What to know today
- Elon Musk called the Republican bill to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda a “disgusting abomination” on X. He later threatened to "fire" any lawmaker who supports it.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that Musk is “terribly wrong” and that his X posts were “very disappointing, very surprising.” Musk's posts drew praise from some Republicans, including Sens. Mike Lee and Rand Paul, who had already been critical of the bill.
- Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka is suing the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, alleging she violated his constitutional rights when he was arrested at a federal immigration.
Coverage of this live blog has ended. For the latest news, click here.
RNC asks judge to allow it to 'intervene' in lawsuit against Trump's elections EOs
The Republican National Committee asked a federal judge tonight to allow it to “intervene” in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), an immigrant advocacy group, challenging parts of Trump’s executive order on elections.
By intervening, it would become a party to the case and be able to support the government’s arguments if it wishes.
“If the DNC has standing to challenge the EO, then the RNC has a mirror-image interest to defend the EO,” attorneys for the Republican National Committee wrote.
The parts of the executive order that the DNC and LULAC were challenging had to do with the National Mail Voter Register form — the topic of several ongoing lawsuits.
“The RNC has a direct stake in state efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls because it relies on voter rolls to communicate with voters, advise candidates, and turn out voters to vote,” the RNC lawyers wrote. “The RNC’s candidates, members, and voters are also directly affected by measures to ensure elections are conducted properly, yield accurate results, and the votes of American voters are not diluted by the votes of non-citizens or voters who fail to vote by Election Day.”
Trump administration is violating court orders against mass layoffs, attorneys say
A coalition of labor groups and cities said the Trump administration is defying court orders blocking mass layoff and reorganization efforts, according to a new filing.
In a filing today, they asked a federal judge in California for an urgent status conference, saying they had “received reports” that the State Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Health and Human Services have continued to implement Trump’s February executive order in defiance of court orders.
“Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court hold a status conference as soon as possible this week, so the parties may address how to resolve disputes regarding State Department and HUD actions subsequent to the Court’s orders,” they wrote.
Efforts to "resolve these issues informally" were unsuccessful, the attorneys added, referring to the Trump administration's position "that this reorganization is not, in fact, covered by this Court’s injunction."
Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston last month barred several departments and agencies from completing reduction-in-force and reorganization plans.
According to the filing, Justice Department attorneys said that they would work to promptly correct the HHS issues but that the actions at State and HUD were not covered by the court's orders.
Justice Department spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle said the department "declines to comment beyond our court filings."
Vance to universities: 'We're not going to fund your garbage'
Vice President JD Vance, at a forum tonight for American Compass, a conservative group geared around economic populism, defended the Trump administration’s aggressive actions against universities — particularly Harvard.
“I am not anti-university. I’m not anti-Harvard,” Vance told the group’s founder, Oren Cass, in a question-and-answer session. “What I am is a person who recognizes what should be obvious to every single person at every elite university in the country, which is the model is broken.”
Vance added: “It doesn’t work, and they’re violating the social contract they have with the people in the country. And the people are now saying, ‘We need you to change.’ And these institutions are really going to be confronted — and, thanks to President Trump, have already been confronted — with a choice. You can accept democratic accountability and you can reform or you can accept that the government is not going to treat you kindly, we’re not going to fund your garbage, and we’re not going to support you unless you do the job the American people need you to do.”
Vance is a graduate of Yale Law School, which, unlike its Ivy League counterpart, has yet to face such scrutiny from the Trump administration.
Marjorie Taylor Greene says she agrees with Musk's criticism of GOP bill
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. said she agreed with Musk’s criticism of the reconciliation bill, but she said Congress “had to spend some money to right the ship and pass President Trump’s campaign promises, which is border security.”
Greene voted for the bill, though she has since expressed some concerns about one of the provisions.
Greene said she viewed border security as something worth spending money on. “I’ll write those checks all day long to Tom Homan,” she said, referring to Trump’s border “czar.”
Trump pardons 2 divers who freed 19 sharks off Florida
MIAMI — Trump has pardoned two South Florida shark divers convicted of theft for freeing 19 sharks and a giant grouper from a fisherman’s longline several miles from shore.
Pardons for Tanner Mansell and John Moore Jr. were signed last Wednesday. They had been convicted in 2022 of theft of property within special maritime jurisdiction.
The pardon is especially notable because Trump has a well-documented history of disliking sharks. At a campaign rally last year, he mused that Lake Michigan was preferable to the Pacific or Atlantic oceans because “you don’t have sharks. That’s a big advantage. I’ll take the one without the sharks.”
Texas man arrested and accused of trespassing at Mar-a-Lago said he wanted to ‘marry Kai,’ police say
A Texas man was arrested today and accused of trespassing on Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, club, according to an arrest report obtained by NBC News.
Palm Beach police said they responded at Mar-a-Lago shortly after midnight and were met by Secret Service agents who had detained Anthony Reyes, 23, who said he had climbed a wall surrounding the property to “spread the gospel” to Trump and “marry Kai.”
Kai Trump is the president’s 18-year-old granddaughter and the eldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr.
Musk threatens to 'fire' any politician who supports the GOP megabill
Musk doubled down on his criticism earlier today of the Republican spending bill, saying politicians who supported the bill should not win re-election next year.
Following Musk's initial post about the bill this afternoon, GOP leaders responded by saying they hoped he would come around.
But Musk was undeterred, posting on X: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
Gretchen Whitmer says she spoke to Trump after he said he was considering pardoning men who plotted to kidnap her
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said today that she spoke to Trump after he said last week he was considering potentially pardoning the men who plotted to kidnap her.
“I will just confirm that I have connected with the president directly on this subject and made my thoughts known,” Whitmer told reporters at an event in Detroit, according to her office.
“Beyond that, I’m not going to share more about our conversation but hopefully he’ll take some of those things into consideration when he makes a decision,” she said.
Mike Johnson says Musk comments about GOP bill 'dangerous' and 'disappointing'
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that Musk is “terribly wrong” about the GOP spending bill and that his X post criticizing it was “very disappointing, very surprising."
Johnson said he spoke to Musk on the phone for more than 20 minutes yesterday, when Musk “seemed to understand” the bill. Johnson said the post was “very disappointing” and “very surprising” in light of their conversation.
“But with all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill. We had a long conversation yesterday,” he said. “He and I spoke for, I think, more than 20 minutes on the telephone [about] all the virtues of the bill, and he seemed to understand that we had a very friendly conversation about it.”
Johnson acknowledged there’s an impact on Musk’s business with targeted language about electric vehicles in the bill but said it’s “not personal” between the two.
“Elon is missing it, OK, and it’s not personal. I know that the EV mandate is very important to him. That is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things," he said. "It’s part of the Green New Deal. And I know that has an effect on his business, and I lament that."
"We talked about the ramp-down period on that and how that should be duly considered by Congress," Johnson added. "But for him to come out and pan the whole bill is, to me, just very disappointing, very surprising, in light of the conversation I heavily mentioned.”
He also said it was “a dangerous thing” for Musk to be “meddling with” the economy.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett enters race to be the House Oversight Committee's top Democrat
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, officially jumped into the race to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, setting up a generational battle to succeed the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.
Crockett, 44, is similar in age to another junior member of the panel seeking the post, Robert Garcia, 47, of California. The two senior members vying for the job are Stephen Lynch, 70, of Massachusetts, and Kweisi Mfume, 76, of Maryland.
“In this moment, Americans are demanding a more strategic, aggressive, and energetic fight,” Crockett, a former civil rights attorney, said in a letter to colleagues.
“Our country is in an existential crisis driven by an out-of-control Executive with a flagrant disregard for our Constitution, our way of governance, and our very way of life as citizens of a democratic republic,” she continued. “The magnitude of these unprecedented times warrants a resistance and tactics never before seen.”
If Democrats retake the House in next year’s midterm elections, the ranking member of the Oversight Committee would be in line to become the chair, with the authority to issue subpoenas to the Trump administration.
Connolly died last month after his esophageal cancer returned. He was 75.
