Trump allies downplay his remarks about a third term

More than 3½ hours after he began, Sen. Cory Booker is still speaking on the Senate floor to bring attention to what he says is the “grave and urgent” threat Americans face from the Trump administration.

Booker, D-N.J., was at one point briefly joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., who asked him questions to give him a brief rest from speaking nonstop, but he retained control of the floor and has been speaking ever since.

Despite his marathon speech, Booker is not affecting floor consideration of any bill or nomination. Still, it's not clear when he will stop. The record for longest speech by a senator was set in 1957, when Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act.

Booker has never led such a speech in the past, his office said, but he has participated in one before when he joined Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in his 14-hour, 50-minute speech advocating for gun control legislation in 2016.

In court filings tonight, representatives from the State and Defense departments, the National Intelligence Director’s Office and the CIA submitted sworn declarations about the status of Signal messages recovered from the group chat about U.S. military strikes that inadvertently included a journalist.

The State Department representative said, “Images of the Signal chat in the possession of the Office of the Secretary have been captured and will be preserved.”

The Defense Department rep said, "A search of Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s mobile device has been conducted, and available Signal application messages that are at issue in this case have been preserved."

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., took to the Senate floor tonight with the intention of “disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.”

“I rise tonight because I believe sincerely our nation is in crisis,” he said at 7 p.m. ET.

According to his prepared remarks, he plans to keep going “by sharing just a few of the letters I have received from my constituents in recent weeks about what is at stake right now.”

It's not clear exactly how long Booker intends to speak.

Democratic leaders sued tonight to block an executive order that Trump signed last week aimed at elections.

Trump's order says proof of citizenship must be required to register to vote and calls on 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 uncover rarely occurring and illegal voter fraud by noncitizens.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., argues that the Constitution empowers the states and Congress, not the president, to regulate elections. It also says the order "attempts to mandate new burdens" on those trying to register to vote in its requirements for proof of citizenship.

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, Democratic Governors Association Chair Laura Kelly, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the order "an unconstitutional power grab from Donald Trump that attacks vote by mail, gives DOGE sensitive personal information and makes it harder for states to run their own free and fair elections."

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., one of a handful of female members of the House Freedom Caucus, confirmed tonight that she is quitting the group of conservative hard-liners over their efforts to derail her push to allow remote voting for lawmakers who become new parents.

She accused her Freedom Caucus colleagues of threatening to “shut down” and halt all legislative business from moving on the floor unless her push to force a vote on her plan is not stopped.

“There’s some great people that are still members of the Freedom Caucus, but there’s a small faction that’s disingenuous, and I’m not going to play that game,” Luna told reporters at the Capitol. “This speaker is being held hostage. You had a small group of the Freedom Caucus that threatened to shut down the House floor regardless of what agenda was being placed — whether it was the president’s or not — and that’s not right.”

Luna has secured the 218 signatures needed to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote on bipartisan legislation that would allow members who become new parents to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team are opposed to proxy voting, as are many other Republicans. They also don’t like Luna using’s the process, known as the discharge petition.

A federal judge in California today issued an order blocking the Department of Homeland Security from ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Venezuelan nationals.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had ordered those protections — which allows qualified Venezuelan national to reside and work temporarily in the United States — to be yanked April 7. In the final days of the Biden administration, Noem's predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, had extended the protections until October 2026.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen said that Noem's action was "unprecedented" and that it threatened to "inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”

He also took aim at Noem's public claims that the majority of the TPS holders are criminals as "entirely unsubstantiated" and noted that people are ineligible for TPS if they have “been convicted of any felony or 2 or more misdemeanors committed in the United States.”

Trump told reporters at the White House today that “there is communication” between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump spoke fondly of his relationship with Kim, saying they get along "fantastically."

"He’s a big nuclear nation, and he’s a very smart guy. I got to know him very well," he added.

Trump referred to an exchange with Kim during his first term, which he said "started off very rough, very nasty," with Trump calling Kim a "rocket man" in an address to the United Nations in 2017 and the two leaders subsequently meeting three times from 2018-19. In 2019, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step across the 1953 armistice line dividing North and South Korea during his visit.

Trump appeared to confirm that the first overseas trip of his second term will be to Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar and maybe the United Arab Emirates.

“It could be next month, maybe a little bit later,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And we’re going to Qatar also, and also we’re going to, possibly, a couple of other countries. UAE is very important.” 

He added: “So we’ll probably stop at UAE and Qatar.”

Axios reported yesterday that Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia in May.

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said “a lot of people” are interested in replacing Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Among those interested, he said, are former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Richard Grenell, whom Trump named as his envoy for special missions and as the Kennedy Center's interim executive director. Grenell was U.S. ambassador to Germany during Trump's first term.

“We have a lot of good people that want it,” Trump said, adding that “maybe 30 other people” had asked about serving in the post.

“Everyone loves that position. That’s a star-making position," he added.

Trump was asked today about Musk's tenure in the federal government and what will happen to his Department of Government Efficiency when he returns to the private sector.

"Well, I think he's amazing, but I also think he's got a big company to run, and so at some point he's going to be going back," Trump said, adding that he'd keep Musk "as long as I could keep him."

Trump was also asked whether DOGE would continue operating after Musk leaves.

"I can't tell you that. I can say this, that a lot of the people that are working with DOGE are these secretaries, you know, the heads of the various agencies, and they've learned a lot, and they're dealing with the DOGE people. I think some of them may try and keep the DOGE people with them," Trump said.

Trump today criticized Susan Crawford, a state judge campaigning in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and urged support for her opponent, conservative judge Brad Schimel.

"I hope you get out and vote for the Republican," Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to the technically nonpartisan race. "Let’s see who wins, but the woman will be very bad."

Tomorrow's election will decide the ideological tilt on the seven-judge court. It also could play a role in cases tied to abortion rights, unions and congressional maps.

Trump also repeated false claims that he won Wisconsin three times in his campaigns for president.

Trump reiterated his promise to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on other nations starting Wednesday but said they “will be lower than what they’ve been charging us.”

“You’re going to see in two days,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’re reciprocal. So whatever they charge us, we charge them, but we’re being nicer than they were.”

He added: “The numbers will be lower than what they’ve been charging us, and in some cases, maybe substantially lower. But we sort of have a world obligation, perhaps.”

Trump said he was not concerned that tariffs could drive some U.S. allies closer to China, even as Japan and South Korea announced plans to work together to respond to his tariffs.

Trump said this evening that people have been asking him to run for a third term and repeated claims that there is a method to do so, but he said he hasn't explored it.

“Now people are asking me to run," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office for an executive order signing. "They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that — but I have not looked into it."

Trump was asked about running for a third term and whether Democrats might try to run former President Obama against him.

"I’d love that," Trump said, adding the match-up "would be a good one."

Trump was joined in the Oval Office today by Robert Ritchie, better known as Kid Rock, to sign an executive order to address ticket scalping.

“It doesn’t matter your politics,” Ritchie said. “I’m a capitalist and a deregulation guy, but they’ve tried this in some places in Europe, and it seems to be the only thing that allows us, as artists, to be able to get the tickets into the hands of the fans at the prices we set.”

Trump said, “I think this is a big step.”

He had teased a visit by Kid Rock, a prominent Trump surrogate and supporter, on social media over the weekend.

Trump is set to sign an executive order today that focuses on protecting fans from ticket scalping, a White House official said.

The order directs the Federal Trade Commission to review and take steps to address any wrongful or unfair conduct in the secondary ticketing market and work with the attorney general to ensure the enforcement of competition laws. It also directs the FTC to ensure price transparency for ticket sales and enforce legislation signed into law in 2016 that prohibits circumventing ticket issuers' online security measures.

The Treasury, the Justice Department and the FTC will be expected to file a report within 180 days summarizing actions and recommendations to address unfair ticketing practices, according to the order.

The Biden administration sought to tackle the ticketing industry when President Joe Biden banned junk fees on concert tickets.

Less than two weeks after DOGE staffers visited the headquarters of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, government employees there have been informed that they're now on administrative leave and their email accounts have been shut down, according to a statement from a labor union representing many of the employees.

"Earlier today, the Institute of Museum and Library Services notified the entire staff that they are being placed on administrative leave immediately. The notification followed a brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership. Employees were required to turn in all government property prior to exiting the building, and email accounts are being disabled today," the American Federation of Government Employees said in a statement.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is a small federal agency responsible for awarding the grant funding that allows many museums and libraries across the country to operate.

DOGE visited the agency's headquarters in Washington this month shortly after Trump ordered that the agency be downsized to only what is statutorily required, a move museum advocates worry could cost the country its cultural and public institutions as the agency all but shuts down.

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley said talk of Trump's possibly seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term in office is not a “serious conversation.”

"I don’t think that’s a real serious conversation at this point in time," Whatley told Fox News host Jacqui Heinrich this afternoon. "Right now, what the president is focused on is delivering for the American people every single day."

Whatley, a Trump loyalist who has been leading the RNC alongside Lara Trump since last year, declined to say whether he would support him if he sought a third term.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says Trump cannot serve a third term as president without a change in the Constitution, telling reporters just now, “I think he’s probably having some fun with it, probably messing with you.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would barely engage on the subject, saying just: “I shouldn’t have to answer that. Read the Constitution.” 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge in Virginia blocked the Trump administration from firing dozens of intelligence officers who were set for removal from their jobs because they had been temporarily assigned to diversity initiatives.

 U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga barred the administration from “effectuating termination of these plaintiffs” and ordered that they remain on “administrative leave” with full pay and benefits while the legal process plays out.

Trenga also ordered the administration to provide all affected employee opportunities to appeal their terminations and ordered the CIA and the National Intelligence Director’s Office to consider all affected employees’ requests for internal reassignment to jobs for which they’d be qualified.

On the campaign trail, Trump used contentiousness around transgender people’s access to sports and bathrooms to fire up conservative voters and sway undecideds. And in his first months back in office, Trump has pushed the issue further, erasing mention of transgender people on government websites and passports and trying to remove them from the military.

It’s a contradiction of numbers that reveals a deep cultural divide: Transgender people make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, but they have become a major piece on the political chess board — particularly Trump’s.

For transgender people and their allies — along with several judges who have ruled against Trump in response to legal challenges — it’s a matter of civil rights for a small group. But many Americans believe those rights had grown too expansive.

Read the full story here.

Vice President JD Vance's first fundraiser as the Republican National Committee's finance chair is set for tonight in Manhattan, according to an invitation obtained by NBC News.

Vance is listed as the headliner for the dinner, with tickets starting at $100,000 per couple and going up to $250,000 per couple for spots on the "host committee."

Trump and the RNC announced this month that Vance would be the national party's finance chair — an unusual arrangement for a sitting vice president. The idea came from RNC leadership, which raised the idea with senior members of Trump’s team, a source familiar with the discussions said at the time. Those advisers then ran the idea by Trump, who signed off, and by Vance, who agreed to do it.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., dismissed the idea of Trump actively seeking a third term during an interview today with NBC News. Scalise suggested that Trump floats ideas and concepts not necessarily with the hope of achieving those goals, but in an effort to get a discussion going on the topic. 

“I don’t know what he was referring to. I never saw it,” Scalise said when asked about Trump’s interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker in which he said he was “not joking” about a third term. “But you know, you see it like with Greenland, like with Panama Canal. There’s a lot of things the president talks about. Ultimately, it gets people talking and addresses some other issues too." 

When pressed if he would support changing the Constitution to allow Trump to run for a third term, Scalise quickly dismissed the idea.

“There’s no proposal to change the Constitution right now,” he said.  

As we await the return of the House and Senate tonight to ask about Trump’s comments to NBC News that he is “not joking” about a third term, here is a look back at what Republicans have said in the past about the matter. 

At the House Republicans' issue conference in Doral, Florida, in late January, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Trump was “having sport with the media” by suggesting a third term. Johnson said it “was clearly tongue in cheek.”  

One of the two people Elon Musk awarded a $1 million prize to at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last night is the head of the Wisconsin College Republicans, a spokesman for Musk's PAC confirmed.

Andrew Romeo, the public affairs representative for America PAC, confirmed that the recipient, Nicholas Jacobs, is the Wisconsin College Republicans’ chair. NBC News has reached out to the Wisconsin College Republicans for comment.

Wisconsin Public Radio was first to report on the connection.

Asked how Musk's team determined who got the checks, Romeo declined to comment.

Asked about the status of the investigation into how a journalist was added to a high-level group chat about U.S. military plans in Yemen, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the president was moving on.

“Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House,” Leavitt told reporters, adding that steps had been taken to ensure the situation is not repeated. 

“They’ve been working very well,” she said.

Last week, the National Security Council said in a statement that it was "reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain." Lawmakers, including some Republicans, have called for an inspector general probe into the matter.

Wisconsin is preparing for what could be the most expensive state judge election in U.S. history. Money has been pouring into the campaigns of both the conservative and liberal candidates from top donors in an effort to sway the critical decisions the state’s Supreme Court will decide. Julia Jester reports on how this state election could have national implications.

The daughter of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., announced this morning that she is running for her father's vacant seat.

"I’m Adelita Grijalva and I am running for Congress because Arizona deserves a progressive champion that will stand up to Donald Trump and fight for working families," she said on X.

The elder Grijalva, a progressive, died from "complications of his cancer treatment," according to his office.

The younger Grijalva currently serves as a Pima County supervisor, and she told the Arizona Republic that she would submit her resignation today ahead of a listening tour.

Trump waded further into Wisconsin politics, endorsing a proposed amendment down the ballot on Tuesday that would enshrine in the state constitution an existing voter ID law.

"There is a very important Referendum (Question 1) on the April 1st Ballot to amend the State Constitution to require VOTER ID. This, and other Election Integrity measures, including banning Drop Boxes, and Same Day Voting with Paper Ballots, can only happen if you GET OUT AND VOTE!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

Delving into the latest in a series of religious rights cases, the Supreme Court appeared sympathetic this morning to a claim brought by Catholic-affiliated charitable groups that they were wrongly denied a religious exemption from a state tax that funds unemployment benefits.

Both conservative and liberal justices seemed concerned that the state’s test for determining whether a group could get the exemption unlawfully discriminates against different entities based on their religious beliefs under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Read the full story.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday the U.S. would receive a strong blow if it acts on Trump’s threat to bomb Tehran unless it reaches a new nuclear deal with Washington.

Yesterday, Trump reiterated his threat that Iran would be bombed if it does not accept his offer for talks outlined in a letter sent to Iran’s leadership in early March, giving Tehran a two-month window to make a decision.

Read the full story.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., urged Trump to stop treating Russian President Vladimir Putin with “velvet gloves” in an op-ed in The New York Times today encouraging him and other Republicans to stand up to Putin.

“In recent weeks, too many of my fellow Republicans — including Mr. Trump — have treated Russia with velvet gloves, shying away from calling out Mr. Putin’s flatly illegal war and even blaming Ukraine for starting it,” Bacon wrote.

Bacon, a retired Air Force general, accused Putin of purposely delaying a ceasefire deal with Ukraine as a tactic to get the U.S. to acquiesce to demands to stop military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.

“Failing to stand up to bullies only leads to larger and costlier conflicts,” Bacon added.

Still, Trump struck a different note over the weekend. During an exclusive interview with NBC News, Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” at Putin for calling for regime change in Ukraine, and said he would consider imposing secondary tariffs on Russian oil if Russia does not reach an agreement with the U.S. on a ceasefire deal.

Trump said on his social media platform last night that he is willing to meet with comedian and talk show host Bill Maher and Kid Rock over dinner after the musician requested the get-together at the White House.

"I really didn’t like the idea much, and don’t like it much now, but thought it would be interesting," Trump posted on Truth Social.

“It might be fun or, it might not, but you will be the first to know!” the president wrote.

Maher addressed the dinner in an interview with Chris Cuomo on his NewsNation show.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is asking a federal judge for a decision on a motion to dismiss the federal corruption charges against him as a deadline approaches to file papers to run for re-election.

In a letter today to U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho, Adams' lawyer Alex Spiro wrote that the mayor has until Thursday to file a petition for his candidacy for mayor.

"We urge the Court consistent with its own comments to promptly reach a decision in this matter," the letter said.

The judge presiding over the Alien Enemies Act case has set a hearing for later this week on whether the administration intentionally disregarded a court order.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg will hold a Thursday afternoon hearing for government lawyers to show "why they did not violate the Court’s Temporary Restraining Orders" when they deported alleged Venezuelan gang members using the AEA despite an order not to do so.

The judge had said at a March 15 hearing that any flights that were then deporting people under the act should return to the U.S. In a filing last week, the administration acknowledged two flights that were in the air at the time did not do so, but contended they hadn't violated the judge's order for technical reasons.

The first was that the judge's order was oral and the administration was waiting for his written ruling. The second was that since the flights were already out of U.S. airspace, the deportees were already "removed" and the judge's order "does not require the Government to undo removals that have already occurred."

Federal authorities are investigating a fire early yesterday that damaged the entryway to the headquarters of the Republican Party of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Agents working with local authorities recovered unspecified “incendiary materials” at the scene, said Cody Monday, spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He declined to say what the materials were or to share further details.

The fire follows numerous acts of vandalism in recent weeks directed against Tesla, the electric car company whose owner, Elon Musk, has led Trump’s effort to slash the federal workforce. Several of those cases involved Molotov cocktails that were used to start fires at dealerships. Attorney General Pam Bondi has called it a “wave of domestic terrorism.”

Read the full story here

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, will come to Washington on Thursday for what her office billed as a "major speech ... laying out her vision to working with both parties and federal officials to build America’s manufacturing might and protect our national defense."

The Democratic governor, who is in her second term, will speak with former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson in a "fireside chat" after the speech, her office said.

Whitmer also came to Washington in mid-March for a White House meeting with Trump, repeating her refrain to work "with anyone" on policy.

Stocks saw heavy selling to open the week this morning ahead of President Donald Trump's planned "Liberation Day" announcement Wednesday that will roll out a barrage of new tariffs on imports, including ones against U.S. allies.

The S&P 500 slid 1.1%, falling to its lowest level since September and on pace to cap off its worst quarter in three years. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 2.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.5%.

Investors are grappling with the prospect of firms raising prices in response to the tariffs, which the president has said are designed to end countries "ripping off" the U.S. and restore manufacturing. On Sunday, Trump exclusively told NBC News that he "couldn't care less" if foreign automakers raised their prices in response to the tariffs.

Read the full story.

Trump is not ruling out the possibility of seeking a third term even though it is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, telling NBC News there are “methods” for doing so, and adding, “I’m not joking."

Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed the Justice Department to dismiss a Biden-era lawsuit over a Georgia law that former President Joe Biden had called "a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience."

During the Biden administration, the Justice Department sued over Georgia Senate Bill 202, arguing that the law "was enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color."

The law forbids providing food or water to people waiting in line to vote and added additional voter ID requirements, among other provisions.

In a press release this morning announcing her move, Bondi said, "Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us," adding that the Justice Department would "never play politics with election integrity."

Moving at a rapid-fire clip, Trump has been concentrating power in his hands, pushing the bounds of executive authority while effectively muzzling an array of voices that pose threats to his agenda.

Trump is using the multiple levers that a president commands both to neuter institutions he has scorned and reward others that align with his worldview. So far, Trump has targeted the legal community, universities, the arts, career government employees and the press and brought them to heel in some measure, willingly or not. 

Read the full story.

Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” when Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership, adding that the comments were “not going in the right location.”

Agence France-Presse reported that Putin on Friday called for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine, which could effectively push out Zelenskyy.

“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said in an early-morning phone call with NBC News yesterday.

“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States,” Trump said. “There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil.”

Read the full story.

Trump did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House, which is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment, saying in an exclusive interview with NBC News that there were methods for doing so and clarifying that he was “not joking.”

“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a phone call yesterday morning with NBC News, referring to his allies. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

Read the full story.

Elon Musk began and ended his town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, yesterday by urging attendees to back conservative Brad Schimel in the state’s high-stakes Supreme Court election tomorrow.

But the bulk of Musk’s nearly two-hour event was ultimately focused not on the off-year election that he’s poured millions of dollars into — which he said could “affect the entire destiny of humanity” — but rather the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, with Musk outlining its purpose and defending its work against naysayers who’ve questioned the constitutionality of the sweeping cuts to the federal government overseen by the group.

Read the full story here.

Delving into the latest in a series of religious rights cases, the Supreme Court today considers whether Wisconsin officials wrongly concluded that Catholic-affiliated charitable groups were not eligible for an exemption from a state tax that funds unemployment benefits.

Although the state allows exemptions for churches and associated nonprofits, it concluded that the groups operating under the umbrella of the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior were not sufficiently religious in purpose to receive the same treatment.

Read the full story.

Trump said yesterday that reciprocal tariffs he is set to announce this week will include all nations, not just a smaller group of 10 to 15 countries with the biggest trade imbalances.

Trump has promised to unveil a massive tariff plan Wednesday, which he has dubbed “Liberation Day.” He has already imposed tariffs on aluminum, steel and autos, along with increased tariffs on all goods from China.

Read the full story here.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said it would be "entirely appropriate" for an inspector general to investigate the Trump administration's use of Signal to discuss an imminent military attack and how a reporter was inadvertently added to the discussion, becoming among the first congressional Republicans to publicly back a probe into the matter.

"It's entirely appropriate for the inspector general to be able to look at it and be able to ask two questions: One is obviously, how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation," Lankford said yesterday on CNN's "State of the Union. "The second part of the conversation is when individuals from the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how do they communicate to each other?"

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday that he would introduce a bill to limit judges' "ability to issue universal injunctions."

The move comes as Republicans — and Trump himself — have slammed judges’ decisions that have contradicted the administration’s positions. Trump and his allies have called for the impeachment of judges who have issued rulings unfavorable to the White House.

"Under my bill, lower courts could no longer block legitimate executive action by issuing orders to nonparties to the lawsuit. The bill would also make TROs against the government immediately appealable, to make sure that prudence wins out over rash decisions handed down in the heat of a political moment," Grassley said, referring to temporary restraining orders.