What to know today
- President Donald Trump is hosting top buyers of his cryptocurrency token at his Virginia golf club tonight, a move that has drawn criticism from Democrats and ethics concerns from watchdog groups.
- The Supreme Court this afternoon ruled that Trump can fire top officials at independent agencies while noting that its ruling does not apply to the Federal Reserve. Trump frequently directs his economic criticism at Fed chair Jerome Powell.
- A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department and ordered the rehiring of laid-off workers.
- The House this morning passed sweeping legislation to advance the Republicans' agenda in a victory for Trump and House leadership. The bill would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, slash Medicaid, increase military and immigration enforcement spending and raise the cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes.
Sen. Jeff Merkley joins protesters outside Trump's cryptocurrency dinner
Reporting from Sterling, Virginia
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., joined demonstrators tonight outside Trump National Golf Club near Washington, D.C., to protest the president's dinner for the biggest buyers of his cryptocurrency.
Merkley talked up legislation — the End Crypto Corruption Act — that he introduced this month with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., The measure would would prohibit senior executive branch officials, including the president, from financially benefiting from issuing, endorsing or sponsoring crypto assets.
"The spirit of the Constitution was that no one elected would be selling influence to anyone because it’s to be government by and for the people, your constituents, not government by and for people who hand money across the table to you," Merkley said.
He added that a request by Democrats for the list of attendees remains unanswered by the White House.
House passes tax bill that would ban Medicaid from covering transition-related care
The tax bill the House passed today would bar Medicaid coverage of all transgender care and prohibit plans offered under the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges from covering such care as an essential health benefit, potentially jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of trans adults and an unknown number of minors.
The bill initially would have prohibited Medicaid from covering “gender transition procedures” for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. However, House Republican leadership introduced an amendment yesterday that struck the word “minors” and the words “under 18 years of age” from that section, The Independent first reported.
The amendment passed the GOP-led House Rules Committee last night before the full House passed it this morning.
Another part of the bill would prohibit transition-related medical care as an essential health benefit under health care plans offered through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. Essential health benefits packages vary by state but are required by federal law to cover 10 categories of benefits. Nearly half of states have prohibited health insurance providers from explicitly refusing to cover transition-related care.
New photo of Qatari jet given to U.S. for Air Force One
Vincenzo Pace, an aviation photographer, shared this picture with NBC News of the Qatari 747 that the Pentagon accepted and that Trump wants to convert to his new Air Force One. Pace confirmed it was the same plane by matching the tail numbers.
RFK Jr. and Trump release report on causes of chronic disease in children at MAHA event
Trump appeared at a Make America Health Again event today with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the White House released a report centered on identifying the causes of chronic diseases in children.
"We've relied too much on conflicted research, ignored common sense, or what some would call mother's intuition," Kennedy said.
He also pointed to the report's findings about heavily processed foods, saying, "It's common sense that ultraprocessed, nutrient-poor food contributes to chronic disease."
Trump described his administration's efforts to lower the cost of drugs in the United States by declaring "most favored nations" pricing, saying the United States "from now on is going to pay the exact same price as the lowest price anywhere in the world."
"The amount of money you're going to be saving is going to be incalculable. Nobody can believe I have the courage to do it," Trump added.
Trump this month signed an executive order targeting the cost of prescription drug in the United States by aligning what the U.S. government pays for certain medications with what is paid elsewhere in the world. It is expected to face resistance from the drug industry.
Supreme Court grants Trump request to fire independent agency members
The Supreme Court granted a Trump administration request that allows the president to fire members of independent federal agencies.
The move to pause a lower court ruling formalizes a temporary decision along similar lines on April 9 that allowed President Donald Trump to fire Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board.
“The stay reflects our judgment that the government is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power,” the court said in an unsigned order.
The government, the court added, “faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.”
The court’s three liberal justices dissented.
Free speech group condemns Trump administration's latest Harvard punishment
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan civil liberties watchdog, quickly condemned the Trump administration today over its latest sanction against Harvard University.
FIRE, as the nonprofit group is often called, said the Trump administration's decision to halt Harvard's ability to enroll international students is "un-American." In a statement, it drew particular attention to the Department of Homeland Security's demand for audio and video of "any protest activity" involving international students, calling it "gravely alarming."
"This sweeping fishing expedition reaches protected expression and must be flatly rejected," FIRE said in a statement. "The Department is already arresting and seeking to deport students for engaging in protected political activity it disfavors. Were Harvard to capitulate to Secretary Noem’s unlawful demands, more students could face such consequences. The administration’s demand for a surveillance state at Harvard is anathema to American freedom.
"The administration seems hellbent on employing every means at its disposal — no matter how unlawful or unconstitutional — to retaliate against Harvard and other colleges and universities for speech it doesn’t like," it continued. "This has to stop."
Democratic lawmakers slam Trump’s meme coin dinner
A bicameral group of Democratic lawmakers are demanding transparency around Trump’s dinner for investors in his $TRUMP meme coin. The top 220 — mostly anonymous — holders of the coin are invited attend an “intimate private dinner” scheduled for tonight at the president’s golf club in Virginia. The top 25 will receive a “VIP White House Tour” tomorrow.
“At least let us see who’s going to be there,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters. “At least let the American people know who has bought access to the president. If there’s nothing wrong, if you think that this is all aboveboard, then what are you hiding?”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., described the dinner as “an orgy of corruption” and called for regulations to prevent elected officials from being able to profit from stablecoins — a provision not included in the GENIUS Act, crypto legislation that advanced in the Senate this week. However, there is a provision that would bar officials from issuing stablecoins.
“Without this fix, we’re not regulating stable coins. We are turbocharging the same corruption that we are witnessing tonight as Donald Trump opens the White House doors and sells favors to his wealthy crypto allies,” she said.
Harvard calls halt in enrolling international students 'unlawful'
Harvard said the Trump administration's decision to halt its ability to enroll international students is "unlawful."
"We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University — and this nation — immeasurably," the school said in a statement.
The school said it's working to provide guidance and support to members of the Harvard community.
"This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission," it said.
House GOP committee chair requests interviews with Biden aides as part of mental fitness investigation
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has requested transcribed interviews with several former aides of former President Joe Biden and a former White House physician, kick-starting a House GOP investigation into Biden’s mental fitness in office.
Comer said in the announcement that a key area of focus will be Biden’s use of an autopen to sign certain legislation and executive orders, which Trump has called illegal.
Requests for testimony were sent to:
- Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Biden's former physician
- Neera Tanden, former director of the Domestic Policy Council
- Anthony Bernal, former assistant to the president and senior adviser to the first lady
- Annie Tomasini, former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff
- Ashley Williams, former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office operations
In the previous Congress, the committee subpoenaed Bernal, Tomasini and Williams and requested a transcribed interview with O’Connor, but the Biden administration blocked all four from cooperating with it.
Education groups alarmed over budget bill's boost for private schools
Public education advocates are pushing to stop the “One Big Beautiful Bill” over a provision that would essentially create the first national school voucher program.
The budget package the House passed today includes a provision that would allocate $20 billion in tax credits for people who donate to scholarship funds that support students attending private K-12 schools. For each dollar given, the donor’s tax bill would be reduced by $1, a rate that’s three times more generous than tax incentives for donations to other nonprofit groups, such as veterans’ organizations and food banks.
Civil rights groups have also raised concern because private schools that do not take money directly from the government are exempt from gender and racial equality laws and are not required to accommodate students with disabilities.
“It’s devastating,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. “This is the first time the federal government is opening the doors wide open to funding private schools and kids who home-school and doing so through the tax code.”
The National Coalition for Public Education, which includes disability rights groups, teachers unions, the National Parent Teacher Association, school administrator associations and some liberal-leaning organizations, held a webinar today urging people to call their senators to oppose the provision.
The proposal would also permit people to avoid paying federal and state capital gains taxes by contributing corporate stock to scholarship organizations, which could cost states millions, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
“The result would be a profitable tax shelter for wealthy people who agree to help funnel public funds into private schools,” Amy Hanauer, the institute’s executive director, said in the webinar. “That is to say they would get more money by donating their stock than by selling it.”
The congressional proposal, which Democrats tried unsuccessfully to strip in committee, is backed by private school activist organizations, some Catholic and Jewish groups and the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank.
GOP senators are expected to make changes to the budget bill, but several have already backed the school tax credit proposal.
“Mothers and fathers should have the freedom to get their child out of a school that is not meeting their needs and into a better one,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said in a statement this week. “That could be a private school, charter school, homeschooling, or other options as the parent sees fit. But moms and dads may hesitate to do so because of the higher costs associated with alternative education options.”
While state voucher programs rapidly expanded in recent years, in many red states, pro-Trump conservatives have opposed attempts to create voucher programs, largely because of concern about how much money it could pull from rural school districts.
Here’s what’s in the sprawling Trump agenda bill House Republicans just passed
The massive domestic policy bill that House Republicans passed today by one vote would reshape the federal budget to the tune of trillions of dollars, affecting millions of people in the United States.
The legislation for Trump’s agenda was backed by nearly every Republican in the House and unanimously opposed by Democrats, who were cut out of the negotiations. It now heads to the GOP-led Senate, where it is likely to change before it reaches Trump’s desk.
Here are the major provisions in the sprawling package.
Law center says ‘male supremacy’ groups are on the rise
The Southern Poverty Law Center said today it counted 16 “male supremacist” hate groups in the United States last year, a sharp increase from nine such groups the year before as misogynistic content attracted new adherents.
The SPLC, a civil rights and anti-hate organization founded in 1971, said the male groups peddle pseudoscientific advice about physical health and relationships, with a focus on taking rights away from women.
“The gains by women in equity, in the boardroom, in education, in government absolutely have a backlash,” Rachel Carroll Rivas, the interim director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said in a briefing with reporters.
Overall, it says, the SPLC identified just under 1,400 hate and antigovernment extremist groups in the United States last year. That’s near the all-time high since it began an annual census in 1990. It’s nearly double the SPLC tally from a decade earlier, when it counted nearly 800 groups in 2014, but a slight decrease from the 1,430 groups in the 2023 census.
SPLC leaders said the decline from 2023 to 2024 was driven by two factors: efforts by anti-hate groups to counter extremism and, paradoxically, the institutionalization of hateful ideas into government.
SPLC President Margaret Huang said Trump’s campaign last year meant that there was “less incentive to recruit or organize” among extremists.
“The decline does not serve as evidence of the diminishing appeal of these groups but should be viewed as the successful mainstreaming of these ideologies as they drive decisions at the highest levels of power,” she said.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson criticized the SPLC.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center is a far-left group suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. They have zero credibility and their entire scam is to profit off smearing their political opponents,” she said.
Kennedy paints dire picture of children’s health in new report
The White House released its long-awaited “Make America Healthy Again” report today, painting a dire picture of American children’s health. The lengthy federal assessment’s goal is to identify the root causes of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders in children.
“Our kids are the sickest kids in the world,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a call with reporters Thursday morning.
Rand Paul says he opposes the debt ceiling increase in the GOP bill
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters today that he opposes the $4 trillion debt ceiling increase in the House-passed reconciliation package and wants it stripped out of the legislation.
"This will be the greatest increase in the debt ceiling ever. The GOP owns this now," Paul, a fiscal hawk, told reporters on Capitol Hill today. "I’ve told them, I can support the package if they separate the debt ceiling off and have a separate vote on."
Paul said a debt limit increase of that magnitude would not be "fiscally responsible" or "conservative."
Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he spoke last night with Trump, who the senator said told him he wants Congress to close the so-called carried interest loophole.
"We got to close that and use those savings for something else, like tax cuts," Hawley said, adding, "I just want to make sure that there are no Medicaid benefit cuts. I’m concerned about some of what the House has done on rural hospitals, essentially the hospital tax."
NBC News reported earlier this month that Trump privately pressed Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to close the carried interest loophole in the bill.
Judge halts dismantling of Education Department, orders fired workers to be reinstated
A federal judge in Massachusetts today issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department, and ordered fired employees be reinstated.
“The record abundantly reveals that Defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute,” U.S. District Judge Myong Joun wrote, noting “the Department cannot be shut down without Congress’s approval.”
What Trump’s pledge to cut taxes on tips and overtime means in practice as it moves closer to law
On the campaign trail, Trump sought to win over working-class voters in key swing states with a promise to exempt tips and overtime pay from federal income taxes.
Now, Congress is inching closer to making that promise a reality, despite some concerns over how the moves will contribute to the deficit and potentially disrupt the labor market.
Both measures still face multiple hurdles ahead. House leadership was working throughout the day yesterday to rally its members to pass a budget that includes a tax exemption for tips and overtime, before the legislation will then head to the Senate. A separate bill exempting tips, but not overtime, from federal income taxes unanimously passed the Senate this week and will now need to be taken up by the House.
The tax breaks, first floated by Trump on the campaign trail, have generated a rare coalition of support stretching across typical partisan divides, with unions, including the Teamsters, and industry groups, like the National Restaurant Association, advocating for the tax exemptions along with some Democrats. At the same time, conservative-leaning think tanks and economists have raised concerns over how the exemptions would contribute to the deficit and potentially impact the job market by rewarding some workers over others.
House budget savings are offset, in part, by higher borrowing costs
The massive domestic spending and tax cut package passed by the House today will do little to rein in overall government spending when accounting for increased interest payments the federal government will have to pay on its debt, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Despite efforts by Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency to make sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and government spending, the House budget will result in a net savings of $670 billion over the next decade — around a 1% reduction in the $86 trillion in projected spending in the bill, the group found.
While the bill includes $1.2 billion in cuts to federal spending, those will be partially offset by $550 billion in higher payments by the federal government for interest on the nation’s debt. The bill, which includes $3.8 trillion in tax cuts, will increase deficits by $2.3 trillion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Supreme Court sidesteps major ruling on religious public charter schools
Oklahoma will not be able to launch the nation’s first religious public charter school after the Supreme Court today deadlocked 4-4 in a major case on the separation of church and state.
The decision by the evenly divided court means that a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said the proposal to launch St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School violates both the federal Constitution and state law remains in place.
As there was no majority, the court did not issue a written decision, and the case sets no nationwide precedent on the contentious legal question of whether religious schools must be able to participate in taxpayer-funded state charter school programs.
A key factor in the outcome was that conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who would have been the deciding vote, did not participate in the case. She did not explain why, but it is likely because of her ties with Notre Dame Law School. The law school’s religious liberty clinic represents the school.
Trump accepts plane from Qatar, clashes with South African leader
The Pentagon says it’s officially accepting Qatar’s controversial gift of a $400 million luxury jumbo jet once it makes security updates, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raising concerns. Meanwhile, Trump clashed with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during an Oval Office meeting. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports for "TODAY."
Pelosi backs Haley Stevens in Michigan Senate race
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken sides in the Michigan Senate primary, endorsing Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens this morning.
“Haley Stevens is a proven fighter for Michigan! I am proud to endorse her for the U.S. Senate,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement shared with NBC News. “From her time as Chief of Staff on the auto rescue task force to her work strengthening Michigan’s manufacturing industry in Congress, it’s clear Haley is well equipped to stand up to Donald Trump’s chaos, lower costs for our families and ensure every Michigander can thrive.”
Haley said in a statement that she is “so proud” to have Pelosi’s support.
Haley is in a contested primary to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, which includes state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, former state House Speaker Joe Tate and former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed, who has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Democrats are looking to hold on to the seat in Michigan, which Trump narrowly won last year, as they face an uphill battle to net the four seats they need to take control of the Senate.
Trump implores Senate to send him 'THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'
Trump celebrated the House's passage this morning of a massive bill to advance the Republicans' agenda, saying in a post on Truth Social that "THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL” was "arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country."
The bill contains many of the Trump administration's priorities, such as an extension for his 2017 tax cuts, the elimination of taxes on tips and more money to expand the military and pursue the president's mass deportation goals.
"Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, it’s time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!" Trump wrote. "There is no time to waste."
Johnson condemns attack on Israeli Embassy staffers as ‘horrific’
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., condemned last night’s shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., calling it a “horrific attack, obviously an antisemitic attack.”
“I have several Jewish colleagues here that are dear friends who came up to me. We spoke about that in the wee hours of the morning, and how jarring it is for them and for all of us, and it reminds us that we’ve got to be very careful,” Johnson said. “We got to watch out for one another, and we have to stand against antisemitism.”
The speaker said “our hearts and our prayers go out to those families that were affected.”
“That’s not what we stand for in America. That is not what anybody in this Congress condones,” he said. “We don’t condone any type of antisemitism, and the more we stand together and decry that, the better.”
One person shot in 'security incident' outside CIA headquarters
A person was shot by security guards outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, early this morning, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The person was not killed, and the Fairfax County police and FBI are investigating the incident, the source said.
A CIA spokesperson said the main gate to the headquarters was closed after the "security incident" and additional details would be made available "as appropriate."
House speaker says he has 'no red lines' on potential Senate changes to bill
When asked by a reporter whether the Senate could make changes to the sweeping GOP budget bill that he would not accept, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., indicated no.
"I'm not going to draw any red lines," he said. "I told them, there's a lot of different opinions over there, as there is here," Johnson said, noting his party's slim majority in the Senate.
The House and Senate ultimately will need to reconcile any differences in their bills before final passage.
‘We will follow the facts’: Bondi speaks out after 2 Israeli Embassy staff members killed
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the suspect in the shooting of two Israeli Embassy members in Washington, D.C. “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump to host more than 200 buyers of his crypto coin
Trump will host more than 200 of the top buyers of his cryptocurrency token at his golf club this evening, rewarding a group that has spent nearly $400 million on the $TRUMP token.
The top 220 holders of the token, which Trump announced days before his second inauguration, have been invited to Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., for a black-tie dinner with the president.
Trump last month began promoting a competition that would reward the top buyers of the crypto coin with a private dinner. The top 25 buyers were additionally invited to a "exclusive private VIP reception" with Trump.
A seat at the dinner costs more than $1 million on average, ranging from those who spent less than $100,000 on the coin to those who doled out $37 million.
The identities of most invitees remains anonymous, but at least one has been identified as Chinese-born crypto mogul Justin Sun.
The Trump organization and its affiliated groups collectively own 80% of the token, according to the website for the contest.
Democrats and Republicans alike have voiced concerns over the event, with some characterizing it as an attempt by Trump to profit off the presidency. Democrats have introduced legislation that would bar elected officials from issuing, endorsing or sponsoring crypto assets.
Two Israeli Embassy staffers shot dead outside D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum
Two staff members of Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot dead outside the district’s Capital Jewish Museum last night, officials said.
The suspect shouted “Free, free Palestine” while in police custody and “implied” that he committed the shooting, Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith said. He was identified as Elias Rodriguez, in his early 30s, of Chicago.
House passes sweeping domestic policy package, a big win for Trump and Speaker Johnson
The House of Representatives this morning narrowly passed a massive domestic policy package, a major victory for President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after after weeks of heated negotiations within the GOP.
The multitrillion-dollar tax cut and spending measure now heads to the Senate, where Republicans have vowed to change it.