Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 52 | Blog#42
And the meek shall not inherit the earth.
News worth repeating
Trump Medicare center to cancel some payment trials
The Trump Medicare innovation center plans to cancel a half dozen trials to change the way health providers are paid by the end of the year as it aligns itself with the goals of the MAHA movement, multiple people familiar with the plans told Axios.
The big picture: Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation leadership said they want to focus on models that are likely to meet criteria for expansion and that promote the goals of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s public health agenda, said a person with knowledge who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
What they're saying: CMMI "is committed to testing — and eventually scaling — innovative payment models that meet the statutory goals of reducing program spending while maintaining or improving quality of care," a CMS spokesperson said.
The center has completed a data-driven review of models based on their statutory mandate and identified some that will conclude as scheduled and others that should be terminated, the spokesperson said.
CMS estimates the changes will save taxpayers almost $750 million, though it did not specify how.
State of play: The innovation center will end two payment models focused on alternative ways to pay for primary care — Making Care Primary and Primary Care First — and an experiment to encourage at-home dialysis and kidney transplants known as End-Stage Renal Disease Treatment Choices.
Continue reading at Axios
US considers writing off $4 trillion of tax cuts using budget trick
Republicans will discuss the accounting maneuver with President Donald Trump on Thursday.
It’s the accounting maneuver that could break the Senate, upend the federal budget process and explode the national debt.
That’s according to critics of a fiscal tactic that congressional Republicans are now seriously considering as they struggle to figure out how to deliver on all of President Donald Trump’s policy demands.
Adopting the “current policy baseline,” as it’s called, could be the only way for the GOP to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and avoid painful cuts to federal programs, as well as pile on new income tax exemptions for tips, overtime and Social Security. Trump is expected to discuss the move with members of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee at a White House meeting Thursday.
If lawmakers adopt the change, it would essentially make it appear as though extending current tax rates, set to expire at the end of the year, would cost nothing rather than the roughly $4 trillion over 10 years that nonpartisan scorekeepers estimate.
Continue reading at Politico
USDA ends program that helped schools serve food from local farmer
The U.S. Agriculture Department is ending two pandemic-era programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers and producers.
About $660 million of that went to schools and childcare centers to buy food for meals through the Local Foods for Schools program. A separate program provided money to food banks.
In Maine, the money allowed the coastal RSU 23 school district to buy food directly from fisherman, dairy producers and farmers for school meals, said Caroline Trinder, the district’s food and nutrition services director.
“I think everyone can say that they want kids at school to receive the healthiest meals possible,” Trinder said. “It’s the least processed, and we’re helping our local economy, we’re helping farmers that may be the parents of our students.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Fact-Check: Yes, President Trump shared an anti-LGBT ‘Pink Triangle' from the Nazi era
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Yesterday’s post
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Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on Trump wanting states to run education: “I’ll take it”
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) on Wednesday said that if President Trump’s plan to put education policy in the hands of the states happens, he would “take it” and “make good use” of the money that flows to the governor’s office.
“I’ll take it. You know, I spent time with the president a couple of weeks ago with all the other governors. If that money flows to, we governors, we’ll make good use of it,” Green told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.” “Just for perspective, for those watching, 11 percent right now of my entire budget on education is from the federal government.”
“I need those … I need those dollars for, like, special education for kids with autism, for so many needs, for meals in our schools. So, if the dollars flow to us, and we get rid of some bureaucracy, I think governors will welcome the resource,” he added.
Green’s comments came a day after the Department of Education unveiled that it was firing nearly half its workforce. The move by the department followed other Trump administration efforts to reshape the federal government drastically.
Continue reading at The Hill
5 takeaways from the feisty Wisconsin Supreme Court debate
Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates Susan Crawford and Brad Schimel traded barbs and defended their track records on Wednesday night during their only debate for an open seat on the high court.
Recognized as the liberal and conservative candidates respectively, Crawford and Schimel participated in a one-hour debate moderated by WISN 12 at Marquette University Law School. The April 1 election will determine partisan control of the court.
Here are five takeaways from their feisty Wisconsin Supreme Court debate:
The debate got heated
Both candidates took jabs at each other just minutes into the debate, underscoring how contentious the race has gotten.
After Schimel noted toward the beginning of the debate that he would look at cases objectively and that he wasn’t rooting for any team, Crawford replied that he was “paying good lip service to the principles of impartiality and open mindedness.”
“But throughout this campaign, he has taken issues on cases pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court,” Crawford added, pointing to previous remarks he made about the state’s 1849 law that bans nearly all abortions and criminalizes providing an abortion.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump reignites Europe’s Franco-German engine
Officials in Paris and Berlin are excited about the good relationship incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has with French President Emanuel Macron.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has finally found the kindred German spirit he's spent years looking for — and he has Donald Trump to thank.
By vacillating on America's commitment to NATO and demanding that Europe step up to protect Ukraine against Russia, the U.S. president is upending the security architecture that's protected Western Europe for the past eight decades.
It's a geopolitical shock that is pressing incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to revive the long-sputtering Franco-German motor that is supposed to drive the European Union's economy and chart its political trajectory.
For Macron, relations with Germany have been a perennial frustration. While France has called for the EU to chart its own course militarily and industrially with a policy of "strategic autonomy," Berlin has been skeptical, not wanting to alienate the U.S., which has been the lodestar of its post-war defense strategy.
Despite Macron's valiant diplomatic efforts — including delivering a eulogy for former finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble predominantly in German last year — Berlin has not succumbed to his charms on key policy issues, ranging from trade to joint debt.
Now all the old certainties are vanishing fast.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Europe’s military heavyweights call for defense industry deregulation
15 countries are ready to move forward on security guarantees for Ukraine, France’s Lecornu said, without naming them.
PARIS — France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom want to cut regulations on weapon-makers to help them boost production.
"We are calling for the defense industry to no longer be treated as just another industry," France's Sébastien Lecornu told reporters Wednesday, speaking after a meeting with defense ministers of the so-called E5 format in Paris.
"The European Commission has a role to play here," he added, addressing Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, who was also present at the gathering.
It's the third time that the E5 has met since the format was first created after U.S. President Donald Trump was reelected in November.
The call from Europe's largest military powers comes as the continent attempts to rapidly rearm in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin's expansionism and concerns the United States may lessen its military presence in Europe.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Chuck Schumer is in a real shutdown mess. Can he lead Democrats out of it?
Despite pressure from the left to hold firm, some Democratic senators seem headed for an off-ramp.
Two days out from a government shutdown, Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats find themselves in a serious jam. But some of them are starting to hint at how they might get out of it.
Publicly, the Senate minority leader and many of his fellow Democrats are vowing they won’t provide the votes to allow a House GOP funding bill to pass, while demanding a vote on a Plan B. Privately, though, Senate Democrats appear to be moving toward that potential offramp: Securing a vote on their preferred 30-day stopgap bill in exchange for helping the House bill, which funds government through September, clear the 60-vote filibuster hurdle — even if they ultimately oppose it on final passage.
The emerging strategy comes as Schumer has convened his caucus for a string of meetings that have grown so boisterous at times that they’ve been overheard outside the room where Senate Democrats have huddled.
Continue reading at Politico
House Dems press for an 11th hour shutdown re-vote
House Democrats are mounting a sudden push for a last-minute vote on an alternative to House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) bill to avert a federal government shutdown.
Why it matters: The effort dovetails with pressure some in the party are placing on key Senate Democrats to reject Johnson's 6-month stopgap bill and force Republicans to the table.
The bill passed the House despite all but one House Democrat voting against it — but Republicans will need support from at least eight Senate Democrats for it to pass the upper chamber. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is already a "no" on the bill.
"Our message to the Senate is ... stand with us," Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the House minority whip, said at House Democrats' retreat on Wednesday.
Driving the news: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Clark and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said Wednesday in a joint statement they would "strongly support" a four-week stopgap bill.
"House Republicans should get back to Washington immediately so that we can take up a short-term measure, pass it on a bipartisan basis and avoid a Trump-inspired government shutdown," they said.
House Democrats have demanded that any longer-term spending measure include language that constrains DOGE's ability to cut congressionally authorized spending.
State of play: Senate Democrats left a closed-door meeting Wednesday signaling that they will not provide the votes for the bill to overcome the chamber's 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Continue reading at Axios
Senate Dems' riskier scenario ahead of possible government shutdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has signaled his party is prepared to let the government shut down.
Why it matters: Even if it's a bargaining tactic, Schumer and Democrats have put Congress closer to an outcome he's repeatedly warned against.
By Thursday evening, Schumer and Senate GOP leader John Thune (R-S.D.) could have a handshake deal to allow amendment votes and speed up the process.
"Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. So that's what we are insisting on to vote for cloture," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters on Wednesday.
⏰ Schumer wants a vote on a 30-day funding stopgap, he said on Wednesday. It would fail, and House Republicans have already skipped town (but could return).
But forcing an amendment vote on a 30-day CR could give Dems an off-ramp to say they tried to put President Trump on a shorter leash before ultimately voting to prevent a shutdown.
"They haven't made that offer about that," Thune told reporters. "But in the end, we want to fund the government. ... We just haven't heard from them yet."
🔥 Zoom in: Schumer's other, riskier scenario has shutdown written all over it.
Continue reading at Axios
Canada sounds alarm at G7: ‘Nobody is safe’ from Trump’s tactics
As U.S. joins foreign ministers’ gathering in Quebec, Mélanie Joly warns counterparts that they are next.
OTTAWA — Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly plans to welcome her G7 counterparts to Charlevoix, Quebec, with a warning: “If the U.S. can do this to us, their closest friend, then nobody is safe.”
On the official agenda this week as Canada hosts the G7 foreign ministers: Ukraine, the Middle East, Haiti and Venezuela, but nothing about President Donald Trump’s trade war or sovereignty threats. Yet Joly told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday that she plans to raise the issue with the European and British members, while advising them that “Canada is the canary in the coal mine.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will arrive fresh from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he was negotiating the terms of a 30-day Russia-Ukraine truce.
Speaking to reporters from Ireland on Wednesday, he pointed out that G7 leaders will have plenty to talk about when they assemble. “It is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada.”
But amid Trump’s steep tariffs on his northern neighbor, Joly is not standing by. She plans to meet with Rubio on Thursday morning in an effort to apply “maximum pressure” over the protection of Canada’s sovereignty and way of living.
“We have done nothing to justify Trump’s attacks on our country, on our economy and our identity,” Joly said. “Canada is your best friend, best neighbor and best ally.”
Continue reading at Politico
FEMA launches review of migrant shelter aid, suggesting smuggling laws were violated
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law used to prosecute smugglers.
The Department of Homeland Security has “significant concerns” that federal grants used to address a surge of migration under former President Joe Biden were used for illegal activities, wrote Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
His letter, dated Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press, asks recipients of grants from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program to provide names and contact information for migrants served and “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided” within 30 days. The letter says funding will be withheld during the review.
While it doesn’t explicitly threaten criminal prosecution, it raises concerns that recipients may have violated U.S. Criminal Code Section 1324, a felony offense against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States. It also says executive officers must sign sworn statements that they have no knowledge or suspicions of anyone in their organizations violating the smuggling law.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Rubio could face an unfriendly reception from close G7 allies over Trump’s policies
LA MALBAIE, Canada (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may be walking into unusually unfriendly territory this week when he meets his counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies — strong American allies stunned by President Donald Trump’s actions against them.
Just hours after Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs kicked in — prompting responses from the European Union and Canada and threatening to ignite full-scale trade wars with close U.S. partners — Rubio arrived at the scenic Quebec town of La Malbaie on the St. Lawrence River for two days of talks with the top diplomats of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. All of them have been angered by the new American president’s policies.
Rubio will likely be hearing a litany of complaints about Trump’s decisions from once-friendly, like-minded countries in the G7 — notably host Canada, to which Trump has arguably been most antagonistic with persistent talk of it becoming the 51st U.S. state, additional tariffs and repeated insults against its leadership.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Canada’s incoming prime minister says he’ll meet Trump if Canadian sovereignty is respected
TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s incoming Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday he’s ready to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump if he respects Canadian sovereignty and is open to talk about a common approach to trade.
Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians. Trump has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested Tuesday the border is a fictional line.
“I am ready to sit down with President Trump at the appropriate time under a position where there is respect for Canadian sovereignty and we are working for a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade,” Carney said.
Carney, who will be sworn in Friday with his new Cabinet, spoke to reporters at a steel factory in Hamilton, Ontario after Trump officially increased tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Scientists find natural molecule that works like Ozempic
Ozempic, Wegovy sales have soared in recent years
Shortages and insurance coverage have made it difficult to get
The naturally occurring molecule shows promise in suppressing appetite
Researchers at Stanford Medicine have discovered a naturally occurring molecule that they believe is similar to the active ingredient in the same diabetes drugs that have shown weight loss potential.
BRINP2-related peptide, or BRP, is a naturally occurring molecule that can suppress appetite and promote weight loss in mice and pigs without causing common side effects like nausea, according to the study, which was published in Nature.
The discovery may provide a solution for those who suffer from some of the more severe side effects of Wegovy and Ozempic, which include inflammation of the pancreas, changes in vision, increased risk of thyroid cancer and others.
Continue reading at The Hill
What does February’s inflation report mean for me?
Egg prices surged over 10% to a record $5.90 per dozen
Shelter inflation fell to an annual rate of 4.2%, lowest since Dec. 2021
Experts worry Trump's tariffs could drive up prices in the months ahead
Inflation slowed during President Donald Trump’s first full month in office, but that progress could be short-lived as tariffs threaten to raise prices in the months ahead.
The consumer price index increased 2.8% in February from a year ago, the first slowdown in the annual inflation rate since September, according to new data from the Labor Department.
Core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy categories, fell to 3.1% year-over-year, the lowest since April 2021.
Continue reading at The Hill
Experts give Kennedy low marks as measles outbreak tests him
The measles outbreak, which has killed two people to date and sickened nearly 260 across three states, represents the first time Kennedy has had to reckon with his past as a longtime critic of vaccines and his new leadership of the federal health establishment.
Public health experts and advocates don’t think he is passing.
The response has been “as expected for a Secretary Kennedy HHS. But that’s not saying much,” said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who has been tracking the outbreak in her Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter.
Kennedy has made two appearances on Fox News in recent weeks, where he downplayed the seriousness of measles and touted fringe theories about prevention and treatment, like the benefits of vitamin A and cod liver oil over the measles vaccine, which is the only proven way to prevent infection.
“We’ve had two measles deaths in 20 years in this country — we have 100,000 autism diagnoses every year,” Kennedy said. “We need to keep our eye on the ball. Chronic disease is our enemy.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrats look to save face in shutdown battle
Senate Democratic sources say Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is giving plenty of room to centrists in his caucus to vote for the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) if doing so is the only way to avoid a government shutdown at week’s end.
And one Democratic senator familiar with the internal deliberations said Senate Democrats will ultimately vote to keep the government open, despite the rumblings of liberals within their caucus who are heaping scorn on the House-passed funding bill.
Still, the private assurances don’t rule out the possibility that something unexpected could happen to change the political calculus.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration cuts export office staff amid escalating trade war
The Trump administration has fired numerous employees at the International Trade Administration (ITA), a Commerce Department branch that is set to play a key role in enacting President Trump’s trade agenda.
ITA, which aims to promote U.S. industry and exports abroad, cut probationary employees late last month as part of a wider push to reduce the federal workforce led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The cuts seemingly run counter to Trump’s heavy focus on trade in his second term. As Trump levies hefty tariffs against America’s closest allies, he has repeatedly complained about the country’s trade deficits.
“If President Trump genuinely cares about improving the trade balance, boosting US exports and restricting imports where it’s appropriate, the ITA plays a critical role in that,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It would seem to me that a strong ITA fits very well with the way Trump has traditionally described the goals of his trade agenda,” he continued.
Continue reading at The Hill
5 risks facing the US economy under Trump
The fundamentals of the U.S. economy are in good shape, with low unemployment and robust growth in recent quarters.
But warning signs have been flashing and markets have been sliding amid policy uncertainties and some troubling macroeconomic indicators.
Here’s a look at the risk factors currently facing the U.S. economy.
Inflation risks
After rising to a 9-percent annual increase in the aftermath of the pandemic, inflation sank nearly all the way back down to the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2 percent by the middle of last year.
However, it started to rise again through the fourth quarter and the consumer price index (CPI) was back up at a 3-percent increase in January, prompting President Trump to declare that “inflation is back.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump aid freeze decimates UN food agency: ‘It’s catastrophic.’
Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization suspends projects after U.S. stops $300M a year in funding.
ROME — Aid projects in crisis-hit countries from Afghanistan to the Horn of Africa have been suspended and staffing cut after President Donald Trump froze hundreds of millions in annual U.S. funding to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, according to internal FAO documents and employees who spoke to POLITICO.
The cuts are expected to deepen food insecurity in multiple regions already suffering from climate shocks, conflict and economic instability, aid experts warn. Halting the FAO’s agricultural support could have long-term consequences, making vulnerable communities even more dependent on emergency food aid.
“All project activities should be suspended with immediate effect,” reads a Jan. 31 internal FAO memo seen by POLITICO.
The guidance instructs staff to halt new financial commitments and suspend activities funded by the U.S. government. As a result, FAO field offices have already begun cutting contracts, freezing recruitment and delaying key agricultural and food security programs, according to people familiar with the situation.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
EU justice chief goes to Washington as trade tensions heat up
Tech regulation could be the next point of contention between the new U.S. administration and the EU.
Michael McGrath, the European Union's justice commissioner, will visit Washington D.C. this week, the first senior EU official to visit after the United States imposed steel tariffs that will hit European industry.
McGrath's visit on March 13 and 14 comes a day after the European Commission promised to retaliate against the U.S. move by slapping charges on some €26 billion of U.S exports.
The Irishman will join a Thursday event at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to talk about EU tech regulation and the "EU-US digital relations at the current time."
His visit will follow his former boss, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, who met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday as part of a tradition where the Irish leader hands over a bowl of shamrock to mark St Patrick's Day, which is on March 17. Martin was the first European leader to meet Trump since his infamous Oval Office interview with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
McGrath's advisers confirmed that he is in Washington for two days. He also has meetings with businesses scheduled.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Medicaid shortfall forces California to borrow $3.44B
The surprise budget gap comes as Congress weighs large cuts to the program.
SACRAMENTO, California — California will need to borrow $3.44 billion to close a budget gap in the state’s Medicaid program, Newsom administration officials told lawmakers Wednesday in a letter obtained by POLITICO.
That’s the maximum amount California can borrow, and will only be enough to cover bills for Medi-Cal — the state’s Medicaid program — through the end of the month, Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer separately told POLITICO.
The budget pressure will bring fresh scrutiny to the state’s coverage of undocumented immigrants, which is costing more than first budgeted.
Originally, the state estimated it would cost around $3 billion per year to insure that population. But one year after the program has been fully implemented, it’s turning out to be more expensive than anticipated.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s current budget proposal estimates the state will shell out $8.4 billion to cover undocumented immigrants in Medi-Cal in 2024-2025, and $7.4 billion in 2025-2026.
Continue reading at Politico
South Florida Republicans are running out of time to change Trump’s mind on Venezuelan immigrants
Three House Republicans say they are working with the administration to prevent 300,000 Venezuelans from losing status in April.
MIAMI — Donald Trump’s repeated promises to aggressively crack down on immigration have ensnared Republicans in his home state, who say the administration has made a dire mistake that could harm South Florida communities.
Trump’s administration axed temporary protections for Venezuelan immigrants in the early days of his second term. In less than a month, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans nationally stand to lose temporary protected status, opening them up to deportation — leaving South Florida Republican Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez scrambling to try to convince Trump to change his mind.
“That’s our plan right now — working with the administration and changing some of their policies so that we can help the Venezuelan people,” Gimenez told POLITICO.
The fight over the protections for these Venezuelans sets up a collision course between the president’s “America First” worldview — which is predicated on cracking down on immigration — and his deep level of support in South Florida, particularly among Miami Latinos.
And how it ends up will be a big test for how much sway the Miami delegation will hold in Trump 2.0.
Continue reading at Politico
Buttigieg gives the clearest signal yet that he’s eyeing a presidential run in 2028
The former Transportation secretary is eyeing something bigger than the Senate.
Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce Thursday he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat, according to a person briefed on his decision, clearing a path for a potential presidential campaign instead.
His decision was framed by several allies and people in his inner circle as putting him in the strongest possible position to seek the presidency, and based on a belief it would be exceedingly difficult to run successive campaigns in 2026 and 2028.
The former Transportation secretary acknowledged recently he had been “looking” at a Senate campaign, including meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss the possibility.
Democrats are scrambling to hold onto the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters in a crucial swing state. Republicans see it as a top pickup opportunity after coming close to flipping the state’s other Senate seat last cycle.
Continue reading at Politico
‘They’re Totally Screwed’: White House Taunts Democrats on Shutdown
The administration thinks the opposition is about to eat crow.
Senate Democrats haven’t even surrendered yet on a government shutdown — but already White House officials are gloating about making them eat crow, almost taunting them to vote “no.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threw down the gauntlet Wednesday, proclaiming that Republicans don’t have the 60 votes needed to keep the government open past Friday. But President Donald Trump and senior White House officials are increasingly confident Schumer will release enough centrists to put up the votes for passage, according to multiple White House officials I spoke to over the past 24 hours.
“They’re 100 percent gonna swallow it,” one White House official told me. “They’re totally screwed.”
The confidence is especially noteworthy given that Schumer has yet to detail his plans. Many lawmakers in both parties are privately predicting that some sort of deal will be reached in which Senate Democrats get amendment votes in return for allowing the House-passed “continuing resolution” to advance and ultimately pass.
Still, that’s not a done deal. And given the intense pressure from the base to flip Trump the bird, there’s still plenty of time for Democrats to back away from a possible deal before Friday’s deadline.
In some ways the administration looks like it’s almost itching for a shutdown and daring Democrats to touch the stove. Last month, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought notably gave agencies until Thursday to submit plans for “large-scale reductions in force.” The details could spill out hours before a shutdown and would almost certainly agitate the Democratic base even further.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
Trump’s Capitol Hill agenda in limbo
House and Senate Republicans are sinking deeper into an impasse over how to advance President Donald Trump’s vast legislative agenda.
Congressional Republicans notched a major victory by muscling a funding bill through the House, but GOP lawmakers are still struggling to make headway on President Donald Trump’s biggest legislative priorities.
House and Senate Republicans have yet to reach a deal on a budget plan that would set the framework for Trump’s legislative agenda — a source of tension ahead of a meeting Thursday between GOP senators and Trump at the White House. Republicans need to agree on how much spending to cut to offset the cost of their massive bill to fund tax cuts, border security, defense and energy policy. And they also don’t agree on when or how they’ll try to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a global economic catastrophe.
But there’s one sentiment House and Senate Republicans do share right now: They have yet to deliver any major legislative policy wins for their new president.
“I am worried about it,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said in an interview.
Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged this week he has little time to celebrate Republicans’ major spending win after the House passed his stopgap funding bill Tuesday.
Continue reading at Politico
Selling Politics: Inside the Rush to Get Rich Off of MAGA
From unproven cures to ETFs, the market for products branded by Trump loyalists is exploding. So are the political careers of some of the people behind them.
Before becoming FBI director, Kash Patel didn’t usually wear a tie, but if you paid attention during his Fox News hits, you would have seen a shiny piece of metal on his suit jacket that made him pop: It’s a pin that reads “K$H: Fight with Kash.” And you can buy it for $10.
Patel has spent most of his career as a lawyer and a political operator, but he’s also scraped out a side gig as an influencer in the vein of Kylie Jenner or Dave Portnoy. It isn’t style he’s offering: It’s conservative politics — and the credibility that comes from being one of President Donald Trump’s lieutenants and defenders. And like Jenner and Portnoy, he and his affiliates have products to monetize that.
For example, there is the book — Government Gangsters ($15.99 on Amazon) and the documentary that goes with it. There is the “Orange Man Bad” he wore at CPAC last year — it was embroidered with a comic book rendering of Trump’s face as a human skull ($35 at Based Apparel). Finally, there are the products he’s endorsed on Truth Social: Patriot Mobil (“Use Promo code: KASH For A FREE Month of service!”), Revere Payments, the Coign credit card (“Get the woke out of your wallet”) and Nocovidium, the dubious supplement that Patel claimed will “rid your body of the harms of the vax.”
“Quackery,” grumbled Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, as he criticized Nocovidium and Patel’s other side businesses as he prepared to challenge Patel’s nomination to be FBI director. He failed to move his Senate colleagues.
Continue reading at Politico
Layoff plans are due Thursday. Feds are terrified.
President Donald Trump has ordered “large-scale” cuts to the federal workforce.
Agencies across the federal government are facing a Thursday deadline to submit plans for sweeping workforce cuts and reorganizations.
President Donald Trump ordered agencies last month to draft plans for “large-scale reductions in force,” and his administration gave agencies a March 13 deadline to hand over plans for “initial agency cuts and reductions,” with another round due in April.
Workers inside energy and environmental agencies — who have already seen colleagues terminated in the early days of Trump’s term — are anxiously awaiting details of the administration’s next targets.
They’re bracing for steep cuts.
“People are completely terrified,” said one Interior Department employee, who was granted anonymity because they fear reprisal. “There are rumors circulating” about which offices and programs the administration might single out for cuts, that person said, but staffers hadn’t yet heard details from management about the specifics.
“We’re also kind of puzzled,” that person said, because the expected downsizing across agencies is coming as “this administration is putting a lot of work on our plates,” including repealing Biden-era regulations.
Continue reading at Politico
Inside the Rubio-Musk Relationship — and Rubio’s Survival Strategy
The secretary of State has his limits when it comes to demands he slash his department.
In late February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio quietly met with Elon Musk to discuss the future of the State Department and what was left of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The previously unreported meeting was cordial, some even say lighthearted. But the two men had some clear differences. Musk, the world’s richest man now serving as a top adviser to President Donald Trump, wanted major cuts — and fast — at the State Department. Rubio said he was fine with big cuts, but he wasn’t inclined to rush them through. He was already dealing with the fallout of Musk acolytes’ rapid dismantling of USAID, not to mention an array of global crises. He believed the changes at State should be more thought-out and methodical.
That meeting ended with the two men on good terms, according to a person familiar with the situation and a Trump administration official close to Rubio who described it to me. But last week, the two once again aired their differences, this time in front of Trump. The official close to Rubio said the second meeting, which included others in the Cabinet, was calmer than portrayed in the initial New York Times account. But the official didn’t dispute the substance of the report, which had the pair sparring over the number of people being pushed out at State and Rubio making his case for how to best handle the department’s restructuring. In that meeting last week, Musk reportedly accused Rubio of firing a Department of Government Efficiency staffer.
Given the many global challenges it is tackling, “nobody wants the State Department to be in a position where USAID was, where it had difficulty operating,” the official insisted. (I granted the official and others interviewed anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.)
For Rubio, though, the fight over the future structure of the State Department isn’t just about protecting America’s ability to engage in diplomacy. It’s about protecting what power he has in the Trump administration.
Continue reading at Politico
Move your nukes to our territory, Polish president urges Trump
Andrzej Duda said he discussed moving American nuclear weapons to Poland with U.S. president’s special envoy Keith Kellogg, but the idea is likely to antagonize Moscow.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has called on the U.S. to transfer nuclear weapons to Polish territory to deter Russia from future aggression against Europe.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday, Duda said that U.S. President Donald Trump could move American nuclear weapons kept in Western Europe or the U.S. to Poland — and added that he discussed the idea recently with Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
“I think it’s not only that the time has come, but that it would be safer if those weapons were already here," Duda told the publication.
“The borders of NATO moved east in 1999, so 26 years later there should also be a shift of the NATO infrastructure east. For me this is obvious,” Duda said.
“Russia didn't even hesitate when it moved its nuclear weapons to Belarus. They didn't ask anyone for permission,” the Polish president added.
However, the request is likely to be seen as highly provocative in Moscow.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump's tariffs spark "Boycott USA" backlash
President Trump's tariffs that targeted Canada, Mexico and China before being expanded to all steel and aluminum imports have not only triggered trade wars, they're also leading to a "Boycott USA" global consumer backlash against U.S. goods.
The big picture: "Boycott USA" has spiked on Google in the past seven days, with four EU countries and Canada topping the search list and multiple countries have large Facebook groups dedicated to boycotting U.S. products.
Zoom in: One of the biggest regions for this pushback is Denmark, where Trump's talk of taking over its semi-autonomous territory Greenland has provoked anger.
The Danish "Boycott goods from the U.S." Facebook page has nearly 73,000 members and Denmark had the second-highest search number of searches for "Boycott USA" this week after Luxembourg.
In neighboring Sweden, the fourth-biggest "Boycott USA" search region on Google, a Facebook page that says using a U.S. platform is "the best weapon" in the drive against U.S. goods has nearly 80,000 members.
France ranked at no.3 on Google for "Boycott USA" searches. The country's "BOYCOTT USA: Buy French and European!" Facebook page has more than 20,000 members.
Canada is another top backlash spot due to Trump making the closest ally of the U.S. a top tariff target and his desire to make the North American country the 51st state, ranking at no.5 on Google for "Boycott USA" searches.
Continue reading at Axios
These states could suffer the most without FEMA
Map: FEMA funding sent to individuals and households, 2021 to 2025
Some of the most disaster-prone states could face the greatest financial burdens in a world with less federal relief assistance, a new analysis finds.
Why it matters: President Trump earlier this year floated "fundamentally overhauling or reforming" FEMA, or "maybe getting rid" of it entirely — fueling concerns that U.S. disaster relief could be thrown into chaos just a few months before another hurricane season spins up.
Driving the news: Trump is reportedly mulling an executive order empowering state and local governments to handle disaster readiness and relief, and previously created a "FEMA review council."
FEMA and other federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), already funnel billions of dollars to individuals and communities.
It's unclear how or whether Trump's order might change that, or if it would result in fewer federal dollars for disaster-wracked states.
Some FEMA reform advocates call for giving states "block grants" of relief money to spend as they see fit, rather than to meet specific needs — but others worry that would lead to fraud and abuse, or that many states lack the resources and expertise to rebuild without help.
By the numbers: Certain states — many of them red — would be hit especially hard by reductions in federal relief funding, per a new analysis from the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database.
Continue reading at Axios
Hospice industry gets reprieve as Trump admin pauses oversight program
A federal effort to increase oversight of hospice care has been put on hold by the Trump administration, resetting efforts to root out fraud and abuse in an industry that receives more than $25 billion from Medicare annually.
Why it matters: Federal officials in recent years have ramped up efforts to identify instances in which hospice operators fraudulently bill the government or enroll patients who aren't terminally ill. But the new administration last month halted a Biden-era plan for noncompliant hospices to take corrective action or risk being kicked out of Medicare.
The big picture: Medicare is required by law to implement some version of the targeted oversight program. But it's not clear how that will evolve in President Trump's second term. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not respond to a request for comment.
The pause amounts to a win for the hospice industry, which said the original Biden CMS plan would penalize well-meaning operators without identifying underperforming ones.
"What's hoped and expected at this point is the ability to refine the model," said Bill Dombi, who retired as president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice last year.
"My own forecast for the future says hospice is absolutely at a high category of interest for purposes of oversight," he said.
Flashback: Congress in 2020 passed a law requiring CMS to create a program to boost oversight of underperforming hospices, including more reporting and monetary penalties for wrongdoing. It came in response to a pair of federal reports that found systemic issues were allowing poor-quality Medicare hospices to slip through the cracks.
Continue reading at Axios
Teens who vape had similar nicotine exposure to smokers
As teen tobacco use experiences historic declines, new evidence suggests vaping is giving kids the same level of nicotine exposure.
Why it matters: The findings could undercut arguments that vaping and e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes and can help smokers quit.
What they found: Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada studied 364 youths from Canada, England and the U.S. who were between 16 and 19 years old.
Analyzing 203 urine samples, the authors found the teens who exclusively vaped had similar nicotine exposure to those who smoked cigarettes — and to those who both vaped and used cigarettes.
While nicotine exposure was similar between the three countries, it appeared slightly higher among teens in Canada, which the authors suggested could be due in part to differences in smoking behaviors and regulatory differences.
Notably, the researchers found adolescents who were using salt-based e-liquids in their vaping devices had higher nicotine biomarker levels than those using "freebase" nicotine products.
Continue reading at Axios
CEOs push for patience with Trump
David Solomon — Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO — said after President Trump's visit to the Business Roundtable this week that "the business community understands what the president is trying to do with tariffs."
"The business community is always going to want lower tariffs ... everywhere in the world," Solomon told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday. "At the moment, there is some uncertainty — the market is digesting that."
Solomon told Bartiromo that Trump projected a "sense of optimism" during his closed-door remarks Tuesday to the biggest-ever meeting of the BRT, made up of the CEOs of America's largest companies.
Solomon, whose firm manages or supervises trillions of dollars in assets, praised the administration for being "engaged with the business community. ... That's a different experience than what we've had over the course of the last four years."
He said business wants to see "more specific actions on the regulatory front to unleash more animal spirits. ... My expectation is you will see, as you get through the year, a pickup in activity across both the capital markets and M&A."
One CEO in the room for Trump's remarks told Mike: "Let's slow down and have a little perspective. We may not like how fast this is going, and have real concerns. But let's play a long game."
Continue reading at Axios
Migrant traffic through the Darién Gap plummets
The number of migrants trying to travel through the dangerous jungles of the Darién Gap to get from Colombia into Panama has fallen dramatically in recent months to the lowest levels since the pandemic, new data show.
Why it matters: The decline is the latest sign that fewer migrants from South America are risking the treacherous, 2,600-mile journey north to the U.S. border in the early days of President Trump's immigration crackdown.
The number of migrants illegally crossing the U.S. southern border plummeted in February to its lowest level in decades.
Zoom in: Only 408 migrants traveled northward through the Darién Gap in February, according to Migración Panama, an agency in Panama that keeps track of migration in the region.
Continue reading at Axios
U.S. cities are growing again — thanks to immigration
America's metros are growing faster than the country overall, driven largely by foreign immigration, per the U.S. Census Bureau.
Why it matters: An exodus of city-dwellers rocked many U.S. metros during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some are now clawing back residents (and their productivity, creativity, tax dollars, etc.)
Driving the news: The number of people living in U.S. metro areas rose by almost 3.2 million between 2023 and 2024, the Census Bureau said today — a gain of about 1.1%.
By comparison, the total U.S. population rose by 1% during that time.
Nearly 90% of U.S. metro areas grew from 2023 to 2024, the bureau says.
Zoom in: Some metros hit hardest by pandemic population loss — think New York; Washington, D.C. and San Francisco — grew between 2023 and 2024, though some are still down relative to 2020, as seen above.
Continue reading at Axios
1. Who loses if Social Security breaks
DOGE is taking its wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration, the agency responsible for overseeing retirement and disability benefits for 73 million Americans.
Why it matters: The cuts underway could wind up breaking critical parts of a system that millions of the nation's most vulnerable citizens rely on, including nearly 90% of Americans over age 65.
The big picture: Monkeying with Social Security was always viewed as a "third rail" in politics, even before an aide to House Speaker Tip O'Neill coined the phrase in the early 1980s.
Many presidents have tried to reform the system in ambitious ways, but the costs were always too great, perhaps until now.
State of play: The agency announced last month it seeks to cut about 7,000 employees, or 12% of staff, through voluntary resignations and a reduction-in-force plan due Thursday.
Employees have been fleeing, resulting in "a significant loss of expertise," former staffer Tiffany Flick said in an affidavit filed late last week.
The agency also announced plans to shutter six of 10 regional offices.
Continue reading at Axios
2. Americans wait months to hear on benefits
The Social Security Administration was already struggling to provide customer service to Americans before these recent cuts.
Why it matters: The worry now is these changes will worsen the situation, though the administration said its intent is the opposite.
By the numbers: Amid staffing shortages, it's taking the agency longer to make decisions on disability benefit applications.
This year, folks are waiting an average of 240 days to hear back, up from 120 days before the pandemic, according to Social Security data analyzed by the Urban Institute.
Continue reading at Axios
3. States that could suffer most without FEMA
Some of the most disaster-prone states could face the greatest financial burdens in a world with less federal relief assistance, a new analysis finds.
Why it matters: Trump earlier this year floated the idea of "fundamentally overhauling or reforming" FEMA or "maybe getting rid" of it entirely, fueling concerns that federal disaster relief could be thrown into chaos just a few months before another hurricane season spins up.
Driving the news: Trump is mulling an executive order that empowers state and local governments to handle disaster readiness and relief, and previously created a "FEMA review council."
By the numbers: Certain states — many of them red — would be hit especially hard by reductions in federal relief funding, per a new analysis by the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database.
Continue reading at Axios
Tesla turmoil ignites political proxy war
President Trump's public intervention on behalf of Tesla marks the most extraordinary chapter yet in the partisan war over America's preeminent electric vehicle brand.
Why it matters: Elon Musk's assault on the federal government has supercharged Tesla's evolution from liberal status symbol to pride-of-MAGA protectorate. The company's stock has taken a beating along the way.
"We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly," says J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman.
What's happening: Musk's efforts to fire thousands of federal workers and dismantle whole government agencies have sparked "Tesla Takedown" protests in at least 100 cities over the last month.
Those protests spurred vandalism of vehicles and violent incidents at Tesla facilities — including the use of Molotov cocktails.
Continue reading at Axios
Russia says it has retaken Kursk’s biggest town as Putin advisor says truce would help Ukraine
Russia claimed Thursday that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia’s Kursk border region, as a senior Kremlin official said that a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire in the three-year war on Ukraine would help Kyiv by giving its military a break.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as U.S. President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The U.S. on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
‘People Are Scared’: Inside CISA as It Reels From Trump’s Purge
Employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tell WIRED they’re struggling to protect the US while the administration dismisses their colleagues and poisons their partnerships.
Mass layoffs and weak leadership are taking a severe toll on the US government’s cyber defense agency, undermining its ability to protect America from foreign adversaries bent on crippling infrastructure and ransomware gangs that are bleeding small businesses dry.
Inside the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, vital support staff are gone, international partnerships have been strained, and workers are afraid to discuss threats to democracy that they’re now prohibited from countering. Employees are even more overworked than usual, and new assignments from the administration are interfering with important tasks. Meanwhile, CISA’s temporary leader is doing everything she can to appease President Donald Trump, infuriating employees who say she’s out of touch and refusing to protect them.
“You've got a lot of people who … are looking over their shoulder as opposed to looking at the enemy right now,” says one CISA employee.
Continue reading at Wired
Playbook: Trump’s world order
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce today he will not run for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Playbook’s Midwest guru Adam Wren emails in, clearing a path for a potential 2028 presidential campaign instead.
Starting gun fired: The former Transportation secretary previously confirmed he was “looking” at a Senate campaign, and discussed the prospect with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Buttigieg’s decision to rule himself out is framed by allies and people in his inner circle as a bid to put himself in the strongest possible position to seek the presidency, Adam reports, given the severe challenge of attempting to run campaigns in both 2026 and 2028. Buttigieg had already ruled himself out of a run for Michigan governor, despite positive polling.
Axe verdict: “Pete would have been a formidable candidate for the Senate had he chosen to run,” said David Axelrod, the longtime Democratic operative and a mentor to Buttigieg, who spoke with him yesterday. ”But had he won in ’26, it would almost certainly have taken him out of the conversation for ’28. This certainly keeps that option open. Beyond that, I have a sense that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and with people in communities like his, where the conversations and concerns are so different than the ones you hear in the echo chamber of Washington.” More from Adam
Heating up nicely: Buttigieg’s decision throws another prominent name into an increasingly crowded field of potential Democratic candidates for 2028. Last week, POLITICO revealed outgoing California Gov. Gavin Newsom was launching a high-profile podcast series, reaching across the aisle to interview key MAGA figures. He’s already garnering millions of YouTube hits, and few Dems are in doubt about his intentions. And yesterday, we scooped that Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor, is also mulling a 2028 bid. Expect more high-profile Democrats to test the water in the weeks ahead.
Also not ruling out a 2028 run: Steve Bannon. Hoo boy.
Continue reading the Politico Playbook newsletter
Senate Dems’ last-minute shutdown gambit
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
Senate Dems’ shutdown strategy
GOP senators meet on budget plans at the White House
Schumer’s map gets worse
Senate Democrats are still not committing to helping Republicans pass a seven-month funding stopgap, edging the country closer to a government shutdown as they attempt to force a vote on a shorter funding patch.
After two days of lengthy closed-door caucus talks (and another planned for today), Democrats emerged with an attempted strategy Wednesday afternoon: Democrats won’t give Republicans the votes to advance the stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, until they get an amendment vote on a “clean” CR through April 11.
Democrats have some leverage, despite being in the minority. In order to meet the Friday night deadline to avoid a shutdown, Republicans will need all 100 senators to agree to speed up the process. Republicans also need at least eight Democrats to overcome a filibuster and advance the CR.
We’ll see today if Democrats’ strategy holds. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has pushed for the April 11 CR but hasn’t officially weighed in. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he did not believe Senate Democrats had made an offer, though he said “we’re open” to conversations about amendments.
But the Democrats’ gambit will likely do little except stave off the decision they have long dreaded: shut down the government to stand up to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s spending cuts or stand aside and leave their unilateral government reductions unchecked.
Republicans have one Democratic “yes” vote: Sen. John Fetterman. In the “no” column: Sens. John Hickenlooper, Mark Warner, Jeff Merkley, Chris Coons, Adam Schiff, Tim Kaine and Peter Welch. But keep an eye out for which Democratic senators will vote to proceed to consideration of the bill — where Republicans actually need Democratic support to get the necessary 60 votes — even if they won’t vote for passage — which only requires a simple majority.
Who we’re watching: Swing-state Sens. Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin, Ruben Gallego and Gary Peters. Kelly said Wednesday evening he was undecided on the procedural vote to advance the CR. Slotkin referred reporters back to her Sunday show comments, where she said she would “withhold” her vote until she got certain assurances about government cuts.
House Democrats have only added to the pressure on their Senate colleagues, after they voted almost unanimously against the funding bill Tuesday. During their annual issues conference Wednesday, their message to Senate Democrats was clear: Vote “no” on the continuing resolution.
“We’re standing on the side of working families,” Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said. “And that’s why our message to the Senate is: Also stand with us on that side.”
Continue reading at Politico’s Inside Congress newsletter
Capitol agenda: Senate Dems’ last-minute shutdown gambit
Democrats say they won’t give Republicans the votes to advance stopgap funding bill until they get an amendment vote on a “clean” CR through April 11.
After two days of lengthy closed-door caucus talks (and another planned for Thursday), Democrats emerged with an attempted strategy Wednesday afternoon: Democrats won’t give Republicans the votes to advance the stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, until they get an amendment vote on a “clean” CR through April 11.
Democrats have some leverage, despite being in the minority. In order to meet the Friday night deadline to avoid a shutdown, Republicans will need all 100 senators to agree to speed up the process. Republicans also need at least eight Democrats to overcome a filibuster and advance the CR.
We’ll see today if Democrats’ strategy holds. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has pushed for the April 11 CR, but hasn’t officially weighed in. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he did not believe Senate Democrats had made an offer, though he said “we’re open” to conversations about amendments.
But the Democrats’ gambit will likely do little except stave off the decision they have long dreaded: shut down the government to stand up to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s spending cuts or stand aside and leave their unilateral government reductions unchecked.
Republicans have one Democratic “yes” vote: Sen. John Fetterman. In the “no” column: Sens. John Hickenlooper, Mark Warner, Jeff Merkley, Chris Coons, Adam Schiff, Tim Kaine and Peter Welch. But keep an eye out for which Democratic senators will vote to proceed to consideration of the bill — where Republicans actually need Democratic support to get the necessary 60 votes — even if they won’t vote for passage — which only requires a simple majority.
Continue reading at Politico
Half say Trump policies making economy worse: Poll
In a CNN poll released Thursday, 51 percent of respondents say Trump’s policies have worsened the country’s economic conditions, while 28 percent say they have improved conditions and 21 percent say they have had no effect.
Asked to rate the country’s current economic conditions, respondents in the March poll offer the same assessment they did in a January survey, conducted shortly before Trump took office for the second time: 28 percent in both polls say conditions are good while 72 percent say conditions are poor.
But respondents’ expectations of the economy a year from now have soured slightly, compared to the January survey.
In the new poll, 49 percent of respondents say they expect economic conditions to be good in one year — a seven-point reduction from 56 percent in January. Similarly, those who say they expect the economy to be poor a year from now is up seven points from the 44 percent who said the same in January.
Continue reading at The Hill
Could conquest return?
It’s only a century since US diplomats first persuaded the world that it’s wrong for countries to annex their neighbours
We live in a world where less and less seems to be universally agreed on, but there is one important exception. Virtually all national governments, either implicitly or explicitly, agree that respect for the ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of other nation-states is a fundamental principle of the international community. According to the United Nations Charter ratified in 1945, states are committed to refraining ‘from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.’ (Note that in this essay I use the term ‘state’ rather than the more ambiguous terms ‘nation’ or ‘country’. This does not refer to the subordinate political units such individual states within the United States). It is rare to find anyone who will openly support the idea that annexing territory from another state, after forcibly conquering it, could be legitimate. Conquest exists, of course, but it is almost always disguised as something else, whether it is Russia’s technique of promoting the secession of neighbouring regions, and then annexing them after holding a referendum, or Israel’s technique of calling it an occupation rather than a conquest.
Political leaders today take pride in rejecting conquest as illegitimate, which makes our current international order seem civilised and peace-loving. What could possibly justify taking by force territory that is not one’s own? But the idea that conquest is never legitimate and acceptable in international affairs is relatively new. As the 17th-century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius argued, treaties that end wars should be honoured, even if they forcibly impose unjust conditions, for example by taking away part of a state’s territory. Such treaties, even if unjust, may sometimes be the only way to end wars, and rejecting them on principle would merely make it impossible for wars to end. Moreover, as the 19th-century American jurist Henry Wheaton observed: ‘The title of almost all the nations of Europe to the territory now possessed by them … was originally derived from conquest, which has been subsequently confirmed by long possession.’ The very existence of almost any state, from this perspective, seems to depend, inevitably, on the legitimacy of conquest.
But instead of Grotius’s law of nations, which attempts to limit conquest by allowing it a regulated path to legality, we have an international order that guarantees as an absolute right the territory of each state as it currently exists.
Continue reading at Aeon Magazine
White House to pull CDC director nomination
The White House is withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), per a source close to Senate health committee and another source familiar.
Why it matters: The former Florida congressman was scheduled to appear before the committee this morning for his confirmation hearing. But his anti-vaccine views have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy himself said Weldon wasn't ready, per one of the sources.
Background: Weldon is an internal medicine doctor who served in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2009. While in Congress, he was one of the sponsors of a bill that would have banned mercury from vaccines.
Continue reading at Axios
Egg prices continue to hit records as Easter and Passover approach, but some relief may be coming
NEW YORK (AP) — Egg prices again reached a record high in February, as the bird flu continues to run rampant and Easter and Passover approach.
The latest monthly Consumer Price Index showed a dozen Grade A eggs cost an average of $5.90 in U.S. cities in February, up 10.4% from a year ago. That eclipsed January’s record-high price of $4.95.
Avian flu has forced farmers to slaughter more than 166 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens. Just since the start of the year, more than 30 million egg layers have been killed.
If prices remain high, it will be third year in a row consumers have faced sticker shock ahead of Easter on April 20 and Passover, which starts on the evening of April 12, both occasions in which eggs play prominent roles.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
News Alert: Trump threatens 200% tariff on European alcohol as trade war escalates
President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose a massive tariff on European alcohol in response to the European Union’s retaliation against his steel and aluminum tariffs – a tit-for-tat escalation of a trade war that could easily get out of hand.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said his administration would impose a 200% tariff on alcoholic beverages from the EU unless it rescinds the 50% tariff the European government imposed Wednesday on US whiskey.
Continue reading at CNN
Politico California Playbook
Eleni’s backup plan
THE BUZZ: ON SECOND THOUGHT — Eleni Kounalakis has spent two years building her campaign for governor, but the specter of Kamala Harris has sent the lieutenant governor and her team off to quietly plot a fallback option.
Kounalakis, who is close to Harris, has informed supporters and Democratic Party allies in recent weeks that she is seriously considering a run for state treasurer in 2026, three people familiar with her outreach told Playbook.
The former U.S. ambassador to Hungary is one of several Democrats in the race for governor whose plans are in limbo as Harris indicates she may run to succeed Gavin Newsom when he’s termed out. Harris says she’ll make a decision by summer’s end.
The reshuffling speaks to how Harris’ stature has forced other ambitious Democrats to look at down-ballot contests and created an especially competitive game of musical chairs for lesser-known elected offices.
Kounalakis’ team batted away the chatter about running for treasurer — California’s primary banker and investment manager, though not exactly a prime-time slot on the slate of statewide posts. The LG’s team didn’t address conversations she’s having with supporters.
“The rumor mill is running on overdrive,” said David Beltran, a spokesperson for the Kounalakis campaign. “Eleni is 100 percent focused on running for governor.”
If Harris does run, it’s a given that Kounalakis would step aside and back the former vice president, a longtime friend who shares a parallel orbit of well-heeled San Francisco donors and consultants.
Continue reading at Politico California Playbook newsletter
‘I’m the Villain’: Recording Reveals Head of Social Security’s Thoughts on DOGE and Trump
"Have you ever worked with someone who’s manic-depressive?”
Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that were as sweeping as those at USAID, the Treasury Department and elsewhere.
Dudek’s comments, delivered to a group of senior staff and Social Security advocates attending both in person and virtually, offer an extraordinary window into the thinking of a top agency official in the volatile early days of the second Trump administration. The Washington Post first reported Dudek’s acknowledgement that DOGE is calling the shots at Social Security and quoted several of his statements. But the full recording reveals that he went much further, citing not only the actions being taken at the agency by the people he repeatedly called “the DOGE kids,” but also extensive input he has received from the White House itself. When a participant in the meeting asked him why he wouldn’t more forcefully call out President Donald Trump’s continued false claims about widespread Social Security fraud as “BS,” Dudek answered, “So we published, for the record, what was actually the numbers there on our website. This is dealing with — have you ever worked with someone who’s manic-depressive?”
Continue reading at Gizmodo
How to Track the Flood of Bullshit Coming From Trump’s White House
Keep your eye on the ball.
During Donald Trump’s first term, Steve Bannon explicitly laid out what the administration’s strategy would be to get things done: “flood the zone with shit.” The theory is pretty simple: throw out as much bullshit as possible—knowing that there is only so much attention, outrage, and resistance that people can muster—and take wins while everyone else takes the bait.
It’s not hard to see that this approach has been kicked into hyperdrive during the first months of Trump’s second term, facilitated in no small part by Trump-backer and “first buddy” Elon Musk turning Twitter into a cesspool of distraction, disinformation, and disorientation. In what should be an extremely information-rich environment, it’s become near-impossible to separate signal from noise. Luckily, some fine folks are keeping their eyes on the ball so that we don’t all fall victim to the high-stakes shell game.
First up, there is the Project 2025 Tracker. Started as a spreadsheet maintained by two Redditors, the project has grown into a larger resource designed to keep tabs on the Trump administration’s progress in implementing the plans laid out in Project 2025—a 900-plus page blueprint for consolidating executive power and reshaping the government to serve a right-wing Christian Nationalist agenda.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
Democrats unveil school lunch debt cancellation measure
Democratic Senators introduced a bill Thursday to cancel all school meal debt.
The measure, led by Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.), states the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) would pay off outstanding meal debt. It would also allow the USDA to purchase food for food banks.
“‘School lunch debt’ is a term so absurd that is shouldn’t even exist. I’m proud to lead the fight to cancel our nation’s school meal debt – it’s long past time to stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger,” said Fetterman.
“We must protect students’ access to healthy foods and stand with working families. I hope to see this critical legislation signed into law this Congress,” he added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Bhattacharya’s nomination as NIH director advances in Senate
Bhattacharya will work with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his planned overhaul of public health agencies.
The NIH is the biggest backer of biomedical research in the world, funding nearly $48 billion in scientific research through 50,000 grants to hundreds of thousands of researchers across academic institutions and hospitals.
The Trump administration has already roiled the scientific community with efforts to slash support at major research institutes, including those at public universities.
Bhattacharya, a Stanford University health researcher and economist, was an outspoken critic of lockdown orders and other safety measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue reading at The Hill
Former lawmaker says Trump pardoned him 2 weeks into campaign finance scheme sentence
Former state Sen. Brian Kelsey announced his pardon in a post online.
“God used @realDonaldTrump to save me from the weaponized Biden DOJ. Yesterday, I received a full and unconditional pardon from an act that even my chief accuser admitted I didn’t commit,” Kelsey said on the social platform X.
“Thank you for all your prayers! May God bless America, despite the prosecutorial sins it committed against me, President Trump, and others over the past four years,” he said. “And God bless @POTUS Donald J. Trump for Making America Great Again!”
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Dem AGs sue over Trump administration’s Education Department layoffs
Democratic attorneys general in Washington, D.C., and 20 states sued Thursday over the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off nearly half of the Education Department workforce.
Earlier this week, more than 1,300 staffers received notification they are being let go, which comes on the heels of hundreds at the department already being placed on leave or taking a buyout. The department had more than 4,000 employees at the start of President Trump’s second term.
“This massive reduction in force (RIF) is equivalent to incapacitating key, statutorily-mandated functions of the Department, causing immense damage to Plaintiff States and their educational systems,” the lawsuit states, an assertion department officials have rejected.
Continue reading at The Hill
FAFSA site sees outage after Education Department mass layoff
The studentaid.gov website was down for hours Wednesday after the Education Department laid off half its workforce.
Downdetector saw hundreds of users report the outage of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), used by students in or applying to college to receive financial aid.
The issue came a day after the Department of Education, which President Trump has repeatedly said he’d like to shut down, announced it was firing more than 1,300 people.
More than 300 people were laid off from the Federal Student Aid department, according to The Associated Press, which saw a list of those fired, including two dozen in the technology division for Federal Student Aid.
The site and forms are back up as of Thursday morning, but the department has not provided comment on what happened.
While a senior department official said none of the programs mandated by Congress would see big effects over the sweeping layoffs, former employees and those opposed to the downsizing of the agency don’t buy it.
Continue reading at The Hill
CNN host asks Democrat if ‘a‑‑hole’ Musk post is ‘best way to communicate’
CNN host Brianna Keilar pressed Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) about her social media post that used curse words to attack billionaire Elon Musk over his efforts to reform and trim the size of the federal government.
In her social media post last month, Smith said of Musk’s request that all federal employees respond to an email outlining the work they are doing: “This is the ultimate d‑‑‑ boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a d‑‑‑ … I’m on the side of the workers, not the billionaire a‑‑hole bosses.”
Keilar pressed Smith about that rhetoric during an interview on the cable channel Wednesday.
“Democratic voters want more from your party. They want to see you opposing Trump in a more fulsome way,” the anchor said. “So, I mean, I ask you this sincerely: What’s the value in that kind of language in communication? Is that the best way to communicate the stakes of the moment that the country’s in?”
Smith replied, “people want to see fight.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Putin adviser says ceasefire gives nothing to Russia, would only help Ukraine
An adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire gave nothing to Russia and only benefited Ukraine, in one of Moscow’s first public signs of opposition to a deal Kyiv agreed to on Tuesday.
Yuri Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to the U.S. and senior aide to Putin, described President Trump’s moves toward a ceasefire as “hasty actions” that don’t benefit Russia in the long term, in an interview with Russian media.
“A 30-day temporary ceasefire. Well, what does it give us? It gives us nothing.” Ushakov said.
“It only gives the Ukrainians the opportunity to regroup, gather strength and continue the same thing in the future.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Thune ‘open’ to giving Dems amendment vote to help keep government open
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Thursday that Republicans are open to giving Democrats an amendment vote on a monthlong stopgap funding patch in exchange for votes to help Republicans pass a yearlong spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
Thune told reporters he has yet to speak directly with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a path forward.
“If they want a vote on that in exchange for getting us the votes to pass the [CR] to Sept. 30, I think we’re open to that,” Thune said Thursday morning. “But as you all know, the House is gone, so whatever happens is going to have to be the final action here, and really it’s up to them.”
“We haven’t heard from them yet. I think they’re still trying to figure out what their plan is, what their path forward is,” Thune said about Schumer’s team, adding that he wasn’t sure whether a shutdown is in the cards. “I don’t know. We’ll see. I hope not. It’s up to them. It’s their call. The ball is in their court.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Federal judge rules Trump must reinstate many fired federal employees
A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration must reinstate probationary government employees fired unlawfully at several agencies, lambasting the Justice Department at a hearing for a “sham” gambit that enabled a key official to avoid testifying in the case.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s ruling broadens his previous order to now require the government to reinstate probationary employees fired on Feb. 13 and 14 at the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury departments.
The case is one of multiple pending lawsuits challenging the mass terminations of probationary workers, who are usually in their first or second year in a role. The firings are just one dimension of a broader effort by the new Trump administration to reshape the federal bureaucracy, which has sparked dozens of lawsuits.
Continue reading at The Hill
Social Security Administration: Reports of phone service elimination ‘inaccurate’
The Social Security Administration (SSA) says reports that it will end telephone services are “inaccurate,” but system changes are being implemented to prevent fraud.
“SSA is increasing its protection for America’s seniors and other beneficiaries by eliminating the risk of fraud associated with changing bank account information by telephone,” the SSA said in a news release Thursday. “SSA’s current protocol of simply asking identifying questions by telephone is no longer enough to prevent fraud.”
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the federal government was planning to abandon its phone filing system that people use for retirement or disability claims as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Continue reading at The Hill
S&P 500 hits correction territory as Wall Street woes deepen
The S&P 500 index sunk into correction territory Thursday, falling 10 percent in less than a month from a record high.
The S&P was down 1.4 percent shortly before 1:30 EST, falling to just more than 5,512. That level is roughly 10 percent below the key index’s most recent record high of 6,144.15, which was set Feb. 19.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite was down 2 percent.
Continue reading at The Hill
Khalil protesters fill up Trump Tower
Protesters opposed to the detention of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil filled up Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday.
The protesters, from the progressive, anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, chanted “bring Mahmoud home now” while wearing red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel” and holding banners.
Police warned the protesters to leave the building on Fifth Avenue or be arrested, and they then put them into zip ties and loaded them into police vans about an hour after the protest began, The Associated Press reported.
A statement from the group said more than 300 Jewish New Yorkers and allies, including rabbis, descendants of Holocaust survivors and celebrities, took part in the protest. It said the shirts also read “Not in Our Name” and the banners stated “Jews say Free Mahmoud & Free Palestine” and “Fight Nazis Not Students.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump pushes annexation of Greenland during meeting with NATO secretary
President Trump on Thursday expressed confidence the United States would annex Greenland, even suggesting the head of the NATO alliance could be a key player in facilitating the acquisition.
“I think it will happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
“And I’m just thinking, I didn’t give it much thought before but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security,” Trump said, gesturing to Rutte.
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EPA chief: Deregulation will make it easier to buy cars, heat homes
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday pitched the Trump administration’s deregulation effort as a step that will make it easier for Americans to buy a car, heat their homes and operate small businesses.
“It means that it’s going to be easier to purchase a car. It’s going to be easier to heat your home. Operating a small business is going to be easier,” Zeldin told Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo, when asked what deregulation would mean for “ordinary Americans.”
“People who are looking for employment are going to have more opportunities,” Zeldin added.
The remarks come a day after the EPA indicated it plans to slash a broad suite of rules and determinations that aim to cut pollution or mitigate climate change — including from cars and power plants.
Continue reading at The Hill
GOP senator says ‘tariffs is a tax’ and Trump understands ‘completely’
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) acknowledged during a CNN interview Wednesday that President Trump’s escalating tariff wars will impact American consumers — and he said Trump also understands the short-term costs of his push for economic “fairness.”
“Tariffs is a tax, and it will be passed on consumers, but it also allows us to have open markets,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “That is something that the president, who is a businessperson, understands that completely.”
“Everybody knows that,” he said.
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Trump pushes out National Endowment for the Humanities chair, official says
President Trump directed National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Chair Shelly Lowe to step down from her role, which she has now done, an agency spokesperson confirmed Thursday morning.
The spokesperson, Paula Wasley, said in an email to The Hill that Lowe “has departed her position” at the “direction” of the president.
In the meantime, Trump has designated Michael McDonald, who has served as the NEH’s general counsel, to serve as the agency’s acting chair until “such time as the President nominates and the Senate confirms a new NEH Chairman,” Wasley said.
Lowe, a Navajo Nation member, was the first Native American to lead the NEH, a federal agency that was founded in 1965 and is focused on funding the humanities.
Continue reading at The Hill
Customs employee accused of scheme to defraud FEMA
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employee was accused of a scheme to defraud the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Wednesday release.
According to the release, Serina Baker-Hill, of Detroit, was charged with allegedly attempting to defraud FEMA and lying to federal agents.
Baker-Hill, 55, was a career employee of the agency and was the director of its Center for Excellence and Expertise over Automative and Aerospace Engineering.
After the Detroit area experienced a series of floods in August 2023, Baker-Hill applied for FEMA assistance related to flood damage. A FEMA employee determined there was damage to Baker-Hill’s basement.
Continue reading at The Hill
Lawrence O’Donnell taking break: ‘I’m exhausted at Day 52’ of Trump administration
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell announced he’d be taking a week off from his nightly show, citing his “exhaustion” with the first few weeks of President Trump’s second term.
“I’m exhausted at Day 52, and so I’m going to take next week off. And I’m telling you that now, because I know you don’t like it when I just drift away,” O’Donnell said during a nightly handoff with fellow pundit Rachel Maddow. “I’m just taking next week off, then I’m going to come back and go with you all the way to the 100 days.”
Maddow, who recently returned to a five-day-a-week hosting schedule to cover Trump’s first 100 days, said she was “very sad” O’Donnell was taking time off but indicated she understood where he was coming from.
O’Donnell, a frequent Trump critic, opened his show Thursday by suggesting the president is mentally unwell.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration empties Guantánamo of migrants, flies all back to US
The Trump administration’s plans to detain migrants in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, hit another roadblock this week after all 40 such individuals held there were sent back to the United States, with no future deportation flights scheduled to the island.
A Defense official confirmed to The Hill Thursday there are “zero” migrants being held at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, including a group of 23 “high threat” individuals held at the detention facility on base and 17 others who were detained at the migrant operations center there.
The official did not say where the men had been moved to, but multiple outlets reported they were transported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aircraft Tuesday and relocated to one or more of the agency’s facilities in Louisiana.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump calls EU ‘nasty’ while sitting alongside NATO secretary
Trump complained about the steep tariff on U.S.-made cars in Europe and a Court of Justice of the European Union decision in September that required tech giants Apple and Google to pay billions in fines over antitrust issues.
“We sell no cars to Europe, I mean, virtually no cars, and they sell millions of car to us. They don’t take our agriculture. We take their agriculture — it’s like a one way street with them. The European Union is very, very nasty,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
The president continued, “They sue our companies. Apple was forced to pay $16 billion on a case that … like my cases that I won. They shouldn’t have been even cases, but we felt they had no case, and they ended up having an extremely favorable judge and decision. But they’re suing Google, they’re suing Facebook, they’re suing all of these companies, and they’re taking billions of dollars out of American companies.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Rutte is odd man out in the ‘new NATO’
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will try to prove to Donald Trump in their Thursday meeting that he — and the nearly eight-decade partnership — still matter.
NATO chief Mark Rutte, who leads the world’s most powerful military alliance, is finding himself sitting in the backseat.
France and the United Kingdom are going straight to President Donald Trump to make deals on defense. The two, along with Poland, Germany and Italy, are forming separate power blocs to tackle the United States’ dwindling support for Ukraine.
This means that the former Dutch prime minister, who will meet with Trump at the White House on Thursday, must prove for the sake of the alliance’s future that he — and the nearly eight-decade partnership — are still relevant.
“The real challenge for him now is to become that Trump whisperer and make sure that President Trump and America stay involved in NATO,” said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chair of the National Security and Defense Committee in Lithuania’s parliament and a former NATO official. “That’s his key job now.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump envoy Witkoff to meet Putin tonight amid Ukraine ceasefire push
A top Kremlin adviser says the sit-down will “take place in a closed format this evening.”
Donald’s Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday night in Moscow as the White House pushes the Kremlin to accept a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine.
“The meeting between Witkoff and President Vladimir Putin will take place in a closed format this evening,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in response to a question from Russian state-owned news outlet Izvestia.
Talks have ramped up in recent days, as Trump’s team seeks to quell fighting in Ukraine, which Russia launched a full-scale invasion of in February 2022.
Continue reading at Politico
Putin heaps conditions and queries on Ukraine ceasefire talks
Russian leader says he agrees with proposals to halt military action — but notes there are several catches or “nuances.”
Vladimir Putin says he backs a ceasefire, but don’t hold your breath for an immediate breakthrough.
Russia’s president on Thursday laid out what looked like a raft of delaying questions and burdensome conditions on American proposals to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Putin will huddle with United States President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in a closed-door meeting at the Kremlin on Thursday night. He is being careful to say he broadly supports the initiative, but is simultaneously setting out what he sees as impediments to an overnight breakthrough.
“We agree with the proposals to stop military actions, but we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of the crisis,” the Russian leader noted.
Continue reading at Politico
Senate confirms Pulte as top housing regulator, with market's future at stake
Pulte will have oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been in government conservatorship for more than 16 years.
The Senate on Thursday voted 56-43 to confirm Bill Pulte as the nation's top housing regulator, putting him at the center of a fight over the future of two government-controlled companies that prop up half the residential mortgage market.
As the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Pulte will have oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been in government conservatorship for more than 16 years.
The Trump administration is widely expected to seek to release Fannie and Freddie from government control — a complicated process that will rekindle debate about the role of the federal government in housing at a time when affordability has emerged as a major political concern.
Pulte gave few clues during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Banking Committee about what would happen with the companies, which buy mortgages and package them into securities for sale to investors.
Continue reading at Politico
Thousands of fired federal workers must be rehired immediately, judge rules
U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to rehire tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump’s turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a “sham” strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce.
Alsup, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Bill Clinton, ordered the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments to “immediately” offer all fired probationary employees their jobs back. The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made an “unlawful” decision to terminate them.
And even if it is upheld on appeal, it does not guarantee that all the workers will be able to get their jobs back permanently: Alsup made clear that agencies still have the authority to implement “reductions in force,” as long as they follow the proper procedures for doing so. Federal agencies are currently finalizing “reduction in force” plans.
Continue reading at Politico
Oz may have underpaid Medicare, Social Security taxes, Democrats say
Oz and his advisers said that he would not amend his returns.
Former TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, may have “significantly underpaid” his Medicare and Social Security taxes from 2021 to 2023, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO.
The memo created by Democratic staff on the Senate Finance Committee comes as Oz is expected to face the panel on Friday for a confirmation hearing to head the sprawling agency, which is tasked with overseeing coverage of more than 160 million Americans through Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges.
The document details an examination of Oz’s tax returns from 2021, 2022 and 2023, and says the former cardiac surgeon paid a negligible amount in Social Security and/or Medicare taxes in 2022 and paid no Social Security or Medicare taxes in 2023.
The White House did not return a request for comment.
Continue reading at Politico
Bessent brushes off stock dips, recession concerns as ‘a little bit of volatility’ short-term
The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to brush off concerns that American consumers would take hits amid market chaos.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday the Trump administration is more focused on “long-term” economic gains than short-term market volatility, as the markets continue to fluctuate widely in response to President Donald Trump’s trade wars.
Trump threw markets into chaos last month after announcing and repeatedly changing plans to tariff key American trading partners. Stocks plummeted last week after Trump announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico before the president granted reprieves on specific goods, which contributed to the market uncertainty.
But the administration has repeatedly tried to brush off concerns that American consumers would take hits amid the sweeping changes — despite Trump refusing last weekend to rule out a recession this year.
“We’re focused on the real economy — can we create an environment where there are long-term gains in the market and long-term gains for the American people,” Bessent told CNBC Thursday, adding that he’s “not concerned about a little bit of volatility over 3 weeks” because “the reason stocks are a safe and great investment is because you’re looking over the long-term.”
Continue reading at Politico
Putin says he’s open to ceasefire, but wants to eliminate ’causes of this crisis’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is open to a 30-day ceasefire, as proposed by the U.S., but suggested vague terms for his support, including wanting to eliminate the root “causes of this crisis.”
Ukraine agreed to support the framework in talks with the U.S. earlier this week, and the Trump administration has called for Russia to sign on, with special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff visiting Moscow on Thursday.
“The idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,” Putin said of the ceasefire during a Thursday news conference. “But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Oversight Democrats launch review of crypto reserve ‘poised to enrich’ Trump
House Oversight Democrats are encouraging President Trump to abandon his plans for a crypto reserve, calling it a strategy to enrich himself at taxpayer expense.
The reserve, announced by Trump last week as both a strategic bitcoin reserve and “digital asset stockpile” for other forms of digital currency, would be akin to other reserves and stockpiles managed by the government, such as those for gasoline, food, and gold.
But Trump has heavily invested in cryptocurrency, including in a platform for buying various cryptocurrencies as well as launching his own meme coin.
“Such a reserve provides no discernible benefit to the American people but would significantly enrich the President and his donors. It would also constitute unsound fiscal policy by picking winners among currencies via social media and wasting taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump asks Supreme Court to allow him to end birthright citizenship
President Trump asked the Supreme Court in a series of emergency appeals Thursday to allow him to move forward with plans to end birthright citizenship, elevating a fringe legal theory that several lower courts have resoundingly rejected.
In a series of emergency appeals, the Trump administration argued that lower courts had gone too far in handing down nationwide injunctions blocking the controversial policy, and it asked the justices to limit the impact of those orders.
Continue reading at CNN
California doesn’t want ICE to know your location
— Sacramento Democrats latch onto privacy rules as another Trump resistance tactic.
— The kids’ safety debate plays out in court — and exposes a fissure within Big Tech.
Driving the day
ANALYSIS: THE GREAT FIREWALL — California Democrats have a new approach to resisting President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown, beyond sanctuary cities and thwarting ICE raids: data protection.
State lawmakers’ fear, shared by civil liberties groups, is that the Trump administration could leverage massive caches of location data and other online personal information gathered by advertisers, mobile apps and data brokers to aid mass deportations or target people seeking gender-affirming care.
They’ve authored a slate of bills this session to bolster the Golden State’s already robust privacy laws, hoping to keep Trump at bay and closing any loopholes that could let sensitive information fall into his administration’s hands.
“We’ve seen how location and digital data can be weaponized to target immigrant communities, protesters, and others whose identities or actions run counter to certain political agendas,” Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat, told California Decoded in a statement.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who has emerged as a major player across blue states’ Trump resistance — just this week announced his office is investigating businesses that appear to be breaking California’s rules for protecting location data, citing concerns about federal immigration policies.
“This location data is deeply personal,” Bonta said in a statement Monday. “Given the federal assaults on immigrant communities, as well as gender-affirming healthcare and abortion, businesses must take the responsibility to protect location data seriously.”
California immigrant rights groups have expressed similar concerns that data brokers sell personal information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without asking for user consent, citing past reports that ICE has extensive purchasing contracts with data analytics firms like LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters.
Continue reading at California Playbook newsletter
Raskin asks for DOJ probe into acting US attorney Ed Martin
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is asking the Justice Department’s inspector general to launch an investigation into Ed Martin, the interim U.S. Attorney in D.C.
“In seven short weeks, the list of Mr. Martin’s constitutionally, legally and ethically indefensible actions have grown exponentially,” Raskin wrote.
“As the head of the office, Mr. Martin has a responsibility to enforce the laws faithfully and impartially. But so far, public reporting has indicated that he has failed to adhere to these high ethical standards and may have violated DOJ’s own regulations, federal statutes, and the Constitution.”
Martin, who has been nominated to serve as the U.S. Attorney, did not respond to request for comment.
The 9-page letter from Raskin details a series of actions taken by Martin.
Continue reading at The Hill
Arizona Democrats say they’ll vote against GOP bill to avert shutdown
A pair of Senate Democrats from a key battleground state on Thursday said that they would vote against the GOP’s six-month spending bill, raising questions about the possibility of a government shutdown when funding expires on Friday.
Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly (D) and Ruben Gallego (D) said they will oppose both the spending bill itself and a procedural motion to advance the measure, which requires 60 votes.
“I cannot vote for the Republican plan to give unchecked power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” Kelly said in a statement. “I told Arizonans I’d stand up when it was right for our state and our country, and this is one of those moments.”
Gallego echoed that sentiment, which has emerged as one of the main Democratic concerns.
Continue reading at The Hill
FDA top lawyer resigns days after starting job
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s chief counsel resigned two days after her appointment, according to a Thursday announcement from the agency.
“Hilary K. Perkins has resigned from her position as Chief Counsel of FDA, effectively immediately,” the FDA wrote in a post on X.
Prior to the selection, she worked in the Justice Department’s consumer protection division.
Perkins was handpicked to serve as the top legal aide by Martin Makary, President Trump’s nominee for FDA commissioner.
In the days following his decision, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) criticized the move, referencing the attorney as a “Biden abortion lawyer” online.
Continue reading at The Hill
Mexican ambassador pick won't rule out military strikes on cartels
Ronald Johnson, President Trump's pick for Mexican ambassador, said during a confirmation hearing Thursday that U.S. military strikes on cartels — even without Mexico's knowledge — are an option.
The big picture: Trump on his first day in office signed an executive order naming eight drug cartels — including six in Mexico — as foreign terrorist organizations, a move administration ally Elon Musk contended made them "eligible for drone strikes."
Asked by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) whether he would agree that there should be no military action against cartels in Mexican territory "without the knowledge and consent of the Mexican government," Johnson said America's "first desire" would be to work with Mexican partners.
"That said," he continued, "I know President Trump takes very seriously his responsibility to safeguard the lives of U.S. citizens, and should there be a case where the lives of U.S. citizens are at risk, I think all cards are on the table."
Johnson added that he "cannot respond" to what action Trump may take.
Continue reading at Axios
Putin suggests Russia won't accept Trump's plan for unconditional ceasefire
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a press conference in Moscow on Thursday that he needs more clarifications before Russia agrees to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Why it matters: The U.S. and Ukraine both endorsed an unconditional 30-day ceasefire on Tuesday that calls for all air and artillery strikes to stop and fighting to cease all along the front lines. Putin raised doubts about that idea and said any ceasefire should also be part of a process that addresses the "root causes of this crisis."
He noted that his troops had been retaking occupied territory in Russia's Kursk region in recent days and advancing along the front lines in Ukraine, and asked, "What would happen during those 30 days?"
Specifically, Putin raised the fate of the Ukrainian soldiers still in Kursk, asking, "Would it mean that everybody there would leave? Should we release them after they committed serious crimes against civilians?"
Continue reading at Axios
Trump claims credit for falling egg prices but no relief for shoppers yet
Wholesale egg prices are starting to drift lower amid signs that the bird flu is easing, but don't expect to find lower prices at grocery stores yet.
Why it matters: Even as President Trump is claiming victory, his administration is acknowledging that the upcoming Easter holiday could cause prices to jump again.
The big picture: The highly pathogenic avian influenza has led to tens of millions of chickens being culled, triggering shortages and price spikes.
Many stores are limiting how many eggs shoppers can buy and some restaurants have added temporary egg surcharges.
Trump on Wednesday took credit for falling prices, saying "we did a lot of things that got the cost of eggs down, very substantially."
But while wholesale prices have started to tick down, grocery shoppers are still paying more than ever for a dozen eggs.
When are egg prices coming down?
Continue reading at Axios
California Democrats eye new way to resist Trump’s immigration crackdown
State lawmakers want to bolster California’s already robust privacy laws amid concerns about location data.
SACRAMENTO, California — California Democrats have a new approach to resisting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, beyond sanctuary cities and thwarting ICE raids: data protection.
State lawmakers’ fear, shared by civil liberties groups, is that the Trump administration could leverage massive caches of location data and other online personal information gathered by advertisers, mobile apps and data brokers to aid mass deportations or target people seeking gender-affirming care.
They’ve authored a slate of bills this session to bolster the Golden State’s already robust privacy laws, hoping to keep Trump at bay and closing any loopholes that could let sensitive information fall into his administration’s hands.
“We’ve seen how location and digital data can be weaponized to target immigrant communities, protesters, and others whose identities or actions run counter to certain political agendas,” Assemblymember Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat, told POLITICO’s California Decoded newsletter in a statement.
Continue reading at Politico
Putin is punting on a Ukraine ceasefire deal. Trump seems OK with it.
In trying to get Russia to the negotiating table, the president continues to give its leader a degree of latitude and deference he denied Zelenskyy.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy got sticks from President Donald Trump. Vladimir Putin is still getting carrots.
After Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the onus had shifted to Russia. He warned that if Moscow rejected the proposal, Russia would show that it was the primary “impediment” to peace.
But when Putin effectively punted Thursday on the initial proposal, Trump reacted calmly. He accepted Putin’s avowed openness to a peace deal without skepticism and stressed that conversations were ongoing.
Trump and his aides insist that the different approaches to Zelenskyy and Putin are aimed at getting both sides to the negotiating table and cementing a lasting peace. Unlike Ukraine, which has depended heavily on U.S. aid, Russia is far less reliant on Washington. And it has already absorbed three years of western sanctions, further limiting Trump’s leverage.
Continue reading at Politico
‘Woke war criminal Putin doesn’t get to play the victim’: GOP hawks pile ceasefire pressure on Putin
The Russian leader stopped short of outright rejecting the peace proposal but threw major obstacles in the plan Wednesday.
Republican Russia hawks lambasted Vladimir Putin for not accepting the terms of a ceasefire deal with Ukraine on Thursday, following the Trump administration’s lead as it seeks to pressure the Kremlin into a peace deal.
The Russian president on Thursday avoided outright rejecting the proposal that came out of negotiations earlier in the week between U.S. and Ukrainian officials. But he threw major obstacles in the path to peace by demanding inclusion of a series of conditions regarding the “root causes of the crisis.”
“Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants conquest,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote on X.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) echoed the Texas senator’s comments, saying: “President Trump graciously offered Putin a way out of this insanity. Problem is Putin does not want peace, he wants Ukraine.”
Continue reading at Politico
Musk visits top intelligence agency
“Meetings with key advisors ensure we are aligned,” a NSA spokesperson said.
Elon Musk visited the National Security Agency on Wednesday, according to an agency spokesperson. The initially undisclosed meeting comes roughly a week after the Trump ally said the U.S. intelligence agency needed to be overhauled.
Musk’s visit was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
A NSA spokesperson confirmed that Musk met with NSA chief Gen. Timothy Haugh in what was Musk’s first visit to the agency. While it remains unclear what Musk and Haugh discussed, NSA’s statement said the meeting helped facilitate coordination between the agency and the Trump administration.
“NSA and CYBERCOM are focused on the president, SECDEF and DNI’s priorities; meetings with key advisors ensure we are aligned,” the spokesperson wrote.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump asks Supreme Court to curb judges’ power to block policies nationwide
The emergency appeal comes in the battle over birthright citizenship — but it could have ripple effects in cases challenging many aspects of Trump’s agenda.
President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to eliminate a key tool that lower courts have used to block various aspects of his agenda.
In an emergency appeal Thursday, Trump asked the justices to rein in or shelve three nationwide injunctions lower-court judges have issued against his bid to end birthright citizenship. But his request could have repercussions far beyond the debate over the controversial citizenship plan.
Judges have used nationwide injunctions to hobble many of Trump’s early moves, from his bid to end “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” programs to his cuts to federal medical research.
But Trump’s acting solicitor general, Sarah Harris, argued to the Supreme Court that federal district judges have no authority to issue sweeping orders that block policies nationwide. Instead, Harris suggested, an injunction should apply only in the geographic district where the judge is located — or only to the specific individuals or groups that sued.
Continue reading at Politico
OPM illegally ordered agencies to fire ‘probationary’ federal employees, judge rules
But the judge did not order the reinstatement of any fired workers, saying he was powerless to do so.
A judge ruled Thursday that the Office of Personnel Management — the central human resources office for the federal government — broke the law when it ordered other federal agencies to terminate thousands of “probationary” employees.
The ruling is a setback for the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to dramatically shrink the federal workforce. But it does not appear to immediately help any of the federal workers who have already lost their jobs.
That’s because U.S. District Judge William Alsup stopped short of ordering the agencies to reinstate the fired workers or to halt looming firings. Alsup said he doesn’t currently have the authority to do that.
The San Francisco-based judge, however, did order OPM to rescind any directives it has issued requiring the mass terminations. OPM also must inform several agencies that it has no power to dictate firings across the federal bureaucracy.
“OPM does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency,” the judge said.
Continue reading at Politico
Congress’ crypto era is here
Lawmakers are quickly moving to advance legislation that could boost the digital assets industry.
The cryptocurrency industry, once beleaguered by scandals and skepticism in Washington, is now within striking distance of the biggest policy win in its history.
The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday passed digital assets legislation that would create a regulatory structure for stablecoins, marking the first time a Senate panel has ever advanced major crypto legislation. The move, which garnered bipartisan support, marked one of Congress’ most significant steps yet toward giving the crypto sector a long-sought stamp of legitimacy that could turbocharge its growth.
“All the groundwork that we laid during the last four years is now coming into fruition,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who has been dubbed the upper chamber’s “crypto queen” and has pushed for years to advance industry-friendly changes. “It’s time to act now.”
Continue reading at Politico
Almost 7 in 10 concerned about measles outbreak: Poll
More than two-thirds of respondents in a new poll say they are concerned about the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico.
In a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, 69 percent of respondents say they are concerned about the outbreak, including 36 percent who say they’re “very” concerned and 33 percent who say they’re “somewhat” concerned.
Meanwhile, 15 percent of respondents say they are “not so concerned” and 14 percent say they’re “not concerned at all.”
The poll comes as the deadly outbreak in West Texas continues to grow. As of Tuesday, Texas confirmed 223 measles cases since January — up from 198 confirmed cases last week.
Continue reading at The Hill
EPA to steer environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated this week that it will steer its environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies.
The EPA can pursue civil or criminal cases against polluters.
In 2023, the Biden administration said it would focus its environmental enforcement officers on companies that violate laws related to climate change, toxic “forever chemicals” and carcinogenic coal waste.
In a press release on Wednesday, President Trump’s EPA said it will revise environmental law enforcement guidelines in a way that does not “shut down energy production.”
The Trump administration also said it would reject a Biden-era focus on environmental justice — which seeks to prioritize communities with disproportionately high pollution levels and few resources, including communities of color.
Continue reading at The Hill
Google signals support for app store age verification law with changes
Google is pushing back against other major technology companies’ efforts to put the responsibility of age verification on the app stores, arguing the onus is on both the stores and developers to boost children’s safety.
In a blog post published Wednesday, Google pushed back against what it called “concerning legislation” in Utah, which became the first state in the country to pass a bill requiring app stores to verify users’ ages. It also requires app stores to receive parental consent for minors to download applications.
“The bill requires app stores to share if a user is a kid or teenager with all app developers (effectively millions of individual companies) without parental consent or rules on how the information is used,” Kareem Ghanem, Google’s director of public policy, wrote.
Continue reading at The Hill
Majority of Americans think Trump is too close to Russia
A majority of Americans think President Trump is too closely aligned with Russia, including more than a quarter of Republicans, a poll released Thursday found.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey found 56 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the president is too close to Moscow, which included 27 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats.
Forty-four percent of Americans surveyed said they support Trump’s plan to condition military aid to Ukraine and the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal, the poll found. That support included two-thirds of Republicans and 1 in 5 Democrats.
The poll was conducted over two days this week and completed on Wednesday, amid negotiations over a U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal aimed to end the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading at The Hill
Postal Service signs cost-cutting deal with DOGE
The United States Postal Service said it has signed a deal with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut costs at the agency.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told congressional leaders in a letter that he had signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s DOGE to cut jobs and spending at the agency that has long since lost money.
DeJoy said the organization has spent the last four years transforming from a “battered government bureaucracy” that experienced financial losses into a higher quality service, but it is still not achieving its goals.
“Last night I signed an agreement with the General Services Administration and DOGE representatives to assist us in identifying and achieving further efficiencies,” DeJoy said. “This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done. We are happy to have others assist us in our worthwhile cause.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Canada files WTO complaint over US steel, aluminum tariffs
Canada has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), asking it to dispute consultations with the U.S. regarding the tariffs on certain aluminum and steel products coming from Ottawa.
The WTO said the request was circulated to the trade body members on Thursday.
Canada said in the filing that Washington’s levies terminated the nation’s exemption from additional tariffs on certain steel and aluminum products and increased levies on aluminum that went into effect on Wednesday, a move that is “inconsistent with U.S. obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994.”
This is the second complaint Canada has filed with the WTO this month. The first one, which was circulated among WTO members on March 5, came as President Trump’s administration slapped 25 percent tariffs on goods coming from Canada and Mexico, along with a 10 percent levy on Chinese products.
Continue reading at The Hill
Columbia announces disciplinary action for students who took over campus building last spring
The discipline includes “multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions,” according to the school, which did not specify how many or which students were affected.
It said the punishments were levied against those who participated in the takeover of Hamilton Hall last April, an event that made national headlines when police were called in to oust the protesters.
“With respect to other events taking place last spring, the [Columbia University Judicial Board’s] determinations recognized previously imposed disciplinary action. The return of suspended students will be overseen by Columbia’s University Life Office,” the university statement reads.
“Columbia is committed to enforcing the University’s Rules and Policies and improving our disciplinary processes,” it added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Alaska Volcano Observatory warns of potential eruption near Anchorage
The Alaska Volcano Observatory on Wednesday said Mount Spurr is at risk of erupting within the next few weeks or months, potentially impacting residents 78 miles away in the city of Anchorage.
“The increase in gas emissions confirms that new magma has intruded into the Earth’s crust beneath the volcano and indicates that an eruption is likely, but not certain, to occur within the next few weeks or months,” the observatory wrote in an information statement.
Elevated volcanic gas emissions were observed at the mountain Tuesday.
Steaming has not been observed within Mount Spurr’s Crater Peak for more than 17 years.
Continue reading at The Hill
TSA union sues Noem over stripping of bargaining rights
The union for Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) employees is suing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she said she was ending a collective bargaining agreement signed last year.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) argues Noem has no power to end an already authorized seven-year contract, accusing the secretary of targeting the union after it brought a number of suits on behalf of government workers
“The 2024 CBA has a term of seven years and allows limited midterm bargaining. This collective bargaining agreement, like any other, is a binding contract,” the union wrote in the suit.
Continue reading at The Hill
S&P 500 selloff hits correction territory amid tariff fears
The S&P 500 entered correction territory Thursday, closing more than 10% below the all-time high the index hit in mid-February.
Why it matters: Less than two months into the second Trump presidency, markets are telling the administration they're concerned about the impact of tariffs and rising odds of a recession.
By the numbers: The S&P closed at 5521, 10% below the Feb. 19 record of 6,144.15.
Over the last month, it's one of the world's worst-performing major indices.
The Nasdaq composite — which already entered correction territory a few days ago — ended sharply lower, as did the Dow Jones industrial average.
The intrigue: As opposed to the "Trump put" of his first presidency, where negative market moves could affect policy, this time around the administration insists it's less concerned about stocks.
Continue reading at Axios
Democrats prepare to fold on government shutdown
Senate Democrats are prepared to vote Friday to keep the government open, with not much to show for it.
Why it matters: The outcome will spark the fury of many Democrats and the grassroots of the party, who have lobbied this week for the lawmakers to block the short-term funding bill.
But it tracks with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) longstanding advice that it's bad politics to shut down the government.
Schumer privately told his colleagues Thursday he plans to help break the filibuster on the GOP-led government funding bill, sources told Axios. The New York Times was first to report on his comments.
Zoom in: "While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse," Schumer said Thursday on the Senate floor.
"A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country," Schumer said.
"The shutdown is not a political game. Shutdown means real pain for American families."
Between the lines: Most of Schumer's colleagues will vote against him. But Senate Democrats only need to provide eight votes to help keep the government open.
Continue reading at Axios
Lower-income customers struggling to afford "basic essentials," CEO says
Lower-income American consumers are feeling stretched as they shop for basic items, according to two leading discount retailers.
Why it matters: Financially distressed individuals are at the greatest risk when the economy begins wobbling.
The big picture: Walmart and Dollar General are raising red flags.
"Many of our customers report that only have enough money for basic essentials, with some noting that they have had to sacrifice even on the necessities," Dollar General CEO Todd J. Vasos said Thursday on an earnings call.
Walmart has seen a similar trend. "You can see that the money runs out before the month is gone," CEO Doug McMillon told the Economic Club of Chicago two weeks ago. "You can see that people are buying smaller pack sizes at the end of the month."
Zoom in: Dollar General — which stands to benefit from a rise in the number of budget-conscious customers — exceeded revenue expectations in its most recent quarter reported Thursday.
Continue reading at Axios
Schumer says he will vote to advance GOP spending bill, lowering threat of shutdown
“I will vote to keep the government open, and not shut it down,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Schumer is only the second Senate Democrat to state definitively his intention to vote to advance the GOP-written bill — joining Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). But it’s highly likely he will give political cover to other Democrats to vote to advance the 99-page package.
Schumer said he agrees with Democratic colleagues who say the bill is a bad piece of legislation, but he warned that failure to pass it could trigger a far worse outcome: a government shutdown.
Continue reading at The Hill
Johns Hopkins to slash 2,200 jobs after Trump admin's USAID cuts
Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it's axing more than 2,200 jobs in the U.S. and overseas due to the Trump administration ending over $800 million in USAID funding.
The big picture: The Baltimore-based university that's the largest private employer in Maryland appears to be among the hardest-hit research institutions affected by the Trump administration's federal cuts.
Johns Hopkins said the cuts have forced it to "wind down critical work" in Baltimore and internationally.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week the Trump administration was canceling 83% of USAID programs.
Driving the news: "We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the university said in an emailed statement Thursday evening.
"An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."
The university said it's proud of the work at places impacted by the cuts.
Continue reading at Axios
Congress poised to force $1B cut to local DC budget, surprising many lawmakers
The 99-page, GOP-drafted stopgap funding bill would keep the federal government running past a Friday night shutdown deadline at largely fiscal 2024 levels. While its passage is not assured, there is enormous pressure on Senate Democrats, who hold the deciding votes, to allow it to advance.
But Democrats and local officials are sounding the alarm over the omission of language that would allow D.C. to continue spending its local budget at fiscal 2025 levels, as has been a long-standing practice for stopgap bills.
“This doesn’t save the federal government any money, right?” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a senior appropriator, told The Hill. “This is not about a billion dollars in federal funds. What they did was cap the D.C. budget.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Ocasio-Cortez: ‘If Republicans wanted to avert a shutdown, they can’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday put the onus on Republicans to avert the looming government shutdown.
“Everybody knows that Donald Trump is president, that Republicans have the Senate and Republicans have the House,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”
“They have the keys to the entire United States government,” she added. “And if Republicans wanted to avert a shutdown, they can. … If they need Democratic votes, then they can negotiate with Democrats to get those votes. It is simple.”
Bipartisan funding negotiations fell apart earlier this year, and House Republicans introduced their own six-month stopgap government funding bill. It passed the House with just a single Democratic vote, but will need eight Senate Democrats to back it to overcome the filibuster.
Continue reading at The Hill
Missouri AG orders Planned Parenthood to stop medication abortions they don’t offer
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued cease-and-desist orders against Planned Parenthood facilities in the state to bar them from offering medication abortions even though they do not provide them.
“Planned Parenthood has a documented history of subverting state law, including failure to file complication reports,” Bailey said in a press release issued Wednesday.
“This cease and desist letter ensures that basic health and safety standards are met. Given Planned Parenthood’s history, I will continue to ensure their compliance with state law.”
Missourians voted to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution last November, but abortion services were paused and only recently restarted at the state’s two Planned Parenthood clinics: Planned Parenthood Great Rivers and Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
Continue reading at The Hill
Liberals eulogize Grijalva: ‘A real giant of the House’
Progressive Democrats wasted no time eulogizing the legacy of Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a progressive lion of the lower chamber who died on Thursday at the age of 77 after a battle with lung cancer.
Huddled at the Democrats’ annual retreat in Northern Virginia, the melancholy lawmakers remembered Grijalva not only as a fierce champion of the environment, immigrant rights and economic justice, but also as a mentor to like-minded lawmakers who viewed him as a hero and role model.
Grijalva, said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), was “a real giant of the House and of the progressive movement … a champion of the environment and environmental justice … and he was a real mentor and friend to me.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Ontario Premier Ford hails ‘positive’ meeting with Lutnick
Ontario Premier Doug Ford lauded his Thursday meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as “positive” and “productive” after their public rift over tariffs on imported goods.
“We shared a tremendous amount of views back and forth, and I’m feeling very positive,” Ford told reporters outside the U.S. Department of Commerce building.
“I just look forward to reaching out again next week, but this, I can honestly say, was the best meeting I’ve ever had coming down here,” he added.
The two are slated to meet again next week.
Continue reading at The Hill
DOT’s firings raising anxieties beyond flying
Layoffs at the Transportation Department touched several areas that focus on safety, including studying roadway deaths and helping prevent pipeline leaks.
A Transportation Department employee who studied how to prevent highway deaths lost their job. So did one who focused on preventing pipelines from leaking and exploding. And so did people at an agency that dives into how to keep impaired drivers off the roads.
The Trump administration’s initial wave of mass firings at DOT has touched a wide swath of employees whose work helps keep Americans safe, more than a dozen current and former department staff members told POLITICO — as agencies across the government brace for even steeper cuts.
The employees’ warnings contrast with public assurances from President Donald Trump’s appointees that the sprawling cost-cutting crusade, spearheaded by multibillionaire Elon Musk, is aimed at targeting bloat and waste while leaving public safety and other essential services intact. They also shed new light on the scope and impact of the administration’s agency-by-agency purge of thousands of probationary employees in mid-February, which occurred with little transparency about which specific offices and bureaus were feeling the ax.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump to make rare visit to main Justice amid interference concerns
Presidents traditionally try to keep the agency’s appearance of independence.
While not unprecedented, it is highly unusual for a president to visit the Justice Department in person. Trump had repeatedly criticized the department during his campaign, calling prosecutions against him and his associates partisan, while vowing retribution.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump praised Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and incoming Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and said he’ll use Friday’s speech to “set out” his vision for the DOJ.
“It’s going to be their vision, really, but it’s my ideas,” Trump said. “Basically, we don’t want to have crime in the streets … we want to have justice, and we want safety in our cities, as well as our communities. We’ll be talking about immigration. We’ll be talking about a lot of things. It’s a complete gamut.”
Continue reading at Politico
Measles cases spike to 25-year high in Europe
Vaccination rates plunged during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Judge orders sweeping rehiring of fired workers at 18 federal agencies
A second federal judge has ordered the mass reinstatement of fired federal workers, reversing the Trump administration’s terminations of probationary employees at 18 major agencies.
The agencies covered by U.S. District Judge James Bredar’s sweeping order, issued Thursday night, include the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury, among others.
Bredar’s order sweeps even more broadly than a ruling earlier in the day from a different federal judge, who directed six Cabinet departments to immediately rehire probationary employees who were fired under President Donald Trump’s plan to cut the federal workforce.
Continue reading at Politico
Zero migrants left at Guantánamo after flights back to US
The Trump administration’s plans to detain migrants in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is on shaky ground after all 40 such individuals held there were sent back to the United States.
A Defense official confirmed to The Hill Thursday there are “zero” migrants being held at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, including a group of 23 “high threat” individuals held at the detention facility on base and 17 others who were detained at the migrant operations center there.
The official did not say where the men had been moved to, but multiple outlets reported they were transported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aircraft Tuesday and relocated to one or more of the agency’s facilities in Louisiana.
There are no future deportation flights scheduled to the island.
Further questions were referred to ICE, which did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not comment.
Continue reading at Politico
60 percent of voters unhappy with DOGE handling of federal workers
A majority of voters are unhappy with the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) handling of federal workers, according to a new poll.
When asked about “the way Elon Musk and DOGE are dealing with workers employed by the federal government,” 60 percent of respondents in the Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters said they are not supportive of it. Thirty-six percent said they are supportive of the way Musk and DOGE are dealing with federal workers.
Musk and DOGE have been trying to slash their way through the federal government, offering buyouts to and laying off scores of workers. Many of their actions are now the subject of lawsuits.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump meets with Michigan governor to discuss jobs
“I had a productive meeting at the White House today with President Trump where we discussed bringing good paying jobs to Michigan,” Whitmer told NewsNation.
“We also discussed tariffs, the importance of keeping our Great Lakes clean and safe, and additional defense investments in the state,” she added.
On Wednesday, a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum, which are both used to make cars and defense weapons, went into effect.
Continue reading at The Hill
California lawmakers demand answers on Medicaid shortfall
Democrats and Republicans alike say they need more information about the program’s newly revealed budget gap.
SACRAMENTO, California — California lawmakers are calling for answers after the governor’s office floated a loan to bail out the state’s Medicaid program, bringing renewed scrutiny on the state’s coverage of undocumented immigrants.
The $3.44 billion loan, first floated to lawmakers Wednesday, will cover obligations for the state program, known as Medi-Cal, through March, but it’s raising questions about a bigger budget hole that may need to be filled later on. Lawmakers said on Thursday they were caught off guard by the news and still don’t understand the extent of the shortfall.
It’s especially a concern for the state as Congress eyes dramatic cuts from Medicaid that could eat into California’s funds, and as leading figures in Washington like Elon Musk slam the state’s undocumented coverage.
“Gavin Newsom has now put Medi-Cal on the brink of financial collapse because he decided to gift free health care to illegal immigrants a year ago,” Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio said on Thursday. “It’s time for this madness to stop. It’s time for us to protect citizens rather than prioritizing illegal immigrants at their expense.”
Continue reading at Politico
Senate Dems brace to vote for a bill they hate — to block Elon Musk
Democrats appear on the cusp of voting to avoid a shutdown because they fear the consequences of standing up to the Trump administration could be worse.
Senate Democrats appear poised to vote for a spending bill they hate to avoid a worse fate: Allowing a government shutdown that could enable President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to make deeper cuts to federal agencies.
The announcement late Thursday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would support the House GOP’s seven-month stopgap measure was an acknowledgment that Democrats have little choice if they want to avoid empowering Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to unilaterally halt more federal programs under the cover of a shutdown.
“The Democrats have A or B: Keep the government open or yield the authority to the president,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a Trump ally who speaks frequently with White House officials, said in an interview.
In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday night announcing he would support the House-passed stopgap, Schumer said he had little choice as the Friday shutdown deadline loomed.
Continue reading at Politico
Andy Beshear hits Newsom for hosting Bannon on his new podcast
The criticism amounts to what could be an early skirmish in the next Democratic presidential primary.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear took a swipe Thursday at a fellow leading Democrat, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for hosting one of the most prominent figures in the MAGA movement on his new podcast.
Beshear, whose popularity in a heavily Republican state has turned him into a potential presidential candidate, told reporters that Newsom shouldn’t have opened his platform to Steve Bannon, an outspoken advocate of the “America first” agenda of President Donald Trump.
“I think that Governor Newsom bringing on different voices is great, we shouldn’t be afraid to talk and to debate just about anyone,” Beshear said at a Democratic policy retreat in Virginia. “But Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger, and even at some points violence, and I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere.”
Continue reading at Politico
Schumer’s shutdown ‘surrender’ sends the left into a rage
The Senate minority leader’s decision to forego a government shutdown rekindled his old critics.
The Democratic base wants a fight. Chuck Schumer won’t give it to them.
The Senate minority leader on Thursday backed away from the shutdown confrontation that many liberal voters and activist leaders had been pushing for — arguing that closing the government would only empower President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk in their bureaucracy-slashing campaign.
That decision sent shockwaves through the left and had many in their ranks seething at a top party leader who had sought to win them over in recent years.
Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of the liberal grassroots organization Indivisible, quickly dubbed it the “Schumer surrender.”
“I guess we’ll find out to what extent Schumer is leading the party into irrelevance,” he said in an interview, adding that his decision “tells me maybe he’s lost a step.”
Continue reading at Politico
House Democrats stew over Schumer's capitulation on GOP funding bill
The cave was the talk of the Democratic policy retreat.
LEESBURG, Virginia — House Democrats privately and publicly steamed Thursday evening about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to back passage of a GOP spending patch they had fiercely opposed.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told his caucus behind closed doors that they could be proud of their decision to vote against the stopgap funding bill. He did not mention Schumer.
“Dr. King once made the observation that, although everyone may not see it at the moment, the time is always right to do what's right," he said, according to a person in the room. "This week, House Democrats did what was right. We stood up against Donald Trump. We stood up against Elon Musk. We stood up against the extreme MAGA Republicans."
Jeffries received a standing ovation from his caucus. He and other Democratic leaders later said in a joint statement that "House Democrats will not be complicit" and "remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate."
Continue reading at Politico
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