Enjoy unlimited access to exclusive content and ad free articles. From the Politics Desk We take a look at President Donald Trump’s retribution strategy this month. Ken Paxton, James Talarico and others are looking ahead to the Texas general elections. Andrea Mitchell explores a change in the Russia/Ukraine War that is not widely known. Adam Wollner’s

scorecard for the May primaries of Donald Trump

Donald Trump endorsed ten challengers in the Republican primaries held this month to tighten up his grip on his party, as his poll ratings with the general electorate continue to fall. The nearly-final results,

: Trump has ousted all but 2 of the GOP legislators who have crossed him. One of the races is still too close to predict.

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In a run-off, the state attorney general

Ken Paxton won by 64%-36% over longtime senator

John Cornyn. Trump endorsed Paxton only a week ago, despite Cornyn finishing first but just short of a majority in the March primary. George Seay, a Cornyn donor and friend for many years, said that he thought the outcome was a win by Paxton, even though Cornyn’s lifelong supporters had hoped for a different result. Seay continued, “Clearly, the president has a profound impact on the base, something we have never seen before.” It was not enough. Cornyn was a conservative with an institutionalist streak, and there were a lot of concerns about Trump’s controversial decisions. Cornyn was defeated after two Republican incumbents who lost reelection to Trump-backed candidates, Sen. Cassidy was the one who voted for Trump to be convicted in his 2021 impeachment trial. Massie, on the other hand, had been a persistent pain in Trump’s backside over many issues. In the GOP primaries, Trump had unseated five of seven Indiana state Senators he targeted for voting against the redistricting effort. State Sen. Greg Goode survived his challenge. Meanwhile, the race between state senator Spencer Deery, and Fountain County GOP Chairman

Paula Copenhaver, is courtesy of Bridget Bowman. The two candidates are separated by only 3 votes. The bottom-line

is came last night in Texas that it’s still Trump’s Party, and he’s able to take you down, if he chooses. Now we’re looking at November. Paxton faces Democratic state Rep. Democrats — and some Republicans – think Paxton’s long list controversies can put the seat on the table in the traditionally’red state. Paxton has already tried to portray Talarico’s liberal views as out of touch. Paxton, in his speech of victory last night, called his new opponent “Tofu Talarico,” the “six gender Jimmy,” “James Talafreako,” or “low-T Talarico,” while criticizing his positions on gender affirming care, immigration and energy. Talarico, in an , said that he “missed” the mark with some of his previous statements on sensitive cultural matters. Talarico added, “I will be the first one to admit that I did miss the mark, but Ken Paxton’s clipping of my cringey remarks is to distract from the career of corruption of Ken Paxton.” Scott Bland provides an analysis of the reasons why incumbents are losing primaries in both parties. The number of renominations for members of Congress this year is already higher than the total during the 2024 cycle. It’s possible that the situation could worsen for incumbents. While the United States is focused on the latest developments in the war against Iran and trying to find an exit strategy, there has been a shift in momentum taking place across the continent. In its fifth-year of trying to repel the Russian invasion, Ukraine’s innovative military led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

has transformed modern warfare through new autonomous drone interception technologies. Ukraine now manufactures thousands of these drones per day in factories throughout Europe. These weons are hitting Vladimir Putin’s homeland where it hurts including Moscow. The country is also developing a technology that Gulf state emirs are interested in to protect their infrastructure against Iranian attacks. In the month of November, Ukraine announced that it would be selling new weons to Saudi Arabia as well as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. This was after Zelenskyy visited the Gulf.

It is a testament to the saying that necessity really does lead to invention. In the last year, Trump’s administration has urged Europe to take the lead on arming Ukraine. Since the war with Iran, the Patriot missile batteries that were already short-supplied are now being used to defend Israel and the Gulf. According to European military experts and U.S. military analysts, Ukraine gained territory from Russia during ril. This is a significant turn of events. According to the European Union, Russia now loses 25,000-30,000 soldiers per month – more than it can hire. Putin’s iron grip over the Russian media keeps this truth from reaching the majority of his countrymen. He doesn’t need to be concerned about the public opinion. The increasing number of casualties can’t be hidden from the grieving families and friends forever. Just a few short months ago, Russia was the one gaining on the battlefield. Donald Trump Sahil Kur writes, President of the United States

, pressed Ukraine to accept a deal that heavily favored Putin following their summit in Anchorage Alaska. Before the U.S., Israel, and other countries launched their war with Iran and depleted their attention and weons stocks. Trump also criticized NATO and America’s traditional European allies, who refused to join his fight against Iran. Trump, in what was widely perceived as punishment against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his statement that Iran had “humiliated”, the U.S.A., ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Germany. He has even speculated that he might leave NATO. This has caused European leaders to seriously contemplate the possibility of losing the U.S., as their bulwark in the face of potential aggression by Putin. The European leaders now consider preventing a Russian win over Ukraine to be fundamental to their security. The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, , told reporters that “no active” talks are taking place with Ukraine. However, the U.S. will always be prepared to take a constructive role, if the opportunity arises. The Europeans, instead, are considering sending their own envoys to meet with Putin. The Russian leader is still cable of inflicting severe punishment. Russia launched a hypersonic missile attack on Ukraine’s cital over the weekend. It was one of the biggest attacks against Kyiv and its surrounding area since the beginning of the war. The missiles are able to fly up to 8,077 mph in a high trajectory, before plummeting to the ground. This makes them hard to intercept. Moscow’s attack also included drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. The Kremlin stated that it was a retaliation against Ukraine’s strikes on what they claimed were civilian targets in Russia. In a significant move, Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov warned Rubio before the strike that U.S. Embassy employees could be at risk. Former U.S. diplomats told NBC News that it was surprising the U.S. didn’t immediately go to the U.N. Security Council in order to try and prevent the attack. The administration has not protested. Europeans fear that, should Putin feel he has lost, he could escalate, threatening other nations in the area, including the Baltics. The war in Ukraine continues. Laura Jarrett is NBC News’ senior legal correspondent and will answer questions from NBC News subscribers on the Supreme Court, among other topics. This Q&A will take place at 3 p.m. ET. ET. Exclusive:

Vice President JD Vance, in an interview with NBC News Henry J. Gomez , admitted that his wife was unlikely to convert. He also talked about the Iran war and his friendship with Rubio. Deal or no deal? While Trump’s team worked behind the scenes to bring about an Iran peace agreement over Memorial Day Weekend, his own social media posts created confusion. 2028 watch: California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a populist on AI in advance of a potential presidential run. In the courtroom: Former US President Joe Bidenheaded for a recount sued Justice Department to stop the release audio recordings and transcripts relating to his private conversations he had with the ghostwriter who wrote his 2017 memoir. Housing Plan:

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani according to Bridget announced plans to build and preserve 200,000 affordable housing units in the next ten years.

Only New York : Trump announced that he would attend an NBA Finals match in New York to watch the Knicks try to win their first title since 1973. Stop and celebrate:

The music lineup for a ‘World Fair-style Celebration’ on the National Mall to mark America’s 250th Birthday will include hip-hop artists

Vanilla Ice and interview today with NBC News’ Ryan Chandler Flo Rida, as well country singer

Martina McBride. This is all for the moment from The Politics Desk. Adam Wollner has compiled the newsletter for today.

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