jorgegarcia (jorgegarcia)

Blanche says ‘one-sided news’ is a national security issue worthy of barring press Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that media outlets reporting what the Trump administration considers to be “one-sided” news is a national security issue severe enough to justify banning the press from gaining access to the White House and Air Force One. “By the way, that is what is a national security problem. When you have completely misinformation, complete misinformation coming out of the White House, that affects our relationship with our foreign partners. That affects our relationship with our foreign enemies,” Blanche said in an interview on ABC’s This Week. The attorney general’s definition of what constitutes a national security risk elaborates on a government claim made in a court filing seeking to justify President Donald Trump’s effort to implement such a ban against CNN, MSNOW and Politico, which a federal judge overseeing that case has greeted with skepticism.

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Blanche admits defeat. Will Trump sign on? In Trump’s world, the fund — part of a settlement between him and his own Department of Justice — was a way to right wrongs against his allies. Other people saw it as an ethical minefield that would put taxpayer money in the pockets of people Trump previously pardoned. Blanche’s promise not to pursue the fund wasn’t enough for Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Thillis, who wanted it rescinded in writing. While CNN reported Monday that the White House was deeply involved in the decision to rescind the settlement, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig noted that Trump and his lawyers have not signed the document clawing back the agreement. That means Trump or his attorneys could, in theory, sue to have it reinstated. “For all the drama around this written document from Todd Blanche, it really accomplishes essentially nothing as a legal matter,” he said Monday on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

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Trump lashes out as political losses pile up A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. President Donald Trump lashed out at oil companies and his own US attorney in the gilded Oval Office on Monday as his spin ran into the real world. It was more evidence that Trump 2.0 is losing some of its juice. Oil executives are capitalizing on Trump’s war against Iran and “making too much money,” the president said. He singled out Chevron and warned it to make gasoline cheaper even though, he said, he’s a “big free enterprise guy — nobody bigger.” Jeanine Pirro, his handpicked US attorney for Washington, DC, “choked,” Trump said, when she about-faced in court papers and admitted it was a botched rehab by the Interior Department and not vandalism that caused setbacks in the renovation of the Reflecting Pool, which Trump has taken on as a pet project.

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SpaceX’s massive Starship is finally going to orbit — and the effects could be seismic People near the sandy shores of Texas’ southernmost coastline are accustomed to the earth-shattering roar of the most powerful rocket ever made: Since 2023, various prototypes of SpaceX’s Starship have taken flight from the area 13 times — with nearly half ending in some form of unintended explosion. But the stakes are about to get even higher. On Monday, SpaceX will attempt to launch Starship to orbit for the first time, allowing it to deploy the inaugural batch of a new generation of Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff is expected during a 75-minute launch window that will open at 8:15 a.m. ET. If successful, Monday’s test flight could mark a monumental step forward — signifying that Starship may soon leave its test flight phase and enter full operation.

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