𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

House Republicans narrowly passed a budget proposal late on Tuesday to implement Trump’s agenda moments after deciding to pull the vote due to apparent GOP holdouts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson could only afford one Republican defector, given the razor-thin margin in the chamber, but Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie was the only one of the four holdouts who ultimately voted against the measure.

Here’s John Bowden on Johnson squeaking through in a chaotic session.

The president announced a new path to U.S. citizenship yesterday: a pricey gold card.

The U.S. is going to “sell” gold cards for $5 million, Trump announced in the Oval Office.

“We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you [permanent resident] Green Card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship,” the president said.

He branded it as “somewhat like a Green Card, but at a higher level of sophistication.”

“Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump continued.

“They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people. And we think it’s going to be extremely successful and never been done before.”

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick clarified the Trump administration plans to terminate a somewhat similar EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program and “replace it with the Trump gold card.”

This simply has to be seen to be believed:

Elsewhere, the president was dishing out Republican family updates in the style of one of those obnoxious Christmas letters people insist on sending out:

Earlier, he was offering his thoughts on the untapped potential of U.S. copper and the allegedly poor treatment of American tech companies by Europe.

Here’s James Liddell on one of the loopiest videos Trump has ever posted – and that is truly saying something.

As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to hack and slash at the federal government, 20 of its staff resigned on Tuesday, saying in a joint letter they refused to use their skills to “dismantle critical public services.”

They warned that many of those enlisted by Musk are political ideologues who do not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them, suggesting the chaos we have seen so far is only likely to get worse.

Here’s Rhian Lubin on the prospect of disaffected ex-DOGE employees turning Democrat.

Donald Trump has inspired concern after large bruises were noticed on the back of his right hand when he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House earlier this week.

The White House has attempted to downplay the injury as the result of his having to shake hands with so many people every day.

Donald Trump, in concert with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, have reportedly fired nearly 6,000 veterans this year.

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Ranking Member Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the Trump administration had fired nearly 6,000 veterans since it began gutting federal agencies.

“Our veterans make significant sacrifices in service of our country, but those sacrifices do not seem to matter to President Trump and unchecked billionaire Elon Musk,” DeLauro wrote. “They are an essential part of our federal workforce, bringing their expertise to every single agency. Republicans are turning their back on them, allowing Musk to fire at least 6,000 veterans and leave them with no way to feed their families or keep a roof over their heads.”

Graig Graziosi has the story.

President Donald Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to suspend security clearances for lawyers at Covington & Burling LLP who “assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith during his time as Special Counsel, pending a review and determination of their roles and responsibilities, if any, in the weaponization of the judicial process,” a Tuesday memo states.

He also directed the AG to “terminate any engagement of Covington & Burling LLP by any agency to the maximum extent permitted by law.”

As a central point of peace negotiations, the US had been pushing for a deal that would grant it half of Ukraine’s revenues from critical minerals, oil, gas, and stakes in key infrastructure, such as ports, through a joint investment fund.

Tom Watling and Maroosha Muzaffar report.

Mr Trump last week demanded preferential access to the $500bn figure as repayment for Washington’s military support for Ukraine under his predecessor Joe Biden.

Alexander Butler reports.