Blanche nomination. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to confirm Todd Blanche as Mr. Trump’s choice for attorney general, overcoming objections from Democrats and some Republicans about his personal loyalty to the president. Mr. Blanche formerly served as Citizen Trump’s private lawyer.

The vote moved his nomination toward an expected confirmation by the full Senate on Friday.

In Mr. Blanche’s confirmation hearing, Republicans said the president deserves to have his man in office — particularly since Mr. Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general for four months after the ouster of Pam Bondi.

“Todd Blanche’s Justice Department has reprioritized the safety of Americans after the Biden administration opened the borders to violent criminals and then turned a blind eye to the heinous crimes that were happening around the country,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican and chairman of the committee.

Democrats said Mr. Blanche has amassed an “avalanche of misconduct” in defense of Mr. Trump.

“He is about Trump, not truth,” said Sen. Cory Booker, New Jersey Democrat. “This is so deeply wrong. We will rue the day we let this man have this much power under a corrupt president.”

The nomination became a referendum on Mr. Trump’s $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, which he sought to create as part of a settlement in his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS for allowing his secret tax information to be leaked.

Mr. Blanche signed off on the fund, plus on an immunity deal for Mr. Trump and two of his sons for past tax arrears — then tried to bury the fund as dead. Mr. Blanche finally issued new memos rescinding the fund and clarifying the extent of the tax immunity deal for Mr. Trump, which was good enough to sway the GOP holdouts, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Mr. Trump lamented the Justice Department officially rescinding the proposed fund for people who said they were victims of political prosecutions, including defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“These people were treated horribly and [the proposed fund] could have given them some solace,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I view the fund as a positive, and a lot of Republicans do too. Not so many Democrats.”

The president has absorbed a series of rebukes in recent days, including two by his own appointees who left him fuming. Taken together, the reversals carry real costs in political capital that go beyond a bruised ego.

In a span of three days, Mr. Trump’s Justice Department dropped a marquee case of alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Mr. Blanche scrapped the president’s Anti-Weaponization Fund and then he pulled back on his threat to launch the “biggest attack since World War II” on Iran in favor of peace talks, though Tehran said talks weren’t happening (they were).

The setbacks raise questions about how much leverage Mr. Trump has with lawmakers and the American public ahead of November’s midterm elections. If Republicans lose control of Congress, Mr. Trump’s agenda would stall, and his administration would be buried in an avalanche of Democrat-led congressional probes.

The White House dismissed the recent hard times as an aberration that will be forgotten come November. Officials point to the slate of socialist candidates nominated by Democrats and Mr. Trump’s efforts to lower costs as reasons to be optimistic come November.

Most of the savings claimed by Mr. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, formerly led by Elon Musk, never actually came to pass.

A new audit by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ chief investigative agency, said DOGE took credit for cuts already in the pipeline, exaggerated some claims and couldn’t provide evidence for others.

All told, of the $110.3 billion DOGE claimed to have saved, GAO said it could only find solid support for 4% of those claims.

In one case, DOGE said it had gotten the Defense Department’s health agency to nix a $1.7 billion technology contract, but GAO investigators said the contract was never cut or reduced.

Congressional Democrats, who requested the report, said it confirmed their fears.

“Everyone supports rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, but DOGE was a slapdash and deceptive effort that misled the American people while doing real damage to the government’s ability to serve them,” said Sen. Gary Peters, Michigan Democrat.

Fallout for Dr. Fauci. A Senate committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer senators’ questions about his decisions and actions during the pandemic.

The 8-5 party-line vote sends the matter to the full Senate, where it could face a Democrat-led filibuster.

Republicans said the vote was necessary to defend congressional authority to get answers from unwilling witnesses — and in particular Dr. Fauci, who led the country’s efforts to combat the coronavirus.

“On behalf of the millions of people harmed by Anthony Fauci, resoundingly yes,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, Ohio Republican, when it was his turn to vote on the contempt resolution.

Dr. Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times before the committee about whether the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he helmed for decades, had funded risky research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. That lab is at the center of suspicion over the origin of the coronavirus.

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and the committee chair, has pursued Dr. Fauci for years to get those answers.

Staring down Social Security’s looming insolvency, senators learned they lack agreement on just about everything.

The Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted in about six years. After that, everyone receiving benefits would take a cut of about 22% if Congress does nothing between now and then. That would be an average cut of about $500 per month per recipient.

GOP senators favor a bipartisan commission to talk the ideas through and bring back recommendations for Congress to bless.

But many Democrats said a commission seems like a roundabout scheme to force benefit cuts onto America’s seniors. They say the answer is tax increases, particularly on the rich, to patch the troubled program.

Sen. Mike Crapo, the Idaho Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee and who called the hearing, said Republicans have plans — some of them worked on with Democrats — but they should be hashed out in a commission.

He said Congress has had decades to act but has failed, so it needs a commission to shape the solutions and create the “pressure” for lawmakers to act.

All sides agreed on the mix of potential solutions: increase revenue, slow the growth of benefit increases, remove wealthier people from the rolls, and delay the age when people can start collecting.

Charles Blahous, a former Social Security trustee, said the problem is now so big that no single proposal will work — unless lawmakers are prepared for the ramifications of crippling tax increases or a 30% cut in future payments.

The House Committee on Ethics recommended Rep. Chuck Edwards be censured after the panel found he violated the chamber’s Code of Official Conduct through a sustained pattern of inappropriate, unprofessional behavior toward two young female staffers.

The committee’s action prompted Mr. Edwards, North Carolina Republican, to announce that he will not seek reelection.

North Carolina law allows the 11th Congressional District Republican Executive Committee to select a replacement for Mr. Edwards, but no new primary election will be held.

Wins for gun owners. A federal judge ruled that a large part of the National Firearms Act is now unconstitutional, in a decision that could erase registration requirements for sales or transfer of silencers and short-barreled long guns.

Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee to the bench in Texas, said when Congress zeroed out a tax on those weapons and accessories last year, it erased the constitutional underpinnings for the paperwork and registration requirements that were part of the 1934 gun law.

Lawmakers said they needed the registrations to carry out the tax. But Judge Hendrix said no tax means no more registration.

He limited his ruling to the plaintiffs in two cases before him, and to their members and customers. But the plaintiffs include major gun-rights groups, whose membership includes millions of gun owners and some firearms manufacturers, retailers and importers.

Fifteen GOP-led states were also plaintiffs, and their agencies and subdivisions would also get relief from the registration requirements.

Judge Hendrix put a seven-day hold on his ruling taking effect, to allow time for an appeal.

Foster parents don’t cede their Second Amendment rights, a Wisconsin appeals court has ruled.

The case involved Brian and Katie Lafferty, who clashed with Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families and a local county human services department. The officials had argued the parents signed away their gun rights when they applied to foster youths.

The three-judge panel said that was wrong.

“We conclude the Laffertys did not waive their constitutional rights by volunteering to serve as foster parents,” wrote Judge Maria Lazar.

The county had initially imposed demands that those seeking to be licensed as foster families with concealed-carry permits could not carry their guns when in the presence of foster children; must store their guns behind two locks, with ammunition kept in a separate place; and must disclose all of their firearms and their locations to the county.

If John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, wants to stay in the Senate, he must change his party affiliation to independent, argues Commentary Editor Kelly Sadler.

Joseph Curl writes that Mr. Trump’s lies caught up with him in the Reflecting Pool case.

Mr. Mamdani is spouting rhetoric that echoes the past pattern of dehumanizing Jews, writes Gerard Leval.