial cops off the beat.”
“It is a little like a bank robber,” Warren said of Musk. “Let’s fire the cops, turn off the alarms, just as the bank robber decides to stroll into the lobby of the bank.”
Eric Adams thanks Justice Department for ordering dismissal of corruption charges
New York City Mayor Eric Adams thanked the Department of Justice for ordering the federal corruption charges filed against him be dropped, but acknowledged “many New Yorkers still question my character.”
“I thank the Justice Department for its honesty. Now we can put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of our city. It’s time to move forward,” Adams said at a briefing this afternoon.
Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop five criminal counts, including bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, from Adams’ case on Monday night.
Top Judiciary Democrat accuses Kash Patel of orchestrating FBI firings
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has sent a letter to the Justice Department's inspector general accusing FBI director nominee Kash Patel of secretly orchestrating the firings of FBI officials, despite the nominee's testifying to the committee that he was not aware of any such plan.
Durbin said he has been speaking to whistleblowers who have told him Patel has been providing instructions to Trump White House aide Stephen Miller, who then relays the instructions to acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
Notes from one meeting about firing FBI executives allegedly read, “KP wants movement at FBI, reciprocal action at DOJ,” according to Durbin's letter.
“It is unacceptable for a nominee with no current role in government, much less at the FBI, to personally direct unjustified and potentially illegal adverse employment actions against senior career FBI leadership and other dedicated, nonpartisan law enforcement officers,” Durbin wrote.
"If these allegations are true, Mr. Patel may have perjured himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee," Durbin said.
A spokeswoman for Patel, Erika Knight, said on X: "Once again, the media is relying on anonymous sources and second-hand gossip to push a false narrative. Kash Patel is a highly qualified national security expert who has been fully transparent with the American people throughout this process and has demonstrated the integrity and leadership needed for this role. The Senate should confirm him without delay."
FEMA official ignores judge’s latest order, demands freeze on grant funding
A senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency instructed subordinates to freeze funding for a wide array of grant programs yesterday, just hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration — for the second time — to stop such pauses.
In an email with the subject line “URGENT: Holds on awards,” Stacey Street, the director of the agency’s Office of Grant Administration, told her team to freeze funding for grant programs going back several years, including those focused on emergency preparedness, homeland security, firefighting, protecting churches from terrorism and tribal security.
“For all awards FY23 and prior: put financial holds on all of your awards — all open awards, all years (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024),” Street wrote, using the shorthand “FY” for fiscal year.
NBC News obtained screenshots of the email from a recipient, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
Trump tells reporters the U.S. will 'take' Gaza
Trump told reporters that "there is nothing to buy" with regard to his plan for the U.S. to take ownership of Gaza, but instead the U.S. would "take" or "have" the territory.