President Donald Trump hosted top investors for one of his cryptocurrency projects at his luxury golf course in Northern Virginia on Thursday, and one of them was former NBA star Lamar Odom.
Protesters gathered outside the club holding signs that said "stop crypto corruption" and "no corrupt fools."
The ex-Laker was not absolved from those same protesters - but he was not fazed.
Three days before Trump took office on Jan. 20, he announced the creation of the $TRUMP meme coin, describing as a way for his supporters to "have fun."
Trump’s meme coin saw an initial spike in value, followed by a steep drop. Its creators, which include an entity controlled by the Trump Organization, have made hundreds of millions of dollars by collecting fees on trades, according to the Associated Press.
Critics have raised concernsthat the president's connection with cryptocurrency ventures could open the door to conflicts of interest and influence peddling.
Odom played 14 seasons in the NBA, 12 of them with the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers. He won back-to-back titles with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010 and was named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year in the 2010-11 campaign.
Fox News’ Greg Norman, Eric Revell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
"This is one big ugly bill that House Republicans are trying to jam down the throats of the American people under the cover of darkness," argued House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. at 6:09 a.m. Thursday morning on the House floor.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The sun was rising.
"Why are we here at 3 a.m., fast-tracking this bill?" asked Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., during House debate on the measure at 3:15 a.m. ET Thursday.
The House debated the package well past the witching hour Thursday, but lawmakers approved the bill just before the break of dawn.
House Republicans squeezed out a victory, 215-214 with Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., voting present.
There haven’t been many all-night sessions in Congress lately. Especially when moving a piece of legislation of his magnitude during off-hours - coated with high drama and towering political stakes. But it’s not surprising that the House had to burn the midnight oil – on three different occasions – just to finish the package in recent days. That’s typical for massive legislation with exponential consequences. It doesn’t matter what party or what the issue is. COVID-19 money. Obamacare. The infrastructure law. The Inflation Reduction Act. You name it. Congress works around the clock when they’re on the precipice of doing something big.
The week started with a Sunday night meeting of the House Budget Committee at 10:26 p.m. The House Rules Committee did the Budget Committee one better, meeting at 1 a.m. Wednesday. That session ran nearly 22 hours, ending late Wednesday night. The House then began floor action on the bill in the early hours of Thursday. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gaveled the vote closed on the bill just before 7 a.m.
Talking about Congress is usually enough to put people to sleep, but with hours like these, if you snooze, you lose.
Rip Van Winkle, er, Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., accidentally caught a few zzz’s early Thursday at precisely the wrong time. Johnson said Garbarino "fell asleep in the back" of the House chamber during the vote on the "big, beautiful bill."
Garbarino and other Empire State Republicans lost sleep for weeks as they fought for a deal on SALT. They wanted a higher deduction for state and local taxes in exchange for their support of the bill. A sleeper issue, this wasn’t. A new pact was paramount to passing the bill. Still, Garbarino was less than satisfied with the compromise.
If you heard a creaky noise on the north side of the U.S. Capitol Thursday, that was the Senate awakening from its legislative slumber. The Senate has focused for most of President Donald Trump’s term on confirming his cabinet. Legislation hasn’t dominated Senate floor traffic this year, but that will change soon.
"Our team is suiting up for discussions with the Senate side of Capitol Hill," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
But divisions are already emerging.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., abhors the House package.
"I have already said that in its current state it’s completely unacceptable to me," said Johnson. "I would vote no."
President Trump wants the Senate to finish the measure and deposit it on his desk by July 4, but the Wisconsin Republican quibbled with Mr. Trump’s timetable and demand for this version of the bill.
"I couldn't care less if he's upset," said Johnson.
Other Republican senators were willing to grant some deference to President Trump.
But only to a point.
"He’s the leader of the band and he's a heck of a good leader," said Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va. "But with all that said, I would tell you we don't want to get in a hurry just to meet a deadline date and everything. We want to get it right."
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., thought that July 4 was an "optimistic" deadline.
"Look at how long it’s taken the House to get to this point," said Tillis. "There's still a lot of decisions to be made. So I think we're talking about weeks or months."
And the Senate will inevitably change the measure.
"The Senate's going to want to put its own stamp on this. We'll write our own version of the bill," said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
Senators are already making their demands.
"I'm not voting to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion, because that's not fiscally responsible and that's not conservative," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Trimming deficits worried other senators.
"Don't get high on our horse here that we've somehow made some major advancement of reducing spending because we didn't," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
What winds up in the bill hinges on a solitary factor.
"We’ve got to get to 51 votes," said Tillis.
Senate Democrats are also thinking about the number 51, but in the context of 2026. Democrats believe this bill might help them get 51 Senate seats in the midterms.
"Based on what the House has passed our, chances of taking back the Senate have just increased," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
House Democrats believe the early morning roll call vote in House will be the seminal ballot cast in this session of Congress.
"This day may very well turn out to be the day that House Republicans lost control of the United States House of Representatives," said Jeffries.
That’s not a newsflash. Both parties customarily focus on a handful of votes each body takes over the course of a two-year Congress. They deploy the results of those votes against their opponents. Take a look at the tiny script on the lower portion of the TV screen when ads for the midterms begin running in September and October next year. You can bet Democrats will document the vote which closed at dawn Thursday.
Moreover, Republicans are stashing all of their political eggs in one basket. The bulk of President Trump’s agenda is tucked into this singular measure – for better or worse. Lawmakers must fund the government later this year. And next year, too. But after that, it’s unclear if Republicans have any other legislation which would compete with the breadth of this bill.
Jeffries alleged that Republicans tried to advance the bill "under the cover of darkness." That isn’t accurate. Democrats - and Republicans – will work to make sure voters know all about this bill. The political consequences of this legislation are too significant.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And voters will decide just how "beautiful" this big bill is.
With a blast of early morning social media posts, President Trump escalated the trade war that the White House had spent weeks reducing to a low boil.
Why it matters: It was a reminder that there will be no trade peace in this administration, only trade war lulls of uncertain duration.
That reality could keep financial markets on edge.
Driving the news: Trump threatened to impose a minimum 25% tariff on Apple if the tech giant does not shift manufacturing to the U.S.
"I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.," he added — though it is legally dubious whether the White House could subject a single company to a specific tax.
Many analysts say that "Made in the USA" iPhones are unrealistic and if somehow it did happen, the product would be notably more expensive.
Apple's Tim Cook has announced billions in investments for U.S. manufacturing plants, though Trump is still unsatisfied.
About thirty minutes later, Trump said he would recommend a 50% import duty on European goods starting on June 1 — a far higher rate than the 20% "Liberation Day" rate that was later scaled back to 10%.
"The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with," Trump posted.
"Our discussions with them are going nowhere!"
The big picture: It is a sharp contrast to the administration's message in recent weeks, with top economic officials suggesting progress on a slew of trade deals ahead of the expiration of the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs in early July.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Axios' Mike Allen this week that the administration would notch deals with "most" key trading partners by the summer.
"I think most countries, we'll have an idea of what we want to do with them," Lutnick said.
On Fox News this morning, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that "There are 18 important trading partners. With the exception of the EU, most are negotiating in very good faith."
Between the lines: Vice president JD Vance met with the European Union's top official on Sunday and signaled the meeting would help kick trade talks into high gear.
But Trump has a sore spot for Europe, a gripe that goes back decades. On Friday, he repeated assertions that "Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations" kept the U.S. at a disadvantage.
Lutnick told Axios that "some countries are impossible" to negotiate with, including the European Union.
Bessent will often tell reporters that the bloc is the most difficult to negotiate with because "who do you call?," quoting Henry Kissinger.
The intrigue: Stocks fell — including Apple, which fell more than 2% — after Trump's threats. Europe's stock markets also took a hit.
Yields on U.S. government bonds had been shooting higher on concerns about the tax package making its way through Congress, which would add trillions to the deficit.
But now that trade is front and center again, the yield on the 30-year Treasury note briefly fell below 5%, before rising back some.
The bottom line: Trade tensions appeared to moving to the back burner.
Trump reminded financial markets that he could dial up tensions any time he wants.
The company had spent over a year developing a new version of the Vestaboard called the Smart Bits that was “a completely new way to experience Vestaboard’s patented character units” that also “pushed the limits of design, engineering, and manufacturing,” according to the company’s founder and CEO, Dorrian Porter. But, when faced with economic uncertainty as a result of President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese-made goods, the company pivoted and instead created the Note.
Functionally, the Note is nearly identical to the original Vestaboard. But instead of using 132 split-flap mechanisms, which the company calls Bits, the Note only features 45. Each can display 64 alphanumeric characters plus other symbols like punctuation, solid colors, and a newly added red heart. The display measures 24.5 inches wide, or 28.4 inches with an optional bezel frame that adds $169 to the full retail pricing.
Messages, patterns, and images can be created using a web interface or a free accompanying mobile app for iOS and Android. They’re sent to the Note over Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable. In addition to a library of existing designs and inspirational quotes, the app allows messages to be scheduled, sent to other Vestaboard users you’re friends with, or even silenced during certain hours of the day. As hypnotic as the sound of over 2,800 spinning flaps may be, you probably don’t want the Vestaboard Note waking you up in the middle of the night.
In addition to Gemini Live announcements at I/O 2025, Google looks to be widely rolling out camera and screen sharing for free Android users. This free availability was first announced over a month ago in a gradual rollout.
"I said from the beginning that we won't let our state go the way of Massachusetts and their billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis," Governor Ayotte said.
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