Today’s notice: Autopsy fallout. What Trump lost when he won all those primaries. The Smithsonian will not be getting two new institutions anytime soon. Not filing disclosures in Nebraska. Plus: examining Rep. Linda Sànchez’s “grassroots” support.

THE LATEST

The autopsy of Autopsy Release Day. It’s as if the Democrats were running a science experiment yesterday. While Donald Trump was busy having one of his roughest days with the Republican-controlled Congress of his second term, the opposition party donned lab coats to answer the question, what happens if you combine The Streisand Effect with an own goal?

The mixture is potent. “While I don’t believe that there are enough votes to pass a vote of no confidence yet, I think there’s more of a permission structure now to have a more open conversation about it,” a DNC member and ally of party chair Ken Martin told NOTUS about the real possibility that Martin gets the boot in the near future because of yesterday.

The quote came hours after the Democrats’ 2024 autopsy, made into the stuff of legend because of Martin’s broken promise to release it, finally came out — and was shown to be a janky, wistful document with a real written-on-the-way-to-school energy. Our Elena Schneider, Jasmine and Alex Roarty report out one of the more remarkable days in recent DNC history.

It’s not like people didn’t know the document was deeply lame, our team writes. A small group of top DNC officials tried to rewrite the autopsy to deliver an acceptable version for public consumption, but the effort failed because there wasn’t primary source material to refer to or time to start over.

And it’s not like they didn’t know they’d be in hot water once it was finally released. Hours after the incomplete report was released, DNC members circulated talking points to state party chairs urging them to assert their confidence in Martin.

“I am fully confident in his leadership,” the messaging guidance reads. But that doesn’t exactly capture the reality inside the DNC.

Open tabs: Homeland Security’s Plan to Squeeze International Flights (The Atlantic); Kean says he expects full recovery, confirms re-election bid (New Jersey Globe); Army cuts dozens of medical training courses amid funding woes (ABC); U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show (WaPo)

From the White House

About that tough day for Trump in Congress: Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas Massie represent two very different factions of the Republican Party, but both lawmakers learned this week that standing up to Trump can be a career-ending move. NOTUS’ Paul Kane explores this power dynamic in his latest column.

No matter how far the president’s approval rating falls, even Republicans with decades of experience in Congress cannot make it out of their own primaries without Trump’s support. Sen. John Cornyn, who’s been relentlessly courting the president’s endorsement for months, is heading into Tuesday’s primary as the underdog after Trump decided to back his opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Trump’s continued focus on score-settling within his own party is igniting backlash among Republicans, NOTUS’ Igor Bobic reports, as some members of the GOP fear a Paxton primary victory could wedge the door open for Democrats.

Some are faring better: A group of activists and Democratic politicians targeted by the Trump administration — the “Broadview Six” — scored a surprising win yesterday in Chicago when a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor dismissed all charges against them. The group, which includes former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, were arrested at a protest outside an ICE facility in 2025. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros admitted prosecutors made significant “errors” in the grand jury process, NOTUS’ Jenna Monnin reports.

From the Mall

Culture war casualty: The Smithsonian women’s history museum. Momentum for the project has all but petered out in Congress after Republican Rep. Mary Miller successfully added language to a bipartisan funding bill that would police the exhibits, NOTUS’ Manuela Silva reports. The amendment says the future museum “may not identify, present, describe, or otherwise depict any biological male as female.” Other language Miller inserted would put Trump in sole control of where the museum is located. After Democrats pulled their support in response, the bill failed in the House.

Bonus museum funding implosion: The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, which had moved in tandem with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum since its authorization in 2020, was also left behind by the House vote yesterday, Manuela reports.

From the campaign trail

The lushest, greenest astroturf. “This movement is powered by grassroots supporters,” Democratic Rep. Linda Sánchez told supporters in a recent fundraising appeal. But NOTUS’ Mark Alfred crunched the numbers and found donations below $200 make up a whopping 1.25% of Sánchez’ recently disclosed $1.2 million fundraising total.

Mark found a total of six people who list an address within Sánchez’s current district and donated more than $200 to her campaign. She also received less money from Californians in 2025 than any of her fellow representatives from the state, regardless of party.

Where the money actually comes from: PACs from hundreds of corporations and trade associations, many of which donated the maximum $10,000 allowed to her campaign. Why are they so generous? Sánchez just so happens to be a ranking member on a powerful Ways and Means subcommittee.

Campaign response: “Congresswoman Sánchez has strong grassroots support from volunteers, labor unions, local Democratic clubs, and the California Democratic Party,” a spokesperson said.

NEW ON NOTUS

“Nothing to hide” but nothing to disclose… yet. In the race for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, there is no record that Republican candidate Brinker Harding has ever filed any required financial disclosure reports. Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at the progressive advocacy group Public Citizen, told NOTUS’ Jenna Monnin there is “no doubt” Harding violated federal campaign laws, but that he might receive the “benefit of the doubt” as a first-time candidate.

Stay tuned: “My personal financial disclosure will be public shortly, and we have nothing to hide,” Harding said, staying tight-lipped on why he believes his filings do not appear in the House’s database.

Harding will face Democratic challenger Denise Powell in Nebraska’s “blue dot” district — a top battleground seat Democrats hope to flip in the midterms.

More: House Punts a Vote Limiting Trump’s Iran War Powers, by Hamed Ahmadi

CFPB Deletes Consumer Advisories From Its Website, by Jade Lozada

NOT US

• The Man Who Explains Israel to John Fetterman, by Alex Schultz for New York
  
• Clarence Thomas Against Progressivism — and Progressives, by Ruth Marcus for The New Yorker
  
• DHS placed a comedian on law enforcement’s radar. Illinois spread the word. By Aura Bogado for Injustice Watch

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