Hello and welcome to the Bill Press Pod Reporter's Roundtable. I'm Jason Dick,

editor-in-chief at CQ Roll Call, sitting in for Bill. Here in Washington, D.C., it's about

8.30 in the morning on April 17th. We'll start where else with the ongoing war between Donald Trump and Pope Leo.

It's always best to check which reality we woke up in when the vice president, a converted

Catholic, tells the Pope to be careful about his interpretation of theology. Despite Trump

continuing his criticism of the pontiff all week long, Leo didn't back down

from his criticism of war in comments he made in Africa this week.

Speaking of that other war, the one in Iran and Lebanon and Israel and the rest of the

Mideast, Congress continued to vote down resolutions asserting its powers over war-making,

as outlined in that pesky U.S. Constitution. Meanwhile, Israel and

Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire. It was also tax day on Wednesday, something many Republicans

wanted to use to plug their signature domestic achievement, last year's big tax cut package.

But when the administration starts talking religion, that message can be hard to get out.

Trump was in Las Vegas Thursday night to talk about some of that, particularly the no tax on tips part.

They'll be in Phoenix for gathering conservatives at the Turning Point Conference tonight.

This was a similar event in Georgia. J.D. Vance was heckled by that same crowd at Turning Point. Oh, and Trump threatened to

fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. And back in Congress, two members of the House. Eric Swallow and

Tony Gonzalez quit after serious allegations of sexual misconduct. That's a lot to digest,

but we've assembled three top journalists to make sense of it all, or most of it anyway.

Ledge King, managing editor of

National Journal Daily. Good morning, Lech. Good morning, Jason. How are you? Great. Thank you.

Maeve Shee, congressional reporter for Bloomberg government. Good morning, thanks for having me.

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