What to know today
- President Donald Trump is hosting top buyers of his cryptocurrency token at his Virginia golf club tonight, a move that has drawn criticism from Democrats and ethics concerns from watchdog groups.
- The Supreme Court this afternoon ruled that Trump can fire top officials at independent agencies while noting that its ruling does not apply to the Federal Reserve. Trump frequently directs his economic criticism at Fed chair Jerome Powell.
- A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department and ordered the rehiring of laid-off workers.
- The House this morning passed sweeping legislation to advance the Republicans' agenda in a victory for Trump and House leadership. The bill would extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, slash Medicaid, increase military and immigration enforcement spending and raise the cap on the federal deduction for state and local taxes.
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Food dyes, sick kids and a dip in contaminated water: Kennedy weighs in on his first 100 days
As the Trump administration pushes for deep cuts in federal health agencies, Robert F Kennedy Jr. has produced a 72-page summary on the environmental toxins, chemicals and ultraprocessed foods he said are causing an “existential crisis” in the United States.
In an interview this afternoon with Tom Llamas, senior national correspondent for NBC News and upcoming anchor of “Nightly News,” Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services, said the “Make America Healthy Again” report, which blamed sedentary, technology-driven lifestyles and the overprescribing of medications, represented “the first time in history” that the federal government has recognized the “negative impact of these environmental exposures on the American people.”
The lengthy report went into great detail about what’s wrong with kids in the United States but didn’t offer much depth about what the federal health agencies would do to “make them healthy again.”
Llamas asked Kennedy why, “in the spirit of government efficiency,” the report didn’t offer more solutions, “because you could have written this on Day 1.”
After releasing report on children's health, Kennedy says people should do their own medical research
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who released a long-awaited report on the causes of chronic disease in children, said in an interview with CNN tonight that people should be skeptical of "any medical advice" and that "they need to do their own research."
Today's report stemmed from the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which Trump established via executive order. The commission, chaired by Kennedy, consists of high-ranking federal officials tasked with reviewing research and making recommendations about chronic disease in children.
Outside Trump’s meme coin dinner: Tuxedos, luxury SUVs and a protest
Trump held a private event tonight for 220 crypto investors who had bought into his meme coin, defying bipartisan lawmakers’ concerns that he was selling access to accumulate personal wealth.
Crypto enthusiasts including former NBA star Lamar Odom attended the dinner at Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia, just outside Washington. About 100 demonstrators lined the road to the entrance, trying to shame attendees with chants and signs such as “Trump is a traitor,” “Crypto corruption” and “America is not for sale.”
Odom, a former Los Angeles Laker, walked past the protesters carrying an umbrella, according to a post on his X account in which he promoted his own meme coin. Other people arrived in luxury SUVs with tinted windows, and many wore tuxedos for the event billed as “black-tie optional.”
To secure a seat, the mostly anonymous attendees had to be among the top 220 holders of the $TRUMP coin, with the average participant spending $1.8 million, according to the blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
South Korea says there have been no discussions about withdrawing U.S. troops
South Korea today said there had been no discussions about reducing the number of American troops hosted by the U.S. ally.
U.S. Forces Korea “serves as a core component of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, maintaining a robust combined defense posture alongside the South Korean military to deter North Korean aggression and provocations, thereby contributing to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region,” the South Korean defense ministry said in a text briefing. “The two nations will continue to collaborate closely to further develop this alliance in that direction.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was considering moving about 4,500 of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to Guam and other locations in the Indo-Pacific region, citing defense officials familiar with the discussions.
Trump has weighed a drawdown in U.S. troops in South Korea, despite military commanders’ warnings that their presence is a crucial deterrent against aggression by North Korea and China.
Sen. Jeff Merkley joins protesters outside Trump's cryptocurrency dinner
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., joined demonstrators tonight outside Trump National Golf Club near Washington, D.C., to protest Trump's dinner for the biggest buyers of his cryptocurrency.
Merkley talked up the End Crypto Corruption Act, which he introduced this month with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The measure would prohibit senior executive branch officials, including the president, from financially benefiting from issuing, endorsing or sponsoring crypto assets.
"The spirit of the Constitution was that no one elected would be selling influence to anyone because it’s to be government by and for the people, your constituents, not government by and for people who hand money across the table to you," Merkley said.
He added that the White House still has not answered a request by Democrats for the list of attendees.
House passes tax bill that would ban Medicaid from covering transition-related care
The tax bill the House passed today would bar Medicaid coverage of all transgender care and prohibit plans offered under the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges from covering such care as an essential health benefit, potentially jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of trans adults and an unknown number of minors.
The bill initially would have prohibited Medicaid from covering “gender transition procedures” for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. However, House Republican leadership introduced an amendment yesterday that struck the word “minors” and the words “under 18 years of age” from that section, The Independent first reported.
The amendment passed the GOP-led House Rules Committee last night before the full House passed it this morning.
Another part of the bill would prohibit transition-related medical care as an essential health benefit under health care plans offered through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. Essential health benefits packages vary by state but are required by federal law to cover 10 categories of benefits. Nearly half of states have prohibited health insurance providers from explicitly refusing to cover transition-related care.
New photo of Qatari jet given to U.S. for Air Force One
Vincenzo Pace, an aviation photographer, shared this picture with NBC News of the Qatari 747 that the Pentagon accepted and that Trump wants to convert to his new Air Force One. Pace confirmed it was the same plane by matching the tail numbers.
RFK Jr. and Trump release report on causes of chronic disease in children at MAHA event
Trump appeared at a Make America Health Again event today with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the White House released a report centered on identifying the causes of chronic diseases in children.
"We've relied too much on conflicted research, ignored common sense, or what some would call mother's intuition," Kennedy said.
He also pointed to the report's findings about heavily processed foods, saying, "It's common sense that ultraprocessed, nutrient-poor food contributes to chronic disease."
Trump described his administration's efforts to lower the cost of drugs in the United States by declaring "most favored nations" pricing, saying the United States "from now on is going to pay the exact same price as the lowest price anywhere in the world."
"The amount of money you're going to be saving is going to be incalculable. Nobody can believe I have the courage to do it," Trump added.
Trump this month signed an executive order targeting the cost of prescription drug in the United States by aligning what the U.S. government pays for certain medications with what is paid elsewhere in the world. It is expected to face resistance from the drug industry.
Supreme Court grants Trump request to fire independent agency members
The Supreme Court granted a Trump administration request that allows the president to fire members of independent federal agencies.
The move to pause a lower court ruling formalizes a temporary decision along similar lines on April 9 that allowed President Donald Trump to fire Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board.
“The stay reflects our judgment that the government is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power,” the court said in an unsigned order.
The government, the court added, “faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.”
The court’s three liberal justices dissented.
Free speech group condemns Trump administration's latest Harvard punishment
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan civil liberties watchdog, quickly condemned the Trump administration today over its latest sanction against Harvard University.
FIRE, as the nonprofit group is often called, said the Trump administration's decision to halt Harvard's ability to enroll international students is "un-American." In a statement, it drew particular attention to the Department of Homeland Security's demand for audio and video of "any protest activity" involving international students, calling it "gravely alarming."
"This sweeping fishing expedition reaches protected expression and must be flatly rejected," FIRE said in a statement. "The Department is already arresting and seeking to deport students for engaging in protected political activity it disfavors. Were Harvard to capitulate to Secretary Noem’s unlawful demands, more students could face such consequences. The administration’s demand for a surveillance state at Harvard is anathema to American freedom.
"The administration seems hellbent on employing every means at its disposal — no matter how unlawful or unconstitutional — to retaliate against Harvard and other colleges and universities for speech it doesn’t like," it continued. "This has to stop."
