President Trump announces new surgeon general nominee amid scrutiny

Just a few weeks ago, Trump and White House aides were boasting that his tariffs would force a legion of foreign nations to rush into new trade deals — and that Trump’s prowess would yield more favorable terms for the United States.

“I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my a--,” Trump said last month before his reciprocal tariffs were due to go into effect. “They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!’”

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” a few days later, after Trump paused some of his tariffs and declared a three-month negotiating window, “We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here.”

But Trump has changed his tone and his tune in recent days, as it has become clear that trade agreements don’t materialize as quickly as he would like and that there aren’t dozens in the queue. His shift also comes amid heavy criticism that his tariffs will hike prices for consumers and harm an American economy that had its first negative growth in years in the first quarter.

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The Trump administration told a federal judge tonight it has re-created the controversial Signal group chat that former national security adviser Michael Waltz inadvertently added a journalist to and in which several U.S. officials discussed sensitive information.

Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, who was added to the chat, later published the full chat messages, which in part featured Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's outlining of an imminent military strike.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are scrambling to resolve intense divisions over Medicaid as they hammer out a key piece of their massive bill for Trump’s agenda with hope of advancing it through a House committee next week.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., faces new conflicting pressure from within his narrow majority: Swing-district Republicans are growing increasingly wary of significant Medicaid cuts as they face political heat, while conservative hard-liners threaten to torpedo the bill unless it includes $2 trillion in cuts.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee met behind closed doors today to try to resolve their differences and will meet again tomorrow. The panel is tasked with finding $880 billion in savings, most of which will have to come from Medicaid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and it has already delayed releasing legislative text and holding a hearing.

While GOP lawmakers sounded upbeat as they left today’s meeting, disagreements at the highest levels about the path forward persisted.

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Trump said on social media tonight that he will hold an event at the White House tomorrow morning related to a trade deal with an unnamed country, weeks after he suggested that foreign nations were eager to negotiate agreements with the United States in response to his tariffs.

"Big News Conference tomorrow morning at 10:00 A.M., The Oval Office, concerning a MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY. THE FIRST OF MANY!!!," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said yesterday that he wished critics of his tariff plans would “stop asking” about the number of deals he has brokered after he paused plans for some tariffs last month to allow for negotiations, adding that “one day we’ll come and we’ll give you 100 deals."

The Trump administration has faced ongoing criticism that tariffs could raise prices for consumers and hurt the economy.

Chief Justice John Roberts stressed the importance of an independent judiciary today in remarks delivered at a time when Trump administration officials are frequently criticizing courts that have blocked their policies.

Roberts, speaking at a public event in Buffalo, New York, said an independent judiciary is a key feature of the U.S. constitutional system that had not existed in other countries when it was founded.

“In our Constitution ... the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president,” he said.

“And that innovation doesn’t work if ... the judiciary is not independent,” he added. “Its job is to, obviously, decide cases but, in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive, and that does require a degree of independence.”

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said today that she is considering running for the Senate or governor of Georgia.

Greene told reporters that with regard to the Senate race — in which the Republican nominee will face off against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff — she will be “thinking it over and talking with my family this weekend,” adding that she also has “the opportunity to consider the governor’s race.” 

A federal judge questioned a Justice Department attorney this evening over whether Trump was telling the truth when he said he could secure the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, facility in El Salvador.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of Washington, D.C., used Trump’s own words, as well as statements from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, to chip away at the Trump administration’s contention that those incarcerated in CECOT were not in the constructive custody of the United States.

A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing migrants from being sent to Libya or any other third country after immigration attorneys filed an emergency motion today.

The United States reportedly plans to send a group of migrants to Libya as early as this week.

A U.S. military aircraft is expected to transport the migrants who are from the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos, among other countries, the motion said.

The plaintiffs are being set for removal “without any reasonable fear screening, let alone a fifteen-day window to file a motion to reopen with the immigration court to contest any negative reasonable fear determination,” according to the motion, which was filed in U.S District Court in Massachusetts. 

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A Department of Homeland Security official told NBC News that no arrests were made after agents visited a series of Washington, D.C.-area restaurants yesterday.

Multiple sources told NBC News yesterday that people identifying themselves as Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents visited restaurants across Washington. The agents had, in some cases, issued “Notice of Inspection” documents indicating that DHS agents would return in the coming days to obtain the I-9 documentation.

In response to NBC News' noting that no court-approved warrants were given to the restaurants to obtain employee-eligibility verification documents, the official suggested that the initial visits were “not enforcement operations” but visits to inquire about I-9 documentation.