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      The Republicans in Congress Who Are Opting to Self-Deport From Washington

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      Feeling out of step with President Trump’s G.O.P., Senator Thom Tillis and Representative Don Bacon are deciding to retire.Senator Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican, knows a thing or two about the power of health care at the ballot box.In 2011, he became the speaker of the State House in North Carolina after a wave of populist anger over the Affordable Care Act swept Republicans into office across the country. In 2014, he defeated the state’s incumbent Democratic senator as voters who saw the election as a referendum on government competence in the wake of the health care law’s messy rollout handed the Senate back to Republicans.So Tillis’s refusal to back President Trump’s signature domestic policy bill could be interpreted as a clanging alarm for a party that doesn’t want to hear it.“Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betraying a promise,” Tillis said on the Senate floor on Sunday, blaming “amateurs” in the White House for encouraging Trump to back a bill that Tillis said would kick some 663,000 people off Medicaid in North Carolina alone.Tillis had found himself squeezed between a key lesson of his career — don’t mess with voters’ health care — and President Trump’s biggest domestic priority. With Democrats eager to hold the measure’s deep Medicaid cuts against him, and Trump blasting him for wavering, Tillis decided there was only one option left: self-deportation from Washington (also known as retirement).And he’s not the only one, as congressional Republicans reckon with the fact that even a modicum of independence from Trump can be politically untenable in their branch of government.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Democrats Lay Groundwork for a ‘Project 2029’

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      The plan to write a policy agenda for the next Democratic president is at the center of a raging debate within the party: whether its biggest problem is its ideas or its difficulty in selling them.As he looks back at the defeat of former Vice President Kamala Harris last fall, the thing that keeps bothering Andrei Cherny, a onetime Democratic speechwriter and state party leader, is that he didn’t know what Ms. Harris would have done as president if she had won.The way he saw it, President Trump ran on his own ideas, but Ms. Harris only ran against Mr. Trump’s. “The oldest truism in politics is you can’t beat something with nothing,” Mr. Cherny said.Now Mr. Cherny, the co-founder of a nearly two-decade-old liberal policy journal, is organizing a group of Democratic thinkers to recreate what Mr. Trump’s allies did when he was voted out of office: draft a ready-made agenda for the next Democratic presidential nominee.They’re calling it Project 2029.The title is an unsubtle play on Project 2025, the independently produced right-wing agenda that Mr. Trump spent much of last year’s campaign distancing himself from, and much of his first few months back in power executing.The fact that Democrats turned Project 2025 into a cudgel against Mr. Trump during the campaign has not deterred Mr. Cherny and the other Democrats working with him from borrowing the tactic. They plan to roll out an agenda over the next two years, in quarterly installments, through Mr. Cherny’s publication, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. The goal is to turn it into a book — just like Project 2025 — and to rally leading Democratic presidential candidates behind those ideas during the 2028 primary season.Andrei Cherny, a onetime Democratic speechwriter and state party leader, is organizing a group of Democratic thinkers to draft a ready-made agenda for the next Democratic nominee.Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      New Cost of Trump’s Bill, Canada Backs Down in Trade Dispute, Gen Z’s Retirement Plan

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      Listen to and follow “The Headlines”Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioOn Today’s Episode:Senate Bill Would Add at Least $3.3 Trillion to Debt, Budget Office Says, by Andrew DuehrenTillis Announces He Won’t Run Again as Trump Threatens Him With a Primary, by Annie KarniA Triumphant Supreme Court Term for Trump, Fueled by Emergency Rulings, by Adam Liptak and Abbie VanSickleCourts Will Have to Grapple With New Limits on Their Power, by Mattathias SchwartzCanada Will Scrap Tax That Prompted Trump to Suspend Trade Talks, by Matina Stevis-GridneffGen Z, It Turns Out, Is Great at Saving for Retirement, by Lisa Rabasca RoepeJell-O With Natural Dyes? It’s Not Easy Becoming Green, by Julie CreswellJohn Thune, the Senate majority leader, with reporters. Republicans delayed a rapid-fire series of votes on President Trump’s signature policy legislation until Monday morning as they grasped for support.Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesTune in, and tell us what you think at theheadlines@nytimes.com. For corrections, email nytnews@nytimes.com.For more audio journalism and storytelling, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. More

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      Thom Tillis, Republican Senator, Won’t Seek Re-election Amid Trump’s Primary Threats

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      The day after President Trump castigated Senator Thom Tillis for opposing the bill carrying the president’s domestic agenda, the North Carolina Republican said he would not seek a third term.Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, announced on Sunday that he would not seek re-election next year, a day after President Trump threatened to back a primary challenger against him because Mr. Tillis had said he opposed the bill carrying Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda.Mr. Tillis’s departure will set off a highly competitive race in North Carolina that could be pivotal in the battle for control of the closely divided Senate. It was the latest congressional retirement to underscore the rightward shift of the G.O.P. and the reality that there is little room for any Republican to break with Mr. Trump.“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Mr. Tillis said in a lengthy statement on his decision.The announcement came as the Senate was wading into a debate over the large-scale tax cut and domestic policy bill that Mr. Trump has demanded be delivered to his desk by July 4. Mr. Tillis announced his decision the day after issuing a statement saying he could not in good conscience support the measure, which he said would lead to tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for his state, costing people Medicaid coverage and critical health services.He was one of just two Republicans who voted Saturday night against bringing up the bill.Mr. Tillis has been privately critical of the legislation and cautioned colleagues of the political downsides for them if they back it. In a closed-door meeting with his Republican colleagues last week, he warned that the sweeping legislation could be an albatross for the party in 2026.The president’s allies celebrated Mr. Tillis’ announcement as more proof of Mr. Trump’s political strength. “Don’t Cross Trump,” Jason Miller, who served as a top adviser for the president’s re-election campaign, wrote on social media. “The voters gave him a mandate to implement a specific agenda, and they want everyone to get behind his efforts!”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      We Shouldn’t Have Billionaires, Mamdani Says

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      Appearing on “Meet the Press” days after the mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani defended his proposals to make New York City more affordable and to increase taxes on the wealthy.Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned for mayor on the theme of making New York City more affordable, said in a major national television interview that during a time of rising inequality, “I don’t think we should have billionaires.”Mr. Mamdani, the likely winner of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, said in an appearance on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that more equality is needed across the city, state and country, and that he looked forward to working “with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer for all of them.”At the same time, Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, asserted that he is not a communist, a response to an attack from President Trump. “I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am — ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for,” Mr. Mamdani said.But one question he continued to sidestep was whether he would denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada,” after he declined to condemn it during a podcast interview before the primary.The slogan is a rallying cry for liberation among Palestinians and their supporters, but many Jews consider it a call to violence invoking resistance movements of the 1980s and 2000s.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Zohran Mamdani Brought New Voters to the Polls

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      Mr. Mamdani, the likely winner of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, drew tens of thousands of new voters to the polls. Here’s how.Upstart challengers in political races often begin with the goal of drawing new or disillusioned voters to their cause. They build excitement, often on social media, but inevitably fall short.Zohran Mamdani proved different.He hit the ground running in the mayor’s race, talking to disaffected New Yorkers in Queens and the Bronx who voted for President Trump. He repeatedly visited mosques to hear the concerns of Muslims, hoping to provide a reason for the uninvolved to register to vote.He won over progressives with a populist message of making the city more affordable, in part by asking corporations and the wealthy to pay more, and he spread his vision through viral social media videos. He accumulated an army of volunteers and small donors, helping his campaign knock on more than one million doors.The polls were slow to capture his momentum, but he was building something the city had not really seen before: a winning citywide campaign for mayor, built from nothing in a matter of months.Mr. Mamdani, the likely Democratic primary winner, still faces what is expected to be another bruising general election in November with a broader electorate. His ability to sustain his momentum will be tested, especially with business leaders already plotting how to undermine him.He will need to further the success he found in immigrant neighborhoods like Kensington in Brooklyn, which is known as Little Bangladesh, and in the enclaves of young professionals, like Long Island City in Queens.New registrations were much higher in 2025Cumulative new registrations beginning 100 days before the registration deadline

      Sources: New York City Board of Elections; L2By The New York TimesAge distribution of voters in New York City mayoral electionsIncludes 2025 mail ballots processed through Thursday morning

      Sources: New York City Board of Elections; L2By The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Reckless Judicial Nomination Puts the Senate to the Test

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      Republicans in the Senate may be on the verge of their most consequential capitulation to President Trump so far — and I am not talking about the deficit-busting “big, beautiful bill.”On Wednesday, when the eyes of the nation were still fixed on the Middle East, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Trump’s nomination of Emil Bove to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers cases from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands.Bove’s nomination is yet another sign that Trump’s second term is beginning (yes, it’s still only the beginning) very differently from his first. Just as he wants sycophants and yes men staffing his administration, he’s now moving toward staffing the judiciary with the same kind of person: judges who will do whatever it takes to curry favor with a president who values fealty above all.By now, Americans are accustomed to the devolution of Trump’s team. Serious people populated the highest levels of the executive branch at the start of Trump’s first term, but now some of the most important positions in American government are held by cranks like Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth.But as bad as those men are, their influence is ultimately limited — first by Trump himself, who feels completely free to overrule and disregard any decision they make for the sake of his own interests and whims, and second by time itself. Trump’s political appointees won’t be in American government for long, and while they can inflict lasting damage during their short tenures, the next president can replace them and at least start the process of repair.Emil Bove, however, would be a problem for a very long time. At 44 years old, he’s been nominated for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. That means he’d long outlast Trump in the halls of American power, and if past performance is any measure of future results, we should prepare for a judge who would do what he deems necessary to accomplish his political objectives — law and morality be damned.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Social Media Videos Fueled Zohran Mamdani’s Success

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      As a millennial politician, Zohran Mamdani is a digital native, at ease on both sides of a camera and well versed in the slangy “terminally online” lingo of those with active social media accounts. He is also the son of an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, with a sharp eye for aesthetics and moving images.So it is perhaps not surprising that Mr. Mamdani’s campaign for mayor of New York City has relied heavily on engaging social media posts. But during the Democratic primary, his high-energy videos also inspired his supporters to create their own clips, which encouraged others to respond with even more videos. Before long, Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman, was not just a politician. He was a vibe. He was a meme.Among the factors in Mr. Mamdani’s stunning lead in the primary last week was his ability to translate his campaign message about making New York City more affordable to TikTok and Instagram, where clips by and about him had been going viral for months.He was on the internet talk shows Subway Takes and Gaydar. The comedians Ilana Glazer, Marybeth Barone and Sarah Sherman made videos asking voters to rank Mr. Mamdani first on their primary ballots. There were clips that used N.B.A. highlights to explain his campaign. And a video in which he spelled his name, M-a-m-d-a-n-i, set to the track “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani. There was even a clip set to a Japanese pop song in the style of a “fansub,” a phenomenon that only the extremely online would understand.

      @zohranchan ZOHRAN KWAME MAMDANI FOR NYC MAYOR!! JUNE 14-JUNE 24!! •original creds to: zohran_fansubs on insta #nycmayor #mayorzohran #zohranmamdani #princess #girlypop #princessaesthetic #voting #senpai #mayor ♬ original sound – votezahrank The more Mr. Mamdani posted, the more people posted about him, and soon, whether or not you were following the New York City mayoral race, there were Mamdani videos in your feed.

      @astorwalk Replying to @ornerybeagle253 this my mayor #mamdani #zohranmamdani #newyorkmayor #gwenstefani #hollabackgirl #edit #foryou ♬ the name is MAMDANI – lester

      @ofromqueens please go out to the polls!! the election is so tight that your vote could be the one to help us take it home. resources are in my bio love you ❤️ #nyc #newyork #nyclife #ofromqueens #queensnyc #manhattannewyork #brooklynnyc #brooklyn #statenisland #zohranmamdani #andrewcuomo ♬ magic – Medasin & MAE.SUN

      @vivienmaskara3 GO OUT AND VOTE ZOHRAN @Zohran Mamdani #zohran #nyc #zohranmamdani #nycpoles #nycapartment ♬ original sound – Vivienmaskara

      @balkanbitch420 #zohranfornyc ♬ original sound – balkanbitch420

      @chinita.paisa Y’all better vote for Zohran today you know he had the green metro card, polls are open from 6AM-9PM. ✨��️ • • • #zohran #zohranmamdani #nycvotes #nycvoting #mayor #nycmayor #nycelections #elections2025 #newyorkertest #newyorkers #nychighschool ♬ New York – Album Version (Edited) – Ja Rule

      @fleuririva feel so free but only with him as mayor #zohranmamdani #newyorkcity #mayor #edit #edits #addisonrae ♬ original sound – m We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More