Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 69 | Blog#42
Question: Where do president for life exist?
Answer: Why… There were Presidents for life in the very places Trump called shithole countries!
Yesterday’s post
Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 68 | Blog#42
Turks protest, opposition defiant over Istanbul mayor's detention
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I publish this daily news post, updated all throughout the day (and night), every day. I publish it free to all because it is more important to me to keep us all informed
Yesterday’s news worth repeating
DOGE’s Marko Elez is back on U.S. payroll
The software engineer fired over racist social media posts is now a Labor Department aide detailed to multiple agencies, according to a new court filing.
A member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team — fired from the Treasury Department after the discovery of racist social media posts — has been working for weeks on sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services, new government disclosures revealed Saturday.
Marko Elez, whom Musk vowed to rehire after Trump allies pushed back on his termination, rejoined the administration in February as a Labor Department employee before he was detailed on March 5 to HHS, the administration acknowledged earlier this week in answers to a court-ordered demand for information in connection with a pending lawsuit.
In addition to HHS, Elez is detailed to the Department of Government Efficiency core staff at the White House, as well as at least four other government agencies, according to the documents filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Elez, 25, now has access to systems that help enforce child support orders, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and HHS contracts, the court filings indicate. Spokespeople for the White House, the Labor Department and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
The details about Elez were included in the most detailed description to date of DOGE’s access to some of the federal government’s most sensitive databases. They were disclosed after a federal judge required the administration to deliver details about DOGE’s work as part of a lawsuit brought in February on behalf of several labor unions and nonprofit groups.
Continue reading at Politico
France accuses US diplomats of meddling with a ‘diktat’ about Trump’s DEI policies
PARIS (AP) — A French minister on Sunday accused U.S. diplomats of interfering in the operations of French companies by sending them a letter reportedly telling them that U.S. President Donald Trump’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives could also apply outside of the United States.
French media said that the letter received by major French companies was signed by an officer of the U.S. State Department who is on the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. The embassy didn’t respond to questions this weekend from The Associated Press.
Le Figaro daily newspaper published what it said was a copy of the letter. The document said that an executive order that Trump signed in January terminating DEI programs within the federal government also “applies to all suppliers and service providers of the U.S. Government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate.”
The document asked recipients to complete, sign and return within five days a separate certification form to demonstrate that they are in compliance.
That form, also published by Le Figaro, said: “All Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws.”
Continue reading at the AP
Donald Trump : la lettre de chantage qui fait trembler les patrons français (Translation: The blackmail letter that is making French bosses tremble)
Note from Rima: This broadcast is in French. However, the translate feature in the video settings is pretty decent.
France, Belgium scoff at anti-DEI letter from Trump administration
“We have no lessons to learn from the boss of America,” said Belgian Deputy PM Jan Jambon.
PARIS — European government officials and business representatives have poured scorn on a request from the United States State Department for companies to drop diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures.
Ministers from France and Belgium pushed back strongly on the effort by the Trump administration to spread its anti-DEI policies, which have taken aim at universities, companies, government contractors and security services worldwide.
“It is out of the question that we will prevent our business from promoting additional social progress [and] social rights,” said French Minister for Gender Equality Aurore Bergé in an interview with BFMTV Sunday. “Thankfully, a lot of French companies don’t plan to change their policies.”
“We have a culture of non-discrimination in Europe and we must continue that,” Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon said Sunday evening on the French-language TV channel RTL-TVi. “We have no lessons to learn from the boss of America.”
Several French companies received a letter — first reported by Les Echos and obtained by POLITICO — requiring them to certify that they don’t implement DEI or positive discrimination programs.
“If you do not agree to sign this document, we would appreciate it if you could provide detailed reasons, which we will forward to our legal teams,” reads the request sent to French companies and signed by Stanislas Parmentier, the contracting officer at the U.S. embassy in Paris.
Companies in other EU countries including Italy, Spain and Belgium reportedly received similar requests.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Teachers warn AI is impacting students' critical thinking
Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly dominant role in how students navigate school, and some teachers are warning the technology could be hurting their critical thinking skills.
Why it matters: AI use among school-aged children has increased dramatically as the bots appear in everything from Google searches to Spotify playlists.
In fall 2023, a survey from Common Sense Media found that nearly half of young people had never used AI tools or didn't know what they were, but by Sept. 2024 70% of U.S. teens had used at least one type of generative AI tool.
More than half of respondents to the 2024 survey said they had used AI for homework help.
The big picture: Gina Parnaby, a 12th-grade English teacher at Atlanta's Marist school, told Axios that she has seen students using AI "as a way to outsource their thinking" and "flat-out cheat."
Continue reading at Axios
Note from Rima: Critical thinking skills and the teaching of it have been at the forefront of contentious topics for decades, but, more recently, in connection to the rise of the Tea Party, the book bans of recent years and the MAGA movement. My personal opinion is that AI is an add-on. See this WaPo blog from 2012:
Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really
In the you-can't-make-up-this-stuff department, here's what the Republican Party of Texas wrote into its 2012 platform as part of the section on education:
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
Also see this 2017 article from Scientific American on the work of. psychologist Robert Sternberg:
Is the U.S. Education System Producing a Society of “Smart Fools”?
One distinguished psychologist explains why he believes this is so and how to reverse course
Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.
“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”
The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Continue reading at the AP
Today’s news
Democratic News Corner
Democratic group to track state impacts of Trump agenda
A major Democratic super PAC on Monday launched a new database to track the state-by-state impacts of the Trump administration’s agenda.
American Bridge 21st Century, which is the Democratic Party’s largest opposition research operation, announced that it would highlight how states are affected by economic fallout and cuts to government programs from the Trump administration.
“People need to see just how widespread Americans’ suffering is as a result of Trump’s cuts — which he’s made solely to legitimize lowering taxes for billionaires,” American Bridge 21st Century President Pat Dennis said in a statement.
“There isn’t a single community across the country that won’t feel the impact of Trump and Republicans hacking away at programs that keep Americans safe, healthy, and prosperous,” Dennis added. “Sharing the stories of individuals who are feeling these impacts at their kitchen tables is how we make that point crystal clear.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Georgia House Democrat steps down as state party chair
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), the chair of the state Democratic Party in Georgia, announced to state committee members Monday she would step down from her role following a party rules change to leadership and amid concerns about her ability to steer the party.
Williams, who took the helm of the state party in 2019, noted in an email to the party obtained by The Hill that committee members approved a change to the party rules over the weekend, now requiring the Democratic Party of Georgia to have a paid full-time chair.
“I was clear from the beginning of this process, that once the approved language was adopted, this would prohibit me from continuing to serve as your Chairwoman due to ethics rules in the US House of Representatives,” she wrote.
She said First Vice Chair Matthew Wilson would helm the party in the interim until the party elected its new chair.
Continue reading at The Hill
Whitmer to deliver speech on bipartisanship in Washington
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) will deliver a speech in Washington, D.C., on Thursday focused on her vision for working with both parties on a number of issues, including manufacturing and national defense.
According to a press release announcing her visit, Whitmer “will outline her bipartisan approach to bring supply chains home from China, create more good-paying jobs, and invest in our defense industry.”
“The governor is focused on a long-term strategy that puts America at the forefront of manufacturing and strengthens our national defense. Governor Whitmer will continue to work with anyone to continue getting things done, grow the economy, and protect our nation,” the press release said.
The governor will sit down with former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson following her speech.
Continue reading at The Hill
McBath halts Georgia gubernatorial exploratory bid, citing husband’s health
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) is pausing her exploratory bid for Georgia governor, citing her husband’s ongoing cancer battle.
“I’m so grateful for everyone who has stood by my family as we undergo this arduous period,” McBath said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. “I will be spending some time focusing on my husband’s health, and I cannot make a decision to run for governor or not at this moment.”
McBath told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it was a “really difficult decision to make.”
“And right now I can’t make the decision on whether or not to run for governor,” McBath added. “I’ve always said my priorities should be where I’m supposed to be. And that’s helping my husband.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Grijalva’s daughter running for his Arizona seat
The daughter of the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is running for his House seat in the special election set to replace him this fall.
Adelita Grijalva, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, announced her candidacy on Monday in a post on X, saying that Arizona deserves a “progressive champion” who will stand up to President Trump and fight for working families.
Grijalva said her father, who died earlier this month at 77 years old after fighting lung cancer, spent his life fighting for justice, equity and dignity for the most vulnerable communities. She highlighted her record as an advocate, serving on a school board to strengthen public education and the board of supervisors to push for investments in affordable housing, child care and protecting the Sonoran Desert.
“Those are my values, and they are grounded right here in southern Arizona. The place I’ve lived my entire life,” she said. “I know the hopes, the struggles and the strength of our community because it’s in my DNA.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Harris pleaded with Biden for speedy endorsement
Former Vice President Kamala Harris pleaded with former President Biden to endorse her White House bid on the same day as his historic move to end his 2024 reelection bid, according to exclusive excerpts from a forthcoming book.
“You need to endorse me,” Harris begged Biden in the moments before the ticket switch-up, as reported by The Hill’s Amie Parnes and NBC News’s Jonathan Allen in excerpts from “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” which is set for release Tuesday.
Harris, who would face a short runway to build momentum before the November election, knew she had Biden’s support to take up the torch. But she wanted to avoid a bigger gap between his exit and his endorsement, which could have created an opening for a messy contested nomination fight as some key figures in the party hoped to pass her over.
“She knew that if Biden stepped aside without explicitly backing her, it would be taken as a statement that he lacked confidence in her ability to win or to do the job — or both,” according to the book. “That could mean crib death for a battle that she had not yet begun to fight. She also knew that a failure to throw his weight behind her would suggest that he had made the wrong decision in choosing her as his number two in the first place.”
Continue reading at The Hill
‘This race is about Donald Trump and Elon Musk': DNC chair visits Florida amid tight special election
What else are voters bending his ear about? Affordability and Social Security.
The Republican nervousness around the special election in Florida’s deep-red 6th Congressional District was enough to bring Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin to the area to canvass over the weekend.
Buoyed by strong performances in recent special elections, including a narrow state Senate win in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the DNC is now turning its attention to the race between Republican state Sen. Randy Fine and progressive teacher Josh Weil.
“I wanted to come out to make sure that we help close strong in this election,” Martin, a longtime Democratic tactician and Minnesota state party leader, told Florida Playbook in a phone interview after spending the morning in DeLand.
More than halfway through the 25-minute interview, however, Martin hadn’t brought up Fine once. When Florida Playbook pointed this out, he said: “I haven’t heard much about him at the doors, to be honest with you. And so I think this race is about Donald Trump and Elon Musk and people’s deep dissatisfaction with what’s happening.”
What are voters bending his ear about instead? Concerns about how life is still very expensive and could become more so under looming tariffs, he said, and fears from seniors who worry Trump will cut Social Security.
Continue reading at Politico
Dems press Senate parliamentarian on GOP’s tax-cost strategy
It’s a make-or-break week for Republicans as they seek to make progress on legislation to enact President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
Top Democratic budget aides in the Senate plan to meet again Monday afternoon with the chamber’s parliamentarian, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plan — their latest effort to hone arguments against Republican attempts to put a zero-dollar price tag on extending President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Whether the Senate’s nonpartisan rule-keeper allows this accounting tactic, known as current policy baseline, is pivotal to Republicans’ intent to advance a party-line package of tax cuts and military spending, along with border security investments, energy policy and more.
Senate Republicans are racing to adopt a budget resolution this week — the next step toward enacting that package — before lawmakers in both chambers depart for a two-week Easter recess. But they are waiting on the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, to first make a ruling on their preferred tax-cost strategy before holding another vote on a budget framework — key to unlocking the reconciliation power Republicans need to draft legislation that can move past the Senate filibuster.
And before the parliamentarian makes her decision, she needs to call a joint meeting for both parties to lay out their arguments for and against the approach to tallying how much a set of policies would grow or shrink the federal deficit. That meeting has yet to be scheduled, as Senate leaders continue to sharpen their respective cases for why the tactic should or should not be allowed.
Continue reading at Politico
Democratic base’s anger puts some party leaders on shaky ground
PHOENIX (AP) — The Democratic base is angry.
Not just at President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the “Make America Great Again” movement. Rank-and-file Democrats are mad at their own leaders and increasingly agitating to replace them.
Democrats in Arizona and Georgia pushed out their party chairs. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York postponed a book tour in the face of protests amid calls from progressives that he face a primary challenge.
The losing party after a presidential election often spends time in the wilderness, but the visceral anger among Democrats toward their party leaders is reaching a level reminiscent of the tea party movement that swept out Republican incumbents 15 years ago.
“They should absolutely be worried about holding onto power, because there’s a real energy right now against them,” Paco Fabián, deputy director of Our Revolution, a grassroots group allied with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, said of Democratic incumbents. “And as soon as somebody figures out how to harness it, they’re going to be in deep trouble.”
A deeper hole than previous losses
Elections on Tuesday could give national Democrats a boost. In Wisconsin, the officially nonpartisan race for a state Supreme Court seat has become a test of Musk’s influence as his political organization boosts conservative Brad Schimel and progressives back liberal Susan Crawford, who has made anti-Musk messaging a centerpiece of her campaign. And two U.S. House special elections in Florida feature Democrats who are outraising their Republican counterparts in sharply pro-Trump districts.
But the current depth of frustration among Democrats is clear and shows no signs of going away.
According to a February Quinnipiac poll, about half disapprove of how Democrats in Congress are handling their job, compared with about 4 in 10 who approve. That’s a stark contrast from the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021, when more than 8 in 10 Democrats approved of how their party was doing its job in Congress, and the start of Trump’s first term in 2017, when about 6 in 10 Democrats approved. In 2017, as they do now, Democrats lacked control of either congressional chamber.
Continue reading at the AP
Cory Booker launches marathon Senate speech
“I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis,” the New Jersey Democrat said as he launched the overnight talk-a-thon.
Sen. Cory Booker is planning to hold the Senate floor for as long as he can in an effort to protest actions by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.
The New Jersey Democrat took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, wearing a black suit and armed with a thick binder, and is expected to speak through the night and as far into Tuesday as he can manage. Other Democratic senators are expected to join him on the floor throughout his planned talk-a-thon.
Booker said Monday he is speaking “because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis” and involved the legacy of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
“Tonight I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble — I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” he said.
Continue reading at Politico
Dems target more MAGA-country town halls
Senate Democrats who blitzed Republican districts with town halls earlier this month are encouraging their colleagues to follow a similar game plan.
"I think every Democrat in the country should be doing town halls, especially going out to communities where our party hasn't had a lot of support," Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) tells Axios.
Why it matters: The events give Democrats an opportunity to pummel congressional Republicans for their budget reconciliation plans, which likely include cuts to Medicaid.
"People are freaked out," Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) tells Axios.
Kelly said at events in GOP districts this month he met a man with multiple sclerosis who was worried about potential work requirement changes to Medicaid, which pays for the screenings that track the severity of his disease.
The big picture: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who just recently hosted town halls in GOP districts, said the strategy is what helped him win in a purple state last year.
Continue reading at Axios
Scoop: Senate Dems to launch Social Security war room
Senate Democrats will launch a war room Tuesday dedicated to fighting back against the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts to Social Security, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The White House is planning service cuts to Social Security that current and former officials warn would break an already strained system.
The war room will serve as a central hub for Senate Democrats to plan messaging, create content, provide oversight, make field visits and host town halls to pummel the GOP on the issue.
The Trump administration is planning to cut some identity verification phone services at the Social Security Administration next month, after postponing the move last week.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) organized the war room, we are told.
The big picture: DOGE continues to slash agencies and programs across the federal government. Social Security is where Democrats are digging in the hardest.
Continue reading at Axios
Democrats sue Trump over his proposed sweeping overhaul of US elections
Party leaders say no president has authority to change how elections are administered.
Democrats are heading to court to challenge President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to impose federal control over how elections are run throughout the country.
A suit filed Monday in federal court in Washington argues that Trump’s March 25 order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” is an unconstitutional attempt to wrestle authority over elections from the states and set new voting requirements such as proof of citizenship and changes to ballot deadline rules.
Nearly the entire Democratic party’s fund raising and campaign apparatus joined the suit as did Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, challenging what they called a “power grab” in a statement announcing their action.
“It’s anti-American and Democrats are using every tool at our disposal — including taking Trump to court — to stop this illegal overreach that undermines our democracy,” they said.
The legal action is an attempt to head off an effort to drastically change how elections are administered in the U.S. by a president who has falsely claimed he won the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden and that voters without legal residency have cast large numbers of ballots.
Continue reading at Politico
Democrats quietly worry their Musk-focused message in Wisconsin isn’t resonating with voters of color
Organizers think Democrats may make familiar mistakes with Black and Latino voters in a crucial state Supreme Court race.
Democrats head into Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election projecting confidence that hammering Elon Musk’s presence in American politics is resonating, but quietly, they have concerns that the message will hurt them with Black and Latino voters.
While nominally non-partisan, Tuesday’s Supreme Court race is falling along familiar ideological lines with Musk and President Donald Trump backing circuit court judge in Waukesha County Brad Schimel. Democrats are endorsing Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford. The involvement of Musk, the world’s richest man and a close adviser to Trump, has turned the race into a national referendum on the president — and the outcome could determine abortion policy, congressional maps and more in one of the country’s most critical political states.
If the outcome of the race is close — and polling heading into election day indicates it is — low turnout among voters of color could make or break the election. But both Schimel and Crawford are white, and neither party has particularly tailored its message to voters of color.
That’s a sign, some Democrats worry, that the party hasn’t found a way to stop the erosion of support among its voters of color that cost them in battlegrounds across the country – including in Wisconsin last year.
“My biggest concern for the closing stretch is that we [expect] that Elon Musk’s hatred is gonna get the job done,” said Mandela Barnes, the state’s former Democratic lieutenant governor who now runs Power to the Polls Wisconsin, which works to turn out diverse communities throughout the state. Amid overall voter exhaustion, that may not be enough.
Continue reading at Politico
National Security
White House says Signal controversy is ‘closed’
The White House said Monday that its probe into how a journalist was added to a group chat of officials discussing military strikes is closed, as the administration seeks to move past the controversy.
“This case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“There have been steps taken to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again moving forward, and the president and Mike Waltz and his entire national security team have been working together very well, if you look at how much safer the United States of America is because of the leadership of this team,” Leavitt added, referencing President Trump’s national security adviser.
Leavitt did not specify what steps were taken. Some administration officials have defended the use of Signal despite the controversy, and Trump has indicated he does not intend to fire anyone over the incident.
Continue reading at The Hill
House Intel Democrats call for damage assessment on Signal chat
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Monday requested an independent assessment into Trump administration officials’ use of Signal to discuss an airstrike, asking that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard initiate such a process and delegate it to another official.
The letter calls for a damage assessment of the fallout related to the chat, something Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) noted requires Gabbard to initiate a probe and turn over the contents of the underlying material that was disclosed.
The Monday letter cites reporting from The Wall Street Journal that Israel provided key intelligence used as the basis for the strike, and that the ally was upset that the contents of the chat became public when a journalist for The Atlantic was inadvertently added to the group.
“The U.S. ally complained to the United States that Mr. Waltz’s texts had become public. The Wall Street Journal’s reporting, if accurate, is deeply concerning. These developments underscore the need for the intelligence community, under your leadership, to conduct a parallel inquiry into the chat,” Himes wrote to Gabbard on Monday.
Continue reading at The Hill
Economics
Global stocks slide as Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs loom
President Trump said Sunday his reciprocal tariffs that launch this week will affect "all countries."
Why it matters: Trump is expected to announce wide-ranging levies on Wednesday, which he is calling "Liberation Day," but the administration has yet to reveal many key details of this plan or when levies will be implemented.
Trump's economic policy, aimed at protecting domestic companies, has already sparked a trade war. The EU and China have announced counter tariffs, and Canadian officials have promised a swift response if planned auto tariffs take effect on Wednesday.
Driving the news: "You'd start with all countries," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One of the sweeping plan, as they traveled back from Florida to D.C. "Essentially all of the countries that we're talking about."
Asked whether he's weighing higher rates of tariffs, Trump said: "No, the tariffs will be far more generous than those countries were to us. ... They ripped us off."
Trump suggested there had been historical imbalances in trade with countries in Asia. "You could take a look at trade with Asia and I wouldn't say anybody has treated us fairly or nicely," Trump said.
By the numbers: Stock markets fell in Asia on Monday morning following Trump's comments, with Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark falling 4%, South Korea's Kospi around 2.5% lower and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 1.7%.
Continue reading at Axios
Where’s the gold? Germany’s conservatives sound the alarm over reserves in the US
Germany keeps over €100 billion worth of gold reserves in the New York Federal Reserve.
Can the United States be trusted with Germany’s gold?
Its leader is trying to cripple the country’s most important industry. His deputy thinks it’s a pathetic freeloader. The man who has their ear is throwing what look a lot like Nazi salutes and openly interfering in its elections to support a far-right party that its own intelligence service thinks is a threat to the constitution.
No wonder, then, that some politicians in Germany are worried that what was for decades seen as one of the world’s most reliable storehouses might not be so secure after all.
Germany holds the world’s second-largest gold reserves, and keeps 37 percent of them — some 1,236 metric tons, worth €113 billion — in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve. Those holdings of precious metal guarantee that, should the need ever arise, the Bundesbank has access to something it can change into U.S. dollars (or any other hard currency).
The very idea that they might not be safe would have been considered ridiculous from 1945 ... until a couple of weeks ago. But the certainties of Germany’s postwar existence have been turned on their head and — as the recent scrapping of a notorious cap on public borrowing showed — the unthinkable is suddenly very thinkable indeed. All the more so given evidence of Trump’s willingness to push the limits of his powers and assert presidential primacy over the judicial system.
German tabloid Bild, owned by POLITICO parent company Axel Springer, reported on Thursday that outgoing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmaker Marco Wanderwitz is one of those concerned.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
EU set to fine Apple and Meta amid escalating trade war
The Commission’s first fines under its Digital Markets Act are expected this week.
The EU executive is due to announce the results of three yearlong investigations into breaches of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, two into Apple and one into Meta. Both companies are expected to receive fines — the first issued under the DMA — with announcements that could come as late as the end of the week.
Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump declared in a memo that the DMA — which lays out rules for how tech companies should operate on the European market — would face scrutiny and could lead to reciprocal tariffs.
The line is gathering traction.
"This is not just about fines — it’s about the Commission kneecapping successful American businesses simply because they're American, while letting Chinese and European rivals off the hook," said a person close to the Meta investigation, who, like other people quoted in the article, was granted anonymity to speak in confidence.
The U.S. is expected to move ahead with its next wave of trade tariffs on April 2 and may target EU regulations that it considers to be nontariff barriers, including the DMA.
While the DMA decision is technically overseen by the Commission’s competition directorate, the wider trade environment has factored into the EU’s planning on the communication and timing of the DMA decisions, said a person briefed on the matter, with the rollout being planned centrally.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump faces crucial week on the economy
President Trump is entering a critical week for the economy amid growing fears that his penchant for tariffs could stall growth and undercut progress on inflation.
Trump has described Wednesday as “Liberation Day,” when his administration will impose sweeping reciprocal tariffs on other nations with duties on U.S. goods. The March jobs report will also be released on Friday, providing additional data about the strength of the labor market, particularly in the wake of thousands of federal government employees fired by the administration.
Experts described the economy as at something of a crossroads. Data about the labor market and wages have been generally positive, economists said. But the closely watched University of Michigan Survey of Consumers issued a report Friday that found consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest point since November 2022 amid fears of rising prices that could be worsened by tariffs.
A recession is not inevitable, economists said. But the direction of the economy will depend largely on how Trump and his team proceed in the weeks ahead.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘I’m Certain of Absolutely Nothing’: A Wall Street Insider Explains Why the Market Is Spooked
A conversation with market watcher Julia Coronado, who says investors are worried that Trump’s appetite for disruption is higher in his second term.
Just two months into Donald Trump’s second term, Wall Street is unnerved. Julia Coronado, the president and co-founder of the economic consulting firm MacroPolicy Perspectives, said that’s because investors and executives had convinced themselves that Trump wouldn’t do anything significant to disrupt the market’s upward trajectory.
“We had a pretty great setup for Trump,” Coronado said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine, paraphrasing the thinking on the Street. “Why would he mess with that?”
Coronado, a former Federal Reserve economist who’s held top roles at BNP Paribas and the hedge fund Graham Capital Management, is a widely sought after economic consultant whose clients include asset managers, hedge funds and banks. I spoke with Coronado as she drove to the University of Texas at Austin, where she’s a clinical associate professor of finance at the McCombs School of Business.
Wall Street craves predictability, but Trump’s early priorities — including off-and-on tariffs, government cutbacks and immigration crackdowns — signal that this time around, the president has a much stronger appetite for disruption. He has refused to rule out a possible recession even after markets convulsed following a series of major tariff announcements.
“Investors are tuning into the fact that — at a minimum — Trump 2.0 is going to be quite a bit different from Trump 1.0.,” Coronado told me. “He’s not as sensitive to the stock market as we thought.”
Read the interview at Politico
Republicans scramble to shield their states from Trump’s next wave of tariffs
Some GOP lawmakers are already planning to push for exemptions for key industries back home.
Swaths of Republicans on Capitol Hill are scrambling to shield their states from Donald Trump’s next wave of tariffs, a sign of the private alarm in the president’s party about the impacts of his trade agenda.
Trump has promised his rollout of global tariffs on April 2 will amount to a “Liberation Day” for the American economy. But dozens of GOP lawmakers worry privately that another round of tariffs will raise prices on U.S. consumers, cripple American farmers and rattle the stock market.
In anticipation, they are coordinating with various industry groups to push the administration for exemptions that protect key local industries from that kind of pain. They’re also trying to effectively void some of the tariffs on key products once they go into effect, lining up to push Trump officials for so-called exclusions.
Their quiet maneuvering signals the heightened anxiety among Republicans about the next phase of his trade wars — and the political pitfalls ahead for the president and his party. Four Republicans with direct knowledge of the strategy, granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations, described the behind-the-scenes planning as concerted and targeted.
Fueling their anxiety: GOP lawmakers don’t yet know the full scope of what Trump has dubbed “reciprocal tariffs” and possibly other duties the White House is preparing to unveil Wednesday. The president and top aides have said they will calculate different tariff rates for the country’s major trading partners, based on the barriers other countries put on U.S. imports. But they have yet to detail any figures or say which countries will be hit — and even many White House aides remain in the dark.
Continue reading at Politico
World teeters on edge, awaiting Trump's tariff revenge
For the next three days, one man holds the global economy in the palm of his hands, literally and figuratively — and almost no one but him knows what will happen.
Why it matters: Every Wall Street trader and economist has "April 2" circled on their calendars. The consensus is that tariffs are coming, but the fear is in the unknown: how aggressive the measures will be.
The big picture: Financial markets hate surprises, yet that is what the Trump administration looks set to do this week — with mixed signals from the president himself about what will happen on Wednesday.
The uncertainty, already tanking the stock market and economic sentiment, might be swapped for an unprecedented trade regime that would force businesses to adjust virtually overnight.
"I want it to be clear. The market does not like unknowns, and at the moment, we are sort of off the charts in our 'unknowns' inventory," Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial, said in a Friday note.
Catch up quick: Trump has warned about reciprocal tariffs for more than six weeks — a wide-ranging scheme meant to hit back on nations said to have unfair trade practices.
Continue reading at Axios
BlackRock's Larry Fink treads cautiously in letter that shies from politics
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink reassures investors that this moment of economic anxiety will pass in his annual letter out Monday morning.
Why it matters: Fink runs the world's biggest asset manager and is hugely influential — his widely read letter typically reflects the business trends of the current moment.
This year it comes at a time of high market uncertainty, as tariff disruptions rock the business world.
Where it stands: Fink treads cautiously in the 27-page letter, never explicitly mentioning President Trump, and only touches glancingly on politics at the very top.
"I hear it from nearly every client, nearly every leader—nearly every person—I talk to: They're more anxious about the economy than any time in recent memory. I understand why. But we have lived through moments like this before. And somehow, in the long run, we figure things out," he says in a draft of the letter viewed by Axios.
The intrigue: Fink's letter comes at a politically fraught moment for BlackRock.
The firm's deal to buy two Panama Canal ports from Hong Kong's CK Hutchison has become a political football among the governments of the U.S., Panama and China.
What looked like an off-ramp for U.S. complaints that China had too much influence at the canal now threatens to become a bargaining chip in a larger geopolitical reordering.
Continue reading at Axios
Why Trump is taking aim at Europe's sales tax
At the heart of President Trump's latest round of tariffs is expected to be a double-digit tax on European imports, ostensibly justified by the existence of Europe's value-added tax (VAT), the continent's version of a sales tax.
Why it matters: By claiming a VAT is a kind of tariff — or even, in Trump's words, "far more punitive than a Tariff" — the U.S. is taking a maximalist and highly aggressive stance, one that's very hard to negotiate with.
The big picture: "It's in the interest of the administration to to have a higher number and to make it harder to negotiate," says Everett Eissenstat, a partner at Squire Patton Boggs who was the president's sherpa for international economic affairs during the first Trump administration.
"I think the administration is quite comfortable with that outcome."
How it works: Value-added taxes in Europe are generally high, often in the region of 20%. They're imposed without regard to country of origin.
As the E.U. has outlined, "EU produced goods pay exactly the same VAT as any imported goods. VAT is not a trade measure, let alone a tariff."
Continue reading at Axios
The micro tariff pain is hitting local communities
Look to local communities for evidence the economic fallout from President Trump's trade policy — job losses, price increases and more — is underway.
Why it matters: It might be too granular to sway large national data sets, but border cities across North America are already feeling the trade war pain that could strain their budgets and threaten the broader U.S. economy.
Zoom out: Nearly two dozen local government officials from U.S., Mexican and Canadian cities were in Washington, D.C. on Friday — just blocks away from the White House — ahead of April 2, what one mayor told reporters was their "D-Day."
Daniel Rickenmann, the mayor of Columbia, S.C., told reporters Sonoco, the packaging giant based in the state, is dealing with higher aluminum prices.
Steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs cut 1,200 jobs at plants in Michigan and Minnesota as tariffs hit demand.
What they're saying: "We are already hearing anecdotes from businesses being impacted by the uncertainty related to supply chains," Ron Nirenberg, the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, told Axios.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump wants to move student loans to SBA. Republicans aren’t so sure.
Although SBA managed a wealth of Covid relief programs, it normally runs a much smaller operation than student debt.
President Donald Trump has yet to win over his own party with his push to “immediately” transfer the Education Department’s massive student loan operation to another agency slated for deep staff cuts.
Trump was expected to propose moving the agency’s $1.6 trillion portfolio to the Treasury Department — a concept long-discussed on Capitol Hill and suggested in Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy blueprint. Instead, the president announced this month that the Small Business Administration would get it, surprising many lawmakers and conservatives who track the issue.
Although SBA, which provides financial support to companies for disaster relief, training and other needs, managed a wealth of Covid relief programs, it normally runs a much smaller operation than student debt. It’s also slated to lose 43 percent of its staff.
Continue reading at Politico
Weekly Tax
Trying to move quick on tax cuts
LET’S HAVE ANOTHER CRUCIAL WEEK: Here’s another reason for Republicans to move quickly on tax cuts this year — they need to try to calm people skittish about the economy.
President Donald Trump is set to levy wide-ranging tariffs in a couple days. In fact, outside experts are commenting that the kinds of revenues that Trump’s advisers are expecting to get from tariffs are inconceivable.
At the same time, recent polling has shown voters becoming skeptical of Trump’s work on the economy and giving him increasing blame for inflation, even as the country appears evenly divided on his overall job performance.
With all that swirling around, Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, plugged the tax cuts that Republicans are trying to get across the finish line as key in blunting the impact of any disruption that might happen because of Trump’s tariffs.
“We’ve got the biggest, most pro-worker tax cut in history that’s moving forward at a breakneck speed,” Hassett said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “I think the naysayers will be proven wrong if they’re a little bit nervous about the blips from this week to next.”
Continue reading Politico’s Weekly Tax newsletter
Weekly Shift
Delivered every Monday by 10 a.m., Weekly Shift examines the latest news in employment, labor and immigration politics and policy.
Labor groups reel from DOL’s international cancellations
PULLING THE PLUG: The Labor Department has gotten in on the Trump administration’s slashing of all money going beyond the border, leaving international labor rights specialists in a lurch.
DOL canceled dozens of grants awarded by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, starting with a smaller batch in the middle of March before a much larger round last week. The notices give little indication why the money is being pulled, other than for “alignment with Agency priorities and national interest,” according to a copy reviewed by POLITICO.
The administration says that the terminations will save nearly $240 million (albeit over several years) and has ridiculed the intended purpose of several of the grants on social media. The approach fits neatly with the intense antipathy Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency has shown to foreign programs and non-governmental organizations that carry out much of that work.
The International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency, saw 50 of its ILAB projects canceled and a spokesperson said in an email 189 staffers will be affected but it is still assessing the “full impact of this decision on the beneficiaries of these programmes.”
Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau said her organization, which was founded in 1997 by the AFL-CIO, lost 11 grants this month totaling about $12 million this year and roughly $70 million over their original lifespan.
Bader-Blau said they are still exploring how to respond to the policy shift, but argued that the Trump administration overlooks the benefits that raising labor standards abroad have for U.S. workers.
“American workers shouldn’t be competing with low-wage and exploited labor when we’re trying to have high standards here,” she told POLITICO. “A big concern is that there isn’t anyone who’s going to fill the gap.”
ILAB has worked to combat child-labor exploitation, forced labor practices and other abuses including the sexual coercion of workers. It also helps enforce parts of the USMCA trade deal that Trump negotiated, particularly with respect to Mexico’s labor obligations.
Continue reading at Politico’s Weekly Shift newsletter
Weekly Trade
Kicking off a big tariff week
— Dozens of trade reports are due on Tuesday. They could provide more clarity on President Donald Trump’s proposed “External Revenue Service.”
— Automakers are citing a report by economist Art Laffer claiming that tariffs will raise car prices by around $5,000.
— The Inspector General closed its investigation into the U.S. International Trade Commissioner after finding no evidence of wrongdoing.
IT’S A BIG WEEK IN TRADE: “Liberation Day” is coming. President Donald Trump has pledged to upend the global trading system on Wednesday by issuing “reciprocal tariffs” that will apply a percentage to each country based on their perceived trade barrier. I’ve taken to comparing it to a tariff smoothie: A blend of all the tariffs and non-tariff barriers that the administration believes are imposed on the United States.
But before that, Tuesday marks the deadline set by Trump’s “America First” executive memorandum for several reports that are expected to guide the administration’s trade policy for the next four years.
Doug has a helpful breakdown this morning on what reports are due and which Cabinet official is responsible.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in charge of overseeing two particularly impactful reports: one on whether it’s possible to create an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs, and one on the feasibility of eliminating the de minimis exemption.
Tariff collection: The two are related. Trump attempted to eliminate the de minimis exemption — which says tariffs don’t apply to packages worth less than $800 — earlier this year. But the administration had to press pause when Customs and Border Patrol was overwhelmed by the order.
The theory behind an External Revenue Service is that it would create an agency focused specifically on collecting tariff revenue, freeing up Customs and Border Patrol agents to focus more on immigration issues.
But there are plenty of questions about how the administration would create such an agency — particularly because that’s typically a job for Congress, not the executive branch.
Continue reading Politico’s Weekly Trade newsletter
Axios Macro
1 big thing: Why this trade war is different
Why it matters: The administration's presumed tariffs approach this week — with high import duties on pretty much all goods from pretty much all trade partners — leaves Corporate America with few good options to shift around supply chains.
It contrasts with the 2018-2019 period in Trump's previous term, when tariffs were more targeted to specific items from specific countries, and businesses had space to plead their case for carve-outs.
Moreover, all signs are that these "reciprocal tariffs," meant to penalize other nations seen as dealing unfairly, will be stacked on top of other tariffs, like those ostensibly meant to penalize Mexico, Canada and China for not stopping fentanyl smuggling.
Driving the news: "You'd start with all countries," Trump told reporters on Air Force One yesterday, after a reporter asked whether this week's tariffs would only apply to 10 or 15 countries with which the U.S. has particularly large trade deficits.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Fox News yesterday that the new tariffs would raise $600 billion a year for the federal government.
By the numbers: In 2024, total tariff revenue was $77 billion.
Continue reading Axios Macro newsletter
2. The economy Trump inherited
Some of you really didn't like a line from Neil's weekend piece on the emergence of stagflation risk: the assertion that Trump "inherited a shakier economy than it seemed."
We stand by the assertion.
What they're saying: "Shame on you," wrote an Axios reader named Bev in an email, one of many we received along these lines.
"Trump did not inherit a shaky economy. Trump inherited the most robust economy in the world ... and one that was getting better with every passing day."
Zoom out: It is true that the biggest-picture indicators at the tail end of the Biden administration look solid — 2.4% GDP growth in Q4, for example, and a 4.1% December unemployment rate.
Now forecasters are slashing their Q1 GDP estimates — due in part to soft consumer spending in January, just as Trump took office and before his policies had much effect. (Unusually cold January weather was a factor.)
Inflation came in warm in the first two months of 2025, even before most Trump tariffs had taken effect, a warning that inflation was not fully vanquished. The core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index rose at a 4.1% annual rate in January and February, the highest in a year.
Zoom in: There were also warning signs in more detailed data that conditions were not as robust at the end of Biden's term as the headline numbers imply.
Continue reading at Axios Macro newsletter
Tesla Q1 deliveries could show buyer backlash to Musk's politics
Tesla's Q1 delivery total is landing this week and will bring fresh signs that CEO Elon Musk's politics and job in Trump 2.0 are turning off more buyers than they attract.
Why it matters: Even Tesla optimists say the pioneering EV brand has an image problem.
Plunging European sales data has already been rolling in, along with lesser declines in the U.S. and China from third-party providers (Tesla doesn't provide regional tallies).
Political fury around Musk was on display over the weekend with anti-Tesla protests in the U.S. and abroad.
The automaker's deliveries, a proxy for sales, fell on a yearly basis last year despite a record Q4.
What they're saying: "I think a great wrong is being done to the people of Tesla and to our customers," Musk told Fox News last week.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump pardons a bunch of white-collar crooks
Why it matters: There's never been a better time to be a white-collar crook.
Pardon 1: Trevor Milton, co-founder and CEO of bankrupt electric truckmaker Nikola Motors.
His most egregious act may have been sharing a video that purported to show a fully functional prototype, whereas the truck actually was rolling down a small hill. And then there was the lying about billions of dollars in orders.
Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for both securities and wire fraud, and ordered to pay nearly $700 million in restitution. He had been free on appeal, during which time he donated bigly to Trump-related groups. Oh, and his lawyer was the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Pardon 2: Carlos Watson, co-founder and CEO of defunct Ozy Media.
You may remember Ozy Media for a phone call during which Watson's co-founder, who plead guilty and cooperated with prosecutors, pretended to be a YouTube executive while on a reference call with prospective investor Goldman Sachs. Plus, lots of lying about company financials and proposed deals.
Watson was literally on a plane to prison when the pardon arrived. In a statement, he reiterated his argument that the prosecution was "driven by a malicious campaign orchestrated by a jealous competitor at a rival media company" — an absurd claim based on the phone call first being reported by then-NY Times reporter Ben Smith, whose former company once held takeover talks with Ozy.
Continue reading at Axios
The signs of weakness we see now from the end of Biden's era
Some of you really didn't like a line from Neil's weekend piece on the emergence of stagflation risk: the assertion that President Trump "inherited a shakier economy than it seemed."
We stand by the assertion.
What they're saying: "Shame on you," wrote an Axios reader named Bev in an email, one of many we received along these lines.
"Trump did not inherit a shaky economy. Trump inherited the most robust economy in the world ... and one that was getting better with every passing day."
Zoom out: It is true that the biggest-picture indicators at the tail end of the Biden administration look solid — 2.4% GDP growth in Q4, for example, and a 4.1% December unemployment rate.
Now forecasters are slashing their Q1 GDP estimates — due in part to soft consumer spending in January, just as Trump took office and before his policies had much effect. (Unusually cold January weather was a factor.)
Inflation came in warm in the first two months of 2025, even before most Trump tariffs had taken effect, a warning that inflation was not fully vanquished. The core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index rose at a 4.1% annual rate in January and February, the highest in a year.
Zoom in: There were also warning signs in more detailed data that conditions were not as robust at the end of former President Biden's term as the headline numbers imply.
Manufacturing was in an ongoing slump, with output contracting on a year-on-year basis every month from July to December. The Institute for Supply Management survey of manufacturers came in at 49.3 in December, just below the level of 50 that is the line between expansion and contraction.
The job market was stuck in place, with companies not firing many workers but also not doing much hiring. The rate at which employers hired in December was 3.4%; it was higher than that in every single month from March 2014 to February 2020.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump forces Canada to rethink trade and energy flows
Tariff threats prompt provinces to tout “east-west” corridors, rather than “south” to the U.S.
OTTAWA — The return of Donald Trump has forced a reckoning in Canada with the potential to reshape the Canadian economy — including the direction its energy flows.
“We will need to do things previously thought impossible, at speeds we haven’t seen in generations,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week, as he declared Canada’s traditional economic relationship with the United States “over.”
During his first week in office, Carney gathered Canada’s premiers and got them to agree that in the face of Trump’s tariffs, they will remove all internal trade barriers by Canada Day on July 1. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, among others, has estimated those barriers diminish Canada’s GDP by 4 percent annually.
Carney’s plan includes trying to make it seamless for people and products to flow east-west, rather than south to the U.S. That includes energy, especially the clean kind — most electricity, nuclear power, as well as wind and solar.
On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to create a Canada First National Energy Corridor, a pre-approved corridor for pipelines, transmission lines and rail lines.
People in Canada’s clean energy sector have been advocating for years for the country to think big and do more to leverage an abundance of clean power.
Continue reading at Politico
Supreme Court appears swayed by Catholic charity group’s tax exemption bid
The Supreme Court on Monday seemed swayed by a Catholic charity group’s bid for tax relief in Wisconsin in a case that could drastically alter eligibility for religious tax exemptions.
A Wisconsin chapter of Catholic Charities, a social services arm of Catholic dioceses nationwide, challenged the top state court’s determination that it does not qualify for a religious tax exemption because it isn’t “operated primarily for religious purposes.”
Catholic Charities Bureau is controlled by the Diocese of Superior but claims it was denied an exemption from a state unemployment tax because it serves and employs non-Catholics, completes work that could be administered by nonreligious groups and doesn’t attempt to proselytize, or sway those it serves to become Catholic.
Eric Rassbach, a lawyer for Catholic Charities, argued no court would hold that clergy members who preach on Saturday aren’t ministers because preaching on Sunday is more typical, nor would a court suggest that religious leaders who help the poor aren’t ministers because secular leaders help the poor, too.
Continue reading at The Hill
GOP senators line up with Democrats to oppose Canada tariffs
A loss on the Senate floor Tuesday would represent the most significant Republican rebuke of Trump’s second term.
Republicans could be poised to deal a symbolic blow to President Donald Trump’s trade policy, with several GOP senators indicating they planned to join Democrats in a Tuesday vote to block blanket tariffs on Canada.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday that she plans to back the resolution led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would terminate the national emergency Trump declared last month, citing fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. Trump has used that declaration to justify 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on America’s northern neighbor and leading trade partner — duties that Trump has threatened to start levying later this week.
“Imposing tariffs on Canada, which is our closest neighbor, [a] friendly ally, is a huge mistake and will cause disruption in the economies of both countries,” Collins told reporters while wearing a Canadian flag pin alongside a U.S. flag pin on her lapel. She warned of potential fallout, including job losses for her state’s key industries, including lobstering and wood pulp, as well as potato and blueberry production.
Collins is poised to join GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is a co-sponsor of Kaine’s resolution and a strong opponent of tariffs, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has also expressed concerns about Trump’s tariff plans for North American neighbors. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa — one of many farm-state Republicans who has raised particular concerns about the Canadian tariffs — also said he was undecided on the Kaine resolution.
Collins said her support was conditioned on a final review of the text but added, “I agree with the intent.”
Continue reading at Politico
Democrats slam Senate GOP’s plans to write off tax cuts
Republicans want to use an accounting tactic that critics say would entirely upend the Senate’s budget process.
Top Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, slammed Republicans over their plan to use an accounting tactic that would zero out the cost of extending trillions of dollars of tax cuts.
Senate Republicans are trying to “make a second round of Trump Tax giveaways look like it would cost $0, rather than the true $37 trillion over 30 years,” Schumer wrote in the Monday letter to Majority Leader John Thune, which was co-signed by top Finance Committee Democrat Ron Wyden and top Budget Committee Democrat Jeff Merkley, both of Oregon. “This is nothing other than budget fraud.”
The accounting method, known as “current policy baseline,” would appear to entirely cancel the costs of extending $4.6 trillion of President Donald Trump’s expiring tax cuts. The tactic would solve a big political headache for Republicans, since the GOP tax bill is already heaving under the costs of Trump’s campaign proposals.
But the proposal has sparked objections across the political spectrum from fiscal experts who warn that it could further explode future budget deficits. The letter quotes several GOP critics of the plan.
“If you and conference go down this road, you will be destroying the last vestige of fiscal discipline left in the reconciliation process,” the Democrats write to Thune. “No longer would new tax cuts or spending programs ever need to be offset. The lasting consequences to our national debt will be severe.”
Because Congress has never used the accounting method to extend expiring tax cuts before, Senate Republicans want to get a sign off from the chamber’s parliamentarian before proceeding with their budget plans. That ruling could come as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
Continue reading at Politico
GOP hard-liners threaten revolt over budget gambit
Some conservatives don’t like GOP leadership’s plans to advance a budget resolution with different instructions for House and Senate committees.
House Republican fiscal hawks are lining up against the Senate GOP’s emerging budget plan, threatening yet another delay in the party’s ability to begin drafting legislation to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters Monday he would vote against the Senate Republican budget if it sets lower spending cut targets than those established by the budget resolution adopted by the House.
“We have to be in lockstep,” said Norman, a South Carolina Republican.
Arizona GOP Rep. David Schweikert also said he would not support a budget resolution that comes over from the Senate that sets low spending cuts targets for committees. If that ends up being the case, he said, “we’d need to burn it down.”
The comments pose a massive problem for efforts by Republicans to kick-start the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process to pass Trump’s agenda of tax cuts, enhanced border security and energy policies. The House GOP’s majority in extremely narrow and Speaker Mike Johnson could only lose a couple of votes without sinking the entire effort.
Senate Republicans have been eyeing a budget deal that would essentially punt difficult choices on spending cuts to a later date by giving their committees different deficit reduction targets than those in the House. The House-approved plan requires at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while the Senate plan would set spending targets as low as $3 billion to comply with procedural rules and maintain flexibility.
Continue reading at Politico
Canadians' demand for U.S. travel is cratering
Canadians' desire to visit the U.S. is absolutely tanking, new data suggests.
Why it matters: President Trump's tariffs and insistence that Canada should become the 51st American state is fueling a remarkable rally-round-the-flag effect. Canadian patriotism is skyrocketing alongside disdain for all things American throughout the Great White North.
Driving the news: Advance bookings for Canada-U.S. flights in April-September are down over 70% compared to this time last year, per aviation data firm OAG.
"This sharp drop suggests that travelers are holding off on making reservations, likely due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the broader trade dispute," writes OAG chief analyst John Grant.
Airlines are also reducing transborder capacity — a strong signal that they, too, are seeing (or at least predicting) less demand.
Yes, but: At least one airline is calling OAG's data into question.
Continue reading at Axios
Scoop: White House considers leveraging debt ceiling
The White House is eyeing this summer's debt ceiling's "X-date" as a forcing mechanism to push the "one big, beautiful bill" through Congress.
"Gun to the head, the whole agenda, and the country's credit rating and global depression all rolled into one," says a White House official, describing their approach.
Why it matters: President Trump's partnership with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) partnership has led to some early wins. But there's a growing realization that the next steps are way more difficult.
It's also an acknowledgement that the timeline for passing budget reconciliation through Congress is closer to the end of the summer, not the beginning.
No one knows the precise date that the federal government will breach the $36.1 trillion debt limit, but the latest CBO estimates project the X-date will land in August or September.
Two key White House officials — Kevin Hassett and James Braid — traveled to the Senate on Monday to meet with Finance Committee members to discuss the contours of the reconciliation package.
Zoom in: Since January, House leaders have wanted to include a debt ceiling hike in the reconciliation package.
Continue reading at Axios
Jim Justice's warnings on DOGE and Medicaid
Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) is eager to start balancing the federal budget in the Senate, but he also says DOGE has mowed "past the fence."
Why it matters: The popular one-time-Democratic governor has a big personality, a beloved dog and a long beef with his Senate predecessor, Joe Manchin.
"I always felt like that Joe wanted something for himself ... whether it be prestige or whatever," Justice says. "And I have a real problem with that."
"There's nothing Fancy Dan about me," Justice tells Axios. "I don't want a thing."
In an interview, Justice talked at length with us about the importance of a balanced budget. He wants to follow the same playbook he used in West Virginia.
But he's also "concerned" about some of the GOP conversations around Medicaid. 28% of the West Virginia population is covered by Medicaid and CHIP.
Continue reading at Axios
Restaurant chain Hooters files for bankruptcy to enable founder-led buyout
NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) - Restaurant chain Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy in Texas on Monday, seeking to address its $376 million debt by selling all of its company-owned restaurants to a franchise group backed by the company’s founders.
Hooters, like other casual dining restaurants, has struggled in recent years due to inflation, the high costs of labor and food, and declining spending by cash-strapped American consumers. The company currently directly owns and operates 151 locations, with another 154 restaurants operated by franchisees, primarily in the United States.
Continue reading at Reuters
Gold rises to another record as anxiety grips markets. Here’s what you need to know
NEW YORK (AP) — Markets around the world continue to sink on fears about President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies, and investors keep plowing money into gold, with futures hitting another record high Monday.
Trump’s latest round of tariffs roll out Wednesday, which Trump has been calling “Liberation Day.”
[…]
What’s the price of gold today?
On Monday, the going price for New York spot gold hit a record $3,122.80 per troy ounce — the standard for measuring precious metals, which is equivalent to 31 grams. That’s about $886, or 40%, higher than a year ago.
The price of spot gold is up 19% since the start of 2025, per the data firm FactSet. By contrast, the stock market has tumbled. The benchmark S&P 500 is down 4.5% this year as even blue chip stocks have faded.
Gold futures also reached a record in trading Monday, hitting close to $3,157.40 an ounce.
Why is the price of gold going up?
A lot of it boils down to uncertainty. Interest in buying gold typically spikes when investors become anxious — and there’s been a lot of economic turmoil in recent months.
Continue reading at the AP
Brazil’s Lula to meet Putin and Xi amid global trade war fears
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow and China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing, two important partners for the South American giant, in May. The announcement Monday came as the world braces for a global trade war following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The press office of Brazil’s Presidency told The Associated Press that Lula is expected to attend Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, marking the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Brazilian leader then planned to travel to Beijing to participate in the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum on May 12.
It will be Lula’s first official trip to Moscow and his second to China during his third, nonconsecutive term as president. During his previous administrations (2003-2010), he visited Russia twice and China three times.
[…]
China is Brazil’s top trading partner. In 2024, it accounted for 28% of Brazil’s exports and supplied 24.2% of the country’s imports.
The United States ranked second, providing 12% of Brazil’s imports and purchasing 15.5% of its exports, according to Brazilian government data. In 2024, Brazil recorded a slight trade deficit of $283.8 million with the U.S.
Continue reading at the AP
Health and Science News
American progress in peril
Why it matters: America has enjoyed decades of dominance in science and technology — plus the economic boom, medical advancements and global influence that come with it.
Now, as the U.S.'s global lead is contested and competition for the world's top talent gets stiffer, the Trump administration is disrupting the system that has propelled the country.
"There are some immediate effects. People will be laid off, talent will go elsewhere, some research groups will shut down," says Chris Impey, an astronomer at the University of Arizona.
"But over the years it will have a profoundly negative impact. You're creating an opportunity for other countries to happily start moving in, poaching our talent and riding the escalator of scientific progress."
Stunning stat: 40% of U.S.-affiliated Nobel Prize winners in the sciences — physics, chemistry and medicine — between 2000 and 2023 were immigrants.
Funding resources, top-notch universities, research freedom and a diverse culture that supports innovation are among the factors that have made the U.S. a global magnet for scientists.
Zoom in: Some of those factors are in flux.
For example, in 2022, the NIH spent 25 times more on grants for health research than the next largest funder, a U.K. charity, according to Nature. But NIH funding has dropped by more than $3 billion since Inauguration Day, compared to the same period last year, as the Trump administration cancels research programs and halts funding, the Washington Post reports.
Continue reading at Axios
RFK Jr.'s emerging vision for HHS: More centralized power
The big picture: Along with cutting more than 10,000 jobs, HHS last week unveiled a plan centralize all human resources, IT, procurement and policy decisions, moving administrative control away from individual divisions.
Central to this restructuring is the creation of the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), a new entity that aims to centralize functions related to public health, addiction services and environmental health under a single umbrella.
This move is seen by some as an attempt to exert greater political control over public health initiatives, potentially compromising the independence of operating agencies with specialized missions.
Experts warn that folding an agency like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration into a larger entity could dilute its focus and undermine efforts to combat the nation's ongoing addiction and mental health crises.
"What you see is an attempt by HHS to exert more control over most aspects of functioning of the department from communications to policy, to service delivery," Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former associate Food and Drug Administration commissioner, told Axios.
It's notable that a fact sheet from the administration on the restructuring specifically says it will centralize "policy," Lurie said.
Continue reading at Axios
HHS ushers in a new enforcement regime
The sweeping reorganization of the federal health bureaucracy includes designating a new top cop at the Health and Human Services Department.
Why it matters: The HHS enforcement and appeals offices that, in a nutshell, arbitrate disputes over agency decisions and decide whether providers are following the rules, have historically operated as separate divisions that each answer directly to the secretary.
The reorganization creates a new assistant secretary position to oversee enforcement of rules and regulations, and already it's stoking fears among patient advocates and health care lawyers that rulemaking and enforcement will become politicized.
State of play: The existing HHS Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, Office of Civil Rights, and Departmental Appeals Board will all report to a new assistant secretary of enforcement.
The change will streamline and bolster efforts to combat fraud, waste and abuse, per HHS.
The agency did not respond to questions about the specific rationale for the change.
What they're saying: Combining the functions of these offices "is going to bring together parts of HHS with similar skills sets — enforcement, adjudication, and dispute resolution," David Mansdoerfer, who worked as a senior HHS official in the first Trump administration, told Axios.
"This should allow for greater efficiency and management as resources within this office will be able to be better deployed by a single leader," he said.
The other side: Patient advocates are concerned that the consolidation will make HHS enforcement of patient privacy rules and violations of consumer rights less effective.
Continue reading at Axios
3. Lilly doubles down on direct with Noom collab
Eli Lilly is expanding its direct-to-consumer playbook — this time through the weight-loss app Noom.
Why it matters: The partnership extends the reach of Lilly's direct-to-consumer platform LillyDirect by embedding access to Zepbound directly into Noom's platform in its latest push to own the patient experience.
This morning, Noom is announcing a partnership with LillyDirect pharmacy provider Gifthealth to allow Noom users to obtain Zepbound vials with valid, on-label prescriptions.
Noom said the integration with its GLP-1 Companion, which offers support to GLP-1 users in making recommended diet and exercise changes, will create "a simpler, more accessible patient experience."
That includes allowing Noom users to track fill status and shipping updates for Zepbound directly through the app.
This comes on the heels of partnership announcements with Teladoc Health and LifeMD earlier this month. Lilly has also partnered with Ro and Amazon.
Continue reading at Axios
POLITICO Pulse newsletter
RFK Jr. puts his mark on FDA
MARKS OUT — Another turbulent week is expected at HHS following the shocking announcement last week that the department will downsize by 20 percent — with some staff expected to depart their agencies in the coming days.
It comes after weeks of chaos defined by dismissals and rehirings of federal workers and last Friday’s resignation of the FDA’s top vaccine official Dr. Peter Marks.
Marks was pushed out of the agency late Friday under pressure from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to speak freely told POLITICO’s David Lim, Adam Cancryn and Lauren Gardner.
The move has sparked condemnation from some in the public health world and praise from Kennedy’s allies.
Dr. Ashish Jha, former White House Covid-19 response coordinator under the Biden administration, defended Marks on Sunday.
“More and more recently, he has been pushed to advocate for quack vitamins and cod liver oil and not the thing that we know works for measles, which is vaccines,” Jha told ABC’s Martha Raddatz while discussing Marks’ departure. “And for someone with his scientific integrity, it just got to be too much.”
But Dr. Robert Redfield, the former CDC director under President Donald Trump’s first administration, said HHS’ leadership has the “responsibility to build their own team” in a social media post and called Marks’ comments in his resignation letter “disappointing.”
What happened: Kennedy and his team decided in recent weeks to push Marks out, concluding that they needed a fresh start as part of the department’s broader reorganization, said one person familiar with Kennedy’s thinking who was granted anonymity to discuss the situation.
But Marks, who was director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, had grown increasingly concerned by Kennedy’s attitude toward vaccines, said another person familiar with the matter, and was at odds with the HHS secretary, particularly over his tepid response to the Texas measles outbreak.
In his resignation letter, Marks directly confronted vaccine hesitancy and the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas implicated in two deaths and hundreds of cases of the viral illness, declared eradicated from the U.S. in 2000. Kennedy has made public statements tepidly supporting measles, mumps and rubella vaccines while promoting alternative treatments like vitamin A that public health experts widely agree are no substitute for the protection offered by vaccines.
Continue reading Politico’s Pulse newsletter (multiple topics covered)
New FDA commissioner agreed to oust top vaccine regulator after private swearing in
The forced resignation of Peter Marks has unsettled scientists and researchers.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary signed off on the ouster of top vaccine official Peter Marks shortly after being quietly sworn in as the agency’s new leader late last week, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
The forced removal was Makary’s first major act as commissioner and sent a powerful signal to a stunned Washington that was already anxious about the role vaccine skepticism and doubt would play under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services department. Makary and Kennedy had previously agreed to push out Marks, who led the FDA’s vaccine division for more than eight years, as part of a broader overhaul of HHS leadership.
The decision has alarmed lawmakers and the pharmaceutical industry, who see it as an effort by Kennedy to lay the groundwork for remaking the government’s approach to vaccines after years of sowing doubts about the shots.
While Kennedy made the final call to force Marks’ exit, he did so only after Makary consented, said the people familiar, who were granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Makary was sworn in late last week, according to multiple people granted anonymity to discuss the timing.
Makary’s involvement in the decision was not widely known even within the FDA, which has yet to acknowledge that he’s already been sworn in as head of the agency. On the agency’s website, Sara Brenner is still listed as the acting commissioner of food and drugs.
Even Marks appeared unaware of Makary’s status on Friday, addressing his resignation letter to Brenner and using his parting words to take aim at Kennedy. Marks declined to comment.
Continue reading at Politico
Clinicians Should Be on the Lookout for Murine Typhus, CDC Says
— Disease that was once nearly eradicated from U.S. could be making a comeback
A flea-borne disease that was once largely eradicated from the U.S. may be making a resurgence, CDC researchers said during a clinician-focused call on Thursday.
Murine typhusopens in a new tab or window became so rare after public health efforts against it in the 1940s that it eventually stopped being a nationally notifiable disease.
But now, cases are on the rise in two states that actively monitor the disease -- Texas and California -- and the illness may be going undiagnosed, experts said.
"Murine typhus is a disease that had all but disappeared from the United States and also disappeared from the minds of healthcare providers," said Johanna Salzer, DVM, PhD, a veterinary medical officer and lead of the epidemiology team for the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID).
"But it is clearly returning, and our understanding of the current burden is almost certainly underestimated," Salzer said during the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) call. (This was the first COCA call held under the new Trump administration.)
One event in particular caught the CDC's attention. In October 2024, an organ procurement organization in Texas notified CDC that a transplant recipient was hospitalized with murine typhus, according to Christopher Paddock, MD, the lead of the microbiology and diagnostic team at NCEZID.
While that patient recovered, a second transplant recipient who received an organ from the same donor developed severe disease and died 11 days after the transplant, Paddock said. They were confirmed to have murine typhus as well.
Continue reading at MedPageToday
What to know about vitamin A's toxic risks after RFK Jr. promotes it for measles
Context: An unvaccinated Texas school-age child died of measles in February, marking the first reported measles death in the U.S. in a decade. A second death in New Mexico, also an unvaccinated person, is under investigation.
Two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine are 93% effective against measles.
State of play: Some unvaccinated child measles patients in Texas — the state with the most cases — have shown signs of vitamin A toxicity, including abnormal liver function, multiple outlets reported.
Kennedy has said in multiple interviews that vitamin A and cod liver oil are effective measles treatments, per ABC News. He also blamed poor diets for severe measles cases.
Kennedy also cast the measles outbreak as "not uncommon" in a Cabinet meeting, but the disease was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its vitamin A recommendation "as part of supportive management" for children with severe measles.
Threat level: Taking too much vitamin A can cause headaches and increased intracranial pressure in both acute and chronic toxicity cases, according to the Merck Manual, a medical reference publication.
Continue reading at Axios
Artificial sweetener found in diet drinks linked to brain changes that increase appetite, study finds
CNN —
A growing body of evidence has increasingly linked diet sodas and other no- or low-calorie foods with weight gain — so much so that the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 saying not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss.
“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term,” Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO’s department of nutrition and food safety, said at the time.
Now, a new study may shed light on why consuming too much of the artificial sweetener sucralose could be counterproductive. Instead of the brain sending a signal to eat less, sucralose triggers an increase in appetite when consumed in a drink.
“Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,” said lead study author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
In fact, people who drank water with sucralose said their appetite increased by nearly 20% compared with drinking water with table sugar, Page said.
In the United States, sucralose is a key ingredient in some Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, sucralose is known as E955 and is found in sugar substitutes sold under the brand names Candys, Canderel Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana and Zerocal.
The study only investigated the impact of sucralose and did not research other popular artificials sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K and sodium saccharin.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Your Candy Cravings Might Be Controlled by This Gut Bacterium
Mouse and human studies suggest a connection between a gut microbe and the appetite-regulating hormone GLP-1
We might hate to admit it, but we aren’t in complete control of our own bodies; bacteria can sometimes reign supreme, even in our hankering for a cookie or a glass of sweet tea. A recent study in Nature Microbiology identifies a connection between the abundance of a common bacterium in a person’s gut and the amount of sugar the person consumes. The results could help researchers develop novel treatments for a variety of metabolic conditions.
Yong Q. Chen, a cancer biologist at China’s Jiangnan University, and his team had been investigating the role of a protein called free fatty acid receptor four (FFAR4) in mice’s fat-metabolism process. Initially they put the rodents on a high-fat diet. “One day I suggested using a high-carbohydrate [high-sugar] diet for comparison, and the results were surprising,” Chen says. “We expected that a fatty acid receptor may regulate fat preference. Surprisingly, it modulates sugar craving instead.”
Chen’s team found that less FFAR4 in mice correlated with a greater preference for the high-sugar diet. The researchers also compared FFAR4 levels in both mice and humans with diabetes with those in counterparts without the condition, and the levels turned out to be significantly lower in the diabetes groups. That’s where the gut microbiome comes in; the scientists also found that in mice, lower FFAR4 levels were tied to a decreased abundance of a gut microbe called Bacteroides vulgatus.
The researchers investigated how this bacterium might be involved and found that a metabolite produced by B. vulgatus, pantothenate—better known as vitamin B5—triggers production of the hormone GLP-1, which regulates appetite. In other words, less FFAR4 means less B. vulgatus, less pantothenate and less GLP-1.
This newly identified interplay of receptors, hormones and appetite reveals just one of the stealthy ways our gut microbes work to keep us healthy.
Continue reading at Scientific American
Internal fallout at HHS delays 10,000 firings
At the center of the controversy, officials tell POLITICO, is the HHS DOGE lead’s secretive approach and his attempts to shield one agency he has ties to from the reduction in force process.
A sweeping layoff plan affecting more than 10,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services was abruptly delayed Friday over growing backlash with how the process was being orchestrated by Brad Smith, the DOGE lead at HHS, two officials tell POLITICO.
At the center of the controversy is Smith’s secretive approach and his attempts to shield one HHS agency he has ties to from the reduction in force process, according to the two officials as well as two others, all granted anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations. The fallout has laid bare internal tensions within DOGE and raised questions about transparency in one of the most consequential restructuring efforts of the federal workforce.
Critics say Smith, who led the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation during President Donald Trump’s first administration, is maneuvering to spare the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which houses CMMI, from the brunt of the layoffs, leading to a rare internal revolt within DOGE.
Smith and his top aide, Rachel Riley, “keep everything close to their chest. The playbook isn’t clear, whereas everywhere else, the playbook is very clear,” said one HHS official granted anonymity to speak candidly. They “are isolationists.”
Riley has drawn further scrutiny for her role in controlling access to the master plan that outlines in granular detail where cuts will fall across HHS. Riley, according to the HHS official, did not share the data files with many of the very people responsible for executing the layoffs — career staff and department heads — thus creating bottlenecks and confusion.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump admin cuts tens of millions from Planned Parenthood
The Title X funds were earmarked for birth control and other non-abortion services.
The Trump administration is withholding tens of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood clinics that provide contraception, STI testing and other health services to low-income Americans.
Nine Planned Parenthood state affiliates that receive federal money from the 55-year-old Title X family planning program got notices Monday, which they shared with POLITICO, informing them that their funding is being “temporarily withheld.” The notice pointed to “possible violations” of federal civil rights law and President Donald Trump’s executive orders — including prohibitions on promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion and “taxpayer subsidization of open borders.”
The letter to Planned Parenthood chapters, many of them in GOP-controlled states, cites the clinics’ mission statements and other public documents that stress a “commitment to black communities” as evidence of their noncompliance. Amy Margolis, the deputy director of HHS’ Office of Population Affairs, argued the materials “paint a picture of Planned Parenthood that suggests it is engaged, across its affiliates, in widespread practices across hiring, operations, and patient treatment that unavoidably employ race in a negative manner.” The letter also chided the group for serving undocumented immigrants, writing that Planned Parenthood’s funding is being withheld because the organization “overtly encourages illegal aliens to receive care.”
HHS is giving Planned Parenthood 10 days to provide evidence that it will comply with the Trump administration’s executive orders, and will inform the group after that whether the grants are suspended or terminated.
Continue reading at Politico
RFK Jr.'s layoffs expected to gut worker safety agency NIOSH, officials say
At least two-thirds of the staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, are expected to be laid off as part of a restructuring ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., multiple federal health officials tell CBS News.
Around 873 staff are expected to be cut from NIOSH, multiple leaders within the agency were told in recent days, out of the 10,000 workers that are slated to be laid off from across the Department of Health and Human Services this year.
Continue reading at CBS News
Deadly, Drug-Resistant Fungus Is Spreading In CA Hospitals
More than 10,095 cases of the drug-resistant fungus have been detected in facilities across the Golden State since 2017
CALIFORNIA — A deadly, drug-resistant fungus is spreading in hospitals and care facilities around the nation, and especially in California where health officials have recorded thousands of cases in recent years.
California has the third-highest caseload in the nation of the fungus candida auris, or C. auris, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While C. auris, is still considered rare, it is described as a hard-to-treat "emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat." It has the potential to kill more than one-third of people who contract it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The yeast, which was first discovered in the U.S. in 2016, can spread between patients through contaminated equipment, healthcare workers' hands or clothing, or the healthcare environment.
The fungus is mostly found in health facilities, particularly in long-term acute care hospitals and nursing homes that use ventilators. People who are on feeding tubes, catheters and IV lines are also vulnerable.
Continue reading at Patch.com
Some liquid egg products recalled as they may include bleach, USDA warns. Here's what to know.
Some Egg Beaters and Bob Evans liquid egg products are under recall because they may include a cleaning solution with bleach, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
The liquid egg substitutes were recalled by Cargill Kitchen Solutions of Lake Odessa, Michigan, because they may contain a cleaning solution with sodium hypochlorite, which is commonly known as bleach. The recall covers 212,268 pounds of the products, which were produced on March 12 and March 13.
The USDA said its Food Safety and Inspection Service received a tip about the potential contamination, although the agency said that using the products shouldn't cause negative health consequences. In a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch, Cargill said that no illnesses or injuries associated with the products have been reported.
Continue reading at CBS News
Anti-DEI-Whitewashing Movement
Critics see Trump attacks on the ‘Black Smithsonian’ as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country’s Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”
But it doesn’t mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta.
The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.”
Continue reading at the AP
Trump's "restoring truth" order could return toppled Confederate monuments
President Trump has ordered a federal review of monuments toppled in the wake of George Floyd's murder, targeting what he calls a "concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history."
Why it matters: The Trump administration is leaving no stone unturned in its push to erase the legacy of 2020's racial reckoning, including by restoring monuments to Confederate leaders who fought to preserve slavery.
Zoom in: Trump signed an executive order Thursday taking aim at what he called a "revisionist movement" that has infiltrated the Smithsonian Institution and other federal sites dedicated to America's history.
Besides purging "improper ideology" from Smithsonian facilities, Trump directed the Department of the Interior to determine whether "public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties" in its jurisdiction have been removed or changed "to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history."
The order directs the agency to reinstate those monuments and ensure they do not contain descriptions that "inappropriately disparage Americans past or living."
The big picture: Trump has long opposed the removal of Confederate monuments, famously wading into the debate after the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, in which protesters gathered to protect a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Continue reading at Axios
Wes Moore: Trump order over Smithsonian museums is ‘deeply disrespectful’
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said President Trump’s order looking to control the “divisive narratives” at Smithsonian museums and federal sites is “deeply disrespectful.”
Moore joined CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, where host Dana Bash asked about Trump’s recent order, which cites an exhibit at the American Art Museum titled “Stories of Race and American Sculpture” and references the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“I just find it deeply disrespectful that their definition of making America great again is actually challenging some of the things that makes America great in the first place,” Moore said.
Moore said America is a place that was created by inviting people in from all around the world to be part of its journey.
“And loving your country does not mean lying about its history,” he said. “Loving your country does not mean dismantling those who have helped to make this country so powerful and make America so unique in world history in the first place.”
Continue reading at The Hill
The interview is set to begin with Moore’s segment
NASA Wipes Graphic Novels About Women Astronauts From Its Websites
The Trump administration's chilling effect on science agencies affects more than just funding.
NASA has scrubbed two graphic novels featuring female astronauts from its website, in a move that is in apparent alignment with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI stance.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies are those that generally promote fair treatment of people of all backgrounds. The Trump administration is not a fan of DEI—on the first day of Trump’s second term, the White House called DEI programs “illegal and immoral” and declared that the government is “committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect.” To that end, it seems that NASA removed graphic novels about a fictional female astronaut named Callie Rodriguez from its website.
As reported by Keith Cowing of NASA Watch, the graphic novels had been online for years. (“Apparently NASA DEI Sanitation Squad is using my postings to help them delete things,” Cowing wrote.) The series titles were “First Woman: NASA’s Promise for Humanity” and “First Woman: Expanding Our Universe.”
The space agency left up releases announcing editions of the graphic novels and updates to the series, but the main landing page—dedicated to Rodriguez’s story as the (fictional) first woman to walk on the Moon—now yields a 404 error. NASA’s Press Secretary Bethany Stevens did not respond to a request for comment.
Continue reading at Gizmodo
General News
IRS upheaval cracks agency resistance to data sharing with immigration officials
The plan may result in a short-term increase in arrests for the White House to tout, but former and current government officials warn that the significant policy shift could cause long-term damage.
The IRS’ plans to share sensitive taxpayer data to bolster President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda have wrought chaos and concern through the agency, as former and current officials balk at the idea of violating what has long been a red line.
After weeks of discussion, Trump administration officials are finalizing a data-sharing agreement between the IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, allowing immigration officials to use taxpayer databases to confirm the names and addresses of people who are in the country illegally, according to three people with knowledge of the plans. It’s part of the administration’s cross-agency efforts to boost Trump’s mass deportations campaign.
The plan may result in a short-term increase in arrests and worksite raids for the White House to tout, but former and current government officials, as well as policy experts, warn that the significant policy shift could cause long-term damage — spurring a chilling effect across immigrant communities and sending undocumented immigrants who pay nearly $100 billion a year in taxes underground. It also risks overturning decades of precedent inside the nation’s tax collector, where personal information has long been closely protected and shared with federal law enforcement only under limited circumstances.
“We’ve seen that this administration is certainly pulling out all the stops and trying to use every potential lever of the government to find and deport undocumented immigrants,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, senior adviser for immigration at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Department of Homeland Security official under the Bush and Obama administrations. “That’s their stated goal, and that’s what they are doing.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump may be gambling with his rural support in Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race could wind up being a referendum on the president’s trade policies.
Rural swaths of the country that helped power Donald Trump to victory are facing serious economic headwinds inflicted by his administration. The results of Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court race on Tuesday will reveal just how damaging they’re becoming for the president and the GOP.
Conservative-backed candidate Brad Schimel needs strong support in the same rural areas the president dominated in 2024 to land on the court. But many voters here are facing the effects of White House policies that threaten their bottom lines, like retaliatory tariffs on agricultural goods or the Agriculture Department’s funding freeze.
The GOP in Wisconsin is campaigning heavily in those communities, deploying an aggressive ground game in the turnout contest boosted by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“If [Schimel] doesn’t have the kind of support that President Trump had in rural Wisconsin, ball game over,” said Brian Reisinger, a former GOP adviser in Wisconsin who specializes in rural policy. “The strength of the rural vote, and whether it is going to be there for the conservative candidate in the Supreme Court race like it was for conservative candidates in 2024, is going to be the biggest, most determinative factor in this race.”
And, Reisinger added, it’s “the biggest signal that we’re going to get headed in the midterms.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump finds fault with both Putin and Zelenskyy as he tries to push for deal to end war in Ukraine
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, expressing frustration with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as he struggles to forge a truce to end the war.
Although Trump insisted to reporters that “we’re making a lot of progress,” he acknowledged that “there’s tremendous hatred” between the two men, a fresh indication that negotiations may not produce the swift conclusion that he promised during the campaign.
Trump began voicing his criticisms in an early morning interview with NBC News while he was at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. He said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin questioned Zelenskyy’s credibility.
The Russian leader recently said that Zelenskyy lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal and suggested that Ukraine needed external governance.
Trump said he would consider adding new sanctions on Russia, which already faces steep financial penalties, and using tariffs to undermine its oil exports.
The Republican president rarely criticizes Putin, and he’s previously attacked Zelenskyy’s credibility himself. For example, Trump has suggested that Ukraine caused the war that began with a Russian invasion three years ago, and he’s insisted that Zelenskyy should hold elections even though it’s illegal under Ukraine’s constitution to do so during martial law.
Continue reading at the AP
Trump: There’s a ‘psychological deadline’ for Putin to agree to ceasefire
“It’s a psychological deadline,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if there was a deadline for Russia to agree to a deal. “If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it.”
Trump said he did not think Russia was dragging the U.S. along, saying he believes Putin “wants to make a deal.” He went on to criticize Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting he was wavering over a deal to grant the U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral supply. Multiple outlets reported the Trump administration put forward a new proposal last week.
“And if he does that he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump said of Zelensky. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal. He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems.”
Continue reading at The Hill
The time has come to punish Orbán, Germany’s next government says
Merz’s incoming coalition wants to press the EU to look at withholding funds and suspending voting rights.
BERLIN — Germany’s incoming government says it will press the European Union to finally add some bite to its bark over misbehaving countries ― in a thinly veiled reference to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
The conservatives of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz and their likely center-left coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), have agreed to demand the bloc withhold funds and suspend voting rights from countries that violate key principles such as the rule of law, according to a draft coalition agreement seen by POLITICO.
While Hungary wasn’t mentioned by name, the draft agreement is clearly referring to the EU’s worst offender, which for years has been accused of taking a wrecking ball to democratic norms, curtailing the freedom of the press and restricting the independence of judges.
The German parties ― Merz’s victors and the SPD who led the last government ― are currently negotiating to form a coalition and need to agree on underlying principles before taking office. An agreement to pressure the EU to go after countries like Hungary forms part of a series of provisional deals covering issues as diverse as migration policy, the phaseout of coal and welfare spending.
“Existing protective instruments, from infringement proceedings and the withholding of EU funds to the suspension of membership rights such as voting rights in the Council of the EU, must be applied much more consistently than before,” negotiators from Merz’s conservative bloc and the SPD wrote in a draft coalition agreement on EU politics.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
US immigration officials look to expand social media data collection
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — U.S. immigration officials are asking the public and federal agencies to comment on a proposal to collect social media handles from people applying for benefits such as green cards or citizenship, to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump.
[…]
What is the proposal?
The Department of Homeland Security issued a 60-day notice asking for public commentary on its plan to comply with Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The plan calls for “uniform vetting standards” and screening people for grounds of inadmissibility to the U.S., as well as identify verification and “national security screening.” It seeks to collect social media handles and the names of platforms, although not passwords.
The policy seeks to require people to share their social media handles when applying for U.S. citizenship, green card, asylum and other immigration benefits. The proposal is open to feedback from the public until May 5.
What is changing?
“The basic requirements that are in place right now is that people who are applying for immigrant and non-immigrant visas have to provide their social media handles,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, managing director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program at New York University. “Where I could see this impacting is someone who came into the country before visa-related social media handle collection started, so they wouldn’t have provided it before and now they’re being required to. Or maybe they did before, but their social media use has changed.”
“This fairly widely expanded policy to collect them for everyone applying for any kind of immigration benefit, including people who have already been vetted quite extensively,” she added.
Continue reading at the AP
Trump education moves: Where the legal challenges stand
Most of the legal challenges have just begun, meaning final decisions could be months or years away as schools and students wait to see the sweeping effects the Trump administration’s efforts could have in the classroom.
Here are the education policy battles that are going through the legal system:
Pro-Palestinian foreign students fighting to stay in the country
Teacher training programs at the Supreme Court
Trump’s dismantling of the Education Department
Education Department’s ‘Dear Colleague’ letter around DEI
Trump funding cuts to universities
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump administration to review $9B in contracts, grants with Harvard
Like Columbia University, Harvard was among the schools whose leadership testified on Capitol Hill to defend their approach to campus protests.
The Trump administration announced plans on Monday to do a “comprehensive review” of the federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard University as part of its efforts to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
The departments of Education and Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration will review the more than $255.6 million in contracts they have with the school and its affiliates. The announcement did not suggest the agencies had cut or suspended funds to Harvard yet. The review also includes the more than $8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments to Harvard and its affiliates.
Education Department officials say the purpose of the review is to make sure the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities.
“Harvard has served as a symbol of the American Dream for generations — the pinnacle aspiration for students all over the world to work hard and earn admission to the storied institution,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Key context: The announcement comes after the administration threatened to pull $400 million worth of grant funding at Columbia University, accusing the university of not doing enough to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests.
Continue reading at Politico
Trans leaders seek hope, action this Trans Day of Visibility
The International Transgender Day of Visibility, recognized globally for more than a decade, is, for many trans Americans, taking on a new weight this year as President Trump and his administration seek to deny their existence.
Orders signed by Trump since his return to office in January aim to bar transgender troops from serving openly in the military, end federal support for gender-affirming care for minors, ban trans girls from school sports, and prohibit federal prisons from housing trans women in female facilities. None of the orders use the word transgender.
Continue reading at The Hill
Senate Republicans urge Trump, allies to stop threatening courts
Republican senators are warning that any efforts to impeach James Boasberg, the judge who ruled against President Trump’s deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members and is now handling a lawsuit related to senior Trump officials’ use of Signal, would be dead on arrival in the Senate.
Senior Senate Republicans also say they will oppose any effort by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to defund federal courts that rule against Trump’s agenda, sending a message that they want to de-escalate Trump’s war against the federal judiciary.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) introduced an article of impeachment against Boasberg earlier this month citing “abuse of power.” It already has 22 co-sponsors.
Johnson separately has floated the idea of simply eliminating courts that rule against Trump.
Continue reading at The Hill
The Great Grovel: How Trump forced elite institutions to bend to his will
The lessons we can take from how easily institutions have folded to Trump’s remarkable revenge campaign.
One after another, a parade of the wealthiest and most elite institutions in American life since last November have found themselves confronted by unprecedented demands from President Donald Trump and his team of retribution-seekers.
One after another, these establishment pillars have met these demands with the same response: capitulation and compliance.
The details are varied but two themes are consistent. The first is an effort — far more organized and disciplined than any precedent from Trump’s first term — to bring institutions who have earned the president’s ire to heel. The second theme is even more surprising: The swiftness with which supposedly powerful and supposedly independent institutions have responded — with something akin to the trembling acquiescence of a child surrendering his lunch money to a big kid on the morning walk to school.
Cumulatively, the cases represent an astonishing new chapter in the history of the American establishment: The Great Grovel.
Continue reading at Politico
News Alert: French far-right leader Le Pen banned from running in 2027 presidential election
Paris CNN —
Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds, in a politically explosive ruling that has shattered her hopes of winning France’s 2027 presidential election.
The Paris court’s president, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said Le Pen’s actions amounted to a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France.” Le Pen left the courtroom before her sentence had been read out in full.
Currently a member of the French parliament, Le Pen was found guilty alongside eight MEPs from her party and 12 assistants. They were accused of using European Parliament money to pay staff who were in fact working for her political party, the National Rally (RN), in France.
The Paris prosecutor had requested a prison sentence of five years, including two suspended; a €300,000 ($325,000) fine and ineligibility to run for office for five years. Prosecutors had requested the ban to stand even if she appeals.
Following her trial in November, current French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on X that it would be “profoundly shocking” if Le Pen were to be barred from elections.
Previous polls showed that Le Pen was on course to replace Emmanuel Macron, who will be unable to seek a third consecutive term in office.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Is Jordan Bardella the new face of Europe?
Slick, disciplined and a hit with young voters, the president of France's National Rally is remaking the far-right party in his image.
The French famously despise their politicians. Upstarts enjoy brief honeymoons before inevitably wilting under the public eye. Just a quarter of French people have confidence in their government or the National Assembly, according to a recent poll.
Then there’s Jordan Bardella. The president of the far-right National Rally has weathered nearly a decade in politics, including five as his party’s most prominent member of the European Parliament, somehow without ever losing his luster.
As his party’s lead candidate for next week’s European Parliament election, the 28-year-old is dominating his rivals in the polls. Nearly a third of French voters plan to cast their ballots for the National Rally, according to POLITICO Poll of Polls — giving a party once treated as too-toxic-to-consider double the support of its nearest foe, French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party.
Polished, composed to a fault, Bardella has become a TikTok sensation, deploying his boy-next-door good looks and a carefully practiced smile to turn out the youth vote. When the French weekly newspaper JDD compiled a list of the 50 most popular figures in France, Bardella was the only politician to make the list.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Note from Rima: Just the animated GIF chosen by Politico EU’s editors is worth clicking on the link above!
Marine Le Pen barred from running for French president
The sentence was delivered after the French far-right icon was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds.
PARIS — Marine Le Pen’s plans to run for the French presidency in 2027 were dealt a likely fatal blow Monday after she was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds and deemed ineligible to stand in elections for the next five years.
Given surging support for her far-right National Rally party, 2027 had widely been seen as a potential breakthrough moment for her populist anti-migration agenda, and several polls put her as a strong contender to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the Elysée Palace.
The decision would appear to open the door for Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president and Le Pen’s heir-apparent, to become the flag-bearer for the far right and run for the presidency.
Le Pen and 24 other codefendants were accused of illicitly siphoning European Parliament funds to pay for party employees who seldom or never dealt with affairs in Brussels or Strasbourg. The court estimated that the accused had over 12 years embezzled more than €4 million, €474,000 of which Le Pen was held personally responsible for as an MEP.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
How Trump Could Snatch a Third Term — Despite the 22nd Amendment
Four ways Trump could stay in power beyond 2028.
Less than two weeks have passed since the last presidential inauguration, but try to imagine the next one.
It’s Jan. 20, 2029. The nation has weathered another tumultuous four years under Donald Trump. Democrats are desperate for the Trump era, at long last, to be over. Republicans have relished it.
Now, imagine this: The chief justice begins to deliver the oath of office. The next president raises his right hand and says:
“I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear…”
It’s the stuff of liberal nightmares and MAGA dreams: a third Trump term.
But it can’t happen, right? After all, the Constitution imposes an explicit two-term limit on the presidency — even if those two terms, like Trump’s, are non-consecutive. “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,” the 22nd Amendment mandates.
Even Trump, notorious for bending norms and breaking laws, couldn’t possibly circumvent that clear constitutional stricture, right?
Don’t be so sure.
Around the globe, when rulers consolidate power through a cult of personality, they do not tend to surrender it willingly, even in the face of constitutional limits. And Trump, of course, already has a track record of trying to remain in office beyond his lawful tenure.
Continue reading at Politico
Mark Burnett: From Trump’s ‘Apprentice’ boss to ‘high-powered’ British fixer
One of the U.S. president’s most trusted lieutenants is doing his bidding in London — and British officials see someone they can do business with.
LONDON — It’s not often that a guest in Downing Street gets a call from the U.S. president. And it’s even rarer that they then hand the phone over to the prime minister for an impromptu chat.
But there one evening in February, Keir Starmer was passed a call from Donald Trump, typical diplomatic protocol dispensed with and the wine that accompanied dinner yet to be drained.
Each and every contact with the U.S. president was being handled with the utmost caution. The prime minister was yet to meet Trump since he took back the White House — and the future of Ukraine and Europe was on the line. So, too, was Britain’s close standing with the United States.
The man who handed Starmer the most high-profile of surprise callers over the teacups and after-dinner chocolates was Mark Burnett, the British-born Hollywood producer whose decision to cast Trump in “The Apprentice” transformed him in the eyes of millions of TV viewers from a serial bankrupt tabloid sensation to a business heavyweight who could plausibly lead the free world.
Trump has rewarded the 64-year-old former paratrooper — with 13 Emmys under his belt — by giving him the unusual role of special envoy to the U.K.
Continue reading at Politico
The Trump admin cut election security funds. Now officials fear future elections may be ‘less secure.’
Election officials and lawmakers are increasingly alarmed by sudden halts to federal election security funding and are left struggling to fill gaps.
The Trump administration’s recent efforts to gut funding and personnel that support state and local election security efforts have left officials deeply concerned about their ability to guarantee physical and cyber security during the voting process.
This swift overhauling of funds means that states could lose access to information on emerging threats and election officials may be left without funding for key security services, which could leave certain states and localities more vulnerable to interference efforts than others.
“There is no difference between red states and blue states when it comes to concerns about election security, and no state can do this on their own,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s programs for securing elections — everything from scanning election system networks for safety to sharing data with the public on potential threats — have been put on hold pending a review by the Department of Homeland Security, with no guarantee they will start up again.
Should support from CISA permanently lapse, states will be forced to come up with funding, and there’s no clear plan for how to do this nationwide, as election administration and processes vary from state to state.
Continue reading at Politico
House Republican scolds Trump's "velvet gloves" approach with Putin
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) on Monday urged President Trump to abandon his "velvet gloves" approach with Russian President Vladimir Putin and re-commit to countering the Kremlin's aggression in Ukraine.
Why it matters: A retired Air Force brigadier general, Bacon has in recent weeks raised alarms over Trump's softening approach to Russia and his public spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid the White House's attempt to broker a ceasefire between the countries.
The White House did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
Driving the news: "In recent weeks, too many of my fellow Republicans — including Mr. Trump — have treated Russia with velvet gloves, shying away from calling out Mr. Putin's flatly illegal war and even blaming Ukraine for starting it," Bacon wrote in a New York Times essay.
Trump last month, in a series of jabs at Zelensky, falsely suggested Ukraine started the bloody war.
It is the U.S.'s "moral obligation" to continue to send aid to embattled Kyiv "until Russia commits to fair and just peace negotiations," Bacon wrote.
He added, "That means including Ukraine in the conversation."
Between the lines: Bacon argued that supporting Ukraine is in America's national interest, saying the "future cost of abandoning Ukraine would vastly outweigh the investment we have made in rejecting Russia's aggression."
Continue reading at Axios
Americans back Trump on immigration, sour on his economy: Poll
Chart: Share of Americans who say they approve of how Trump is handling select issues
Nearly half of American adults approve of President Trump's harsh immigration crackdown, but his economic policies are unpopular, according to a Monday poll from Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Why it matters: Trump's multipronged efforts to curb immigration are the most popular aspect of his second term, but most respondents oppose his tariffs and economic policies.
By the numbers: Respondents view Trump's overall performance more negatively than positively, the poll found.
Nearly half (49%) of those polled approve of Trump's handling of immigration, followed by 46% approval for government spending.
At the low end, 38% support his trade negotiations with other countries.
State of play: Trump has prioritized a harsh approach toward immigration in his first two months in office, following through on a campaign promise.
This month, the administration has been defiant of court orders after deporting roughly 250 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump promises ‘big, big problems’ if Zelenskyy backs out of minerals deal
U.S. president accuses Kyiv of wanting to renegotiate the proposed agreement on Ukraine’s “rare earths.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to “back out” of a minerals agreement with the United States, President Donald Trump said Sunday.
“I think Zelenskyy, by the way, he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, and if he does that, he’s got some problems — big, big problems,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
“We made a deal on rare earths, and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’ He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that, so, if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy on Friday emphasized that Ukraine will not accept a minerals agreement that would jeopardize its accession to the European Union.
“Nothing that could endanger … Ukraine’s accession to the EU can be accepted,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Bondi instructs Justice Department to dismiss Biden-era legal challenge to Georgia election law
The original lawsuit alleged the law would harm Black voter turnout.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday directed the Department of Justice to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a Republican-backed Georgia election law that the DOJ previously alleged intentionally suppressed Black voters.
The lawsuit — filed under former President Joe Biden in June 2021 — alleged the law would disproportionately hinder Black voters’ access to the polls. But Bondi framed the case as politically motivated, saying it misrepresented the law’s effects.
“Contrary to the Biden Administration’s false claims of suppression, Black voter turnout actually increased under SB 202,” Bondi said in a press release for the announcement. “Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us.”
The law was part of a broader GOP effort to tighten voting rules nationwide following President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss, which prompted allegations of voter fraud in U.S. elections among Republicans.
Continue reading at Politico
60 percent disapprove of Trump tariffs: Survey
Nearly 60 percent of Americans disagree with President Trump’s handling of tariffs and trade negotiations two months into his second term, a new poll finds amid Trump’s escalating trade wars with Canada, Mexico and China.
The sentiment surrounding Trump’s economic policies was the lowest among areas surveyed in the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Monday, while Trump received considerably higher marks on his sweeping immigration crackdown.
Just 38 percent of respondents said they approve of Trump’s approach to trade negotiations with other countries, while 40 percent said they agree with his handling of the economy overall. Comparatively, half of respondents in the AP poll said they agree with the president’s immigration policies, which have included mass deportations and other efforts to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration.
Republicans surveyed were more supportive of the president’s policies overall, but even their views on trade have soured. About 30 percent of GOP respondents said they disagree with his trade policies, while just 10 percent disagree with his immigration overhaul.
Continue reading at The Hill
Weekly Education
Trump faces a $1.6T hurdle to dismantle ED
HESITATION ABOUT SBA: Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said the Education Department’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio would “immediately” move to the Small Business Administration.
— But some Republican lawmakers and conservatives who track the issue are hesitant to say the move is official, especially as SBA is slated to lose 43 percent of its staff.
— “A lot of us were thinking it would go to the Treasury. We’re talking about the huge nature of student loans,” House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Walberg told POLITICO. “They have much larger staffing capabilities right now than SBA, but the president may have something specific in mind that I’m not aware of.”
— Trump was expected to propose moving the agency’s portfolio to the Treasury Department — a concept long-discussed on Capitol Hill and suggested in Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy blueprint.
— And at a recent House Rules Committee meeting, Walberg suggested that moving the portfolio to SBA — which likely requires an act of Congress to complete — might not be “permanent.” Some Republican lawmakers have been hesitant to say the move is set in stone.
— Transferring the portfolio to another agency will likely require congressional authorization, but it’s unclear how much support it would have from Congress, said Jason Delisle, who served on the Education Department review group on Trump’s presidential transition team.
— “It doesn’t seem like anything can happen immediately,” Delisle said. “I don’t know how much [the administration] will attempt to do anything on this without Congress, and I’m skeptical Congress would do anything on this.”
— “Both the administration and Congress have a significant role in making these related reforms,” House Education and Workforce Committee spokesperson Audra McGeorge said.
Continue reading at Politico Weekly Education newsletter
Israel to reoccupy 25% of Gaza to press Hamas to release hostages, official says
The Israeli military will expand its ground operation in Gaza to occupy 25% of the enclave over the next two to three weeks, a senior Israeli official said in a briefing with reporters on Monday.
Why it matters: The Israeli official said the ground operation is part of a "maximum pressure" campaign aimed at forcing Hamas to agree to release more hostages. But reoccupation could go beyond Israel's stated objectives of the war and could serve as a pretense for pressing Palestinians to leave Gaza.
The move, which has already begun, is again forcing the displacement of Palestinian civilians who returned to their homes in northern and southern Gaza strip after the ceasefire was announced in January.
If no new hostage-release and ceasefire deal is reached, the ground operation could expand and lead to the reoccupation of most of the enclave and the displacement of most of the 2 million Palestinian civilians living there to a small "humanitarian zone."
Some Israeli officials say reoccupation is a step towards implementing the government's plan for "voluntary departure" of Palestinians from Gaza and is necessary to defeat Hamas.
Others warn it could leave Israel responsible to two million Palestinians in what could turn into an indefinite occupation.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump administration sued over effort to dismantle federal unions
The National Treasury Employees union filed suit against the Trump administration in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday, over the White House order eliminating collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of the federal workforce.
Why it matters: The executive order threatens the very existence of these unions, which use collective bargaining to negotiate for better pay, benefits and fair treatment.
The order would strip protections for civil service employees, who are already under unprecedented threat from Trump's federal workforce purge.
The big picture: These unions have been on the front lines of what is effectively "the resistance" in Trump's second term, filing suit after suit challenging the administration's actions — many successful thus far.
Unions representing public employees have seen a surge in new members this year as the White House has been cutting employees and rescinding benefits like remote work, the New York Times reported.
By the numbers: NTEU represents federal workers across 37 agencies including the IRS, which employed more than 100,000 people in January — though that number has now diminished.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump pardons Jan. 6 defendant whose sentence had been commuted
as Caldwell, a U.S. Navy veteran from Virginia, stood trial in 2022 alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes for seditious conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said he called for civil war ahead of the 2021 Capitol attack and played a key role in the anti-government militia’s planning ahead of the riot.
While Rhodes was convicted of the rare Civil War-era charge, Caldwell was acquitted of all conspiracy counts. He was found guilty of two other felonies, but after the Supreme Court narrowed an obstruction charge used against scores of rioters, one of those two counts was vacated. A federal judge sentenced him to time served, rendering Trump’s clemency toothless.
Caldwell’s only remaining conviction was tampering with evidence for deleting messages he sent after the riot. Throughout the trial, he maintained he never formally joined the Oath Keepers and was not a member.
Continue reading at The Hill
Putin open to contacts after Trump criticism: Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s open to staying in touch with the White House after critical comments from the U.S. president toward Russia’s leader, which have been rare amid his efforts to get peace talks rolling.
Putin criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, suggesting he may not be a legitimate leader, and therefore unable to represent Ukraine in peace talks.
Trump said Sunday he was “very angry” and “pissed off” at Putin’s remarks about Zelensky, and threatened to impose new tariffs on Russian oil exports.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov indicated on Monday the remarks would not derail ongoing discussions related to Ukraine.
“We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing,” Peskov said, per The Associated Press.
Continue reading at The Hill
3 of 4 U.S. soldiers missing in Lithuania found dead, Army says
Three U.S. soldiers who had been at the center of a recovery mission in Lithuania for nearly a week after their armored vehicle sank in a body of water were found dead Monday, the Army said. Efforts were continuing to find the fourth soldier.
The soldiers' identities were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin, the Army said in a statement Monday. The three soldiers found Monday were assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
The soldiers went missing last Tuesday while conducting a mission to repair and tow an immobilized tactical vehicle.
Continue reading at CBS News
Elon Musk slams Marine Le Pen guilty verdict as arch-conservatives unite in fury
Key adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump signals he will make the French far-right standard-bearer a new cause célèbre.
U.S. presidential adviser Elon Musk lambasted the French court verdict that blocked Marine Le Pen from a 2027 presidential run after the far-right figurehead was found guilty of embezzlement.
“When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents,” Musk said Monday. “This is their standard playbook throughout the world.”
Musk, a tech billionaire turned close aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, has backed far-right causes across Europe in recent months, while the White House has become increasingly critical of democracy in Europe.
“This will backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump,” Musk said in another post.
Vice President JD Vance delivering a withering speech in Munich in February in which he attacked European governments for their approach to a series of hot-button cultural issues.
Both Vance and Musk — plus a hard-line online MAGA contingent — have already identified Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu as one cause célèbre victim of so-called lawfare after a top national court blocked him from running in the presidential election following allegations that his 2024 campaign was boosted by a Russian influence operation.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Columbia University student ran from Homeland Security, but still doesn’t know why they came for her
Srinivasan had only just returned to the US, having been away from Columbia since before the war began and generated passionate protests. “We didn’t really know what was going to happen that day,” she said. “The whole perimeter of the neighborhood had been barricaded.” Unable to prove she lived there, she wasn’t allowed to go to her street, so she ended up circling the neighborhood, looking for a way through, she told CNN.
“They kept shifting the barricades, and then I think around 200 cops descended, and they kind of charged at us. It was absolute confusion. People were screaming, falling, people were running out of the way,” she said. Too small to force her way through the melee, she ended up in a large group of people detained by the police.
She said she was held with the crowd for several hours but never fingerprinted or booked for an arrest. She was given two pink-colored summonses by the New York Police Department — one for obstructing pedestrian traffic and the other for failure to disperse — before being released. A lawyer working pro bono for a number of the students got the summonses dismissed even before she had to appear in court. That means there should be no record against her, and as far as Srinivasan was concerned, she could forget the whole thing.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Trump is stronger on immigration and weaker on trade, an AP-NORC poll finds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration remains a strength for President Donald Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About half of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about 4 in 10 have a positive view of the way he’s handling the economy and trade negotiations.
The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that the Republican president’s threats to impose tariffs — which have been accompanied by tumbling consumer confidence and wild stock market swings — might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.
The economy was a drag on then-President Joe Biden, who saw the share of Americans who approved of his handling of the economy fall to a low of roughly 3 in 10 in 2023. Trump drew considerable strength in November from voters who prioritized the economy, but just before he took office in January, an AP-NORC poll found that few Americans had high confidence that he’d make progress on lowering prices in his first year.
Views of Trump’s job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove. Negative opinions are also stronger than positive opinions — about 4 in 10 U.S. adults strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while about 2 in 10 strongly approve.
Continue reading at the AP
Sinema joins law firm as senior adviser
Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) is joining the Hogan Lovells’s global regulatory and intellectual property team as a senior adviser, the lobbying firm announced Monday.
“Senator Sinema’s extensive experience in AI, technology, digital assets, private equity, and cryptocurrency positions her to be a key advocate for clients in the fintech space, and an important contributor to the firm’s broader initiatives around digital transformation, energy evolution and geopolitical risk,” Janice Hogan, a Hogan Lovells practice group leader, said in a statement on the hire.
The firm also hired Sinema’s chief of staff and former Senate adviser Daniel Winkler as a policy adviser.
Sinema was first elected to the House as a Democrat in 2012 but opted not to seek reelection last year after one term in the Senate. She notably dropped her Democratic Party affiliation in 2022 and became one of four independents in the upper chamber.
Continue reading at The Hill
Finland’s president says Trump growing ‘impatient’ with Putin
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a new interview that President Trump seemed to be growing “impatient” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rejected a U.S. ceasefire proposal and added various conditions to a more limited deal.
Stubb, who played golf with the U.S. president on Saturday, was asked whether Trump seemed “angry with the Russian leader” during their time together this weekend.
“Angry is probably the wrong word, but impatient, that’s for sure,” Stubb said in an interview on Sky News published Monday.
Stubb said he discussed with Trump his efforts toward a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump says he expects Musk to eventually return to running companies
President Trump on Monday said he expects Elon Musk will eventually return to running his companies after his work overhauling the federal government.
A reporter noted that Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is a special government employee, which means he can only work for 130 days in his role. When asked if he wants Musk to stay longer, Trump said he will want to return to his companies.
“I think he’s amazing but I also think he’s got a big company to run. At some point he’s going to be going back. He wants to,” Trump said. “I’d keep him as long as I can keep him. He’s a very talented guy.”
“At some point, Elon’s going to want to go back to his company,” he added, arguing that it’s “terrible” how Musk has been treated in the public sphere.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump entertains a match with Obama for 2028
‘I’d like that,’ the president said, even as he downplayed seeking a Constitution-defying third term.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he hasn’t explored running for a third term — but would relish a campaign showdown with former President Barack Obama if he did.
“I’d love that, boy, I’d love that,” Trump said of a hypothetical matchup with Obama, before demurring on whether he’d try to stay in office beyond 2028. “I never looked into it. They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that.”
The remarks represented the second time in as many days that Trump refused to rule out running again, despite constitutional prohibitions barring a president from seeking a third term. Trump on Sunday told NBC News that “there are methods” for circumventing the 22nd Amendment, insisting that he wasn’t joking.
He struck a more circumspect tone on Monday, telling reporters in the Oval Office he is unsure whether it would be possible, even as he claimed that “people are asking me to run.”
But pressed on whether running again would allow Democrats to then put up Obama as their presidential candidate, Trump appeared enthused by the idea.
“That would be a good one,” he said. “I’d like that.”
Continue reading at Politico
Le Pen’s exclusion from French election ‘a very big deal,’ Trump says
It is “concerning” when people are barred from politics, U.S. State Department says.
A court’s decision to ban French far-right leader Marine Le Pen from seeking public office is “a very big deal,” U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday.
“I know all about it and a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted for anything,” Trump said at a White House signing ceremony for an executive order intended to scrutinize certain practices of concert ticket resellers, where he was accompanied by the performer known as Kid Rock.
In a bombshell verdict Monday, Le Pen, who is the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds and barred from running for office for five years. The decision means she will likely be unable to run for French president in 2027.
“She was banned for five years and she was the leading candidate,” Trump said, referring to Le Pen’s status as the front-runner in polling ahead of the French presidential election. “That sounds like this country, that sounds very much like this country,” he added.
Earlier, a United States official, asked about the court decision, said it is “concerning” when people are excluded from politics.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump commutes sentence of convicted fraudster who aided GOP effort to impeach Biden
Jason Galanis was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for a scheme that defrauded a Native American tribe.
President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of a man who aided Republican efforts to impeach former President Joe Biden while serving a prison sentence of over 14 years for defrauding Native Americans and other investors.
A notice of clemency for Jason Galanis was released Monday by the Department of Justice, though the president signed the order Friday without a public announcement.
Galanis is the second associate of Hunter Biden who testified in the Republican impeachment inquiry to receive clemency in recent days from Trump, who has repeatedly used his executive power to reward allies or people he feels were unjustly treated by federal law enforcement.
The White House did not explain the rationale for granting clemency to Galanis, who was sentenced in August 2017 in federal court in New York to 14 years and five months in prison for his role in a bond scheme that defrauded the Oglala Sioux tribe and pension fund investors out of tens of millions of dollars.
“He and his codefendants engaged in market manipulation and the defrauding of shareholders, and they stole a large portion of the proceeds of tribal bonds that were intended to fund economic development projects,” Audrey Strauss, then-acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement after the sentencing. “Now Jason Galanis has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term that reflects the magnitude and pervasiveness of his crimes.”
Continue reading at Politico
Taliban’s former ambassador to Spain is detained by U.S. immigration officials
A federal judge on Monday declined to order the release of Mohammad Rahim Wahidi, who has been held since Saturday.
The Taliban’s former ambassador to Spain remains detained by U.S. immigration officials after a federal judge declined his petition for immediate release on Monday.
The Afghan diplomat, Mohammad Rahim Wahidi, is a lawful permanent U.S. resident living in Sterling, Virginia with his wife, Mary Shakeri-Wahidi, a U.S. citizen, according to a court filing by his lawyer, who expressed fears his client was caught up in a Trump administration crackdown on immigrants deemed to be at odds with U.S. foreign policy. He was detained at Dulles International Airport on Saturday after arriving on a flight from Turkey.
However, Wahidi’s case appears distinct from some of the other cases in which lawful residents and visa holders have been targeted for deportation over their political advocacy.
A petition filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria links Wahidi’s detention to criminal charges his brother-in-law, Farhad Shakeri, faces in a New York federal court accusing him of involvement in a plot to assassinate a U.S.-based journalist critical of Iran’s government. Two men connected to the Russian mob were convicted on March 20 of a second Iran-backed attempt to assassinate that journalist, Masih Alinejad.
Continue reading at Politico
Federal judge declines to release detained former Taliban ambassador
A federal judge on Monday declined to allow the release of Taliban's former ambassador to Spain after he was detained by U.S. immigration officials over the weekend.
The big picture: The Trump administration is charging ahead with high-profile detentions and deportations, including of U.S. tourists and permanent residents, as part of an immigration crackdown.
Driving the news: Mohammad Rahim Wahidi, a lawful permanent resident in the U.S., was detained at Washington's Dulles International Airport on Saturday, according to a a petition for his release filed by his attorneys the next day.
Wahidi's attorneys said he's being detained despite no charges having been filed against him, and alleged his Sixth and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated.
Continue reading at Axios
Judge blocks Trump effort to curtail deportation protections for 600,000 Venezuelans
The Trump administration’s decision-making is a “classic example of racism,” the judge wrote.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from sharply curtailing a special immigration status that protects 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. from deportation and allows them to work legally in this country.
The administration is trying to strip the legal protections, known as “temporary protected status,” from 350,000 Venezuelan nationals on April 7 — a change that could allow the government to deport many of them to a country that is in the throes of a humanitarian crisis.
The administration also wants to accelerate the expiration of the so-called TPS protections for an additional group of 250,000 Venezuelans.
But U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled Monday that Biden-era extensions of those protections must remain in place for now.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to curtail the protections was an unprecedented, legally flawed move that appeared to be rooted in racial discrimination by both Noem and President Donald Trump, Chen wrote in a 78-page decision.“The Secretary made sweeping negative generalizations about Venezuelan TPS beneficiaries,” wrote Chen, a San Francisco-based appointee of President Barack Obama.
“Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism,” he continued.
Continue reading at Politico
Judge blocks Trump administration from firing CIA, ODNI staffers who worked on DEI
A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that the employees be allowed to seek other positions at the agencies.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s bid to fire intelligence agency employees who recently worked on DEI programs.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga issued a preliminary injunction Monday requiring that the affected staffers at the CIA and Office of Director of National Intelligence remain on the payroll while they appeal their terminations and seek reassignment to open positions at their agencies.
Ruling from the bench in his courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, Trenga said CIA Director John Ratcliffe had made clear that the employees, who faced a 5 p.m. deadline Monday to resign or be fired, were being dismissed under a “reduction in force” and that gave the employees certain protections.
“The plaintiffs face termination without any suggestion of wrongdoing or poor performance,” said Trenga, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “Simply requiring the government to follow its regulations is a minimal burden.”
Trenga didn’t rule out allowing the intelligence agencies to fire the staffers eventually, but he said they could not do so until he gets “a report” on the outcome of the internal appeals and on the consideration of the employees for other jobs at their agencies.
Continue reading at Politico
Republicans might skip Senate ruling on controversial accounting tactic
Some GOP senators think parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough might not have to rule on the “current policy baseline” after all.
Senate Republicans have been eagerly anticipating a crucial internal ruling as they look to move forward with their sweeping domestic policy agenda. Now some GOP senators are discussing whether they can skip that step entirely for now.
The discussions, which aren’t finalized, are ramping up as Republicans and Democrats have each been making a preliminary case to Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough about the GOP’s plan to use a novel accounting method to extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. The “current policy baseline” tactic would essentially zero out the cost of a permanent extension, giving Republicans more flexibility to add on new tax cuts or scale back spending offsets.
The next step would typically be for MacDonough to schedule a joint meeting with representatives of both parties before making a formal ruling on whether the accounting tactic passes muster under strict budget rules. Senate Republicans indicated as recently as last week that they wanted that ruling before taking up a budget blueprint, seeking to assure GOP lawmakers who have doubted MacDonough would rule in their favor.
But Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Finance Committee and leadership adviser, said Republicans are discussing whether Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) can “basically say under his authority what the baseline is.” Cornyn added that “my understanding” is that MacDonough would not need to render a formal opinion at all.
“So that may be how this proceeds,” he added, while cautioning that conversations are ongoing.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump taps ex-Rep. Anthony D’Esposito for Labor IG
The New York Republican lost his re-election bid under an ethical cloud.
President Donald Trump tapped a former House member who lost a scandal-tinged reelection bid last year to serve as the Labor Department’s internal watchdog as part of a slate of nominations for top jobs at the agency announced late Monday.
Former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who worked as a New York City Police Department detective before being elected to Congress, was selected to serve as Labor’s inspector general. His name had been floated for several administration posts, including leading the Drug Enforcement Administration, after he lost his House seat to Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) in November.
The IG role became open after Trump fired Larry Turner, along with more than a dozen other inspectors general, days after taking office in January. Inspectors general work to ensure accountability within their agencies, root out wasteful or fraudulent spending and recommend improvements to ensure programs are run properly.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump guts small federal agency funding museums and libraries
The Institute of Museum and Library Services administers grants worth about $160 million in all 50 states.
An agency responsible for funding museums and libraries across the nation is the latest to be shrunk by President Donald Trump’s cuts to the federal government, with its entire staff apparently put on administrative leave Monday.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides grants to “advance, support, and empower” museums, libraries and similar institutions in the U.S. according to its website, was named in an executive order this month along with several other agencies.
Trump’s order directed the Institute of Museum and Library Services “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” shrinking it down to its statutory minimum.
That’s exactly what happened on Monday, when the agency’s roughly 75 staff were informed that they would be placed on paid administrative leave for up to 90 days, effective immediately.
Continue reading at Politico
Lindell teases run for Minnesota governor
“I live here in Minnesota,” Lindell said of his potential opponent. “Everywhere I go, no one wants Tim Walz. They don’t.”
MAGA election conspiracy theorist and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell has eyes on what could be his next gig. And it isn’t selling pillows.
Lindell on Monday teased a run for Minnesota governor, a race that could see him face off against popular incumbent Tim Walz, who is said to be sizing up a third term in the post.
“I live here in Minnesota,” Lindell said of his potential opponent. “Everywhere I go, no one wants Tim Walz. They don’t.”
Lindell rose to prominence in the MAGA world by offering conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being rigged against President Donald Trump with the help of voting machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. His documentary, “Absolute Proof,” alleges without evidence that it was a Chinese cyberattack that gifted the election to Joe Biden and the Democrats. Lindell was subsequently sued by the voting companies.
Continue reading at Politico
White House abruptly fires career Justice Department prosecutors in latest norm-shattering move
On Friday, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles was fired without explanation in an terse email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office shortly after a right-wing activist posted about him on social media, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were concerned about potential retribution.
That followed the White House’s firing last week of a longtime career prosecutor who had been serving as acting U.S. attorney in Memphis, Tennessee.
The terminations marked an escalation of norm-shattering moves that have embroiled the Justice Department in turmoil and have raised alarm over a disregard for civil service protections for career lawyers and the erosion of the agency’s independence from the White House. That one of them was fired on the same day a conservative internet personality called for his removal adds to questions about how outside influences may be helping to shape government personnel decisions.
[…]
The Trump loyalists installed to lead the Justice Department have fired employees who worked on the prosecutions against the president and demoted a slew of career supervisors in an effort to purge the agency of officials seen as insufficiently loyal. The latest firings of the U.S. attorney’s office employees, however, were carried out not by Justice Department leadership, but by the White House itself.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Monday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the White House “in coordination with” the Justice Department has dismissed more than 50 U.S. attorneys and deputies in recent weeks.
Continue reading at the AP
ICE says a University of Minnesota student’s visa was revoked for drunk driving, not protests
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A University of Minnesota graduate student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was taken into custody because of a drunken driving infraction, not for being involved in protests, federal officials said Monday.
“This is not related to student protests,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “The individual in question was arrested after a visa revocation by the State Dept. related to a prior criminal history for a DUI.”
News of the student’s detention — and the lack of an official explanation — sparked student protests and expressions of concern from university and political leaders. Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Monday that he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about it Friday and was still waiting for further details.
Meanwhile, officials at Minnesota State University Mankato said Monday that one of their students had been detained by ICE as well.
President Edward Inch said in a letter to the campus community that the student was detained Friday at an off-campus residence.
Continue reading at the AP
Chinese military launches large-scale drills around Taiwan in warning against island’s independence
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Chinese military announced large-scale drills in the waters around Taiwan on Tuesday, as it warned the self-ruled island against seeking independence.
The joint exercises involve navy, air ground and rocket forces and are meant to be a “severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence,” according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command.
China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de facto independence and democratic status.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday.
It added that it had been tracking the movement of the Shandong aircraft carrier since Saturday and that the carrier group had entered into Taiwan’s identification zone, a self-defined area tracked by the military.
Continue reading at the AP
Louisiana voters reject constitutional amendments championed by Republican governor
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana voters soundly rejected four constitutional amendments championed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry related to crime, courts and finances.
Voters said no to each amendment by margins exceeding 60%, according to preliminary results the secretary of state’s office released after voting concluded Saturday evening.
Landry and his allies had crisscrossed the state in support of an amendment that would have made sweeping changes to the revenue and finance section of the state’s constitution. The amendment received bipartisan support from lawmakers during a November special session on tax reform and was presented as a way to boost teacher salaries, curb excess spending and get rid of special tax breaks in the constitution.
Yet critics from across the political spectrum lambasted the proposed amendment as lacking transparency. The bill exceeded 100 pages but was condensed into a 91-word ballot question for voters.
Continue reading at the AP
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Opinion: The Way Out of DOGE for Democrats | Blog#42
It’s been a month filled with daily outright lies, the usurpation of power by an unelected oligarch of dubious nationality and character with his band of teen hackers (one of whom is the grandson of a Soviet spy), Friday night massacres, blunders, curious rapprochement with Putin, and the flagrant and unabashed blackmail of allies - even ones who have been vulnerable and downtrodden. All this, done in the open, for all to see. I should know.
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Musical interlude
Gino Matteo, gone way too soon, at age 43.