President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday empowering DOGE to scrutinize how federal agencies spend money, the latest expansion of Elon Musk's cost cutting powers.
Why it matters: Trump, who hours earlier backed Musk's email to federal employees asking them to outline what they accomplished at work last week, is giving the billionaire SpaceX founder extra teeth to upend government through his work on DOGE.
The White House still plans to implement 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico next week, at least for now — despite comments from President Trump on Wednesday that raised hopes of another delay.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has announced a slew of tariffs that could take effect on their respective deadline, or ultimately be pushed off — a prime backdrop for confusion.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) is planning to announce in April whether she will seek to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Stevens' entry into the race would add to what is already on track to be a crowded and chaotic Democratic primary for a key Senate seat.
Federal workers who didn't respond to Elon Musk's request to outline what they did at work "are on the bubble," President Trump said during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term.
Why it matters: Trump's comments came as he was flanked by every one of his confirmed agency heads, including some whose departments' explicitly told their federal employees not to respond to Musk's email last week.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) instructed committee staff to refer to the Israeli-occupied West Bank by its Hebrew name Judea and Samaria, according to a copy of an internal committee memo obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The international community, including the U.S. government, refers to the territory Israel occupied in 1967 as the West Bank and doesn't recognize Israeli sovereignty there. Roughly 3 million Palestinians and half a million Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.
The stock market no longer appears to be President Trump's go-toyardstick for success. Bond yields, not the Dow, are the administration's new North Star.
Why it matters: The administration now sees bond yields — which determine long-term interest rates across the economy — as a real-time gauge of investors' confidence in its fiscal agenda.
The White House is directing federal agencies to prepare for large-scale layoffs, so-called reductions in force (RIF), according to guidance sent out by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management on Wednesday.
Why it matters: To date, job cuts in the federal workforce have mostly affected probationary employees who are relatively easy to fire — RIFs are a more drastic step. Agencies were given two weeks to make plans for "significant" layoffs.
President Trump shared what appeared to be an AI-generated video late Tuesday night depicting his vision of "the Riviera of the Middle East" if his plan to "take over the Gaza strip" comes to fruition.
Why it matters: The video recasts the enclave that's been devastated by the Israel-Hamas war as an oasis of Trump's fantasy, complete with bellydancers, a golden statue of himself and Elon Muskdancing under a shower of money.
Eric Schultz — a political adviser to former President Obama, and former White House principal deputy press secretary and Senate aide — is credited on-screen as a political consultant for the new Netflix political thriller, "Zero Day," starring Robert De Niro.
Why it matters: Schultz spent several weeks on-set for filming of White House and congressional scenes — advising the director, actors and crew on production, including set design, costumes, props, dialogue and blocking.
Axios' Alex Thompson and CNN's Jake Tapper — two of the most prominent reporters covering former President Biden's downfall — will be out May 20 with "Original Sin," an unsparing look at Biden's "decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again."
Why it matters: Thompson and Tapper draw a direct line from Biden's decision to run again — his "original sin" that led to a campaign of "gaslighting and denial" — and the election of President Trump.
There's a new, combative airat one of the world's largest office buildings, as accomplished military leaders are axed, thousands of average Joes face layoffs and press access is muddied.
Why it matters: The Pentagon, so often roasted for its sedateness, is being blitzed by change. And the long-term tea leaves are hard to read.
President Trump is setting a new precedent for tight, punitive government control over a free press.
Why it matters: Trump and his administration are doing this systematically, gleefully and unmistakably. But as we've written before, this unprecedented shift could set the precedent for future Democratic presidents, too.
As the battle over Elon Musk's DOGE-directed cuts to federal medical research continues, institutions already are freezing hiring, cutting back on the number of Ph.D. students they'll accept and making other contingencies.
Why it matters: Capping how much the National Institutes of Health covers the schools' overhead costs could lead to billions of dollars in cuts to scientific research funding and widespread economic fallout.
With the help of President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) muscled a budget package through the House — a win he claimed will give him momentum to pass "Trump's full America First agenda — not just parts of it."
Why it matters: Johnson's dream of one big, beautiful bill will live another day. But so will the reality of his razor-thin House GOP majority.
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, said Tuesday more than 100 intelligence officers will be fired for taking part in sexually explicit discussions in agency chat rooms.
The big picture: Gabbard said on Fox News she "put out a directive" on Tuesday that those who took part in these chats on the National Security Agency's (NSA) "Intelink" messaging platform will also have their security clearances revoked.
Six probationary federal workers the Trump administration fired can stay in their jobs for now, per a 45-day stay the independent agency that oversees employee complaints against the government issued on Tuesday evening.
The big picture: Hampton Dellinger, who's suing the administration after President Trump moved to fire him from his role leading the Office of Special Counsel, brought the case to the Merit Systems Protection Board due to concerns the agencies' action against the workers may violate the law.
Undocumented immigrants age 14 or older must register and provide fingerprints or face a fine or even imprisonment under new Trump administration plans announced Tuesday.
The big picture: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the escalation in the administration's crackdown on undocumented immigrants that she vowed the administration would enforce.
We've gone from soy to oat to almond to pistachio, and now we're back to just regular milk.
The big picture: "By the end of the 20th century, it seemed like cow's milk was over," The New York Times' Julia Moskin writes.
But in 2024, America's consumption of whole milk jumped 3.2%, while consumption of plant-based milk dropped 5.9%, The Times reports, citingmarket research firm Circana.
That was only the second increase in whole milk consumption since the '70s. And it was the third straight year that plant-based milk consumption fell.
📈 The money quote: "For dairy milk to be growing at all is surprising, much less by these numbers. … This reverses trends that have been in place for decades," John Crawford, Circana's dairy expert, tells the Times.
President Trump announced Tuesday the administration plans to offer $5 million "gold cards," which grant individuals permanent U.S. residency.
The big picture: The new system would replace the existing EB-5 program — a system launched in 1990 that offers green cards to individuals who invested in the U.S. — and serve as a route to citizenship, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday that Israel will send a delegation to Doha or Cairo in the coming days to discuss the next steps of the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal based on principles that the U.S. has agreed to with Israel and Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
The big picture "If these talks go well, I might be going to the region on Sunday," Witkoff said at an American Jewish Committee event in Washington, D.C.
The House passed Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) budget bill Tuesday despite a short-lived GOP revolt earlier in the day.
Why it matters: It is the critical first step for passing the massive fiscal agenda that Johnson and President Trump have championed — though there are still more hurdles to clear.
The House is voting on Republicans' budget resolution Tuesday evening after persistent opposition from right-wing deficit hawks forced a delay.
Why it matters: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the vote after he and his deputies spent the day trying to convince reticent Republicans to back their proposal — a critical first step toward passing President Trump's massive fiscal agenda.
A new Latino group is using its first appearance on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to put the Trump administration and the media on notice it plans to use "purchasing power" to improve how Latinos are represented and depicted.
Why it matters: The group, Aquí: The Accountability Movement, wants to counter the notion that "Latino equals immigrant, which equals criminal," Sindy Benavides, the group's executive director, told Axios.
The U.S. vote against a United Nations resolution condemning Russian aggression is becoming another tension point between President Trump and Senate Republicans.
Why it matters: Republicans are bracing to have their party's leader challenge or undercut their core assumption about foreign policy. Some still hold out hope for a war-ending deal.
Fresh off a week of being yelled at back home, Republicans returned to Capitol Hill suddenly pressing Elon Musk to project a kinder, friendlier face of DOGE.
Why it matters: Republican and Democratic congressional districts alike have been rattled by Musk's tactics for slashing government funding and terminating chunks of the federal workforce.
Apple said Tuesday it's working to fix an iPhone bug after some users reported its automatic dictation feature briefly displays "Trump" when they say "racist" before the text-to-speech transcription software corrects itself.
The big picture: A viral TikTok video of the glitch that Apple says erroneously suggests the word "trump" when users dictate some words that also include an "r" consonant caused outrage among conservatives online who've accused Big Tech of political bias.
