Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 38 | Blog#42
As the world hardens positions...
Yesterday’s post
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Yesterday’s news worth repeating
US vaccine advisory meeting postponed after Kennedy takes top health job
Feb 20 (Reuters) - A meeting of U.S. vaccine advisers set for late February has been postponed, a federal official confirmed on Thursday, raising new uncertainty about the Trump administration's vaccine policy after Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s installation atop the nation’s health bureaucracy.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) normally holds multiple meetings a year, reviews scientific data and makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control. It had been scheduled to convene for three days next week and take several votes, including one about how a key government vaccine distribution program should handle influenza inoculations.
That session will be postponed to allow public comment prior to the meeting, said Andrew Nixon, director of communications at the U.S. Department of Health and Human services.
"The ACIP workgroups met as scheduled this month and will present at the upcoming ACIP meeting," Nixon added.
The move comes a week after Kennedy was confirmed as the secretary of Health and Human Services despite his criticism of agencies under his supervision, including the CDC. Kennedy has denied being "anti-vaccine" and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting vaccinated.
Continue reading at Reuters
Note from Rima: Dr. Peter Hotez was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He said that now is the time that, normally meetings take place to plan and decide on the vaccine formula for the upcoming season. Those meetings have not taken place and the vaccine manufacturers need those decisions to be made before they start manufacturing.
My opinion: This is a big problem and one way for RFK to prevent people from getting a flu vaccine next year.
Experts warn the proposed SAVE Act could make it harder for some married women to vote. Here's who could be affected.
Experts say the bill, which was recently reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, would not explicitly prevent these voters from casting a ballot, but it could create barriers to registration by requiring them to show additional documentation.
If passed, the act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires states to offer voter registration when obtaining a driver's license, to mandate documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration.
This means that common forms of ID used for voter registration, including driver's licenses, would no longer be accepted as they are not generally considered proof of citizenship. Instead, voters would have to present documents such as a U.S. passport, a birth certificate, or naturalization paperwork to register.
The Center for American Progress analysis estimated as many as 69 million have taken their spouse's name but do not have a matching birth certificate. "The fate of those 69 million women are basically up in the air, the way the bill is written," said Greta Bedekovics, associate director of democracy policy at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy and advocacy group.
Continue reading at CBS News
Johnson says deal to avert shutdown will probably be ‘clean,’ without DOGE cuts
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Wednesday that a stopgap to avert a government shutdown next month is “becoming inevitable” and that it will probably be as “clean” as possible, as both sides have struggled for weeks to strike a full-year funding deal.
Pressed about the prospect of a six-month stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), Johnson said, “It looks as though it is becoming inevitable at this point,” while pointing fingers at Democrats for “placing completely unreasonable conditions on the negotiations.”
“They want us to limit the scope of executive authority,” Johnson said. “They want us to tie the hands of the president. They want to stipulate, for example, how many specific numbers of employees would be required by executive agencies.”
“That’s just totally unprecedented. It’s inappropriate. I think it’s unconstitutional. I think it’d be a violation of separation of powers,” he said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump gives Musk's DOGE extra teeth to scour government contracts
President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday empowering DOGE to scrutinize how federal agencies spend money, the latest expansion of Elon Musk's cost cutting powers.
Why it matters: Trump, who hours earlier backed Musk's email to federal employees asking them to outline what they accomplished at work last week, is giving the billionaire SpaceX founder extra teeth to upend government through his work on DOGE.
Driving the news: The executive order asks agencies to work with a DOGE team lead to review contracts and grants, and cut or modify them "where appropriate," per the White House.
It also asks agencies to build a system to "record every payment" spent on the agency's contracts and grants and provide a "brief, written justification for each payment."
The executive order also asks agency heads to work with their DOGE team lead to build a system to record approval for federally-funded travel or conferences — and provide written justification for conferences or non-essential travel.
Continue reading at Axios
WaPo Opinion Editor resigns after Jeff Bezos announces changes to Opinion section
The Washington Post's Opinion Section editor David Shipley resigned after owner Jeff Bezos mandated the section prioritize two topics, personal liberties and free markets, and not publish dissenting views in those areas.
Why it matters: The changes will dramatically reshape The Post's opinion coverage, which has focused on a broad array of issues, especially politics and policy, for decades.
"This is a significant shift, it won't be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision," Bezos wrote in a note to staff Wednesday. "We'll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction."
The big picture: The new announcement, following a controversial move by Bezos to kill presidential endorsements last year, shows how much Bezos is willing to assert his power to shape public opinion as the owner of one of the country's largest newspapers.
The Post lost thousands of subscribers last year over Bezos' endorsement decision. Members of the Opinion Board resigned in protest.
Zoom in: Bezos said the Post will cover other topics "but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others."
Continue reading at Axios
Today’s News
In Memoriam
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife and dog found dead in their New Mexico home
Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog were found dead in their New Mexico home, authorities said Thursday.
Foul play was not suspected, but authorities did not release circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation was ongoing.
Hackman, 95, Betsy Arakawa, 63, and their dog were all dead when deputies entered their home to check on their welfare around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
5 awkward encounters between UK prime ministers and US presidents
Keir Starmer and Donald Trump will likely be all smiles during their meeting Thursday — but a frosty encounter between the two nations’ leaders isn’t unusual.
LONDON — Oh to be a fly on the wall.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet Donald Trump on Thursday for the first time since the U.S. president returned to the White House. Neither of them will forget the meeting — for the right or wrong reasons.
Although Starmer wasn’t the first European leader to bag time with Trump, the U.K. has prided itself on its so-called special relationship with its ally on the other side of the Atlantic.
But the feeling hasn’t always been entirely mutual. On numerous occasions the duo haven’t seen eye to eye, leading to some, well, awkward encounters.
The PM has engaged in a vigorous charm offensive since Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, speedily congratulating him after meeting him for the first time in September for dinner at Trump Tower. Since then, the unlikely pairing — the buttoned-up British PM and the flamboyant U.S. real estate tycoon-turned-politician — have spoken regularly, with Trump stating Starmer was doing a “very good job.”
Conversation will be dominated by the war in Ukraine as Starmer tries to convince the president that U.S. security guarantees are essential for any peace deal to work — and that Kyiv and Europe must be part of those negotiations.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Dying in Darkness: Jeff Bezos Turns Out the Lights in the Washington Post’s Opinion Section
The tech mogul’s decision to revamp the editorial pages around his own views threatens not only independent journalism, but the Post’s business future.
On Wednesday morning, outgoing Washington Post Opinion Editor David Shipley huddled with his soon-to-be former staff. Barely an hour earlier, owner Jeff Bezos had forced Shipley out as part of an audacious plan to transform the paper’s ecumenical opinion section into one that would now exclusively publish opinion pieces in favor of “personal liberties and free markets.”
Praising Bezos’ candor, Shipley said the billionaire “certainly has a better business record than I have,” according to a participant.
Yes, Amazon is a behemoth. But this week’s seismic news, cutting against decades of tradition where op-ed pages at publications like the Post at least tried to reflect the entire American spectrum, suggests those vaunted Bezos instincts seem to have gone seriously off track in the journalism business.
In personally announcing that he was dramatically re-orienting the editorial line, and in fact wouldn’t even run dissenting views, Bezos added another sharp example to a narrative that represents a grave threat to the Post’s image: The idea that its owner is messing around with the product in order to curry favor with his new pal Donald Trump, who has the power to withhold contracts from Amazon and other Bezos companies.
The paper’s image is not some abstract question for journalism-school professors. It’s a matter of dollars and cents. If readers don’t trust a publication’s name, no amount of Pulitzer-worthy scoops will fix it. For Bezos, a guy who believes that the Post needs to gain a broad-based audience, it’s a baffling blind spot.
Which is why, when it comes to the prospects of the Post, I’d rather risk my mortgage payment on the business judgments of an opinion-journalism lifer than those of the billionaire founder of a world-changing e-commerce company.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
Michael Schaffer is a senior editor and columnist at POLITICO Magazine. He has covered national and local politics for over 20 years and spent seven years as editor-in-chief of the Washingtonian. His Capital City column chronicles the inside conversations and big trends shaping Washington politics.
How the Bezos-Trump alliance began
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos last summer privately urged Donald Trump to pick Doug Burgum as Trump's vice president, saying he'd be an "excellent" choice.
Why it matters: Bezos' phone conversation with Trump in July — detailed in my forthcoming book, "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power" — was a sign that Bezos was engaging with Trump on political issues months earlier than previously reported.
It wasn't until late October — three months later — that Bezos spiked the Post editorial page's planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, and his outreach to Trump came into focus.
Zoom in: The latest indication of Bezos' Trump-ward drift came Wednesday, when he announced that the Post's progressive-leaning opinion page would shift its mission to promote "personal liberties and free markets."
The move was praised by Trump allies such as Elon Musk but created an uproar at the Post, where David Shipley, the opinion editor, resigned.
Flashback: Since he killed the Harris editorial, Bezos — like Musk, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other tech titans whose fortunes can be swayed by the president's decisions — has continued to publicly warm to Trump.
On Nov. 6, the day after the election, Bezos praised Trump for an "extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory."
The following month, Bezos dined with Trump at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. And in January, Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, attended Trump's inauguration, to which Amazon had donated $1 million.
The seeds of the Bezos-Trump alliance were planted in the July phone call. During the call, Bezos praised Trump for how he'd handled the attempt on his life at a rally in Butler, Pa.
Continue reading at Axios
Denmark wanted advice on handling Trump. It turned to Ozempic’s boss.
Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen might not be a household name, but his company’s drug Ozempic is. And its success has thrust him — reluctantly — into the limelight.
When United States President Donald Trump announced he would tariff Denmark if the country didn’t relinquish control of Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen turned to a coterie of CEOs for advice.
But rather than the fist-pumping tech bros or mixed martial arts fighters that made up Trump’s circle at his inauguration, Frederiksen went instead to a rather more reserved character: a softly spoken 58-year old, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen.
In person the Dane is quiet, polite and understated. But he inspires enough fear in fast food giants that they call him up in a panic about the threat he poses to their businesses.
He’s the CEO of Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk — best known as the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs-turned-cultural phenomena that have single-handedly prevented Denmark from falling into a recession.
But how did the self-confessed introvert who “needs his quiet time” become the man to advise Denmark on how to handle the American president?
The ambivalent boffin
Continue reading at Politico
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France 24 reporting (How They See US)
France 24 is a 24 hour news broadcast channel
High-level EU-US diplomatic talks are called off as transatlantic tensions rise
WASHINGTON (AP) — A planned meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was abruptly canceled Wednesday due to “scheduling issues,” coming as political tensions have increased between Europe and the United States.
Officials from both sides blamed scheduling challenges for preventing the pair, who last met at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last month, from meeting in Washington.
However, European officials said they were caught off guard, and, notably, Kallas had previewed her planned talks with Rubio just two days earlier.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has thrown the partnership between the U.S. and Europe into turmoil by pledging to charge higher taxes on imports from Europe that he says will match tariffs faced by American products. EU officials have traveled to Washington trying to head off a trade war.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Why the Trump administration may want Ukraine’s minerals
DETROIT (AP) — The United States will have access to Ukraine’s critical mineral wealth, including key ingredients for the clean energy transition, under a deal the two countries are expected to sign later this week.
President Donald Trump, who has pushed for the agreement, has long been critical of a transition to green energies, which include wind and solar power, along with electrification of transportation and appliances, all things that require the various minerals the U.S. will have access to in this deal. So if Trump is against this trend, why go after these minerals?
The quick answer could be they’re used in a lot of other things, too. Here’s a closer look:
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Not known for political coverage, Wired takes a leading role in tracking Elon Musk’s team
NEW YORK (AP) — Shortly after becoming Wired’s global editorial director in 2023, Katie Drummond acted on an early-morning idea. With a presidential election coming, the tech-focused news outlet needed a team to report on technology’s intersection with politics.
She couldn’t have predicted how much the decision would pay off.
Wired has attracted broad attention for its aggressive coverage of the Trump administration, particularly Elon Musk’s efforts at reducing federal employment. It has identified and traced the backgrounds of Musk’s young team and how they are burrowing their way into government operations.
“I think we were very well positioned to jump on that coverage,” Drummond said.
Wired has written about a 25-year-old engineer, Marko Elez, and his access to the sprawling Treasury Department systems that make government payments. Its stories about 19-year-old Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” included one about how he’s on staff at a federal cybersecurity agency.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Note from Rima: I’ve been sharing Wired article as well as articles from Gizmodo. Both have been doing wonderful reporting
Playbook
The British invasion
DRIVING THE DAY
THE BRITISH ARE COMING: President Donald Trump is gearing up for part two of a Euro triple-whammy this morning with the arrival of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the White House. Sandwiched between French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit on Monday and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hotly anticipated trip tomorrow, Starmer is in town to deliver much the same message as his diminutive Euro counterparts: that Europe still needs American military muscle to ward off the threat of Russian aggression. Whether Trump is any more receptive to the idea than he was on Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday) remains to be seen.
How the president’s day pans out: Trump receives his intelligence briefing at 11.15 a.m. … Starmer is due at the White House at 12.15 p.m., and we can expect warm words and handshakes at the top … After that there’s a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office followed by a private working lunch … and then the main public-facing event, a Trump/Starmer press conference in the East Room currently scheduled for 2 p.m. … Though don’t be surprised if all those times slip.
High stakes: This is Trump’s first in-person meeting with Starmer since his return to the White House and is being billed as a huge moment for transatlantic relations back in the U.K., where the shockwaves from Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speeches in Munich earlier this month are still being felt. Britain’s entire security architecture since the 1940s has been underwritten by U.S. military power, and never once in the decades since has that commitment felt remotely in doubt — until now. Friends at home have started sending your author half-joking texts about World War Three ... Some warm words from Trump would help soothe a nation’s rattled nerves.
All eyes on Ukraine: The most immediate topic is Ukraine, of course, with Trump expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace talks in the coming weeks. The U.K. has prided itself on its full-blooded support for Kyiv since Putin’s invasion, and Starmer aims to ensure the coming deal does not hand Russia a victory it could not have secured on the battlefield. Europe’s big fear is that “peace” will prove nothing more than a short cessation of hostilities while Putin rearms his exhausted war machine — before the tanks roll back into Ukraine in a few years’ time to finish the job.
What to watch for: The key question at this afternoon’s press conference is whether Trump shows any sign of coming around to the idea of a U.S. military guarantee protecting Ukraine from future attacks. Starmer and Macron are offering up a European peace-keeping force to enforce whatever borders are agreed on the ground — but still want a U.S. military “backstop” to warn Putin off another invasion. “The security guarantee has to be sufficient to deter Putin from coming again,” Starmer told reporters on the plane yesterday, per my POLITICO colleague Dan Bloom.
Good luck with that: Trump has rejected such talk out of hand, demanding that Europe not just take the lead on Ukraine’s postwar security but shoulder the entire burden. “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump told his Cabinet yesterday. “We’re going to have Europe do that.” Macron emerged from his meeting with Trump on Monday with little more than platitudes to show for his efforts, and you have to assume it’ll go the same way for Starmer today.
Continue reading the Politico Playbook newsletter
The Democrats taking on Trump and Musk — and winning
Democratic state attorneys general have been planning their lawsuits for a year.
The resistance meets daily on Microsoft Teams.
The country’s 23 Democratic state attorneys general log on at 4pm ET for a thirty-minute confidential video chat to coordinate their plans for pushing back against the Trump administration. They share updates on the seven cases they have moving through federal courts and argue about whether to treat Elon Musk as a lawful arm of the government or an uncredentialed interloper to it. They plot where to respond next, leveraging timezone differences to expand the workday.
The American left has floundered during Trump 2.0. The mass protests of 2017 have not emerged, and donors to progressive causes are not giving the way they did then, either. Democratic congressional minorities have been cowed by Trump’s assertions of executive power, while many of the governors who stand as their party’s leading figures are cautious about provoking fights with the president. In confronting Trump, elected officials have largely yielded to labor unions and advocacy organizations.
Then there are the attorneys general, who see themselves as the last backstop between the people and the president. Their multi-state lawsuits have temporarily stopped the president from revoking birthright citizenship, freezing federal funding and cutting off money for medical research. This week, they filed their sixth amicus brief in an action against the Trump administration, with 23 attorneys general signing on to argue the importance of the Affordable Care Act. The US Department of Justice declined a request for comment on that suit, or others it is defending.
Continue reading at Politico
Elon Musk’s bad rep among Dems threatens EV sales push in statehouses
Tesla’s campaigns to sell their electric vehicles directly to consumers, bypassing traditional dealerships, face more challenges in Democratic statehouses as Musk’s national clout grows.
ALBANY, New York — Elon Musk is taking Washington by storm, but in statehouses controlled by Democrats on both coasts, his lobbyists are facing a frigid welcome.
Tesla’s ability to sell electric vehicles directly to consumers remains restricted in several states where the deeply entrenched franchise dealership model prevails. Musk’s company has lobbied to be allowed to set up its own sales locations in those states over the last few years — with only limited success.
In the past, blue state Democrats and environmental groups pushed for allowing Tesla and other electric vehicle makers to set up shop rather than requiring customers to buy online. They saw it as a no-cost measure to support higher EV sales and slash transportation emissions.
But Musk’s growing political clout and alignment with Republican President Donald Trump is making that a harder sell.
“You could not pay me to carry that bill now,” said New York state Sen. Pat Fahy, a Democrat from the Albany area who for several years sponsored legislation to allow direct sales. “I’m thoroughly disgusted with Elon Musk and everything he stands for.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump admin fires early-career federal workers. It could alter the future of government.
The cuts come amid growing attrition from an aging federal workforce, which the Biden administration worried would hollow out the government without intervention.
Federal agencies have slashed many early career recruiting and development programs as the government trims spending — and employees worry the cuts could drastically alter how the government operates.
These annual training programs — which last anywhere from a couple months to two years — have long been pipelines for hundreds of mission-driven college graduates and career-switchers into full-time public service. They were heralded by the Biden administration, which aimed to bolster recruitment of younger professionals in the face of an aging federal workforce gearing for retirement.
But as the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency nix the federal workforce to shed government spending, many of the staffers in these programs have been dismissed. Over the past two weeks, federal agencies have unleashed a wave of layoffs that hit thousands of probationary workers. And in a memo issued Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management said agencies should use all tools in their arsenal to reduce headcount, including “attrition and allowing term or temporary positions” like these programs “to expire without renewal.”
At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, many recent law school graduates training to be trial attorneys through a legal honors program were terminated starting mid-February, according to two staffers familiar with the situation. Presidential management fellows training for leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies were also terminated Valentine’s Day weekend, an NIH supervisor and fellow said. And the General Services Administration’s U.S. Digital Corps fellowship, which offers recent graduates work on the government’s technical services, is set to be cleaved by about 75 percent, according to two GSA managers who, like the rest of the federal workers in this story, spoke to POLITICO anonymously to avoid retribution.
Continue reading at Politico
Johnson rules out steepest Medicaid cut options
The speaker also said in an interview with CNN that he doesn’t expect the Senate will make changes to the House’s budget resolution.
Speaker Mike Johnson has ruled out some of the biggest potential cuts to Medicaid for Republicans’ party-line package to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The House has targeted at least $880 billion in savings from the Energy and Commerce Committee, a task that is expected to require significant reductions to Medicaid spending. That has spurred significant concern among centrist Republicans, many of whom have a lot of Medicaid recipients in their districts.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins Wednesday night, Johnson ruled out putting per-capita caps on Medicaid in the eventual budget reconciliation bill. Those caps would mean the federal government would pay a share of states’ Medicaid costs based on their population, instead of the program being an open-ended entitlement. He also said that changes to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage are off the table — a move that would cut into the share of federal payments for Medicaid, a joint state-federal program.
Both of those are options that could produce some of the most significant potential savings from the Medicaid program — but they also would have shifted significant costs to states and led to benefit cuts.
Continue reading at Politico
Donald Trump might have made a bad mineral deal with Ukraine
Estimates of Ukraine’s mineral wealth are based on outdated and incomplete assessments of difficult-to-access sites.
BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump, who prides himself on his negotiating skills, is on the brink of clinching a deal that would give the U.S. preferential access to Ukraine’s extensive raw material reserves.
But Trump might end up getting less than he bargained for. Estimates of Ukraine’s supposed mineral wealth are based on outdated Soviet-era surveys that didn’t take into account the viability or cost of developing them.
The latest draft of the agreement, cited by Ukrainian newspaper Economic Pravda, would see Kyiv pay 50 percent of revenues from its state-owned natural resources into a fund that would invest in Ukraine. There would be no U.S. security guarantees in return.
On paper, the U.S. stands to make a killing from the deal.
According to Ukraine’s natural resources and environment ministry, the country’s bedrock holds around 5 percent of the world’s “critical” raw materials — including graphite, lithium, titanium, beryllium and uranium.
The resources are essential to make batteries, radar systems and armor — key to the defense and tech industries — and would go some way to reducing America’s reliance on Chinese minerals.
In practice, the extent of Ukraine’s mineral patrimony is still largely a mystery.
Though the country reports more than 20,000 surveyed mineral deposits and sites, only around 8,000 of them have been assessed as viable. Of these, fewer than half were being exploited before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Continue reading at Politico Europe (maps included)
Far right gets shut out as Austrian government forms
Conservatives will lead Vienna’s new coalition amid economic uncertainty and political fragmentation.
Austria’s conservative Peoples’ Party (ÖVP), center-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) and liberal Neos have reached a coalition agreement after five months of political deadlock, according to multiple local media reports.
The deal, which still requires approval from the Neos’ party base, prevents the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) from taking power — despite it winning the most votes in last September’s election.
Conservative boss Christian Stocker will become chancellor, with the SPÖ’s Andreas Babler as vice chancellor.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Note from Rima: This follows the pattern in Germany
Behind the Curtain: The hard truths about Trump tax cuts
Most politicians agree on three truths: We have a spending problem (too much), a tax problem (too high or too low), and a debt problem (way too much).
Yet the typical response is: Make all three worse.
Why it matters: This truism sits at the very heart of Republicans' fight over a grand budget deal. They're trying to convince their members, and the American public, that you can take in less money (taxes), spend more on defense — and somehow reduce deficits without touching the programs that cost the most.
Washington is a city of magical thinking — both parties practice it. Hence, insane deficits under Presidents Biden, Trump, Obama and Bush. We'll grow our way of it! Even if we never do.
Washington is not a city of math thinking. It's too inconvenient to apply common-sense arithmetic. Instead, you get wonky "dynamic scoring," "budget windows" and "future growth."
A true tell: The solution is always in a future that never comes.
Our favorite new D.C. math: Republicans are backing word and math fog called "current-policy baseline," which allows them to "score" lower taxes as costing nothing. Why? Because they're just extending expiring tax cuts. Make sense? That's the magic of D.C. math.
Continue reading at Axios
A new era of Made in America drug manufacturing
Last week, President Trump threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals if manufacturers don't relocate operations to the U.S. On Wednesday, the CEO of Eli Lilly stood with Trump's commerce secretary in Washington, D.C., to announce a $27 billion plan to build four manufacturing "mega-sites" in the U.S.
Why it matters: The commitment illustrates the dance much of Big Pharma is engaged in as it tries to make inroads with a new administration bent on reshoring business activity and reducing dependence on China.
The big picture: Reshoring pharmaceutical manufacturing would be a shift for the industry, which still sources most drug ingredients from overseas and has seen its global supply chains buckle from disease outbreaks and natural disasters. Now, political winds from Washington could force a reckoning.
Hanging over it all is Trump's focus on cracking down on economic competition from China. CEO David Ricks said his company's expansion would prove key to expanding U.S. capabilities in synthetic chemistry and reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers.
The pharmaceutical giant — whose products include the blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound — focused on its role in economic growth, saying its plan will create 3,000 jobs, as well as 10,000 construction jobs.
Continue reading at Axios
Telehealth advocates turn up the pressure as Medicare deadline nears
Providers, patients and digital health companies are ramping up their calls for more certainty that Medicare will continue to reimburse them for telehealth appointments after the current authority to do so expires on April 1.
Why it matters: Telehealth usage among seniors has declined since the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but more than 1 in 10 traditional Medicare beneficiaries still used virtual care services in 2023, per KFF. Telehealth can connect patients to medical specialists in other parts of the country, cut down on travel time to appointments and foster independence.
Telehealth has bipartisan support. It's popular with patients and providers, and studies show that it's just as effective as an in-person appointment for many services.
But making the current policies permanent could cost the federal government billions of dollars as Republican leadership looks for places to save money.
Continue reading at Axios
What to know about the Trump $250 bill proposal
South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson is proposing legislation to feature President Trump on a $250 bill.
Why it matters: It would be a new denomination — and would require changing a law that prevents a living person from appearing on U.S. currency.
What they're saying: Wilson endorsed Trump's economic policies in a post on X that also featured an edited image of Trump's face on a bill.
Continue reading at Axios
AFP grows Capitol Hill footprint; Trump 2028 push looks to House
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) may be in the doghouse with President Trump, but it is increasing its footprint on Capitol Hill as it advocates for its top priority this year: Extension of the president’s 2017 tax cuts.
The libertarian-conservative Koch-funded group got a boost in that endeavor when it hosted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday for a “congressional conversation” with Guy Benson, a Fox News Contributor and member of AFP’s advisory council.
It took place at AFP’s Capitol Hill outpost, which the organization calls its “Freedom Embassy” – a relatively new office located just a block away from the epicenter of GOP Hill politics, the Capitol Hill Club and the Republican National Committee.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Filed under how the GOP always plans ahead
5 governor races to watch as 2026 takes shape
Gubernatorial races are creeping into the spotlight as attention turns toward 2026, when three dozen governors’ mansions will be up for grabs.
Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy made headlines this week when he jumped into Ohio’s gubernatorial race, snagging a major endorsement from President Trump. He’s among several firebrand allies gunning for governor, including in Florida and Arizona.
Meanwhile, some blue states will see competitive primaries, as well. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) could face a bitter primary, while the primary to determine who could succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in California appears likely to turn competitive.
The midterm races will follow off-year gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia this fall. Here are some of the key contests to watch in 2026.
Continue reading at The Hill
GOP senators vent Musk frustrations at closed-door meeting
Republican senators vented their concerns about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s aggressive approach to freezing federal spending and cutting government jobs during a private meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday.
Gathered in the historic Mansfield Room outside the Senate chamber, some GOP senators complained about what they view as a lack of transparency about what Musk and his team of engineers are doing at federal agencies.
They flagged cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which fired 1,400 employees Monday, and said Musk’s team hadn’t responded to their requests for information, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
“Every day’s another surprise,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of the daily bombshells from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“It would be better to allow Cabinet secretaries to carefully review their departments and then make surgical, strategic decisions on what programs and people should be cut and then come back to Congress for approval,” she said.
Continue reading at The Hill
How RFK Jr. could restrict abortion medication access
Kennedy pledged to study the abortion drug mifepristone on President Trump’s request during his confirmation hearings, citing “safety issues.” He did not offer further explanation of what those issues were.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” Kennedy said during the hearings last month. “He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies.”
If the administration does seek to restrict access to the drug, health policy experts do not think Kennedy will attempt to remove it from the market, but say he could instead try to direct agencies within HHS to limit who can take mifepristone and how it can be administered.
“If you are trying to make a product harder to access … you are going to institute restrictions that reduce the ease in which people can access the product,” said Caleb Alexander, a physician and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with research focus on drug utilization and safety.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: the same tactic applies to vaccines, as seen here:
US vaccine advisory meeting postponed after Kennedy takes top health job
Feb 20 (Reuters) - A meeting of U.S. vaccine advisers set for late February has been postponed, a federal official confirmed on Thursday, raising new uncertainty about the Trump administration's vaccine policy after Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s installation atop the nation’s health bureaucracy.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) normally holds multiple meetings a year, reviews scientific data and makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control. It had been scheduled to convene for three days next week and take several votes, including one about how a key government vaccine distribution program should handle influenza inoculations.
That session will be postponed to allow public comment prior to the meeting, said Andrew Nixon, director of communications at the U.S. Department of Health and Human services.
"The ACIP workgroups met as scheduled this month and will present at the upcoming ACIP meeting," Nixon added.
The move comes a week after Kennedy was confirmed as the secretary of Health and Human Services despite his criticism of agencies under his supervision, including the CDC. Kennedy has denied being "anti-vaccine" and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting vaccinated.
Continue reading at Reuters
Note from Rima: Dr. Peter Hotez was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. He said that now is the time that, normally meetings take place to plan and decide on the vaccine formula for the upcoming season. Those meetings have not taken place and the vaccine manufacturers need those decisions to be made before they start manufacturing.
My opinion: This is a big problem and one way for RFK to prevent people from getting a flu vaccine next year.
5 obstacles facing the GOP tax agenda
The House voted Tuesday to pass a budget resolution that will act as the blueprint for the GOP’s domestic agenda, with the extension of President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts at the center.
While the bill managed to clear the GOP’s razor-thin House majority, the road map it lays out for the reconciliation process, which will avoid a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and allow a party-line vote, faces opposition on multiple fronts. Obstacles are mounting both within the GOP conference and outside of it.
“We’re working to codify President Trump’s agenda. We can’t allow a future administration to unwind all of these important reforms,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday.
Here are five hurdles facing the GOP as it seeks to cut taxes and move ahead with other parts of its agenda, including increasing fossil fuel extraction and curbing migration.
Continue reading at The Hill
Andrew Cuomo seen as possible White House candidate by some Democrats
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is days away from potentially entering the New York City mayor’s race.
But even before Cuomo is set to make that announcement, some Democrats are already tossing around his name for a bigger race: the 2028 presidential campaign.
Since their loss in November, Democrats have been anxious to find a voice not only to lead them out of the wilderness but also to stand up to President Trump and the slew of actions he’s taken in his second term.
Cuomo, with his brash, in-your-face style, they say, could shape up to be a dark horse candidate in what is set to be a wide-open race.
Continue reading at The Hill
Senate Republicans seek major changes to House-passed Trump budget bill
Senate Republicans are staring down a major fight to overhaul the House’s budget resolution as lawmakers eye big changes.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), with the help of President Trump’s muscle, was able to get the House’s plan to enact Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda past a key hurdle on Tuesday.
But even as Senate Republicans say they’re relieved the House was able to advance the measure, they’re also crying foul that it wouldn’t make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent and fretting about the deep cuts to Medicaid that would be required to finance the House’s plan.
Now, the effort to advance Trump’s priorities enters a new stage with both sides attempting something they’ve been unable to do since late last year: get on the same page.
“It’s complicated. It’s hard. Nothing about this is going to be easy,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). “There are some things that we need to work with the House package to expand upon.”
Continue reading at The Hill
USAID workers will be given 15 minutes to clear their workspaces as the agency gets dismantled
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development workers who have been fired or placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency are being given a brief window Thursday and Friday to clear out their workspaces.
USAID placed 4,080 staffers who work across the globe on leave Monday. That was joined by a “reduction in force” that will affect another 1,600 employees, a State Department spokesman said in an emailed response to questions.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
EU pushes back against Trump tariff threats and his caustic comments that bloc is out to get the US
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive branch said Thursday that the 27-nation bloc wasn’t out to undermine the United States, as U.S. President Donald Trump put it, but instead was the world’s largest free market that has created an economic windfall for American companies working on and with the continent.
The bloc also added it would vigorously fight a wholesale tariff of 25% on all EU products headed for the U.S., as Trump has threatened in the latest round of vitriolic comments aimed at an age-old ally and economic partner.
Thursday’s EU pushback came after Trump told reporters that “the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it,” adding it would stop immediately under his presidency. He said that the tariffs would be on “cars and all other things.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Andrew Tate, who faces rape and trafficking charges in Romania, has left for the US
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, have left for the U.S. after a travel ban on them was lifted, an official said Thursday.
The brothers are also charged with forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Andrew Tate also faces an additional charge of rape.
It wasn’t clear under what conditions the Tates — who are avid supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump and boast millions of online followers — were allowed to leave Romania.
An official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the case, said that the decision was at the discretion of prosecutors.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania,” but that judicial control measures remained in place. The agency didn’t say who had made the request.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Capitol agenda: Shutdown blame game rages
It's a tried-and-true negative sign for stalled government funding talks, with a deadline looming on March 14.
The shutdown blame game is in full swing on Capitol Hill — a tried-and-true negative sign for stalled government funding talks.
State of play: GOP leaders won’t put language in their funding bills to stop President Donald Trump and Elon Musk from clawing back money Congress previously approved — something Democrats have been demanding in exchange for backing a spending deal.
That leaves Democrats with a choice: Give in or force a shutdown after March 14.
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democratic appropriator in her chamber, said protecting Congress’ power of the purse is “the absolute bare minimum, and it’s frankly not asking a whole lot.”
Still, critically, she insisted Democrats don’t want a shutdown. Her Democratic colleagues aren't saying they want that outcome, either. Instead, they’re arguing that responsibility for funding the government rests squarely with the Republican trifecta.
Continue reading at Politico
Musk to meet with House Republicans
Speaker Mike Johnson said he is trying to set up a meeting to discuss DOGE.
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Thursday that he’s trying to schedule a meeting of House Republicans with Elon Musk soon to discuss the work of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Johnson, who met with Musk at the White House late Tuesday, said the billionaire adviser to President Donald Trump would “meet with either small groups of members, appropriators or maybe all the House Republicans,” likely next week or shortly thereafter.
“He’s anxious to share what he's finding, and a lot of things he's told me in our private meetings, I said we have to make sure all the members understand the degree of the fraud, waste, abuse, and how egregious it is,” Johnson said.
Separately, members of the Senate's DOGE Caucus, a group lead by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), are meeting with Musk at the White House on Thursday. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also told Republicans during a closed-door GOP steering committee lunch on Wednesday that he is also working to set up a meeting for senators with Musk.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump says Canada, Mexico tariffs will go into effect March 4
It could be a negotiating tactic: Trump similarly pledged to levy tariffs earlier this month before backing off at the last minute.
President Donald Trump pledged Thursday to enforce his planned 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting March 4, after both were put on pause earlier this month.
“We cannot allow this scourge [of drugs] to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday morning.
Trump also promised to levy an additional 10 percent tariff on China starting the same date.
It is unclear how final the president’s decision might be. His commitment to enacting the tariffs on Canada and Mexico follows similar language he used Monday during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. But on Wednesday, Trump suggested he may delay the tariffs another month, creating further confusion.
Continue reading at Politico
23 Dem AGs think they’ve cracked the code to fighting Trump
Democratic state attorneys general have been planning their lawsuits for a year.
The resistance meets daily on Microsoft Teams.
The country’s 23 Democratic state attorneys general log on at 4pm ET for a thirty-minute confidential video chat to coordinate their plans for pushing back against the Trump administration. They share updates on the seven cases they have moving through federal courts and argue about whether to treat Elon Musk as a lawful arm of the government or an uncredentialed interloper to it. They plot where to respond next, leveraging timezone differences to expand the workday.
The American left has floundered during Trump 2.0. The mass protests of 2017 have not emerged, and donors to progressive causes are not giving the way they did then, either. Democratic congressional minorities have been cowed by Trump’s assertions of executive power, while many of the governors who stand as their party’s leading figures are cautious about provoking fights with the president. In confronting Trump, elected officials have largely yielded to labor unions and advocacy organizations.
Continue reading at Politico
New York’s real estate execs frustrated with expected Cuomo campaign pick
Kevin Elkins, political director for the New York City carpenters union, is likely to play a role in Cuomo’s imminent campaign.
NEW YORK — A labor official in talks for a top post in former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s expected mayoral campaign is troubling the city’s well-heeled real estate industry.
Kevin Elkins, political director at the New York City District Council of Carpenters, is expected to hold a role in the campaign, according to three people familiar with the matter.
“If you were to pick a single name that would antagonize the vast majority of the industry it would probably be Kevin Elkins,” said one industry source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
The bad blood between the industry and the union — which is nearing an endorsement of Cuomo — runs deep.
Continue reading at Politico
Dems are icing out Tesla lobbyists over Elon Musk’s Trump ties
Tesla’s campaigns to sell its electric vehicles directly to consumers, bypassing traditional dealerships, face more challenges in Democratic statehouses as Musk’s national clout grows.
ALBANY, New York — Elon Musk is taking Washington by storm, but in statehouses controlled by Democrats on both coasts, his lobbyists are facing a frigid welcome.
Tesla’s ability to sell electric vehicles directly to consumers remains restricted in several states where the deeply entrenched franchise dealership model prevails. Musk’s company has lobbied to be allowed to set up its own sales locations in those states over the last few years — with only limited success.
In the past, blue state Democrats and environmental groups pushed for allowing Tesla and other electric vehicle makers to set up shop rather than requiring customers to buy online. They saw it as a no-cost measure to support higher EV sales and slash transportation emissions.
But Musk’s growing political clout and alignment with Republican President Donald Trump is making that a harder sell.
“You could not pay me to carry that bill now,” said New York state Sen. Pat Fahy, a Democrat from the Albany area who for several years sponsored legislation to allow direct sales. “I’m thoroughly disgusted with Elon Musk and everything he stands for.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump administration struggles to rehire fired bird flu employees
USDA supervisors are being asked to justify rehires and some employees still haven’t gotten their laptops back.
The Trump administration touted a nearly $1 billion plan Wednesday to combat the spread of avian flu and mitigate skyrocketing egg prices as the outbreak rips through poultry flocks across the United States.
But the measures come as the Agriculture Department is struggling to rehire key employees working on the virus outbreak who were fired as part of the administration’s sweeping purge of government workers. Roughly a quarter of employees in a critical office testing for the disease were cut, as well as scientists and inspectors.
The dismissals have already helped trigger a partial shutdown at one of the department’s research facilities, according to two USDA employees, interrupting some workers’ efforts to fight bird flu and help livestock recover from illness.
Now, agency officials are running into logistical challenges in reinstating its bird flu staff — and convincing them to return to jobs while the president repeatedly attempts to squeeze government workers.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump team weighs pulling funding for Moderna's bird flu shot despite outbreak
The Trump administration confirmed it's reviewing whether to pull $590 million in funding that Moderna received in the final days of the Biden administration to develop an mRNA vaccine for bird flu in people.
The big picture: Moderna shares were trading down 5% Thursday morning on news of the review, part of a bigger examination of spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines based on the same technology used in COVID-19 shots, per Bloomberg.
The funds awarded in January from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority were aimed at creating a line of defense against H5N1 in people that matches the strains circulating in cows and birds.
What they're saying: "While it is crucial that the U.S. Department and Health and Human Services support pandemic preparedness, four years of the Biden administration's failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production," an HHS spokesperson told Axios.
Moderna didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Continue reading at Axios
Global democracy score hits historic low: report
The quality of global democracies hit an all-time low in 2024, and the U.S. continues to be seen as a "flawed democracy," according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Global Democracy Index report.
The big picture: More than one-third of the world population now lives under authoritarian rule, according to the index.
The overall global Democracy Index score has fallen from 5.52 in 2006 to a historic low of 5.17 in 2024, down from 5.23 in 2023.
The index ranks countries on a 0 to 10 scale, based on ratings for 60 indicators that are grouped into five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.
Driving the news: Even among regions that improved or saw no change in 2024, discontented populations increasingly turned to anti-mainstream or insurgent parties.
The U.S., which was downgraded from a "full democracy" to a "flawed democracy" in 2016, saw some positive developments in 2024, the report found, including the smooth election and political engagement. But low trust in media and institutions, political gridlock, lobbyist influence and sharp inequalities persist.
Continue reading at Axios
Investors question whether Musk's X and DOGE ties are hurting Tesla
Investors are questioning whether Tesla's recently weakened stock and slipping sales are due to CEO Elon Musk's political involvement and online presence.
Why it matters: A vocal CEO can cast a halo or dark cloud over the company they lead, impacting their ability to attract customers, employees and investors.
Zoom in: Musk has generated endless press coverage and social media attention as the owner of X and leader of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
More than 300,000 media stories have been written about Musk and his DOGE activities since Jan. 1, according to Muck Rack data.
Also since the start of the year, stories mentioning Musk and DOGE have had a readership of more than 387 million, with most of the spikes around legal proceedings and budget cut recommendations, per Memo data shared with Axios.
The big picture: CEOs across industries have become more proactive about communication — whether by embracing community engagement across social channels, modernizing earnings reports or conducting more personal, nontraditional media interviews.
Continue reading at Axios
CDC firings include key lab safety jobs
LAB SAFETY EMPLOYEES SACKED — CDC staff cuts by the Trump administration eliminated several employees responsible for improving lab safety and testing for health threats — including mpox and H5N1 bird flu, Sophie reports.
The CDC’s Laboratory Leadership Service has two dozen fellows — roughly 20 of whom were informed on Feb. 15 that they would be placed on administrative leave until March 14 and then terminated.
The fellows were working on performing lab safety assessments, standardizing tests for emerging health threats and improving wastewater surveillance. POLITICO talked with five of the fired employees, who were granted anonymity because they feared reprisals.
“It’s going to be leaving a pretty big gap, and especially in this situation where we are dealing with multiple threats that could threaten public health and public safety,” one fellow told POLITICO.
Why it matters: To date, roughly 700 probationary employees at the CDC have received termination notices. And although the LLS fellows are a fraction of the CDC staff the administration has cut or plans to as billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushes to shrink government, their removal stands to have one of the more direct effects on public health.
The fellows often have years or even decades of laboratory experience before being selected to work with the CDC.
Continue reading at Politico
Jobless claims spike, in worrisome sign for the US labor market
First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose much more than expected last week, a likely indication of some “noisy” data, but also a potential worrisome hint that cracks may be forming in America’s long-solid labor market.
There were an estimated 242,000 jobless claims filed last week, according to seasonally adjusted data released Thursday by the Department of Labor. That’s an increase of 22,000 from the prior week’s tally and a figure that landed well above economists’ expectations for 220,000 claims.
It’s the largest weekly spike in claims in more than four months and the weekly claims — a proxy for layoffs — are at their highest level since early December, Labor Department data shows.
Initial claims data, while one of the timeliest indicators of labor market health, also can be quite volatile and fluctuate from week to week due to factors such as weather, temporary layoffs, other state-level factors, and holidays.
In addition to last week being a holiday week, a deadly winter storm and frigid cold hit many states.
However, considering that the Trump administration is taking a figurative chainsaw through the employment ranks of the US government, the weekly claims data has risen in importance.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Note from Rima: a chunk of these are directly related to several large companies going out of business, several large chains closing hundreds of stores and letting tens of thousands go in the process.
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Jeffries gives remarks as GOP's budget plan remains on shaky ground
Watch live: McKernan, Trump’s pick to lead CFPB, faces Senate confirmation hearing
House lawmakers want Trump to pressure EU to sanction Iran military group
Two House lawmakers are calling on President Trump to pressure the European Union to designate as a terrorist organization Iran’s premier military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) and Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) are reintroducing a resolution that passed the House in the previous Congress. It is updated to encourage Trump to take action.
“The Encouraging the EU to DESIGNATE Resolution urges our allies to join our efforts to combat the IRGC by immediately designating this group as a terrorist organization,” Tenney said in a statement to The Hill.
“This will send a strong message that the West is united against the IRGC’s malicious actions and that we will hold them accountable for their vile acts of terrorism.”
Continue reading at The Hill
News anchor presses Eric Adams on ‘Negroes’ comments
A news anchor pressed New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) over his use of the word “Negroes” at a Black History Month event.
At a reception celebrating the month, the embattled Adams, who is currently running for reelection amid accusations of corruption, tried to highlight his administration’s achievements and criticized those calling for his resignation.
“All these Negroes who were asking me to step down, God, forgive them,” Adams said at the event Tuesday. “Are you stupid? I’m running my race right now.”
On Wednesday, Curt Menefee, co-anchor of “Good Day New York,” asked Adams whom he was referring to in his address.
“Are you implying that if you’re Black, you have to support you?” Menefee asked.
Adams said he was asking all New Yorkers to support his campaign.
Continue reading at The Hill
White House says EPA will cut 65 percent of spending, not staff
“After recently identifying $20 billion in fraudulent spending, Administrator Zeldin is committed to eliminating 65 percent of the EPA’s wasteful spending,” Rogers added, referencing the recent freeze by Citibank of accounts belonging to eight nonprofits awarded $20 billion in grants under the Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act. There is no indication fraud was involved in the disbursement of the funds. Denise Cheung, the lead prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, resigned last week over an order to investigate the award.
A 65 percent reduction of overall EPA spending would likely still mean major staffing cuts at the agency, which has 17,202 permanent staff. Earlier this month, the EPA fired hundreds of probationary staffers, a category that includes both recent hires and recently promoted employees.
Continue reading at The Hill
Microsoft calls on Trump to loosen AI chip export restrictions
Microsoft is calling on the Trump administration to loosen Biden-era restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports that it argues could undermine U.S. leadership on the technology.
The AI Diffusion Rule, announced in the final days of the Biden presidency, placed caps on chip sales to most countries around the world, exempting a narrow list of 18 U.S. allies and partners.
“As drafted, the rule undermines two Trump administration priorities: strengthening U.S. AI leadership and reducing the nation’s near trillion-dollar trade deficit,” Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said in statement.
Continue reading at The Hill
** The AI Diffusion Rule was the latest in a series of actions taken by the Biden administration to limit China’s ability to obtain advanced AI chips made by American companies.
Johnson claims town hall protesters ‘paid’ by Democrats
“The videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places,” Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview Wednesday.
“These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats,” he said on “The Source,” in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
Collins interjected after, saying the Republican leader couldn’t “argue they were all paid protesters, though, Mr. Speaker.”
“A Republican acknowledged they were his constituents,” she countered.
Johnson seemed to brush off the comment.
Continue reading at The Hill
Meta apologizes for ‘error’ that resulted in violent content flooding Instagram feeds
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, apologized Thursday for a technical error that resulted in some users’ Reels feeds being filled with graphic or violent content.
“We have fixed an error that caused some users to see content in their Instagram Reels feed that should not have been recommended,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Hill Thursday. “We apologize for the mistake.”
The videos, featured on some users’ Reels’ tab, showed people apparently being shot to death or run over by vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some users still saw the content even when turning on Instagram’s “Sensitive Content Control” to its highest moderation setting, CNBC reported.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘Daily Show’ would be ‘delighted’ to have Musk on after he says he’s open to interview
Elon Musk could soon be sitting down with Jon Stewart, after the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) expressed a willingness to go on “The Daily Show” following fierce criticism from its Monday host.
“I will do it if the show airs unedited,” Musk said Tuesday on his social platform X in response to a post urging him to appear on “The Daily Show.”
“The Daily Show” social media account replied Wednesday to Musk: “We’d be delighted!”
Continue reading at The Hill
Teacher union head taking fight to Elon Musk through Tesla stock
Weingarten, who heads one of the largest unions in the country, penned a letter Thursday pointing to drops in Tesla’s stock price, latest financial disclosures, electric vehicle (EV) competition and “deterioration” of brand as reasons for the review.
“Given these mounting concerns and the potential material impact on pension fund portfolios, I would appreciate a response detailing your firm’s assessment of Tesla’s current valuation and the steps you are taking to protect AFT members who are your clients and beneficiaries,” Weingarten said at the end of the letter.
The letter was sent to the CEOs of six asset managers, with the Tesla board and Elon Musk copied onto the message.
Continue reading at The Hill
Elon Musk urges retired air traffic controllers to come back
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is urging retired air traffic controllers to come back to the workforce amid the nationwide shortage of workers.
“There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so,” Musk said in a Thursday post on X, the social media platform he owns.
Earlier this month, President Trump’s administration began firing hundreds of workers at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including personnel brought on for the FAA radar as well as landing and navigational aid maintenance.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy defended the terminations, noting that air traffic controllers were not cut in the process. Duffy said less than 400 workers were ousted from the FAA as part of the administration’s push to downsize the federal government, slash costs and improve efficiency.
Continue reading at The Hill
Washington state warning pet owners after bird flu confirmed in 2 indoor cats
Washington state officials are warning pet owners that two domesticated indoor cats have become infected with the bird flu after consuming potentially contaminated pet food.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) said Wednesday that indoor cats in King and Snohomish counties tested positive for the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), or bird flu.
One cat needed to be euthanized “due to the severity of the illness” and the other is being treated by a veterinarian.
Both pet owners reported feeding their cats “potentially contaminated” Wild Coast raw pet food, about which the WSDA previously issued a public health alert.
The public health alert from Feb. 14 warned about the Wild Coast brand’s boneless free range chicken formula frozen raw pet food, which tested positive for bird flu.
Continue reading at The Hill
Pritzker: Trump actions ‘threat to our democracy’
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) on Wednesday called President Trump’s efforts to reshape and shrink the federal government a “threat to our democracy.”
“The things that I’m speaking out about now, about, you know, the threat to our democracy, this is not a message to win elections on, it’s something people need to know,” Pritzker told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on “Deadline: White House.” “They need to know that that’s happening.”
But Pritzker underscored the importance of showing what exactly that means, noting that “nobody knows” what democracy being at “risk” looks like.
Continue reading at The Hill
Education Department creates ‘End DEI’ portal to field public complaints
The Thursday announcement of the “End DEI” portal comes toward the end of the two-week deadline the agency gave K-12 schools and universities to rid themselves of DEI practices.
The department says parents, students and others should “submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in [a] publicly-funded K-12 school.”
“For years, parents have been begging schools to focus on teaching their kids practical skills like reading, writing, and math, instead of pushing critical theory, rogue sex education and divisive ideologies — but their concerns have been brushed off, mocked, or shut down entirely,” Tiffany Justice, the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, said in a press release for the portal on the department’s website.
Continue reading at The Hill
King Charles invites Trump to UK for a state visit
King Charles III has invited President Trump for a state visit to the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the president during their meeting Thursday in Washington.
Starmer brought a letter from Charles to their meeting in the Oval Office, during which Trump touted Charles as a “beautiful man, a wonderful man.”
“This is a letter from your majesty, the king. It’s an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented,” Starmer said, touching Trump’s shoulder. “This is a very special letter, I think the last state visit was a tremendous success … this is truly historic.”
“The answer is yes,” Trump said in response to Starmer asking if he would take the invite to Windsor Castle. “We look forward to being there and honoring the king and honoring really the country.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrat introducing resolution affirming 22nd Amendment support amid Trump third term talk
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on Thursday introduced a resolution reaffirming the House’s support for the 22nd Amendment, which states that a person can be elected president no more than two times.
The resolution — which comes amid talk of a possible third term for President Trump — makes explicit that the 22nd Amendment applies to Trump, too.
“Resolved, That the House of Representatives (1) reaffirms that the Twenty-second Amendment applies to two terms in the aggregate as President of the United States; and (2) reaffirms that the Twenty-second Amendment prohibits President Trump from running for President for another term,” the resolution reads.
The resolution mentions several instances, from March 2018 through just last week, when Trump has hinted at the possibility of running for a third term in office.
Continue reading at The Hill
More than 100 House Democrats demand answers on Energy Department firings
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) led more than 100 House Democrats in a letter denouncing the firing of Energy Department civil servants as illegal and blasting Energy Secretary Chris Wright for “stunning incompetence.”
At least 1,800 Energy employees were fired on Feb. 14, which the letter calls illegal under laws governing the employment of civil servants.
“The Administration’s actions fall far short of these standards and instead are the precise types of actions that Congress has consistently legislated against, in accordance with Congress’s Article I powers to regulate executive agencies,” the group wrote.
Continue reading at The Hill
Murkowski joins Democrats supporting measure granting protections to Ukrainians in US
The legislation, “Protecting our Guests During Hostilities in Ukraine Act,” would apply to Ukrainians and their immediate family members who are already in the country and would let them stay and work until the Secretary of State determines it is safe to go back, and hostilities have ceased.
Murkowski said she is cosponsoring the legislation after meeting with Ukrainians in her state who “fled Russia’s unprovoked war who have found safety and community in Alaska.”
“These families—and the Alaskans and Alaskan businesses who have supported and employed them—have expressed their strong desire to remain and work here,” Murkowski said. “Granting temporary guest status for Ukrainians already in the United States achieves this goal.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Jeffries: ‘Republicans are lying’ about Medicaid cuts
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) went after Republicans on Thursday over their designs for Medicaid, saying GOP leaders are deceiving Americans by claiming that no patients will lose health benefits under their plan.
“Republicans are lying to the American people about Medicaid,” Jeffries said during a press briefing in the Capitol.
Medicaid has emerged as perhaps the most contentious piece of the House Republicans’ massive budget blueprint for moving President Trump’s domestic agenda during his first year back in office. Under the GOP resolution, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, has been tasked with finding at least $880 billion in cuts to programs under its purview to help offset the cost of trillions of dollars in Republican tax cuts.
Continue reading at The Hill
Court allows CIA to fire employees who worked on DEI
The judge lifted a prior short-term block he had placed on the firings of 19 intelligence community workers.
A federal judge has turned down a bid to block the Trump administration from firing intelligence officers who worked in DEI programs, but he prodded the spy agencies involved to try to find new jobs in the intelligence community for those being ousted.
At a hearing Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga said the laws and court precedents relating to intelligence agency employees give them little recourse in the courts if top officials decide that firing them is in the “national interest,” even if they’ve worked for the government for a decade or more.
“In effect, they are at-will employees,” said Trenga, an appointee of President George W. Bush.
Continue reading at Politico
Lawmakers start work on yearlong funding patch
Larger bipartisan government funding negotiations have hit a major roadblock.
The Senate's top appropriator said Thursday she has been instructed by the Trump administration and GOP leadership to start prepping a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.
It's the clearest sign yet that bipartisan negotiations around a 12-bill funding deal are in trouble ahead of the March 14 deadline to avoid a shutdown.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told a small group of reporters Thursday that she was asked to start working on the funding patch — known as a "continuing resolution," or a CR — and said in a later interview that it was “one option” being pursued ahead of a looming lapse in funding for federal programs in just over two weeks.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune talked about the year-long funding patch option with President Donald Trump during their meeting Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter. Trump was supportive, according to the people.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: there went the “big beautiful funding bill…”
GOP tax chief voiced ‘huge concern’ over Senate tax plan at White House meeting
Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith raised questions about whether a Senate accounting tactic would be OK'd in the chamber.
Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said that he raised "a huge concern" at a White House meeting Wednesday about how the Senate plans to advance President Donald Trump’s tax plan.
Smith, in an interview Thursday with POLITICO, said that he fears an accounting tactic the Senate plans to use to dramatically lower the cost of the plan — and that he favors himself — might be rejected by the Senate’s independent legislative referee.
Smith said he raised the issue in the meeting that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and top congressional Republicans convened to strategize over the GOP’s tax agenda.
The accounting tactic, known as a “current policy baseline,” would make an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts appear to cost nothing. That would solve a major math problem for Republicans since they could extend the cuts, set to expire at the end of the year, without having to pay for them with corresponding spending reductions.
Continue reading at Politico
Tariff worries, Trump cuts signal emerging economic growth risks
They're mere tremors at this point, not an earthquake. But worries about the outlook for U.S. economic growth are starting to mount.
Why it matters: On-again, off-again tariffs on major trading partners have added uncertainty to the business outlook, making hiring and investment decisions more complex.
Consumers whose incomes depend on the federal government — whether as employees, contractors or benefit recipients — face the brunt of Trump administration cutbacks. This risk could make them more cautious in their spending.
State of play: Evidence these forces will restrain overall growth is only being seen in soft data so far — surveys of business and consumer sentiment, for example. The hard data shows little evidence of deterioration in spending, investment or hiring.
But new growth worries have coincided with a steep drop in Treasury yields since the start of the year, which tends to reflect bond investors' growth expectations.
What they're saying: "With 3 million federal employees potentially worrying about their jobs and 6 million federal contractors worrying about their jobs, the risks are rising that households may begin to hold back purchases of cars, computers, washers, dryers, vacation travel plans, etc.," wrote Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, in a note out Thursday morning.
Continue reading at Axios
What to know about Andrew and Tristan Tate as they return to the U.S.
Andrew and Tristan Tate, prominent right-wing influencers, returned to the U.S. Thursday after Romanian prosecutors lifted travel restrictions on the brothers.
Why it matters: The brothers are dual U.S.-U.K. citizens, but their return stateside is sure to be controversial given the legal cases against them, which include rape and human trafficking charges. They have denied any wrongdoing.
The brothers, with millions of social media followers between them, have gained prominence in U.S. right-wing circles.
The Tates "feel secure in America for several reasons, the primary one being that Donald Trump is the President. As a result, they are excited to call America their home again," their U.S. lawyer Joseph McBride said in a statement provided to Axios.
Who are the Tate brothers?
Andrew Tate, 38, is the more famous of the two brothers, having risen to fame on the British reality TV show Big Brother in 2016.
Before their legal troubles began, both brothers sparked controversy for their statements about women.
Both brothers have expressed support for President Trump and have appeared on podcasts with other pro-Trump right-wing influencers, like Charlie Kirk.
Continue reading at Axios
Johnson says approach to IRA repeal will be ‘between a scalpel and a sledgehammer’
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) indicated this week that his approach to repealing the Democrats’ climate, tax, infrastructure and health care bill will be neither delicate and precise nor a total overhaul.
“It’ll be somewhere between a scalpel and a sledgehammer. We’ll see,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday.
The comment departs from his previous rhetoric on the future of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The Speaker told CNBC in September he wanted to take a “a scalpel and not a sledgehammer, because there’s a few provisions in there that have helped overall.”
Continue reading at The Hill
HHS weighs rescinding Moderna bird flu vaccine contract
The Trump administration confirmed it is reevaluating a $590 million human bird flu vaccine contract awarded to Moderna in the waning days of the Biden administration.
“While it is crucial that the U.S. Department and Health and Human Services support pandemic preparedness, four years of the Biden administration’s failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production,” a Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson said in an email.
The review, first reported by Bloomberg, comes as the U.S. is in the middle of a bird flu outbreak that’s spreading among poultry and cattle herds, sending egg prices soaring. Human cases have been relatively rare, but the virus has caused deaths in the past. The current strain has killed one person in the U.S. to date.
Continue reading at The Hill
Johnson planning meeting with Musk, House Republicans
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he is going to plan a meeting with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s leader Elon Musk and House Republicans sometime soon.
Johnson met with Musk at the White House on Tuesday evening. He told reporters Thursday he has had multiple conversations with the tech billionaire, who has been tapped to slash federal spending through DOGE.
“We’re trying to figure out logistics, but he’s anxious to share what he’s finding, and a lot of things he’s told me in our private meetings, I said we have to make sure all the members understand the degree of the fraud, waste and abuse and how egregious it is,” Johnson said.
He said he hopes Musk can show lawmakers how hopeful they are about the changes coming to the federal government and told reporters to “stay tuned” on when the meeting would be.
Continue reading at The Hill
Warren presses X on deleted Trump nominee’s posts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is pressing the social platform X about one of President Trump’s economic nominees seemingly scraping many posts from his account.
In a letter addressed to Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, Warren asked the company to recover more than 24,000 posts from William Pulte. He was tapped by Trump late last month to serve as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and faced a confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Warren, the ranking member of the committee, said she and other members “made a startling discovery” that nearly all of Pulte’s posts on X appear to have been deleted.
Continue reading at The Hill
Americans’ trust in media at lowest point in 5 decades: Survey
Just 31 percent of respondents in Gallup’s latest survey on the topic said they trust the mainstream media “a great deal” or “a fair amount,” while 36 percent said they don’t trust the media “at all.” Another third said they do not have much trust in the media.
Gallup began tracking views of the news media in the 1970s when attitudes were overwhelmingly positive and only 6 percent said they didn’t trust the news at all. Nearly 70 percent in that initial survey said they had a great deal or a fair amount of trust.
The numbers have dramatically tumbled in the decades since and continue to decline after a brief tick up in 2017 and 2018, a trend Gallup notes has been most visible among younger adults and Republicans and particularly since the growth of the internet, social media and alternative sources of information.
About 6 in 10 Republicans said they have no trust in mainstream media, with a particularly sharp increase coinciding with President Trump’s rise in politics. Comparatively, 6 percent of Democrats said they have no trust in what’s reported.
Continue reading at The Hill
After week of criticism, Trump plays nice — for now — with Zelenskyy
His comments praising his relationship with the Ukranian president come one day before the wartime leader is set to visit the White House
President Donald Trump is playing nice with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of his visit on Friday, after a week of feuding with the wartime leader.
Trump said Thursday he and Zelenskyy have had a “very good relationship,” while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office.
The president had fired increasingly caustic barbs at Zelenskyy, as the president’s frustration with the war mounts. He first mocked Zelenskyy for being “grossly incompetent” and seemingly put the blame on Ukraine for the war Russia started. Zelenskyy hit back saying Trump was “surrounded by misinformation.” Trump then slammed Zelenskyy as “a dictator without elections” in a lengthy post on Truth Social last Wednesday, while repeating his claims that the U.S. has given billions in aid to Ukraine and that half of it has gone “missing.”
Trump loyalists, including Elon Musk, had also piled on, denouncing the Ukrainian leader following Trump’s Truth Social post.
When asked Thursday in the Oval Office if he still believed Zelenskyy is a dictator, Trump replied, “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that.”
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Germany’s CDU and SPD to start coalition talks Friday
Conservative and center-left parties launch coalition talks on Friday. hoping to avoid prolonging Germany’s post-election uncertainty.
BERLIN — Germany’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and center-left Social Democrats (SPD) will begin talks on Friday to explore forming a coalition, both parties told POLITICO.
The parties took the decision to start talks Friday instead of the following week to avoid prolonging political uncertainty, according to German tabloid Bild.
The talks will be led by CDU leader Friedrich Merz and SPD chair Lars Klingbeil.
The SPD leadership met Thursday to finalize their negotiation strategy. The party delegation will include eight senior SPD officials along with Secretary General Matthias Miersch. Key figures on the team include Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, SPD deputy chair and labor minister Hubertus Heil, and co-chair Saskia Esken.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
On tariffs, Trump says he has a ‘warm spot’ for UK
Comments on U.S. president’s “number one ally” starkly at odds with lambasting of the EU.
Donald Trump offered an olive branch to the U.K. in his trade war with allies Thursday, saying the country is in a “very different place” to the European Union he has heavily criticized.
Trump this week lambasted the EU as designed to "screw the United States" and promised to “very soon” slap tariffs of 25 percent on goods made in the bloc.
British officials have been nervously eying Trump’s trade assault on traditional U.S. allies and hoping to dodge his ire. Their spirits will have been lifted Thursday when Trump said during U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House that the U.K. is in “a very different place.”
Trump did not rule out tariffs on the U.K. — but he said he had a “warm spot” for the country, reeling off golfing investments there (and in neighboring Ireland )— and said he would have a “good discussion” about it with Britain.
He added of Starmer: “We've known each other now for a little while. This is not our first meeting. He loves his country. And so, that's our common theme. He loves his country. And I love our country.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump says British ‘can take care of themselves’ in Ukraine
Britain and France want guarantees that Washington will back up a peacekeeping force after the war.
WASHINGTON — British troops in a post-war Ukraine would be able to "take care of themselves," Donald Trump said Thursday, as U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Washington to try to win security guarantees for Europe.
Ahead of talks between the two leaders, the U.S. president was asked by reporters in the Oval Office whether he would come to the aid of British troops stationed in Ukraine — a possibility floated by Starmer as part of a peacekeeping settlement also sought by France's Emmanuel Macron — if they are attacked by Russia.
Trump said "if they need help, I'll always be with the British, okay? But they don't need help."
Continue reading at Politico
Top weather, climate agency NOAA the latest layoff target
The Commerce Department has begun laying off potentially hundreds of NOAA employees, many with specialized skills who work at one of the world's top climate science and weather forecasting agencies.
Why it matters: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is responsible for providing weather watches and warnings, monitoring and studying Earth's climate, as well as operating weather satellites and protecting marine life.
The layoffs of probationary employees that began Thursday hit soon after cuts at the behest of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) occurred at other climate and environment agencies.
The big picture: NOAA's missions require staff to work around the clock to monitor dangerous weather, earthquakes that could cause tsunamis and other hazards.
In recent weeks, the National Weather Service has issued warnings for deadly flooding in Kentucky, heavy snow, frigid temperatures and other hazards across the country.
Continue reading at Axios
Chavez-DeRemer's labor chief nomination advances with Dem support
Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer's nomination to serve as Labor Secretary advanced to the Senate floor Thursday with Democratic support.
Why it matters: Chavez-DeRemer is the first Trump Cabinet nominee who has had to rely on Democratic support to clear committee consideration after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted no.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions vote was 14-9, with Democrats Maggie Hassan (N.H.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.) and Tim Kaine (Va.) joining the committee's Republicans — with the exception of Paul — in voting yes.
Catch up fast: Paul has cited Chavez-DeRemer's past support for the Pro Act, which would weaken states' anti-union laws and give more power to organized workers in explaining his opposition.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump cuts off talk of Canada annex alongside UK’s Starmer: ‘That’s enough’
The pushback came after a reporter asked the prime minister whether he discussed with Trump his “repeated statements of desire to annex Canada” and whether King Charles, who is the head of state of the country, has expressed any concern with Trump’s remarks.
“Look, we had a really good discussion, a productive discussion, a good discussion as a result of which our teams are happy to be working together on an economic deal, our teams are going to be working together on security in Ukraine,” Starmer responded. “You mention, Canada, I think you’re trying to find a divide between us that doesn’t exist. We’re the closest of nations and we had very good discussions today.”
“But we didn’t address Canada —” Starmer continued.
“That’s enough, thank you” Trump said, waving in the direction of the press to move on to another question.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump and GOP leaders discuss using tariffs to pay for agenda
The issue came up at a high-level White House meeting Wednesday.
GOP leaders and President Donald Trump are strategizing over how to incorporate revenue from new tariffs in their massive party-line domestic policy bill, with the goal of arguing the multitrillion-dollar legislation doesn’t add to the national debt.
Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other senior Republicans discussed the topic during their White House meeting Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Republicans are still planning to keep the tariffs outside the final reconciliation package. But the group discussed how to score and eventually count the revenue as part of their plans for a deficit-neutral bill.
Hours after the White House meeting, Trump announced that tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China would go into effect next month.
GOP leaders don’t have the votes to actually incorporate the tariffs into the massive Trump agenda bill. The politically sensitive topic would spark a messy internal GOP war between the free-trade and America First factions of the party that could derail the entire package, which is already rife with other sticky issues.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump’s visit with UK’s Starmer offers sobering preview for Ukraine
Trump lauded Britain’s leader but gave little ground, a day ahead of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer flattered President Donald Trump with a basket of gifts on his first visit to the White House on Thursday, including commitments to spend more money on defense, lavish praise and a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump to a state dinner.
Trump was exceedingly pleased. But that didn’t mean Starmer got anything in return.
Trump appeared unmoved by Starmer’s desperate appeal for a stronger U.S. commitment to protecting Ukraine, if and when its war with Russia ends. Starmer, conscious that Trump has rejected pleas to provide “security guarantees” for Ukraine, has been asking for something less: a U.S. commitment to “backstop” European efforts to help defend Ukraine from any future invasion by Russia.
Trump said no to all of it.
“I don’t think so,” Trump said alongside Starmer in the Oval Office. “I think when we have a deal, it’s going to be the deal.”
Continue reading at Politico
DOGE cuts eyed for GOP spending bill, raising shutdown fears
The strategy could help satisfy hard-liners but alienate Democrats whose votes will be needed to fund the government.
Senior Republicans are seriously exploring how to include cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in an upcoming government funding bill — a move that would skyrocket tensions with Democrats and drastically raise the potential for a government shutdown.
Top GOP leaders and President Donald Trump’s team have been discussing the idea, which is far from finalized, according to three people who were granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.
But one of the people said the idea would be to codify some of the “most egregious” examples of alleged waste that DOGE has identified and incorporate them into a government funding patch through the end of the fiscal year. Republicans would then dare Democrats to vote against the package, lest they be blamed for causing a shutdown come the March 14 deadline.
The strategy, if adopted, could help satisfy conservative hard-liners who are already upset Congress is hurtling toward another short-term spending patch. But it would scramble the politics of the looming shutdown fight considerably, alienating Democrats whose votes are needed to ensure passage given the narrow Republican majorities in both chambers.
Continue reading at Politico
Republicans block measure condemning Trump administration vote on UN Russia resolution
Senate Republicans on Thursday objected to an effort by Democrats to condemn the Trump administration’s decision to vote against a United Nations resolution laying blame for the war in Ukraine at the feet of Russia.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) attempted to pass the resolution through the upper chamber via unanimous consent to take direct aim at the U.S.’s vote on Monday.
That push, however, was stymied as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) objected to it. He did not explain his objection on the floor.
“Let’s be clear on this: this is a war that Russia started. Ukraine did not ask for it,” Gallego said on the floor. “They did not ask to go to war with a nuclear superpower, and they did not ask for their cities to be reduced to rubble. They didn’t ask for their children to be displaced and families to be torn apart. If Ukraine had its way, this war would have ended years ago.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Evening Report — Supreme Court drawn into DOGE battles
THE SUPREME COURT is wading into the battles around the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as the myriad legal challenges to Elon Musk‘s government reduction efforts wind their way through the courts.
Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily delayed an order for the Trump administration to unfreeze about $2 billion in foreign aid.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali had accused the Trump administration of ignoring his ruling to resume foreign aid payments, but the administration argued it could not feasibly resume payments on the judge’s timeline.
The pause will last until the Supreme Court decides on Ali’s ruling. Both parties must respond in court by Friday.
It’s the first time the Supreme Court has intervened in the scores of court battles unfolding around DOGE’s brash moves to slash federal spending and gut the federal workforce.
Continue reading at The Hill
NOAA begins firing hundreds of staffers
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began the process of firing hundreds of probationary workers Thursday, the latest mass job cuts within federal agencies, three sources with knowledge of internal operations told The Hill.
The cuts, which are said to affect between 560 and 1,830 workers at the agency, were planned for at least a week, contingent upon the confirmation of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who oversees the agency. NOAA reported a permanent workforce of 11,758 in fiscal year 2023, meaning the cuts could affect more than 10 percent of employees. One source who asked to speak on background told The Hill the firings began Thursday and will continue Friday.
One of the sources told The Hill that termination letters began going out to probationary employees at 3:30 Thursday afternoon. Probationary status applies to both recent hires and workers who have been recently promoted.
Continue reading at The Hill
The Economist newsletter
Zanny Minton Beddoes
Editor-in-chief
You might recognise the inspiration behind this week’s cover design: “Reservoir Dogs”, a gangster film from 1992. Donald Trump has assumed the role of kingpin; behind him are some of the main players in a new, mafia-like struggle for global power. Call it The Don’s new world order, a might-is-right world in which big powers cut deals and bully small ones. In a week in which Germany’s probable next chancellor warned that NATO may soon be dead and America sided with Russia and North Korea against Ukraine and Europe at the United Nations, we decided to take a hard look at what this new gangster-style approach to geopolitics would lead to.
Team Trump claims that its dealmaking will bring peace and that, after 80 years of being taken for a ride, America will turn its superpower status into profit. Our leader argues that it will instead make the world more dangerous, and America weaker and poorer. Advocates of dealmaking assume that America can get what it wants by bargaining. Yet as Mr Trump exploits decades-old dependencies, America’s leverage will rapidly fall away. Congress, financial markets or voters could yet persuade him to walk back. But the world has already started planning for a lawless era.
Our other cover, for readers in Europe, looks at the importance of hereditary wealth, which is rising around the rich world, especially in the old continent. People in rich countries stand to inherit around $6trn this year, about 10% of GDP. Inheritances are around twice as big, relative to the size of the economy, as they were in the middle of the 20th century. That is a problem. Whether a young person can afford to buy a house and live in comfort is now determined by inherited wealth nearly as much as by their own success at work. This shift has alarming economic and social consequences, because it imperils not just the meritocratic ideal, but capitalism itself. More wealth means more inheritance for baby-boomers to pass on. And because wealth is far more unequally distributed than income, a new inheritocracy is being born.
The end of the post-1945 order
Donald Trump has begun a mafia-like struggle for global power
But the new rules do not suit America
The rupture of the post-1945 order is gaining pace. In extraordinary scenes at the UN this week, America sided with Russia and North Korea against Ukraine and Europe. Germany’s probable new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, warns that by June NATO may be dead. Fast approaching is a might-is-right world in which big powers cut deals and bully small ones. Team Trump claims that its dealmaking will bring peace and that, after 80 years of being taken for a ride, America will turn its superpower status into profit. Instead it will make the world more dangerous, and America weaker and poorer.
Wyden, Sanders: Federal layoffs threaten organ transplant system modernization
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are expressing concern to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that recent layoffs at U.S. health agencies are threatening the modernization of the organ transplant system.
The pair of lawmakers asked Kennedy in a Wednesday letter to disclose which staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), tasked with implementing improvements to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), were impacted by layoffs.
“We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,” Wyden and Sanders wrote to Kennedy.
With the rounds of terminations of workers from federal agencies, some who were brought on by the HRSA to help apply the 2023 “Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act,” were also reportedly affected.
Continue reading at The Hill
Former lumber industry executive named as Forest Service chief
According to the press release, Schultz was previously the vice president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, which sells wood.
The Forest Service makes a range of forest management decisions, including those related to industry logging, energy production in national forests and wildfire mitigation.
“Working with our partners, we will actively manage national forests and grasslands, increase opportunities for outdoor recreation, and suppress wildfires with all available resources emphasizing safety and the importance of protecting resource values,” Schultz said in a written statement.
Schultz has also served as director of the Idaho Department of Lands and worked in Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation,
His appointment was criticized by the Sierra Club.
Continue reading at The Hill
Baier to interview Zelensky after Trump meeting
FOX News Channel’s Bret Baier has nabbed the first one-on-one interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after he meets with President Trump Friday at the White House.
The meeting between the two world leaders could prove crucial to the trajectory of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war that began three years ago.
Trump has had a rocky relationship with Zelensky, particularly over the conflict that escalated to full-blown war after Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. The U.S. and other countries have sent billions in equipment and aid to help Ukraine defend itself, but Trump took office last month vowing to reevaluate his administration’s position.
Continue reading at The Hill
New York City health clinic now asking for proof of citizenship, citing Trump
Federally funded community health centers are required by law to provide basic health services to anyone in their area.
NEW YORK — A prominent community health center with a long legacy of treating asylum-seekers is now requesting patients’ proof of citizenship, in an apparent response to the Trump administration’s broad threats to federal funding and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The Floating Hospital in Queens is asking patients to show their Social Security cards or other proof of citizenship, citing an unspecified executive order by the Trump administration, according to an audio recording reviewed by POLITICO and two city lawmakers who were briefed on the matter and granted anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive issue.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump wants to shrink the State Department’s size, reach and focus
Plans call for fewer embassies, cuts to programs to build goodwill abroad and more focus on immediate U.S. interests.
President Donald Trump wants to radically shrink the State Department — leaving it with fewer diplomats, a smaller number of embassies and a narrower remit that critics argue could hand China wins across the world.
The Trump administration, fueled by Elon Musk and his acolytes, appears determined to focus the department on areas such as transactional government agreements, safeguarding U.S. security and promoting foreign investment in America. That means cutting back or eliminating bureaus promoting traditional soft power initiatives — such as those advancing democracy, protecting human rights, supporting scientific research or generally fostering goodwill abroad.
The changes would amount to a historic restructuring of the storied department whose work and scope has expanded over the decades to include a variety of efforts to bolster American influence abroad, ranging from helping countries defend their critical networks from hackers to advocating for people with disabilities.
Some of these ideas have been telegraphed in public orders and statements from Trump and others. Additional details about the strategy and what will be cut were described to POLITICO by a person familiar with internal State Department discussions and a former U.S. official with ties to the Trump team. POLITICO also reviewed private documents that provide insight into the plans, which remain fluid. Several people were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump appears open to using private forces to help deport millions of undocumented immigrants
The president added that he didn’t think it was necessary, and that he hadn’t read Erik Prince’s proposal.
President Donald Trump said Thursday he had not read former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince’s mass deportations proposal, but he “wouldn’t be opposed” to using private forces to help carry out his vow to remove millions of undocumented immigrants.
Trump, taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, added that he doesn’t think it’s necessary and that his officials are doing a “phenomenal job.”
“I wouldn’t be opposed to it, necessarily, but I’d go to our military people, and I’d go to Tom Homan and Kristi [Noem] — I’d go to the various [people] and ask,” Trump said of his border czar and Homeland Security secretary. “But I don’t see it as being — we’re doing unbelievably and getting people out, getting criminals out.”
Trump’s response comes days after POLITICO published an exclusive report detailing a proposal from Prince and other prominent military contractors, offering the White a blueprint for carrying out mass deportations through a network of “processing camps” on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a “small army” of private citizens empowered to make arrests. The 26-page proposal carries an estimated price tag of $25 million and recommends a range of aggressive tactics to rapidly deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms, according to a copy of the document obtained by POLITICO.
Continue reading at Politico
Tesla moves toward launching Uber competitor
Tesla is taking steps to launch a ride-sharing service that could compete directly with Uber, Lyft and Waymo.
Why it matters: Tesla has long pledged to run an autonomous vehicle network, which could become a significant new source of revenue at a time when its sales have flattened.
Between the lines: The company has filed for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
"That classification means Tesla would own and control the fleet of vehicles," Bloomberg reported.
State of play: CEO Elon Musk told investors in January that "I'm confident that we will release unsupervised FSD in California this year," referring to the company's Full Self-Driving system.
Continue reading at Axios
Judge blocks Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers
A federal judge ruled that the terminations at several agencies, including the Department of Defense, were likely illegal.
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directives that initiated the mass firing of probationary government workers in several agencies across the government, ruling that the terminations were probably illegal, as a group of labor unions argued in court.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered OPM to rescind its prior directives to agencies including the Department of Defense, the Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Science Foundation, and others. The ruling is one of the biggest roadblocks so far to President Donald Trump’s effort to slash the federal workforce.
“Congress has given the authority to hire and fire to the agencies themselves. The Department of Defense, for example, has statutory authority to hire and fire,” Alsup said from the bench as he handed down the ruling Thursday evening in San Francisco federal court. “The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency. They can hire and fire their own employees.”
Continue reading at the Washington Post
READ: Epstein docs, flight logs released by Trump administration
The Department of Justice released more than 100 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday. The documents released by Attorney General Pam Bondi include flight logs, a redacted contact book and masseuse list and an evidence list.
Zoom out: The Trump administration is moving to release documents in a range of high-profile cases, such as the JFK assassination.
Flashback: President Trump was himself photographed with Epstein on multiple occasions and called him a "great guy" in a 2002 interview, but has not been implicated in any of Epstein's illegal behavior and has downplayed their relationship.
Epstein documents released
Appeals court upholds ruling blocking Arizona’s proof of citizenship provisions
A federal appeals court upheld a previous ruling that blocked Arizona’s proof of citizenship provision for voter registration.
The ruling came from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and upholds a lower court’s ruling that blocked 2022 laws signed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R).
The court said in its ruling that the laws violated the National Voter Registration Act, the Civil Rights Act and an Equal Protection Clause in the Constitution, among other provisions.
The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 over the matter, with Judge Patrick Bumatay, a Trump nominee, dissenting. It was first reported by NBC News.
State Sen. Warren Petersen (R) said online after the ruling that he would be appealing “yet again” to the Supreme Court and would not stop until the proof of citizenship is upheld.
Continue reading at The Hill
ICE signs $1 billion contract with private firm for New Jersey detention center
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Wednesday it would reopen a 1,000-bed New Jersey detention center after signing a $1 billion contract with a private global lender.
ICE will use the Delaney Hall facility in Newark for federal immigration processing.
“The location near an international airport streamlines logistics, and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities,” acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said in a statement.
Vitello was reassigned to oversee all field and enforcement operations last Friday, including the agency’s new 15-year fixed-price contract with the GEO Group, which manages private prisons nationwide.
Continue reading at The Hill
Lawmakers skeptical of Trump’s Ukraine deal
Lawmakers in both parties are expressing skepticism of President Trump’s expected deal to share Ukraine’s mineral wealth, warning it will need a strong buy-in from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a robust security guarantee from the United States.
GOP senators are divided over the emerging deal, with some hailing it as a big potential win and other Republicans calling for a stronger guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Some conservatives, however, are warning against any security guarantee by the United States. They fear it would risk embroiling the nation in a future war.
A draft agreement of the potential deal to split management of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and oil and natural gas reserves that circulated Thursday did not include a firm security guarantee for Ukraine, something that several Republican senators said would be critical to any viable peace deal.
Continue reading at The Hill
North Korea sending more troops to Russia, South Korea says
North Korea appears to have sent more troops to Russia despite its soldiers suffering heavy casualties fighting on the front lines in Ukraine, South Korea’s main spy agency said Thursday.
Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it was trying to figure out how many additional troops North Korea deployed to Russia, according to a brief statement.
The South Korean agency also assessed that earlier this month North Korean troops were redeployed at fronts in Russia’s Kursk region after a reported temporary withdrawal from the region.
Continue reading at The Hill
Politico Nightly newsletter
Trump’s empty embrace of Starmer
LIMITED GUARANTEE — When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Washington at Blair House — the presidential guest house opposite the White House — he was greeted by a gesture of goodwill: the Union Jack flying outside.
The only problem? The flag was upside down.
The honest mistake proved emblematic of Starmer’s visit, a well-intended gesture that didn’t exactly accomplish its intended result.
The prime minister and the president didn’t make much concrete progress and had little to announce beyond expected platitudes about increased cooperation. Starmer has learned to speak Trump’s language, flattering him and praising the United States enough that Trump appears to have genuine affection for the center-left prime minister. And yet Trump remains unmoved, unwilling to change policy direction on the issue that matters most to Starmer and the rest of Europe — Ukraine.
The prime minister arrived in Washington with one essential ask: the inclusion of a security guarantee from the United States in any peace agreement that halts the war in Ukraine. He’ll return home without one.
“If there is a ceasefire without a backstop, it will simply give [Russian President Vladimir Putin] the opportunity to wait and to come again,” Starmer told reporters aboard his flight to D.C. in advance of the meeting. In Starmer’s ideal world, that “backstop” would come in the form of a pledge that the United States would intervene in some way should Putin invade Ukraine again. But Trump has no inclination to do that, and no sense of allegiance to the traditional alliance with Western Europe. In his transactional view of the world, the mineral deal he plans to sign with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday serves a similarly deterrent purpose.
Continue reading Politico Nightly newsletter
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Note to #Bluesky Readers: Some Posting Changes Here
I would like to start by thanking all those who follow me on Bluesky who’ve liked and shared my posts. My intent in curating the news every day has been to provide a quick way for people to make sure they do not miss out on any of the news about what Musk and Trump is doing.
An email for the circular file, Part II?
I wrote about some emails I’ve been receiving by the national Democratic party yesterday.
Misogyny and Misanthropy Under Musk (and Trump) | Blog#42
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