At 7:30 AM, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had learned who the upcoming witness was and his team had no time to prepare. Within 30 minutes, Trump -- who is under a gag order he's already been found to have been in contempt of 10 times -- took the post down.

Judge Merchan to Trump:

“Going forward this court will have to consider a jail sanction,' Merchan says, noting the $1,000 fine is not stopping him.
 
'Mr. Trump its important you understand the last thing I want to do is put you in jail. You are the former president of the…

Hope Hicks and Trump have not spoken since late 2022, when she was compelled to testify before Congress about Jan. 6.

Now, she’s set to appear in court talking about Trump again: washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…

BIDEN addresses campus protests from the WH:

“Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder or denying the rights of others ... no place for hate speech in America.”

NEW: Foreign policy hands want Biden to keep making the case for Ukraine support. But election considerations are pushing it to the background.

“The issues that are most important for the world aren’t necessarily urgent matters for voters.” politico.com/news/2024/05/0…

This lede from Caroline Kitchener.

washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05…

“Asked why India would risk attempting an assassination on U.S. soil, a Western security official said: ‘Because they knew they could get away with it.’”
gift link wapo.st/3w3RrgT

In a town of the image conscious, this economic policy wonk actually dances like no one’s watching.

Sometimes for two straight hours with WH staffers.

And once in an East Room dance-off with Usher.

w/ ⁦Lauren Egan⁩ politico.com/newsletters/we…

Blinken tells Beijing on its support for Russia: 'We’re looking at the actions that we’re fully prepared to take if we don’t see a change…we’ve already imposed sanctions on more than 100 Chinese entities & we’re fully prepared to take additional measures” politico.com/news/2024/04/2…

A little lost nugget in Eli Stokols' piece.

'The White Houses Andrew Bates has developed an online correspondence with the operator of New York Times Pitchbot and occasionally shared material for potential posts, two people familiar with the press shop said.'

politico.com/news/magazine/…

Fun Eli Stokols piece exploring the love-hate relationship between the White House and the New York Times, chock full of wild details politico.com/news/magazine/…

NEW: Biden’s team thinks they’re “entitled” and often “failing” in their coverage.

The NYT says the WH isn’t “being realistic” and has grown frustrated they can’t get an Oval Office interview.

A look at how this relationship deteriorated.

politico.com/news/magazine/…

Part of the Biden strategy on junk fees — encouraging action by the states — is taking shape.

Which makes sense when polling shows this to be among the most popular policies.

BIDEN: “For all the talk about how dysfunctional things are in Washington, when you look over the last three years, we see that time and again on the critical issues we’ve actually come together.”

Approving new Ukraine aid is a “critical moment,” Biden says.

“Imagine if we had failed…all those gains [by Ukraine] would have unraveled, NATO would have been weakened and our national security would have been undermined.”

In a new essay in Foreign Affairs magazine that lays out a foreign policy based on what he calls “progressive realism,” he said Britain needed to focus on rebuilding its security ties with the European Union, which have withered in the aftermath of Brexit.

nytimes.com/2024/04/21/us/…

Pence urged Democrats and Republicans to “rally around Johnson.”

Unsurprisingly, his post was besieged by commenters calling both Republicans “traitors”; one said it was an example of a “Judas supporting another Judas.”

nytimes.com/2024/04/20/us/…

Biden statement:

Pentagon arms will reach Ukraine in less than a week once aid bill clears Congress - The Washington Post

The Pentagon has a massive infusion of military aid for Ukraine “ready to go,” U.S. officials said. They also noted that the Defense Department initiated the assembly of this…