DHS funding fight drags on as Trump orders immediate pay for TSA staff

A group of Epstein survivors filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration and Google today over the disclosure of personal information found in the release of files related to the late sex offender over the past several months.

“The United States, acting through the DOJ, made a deliberate policy choice to prioritize rapid, large-volume disclosure over protection of Epstein survivors’ privacy,” the plaintiffs said, adding that the Justice Department “outed approximately 100 survivors of the convicted sexual predator, publishing their private information and identifying them to the world.”

While the government later withdrew survivors’ personal information from the publicly released files, the survivors said that “online entities like Google continuously republish it, refusing victims’ pleas to take it down.” Specifically, the plaintiffs said their personal information continues to be displayed in search results and AI-generated content.

“Survivors now face renewed trauma. Strangers call them, email them, threaten their physical safety, and accuse them of conspiring with Epstein when they are, in reality, Epstein’s victims,” the complaint reads.

Read the full story here.

The Education Department will relocate from its headquarters to a smaller Washington office as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency, officials said today.

The agency has seen its ranks thinned by mass layoffs since Trump took office, and its headquarters building has been 70% vacant, the Education Department said. In its place, the Energy Department will assume the lease in the building.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon hailed it as a milestone in the administration’s efforts to shutter the agency, which Trump ordered to move toward closure a year ago this month.

“Thanks to the hard work of so many, we have made unprecedented progress in reducing the federal education footprint, and now we are pleased to give this building to an agency that will benefit far more from its space than the Department of Education,” McMahon said in a written statement.

Read the full story here.

The Kennedy Center will move forward with layoffs “in the days and weeks ahead,” Executive Director Matt Floca said in an email to staff members.

The internal announcement came last night as the center plans to close for two years of renovations starting in July.

“We will begin executing the difficult staffing decisions that support the broader operational changes required to meet the realities of this time at the Center,” Floca, who took the helm of the Kennedy Center this month, wrote in the email obtained by NBC News.

“Each of you has contributed to the legacy of this institution, and these decisions have not been made lightly. It is my sincere intention that each personnel action be carried out with consideration and care,” he added.

Read the full story here.

Trump announced today that he will sign an order to pay Transportation Security Administration officers who have gone without paychecks during the funding lapse at the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump said on Truth Social that he would instruct newly sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation.”

TSA officers missed their first full paychecks in mid-March, leading many to call out of work. Callout rates for TSA officers have exceeded 11% nationally, with rates at some airports passing 40%.

The high callout rates have led to lines at some airports taking more than four hours. Trump sent ICE agents to airports to help TSA earlier this week. Unlike TSA officers, ICE agents continue to receive paychecks during the partial shutdown as a result of funding from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed into law last year.

Read the full story here.

Trump is adding his name to U.S. dollar bills, the first time a sitting president’s signature will go on paper currency, the Treasury Department announced today.

Trump’s signature will go on the bills in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary, the Treasury said. Historically, paper currency carries the signatures of the treasury secretary and the treasurer.

“The President’s mark on history as the architect of America’s Golden Age economic revival is undeniable,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate, but also well deserved.”

U.S. paper currency has featured the treasurer’s along with the treasury secretary’s or the register of the treasurer’s signatures since it was first printed in 1861.

Read the full story here.

Bill Maher will win the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center said today, less than a week after the White House forcefully denied that the comedian, who has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump, would win it.

“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said in a statement. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse — one politically incorrect joke at a time.”

Maher said in a statement that he “just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win.”

After The Atlantic reported last week that Maher would win the award, the White House pushed back hard. White House communications director Steven Cheung said on social media that the story was “literally FAKE NEWS.”

Read the full story here.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, took issue with Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyer’s opening remarks that suggested “political” motivation for the hearing.

“It’s not political reasons here. You have an evenly balanced Republican and Democrat rostrum here, and I think it’s very critical that we clear the air there and make sure it’s on the record that this committee is about respecting the integrity of the House,” Hinson said.

Barzee, Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyer, said he withdrew those remarks.

“If I did, I withdraw that,” he said. “I was not at all suggesting that this was some kind of a political vendetta against a congresswoman or that the Republican members of this committee were acting inappropriately in any way whatsoever.”

Trump said at a White House event celebrating Greek culture and heritage that he came to know the Greek-American community while he was growing up in New York.

"I've known and loved this incredible Greek-American community and Greek architecture. I love Greek — I actually like the community more than the architecture, I think that I can say, but I do love the architecture," he said.

He added, "I love that community, from Astoria — I know more about this story than you want to know — in Queens to the famous Greek diners that are staples of every neighborhood."

House Ethics Committee chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., compared Cherfilus-McCormick’s case to that of former Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from Congress in 2023.

Guest told Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyer, William Barzee, that she has been afforded additional protections that Santos wasn’t by having a public hearing. He then asked Barzee whether he was arguing that, should the House proceedings be paused, they should continue later regardless of the criminal case’s findings.

Guest also asked whether Barzee believed there’s a situation in which the committee should make findings or recommendations before a criminal matter is resolved. Barzee indicated there wasn't.

Trump and Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America have walked into the East Room to begin the Greek Independence Day celebration.

Cherfilus-McCormick’s lawyer, William Barzee, argued this afternoon that the House proceedings could influence her criminal trial, saying a ruling here could taint a jury.

The top Democrat on the Ethics Committee, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of California, had said in his opening remarks that the bipartisan panel “carefully considered” Cherfilus-McCormick’s request to pause the House proceedings pending the result of her criminal case but “unanimously declined to do so.”

DeSaulnier said the decision was influenced by “our committee’s independent mandate to self-regulate member conduct and the constitutional limitations the executive branch faces in investigating members of Congress.”

A public hearing in an ethics case is extremely rare. Since 1991, only four other cases have made it to this stage in a public forum.

The House Ethics Committee hearing in its investigation into whether Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., violated House rules and ethical standards has started.

Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted in November on charges that she stole and laundered $5 million in federal relief funds, which she is then alleged to have used for her congressional campaign.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris will headline four fundraisers for state Democratic parties in the South next month, according to a source familiar with her plans.

Harris is set to attend events for the state parties in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. She will also deliver a keynote address at a fundraising dinner for the Arkansas Democratic Party on April 25.

The forthcoming travel suggests that Harris, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate who declined to run for governor of California this year, will be active on the campaign trail leading up to the midterm elections.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who has been involved in bipartisan talks on DHS funding, told reporters on her way to votes this afternoon that she's “hopeful” for a resolution that will get workers paid but said it remains to be seen “when that will occur.” 

“We worked last night and this morning and appreciate many of my Democratic colleagues for coming to the table to try to do just that,” Britt said.

She urged her colleagues to support Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy's bill “that says that if other people that have stepped up to serve the government are not getting paid because we haven’t done our job, we shouldn’t be getting one, either.” 

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, previewed his own plans for a motion to fund TSA through unanimous consent. “I got every Republican colleague of mine saying, 'Why aren’t we opening TSA?' Well, it’s very easy. You can put it on the floor, you control the floor, or you can just not object to a unanimous consent that we’re putting forward to do it.”

He wouldn’t get into details of the latest Republican proposal, but he pushed back against assertions that it would give Democrats all the ICE reforms they wanted while funding the rest of DHS. He said senators can continue to debate ICE while they fund other agencies like the TSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, saying: “Every single Democrat will fund all of those parts of DHS. We just have to have Republicans that are willing to do that.”

The Senate failed to advance an amendment on voter identification requirements.

The voter ID amendment, offered by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, failed in a 53-47 procedural vote. It would require driver's licenses or other forms of government-issued IDs to vote in elections. All Republicans voted in favor of the amendment and all Democrats voted against it.

The amendment said acceptable IDs would include valid driver’s licenses, passports, or military, veteran, tribal or state-issued IDs.

Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, returned today to a federal courtroom in New York City where a judge rebuffed an attempt by one of their lawyers to get the drug trafficking charges against them dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein made it clear that the much-anticipated trial would continue after Maduro lawyer Barry Pollack argued that the drug trafficking indictment should be thrown out because the U.S. government is blocking their ability to pay for their defense.

Read the full story here.

Longtime Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., 78, had another health scare, his office said today, his second in the past two years.

“Last evening, Congressman Wilson slipped in the bathroom of his residence in Washington and cut his head,” spokesman David Snider said. “He received stitches, is fine, and working remotely.”

Every Republican absence matters because of the GOP’s fragile 217-214 majority. It means Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team can afford only a single GOP defection on any vote.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., died in January after he underwent surgery during a medical emergency. And this month, at a public event, Trump said Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., who has been battling health issues, had only months to live. Dunn was seen in the Capitol this week in a leg brace and a motorized scooter.

The part of the Cabinet meeting that was open to journalists has concluded after about an hour and a half.

While complaining about a judge that halted actions by the Trump administration, the president started to criticize judges more generally, including the Supreme Court justices.

"The judges are really hurting this country," he said. " Justice Roberts doesn't like what I say, but the judges are really hurting this country, and frankly, the justices, the Supreme Court, has really hurt our country, too."

The president has been criticizing the Supreme Court since it struck down his sweeping emergency tariffs in a 6-3 vote last month, a major blow to his economic agenda.

Trump said that "something should be done" about Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. His comments came as he criticized immigrants from Somalia and railed against alleged fraud.

"The attorney general is a dirty cop," Trump said. "It’s my opinion. It’s only my opinion, and something should be done about him."

He did not specify what he thinks "should be done."

Reached for comment, Ellison said in a statement that "if Donald Trump thinks Minnesotans will turn on our neighbors, he doesn’t understand this state."

"Trump’s racist tirades can’t distract from the fact that his reckless and deeply unpopular war is driving up inflation, raising gas prices, and making life unaffordable for Minnesotans," Ellison said.

Trump says the 'present' from Iran was 'eight big boats of oil'

01:28

Trump said a "present" Iran gave the U.S. to prove their seriousness in the discussions to end the war continue was allowing eight oil tankers to sail through the Strait of Hormuz.

He said while watching Fox News, "They said something's unusual happening. There are eight boats that are going middle of the Hormuz strait — eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through, and I said, well, I guess they were right, and they were they were real, and I think they were Pakistani flagged. And I said, well, I guess we're dealing with the right people."

The president then said Iran allowed two more boats to go through, bringing the total to 10. Trump then told U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff during the meeting that he hoped he hadn't "screwed up" negotiations with Iran by revealing that information.

'I was away': Trump justifies voting by mail in Florida election

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Asked why he used a mail-in ballot in a recent Florida special election, Trump said, "because I'm president of the United States." Trump has called mail-in voting "cheating."

"Because of the fact that I'm President of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida, because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine," he said.

Trump frequently spends his weekends in Florida.

Read the full story here.

Speaking about Minnesota and a long-running fraud case there, the president renewed his attacks on Somali immigrants, telling reporters, "These people come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world, acknowledged to be one of the worst countries."

Trump added, "They have no money. They have nothing. They come to our country, low IQs, and they rob us blind -- stupid people -- and they rob us blind."

The president has for months attacked Somali immigrants, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a Somali-American who came to the U.S. as a child.

Asked by a reporter whether he would consider suspending the federal gas tax amid rising oil and gasoline prices, Trump said, "we've thought about it, I guess."

Trump pointed to the economy and stock market before the war started, adding that he said at the time that "we're going to take a little bit of a hit, a short term hit. It's going to end up going much higher than it was, in my opinion."

People "have talked" about suspending the gas tax, Trump said, adding, "It's something we have in our pocket if we think it's necessary."

The national gas price average is $3.98 per gallon, up from an average of $2.98 a month ago, according to AAA.

Trump complained in his remarks at his Cabinet meeting that everyone sues him but that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hasn't faced legal trouble.

"I get sued over a ballroom that’s going to be the most beautiful ballroom in the country, so desperately needed," he said, referring to his planned White House expansion.

"I get sued, Trump, but they don’t sue the guy whose interest rates are too high," the president said, repeating a continual criticism he makes of the Federal Reserve chair. "That’s why we call him 'too late.' His name is Jerome Powell. We call him Jerome 'too late' Powell. and he's done a terrible job," he said.

Trump, who called Powell a "moron," has ranted for months over a a renovation project at the central bank’s Washington, D.C., headquarters and how it's over budget. He pushed the Justice Department to investigate Powell over the cost overruns, which Powell called an “intimidation” tactic to press for cuts to interest rates. Powell recently said he wouldn't leave his job until the probe is closed.

Trump said that deploying National Guard troops in cities is "like training."

"They love doing it," he said of the National Guard. "It's like training."

"This is actually training," he continued. "I never want to take them out of D.C. I mean, maybe somebody later on will do it."

The president sent National Guard troops to D.C. last summer as part of an effort to reduce crime, which he has repeated in other cities, such as Memphis. Earlier last year, he sent to Los Angeles and to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel amid protests over immigration raids, which he then repeated in Portland and, briefly, the Chicago area.

Trump: Iran is 'begging to make a deal'

00:55

The president today told his Cabinet that Iranian leaders "are begging to make a deal."

"Not me," he added. "They're begging to make a deal, and anybody that saw what was happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal."

"I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that, I don’t know if we’re willing to do that," Trump added, repeating what he has told NBC News previously. "They should have done that four weeks ago. They should have done it two years ago, or they should have done it when we first came into office."

Trump's remarks come days after the U.S. delivered a 15-point peace plan to Iran via Pakistan, which Iranian leaders said they "responded negatively" to.

Trump's Cabinet meeting has kicked off.

This is the 10th Cabinet meeting of the president's second term in which part of the meeting has been open to journalists. The longest open portion of a Cabinet meeting stretched over three hours last year. His last Cabinet meeting was held in January.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voiced deep skepticism about another party-line "reconciliation" bill as Republican leaders eye it to pass funding for ICE and the Iran war, as well as portions of the SAVE America Act.

“If they want to use reconciliation to spend more and borrow more, that would not be fiscally conservative and I wouldn’t support that,” Paul said.

He added that he opposes the Iran war and won't support funding it.

Paul also said he wants the package to be paid for, but lamented that Republicans don't seem to care about offsetting new spending anymore.

There are 53 Republican senators, meaning that if Paul opposes the bill they can only afford to lose two more before the bill collapses. Paul opposed Trump's "big, beautiful bill" last year.

The recent Democratic offer to Republicans on a deal to fund DHS “includes several key steps that the White House has already agreed to in principle, like officer identification, body-worn cameras, protecting sensitive locations from enforcement actions, and basic training standards,” a Democratic source familiar with the negotiations said.

Two Republican sources added that the offer also includes provisions the White House has rejected, such as requiring officers to remove masks and obtain judicial warrants to conduct immigration enforcement operations on private property.

“They’re asking for things that have already been turned down. So, it just seems like they’re going in circles,” Senate Majority Leader Thune, R-S.D., told reporters, rejecting the offer.

The underlying bill includes all of DHS funding except ICE’s enforcement and removal operations. Republicans argue that Democrats don’t get to demand policy reforms if they aren’t funding that portion of ICE. Democrats say the bill fully funds ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, as well as Customs and Border Protection, which are conducting immigration enforcement, and thus they won’t support the legislation without some reforms.

As the partial government shutdown enters day 40, airports across the United States are facing hourslong lines with wait times that are now the longest in TSA history. The acting TSA administrator says many officers are struggling to support their families. “Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” she said. It comes as the transportation secretary warns things could get worse. NBC’s Priscilla Thompson and Aaron Gilchrist report for "TODAY."

Airport wait times are now the longest in TSA history

03:35

China declined to confirm the dates of Trump’s upcoming visit to the country, which he said had been rescheduled for mid-May after being delayed so he could focus on the Iran war.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he would visit Beijing from May 14 to 15, about six weeks after the trip was originally planned. He added that he plans to host Chinese President Xi Jinping and Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, in Washington at a later date.

“China and the United States are maintaining communication regarding President Trump’s visit to China,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing today.

China does not typically confirm the dates of such visits until shortly before they take place and had not confirmed the original dates of Trump’s trip, which the White House had said would last from March 31 to April 2.

The U.S. military said it carried out a strike yesterday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing four people, as the Trump administration pushes forward with a monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America while waging a war against Iran.

The latest attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 163 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

Read the full story here.

Trump's Cabinet meeting today will be the 11th of his second term and the 10th that has been opened to the press.

The president posted about a closed Cabinet meeting last March. 

All but one of the nine open potions of the Cabinet meetings this term have lasted over an hour, with three lasting over two hours. The longest, in August, lasted three hours and 17 minutes. 

In his last public Cabinet meeting, in January, Trump notably did not answer questions from the press, a first for the open Cabinet meetings this term, and did not have all members of the Cabinet speak as he had in previous meetings.

A Trump administration official made two criminal referrals yesterday against New York Attorney General Letitia James months after the Justice Department failed for a third time in its efforts to prosecute the longtime Trump target.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte alleged in the referrals that James committed insurance fraud, saying she may have falsified information on separate homeowner’s insurance applications regarding occupancy at two homes in Norfolk, Virginia, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

One referral was made to U.S. Attorney Jason Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida and the other to U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois, as the insurance companies for the two respective applications, each for a different Norfolk property, are based in those jurisdictions.

Read the full story here.

In a series of Truth Social posts this morning, Trump called on Republicans to terminate the filibuster in order to fund DHS and pass the SAVE America Act, an election overhaul bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and require photo identification at the polls.

"When is 'enough, enough' for our Republican Senators," he said in one of the posts.

"There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance," he continued. "TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again. Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items."

Republicans have so far resisted Trump's calls to end the filibuster, a delay tactic that effectively requires most bills in the Senate to have 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to advance.

Despite optimism earlier this week that they would be able to reach a deal to fund DHS, the Senate failed again last night to advance a spending bill.

Trump will hold a Cabinet meeting this morning, his first since the Department of Homeland Security partially shut down nearly six weeks ago.

This will be the president's first Cabinet meeting with his newly confirmed homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, who replaced Kristi Noem amid mounting criticism of her leadership.

Trump's Cabinet meetings often go on for hours.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has endorsed Democrat Brian Poindexter in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, lending national star power that could elevate the union ironworker in a May primary and in a general election that on paper favors Republicans.

“Brian Poindexter is an ironworker who has spent his life fighting for working people — as a union organizer, a city council member, and a coach in his community,” Sanders said in a statement first shared with NBC News. “He started working at 15 and knows firsthand what it’s like when the deck is stacked against you. At a time when billionaires are getting richer while working families can’t make ends meet, we don’t need more politicians who will sell out workers’ rights.”

Poindexter, who serves on the City Council in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park, is competing for the nomination to face Rep. Max Miller, the Republican incumbent, in November. Miller won his second term by 15 points in 2024, and the northeast Ohio district was made slightly more Republican in recent redistricting. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has identified it as a district in play.

Michael Flynn and the Justice Department have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, over his claims of political targeting in a 2017 case in which he initially pleaded guilty.

The parties notified a federal judge yesterday in Florida that they had reached a settlement. The amount was not disclosed. Flynn had sued for $50 million in 2023, alleging malicious prosecution and abuse of process.

A judge previously tossed Flynn’s lawsuit in 2024. His attorneys filed an amended complaint last June, claiming the U.S. “improperly and politically targeted General Flynn because of his lawful association with the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.”

Read the full story here.

The House Ethics Committee will hold a rare pubic hearing following its investigation into criminal allegations against Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., this afternoon. 

Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted last November on charges that she stole and laundered $5 million in federal relief funds and used the money for her congressional campaign. Separately, the House Ethics Committee, which is made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, conducted its own investigation of the congresswoman. She pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In December, a House ethics investigative subcommittee tasked with investigating Cherfilus-McCormick adopted a 27-count statement of alleged violations against the congresswoman. The statement said the panel had “reviewed over 33,000 documents totaling hundreds of thousands of pages of materials and conducted 28 witness interviews” before making the determination.

With today's hearing, a separate adjudicatory subcommittee now aims to determine whether any of the counts have been proven by the evidence. 

The glimpse of momentum earlier this week toward a deal on funding the Department of Homeland Security appears to have faded after the Senate failed once again to advance the full-year, House-passed spending bill last night.

The 54-46 vote fell short of the 60 needed to advance the measure. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote in favor of doing so.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to continue holding votes to advance the GOP’s proposal, and he said he has not made a final decision about whether senators will leave for their two-week recess at the end of the week if no deal is reached.

Before last night's vote, Senate Democrats sent Republicans a counteroffer to fund DHS, which included policy changes to immigration enforcement operations. Republicans rejected the proposal, calling it “not even close to real.”

Thune said Democrats were “asking for things that have already been turned down, so it just seems like they’re going in circles.” He said there is “no point” in submitting another Republican counteroffer to them.