A top Trump aide lobbied against the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire and longtime friend of Elon Musk whom President Donald Trump had tapped to lead NASA before abruptly reversing course Saturday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Trump withdrew Isaacman’s nomination days after Musk, the SpaceX CEO who served as a senior adviser to the president, departed Washington with a plan to refocus on his companies.

The source told CNN that Musk’s exit left room for a faction of people in Trump’s inner circle, particularly Sergio Gor, the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and longtime MAGA supporter, to advocate for installing a different nominee.

Trump selected Isaacman in December, and the spaceflight trailblazer was potentially days away from Senate confirmation.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Trump said on social media Saturday night that he pulled Isaacman’s nomination after a “thorough review of prior associations.” The White House said earlier Saturday that “It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda.”

That indicated Trump’s team may have been angered over Isaacman’s political donation history. Records on OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics, show Isaacman donated to Democrats as recently as the 2024 election cycle, though he donated to Republicans in prior years.

But the source told CNN on Sunday that the president and his aides would have been well aware of Isaacman’s donation record.

As a nominee, Isaacman had to go through rigorous training processes for political appointees set to face questioning from the public or Congress. Such a process involves deep investigations into nominees’ track records, including of campaign donations.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today, the US State Department said, ahead of a key meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Turkey.

The call came “at Russia’s request,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

“Secretary Rubio reiterated President Trump’s call for continued direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to achieve a lasting peace,” Bruce said.

The call came after Ukraine launched a significant and ambitious operation targeting Russian air bases this weekend, causing $7 billion in damages, according to the Ukrainian Security Service.

Russian and Ukrainian officials are expected to attend the meetings in Istanbul, though CNN has reported that neither side is optimistic about an imminent resolution to the war.

The US is not expected to have a presence at tomorrow’s meeting, though President Donald Trump has recently warned both Russia and Ukraine of consequences if they don’t engage in his peace process. The talks may be designed mostly to appease the US president.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

The Trump administration was not briefed ahead of time about a significant and ambitious Ukrainian operation targeting Russian air bases this weekend, an administration official told CNN.

The White House was unaware of plans for the large-scale drone strikes on air bases deep inside Russia, according to the official, who confirmed reporting from CBS News. Ukraine estimates that its operation against Russian air bases caused $7 billion in damages, the Ukrainian Security Service said today.

The strikes came ahead of high-stakes talks between Russia and Ukraine expected to take place in Istanbul tomorrow, though CNN has reported that neither side is optimistic about an imminent resolution to the war.

The US is not expected to have a presence at tomorrow’s meeting, though President Donald Trump has recently warned both Russia and Ukraine of consequences if they don’t engage in his peace process, and the talks may be designed mostly to appease the US president.

Trump’s frustration with his Russian counterpart, however, appears to be deepening. Last weekend, Trump said President Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely crazy” amid intensive Russian drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine.

And asked in the Oval Office whether he believes Putin wants to end the war, Trump told reporters he would “let you know in about two weeks,” a timeline he has placed on the conflict for more than a month now.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

Senate Democrats previewed their arguments against the massive domestic policy bill that the upper chamber will now have to address, following its passage along narrow margins in the House before the Memorial Day recess.

of Connecticut called the bill an “absolute disaster” for middle class and poor Americans, focusing on the projection that millions could lose Medicaid coverage, as well as the sweeping tax cuts codified in the legislation.

The Congressional Budget Office last month projected that House Republicans’ changes to Medicaid, including work requirements for some recipients, would leave 7.6 million Americans uninsured by 2034.

of Georgia criticized the work reporting requirements as an attack on the working class and said a similar program already failed in his home state.

“We have seen this failed experiment in Georgia. We’ve got over a half million people in Georgia who are in the health care coverage gap. They are largely the working poor,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” lambasting the governor-endorsed program for its low enrollment rates.

“And what they’re trying to do now is take this terrible experiment in Georgia, force it on the whole nation, and what we will see as a result of that is a workforce that is sicker and poorer and an economy that’s weaker,” he added.

The US needs to “keep the pressure on Hamas” to get remaining hostages out of Gaza, Republican Sen. Dave McCormick said today after returning from his trip to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

McCormick criticized Hamas for not agreeing to a US-backed ceasefire proposal, after President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said yesterday that the group’s latest response had moved talks in the wrong direction.

The Hamas response had demanded changes to three key areas of the proposal regarding the duration of the pause in fighting, a permanent end to the war and the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

The militant group released a statement today saying it is ready to “immediately” begin indirect negotiations on resolving the remaining “points of contention” with the US-backed proposal.

Cindy McCain, the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, warned today there will be a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza “like none other” without an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

An 11-week Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid pushed the enclave’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians toward famine, with the first resumption of humanitarian aid trickling into the besieged enclave nearly two weeks ago.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Mohammad Al Sawalhi and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick emphasized today that President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause for tariff negotiations is a hard deadline — and vowed that despite a federal court ruling earlier this week, tariffs “are not going away.”

The secretary predicted a “lot of deals” will be done ahead of the July deadline, and suggested talks are back on track with the European Union after Trump threatened to reignite a trade war with the bloc last week.

The administration has repeatedly claimed that countries are clamoring for trade deals in the wake of Trump’s tariff threats, but it has announced few pacts with foreign partners so far.

Lutnick also weighed in on last week’s court ruling blocking tariffs that Trump imposed using emergency powers. The administration appealed the decision, and an appeals court ruled that the tariffs can remain in effect while the case is being heard.

The president claimed on Truth Social today that a ruling against him would mean “Economic ruination” for the country and allow other nations to take advantage of the US.

Lutnick voiced confidence Trump would prevail.

“We’re going to take that up to higher courts. The president is going to win, like he always does, but rest assured, tariffs are not going away. He has so many other authorities that even in the weird and unusual circumstance where this was taken away, we just bring on another or another or another,” he told Fox News.

The administration has said it is prepared to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

This post has been updated to reflect Trump’s social media post.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed reporting.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk defended the Department of Government Efficiency in an interview aired today on CBS, arguing that his initiative became a scapegoat.

“So, if there was some cut, real or imagined, everyone would blame DOGE,” the Tesla CEO said. “People think that like, somehow DOGE is going to stop them from getting their social security check, which is completely untrue.”

DOGE’s gutting of federal agencies led to widespread government job losses, the elimination of public programs and a raft of lawsuits.

Musk’s tone on politics has shifted significantly in recent weeks. Though he remained cordial and supportive during his farewell Oval Office appearance with President Donald Trump on Friday, Musk has more recently sharpened his criticism of the president.

Tesla has faced challenges in recent months, including acts of vandalism at several showrooms across the country and a drop in stock value.

Once Trump’s “first buddy” and DOGE’s chainsaw-brandishing crusader, Musk has set a much more subdued tone as he begins to step back from a formal government role.

The tech billionaire has also been publicly critical of the massive GOP spending and tax cuts bill, which he said runs counter to DOGE’s cost-slashing efforts.

CNN’s Hadas Gold contributed to this report.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought distanced himself from suggestions that he is implementing elements of Project 2025, a sweeping conservative policy blueprint he helped craft, into the Trump administration’s agenda.

Pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash this morning on whether he is enacting elements of the controversial document — which includes proposals like eliminating the Federal Reserve and banning medication abortion — Vought was quick to respond, “Of course not.”

Bash asked again whether the more extreme recommendations from Project 2025 are now part of the Trump administration’s plans. Vought sidestepped, saying, “What’s on the agenda is what the president has put on the agenda, most of which he ran on.”

Democrats used Project 2025 as a major line of attack against Trump on the 2024 campaign trail.

Trump repeatedly disavowed the plan during his presidential bid, despite its architects including dozens of former Trump officials and other allies.

The president has since selected Vought, a co-author of the policy blueprint, to lead the powerful White House budget office, and his administration has embraced elements of the plan, including to alter federal health programs.

Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly denied today that the “big, beautiful bill” passed by the House last month will increase the national debt, as some Republican senators warn they won’t support a policy package that is projected to add trillions to the budget deficit.

“This is a reconciliation package,” Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” explaining that the bill includes “necessary expenditures” for defense and border security in the process of “reconciling a budget.”

But the speaker said those concerned about adding to the deficit are missing “tremendous and historic level of spending cuts that are also in the same package.”

Trump allies like Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, made the rounds on TV news shows this morning to try to win over budget hawks in the party — but they face an uphill climb with some key senators.

Conservative senators like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky say the bill would increase deficits and does not contain enough spending cuts.

“The problem is the math doesn’t add up,” Paul said on “Fox News Sunday” last weekend.

Paul said this morning that he believes he has four fellow Republicans opposed to the bill “at this point,” which would sink the package in the Senate.

“I would be very surprised if the bill, at least, is not modified in a good direction,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has predicted the bill could add around $3.8 trillion to the deficit over eight years. The Joint Committee on Taxation has since increased that estimate to $3.94 trillion.

Speaker Johnson brushed off those figures. “Every single time when they project economic growth, they always underestimate the growth that will be brought about by tax cuts and reduction in regulations,” he said this morning.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended President Donald Trump’s recent doubling of steel tariffs to 50%, framing the measure as a critical step to ensuring the United States is prepared in the event of war.

“Chinese steel production is something like double the global capacity,” Hassett said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“They’re doing that because it prepares them to win a war, because they’re the only ones who can make steel,” he said.

The top White House economic adviser added a stark warning: “If we have cannons, but not cannonballs, then we can’t fight a war.”

“President Trump is going to make sure that that never happens to the US,” Hassett said.

Trump announced at a Pennsylvania steel plant Friday that he would set tariffs on steel imported into the US at 50% starting June 4.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate Democrats as confrontations with federal officials have escalated in recent weeks.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler made the same allegation after he said Department of Homeland Security officials entered his congressional office without a warrant Wednesday and handcuffed a member of his staff.

Responding to that incident, Jeffries said Americans “aren’t interested in bending the knee to a wannabe king.”

The Justice Department also recently charged New Jersey Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver in connection with a tense and chaotic confrontation outside an ICE detention facility in Newark.

Jeffries, who had previously warned of a red line against charging members of Congress, said, “Let me make clear that the House is a separate and coequal branch of government.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to speak “very soon,” but declined to set a date for the long-awaited, high-stakes conversation between the leaders as Trump and other top US officials appear to escalate tensions with Beijing.

Trump has accused China of violating a trade agreement made weeks ago in Geneva. Bessent declined to say what consequences China would face but expressed optimism about the forthcoming call.

Asked when that call would take place, he declined to set a specific date, saying, “I believe we will see something very soon.”

Asked whether he or other Cabinet officials have spoken with their Chinese counterparts, Bessent deferred to the president, saying, “We’re going to let the two principals have a conversation, and then everything will stem from that.”

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC’s “This Week” that it’s the administration’s “expectation” the Xi-Trump call will take place this week.

Hassett clarified that he’s not sure whether the meeting has been scheduled, but that “both sides have expressed a willingness to talk.”

“The two of them will talk about the Geneva agreement, which we were all very favorably inclined towards, thinking this is a huge step forward,” Hassett said.

This post has been updated with Hassett’s remarks.

Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, directly challenged criticism from Elon Musk and several Republican senators that President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill increases the federal deficit.

Musk, who is exiting his formal role with the administration, has said the bill “undermines” his cost-slashing efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency and will increase the budget deficit.

Vought argued that critics, including Musk, are relying on flawed analyses rooted in the Congressional Budget Office’s “artificial baseline,” which, he said, fails to account for the likely extension of key tax provisions from the 2017 tax law.

According to an initial projection by CBO, the bill’s tax provisions would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion over a decade. The Joint Committee on Taxation has since increased that estimate to $3.94 trillion.

Vought insisted that while the bill contains some new spending, primarily for border security and defense, it represents a net deficit reduction, not an expansion.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also sought to shore up support for the spending and tax cuts package in a TV news appearance this morning.

Trump-promised provisions for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, and deductibility of auto loans for American-made cars “have to stay in” the bill, Bessent said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” today.

The treasury secretary also emphatically dismissed concerns about the possibility of US default ahead of a key debt limit deadline.

“The United States of America is never going to default. That is never going to happen,” he said.

President Donald Trump is urging the Senate to retain provisions from conservative hardliners in his expansive domestic policy bill.

“Congratulations to ALL on a job well done. Proud of you! Hopefully, the Senate will be there with you!” Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday, accompanied by a photo of a post outlining the House Freedom Caucus provisions added to his “big, beautiful bill.”

House Republicans narrowly passed the president’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package last week after staving off a rebellion by the Freedom Caucus. The hardline caucus secured additional adjustments to Medicaid and the repealing of former President Joe Biden’s clean energy tax credits, among other provisions.

Later on Saturday, Trump returned to social media to spotlight a key tax cut promise from his campaign that was left out of the sweeping policy bill: no taxes on Social Security. The president suggested the measure will be implemented in a “different form.”

Trump repeatedly pledged to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits while campaigning, but the House GOP-passed policy bill does not include any such provision. Instead, senior citizens would receive a $4,000 increase to their standard deduction from 2025 through 2028 under the bill.

This measure is aimed at fulfilling Trump’s promise, since lawmakers cannot include a more direct Social Security tax cut under the rules of budget reconciliation, which Republicans are using to advance the package without Democratic support in the Senate.

The bill does fulfill Trump’s campaign promises to cut taxes on tips and overtime, albeit temporarily.

CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump made the latest move in his ever-evolving trade war Friday, announcing at a Pennsylvania steel plant that he plans to double tariffs on the alloy.

If you’re trying to make sense of last week’s tariff news, start here:

• Trump told a crowd at the US Steel facility outside Pittsburgh that he plans to jack up tariffs on the material to 50%. Trump said he was considering a 40% tariff, but industry executives told him to go even higher.

Trump on March 12 imposed sweeping 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, which was met with immediate retaliation from Canada and the European Union — and dismay from America’s auto industry.

More tariffs may give the moribund US steel business a much-needed boost, but they could also raise prices on a key component for construction companies and manufacturers.

• The steel announcement came on the same day Trump vented frustration online about trade terms with China, claiming in a Truth Social post that China “HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” and implying he would no longer play “Mr. NICE GUY.”

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told reporters the administration is preparing new trade actions to target China, according to Reuters.

• A federal court blocked many of Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, but an appeals court quickly paused that ruling the next day. The legal battle — which centers on Trump’s use of emergency powers to levy tariffs — will continue next month.

The whiplash rulings underscore why, even when there’s news of tariffs easing, retailers and ports cannot immediately adjust.

• Overall market reaction to the latest twists and turns has been relatively muted. Wall Street has started to bet that if Trump makes a trade war threat, he will eventually back down. Investors who sold at the start of May missed out on a historically strong month for markets.

• Observers have coined a term for that assumption the president will eventually back down from trade threats: “TACO,” as in, “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Trump was caught off guard and angered by a reporter’s question about the term this week, according to a senior White House official.

Neither the Republican nor Democratic Party has consolidated a majority of the public behind its approach, with more than 4 in 10 saying neither party can get things done or has strong leadership, a new CNN survey conducted by SSRS finds.

Despite those widespread doubts, Americans increasingly say they see meaningful differences between the two parties.

President Donald Trump abruptly rescinded his nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman to lead NASA yesterday.

The shake-up comes just days before the Senate was expected to vote on the nomination of Isaacman, who has twice traveled to space on private missions and has close ties to SpaceX chief Elon Musk.

Records on OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics, show Isaacman donated to Democrats as recently as the 2024 election cycle, though he donated to Republicans in prior years. But on social media, he has largely refrained from voicing a stance on hot-button political issues.

During an April confirmation hearing, Isaacman said he has “been relatively apolitical.”

That posture is in line with how past NASA administrators have sought to position themselves. While the role has been filled by civil servants, engineers, scientists and, more recently, politicians — each has emphasized the importance of working across the aisle.

Isaacman’s appointment had been met with broad support in the space community, which viewed him as a passionate leader — and his spaceflight experience as a bonus.

But Isaacman, the CEO of payments platform company Shift4, was viewed with deep skepticism by Democratic lawmakers concerned he would use his position at NASA to advance Musk’s personal interests.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, didn’t hold back his frustration yesterday in reacting to Hamas’ response to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.

It’s the latest impasse Trump has encountered in his efforts to resolve the intractable conflict.

Here’s where things stand:

The latest US-backed proposal, which Israel has approved, involves Hamas releasing 10 Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages in exchange for 125 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,111 Gazans detained since the war began.

Negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire would begin immediately on the first day of the 60-day truce. The agreement would also allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza “immediately” and be distributed “through agreed upon channels,” including the United Nations and the Red Crescent.

The draft agreement reviewed by CNN on Friday contains no intrinsic guarantee of a permanent end to the war, nor assurances that the ceasefire will be extended as long as negotiations continue. Hamas has expressed reluctance to accept a deal without those terms.

In a statement yesterday, Hamas said it had submitted a proposal to mediators Qatar and Egypt that “aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and ensure the flow of aid to our people and our families in the Gaza Strip.”

Witkoff’s social media post indicated the details of that response were significantly different from the proposal already on the table. And an Israeli official told CNN they saw the militant group’s proposal as having “effectively rejected the latest Witkoff proposal and put forward a new offer with its own conditions.”

Hamas responds to criticism: A member of Hamas’ political bureau told CNN the US had previously come to an understanding on a ceasefire proposal with the militant group, which was then amended by Israel in a way that clashed with the terms Hamas had agreed to.

“We did not reject Mr. Witkoff’s proposal,” the official, Basem Naim, said.

CNN’s Abeer Salman and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.