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President Donald Trump argued that a GOP budget bill should help only Republican states instead of benefiting Democratic governors.

"We're going to make a couple of tweaks," Trump said of his "one big beautiful bill" during a Tuesday trip to Capitol Hill. "I mean, we don't want to benefit Democrat governors, although I would do that if it made it better, but they don't know what they're doing."

President Donald Trump addressed reporters Tuesday before a closed door meeting at which he was expected to pressure Republican members of Congress in an attempt to pass through his ‘big, beautiful bill.”

Some congressional Republicans are balking at passing the budget, claiming it does not go far enough to cut "waste, fraud, and abuse." Other members of the party claim the cuts go too far and will have a negative impact on their constituents.

As Republican lawmakers fight to lower the United States' deficit, CNN’s Harry Enten claims Americans just don’t care about the country’s deficit as much as they do about tax breaks.

“All right, as we speak, President Trump is getting ready to head up to Capitol Hill to try to salvage his multi-trillion-dollar tax and spending cut program,” anchor John Berman said.

Elon Musk is accused of sidestepping environmental protections in the city of Memphis, and Bloomberg opinion columnist Mary Ellen Klas claims it is “everyone's problem.”

A Musk supercomputer plant, dubbed Colossus, is powered by methane gas-burning turbines and which dumps its air waste into Southwest Memphis, home of Boxtown, according to the report.

Some federal employees have reported traumatic experiences since President Donald Trump slurred them as “crooked” and “dishonest" and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency slashed their jobs from the payroll, according to a new report.

The federal government employed 2.4 million workers when Trump returned to office Jan. 20, but Trump and his chainsaw-wielding sidekick Musk have chopped off entire chunks of that workforce. More than 30 of those current and former employees told the Washington Post they have experienced insomnia, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.

Virginia Republicans are bracing for a loss this November in the Virginia Governor's race, according to a new Politico report.

Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears is not kicking off her campaign in the best way.

President Donald Trump had a sympathetic crowd laughing as he uttered a vulgar take on his election at a Kennedy Center board dinner Monday.

Trump, who purged the board at the prestigious performing arts center in D.C. in February and made himself chairman, was there for the unveiling of the coming season’s shows.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough warned that President Donald Trump had little room to maneuver in negotiating an end to Russia's war in Ukraine — and he said the stakes were exceedingly high for him.

The U.S. president spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone Monday, and afterward said the two adversaries must hash out a peace deal with one another, possibly with the pope's help.

Donald Trump’s-revamped Kennedy Center announced its upcoming season Monday — and the stage will be packed with drag queens.

The president overthrew the prestigious performing arts center's board of directors in February, taking over as chairman and vowing to rid it of wokeness — including drag performances.

President Donald Trump's controversial pick for commissioner of the IRS is now the subject of an investigation after a report exposed his social media account followed providers of mature and sexually explicit content.

Trump nominated Billy Long for the IRS role, sparking debate over Long's past endorsement of tax-avoidance schemes, his ties to firms involved in tax credit controversies, and concerns about his qualifications to lead the agency. His nomination is pending Senate confirmation, and he is expected to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.

This article was first published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.

On a recent morning, thick fog lingered over the hills and hollows of Ozark County, Missouri, limiting the view of Lick Creek. It and other waterways raged out of their banks in overnight flash flooding, only to recede with debris strewn about.

County commissioners huddled inside the courthouse, one block from a muddy rodeo ring, discussing bridge inspections and the path forward. Some washed-out areas were only accessible by four-wheel drive.

They’d put up more “road closed” signs, the commissioners said, if only people would stop stealing them.

Ozark County — estimated population 9,090 — is used to doing without. A mere nick in the Bible Belt, it doesn’t even have a stoplight.

What it does have is a 24-bed jail with a cattle trough baptismal pool in the recreational area.

It also has an ambitious sheriff who sees his prayers answered in a new contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that could boost his $1.1 million annual budget.

“It’s a pain in the butt because this is a whole new ground that we are covering, but then, you know, when you are one of the poorest counties in the state of Missouri, I’ve got to figure out how to pay for law enforcement,” Sheriff Cass Martin told the Marshall Project - St. Louis. “And that’s not easy, especially when you can’t even get new recruits. Nobody wants to be in law enforcement. It’s dying.”

Ozark County is one of many places, big and small, that the Trump administration is depending on to pull off one of the largest mass deportations from the U.S. in recent history. An enormous ramp-up in detention capacity is underway. New contracts are being negotiated. Existing contracts with the federal government are being expanded. In the ICE contract’s infancy, Ozark County is already reaping the benefits by raising wages and hiring for new positions in law enforcement.

As of early May, tracking reports show ICE contracting with or operating 147 public and private detention facilities, including three in Missouri. That’s up from 107 facilities reported in the final days of the Biden administration. On Feb. 24, Martin signed a contract for Ozark County, which isn’t yet on the list.

ICE plans to spend $45 billion on new contracts to hold and transport detainees and provide detainee services, according to a federal request for proposals. Counties like Ozark are getting a taste in federal dollars of what that expansion means.

Sheriffs say the feds pay well, yet the detention and transportation contracts come with much more scrutiny and oversight than typical jail work, especially in Missouri, which doesn’t have statewide jail standards.

Still, ICE reported that eight detainees had died nationally while in custody this year, as of May 5, including one death in a rural Missouri jail that the local coroner ruled a suicide. In 2024, ICE reported 11 deaths.

Some groups that advocate for ICE detainees are concerned that people from all over the world are increasingly being held in communities without well-established legal watchdogs and medical services.

Contracting with local jails “is the easiest way to get a (detention) facility up and running without any of the risk to the federal government,” said Romelia Graefrath, co-executive director of Mariposa Legal, a nonprofit in Indianapolis that fights for immigrant rights. “The end result is people get hurt, and then that is a huge liability for these communities that are already suffering.”

A prominent legal analyst delivered a scathing takedown of the Justice Department's decision to charge a New Jersey congresswoman for her role in a confrontation outside a federal detention facility earlier this month.

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was charged by federal prosecutors with assaulting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement officers during a clash outside the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark. Federal prosecutors said McIver elbowed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was part of a group of Democratic lawmakers and local officials visiting the facility to protest its use as a migrant holding center. The group said they sought to conduct legitimate congressional oversight.