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When Melania Trump cast her ballot last month in the Florida primary alongside her husband, former President Trump, she was asked if she would return to the campaign trail this year. ⁠
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“Stay tuned,” the former first lady replied with a smile. ⁠
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But apart from a fundraiser earlier this month for Log Cabin Republicans at her Mar-a-Lago home, Melania Trump has been absent on the stump. And those around her say they don’t expect that to change. ⁠
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“It’s just not her comfort space,” said one source who has spent time with the former first lady and is familiar with her preferences when it comes to campaigns and the political stage.⁠
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“And I think it’s a real loss because first ladies are typically helpful on the campaign trail with women, with undecideds, and she has a very compelling story and she’s good at telling it,” the source said. “I respect her for doing something she doesn’t want to do but you have to look at it as a detriment to her husband’s campaign.”⁠
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📸 Getty Images; Associated Press 

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley received more than 150,000 votes in the Pennsylvania GOP primary Tuesday despite having dropped out of the race almost two months ago. ⁠
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The most recent election returns, from just after 9 a.m. EDT Wednesday, show Haley with nearly 157,000 votes, enough for 16.6 percent of the total, with 90 percent of votes cast counted.⁠
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Former President Trump still easily won the primary, with more than 80 percent of the vote as of the latest count, and he will win all of Pennsylvania’s delegates in the winner-take-all primary.⁠
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📸: Associated Press 

The battle between Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and the GOP's right flank is heating up, with hardline House conservatives throwing their support behind his primary opponent after the moderate Republican called two of them “scumbags” on national television.⁠
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Gonzales kicked the hornet’s nest over the weekend when, during an interview on CNN, he went after Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Bob Good (R-Va.) — “it's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags” — launching personal attacks on the conservative duo.⁠
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Gaetz, who has denied the allegation, and Good — joined by other hardliners — shot back at Gonzales, criticizing his voting record, slamming him as a “Republican in name only” and endorsing his primary opponent, Brandon Herrera, a social media influencer and self-proclaimed Second Amendment activist who has worked to plant himself to the right of Gonzales.⁠
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“It is not surprising that one of the most liberal RINOs in Congress, who has egregiously fought real border security, and votes like a Democrat, would resort to the Dem playbook in screaming ‘racism,’” Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said of Gonzales on X. “Thankfully, the people of the Texas 23rd District can vote for change and an America first patriot, in Brandon Herrera.”⁠
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The heightened Republican infighting comes as the May 28 runoff in Texas’ 23rd Congressional district inches closer, with Gonzales and Herrera set to go head-to-head for the GOP nomination. Gonzales, who was first elected to Congress in 2020, beat Herrera by 20 percentage points in the March primary, but his 45.1 percent share fell short of the 50 percent needed to advance straight to the general election.⁠
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📸Getty Images⁠
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The first-ever criminal trial of a current or former American president is underway in Manhattan, renewing questions over what a potential conviction would mean for former President Trump as he campaigns for the White House.⁠
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A conviction in the New York case, where Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, wouldn’t bar him from the presidential race, but it still could roil his 2024 bid and open up the possibility that this year’s GOP nominee is a convicted felon. ⁠
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The case relates to the 2016 election, when Trump won his first term in office. Trump’s ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, made a $130,000 payment during the 2016 cycle to porn actor Stormy Daniels, aimed at silencing her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump roughly a decade earlier. Trump, who denies the affair, reimbursed Cohen, and his company logged those as legal expenses. The Manhattan district attorney argues that was unlawful.⁠
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📸 Getty Images 

The Supreme Court will hear the Biden administration’s appeal of a ruling that would invalidate its “ghost gun” regulations, setting the stage for a major showdown on firearms next term.⁠
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After previously intervening in the dispute twice on an emergency basis, the justices in a brief order on Monday agreed to take up the case on the merits.⁠
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Their decision comes two years after President Biden announced a crackdown on the devices, referring to firearms that are sold as do-it-yourself kits and are generally hard to trace.⁠
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The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the regulation unlawful, siding with two firearm owners, two gun rights advocacy organizations and five entities that manufacture or distribute guns that challenged the crackdown.⁠
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📸 Associated Press 

NPR is reeling from an ugly and contentious internal fight after an editor offered a scathing public criticism of his newsroom, saying left-wing bias threatened to erode trust with its listeners. ⁠
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The editor, Uri Berliner, resigned just days after many of his furious colleagues expressed outrage that his public attacks on the outlet were not only wrong and self-serving but also deeply unfair. ⁠
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Longtime critics of NPR in the Republican Party, meanwhile, have piled on, saying the criticism from Berliner and the newsroom’s reaction to it confirm their long-held views of the outlet.⁠
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📸 Getty Images 

The Senate voted to dismiss two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, shutting down the possibility of a lengthy Senate trial, which Republicans had demanded to bring attention to the Biden administration’s record on immigration and border security.⁠
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It marked the first time in 225 years the Senate voted to immediately dismiss impeachment charges approved by the House instead of holding a floor trial or referring the matter to a special committee to review it.⁠
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued a trial wasn’t necessary because the House had sent over “the least legitimate, least substantive and most politicized impeachment trial ever in the history of the United States.”⁠
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“The charges brought against Secretary Mayorkas fail to meet the high standards of high crimes and misdemeanors. To validate this gross abuse by the House would be a grave mistake and could set a dangerous precedent for the future,” he warned.⁠
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📸 Getty Images 

Republican senators, whose hopes of winning the Senate majority are riding on former President Trump’s strength as a general election candidate, say the hush money trial beginning this week in Manhattan will have little impact on the presidential race.⁠
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Senate Republicans by and large predict that few votes will change in November even if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) convicts Trump of some or even many of the 34 felony counts he faces for falsifying business records in connection to payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.⁠
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Some Republicans believe that Trump could even benefit politically, pointing to his surge in the polls when Bragg first unveiled the multicount indictment a year ago.⁠
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🔗  https://trib.al/PgI2BFn 
📸 Associated Press 

President Biden saw his highest approval rating since November, ticking up to 43 percent.⁠
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A new poll from the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business that found Biden’s approval rating at 43 percent marks a 4-point increase from the same poll in March.⁠
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The poll also found that 41 percent of registered voters approved of his handling of the economy, which was a 5-point increase from March.⁠
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🔗  https://trib.al/UQnsGIJ 
📸 Getty