What to know
- The Senate confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees programs that provide health care coverage for about half of the U.S. population.
- President Donald Trump defended the sweeping new tariffs on major U.S. trade partners he announced yesterday. Markets plunged on the first full day of trading after Trump unveiled the duties on foreign imports.
- The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on former Sen. David Perdue's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to China as the Asian powerhouse issues warnings about its response to Trump's tariffs.
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National Security Agency chief and deputy director dismissed
The director and the No. 2 official at the National Security Agency were ousted from their positions today, according to a defense official and three sources with knowledge of the matter.
It was not immediately clear why Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh and his deputy were dismissed, the sources said.
The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment tonight.
Haugh was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency, a role he had served in since February 2024. Deputy NSA Director Wendy Noble was the agency’s senior civilian leader.
Kamala Harris discusses 'sense of fear taking hold in our country' in rare post-election speech
Former Vice President Harris Kamala Harris said in a speech today that a "sense of fear" is taking hold in the country that has resulted in a surrender by people and organizations to "clearly unconstitutional threats."
"We’re seeing people stay quiet. We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats," Harris said at the Leading Women Defined Summit in California. "These are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country."
"There were many things that we knew would happen, many — I’m not here to say I told you so," Harris said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Harris did not mention Trump by name or point to a specific action of his administration.
Trump’s tariffs rollout beset by confusion, uncertainty and mixed messages
Trump yesterday officially fulfilled a campaign promise to unleash sweeping tariffs, a move that has sparked fears of a global trade war and prompted a major question about what has become the centerpiece of his economic agenda: What’s his endgame?
In both size and scope, Trump’s ultimate blueprint for global tariffs — a 10% baseline tariff on virtually every country, with higher numbers on countries with which the United States has larger trade deficits — was more than most expected. It has left global financial markets tumbling and Trump’s Republican supporters trying to thread the political needle of not criticizing him while also understanding the economic peril the tariff plan may usher in ahead of 2026 midterm elections in which the GOP will try to defend its slim House and Senate majorities.
Trump’s team has so far not had a clear message to either explain the strategy behind the tariffs that his political allies can echo or his thought process behind the decision to go much further than even supporters were expecting.
What’s more, multiple elements of the sweeping measures made it seem as if the administration rushed through the process — including its decision to levy tariffs on uninhabited islands and its initially listing tariff numbers on the White House list published today that were different from the ones on the chart Trump held in the Rose Garden yesterday.
Senate Republicans vote to advance a massive budget blueprint for Trump’s agenda
The Republican-led Senate voted 52-48 today to begin debate on a budget blueprint for a multitrillion-dollar package to pass Trump’s agenda.
The measure calls for a steep tax cut and a spending increase for immigration enforcement and a Pentagon expansion, alongside unspecified spending cuts and a $5 trillion debt limit increase. It is likely to substantially increase the budget deficit.
Every Republican voted for the measure, except Rand Paul of Kentucky. Democrats unanimously voted against it.
“The Senate Budget plan gives us the tools that we need to get our shared priorities done, including certain PERMANENT Tax Cuts, Spending Cuts Energy, Historic Investments in Defense, Border, and much more,” Trump wrote on social media yesterday.
Ex-prosecutors raise alarm over Trump loyalist tapped for key U.S. attorney post
Former federal prosecutors and outside organizations raised alarms this week over the nomination of Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to take over as the top federal prosecutor in Washington on a permanent basis.
Martin — who backed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and advocated for defendants in Jan. 6 Capitol riot cases — had no prosecutorial experience before Trump made him interim U.S. attorney on Inauguration Day. And he has taken a number of highly unusual and political actions since he took over the position on a temporary basis.
Yesterday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a hearing on Martin’s nomination, which would break from standard practice for nominees for U.S. attorney positions. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., announced this week that he would place a hold on Martin’s nomination, which could delay a vote on his nomination.
In a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week and obtained by NBC News, more than 100 former assistant U.S. attorneys who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia signed a “Statement of Conscience and Principle” laying out why they see Martin as unfit.
Judge blocks Trump administration from terminating $11B in public health grants
A federal judge in Rhode Island tonight granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Health and Human Services from terminating $11 billion in public health grants appropriated by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy ruled from the bench after a hearing this afternoon.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday by 23 states and the District of Columbia, plaintiffs argued that the cancellation was abrupt and callous.
“Despite the critical importance of these programs, HHS terminated them with the stroke of a pen and for the flimsiest of reasons,” they argued in their suit. “According to HHS, these programs were terminated 'for cause' — not because of any failure on the part of Plaintiff States to comply with the terms of their grants and cooperative agreements, but instead because HHS claimed that '[n]ow that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary.'”
The impact has been widespread, according to the lawsuit.
“The terminations have caused immediate chaos and irreparable harm for Plaintiff States and their local health jurisdictions,” they wrote. “Without emergency relief, key public health programs and initiatives will have to be dissolved or disbanded. Large numbers of public health employees and contractors have been, or may soon be, terminated. These programs and initiatives address urgent ongoing and emerging public health needs of Plaintiff States, including preventing collapse of the health system in the face of emerging threats like measles and H5N1 (avian influenza).”
Cory Booker's Oura ring measured stress and no sleep during a certain 25-hour period this week
Sen. Cory Booker’s Oura ring wants him to “pay attention” to his wellness.
The popular health-monitoring device that measures stress and tracks sleep didn't have great news for Booker, D-N.J., when he pulled an all-nighter and then some giving a marathon speech on the Senate floor this week.
The ring’s statistics show that Booker didn’t sleep during his 25 hours protesting the Trump administration's policies and that he’s now suffering because of it. His stress levels are high, and his body hasn’t been able to fully recover, according to screenshots of the app shared with NBC News.
“I think I stopped eating on Friday, and then I stopped drinking the night before I started on Monday. And that had its benefits, and it had its really downsides,” Booker told reporters after he finished his record-setting speech Tuesday night.
“And so instead of fighting or figuring how to go to bathroom, I ended up, I think, really, unfortunately, dehydrating myself,” he said.
Trump said he thinks Musk will probably leave his post in 'a few months'
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he wants tech billionaire Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, "to stay as long as possible."
But he also said, “There’ll be a point where he’s going to have to leave," in part because of the companies he runs.
Asked by a reporter how long he expected Musk, classified as a special government employee, would work in his administration, he responded, "I mean, as long as he'd like."
Asked for a specific date for Musk's departure, Trump said, "I would think a few months."
Vance made similar remarks in a Newsmax interview that aired tonight, saying Musk wouldn’t be around indefinitely.
“What we recognize is we were never going to get Elon for four years. That’s just not the bargain. He’s got businesses to run. He wants to focus on this problem, fix it and help us,” Vance said.
People in special posts are expected to take on duties temporarily for no more than 130 days over the course of a year.
Trump also indicated today that department secretaries would take over Musk's work after he departs, "and DOGE will stay active."
The comment is a shift from Trump's remarks about DOGE earlier in the week, when he said saying that "at a certain point, I think it will end."
Trump's inner circle advises against a call with Putin until he commits to a full ceasefire
As of this afternoon, no call had been scheduled between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to two administration officials. Trump’s inner circle is advising him not to have a call with Putin until he commits to a full ceasefire, the officials said.
The administration officials cautioned that Trump could decide he wants to talk to Putin suddenly. But they said he has been advised that a phone call isn't a good idea unless Putin has conveyed to the White House that he agrees to a full ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he planned to talk to Putin this week. He also said he was “very angry” at Putin for saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should step down.
Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev met with White House officials and Republican lawmakers at the White House last night, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the meetings. It’s not clear whether Trump dropped in on the meeting at any point.
Dmitriev met with Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Markwayne Mullin, of Oklahoma, at the White House last night at Trump’s request. The group discussed terms for ending the war in Ukraine and Putin’s demands for a ceasefire, the three U.S. officials said.
Coalition of 19 states sues to block Trump’s election order
A coalition of 19 states sued today to block an executive order Trump signed last week aimed at imposing new requirements, such as proof of citizenship, on federal elections.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, says Trump's executive order, which declares proof of citizenship a requirement to register to vote, "unconstitutionally treats ... States as mere instruments of the President’s policy agenda."
The lawsuit alleges that Trump's order interferes with states' constitutional power to regulate their elections and usurps power from Congress on legislation and appropriations.
"It bears emphasizing: the President has no power to do any of this. Neither the Constitution nor Congress has authorized the President to impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements or to modify State mail-ballot procedures," the lawsuit says.
Trump’s order also directed the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Department of Government Efficiency to look over states’ “publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities,” then assess them against federal and state records to root out voter fraud by noncitizens, which rarely occurs.
Charity Clark, the attorney general of Vermont, which is among the 19 states suing Trump, said she was "deeply troubled by this naked attempt to disenfranchise voters, particularly married women, low-income and elderly voters, and active-duty military members.”
“Even viewed in the most charitable light, this is a solution looking for a problem, as illegal, non-citizen voter fraud is virtually non-existent. An American’s right to vote is sacred and must be protected," Clark said in a statement.