Representative Sarah McBride—the first out transgender member of Congress—had to lobby Republicans to strike down an anti-trans bill because she knew her Democratic colleagues would abandon her.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted 216–211 to pass MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s legislation to criminalize gender-affirming care like puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical care for patients under 18, subjecting medical providers to up to 10 years in prison. The legislation would also give parents criminal liability. Three Democrats—Texas Representatives Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, along with North Carolina Representative Don Davis—were expected to vote with Republicans on the bill (and did). So McBride reached out to her right.

“We’re most interested in the caucus, right?” Democratic Representative Becca Balint, co-chair of the Equality Caucus, told NOTUS. “But we also suspected we might lose some Democrats, which is why Sarah was like, ‘Look, I’ll pick up votes wherever I can.’ She will talk to anyone.”

Republican Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, Mike Kennedy, and Gabe Evans all voted with McBride and the rest of the Democratic Party against the bill.

While McBride did not detail her discussions with these representatives, this surprising moment of bipartisanship displays the rifts and inconsistencies within both parties on the issues of transgender rights and particularly gender-affirming care.

The president genuinely could not wait to plaster his name on the Kennedy Center.

The newly renamed Trump-Kennedy Center received some new signage Friday, hours after the national cultural center’s board voted to add “Donald Trump” to the institute’s title.

Workers were spotted hanging the large metal letters Friday morning, spelling out the Kennedy Center’s new name: “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office Thursday, Trump said he was “surprised” to hear that the board—which he handpicked and personally appointed earlier this year—had approved the name change.

“This was brought up by one of the very distinguished board members, and they voted on it, and there’s a lot of board members, and they voted unanimously. So I was very honored by it,” Trump said.

But he couldn’t have been too surprised: Trump pitched the idea himself, publicly, in August, writing on Truth Social that there were “GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER.”

But questions still abound as to the legality of the center’s sudden name change, as the original name was enshrined in law by the presidential administrations that oversaw the project’s construction and development.

“It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says,” said former Representative Joseph Kennedy III, the grandnephew of the deceased president.

Legal experts who spoke with NBC News earlier this year argued that, in order to change the name, Congress would need to pass a new law—none of which happened before Trump slapped his name on the side of the iconic institution.

A coalition of Democratic lawmakers serving as ex-officio members of the Kennedy Center board pledged to hold the White House accountable.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, however, was not so clear on the law, informing reporters Thursday that he would “look at” whether the name change legitimately required legislation.

“I’m not familiar with the process of how this is done,” Thune said. “There’s a question of whether or not it’s in law. Is it statutory? Do we have to change the law to do these sorts of things? And I’m sure we’ll get all the answers to that in due time.”

While Trump’s attention has been fixated on vanity projects, he’s dragged his feet on real problems that are genuinely plaguing the country: Unemployment has reached the highest levels since the pandemic, the agriculture industry is on the fritz thanks to Trump’s inconsistent tariff policies, and the cost of goods has continued to skyrocket.

An AP-NORC poll conducted earlier this month found that roughly half of polled Americans have cut back on nonessentials or big purchases in order to afford their needs.

Top Democrats in Congress are threatening to sue after the Justice Department announced that it would not meet the Friday deadline to release all Epstein files.

Representatives Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, the ranking members of the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees, respectively, said in a statement, “We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law.”

“The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ,” their statement read.

The government is required to release the files in full Friday, but Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News in the morning that there would only be a partial release, with more coming in the following weeks.

“So today is the 30 days, when I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today. And those documents will come in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said, adding, “So I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today several hundred thousand and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.

“The most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect........

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