Today in One Sentence. The Democratic National Committee released its 192-page draft autopsy of the 2024 election after refusing for months to make it public, saying it wanted to avoid “a distraction” Senate Republicans abandoned plans to pass Trump’s $70 billion bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol after the Justice Department tried to attach his $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund Trump eased EPA limits on greenhouse gases used in refrigerants Trump postponed his planned AI and cybersecurity executive order hours before a White House signing ceremony Trump-appointed Commission of Fine Arts approved his 250-foot triumphal arch and 54% of non-MAGA Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing as president.

1/ The Democratic National Committee released its 192-page draft autopsy of the 2024 election after refusing for months to make it public, saying it wanted to avoid “a distraction.” DNC Chair Ken Martin, however, conceded that that decision “ended up creating an even bigger distraction,” saying he was “not proud of this product.” While Martin said the report was released “for full transparency,” the document disavow the report on every page with a disclaimer saying the DNC could not “independently verify the claims presented.” The report blamed Biden’s White House for failing to “position or prepare” Harris to run, faulted Harris for not making an “affirmative case” why voters should support her, and said Democrats wrongly assumed Trump’s weaknesses were “baked in.” It also said Trump’s “Kamala is for they/them” ad was “very effective” and left Harris “boxed” in, while arguing that she “wrote off rural America” and relied too heavily on urban and suburban margins. The document also largely overlooked Biden’s age, Gaza, Israel, the party’s late switch to Harris after Biden quit without a nominating process. DNC annotations in the report flagged errors, missing sourcing, and conclusions with “no evidence provided.” (New York Times / NBC News / ABC News / Washington Post / Axios / Politico / Wall Street Journal / CBS News / Associated Press / CNN / The Guardian)

2/ Senate Republicans abandoned plans to pass Trump’s $70 billion bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol after the Justice Department tried to attach his $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche spent nearly two hours defending the fund behind closed doors, but senators said he failed to answer basic questions about its rules, including who would decide claims, what evidence would be required, and whether Jan. 6 defendants who assaulted police officers could receive taxpayer payouts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it “would have been nice” if the White House had consulted senators, while Lisa Murkowski said the administration “dropped a bomb” into the bill, and Ron Johnson called it a “galactic blunder.” The collapse sends Congress into a Memorial Day recess and leaves ICE and Border Patrol funding stalled alongside a separate $1 billion request tied to Trump’s White House ballroom security. (Politico / NBC News / CNN / Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press)

3/ Trump eased EPA limits on greenhouse gases used in refrigerants. Trump claimed that the Biden-era mandate to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons was “ridiculous, unnecessary, and costly and actually makes the machinery worse,” while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the Biden-era rules “piled on costly, unattainable restrictions.” However, Trump signed the legislation mandating a reduction in HFC chemicals into law in 2020, which was implemented in 2023 under Biden. Inflation in the U.S., meanwhile, increased to 3.8% annually in April, driven by the Iran war and Trump’s tariffs. (Associated Press / The Guardian / CNN / Bloomberg / New York Times / Axios)

4/ Trump postponed his planned AI and cybersecurity executive order hours before a White House signing ceremony, saying he “didn’t like certain aspects” and feared it could “get in the way” of the U.S. lead over China. The draft order would’ve created a voluntary federal review process to test for cybersecurity risks for advanced AI models before public release. Trump didn’t identify which provisions he opposed, but the delay came amid concerns that the order could look like federal pre-approval of frontier AI models. (Axios / New York Times / Bloomberg / CBS News / Washington Post / Politico / Associated Press / Wall Street Journal)

  • poll/ 35% of voters said they believed A.I. to be mostly bad, while 16% said it was mostly good, and 45% said it was neither good nor bad. (New York Times)

  • So, is WTFJHT written by AI? No. All content is researched, written, and curated by me (Matt 👋), an IRL human working out of my basement in Seattle, WA. The editorial judgment, sourcing, writing, and editing of WTFJHT, as well as the personal accountability for corrections, errors, and omissions, will always be uniquely my human responsibility. (Plus my persistent typos are a giveaway that a human wrote it) The ethical and moral dilemmas related to AI are pretty consequential, and I won’t pretend to have arrived at a coherent point of view beyond generative AI slop being lame, cheap, and destructive. But I’m clear on one thing: I will only use AI tools and related technology that help me scale my labor, not replace it. WTFJHT’s AI use policy & pledge

5/ The Trump-appointed Commission of Fine Arts approved his 250-foot triumphal arch. The advisory panel approved a revised design that removed lions, a platform, and tunnel access, but kept the golden figures Trump wanted on top. The project still needs National Capital Planning Commission review on June 4. (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press)

poll/ 54% of non-MAGA Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing as president. Overall, 80% of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing – a new low. (Fox News)

The 2026 midterms are in 166 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 901 days.