How the Justice Dept. Helped Sink Its Own Case Against Eric Adams  —  A top Trump appointee guided Mr. Adams's legal team as they crafted an argument for dismissing corruption charges against the mayor of America's largest city.  —  President Trump had just taken office when lawyers …

Senior Republican senator ‘puzzled’ and ‘disturbed’ by Hegseth's Ukraine remarks  —  Live coverage from Munich: POLITICO is on the ground at the Munich Security Conference, where we're having conversations with top officials, lawmakers and experts at our POLITICO Pub.  Follow our exclusive coverage here.

Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov Website  —  The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media.

House Republicans advance their budget after appeasing hard-liners  —  The House Budget Committee adopted a budget resolution Thursday as GOP leaders work to unlock the power to enact major Republican priorities along party lines.  —  Score one for the backers of “one big, beautiful bill.”

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Resume Foreign Aid Spending  —  The judge faulted the logic of a blanket freeze on foreign aid spending and found that groups that depend on the aid had made a strong initial showing of “irreparable harm.”  —  A federal judge ordered the Trump administration …

Kennedy Center staff describe climate of fear as events drop from calendar  —  Issa Rae became the first major artist to publicly cancel an upcoming show at the center after President Trump took over its board and leadership.  —  The fallout from President Donald Trump's takeover …

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue  —  An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return …

The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory  —  Tesla and SpaceX both relied on their labor while Musk advocated for a border crackdown.  —  Cristy was in her early 50s when she took a job with a cleaning subcontractor on a construction project …

Louisiana Department of Health says it will no longer promote mass vaccination  —  The Louisiana Department of Health will no longer promote mass vaccination, the state's surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham, told state health workers Thursday.  —  “The State of Louisiana and LDH …

Trump administration directs agency heads to fire most probationary staff  —  Terminations should happen within two days, according to four people familiar with internal conversations.  —  The Trump administration has directed agency heads to fire most trial period and probationary staff within two days …

TikTok Returns to Apple and Google App Stores  —  The popular social media app was removed to comply with a new law that banned it in the United States.  President Trump has paused enforcement of the ban.  —  Apple and Google restored TikTok to their U.S. app stores on Thursday evening …

Trump administration fires thousands of federal workers  —  At least six government agencies have initiated layoffs, as DOGE's efforts enter a more aggressive phrase.  —  The Trump administration moved swiftly to lay off thousands of government employees in at least six agencies Thursday …

Billionaire Airbnb Co-Founder Is Said to Take Role in Musk's Government Initiative  —  Joe Gebbia is a board member at Tesla and is close to Elon Musk, the company's C.E.O.  —  One of Elon Musk's closest friends, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, is taking a role in President Trump's administration …

Nazi flags can fly in Utah schools, but not pride flags, GOP lawmaker says  —  A new bill would allow for Nazi and Confederate flags to be displayed in some instances in Utah schools and government buildings, but pride flags would be banned.  —  An ongoing fight in Utah to ban pride flags …

Hegseth team invites far-right activist Jack Posobiec on overseas trip  —  The offer triggered alarm among Pentagon officials concerned about the military being dragged into partisan warfare.

The AP provides a model of effective press resistance  —  🧭 🗺️ 🌎 With corporate outlets obeying in advance, supporting independent political media is more important right now than ever.  Public Notice is possible thanks to paid subscribers.

How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory Into a Cash Bonanza  —  First lady's documentary deal with Amazon, president's legal settlements and other transactions near $80 million so far; Trump library a major beneficiary  —  | Illustrations by Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ

Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:  —  Section 1.  Purpose.  American life expectancy significantly lags behind other developed countries …

There's a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing  —  How regime change happens in America  —  despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is not, so far, primarily interested in efficiency.  DOGE and its boss, Elon Musk, have instead focused their activity on the eradication …

“We've Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.

Trump insults McConnell over RFK Jr. vote, casts doubts on polio diagnosis  —  ‘I have no idea if he had polio,’ Trump said when asked about the 82-year-old Kentucky senator's decision to vote against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

This Small Rust-Belt City Holds the Secret to Democrats' Latino Woes  —  During the final, frenzied week of the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both made campaign stops in a place whose significance in the election had largely been overlooked by observers: Reading …

Russian Drone Damages Radiation Shield at Chernobyl, Ukraine Says  —  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called the damage “significant” but said there were no signs of radiation leaks.  A Kremlin spokesman denied that Russia had carried out the strike.