What we're covering
• Shutdown deadline: The White House and Senate leaders are moving closer to a deal to avert a government shutdown, but they are racing to resolve final sticking points in eleventh-hour negotiations ahead of tomorrow’s deadline, according to sources.
• Possible Iran strikes: Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is weighing a new strike on Iran after preliminary discussions between Washington and Tehran over limiting the country’s nuclear program failed to make progress, according to people familiar with the matter.
• On the White House schedule: Trump will hold a cabinet meeting around 11 a.m. ET, where a host of foreign issues, such as the future of Venezuela, and domestic policies, such as the president’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, could come up.
Meanwhile, contractor pleads not guilty in leaks case tied to Washington Post reporter
A government contractor pleaded not guilty today to unlawfully sharing classified information with a Washington Post reporter.
Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, 61, pleaded not guilty to five counts of unlawfully transmitting the national defense information to the reporter through an encrypted messaging application and a single count of unlawfully retaining the defense information.
No trial date has been set in the case, though prosecutors said they expected the eventual proceeding to last a week.
The case is being closely watched by press freedom advocates who have raised alarm bells over the Trump administration’s decision to seize the reporter’s computers and phone days after Perez-Lugones was arrested.
The reporter, Hannah Natanson, has not been charged with any crimes, nor has the Post. Her devices were seized in a pre-dawn FBI raid on January 14 pursuant to a warrant related to the investigation into Perez-Lugones. Government seizures of reporter records are exceedingly rare in the US.
Perez-Lugones previously acknowledged he mishandled classified information, prosecutors said, according to a court hearing transcript obtained by CNN. Perez-Lugones told federal investigators he was angry about “recent government activity,” Assistant US Attorney Patricia McLane said during a detention hearing earlier this month.
Melania Trump describes her husband as a "unifier," underscoring their political alignment
From the time President Donald Trump entered the political arena, Melania Trump has been somewhat of a Rorschach test upon which American political observers projected their hopes and anxieties. For some, she was a MAGA queen. For others, she was leading a secret resistance.
But with the release of her documentary this week, the first lady is making it clear: she is her husband’s wife.
Trump defended the president’s efforts to unify the country in an interview that underscored their complete political alignment.
“We could see that the country, it’s divided, and it’s very hard — no matter what he says, they don’t like to listen. And you know, what’s going on in our country now, I feel that it’s a lot of pushback. And I hope it stops,” she told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview from Trump Tower that aired Thursday.
She said her husband is doing a “fantastic job” and described him as a “unifier.”
The friendly conversation marked Trump’s third televised interview this week — and the third interview of the second term. She’s stayed largely out of the public eye during her husband’s return to office but has scaled up appearances to promote her documentary, which premieres Thursday evening and releases in theaters Friday.
“People can see what a person who becomes a first lady needs to do, what she’s involved in, and how serious a job is this,” she said of the film, also noting it will feature “fashion” and “incredible music that I picked for every scene.”
Trump also reflected on differences between the first and second terms, telling Bartiromo, “The first time, everything what you wanted to do, the answer was no, or they turned their backs. But this time, it’s much more support.”
Trump lashes out at Powell after Fed chair keeps interest rates unchanged
President Donald Trump yet again lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday for keeping interest rates steady.
Trump argued in a Truth Social post that Powell has “absolutely no reason to keep them so high. He is hurting our Country, and its National Security. We should have a substantially lower rate now that even this moron admits inflation is no longer a problem or threat.”
The Fed lowered interest rates three times in 2025. As CNN has reported, part of the reason rates were kept steady was because rate cuts can cause prices to rise. Inflation remained at 2.7% in December.
Trump also argued that money coming in from tariffs should give the US “the LOWEST INTEREST RATE OF ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.”
Powell told reporters on Wednesday, “The expectation is that we will see the effects of tariffs flowing through goods prices peaking, then starting to come down, assuming there are no new major tariff increases that are begun, and that is what we expect to see over the course of this year.”
Powell has refused to cave to political pressure from Trump, even as federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into him early this month over renovations at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, DC.
What's on Trump's schedule today as the government shutdown deadline nears
President Donald Trump has several items on his schedule today as White House and Senate leaders race to reach a funding deal and avert a government shutdown before tomorrow’s midnight deadline.
Here’s what’s on his agenda today:
- 10 a.m. ET: Trump receives an intelligence briefing
- 11 a.m. ET: The president holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House
- 4:30 p.m. ET: Trump makes an announcement in the Oval Office
- 7 p.m. ET: The president and first lady Melania Trump attend a screening of the film “Melania” at the Kennedy Center.
President Trump is weighing a new strike on Iran. Here's what we know
President Donald Trump is weighing a major new strike on Iran after preliminary discussions between Washington and Tehran over limiting the country’s nuclear program and ballistic missile production failed to make progress, according to people familiar with the matter.
Possible options: The sources say options Trump is now considering include US military airstrikes aimed at Iran’s leaders and the security officials believed to be responsible for the killings, as well as strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and government institutions, Trump has not made a final decision on how to proceed, sources said.
What Trump has said publicly: The president on Wednesday posted on Truth Social demanding that Iran come to the table to negotiate “a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS.” He warned the next US attack on the country “will be far worse” than the one it carried out last summer, when the US military attacked three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
How Iran is reacting: Trump’s latest threats were met with indignation by Tehran, which vowed an immediate response to any US military action, with one top adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatening to target Israel if an attack goes ahead.
Some context: The possible strike is a rapid refocusing of the US administration’s publicly framed objectives for Iran and comes only weeks after Trump seriously considered military action he framed as potential aid for nationwide protests in Iran. Protesters had faced violent crackdowns by security forces leading to hundreds of killings.
Read more about the possible strike.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood, Zachary Cohen, Jennifer Hansler, Oren Liebermann, Kevin Liptak and Kristen Holmes contributed reporting to this post.
Trump reposts several false claims about 2020 Georgia election results
President Donald Trump reposted several false claims this morning about the 2020 election results in Georgia on his social media platform – including from someone who praised Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s presence at the FBI search of an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.
The post, from conservative influencer Eric Daugherty, claims, without evidence, “likely 2020 election fraud” in Fulton County, alleging “ballots were seized and computers were examined.”
While Trump didn’t weigh in directly, he reposted several posts promoting his false claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent and raising suspicion that former President Joe Biden did not win in Georgia.
Biden was the first Democratic nominee to triumph in the state in 28 years. Trump has repeatedly claimed – falsely – that he won the state in 2020.
Trump also reposted a Fox News segment in July around the time when Gabbard declassified documents she claimed were evidence the Obama administration’s intelligence officials “manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork” for the FBI’s Russia investigation into Trump. Other reviews, including a bipartisan 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report, have not supported her claims.
Trump’s post comes a day after Gabbard was observed with FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey at the scene when the FBI searched the Fulton County elections office over alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.
