Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 44 | Blog#42
And he lied, and lied, and lied, and they all applauded
Yesterday’s post
The single email you receive in the morning is just a snapshot in time. Please subscribe to receive this in you email inbox.
Please check back or keep an open tab to this post. Support me by sharing on your social media and with a friend.
News worth repeating
The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn.
“You know, that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.”
Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can impact the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
1 big thing: Why government spending counts in GDP
Top Trump administration officials are arguing that it is misleading to include government spending in the quarterly tally of GDP.
It sets up a clash between the administration and economists over how to calculate the broadest measure of economic activity.
The big picture: GDP statistics are calculated the way they have been for the last eight decades for good reasons — but administration officials are correct that the accounting for government spending isn't ideal.
Continue reading at Axios
Your support is what keeps me going…
I publish a daily news post, updated all throughout the day (and night), every day. I publish it free to all because it is more important to me to keep us all informed, but it does take me from 04:00 through the evening to curate the news. I also publish 2-4 opinion pieces per week, also free. I am committed to doing this work for the duration of this administration. Please support me and subscribe for $5 a month. Thank you.
Supreme Court rebuffs Trump in fight over foreign aid bills
The order is a significant but potentially short-lived victory for operators of foreign aid programs.
The Supreme Court has rebuffed the Trump administration’s request to lift a lower-court order that required the government to quickly pay nearly $2 billion that contractors and aid groups say they’re owed for U.S.-backed foreign-aid projects.
In a 5-4 ruling Wednesday, the high court’s majority noted that a deadline the lower judge set last week to pay the bills had already passed, and the justices urged the judge to show “due regard for the feasibility” of any future deadline he might set.
The ruling is a significant but potentially short-lived victory for operators of foreign aid programs who warned of devastating consequences from the administration’s abrupt freeze and dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. A broader legal fight over the future of the agency is continuing to play out in the lower courts.
Continue reading at Politico
40-day Target boycott begins following company’s DEI diversion
Target, a private company not required to follow President Trump’s orders to dismiss diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, did just that in January.
The Minnesota-based chain announced on Jan. 24 it was ending its hiring, supplier recruitment and promotion goals for women, members of racial minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, veterans and people with disabilities.
Target had previously been hailed as an inclusive company, in part because of its six-figure donations to groups championing Black economic empowerment and LGBTQ+ acceptance.
Though it’s not the only Fortune 500 company backtracking on DEI, it’s facing major customer blowback and a new boycott.
Continue reading at The Hill
Kentucky Distillers’ Association responds to Trump tariffs: ‘Hard-working Americans … will suffer’
Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA) on Tuesday said retaliatory tariffs would have “far-reaching consequences across the state.”
“That means hard-working Americans — corn farmers, truckers, distillery workers, barrel makers, bartenders, servers and the communities and businesses built around Kentucky bourbon will suffer,” the statement, from KDA President Eric Gregory, said. “As a distinctive product of the United States, bourbon cannot be made anywhere else in the world. It truly is America’s only native spirit. Bourbon jobs are American jobs, and we grow bourbon jobs by opening markets across the globe.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Pentagon denies reports Hegseth ordered halt in cyber operations against Russia
The Department of Defense is denying reports Secretary Pete Hegseth halted offensive cyber operations against Russia.
“TO BE CLEAR: @SecDef has neither canceled nor delayed any cyber operations directed against malicious Russian targets and there has been no stand-down order whatsoever from that priority,” the Pentagon’s rapid response team posted Tuesday on the social platform X.
Continue reading at The Hill
State Department halts global air pollution monitoring program
The State Department will no longer share data about foreign air pollution under a program that it says is designed to help U.S. personnel and travelers abroad.
A spokesperson for the department said via email that its Air Quality Monitoring Program “will no longer be able to transmit air pollution data from our embassies and consulates.”
The department said that “funding constraints” have caused State “to turn off the underlying network.”
It did not specify the reason for the cuts. However, the news comes as the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency seek massive cuts to government spending.
Continue reading at The Hill
Pence congratulates Trump on ‘strong’ speech to Congress
Former Vice President Pence on Wednesday congratulated President Trump on a “strong” speech before a joint session of Congress.
“Congratulations to President @realDonaldTrump on a strong Joint Address to Congress last night,” Pence wrote in a post on the social media platform X on Wednesday.
He praised Trump for expressing “openness to continued negotiations with Ukraine” and for expressing support for U.S. Armed Forces and securing the borders. The former vice president also said it was “welcome news” that the U.S. apprehended someone Trump called a “top terrorist” involved in the 2021 bombing at Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate.
Continue reading at The Hill
ABC News eliminating 538 amid layoffs
ABC News Group is eliminating its political arm, 538, which specializes in polling, surveys and data, amid wider layoffs at the Walt Disney parent company, according to information obtained by The Hill.
The layoffs are expected to impact 200 employees which represents under 6 percent of the staff at the company and Disney Entertainment Networks unit. Fifteen employees at 538 will be let go.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the reductions.
Continue reading at The Hill
Ben Stiller says Obama turned down speaking role on ‘Severance’
Ben Stiller has revealed that former President Obama counts himself among the fans of “Severance” but still turned down a role on the popular Apple TV+ show.
The “Zoolander” star, who’s an executive producer and director on “Severance,” told Jimmy Kimmel during a Monday appearance that he attempted to land Obama to narrate an animated video that’s shown to workers at the sinister biotech firm Lumon Industries in the dystopian thriller.
“I knew someone who knew his lawyer, and his lawyer said, ‘I can relay the request,'” Stiller recalled on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Continue reading at The Hill
Stacey Abrams invokes Musk in rebuking Trump allegations
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams defended herself after President Trump invoked her name in his address Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress.
When speaking about wasteful spending, Trump said his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) found $1.9 billion was used to form a committee focused on the decarbonization of homes. That committee, he claimed, was headed up by Abrams.
“We know she’s involved — just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams,” he told the crowd. “Have you ever heard of her?”
Continue reading at The Hill
Rep. Sylvester Turner, first-term Democrat, dies at 70
Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas), the former Houston mayor who won a seat in Congress in November, succeeding the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D), died Tuesday night. He was 70.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) confirmed Turner’s death Wednesday morning.
Continue reading at The Hill
Musk-backed PAC launches first TV ad after Trump address
Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC launched its first ever television ad on Wednesday following President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.
“After four long years of humiliation, a failure at home, and embarrassment abroad, our long, national nightmare is over. Strength is back, common sense is back, America is back,” the ad’s narrator says, echoing the theme of Trump’s Tuesday evening address.
The minute-long spot highlights Trump’s actions on the southern border, energy and foreign policy, and efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.
“He’s taking on the ruling elite and returning the rule of the people,” the ad says.
Continue reading at The Hill
Freedom Caucus vows quick censure resolution against Al Green
The House Freedom Caucus will be introducing a censure resolution against Rep. Al Green today,” the conservative group wrote Wednesday morning on the social platform X.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) will lead the Freedom Caucus-boosted resolution to censure Green, and it is likely to get a vote on the House floor:
Continue reading at The Hill
Buttigieg: Trump speech marked by ‘darkness,’ ‘dazzle’
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized President Trump’s address to Congress Tuesday, saying the speech was marked by “darkness” and “dazzle” but lacked substance on the affordability crisis.
“Look, it was classic Trump, right? It was a lot of darkness, and it was a lot of dazzle, but there was very, very little about the things that most affect our lives,” Buttigieg said in a post-speech interview on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“I believe politics is about everyday life,” he continued. “It’s about what government can and must do to make our everyday lives better. And the biggest issue on people’s minds — the affordability of everyday life — is not something that got more than a few seconds of mention in his speech.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Vance: ‘Absurdly dishonest’ to suggest he criticized British, French troops
Vice President Vance is pushing back on claims that he criticized British and French troops during a Monday interview.
In the interview, he lauded President Trump’s proposed minerals deal with Ukraine as a better security guarantee for the nation than peacekeepers made up of “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
Troops from the United Kingdom and France have been discussed as part of a peacekeeping force in Ukraine. They are the only two countries that have publicly committed to taking part in such an effort.
Continue reading at The Hill
Judge denies Musk request to block OpenAI conversion to for-profit company
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Elon Musk’s request to block OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company, finding the tech billionaire failed to show he was likely to succeed on the merits of the case.
However, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she is prepared to expedite the trial in the case to the fall of 2025 “given the public interest at stake and potential for harm if a conversion contrary to law occurred.”
Continue reading at The Hill
China tells Trump it will ‘fight till the end’ in trade war ‘or any other type of war’
China is vowing to not back down to President Trump, with the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. writing on social media that it is ready to fight a trade war or “any other type of war.”
“If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. posted to X, as Trump was wrapping up his address to a joint session of Congress late Tuesday evening.
Continue reading at The Hill
America’s Friends Are Not Amused by Trump’s Bravado
The president’s speech offers no reprieve for countries that have long relied on Washington.
In his first major speech to Congress since returning to the presidency, Trump made it clear that his view of the world was not one in which America and its friends worked together but one in which those friends worked for America. Call it what you will — transactionalism, gangsterism, or “it’s about time people stopped taking advantage of the United States.” In any case, it was obvious that the whole concept of “allies and partners,” that phrase Biden administration officials wouldn’t stop uttering, is now meaningless as “America First” returns unadulterated and with a vengeance.
Prior to Trump’s inauguration, officials from many U.S. allies had clung to illusions that they could muddle through the second Trump term like they did the first — that he could be assuaged, delayed, talked off the ledge. But then he slashed U.S. foreign aid, made repeated overtures to Russia, froze U.S. military assistance to Ukraine and imposed tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners.
“This is realpolitik,” one Asian diplomat told me, wearily, ahead of Trump’s remarks. I granted him and others anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive diplomatic issues. “To different degrees, each and every country is now trying to adjust, not only with regard to the U.S. but also other big players.”
After the speech, it was clear the officials and diplomats were done trying to find a positive spin on Trump’s confrontational approach.
Continue reading at Politico
Smith wants tax bill on Trump's desk by Memorial Day
The Ways and Means chair also urged the Senate not to drag its heels on the legislation.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith said Wednesday that House Republicans are aiming to deliver a party-line budget bill with tax cuts to President Donald Trump’s desk by Memorial Day.
He also had a message for the Senate: Hurry up.
“Our plan in the House has always been, put it on the president’s desk by Memorial Day,” said Smith (R-Mo.), at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. “We need the Senate to not be wasting time.”
Smith underscored that House Republicans notched a big win in February by passing a party-line bill with the GOP’s policy priorities. House lawmakers are now starting to fill in more details of the plan.
Continue reading at Politico
Jeffries mum on Democratic disruptions to Trump’s address
The minority leader’s advice to mount a "solemn" response wasn't heeded by some in his caucus.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sidestepped questions Wednesday about Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to disrupt President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
“We’re going to keep the focus on the American people — that's where the focus should be," he said. "Republicans are crashing the economy in real time and trying to enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. That's unacceptable."
The New York Democrat said he hadn’t spoken yet to Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who was escorted off the House floor after standing up to interrupt Trump early in his speech. Jeffries said he planned to have that conversation.
House Republicans raced to introduce resolutions to censure Green for his protest, with Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) introducing his as a privileged measure on Wednesday — setting it up to bypass House committees and get brought up for a House vote as soon as Thursday. Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday night Green should face censure for his conduct.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump, Johnson press Republicans to back funding plan
A White House meeting today will be key in lining up support to avoid a government shutdown.
A group of House Freedom Caucus members and other budget hawks who are deeply skeptical of supporting short-term measures to fund the federal operations are heading to the White House Wednesday for a 2 p.m. meeting with Trump. The president is expected to push for Republicans to fall in line and vote for Johnson’s continuing resolution to fund the government at current spending levels through the end of September.
Johnson can’t afford any serious defections at this point. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in an interview Monday that he’ll vote against the funding plan on the floor. But he is open to supporting the key procedural vote to allow debate when Johnson brings up the matter on the floor early next week.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who said in an interview Wednesday morning that he’s still undecided over the funding plan, will be at the White House meeting Wednesday afternoon. Freedom Caucus member Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) is also not yet on board with the gambit.
“I’m going to have a conversation with the administration and get an idea of if there's a strategy to actually reduce the deficits, and he said tonight, to balance the budget,” Burlison said in an interview after Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday evening.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump threats prompt EU to plan for fresh Ukraine refugee wave
In December last year, more than 4.3 million people were under temporary protection in European countries after fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
BRUSSELS ― The threat of a prolonged war in Ukraine without military backing from the United States is leading European Union politicians to contemplate the emergence of a fresh wave of huge numbers of refugees.
“If Putin escalates this war even further and the American support should disappear, and if this should lead to a larger refugee movement … we need a binding distribution of the Ukraine refugees throughout the EU, according to a fair mechanism,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters Wednesday.
In December last year, more than 4.3 million people were under temporary protection in European countries after fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Eurostat data.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
EU holds war summit as US shuns Ukraine — live updates
Leaders of the EU’s 27 countries are meeting in Brussels for a special European Council on Thursday and it doesn’t seem too much of an exaggeration to say that the future of the continent is at stake.
Prompted by President Donald Trump’s decision to distance the U.S. from Europe’s security and his determination to end the Ukraine war by aggressively demanding Kyiv give in to Russia, leaders will look at fresh ways to fund defense and rearm.
Stay with us throughout the day ― and, who knows, perhaps into the early hours of Friday too ― as POLITICO brings you the intel, the goss and all the scary bits from one of the EU’s most critical gatherings in decades.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Exclusive: U.S. holding secret talks with Hamas
ostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.
Why it matters: The talks — held by U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler — are unprecedented. The U.S. had never before engaged directly with Hamas, which it designated a terrorist organization in 1997.
Behind the scenes: The meetings between Boehler and Hamas officials took place in Doha in recent weeks.
While the Trump administration consulted with Israel about the possibility of engaging with Hamas, Israel learned about aspects of the talks through other channels, one source said.
The sources spoke with Axios on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the sensitive meetings.
Zoom in: The talks have focused in part on the release of U.S. hostages, which is within Boehler's remit as hostage envoy.
Continue reading at Axios
Tariff twitches causing wild stock market swings
The market's nerves were on full display Wednesday, as stocks whipsawed with every change in the narrative on the Trump administration's tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
Why it matters: Businesses, investors and consumers are all yearning for some clarity — instead they're being forced to endure a daily, if not hourly, drip of shifting information and conflicting priorities.
Catch up quick: It all started Monday, when President Trump promised tariffs were coming on Canada, Mexico and China. Stocks dropped.
On Tuesday morning he imposed the tariffs, and stocks fell further.
Late Tuesday, Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick suggested on the Fox Business Network that a tariff rollback could arrive on Wednesday. Stocks rallied.
Wednesday morning, Lutnick told Bloomberg TV any rollback might target certain sectors, in a limited way and for a limited time. Stocks sold off again, as investors stood by for the actual news to come out.
Continue reading at Axios
White House says Ukraine weapons and intel pause will lift when Russia talks set
The U.S. will continue to suspend weapon supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine until a date for peace talks with Russia is set, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Wednesday.
Why it matters: The U.S. decision to pause military aid is increasing pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to move toward negotiations with Russia to end the war.
Behind the scenes: One U.S. source with knowledge of the details said the suspension of intelligence sharing mostly focuses on information that could help Ukraine conduct attacks inside Russian territory.
Continue reading at Axios
How DOGE’s Cuts to the IRS Threaten to Cost More Than DOGE Will Ever Save
Dave Nershi was finalizing a report he’d worked on for months when an ominous email appeared in his inbox.
Nershi had worked as a general engineer for the Internal Revenue Service for about nine months. He was one of hundreds of specialists inside the IRS who used their technical expertise — Nershi’s background is in chemical and nuclear engineering — to audit byzantine tax returns filed by large corporations and wealthy individuals. Until recently, the IRS had a shortage of these experts, and many complex tax returns went unscrutinized. With the help of people like Nershi, the IRS could recoup millions and sometimes more than a billion dollars on a single tax return.
Continue reading at ProPublica
Supreme Court appears divided on offsite nuclear waste storage
The Supreme Court appeared split Wednesday on the question of whether the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the authority to license private, temporary offsite storage of nuclear waste.
In the case, Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, an appeals court vacated an NRC license for a planned waste storage facility in Texas, which had been vocally opposed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R). While the case weighs the agency’s power to issue the license for sites separate from the reactor where the waste was created, it also has broader implications for the procedures for challenging an agency’s rulemaking process.
In its filing, the NRC argued the state and another party, Fasken Land and Minerals, were not authorized to challenge the license in court after failing to formally object to the initial licensing. Arguing on behalf of the NRC, Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart argued the litigants “don’t have an absolute right to intervene.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Social Security says it's paid more than 1 million retroactive payments. Here's the average amount.
More than 1.1 million people with public pensions — teachers, firefighters, police officers and the like — have recently received retroactive benefits due to the Social Security Fairness Act, the Social Security Administration said on Tuesday.
The SSA said it is continuing to pay the retroactive benefits to eligible Social Security beneficiaries, whose monthly payments will increase beginning in April, reflecting March's benefit.
The monthly benefit adjustment and retroactive payments are due to a law signed in January by former President Biden, who said it would mean an average monthly increase of $360 for more than 2.5 million Social Security recipients.
The retroactive payments are due to the law's elimination of two federal policies that barred employees with a public pension from collecting their full benefits under the federal retirement program. Those same policies also reduced benefits for such workers' surviving spouses and family members.
Under the new law, the benefits hike is retroactive to December 2023. As a result, eligible recipients who previously only received partial benefits will get a full payment retroactive to a year ago.
Continue reading at CBS News
Trump admin plans to cut more than 70,000 jobs at Department of Veterans Affairs, memo says
The Trump administration is planning to cut tens of thousands of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN.
In a memo dated March 4 addressed to “under secretaries, assistant secretaries, and other key officials,” the Veterans Affairs department’s chief of staff Christopher Syrek said that the VA in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will move “aggressively” to restructure the VA across the entire department and “resize” the workforce.
As part of that, the department will aim to revert back to its 2019-era staffing levels of 399,957 employees, the memo said. That means more than 70,000 employees could be terminated as part of the restructuring, since the VA employed over 470,000 people as of October 2024, according to the department.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Trump pauses Canada, Mexico auto tariffs
“We spoke with the big three auto dealers,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “We are going to give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through [the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”
President Donald Trump has decided to delay a portion of the 25 percent tariffs he recently imposed on Canada and Mexico for one month at the request of automakers, the White House said Wednesday.
“We spoke with the big three auto dealers,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “We are going to give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through [the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”
Auto trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico accounts for a large share of U.S. trade with those countries, which totaled $1.6 trillion last year. U.S. auto trade with its neighbors totaled about $345 billion, including $120 billion with Canada and $225 billion with Mexico.
Many of the autos and auto parts made in Canada and Mexico enter the United States duty-free under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade pact.
Continue reading at Politico
Graham warns Trump’s budget pick about going ‘too far’ with funding freeze
The chair of the Senate Budget Committee is the latest Republican to express alarm over the Trump administration's clawback of congressionally approved spending.
Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham asked President Donald Trump’s latest budget nominee on Wednesday to help dislodge funding now frozen for widely supported programs, warning that the trust of the American people is at stake.
The South Carolina Republican pressed Dan Bishop, the president’s pick for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, about why funding is not flowing despite Cabinet secretaries granting exceptions for certain programs targeted under Trump’s executive orders to freeze foreign assistance and other federal cash. Graham pointed specifically to funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, that is still frozen despite the fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio granted a waiver for it to be reinstated.
Continue reading at Politico
Ted Cruz’s Commerce Committee devolves over migrant-related subpoena
Ted Cruz is continuing to seek broad subpoena power as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Members of the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, clashed in a rancorous hearing Wednesday morning over the GOP's push to subpoena documents from the Massachusetts Port Authority related to its sheltering of migrants in Boston Logan Airport.
It was an unusually testy meeting for a panel that has long prided itself on being bipartisan and subdued — and provided a preview of the type of fireworks that could become the norm with the firebrand Texas Republican wielding the gavel.
“Going back at least 20 years, the chair and ranking member of this committee typically work together and reach consensus on subpoenas being issued because there is no question the matter being investigated is improper or the party being investigated was not being cooperative,” said ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
Continue reading at Politico
Trump says Trudeau ‘trying to use’ tariff fight ‘to stay in power’
“Justin Trudeau, of Canada, called me to ask what could be done about Tariffs. I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped. He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough,’” Trump said on Truth Social.
The president added the call was partially cordial, before knocking Trudeau, who announced his intent to resign in January.
“The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner! He was unable to tell me when the Canadian Election is taking place, which made me curious, like, what’s going on here? I then realized he is trying to use this issue to stay in power. Good luck Justin!” Trump said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Axelrod calls Al Green ‘despicable’ for Trump address protest
Democratic strategist David Axelrod described Rep. Al Green’s (D-Texas) outbursts at President Trump’s address to Congress as “despicable.”
“I think what Al Green did was despicable. I liked Elissa Slotkin’s speech. I think that’s where Democrats should go,” Axelrod said during a Tuesday CNN appearance.
“That doesn’t obviate the fact that you shouldn’t exploit our differences. You should try and solve problems and heal our differences. I don’t see that inclination on the part of this president,” he added.
Green was removed by the sergeant at arms after disrupting the president’s speech by shouting, “He needs to save Medicaid” while raising his cane and pointing it in Trump’s direction.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Axelrod is despicable
EPA nominee says US should adapt to, not mitigate, climate change
President Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office in charge of climate change and air pollution said Wednesday that the U.S. should “adapt to” rather than try to minimize climate change.
Aaron Szabo’s comment came during questions from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
“What are key climate tipping points that you would watch in your position to try to avoid?” Whitehouse asked.
“I believe that the climate is changing. I believe that it is important for us to adapt to any change, including those that occur with respect to climate,” said Szabo, who, if confirmed, will lead the EPA’s Air and Radiation office.
“Not to mitigate to prevent it, just to adapt to it?” Whitehouse asked.
Continue reading at The Hill
Email trove reveals CFPB turmoil after Vought’s work stoppage
Hundreds of pages of communications reveal the internal chaos at agency after acting director Russell Vought ordered a total stoppage of all “work tasks.”
A new trove of emails unearthed in federal court reveals chaos unleashed by the Trump administration’s abrupt shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Obama-era agency meant to shield Americans from unfair banking practices.
Hundreds of pages of communications show career officials grasping for clarity in the weeks after the CFPB’s acting director, Russ Vought, ordered Feb. 10 a total stoppage of all “work tasks.” That order in many ways conflicted with officials’ legally required responsibilities.
The employees laid out a long list of consequences:
Enforcement actions had been halted, even though some were subject to court-ordered deadlines.
Mass termination of contracts was jeopardizing enormous caches of CFPB data held by third parties — including some public records required to be stored.
Contracts supporting other legally required work had been canceled and would be difficult to restart.
Continue reading at Politico
Thune: Senate GOP isn’t unified yet on tactic to get around cost of tax cut extensions
“It’s not clear at this point at least how we might proceed on that,” Sen. John Thune said of an accounting procedure top Republicans are pushing for.
Top Senate Republicans are talking about using a controversial accounting tactic to extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — but they don’t yet have enough support within their own conference for the move.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a brief interview that it remained to be seen if Republicans will use what’s known as a current policy baseline to extend Trump’s tax cuts permanently. The gambit would make it appear as if the extension costs nothing, letting Senate Republicans sidestep a politically tough conversation about how to pay for them.
“It’s not clear at this point at least how we might proceed on that. ... Part of it will be determined by making sure all our members are on board with that idea and concept,” Thune said.
Continue reading at Politico
Volunteers revive pre-Trump CDC website
A team of volunteer archivists has recreated the Centers for Disease Control website, called RestoredCDC.org, as it appeared the day President Trump was inaugurated.
The big picture: A federal judge last month required the HHS to restore webpages and datasets that had been altered or taken offline to comply with executive orders that Trump issued on DEI and gender identity, but several links are broken and the pages are not easy to locate through web searches.
Some restored health pages come with a note that states the "Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children."
Zoom in: The Restored CDC site provides the same public health data, information and user experience as the agency's own website did on Jan. 20.
Continue reading at Axios
JD Vance’s Gamble on Ukraine Aid Paid Off
The vice president spent years trying to cut off funding for the war against Russia.
The administration’s decision to pause all aid to Ukraine may very well end up being little more than a bargaining chip in Trump’s efforts to bring Ukraine back to the negotiating table on a cease-fire deal, and it could be swiftly reversed if Zelenskyy makes additional concessions to Trump. Yet even if the pause is short-lived, it marks a striking elevation of the non-interventionist foreign policy vision that has been championed by Vance — one that, until recently, remained far outside the Republican mainstream.
When Vance entered the Senate in January 2023, he was one of only a handful of elected Republicans who publicly questioned U.S. support for Ukraine, and he was alone among the Senate GOP in calling for the U.S. to stop the flow of aid outright. “The thing that I’m most proud of is that we are on the cusp of radically changing U.S. policy towards Ukraine,” Vance told me in late 2023 when I interviewed him for a profile in POLITICO Magazine. “It’s taken a lot of work.”
During his two years in the Senate, he labored to chip away at the GOP’s hawkish conventional wisdom with decidedly mixed results. In April 2024, after Vance took the lead in lobbying his Republican colleagues in the House to oppose a $61 billion supplemental aid package to Ukraine, a majority of Republicans — including House Speaker Mike Johnson — joined Democrats in rebuffing his position by voting for the package.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump administration ordered to reinstate thousands of fired USDA workers
Thousands of fired workers at the Department of Agriculture must get their jobs back for at least the next month and a half, the chair of a federal civil service board ruled Wednesday.
The ruling said the recent dismissals of more than 5,600 probationary employees may have violated federal laws and procedures for carrying out layoffs.
Continue reading at Politico
California Playbook PM newsletter
Could Trump’s trade war hit the Golden State’s golden goose?
ANALYSIS: THANKS, TRUMP — California’s budget experts are in a tizzy after President Donald Trump’s tariffs shoved tech stocks downhill this week, fearing what it could mean for the state’s bottom line.
A strong showing from tech companies helped fill the state’s coffers last year, helping to balance the budget and even creating a modest surplus this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken notice, praising chipmaker Nvidia in his State of the State address last year for nurturing California’s valuable startup ecosystem.
If the tariffs continue to rock the tech world, Democratic lawmakers worry this could ultimately eat into the Golden State’s financial cushion.
“Yes, it could absolutely harm California’s budget,” state Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener told California Decoded. ”Trump and [Elon] Musk are basically trying to collapse the economy.”
Spooked tech stocks this week are “further evidence that President Trump’s tariffs are ultimately self-defeating,” said Jesse Gabriel, chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. “Members of both parties should be concerned that they will harm our economy, our state budget, and California businesses and residents.”
Tech stocks have tumbled more than 7 percent since Trump took office in January, CNBC reported yesterday, with his announcement of new tariffs on Mexico and Canada this week triggering a sudden dip that saw Nvidia shares fall 9 percent on Monday.
Economists said the jagged lines showing up on Big Tech stock charts in the wake of tariffs won’t rock their highly profitable boats yet, but even small dips in cash flow from the state’s golden goose industry can give budget wonks reason to break out in a cold sweat.
Tariffs on Chinese goods like manufactured parts and chips “are going to make the production process more complicated and more expensive,” said economist Christopher Thornberg with Beacon Economics.
Continue reading at California Politico Playbook PM newsletter
Pentagon signs AI deal to aid military decision-making
The Department of Defense has signed a contract with start-up Scale AI to use artificial intelligence for military planning and operations, marking the Pentagon’s latest incorporation of emerging tech into its workflows.
The flagship program, dubbed Thunderforge, will integrate AI “agents” into military workflows to make the decision-making process earlier and faster for military leaders, Scale AI announced Wednesday.
Thunderforge is focused on developing and deploying AI-powered technology with the help of Microsoft’s large language model systems. Scale AI’s technology will also be incorporated into weapons manufacturer Anduril’s modeling and simulation infrastructure to help with mission planning, the company said.
The contract was awarded by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, which aims to adopt commercial technology throughout the military for national security and efficiency.
Continue reading at The Hill
Novo Nordisk slashes Wegovy prices through direct-to-consumer pharmacy
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk on Wednesday announced it will be offering a direct-to-patient program for uninsured and underinsured individuals to be able to pay cash for its weight loss product Wegovy at a significantly reduced cost.
The drugmaker has named its new program NovoCare® Pharmacy, which will sell all dose strengths of Wegovy at $499 per month. According to the company, about 90 percent most patients pay a monthly copay of zero to $25 and this new program is aimed at eligible people who are uninsured or are on insurance plans that don’t cover obesity medicines.
The list price for one month’s supply of Wegovy is $1,349.
Continue reading at The Hill
Democratic senator recants praise for Trump border ‘progress’
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is walking back his praise of President Trump’s “great, great progress” on illegal immigration as crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border continue to plummet.
“My words yesterday, they were not great,” Warner said in an MSNBC interview Wednesday when asked about remarks he made during an appearance on Fox Business Network’s “Claman Countdown” before Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday
Warner told Fox Business anchor Liz Claman the Trump administration had “made great, great progress on border crossings. That’s something we ought to celebrate.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration considering criminal referrals in USAID fight
Peter Marocco, who is serving as acting deputy administrator for USAID, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Wednesday that he and his staff are looking at making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
It’s unclear if Marocco will follow through on the threat, said one person who was in the room during the briefing, but they saw it as a significant signal, coming up in a meeting with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump’s tariffs are already rattling California’s tech sector
If the tariffs continue to rock the tech world, Democratic lawmakers worry this could ultimately eat into the state’s revenues.
SAN FRANCISCO — California’s budget experts are in a tizzy after President Donald Trump’s tariffs shoved tech stocks downhill this week, fearing what it could mean for the state’s bottom line.
A strong showing from tech companies helped fill the state’s coffers last year, helping to balance the budget and even creating a modest surplus this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom has taken notice, praising chipmaker Nvidia in his State of the State address last year for nurturing the state’s valuable startup ecosystem.
If the tariffs continue to rock the tech world, Democratic lawmakers worry this could ultimately eat into the Golden State’s financial cushion.
“Yes, it could absolutely harm California’s budget,” state Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener told POLITICO’s California Decoded newsletter. ”Trump and [Elon] Musk are basically trying to collapse the economy.”
Continue reading at Politico
White House accuses Panama of being unaware of situation at canal
The White House on Wednesday doubled down on taking credit for the BlackRock deal to place Panama Canal ports under U.S. control.
The big picture: Panama President José Raúl Mulino on Wednesday accused President Trump of lying about his claim a day earlier that the U.S. is "reclaiming" the Panama Canal.
Catch up quick: "My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it," Trump said during his address to Congress on Tuesday.
His comments were regarding BlackRock's agreement to acquire two ports serving the canal from a Chinese group, CK Hutchinson, as part of a larger $22.8 billion deal.
Zoom in: Mulino on Wednesday rejected the notion that the deal came about because of pressure from the U.S. and he accused Trump of "lying again."
Continue reading at Axios
Florida’s universities find themselves in the DOGE house
Florida’s university system, with a combined $19.6 billion budget, appears to be a prime target for cost-cutting for Ron DeSantis, inspired by Elon Musk’s DOGE push in Washington.
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — State lawmakers have Florida’s public universities in their sights as they — and Gov. Ron DeSantis — look to scale back spending with their own DOGE-style efforts.
The state House, on the Legislature’s opening day, began probing university expenses by scrutinizing costs racked up by former University of Florida President and U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, alongside other schools that were questioned in state audits.
The discussions come as the GOP-led Legislature and DeSantis call for a thorough sweep of university budgets to find potential savings, leaving state funding at risk while campuses simultaneously brace for federal research cuts by the Trump administration.
“There are expenses, wasteful spending, that I am sure happen at the universities the same way that they do in any of our agencies, or any other bucket of government that we’ve been funding for the last several decades,” state House Speaker Danny Perez (R-Miami) told reporters Tuesday. “It’s our job to look into that.”
Continue reading at Politico
DOJ investigating antisemitism claims against University of California
The Justice Department (DOJ) announced Wednesday is launching a civil rights investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the University of California.
According to a press release, the department, on the basis of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, will probe whether the university engaged “in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against” worker by letting “an Antisemitic hostile work environment to exist” at the system’s schools.
“Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, there has been an outbreak of antisemitic incidents at leading institutions of higher education in America, including at my own alma mater at the UCLA campus of UC,” Leo Terrell, a top member of the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism and senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in the release.
Continue reading at The Hill
Macron: France must face ‘Russian threat’ with or without US
The French president also wants to open a debate on expanding France’s nuclear deterrent.
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron has warned that France needs to prepare for the possibility of the United States disengaging from Europe by increasing spending on defense needs and rethinking how the country uses its nuclear deterrent.
"The Russian threat is here and is affecting European countries, affecting us," Macron said in a nationally televised speech on Wednesday. "I want to believe that the U.S. will stay by our side, but we have to be ready if they don't."
Macron warned that the relative peace Western Europe has enjoyed on its soil since the end of World War II appears to be at an end, and that the continent must prepare for the future by beefing up its own defenses.
"Our generation will no longer reap the dividends of peace. It is up to us to ensure that our children reap the dividends of our commitments tomorrow," he added.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Top Johnson aide arrested for DUI
Hayden Haynes has served as Johnson's chief of staff since he was first elected speaker in 2023.
Top appropriators near government funding deal ahead of shutdown cliff
With nine days until funding expires, an agreement wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the risk of a government shutdown or thwart a GOP plan for a lengthy patch.
Congress’ top appropriators are finalizing a bipartisan agreement on overall government funding totals as House Republican leaders forge ahead with a different plan President Donald Trump has endorsed to avoid a shutdown.
The impending deal on funding totals comes far too late to save Congress from having to clear a funding patch next week to avert a government shutdown set to begin just after midnight on March 14. Whether that continuing resolution lasts just a few weeks — or spans through September, as Trump prefers — remains an open question.
Despite the tentative agreement among appropriators for funding “toplines,” House Republican leaders still aim to hold a vote next week on a Trump-backed plan for a “full-year” continuing resolution that keeps the military and non-defense agencies operating on “flat” funding levels through Sept. 30 — the end of the current fiscal year.
“I’m counting on the full-year CR. I think that’s the only plan that works,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.
Continue reading at Politico
Senate Republicans tell Musk to send his cuts to Congress
The DOGE chief was told that legislative action could enshrine his slashing.
Senate Republicans urged Elon Musk on Wednesday to better coordinate with them, with many suggesting the tech billionaire send Congress a package of proposed spending cuts to enshrine the work of his Department of Government Efficiency initiative.
The message was delivered during a closed-door lunch organized by Florida Sen. Rick Scott in the latest instance of congressional Republicans, who have generally praised his efforts, counseling Musk to more closely loop in lawmakers.
The meeting came just hours after the Supreme Court rebuffed the Trump administration in one of several outstanding legal fights over spending cuts. Republicans warned that the flurry of court challenges, as well as a constant drip of stories about DOGE slashing key jobs, is muddying their political message.
Continue reading at Politico
National Security Daily
Ukraine deal whiplash
Good(ish) news for the pro-Ukraine hawks in Washington: The Ukraine rare earths deal that was on and then off and then back on before being back off may now be back on again.
The deal to sign away Ukrainian mineral deposits in exchange for U.S. investments is at the center of President DONALD TRUMP’s plans to broker peace between Kyiv and Moscow. Reminder: It’s caused a huge chronicle of diplomatic drama, angst among American allies and glee in Moscow.
But here’s the latest: Top Trump administration officials said they are optimistic about the prospects of Ukraine signing the deal and moving forward on peace talks. ANDRIY YERMAK, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, had a phone conversation with U.S. national security adviser MIKE WALTZ today to discuss peace talks and arrange a meeting between the two parties in the near future. (No word yet on when precisely that meeting will be.)
“We are having good talks on location for the next round of negotiations, on delegations, on substance. Just in the last 24 hours … I think we’re going to see movement in very short order,” Waltz told reporters outside the White House after the call.
It’s unclear what that meeting might look like, though reports circulating in European press suggest that Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY could come to Washington next week to discuss peace talks, possibly with U.K. Prime Minister KEIR STARMER and French President EMMANUEL MACRON planning to join him on the trip.
Continue reading Politico National Security Daily newsletter
West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government
How Musk nails his role as Trump’s sidekick
JUST IN: ELON MUSK dined with GOP senators today at a closed-door lunch, where they urged him to better coordinate with them, our JORDAIN CARNEY and LISA KASHINSKY report. Many suggested he should send Congress a package of proposed spending cuts to enshrine the work of his Department of Government Efficiency — the latest instance of congressional Republicans, who have generally praised his efforts, counseling Musk to more closely loop in lawmakers.
NEXT UP: Musk will meet with House Republicans at 7 p.m.
PLAYING THE PART: Musk had spent the past seven months, and nearly $300 million in campaign donations, ramping up to this moment. And when it arrived, it required a suit.
“Thank you, Elon. He’s working very hard,” President DONALD TRUMP said during his joint address to Congress Tuesday night. Musk — who had swapped his trademark “tech support” T-shirt and “dark MAGA” hat for a navy suit and tie — smiled sheepishly, nodding his head in thanks as Republicans rose to recognize him.
The shoutout — equivalent in scale to that of a Cabinet member, despite Musk’s unelected, nebulous role — and the GOP’s gleeful response highlighted Musk’s gargantuan stature within the party to which he only recently defected. And his body language — the bashful grin and ‘Who, me?’ expression — illuminated his deep understanding of the importance of demonstrating deference to Trump in order to retain his position of unprecedented power.
“He didn’t need this,” the president said, a reference to Musk’s vast wealth and the Republican talking point that the billionaire businessman is volunteering his time to DOGE out of the goodness of his heart.
Democrats, meanwhile, boo’d Musk — or ignored him, with Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) performatively checking her phone as her colleagues across the aisle whooped and hollered.
Continue reading the West Wing Playbook newsletter
Kennedy’s push for vitamins in response to measles outbreak worries physicians
Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric on Texas’s measles outbreak is concerning physicians, who fear his public guidance is misguided and verges on being dangerous as he promotes vitamins and steroids as ways of treating infections.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) says 159 measles cases have been identified, including one unvaccinated child who died last week shortly after being hospitalized.
Only five of the infected individuals are confirmed to have been vaccinated against measles. Physicians in the state have urged that parents isolate their children and ensure that all members of their household have received a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to mitigate the spread.
About 80 percent of the measles cases in Texas have been found in children.
Kennedy has long questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines, particularly the MMR vaccine.
Continue reading at The Hill
House tees up final vote to censure Al Green for protest at Trump speech
Vance suggests other industries won’t get tariff carve-outs
Vice President Vance on Wednesday said that industries other than U.S. automakers have asked for exemptions on tariffs, but suggested that the Trump administration would not extend further carve outs.
While visiting the southern border, a reporter asked Vance about other industries reaching out on the matter after the White House announced a one-month exemption on tariffs against Canada and Mexico for cars.
“A number of industries have reached out to us to ask us for exceptions to the tariffs,” he said. “[Trump] wants tariffs to apply broadly. He doesn’t want to have 500 different industries getting 500 different carve outs.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump issues new ultimatum for Hamas to release Israeli hostages
President Trump told Hamas he will greenlight additional Israeli military strikes on Gaza unless the group releases its remaining hostages.
Why it matters: Trump's ultimatum comes during direct negotiations in Doha between his envoy for hostages affairs Adam Boehler and Hamas officials in an effort to reach a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
Trump issued the ultimatum after a meeting with six hostages who were released as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas is still holding 59 hostages in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces have confirmed 35 are dead. Israeli intelligence believes 22 are still alive, and the status of two others is unknown.
Among the remaining hostages are five Americans, including 21-year-old Edan Alexander who is believed to be alive.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump wants to destroy the EU — and rebuild it in his image
Donald Trump won't deal with the EU.
The EU can't deal with Trump.
Donald Trump tried and failed to find a chink in the EU’s armor through a trade war in his first term.
But now he’s found a more vulnerable spot: The massive security crisis he’s engineered by withdrawing U.S. support for Ukraine is exposing potentially lethal cracks in the 27-nation bloc.
Little could please him more.
The U.S. president has long seethed with undisguised disdain for the EU, which he has described — inaccurately — as having been created “to screw the United States.” For Trump, the EU sits alongside his other supranational bêtes noires like the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization, which need to be slapped down for fleecing America.
In only the first few frantic weeks of his second term, his administration has shown it will give short shrift to Brussels. The EU’s trade chief visited Washington, only for Trump to dial up his tariff plans; its foreign policy chief was brutally snubbed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and EU parliamentarians had to fly home with the chastening message that America would defy their tech rules as European “censorship.”
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump says GOP should campaign on Democratic response to his speech
“The Democrats should lose the Midterms based on their behavior at last night’s Joint Address to Congress,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “All Republicans must use their behavior on men in women’s sports, their very dangerous Open Border policy, High Energy and Taxes, and much else.”
Trump called on Republicans to use footage of how some Democrats in the chamber did not applaud when the president spoke about young women killed by migrants who entered the country illegally and highlighted other White House guests.
Continue reading at The Hill
DOGE team shut out of US African development agency
Several DOGE workers tried to enter the agency’s office in Washington on Wednesday but were “unable to access” it, the USADF confirmed to The Hill. The staffers eventually left the building, the agency said. The Hill reached out to DOGE for comment.
The agency’s chair, Ward Brehm, wrote in a letter to a DOGE staffer obtained by The Hill that he “specifically instructed the staff of USADF to adhere to our rules and procedure of not allowing any meetings of this type without my presence.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Republicans need to cut Medicaid to hit budget savings target, CBO finds
In a report released Wednesday, CBO found that the government spends $381 billion on programs other than Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that are under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
That’s a problem for House Republicans, who are looking to slash $880 billion from programs in the committee’s jurisdiction to help pay for an extension of President Trump’s tax cuts and border enforcement funding.
One of the prime targets is Medicaid, the joint federal and state-funded program that provides health coverage to more than 72 million low-income Americans. Republicans see Medicaid as a program rife with fraud and abuse and have long sought to rein in its spending.
Continue reading at The Hill
GOP senators tell Musk DOGE actions will require their votes
Musk met with Republican senators at a luncheon to give them an overview of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team’s work to root out waste, fraud and abuse across an array of federal programs.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who largely supports Musk’s mission, told him DOGE’s efforts to cut spending and reduce the federal workforce reductions won’t pass muster with the courts unless Congress codifies them by passing a spending rescission package.
“To make it real, to make it go beyond the moment of the day, it needs to come back in the form of a rescission package,” Paul said after the meeting, pointing to 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning rejecting the Trump administration’s argument that billions of dollars in foreign aid should remain frozen.
Continue reading at The Hill
Bird flu spread is ‘slowing down,’ California officials say
The news comes as skyrocketing egg prices have become a national political issue, noted by President Donald Trump.
“Thankfully, we do see here in California the flu outbreak is slowing down,” said Dr. Erica Pan, the director of the California Department of Public Health, during a committee hearing at the state Senate.
There have been no new cases in humans since January, Pan said. And State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones said the state’s almost 1,000 dairy herds of cows are getting sick at a slower pace. The virus has started to decline in poultry as well, with dozens of flocks coming off quarantine and being approved to restock their birds.
“The good news is we are lifting quarantines now faster than we’re placing them,” Jones said. “There were times in December where I wanted to break down in tears, because every night we got 30 new cases.”
Continue reading at Politico
Controversial immigrant family detention center in Texas to reopen
A detention center will resume operations as a controversial immigrant family housing facility under a new agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, private prison company CoreCivic has announced.
Why it matters: The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, was a target of civic rights advocates during the first Trump administration amid family separations and mistreatment allegations, but ICE needs more detention space for President Trump's mass deportation plans.
The big picture: The restart of the South Texas Family Residential Center reverses a Biden administration's policy of ending the practice of holding undocumented migrant families in detention centers.
President Biden turned to remote tracking technology such as ankle bracelets as alternatives.
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden called for releasing families from ICE detention and Trump had vowed to reopen it.
Zoom in: CoreCivic said Wednesday that it has approved an amended agreement between the City of Dilley, Texas, and ICE to resume operations and care for up to 2,400 individuals at the facility.
Continue reading at Axios
Rand Paul pitches Elon Musk on plan to slash spending
Elon Musk and Republican senators are eyeing a package to claw back tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending after meeting in a closed-door lunch on Wednesday.
Why it matters: Musk has been leading the charge on spending cuts from the White House. Some lawmakers want to make his actions more permanent by making them law.
No decisions have been made, but there was some early, general support for the idea being pushed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) after the lunch.
An infamous deficit hawk, Paul pitched Elon Musk on a massive rescission package during a lunch on Wednesday, he told reporters. Such a package would undo federal funding already approved by Congress.
The bill would also only require 51 votes to pass the Senate — no Democrats needed.
Paul said specific numbers weren't discussed, but he'd like to see $500 billion.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump can remove head of federal watchdog for now, appeals court rules
An appeals court on Wednesday allowed President Trump's removal of the head of an independent watchdog agency that investigates federal workers' whistleblower reports while a legal challenge to the firing plays out.
The big picture: The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals paused a lower court ruling that Hampton Dellinger should continue in his role leading the Office of Special Counsel after agreeing with him that his firing was "unlawful."
Zoom in: The unanimous three-judge federal appeals panel said in its brief order it would issue an opinion "in due course" and expedited its review of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson's Saturday ruling in favor of Dellinger's lawsuit.
Continue reading at Axios
GOP plows forward with government funding plan despite Democratic opposition
House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters on Wednesday that Republicans are “running the full-year CR, period,” next week, referring to the party’s plan to pass a stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), through late September.
“We’re not going to live through CRs every two weeks and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “So, the Speaker is very insistent that we go all the way to September. I agree with that decision.”
Negotiators on both sides had previously been hopeful of striking a bipartisan deal on overall government spending for fiscal 2025, which began in October. But both parties have struggled to reach an overall funding agreement amid a fierce debate over the president’s authority to withhold dollars already allocated by Congress and lay off thousands of federal workers as part of a sweeping operation to reshape the government.
Continue reading at The Hill
Majority say US, not other countries, will feel brunt of Trump tariffs: Poll
A majority of Americans in a new poll said that the U.S. and not other countries will feel the brunt of President Trump’s tariffs.
When asked about “the cost of tariffs on foreign products imported into the U.S.,” 54 percent of the respondents in The Economist/YouGov poll said they believe “mostly companies and people in the U.S” will feel their weight. Twenty-four percent said “mostly companies and people in the country exporting products” will suffer the consequences.
On Tuesday, the president imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, and a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Trump cited irritation over the stream of fentanyl into his country, but experts have noted not much of the drug comes into the U.S. via its border with Canada.
Continue reading at The Hill
Appeals court temporarily greenlights Trump’s firing of whistleblower office head
A federal appeals court Wednesday agreed to the Trump administration’s request to greenlight the president’s firing of U.S. special counsel Hampton Dellinger until the court resolves a legal challenge.
The order from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily lifts a judge’s ruling that found Dellinger’s termination unlawful and returned him to his post as the head of an office in charge of protecting government whistleblowers.
Wednesday’s order also expedites the Trump administration’s full appeal. The written briefing is set to conclude on April 11.
“The Clerk is directed to calendar this case for oral argument this term on the first appropriate date following the completion of briefing,” the order states.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump tells DC mayor she must clean homeless encampments in the city
“We have notified the Mayor of Washington, D.C., that she must clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City, specifically including the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House,” the president said in a post on Truth Social.
“If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her! Washington, D.C. must become CLEAN and SAFE! We want to be proud of our Great Capital again,” he added. “Thank you Mayor Bowser for your efforts on behalf of the Citizens of our Country. Hopefully you will be successful!”
Continue reading at The Hill
Major VA job cuts planned under Trump
The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to cut approximately 72,000 jobs, roughly 15 percent of its current workforce, VA Secretary Doug Collins confirmed Wednesday.
Collins said in a video statement that, as the VA conducts its “department-wide review of its organization, operations and structure” — in accordance with President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) workforce optimization Initiative — it is taking “a pragmatic and disciplined approach to eliminating waste and bureaucracy.”
“Our goal is to reduce VA employment levels to 2019 in strength numbers, roughly 398,000 employees, from our current level of approximately 470,000 employees,” Collins said in the video. “Now that’s in a 15 percent decrease. We’re going to accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.”
Collins’s statement comes after The Associated Press reported on an internal memo describing plans to cut 80,000 jobs as part of an “aggressive” reorganization of the agency this summer.
Continue reading at The Hill
Hamilton cancels Kennedy Center run; Grenell fires back
Producers of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” are canceling plans to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington next year, pointing to President Trump’s “takeover” of the Washington, D.C., institution and drawing pushback from the new interim executive director.
Lead producer Jeffrey Seller called the Kennedy Center a “secret” setting that should be “protected from politics.”
“Given the recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center,” Seller said in a statement on Wednesday.
Seller said the third iteration of “Hamilton” at the Kennedy Center, scheduled for March 3-April 26, was canceled.
Continue reading at The Hill
Sanctuary city mayors struggle to counter GOP’s ‘pro-criminal’ attacks
Republicans put Democrats in the hot seat as they continue to try and win the messaging wars on immigration policy.
Democratic mayors, summoned to Washington to answer for their handling of the immigration crisis, struggled on Wednesday to combat Republican allegations their cities are rife with violent crime and in need of rescuing by the GOP administration.
It was the culmination of months of relentless attacks by President Donald Trump and his allies, and it sets up further moves by the administration — including Vice President JD Vance’s trip to the southern border Wednesday afternoon — to keep Democrats in a defensive crouch on the issue.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee grilled the chief executives of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City on the heels of Trump’s victory lap in his joint address to Congress Tuesday evening. There, he proclaimed that his administration had begun “the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history.”
Continue reading at Politico
Internal Democratic tensions erupt after Trump speech
Congressional Democrats' internal divisions over how to combat President Trump surfaced with a fury Wednesday after the president was repeatedly heckled and disrupted during his speech to Congress.
Why it matters: The party is in a rut, stumbling on finding the most effective counterattack to Trump's full-bore assault on the federal bureaucracy. That struggle played out on primetime television Tuesday night.
Democrats have been bombarded by grassroots activists demanding they scrap norms and traditions in favor of bare-knuckle political brawling.
But many party leaders and other establishment-oriented Democrats believe that a more narrow, subdued approach remains the most effective.
A senior House Democrat told Axios that some moderates are angry at progressives for their outbursts, but added that "people are pissed at leadership too. … Everyone is mad at everyone."
Continue reading at Axios
Senate Democrats warm to helping GOP avoid government shutdown
Why it matters: A truly clean funding bill will make life easier for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), with President Trump's help, is steadily building House GOP support to extend last year's spending levels through Sept. 30 without any significant policy changes.
Schumer has been clear that he wants to avoid a shutdown. Even talking about wanting one is a big no-no.
If the GOP can get a clean continuing resolution (CR) through the House, and avoid multiple GOP defectors in the Senate, it should be doable to get enough Dems on board to reach 60 votes, multiple sources tell Axios.
Continue reading at Axios
Is Social Security money going to ‘millions’ of people listed as old as 149?
In an apparent example of government waste, Trump drew laughs during his congressional address Tuesday when he alleged that the Social Security Administration (SSA) had millions of beneficiaries well over 100 years of age.
“Three-point-five million people from age 140 to 149,” Trump said, claiming that “money is being paid to many of them.”
Perhaps even more shocking was Trump’s assertion that “one person is listed at 360 years of age,” but is it true that actual taxpayer dollars are being wasted on impossibly-old recipients?
Continue reading at The Hill
GOP lawmaker holding town hall despite advice to avoid them: ‘I trust my constituents’
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) said Wednesday he’s holding a town hall despite House Republicans being recently pushed to avoid in-person town halls and do phone or livestreamed ones instead.
“I’m having a town hall next week, right there in Asheville, North Carolina, first of all, because my constituents have asked for it,” Edwards told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”
“I … I trust my constituents, even those that I might not agree with. But more than that, I’m proud of what Republicans are accomplishing right now, and I want the opportunity to talk about that,” he added.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘Who’s doing the vetting?': Republicans denounce Pentagon aide for antisemitic comments
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson compared the murders of Israeli babies during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to abortion.
The backlash over a top Pentagon aide who has touted antisemitic views, white supremacist conspiracy theories and Kremlin-like statements on social media grew wider on Wednesday in a sign of increasing frustration among Republicans about the Trump administration’s seemingly unvetted appointees.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson’s posts — which include comparing the murders of Israeli babies during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to abortion and spreading the far-right “great replacement theory” — have angered lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“It’s horrible, it’s just not appropriate,” said Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), when told of Wilson’s remarks. “Sometimes people think they’re anonymous when they’re on social media, that they can comment or post on whatever may be their attitude at the time, and then they later regret it.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) first called out Wilson’s controversial comments in February after she posted on X to “Make Kosovo Serbia Again.” The phrase echoed Russia’s desires for the tiny American ally in the Western Balkans, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after years of brutal crackdowns.
Continue reading at Politico
Musk to House Republicans: DOGE ‘can’t bat a thousand all the time’
Elon Musk defended his actions to House Republicans as they are scrambling to explain federal funding cuts to their constituents.
Elon Musk defended himself to a room full of House Republicans on Wednesday night, saying that he “can’t bat a thousand all the time,” according to four people present for his remarks. But he also promised to work to correct mistakes amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s slash-and-burn operation across the federal government.
Musk met the House GOP conference after a growing number of Hill Republicans have raised concerns about DOGE and called for the team to be more careful in its methods for rooting out waste, fraud and abuse across agencies.
GOP lawmakers have noted examples of Musk and his team moving too quickly to freeze funding, dismantle programs and fire federal workers, resulting in major disruptions and requiring the administration to reverse their actions in some cases.
In general, the meeting was positive, and Musk received a warm welcome, said the four people who were inside the room and were granted anonymity to share details of the private gathering.
Continue reading at Politico
EU automakers caught up in Trump’s trade war
U.S. tariffs on Mexico and Canada undercut automakers’ highly integrated supply chains.
United States President Donald Trump launched a trade war against Canada and Mexico. But Germany’s Volkswagen is in line to feel a lot of that pain.
Last year, 44 percent of the German brand’s cars sold in the United States were produced in Mexico, according to car industry analysis firm JATO Dynamics. That’s a result of the highly integrated North American auto market under free trade agreements torn up by Trump.
Trump slapping a 25 percent tariff on goods made in Canada and Mexico spells further trouble for Germany’s automakers. They are already seeing their earnings in the key Chinese market shrivel due to slowing demand and rising competition from local rivals.
Trump’s move also offsets a Monday win for carmakers when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced leniency on this year's EU emission targets, which the industry said would have cost billions.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Read: LA County sues Southern California Edison over Eaton Fire
Los Angeles County is suing Southern California Edison over the Eaton Fire, which killed 17 people in January.
The big picture: The cause of the blaze that was one of California's most destructive wildfires on record remains under investigation, but LA County alleges in a lawsuit there's "clear evidence" from images and witness statements that SCE's equipment was responsible for it.
It's one of several lawsuits the utility faces over the Eaton Fire. The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre also announced suits.
Zoom in: The wildfire that was one of several to erupt on Jan. 7 during dry, windy conditions destroyed 9,414 properties and damaged 1,074 others as it burned for 24 days over 14,021 acres in the Altadena and Pasadena, Calif., areas, injuring nine firefighters, per Cal Fire.
Continue reading at Axios
Insanity break with… Kevin Bacon!
Macron speech on Ukraine
Video Features
Was Donald Trump recruited by the KGB under codename Krasnov?
How they see US
France 24 in English - Live
Sky News Live
Economics
Economist Jared Bernstein
Economist Dean Baker
My Opinion posts
Free Speech and... a Muzzle | Blog#42
Your support is what keeps me going…
I publish a daily news post, updated all throughout the day (and night), every day. I publish it free to all because it is more important to me to keep us all informed, but it does take me from 04:00 through the evening to curate the news. I also publish 2-4 opinion pieces per week, also free. I am committed to doing this work for the duration of this administration. Please support me and subscribe for $5 a month. Thank you.