THE LATEST: WHITE HOUSE NEWS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will face a litany of questions Tuesday about the Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts around the world, including Iran, when he appears for back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Iran war began. 

Senate Republicans will meet Tuesday to discuss next steps after the Justice Department said it would comply with a court order pausing the implementation of a $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate President Donald Trump’s political allies. 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is also set to return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. The hearing was scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department’s budget, but lawmakers will almost certainly focus their questioning on the settlement fund. 

The Latest: 

Jill Biden surprised at Kamala Harris’ critiques of Joe Biden’s 2024 decision 

The former first lady said Tuesday she was surprised that the former vice president wrote in her own memo that Joe Biden’s ego and ambition effectively damaged Democrats’ hopes in the 2024 presidential election. 

“I was a little surprised she wrote that,” Jill Biden said on MSNOW’s “Morning Joe,” adding that “Joe and Kamala, me, Doug (Emhoff), I thought we were a great team.” 

She added that “when Joe got out, he handed over the reins to Kamala” and “had full confidence in her.” 

The interview comes as part of Jill Biden’s media tour touting her new memoir of the Bidens’ White House years. 

The former first lady said her husband and Harris remain on good terms and that Harris “just called two days ago” to check on how he’s doing. 

Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, appeals court panel rules 

A Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeals court judges ruled on Monday in another legal setback for President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda. 

The ban remains in effect. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Pentagon to start enforcing it last year, as litigation continues to play out. 

The majority opinion — by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit — held that the Trump administration’s policy was designed to exclude people from the military based on their gender identity. 

The panel’s new ruling would keep the military from kicking out current service members named in the lawsuit, but wouldn’t allow new transgender recruits to join. The judges put their decision on hold, though, to let the administration seek further review. 

What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries as Democrats try to defend California and make inroads in Iowa 

For a state that’s home to Hollywood, there isn’t much star power in California’s gubernatorial race. It’s a somewhat different story in Los Angeles, where a reality television personality is running for mayor as the city prepares to host the Olympics. 

More primaries are being held on Tuesday as well. Democrats are banking on a rare chance to regain ground in Iowa, a rural state that has repeatedly eluded them in recent years. Republicans, meanwhile, are grappling with a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained absence could put their already slim majority at risk. 

Pentagon bars journalists from its press office, saying it has become a ‘classified space’ 

In another of a series of moves restricting media access at the Pentagon, the Defense Department has declared that its press office is now a classified space inaccessible to journalists. 

On X, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move, saying there was “nothing controversial” about it and that it came because speechwriters, who use classified material, were now occupying the space. 

“The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility,” Valdez wrote. 

“These speechwriters routinely handle classified material … as a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. There’s nothing controversial about that.” 

Republican senators want more answers on $1.8 billion settlement fund as Trump considers its future 

Senate Republicans will meet Tuesday to discuss next steps after the Justice Department said it would comply with a court order pausing the implementation of a $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate victims of political lawfare. 

GOP senators who revolted against the settlement before leaving for a Memorial Day recess two weeks ago say they want more information from the administration about the future of the fund, which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Meanwhile, Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with it at all, according to a person familiar with his thinking. 

Caught in the middle is legislation that would fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies for three years. Republicans abruptly left town without passing it after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or scale back the judgment fund, forcing Republicans to go on the record for or against it and endangering the money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. 

Blanche is set to return to Capitol Hill as Trump reconsiders plans for his $1.8 billion fund 

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is set to return to Capitol Hill after the Trump administration signaled it was pausing contentious plans to move forward with a nearly $1.8 billion fund that could compensate victims of political lawfare. Tuesday’s hearing before the House Appropriations Committee was scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department’s budget. But lawmakers will almost certainly focus their questioning on the creation of a fund established to resolve the Republican president’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Many Republican senators have pushed the administration to impose limits or scrap the idea altogether. 

 PHOTO-President Donald Trump, next to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)