National Politics

By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN (CNN) — Dan Bongino, the incoming deputy director of the FBI, suggested on his popular podcast in January that the agency he is now about to help lead was complicit in planting pipe bombs around Washington ahead of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. “I believe the

By Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny, CNN Washington, DC (CNN) — White House chefs were at work in the West Wing on Friday laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens when the sound of raised voices began floating over from the Oval Office. Inside, a remarkable scene was unfolding. President

By Tami Luhby, Rene Marsh and Nick Valencia, CNN (CNN) — Federal employees at multiple government agencies are once again being told to report their work accomplishments over the past week to the Trump administration, according to a union source and several employees who received the Friday evening missives. The emails, titled “What did you

By Kit Maher and Donald Judd, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Friday transported back to Florida with him boxes of documents that the FBI had seized from Mar-a-Lago after executing a court-ordered search warrant in August 2022. “The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes,” Trump said in a statement. “They are

By Michael Williams, CNN (CNN) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should apologize after his meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office devolved into what Rubio described as a “fiasco,” while questioning whether the Ukrainian leader really wants peace in the country’s war with Russia. In an

CNN By Michael Williams, CNN (CNN) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should apologize after his meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office devolved into what Rubio described as a “fiasco,” while questioning whether the Ukrainian leader really wants peace in the country’s war with Russia. In

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Calling its workforce “bloated,” the Social Security Administration announced Friday plans to slash about 7,000 jobs, or roughly 12% of its staff. The potential cuts are part of a larger reorganization at the agency in line with the Trump administration’s drive to downsize the federal government. The move comes

By Daniel Dale, CNN Washington (CNN) — During a remarkably combative Oval Office meeting on Friday, both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he was insufficiently thankful. “You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards,” Trump said, adding a bit later, “You gotta be more

CNN By Kit Maher and Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — Campaigning in Pennsylvania last September, JD Vance seemed to strike at an unlikely political foe: the besieged president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who’d spent most of the previous two years being hailed by Western leaders as a hero. “You know what I wish Zelensky would

CNN By Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins and Kit Maher, CNN Washington (CNN) — A remarkable shouting match broke out in the Oval Office Friday as President Donald Trump berated his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, an extraordinarily fractious display that only underscored the deeply uncertain future of American assistance to Kyiv. Never before has

By Jamie Gangel, Casey Gannon, Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — At least eight senior federal prosecutors who worked on the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot cases have been demoted to entry-level jobs, according to multiple sources and memos obtained by CNN. The unprecedented moves by Ed Martin, the acting US attorney

CNN By Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny, CNN Washington, DC (CNN) — White House chefs were at work in the West Wing on Friday laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens when the sound of raised voices began floating over from the Oval Office. Inside, a remarkable scene was unfolding.

By Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins and Kit Maher, CNN Washington (CNN) — A remarkable shouting match broke out in the Oval Office Friday as President Donald Trump berated his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, an extraordinarily fractious display that only underscored the deeply uncertain future of American assistance to Kyiv. Never before has an

By Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Foreign adversaries including Russia and China have recently directed their intelligence services to ramp up recruiting of US federal employees working in national security, targeting those who have been fired or feel they could be soon, according to four people familiar with recent

By Marshall Cohen and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Federal workers are rushing to a little-known and understaffed office to try to save their jobs from President Donald Trump’s mass government layoffs, in hopes that it will be a bulwark against the president and Elon Musk as they push for more cuts. The Merit Systems

CNN By Marshall Cohen and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Federal workers are rushing to a little-known and understaffed office to try to save their jobs from President Donald Trump’s mass government layoffs, in hopes that it will be a bulwark against the president and Elon Musk as they push for more cuts. The Merit

By Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Russia is eyeing talks with the Trump administration about re-establishing a significant diplomatic presence in the US as an opening to rebuild its spy network in the West, current and former US officials say. The US and Russia agreed to begin talks on restoring the regular

By Lauren Fox, Manu Raju and Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are struggling with a key question as they stare down a fast-approaching deadline to fund the government: How do they fund federal agencies that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to dismantle? Democrats insist that the bill to

By Ella Nilsen and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration has its government-shrinking sights set on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where around 800 employees have been tapped for termination, according to two sources close to the agency. More layoffs are possible Friday, one of the sources said, potentially costing the weather,

By Alex Marquardt and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s claim that the potential “trillion-dollar deal” he is on the cusp of signing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would offer the US easy access to a bonanza of rare earth minerals is at odds with the widespread assessment of current and former US