The chats had been set up to discuss sensitive security matters. But a group of employees used them for discussions that contained sexual themes, intelligence officials said this week.

Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, a retired three-star Air Force officer, quickly moved up the list of candidates to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Some of the most vocal critics of Vladimir V. Putin and proponents of the United States’ role as a global defender of democracy have acquiesced to Mr. Trump on Russia.

Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party’s core foreign policy principles.

The departure of the acting commissioner is the latest backlash to the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to access sensitive data.

At the Munich Security Conference, Olaf Scholz accused the U.S. vice president of unacceptable interference in Germany’s coming elections.

Trump’s recent moves, including a conversation with Putin and a demand for Ukrainian mineral rights, are worrisome signs for Zelensky.

The furious pace of deregulation is gutting agencies intended to protect ordinary Americans, consumer advocates say. But business groups have long favored regulatory relief.

The president solidified his grip on the performing arts complex as the center’s longtime president, Deborah F. Rutter, was fired.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited a disputed study from a close network of fellow vaccine skeptics during his confirmation hearings. His critics say it is part of a pattern that raises concerns about whose research he would elevate as health secretary.

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence in a 52 to 48 vote that demonstrated President Trump’s political control over Republican lawmakers, and she was sworn in hours later in the Oval Office.

Pete Hegseth has spent much of his first weeks in office focused on culture wars while saying little about America’s adversaries.

President Trump said on Wednesday that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, characterizing it as the beginning of a negotiation to end the war in Ukraine.

President Trump’s early moves to slash the federal government and expand American territory represent significant ideological swings from his first term.

The declaration by the vice president came as court orders have temporarily blocked parts of the Trump administration’s agenda.

The agency had been one of Wall Street’s most feared regulators, with the power to issue rules on mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other areas affecting Americans’ financial lives.

After racist posts and data theft scandals, Trump defends giving SpaceX CEO's young operatives control of trillion-dollar military budget