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Vice President JD Vance has seemingly been out of the loop in the White House, and one analyst suggests it may be intentional.

Political commentator Jamelle Bouie argued in a recent column for The New York Times that Vance appears to be absent from President Donald Trump's cabinet because he has effectively become the president's "cheer captain" for the MAGA base. That helps explain why Vance has been spending more time posting on social media than doing other work related to running the country, Bouie argued.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday posted an ominous threat directed at higher education institutions on Truth Social.

In the post, Trump announced that Columbia University agreed to settle a federal lawsuit with his administration for $200 million. That payment includes $20 million earmarked for Jewish employees "who were unlawfully targeted and harassed," the post reads in part.

The panel on CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip" erupted on Wednesday night after a GOP strategist tried to defend President Donald Trump's new story about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

GOP strategist Scott Jennings tried to defend Trump's assertion that Democrats created the Epstein files to damage Trump politically. Host Abby Phillip and a couple of other panelists took the opportunity to show Jennings just how wrong that theory is.

A former military officer who worked with a young Afghan interpreter in Afghanistan spoke out Wednesday about the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Dewey Yopp, who is a retired Army Special Forces officer, told CBS News on Wednesday that he considers Amir, the interpreter he worked with, to be "like a son" because Amir saved his life on numerous occasions. Amir has lived in Kentucky since 2022 after receiving a green card for helping the U.S. military during the War on Terror.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins flagged what she called a "notable pause" from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who was asked about the GOP's new strategy to talk to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking co-conspirator rather than his victims.

Collins aired her exclusive interview with Murkowski on Wednesday night, in which the two discussed the latest in the Epstein saga that has embroiled President Donald Trump in controversy. When asked whether the Trump administration has let the saga spin out of control, Murkowski lamented it has "occupied all of the airspace here in Washington, D.C."

Bulwark columnist Will Sommer told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Wednesday that not only has President Donald Trump failed to redirect the media cycle away from the Epstein files controversy with his manufactured accusation former President Barack Obama committed "treason" in the Russia investigation, he hasn't even managed to convince a significant number of his own supporters of this.

The thrust of the claim, promoted by Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, is that intelligence community documents indicate Obama pushed claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election that had been refuted by reports he had been given at the time.

For the first time, a federal appeals court has weighed in on the merits of President Donald Trump's executive order prohibiting birthright citizenship to the children born on U.S. soil to some noncitizens — and tore it to shreds as unconstitutional, CBS News reported.

The ruling in State of Washington v. Trump, issued on Wednesday, upheld the findings of a district court judge who came to a similar conclusion.

One senator's political gymnastics routine could be considered prize winnings, according to an analyst.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has been working to undo the cuts to Medicaid included in President Donald Trump's mega spending bill, which Hawley voted to pass. The bill cuts federal health care spending by $1 trillion and will leave more than 10 million Americans without health insurance, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Despite President Donald Trump's supposed goal to "Make America Healthy Again," his administration is moving to reregister dicamba, a pesticide twice banned by federal courts, for use on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans.

In response to legal challenges from the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, National Family Farm Coalition, and the Pesticide Action Network, courts ruled against the herbicide's registration in 2020 and again last year.

An MSNBC analyst flagged what he called a "revealing exchange" between a North Carolina Republican and a House hearing witness who said her vote has been put at risk by the GOP.

House Republicans held a hearing on Tuesday focused on state voter roll purges and efforts to make it easier for states to remove voters from registration lists. The House Administration Committee held the hearing, which featured testimony from conservative nonprofit leaders and people affected by voter removals.

Brad Onishi, a scholar of religion with the University of San Francisco who has written extensively about Christian nationalism, raised red flags on MSNBC on Wednesday about the rhetoric the Department of Homeland Security is using to recruit people to become deportation officers for the Trump administration.

"What comes next, Brad? I guess that is my question," said anchor Antonia Hylton. "What comes next, and what do you make of DHS incorporating this kind of imagery and these thematics in official government propaganda?"

A new report seemed to rattle officials at the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS has moved to "rapidly deport" migrant children who come to the United States without parents or legal guardians, CNN reported, citing two DHS sources. DHS is also reportedly asking teens whether they want to be voluntarily deported from the country. The action is happening at a time when the Trump administration seeks to deport as many as 3,000 people a day.