PAYBACK:  President Trump says Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky will come to Washington to endorse an agreement in which he signs over part of the rights to valuable minerals mined in his country as reimbursement for billions of dollars in military aid.

  Trump prior to the election had repeatedly claimed he could settle the Ukraine war “in a day,” but this is not a peace agreement. It’s a business deal forced on a weakened and invaded Ukraine. 

  Details have not been released and it’s not publicly known what, if anything, Ukraine gets in return. Zelensky had asked for security guarantees against Russia. The deal came after Trump publicly bullied and insulted Zelensky.

  Trump said, “I hear that he’s coming on Friday. Certainly, it’s OK with me if he’d like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal.”

THE PURGE: Twenty-one technology experts who had been absorbed into Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency resigned rather than make the changes in the federal government directed by Musk.

  The 21 worked for the US Digital Service making government computer programming work better. The group says on its unofficial website that,  “DOGE has charged in with an arrogant ‘we know best’ mentality, disregarding the complexities of government systems.”

  “We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” the resigning group wrote in a joint letter to  Susie Wiles, President Trump’s chief of staff. 

  In the intelligence department, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired 100 intelligence officers who she said had participated in sexually explicit discussions on a government chat tool. The chats also included explicit discussion of gender transition surgery, officials said.

THE BUDGET AXE: The House by a thin margin passed a Republican budget resolution that calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over ten years to satisfy President Trump’s government-shrinking agenda.

  Republican leaders had to put down a revolt by hard-right conservatives who wanted to cut even deeper into government spending. The bill would still increase the deficit by $2.8 trillion.

  “This has been necessary because we promised to deliver President Trump’s full agenda, not just a part of it,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. “We’re not just going to do a little bit now and return later for the rest. We have to do it now.”

  The budget, if it passes the Senate, would be the first legislative action to cut spending that until now has been done by DOGE’s Elon Musk who posted that, “This is our one & only chance to restore democracy from the dictatorship of the bureaucracy. It is now or never. It must be now.”

STOP THE PRESSES: The White House announced that it is taking control of picking members of the press pool, the select group of reporters who cover the President in confined quarters like the Oval Office and Air Force One then report to the rest of the press corps.

  Until now, the White House Correspondents Association has picked the pool reporters from mainstream organizations like CNN, Reuters, The Associated Press, ABC News, Fox News and The New York Times. 

  This comes after the White House barred the Associated Press from pool coverage for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America following President Trump’s executive order.

  Now, the press office is taking control of who can cover and ask President Trump questions in confined events. Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, said they will include “new media” outlets  such as digital sites and podcasts “to share in this awesome responsibility.” She said, “Legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool, but new voices are going to be welcomed in as well.”

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE: 

 — President Donald Trump said the US would sell a $5 million “gold card” visa to rich foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the US with a path to citizenship.

— Spending slasher Elon Musk is expected to attend President Trump’s first cabinet meeting today even though he dies not have a Congressional appointment.

— The Trump administration says it will require all unauthorized immigrants in the US who are 14 and older to register with the federal government or face civil and criminal penalties. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said the administration should know who is here illegally so that it can deport them or give them the chance to leave voluntarily, which begs the question of why anyone would register.

THE OBIT PAGE: Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who climbed on the back of President John F. Kennedy’s limousine in Dallas moments after the fatal shots, has died at age 93. A famous Associated Press photo shows Hill leaping onto the trunk of the car as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was crawling to the rear for help.

  Hill had been riding on the running board of a car just behind the presidential limousine. He wrote in a NY Times essay in 2010 that, “I scanned the presidential limousine and saw the president grab at his throat and lurch to the left,” He said he ran toward the limo. And “I was so focused on getting to the president and Mrs. Kennedy to provide them cover that I didn’t hear the second shot.” 

  As the limo sped to the hospital, Hill said he heard Mrs. Kennedy say, “Jack, Jack, what have they done to you?”

  Hill was tortured for the rest of his life about the assassination, blaming himself for not reacting quicker to the first gunshot.

BELOW THE FOLD:  President Trump shared on Truth Social an AI-generated video depicting his vision for the future of Gaza as a beachfront resort, featuring towering hotels and a gigantic golden statue of the Trump. He thinks gold is classy.

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