Trump to hold ‘tele-town hall’ for Florida special election candidate
Trump is holding a “tele-town hall” this evening with Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, the Republican candidate competing in the special congressional election Tuesday.
“Hear from the President on why the election for CD-1 is so important to not only families in the Panhandle BUT the entire nation!” Patronis posted on X, encouraging his supporters to dial into the tele-town hall. Patronis is vying to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz in Florida’s 1st Congressional District, which Gaetz and Trump easily carried in November.
The district is deeply Republican, but Patronis’ Democratic opponent, gun control activist Gay Valimont, has swamped him in fundraising. Valimont, who also lost to Gaetz in November, has spent millions on the race. Patronis has received some help in the final days from outside groups, including Elon Musk’s super PAC.
There is also a special election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday to replace former GOP Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser. It is unclear if Trump is holding a similar event for the GOP candidate in that race, State Sen. Randy Fine. The state senator has raised some concerns among GOP leaders because of his lackluster fundraising.
‘A crisis moment’: New Politics launches $20 million push to recruit service-oriented candidates
New Politics, a group focused on supporting candidates from service backgrounds, is launching a multimillion-dollar effort to recruit thousands of candidates over the next four years. And the congressman co-chairing the effort said it comes as the country faces “a crisis moment in political leadership.”
“When I talk to my constituents, they sense that we have a fundamental lack of leadership in the country right now and are desperate for integrity and courage and authenticity and candor and honesty, and they’re not feeling that,” Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., said in an interview. “It’s the exception rather than the rule in both parties.”
Senate Armed Services Committee requests Pentagon’s acting inspector general to investigate Signal chat
Isabella RamirezIsabella Ramirez is a politics intern with NBC News.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter today requesting the Defense Department’s acting inspector general to launch an investigation into the leaked Signal chat about U.S. military strikes in Yemen.
The letter raises concerns over the nature of the information shared in the group chat, asking for an assessment of whether the senior Trump administration officials adhered to the department’s classification and declassification policies.
“This chat was alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen. If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know,” the senators wrote.
The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to schedule a briefing with acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins following the completion of his review, they said.
Trump reiterates desire to acquire Greenland ahead of Vances’ visit
Trump is reiterating his desire for the United States to acquire Greenland ahead of a high-profile trip by Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, who arrive tomorrow. It originally was supposed to be a cultural visit for the second lady, but now the trip has a sharper focus on national security. NBC’s Molly Hunter reports for “TODAY” from Nuuk.
Wisconsin provides a critical test for Democrats’ anti-Musk playbook
Next week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race is emerging as the first big test of Democrats’ anti-Elon Musk strategy as the party searches for a winning message following its loss to Trump last November.
Trump’s billionaire adviser has been a major player in the technically nonpartisan judicial race: Musk’s super PAC has emerged as the top spender in the contest and has offered $100 to Wisconsin voters to sign a petition to oppose “activist judges,” while he often posts about the election on his X feed.
Between that and his polarizing efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency to slash the size of the federal government — and polling that shows he’s less popular than Trump, who endorsed conservative candidate Brad Schimel last week — Democratic-aligned groups and liberal candidate Susan Crawford have made Musk a major focal point in the race’s final stretch.
It’s a playbook that Democrats could seek to replicate elsewhere if it’s successful in one of the country’s tightest battleground states.
DOGE’s lease terminations at anti-discrimination agency raises questions about flouting protocol
The Department of Government Efficiency website’s lease termination listings for as many as eight Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offices is raising questions from Congress about whether the terminations flouted standard protocol.
A group of House Democrats sent a letter yesterday to acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, whom Trump renominated for another five-year term this week, urging the agency to “reverse course on any plan to terminate leases at EEOC’s field offices.”
The letter also says the lease terminations are “deeply concerning” because the independent agency is without a quorum to approve any changes. Trump fired two Democratic commissioners in January, leaving the anti-discrimination watchdog agency with just two remaining commissioners.
“The Commission must approve changes to the boundaries of field offices by vote,” the lawmakers wrote. “As you are aware, the Commission lacks a quorum and cannot approve such changes unilaterally.”
The agency’s five-person commission must approve changes to “jurisdictional boundaries of any EEOC field activity,” according to a 2006 EEOC memo obtained by NBC News. “No jurisdictional boundaries can be established or changed, even temporarily, without Commission approval,” the memo says.
An EEOC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter. Agency spokespersons declined to comment when asked earlier this month for clarity about the lease terminations and agency protocol.
Department of Health and Human Services announces it’s cutting 10,000 more jobs
Rebecca Shabad and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner
The Department of Health and Human Services announced this morning that it is cutting 10,000 more employees from its workforce, which will shrink from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees when combined with other HHS layoffs.
The cuts will save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually as part of a “dramatic restructuring” that will “streamline the functions” of HHS, the department said.
The department said it will consolidate “many redundant units” in its 28 divisions into just 15 divisions. It will also halve its number of regional offices from 10 to five.
It said “the overhaul will implement the new HHS priority of ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the restructuring.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement that the department is “realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”
“This Department will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer,” he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits the El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held
The Associated Press
Reporting from EL SALVADOR
TECOLUCA, El Salvador — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.
Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”
Appeals court denies Trump administration’s push for a pause in probationary employees case
Gary Grumbach and Megan Lebowitz
A federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration’s request to pause a lower court’s order to reinstate probationary employees.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup had previously ruled that thousands of fired probationary employees must be reinstated. In a two-to-one decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government’s request for an emergency stay of Alsup’s orders while appeals are underway.
The government has also asked the Supreme Court to pause Alsup’s order, although the high court has not yet weighed in.
Trump threatens ‘far larger’ tariffs on E.U. and Canada if they unite to do ‘economic harm’ to the U.S.
Trump issued an overnight threat to place “far larger” tariffs on the European Union and Canada than planned if they work together to retaliate in response to his tariffs.
“If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Marjorie Taylor Greene tells British reporter to ‘go back to your country’
Peter Guo
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., lashed out at a reporter from Britain at a news conference yesterday, telling her to “go back to your country.”
Greene made the remarks after Sky News correspondent Martha Kelner attempted to ask about the leaked Signal chat about U.S. military strikes on Yemen. (NBC and Sky News are both owned by Comcast.)
“Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem?” Greene said before Kelner could finish her question. “We don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting.”
When Kelner pressed Greene on whether she cared about “American lives being put at risk” by the Signal leak, Greene fired back: “Do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?”
She then called on an “American journalist” and said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is doing a “great job” as she walked out.
Former national security officials say airstrike plans shared with journalist were classified
Dan De Luce and Gordon Lubold
Former senior national security officials and Democratic lawmakers rejected yesterday the Trump administration’s continued assertion that detailed U.S. airstrike plans inadvertently shared with a journalist were not classified.
They cited The Atlantic’s publication of a full transcript of the Signal text exchange in which the administration’s top national security officials discussed planned U.S. airstrikes in Yemen.
Democrats demand accountability as Atlantic releases full chain
The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg released the entire text chain of messages from a group chat he was mistakenly added to that included Vice President JD Vance and nearly all of the Trump administration senior national security leaders in a discussion of sensitive military plans. It comes as more Republicans are pressing for an investigation, with the White House remaining defiant in the face of mounting backlash. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for “TODAY.”
Senate committee holds hearing to address antisemitism on college campuses
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is holding a hearing this morning to address antisemitic attacks and harassment against Jewish students on college campuses.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the committee, introduced legislation in January that would penalize colleges that do not adequately combat discrimination due to heritage and better teach students how to report alleged civil rights violations.
The hearing comes as the Trump administration aggressively targets alleged incidents of antisemitism at schools, using them in part to justify the deportation of several foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests last year.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon this month threatened 60 colleges with “potential enforcement actions” if they failed to sufficiently protect the Jewish students on their respective campuses.
Trump to sign more executive orders today
Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders this afternoon in the Oval Office, according to the White House.
The new directives from Trump come after he signed orders this week to place new tariffs on U.S. automobile imports and implement new guidelines on federal elections. While announcing the auto tariffs at the White House yesterday, Trump told reporters he planned to implement additional tariffs over the next week.
“We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back,” Trump said, adding “we will be putting a tariff on lumber.”
This evening, Trump will participate in an iftar dinner at the White House to commemorate the Muslim month of Ramadan. The event is scheduled to take place in the State Dining Room.
Last year, President Joe Biden dramatically downsized his iftar gathering after invitations to attend the event were declined by several Muslim American community leaders amid backlash to his handling of the war in the Gaza Strip.
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