Freedom Caucus leaders vent to Paul Ryan after talks with Steve Bannon  —  Leaders of the Freedom Caucus met with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday to candidly express their frustrations with his leadership and his handling of the Republican legislative agenda, according to two people familiar with the discussion.

GOP livid after Trump cuts deal with Democrats  —  President Donald Trump's and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's tête-à-tê te on Tuesday — after a summer of sniping between the two — lifted Republican hopes that the GOP was finally back in sync ahead of a brutal fall of fiscal deadlines.

Scoop: Inside the Freedom Caucus' tax plan  —  The House Freedom Caucus — a group of around 35 ultra-conservative House Republicans who can block their party's leadership on key legislation — is in the final stages of drafting its own tax plan, according to sources familiar with the process.

Trump's Art of the Deal?  Not so much  —  President Trump handed Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer the deal of the century this morning.  —  One top Republican described the move to me as the legislative equivalent of giving an entire stockpile of weapons to Democrats and inviting them to take the entire Republican Party hostage.

Inside Trump's head-scratching deal with “Chuck and Nancy”  —  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is perplexed, with no idea what President Trump thinks he was gaining.  — In fact, McConnell rather doubts the president has a strategy, a close source tells Axios.

The Pivot Is Real, And It's Spectacular  —  So President Trump calls the leadership of the Republicans and Democrats into the Oval Office today for a meeting about what to do about the debt ceiling and funding the government, and he promptly does something that Washington should've expected …

To Allies' Chagrin, Trump Swerves Left  —  WASHINGTON — Republican congressional leaders perched on the couches in the Oval Office froze in mid-smile on Wednesday afternoon when they realized President Trump was bypassing them to cut a short-term spending and debt ceiling deal with Democrats, and not them.

Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election … Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during the U.S. presidential election to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters …

Facebook gave special counsel Robert Mueller data on Russian ads, report says  — An internal Facebook investigation has found it is “likely” Russian operatives spent $100,000 on ads with “divisive messages”  — Though most of the ads did not reference the U.S. presidential election …

Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Caribbean with Florida at center of projected path  —  Hurricane Irma — with its ferocious 185 mph winds — made landfall in the Caribbean early Wednesday, slamming into Barbuda and Antigua as it headed for Puerto Rico, with Florida now directly in the center of the projected path by the weekend.