PATH FORWARD: Trump has declared his support for a Republican-only bill to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, giving the GOP a path forward to ending the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Trump made his announcement in a post on Truth Social, effectively putting him on the side of the Senate Republicans who approved a bill to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) except for ICE and Border Patrol, with a plan to cover the outstanding agencies through the reconciliation process.
Trump didn't mention how the other parts of DHS would be funded, but his weigh-in could help end the feud between House and Senate Republicans over the way forward. House GOP leadership refused to entertain the Senate bill last week and instead passed a short-term continuing resolution, which was declared dead on arrival in the upper chamber.
"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump said, calling on Congress to send the bill to his desk by June 1.
While Democratic votes wouldn't be needed in the GOP-controlled House and Senate, passing the bill through reconciliation could be difficult as only a few Republicans would need to defect to block it. But Trump's support could move the process along once Congress returns from recess later this month.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) released a joint statement backing Trump's position, saying they would fund most of DHS through the regular appropriations process and fund border security and immigration through reconciliation to last the next three years.
▪ CNN: Hurdles remain to funding plan.
▪ The Hill: Trump ramps up war on mail-in voting.
SECOND THOUGHTS: Trump made one of his strongest rebukes yet of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), raising new questions about whether he may seek to pull the U.S. from the decades-old alliance.
Trump said in an interview with The Telegraph published Wednesday that removing the U.S. from NATO is "beyond reconsideration."
"I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way," he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump did not reiterate his frustrations with NATO during his primetime address, as had been speculated earlier in the day.
Trump has increasingly expressed frustration with the U.S.'s European allies amid the Iran war, as they have repeatedly rebuffed pressure to get directly involved in securing the Strait of Hormuz from Tehran. He has argued European countries should be responsible for reopening it because they rely on the oil that passes through the area much more than the U.S. does.
But that argument hasn't proven convincing among fellow NATO members, who have mostly sought to stay out of the conflict and have denounced the U.S. offensive against Iran.
Trump lashed out last month against NATO and its members, calling them "cowards" for not getting involved. A group of six countries, including five NATO members, said in a joint statement last month that they would "contribute to appropriate efforts" to keep the strait open but didn't detail what they were willing to do.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to echo Trump's comments Tuesday evening, saying the U.S. would reexamine its relationship with NATO once the Iran war ends.
Following the publication of Trump's interview, past comments from Rubio declaring no president should be able to pull the U.S. from NATO without Senate approval gained attention online.
▪ The Hill: Keir Starmer defends NATO after Trump comments.
▪ The Guardian: Can Trump pull the U.S. out of NATO?
THE COURT'S SKEPTICISM: The Supreme Court appeared doubtful of the president's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship as they came face-to-face with Trump on Wednesday.
Trump attended the court's arguments, making history as the first known sitting president to do so. He sat in the front row of the public gallery that fills the back half of the courtroom, but the justices didn't acknowledge his presence.
He left the courtroom soon after the administration's advocate, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, finished his argument.
Arguments lasted two hours, and key members of the court appeared skeptical of overturning more than a century of the conventional understanding of birthright citizenship, which holds that anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office last year limiting citizenship to children with at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status. But the order hasn't been permitted to go into effect.
"The examples you give to support that strike me as very quirky," Chief Justice John Roberts said to Sauer.
Tensions between Trump and the court have been on the rise recently, as the president slammed the court earlier this year for striking down his wide-ranging tariffs. The birthright citizenship case is one of the most significant Trump cases before the court of the term.
A decision is expected by this summer.
▪ The Hill: The very rare exceptions to birthright citizenship.
▪ The Hill: Trump says U.S. is 'stupid enough' to allow birthright citizenship.
LIFTOFF: The Artemis II mission went forward Wednesday after weeks of delays, bringing the U.S. another step forward as part of its journey to get back to the moon.
The Space Launch System rocket successfully took off during its launch window Wednesday evening and entered orbit around the Earth. The journey will be the first flight to the moon in more than 50 years.
While this mission won't land on the lunar surface, the crew of four astronauts will orbit the moon and go further into space than any human has gone before. They plan to return after a 10-day trip.
The mission's success will be critical to advancing the Artemis program, with NASA planning to return astronauts to step foot back on the moon with the Artemis IV mission as soon as 2028.
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