Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle start-up Nikola who was sentenced to prison last year, was pardoned by President Donald Trump late Thursday, the White House confirmed Friday.

The pardon of Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison last year for exaggerating the potential of his technology, could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking for defrauded investors.

Milton had not been incarcerated pending an appeal.

Milton said late Thursday on social media and via a press release that he had been pardoned by Trump.

“I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for his courage in standing up for what is right and for granting me this sacred pardon of innocence,” Milton said.

The White House confirmed the pardon Friday.

Nikola, which was a hot start-up and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in Milton’s scandal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. That filing came months after the company said it would likely run out of cash early this year.

Associated Press, The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, despite widespread opposition from dentists and national health organizations.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation late Thursday that bars cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Utah lawmakers who pushed for a ban said putting fluoride in water was too expensive. Cox, who grew up and raised his own children in a community without fluoridated water, compared it recently to being “medicated” by the government.

The ban comes weeks after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed skepticism about water fluoridation, was sworn into office.

More than 200 million people in the U.S., or almost two-thirds of the population, receive fluoridated water through community water. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

But some cities across the country have gotten rid of fluoride from their water, and other municipalities are considering doing the same. A few months ago, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.

The president of the American Dental Association, Brett Kessler, has said the amounts of fluoride added to drinking water are below levels considered problematic.

Opponents warn the ban will disproportionately affect low-income residents who may rely on public drinking water having fluoride as their only source of preventative dental care. Low-income families may not be able to afford regular dentist visits or the fluoride tablets some people buy as a supplement in cities without fluoridation.

The sponsor of the Utah legislation, Republican Rep. Stephanie Gricius, acknowledged fluoride has benefits, but said it was an issue of “individual choice” to not have it in the water.

The Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The 2026 Florida governor’s race is already heating up as U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds — who is backed by President Donald Trump — opens his campaign Friday evening with a rally in his hometown of Bonita Springs in southwest Florida.

Donalds’ campaign stop at Sugarshack, a live music venue and restaurant in downtown Bonita Springs, comes a month after he officially announced his run to replace Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose term is expiring.

So far, Donalds, 46, has no major challenger in the Republican primary. But DeSantis had hinted previously that his wife, Casey DeSantis, would be a worthy candidate to continue his administration’s legacy.

DeSantis and his wife have visited South Florida to see Trump since the Donalds announcement. They also played golf with Trump in early March at the Trump International Golf Course.

For Donalds, the next step is to begin securing endorsements among Florida legislators and the state’s congressional delegation, many of whom are close allies of DeSantis.

Any Republican who joins the race after may face hurdles in finding Republican donors to back them since Donalds has secured Trump’s endorsement. Trump’s endorsement in other gubernatorial and congressional races has been shown to have massive influence in helping elect candidates, including DeSantis in 2018.

Other than Casey DeSantis, potential GOP candidates include former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who said in January that he was considering a run, and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, who sparred with the governor over immigration policies earlier this year.

Donalds may not have a lot of name recognition across Florida, but he has been a staunch Trump ally.

He is a Republican from Brooklyn, New York, who now lives in Naples with his wife and three sons. He was elected in 2020 to the U.S. House, and he is part of the conservative congressional Tea Party caucus and is highly regarded by Republican colleagues in his circle. He was also on a short list of people considered to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate last year.

Stephany Matat, The Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Billionaire Elon Musk said he plans to hold a rally in Wisconsin to “personally hand over” $2 million to a pair of voters who have already cast their ballots in the state’s hotly contested Supreme Court race, despite a state law that prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for voting.

Musk posted late Thursday night on his social media platform, X, that he plans to give $1 million each to two voters at the event on Sunday, just two days before the election that will determine ideological control of the court.

Attendance at Musk’s talk will be limited only to those who have voted in the Supreme Court election, he said, without explaining how he would verify that.

“I will also personally hand over two checks for a million dollars each in appreciation for you taking the time to vote,” Musk posted. “This is super important.”

He didn’t say how the two people were chosen.

The Supreme Court race has shattered previous spending records for a U.S. judicial election and has become a referendum on Musk and the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump, a Republican, endorsed Brad Schimel and hosted a telephone town hall with him on Thursday night.

“It’s a very important race,” Trump said in brief remarks by phone, in a call organized by Schimel’s campaign. “I know you feel it’s local, but it’s not. It’s really much more than local. The whole country is watching.”

Schimel, a Waukesha County judge, faces Dane County Judge Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s election. Crawford is backed by a wide range of Democrats, including the liberal justices who hold a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and former President Barack Obama. The retirement this year of a liberal justice puts majority control of the court in play.

Musk earlier this week said he had awarded a voter in Green Bay $1 million for signing a petition his political action committee created targeting activist judges. Musk promised $100 to any registered Wisconsin voter who signed the petition or forwarded it to someone who did.

That raised questions about whether the petition violated Wisconsin law that makes it a felony to offer, give, lend or promise to lend or give anything of value to induce a voter to cast a ballot or not vote.

Schimel’s campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a message early Friday about whether Schimel would attend the event with Musk. Schimel, a former attorney general, also did not respond to a question about whether he thought the giveaway was legal.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, didn’t respond to messages Thursday or early Friday about Musk’s giveaways.

Crawford’s campaign spokesperson Derrick Honeyman, though, called Musk’s visit to Wisconsin a “last-minute desperate distraction.”

“Wisconsinites don’t want a billionaire like Musk telling them who to vote for, and, on Tuesday, voters should reject Musk’s lackey Brad Schimel,” he said.

Musk’s political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the White House election last year, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

During last year’s presidential race, Philadelphia’s district attorney sued in an attempt to stop the payments under Pennsylvania law. But a judge said prosecutors failed to show the effort was an illegal lottery and allowed it to continue through Election Day.

Musk and groups he funds have already spent more than $20 million in an effort to elect Schimel, while billionaire George Soros has given $2 million to bolster Crawford, and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has donated $1.5 million.

Musk got involved in the race just days after his electric car company, Tesla, filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin in an effort to open dealerships in the state.

Crawford and her allies have accused Musk of trying to buy influence on the court given that Tesla’s lawsuit could end up before the justices.

The race comes as the Wisconsin Supreme Court is also expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of true battleground states, which only intensifies the focus on court races where rules for voting will be decided. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and 2024 by less than a percentage point, but he lost it in 2020 by a similar margin. Five of the past seven presidential elections in the state have been decided by less than a percentage point.

More than $81 million has been spent on the Supreme Court race so far, obliterating the record for a judicial race in the U.S. of $51 million set in Wisconsin just two years ago, according to Brennan Center tallies.

Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

President Donald Trump says protecting national security gives him the authority to end collective bargaining with labor unions across most of the federal government.

JD Vance and his wife are due to visit an American military base in Greenland on Friday in a trip scaled back after an uproar among Greenlanders and Danes who were irked that the original itinerary was planned without consulting them.

The Trump administration is now targeting Stanford University and three University of California campuses with investigations into their admissions policies.

And an executive order Trump signed Thursday night puts Vance in charge of rooting out “improper ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution ‘s many museums, in his latest move against the pillars of America’s civil society — universities, science, the media and the law — that he considers out of step with Republican sensibilities.

Here’s the Latest:

Citing national security, Trump orders an end to end collective bargaining at many federal agencies

Trump is moving to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions in agencies with national security missions across the federal government, citing authority granted him under a 1978 law.

The order, signed without public fanfare and announced late Thursday, appears to touch most of the federal government. Affected agencies include the Departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice and Commerce and the part of Homeland Security responsible for border security.

Police and firefighters, the order says, are an exception.

Trump said the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gives him the authority to end collective bargaining with federal unions in these agencies because of their role in safeguarding national security.

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said late Thursday that it is “preparing immediate legal action and will fight relentlessly to protect our rights, our members, and all working Americans from these unprecedented attacks.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s order on collective bargaining

Stanford, Cal and UCLA investigated race-based admissions policies

The Trump administration on Thursday opened investigations into the admissions policies at Stanford University and three campuses within the University of California system, including UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Irvine.

The Department of Justice said it’s investigating whether the schools’ policies comply with the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action in college admissions.

Stanford said it took immediate steps in 2023 to ensure its admissions process complied with the law. The school said it had not been told specifically why it was being investigated.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has attempted to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs at colleges and elsewhere.

▶ Read more about the anti-DEI investigation

Trump aims to reshape Smithsonian museums and zoo by targeting funding for ‘improper ideology’

Trump revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targets funding for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” the latest step in a broadside against culture he deems too liberal.

It’s the Republican president’s latest salvo against cultural pillars of society, such as universities and art, that he considers out of step with conservative sensibilities.

The president said there’s been a “concerted and widespread” effort to rewrite American history by replacing “objective facts” with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

The order puts Vice President JD Vance in charge of an effort to “remove improper ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, including its museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo. It specifically names the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The executive order also hints at the return of Confederate statues and monuments, many of which were taken down or replaced around the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is detested by Trump and other conservatives.

The order also calls for improvements to Independence Hall in Philadelphia by July 4, 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on the Smithsonian

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wisconsin’s spring election on Tuesday for state Supreme Court, state schools chief and a proposed constitutional amendment requiring photo ID for voting will be the first major indication of the state’s political climate since Republican Donald Trump recaptured the White House in November.

Trump edged Democrat Kamala Harris in Wisconsin by just 0.86 percentage points, the tightest margin of any state. That narrow win, as well as a highly competitive 2023 state Supreme Court contest, could foreshadow the possible paths to victory for this year’s statewide campaigns.

In the state Supreme Court race, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel look to replace outgoing Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, the court’s longest-serving member, who announced last April that she would not seek a fourth 10-year term. Wisconsin Supreme Court seats are officially nonpartisan, but voters as well as the state’s party establishments routinely rally behind certain candidates based on their judicial philosophies and records.

Crawford has the backing of Democrats and progressives, including an endorsement this week from former President Barack Obama. Schimel has support from Republicans and conservatives, including endorsements from Trump and Elon Musk.

Liberal-leaning justices gained a 4-3 majority on the court in 2023 for the first time in 15 years after Justice Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Dan Kelly for a seat previously held by a conservative jurist. Bradley’s retirement gives conservatives an opportunity to retake the majority ahead of high-profile cases on abortion, unions and voting rights.

At the top of Tuesday’s ballot is the race for state superintendent of public instruction, the position responsible for managing Wisconsin’s 900,000-student, $9 billion public school system. Incumbent Jill Underly seeks a second four-year term against Brittany Kinser, an education consultant and founder of a state literacy initiative. While that role is also nonpartisan, Underly has the backing of the state Democratic Party and the state teachers’ unions, while Kinser is backed by the state Republican Party.

Underly placed first in the Feb. 18 top-two primary with about 38% of the vote, followed by Kinser with about 34%. Another candidate with support mostly from Democrats placed third with about 27%, not enough to advance to Tuesday’s general election. Underly was first elected in 2021 with 58% of the vote against Republican-backed candidate Deborah Kerr.

In any statewide election in Wisconsin, Democrats tend to win by large margins in the populous counties of Milwaukee and Dane (home of Madison), while Republicans win by wide margins in the smaller, more rural counties that stretch across most of the state. Republican candidates also tend to rely on strong showings in the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington in suburban Milwaukee, which help counter Democratic advantages in urban areas. Victory is determined by how big those margins are in the respective party strongholds, as well as which side can win over the state’s more competitive swing areas.

In 2024, Harris, who was then vice president, won Milwaukee with 68% of the vote and Dane with 75%, while narrowly losing statewide. In comparison, Protasiewicz in her 2023 court race received 73% of the vote in Milwaukee and 82% of the vote in Dane. She went on to win statewide by an 11-percentage-point margin.

Protasiewicz also won over about a dozen counties favorable to Trump, most notably in Brown County, home of Green Bay, which Trump carried in all three of his White House campaigns.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Recounts are not automatic in Wisconsin, but a trailing candidate may request one if the winning vote margin is less than a percentage point. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here’s a look at what to expect Tuesday:

Spring election day

The Wisconsin Spring Election will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners for state Supreme Court, state superintendent of public instruction and the statewide ballot measure. Besides the statewide contests on the ballot, various local jurisdictions will also hold elections on Tuesday, but the AP will not be tabulating those contests.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter in Wisconsin may participate in the election on Tuesday.

What do turnout and advance vote look like?

As of March 1, there were more than 3.8 million active registered voters in Wisconsin. Voters in the state do not register by party.

About 1.8 million votes were cast in the 2023 spring election for state Supreme Court. That was 51% of registered voters and roughly 40% of the voting age population at the time. About 25% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day. As of Thursday, more than 475,000 ballots had been cast before Election Day.

In the Feb. 18 primary, nearly 469,000 voters cast ballots in the race for superintendent, which was 12% of registered voters and roughly 10% of the voting age population at the time.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

The AP first reported results in the Feb. 18 primary at 9:04 p.m. ET, or about four minutes after polls closed. In both the 2023 spring election and the 2024 presidential election, the first results of the night posted at 9:11 p.m. ET. Election night tabulation ended at 12:02 a.m. ET in the Feb. 18 primary, at 2:30 a.m. ET in the 2023 spring election and at 5:47 a.m. ET in the November general election, all with more than 98% of the total vote counted.

Robert Yoon, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tuesday’s special elections to replace Florida’s Republican former U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz will be held in two of the state’s GOP strongholds, but Democrats hope that strong fundraising in both districts is an indicator the races will be more competitive than they were in the last election just five months ago.

Control of the U.S. House is not at stake, but the outcome of the special elections could give congressional Republicans some breathing room in the narrowly divided chamber. Republicans hold 218 seats, the minimum needed for a majority in a fully seated House. Democrats hold 213 seats, with two additional vacant seats most recently held by Democratic lawmakers.

In the 1st Congressional District, Republican Jimmy Patronis and Democrat Gay Valimont are running to replace Gaetz. Patronis is the state’s chief financial officer. He received President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the crowded 10-person primary. Valimont is a gun control activist. She challenged Gaetz for the seat in November and received 34% of the vote.

In Waltz’s old 6th Congressional District, the candidates are Republican state Sen. Randy Fine and Democrat Josh Weil, a public school educator in Osceola County. Fine represents a Brevard County-based state Senate district located outside the boundaries of the Palm Coast-area U.S. House seat he hopes to fill. He won three-way primary on Jan. 28 with Trump’s endorsement.

The 1st Congressional District borders Alabama on the Gulf Coast in the westernmost part of the Florida panhandle. It is home to both Naval Air Station Pensacola and Eglin Air Force Base. The district is among the most reliably Republican areas of the state. Trump received about 68% of the district vote in 2024, slightly outperforming the 66% Gaetz received in his reelection bid.

The four counties that make up the 1st District have voted for Republican presidential candidates almost continually for the past 60 years. Only Walton County went for a Democrat on one occasion since 1960, although all four voted for Democrat-turned-independent candidate George Wallace in 1968. Today, the part of Walton County that falls within the 1st District is the most reliably Republican of the four counties. Escambia is the least Republican in comparison, although Trump and Gaetz still received 59% and 57% of the county vote, respectively.

On the other side of the state, the 6th Congressional District sits on the Atlantic Coast and includes Daytona Beach. Republican presidential candidates have carried all six counties in the district for the last four presidential elections. The Republican winning streak in some of the counties stretches back for decades before that. Lake County, for instance, hasn’t supported a Democrat for president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

Trump carried the district in 2024 with 65% of the vote. Waltz received about 67% of the vote in his final House reelection bid. Trump and Waltz performed best in Putnam County, where they both received about 74% of the vote. Their worst county in comparison was Volusia, where Trump received 58% and Waltz received about 60%. Waltz slightly outperformed Trump in every county in the district.

Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump nominated him to be attorney general, but he later withdrew from consideration following ongoing scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking probe and a House Ethics Committee investigation.

Waltz resigned in January to become White House national security adviser. This week, Washington was roiled by the news that Waltz had added a journalist to a Signal app group chat discussing military plans. Waltz, according to The Atlantic, appeared to have mistakenly added the journalist to a chat that included 18 senior Trump administration officials discussing planning for a strike in Yemen, but many Republicans going to the polls to replace Waltz have brushed off the story.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Machine recounts in Florida are automatic if the vote margin is 0.5% of the total vote or less. If the machine recount results in a vote margin of 0.25% of the total vote or less, a manual recount of overvotes and undervotes is required. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:

Special election day

The special elections in Florida’s 1st and 6th Congressional Districts will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 7 p.m. ET in the 6th District and 8 p.m. ET in the 1st District.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in the 1st and 6th Congressional District special elections. Special primaries for state Senate and state House will also be on the ballot in some parts of Florida, but the AP will not be tabulating those contests.

Who gets to vote?

Any voters registered in the 1st and 6th Congressional Districts may vote in the special election in their district.

What do turnout and advance vote look like?

As of March 3, Florida’s 1st Congressional District had nearly 566,000 active registered voters, about 55% Republicans and 21% Democrats. The 6th District had about 559,000 active registered voters, about 49% Republicans and 26% Democrats.

Turnout in the Jan. 28 special congressional primaries was about 17% of registered Republicans in the 1st District and about 15% in the 6th District. Democrats did not have competitive primaries in those districts.

Voter participation tends to be much higher in presidential general elections than in elections held at other times. In the 2024 general election, turnout was about 76% of registered voters in the 1st District and about 80% in the 6th District.

About 73% of voters from counties that make up the 1st and 6th Districts cast their ballots before Election Day in the 2024 general election. In the 2022 general election, about 56% of voters from counties included in the 1st District voted before Election Day, compared with about 60% for voters from counties in the 6th District.

As of Thursday morning, about 53,000 ballots had been cast in the 1st District, about 52% from Republicans and about 35% from Democrats. In the 6th district, nearly 71,000 had been cast, about 45% from Republicans and 40% from Democrats.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 general election, the AP first reported results in the 6th Congressional District at 7 p.m. ET, just as polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:48 p.m. ET, with about 99% of the vote counted. In the 1st Congressional District, the first batch of votes was reported at 8:01 p.m. ET, or one minute after polls closed. The election night tabulation in the 1st District ended at 1:33 a.m. ET with about 99% of total votes counted.

In the Jan. 28 special primaries, the first results in the 6th District posted at 7:02 p.m. ET. The final update of the night was available at 8:38 p.m. ET with more than 99% of the vote reporting. In the 1st District, the AP’s first vote results posted at 8 p.m. ET, with more that 99% of the vote reported by the time vote tabulation concluded for the night at 10:16 p.m. ET.

Robert Yoon, The Associated Press