OMAR ATTACKED: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was unharmed after a man rushed her and sprayed her with an unknown substance during a town hall Tuesday evening.
A livestream video of the town hall shows the man yelling at Omar as she stood at the podium and called for Noem to be fired or impeached. He then rushed up and sprayed her before being tackled by police.
Minneapolis police identified the man as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak and said he has been booked into jail on suspicion of third-degree assault, NewsNation reported.
Omar continued with the town hall and later posted online that she was all right.
“I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong,” she said in a post on X.
The number of threats that Capitol Police investigated in 2025 rose for the third consecutive year, according to a release Tuesday. The police investigated 14,938 concerning statements, behaviors and communications directed at members of Congress, their families, staff and the Capitol Complex, a jump from the roughly 9,500 investigated in 2024.
Omar has frequently been a target of criticism from the president, most recently over the social services fraud scandal in the state. He suggested in a Truth Social post on Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Congress were “looking at” her.
‘TRUMP ACCOUNTS’ SUMMIT: The Treasury Department is holding a summit Wednesday to promote the rollout of “Trump accounts” for newborn babies.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law last summer, established the accounts and the funding for them. They won’t officially launch until July 5, but parents can begin registering their children now when they file their taxes.
The president will speak at the summit to encourage parents to sign their children up for the accounts. Others expected to appear include White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is expecting a child in May, as well as rapper Nicki Minaj, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and actress Cheryl Hines, who is married to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The accounts will be available for children in the U.S. with a Social Security number who are born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028. If registered, the children will receive a stock market account with a one-time $1,000 deposit from the Treasury that will grow similarly to individual retirement accounts.
Children who are younger than 10 years old but are too old to qualify could receive a one-time payment of $250, if they live within a zip code where the median household income is less than $150,000. That money is being funded by a $6.25 billion donation from Michael and Susan Dell.
Parents or guardians will be able to deposit up to $5,000 per year in the accounts starting July 4.
The accounts are the latest item named after Trump, whose administration has pushed to rename several places after him, including the Kennedy Center and U.S. Institute for Peace. The form for parents to create a Trump account for their children with their tax filing is a Form 4547, a reference to Trump being the 45th and 47th president.
The accounts also mark a way Trump is seeking to get a handle on lingering concerns from much of the public about affordability, especially with the midterm elections on the horizon. Polls have shown the president underwater on how voters view his handling of the economy and the cost of living, a reversal from before the 2024 election, when many trusted him more to oversee them.
As part of his efforts to sell his economic message, Trump visited Iowa on Tuesday to speak about energy and the economy. He emphasized economic gains while blaming his predecessor, former President Biden, for the state of the economy and the border when he took office.
He declared his support for year-round sales of high-ethanol gasoline, a perennial issue for Iowa.
The president is expected to ramp up his travel to sell his vision on affordability as the midterms approach.
▪ The New York Times: Many Iowans feel economic pain.
▪ CNBC: Eyes on Trump’s response to EU-India trade deal.
FED RATE DECISION: The Federal Reserve will be back in the spotlight Wednesday with its first decision on interest rates since the DOJ was revealed to be investigating Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
The Fed appears to be on track to keep interest rates steady at its meeting, defying the administration’s efforts to influence the central bank’s decisionmaking, The Hill’s Sylvan Lane reports. That decision is likely to anger Trump, who has been openly critical of the Fed and Powell as he deals with poor approval ratings on the economy.
Trump has called on the Fed to act faster in lowering interest rates, but its board of governors remains concerned about the stubbornness of inflation, which is still higher than its target.
Powell denounced the probe into him earlier this month as an effort to pressure him to lower rates. The investigation is focused on Powell’s congressional testimony about the costs of renovations taking place at the Fed’s headquarters.
Powell has remained adamant that the pressure campaign won’t work. His press conference Wednesday after the Fed makes its decision will be his first appearance before reporters since the DOJ launched its inquiry.
▪ Fortune: An unusual Fed ‘rate check.’
▪ Reuters: Wall Street hoping next chair stands up to Trump.
TIKTOK SETTLEMENT: TikTok has settled a lawsuit accusing it and other platforms of deliberately designing an addictive platform just before the case went to trial.
The case will go forward against Meta and YouTube. It was also originally filed against Snapchat, but the platform’s parent company reached a settlement last week.
The Hill’s Julia Shapero reports that thousands of individuals, school districts and states have filed lawsuits against the four companies, but they have been consolidated into two wide-ranging cases. The case that began in Los Angeles is the first to head to trial in a series of what’s considered to be bellwether cases.
The lawsuit that TikTok settled was filed by a 20-year-old who started using social media as a child and said it made her addicted to the platforms, causing depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia.
While TikTok has settled that case, it remains a defendant in the other major case set to head to trial later this year. The social media companies have pushed back on the lawsuits, pointing to their efforts to make changes to protect children in recent years.
But the cases are notable as being among the few to even make it to this stage.
▪ The Hill: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) launches review of TikTok.
▪ CNN: TikTok users say they can’t upload anti-ICE videos.
NTSB REVIEW: A year-long review of the crash between a commercial plane and U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River near D.C. found the incident was "100 percent preventable," National Transportation Safety Board head Jennifer Homendy told reporters.
The Washington Post reported Homendy said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is continuing to ignore warnings about close calls a year after the crash that claimed 67 lives, making it the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. in decades.
“Are there other hot spots? And am I concerned that the FAA is not paying attention to those other hot spots? The answer to that is yes,” she said.
The review found air traffic controllers were regularly overwhelmed and desensitized to near-misses at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where the crash took place. Homendy said management discouraged employees from reporting issues because it would make the airport "look bad."
