Traci Mumford

Still, Blanche made clear that the other piece of the deal Trump struck with the Justice Department, granting him, his family, and his businesses immunity from any ongoing tax audits, will stand.

Blanche claimed that kind of arrangement wasn't out of the ordinary, but critics have called it a sweetheart deal, given that the Trump Organization was facing an investigation into its tax filings that could have resulted in a $100 million penalty.

Democrats are denouncing Trump's new pick for director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte.

Pulte, who currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has no experience in intelligence, defense or national security.

The DNI position is one of the most powerful in the Cabinet.

It was created after 9-11 and is responsible for coordinating the work of the CIA and a dozen-plus other agencies.

Tulsi Gabbard currently has the job, but she announced she's stepping down for family reasons.

In his time in the administration, Pulte has aggressively gone after people Trump perceives as his enemies, accusing them of mortgage fraud, for example, which has pleased Trump.

Notably, the president's only putting Pulte in as acting director.

That will limit how long he can hold the job.

But it also avoids a confirmation hearing, where even Republicans seem poised to question Pulte's thin qualifications.

Trump said in his announcement that Pulte, quote, has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America.

Pulte, who is going to keep running the housing agency too, did not respond to requests for comment.

And last update from Washington.

President Trump signed an executive order yesterday asking tech companies to voluntarily give the government oversight of new AI models before they're released to the public.

This step towards regulation is a clear reversal from how Trump came into office with an anything-goes approach towards the technology.

It comes as public opinion on AI has been souring, with mounting fears over how it can affect jobs, energy prices, and there are major concerns about national security.

That was supercharged this spring when Anthropic announced its new AI model was so good at finding cyber vulnerabilities it shouldn't be released to the public.

Still, there are questions about whether Trump's order will actually regulate anything, according to Times tech reporter Shira Frankel.

Across the U.S., doctors say they are seeing more cases of serious illnesses that vaccines used to keep at bay.