Axios

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that the DOJ would withhold grants from sanctuary cities, claiming they're violating immigration law by refusing to help track and deport illegal immigrants. Seattle is suing, arguing the federal government is violating the 10th Amendment by trying to make local police enforce federal law.

The trend: San Francisco and two cities in Massachusetts already filed suit following an executive order last month on sanctuary cities, but this is the first suit since Sessions' announcement. This is also the latest challenge from Washington— the state sued the administration over the first travel ban.

Ivanka Trump, who has relocated to the West Wing and been serving as an unofficial advisor her father, will be a federal employee after all, per the NYT. She won't be paid, however, to avoid ethics concerns:

"I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the president in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees."

Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, is also not taking a salary for his work as a WH adviser.

Despite rising civilian casualties from attacks against ISIS, which U.S. officials have said could have been caused by the U.S., Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel told the House Armed Services Committee today: "We have not relaxed the rules of engagement."

But there have been changes to the rules, as the AP reported last month. Two directives (one in late 2016 and one in 2017) have made it easier for advisers on the ground to order airstrikes or artillery fire, and "may be the reason why Mosul could be the site of the largest loss of civilian life since the start of the Iraq war in 2003," according to Task & Purpose.

Why it matters: President Trump has long said the rules concerning civilians unnecessarily constrain the US in its fight against ISIS. And Votel said Tuesday that the terror group has been using human shields as a way to fend off U.S. strikes: "I think they do understand our sensitivity to civilian casualties and they are exploiting that." But there are growing concerns about civilian deaths, particularly after a recent Mosul strike — which Votel said appeared to involve the US — killed scores of civilians.

First lady Melania Trump, who doesn't give public speeches often, delivered remarks on women's empowerment at the State Department's 2017 International Women of Courage awards ceremony Wednesday:

"Together with the international community, the U.S. must send a clear message that we are watching. It is therefore our duty to continue to shine the light on each miraculous victory achieved by women all capable of trying, truly leading the change to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves."

Spicer began with an olive branch, calling on April Ryan first after his widely-criticized response to her questions yesterday. The takeaways:

• On Nunes and the Russia probe: Looking into Nunes' controversial White House visit would be a "slippery slope" because it could be viewed as interfering with his investigation, said Spicer. "We're damned if we do, damned if we don't."
• On working with Dems on health care: "There's a balancing" act to add votes without compromising main components, but not impossible.
• Trump's renewed sense of optimism on health care: The president "was having a little bit of fun" in saying there would be an "easy deal" on health care. But there will be "consequences" for Republicans who refused to back the bill.
• Trump the peacemaker: "There used to be a time that you could sit down and share a meal together" he says of Dems who declined a WH dinner invite.

It's not exactly what security experts suggest, but Donald Trump has started using a new iPhone for some of his tweets. Social media director Dan Scavino confirmed the president's new phone in a tweet of his own.

While an upgrade from his older Android phone, using any device directly connected to the Internet still presents a significant security risk, according to experts. Barack Obama desperately wanted to keep using his BlackBerry when he took office and was eventually given a highly secure device that could only be used to message a few pre-approved contacts. He later got an unspecified new smartphone, but it also had most of its features disabled.

Trump's use of an iPhone also contradicts his earlier call to boycott Apple for not making more of its products in the U.S.

President Trump likes to take good-natured digs at his chief of staff Reince Priebus, often joking about his "crazy name" and recounting funny memories, reports the AP's Julie Pace. Here is what counts as a funny memory:

For laughs, Trump will sometimes recount a tense exchange with Priebus at one of the campaign's lowest moments: the release of a video in which Trump is heard making predatory comments about women. During an emergency campaign meeting, Priebus told Trump he should either drop out of the race or risk dragging down Republican candidates across the country.

First look ... Forbes launches The American Dream Index, using seven indicators of economic health "to track on a state-by-state monthly basis whether President Trump is Making America Great." The debut rankings:

Best off: Nevada, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas and Georgia.

Worst off: Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut, Illinois and Kansas.

The big states: Washington ranks 15th, Pennsylvania 16th, Texas 19th, California 26th, Michigan 27th, Wisconsin 29th, Virginia 30th, Maryland 31st, Ohio 32nd, New York 41st and New Jersey 45th.

Vanity Fair's April cover story, "Alec Baldwin Sounds Off," is adapted from Baldwin's memoir, "Nevertheless," out April 4, along with comments from "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on March 1:

When the ["Saturday Night Live"] stage manager took me to my mark for the first dress rehearsal, I had no idea what I was going to do. I mean, literally, the moment I walked out, I just said to myself, "Eyebrow up," and I tried to stick my face and my mouth out. For the actual show, when I was in the makeup room, I put my wig on, and it was like a scene from a mental hospital. I'm getting the wig on me, and I'm sitting there the whole time going "Gyna, Gyna, Gyna." I didn't think about it—I just did it. Now I should probably tell people, "I worked on it for months."

People ask me, "What is your whole gag?' And I tell them, "You can suggest the voice or the way a person looks, but to be successful you have to think of who that person is. To me Trump is someone who is always searching for a stronger, better word, but he never finds it. Whenever I play him, I make a long pause to find that word, and then I just repeat the word I started with: 'These people are great people. They're fantastic people, and I just want to say that working with them was . . . a fantastic experience.' "

David Ignatius, in his WashPost column today, has a memorable description of Jared Kushner — husband of Ivanka, and POTUS' son-in-law and senior adviser:

Kushner is apprenticing for the role of Trump's Henry Kissinger. He's the secret emissary, the evaluator of talent, the whisperer of confidential advice. He's the only person in this White House who Trump can't fire, really. All these qualities strike me as beneficial, so long as Kushner uses them to make Trump a better president who learns how to compromise and govern.

AP's Jonathan Lemire also takes a close look at Kushner, whose new White House role "faces rare scrutiny."

A little-noticed detail in a New Yorker article worsens the case against Devin Nunes. Eight paragraphs deep in his story on Nunes yesterday, the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza reveals that a "senior White House official" did some prescient foreshadowing of last Monday's House Intelligence Committee hearing. Here's Lizza:

Last Monday morning, shortly before the start of the hearing, a senior White House official told me, "You'll see the setting of the predicate. That's the thing to watch today." He suggested that I read a piece in The Hill about incidental collection. The article posited that if "Trump or his advisors were speaking directly to foreign individuals who were the target of U.S. spying during the election campaign, and the intelligence agencies recorded Trump by accident, it's plausible that those communications would have been collected and shared amongst intelligence agencies."

The White House clearly indicated to me that it knew Nunes would highlight this issue. "It's backdoor surveillance where it's not just incidental, it's systematic," the White House official said. "Watch Nunes today."

Why this matters

: With the credibility of his Russia investigation under question — even from Republicans — Nunes needs to prove he hasn't colluded with the Trump administration. Lizza's reporting surely doesn't help.

With a more relaxed antitrust posture and the possibility of tax reform on the horizon, merger activity is expected to rise this year. About 44 % of dealmakers see the number of transactions rising this year, while 35% expect M&A to be about the same as last year. Only one in five expect the number of mergers to drop from last year, according to a new Brunswick Group survey.