Barr walks back claim that law enforcement spied on Trump campaign  —  Attorney General Bill Barr told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday that he believes spying by law enforcement officials on the 2016 Trump campaign “did occur,” before clarifying at the end of the hearing …

Hush-Money Probe Gathered Evidence From Trump's Inner Circle  —  Federal investigators, looking into payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, questioned longtime aides of the president and amassed more evidence than previously known  —  The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office has gathered …

Trump's ‘truly bizarre’ visit to Mt. Vernon  —  President Donald Trump had some advice for George Washington.  —  During a guided tour of Mount Vernon last April with French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump learned that Washington was one of the major real-estate speculators of his era.

Miller and Kushner on a potential collision course in Trump's border crisis  —  In President Trump's latest blowup over immigration, senior adviser Stephen Miller hovered omnipresent in the background — goading him in his threats to close the border, warning him of the dangers of looking weak …

Mick Mulvaney Tries Letting Trump Be Trump  —  WASHINGTON — When President Trump met with his embattled homeland security secretary on Sunday to force her out after months of stormy eruptions over immigration policy, the only other person in the room was Mick Mulvaney, who made no effort …

Steve Mnuchin tried to tell Maxine Waters how to run a congressional hearing.  It did not go well.  —  “Please cancel your meeting and respect our time.”  —  During a hearing on Tuesday, an exasperated Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters …

What the President May Now Fear Most in Mueller Report  —  Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report is predicated, as far as we know, on a potentially explosive assumption.  —  Consider a head scratching set of conclusions.  The Special Counsel wrote that “the evidence does not establish …

Inside the (semi-)secret society for young Trump staffers  —  On the first Wednesday evening in February, Anthony Scaramucci entertained a packed house of like-minded souls at Rewind, a retro diner off Dupont Circle.  —  There, the former White House communications director fielded friendly questions …

Warner Bros. Shut Down Trump's 2020 Video For Using The “Dark Knight Rises” Score  —  President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted a video on Twitter that appeared to be part of his 2020 reelection campaign.  In less than three hours, it had already amassed over 1 million views, but by late Tuesday night, the video was no longer available.

What I've Learned From Collecting Stories of People Whose Loved Ones Were Transformed by Fox News  —  It was somewhere around the 100th response that my brain turned to mush.  —  Last week, I devoted an installment of my newsletter Welcome to Hell World to a dozen stories from people who …

If Trump has his way, this major federal agency is on the way out  —  The White House is moving to do what no president has accomplished since the end of World War II: eliminate a major federal agency.  —  If the Trump administration succeeds at dismantling the Office of Personnel Management …

Look at the Forest, Not the Trees: What We Do and Don't Know About 2020  —  In this age of constant stimulation and news and information overload, it is harder than ever to get perspective.  I am as guilty as anyone of getting sucked into the vortex of political twitter, only to emerge hours later with little to show for it.

Mnuchin, Waters engage in angry exchange with cameras rolling on Capitol Hill  —  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) engaged in a fierce clash Tuesday, squaring off amid rising antagonism between the White House and congressional Democrats.

Donald Trump Inadvertently Killed the Pentagon Press Briefing.  Here's How That Hurts the Public  —  Gerard Butler's last action movie was about Navy SEALs rescuing a kidnapped Russian president to prevent World War III.  But the least realistic part may have been when the burly Scottish actor stood …

The Border Is Broken.  And There's No Plan to Fix It.  —  For years, there have been warnings that America's immigration system was going to fail.  That time may be now. … It was never like this before.  —  The migrants come now in the middle of the night or in the bright light of day.

A Texas bill would make it possible to put women to death for having abortions  —  Men and women, young and old, native Texans and immigrants, they rose to ask lawmakers to protect life, describing a “genocide” and foreseeing the arrival of “God's wrath.”  —  The act of public atonement …

Bernie Sanders Introduces New Medicare For All Bill, Welcoming War With Insurance Industry  —  He's promising more benefits — and facing more opposition.  —  Bernie Sanders on Wednesday is formally introducing an updated version of his bill to enroll every U.S. resident in a single, government-run health insurance plan.

Trump's cognitive deficits seem worse.  We need to know if he has dementia: Psychologist  —  We see signs that the president's abilities are declining, but the only way to find out for sure is to give him a full neuropsychological evaluation.  —  CONNECT  —  If Donald Trump were your father …

The Urgent Quest for Slower, Better News  —  The current system for delivering news online is broken.  Readers and journalists will need to work together to find a new one.  —  Last month, I decided to try an experiment with my media diet.  Usually, in the morning, I skim e-mail newsletters in my in-box …

The End of Aspiration  —  Since the end of the Second World War, middle- and working-class people across the Western world have sought out—and, more often than not, achieved—their aspirations.  These usually included a stable income, a home, a family, and the prospect of a comfortable retirement.