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      Trump Weighs In on Marine Le Pen Conviction

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      “FREE MARINE LE PEN!”With this blunt call, a strange one in that the French far-right leader is walking the streets of Paris, President Trump has waded into the politics of an ally, condemning her conviction this week on embezzlement charges and her disqualification from running for public office.The conviction was “another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. Elon Musk, his billionaire aide, drove home the point: “Free Le Pen!” Mr. Musk echoed on his social media platform X.More than an extraordinary American intervention in French politics, the statements ignored the overwhelming evidence arrayed against Ms. Le Pen, who was convicted of helping orchestrate over many years a system to divert European taxpayers’ money illicitly to offset the acute financial difficulties of her National Rally party in France.Instead, for the American president and his team, as well as an angry chorus of Le Pen supporters at home, her case has become part of a vigorous campaign to undermine the separation of powers and the rule of law, which have been portrayed by Vice President JD Vance as no more than a means to stifle the far right and to quash democracy in the name of saving it.Ms. Le Pen last year. She became the face of France’s far right after taking over the party from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.Mauricio Lima for The New York TimesMs. Le Pen will speak at a big National Rally demonstration Sunday in Paris under the banner “Let’s Save Democracy!” The National Rally was founded in 1972 as the National Front, an antisemitic party of fascist roots, by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. It was long seen as a direct threat to the democratic rule of the Fifth Republic, before Ms. Le Pen embarked on a makeover.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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      Workers at Wilson Center Put on Leave as Trump Seeks Shutdown

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      Almost all the employees of the Wilson Center, a prominent nonpartisan foreign policy think tank in Washington, were placed on leave on Thursday and blocked from their work email accounts as Elon Musk’s task force quickly shut down most of the center.About 130 employees received orders telling them not to return to the office after the end of the day, according to an email reviewed by The New York Times and people with direct knowledge of the actions.The Wilson Center employees are to be paid while on leave but will be fired soon, in line with what has happened at other institutions that Mr. Musk’s workers have dismantled in recent weeks.Only five employees will remain — a president, two federal employees and two researchers on fellowships. Those positions are mandated in the center’s congressional charter. The cuts align with an executive order President Trump signed in March.Private donations to the center will be returned to the donors, according to a person familiar with the center who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. It was not clear what would be done with the center’s endowment.On Thursday afternoon, dozens of employees carried boxes and bags filled with papers, plants and posters out of the center’s offices in the Ronald Reagan Building, which houses several government agency offices.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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      Javier Milei, Trump’s ‘Favorite President,’ Has Few Deals to Offer — but Lots of Adoration

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      Javier Milei of Argentina might not be that useful for the United States on economics or geopolitics — but he can help to fight the culture wars.The day after President Trump antagonized world leaders across the globe with his most sweeping set of tariffs yet, he was scheduled to fly to Florida and potentially see the one leader he has called his “favorite president.”That leader, President Javier Milei of Argentina, had flown overnight to receive an award on Thursday at a right-wing gala at Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Trump was scheduled to also be there late Thursday — Mr. Milei said Mr. Trump would receive an award, too — and Mr. Milei said he hoped the two would meet.It was Mr. Milei’s 10th trip to the United States in 15 months as president, and nearly every time, he has met Mr. Trump or Elon Musk.Mr. Trump has posited that he is reshuffling U.S. foreign policy strictly around what is good for the United States.So what can be puzzling about his elevation of Argentina to the front row of America’s allies — Mr. Milei and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy were the only world leaders onstage at Mr. Trump’s inauguration — is that the chronically distressed South American nation is not particularly important as an economic or geopolitical partner.Instead, through Mr. Milei, Argentina has offered Mr. Trump something else he appears to crave: adoration.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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      Musk’s Task Force Begins Shutting Down Foreign Policy Research Center

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      The head of the Wilson Center, a storied foreign policy think tank, resigned on Tuesday, a day after employees from Elon Musk’s government-overhauling team arrived at the group’s Washington headquarters to dismantle it, according to people familiar with the actions at the center.The resignation of the president, Mark Green, a Republican, and the visit from Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team, indicated that the Trump administration was carrying out an executive order President Trump signed last month directing that the organization, a nonpartisan policy group, be largely dismantled.After DOGE team members visited the center on Monday and Tuesday, some of the leadership staff and senior government employees were ousted, including Mr. Green, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution by political appointees in the Trump administration. The center’s dozens of federal employees, about a third of its work force, were also set to be placed on administrative leave.The apparent gutting of the Wilson Center would be the latest attempt by the Trump administration to bring federally funded institutions that have historically been independent under executive branch control, and in much diminished forms. Mr. Musk and his task force have helped lead efforts at slashing those institutions and various federal agencies.One person familiar with Mr. Green’s resignation said he had been offered a choice: Step down or be fired. Mr. Green, who has been a Wisconsin congressman, an ambassador to Tanzania and head of the now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development during Mr. Trump’s first term, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.Ryan McKenna, a spokesman for the Wilson Center, said on Wednesday that the center had no comment on Mr. Green’s resignation or DOGE’s visits. The White House declined to comment.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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      House Republicans Demand Documents About ActBlue Departures

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      Republicans began investigating ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s main fund-raising platform, last year in part of a broader bid to target key Democratic organizations.The leaders of three Republican-led House committees accused ActBlue, the main Democratic fund-raising platform, of complacency in fraud prevention and demanded more information about the recent resignations of a raft of top executives.“ActBlue’s internal turmoil, lack of a functioning legal team, possible retaliatory actions and failure to take fraud seriously raise a host of new questions about the platform’s ability to deter fraud and comply with legal requirements,” the chairmen of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Administration committees wrote in a four-page letter on Wednesday.The Republican chairmen specifically demanded documents related to the resignation of officials in the general counsel’s office of ActBlue, which were first reported last month by The New York Times. Republicans began investigating ActBlue last year, and the efforts are part of a broader bid to target key pieces of the Democratic political infrastructure.The committee chairmen, Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, James Comer of Kentucky and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, also demanded testimony from two ActBlue employees whose names were redacted from a copy of the letter posted online.The letter accompanied an interim staff report that was released on Wednesday, along with nearly 500 pages of internal ActBlue documents, accusing the nonprofit of “a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention.”Megan Hughes, a spokeswoman for ActBlue, said in a statement: “As we have historically done, ActBlue will continue to respond to requests from the House committees.”The interim report from Republicans on the Judiciary, Oversight and Administration committees accused ActBlue of having “lowered its fraud-prevention standards” in 2024, pointing to, among other examples, a fraud specialist citing an annual goal that included “D.E.I. work.” While the report accused the company of opening the door to fraud, it did not contain any notable new examples but rather said the documents that it had “paint a picture of complacency.”The turmoil at ActBlue was set off in late February when two unions that represent its staff members wrote a letter to ActBlue’s board warning that the departures of the lawyers in the firm’s general counsel’s office had left the remaining employees facing legal risk for their actions.It remains unclear what instigated so many sudden departures from ActBlue. None of the officials who left the company have agreed to be interviewed on the record.But the tumult and the congressional investigation come at a perilous moment for ActBlue and the Democratic candidates and causes that rely on it to process their fund-raising. Republicans at the Capitol and in the Trump administration are vying to cripple mechanisms Democrats rely on for finances and communications.When a phone-banking system Democrats use went down briefly last weekend during the final get-out-the-vote period before Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, some Democrats fretted that it could have been sabotaged by the political right, and then worried anew about the potential of Elon Musk’s buying Democratic tech firms in order to shut them down. More

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      Susan Crawford Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Election, Despite Elon Musk’s Millions

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      Susan Crawford defeated Brad Schimel for a State Supreme Court seat in a race that shattered spending records and maintained a liberal majority on the court.Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, overcame $25 million in spending from Elon Musk and defeated her conservative opponent, The Associated Press reported, in a totemic contest that became a critical test of the nation’s prevailing political winds.Judge Crawford, who serves in Dane County, handily defeated Judge Brad Schimel of Waukesha County, who ran on his loyalty to President Trump and was powered by record spending in the race from Mr. Musk, the president’s billionaire policy aide. The barrage of spending in the race may nearly double the previous record for a single judicial election. With over 70 percent of the vote counted on Tuesday evening, Judge Crawford held a lead of roughly 10 points.“Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” she said in her victory speech on Tuesday night. “Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”For Democrats, the result is a jolt of momentum. They have been engaged in a coast-to-coast rhetorical rending of garments since Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January and embarked with Mr. Musk on an effort to drastically shrink federal agencies, set aside international alliances and alter the government’s relationships with the nation’s universities, minority groups, immigrants and corporate world.Coming on the heels of Democratic triumphs in special elections for state legislative seats in Iowa and Pennsylvania and the defeat of four Republican-backed state referendums in Louisiana, Judge Crawford’s victory puts the party on its front foot for the first time since last November. Her win showed that, at least in one instance, Mr. Musk’s seemingly endless reserves of political cash had energized more Democrats than Republicans.The victory for Judge Crawford maintains a 4-to-3 majority for liberals on the court, which in coming months is poised to deliver key decisions on abortion and labor rights.Jamie Kelter Davis 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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      With Painful Layoffs Ahead, Agencies Push Incentives to Quit

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      Federal agencies have accelerated their efforts to cut thousands of jobs, offering buyouts and eliminating entire offices as the Trump administration’s deadline to downsize approaches.At least six federal agencies have in recent days extended a “deferred resignation” offer that was originally pitched to government workers in January as a one-time opportunity that would allow employees to resign but continue to be paid for a period of time.The latest offer was sent to employees at the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, as well as the General Services Administration, according to emails received by workers at those agencies reviewed by The New York Times.Employees at those agencies have to make their decisions between Monday, April 7, and April 11, depending on the agency, the emails said.President Trump and his top adviser on downsizing the government, Elon Musk, have ordered nearly every agency to reduce staff on a tight deadline to overhaul the government, in part by eliminating programs the president views as ideologically objectionable. Mr. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have promised significant savings to American taxpayers as a result, though wages and benefits for the federal work force amount to just 4.3 percent of the $6.3 trillion federal budget, according to the Congressional Budget Office.Mr. Trump has given Mr. Musk wide latitude to effect change, empowering him to effectively shutter agencies.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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      What’s at Stake in Wisconsin

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      Elon Musk sees the state’s Supreme Court race as a way of preserving Republicans’ power in Washington.About nine minutes into his time onstage in Green Bay last night, Elon Musk neatly explained why he — a billionaire technologist who is already distracted by a little project in Washington — had poured $20 million and hours of his time into a Wisconsin Supreme Court election.“What’s happening on Tuesday is a vote for which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives,” he said.The party that controls the chamber, he added, “controls the country, which then steers the course of Western civilization.”Anybody not currently serving in the House might consider that last part to be hyperbole. But Musk’s words revealed his stated motivation behind his involvement on behalf of the conservative candidate, Judge Brad Schimel: He sees it as a way of preserving Republicans’ power well beyond Wisconsin.He has a point. Democrats don’t talk about it in quite such existential terms, but they are widely expected to challenge the narrowly divided state’s congressional maps, which currently favor Republicans, if voters maintain a liberal majority on the Supreme Court.With Republicans holding a thin majority in the House now, any changes that make it easier for Democrats to win seats could have major consequences in midterm elections next year.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