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Order says Congress has not ceded authority to the Exec branch to dramatically redesign, reconstruct the White House

Tyler Williams served as Secretary Scott Bessent's principal adviser on blockchain and digital asset policy, making him one of Treasury's top voices on US crypto regulation. He is returning to the private sector after leaving his post on July 31. His exit is the fourth senior crypto departure from a position of federal power this […] The post Odds of CLARITY crypto legislation passing sink to 27% as Treasury, White House, SEC, and Senate leads quit appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The window to pass a comprehensive crypto market structure bill before the Senate breaks for a month-long recess is closing, with ethics a dividing issue for many lawmakers. Two US senators on opposite sides of the political aisle have reportedly sent revised ethics guidelines to the White House as part of discussions over a cryptocurrency market structure bill in Congress. According to a Thursday PunchBowl report, Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Ruben Gallego submitted a counteroffer to the Trump administration that included a change to ethics provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. The changes would reportedly address concerns from many lawmakers in the first draft by allowing state authorities to enforce a ban on federal officials issuing or sponsoring tokens rather than the US Attorney General. Gallego, a Democrat, previously said that provisions around ethics, consumer protection, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and market integrity “must be strengthened” and he would continu...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House on Tuesday for his first in-person talks with President Donald Trump since the Iran war began, as the leaders sought to patch over public disagreements on the conflict. The meeting, which took place behind closed doors, was expected to be dominated by the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February but has seen a recent pause in the fighting as Washington says it wants to give negotiations a chance. Israel has not taken part in the latest round of hostilities between the United States and Iran, which flared earlier this month as an April ceasefire collapsed. The talks — which the White House described as “positive and productive” — lasted for about an hour and a half. The meeting is the eighth between the leaders since Trump’s return to office in early 2025 and comes ahead of key electoral tests later this year for both Netanyahu and the US president: national elections in Israel and midterm polls in the United States....

Netanyahu met Trump at the White House in talks closed to the press, following a secretive departure from Israel that journalists were barred from covering. The White House described the meeting as 'productive and positive' despite growing tensions between the two leaders over Iran

A meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has begun at the White House.

U.S. President Donald Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Tuesday, July 28.

The White House pushed back against the Senate Democrats' rejection of the latest version of the CLARITY Act, with ethics remaining a major sticking point. The clash comes despite President Donald Trump’s decision this week to accept new ethics limits, reflecting how far apart negotiators remain as lawmakers try to advance sweeping crypto market legislation. […] The post White House pushes back as key Democrats rejects CLARITY Act’s crypto ethics appeared first on CryptoSlate.

US officials warn that Chinese firms conducting covert, industrial-scale AI distillation could face sanctions and export restrictions. A White House official accused Moonshot AI of distilling Anthropic’s Fable AI model to develop Kimi K3, which launched last week. In a post on X on Wednesday, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios alleged the Chinese AI firm developed an internal platform to distill US models at scale, using methods designed to evade detection. “Legitimate AI distillation used to create smaller, more efficient models plays a vital role in this open innovation ecosystem,” he said. “However, large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary U.S. technology and undermining American research is unacceptable.” Read more

Without revealing any details about the actual agreement from President Trump on potential presidential restrictions, his White House is urging its acceptance.

The price of Bitcoin moved above $66,000 to reach a seven-week high on Tuesday as reports circulated of a deal with the White House to address ethics in the CLARITY Act. The White House agreed to provisions in a crypto market structure bill that could ensure support from some Democratic lawmakers in the US Senate. According to a Tuesday Punchbowl report, White House officials met with Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bernie Moreno to reach an agreement on ethics language in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act under consideration in the Senate. Neither Lummis nor Moreno have publicly announced the details of the deal, which could facilitate Democratic support in what is expected to be a tight Senate vote, but the report suggested that it could affect US President Donald Trump’s crypto investments. Read more

White House says Trump will attend World Cup final, calling it the most watched and secure in US history

Witt’s departure comes during a critical moment for the CLARITY Act, with deputy director Harry Jung expected to assume his responsibilities. Patrick Witt, the White House’s pointman on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, is taking a leave of absence at the end of July for several months of military training, Crypto In America reported. Witt, who has served as the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets since August, is expected to wrap up his work on July 24 before reporting for Judge Advocate General (JAG) training with the Georgia Army National Guard. The training will qualify him to serve as a legal officer in the Guard, the report wrote. “Patrick has always been forthcoming and honest with every stakeholder that he was taking military leave later this month,” said Cody Carbone, CEO of Digital Chamber, on Tuesday.  Read more

Both US financial regulators are understaffed at the leadership level and lacking Democratic commissioners, with no announcement from President Donald Trump on filling the roles. White House officials claimed that they had “not received names” in response to requests to Senate Democrats for potential commissioners to two US financial regulatory agencies. In a Thursday letter to US Senate majority leader John Thune and minority leader Chuck Schumer, White House officials said that they had already solicited names from Senate Democrats for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The leadership panels of both financial agencies are understaffed, with only Republican members nominated and confirmed by the Senate. The letter came in response to a June 10 request from 12 Senate Democrats over staffing concerns at US federal agencies, including the SEC and CFTC. Although US President Donald Trump has put forward some Democratic names for positions at agencies, in...

Officials from the White House are said to be sitting down with law enforcement representatives who have objected to illicit-finance portions of the bill.

The bill did not specifically bar members of the US Congress from using the platforms or making sports bets, but prohibited policy wagers. Wisconsin Representative Bryan Steil, who chairs the House subcommittee on digital assets, introduced a law to prevent certain public officials from “wagering on public policy issues and political outcomes,” notably without mentioning lawmakers in the White House. In a Thursday notice, Steil said he had introduced the Stop Lawmakers from Predicting Act, which could bar "members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children” from using policy-aligned event contracts on prediction markets platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket. The bill proposed that elected officials in violation pay a $2,000 fee or 10% of the value of the prohibited bets on the platforms. Source: Committee on House Administration Read more

As Iran and the U.S. are set to officially sign a memorandum of understanding Friday, a senior White House official said Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon will not be part of the deal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later reiterated Israel will remain in Lebanon's 'buffer zone'

On June 12, Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk met with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House.

A top White House artificial intelligence policy adviser on Saturday said he will leave his position at the end of June, marking the exit of a leading figure helping craft policies for frontier technologies. “This journey has been the privilege of a lifetime,” the adviser, Sriram Krishnan, posted on social media platform X. Krishnan did not give a reason for leaving, but wrote in the post he intends to help “tackle some of the large challenges facing America” related to AI. Krishnan has been involved in the Trump administration’s efforts to create a national framework for regulating developments in AI. His departure comes as the president looks at the possibility of the US government acquiring stakes in AI firms. “There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, adding that he planned to meet with AI executives as soon as next week. Trump’s embrace of AI has at times been complicated by security c...

A gunman opened fire near the White House on Saturday evening, with US Secret Service agents killing the assailant in a shoot-out during which a bystander was also struck, authorities said. President Donald Trump was in the White House at the time — on a day when he was working to negotiate a deal with Iran — but was not impacted by the incident, Secret Service communications chief Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. The confrontation took place just after 6pm (3am PKT) when a man near the White House security perimeter “pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing”. “Secret Service Police returned fire striking the suspect who was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced deceased. During the shooting one bystander was also struck by gunfire,” Guglielmi said, without giving details on the bystander’s condition. Multiple US media identified the suspect as Nasire Best, 21, of Maryland, reporting that Best had a history of mental health concerns and had multiple prior interactions with Secret ...