Some progressive Democrats are fuming that the party's new schedule for 2028 presidential primaries could make it harder for one of their own to win the party's nomination.
A powerful Democratic National Committee panel voted Friday to kick off the primary in South Carolina — the state where progressive icon Bernie Sanders suffered landslide losses in the 2016 and 2020 primaries.
Why it matters: The panel's decision came with Democrats already divided over a wave of contentious 2026 primaries that have pitted an insurgent left against the party's more moderate establishment.
A small but growing number of Democrats are embracing their own version of "America First" in response to Donald Trump's ongoing war with Iran in partnership with Israel.
Why it matters: Trump's war is scrambling the politics of a slogan he once owned, fracturing the right even as some Democrats — including potential 2028 presidential candidates — embrace it.
The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, Adm. Brad Cooper, recommended stopping the bombing campaign around the Strait of Hormuz because it has reached the limit of its effectiveness, according to two sources with knowledge of his position.
Why it matters: The recommendation by Cooper, the commander of the U.S. Military Central Command (CENTCOM), together with other advisers impacted President Trump's decision on Friday to pause U.S. strikes against Iran, thesources said.
The midterm elections are 100 days out. Political reporter Hans Nichols, lead author of the Hill Leaders newsletter, shares his intel on the state of the races:
The big picture: The House environment favors the Democrats. The terrain favors Republicans.
The same is broadly true on the Senate side — except the structural advantages are even greater for Republicans.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman heads to Washington this week to preview the company's most powerful AI yet, pushing for speedy approval of a model that just hacked a real company.
Why it matters: He'll tout a model powerful enough to solve an 80-year-old math problem, breach another company's system unprompted and begin to make complex work more cost-efficient for U.S. business.
With Congress on the sidelines, union contracts are among the strongest guardrails American workers have against artificial intelligence.
Why it matters: Nearly 90% of the U.S. workforce lacks union representation, leaving about 130 million workers without that leverage as companies use AI to rewrite job descriptions and cut jobs.
President Trump directed the U.S. military not to conduct new strikes in Iran on Friday, breaking a nearly two-week streak of daily attacks, two sources with knowledge of the decision said.
Why it matters: The president's directive came after he approved daily strikes over the previous 13 days. It is unclear if Trump's order on Friday was a one-off or whether the lull will continue.
Democrats selected former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson on Saturday to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins this fall after Graham Platner's embattled campaign ended.
Why it matters: Jackson's selection is another win for the left flank of the Democratic party, which lined up behind another progressive candidate as their best shot at flipping one of the most important seats to win back Senate control.
Why it matters: Smoot was long thought to be moot — widely considered a failure and, possibly, an exacerbating factor in the Great Depression.
Trump has repeatedly said that he doesn't want to be associated with Hoover, who presided over the country during that economic collapse and has forever been associated with it.
"The irony just writes itself in some sense," Douglas Irwin, an economics professor at Dartmouth and author of "Clashing over Commerce: A history of U.S. trade policy," tells Axios.
American food assistance has been rocked by a regulatory earthquake while millions have been dropped from one of the nation's premier safety net programs, tightening the strain on food banks and state agencies.
The big picture: As the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) continues to undergo a historic remolding, food banks say they're staring down a gap they can't fill.
The big picture: The president opened with jokes to the hundreds of assembled journalists and even made a little fun of himself, in a speech that started light — before descending into a litany of familiar complaints about reporters and prominent Democrats.
