As Republican leaders draft President Donald Trump’s big bill of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, dozens of more moderate Republicans from contested congressional districts have positioned themselves at the center of the negotiating table.

A poll finds that as the Social Security Administration undergoes massive changes and staffing cuts ushered in by the Trump administration, an increasing share of older Americans, particularly Democrats, aren’t confident the benefit will be available to them.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday defended judicial independence as necessary to “check the excesses of the Congress or the executive," amid attacks on federal judges who have slowed President Donald Trump’s agenda.

A federal judge says he sympathizes with thousands of federal employees who were suddenly fired by the Trump administration, but he also voiced skepticism about whether reinstating them to their jobs was a proper remedy and questioned what the courts could ultimately do.

Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano has been confirmed by the Senate to serve as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.

Three Democratic U.S. senators are asking the Trump administration to explain how it analyzed a proposed rule to eliminate habitat protections for endangered and threatened species — and whether industry had a hand in drafting it.

Democrats are looking for the right message and messengers to lead the opposition to President Donald Trump in his second term.

Nearly complete electoral data shows that hard-right nationalist George Simion has secured a decisive win in the first round of Romania’s presidential election redo.

Australia’s re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday was greeted by well-wishers at a Sydney café and said the country had voted for unity over division.

President Donald Trump’s removal of national security adviser Mike Waltz brings further disruption to his national security team.

Germany’s foreign ministry has hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a “right-wing extremist” organization.

Romanians vote Sunday in one of the EU country’s most important elections in decades after the previous ballot was annulled following allegations of violations and Russian interference.

The home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company is now an official Texas city with a galactic name: Starbase.

The Federal Reserve will likely keep its key short-term interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, despite harsh criticism from President Donald Trump and his demand that the Fed reduce borrowing costs.

Tesla sales plunged by more than half last month in several European countries in a sign that Elon Musk could struggle to revive the company after he shifts from his Washington work to running the automaker again.

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to clear the way for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

How the loss of one person is affecting the Flower Gardens

The White House has released President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget proposal.

A new poll shows Americans are more likely to believe the president is the one overstepping his power, rather than the courts.

Most of President Donald Trump’s top nominees have sailed through the Senate with little resistance.

Tariffs weren’t on the official agenda of this week’s Robotics Summit in Boston.

American employers added a better-than-expected 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience in the face of President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

The Justice Department is struggling to represent President Donald Trump’s positions in court.

Elon Musk is defending the work of the Department of Government Efficiency as he prepares to scale back from his government role and spend more time at his businesses.

The former federal prosecutor cited shifting priorities after a family health scare for his withdrawal, which comes less than a month after his entry into the race.

A federal appeals court says it won’t lift restrictions on the access that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has to Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

Contractors hired by the Trump administration have removed a memorial wall to fallen staffers from the now-closed headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President Donald Trump’s 100 days in office have been an assault of Americans’ very way of life.

Elon Musk has for years made Texas his business home and playground as he launches rockets and builds cars in the Lone Star state.

Local elections in England this week are a key test for Nigel Farage.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris has used a high-profile speech in San Francisco to criticize President Donald Trump, accusing him of abandoning American ideals.

The first major test of Donald Trump’s influence on the affairs of a longtime U.S. ally went badly.

Job openings in the United States fell in March as President Donald Trump’s trade wars clouded the economic outlook.

President Donald Trump has marked his first 100 days in office with an interview with ABC News and a rally in Michigan.

Donald Trump’s second presidency has produced a seemingly constant stream of news.

For President Donald Trump's administration, the numbers on executive orders, deportations, reductions in the federal workforce and tariffs in his first 100 days back in the White House point toward a renewed America.

President Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term — yet spent much of his rally marking it in campaign mode, fixated on past grudges and grievances.

The Trump administration has frozen, stalled or otherwise disrupted some $430 billion in federal funds since the president took office — from federal disease research to Head Start for children to disaster aid.

President Donald Trump is pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cede territory occupied by Russia to Moscow to bring about an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

Amazon's first internet satellites are in orbit.

The weeks since President Donald Trump returned to office have been a whirlwind of activity to show Americans his administration is relentlessly pursuing his promises.

Republican members of Congress have gone to great lengths to avoid public meetings with their constituents over their two-week Easter recess.

In his first 100 days, President Donald Trump has exerted his power on a scale with no easy historical comparison.

The U.S. coal industry has been in a steep decline for decades, and President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed several changes that would affect it.

An AP-NORC poll finds that only about one-third of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Elon Musk after his brief foray into the federal government.

Romanians are confronting a deluge of online disinformation ahead of a fraught presidential election redo next week, including ominous claims that the EU and NATO member country is surging toward “imminent war” with Russia.

An AP-NORC poll finds many Americans don't agree with President Trump’s aggressive efforts to quickly enact his agenda, and even Republicans aren't overwhelmingly convinced his attention has been in the right place.

The largest union for federal employees plans to lay off more than half its staff nationwide after President Donald Trump’s anti-union executive orders have rapidly weakened the organization’s finances.

Rule changes announced by the Trump administration this week could allow automakers to report fewer crashes involving self-driving cars, with Tesla potentially emerging as the main beneficiary.

Hundreds of university researchers in the U.S. have had their National Science Foundation funding abruptly canceled to comply with President Donald Trump’s directive to end support of research on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the study of misinformation.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll suggests Americans’ trust in President Donald Trump to bolster the U.S. economy appears to be faltering.

U.S. stocks rallied further as better-than-expected profits for U.S. companies piled up, though CEOs say they’re unsure whether it will last because of uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace faced criticism over legal wrangling concerning universities and allegations of antisemitism during a town hall at a gated island community in her South Carolina district.

Elon Musk intends to focus more on his job as Tesla CEO, but it’s unclear if the billionaire will be able to solve a big problem of his own making: damage to its brand.

SOUND OFF: As we prepare for our interview, KPRC 2 would like to hear from you, the viewer, on what questions you’d like us to ask the governor.

Iowans attending a forum hosted by Sen. Chuck Grassley started to turn on each other as the lawmaker faced heated questions about President Donald Trump’s first months in office.

Uncertainty over tariffs and an unpredictable trade war is weighing heavily on companies as they report their latest results and try to give investors financial forecasts.

US stocks are leaping amid a worldwide rally after President Donald Trump said he would not attempt to fire the head of the Federal Reserve and his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects a “de-escalation” in what he called an unsustainable tariffs showdown against China.

A company that spreads crushed rock on farmers’ fields to draw climate-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has won the $50 million grand prize in a global competition funded by Elon Musk’s foundation.

The height of tax season was the height of turmoil at the IRS.

Former employees of OpenAI are appealing to the top law enforcement officers in California and Delaware to halt the company’s move to transfer control of its artificial intelligence technology from a nonprofit charity to a for-profit business.

U.S. stocks rose as a worldwide rally came back around to Wall Street.

Elon Musk says he’ll be spending less time in Washington slashing government costs and more time running Tesla after his electric vehicle company reported a big drop in profits.

Members of President Donald Trump’s administration are increasingly feuding as they face escalating controversies.

As Big Tech kicks off its quarterly earnings season this week, the industry’s bellwether companies have been thrust into a cauldron of uncertainty and turmoil that they didn’t anticipate when Donald Trump re-entered the White House less than 100 days ago.

Chris Van Hollen has emerged, for now, as a leading figure in the resistance to President Donald Trump.

The Kansas City, Missouri, metropolitan area has long been a regional hub for the federal government, and the pain from the Trump administration's cuts can be seen everywhere.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance has begun a four-day tour of India as the two countries seek to strengthen their partnership by negotiating a bilateral trade deal.

Three former senior advisers to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are decrying what they called “baseless attacks” after each was escorted from the Pentagon in an expanding probe on information leaks.

Protests against President Donald Trump’s administration are once again taking place in communities across the U.S. Organizers of Saturday’s events say they’re protesting against what they view as the Republican administration’s constitutional and civil rights violations.

Romania is gearing up to hold a presidential election redo next month, a high-stakes test for the European Union member’s democracy after last year’s annulled vote triggered the country’s deepest political crisis since 1989.

An IRS agent who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Biden's taxes and was promoted to be acting IRS commissioner is out of the job just days after he got it.

The federal judiciary is warning that Congress is not providing enough money for judges’ security, at a time of escalating threats and chilling efforts at intimidation.

The Food and Drug Administration is scrambling to hire contractors to replace fired employees who helped plan thousands of food and drug safety inspections throughout the world.

A federal judge has imposed new restrictions on the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans.

Virginia Democrats are vying to shield their statehouse majority while flipping the governor’s mansion in November, and new reports show they have a cash advantage in those races against Republicans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is being downsized by President Donald Trump.

After saying earlier in the day that he was “in no rush” to finish trade deals, President Donald Trump said he thought he could wrap up tariff talks “over the next three or four weeks.”.

A federal judge says he won’t dismiss a lawsuit from labor unions seeking to block Elon Musk’s team from accessing systems at the Labor Department.

The nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice says staff from Elon Musk’s DOGE contacted them to “assign” a team to the organization and said DOGE staff told them they intended to “assign” teams to all nonprofits that receive funds appropriated by Congress.

The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program.

OpenAI has named labor leader Dolores Huerta and three others to a temporary advisory board that will help guide the artificial intelligence company’s philanthropy as it attempts to shift itself into a for-profit business.

Elon Musk's federal cost-cutting team is touting its latest finding: Hundreds of millions of dollars in allegedly fraudulent unemployment claims.

President Donald Trump is considering a delay of auto tariffs.

The Trump administration has expanded the power of adviser Elon Musk’s government-cutting team over the State Department.

A federal judge in Maryland will order sworn testimony by Trump officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison.

Former President Joe Biden warns that President Donald Trump has “taken a hatchet” to Social Security, weighing in on a critical issue for millions of Americans.

Some of the Democratic Party’s core political groups are preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump’s allies may soon launch criminal investigations that could handicap Democratic infrastructure.

President Donald Trump keeps talking about sending U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes to prison in El Salvador.

There is a push in our backyard by State Senator Mayes Middleton to reconstruct how our state government looks and operates in the future. The approach is to not only save money for Texans, but also to make government more efficient in the Lone Star State.

Taxpayers calling the IRS for help processing their taxes this filing season may find it harder than normal to get someone on the phone.

The Justice Department has charged a man with vandalizing a Tesla dealership in New Mexico and setting fire to the headquarters of the state Republican Party.

A fire set by a man who broke into Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home over the weekend is just the latest in a string of attacks against political leaders in the United States.

Blue Origin has launched Jeff Bezos' fiancee Lauren Sanchez into space with an all-female celebrity crew that included Katy Perry and Gayle King.

Leaders of state humanities councils throughout the country say federal funding cuts by President Donald Trump's administration will force them to scale back or eliminate celebrations next year commemorating the nation's 250th anniversary.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a former deputy finance minister as a special envoy to the United States after the ambassador was expelled last month.

As the Christian world commemorates Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday, the State Department has issued an appeal for its employees to report instances of alleged anti-Christian bias, including actions taken for opposition to vaccines or personal pronoun choice, that may have occurred during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Many of Silicon Valley's most prominent tech leaders have embraced President Donald Trump in his second term.

President Donald Trump was in Miami for his latest appearance at a sports event as he watched UFC fighters and was joined by several Cabinet members and top administration officials.

The head of the U.S.-funded Al Hurra Arabic-language television and online news outlet has terminated most of his staff and TV programming.