1. WHAT DAVID SACKS HELPED STOP: POLITICO’s Sophia Cai exclusively got her hands on the draft artificial intelligence executive order that Trump yanked at the eleventh hour over concerns it was too onerous for the industry. The document shows that federal AI safety reviews would’ve been voluntary — but Silicon Valley and Trump’s AI czar were worried about that changing over time. Read it here 2. IMMIGRATION FILES: In a major new crackdown on legal immigrants, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said today that green-card applicants will have to leave the U.S. and return to their countries of origin to get their bids for permanent residency processed, The Daily Caller’s Ashley Brasfield scooped. DHS said the shift would close loopholes — preventing rejected applicants from staying illegally — and ease processing. But immigrant aid groups warned that it would force some vulnerable people to return to unsafe home countries, as well as upending temporary visa holders who have built lives in the U.S. Legal challenges are likely. The denaturalization process: The administration has begun moving lawyers from the USCIS to U.S. attorney’s offices to accelerate the process of revoking citizenship from naturalized Americans, Axios’ Brittany Gibson scooped. They’re not required to have prior trial or denaturalization experience. 3. DEMOCRACY WATCH: White House election-security czar and conspiracy theorist Kurt Olsen last year devised a plan — later shut down — to ban widely used voting machines, Reuters’ Jonathan Landay and colleagues scooped. It was part of an effort to take broader federal control of elections, with a push for hand-counted paper ballots. Though the idea made it to the Commerce Department, it eventually collapsed “because Olsen and other administration staffers working with him failed to provide evidence to justify such a move.” 4. HOPPING DISTRICTS: As a result of the new Florida gerrymander, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) announced she’s switching to the 20th District, which was previously held by Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), POLITICO’s Kimberly Leonard reports. She joins a crowded race of all Black candidates in a district that historically elected Black lawmakers — which has rankled her competitors. (Her announcement video prominently featured a Barack Obama poster.) Wasserman Schultz’s decision not to run in the newly red-leaning 22nd District could make it harder for Democrats to hold onto that seat. 5. BEHIND THE POLAND U-TURN: Trump’s announcement that he’ll send thousands of troops to Poland came after he called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ask why the troop deployment was being canceled, WSJ’s Michael Gordon and colleagues report. Trump apparently told Hegseth that the U.S. “shouldn’t treat Poland poorly.” In Europe, the whiplash puzzled NATO allies and U.S. defense officials alike, AP’s Mark Carlson and Lorne Cook write. “We just spent the better part of two weeks reacting to the first announcement. We don’t know what this means either,” said a U.S. official. Senior Polish aide Marcin Przydacz said it was all just a “misunderstanding” amid some “chaotic communication” in D.C., POLITICO’s Jan Cienski and Chris Lunday report from Prague. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today U.S. forces in Europe will eventually be reduced, as he was in Sweden for talks with NATO allies, per AP’s Matthew Lee. Playbook preview: Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) joined Playbook’s Dasha Burns on C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire,” where they discussed the state of the NATO alliance. NATO “strategically will be stronger” due to Trump’s pressure, Sheehy said, noting the increase in defense spending. “I do not like that in order for them to move, they had to be kicked in the teeth. But there’s no denying that they moved,” Slotkin said. “But I will say, that comes at a price. And that price is playing out right now in the Strait of Hormuz. When we called, they didn’t show up.” Watch the clip 6. WAR REPORT: Rubio reiterated that a Plan B will be necessary for reopening the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. and Iran don’t strike a deal: “Someone’s going to have to do something about it, okay? They’re not just going to voluntarily reopen the straits in that scenario,” he said, per AP. Latest in Iran: A negotiating team from Qatar arrived in Tehran today to continue talks on a peace deal, Reuters scooped. Doha “had till now distanced itself from playing a mediation role in the Iran war after it came under attack from Iranian missiles and drones during the latest conflict.” And with the ceasefire still intact, the UAE is joining the call for the U.S. to give negotiators a chance and not resume the war, Bloomberg’s Sam Dagher and colleagues report. “Abu Dhabi’s stance indicates a shift for a country that bore the brunt of Iran’s attacks and has been more hawkish than its neighbors toward Tehran.” The other war: Rubio also said the U.S. is “ready to resume mediation efforts that have been stalled for some time” in the Ukraine war, per AP. 7. WHAT TOM TIFFANY IS READING: In swing-state Wisconsin, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong has repeatedly called to abolish police departments, beginning with defunding them, Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck reveal in CNN’s latest KFile report. That stance could be a vulnerability for the primary frontrunner in a general election.
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