Politics

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Elon Musk has walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.” Musk, who has been tasked by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN (CNN) — Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress he plans to make special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the cases against Donald Trump available to committee leaders and, ultimately, the public, once courts allow, marking the formal end of Smith’s office. Garland noted he believes even the part of the report

By Alex Marquardt, CNN (CNN) — The Biden administration has announced the final tranche of military aid it will send to Ukraine, amounting to about $500 million. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was expected to detail the figure at the last meeting of the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN (CNN) — Not a lot of men get to see what their own funerals are going to look like. Even fewer get to speak at them. For all the valedictory moments that Joe Biden and his staff lined up for his quiet final weeks in the White House – ceremonies awarding

By Donald Judd and MJ Lee, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden will no longer travel to Italy this week as scheduled, the White House announced late Wednesday, canceling the trip in the final days of his presidency to monitor raging wildfires across the Los Angeles area. “After returning this evening from Los Angeles, where

By Marshall Cohen, CNN (CNN) — The disgraced former FBI informant who falsely accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of taking a $10 million bribe from Ukraine was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison, according to court records. The ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, who is a dual US-Israeli citizen, has been

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he spoke with President-elect Donald Trump by phone this week in support of a former law clerk who is seeking a job in the incoming administration – but the justice said he did not discuss Trump’s pending effort to delay his sentencing. “William

By Marshall Cohen and Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden recently made several false and inaccurate claims to defend his controversial decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden. In a wide-ranging interview with USA Today, the president also made a false claim about inflation. A full transcript of the interview was released Wednesday.

By Natasha Bertrand and Katie Bo Lillis, CNN (CNN) — When President-elect Donald Trump mused about buying Greenland from Denmark during his first administration, the Danish prime minister called the idea “absurd” and rebuffed him outright. Now, Danish officials are being warned by Trump allies and advisers that he is serious, multiple Danish officials told

By Sarah Ferris, Eric Bradner and Annie Grayer, CNN Washington (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump stressed in a meeting with the Senate GOP on Wednesday that he wants to pass his agenda as urgently as possible, while downplaying divisions over specific strategy among Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Inside the room, Trump delivered wide-ranging remarks

By Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — Multiple senior officials in the Justice Department under the first Trump administration improperly leaked non-public details of inquiries into Covid-19 deaths at nursing homes in Democratic-led states, according to a newly-released inspector general report released following a CNN Freedom of Information Act request. The report expressed suspicions that the

By Fredreka Schouten and Steve Contorno, CNN (CNN) — In the two months since the election, President-elect Donald Trump has urged his nearly 8.5 million followers on Truth Social to buy limited edition guitars that bear his signature and Trump-themed fragrances that “represent winning.” A $899 gold-plated inauguration edition was recently added to the line

By Betsy Klein and Donald Judd, CNN (CNN) — Wildfires in California have broken out and escalated significantly since President Joe Biden touched down in Los Angeles on Monday, where he had initially been set to travel to the Coachella Valley and designate a new national monument. The trip also appears to have had a

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday urged the US Supreme Court to pause his sentencing in the hush money case, a highly unusual request that relies in part on the court’s decision last year to grant him broad immunity from criminal prosecution. Trump’s emergency appeal arrived a day after a

By Betsy Klein, CNN (CNN) — President Joe Biden said he had not made a decision about issuing preemptive pardons before leaving office, leaving the door open to an unprecedented move to protect some of his allies as he warned President-elect Donald Trump against trying to “settle scores.” CNN has previously reported senior Biden White

By Priscilla Alvarez and Evan Perez, CNN Washington (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump’s team is discussing plans to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, according to three sources familiar with the discussions, bringing back an idea that failed to come to fruition during his first term in office. In late 2019, Trump appeared close to