1/ Trump signed an executive order imposing new, “hard-hitting” sanctions on Iran in response to the downing of an unmanned U.S. drone last week. The new sanctions will deny Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and eight Iranian military commanders access to “key financial resources and support.” Trump also warned that U.S. “restraint” has limits. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / Wall Street Journal / CNBC)

  • Trump approved an offensive cyberstrike that disabled Iranian computer systems used to control rocket and missile launches. U.S. Cyber Command launched the cyberstrikes against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last week. (Washington Post)

2/ Trump delayed planned nationwide ICE raids for two weeks to see if Congress can “work out a solution.” Immigration agents had planned to sweep and deport people living the U.S. illegally in 10 major cities beginning Sunday. Hours after defending the plan, Trump delayed the raids on Saturday. Earlier in the week, Trump threatened to arrest and deport “millions of illegal aliens” next week. ICE leaders expressed concerns that officers’ safety would be in jeopardy because too many details about the raids had been made public. (Associated Press / New York Times / CNN / Politico / ABC News)

  • The Trump administration moved most of the children from a remote Border Patrol station in Texas following reports that more than 300 children were detained there with inadequate food, water and sanitation. (Associated Press / New York Times)

3/ The Trump administration stopped promoting dozens of taxpayer-funded studies about the impacts of climate change. The studies include a discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment, a finding that climate change would exacerbate allergy seasons, and a warning to farmers about an expected reduction in the quality of important grasses used to feed and raise cattle. All of the studies were peer-reviewed and cleared through the Agricultural Research Service. (Politico)

  • More than 70 medical and public health groups warned that climate change is “a health emergency.” The health organizations’ policy recommendations are at odds with Trump’s approach. (Associated Press)

  • Pence refused to say whether climate change was a legitimate threat to the U.S. Instead, Pence said that the Trump administration would “always follow the science” on the issue. (Axios / The Hill)

4/ Nearly 100 internal Trump transition team vetting documents were leaked, revealing a wide range of “red flags” about several officials who went on to secure high-ranking positions in the Trump administration. (Axios / Business Insider / Daily Beast)

  • Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt had a section in his vetting form titled: “allegations of coziness with big energy companies.”

  • Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price had sections in his dossier flagging “criticisms of management ability” and “Dysfunction And Division Has Haunted Price’s Leadership Of The House Budget Committee.”

  • Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had several “red flags,” including his assessment that Trump “is not a very good person.”

  • The Trump transition team was so worried about Rudy Giuliani being chosen as secretary of state that they created a separate 25-page document titled “Rudy Giuliani Business Ties Research Dossier” with many accounts of his “foreign entanglements.”

  • The transition team was worried that Gen. David Petraeus “Is Opposed to Torture.”

  • Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had ties to Russia.

  • Kris Kobach, who was once in the running for homeland security secretary, had “white supremacy” as one of his vulnerabilities.

  • Nikki Haley, who would go on to be U.N. ambassador, was flagged for saying that Trump is everything “we teach our kids not to do in kindergarten.”

Notables.

  1. The White House is expected to block a former White House deputy counsel from answering House Judiciary Committee’s written questions. Annie Donaldson was the top deputy to former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who, according to Robert Mueller, was directed by Trump on several occasions to fire the special counsel. (Politico)

  2. Trump nominated Mark Esper to be the next defense secretary following the abrupt resignation of acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan. Esper is currently the secretary of the Army and former West Point classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (New York Times / Politico)

  3. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro lobbied for a top Justice Department job under Jeff Sessions, which Trump considered. Sessions, however, blocked the appointment and then Pirro attacked Sessions on her show for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, calling him the most “dangerous person” in the U.S. (Washington Post / Talking Points Memo)

  4. Trump said appointing Sessions as his first attorney general was his “biggest mistake” and that he’d like a “do over” on the decision. (Reuters)

  5. White House officials have refused to tell House Democrats what happened to the interpreter notes from Trump’s private meeting with Putin. The House Oversight Committee argues that the notes are federal records that must be preserved under record-keeping laws. The White House, however, won’t say whether Trump destroyed or in any way altered the interpreter notes. (Washington Post)

  6. The House Oversight Committee will vote to subpoena Kellyanne Conway related to her violations of the Hatch Act if she does not voluntarily appear at the committee’s hearing. The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities in their official capacity, and the civil service watchdog known as the Office of Special Counsel determined earlier this month that Conway violated the act by “disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in an official capacity during television interviews and on social media.” Conway claimed that House Democrats are seeking her testimony in retaliation for successfully managing Trump’s 2016 campaign. [Breaking News: The White House moved to block Conway from testifying to Congress about alleged violations of the Hatch Act.] (Axios / Washington Post)