National Politics

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court opted against hearing arguments in a pair of appeals Monday seeking to wipe out protest buffer zones around abortion clinics – a move that, for now, will leave those restrictions in place. Two conservative justices – Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – said they would have

By Sarah Ferris, CNN Washington (CNN) — On the eve of their first major vote to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, key House Republicans are warning Speaker Mike Johnson that they won’t simply rubber-stamp steep cuts across the federal government. Johnson plans to hold a vote Tuesday on a sweeping budget plan that calls for

By Alejandra Jaramillo, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Brian Stelter, CNN (CNN) — Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent turned right-wing podcaster, has been named the next deputy director of the FBI, President Donald Trump announced Sunday, the latest outsider media personality the president has chosen to be in a significant position of power overseeing

By Katie Bo Lillis, Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, CNN Washington (CNN) — The CIA is conducting a formal review to assess any potential damage from an unclassified email sent to the White House in early February that identified for possible layoffs some officers by first name and last initial and could’ve exposed

By Kevin Liptak, Tami Luhby and Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — A rift appeared to open Sunday between some of President Donald Trump’s agency heads and Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with reforming the federal government, over Musk’s demand that all federal employees state their weekly accomplishments or risk termination. By Sunday evening, leaders at

By Donie O’Sullivan and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN (CNN) — A political conference in Washington, DC, that bills itself as the alternative to the Trump-aligned CPAC was evacuated on Sunday after a death threat made against several of its speakers who have been critical of President Donald Trump. Shortly after noon Sunday, organizers of the Principles

By Betsy Klein, MJ Lee and Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — Approximately 2,000 employees at the US Agency for International Development will be laid off Sunday and a majority of the remaining full-time staff will be put on administrative leave overnight, workers were informed in an email. “All USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN (CNN) — Looking right at Donald Trump on Friday afternoon in the Oval Office, Gov. Kathy Hochul tried a different approach from telling him he was acting like a king for his attempt to end New York’s pay-for-entry congesting pricing system. Just before heading to the White House, the Democratic governor

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — Elon Musk has repeatedly misled the public about federal spending while playing a leading role in President Donald Trump’s effort to cut that spending. When Musk was asked earlier this month about one of the inaccurate statements he had promoted, he conceded that “some of the things that

By Lauren Fox, CNN (CNN) — Shortly after Donald Trump blindsided senators and endorsed the House’s plan to advance the president’s agenda last week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune convened his leadership team to navigate next steps. Leadership needed to decide fast: would they plow ahead with their plan to advance their own Senate budget

By Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Oren Liebermann and Katie Bo Lillis, CNN (CNN) — The retired Air Force general announced as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Donald Trump after the abrupt Friday night firing of his predecessor is a respected career F-16 pilot who is described by current and

By Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — After a four-week absence from Washington, first lady Melania Trump returned to the White House on Saturday for an annual dinner and reception with the nation’s governors. “She worked very hard on making sure that everything was beautiful. And she’s very good at that,” President Donald Trump said in

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump keeps lying not only about the 2020 election he lost but the 2024 election he won. In a Saturday speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump correctly noted that he earned 77 million votes in 2024 — then falsely said his vote total was “actually

By Shania Shelton, Tami Luhby, Josh Campbell, Eva McKend and Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — In President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s latest move targeting the federal workforce, employees began receiving emails Saturday afternoon asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as

By Jennifer Hansler and Shania Shelton, CNN (CNN) — The United States has proposed its own United Nations resolution marking the third anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine after refusing to back one drafted by Kyiv and backed by Europe. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described it as “a simple, historic resolution … that we

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Last week, Leland Dudek, a mid-level career employee at the Social Security Administration, posted on LinkedIn that he was placed on administrative leave for cooperating with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and asked for help finding another job. Days later, courtesy of President Donald Trump, he had one:

By Steve Contorno, CNN Oxon Hill, Maryland (CNN) — The public detente between President Donald Trump and Big Tech titans, forged in the wake of his return to power, has yet to take hold at the country’s annual gathering of his most devoted supporters. Inside the Conservative Political Action Committee this week, mentions of Facebook

By Steve Contorno and Alayna Treene, CNN (CNN) — Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of

By Majlie de Puy Kamp, CNN (CNN) — Less than three years before Elon Musk tapped him to take part in a sweeping overhaul of the US government, Edward Coristine, then 17, was the subject of a heated dispute between two executives at the Arizona-based cybersecurity firm where he was an intern. At issue was