Feelings, Based on Facts

Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for March 4, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

The Latest

About that Trump Texas Senate endorsement: The president still hasn’t made one, despite most of the Republican Party begging him to. But today he promised on Truth Social that he would do so “soon.”

• Trump: “It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair?”

• John Thune spoke for many Republicans today in arguing that Trump should endorse Sen. John Cornyn to help avoid a costly runoff: “I’ve been making that case for a long time, and we’ll make it again, and today, I think, even more emphatically given the outcome last night.”

• That particular endorsement could be coming up, The Atlantic reports.

Wither Wesley Hunt. The congressman placed a distant third last night in the Senate primary in Texas, leaving some operatives to believe that running “torched his career,” NOTUS’ Alex Roarty and Reese Gorman report.

• But maybe that was the point? Hunt has long wanted out of the House, they report, and was in regular contact with the Trump transition team after the 2024 election, hoping for a Cabinet secretary job.

There’s really no timeline to end the war in Iran, Pete Hegseth said: “The only limits we have in this is President Trump’s desire to achieve specific effects on behalf of the American people.”

• “Four days in, we have only just begun to fight,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon this morning.

Trump had a “feeling, based on fact,” that Iran posed an imminent threat to Americans, Karoline Leavitt said, and the operation in the country was launched “based on a cumulative effect of various direct threats that Iran posed to the United States of America.”

The Hill

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove used her time at today’s House Judiciary hearing with Kristi Noem to ask if she has “had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski,” the longtime Trump aide and now special adviser at DHS. Noem was taken aback by the question — she did not say no, but called the question “garbage.”

• Rep. Jared Moskowitz gave her another chance to refute the claims over the alleged relationship. She said, “This is something I’ve refuted for years, and I continue to do that.”

• A stark difference between the House and Senate: No senator asked this question yesterday.

Rep. Tony Gonzales may not have lost his primary — he’s heading to a runoff with the Freedom Caucus-endorsed Brandon Herrera — but while he’s still in Congress, he’ll face an ethics investigation into allegations he engaged in sexual misconduct with a staffer who later died by suicide.

It was a busy day for the Ethics Committee. Chair Michael Guest and its ranking member, Mark DeSaulnier, put out a rare public statement in opposition to a resolution introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace that would have disclosed the names and details of members of Congress involved in sexual misconduct complaints. The measure was ultimately referred back to the committee.

• Mace called it a cover-up: “It will not see the light of day,” she said, “because the process is broken.”

Rep. Roger Williams was in an extremely good mood today. As the manager of the Republican congressional baseball team, Williams gloated that the GOP just snagged the “best of the best” after former MLB player Mark Teixeira won his primary last night.

• “They better take their infielders and move them further outfield to protect themselves,” Williams told NOTUS’ Oriana González of the Democratic team.

The Administration

Pam Bondi revoked Biden-era rules prohibiting DOJ political appointees from participating in partisan activity, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery scoops. The move clawed back a July 8, 2024, memo that listed 16 things political appointees cannot do, including “use their official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the result of an election.”

• Additionally, that memo banned: running for office, endorsing political candidates, attending rallies and serving as a delegate to a party convention.

The Trump administration says it will no longer recognize the research fellows’ union at the National Institutes of Health.

The State Department hotline for Americans trying to leave the Middle East now says that help is available. Yesterday, it said citizens could not “rely” on help from the U.S.

Double Vision

We only hope that at least one instance of twin hijinks ensues.

Thank you for reading! Today’s newsletter was produced by Matt Berman and Andrew Burton. If you liked it, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please subscribe — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at finalnotus@notus.com.