Things Musk (and Trump) Did('nt?)... Day 29 | Blog#42
DOGE, like it never was...
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Yesterday’s post
Who’s in charge of DOGE? Not Elon Musk, White House says
A Trump administration personnel official says Musk has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions.”
Elon Musk is not the leader of DOGE — the mysterious Trump administration operation overseeing an effort to break and remake the federal bureaucracy. In fact, he’s not even technically part of it at all, the White House said in court papers Monday night.
In a three-page declaration, a top White House personnel official revealed that Musk’s title is “senior adviser to the president,” a role in which he has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
That explanation, provided to a federal court by Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House’s Office of Administration, seems to directly contradict the way President Donald Trump and Musk have spoken publicly about the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, widely seen as a Musk-driven project to shrink and dismantle key aspects of the federal government.
The sworn statement instead deepens the questions surrounding DOGE. Fisher confirmed that Musk is not the official administrator of the office, which was established by Trump as an office in the Executive Office of the President. But Fisher did not indicate who the administrator actually is.
Continue reading at Politico
Musk is not a DOGE employee and "has no actual or formal authority," WH says
Elon Musk is not the administrator of DOGE and nor is he an employee of the department that's overseeing massive cuts to the federal workforce and agencies, per a Monday night White House court filing.
Why it matters: President Trump described Musk as a leader of the operation when he announced the department in November, and the billionaire has become the face of the operation.
Driving the news: "Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself," per the filing, signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration at the White House and was filed in D.C. federal court.
Musk is a "Special Government Employee" and in that job he's a senior adviser to the president, said Fisher, per the declaration in the case, which the state of New Mexico brought against Musk and others.
The SpaceX owner "has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself, said Fisher, per the filing, Fisher said.
He said Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to former President Biden, was similarly "influential" in this role.
Continue reading at Axios
As a reminder…
Judge to rule swiftly on effort to block DOGE from assessing data and firing federal employees
A federal judge on Monday questioned the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency but was skeptical of a request to block DOGE from accessing sensitive data and firing employees at half a dozen federal agencies.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan held a hearing on a request from 14 states for a temporary restraining order seeking to curtail Musk’s power in President Donald Trump’s quest to downsize the federal government. Chutkan said she would rule within 24 hours.
Trump appointed Musk to lead DOGE in a push to slash the federal workforce and reduce or end disfavored programs. The administration dismissed probationary employees and Trump in an executive order told agency leaders to plan for “large-scale reductions.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Shaheen, Tillis and Bennet tour Ukraine amid Trump peace push
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) all recently took a trip to Ukraine according to a page on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s website.
The senators finished the visit to Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, on Monday, according to the page. The Colorado, New Hampshire and North Carolina lawmakers also went to Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv that experienced mass atrocities that happened within the beginning weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Our delegation saw firsthand how Ukraine is holding the Russian military at bay at the gates of Europe,” Shaheen, the Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking member, said on the page.
Continue reading at The Hill
Europe’s big guns sideline the EU to get real on Ukraine
Macron’s mini-summit shunned Brussels’ normal obsession with consensus and revealed a new core with the region’s future in their hands.
LONDON — As Europe grapples with its deepest security crisis since 1945, a small group of the continent’s leading powers took a radical step: They dumped the traditional craving for 27-nation consensus at Brussels summits and tried to sort out the mess themselves.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s mini-summit in Paris on Monday brought together the leaders of Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark and even the United Kingdom — which left the European Union five years ago.
But there was no invitation for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Slovakia’s Robert Fico — or others deemed too sympathetic to Moscow to be helpful in an emergency. Smaller EU states such as Latvia and Estonia were also excluded, even though they’re among the bloc’s most hawkish members on dealing with Russia.
This is not the way EU politics is meant to be conducted, but the Paris format lays bare the severity of the geopolitical shock that is currently roiling the continent. The streamlined summitry is a sign that patience is running thin with the EU’s exasperating Council meetings, where countries often fail to agree on proposals, or water them down to near irrelevance.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Europe is on the brink of another financial crisis, German frontrunner Merz warns
It’s “definitely coming,” he tells POLITICO ahead of the Feb. 23 election.
BERLIN — Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next chancellor, told POLITICO he’s “very worried” the European Union is heading for another financial crisis because governments have taken on too much debt.
“We cannot be as careless with our public finances as perhaps some of the others — and even with others, I’m starting to get very worried,” the conservative frontrunner told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook Podcast.
He didn’t name the other countries he was talking about but six in the EU — France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Spain and Portugal — have debt that’s bigger than the size of their yearly economic output.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Hochul weighs "serious step" of removing NYC mayor after deputies resign
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said she's meeting with "key leaders" at her Manhattan office Tuesday to discuss a "path forward" after four top officials in NYC Mayor Eric Adams' administration resigned.
[…]
Zoom in: Hochul noted that "in the 235 years of New York State history," the governor's power to remove an elected had never been used and that "overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly."
However, she said "the alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored."
Continue reading at Axios
Note from Rima: CNN reported during Kaitlan Collins’ show that Hochul is close to making a removal announcement.
Ex-acting FAA Administrator: Now is the time for air traffic control upgrades
Billy Nolen, a former acting Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator, said Monday that now is the time for air traffic control upgrades.
“[One of the things] I’ve testified both before the House and before the Senate, that says the FAA oversees systems of systems and facilities that are between 40 and 60 years old,” Nolen told NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on “The Hill.”
“So, I think it’s an … opportune time for [Elon Musk], for others, to come in and say … first get a clear understanding of what’s in play here, and then how we go about giving America the very best air traffic control system in the world,” he added.
The Trump administration began firing hundreds of employees at the FAA on Friday, just weeks after a deadly crash outside of Washington, D.C., put a spotlight on the agency.
Continue reading at The Hill
Latvia’s president: ‘Never stop panicking’
Keep calm and carry on? Nah — everybody panic, Edgars Rinkēvičs advises.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs has a grim message for the world: Hit the panic button, and keep hitting it.
“Never stop panicking,” the Latvian head of state wrote on X, Facebook and Bluesky — presumably cross-posting to ensure everyone gets the memo.
Rinkēvičs’ anxiety-inducing advice comes amid a precarious moment for Europe’s security architecture and transatlantic relations under United States President Donald Trump.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Judge refuses to block DOGE’s access to student borrower data
A federal judge Monday evening declined to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from gaining access to Education Department data on student borrowers.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that the University of California Student Association (USCA), which brought the lawsuit, had not shown sufficient irreparable harm to receive such immediate relief.
“Because the Court concludes that UCSA has failed to clear that essential hurdle, the Court’s analysis also ends there,” wrote Moss, who was appointed by former President Obama.
“The Court leaves for another day consideration of whether USCA’s has standing to sue and has stated a claim upon which relief may be granted. Those questions are less clear cut and are better answered on a more complete record,” Moss continued.
Continue reading at The Hill
Germany’s Habeck slams ‘tech oligarch’ Musk, calls for a European X
Green chancellor candidate warns that Europe’s reliance on Silicon Valley is a threat to democracy.
BERLIN — Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck tore into Silicon Valley's grip on Europe's digital space Monday night, calling for the EU to break its reliance on "tech oligarchs" like Elon Musk, who he claimed are undermining democracy.
Speaking at a televised Q&A with voters before Sunday's national election, the Greens' chancellor candidate framed Musk’s influence as a direct threat to European values.
“The most powerful man in the world — the U.S. president [Donald Trump] — and the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, have teamed up to eliminate boundaries on power,” Habeck said, referring to Musk’s substantial role in the Trump administration. “That cannot be in our interest.”
Habeck accused Musk and other U.S. tech giants of pushing a hypocritical vision of “free speech” while keeping their business models and algorithms as tightly guarded as “state secrets.”
“They must be regulated,” Habeck said. “If necessary, regulated in a way that aligns with our values.”
But Habeck said European regulation isn’t up to the task.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Thousands rally against Trump in nationwide "Not My Presidents Day" protests
Thousands rallied against President Trump in D.C. and across the U.S. on Monday to protest policies including his administration's efforts to make sweeping cuts to government agencies and its push to deport undocumented immigrants.
The big picture: The Presidents Day protest, driven by the 50501 Movement, a grassroots effort, also featured signs protesting Elon Musk, the billionaire face of DOGE.
Protest organizers said the rallies were against "anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies."
Many protesters turned out in cities impacted by polar-vortex related frigid temperatures.
Continue reading at Axios
Politico Playbook
GOP flinches at Musk cuts
TUNE IN FOR HEALTH NEWS — Mark your calendars for Wednesday’s Playbook First 100 Days breakfast focused on health care policy. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Union Station, the lineup includes Sen. Tammy Baldwin, former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and former CDC Director Robert Redfield. Register here.
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
Republicans balk at Trump’s cuts
What’s next on Senate budget plan
Senate Dems strategize budget pushback
Republicans are increasingly uncomfortable with President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s strategy to slash the federal government.
Sen. Jerry Moran warned the White House that dismantling USAID could hurt Kansans who sell their crops to a government program that fights hunger abroad, our Ben Leonard and Hailey Fuchs report. Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s staff wants answers about how an OMB-directed hiring freeze could affect the National Park Service.
Some GOP lawmakers are privately expressing alarm as they pass around a letter the administration sent to fire USDA microbiologists working to stop the bird flu and other animal diseases, our colleague Meredith Lee Hill reports. Several Republican senators have also voiced concerns about how NIH cuts could hurt universities back home.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who earlier this month praised Musk for “draining the swamp,” on Saturday criticized the potential firing of probationary FBI agents as counterproductive to law enforcement efforts in his state. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski warned that the administration’s civil-servant culling could hurt energy projects and wildfire management in Alaska.
They’re all early signs of the difficult task Republican lawmakers will face over the next four years: figuring out how to stand up for their constituents without appearing disloyal to the president.
And it’s highlighting a significant GOP divide. While some more centrist members are nervous about the pace and scale of the spending cuts, House conservatives want Trump and Musk to slash even more — especially if they don’t get their desired level of spending cuts in the party-line bill to enact the president’s sweeping domestic agenda.
Centrist Republicans could withhold key support if the budget reconciliation measure guts safety-net programs for lower-income Americans. House Republican leaders already think they’ll need to scale back some of those proposed cuts to pass any bill through the Senate.
The Trump administration is offering Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as an alternative vehicle for slashing funding without relying on Congress, three GOP lawmakers tell Meredith — and some hard-liners are signaling they’re open to that approach.
Fresh test: Expect Republican senators to face questions this week about DOGE seeking access to an IRS system that holds detailed financial information about millions of taxpayers.
Continue reading this Politico newsletter
Is Britain really ready to lead a Ukraine peacekeeping force?
Keir Starmer has made a big offer on European security, but the country’s army is hugely stretched.
LONDON — Britain likes to think of itself as the de facto European leader of NATO.
After all, the U.K. has the second-largest defense budget of any NATO country after the U.S. — and widespread experience in military operations over the last few decades. And London is one of just two European nuclear powers, alongside Paris.
So when Keir Starmer on Monday pledged British peacekeeping troops to support any future Ukraine-Russia peace deal, it will have come as no great surprise to the U.K.'s allies — particularly as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes Europe to take on a much greater role in Ukraine’s security.
Yet Starmer’s projection of confidence belies what is recognized in Whitehall and among Britain’s military chiefs: The British Army is a bit of a mess.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
U.S. facing worst flu season since 2009, experts say
The worst flu season in 15 years has left hundreds of thousands of Americans hospitalized while straining physicians' offices and emergency departments.
Why it matters: The virus is causing more severe complications and hitting young children especially hard.
"The two predominant strains that are circulating right now are known to be more severe and have more severe outcomes, especially in high-risk patients," said Carol McLay, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
"It's really clogging up our ERs and our outpatient facilities. And for the first time, we've seen cases of influenza that have surpassed COVID-19 in hospitalizations and deaths, since the COVID pandemic began," she said.
By the numbers: This flu season is classified as a "high-severity" season, with estimates of at least 29 million cases, the most since the 2009-2010 flu season, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Continue reading at Axios
Scoop: Dems prep for Trump legal meltdown
Top Democrats on the Hill suspect President Trump will ignore one of the many major court rulings that'll be coming his way, and are gaming out legal and political responses behind the scenes.
Why it matters: Federal judges are the main obstacle to Trump's efforts to remake the federal government. Trump has said he'll obey court rulings. But he and Elon Musk have questioned whether the judicial branch should be able to stop the executive.
Democrats are meeting with state attorneys general, top lawyers, litigation firms, constitutional experts and advocacy organizations, multiple top lawmakers told Axios.
"Looking into all the implications and all the strategies … is officially a big part of what we're doing," said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a co-chair of the litigation task force leading the effort, confirmed to Axios: "We are certainly having that conversation."
Zoom in: Rep. Max Frost (D-Fla.), a member of Democratic leadership, told Axios that Trump "obviously hasn't learned his lesson from Jan. 6. They don't see that anything went wrong ... and that scares me."
Continue reading at Axios
DOGE's "AI-first" strategy courts disaster
A rush to use artificial intelligence to root out government waste, as apparently planned by Elon Musk's DOGE operation, is likely to trigger chaotic outcomes and surprise disasters, AI experts tell Axios.
Why it matters: AI can help cut costs — but careless deployment risks harming people who need the government's help, amplifying inefficiencies, opening security holes and automating flawed decision-making.
Driving the news: Musk's allies at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and within other government units are reportedly pursuing an "AI-first" strategy to integrate systems across federal agencies, assess contracts and recommend cuts, per the New York Times and other outlets.
What they're saying: No one at DOGE has publicly discussed using AI to replace government employees recently let go in mass layoffs, and the White House did not comment.
The General Services Administration is working on a custom AI chatbot designed to boost productivity and analyze contract and procurement data, per Wired.
Continue reading at Axios
Politico Playbook
The beginning of the end
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team of U.S. negotiators this morning opened historic peace talks with their Russian counterparts as the Ukraine war enters its endgame. Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff are meeting right now with veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and co. in Saudi Arabia to try to hammer out a process to end the war. The talks kicked off at 2 a.m. ET in the grand surrounds of the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh — and as the picture above confirms, there was no room around the Saudis’ table for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy nor any of Europe’s democratically elected leaders.
Quick reminder: Lavrov — Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs chief for the past 20 years — is still sanctioned by the same U.S.government which invited him to these talks. “President Putin and Minister Lavrov are directly responsible for Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful further invasion of Ukraine, a democratic sovereign state,” the Treasury Department said in 2022. “As foreign minister, Lavrov has advanced the false narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor as he has aggressively sought to justify Russia’s actions globally.” Funny how things turn out.
Talks about talks: In theory — though who really knows? — these are no more than talks about talks, creating a framework for a future Russia-Ukraine negotiation which the U.S. wants to mediate. It’s possible they’ll confirm plans for a Trump/Putin summit in the coming weeks. In the last few minutes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin is also prepared to meet with Zelenskyy “if necessary,” per the BBC.
First read this: The FT published a useful primer ahead of today’s summit, noting this is “the first high-level effort to broker an end to Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since its early stages almost three years ago, when negotiations fell apart amid the Russian president’s intractable demands.” So what’s changed since 2022? This time, the FT notes, “the U.S. has appeared to make significant concessions to Putin before negotiations even begin — by dismissing Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO and restore control over land at present occupied by Russia.”
Shouting into the void: Europe’s leaders are deeply upset at their exclusion from the first round of talks, although French President Emmanuel Macron did grab a “friendly” 30-minute phone conversation with President Trump last night to update him on the European position. But in truth, Macron can’t have had a great deal to say — given yesterday’s “crisis summit” of European leaders in Paris broke up with little agreement over how to proceed.
Europe gonna Europe: “After a 3.5-hour huddle at the Elysée presidential palace, the response of leaders to the biggest security calculus shift in decades was underwhelming,” my POLITICO colleagues Nicholas Vinocur and Victor Goury-Laffont report. “Leaders came up with no new joint ideas, squabbled over sending troops to Ukraine, and once again mouthed platitudes on aiding Ukraine and boosting defense spending.” Oh dear.
Inside the room: The big row was over sending in troops to keep the peace. France has committed to doing so, as has the UK — although PM Keir Starmer says he wants U.S. military backup. But Poland said it needs its troops to protect its own 144-mile border with Russia, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said any talk of peacekeepers is “highly inappropriate” at this stage. Scholz then left early to campaign in this Sunday’s German election. Italian PM Giorgia Meloni turned up nearly an hour late.
Why it matters: Europe’s only hope of avoiding a straight Trump/Putin carve-up of the continent is to make itself a relevant force in this negotiation — ideally with military might. “Just sitting at the table without contributing is pointless,” Dutch PM Dick Schoof acknowledged yesterday, per AP. That point was echoed by Trump’s envoy to Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg — himself excluded from the talks in Riyadh — who said it won’t be “feasible to have everybody sitting at the table,” adding: “Our point is keeping it clean and fast.” Lavrov was even more dismissive of European voices, saying: “I don’t know what they have to do at the negotiations table.”
Why Europe wants a seat: The biggest fear for Europe is that in its absence, Trump, having already handed Putin a big win on Ukraine’s NATO membership, will go further and offer up Russia’s biggest strategic aim of all — a return to the Cold War settlement. “Putin wants NATO troops removed from the whole of the former Soviet empire,” writes the FT’s Gideon Rachman. “European officials believe Trump is likely to agree to withdraw U.S. troops from the Baltics and perhaps further west, leaving the EU vulnerable to a Russian army that NATO governments warn is preparing for a larger conflict beyond Ukraine.”
What Trump wants: Scoop of the day goes to the London-based Daily Telegraph, which has bagged of a copy of the post-war peace plan Trump’s team presented to Ukraine last week. And it’s a jaw-dropper — a $500 billion contract granting the U.S. much of the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, [and] other infrastructure.” Essentially, Trump wants massive payback for the military support the U.S. has offered up these past three years. The FT had some of the same details at the weekend, when Zelenskyy rejected the plan out of hand.
Potsdam 2.0: “The terms of the contract … amount to the U.S. economic colonization of Ukraine in legal perpetuity,” the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes. “It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved … with terms normally imposed on aggressor states defeated in war. They are worse than the financial penalties imposed on Germany and Japan after their defeat in 1945 … [and] amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty.” (The Telegraph is one of Britain’s most conservative, Trump-friendly news sites, for what it’s worth.)
Continue reading at Politico.
Note from Rima: This is a newsletter and it contains a LOT of varied news items
Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk’s Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say
FDA reviewers of Elon Musk's Neuralink among those fired
Current and former FDA officials are worried about safety of trials for Neuralink, other medical devices
Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink were fired over the weekend as part of a broader purge of the federal workforce, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The cuts included about 20 people in the FDA’s office of neurological and physical medicine devices, several of whom worked on Neuralink, according to the two sources, who asked not to be identified because of fear of professional repercussions. That division includes reviewers overseeing clinical-trial applications by Neuralink and other companies making so-called brain-computer interface devices, the sources said.
Continue reading at Reuters
Congress closing in on shutdown deadline with no clear plan
Congress is struggling to strike a deal to keep the government funded as a looming deadline to prevent a shutdown next month gets closer.
Lawmakers are less than a month away from a mid-March date to pass legislation to prevent a funding lapse — or risk the first shutdown in years.
“We can’t have precisely the same kind of deal we had before, and we’re trying to work to find some common ground,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said shortly before the House left for a one-week recess this week.
Negotiators on both sides have been working to strike a spending deal for weeks, with hopes of crafting the 12 annual funding bills that could make it out of both chambers with bipartisan support – and across President Trump’s desk for signature.
Continue reading at The Hill
What environmental agency firings could mean for energy, pollution, national parks
The consequences of the Trump administration firing thousands of environmental employees from the federal government could range from worsened responses to pollution to less access at national parks, former federal officials are warning.
Late last week, the administration fired thousands of “probationary” officials — those who had been employed for a relatively short period of time — at various agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Interior Department.
The EPA let nearly 400 staffers go while the Interior Department lost 2,300. That’s about 3 percent of each agency’s workforce.
While the job functions of those let go are not fully clear, former officials say the cuts could hamstring the agencies’ abilities to carry out their missions.
Continue reading at The Hill
DOGE and Musk: The 5 biggest controversies so far
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has caused uproar almost from the moment of its inception.
DOGE is not an official government department, despite its name. Only Congress can create new departments. But DOGE is an effort by President Trump and Musk to radically reform — and reduce — the size of government.
At one time, Musk had suggested it was possible to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. More recently he has indicated that half of that figure would be more realistic.
But even accomplishing $1 trillion in cuts would require massive cuts to government services and to its payroll.
The idea is welcomed by fiscal hawks, MAGA supporters and Musk’s own legion of fans.
But critics say DOGE is going to hurt millions of Americans by axing programs that they need, or the personnel that support them.
Continue reading at The Hill
Groups file lawsuit challenging DOGE access at IRS
A coalition of unions, tax and small business groups sued late Monday to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal taxpayer data at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The groups claim such access violates federal privacy and tax laws, and the case adds to more than a dozen existing lawsuits challenging DOGE’s structure or its examination of confidential systems across the federal government.
“DOGE will also have access to tax records of Mr. Musk’s business competitors, which are held by the IRS. No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,” the new lawsuit states.
Continue reading about several lawsuits at The Hill
The next big immigration test for House Democrats
A GOP-led “sanctuary cities” bill has some advocates on edge.
The close relationship between congressional Democrats and immigration advocacy groups has grown strained since last year’s election as lawmakers shift rightward on border issues.
Now those groups are asserting themselves as Republicans prepare to pursue a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities.
Failing to rally together in opposition to planned GOP legislation, they say, would risk a more profound break between the Democratic Party and its progressive base while threatening resources in communities across the country.
“All the Democrats need to hold together,” said Naureen Shah, deputy director of government affairs at the ACLU, who called the bill “a real test case” and “one that we have to defeat.”
The test isn’t just about immigration policy; it’s also about the suddenly uneasy relationship between liberal advocates and many in the Democratic Party who blame the progressive positions that those activists espouse for President Donald Trump’s resounding victory last year.
Continue reading at Politico
Federal workforce cuts slice through health agencies
Scores of termination letters went out to federal health agency workers over the long weekend as the Trump administration continues to slash the civil service workforce.
Why it matters: The full extent of the cuts won't be known until after the Tuesday night deadline for a mass firing largely carried out by email that's likely to dramatically reshape the government's health workforce. Most of the cuts are focused on probationary employees who've been on the job one or two years.
State of play: Food and Drug Administration staff cuts that began hitting the agency Saturday evening reportedly affected the center that regulates medical devices and digital health.
Employees across the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Administration for Children and Families, the Indian Health Service and other agencies were also fired.
The cuts also hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaunted Epidemic Intelligence Service — a training ground for epidemiologists who are on the front lines of public health responses.
Several federal employee unions sued the administration last week, arguing that the mass firings are illegal. Democracy Forward, a legal services nonprofit, also filed a class-wide lawsuit against the administration on behalf of fired employees.
Inside the room: CMS employees received termination letters reviewed by Axios that cite poor performance as the reason for ending employment, regardless of their latest performance reviews.
Continue reading at Axios
Updated bird flu vaccine for poultry gets license
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave conditional approval for an updated bird flu vaccine to protect poultry against the H5N1 strain that's stricken more than 150 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks.
Why it matters: None of the current vaccines completely match the deadly strain driving the current outbreak, and officials are working to rebuild a national stockpile for use in livestock.
Health officials in Ohio and Wyoming last week reported the third and fourth U.S. cases of people being hospitalized with H5N1. The overwhelming majority of human cases to date have been linked to direct exposure to sick animals.
Driving the news: The USDA gave Zoetis a conditional license for an updated version of a vaccine developed in 2001-02, when there were large avian flu outbreaks in flocks in Southeast Asia.
Continue reading at Axios
Russia: Ukraine has a ‘sovereign right’ to join EU — but not NATO
Moscow “won’t dictate anything” to Kyiv, unless it’s related to military alliances.
Ukraine has a sovereign right to join the European Union, but this “sovereignty” does not apply to military alliances, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
In June 2024, Kyiv and Brussels formally opened accession negotiations for it to join the bloc.
When asked about this prospect on Tuesday, Peskov said: “We are talking about processes of economic integration. Here, of course, no one can dictate anything to another country, and we are not going to do that.”
Next month will mark three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in which it has deliberately targeted critical infrastructure, caused mass civilian casualties and repeatedly struck schools and hospitals.
The apparent support for Kyiv's self-determination comes as the United States and Russia host bilateral talks on Ukraine's future, without Ukrainian representatives at the negotiating table.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Recall UK parliament over Ukraine peacekeepers plan, Lib Dems demand
Party leader Ed Davey says West has days to ‘save Ukraine from a shoddy deal’ — and wants the House of Commons to be involved.
LONDON — The British government is facing a fresh demand to shelve the parliamentary recess after Keir Starmer pitched U.K. involvement in a post-war peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey, who has argued parliament should have a say over the potential ramp-up in British assistance, said Tuesday: “Keir Starmer should bring back Parliament to debate his plans to support Ukraine.”
He added: “We have just days for the U.K. to lead in Europe and save Ukraine from a shoddy deal cooked up by [U.S. President Donald] Trump and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
It comes after Davey joined MPs from the governing Labour Party and opposition Tories to call for more parliamentary scrutiny of Starmer’s plan, which has received a mixed reception in Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued Monday it was “highly inappropriate” to discuss sending peacekeeping troops before a peace plan is agreed, and a French-hosted summit broke up with little consensus on a way forward.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ eroding as they’re weaponized by conservative forces
Attacks against LGBTQ+ people are becoming “the testing ground for laws that erode democracy itself,” NGO’s executive director says.
LGBTQ+ people are increasingly scapegoated by far-right politicians pushing a conservative agenda, leading to growing violence, an NGO report published Tuesday stated.
The crackdown is noticeable in a growing number of European countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe where right-wing forces are gaining power, according to the annual review of the European association of LGBTQ+ NGOs, ILGA-Europe. LGBTQ+ groups are being labeled as agents of foreign influence and had their access to health care, freedoms and visibility restricted to serve the countries’ conservative agenda, the report said.
This is fueling hate crime and normalizing hate speech against this community, the report added, pointing to an “unprecedented surge” in violence against LGBTQ+ people in 2024 across Europe.
In countries like Italy, Belgium or Romania, right-wing conservative groups have been accusing the LGBTQ+ community of “undermining family values and destabilising society” and used discriminatory speeches during election periods. This is then also used justify the introduction of legislation restricting fundamental freedoms and so-called “anti-LGBT propaganda” laws, the report stated.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Note from Rima: Where else have we seen this behavior?
DOGE says it has saved government $55B so far
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a post on its web site says it has found $55 billion in savings through a combination of efforts, including a reduction in the federal workforce.
It said it estimated it had realized $55 billion in savings by canceling or renegotiating leases and contracts, selling assets, cancelling grants, finding regulatory savings, making programmatic changes to the government and reducing the workforce.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is listed as the top saving where DOGE found total contract savings and contract savings as a percentage of the federal government. Musk and his DOGE team quickly moved to dismantle that agency, which provides food to those in need around the world, in his first month in office.
The next two departments listed were the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Other top agencies that DOGE said it had cut contracts from include the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump-Putin meeting not imminent, as first US-Russia talks on Ukraine finish in Riyadh
“Intensive work” is needed before a meeting between the two leaders, says top Kremlin aide after 4.5 hours of negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
Negotiations Tuesday between Russia and the United States led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio have concluded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The bilateral talks lasted about 4.5 hours and, according to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's top aide Yuri Ushakov, the negotiations "went well."
"There was a very serious conversation on all the issues we wanted to raise," Ushakov told journalists after the meeting, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.
Ukraine's future was on the agenda — Russia has been waging a full-scale war there for three years and the U.S. is determined to claim swaths of the country's mineral wealth — though Kyiv was left out of the discussions.
According to Ushakov, the two sides agreed to take into account each other's interests and advance bilateral relations, and Moscow and Washington will work toward setting up a meeting between their leaders.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Can alum of school board culture wars oust Young Kim?
Kim’s swingy Southern California district is getting a closer look from national Democrats.
For years, Democrats have harbored fleeting hopes of toppling GOP Rep. Young Kim from her purplish SoCal seat, only to see her decisively bat away any significant challenge.
But that hasn’t dissuaded Christina Gagnier, an attorney and former member of the Chino Valley school board who is framing her candidacy around a schoolyard theme: standing up to bullies.
“The ultimate bullies are in charge of Washington, and local families are feeling bullied … Our congresswoman is not standing up and saying that anything that’s happening out of D.C. right now is wrong,” Gagnier told Playbook in an exclusive interview launching her campaign. “She’s sitting on the sidelines and basically giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk a green light.”
Continue reading at Politico
Capitol agenda: GOP starts to balk at Musk cuts
Republicans are growing uncomfortable with several aspects of Donald Trump and Elon Musk's government cuts.
Republicans are increasingly uncomfortable with President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s strategy to slash the federal government.
Sen. Jerry Moran warned the White House that dismantling USAID could hurt Kansans who sell their crops to a government program that fights hunger abroad, our Ben Leonard and Hailey Fuchs report. Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson’s staff wants answers about how an OMB-directed hiring freeze could affect the National Park Service.
Some GOP lawmakers are privately expressing alarm as they pass around a letter the administration sent to fire USDA microbiologists working to stop the bird flu and other animal diseases. Several Republican senators have also voiced concerns about how NIH cuts could hurt universities back home.
[…]
They're all early signs of the difficult task Republican lawmakers will face over the next four years: figuring out how to stand up for their constituents without appearing disloyal to the president.
Continue reading at Politico
NOAA, NASA brace for major job cuts
The layoffs of thousands of government workers are likely to expand — possibly as soon as Tuesday — to two key climate science and extreme weather agencies: NOAA and NASA.
Why it matters: These agencies keep tabs on the planet's weather and climate and are considered to be in the top tier of such government departments worldwide.
Zoom in: In keeping with the size of cuts to other government departments, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is thought to be in line for as much as a 10% reduction in staff, which would amount to about 1,000 workers.
NOAA is a small organization, with only about 12,000 employees spread across functions from climate and weather forecasting to oceans research and fisheries regulation.
Deep cuts could imperil some of its work, particularly that of the National Weather Service, which has been short-staffed in recent years.
Continue reading at Axios
Judge green-lights DOGE to continue accessing student data
A federal district judge refused to implement a temporary restraining order barring the Department of Education from giving the Department of Government Efficiency access to student data.
The big picture: The University of California Student Association (USCA) asked the judge to block DOGE staff from accessing "sensitive personal and financial information" as the unofficial agency takes a sledgehammer to the department's contracts.
Linda McMahon, Trump's pick to head the Department of Education, dismissed concerns about DOGE's access to student data during her confirmation hearing last week, characterizing DOGE's work as "an audit."
USCA contended in a complaint filed earlier this month that "[t]he scale of the intrusion into individuals' privacy" amid DOGE's work in the department "is enormous and unprecedented," noting that the personal data of "over 42 million people lives in these systems."
Continue reading at Axios
Education Department slashes grants for training teachers on ‘divisive ideologies’
The Education Department said on Monday it is slashing grants for training teachers because the programs focused on “divisive ideologies.”
The department cut $600 million to these programs it says focused on topics such as critical race theory, diversity, equity and inclusion, social justice, anti-racism, white privilege and white supremacy.
The agency gave examples from grant applications such as a program that required “practitioners to take personal and institutional responsibility for systemic inequities (e.g., racism) and critically reassess their own practices.”
“Building historical and sociopolitical understandings of race and racism to interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students in planning instruction relationship building discipline and assessment,” another program description read, according to the department.
Continue reading at The Hill
New York City Council speaker calls for Adams resignation
New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called on Mayor Eric Adams (D) to resign from his office, becoming the latest local official to raise concerns about his ability to govern after the Justice Department (DOJ) moved to drop corruption charges against him.
The speaker, who has no relation to the embattled official, said in a statement on Monday that the mayor should prioritize the city and its residents in stepping aside. She argued that the resignations of four deputy mayors in protest made clear that Adams lost the trust of his staff, colleagues and constituents.
“This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor,” Speaker Adams said. “These resignations are the culmination of the mayor’s actions and decisions that have led to months of instability and now compromise the City’s sovereignty, threaten chaos, and risk harm to our families.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Politico Weekly Tax
DOGE goes deeper at the IRS
This latest move by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was first reported by The Washington Post, prompted some quick and strong pushback from Democrats.
The DOGE staffer in question, Gavin Kliger, also looks poised to gain access to that system, the Integrated Data Retrieval System, in short order, as CNN reported late on Monday.
To Republicans, this step seemed like standard operating procedure for DOGE and President Donald Trump’s administration. “We are talking about performing a basic anti-fraud review to ensure that people are not engaging in large scale theft of federal taxpayer benefits,” Stephen Miller, a deputy White House chief of staff, told Fox News on Monday.
Others in the GOP pointed out that thousands of federal contractors also have had access to protected IRS systems — the suggestion being that it shouldn’t be that out of bounds for a DOGE staffer to have the same. (One of those contractors, of course, got sentenced to five years in prison last year for leaking the tax returns of Trump, Musk and other wealthy people.)
But for Democrats, the problems with DOGE getting into the IDRS was more than just a political appointee getting unprecedented access to taxpayers’ identification numbers and bank information.
Lily Batchelder, who was a senior Treasury official in the Biden administration, noted on X that anyone first gaining entry to the system would need to tread very carefully, because of the outdated nature of the IRS’ information technology.
Continue reading at Politico Weekly Tax
Note from Rima: Please do click through. There is a LOT more in there.
Politico Weekly Education
Fired Education Department workers speak out
THE PURGE — Terminated employees of the Education Department are sorting through the aftermath of a Trump administration crackdown on federal workers that continues to reverberate across the country and the courts this week.
— Agency workers who spoke with Weekly Education after they were fired alongside thousands of government employees last week are expressing concern about the potential impact on students with disabilities, student loan borrowers and those who live in rural communities. Others plan to appeal their terminations.
— “It’s extremely stressful. There’s a lot of fear. People are afraid to talk about how they’re feeling because they’re afraid of being targeted,” said Chelsea Milburn, a disabled Navy veteran who was terminated from her job in the department’s communications office. “I think it’s pretty widespread in my own agency, and others as well, that we feel like we’re being attacked.”
— Employees of the department’s special education branch and its offices for civil rights, federal student aid and legal department were hit by last week’s firings, according to people who relayed details and documents that substantiated the terminations to POLITICO.
— Like other agencies, the terminations at the Education Department appeared to target civil servants in a probationary status, people familiar with the matter said, though some other staff were also affected.
— The Education Department declined to comment.
— Milburn, a member of the American Federation of Government Employees union that represents workers at the Education Department, plans to appeal her firing.
— Victoria DeLano, another union member and disability rights advocate who recently took a job in the department’s civil rights office, said she was still waiting to receive her formal termination notice after her supervisors told her she had been fired.
— “It’s not a matter of like, ‘Oh, we’re losing a job,’” DeLano said. “It’s a matter of what’s happening to the enforcement of our laws to be able to protect the most vulnerable people.”
— DeLano is most concerned about how a wave of dismissals will affect an office tasked with investigating civil rights violations against students with disabilities.
— “I’m scared for those kids who are in our schools right now who have disabilities and need their rights upheld,” DeLano said. “I’m scared for the teachers who are doing their best and need our expertise to help them because they can’t do any extra, they’re stretched thin.”
Continue reading at Politico Weekly Education
Note from Rima: This newsletter has much more in it. Please do click through.
Politico Weekly Trade
Auto industry braces for Trump tariff onslaught
— President Donald Trump’s tariffs would wallop automotive production across North America, industry representatives tell Morning Trade.
— The European Union’s top trade negotiator is in Washington as the trading bloc braces for a looming trade war — while Mexico plans meetings with senior officials.
— The State Department has axed the Biden administration’s signature Latin American strategy in favor of a revised program launched under the first Trump administration.
Driving the day
AUTOMAKERS ANXIOUS: Trump ramped up his trade threats on Friday, vowing to slap tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of auto imports as soon as April 2 — a move that could upend supply chains, drive up costs, and wallop an already fragile industry.
“Maybe around April 2,” Trump said during an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office when asked about new tariffs on automotives, a date confirmed by an adviser.
That threat is only the latest in a steady drumbeat of trade curbs Trump has announced in recent days and weeks that would pile particular pain on the highly-integrated North American automotive sector.
That includes 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, a flat 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico planned for next month, and reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners.
The mounting uncertainty is already forcing automotive companies to mull price increases, shifting manufacturing away from the United States and delaying investment in new facilities, automotive insiders tell Morning Trade. The industry’s shrinking profit margins also means that any additional costs — whether from supply chain disruptions or rising material prices — could significantly hinder production, potentially bringing it to a screeching halt.
“Whether it’s auto tariffs that he comes up with on the fly or a general tariff, the net result is closures of plants all over the U.S. at the same time as Canada and Mexico,” Flavio Volpe, the president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, which controls about 90 percent of independent parts production in Canada, told Morning Trade.
Last year, imports from Mexico and Canada made up around 20 percent of car sales in the United States. But new tariffs could also hit U.S. industry hard: Even many automotives assembled domestically still use Canadian or Mexican-sourced components, and could face tariffs at multiple stages of production.
Continue reading at Politico Weekly Trade
Note from Rima: Like the other two newsletters above, there is a lot more.
Politico Pulse
HHS’ workforce purge continues
TURMOIL AT HHS — The past weekend brought a chaotic purge of the federal workforce across the nation’s health agencies, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn, Megan Messerly and David Lim report.
The Trump administration’s mass firings hit staffers at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the office responsible for emergency preparedness and response, several people with knowledge of the firings told POLITICO.
The cuts were part of the larger culling of about 3,600 probationary employees across HHS that began earlier last week — primarily among staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
People inside the agencies countered the Trump administration’s characterization of the firings.
The White House defended the layoffs — imposed by billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency — as methodical decisions meant to spare HHS’ core functions.
But people with knowledge of the firings told POLITICO the deep cuts over the weekend sometimes seemed indiscriminate — with even some Trump political appointees unaware which of their employees were being fired or why.
The employees impacted by the cuts included those working on Medicare and Medicaid initiatives aimed at improving care for beneficiaries at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and the CMS office that oversees Obamacare. At the FDA, cuts included officials in divisions that regulate prescription drugs and medical devices and some staff who review medical device products, three of the people with knowledge of the firings said
HHS’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response was also hit, prompting sharp criticism from public health experts who warned it would damage the government’s frontline response to threats like bird flu. Some of the CDC’s public health fellows received termination notices this weekend, including fellows at the Laboratory Leadership Service, who conduct public health research, according to a former HHS official.
“On day one, the new HHS secretary is gutting the agencies that would be necessary to make America healthy again,” said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a Yale health professor who chairs the FDA task force of the nonprofit Doctors for America, referring to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed.
Meanwhile, eight former heads of the nation’s health agencies circulated a statement on Sunday evening that condemned the Trump administration’s firings, saying the “health and well-being of families and communities across the country will suffer as a result” of the cuts.
Key context: The firings came soon after Trump officials told POLITICO and other outlets that they were careful to exempt employees in core areas, like those working on Medicare and Medicaid and emergency preparedness. An administration official on Sunday insisted that the weekend firings did not contradict those principles.
But health staffers warned that the cuts would affect those key areas and that some ran counter to Kennedy’s priorities — raising questions about whether the DOGE officials understood what some employees did before deciding to fire them.
Continue reading at Politico Weekly Pulse
There is a lot more in this newsletter. Please click through
Trump Cuts Target CDC Training; Bird Flu Admissions Rise; Ozempic Theft Spree
— Health news and commentary gathered by MedPage Today staff
President Donald Trump's plan to shrink the size of the federal work force targeted CDC training and other programsopens in a new tab or window for the next generation of laboratory scientists and public health leaders. (New York Times)
The mass firings across HHS affected FDA and CMS staffersopens in a new tab or window, including officials working on Medicare and Medicaid initiatives aimed at improving care for beneficiaries and the CMS office that oversees Obamacare. (Politico)
Trump administration firings also hit a key officeopens in a new tab or window handling bird flu response. (Politico)
U.S. bird flu hospitalizations rose to fouropens in a new tab or window after confirmations of inpatients in Wyoming and Ohio. (CBS News)
In West Texas, a measles outbreak has grown to at least 49 casesopens in a new tab or window, up from 24 a few days earlier. (NBC News)
Following weeks of disruption to scientific federal grants, NIH research funding is about $1 billion behindopens in a new tab or window levels of recent years. (New York Times)
Trump ordered that federal funding be withheldopens in a new tab or window from schools and universities requiring COVID vaccines for students. (New York Times)
And as Trump says the federal workforce is too large, here's what to know about its sizeopens in a new tab or window. (CBS News)
Abortions will resume in Missouriopens in a new tab or window after a judge blocked regulations that restricted providers even after voters moved to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution. (AP)
A second federal judge paused Trump's orderopens in a new tab or window against gender-affirming care for youth. (AP)
Continue reading at MedPageToday
Bannon: Musk ‘wants to impose his freak experiments’ on US
Former White House chief adviser turned conservative commentator Steven Bannon blasted billionaire Elon Musk over his efforts to reduce the size of the federal government and gain more power in the U.S.
“Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant,” he said during an interview with the website UnHerd. “He wants to impose his freak experiment and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, tradition or values.”
Bannon, a staunch populist who has used his widely followed “War Room” podcast to rail against the “elites” in society has sharpened his attacks on Musk as he has grown closer to President Trump.
He has told Trump’s supporters Musk is not to be trusted and has argued there is a “fundamental chasm” between the wealthy billionaires who have aligned themselves with the president and his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Continue reading at The Hill
Air Traffic controllers union to analyze FAA firings’ impact on safety
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) is reviewing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its workforce reductions amid concerns about air safety following the deadliest crash in decades last month near Washington, D.C.
In a statement, reported by Bloomberg, NATCA, the union representing aviation safety professionals, said it is “analyzing the effect of the reported federal employee terminations on aviation safety, the national airspace system and our members.”
A late-night email on Friday notified probationary workers that they were fired from the FAA. One air traffic controller said the impacted workers include employees hired for the FAA’s radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance.
Continue reading at The Hill
Judge sets hearing for Adams, DOJ to explain dismissal of charges
The federal judge overseeing New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s (D) criminal case set a Wednesday hearing to discuss the Justice Department’s effort to drop his charges.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho ordered the parties to appear for an in-person hearing in New York City at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday.
Adams, who pleaded not guilty, was due to stand trial in April on charges of bribery, wire fraud and soliciting illegal campaign contributions.
Continue reading at The Hill
Nobel-winning economist warns Trump policies risk causing stagflation
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz flagged major concerns for the economy under President Trump, claiming fluctuating policies put the nation at risk of stagflation.
“It risks the worst of all possible worlds: a kind of stagflation,” Stiglitz, who served as chair of former President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, told The Guardian.
He said shifting tariffs will cause corporations to question where to set up shop and base their factories amid an uncertain future.
“If you’re a corporate in the US or in Europe, do you think you have a global market, or do you have just a European market? Where do you locate your factories?” he asked.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump policies make US ‘scary place to invest’ and risk stagflation, says Stiglitz
Uncertainty created by tariffs and contempt for rule of law will deter investment, says top economist
Donald Trump’s tariff threats have made the US “a scary place to invest” and may unleash stagflation, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said.
“It risks the worst of all possible worlds: a kind of stagflation,” Stiglitz said in an interview with the Guardian.
He argued that despite optimism about the US economy at the turn of the year, the uncertainty created by Trump’s on-off tariff plans and the president’s apparent contempt for the rule of law would deter investment.
“If you’re a corporate in the US or in Europe, do you think you have a global market, or do you have just a European market? Where do you locate your factories?” he said.
Continue reading the interview at The Guardian
New York
Cuomo loses attempt to block probe into his $5M pandemic book deal
The loss comes as the former governor takes steps toward a run for New York City mayor.
ALBANY, New York – New York’s top court has upheld the constitutionality of the state’s new ethics commission, delivering a blow to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he considers a run for mayor.
Cuomo had challenged the commission after it launched a probe of his $5 million deal to write a memoir on Covid. He won in two lower courts.
Continue reading at Politico New York
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says it’s time to find his replacement
The Postal Service Board of Governors will search for his successor.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is planning his exit as the leader of the U.S. Postal Service, a closing chapter to his contentious four-plus year tenure at the agency.
In a letter released by the USPS on Tuesday, DeJoy asked the agency’s board of governors to begin the process in identifying his successor.
Continue reading at Politico
Leonard Peltier leaves prison after Biden commuted his sentence in the killing of two FBI agents
SUMTERVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Native American activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, weeks after then-President Joe Biden angered law enforcement officials by commuting his life sentence in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.
For nearly half a century, Peltier’s imprisonment has symbolized systemic injustice for Native Americans across the country who believe in his innocence. The decision to release the 80-year-old to home confinement was celebrated by supporters.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
The 14 percent of federal award money in Trump’s crosshairs
Five charts explain what we know about Trump’s proposed spending freeze
President Donald Trump’s attempts to slash federal spending have provoked a fiscal melee across the government — and mass confusion about what is happening with hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for road construction, farming assistance, health clinics, medical research and more.
The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget ordered a temporary pause on grant and loan spending to ensure every dollar out the door aligns with the current administration’s policy priorities — regardless of priorities that Congress embedded in existing law. The freeze triggered an ongoing court battle over the president’s authority to impound congressionally appropriated funds.
But while those fights play out, statements and documents from the White House, agencies and court filings have provided a clearer picture of the programs most at risk from Trump’s efforts to freeze the money and impose his will on the spending process.
Continue reading at Politico
Top House Democratic super PAC targeting Republicans over proposed Medicaid cuts
A top House Democratic super PAC is targeting Republicans over their proposed cuts to Medicaid.
In a release Tuesday, House Majority PAC said lower chamber Republicans have gone “full Matt Bevin” and are planning to make cuts to Medicaid to fund Elon Musk “and other billionaires” through tax breaks.
Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) lost in 2019 to now-Gov. Andy Beshear (D). Bevin pushed for Medicaid work requirements and ending Medicaid expansion without the work requirements.
House Republicans looking to offset the cost of legislation to move Trump’s agenda are considering Medicaid cuts as one of their main ways to pay for their bill, which is expected to include an extension of Trump’s tax cuts from 2017 as well as additional costly tax breaks, including ending taxes on tips.
Continue reading at The Hill
Head of DOJ’s criminal division in Washington abruptly resigns
Denise Cheung’s departure comes as Trump seeks to elevate the office’s temporary leader, interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, to the post permanently.
The head of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington — one of the Justice Department’s most powerful prosecuting offices — abruptly resigned Tuesday for reasons that remain unclear.
Denise Cheung, who has worked in the office since 2000, informed colleagues of her departure in an email sent Tuesday morning.
“I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, and I have executed this duty faithfully during my tenure, which has spanned through numerous Administrations,” Cheung wrote to colleagues, urging them to “fulfill your commitment to pursuing Justice without fear or prejudice.”
Cheung’s departure, first reported by CNN, comes as President Donald Trump seeks to elevate the office’s temporary leader — interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin — to the post permanently. Martin, a leader of the pro-Trump 2020 “Stop the Steal” efforts, who has advocated for Jan. 6 defendants and espoused conspiracy theories about the violent attack on the Capitol, oversaw the dismissal of hundreds of Jan. 6 cases in Trump’s first weeks in office. He has also publicly revealed investigations he says the office is undertaking, a break from Justice Department policies about commenting on ongoing probes.
Continue reading at Politico
Senior DOJ prosecutor quit after being told to investigate Biden climate spending, sources say
CNN —
The top criminal prosecutor in the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office, Denise Cheung, resigned Tuesday after declining a request from her Trump-appointed superiors to open a grand jury investigation that she viewed as premature, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The direction originated from Emil Bove, the department’s acting deputy attorney general, to Ed Martin, whom President Donald Trump has nominated to be the permanent DC US Attorney.
Cheung, a long-time DOJ employee, had been asked to shepherd an investigation into an Environmental Protection Agency funding decision during the Biden administration.
She refused the order and resigned, in part because she believed there wasn’t sufficient evidence to take that step at the time, as well as seeking to protect lower-level prosecutors from the work, source said.
Continue reading at CNN
CIA flying covert drone missions into Mexico to spy on drug cartels
The CIA under President Donald Trump has been covertly flying MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels, current and former officials familiar with the matter told CNN, part of Trump’s dramatic reorientation of national security assets to the US southern border.
The missions, which have not been previously reported, come as the Trump administration moves to treat transnational drug cartels as terrorist organizations— a designation it has yet to officially make.
The MQ-9 drones used for the missions are not currently armed. But they can be equipped with payloads to carry out precision strikes. The US regularly uses them to target suspected terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Somalia.
Some current and former officials say designating cartels as terrorist groups could potentially lay the groundwork for direct US strikes against the cartels and their drug labs in Mexico.
Continue reading at CNN
1. Trump triggers Europe economic worries, defense problems
Europe faces two great crises — in the economic and security spheres — that are, ultimately, two sides of the same coin.
Why it matters: Europe has experienced subpar economic growth for a generation, and has underinvested in its own defense. Both problems are coming to a head, with the Trump administration's hostility as the catalyst.
After decades of underinvestment and sluggish productivity, Europe faces receding U.S. security commitments, new tariffs on its exports, and a regulatory environment that puts domestic companies in a regulatory straightjacket.
European elites are increasingly acknowledging that a lack of competitive fire, in both the economic and national security arenas, has resulted in overdependence both on U.S. companies to drive innovation and the U.S. government to defend Europe from Russia.
The intrigue: In a high-profile speech in Munich, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described a new world — one in which there is a heightened focus on geopolitical conflict and economic security.
Continue reading at Axios Macro newsletter
2. The U.S.-Europe breakup
A breakdown in the relationship between Europe and the United States, which has moved with breathtaking speed, is accelerating the recognition of long-developing economic problems.
Catch up quick: U.S. officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio — are in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to meet with Russian officials about the future of Ukraine. These are the first such talks since Russia's 2022 invasion.
Absent from the talks over the continent's future are Ukrainian and European leaders, the latest blow in a recent series of events that dented U.S.-EU relations.
President Trump has long claimed that the U.S. carried too much of the NATO burden in relation to EU countries. Last week, the administration all but said EU countries should not count on America for security.
Between the lines: In recent months, Europe's economic powerhouses have been in the midst of political chaos over budget disputes that, at least in one case, spooked the bond market.
Germany, its largest economy, will hold an election in the coming days after different visions of how to ignite growth led to a government collapse.
It is symbolic of Europe's already dismal economic reality — aging populations that will lead to a shortfall of workers, for instance — that now needs to adjust to higher defense spending demands.
Continue reading at Axios Macro newsletter
NY Democrats demand RFK Jr. restore cuts to 9/11 survivor program
New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a Monday letter to newly minted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to reverse recent cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that impact a program for 9/11 first responders.
“To say funding for 9/11 first responders is government waste is outrageous and insulting. These brutal cuts mean layoffs for staff who have dedicated their careers to caring for our 9/11 survivors. It means delayed care for our sick first responders,” Schumer said in a Tuesday statement about the reported cut to the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP).
The program provides screenings, research and medications to more than 100,000 survivors diagnosed with conditions related to their service on 9/11 at no cost.
Continue reading at The Hill
Meanwhile…
‘Nothing … off limits’: Kennedy lays out plan for HHS
His first remarks to the department since being confirmed comes as Washington reels from mass firings and funding cuts.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. implored federal health agency workers on Tuesday to “let go” of preconceived notions of him and start from “square one,” but he also promised that “nothing is going to be off limits” in his pursuit to reduce chronic disease.
“Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formerly taboo or insufficiently scrutinized,” Kennedy told HHS staff in his first address to the department he now leads. “I’m willing to subject them all to the scrutiny of unbiased science.”
Kennedy’s comments — his first extended remarks since being confirmed last week — come as Washington reels from firings and funding cuts pursued by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. Among the agencies Musk has targeted are those at HHS, leaving career officials and lawmakers worried about the impact on public health.
Kennedy made no mention of the dismissals, only hinted toward his previous comments threatening the jobs of federal agency staff resistant to his reforms. “Those who are unwilling to embrace those kinds of ideas can retire,” he said.
He added that he trusts “the idealism of most of the people who work at HHS.”
Continue reading at Politico
New DNC chair: Union workers, labor leaders will be ‘core to my decision-making’
“As Trump wages his war on working families, Democrats will fiercely answer the call to my favorite old union song, ‘Which Side Are You On?’ I’ll tell you what: Democrats are on the side of the worker,” he said. “We will show Americans every day that workers in fact do have more power than any billionaire.”
President Trump’s recent reelection, as well as Republicans’ keeping of the House and regaining of the Senate has rattled Democrats. The party has been hunting for their identity ever since.
Following the election results, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) alleged that the Democratic Party had been mostly ignoring working class priorities, pointing to that as the largest reason as to why it lost a federal governing trifecta.
Martin told The New York Times late last year that he found it “deeply alarming … that for the first time in modern history, the majority of Americans believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor.”
Continue reading at The Hill
A new day for U.S.-Russia relations
TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: The U.S. and Russia took a major step toward softening relations between the frequent adversaries in talks today in Saudi Arabia. In the most detailed negotiations in more than three years, the Trump administration signaled a sea change from the past few years of the West seeking to isolate and punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine.
Three major outcomes: Secretary of State Marco Rubio told AP’s Matthew Lee and Dasha Litvinova that he, Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and other officials agreed to 1) normalize and build back staffing at their respective embassies; 2) work more closely together on diplomatic ties and economic investment; and 3) create formal senior teams for peace talks in the Ukraine war.
It’s the last plank that is most controversial, of course, not least because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t there. National security adviser Mike Waltz and Rubio indicated that the U.S. would consult with Ukraine and European allies but negotiate directly with Russia, WSJ’s Michael Gordon reports, which the continent would surely find unacceptable. But Rubio emphasized that nobody was being excluded. Notably, Waltz also told CNN’s Jennifer Hansler that whether Russia can keep land it has seized in the past three years will “be discussed.”
Rubio and Lavrov cast the conversations as fruitful — “we not only listened, but also heard each other,” said the Kremlin’s man — but just the beginning of a lengthy process. The Trump administration views the rapid steps toward negotiations on Ukraine as an essential path to achieve peace and save lives, as President Donald Trump campaigned on; critics worry that it’ll amount to capitulation to Moscow, or an imperialist substitution for Ukrainian decision-making.
What the talks didn’t produce yet: a Trump-Putin summit. Though both sides are working toward that, no date or details have been ironed out publicly. Rubio also said it was too soon to talk about lifting U.S. sanctions on Lavrov.
It was “a head-spinning reset” of U.S.-Russia ties that had plunged to a nadir of several decades during the war, NYT’s Anton Troianovski and Ismaeel Naar write from Riyadh. And Zelenskyy reacted angrily, postponing his trip to Saudi Arabia until next month. Back in Moscow, Russia erected harder-line demands, saying NATO must go back on a 2008 pledge to admit Ukraine in the future and can’t be involved in peacekeeping efforts, per Reuters’ Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge.
One to watch: “G-7 Allies Weigh Tightening Russian Oil Price Cap to Hurt Moscow,” by Bloomberg’s Donato Paolo Mancini
Continue reading at Politico Playbook PM
EU pushes ‘Buy European’ quotas in major plan to revive industry
A draft of the Clean Industrial Deal obtained by POLITICO reveals EU plans to drive climate-friendly manufacturing.
BRUSSELS — The European Commission is planning to introduce “Made in the EU” quotas and carbon product labels as it tries to revive ailing manufacturers while hitting climate targets.
The proposals are laid out in a draft of the Commission's Clean Industrial Deal, obtained by POLITICO ahead of its Feb. 26 unveiling. The document offers the EU executive’s grand strategy for weaving together the bloc’s efforts to decarbonize and revitalize its heavy industry, setting out the steps it plans to take in the coming years.
The plan lands at a precarious political moment. European manufacturers in sectors such as steel and cement say excessive bureaucracy and high energy costs are leaving them unable to compete with the U.S. and China. Exacerbating the problem, both Washington and Beijing are spending lavishly on their companies, with new President Donald Trump in particular employing a “Buy American” rhetoric.
Now, the EU wants to inject a dose of “Buy European” into its own climate efforts.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Top DC prosecutor resigns as EPA seeks criminal probe of Biden climate funding
The top criminal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Denise Cheung, resigned on Tuesday, following a reported directive to launch an investigation into Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding approved under the Biden administration.
According to media reports, Cheung said the probe was premature in a letter to the interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, whom President Trump nominated to permanently serve in the role just a day prior.
“I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, and I have executed this duty faithfully during my tenure, which has spanned through numerous Administrations,” Cheung, a 25-year Department of Justice (DOJ) staffer, reportedly wrote of her departure.
She encouraged colleagues to “fulfill your commitment to pursuing Justice without fear or prejudice.”
Cheung was ordered by Martin to investigate the Biden administration’s $20 billion funding of eight nonprofit institutions in charge of doling out the cash to projects aimed at mitigating climate change, according to CNN.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump will sign new executive orders while his first joint TV interview with Musk airs in prime time
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday was set to sign new executive orders from his Florida home while his first joint TV interview with adviser Elon Musk airs in prime time.
Trump’s Florida home will also be the setting for an awards program by a conservative group led by Mike Flynn, who briefly served as national security adviser in the Republican president’s first term.
Trump was spending part of Tuesday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The White House had no immediate comment on the executive actions Trump was signing later Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach. In the first weeks of Trump’s second term, he has used executive orders — signed statements about how the president wants the federal government to be managed — to address issues including border security, the environment and transgender rights, among others. The White House said the event will be opened for press coverage, after initially saying it would not be allowed.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Republicans consider cuts and work requirements for Medicaid, jeopardizing care for millions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program.
Millions more Americans signed up for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration, a shift lauded by Democrats as a success.
But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrative tax cuts to corporations and wealthier Americans, now see a big target ripe for trimming. The $880 billion Medicaid program is financed mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states. And states, too, have said they’re having trouble financing years of growth and sicker patients who enrolled in Medicaid.
To whittle down the budget, the GOP-controlled Congress is eyeing work requirements for Medicaid. It’s also considering paying a shrunken, fixed rate to states. All told, over the next decade, Republican lawmakers could try to siphon billions of dollars from the nearly-free health care coverage offered to the poorest Americans.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Democrat says Fox News host Jesse Watters is right about party’s media strategy
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) agreed with Fox News host Jesse Watters, who argued this week the Democratic media messaging machine is no match for its counterpart on the right.
“We are waging a 21st century information warfare campaign against the left,” Watters said on an episode of “The Five” this week. “And they’re using tactics from the 1990s.”
“What you’re seeing on the right is asymmetrical,” Watters continued. “Someone says something on social media, Musk retweets it, Rogan podcasts it, Fox broadcasts it and by the time it reaches everybody, millions of people have seen it.”
Murphy said Watters has a point and shared a clip of the host’s comments with his social media followers on Tuesday.
“This is true,” the senator wrote in a social media post.
Continue reading at The Hill
Grassley on Musk's DOGE cuts: 'Congress can’t do anything except complain'
Chuck Grassley's comments signal Republicans aren't prepared to fight back against DOGE's crusade to slash government spending.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley said Congress is powerless in the face of cuts from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Congress can’t do anything except complain" about the slashing of the federal government at the hands of Musk and his allies, Grassley said during a press call on Tuesday, according to a report from RadioIowa.
The Iowan's comments serve as a stark admission that, despite growing Republican discomfort that Musk's actions are getting the green light from President Donald Trump, there is little the GOP might be able, or willing, to do.
Continue reading at Politico
Missouri bill proposes registry for pregnant women to ‘reduce preventable abortions’
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KTVI) — Legislation introduced in Missouri would create a list of “at risk” pregnant women in the state in order to “reduce the number of preventable abortions.”
House Bill 807, nicknamed the “Save MO Babies Act,” was proposed by Republican state Rep. Phil Amato.
The bill summary states that, if passed, Missouri would create a registry of every expecting mother in the state “who is at risk for seeking an abortion” starting July 1, 2026. The list would be created through the Maternal and Child Services division of the Department of Social Services, but the measure did not specify how the “at risk” would be identified.
Continue reading at The Hill
Russia and US eye joint Arctic energy projects after Saudi talks
The first meeting since a bombshell call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin puts joint hydrocarbons projects back on the agenda — as Ukraine watches from the sidelines.
Russia and the United States discussed possible cooperation on energy projects in the Arctic at a meeting in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, a top Russian negotiator told POLITICO.
Kirill Dmitriev, who heads the state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said the economic conversations had been about broad strokes, but that the two sides had discussed some “specific areas of cooperation.”
“It was more a general discussion — maybe joint projects in the Arctic. We specifically discussed the Arctic,” Dmitriev said by phone as he boarded a flight home after the talks in Riyadh.
The negotiations, which sidelined Ukraine and Europe, have sparked angst and urgency in key European capitals as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin look set to decide on Ukraine’s future without substantial input from Kyiv or its Western allies.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
I took a two-hour break and…
Note from Rima: Are they?
Trump says Zelensky ‘should have never started’ war triggered by Russian invasion
President Trump on Tuesday appeared to blame Ukraine’s leaders for the war triggered by a Russian invasion three years ago, scoffing at comments from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about Kyiv being left out of a meeting between American and Russian officials.
“I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it’s going very well,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago on the heels of a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia.
“But today I heard, ‘Oh, well we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump continued. “You should’ve ended it in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way.”
Trump went on to rail against former President Biden as “so pathetic” before again criticizing Zelensky.
Continue reading at The Hill
Environment newsletter
How fed layoffs may impact environment, parks
How fed layoffs may impact environment, parks
The consequences of firing thousands of environmental employees from the federal government could range from worsened responses to pollution to less access at national parks, former federal officials are warning.
Click to read the newsletter at The Hill
Trump signs executive order asking for recommendations on lowering IVF costs
resident Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to reduce the high cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.
The order directs the Domestic Policy Council to make recommendations “on how to ensure reliable access to IVF,” according to a White House fact sheet. It sets a 90-day deadline for the recommendations to be submitted.
“Fertilization, I’ve been saying that we’re going to do what we have to do. And I think the women — and families, husbands — are very appreciative of it,” Trump said at an event at Mar-a-Lago.
According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the average cost for one cycle of IVF is about $15,000, and many patients require multiple cycles before a successful pregnancy is achieved.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: This is just asking a council to recommend. Nothing quick or concrete is expected
EPA gives West Virginia authority to approve carbon underground storage
Coal and gas-fired power plants and other industrial polluters can capture their emissions of the planet-warming gas rather than release them into the atmosphere.
But the captured carbon dioxide then needs somewhere to go — and is sometimes stored underground.
The EPA on Tuesday made West Virginia the fourth state with the authority to approve such carbon storage wells for themselves rather than through federal approval.
“We here at EPA, respect the talent that’s out there at the states, the understanding of how to do it better and faster, and we want to partner with states all across the entire country,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said during a press conference.
Continue reading at The Hill
Medical oxygen in short supply in many parts of world: Research
An article published this week in The Lancet medical journal found that more than half of the world’s population lacks access to safe and affordable medical oxygen services, and most people outside of high-income countries go without adequate oxygen services for their medical conditions.
As the Lancet Global Health Commission noted in its report on medical oxygen security, about 374 million people need medical oxygen every year, with roughly 9 million people needing long-term oxygen due to chronic illness.
However, there are gaps in coverage in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
“We found that more than 5 billion people—ie, more than 60% of the world’s population—do not have access to safe, quality, and affordable medical oxygen services,” the commission wrote. “In LMICs, only 89 million (30%) of the 299 million people who need oxygen for acute medical or surgical conditions receive adequate oxygen therapy, with the lowest access in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump on Musk’s title: ‘Call him whatever you want’
President Trump on Monday dismissed questions over Elon Musk’s official title after the White House said the tech billionaire is not part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Elon is, to me, a patriot. So, you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot, I mean took at the kind of things,” Trump told reporters, referring to cost-cutting efforts Musk has made.
Musk is an employee of the “White House Office” and serves as senior adviser to the president, according to a court filing from Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration. Fisher said Musk “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
Continue reading at The Hill
The House GOP budget resolution is in trouble
Speaker Mike Johnson and his whip team are making calls this week to save his budget resolution from floundering on the chamber floor.
Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down at least a dozen Republican holdouts on the budget blueprint he wants to put on the House floor in the coming days — and he can only afford to lose one member and still approve the resolution along party lines.
Johnson and his whip team are using the current week-long recess to ramp up engagement with undecided Republicans, including seven members — if not more — who have raised serious concerns about deep cuts to Medicaid in the House GOP budget resolution. Several other members are wary of a move to raise the debt limit as part of the plan.
In private meetings and calls with these members over the last few days, Republican leaders have argued that adopting the budget blueprint is simply the first step toward being able to craft the massive legislative package to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.
Continue reading at Politico
Ways and Means eyeing limits to corporate tax deductions
House Ways and Means Committee members have been considering a cap on state and local tax deductions for companies as a way to lower the costs of a massive tax bill.
The House Ways and Means Committee is looking at limiting corporate state and local tax deductions as one way to offset the costs of a large party-line tax bill, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
The panel, which oversees all tax policy, is considering the limit among other potential offsets for the bill, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to share private deliberations. Companies currently can deduct an unlimited amount of state income, property and sales taxes from their federal tax bill.
The discussions signal that a proposal to limit corporate SALT, as the deduction is called, may have enough support among Republicans to make it into a party-line tax bill. The far-right House Freedom Caucus had previously raised the idea of putting a cap on the deduction to pay for raising the current cap on the amount of state and local taxes that individuals can deduct, but it was unclear how much buy-in the proposal had with the rest of the conference.
Continue reading at Politico
Second crisis Ukraine summit planned for Wednesday
More EU leaders, plus Norway and Canada, are expected to attend, 48 hours after previous talks.
BRUSSELS — European and other world leaders are planning to hold a second emergency summit in Paris on Wednesday as pressure grows to forge a cohesive response to Donald Trump's divisive plan to end the war in Ukraine.
A smaller group of leaders — including those from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark and the United Kingdom — gathered in the French capital on Monday, after being left reeling from United States President Trump's decision to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin and leave them out in the cold.
The latest meeting has not been officially confirmed but is likely to go ahead, two European officials said on Tuesday evening. "For the time being we can’t indicate anything," said a French government spokesperson when asked about the meeting.In addition to Monday's attendees, the EU countries of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Belgium as well as Canada and Norway ― both NATO allies ― are invited to Wednesday's talks, according to Reuters, who first reported the development.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump allies boost imperiled Pentagon pick
“Elbridge Colby Must Be Confirmed,” Vice President JD Vance tweeted Tuesday.
Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s nominee for a key post at the Pentagon, is getting a boost from some of the president’s most vocal allies in an effort to undercut rumored resistance among Republican senators.
Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr., have all publicly backed Colby in recent days, the president’s pick to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy. Concerns regarding his views on Middle East foreign policy from some more interventionist Republicans have clouded his confirmation prospects.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump's FBI pick one step closer to confirmation
Kash Patel is a longtime Trump loyalist expected to run the federal law enforcement agency according to the president's wishes.
Kash Patel, the controversial nominee to lead the FBI, cleared another key procedural hurdle Tuesday.
The Senate voted 48-45 to move forward with Patel’s nomination, setting up his confirmation vote in the coming days to helm the agency for a 10-year term.
Continue reading at Politico
Thune on DOGE’s info access
Asked about Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency getting access to taxpayer information, Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged that there are "concerns when it comes to the privacy of personal information" but that he believes Republicans largely support the ultimate aim of increasing government efficiency.
"I don't think it's unusual that a White House or administration — these are all government records — that they would have access to these type of records," he told reporters.
"At the end of the day, you want to save money and you want to bring greater efficiency ... to a lot of these antiquated ways of doing business within the federal government. And I think most of us support that objective," he added.
Continue reading at Politico
Legal challenges to DOGE's data access hinge on outdated laws
The lawsuits filed against Elon Musk's government tech team hinge on two privacy laws written decades before the modern internet took shape.
Why it matters: How judges interpret those laws will dictate not only the success of these lawsuits in curbing the Department of Government Efficiency's power, but also what data government agencies can collect in the future.
Driving the news: Multiple lawsuits have been filed against DOGE in recent weeks, with some resulting in temporary stays on its data access.
An ongoing legal dispute over DOGE's access to the Treasury Department's payment system has garnered the most attention, with new documents showing a DOGE member had "write" privileges to a sensitive database despite earlier statements from the administration to the contrary.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and a coalition of privacy advocates filed a lawsuit last week to block DOGE's access to the Office of Personnel Management's data and to force the deletion of any previously collected information.
Continue reading at Axios
Shoppers are avoiding certain brands over politics: poll
See the poll at Axios
Scoop: Conservative radio hosts invited to broadcast from Pentagon
The Pentagon's chief spokesperson Sean Parnell has invited radio hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton to broadcast their show from the Pentagon, sources confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has moved quickly to establish new norms within press briefing rooms.
The Defense Department informed NPR, the New York Times, NBC News and Politico that they had to move out of their workspaces at the Correspondents' Corridor in the Pentagon last month. It later added CNN, the Washington Post, The Hill and The War Zone to that list.
Continue reading at Axios
Layoffs hit regulator for auto and pipeline safety
The layoffs seem to be targeting those with less than a year’s tenure.
Workers were laid off last week at the agency responsible for overseeing the safety of automobile manufacturers — including Elon Musk’s Tesla — and at the agency for ensuring pipelines are safe, according to four people with knowledge of the personnel moves.
The layoffs, which seem to be targeting those with less than a year’s tenure, come amid a government-wide effort undertaken by Musk and his cost-cutters, who have barnstormed across agencies looking to ditch spending and reduce the federal workforce.
Over the weekend, reports surfaced that hundreds of people, including technical staff who support air traffic control functions, had been let go at the Federal Aviation Administration. According to those interviewed, granted anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, layoffs also hit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and DOT’s office of the undersecretary.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump levels stunning criticisms against Zelensky after Russia talks
President Trump sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, after U.S. officials met for talks with Russia, from which Ukraine was excluded.
Why it matters: Trump's comments — falsely suggesting Ukraine started the war and that Zelensky is deeply unpopular with his own people — will supercharge fears among Ukraine and U.S. allies that the Trump administration is siding with Moscow ahead of possible peace talks.
They could also increase the tension and suspicion between the Trump administration and the Zelensky government.
Driving the news: Senior U.S. and Russian officials met on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for more than four hours to discuss ending the war in Ukraine and preparing for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Both Russian and U.S. officials who participated in the meeting said publicly it was positive and successful. "The talks were very good," Trump later said from Mar-a-Lago.
Trump said he is "much more confident" about the chances of getting a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine after the meeting in Saudi Arabia and that he thinks he could meet with Putin before the end of February.
Continue reading at Axios
West Wing Playbook
JFK bombshell? Not so fast.
One of President DONALD TRUMP’s first executive orders — declassifying thousands of documents related to the 1963 assassination of former President JOHN F. KENNEDY — has raised a fair amount of excitement among a few very disparate groups of people.
Historians want content. Kennedy devotees want more JFK. And conspiracy theorists, of course, want fuel for more conspiracies.
“That’s a big one, huh?” Trump said as he signed the order last month. “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. Everything will be revealed.”
But one of the men who investigated Kennedy’s assassination 50 years ago insists this move is largely “for show.” Yes, there are secrets to learn about the case that has captivated a nation, he says — but not in what Trump is releasing.
JIM JOHNSTON was one of the three lawyers who looked into the assassination in 1975 on the Senate Intelligence Committee, later writing a book on their investigations. And Johnston says, based on seeing the documents himself, that Trump’s move to declassify won’t yield any new information. The CIA still has discretion of what exactly it can and will release, Johnston says, and the most news-breaking information won’t be in this tranche of declassifications.
West Wing Playbook called up Johnston to discuss Trump’s decision. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What more is there to uncover surrounding Kennedy’s assassination?
A lot. The problem is, the interesting things are not in the files that are subject to Trump’s order.
Elaborate on that.
Currently, almost all the files have already been released. But there are words or sentences on documents that have not been released. And that’s what this is all about: It’s over words. It’s not over documents. Everyone in the public who follows this has access to every document, at least from the CIA, that has been turned over to the National Archives. What concerned me were the documents that were not turned over.
Continue reading at Politico
Veteran speaks out after job at VA terminated in DOGE purge
POLITICO Nightly
The ‘astonishing’ U.S.-Russia meeting
‘INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES’ — Early this morning, delegations from the United States and Russia met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where they discussed the war in Ukraine and the future of the two nations’ relationship more broadly.
The meeting, which was the highest level and most extensive diplomatic negotiation between the two countries since the onset of war in Ukraine over three years ago, represented a stunning shift in U.S. policy towards Russia. The Biden administration’s attempts to isolate and sanction the country gave way to Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a onetime Russia hawk — saying that he would like to explore “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians.”
So far, that includes building back staffing at their respective embassies, finding ways to collaborate on economic investments — including potential energy projects in the Arctic, and creating senior teams for peace talks concerning Ukraine. The change in policy priorities has been so rapid that it hasn’t caught up with the reality that one of the Russian negotiators, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, remains under sanctions from the United States.
As the White House and the Kremlin both project confidence that the meeting went well, it’s clear that discussions today were only the start of bilateral talks between the two sides. In the meantime, America’s NATO allies and Ukraine continue to stew that they were left outside the room. European leaders plan to host a second emergency summit in Paris on Wednesday to strategize on how to respond to Washington’s plans. To get a more comprehensive picture of the situation on the ground — and what’s to come — Nightly turned to Nahal Toosi, POLITICO’s senior foreign affairs correspondent. This conversation has been edited.
What did we learn from the U.S./Russia talks in Riyadh today that we didn’t already know?
To be frank, we learned just how far President Donald Trump is willing to go to make amends with Russia, which includes downplaying or ignoring what Moscow has done to Ukraine over the past three years. It was quite astonishing.
We’ve always known that Trump is sympathetic to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but this session suggested he wants to pursue a host of mercantilist policies — seeing what commercial gains the U.S. can get, especially in the energy sector — even if it means sidelining or dis-advantaging Ukraine and most of Europe.
We know this in part because of what was said and also what was not said. There was almost no condemnation of Russian actions from the Trump side, for example.
How are the results of the talks being received in Russia, Ukraine and NATO more broadly?
Continue reading this newsletter at Politico
US Sen. Jon Ossoff Faces Waning Support Among Georgia Jews, Reelection Chances in Danger: Report
The newspaper noted that a coalition of Jewish organizations subsequently sent a private letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, encouraging the Republican to challenge Ossoff in the 2026 Senate race.
“As a bipartisan group of leaders in the metropolitan Atlanta Jewish community, we humbly ask you to consider running for the United States Senate in 2026,” the letter read.
“Should you decide to run in the 2026 election,” the letter continued, “you would find no better friends, more loyal allies, or stronger supporters than us and our community.”
Last November, Ossoff, along with 19 other senators, joined an unsuccessful effort spearheaded by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to block the transfer of certain heavy-duty arms to Israel.
Ossoff, who is Jewish, accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of behaving with “reckless disregard” for the lives of Palestinian civilians. He slammed the Jewish state for supposedly failing to “provide safe passage for food and essential medical supplies” in Gaza and criticized Israel for engaging in “conduct” that allegedly undermined American interests.
Continue reading at the Algemeiner
Note from Rima: I am not a fan of this publication as it is very conservative. This is a good summary of the facts, however.
National Science Foundation cuts 10 percent of staff
Nearly 170 employees at the National Science Foundation (NSF) who were still on probation were fired by the Trump administration on Tuesday, union officials told The Hill.
The cuts at the agency responsible for funding scientific research hit more than 10 percent of their staff, with 168 fired out of roughly 1,500 career employees.
The move comes after the Office of Personnel Management ordered agencies to fire employees on probation — those hired within the last year or two years, depending on their agency.
Employees were given two hours to clear out their offices and say their goodbyes.
Continue reading at The Hill
Senate kicks off consideration of budget resolution to advance Trump agenda
The Senate GOP on Tuesday officially teed up a vote on its budget resolution for later this week in a bid to enact a portion of President Trump’s agenda.
Senators voted 50-47 to kick off consideration of the budget resolution, which the Senate Budget Committee advanced last week.
The resolution outlines guidelines Republicans would use to craft the first part of their ambitious, two-part plan to pass Trump’s legislative agenda. Republicans are aiming to use a process known as reconciliation, which bypasses the Senate filibuster and the need for Democratic votes.
The first portion would consist of roughly $325 billion to bolster border operations and allow Trump’s deportation plans to be executed, and to boost defense spending and greenlight energy plans. Senate Republicans are planning to use a second reconciliation bill to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Continue reading at The Hill
Bipartisan bill would rename street near Russian envoy’s residence after Navalny
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Tuesday introduced a bill proposing to rename part of the street near the Russian ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C., as “Alexei Navalny Way.”
The bill would honor the late Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, who died almost exactly a year ago in a remote Arctic penal colony at the age of 47.
“Putin has tried to silence anyone in Russia who might dissent from his strategy — anyone who might have the audacity to suggest there should be democracy or freedom in that country,” Durbin said in a statement. “He sent one of his harshest critics — Alexei Navalny — to prison and, tragically, to his death.”
Durbin said he hopes the legislation honors Navalny’s memory and ensures “his efforts for a free Russia will never be forgotten.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Kennedy Library closes abruptly
“The sudden dismissal of federal employees at the JFK Library forced the museum to close today,” a statement from the foundation read.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum closed abruptly Tuesday afternoon amid a flurry of mass firings at federal agencies across the government.
The effort to slash the federal workforce spearheaded by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency hit the Boston-based intuition Thursday afternoon, when the National Archives passed down an order telling leadership to terminate probationary employees, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III said Tuesday evening.
The five employees affected “were the ones that were responsible for greeting visitors, the visitor experience … education, outreach, some of the rental activities and such that are revenue generating,” Kennedy said during an interview on WBZ. “But it also meant that today, for all the visitors that were there, they had to dismiss people inside the library today and close effective immediately and until further notice, because that’s the staff that is responsible for running the day to day operations of the library.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump floats 25 percent tariffs on autos, other goods
Trump also announced that he is planning to impose tariffs of 25 percent or higher on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would likely impose tariffs of around 25 percent on foreign auto imports in his latest bid to reshape the U.S. economic relationship with its trading partners.
“I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters while signing executive orders at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, adding that car plants are being canceled in other countries like Mexico.
Trump on Friday had said new duties on automobiles were coming as soon as April 2, one day after administration officials are due to deliver reports to the president that could form the legal basis for new tariffs on a range of imports.
Keeping up his steady drumbeat of trade threats, Trump also announced that he is planning to impose tariffs of 25 percent or higher on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Continue reading at Politico
USDA fires, then moves to rehire staff working on bird flu response
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that it's working to reverse the firing of agency personnel tasked with the federal response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
The big picture: The bird flu crisis in the U.S. is in a troubling new phase as the outbreak intensifies and the Trump administration maintains a pause on some external federal health agency communications.
Driving the news: "Several job categories, including veterinarians, animal health technicians, and other emergency response personnel have been exempted from the recent personnel actions to continue to support the HPAI response and other animal health priorities," the USDA said in an emailed statement Tuesday evening.
"Although several positions supporting HPAI were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters," the agency continued in the statement first shared with NBC News.
Continue reading at Axios
America's nervous skies: Searches about airplane safety are spiking
Recent high-profile airline accidents have caused a spike in Americans questioning just how safe it is to fly, according to Google Trends data.
Why it matters: Flying remains the safest and most efficient way to travel long distances in the U.S., but the Google data reflects how events in the news can impact the way people feel when they're boarding an aircraft, or considering whether to book a flight.
Driving the news: Two incidents in particular seem to be driving the spike in searches.
An American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January, killing 67 people.
On Monday, a Delta plane crashed while landing at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, with 18 injuries and no deaths.
By the numbers: Searches for "Is it safe to fly" have been surging in February.
Continue reading at Axios
Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
Over the past few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly getting benefits — a “HUGE problem,” Musk wrote, as his Department of Government Efficiency digs into federal agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data.
Here are the facts:
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Flu Skyrockets Across California, Claiming 11 Children
Nearly a third of CA lab specimens are coming back positive for influenza, and more than 750 people have died this flu season statewide.
LOS ANGELES, CA — In one of the worst flu seasons of the 21st century, influenza is currently deadlier than COVID-19 in California for the first time since the before the pandemic.
While the spread of COVID-19 is currently low in the Golden State, influenza is still spreading at high levels, and it's hitting young people and seniors particularly hard this year, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Since the start of the flu season, which began in the fall and peaked in early February, 751 people have died from the flu in California as of Feb. 8, according to death certificates analyzed by the California Department of Public Health. Among those, flu claimed the lives of 563 people 64 or older and 11 people 18 or younger, including several teens.
In many cases, people are being hospitalized due to severe complications triggered by the illness.
Continue reading at Patch.com
Senate Republicans open to DOGE access to IRS, but urge guardrails
Senate Republicans on Tuesday said they are open to the idea of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) accessing the IRS’s sensitive taxpayer information, as long as there are guardrails in place.
Reports emerged over the weekend that a member of Musk’s team at DOGE was attempting to access that information — which includes Social Security numbers, tax returns and banking information — as his team trains their government-cutting focus on another entity.
But Senate Republicans on Tuesday said that while some of them have concerns, the push to streamline and scrutinize an agency the GOP has been critical of is worth it.
“How many employees are there at the IRS?” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said, pointing to the hiring of thousands of hires via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Continue reading at The Hill
Catholic bishops sue over freeze in refugee resettlement funding
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Tuesday sued to challenge the Trump administration’s moves to block funding for refugee resettlement programs.
Immigration groups have already sued the administration for suspending new refugee admissions, but the new lawsuit seeks to stop the State Department from freezing funding for local organizations that partner with the federal government to support refugees once they arrive in the United States.
Continue reading at The Hill
Judge halts firing of intel agency personnel involved with DEI
The order may amount to only a temporary reprieve.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the CIA and the Office of Director of National Intelligence from firing 11 people whose jobs were eliminated to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end federal diversity programs.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga issued an order Tuesday pausing the firings after a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, in response to a lawsuit filed by intelligence officers who said the dismissals violated their constitutional rights and federal law.
Trenga, an appointee of President George W. Bush, issued an administrative stay directing the agencies to keep the employees on administrative leave while barring any effort to cut off their pay or fire them.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump signs order to claim power over independent agencies
The action is likely to face court challenges and test a once-fringe legal theory.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House — an action that would greatly expand his power but is likely to attract significant legal challenges.
It represents Trump’s latest attempt to consolidate power beyond boundaries other presidents have observed and to test the so-called unitary executive theory, which states that the president has the sole authority over the executive branch. And it reflects the influence of Russ Vought, Trump’s budget chief, one of several conservatives in his orbit who have called for axing independent arms of the executive branch.
The theory was long considered fringe, and many mainstream legal scholars still believe it is illegal, given that Congress set the agencies up specifically to act independently, or semi-independently, from the president. These include the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which enact regulations and can impose hefty fines on businesses that violate the rules.
Continue reading at Politico
Sen. Cassidy will vote to confirm Patel as FBI head
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) announced that he will vote to confirm Kash Patel, President Trump’s choice to lead the FBI.
Cassidy, the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said on Tuesday that he talked to “multiple people I respect about Kash Patel this weekend—both for and against.”
“The ones who worked closely with Kash vouched for him. I will vote for his confirmation,” he wrote Tuesday on X.
Continue reading at The Hill
Elon Musk expresses interest in sending out DOGE checks
The proposal calls for sending 20 percent of savings back to taxpayers.
Elon Musk said he will bring to President Donald Trump a proposal to send Americans rebate checks representing a portion of the money they save by slashing the federal government.
On Tuesday, Musk posted on X that he “will check with the president” on Azoria CEO and co-founder James Fishback’s idea to send out “DOGE dividend” checks. The plan calls for returning 20 percent of the savings generated by the Department of Government Efficiency back to taxpayers in the form of direct payments.
“We wanted to help make DOGE real for millions of Americans. They deserve a portion of the savings DOGE will deliver under President Trump’s leadership,” Fishback said.
Fishback, the founder of a self-styled “free thinking” investment firm, recently launched a fund backing companies that reject diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and has been a vocal supporter of Trump and Musk’s agenda.
Continue reading at Politico
Brazil's Bolsonaro charged over alleged coup plot
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was charged Tuesday over an alleged coup plot to overturn his 2022 election loss and accused of being involved in plans to kill his rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The big picture: Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet's office made the allegations in announcing the charges against 34 people — including the 69-year-old populist leader, who's denied any wrongdoing in the case and accused investigators of political persecution.
The charges follow proposed indictments from the Brazilian federal police in November after a two-year investigation into the fallout from the election that Bolsonaro never formally conceded, which saw his supporters storm the presidential palace and other government buildings on Jan. 8, 2023.
Zoom in: Bolsonaro and his co-accused face charges including coup d'état, criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d'état and damage qualified by violence, per a statement from Gonet.
Continue reading at Axios
Scoop: Schumer looks to jam Republicans on Musk and billionaires
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to use this week's budget votes to force Republicans to choose between defending tax cuts for billionaires or defying President Trump and Elon Musk.
"It unifies Democrats from one end to the other. It is simple. It is easy to state. And it's true," Schumer told Axios.
Why it matters: After weeks of getting pummeled, Schumer is clearly relishing the prospect of changing the subject and forcing Republicans to play defense.
Schumer wants to turn the "vote-a-rama" on the Senate GOP's budget bill — expected Thursday or Friday — into a parade of tragic decisions by Trump and Musk — all in service of making the rich even richer.
Look for amendments on Trump's proposed tax cuts, the president's funding and hiring freezes and Musk's deep cuts to federal agencies.
Continue reading on Axios
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Musical Interlude
Gladys Knight, Patti La Belle and Dionne Warwick: Sisters in the Name of Love