Statement by @weijia on behalf of the @whca on Trump excluding the @WSJ from the White House press pool as punishment for its coverage:

Trump's Russia announcement is being portrayed as toughening his stance, but in fact what he did was give Putin a 50-day free pass to do anything he likes in Ukraine without further US punishment as the Senate sanctions bill is now put on hold.

Just want to take a minute to mark a huge moment in DC. The legendary @danbalz is retiring from full-time work at the @washingtonpost after 47 remarkable years. I had the great privilege of sitting next to Dan in the Post newsroom and working with him for years. He is the last of a generation of gold-standard political reporters who inspired all of us who have followed. You will never find a smarter, wiser, fairer, more insightful, more generous, more thoroughly decent colleague. He is a follow-the-facts, knock-on-every-door reporter who manages to be open minded and tough minded at the same time. In a flash-and-bang era, Dan showed us day in and day out that there is no substitute for hard work and expertise. @mikeallen writes that Dan is "known for civility and rigor," which is absolutely right. Plus he's the nicest guy in the business. I've always wanted to be Dan Balz when I grow up, but the truth is there's only one and we will miss his byline in the paper.

Trump claims the constitutional power to ignore laws if he decides they do not meet his definition of national interests, going further than ever before to assert unilateral authority. "Just breathtaking," legal scholar says. @charlie_savage

The president of the United States just pressured a major corporation to fork over $16 million to his personal library project as company executives feared that a lucrative merger would otherwise be blocked by the Trump administration.

Trump announces preliminary trade deal with Vietnam, one that would roll back some of the punishing tariffs he had issued on Vietnamese products in return for Hanoi opening its market to US goods. @AnaSwanson @damiencave @jotted @arappeport @tungngonyt

Trump loves to play Lee Greenwood's patriotic song with the lyrics "proud to be an American." But on Trump's watch, fewer people are proud to be American than ever recorded. Just 58% describe themselves that way, down from 67% last year, per @Gallup

Chief UN nuclear inspector says the damage wrought by the US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities was "severe" but, contrary to Trump, not "total" and declared that Tehran could be enriching uranium again in "a matter of months." @SangerNYT @tylerpager

Even some of Cuomo’s own campaign advisers agreed that if he was looking to assess blame for a loss that could end his political career, he needed to look at himself. @npfandos

The Trump tax and spending bill now being debated by the Senate would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to the CBO, even more than the $2.4 trillion cost of the House version. @aduehren