1. Trump told lawmakers during a live television broadcast of a bipartisan meeting on community and school safety that he would be in favor of forgoing due process in order to confiscate guns from people who are deemed to be dangerous. “I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said after interrupting Mike Pence. Trump added: “Take the guns first, go through due process second.” Trump also seemed to stray from Congressional Republicans and the NRA by calling for comprehensive gun control legislation that would include expanded background checks, restrictions on gun sales to young adults, and even an assault weapons ban. (New York Times / The Hill)

  2. As Trump continued his attacks on his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions met with top Justice Department officials Rod Rosenstein and Solicitor General Noel Francisco for dinner at a high-end restaurant in Washington. Francisco apparently scheduled the meeting a while ago to talk about various aspects of the administration's agenda, and said the dinner was "in no way planned as pushback or an act of solidarity against the president." (Axios)

  3. Senior White House aides are reportedly unhappy about the recent news stories circulating about excessive spending at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and some have been trying to take a more hands-on approach to managing the negative publicity. (CNN)

  4. Jared Kushner's business received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from two major U.S. financial firms in 2017 shortly after Kushner took meetings with the firms' founders and top executives. Chief executives from Apollo Global Management and Citigroup had multiple meetings with Kushner while he was in the White House and, following those meetings, Kushner Companies was awarded some of the largest property loans the company received that year. The loans were intended to help finance Kushner's real estate properties in Chicago and Brooklyn. Government ethics experts say the meetings, and the subsequent loans to companies owned by high-level White House staff, are virtually unprecedented. (New York Times)

  5. Robert Mueller's team is reportedly looking into Trump's apparent attempts to fire Jeff Sessions last July. The goal of this particular probe is to determine whether those alleged efforts to oust Sessions were part of a larger pattern of attempted obstruction of justice by Trump and his White House. Mueller wants to know if Trump attempted to remove sessions in order to pick a more lenient and pliable replacement who could exercise more control over the investigation into possible coordination between Trump associates and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. (New York Times)

  6. Vladimir Putin said during his annual address to lawmakers on Thursday that Russia has developed nuclear weapons with the ability to circumvent modern missile-defense systems. Putin also claimed that Russia is planning to add nuclear-powered cruise missiles to its arsenal, allowing them to strike any target on the globe. Putin added that Russia would consider any nuclear attack against itself or any of its allies an attack on Russia, and warned that such an incident would lead to immediate retaliation. “No one listened to us,” Putin warned. “Listen to us now.” (Washington Post)