Republicans knew someone would notice if President Trump didn't mention the deficit in his Tuesday State of the Union. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney didn't agree.

When Trump previewed his speech for 20 Republican supporters on Monday, Mulvaney argued that the ballooning deficit didn't need to be included because "nobody cares" about it, ABC News reports. That's not what Mulvaney would've said in his congressional days.

Before Trump tapped him to direct the Office of Management and Budget, Mulvaney was a congressman from South Carolina. And when he campaigned to earn that spot over Democratic incumbent and House Budget Committee Chair John Spratt, he made deficit reduction his "central policy concern," Politico's Jake Sherman recalls. He continued to complain about the national debt and deficit in his budget chair confirmation hearing in January 2017, but showed a shift that October when the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rolled around.

Ahead of its passage, the Congressional Budget Office concluded the GOP tax overhaul would add $1.46 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Another report concluded that, with an additional round of cuts proposed but not passed the next year, the total could reach $3.2 trillion. Yet Mulvaney defended the GOP's tax reform proposal all the way, telling Fox News in October 2017 that America needed "new deficits" to grow the economy. That earned Mulvaney a dreaded question from host Chris Wallace: "You were a deficit hawk. What happened, sir?" Kathryn Krawczyk

During a meeting of Republican senators on Tuesday afternoon, GOP leaders announced that they do not have enough votes to stop witnesses from being called at President Trump's impeachment trial, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not share any numbers, but did acknowledge the votes aren't where he needs them to be, people with knowledge of the meeting said. The senators will vote later this week on whether to allow witnesses in the trial, and a new Quinnipiac poll shows 75 percent of voters want to hear witness testimony.

Trump's lawyers finished their opening arguments on Tuesday, and declared the trial should end "as quickly as possible" without any witnesses. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that in his forthcoming book, former National Security Adviser John Bolton contradicts the defense argument that Trump did not engage in a quid pro quo with Ukraine. The White House blocked Bolton from testifying during the House impeachment inquiry. Catherine Garcia

White House adviser and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner had some strong words for Palestinians on Tuesday.

Kushner, who played a central role in devising the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan unveiled earlier in the day, said during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the proposal offers Palestinians the best chance for a "better life," suggesting it'd be a mistake for them not to accept the offer. If they don't, he said — while placing much of the blame on Palestinian leadership — they'll "screw up" yet another opportunity like they've always done.

Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas already said he "categorically rejects" the plan, and protests broke out in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, so Kushner's harsh comments don't seem like the best bet to defuse tensions at the moment. Still, he went on to defend the plan elsewhere, telling Bloomberg if Palestinians "truly want a state," they should "come to the table."

It's not just Palestinians who were disappointed in the White House's solution, though. Neighboring Jordan wasn't a fan, and several analysts felt it did little to curb Israeli settlement and annexation in the West Bank in the long run. Kushner, though, argued securing a four year freeze on Israeli settlements was the deal's biggest accomplishment. Tim O'Donnell

Apple might just be getting over its iPhone slump.

In its first quarterly report of the fiscal year, Apple reported a total revenue of $91.82 billion, a big step over estimates of $88.43 billion. That largely comes thanks to the debut of the iPhone 11 late last year, which propelled iPhone revenue to $56 billion in the quarter, CNBC reports via the Tuesday report.

This quarter is the first since the Apple's iPhone 11 debut, which gave Q1 a $23 billion jump from the previous Q4. The $56 billion is also an 8 percent increase year over year.

Before the iPhone 11 debut, Apple had seen quarter after quarter of weak iPhone sales, prompting suggestions that service revenue would be the future of the company. Apple did bring in a service revenue of $12.7 billion in this first quarterly report since the premiere of the company's Apple TV+ service, but it paled in comparison to the company's $79.1 billion product revenue, per TechCrunch. Kathryn Krawczyk

The Fast & Furious franchise somehow keeps finding new ways to baffle the world with its inconsistent titling.

The first footage for the series' ninth installment dropped Tuesday, revealing that the title isn't Fast & Furious 9, but just F9. To clear up any confusion, Universal confirmed to io9's Germain Lussier that yes, F9 is the official name of the movie, although the teaser and the poster throw in "The Fast Saga" for good measure.

This title joins a franchise that started as The Fast and the Furious, only to release a completely different movie called Fast & Furious, only to drop the furious with Fast Five, drop the fast with Furious 7, and that's not even to mention the unforgettably bonkers 2 Fast 2 Furious. Actor Griffin Newman, though, expressed bewilderment that this newfound minimalist approach utilized for F9 wasn't used for the eighth movie, since, as Newman points out, "F8" actually "phonetically sounds like a real word." F9? Not so much.

On the other hand, no doubt previewing the opening line of every review should F9 turn out to be mediocre, author Adam Lance Garcia joked we can go ahead and call this one "'fine' for short."

With a tenth installment already confirmed, what insane naming shenanigans might remain up this franchise's sleeve? Whatever it might be, expect Vin Diesel and the family's tradition of nonsensical titles to continue come 2021. Brendan Morrow

Not long after Jeff Bezos' phone was allegedly hacked via a link sent by a WhatsApp account believed to belong to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, a New York Times journalist was reportedly targeted by Saudi-linked spyware.

Ben Hubbard, who has covered the kingdom extensively, wrote Tuesday that he received a "fishy" looking link in June 2018, which researchers from Citizen Lab determined contained software sold by the Israeli NSO Group and deployed by Saudi hackers. NSO Group denied its technology was responsible, and the Saudi government didn't provide comment, but Riyadh has denied any involvement in the alleged Bezos infiltration.

Hubbard didn't click on the link, which proved to be the right call, since it appears his phone wasn't compromised. But the mere fact that he received a harmful link is another example of Saudi's possible targeting of journalists and dissidents, which has been magnified since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

Per Hubbard, human rights experts think hacking technologies have reached the point where they require enhanced government regulation. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell

A tsunami threat message was issued Tuesday after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck near Jamaica and Cuba, CNN reports.

The International Tsunami Information Center said Tuesday "hazardous tsunami waves are forecast for some coasts," per Reuters, and CNN writes there was a "threat of tsunami waves reaching 0.3 to 1 meter (about 1 to 3 feet) above tide level for the coasts of Jamaica, Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico and the Cayman Islands."

The earthquake, which struck shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern, was felt in Miami and caused "very strong to severe shaking in far western Jamaica," The Weather Channel reports, citing the U.S. Geological Survey. The Associated Press also reports it could be felt "strongly" in Santiago, where a witness said, "We were all sitting and we felt the chairs move. We heard the noise of everything moving around."

There have not been reports of any casualties, and according to the National Tsunami Warning Center, there is no tsunami threat for the eastern United States or the Gulf of Mexico. The Washington Post reports, though, this "appeared to be one of the biggest [earthquakes] on record in the Caribbean, and the largest since 1946." Brendan Morrow