How an Affair Between a Reporter and a Security Aide Has Rattled Washington Media  —  The pearl bracelet arrived in May 2014, in the spring of Ali Watkins's senior year in college, a graduation gift from a man many years her senior.  It was the sort of bauble that might imply something …

Mattis is out of the loop and Trump doesn't listen to him, say officials  —  On Iran, North Korea and other major issues, the defense secretary has been out of the loop  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary James Mattis learned in May from a colleague that President Donald Trump had made the decision …

Let the Trump team eat in peace  —  OVER THE WEEKEND there was a fair bit of argument over the decision by a small restaurant in Lexington, Va., not to serve dinner to President Trump's press secretary.  It wasn't the first time recently that strong political feelings have spilled into what used to be considered the private sphere.

Trump Calls for Depriving Immigrants Who Illegally Cross Border of Due Process Rights  —  President Trump asserted on Sunday that immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally should be sent back immediately without due process or an appearance before a judge, an escalation of his attacks on the judicial system.

Stormy Daniels to meet with prosecutors in Michael Cohen investigation  —  Stormy Daniels is scheduled Monday to be interviewed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, preparing for a potential grand jury appearance about a $130,000 payment from President Trump's attorney Michael Cohen …

Where Is Barack Obama?  —  Barack Obama was six months into his post-White House life when Donald Trump found a new way to grab his attention.  It was a Tuesday morning deep in the mid-Atlantic summer, and, feeling a world away from the Pennsylvania Avenue grind, the former president was reading the New York Times on his iPad.

Pruitt faces another probe for employee retaliation allegations  —  The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is reviewing claims that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt retaliated against a handful of employees who pushed back against his spending and management, according to three people familiar with the process.

Separated immigrant children are all over the U.S. now, far from parents who don't know where they are  —  Their mothers are missing, their fathers far away.  They get pizza, maybe cold cuts.  They are exhausted; they cannot sleep.  There are other children around, but they had never seen …

Trump Associates Facing Mounting Legal Bills Turn to Financial Backers for Help  —  Michael Caputo's GoFundMe.com page and the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust are just two pools of money easing the burden as probes continue  —  Michael Caputo was facing $130,000 in legal bills with no clear …

Where I stand on the Trump agenda  —  I appreciate the argument made by those who believe we should stay silent, but I cannot subscribe to it.  —  One of the questions I am asked frequently on the campaign trail is whether as Senator I will support the Trump agenda.

Trump Plans New Curbs on Chinese Investment, Tech Exports to China  —  Treasury is crafting rules that would block firms with at least 25% Chinese ownership from buying companies involved in ‘industrially significant technology’  —  WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump, already embroiled …

McCaskill stays on the trail despite a broken rib — courtesy of Joe Manchin  —  Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) told constituents over the weekend that she'd suffered a cracked rib after a colleague saved her from choking at a Democratic caucus luncheon — an injury that took that colleague, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), by surprise.

Poll: 66% Of Voters Oppose Trump DOJ's Move To Gut Patient Protections  —  Contributor I write about healthcare business and policy Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.  —  “> 66% of voters disapprove of the Trump Justice Department's move

What did Peter Strzok do?  —  As former top FBI official Peter Strzok faces congressional requests to testify, it's worth examining who he is.  —  Strzok is the subject of what I see as one of the most damaging conclusions in the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general report …

It's time we abolish ICE  —  We've all experienced a phone app that's not working properly, or a computer program that freezes the machine.  What do you do?  Lesson number one: shut it down.  —  It works for computers.  Maybe that's what we need to do with Immigration and Custom Enforcement …

The latest sign of political divide: Shaming and shunning public officials  —  Anger and division in American politics are creating a rising phenomenon: the public shaming and shunning of political figures while they are going about their private lives.  —  Few laws expressly prohibit …

'We're riding a tiger': The Iowa GOP bets it all on Trump  —  The president's trade war could cripple the state, but Republicans trust in him as negotiator-in-chief.  —  DES MOINES — Donald Trump's trade war with China could cost Iowa farmers hundreds of millions of dollars and do untold damage to the state economy.

Javier Solana, Ex-Chief of NATO, Is Denied Permission to Travel to U.S.  —  BRUSSELS — Javier Solana, a former secretary general of NATO who played a central role in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program when he was the European Union's foreign policy chief, has been denied electronic authorization …

Trump's winning, cynical plan  —  An odd paradox in defining this moment in politics: The more President Trump does, says and tweets outrageous things, the more his critics go bananas and the better he does in the polls.  —  The big picture: Our parallel universes are spinning farther apart.

Erdogan's Election Win Gives Him Vastly Expanded Powers in Turkey  —  ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish voters gave President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a decisive victory in national elections on Sunday, lengthening his 15-year grip on power and granting him vastly expanded authority over the legislature and judiciary.

The big picture: 2018's stormiest clouds for the GOP  —  A source close to Republican leadership emails about the biggest political clouds hovering over the rest of the year:  —  “Only thing that matters now is a) how bad they get crushed on ACA premium increases; b) the final Mueller verdict; and c) how crazy Trump gets with the CR.”

A Counterattack on Voting Rights  —  In the suburbs of Salt Lake City, there is a planned community called Suncrest that has turned out to be a good place to study voter turnout.  Suncrest feels like one community, full of modern, single-family houses.  But it straddles two different counties — Salt Lake and Utah.

A Leading Climate Agency May Lose Its Climate Focus  —  The Trump administration appears to be planning to shift the mission of one of the most important federal science agencies that works on climate change — away from climate change.  —  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration …

Why We Are Leaving the G.O.P.  —  When the obituary for the Republican Party is written, the year 1980 will be cited as the beginning of the end.  Reaganism was in full flower, but the big tent was already folding.  Republican leaders endorsed a constitutional ban on abortion at the convention that summer …