House Republicans are taking their growing frustration with President Trump's trade policies straight to the White House — and they aren't afraid of a food fight.
Why it matters: In public and in private, Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Trump's trade policies, including allowing more tariff-free beef imports and his trade war with Canada.
House Republicans are seizing on the Supreme Court's decision that freed national party committees to coordinate directly with candidates, reserving nearly $9 million in TV ads across more than 20 races this month, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Call it the National Republican Coordinating Committee.
Vice President JD Vance said that there is "some really, really weird spiritual dark energy" around some artificial intelligence practices in a recent podcast interview.
The big picture: Vance's hesitancy about the personification of AI and certain use cases strikes a different tone than the Trump administration's advocacy for deregulation and the data centers needed to power the technology boom.
Why it matters: The Trump coin sits in a rare middle ground: The Mint is promoting it as a collectible, but under federal law, it has a face value of $1 and can be used as real money.
Americans' perceptions of government corruption have hit a 20-year high following President Trump's return to office, a new Gallup survey found.
Why it matters: The results signal a deepening crisis of confidence in the federal government as trust in U.S. institutions already hovers near an all-time low.
The U.S. Army has inked contracts worth a total of $192 million with Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries for the production of eight Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Nodes.
Why it matters: State-of-the-art TITAN trucks are cornerstones of the service's deep-sensing and long-range precision fires goals — in other words, the ability to find, track, shoot and kill more accurately from farther away.
They are also key contributors to the Joint All-Domain Command and Control networking nirvana the Pentagon has for years sought to achieve.
There is a $100 billion question hanging over the Trump administration's deal to effectively gain control of more than a dozen large oilfields in Venezuela.
Why it matters: This could become a big opportunity for private equity and private credit, albeit one fraught with pallets of political risk.
President Trump's order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" isn't floating with Americans, with a majority opposing the name change and his new tariffs on Washington's northern neighbor, per recent polling.
The big picture: After trade talks between the longtime allies collapsed last month and triggered steep new tariffs, the Trump administration has escalated its feud with Canada.
Florida executed its 14th prisoner for the year on Tuesday, adding to a post-COVID surge in capital punishment that drove more executions last year than any since 2009.
The big picture: Even as fewer courts sentence defendants to death and more than half of the states have banned or at least temporarily halted the practice, the Trump administration has overtly cheered on the death penalty.
Israel will build Greece a missile-and-drone defense network similar to its own.
Why it matters: The arrangement, dubbed Achilles Shield, is valued at around €3 billion, or almost $3.5 billion. It's billed as the largest defense export in the history of Israel-Greece relations.
August came and went, and still no contract for the U.S. Navy's futuristic fighter, F/A-XX, was announced.
Why it matters: The date keeps slipping — inspiring memes, leaving defense industry giants in public limbo, pressuring the service's existing fleet and reminding military watchers of the Trump administration's warplane priority.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who'll preside over a parade of tech tycoons at today's G20 innovation summit, tells me he's confident the U.S. will stay ahead of China in the AI race by continuing to define the frontier.
"It's teacher-student," Lutnick said Tuesday in a sunny conference room between meetings with Chinese and Turkish officials.
China's open-weight models, he said, "study off of the large language models of America. ... The teacher is the smartest person in the world, and relentlessly pushing to the frontier. The student ... can't be in the lead, because they're learning from the teacher."
The Trump administration has a blunt message for state and local officials trying to prevent construction of a wall and other security measures along the 2,000-mile southern border: Resistance is futile.
Driving the news: President Trump's envoys recently met privately with officials from Texas border counties where residents have pushed back against construction, saying the plans are unnecessary in rugged landscapes with few immigrant crossings and that they'd harm the environment.
AI is already helping detect and monitor wildfires. Now, researchers are exploring how it could help fire officials decide where to deploy crews across multiple fires.
Why it matters: Studies show climate change is contributing to longer, more intense wildfire seasons, forcing officials to make high-stakes decisions about how to prioritize limited resources. AI could help them process information to make those decisions faster.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Trump administration officials came to this week's G20 innovation summit to project a united front on U.S. AI leadership. But tensions between the Commerce Department and the White House's tech policy shop are playing out behind the scenes.
Why it matters: The Trump administration wants the world to follow its lead on AI policy, even as it grapples with divisions at home.
Two centrist House Democrats who voted to help Republicans get a procedural motion across the finish line are now facing down possible punishment from party leaders who say they were blindsided by the move.
Why it matters: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is taking an uncharacteristically aggressive public approach to the defections, to the thrill of some of his members.
The Pentagon has entered a period of profound institutional turmoil, as a crisis of leadership at home converges with a crisis of capacity abroad.
Why it matters: Six months into the Iran war, Pete Hegseth presides over a Pentagon with fewer senior leaders, fewer critical weapons and less public accountability than at any point in President Trump's two terms.
The G20 finance ministers failed to agree on a joint statement after China objected to several provisions, including language addressing huge trade surpluses and countries' reliance on exports for growth.
Why it matters: China was the lone holdout, with the other 19 members backing the language — a sign of widening concern over the pressure that Chinese exports are putting on industries around the world.
A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that there is sufficient evidence for Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk last year, to stand trial for aggravated murder, making him eligible for the death penalty.
Why it matters: Prosecutors say they will pursue the death penalty in a murder trial that could become one of the most closely watched in the U.S.
