Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

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Elite resistance

Elite institutions — from Harvard to white-shoe law firms to major nonprofits — are leading the resistance to President Trump's second-term agenda, Axios' Eleanor Hawkins writes.

• The large protests and mass political movements of Trump's first term haven't been nearly as potent this time around. Democrats don't have a clear political leader, or a clear strategy to fight Trump.
• The most consistent pushback is instead emerging mainly from famous, wealthy institutions that have billions on the line.

? The big picture: Harvard is still fighting Trump, in court and in public, after he canceled some $2.5 billion in federal funding to the school and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status.

• While several big law firms have caved to Trump's demands, three have challenged them in court — and scored one early victory.
• Nonprofits like the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation are preparing for a fight, should the administration attempt to pull their tax-exempt status, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• Shareholders from major U.S. companies including Apple, Costco, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and, most recently, Berkshire Hathaway have overwhelmingly rejected anti-DEI proposals pushed by conservative activists.

Go deeper.

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Doff the Hats (Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Win McNamee / Getty)

View in browser Unemployment rates are near historical lows, and finding good help is hard. Perhaps that’s why Donald Trump keeps turning to the same group of officials to fill multiple positions. Todd Blanche is the deputy attorney general, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department—a big and important job. As of this week, he’s also the acting Librarian of Congress. Russ Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, is also the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—though because he’s effectively frozen the bureau’s work, that may not be much of a lift. Kash Patel is the head of the FBI but also served as acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives until he was replaced by Daniel Driscoll, who happens to be the secretary of the Army as well. Still, no one is working as hard as Marco Rubio, who now has four jobs. His main gig is serving as secretary of state, but in February he was appointed acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Days later, he also became the acting archivist of the United States. And earlier this month, after Trump sacked National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, he named Rubio to fill that role on an acting basis as well. (A State Department spokesperson has said he’s receiving only one salary.) The administration is also relying on acting officials—temporarily appointed but not Senate-confirmed—in other key roles, including FEMA’s head and the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The government has a term for this: dual-hatting. Or rather, a term exists for what Blanche, Vought, and Patel are doing. Rubio is breaking new ground in both semantics and government. Some dual-hat roles exist by design. The head of the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency are the same person, to increase agility when dealing with cybersecurity threats, though some people believe that the roles should be split. In these other cases, however, Trump either can’t or won’t find someone to actually fill the role. Neither possibility is encouraging. If he can’t, at this early stage in his administration, find enough qualified people willing to do these jobs, then the rest of his term will be a continuous struggle to execute. If he simply won’t, because he would rather stick with a small circle of figures he trusts, the administration will also be beset by dysfunction, as leaders pulled in too many directions drop balls, as well as by dangerous incompetence and conflicts of interest. The dual-hatting reflects Trump’s attempts to learn from his first term. In Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation document that has been a blueprint for the administration, the authors lamented that Trump was very slow to appoint people to fill administration roles. “This had the effect of permanently hampering the rollout of the new President’s agenda,” they wrote, because “much of the government relied on senior careerists and holdover Obama appointees to carry out the sensitive responsibilities that would otherwise belong to the new President’s appointees.” As Trump’s presidency continued, he came to rely on acting appointments, in part because the Senate declined to confirm some of his less-qualified nominees. Project 2025 recommended using more acting appointments but, more important, sought to solve this problem by identifying and training a corps of loyal operatives ready to be appointed on day one. That doesn’t seem to have worked so far. Trump has more confirmed picks than at the same point in his first administration and the Joe Biden administration but is just keeping pace with Barack Obama, and he seems to have a particular problem filling positions that are very important but below Cabinet rank. Whether the dual-hat wearers are qualified to do the work seems to hold little importance for Trump. The White House’s rationale for firing Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden was nonsensical: She was accused of acquiring books inappropriate for children, which makes little sense when discussing a non-lending library with a wide collection. She holds a doctorate in library science and served as president of the American Library Association. Blanche, by contrast, has spent his career as a white-shoe lawyer (including defending Trump in his criminal trials). Rubio’s roles at USAID and as national security adviser at least have some overlap with his work as secretary of state (if not with one another), but they require a broad range of managerial skills and knowledge. As my colleague Tom Nichols recently wrote, “Rubio is the only person besides Henry Kissinger to have ever run the National Security Council and State Department simultaneously, and it is both a criticism and a compliment to say that Marco Rubio is no Henry Kissinger.” As for the fourth role, it makes no sense except as an attempt to weaken the Archives. “I don’t think it’s possible to have an effective Archives without an archivist,” David Ferriero, the archivist from 2009 to 2022, told me. Ferriero remains in frequent touch with former colleagues, and told me that Rubio had only recently made his first appearance at the National Archives, about 100 days into the administration. That means the Archives are without a full-time leader at a crucial moment. “The first 100 days are very important,” Ferriero told me, because 4,000 new people typically enter the government in that period. “Those incoming folks need to be trained about what the rules and regulations are regarding recordkeeping. That’s the piece that I know isn’t taking place now. All the former guidelines, principles, and following the rules are out the window. That means a huge hole in our history.” In an emailed statement, the National Archives and Records Administration said, “The National Archives’ core mission is preserving the records of the United States Government and making those records available to the American people.” The statement cited the recent release of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. The statement did not address how often Rubio has been at work at the Archives. Rubio might also have an incentive to not preserve records. As secretary of state, he was part of a Signal group discussing strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, to which Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added. These discussions are too sensitive to happen over Signal, an off-the-shelf application, but once they did take place, they became subject to public-records laws. How and whether the administration was preserving them remains unclear, though, and they may have been deleted. Is Archivist Marco Rubio likely to raise a fuss about violations of the law committed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio? Conflicts of interest like this one, as well as cases of simple neglect, will proliferate the longer the administration keeps using the same group to fill many jobs. Trump owes it to his agenda  and to the nation to doff the dual hats. Related: Tom Nichols: A crisis is no time for amateurs. Inside Mike Waltz’s White House exit

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Veteran Air Traffic Controller Spills All on Trump-Era Safety Crisis

Jonathan Stewart told The Wall Street Journal about a close call at Newark.

A veteran air traffic controller has opened up in stunning detail about the Trump-era safety crisis currently roiling the U.S. travel industry.

Jonathan Stewart outlined in an on-the-record interview a recent close call at Newark-Liberty International Airport, and outlined the dangers of staffing shortages bedeviling the FAA.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Stewart described the stress that comes with his job as supervisor at the Philadelphia site that oversees planes arriving at the New Jersey airport.

“It’s like a videogame, but it’s like playing 3-D chess at 250 miles an hour,” he told the outlet. “We are the guys that are guiding your pilots home.”

“I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” he added, noting that staffing shortfalls restrict the number of planes that can be effectively guided in for landing.

Stewart, who is among those on trauma leave, filed an internal safety report after a close call on May 4, in which two planes were flying toward each other at the same altitude. Stewart was able to help pilots change course, but was concerned about another equipment failure.

“The situation is, has been and continues to be unsafe,” Stewart wrote. “The amount of stress we are under is insurmountable.”

Stewart told the Journal that controllers should ideally spend two hours maximum working traffic. Before the May 4 near miss, he had worked three, according to the report.

While Stewart is expected to make more than $450,000 this year—overtime included—he is “sacrificing a lot for that,” Stewart said.

“You give up nights, weekends, holidays, birthdays, everything else. Your mental health and your physical health take a toll,” he added.

“Like anything else, you’re going to have a breaking point,” he said.

Near misses like the one on May 4 may not be stressful at the time, he explained. “But the thing about PTSD is this: For every time you have an incident—say a close call, a near-midair, God forbid—all of these things are cumulative."

As for the FAA and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pledging immediate action to address tech issues and low staffing at the nation’s 12th-busiest airport, Stewart reacted positively: “For the first time that I’m aware of, they are throwing money at the problem.”

Another air traffic controller warned earlier this month that, in the meantime, travelers should “avoid Newark at all costs.”

And Newark isn’t the only airport where air traffic controllers have experienced a momentary loss of contact with planes.

In Denver on Monday, transmitters stopped functioning for up to six minutes, prompting an FAA investigation.

Just the day before, Duffy had seemingly predicted the incident.

“What you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press, pinning the blame on outdated technology and subpar oversight by Congress.

“It has to be fixed, and so what we’re having is some telecom issues, but we’re also having some glitches in our software,” he said. “As the information comes in, it’s overloading some of our lines, and the system goes down.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/veteran-air-traffic-controller-spills-all-on-trump-era-safety-crisis/?

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Supreme Court could block Trump’s birthright citizenship order but limit nationwide injunctions The Supreme Court seemed intent Thursday on maintaining a block on President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship while looking for a way to scale back nationwide court orders. A decision is expected by the end of June. Read more.

Why this matters: Birthright citizenship is among several issues, many related to immigration, that the administration has asked the court to address on an emergency basis. It was unclear what such a decision might look like, but a majority of the court expressed concerns about what would happen if the Trump administration were allowed, even temporarily, to deny citizenship to children born to people who are in the United States illegally.   Nationwide injunctions have emerged as an important check on Trump’s efforts to remake the government and a source of mounting frustration to the Republican president and his allies. Judges have issued 40 nationwide injunctions since Trump began his second term in January, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court at the start of more than two hours of arguments.   The court’s liberal justices seemed firmly in support of the lower court rulings that found the changes to citizenship that Trump wants to make would upset the settled understanding of birthright citizenship that has existed for more than 125 years. Several conservative justices who might be open to limiting nationwide injunctions also wanted to know the practical effects of such a decision, as well as how quickly the court could reach a final decision on the Trump executive order.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ FACT FOCUS: Trump claims the US is the only country with birthright citizenship. It’s not   Supreme Court revives lawsuit over fatal Texas police shooting during traffic stop for unpaid tolls   Trump’s ‘beautiful’ bill spans 1,116 pages. Here’s what’s inside it   Military commanders will be told to send transgender troops to medical checks to oust them   The FBI is disbanding one of its Washington-based public corruption squads, AP sources say   Seattle judge rescinds order directing Trump administration to admit 12,000 refugees   Wisconsin judge pleads not guilty to helping a man evade federal immigration agents   US wants to withhold details in Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. Judge will hear arguments   Senate rejects Democratic measure to force more transparency on deportations to El Salvador   Asylum-seekers still arrive at the US border, but what will happen to them?   Trump administration officials say Secret Service is investigating Comey’s ’86 47' social media post   US lost business travelers in April as economic anxiety and border detentions cooled demand   FEMA’s acting chief says agency will shift more disaster recovery responsibilities to the states   Trump says the US and Iran have ‘sort of’ agreed on the terms for a nuclear deal   Trump’s Mideast trip splashes out on deals and diplomacy but is unusually quiet on human rights   Homeland Security looks to buy a new $50M jet for secretary and Coast Guard officials   Firing, hiring and a mystery: The 225-year-old Library of Congress has never had a moment like this   Democrats want to focus on Trump. Instead, they’re being asked about Biden’s mental acuity   Police investigate disappearance of Melania Trump’s statue in her native Slovenia   WATCH: George W. Bush’s latest paintings showcase scenes from his presidential library

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Conservatives block Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill in a stunning setback

In a massive setback, House Republicans failed Friday to push their big package of tax breaks and spending cuts through the Budget Committee, as a handful of conservatives joined all Democrats in a stunning vote against it. Read More.

US consumer sentiment slides to 3-year lows as trade war raises inflation anxiety

U.S. consumer sentiment fell slightly in May for the fifth straight month, surprising economists, as Americans increasingly worry that President Donald Trump’s trade war will worsen inflation. Read More.

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Bondi sold millions in Trump Media stock the day Trump imposed vast tariffs

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi sold $1 million to $5 million worth of shares in President Donald Trump’s media company last month on the same day that he announced expansive tariffs that led to a stock market rout, according to disclosure filings.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/05/16/bondi-sold-millions-in-trump-media-stock-the-day-trump-imposed-vast-tariffs/?

? You're fired. You're hired. You're fired.

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

Axios' Emily Peck spoke with an employee at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who has been fired twice — and rehired twice. When the Trump administration fired all "probationary" employees, this worker lost their job via a form letter. Pay and benefits were cut immediately. About a month later, after a federal judge ruled the probationary firings were illegal, they were reinstated and ultimately received six weeks' back pay. A couple weeks after that, almost all employees at the CFPB received reduction-in-force notices, and were given one day before their computer access was shut off. That same week, thanks to another court case, the RIF was rescinded. ? They're now back on the job — but there's not much to do, because leadership has halted much of the CFPB's work. "We're all sweating now that we're just going to be terminated outright again," the worker said. Go deeper.

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Ax for iconic NASA office

Columbia University's Armstrong Hall, home to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, also houses a diner famous for its cameos on "Seinfeld." Photo: NASA Scientists at an iconic NASA research center in Manhattan have been told they have until the end of the month to vacate their building — with nowhere to go, Axios' Emily Peck reports. Why it matters: The closure of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies office — in a building owned by Columbia University that's famous for housing a diner in "Seinfeld" — is the latest blow to scientists and climate change researchers from the Trump administration and DOGE. ? Scientists at Goddard who spoke to Axios warn that critical work is at risk, including maintenance of global temperature records, dating back to the 1880s, that are used by economists, insurance companies and developers. Home to more than 100 scientists, the institute is where the terms "black hole" and "quasar" were coined. State of play: Scientists got an email last month alerting them that the lease was being canceled. "This is existential for us," said Joy Romanski, a climate scientist at Columbia University who works at the center. "We can't recreate this anywhere else. And it doesn't work to be remote."

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Trump's Gulf gamble

The enduring legacy of President Trump's trip to the Gulf may be the transformation of the Middle East into a global AI powerhouse, despite massive risks to the U.S., Axios' Alison Snyder and Dave Lawler report.

• Why it matters: The Biden administration saw the Gulf as a backdoor for China to gain access to the computing power needed to advance AI. President Trump and the tech CEOs who joined him in the Middle East see a chance for multibillion-dollar deals.

In deal after deal announced over the week, Trump opened the door for the Gulf to obtain the world's most advanced AI chips.

• ?? In Saudi Arabia, Trump and tech leaders from AMD, Amazon and other companies announced AI-related partnerships worth billions of dollars with a new Saudi-state-backed AI infrastructure startup called Humain. Nvidia said it will ship 18,000 of its cutting-edge AI chips for a 500-megawatt data center Humain is building.
• ?? In the UAE, Trump and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed said the two countries will partner to build the largest AI data center outside the U.S., in Abu Dhabi.

Trump's AI czar, David Sacks, called the deals a "game-changer in the global AI race."

• "The alternative to this framework was to exclude critical geo-strategic, resource-rich friends and allies from our AI ecosystem. This was the Biden policy, and it was foolish in the extreme," Sacks added.
• The White House says last week's announcement by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE is part of a "Trump Effect" bringing the U.S. "a surge of private and foreign investment."

? The big picture: The UAE and Saudi Arabia have leaders desperate to make their kingdoms high-tech powers, and deep pockets and abundant energy needed to develop AI. Now, with Trump's help, they'll also have the chips.

• Current and former U.S. officials worry China's biggest AI players — or even its military — will be able to access advanced AI chips they can't legally import into China by deepening partnerships in Gulf states, where Beijing enjoys extensive economic and security ties.

The other side: A group of Democratic lawmakers argued on Friday that Trump announced the deals "pose a significant threat to U.S. national security and fundamentally undermine bipartisan efforts to ensure the United States remains the global leader in AI. Rather than putting America first, this deal puts the Gulf first."

• The bipartisan House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party introduced new legislation "to stop advanced U.S. AI chips from falling into the hands of adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party."

? The flipside: The White House insists it can safeguard U.S. tech while pursuing these multibillion-dollar deals.

• The Department of Commerce — which will have to approve some of the deals — said the tech cooperation will meet "robust U.S. security standards and other efforts to responsibly deploy AI infrastructure, both in the UAE and globally."

Between the lines: Some policymakers and firms like Nvidia and Microsoft have argued that overly arduous restrictions risk ceding the field to China, undercutting U.S. AI preeminence rather than bolstering it.

• Under Biden, those business considerations were often trumped by security concerns. The White House asserts the U.S.-UAE AI agreement ensures "U.S. security interests and dominance in AI while extending the American tech stack to an important strategic partner."

? Trump demands Walmart "eat the tariffs"

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

President Trump went after Walmart yesterday over its plan to raise prices in the face of tariffs, blasting the move on Truth Social and demanding it absorb the costs instead. Why it matters: The White House, facing the risk of tariff-driven inflation, has turned to publicly threatening retailers to keep prices in check, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz reports. ? Between the lines: Last weekend, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ridiculed what he called "silly arguments" that consumers would pay higher prices due to tariffs. Only four days later, the nation's largest retailer said that was exactly what they'd do. Via Truth Social The latest: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a CNN interview this morning, said he spoke to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon yesterday to "understand what he had to say." (Bessent did not say if they spoke before or after Trump's Truth Social post.) Bessent said it was his understanding Walmart would absorb some tariff costs, but that "some may get passed on to consumers." ?️ What to watch: Walmart didn't say this week precisely when prices would rise, how much, or exactly on what, leaving it some wiggle room — though the changes are expected to start showing up in the next couple of weeks. "We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and we won't stop. We'll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can, given the reality of small retail margins," a Walmart spokesperson told Axios. ps:Lets just tell people that tariffs wont raise prices, but lets not let those that know prices are going to go up, and than lets take credit and say see your prices didn't go up!!!!!!!!!! Seriousl Mr Criminal-in-charge!!!!!!!!!! Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday ripped into Walmart, saying on social media that the retail giant should eat the additional costs created by his tariffs. https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-walmart-inflation-import-taxes-e2012e0d9e242b0be0b9474aa58d41fd?

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Trump's New York state of mind

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

President Trump is playing an unusually active role in New York politics — getting involved in local campaigns, commandeering municipal projects and putting a thumb on the scale for both Republicans and Democrats, Axios' Sam Baker writes. Why it matters: Trump is no longer a New York resident, but the city where he built his empire still has a hold on him, and the administration isn't afraid to get heavy-handed with the president's former hometown. ⚖️ Trump's Justice Department dropped corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, over the objections of staunchly conservative career prosecutors. ? His administration is trying hard to kill New York City's new congestion pricing policy, which charges drivers a toll to enter part of Manhattan and uses the revenue to fund public transit. The Transportation Department gave New York an ultimatum to scrap congestion pricing last month, and sued when the state didn't comply. ? The New York Post clearly still has a special place in Trump's media diet. He frequently shares its stories on Truth Social, and said last week that the paper's editor-in-chief should take over The Wall Street Journal. ? Trump's Transportation Department recently took over responsibility for a $7 billion renovation of New York's Penn Station — a move Gov. Kathy Hochul praised. ?️ Trump is now trying to clear the field so that Rep. Elise Stefanik can run for New York governor without a competitive Republican primary. As part of that effort, he recently took to Truth Social to endorse the county executive in Nassau County for another term — a much smaller race than presidents typically wade into.

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Trump’s clash with the courts raises the prospect of a showdown over separation of powers

Tucked deep in the thousand-plus pages of the multitrillion-dollar budget bill making its way through the Republican-controlled U.S. House is a paragraph curtailing a court’s greatest tool for forcing the government to obey its rulings: the power to enforce contempt findings. It’s unclear if the bill can pass the House in its current form — it failed in a committee vote Friday. But the fact that GOP lawmakers are including it shows how much those in power are thinking about the consequences of defying judges. Read more.   Trump's tariff reality     Illustration: Lazaro Gamio/Axios   The Trump administration conceded this weekend what economists, CEOs and consumers long knew: Americans pay for tariffs, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz writes. Why it matters: Nearly a decade of Trump trade arguments held that foreign countries, not Americans, paid the ultimate cost of a trade war. But the president and his economic team now acknowledge that tariffs are raising prices for everyone, from industrial ports to retail storefronts. ?️ The big picture: Trump's sweeping global tariffs, effectively the highest in nearly a century, are expected to cost the average household more than $2,300 a year, according to the Yale Budget Lab. Even companies that once promised to hold the line on those costs, including Walmart, now say they have no choice but to pass them along. Inflation may be benign for now. But experts are increasingly convinced that higher prices are only a matter of time. ? After Walmart said this week it would raise prices, a furious Trump insisted on Truth Social on Saturday that the company "eat the tariffs" — a concession that someone this side of the border had to pay something, somehow. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then went on Sunday shows yesterday and said that while Walmart would eat some of the tariffs, consumers would have to pay, too. The intrigue: It was only May 11 that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick insisted people had to drop the "silly arguments" that consumers would pay the costs of trade levies. Four days later, the country's largest retailer said that's exactly what they'd have to do. ?️ Between the lines: Bessent said yesterday that while consumer prices may rise due to tariffs, people will see even bigger benefits from the falling price of gasoline. He argued it was effectively a tax cut for consumers, and would help keep inflation in line. ? Reality check: With the average American vehicle using a little under 500 gallons of gas a year, and gas prices per gallon being a little over 40¢ cheaper today than a year ago, the average driver is looking at an annual savings of around $200 per car. That's a fraction of what budget experts estimate tariffs will cost households.

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Trump Is Building a Global Gulag for Immigrants Captured by ICE

The Trump administration appears to be laying the groundwork for a global gulag for expelled immigrants.

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/15/trump-ice-immigrants-deport-prisons-cecot-libya/?

Government Lawyers Trying to Deport Mahmoud Khalil Won’t Stop Whining

One of the top job requirements for attorneys in Donald Trump’s Justice Department seems to be an abundance of shamelessness.

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/17/mahmoud-khalil-trump-lawyers-deport-immigrants/?

Trump Said Syria Deserves a “Fresh Start” — But U.S. Troops Aren’t Leaving

President Donald Trump announced that his administration intends to lift wide-ranging sanctions on Syria during a speech on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia.

https://theintercept.com/2025/05/14/trump-middle-east-syria-sanctions-us-troops/?

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?? Scoop: Why Vance skipped Israel visit

Vice President Vance considered traveling to Israel tomorrow but decided against it due to the expansion of Israel's military operation in Gaza, a senior U.S. official told Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: The U.S. official said Vance made the decision because he didn't want his trip to suggest the Trump administration endorsed the Israeli decision to launch a massive operation at a time when the U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire and hostage deal.

Between the lines: This isn't about publicly pressuring Israel. Vance officially cited "logistical" reasons for passing on the visit.

• But his decision sheds light on how the U.S. feels about the current Israeli policy in Gaza.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to sign any agreement that would end the war, and has shown little flexibility in negotiations.

? Behind the scenes: On Saturday, the Trump administration informed the Israeli government that Vance was considering stopping in Israel after attending the pope's inauguration, Israeli officials say.

• Additional discussions took place yesterday between U.S. and Israeli officials to prepare for Vance's visit. Reports soon popped up in the Israeli press that Vance might arrive tomorrow.
• Several hours later, a White House official denied the reports in a statement and said that "logistical constraints have precluded an extension of his travel beyond Rome."

The intrigue: A U.S. official with knowledge of what actually happened during those several hours told Axios logistics weren't the issue.

• While Vance was deliberating, concerns were raised that a trip to Israel at this time would be perceived by Israel and countries in the region as validation for Israel's expanded operation.

At that point, Vance decided not to go. Keep reading.

Photo: Stefano Carofei/IPA/Sipa USA

Above: Vice President Vance — a convert to Catholicism — shook hands and later met with Pope Leo XIV after attending the pope's inaugural Mass at the Vatican yesterday.

• The vice president also had a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Rome — their first encounter since the Oval Office blowup in February.

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Trump’s big bill advances in rare weekend vote, but conservatives demand more changes House Republicans narrowly advanced President Donald Trump’s big tax cuts package out of a key committee during a rare Sunday night vote, but just barely, as conservative holdouts are demanding quicker cuts to Medicaid and green energy programs before giving their full support. Read more.

Why this matters: It’s all setting up a difficult week ahead for the Republican leadership racing toward a Memorial Day deadline to pass the package from the House. The Budget Committee, which just days ago failed to advance the package when four conservative Republicans objected, was able to do so Sunday on a vote of 17-16, with the four hold-outs voting “present” to allow it to move ahead, as talks continue.   Speaker Mike Johnson is not just having to address the concerns of the deficit hawks in his party, he’s also facing pressure from centrists who will be warily eyeing the proposed changes to Medicaid, food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits. Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bill’s new spending and the tax cuts are front-loaded in the bill, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump asks the Supreme Court to allow his government downsizing plans to proceed   Trump administration again blocked from cutting billions in federal health money   FDA approves Novavax COVID-19 shot but with unusual restrictions   Justice Department deal ends a ban on an aftermarket trigger. Gun control advocates are alarmed   Judges dismiss national security charges against immigrants who enter new militarized zone at border   DHS asks for 20,000 National Guard troops for immigration roundups, Pentagon reviewing request   US claim of state secrets privilege in Kilmar Abrego Garcia case is ‘inadequate,’ judge says   Immigrant released on bond in Massachusetts a month after ICE broke car window with hammer   The US is reinstating records for international students. For some, it’s too late   The US indicts a Mexican citizen on terrorism charges for helping cartel   An alleged smuggler to Colombia’s cartels had a secret ally: the DEA   Libraries are cutting back on staff and services after Trump’s order to dismantle small agency   How the S&P 500 recovered all of its losses for the year   Donald Trump’s Library of Congress fight is really about the separation of powers   Bernie Sanders and AOC are popular with Democrats. Here’s a timeline of their alliance   Jury convicts ex-Tennessee House speaker and his aide in legislative mail scheme   Judge OKs Iowa limits on K-6 gender identity, sexual orientation teaching but not elective programs   Virginia Republicans embraced a diverse ticket in this year’s elections. Then things got complicated   Democratic Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez won in a Trump district. Now she faces an uprising from the left

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Trump Asked EPA Employees to Snitch on Colleagues Working on DEI Initiatives. They Declined.

Days after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, the acting head of the Environmental Protection Agency sent an email to the entire workforce with details about the agency’s plans to close diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and included a plea for help.

https://www.propublica.org/article/epa-diversity-initiatives-trump?

RFK Jr. pledged not to upend US vaccine system, but big changes are underway

The Food and Drug Administration will soon “unleash a massive framework” for how vaccines are tested and approved, according to Commissioner Marty Makary. Details aren’t yet public but the plan is being overseen by the agency’s new vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, an outspoken critic of the FDA’s handling of COVID-19 boosters. Read More.

Supreme Court allows Trump to strip protections from some Venezuelans; deportations could follow

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to deportation. Read More.

Appeals court allows Trump’s anti-union order to take effect

An appeals court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees while a lawsuit plays out. Read More.

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Immigrants take Trump's deal

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Drew Angerer, Raymond Boyd/Getty Images The Trump administration's first charter flight for dozens of "self-deporting" immigrants took off from Houston today, Axios' Marc Caputo and Brittany Gibson scooped. The flight was part of a new program offering a free trip back home and $1,000 — or else. Why it matters: The flights are one of the few incentives for unauthorized immigrants to present themselves to authorities under President Trump's immigration crackdown. To participate in the program, the immigrants logged into the CBP Home App and requested to be voluntarily flown home in return for the free trip and $1,000 after they land, a Homeland Security official said. For those who are unauthorized and either don't turn themselves in or don't agree to leave, the alternative is being detained by immigration officials and held — possibly for months — in overcrowded facilities. ? These flights "could be a very good option for people" in principle, said Michelle Brané, former executive director of the Biden administration's Family Reunification Task Force. But there's a big caveat, she said. The Trump administration's "shock and awe" campaign of immigration enforcement has been effective at scaring people — to the point it may prevent people from using the government-run CBP Home app. Go deeper.

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Trump Claims Americans’ Gas Savings Will Make Up for Tariff Pain. Here’s the Real Figure

Households will spend an estimated $2,300 more a year as companies such as Walmart are told by the president to “EAT THE TARIFFS.”

The Trump administration’s claim that Americans will feel comforted by gas price drops offsetting the cost of the president’s tariffs doesn’t add up.

A report from Axios notes that any savings Americans may see at the pump are minimal compared to the thousands in added consumer costs from President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariff plans.

The current average price for regular gas is $3.179, according to AAA, a drop of 40 cents from the same time last year. Based on average usage of just under 500 gallons of gas per year, Axios estimates this amounts to about $200 in annual savings per vehicle.

But an analysis from the Yale Budget Lab suggests the average household will pay roughly $2,300 more per year as a result of Trump’s tariffs.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Axios report also suggests the Trump administration is finally admitting that has been obvious to many for a while—that American consumers, not foreign countries like China, will bear the brunt of the president’s trade war.

Trump dropped the pretense on Saturday, posting a Truth Social rant demanding that Walmart “EAT THE TARIFFS” rather than raise prices to protect itself from the impact of the president’s tariffs.

“Walmart will be absorbing some of the tariffs, some may get passed on to consumers,” Bessent told CNN’s State of the Union on Saturday.

He also claimed Walmart customers would care more about saving money on gas than paying more at the checkout.

Walmart’s chief financial officer John David Rainey told the Associated Press the company was forced to raise prices in recent weeks because of Trump’s tariffs as “there’s a limit to what we can bear, or any retailer for that matter.”

In a statement to Axios, White House spokesperson Kush Desai insisted that the U.S. has “the leverage to make our trading partners ultimately bear the cost of tariffs.”

“The data backs us up: We’ve now had three months of below-expectation inflation reports after enacting tariffs, especially on China. Low inflation, robust jobs reports, and trillions in historic investment commitments prove that President Trump’s agenda—tariffs, rapid deregulation, tax cuts, and domestic energy production—is laying the groundwork to restore American greatness,” Desai said.

On May 12, Trump announced that his proposed 145 percent tariffs on China—by far the highest of any nation—would be temporarily reduced to 30 percent for at least 90 days.

In response, Beijing slashed its tariffs on American goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-claims-americans-gas-savings-will-make-up-for-tariff-pain/?

ps:Does he not know that people hear him telling these companies to eat the cost of the tariffs and other things he's saying?? Oh that's right he doesn't really care because all he has to do is say I didn't say that, or I really didn't mean that, etc., because he knows his minions will believe every lie as being false things said about him from the media!!!!!!!!!! Even though they can see with there own eyes and hear with there own ears. Priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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☎️ Trump call stuns European leaders

President Trump "surprised" and "shocked" European leaders on a call yesterday after hinting he was getting closer to withdrawing from involvement in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, Axios' Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler report.

• Why it matters: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and five other European leaders had been hoping to hear that Russia's Vladimir Putin had agreed to a ceasefire in a call with Trump yesterday — or that the U.S. would impose penalties on him for refusing to do so.

Instead, Trump said Putin had agreed to negotiate, stressed the U.S. wouldn't be involved in those negotiations, and pushed back against the idea of imposing sanctions on Putin at the current time.

• "I think something's going to happen. And if it doesn't, I just back away and they're going to have to keep going. Again, this was a European situation, and should have remained a European situation," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office several hours after his calls.

? Friction point: Other European leaders on the call asked about the possibility of U.S. sanctions against Russia, but Trump said he didn't think was a good idea and stressed that he thinks Putin wants a deal.

• Keep reading.

 

Russia-Ukraine

President Trump spent two hours on the phone with Vladimir Putin on Monday, hoping to learn when the Russian leader was going to end his war in Ukraine. However, no timeline was offered. Afterward, Trump posted on social media that Kyiv and Moscow had agreed to “immediately start negotiations" toward a ceasefire — although a Kremlin spokesperson said Trump and Putin did not discuss a timeframe for a possible truce. Despite Trump’s repeated assertions during his presidential campaign that he could end the war “in 24 hours,” he is now backing away from a direct mediating role, saying that negotiating the conditions for a ceasefire would be left to Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who also spoke with Trump on Monday, said his goals were clear: full ceasefire without any conditions or preconditions, an exchange of prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken to Russia. Overnight, Ukraine and Russia accused each other of launching even more attack drones.   AI regulations One of the items in President Trump’s “one big, beautiful” agenda bill is sparking protests, and it involves the regulation of artificial intelligence. If passed, the rule would prohibit states from enforcing any law or regulation related to AI models, systems or automated decision systems for 10 years. In response, more than 100 organizations have signed a letter that was sent to members of Congress calling the AI preemption provision “a dangerous giveaway to Big Tech CEOs.” “This moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm — regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences — the company making or using that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public,” the letter, provided exclusively to CNN ahead of its release, stated.

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Democratic Rep. McIver charged with assault after skirmish at ICE center, New Jersey prosecutor says  Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver is being charged with assault after a skirmish with federal officers outside an immigration detention center, said New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, who also announced Monday that she was dropping a trespassing case against the Newark mayor whose arrest led to the disturbance. Read more.

Why this matters: Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba wrote on social media that McIver is facing a charge of assaulting, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement, but court papers providing details were not immediately released or publicly available online. McIver has denied any wrongdoing and has accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor. She denounced the charge as “purely political” and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.   The prosecution of McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption. The case instantly taps into a much broader and more consequential power struggle between a Trump administration engaged in a sweeping overhaul of immigration policy and a Democratic party scrambling for ways to respond.   A clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver just before the arrest of the mayor. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting “surround the mayor.” The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer in an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police” on it. It isn’t clear from bodycam video whether that contact was intentional, incidental or a result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump administration agrees to pay nearly $5M to settle suit over Ashli Babbitt shooting in Capitol   Slow progress and no major breakthroughs dampen hopes for Russia-Ukraine peace deal   Judge bars Trump administration from shutting peace institute that sought to end violent conflicts   US sends 68 migrants back to Honduras and Colombia in first voluntary deportation   Trump, alongside the first lady, signs a bill to make posting ‘revenge porn’ a federal crime   Trump is heading to Capitol Hill to persuade divided GOP to unify around his ‘big, beautiful’ bill   Pence speaks in North Carolina against broad Trump tariffs and praises House on tax bill   Senate confirms Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law, as ambassador to France   Schumer legislation would ban U.S. from using foreign plane as Air Force One   Trump alleges ‘genocide’ in South Africa. At an agricultural fair, even Afrikaner farmers scoff   Trump order targets barcodes on ballots. They’ve long been a source of misinformation   Critics say Trump’s religion agenda will benefit conservative Christians the most   JD Vance gives Pope Leo XIV a Trump invitation to visit the US   WATCH: Trump suggests without evidence that Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis was hidden from the public   Races for Philly district attorney and Pittsburgh mayor take center stage in Pennsylvania’s primary   Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms launches bid for Georgia governor   Kansas group fights campaign donor law it sees as a response to its success defending abortion   Nebraska to ban soda and energy drinks from SNAP under first USDA waiver   Trial begins over staged cross burning in front of campaign sign for Black candidate

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While Trump overhauls FEMA, Mississippi tornado survivors await assistance Mississippi’s request for federal disaster assistance is pending more than two months after 18 tornadoes ripped through the state, killing seven people and damaging hundreds of homes. The emergency management director in one of the state’s hardest-hit counties said debris removal operations have ground to a halt and people who lost their homes aren't getting the help they need. Read more.

Why this matters: Mississippi’s request comes at a time of upheaval for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The agency’s acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was recently ousted after he publicly disagreed with proposals to dismantle FEMA, an idea President Donald Trump has floated in calling the agency “very bureaucratic” and “very slow.”   David Richardson, FEMA’s new acting administrator, committed himself to executing Trump’s vision for the agency. He also previewed potential policy changes, saying there could be “more cost-sharing with states” and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance “when deemed necessary.”

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ More severe weather pummels central US as thousands recover from deadly tornadoes   What you do before and during a tornado could mean the difference between life and death   WATCH: Volunteers clean up after tornado devastates London, Kentucky

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? A Longshot nomination? Trump’s pick to lead the Internal Revenue Service just faced a tough confirmation grilling — including about The Lever’s reporting on his shady industry donors and plans to weaponize the IRS against his nonprofit enemies. Former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) has the backing of Senate Republicans, even after he helped businesses enroll in a pandemic-era tax credit that later became a “magnet for fraud.” The scheme cost the federal government potentially billions of dollars and involved selling tax credits the Treasury Department says “don’t exist.” 

• New research from Accountable.US found that every GOP Senate Finance Committee member likely to support Long’s nomination has been critical about pandemic relief fraud or even cosponsored legislation on the issue. Awkward.
• ? Here’s how to buy a monopoly. Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission approved Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications literally days after the communications giant sent a letter to regulators confirming it had reversed its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies — a fact the FCC specifically cited in their announcement of the merger. Verizon, which purchased Frontier last September, also donated $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund while the merger was pending.
• ✈️ Southwest flies free — but your bags won’t anymore. The Trump administration has dropped a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines after the Department of Transportation under President Biden sued the airline for $140 million — the highest fine in agency history — for purposely overscheduling flights that the company knew it would have to delay or cancel. This comes as the airline is canceling several customer-favorite promotions, most notably its famous free checked baggage policy, which ends on May 28.

New Trump vaccine policy limits access to COVID shots

Annual COVID-19 shots for healthy younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved under a major new policy shift unveiled Tuesday by the Trump administration. Read More.   More tornadoes and fewer meteorologists make for a dangerous mix that’s worrying US officials The U.S. is on track to have its second-busiest tornado year ever, and some former weather service veterans worry that overworked meteorologists and violent weather are a dangerous combination. Read More. ‘Dried out prune’? ‘Corrupt’ and ‘incompetent’? It’s getting nasty between Springsteen and Trump They have some similarities, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump — guys in their 70s with homes in New Jersey and big constituencies among white American men middle-aged and older. And both, in very different respects, are the boss. That’s about where it ends. Read More.   ps:What an administration!!!!!

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• ? President Trump touted $25 billion in initial funding for the "Golden Dome" and put Gen. Michael Guetlein, the vice chief of space operations, in charge of realizing the hemispheric missile shield. Go deeper.

 

• ? Home Depot doesn't plan to increase prices because of tariffs, officials said on an earnings call today. Go deeper.

ps:What afraid of getting a phone call? or being called out for doing what's right

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Trump's $4 trillion deficit bomb

Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

President Trump yesterday declared himself the biggest "fiscal hawk" in Washington. He then spent the next hour urging Republicans to unite behind the most budget-busting legislation in modern U.S. history, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is projected to add trillions to the deficit over the next decade — rattling conservatives who have long warned that the U.S. is barreling toward fiscal catastrophe. Some Republicans now find themselves trapped between two of the party's most animating principles: Deficit reduction vs. absolute loyalty to Trump. That tension is threatening to derail Trump's vision for a new "Golden Age," which the White House hopes will begin in earnest with a vote on the House floor this week. ⚡ State of play: Trump and his aides have brushed off warnings that his ambitious tax-and-spending bill — combined with his pledge not to touch Social Security and Medicare — could balloon the national debt, which now tops $36 trillion. White House officials emphasize they inherited sky-high deficits from the Biden administration, and say their policy mix of deregulation, tariffs, DOGE cuts, and pro-growth policies will bring them down. The White House Council of Economic Advisers projected that the bill would boost GDP by 4.2% to 5.2% in the short run — a staggering level of growth that goes far beyond the mainstream consensus. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went as far as to claim that the bill "does not add to the deficit," and that it would actually save $1.6 trillion through spending cuts and Medicaid work requirements. ? Reality check: Independent budget experts see that as laughable. The Joint Committee on Taxation projects the House reconciliation bill would increase deficits by $3.8 trillion through 2034. The Penn Wharton Budget Model projects deficits of almost $3.3 trillion, even when accounting for "positive economic dynamics." Moody's, which downgraded the U.S. credit rating on Friday, estimates that extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts alone — a central component of the bill — would add $4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. The other side: Some Republicans argue that not passing the bill poses a more immediate threat. If Trump's 2017 tax cuts are allowed to expire, taxes would rise for 62% of filers, according to the Tax Foundation. Some conservatives also reject the notion that cutting taxes should be equated with the type of deficit spending that Congress approved during the Biden administration. The bottom line: The cost of interest on America's national debt is already soaring. If rates remain as high as they are now, the U.S. could owe $40 trillion more in interest payments alone over the next 30 years. ? Overnight ... The House Rules Committee is still in the midst of a session that began at 1 a.m. to debate changes to the bill. The House GOP's blue-state holdouts are close to a deal that could give Speaker Johnson a chance to hold a vote on the full bill today, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.

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Habeas corpus

What is habeas corpus? That was the question put to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday. Her answer: “Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to – ” That answer was incorrect, and New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan interrupted Noem to say so. In Article I, Section 9 — which deals with the Legislative branch — the Constitution says: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” As President Donald Trump has tried to speed up deportations, immigrants have filed habeas petitions alleging unlawful detention and requesting a court determination. Now, the administration is looking for ways to suspend that right. “If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason,” Hassan said. “Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”    ps:What a genius administration this is! People that have no clue what they're doing, in the positions they run!! Have no clue of the law, etc., but I don't blame them!!! It's the person that put them in those positions that's at fault!!!!

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US must keep control of migrants sent to South Sudan in case removals were unlawful, judge rules A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that U.S. officials must retain custody and control of migrants apparently removed to South Sudan in case he rules that their removals were unlawful. Read more.

Why this matters: U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts issued the ruling after an emergency hearing, after attorneys for immigrants said the Trump administration appears to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan — despite a court order restricting removals to other countries.   Murphy said in his Tuesday order that U.S. officials must appear in court Wednesday to identify the migrants impacted, address when and how they learned they would be removed to a third country, and what opportunity they were given to raise a claim that removal would cause them to fear for their safety. He also ruled that the government must provide information about the whereabouts of the migrants apparently already removed.   The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump’s Homeland Security secretary says habeas corpus lets him ‘remove people from this country’   Trump wants to end Temporary Protected Status for some immigrants. What is it?   The revival of an old program delegates Trump immigration enforcement to local police   The EU is weighing whether to deport migrants to countries they have no obvious connection to   Justice Dept. investigating former New York Gov. Cuomo over pandemic testimony, AP source says   Hegseth orders new review of Afghanistan withdrawal and suicide bombing at Kabul airport   Justice Department investigates Chicago’s hiring practices after mayor touts Black hires   Supreme Court orders Maine House to restore vote of GOP lawmaker who ID-ed trans teen athlete online   Bakery in New Hampshire wins in free speech case over a pastry shop painting   Charges dropped against conservative activist in Texas over false voter fraud claim   Judge finds police acted reasonably in shooting New Mexico man while at wrong address   Oregon’s voter-approved pot labor law is unconstitutional, federal judge rules   IRS nominee who sponsored legislation to abolish the agency faces pointed questions   Venezuela frees US Air Force veteran considered wrongfully detained, his family says   How much did Mideast countries promise to invest in the US? Trump keeps jacking up the number   Elon Musk says he will cut back on political spending after heavily backing Trump in 2024   Pennsylvania election: Corey O’Connor defeats Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in Democratic primary   Former Capitol riot defendant is convicted of gun charges stemming from his arrest near Obama’s home   US Capitol rioter who smashed Speaker’s Lobby door charged with burglary in Virginia   Biden’s office says his ‘last known’ prostate cancer screening was in 2014

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Trump selects concept for $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system President Donald Trump has announced the concept he wants for his future Golden Dome missile defense program — a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space. Read more.

Why this matters: The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary. China and Russia have put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with abilities to disable critical U.S. satellites, which can make the U.S. vulnerable to attack.   Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.   While the president picked the concept he wanted, the Pentagon is still developing the requirements that Golden Dome will need to meet — which is not the way new systems are normally developed.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense plan was inspired by Israel’s multitiered defenses   In Gaza, 45 killed in strikes as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians   Rubio defends Trump’s foreign policy as Democrats press him on Gaza aid and white South Africans