News From Around the Web
#10 Musk and Top Trump Adviser Feud Over Tariffs - ABC News, Elon Musk, David Burge, and Joseph Carlson on X
Elon Musk took another shot at Peter Navarro on Tuesday over tariffs, calling President Donald Trump's top adviser on trade and manufacturing a "moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks." Musk, a senior Trump adviser who promoted Trump's agenda, has been critical of Navarro, one of the architects of Trump's tariff policy. Navarro has made the rounds in the media defending the sweeping tariffs the president imposed last week that sent world markets plunging. Musk's insults Tuesday came after Navarro called the Tesla CEO a "car assembler" rather than a "manufacturer," claiming that key components of his Teslas come from overseas...
#9 China’s Central Bank Urges State Banks to Put a Brake on Dollar Purchases -Vahid Karaahmetovic for Investing.com, Watcher.Guru, Crypto Rover, Jesse Cohen, and Amuse on X
China’s central bank is taking steps to limit further weakness in the yuan, instructing major state-owned banks to curb their U.S. dollar purchases and tighten scrutiny on foreign exchange transactions, Reuters reported Wedndesday, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The move comes amid growing pressure on the currency, which has fallen roughly 1.3% this month and was trading around 7.35 per dollar on Wednesday. The offshore yuan briefly touched a record low overnight, reflecting concerns over heightened U.S.-China trade tensions following new U.S. tariffs and Beijing’s retaliatory measures...
#8 Randy Fine Accuses DeSantis of Antisemitism Amid Political Clash - Ahmad Austin Jr. for Mediaite, The Floridian/EllyKayUSA, Show Me The Data/Matt, and Anthony Sabatini on X
Representative-elect Randy Fine (R-FL) appeared to imply that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked him and another Florida Republican because they’re Jewish. Fine recently won a special election to take over the district previously held by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. Although the district has been a Republican stronghold in recent years, Fine won by just 14 points — the slimmest margin since 2018. In response to Fine’s win, DeSantis claimed President Donald Trump “really had to bail him out” and that the race would have been even closer without Trump’s involvement. He even referred to Fine as a “squish” and said that he “repels” people. Days later, he went after Florida Rep. Hillary Cassel when he called her a “liberal Democrat from down in South Florida.” Cassel switched parties and became a Republican after the 2024 election...
#7 Trump Brings Rescued Gaza Hostages on Stage at NRCC Dinner - Misty Severi for Just the News, John Solomon, Rapid Response 47, RSBN, and Congressman Pat Harrigan on X
resident Donald Trump on Tuesday night brought three former Hamas hostages on stage during a dinner for the National Republican Congressional Committee. The three Israeli former hostages praised the president for his commitment to help bring them home, stating that he has now rescued 33 hostages. There are still 59 hostages being held in Gaza. "Thank you very much, President Trump," one of the former hostages said. "I'm here, and I'm alive. President Trump, you saved my life. You saved the lives of 33 hostages. Because of your efforts, and you set the hostages crisis as the high priority of what you are doing among all the enormous issues and things that you're dealing with ... We all owe our lives to you."
#6 New Mexico Governor Mobilizes National Guard to Tackle Crime Emergency in Albuquerque - Susan Montoya Bryan for AP, Dapper Detective, Sheriff Darrin White (Ret.), ABQ RAW, KRQE News 13, and New Mexico House Republicans on X
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in New Mexico’s largest city, saying that a significant increase in crime in Albuquerque warrants the help of the New Mexico National Guard. She signed an executive order, clearing the way for several dozen troops to be deployed along the historic Route 66 corridor starting in mid-May. The order also frees up state funds for the National Guard to use as part of the effort. Training for 60 to 70 troops already is underway, the governor’s office said. Governors typically call up the National Guard to help with natural disasters like wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. In recent years, governors have also ordered troops to address illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. In New York last year, the National Guard helped patrol the subway system following a series of high-profile crimes...
#5 Ken Paxton Challenges John Cornyn in Texas Senate Race - Jasper Scherer for The Texas Tribune, Attorney General Ken Paxton/ThePersistence, Nick Sorter, and Chicago1Ray on X
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday he will challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in next year’s midterm elections, setting up a barnburner clash of two Republican titans that is poised to reverberate across state and national politics. The contest, teased by Paxton for months, promises to be among the most heated and expensive Republican primaries in the country and in recent Texas history. It also marks the latest flashpoint in a power struggle between the Texas GOP’s hardline, socially conservative wing — which views Paxton as a standard-bearer — and the Cornyn-aligned, business-minded Republican old guard. Appearing on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show, Paxton said it was “time for a change in Texas” as he announced his Senate bid and blasted Cornyn’s “lack of production” over his 22 years in the upper chamber...
#4 Head of IRS to Resign in Protest as Agency Inks Deal to Share Tax Data on Illegal Immigrants With DHS - Shane Galvin for New York Post, R A W A L E R T S, Libs of TikTok, Kyle Becker, and The Washington Post on X
The acting head of the Internal Revenue Service will resign in the wake of a deal struck on behalf of the agency that will see it share tax data on undocumented immigrants. Melanie Krause, a commissioner at the IRS who is the third person to serve as its chief since the start of the year, will pack up her desk as part of the deferred resignation program offered by the Trump administration, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday. The news of her plans to leave the federal agency comes less than a week before the deadline for individual tax returns...
#3 Ex-Facebook Employee to Tell Congress the Company Undermined U.S. National Security - Allan Smith and David Ingram for NBC News, Mario Nawfal, The Will Cain Show, Josh Hawley, and BookBrunch on X
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee who alleged misconduct and sexual harassment at the company in a memoir published last month, will testify before Congress on Wednesday that Meta executives undermined U.S. national security and briefed Chinese officials on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. In her introductory statement, obtained by NBC News, Wynn-Williams will tell the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism that Meta executives “lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public.”
#2 Why Three Dealmaking Senate Democrats Are Heading for the Exits - Lauren Fox and Jeremy Herb for CNN, Himalayatrekker, The Persistence, Steve Gruber, and NRCC on X
After months of wrestling with the decision of whether to run for reelection for a third term in the swing state of Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters took a pass. At a moment when Senate Democrats are grappling with how to win back the voters they lost to Trump in 2024, Peters was the first of at least three Senate Democrats who have opted against running for another term, citing in part the changes to a body that used to be much easier to make deals in. “I will say, over these last few years, it gets harder every single year,” Peters said in an interview in his Washington office last week. “The middle is disappearing.”
#1 Federal Judge Rules White House’s Associated Press Ban Unconstitutional for ‘Viewpoint Discrimination' - Lindsay Kornick for Fox News, Walter Curt, CNN Breaking News, and Helmuth Fuchs on X
The White House violated the Constitution by barring the Associated Press from Oval Office events, according to a federal judge’s ruling Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee, said that the White House acted against the First Amendment, which prohibits discrimination based on viewpoints, by blocking the longtime publication’s access over its refusal to use the term "Gulf of America." "The Government offers no other plausible explanation for its treatment of the AP. The Constitution forbids viewpoint discrimination, even in a nonpublic forum like the Oval Office," McFadden wrote...
