(Mediaite) Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, put the Pentagon on blast on Wednesday following a classified briefing on Iran. Politico’s Connor O’Brien reported on Rogers’s frustrations, which included not getting clear information about the ongoing conflict, including the potential deployment of ground troops onto Iranian territory. “We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are, and why they’re being considered,” Rogers said. “We’re just not getting enough answers.”

(The Hill) President Trump said Wednesday at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) annual fundraising dinner that he avoids using the word “war” to describe the conflict in Iran. “I won’t use the word ‘war’ because they say if you use the word ‘war,’ that’s maybe not a good thing to do,” Trump told the crowd of GOP lawmakers at Union Station in Washington, D.C. “They don’t like the word ‘war’ because you’re supposed to get approval. So, I’ll use the word ‘military operation’, which is really what it is. It’s a military decimation.”

(MS NOW) President Donald Trump has mused for decades about sending U.S. troops into Iranian territory. A key Republican senator close to the president is now publicly advocating for it. And lawmakers in both parties are sounding the alarm about the prospect. The Trump administration’s deployment of 8,000 U.S. ground troops to the Middle East this week is inflaming tensions on Capitol Hill and spurring angst around the world — and is unlikely to force the Iranian regime to capitulate to U.S. demands, according to lawmakers, former U.S. military officials and experts on the region.

(Forbes) Headline inflation in the U.S. may hit 4.2% in 2026 as a result of the spike in global energy prices triggered by the ongoing U.S.-Israel war with Iran, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned on Thursday. The OECD, an intergovernmental organization that includes 38 of the world’s top economies, released its interim economic outlook report, saying the war “will test the resilience of the global economy.”

(Bloomberg) Average Wall Street bonuses jumped to a record last year, with the total pool for payouts rising to $49.2 billion as profits and revenues soared. The average annual bonus rose 6%, to $246,900, according to estimates by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released Thursday. The total pool is the largest in records going back to 1987, reflecting a rebound in mergers and acquisitions helped by relaxed regulations under President Donald Trump. DiNapoli also cited strength in trading and underwriting. The figure marked a second consecutive year of record-breaking bonuses for securities industry workers.

(Huff Post) Millions of people around the country will take to the streets this Saturday in the latest round of “No Kings” protests that aim to denounce President Donald Trump’s subversion of the rule of law and attacks on democracy. “Masked secret police terrorizing our communities. An illegal, catastrophic war putting us in danger and driving up our costs. Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote. Costs pushing families to the brink. Trump wants to rule over us as a tyrant. But this is America, and power belongs to the people – not to wannabe kings or their billionaire cronies,” the NoKings website states. The flagship event in St. Paul is expected to draw over 80,000 people to the Minnesota capital.

(NBC News) The Trump administration admitted in a court filing that it had erroneously relied on an ICE memo to justify arrests at immigration courthouses as part of an ongoing federal case brought by groups seeking to block the tactic. Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that they had used the memo, titled “2025 ICE Guidance,” to defend the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents at courthouses, which led to numerous arrests of immigrants attending hearings. But, the Justice Department said in the court filing, the memo “does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions in or near” immigration courts.

(Curbed) What is ICE actually doing there? "They’re the reason that we’re not getting paid. And now I’m working next to that person. And they’re getting paid to do nothing. They’re not trained. It takes six months to train a Transportation Security Officer. They’ve received none of that. A tweet went out and the next day they’re at the airport walking around sipping coffees, holding on to their vest. They arrived on Monday, and now they’re hanging out in the break room doing nothing. They’re warming up their lunch."

(CNBC) Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday that the U.S. recently brought back $100 million of gold from Venezuela. Burgum visited Venezuela with oil and mining executives earlier this month to meet with interim President Delcy Rodriguez. “There hadn’t been a shipment of precious metals between Venezuela and America in over 20 years,” Burgum told energy executives at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference in Houston.

(Axios) The White House is indefinitely postponing its selection of a permanent Centers for Disease Control director, leaving acting head Jay Bhattacharya overseeing the agency past a key deadline. The punt underscores the difficulty of finding a nominee who can be confirmed by the Senate and leaves the beleaguered public health agency without a full-time political leader. "Dr. Bhattacharya will continue to oversee the CDC by performing the delegable duties of the CDC director," Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said.