The 2024 US presidential election is months away, but the circus atmosphere is in high gear. On Thursday, Donald Trump's legal team delivered closing arguments in a New York civil fraud case after the judge stopped the former president from using the trial finale as an election campaign grandstand. Trump continued his rant after the trial, which came a day after skipping the last GOP debate before the Iowa Caucuses. Things got wild on both sides of the aisle as Hunter Biden crashed a House hearing on Wednesday and was indicted on Thursday.

SEE HOW TRUMP'S TRIAL PLAYED OUT AMID CAMPAIGN TRIP

The FAA announced Thursday it is launching a safety probe into Boeing after last week's near-catastrophic incident on an Alaska Airlines-operated 737 MAX. Addressing the Alaska Airlines panel blowout, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun described the problem as a "quality escape" - but it may be more widespread. The FAA said it was investigating "additional discrepancies on other Boeing 737-9 airplanes," -- an allusion to reports from Alaska and United Airlines of "loose" hardware on delivered planes found in preliminary investigations.

SEE BOEING'S FULL RESPONSE TO THE FAA'S INVESTIGATION

The Pentagon's independent inspector general will investigate US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's failure to report his hospitalization to the rest of the government. Austin kept President Joe Biden and Congress in the dark about his prostate cancer diagnosis for weeks and did not inform them about his hospitalization at the beginning of the year, leading to growing calls for him to resign or be fired.

SEE WHY THE SITUATION IS A POLITICAL LIABILITY FOR BIDEN

Who was the first US Secretary of War and first Secretary of Defense?

Thursday's answer: Tesla was technically co-founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk invested heavily in Tesla beginning in 2004 and became CEO in 2008.