In today's newsletter: President Trump and Elon Musk float the idea of giving taxpayers checks with savings from government cuts. Germany's far-right party comes second in a bruising election. And France readies for a historic child abuse trial.

Here's what to know today.

In a nod to a similar pandemic-era program, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are touting the idea of sending American taxpayers dividend checks with whatever money the Department of Government Efficiency saves as it downsizes parts of the federal government. The concept sprouted from 30-year-old James Fishback, an investment firm CEO, who shared the idea in a tweet that Musk later responded to, saying he’d share the idea with Trump.

Twenty percent of the alleged DOGE savings would go to American citizens and another 20% would be allocated to pay down debt, according to Trump. This plan, however, leaves out a swathe of people.

Unlike the pandemic, where everyone who made below a certain amount received stimulus checks, this proposal suggests only households who pay more in taxes than they get back would qualify. Most Americans who have an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 pay effectively no federal income tax, according to the Pew Research Center. Fishback said in an interview that this stipulation should ease concerns that dividends would raise inflation.

Yet even among Republicans, there is no consensus for sending Americans checks with money DOGE is able to save — the total amount of which is, so far, unclear.

Read the full story here.

More politics news

Conservatives win German election while far-right party surges to second place

Germany woke today to the aftermath of a bruising election in which the center-right conservatives won the most votes but far-right nationalists posted huge gains, causing dismay in a country deeply wary of its Nazi past.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is under surveillance by German intelligence for suspected far-right extremism, won its largest ever share of the vote after garnering the support of Elon Musk and others in the Trump administration.

The White House’s alleged interference in the run up to the vote sparked unusually fierce criticism from Friedrich Merz, the leader of the victorious Christian Democratic Union, who will lead coalition talks to form the next government. He said Washington's interventions were "no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow."

By design, Germany’s voting system means it is very difficult for one party to govern alone, forcing leaders to work together and form coalitions to govern this consensus-based country. Merz said that he hoped to form a government by Easter, but added that cooperating with the second-placed Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was “completely out of the question.”

Read the full story here.

France prepares for largest child abuse trial in its history

Amélie Lévêque remembers the moment when she finally understood the unexplained bouts of depression and other disorders that had tormented her for more than two decades, when in 2019 she read that the surgeon who removed her appendix at age 9 was under investigation for sexually assaulting patients over three decades.

She is among 299 alleged victims, and will testify in the trial that begins today — France's largest child sex abuse trial ever — of former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, 74.

Many victims have said they don’t remember being assaulted and experienced similar symptoms to Lévêque’s, their lawyers said. When police, taking names from Le Scouarnec’s writings, sought them out and showed them the passages written about them, those revelations triggered physical and psychological reactions of varying degrees, the lawyers added.

The case has raised questions about how a well-respected surgeon who worked in nine hospitals and clinics across France was allowed to practice when there were so many red flags that legal observers say should have signaled that he was dangerous.

Read the full story here.

How a small-time drug bust ignited a feud between police and a Catholic hospital

When we heard about this dispute between a small Ohio city’s police force and its local Catholic hospital, we saw an opportunity to tell a story about how officers’ pursuit of criminals can clash with doctors’ obligation to heal people. But there was another element that made this case interesting: The feud was sparked by a relatively minor police operation — the arrest of a man suspected of buying drugs on the street. How did this routine event escalate so quickly? Hospital workers and the police chief declined to talk to us, but the man whose bowel movements became the subject of a federal lawsuit did speak, briefly, about the unsettling experience.

— Jon Schuppe, enterprise reporter

So what exactly are carbon plate shoes and do they really help you run faster? NBC Select reporter Zoe Malin breaks down how carbon plate shoes work and all the ways they could improve your running time. The popular travel brand, Béis also has a warehouse sale of up to 40% off luggage, work totes, backpacks and more.

Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown. Today's newsletter was curated for you by Kaylah Jackson.

If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — send us an email at: MorningRundown@nbcuni.com

If you're a fan, please forward it to your family and friends. They can sign up here.