Things Trump Did... Day 20 | Blog#42
It may be Sunday for us, but the Trump avalanche goes on.
Please keep a tab open to this post as it gets continuous updates, usually, several times an hour. Newest items appear at the bottom.
Yesterday’s post
It’s Sunday, so I will start with some of the pseudo theology behind some of the oligarchs (and their minions) now in charge.
What is ‘ordo amoris?’ Vice President JD Vance invokes this medieval Catholic concept
Vice President JD Vance recently cited medieval Catholic theology in justifying the immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump.
“Just google ‘ordo amoris,’” he posted Jan. 30 on the social media platform X.
He posted this in reply to criticism over statements he made in a Fox News interview: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” He claimed that the “far left” has inverted that.
Vance posted that the concept is “basic common sense” because one’s moral duties to one’s children outweigh those “to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Related:
J.D. Vance Used to Be an Atheist. What He Believes Now Is Telling.
He’s not an evangelical Christian. He’s a Catholic—of a very specific type.
In 2021, when J.D. Vance was asked at a conference why he had converted to Catholicism just two years earlier, he had a fairly simple answer.
“I really liked that the Catholic Church was just really old,” he said.
This anti-modern worldview is key to understanding Vance. In a party long dominated by anti-intellectual evangelical Christians with a hearty distrust of institutions, Vance stands out among its leaders for having embraced a church with a complex social doctrine built off the work of ancient philosophers. His enthusiasm for a particular and relatively obscure kind of contemporary Catholic political thought shows up in his politics—his longing for Americans to build robust nuclear families, his comments about banning porn, his scorn for childless cat ladies. It’s tempting to see these stances as old ones from the Christian right, familiar to anyone who has followed the evolution of the GOP in the past couple of decades, but Vance’s past comments indicate that they’re motivated by something newer, and more radical, than that.
Continue reading at Slate
Note from Rima: Vance’s Catholicism isn’t unlike actor Mel Gibson’s brand of sectarian catholicism. Other notable ultra conservative Catholics include New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat, who has written negatively about Pope Francis and Rome. Of course, the topic of American conservative Catholicism got pretty good treatment in Conclave, the movie.
The US Is Openly Stockpiling Dirt on All Its Citizens
A newly declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reveals that the federal government is buying troves of data about Americans.
THE UNITED STATES government has been secretly amassing a “large amount” of “sensitive and intimate information” on its own citizens, a group of senior advisers informed Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, more than a year ago.
[…]
“This report reveals what we feared most,” says Sean Vitka, a policy attorney at the nonprofit Demand Progress. “Intelligence agencies are flouting the law and buying information about Americans that Congress and the Supreme Court have made clear the government should not have.”
In the shadow of years of inaction by the US Congress on comprehensive privacy reform, a surveillance state has been quietly growing in the legal system's cracks. Little deference is paid by prosecutors to the purpose or intent behind limits traditionally imposed on domestic surveillance activities. More craven interpretations of aging laws are widely used to ignore them. As the framework guarding what privacy Americans do have grows increasingly frail, opportunities abound to split hairs in court over whether such rights are even enjoyed by our digital counterparts.
“I’ve been warning for years that if using a credit card to buy an American’s personal information voids their Fourth Amendment rights, then traditional checks and balances for government surveillance will crumble,” Ron Wyden, a US senator from Oregon, says.
Continue reading at Wired
Trump might be stuck with Biden’s funding priorities for longer than GOP hoped
As Congress struggles to strike a bipartisan government funding deal, hopes of striking one by a March 14 shutdown deadline are fading. Some lawmakers say a stopgap seems like the most likely path to keeping the government funded, especially as Congress also faces an April 30 deadline to prevent automatic funding cuts.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said this week that the appetite is “growing” for a funding stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution, that runs through September, as lawmakers run months behind in finishing up their funding bills for fiscal year 2025.
Continue reading at The Hill
Jordan defends DOGE, Musk influence under Trump
In an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, Jordan said he’s comfortable with the bold steps Musk has taken but thinks Congress will ultimately get involved “at some point.”
Asked whether Jordan is comfortable with Trump’s team “trying to essentially shutter these agencies without congressional consent,” Jordan noted that conservatives have “long said” they wanted to shutter the Department of Education.
“We have real concerns with all the waste, fraud and abuse that Elon Musk and his team are identifying,” he added. “It’s interesting. You know, no one wants to defend the waste fraud and abuse, so they attack the guy who’s exposing all the waste fraud and ridiculous things we’re spending money on.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Waltz defends USAID funding freeze, Musk influence
President Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz defended the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding freeze and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s influence over the federal government.
Waltz joined NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, where host Kristen Welker asked him about the recent cuts to USAID, as the international aid agency has been essentially shuttered as Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) takes over several departments to make cuts.
Continue reading at The Hill
Noem defends Musk’s access to personal data
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Dana Bash asked Noem about reporting that Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have gained access to FEMA’s sensitive disaster data, including personal information on tens of thousands of people.
“The president has authorized him to have access to that,” Noem told Bash, adding that she’s “absolutely” comfortable with it.
“We’re working with them at the president’s direction to find what we can do to make our department much more efficient,” Noem said, when asked if she personally authorized Musk and his team to have access to the data housed within DHS.
Continue reading at The Hill
Live updates: Musk calls for judge impeachment; Republicans aim to hammer out Trump’s budget bill
Tech billionaire and the anchor of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk is calling for the impeachment of the federal judge who made a decision early Saturday morning that the Treasury Department should block access to anyone “other than civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties” from its payment systems.
Meanwhile, Republicans are looking to hammer out President Trump’s budget bill. Senate Republicans met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago Friday night, while House Republicans huddled with Trump and Vice President Vance on Thursday.
These will most likely be the main talking points on n this week’s Sunday talk shows.
Continue reading at The Hill
Kristi Noem: ‘Get rid of FEMA the way it exists today’
The DHS secretary backed Trump’s proposal to shutter the disaster response agency.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she supports the idea of getting “rid of FEMA” as part of President Donald Trump’s massive overhaul of the federal government.
“I would say, yes, get rid of FEMA the way it exists today,” Noem said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters, like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California, but you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed.”
Continue reading at Politico
‘Democracies don’t last forever,’ Chris Murphy warns
The senator expressed alarm over the chaos that the Trump-Musk team is creating in Washington.
Calling it “a red alert moment,” Sen. Chris Murphy on Sunday warned, “Democracies don’t last forever” in discussing how he believed Elon Musk and President Donald Trump were stealing power from the people in Washington.
Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” the Connecticut Democrat said: “This is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate. The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes. The president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends, he can punish his political enemies. That is the evisceration of democracy.”
Continue reading at Politico
Vought cuts off CFPB funding, saying it’s not necessary to run the agency
“This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” he wrote on X Saturday evening.
Russell Vought, the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is halting the flow of new funding to the agency, the latest threat to the CFPB’s survival.
In a post on X Saturday evening, Vought said the CFPB has more than $700 million in the bank, a figure he described as “excessive in the current fiscal environment.” He said further funding for the agency is not “reasonably necessary” to carry out its duties and that it would “not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding.”
Continue reading at Politico
Trump’s plan for ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza is illegal, says UN investigator
Navi Pillay, head of U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also said she would support a charge of apartheid against Israel at the ICC.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza is illegal under international law and “amounts to ethnic cleansing,” the United Nations’ top investigator on human rights in Palestine told POLITICO.
“Trump is woefully ignorant of international law and the law of occupation. Forcible displacement of an occupied group is an international crime, and amounts to ethnic cleansing,” Navi Pillay, chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told POLITICO in an interview.
“There is no way under the law that Trump could carry out the threat to dislocate Palestinians from their land,” Pillay said.
Continue reading at Politico
Exclusive: Inside Trump's Iran fear
Iran's threat to assassinate Donald Trump during the 2024 campaign was far more serious than publicly known — and led to extraordinary precautions by his team that included using a decoy plane to avert a feared attempt on his life.
Why it matters: My upcoming book, "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power," reveals the depth of U.S. authorities' concerns about an Iranian attack on Trump — and how it impacted him.
Iran clearly is still on Trump's mind: Last week, he said he'd given his team instructions to "obliterate" Iran if its operatives were to kill him.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump talking to Putin to end Ukraine war: ‘I’d better not say’ how much
President Trump says he has had talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, telling The New York Post that the two leaders have spoken and “I better not say” just how many times.
Trump, who during his presidential campaign vowed to end the Russian-Ukraine war quickly, expressed sorrow over the loss of life in the war and compared the young men dying since Russia invaded its neighbor nearly three years ago to his own sons.
“All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, two million of them – and for no reason,” Trump told the Post during an interview the outlet received on Air Force One.
Continue reading on The Hill
Newsom takes friendlier tack with Trump in sign of new political reality
This week Newsom traveled to Washington to lobby Trump for disaster aid following last month’s catastrophic wildfires in Southern California. Newsom’s tone and approach to Trump was notably more conciliatory compared to his past rhetoric toward the president, with the governor dubbing his relationship with Trump as “one of the more interesting relationships in politics” during a CNN interview on Thursday.
The apparent change in approach comes as Newsom finds himself in a different position than years prior, with Trump and Republicans having made inroads in California last November and Democrats facing backlash for their handling of the wildfires last month.
“It probably serves him well politically in the state,” said Rob Stutzman, a California political consultant who was an aide to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). “Except for extreme partisans, I don’t think anyone has much appetite for fire recovery being a political issue.”
Continue reading on The Hill
Democratic senator says they are ready to shut down government over Trump actions
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim (N.J.) said he and his fellow Democrats are ready to shut down the federal government over President Trump’s recent actions.
“I cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness that we’re seeing when it comes to this administration’s actions,” Kim said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And for us to be able to support government funding in that way only for them to turn it around, to dismantle the government. That is not something that should be allowed.”
Continue reading on The Hill
Noem confident in legality of housing migrants at Guantánamo Bay
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she’s confident that steps the government is taking to deport certain migrants from the U.S. mainland to Guantánamo Bay are legal.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Dana Bash acknowledged that Guantánamo Bay has been used in the past to house deported migrants but said she does not believe the prison has housed migrants who were detained on U.S. soil after crossing the border illegally.
Asked if she’s confident she has the legal authority to do so, Noem said, “I am, and the President’s comfortable with that, and his legal scholars are.”
Continue reading on The Hill
White South Africans reject idea they need to flee country for US
“We have to state categorically: We don’t want to move elsewhere,” said Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Groups representing some of South Africa’s white minority responded Saturday to a plan by President Donald Trump to offer them refugee status and resettlement in the United States by saying: thanks, but no thanks.
The plan was detailed in an executive order Trump signed Friday that stopped all aid and financial assistance to South Africa as punishment for what the Trump administration said were “rights violations” by the government against some of its white citizens.
The Trump administration accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and introducing a land expropriation law that enables it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
Continue reading at Politico
Legal Analysis
Trump’s Tariffs Could Squeeze the Supreme Court
They represent another major effort to expand presidential authority.
President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was imposing broad and hefty tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China provoked a predictably swift outcry. But there is one aspect of the move that has not received nearly enough attention.
It’s not really about trade. It’s about power.
Trump levied tariffs during his first term, but this time is different. That’s because on Monday, Trump invoked a law — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — that has never been used to impose tariffs before, let alone tariffs of this breadth and magnitude. (The Mexico and Canada tariffs were quickly put on hold before going into effect, though Trump could always resuscitate them, and he is apparently planning to open up another front in his trade wars by imposing similar tariffs on goods from the European Union. The China tariffs, meanwhile, are still on.)
Scholars of trade law say the move will likely be challenged in court because it arguably exceeds the presidential authority established under the Constitution, though whether this Supreme Court would rule against Trump is far less certain.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
As Trump steamrolls Washington, courts flex their power to slow him down
Numerous federal district judges around the country have blocked major portions of Trump’s early agenda — but Supreme Court showdowns loom.
President Donald Trump’s “shock and awe” assertion of executive power has hit a wall in the courtroom — at least for now.
At least nine federal judges — from Washington, D.C., to Washington state — have halted aspects of Trump’s early-term blitz, from his effort to rewrite the Constitution’s birthright citizenship guarantee to his sweeping effort to freeze federal spending to his plans to break and remake the federal workforce.
That trend reached a crescendo Friday when U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee — blocked a plan by Trump and Elon Musk to put 2,200 USAID employees on leave, part of a rapid-fire effort to dismantle the foreign aid agency. Hours later, a federal judge in New York blocked Musk and his allies from accessing sensitive Treasury records, citing a risk of improper disclosure or hacking. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, was the most sweeping of its kind so far.
Engelmayer’s ruling provoked a fury within Trump’s base, prompting a call by Musk to impeach the judge and others who stand in Trump’s way. Musk also reposted an account suggesting potential defiance of the judge’s order. Meanwhile, Trump allies in Congress stoked the furor further, with Sen. Mike Lee describing it as a “coup” and Sen. Tom Cotton calling the judge an “outlaw.”
Continue reading at Politico
Musk's "move fast, break things" ethos threatens U.S. security
Silicon Valley's speed-over-safety mindset is colliding with Washington's reality that messing with government IT can open the door for China, Russia, and other adversaries to infiltrate critical U.S. systems.
Why it matters: On-the-fly overhauls of government IT systems are putting Americans at risk, lawmakers and former officials tell Axios.
Driving the news: Media reports continue to emerge that suggest the employees on Musk's team are unqualified and can become national security vulnerabilities themselves.
Wired reported that one member has connections to a Telegram-based cyberattack-for-hire service. That same person was also fired from a cybersecurity internship for disclosing company secrets to a competitor, Bloomberg reported Friday.
Continue reading at Axios
ICE fears prompt foreign workers and students to keep visas close
On TikTok, on Instagram and in family group chats, foreign students and workers — and even U.S. citizens — are advising each other to keep their passports and visas close when out and about.
Why it matters: Foreign-born Americans and immigrants say they're afraid of getting swept up in aggressive immigration raids, even though they're here legally.
“My phone’s been ringing off the hook the last two weeks with questions of ‘what do we do if ICE comes knocking on my door?’” said L.J. D'Arrigo, who leads the immigration practice at Harris Beach Murtha, a law firm in Albany N.Y.
“There’s a lot of widespread hysteria among those legally in the U.S., including U.S. citizens, green card holders and foreign nationals on temporary visas,” D'Arrigo said.
Driving the news: President Trump campaigned on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and ICE arrests have ramped up since he's taken office.
Continue reading at Axios
From economist, Jared Bernstein:
“There is an inherent contradiction is the current flurry of policy actions by the new administration. It is not particularly nuanced or hard to see, and it has the potential to gather momentum in coming weeks and months.
It is the increasingly obvious gap between the actions of the Trump/Musk administration and the living standards of most Americans, many of whom brought them to power. It is far too early to bring dispositive evidence to bear on this claim, but hear me out as I take you through a few things I’ve seen in recent days, all of which underscore this contradiction.”
Republican Senator, Brennan tangle over US foreign funding
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Ten.) and CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan tangled over the United States’ foreign funding on Sunday, as the Trump administration slashes the country’s spending.
Brennan pressed Hagerty over President Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as thousands of federal workers are out of work and aid for various international communities is halted.
“I think there’s a tremendous appetite to do it,” Hagerty said about dismantling the agency. “Because what we want to see is the alignment of our programs with America’s national security interests. USAID has been out of control.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Rep. Hern defends delay on House budget proposal
In an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” with Chris Stirewalt, Hern said Johnson’s task is especially difficult, noting the GOP can lose virtually no votes in the House, but said he is optimistic that the conference will be able to move forward with a resolution this week.
“When you have the smallest margin in the last 150 years in Congress, we can’t lose a single vote. You think about that for a second, when you have, you know, the people that represent all corners of the country, Speaker Johnson has been working very hard through the weekend to get us where we can notice a budget markup this week so we can move forward with one big, beautiful bill, as President Trump would like,” Hern told Stirewalt.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump official orders consumer protection agency to stop work
Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama pushed to include it in the 2010 financial reform legislation that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
The email also ordered the bureau to “cease all supervision and examination activity.”
Continue reading at the Associated Press
How Republican skeptics in the Senate got to ‘yes’ on RFK Jr. and Gabbard
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican skepticism in the Senate of President Donald Trump’sCabinet nominees has been worn down, putting his unconventional choices for some of the most powerful positions in the federal government on the verge of confirmation.
Floor votes are expected this week on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in line to be the nation’s health secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard, the choice for director of national intelligence. Both are from outside traditional Republican circles and espoused views in the confirmation process that alarmed GOP senators at times. Still, their nominations have advanced to the full Senate after crucial committee votes.
One by one, Republicans have acquiesced to Trump’s picks, even those whose personal history, lack of experience and unorthodox views would have once made them hardly imaginable for a Cabinet.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
House Republicans mull taxes on scholarships and changes to student loan programs
As Republicans in Congress look for ways to slash spending, some legislators are floating new taxes on college scholarships, an end to student loan repayment plans and a big hike in taxes on university endowments.
The ideas affecting higher education are among many in circulation among House committees that are exploring ways to cover the cost of extending and expanding tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s first term.
The recommendations are still evolving, and it’s unclear how close any of them will get to being implemented. Regardless, advocates across higher education say they are alarmed to see such proposals gain traction at all with Republicans.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
A couple of days old, but still worth a watch
Jim Jordan backs Elon Musk’s authority to cut federal government
“It’s something that people evaluated and voted for on November 5,” the Ohio Republican said.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) vehemently defended Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s campaign to slash federal spending — and declined to endorse the idea that Musk was stepping on Congress’ power of the purse.
“It’s interesting,” Jordan said on CNN’s “Inside Politics” on Sunday. “No one wants to defend the waste, fraud and abuse, so they attack the guy who’s exposing all the waste, fraud and ridiculous things we’re spending money on.”
Continue reading at Politico
Amid ‘lawlessness,’ GOP can’t count on Democratic votes, Andy Kim says
“If we have to take steps to be able to hold them accountable — we use the leverage that we have to force it.”
New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim alluded to a potential government shutdown as a Democratic reaction to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s recent actions shaking up Washington.
While Republicans hold the majorities in the House and Senate, they will still likely need to rely on Democrat support to pass a spending bill by March 14 and avoid a government shutdown.
“In a few weeks, the Republicans are going to try to figure out how they move forward, and they have, for the last two years, needed Democratic votes for every single continuing resolution, and they should not count on that this time,” Kim (D-N.J.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Continue reading at Politico
Elon Musk dodges DOGE scrutiny while expanding his power in Washington
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk made a clear promise after Donald Trump decided to put him in charge of making the government more efficient.
“It’s not going to be some sort of backroom secret thing,” Musk said last year. “It will be as transparent as possible,” maybe even streamed live online.
It hasn’t worked out that way so far.
In the three weeks since the Republican president has been back in the White House, Musk has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies while avoiding public scrutiny of his work. He has not answered questions from journalists or attended any hearings with lawmakers. Staff members for his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have sidelined career officials around Washington.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
US officials are bound for Europe for top-level talks on Ukraine
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday that top administration officials will meet with European officials this week about how to end the war in Ukraine, nearly three years after Russia launched an all-out invasion.
Less than a day earlier, the New York Post reported that Trump had a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss steps toward a negotiated solution. There was no immediate confirmation from the White House or the Kremlin. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz declined to comment in a television interview.
Waltz said the Russian economy is not doing well and that Trump “is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction” Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table.
Continue reading at the Associated Press
Note from Rima: It’s infuriating to see how some Democrats are STILL comatose…
Delaware governor on Trump’s threats to Education Dept: ‘Let’s govern with compassion’
In an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” with Chris Stirewalt, Meyer said he is in favor of looking at ways to balance the budget and reduce wasteful government spending. Still, he said there’s a lot of “uncertainty” about whether programs that support poor children in his state will last.
“I believe in efficient spending of federal money,” Meyer said, noting that he cut property taxes as a county executive.
“The challenge that we’re seeing now, I’m trying to balance the budget. I’m trying to invest in Delaware. I’m trying to make historic investments in our schools, so those NAEP scores, those assessments of the progress of our children, can both go up and that equity can increase,” he said. “So everyone’s getting an equal shot.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Booker outlines multipart plan to push back on Trump, Musk
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on Sunday outlined Democrats’ strategy to push back on President Trump’s and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to reshape much of the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and other means of executive authority.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Booker said Democrats are fighting back through the courts, in Congress and through public and media engagement with constituents.
“I think the plan right now is working in four parts. One is a legal strategy to stop him from violating the separation of powers, from violating our civil service law, civil rights laws. And we’re winning,” Booker said when asked why Democrats weren’t more prepared to challenge some of Trump’s bold moves since many of them were described in the Project 2025 framework.
Continue reading at The Hill
What to know about the fight over ‘debanking’
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Booker said Democrats are fighting back through the courts, in Congress and through public and media engagement with constituents.
“I think the plan right now is working in four parts. One is a legal strategy to stop him from violating the separation of powers, from violating our civil service law, civil rights laws. And we’re winning,” Booker said when asked why Democrats weren’t more prepared to challenge some of Trump’s bold moves since many of them were described in the Project 2025 framework.
Booker said there are 41 cases Democrats took to court and, just last week, 12 of them “were successful in stopping some of his illegal actions.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Vance challenges courts, suggests they are going too far
Vice President Vance challenged the judges who are pushing back on President Trump’s executive orders, arguing they are going too far.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,” Vance said in a post on X. “If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal.”
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” his post said.
Continue reading at The Hill
In Breaking USAID, the Trump Administration May Have Broken the Law
Reporting Highlights
Court Fight: During internal meetings, a political appointee said Trump could not have a higher tolerance for legal risk.
Law-Breaking: Then the administration may have broken multiple laws in crippling USAID, according to experts.
“Constitutional Crisis”: Monday will be crucial to see if the Trump administration follows a court order blocking their efforts.
It was the week President Donald Trump had signed a sweeping executive order shutting off the funding for foreign aid programs. Inside the U.S. Agency for International Development, his political appointees gathered shell-shocked senior staffers for private meetings to discuss the storied agency’s new reality.
Those staffers immediately raised objections. USAID’s programs were funded by Congress, and there were rules to follow before halting the payments, they said. Instead of reassuring them, the agency’s then-chief of staff, Matt Hopson, told staff that the White House did not plan on restarting most of the aid projects, according to two officials familiar with his comments.
Then Hopson added a stark coda: Trump could not have a higher tolerance for legal risk, the officials recalled. They understood the message to mean that the administration was willing to bend or even break laws to get what it wanted, and then take the fight to court. (Hopson, who resigned shortly after, did not respond to numerous phone calls and written messages requesting comment, and he turned away a reporter who came to his door.)
Continue reading at ProPublica
Mike Johnson says Democrats ‘are flailing right now’
He says the flurry of Republican activity has left them rudderless.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Democratic lawmakers’ lack of clear leadership and vision is hampering their ability to effectively counter Republican moves and measures.
“There’s plenty of time for all the negotiation and we’ll get to that and, you know, the Democrats, frankly, are flailing right now,” Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “They don’t have an identified party leader. They don’t have a real vision for the party, and the blitz of all the Trump executive actions have them just at a dizzying pace.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said there has been a lack of communication between the parties regarding the details of the spending bill.
“Republicans haven’t said a single thing to House Democrats about finding common ground to get something done on the budget, on their tax cuts for the wealthy, well-off and well-connected, on their efforts to dramatically end Medicaid as we know it, or on the debt ceiling,” Jeffries said, speaking on Capitol Hill on Friday.
Continue reading at Politico
Politico
Playbook: Trump-Musk tensions rising?
When the latest Time magazine cover hit social Friday featuring Elon Musk at the Resolute Desk, Washington conventional wisdom had it that Trump must be fuming about finding himself playing second fiddle to the special government employee and billionaire. Particularly for getting short shrift from his beloved Time.
Almost as if on cue, Trump, in an Oval Office media availability, when asked about the cover, said: “Is Time magazine still in business?” Musk, though, he said, is “doing a great job. He’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste.”
In a Fox News interview with Bret Baier that airs at 3 p.m. today, Trump says Musk has been “terrific.” On whether he trusts him: “Trust Elon? Oh, he’s not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He’s so into it.”
In some ways, the idea that Musk overshadows Trump is a bit too pat. Yes, there’s the Time cover. And Google searches for “Elon Musk” surpassed those for “Donald Trump” among U.S. users the past week. That largely wasn’t the case during the 2024 campaign, even as Musk emerged as a key electoral player.
But consider that just a few months ago, the popular contention was that chief of staff Susie Wiles had effectively sidelined Musk by tasking him with leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Continue reading the Politico Playbook newsletter
The Recruitment Effort That Helped Build Elon Musk’s DOGE Army
At least three individuals associated with Palantir or its cofounder Peter Thiel were involved in an online recruiting effort for DOGE late last year, WIRED has learned.
The establishment of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) relied on a recruitment campaign carried out, in part, by young software engineers fanning out across online chat groups and Discord servers, according to three sources and chat logs reviewed by WIRED. Some of the engineers are associated with data analytics firm Palantir or its cofounder and board of directors chair—and Musk ally—Peter Thiel.
As DOGE staffers—many of them young and with little or no government experience—continue to gain access to sensitive data across about a dozen government agencies, this is the first look at some of the networks from which the agency has recruited, and who they relied on to enlist talent.
In online chat groups linked to Palantir alumni and SpaceX interns, Musk’s space company, as well as in a Discord server associated with a military artificial intelligence program, the engineers said they were looking for people willing to spend six months in Washington, DC, cutting federal spending—which accounts for around a quarter of the US gross domestic product—by a third.
Continue reading at Wired
Attention California readers!
Bird Flu Symptoms: New Strain Discovered In CA As Outbreaks Spread
Here are five things to know about the evolving state of the bird flu outbreak in California.
CALIFORNIA — A new highly pathogenic strain of the bird flu has been discovered in California, raising alarm bells for agricultural and health officials in a state that has suffered the most outbreaks — human, bovine and avian — nationwide.
The major concern about the virulent variant — H5N9 — is that it could lead to more outbreaks on chicken farms and dairies as well as accelerating the pace of bird flu mutations. The strain was reported last week on a California duck farm where the birds also contracted the predominant variant — H5N1. Mutant strains can emerge when two variants of a virus combine, potentially creating strains that pose a larger threat to humans.
At this time, experts say bird flu poses very little risk and is very rare for humans, but it did kill one person in the U.S., officials confirmed on Jan. 6.
Continue reading at Patch.com
Trump starts term with positive approval rating in CBS poll
In the CBS/YouGov poll, 53 percent said that when it comes to “the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president,” they support it. Forty-seven percent said when it comes to the way the president is handling his job, they do not support it.
“New polling from CBS News shows Americans are overwhelmingly positive about President Donald J. Trump’s return to office and his commitment to making good on his promises,” the White House said in a release emailed Sunday.
Continue reading at The Hill
French President tells CNN he’s prepared to go toe-to-toe with Trump’s tariffs
ParisCNN —
For a man who’s spent his career battling to make France more pro-business, Europe’s prospects on artificial intelligence are worrying: an oversight that could cost the bloc dearly.
“We are not in the race today,” French President Emmanuel Macron told CNN’s Richard Quest in an exclusive interview at the Elysee Palace on Thursday. “We are lagging behind.”
“We need an AI agenda,” he said, “because we have to bridge the gap with the United States and China on AI.” The French leader added that he fears Europe becoming merely an AI consumer, losing control over the future direction and development of the technology.
That’s part of the impetus behind this week’s AI summit in Paris — the latest effort by Macron to put France at the heart of the debate and decision-making on international questions of the day.
Continue reading and viewing on CNN.com
Note from Rima: the video in the article is about tariffs.
Trump says 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum coming Monday
President Trump said he will announce 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum on Monday, adding that he would also kick off reciprocal tariffs in the days after.
Trump said that the steel and aluminum tariffs would impact “everybody” when asked what countries would be effected.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff— aluminum too,” Trump told reporters. “25 percent… for both.”
He added that details of the reciprocal tariffs will be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday in a news conference.
Continue reading at The Hill
How Elon Musk is using tech to DOGE the government
Musk and his allies in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are harnessing tech — from artificial intelligence (AI) to mysterious servers — while taking a sledgehammer to federal spending and introducing modernized systems.
The “move things fast and break things” approach is reminiscent of Musk’s leadership at his other companies, notably the social platform X, where the billionaire, surrounded by a group of loyal deputies, slashed the employees and programs he deemed unnecessary.
Musk’s leadership style, described at times as reckless or intense, is central to his polarizing influence in the tech world.
Continue reading at The Hill
House Republican blasts Beyoncé as ‘DEI’ winner at Grammy Awards
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) slammed Beyoncé as a “DEI” winner after winning Best Country Album at the the Grammy Awards.
Owens was asked on Friday about what he thought about her win, which cemented her as the first Black woman to earn the award.
“I think that’s the closest thing to DEI we’re gonna see right now,” he said, using an abbreviation for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) intiatives.
Continue reading at The Hill
Richard Gere calls Trump a ‘bully and a thug’ at awards show
Hollywood star Richard Gere called President Trump a “bully” and a “thug” in his acceptance speech at the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain’s Goya Awards on Saturday night.
While accepting his honorary lifetime achievement award, Gere warned of the “slippery slope” toward authoritarianism in the U.S. and elsewhere and urged the public to be vigilant.
“I’m coming from a place now that we are in a very dark place in America, where we have a bully and a thug who is the president of the United States,” Gere said in his speech, stopping when the crowd began to applaud.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump is rattling Europe. He’s sending Vance as his emissary.
The vice president will mingle with world leaders in Munich and Paris at a time when the White House has made clear it’s not afraid to shred old alliances.
JD Vance is heading to Europe this week for his first foreign trip as vice president, where he’ll rub shoulders with world leaders anxious about Donald Trump’s return to the world stage.
And unlike his early successes as Trump’s ambassador on Capitol Hill, Vance will face a much tougher test far from home.
The vice president will be attending an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and a security conference in Munich — both of which will be stacked with heads of state and global scions — and will act as a proxy for Trump, who is eager to disrupt international norms even more than he did in his first term.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: See Emanuel Macron’s comments above
Merz and Scholz clash on migration, economy and Trump: ‘How dumb can somebody be?’
Center-right and center-left chancellor candidates clashed in a fiery debate, exposing deep divisions just weeks ahead of a national election.
BERLIN — With just two weeks until Germany heads to the polls, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz tore into each other over migration, the economy and how to handle U.S. President Donald Trump in a combative debate on national television Sunday night.
“How dumb can someone be?” Scholz asked at one point, attacking Merz for vowing to turn away asylum seekers at Germany’s border — a move, he argued, that would violate EU law and divide Europe at a time when Germany needs European solidarity to counter Trump’s tariff threats.
But when Scholz claimed his government had successfully cracked down on abuses of the asylum system, Merz shot back.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
German court orders X to hand over election data in legal blow to Musk’s platform
Researchers win a legal battle against the platform formerly known as Twitter, securing crucial access to social media data to probe potential election interference.
BERLIN — A German court handed Elon Musk’s X a legal defeat, ruling that the platform must immediately provide researchers with access to data on politically related content ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election.
The court decision, seen by POLITICO, was issued Thursday and marks one of the first major judicial tests of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), raising fresh questions about X’s compliance with European regulations ahead of Germany’s federal election.
The lawsuit, brought earlier this week by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Society for Civil Rights (GFF), accused X of blocking efforts to track potential election interference by not granting them access to key engagement data — including likes, shares and visibility metrics — that other platforms made available to researchers.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Germany’s likely next chancellor wants to tell Trump to rein in Musk
“I do not approve of someone in Trump’s orbit attempting such direct interference in Germany’s elections,” says Friedrich Merz.
BERLIN — Friedrich Merz, the conservative front-runner to become Germany’s next chancellor, is signaling a tougher stance on transatlantic relations.
At the top of Merz’s agenda: concerns over Elon Musk’s growing political influence in Europe, in the run-up to Germany’s national election on Feb. 23.
In an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost, Christian Democratic Union boss Merz raised concerns over Musk’s relentless promotion of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party, and said he planned to raise it with Musk’s boss: U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I have a clear opinion on this as well — and I will share it with him: I do not approve of someone in Trump’s orbit attempting such direct interference in Germany’s elections,” he said.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Ex-NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will be Norway’s finance minister
Oslo government reshuffles key roles after coalition collapse.
Former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will make a surprise return to Norway’s government.
He will become finance minister as part of a Cabinet reshuffle after the government collapsed last week.
“I am deeply honoured to have been asked to help my country at this critical stage. Having carefully considered the current challenges we face, I have decided to accept Prime Minister Støre’s request to serve as his minister of finance,” Stoltenberg said in a press release Tuesday morning.
The Euroskeptic Center Party quit the two-party coalition last week, leaving Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s center-left Labor Party to govern on its own.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Trump says he’s revoking security clearances for people he doesn’t ‘respect’
“There are people that we don’t respect, if there are people that we thought that were breaking the law, that came very close to it in previous years, we do it. And we’ve done it with some people,” the president told reporters.
He was asked about his reasoning for yanking the clearance of New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump has also revoked the clearances of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and announced on Friday he would revoke Biden’s clearance.
“We’ve done it with Biden himself. Biden himself. We think our country is not as safe when you gave him clearance,” Trump added on Sunday. “We don’t think he knows what he’s doing and what he’s done to this country is a disgrace, and what he’s done in terms of allowing criminals, murderers, drug lords into our country, people from mental institutions into our country, he should be ashamed of himself.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump says Canada joining US ‘would be greatest thing they could ever do’
“I love the people of Canada. We have a great relationship, but if they became our 51st state, it would be the greatest thing they could ever do,” Trump told reporters. “And think of how beautiful that country would be without that artificial line running right through it. Somebody drew it many years ago with a ruler, just a line.”
Trump has repeatedly reiterated his desire to see Canada become part of the U.S., which is something Canadian leaders have repeatedly rejected as a possibility.
The president also told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview that aired on Sunday that “something has to happen” and more is needed in 30 days after he agreed to pause in implementing tariffs on Canada for at least a month.
Continue reading at The Hill
Is Europe ready for JD Vance?
The vice president will mingle with world leaders in Munich and Paris at a time when the White House has made clear it’s not afraid to shred old alliances.
JD Vance is heading to Europe this week for his first foreign trip as vice president, where he’ll rub shoulders with world leaders anxious about Donald Trump’s return to the world stage.
And unlike his early successes as Trump’s ambassador on Capitol Hill, Vance will face a much tougher test far from home.
The vice president will be attending an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and a security conference in Munich — both of which will be stacked with heads of state and global scions — and will act as a proxy for Trump, who is eager to disrupt international norms even more than he did in his first term.
The trip will also give Vance the chance to shine on his own — an ocean away from Trump’s gargantuan shadow, which looms large over the gatherings — as he seeks to build a vice presidential resume that will secure his status as the Republican heir-apparent four years from now.
Continue reading at Politico
NOAA told to search grant programs for climate-related terms
The Commerce Department has sent NOAA officials a broad set of keywords to search grants in ways that would cover most climate change-related projects.
Why it matters: NOAA is one of the world's top weather and climate agencies, and provides funding to universities and researchers to improve the understanding and prediction of extreme weather and climate change.
Any potential challenges to NOAA's peer-reviewed grants are "myopic and misguided," said Rick Spinrad, who led NOAA during the Biden administration.
Driving the news: The search is related to President Trump's recent executive orders, some of which were signed on his first day in office.
Continue reading at Axios
‘Americans Can and Will Die from This’: USAID Worker Details Dangers, Chaos
The sudden scapegoating of the once-bipartisan agency has left front-line workers in foreign countries stunned and abandoned, without even a contact in Washington.
A month ago, few Americans were familiar with the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Then Elon Musk and, to a lesser degree, President Donald Trump sought to make an example out of the agency, effectively dismantling USAID to ostensibly cut costs and root out liberals employed there.
This predictably caused great upheaval in Washington. The shutdown confused the independent agency’s employees, infuriated Democrats and prompted Republicans who in the not-so-distant past called for more support to USAID to discard those statements and accommodate the impulses of Musk and Trump.
But I have been more interested in what the attack on USAID has meant for the country’s interests overseas. While the agency delivers humanitarian aid, it had been popular with many Republicans because it also projected American strength and influence in countries whose loyalties in this moment are up for grabs.
Few grasp that better than a veteran USAID employee whom I’ve known for more than two decades and is currently serving abroad. I’m withholding the employee’s name and certain revealing details to protect their identity.
Continue reading at Politico
Macron: The EU is your ally, not your problem
Trump says he’ll impose 25 percent tariffs on steel, aluminum
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff — aluminum too,” Trump told reporters.
President Donald Trump said that he will announce 25 percent tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum on Monday, and added that he could detail his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs the following day.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff — aluminum too,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday as he traveled to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
Trump did not specify when those new duties would come into effect.
But Trump said the new duties would apply to all countries, including Canada and Mexico — who were exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs from the US when he signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law during his previous administration.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump touts 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports
The big picture: Trump campaigned on using tariffs to boost the economy and revive the domestic industry, which economists have warned would hit U.S. consumers, though he's so far mostly quickly pulled back on such threats.
Tariffs of 10% remain in effect on Chinese imports, a move that sparked China's government to announce tariffs of 15% on U.S. coal and LNG and 10% on U.S. crude oil, agricultural machinery, large-displacement cars and pickup trucks.
Driving the news: Trump didn't say in his comments to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Orleans Sunday when the steel and aluminum tariffs would take effect, but he said he'd impose "reciprocal tariffs" on Tuesday or Wednesday "almost immediately" on "every country."
However, he added: "It won't affect everybody, because there are some where we have similar tariffs, but the ones that are taking advantage of the United States, we're going to have a reciprocity."
The intrigue: It's not yet clear how blanket tariffs on steel and aluminum would impact the ongoing negotiations with Canada and Mexico, against whom tariffs were paused until March 1.
Continue reading at Axios
Russ Vought Breaks the Law on His First Day as CFPB Director
posted by Adam Levitin
The CFPB's acting Director, Project 2025's Russell Vought notified the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board that the CFPB would not be making its permitted annual draw on the Fed for funding this year. He also direct the CFPB to cease all examination and supervision activity. Both actions are illegal.
Funding. The CFPB gets its funding from quarterly draws on the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System. The amount of the draw is capped, but within that cap the draw is supposed to be for "the amount determined by the Director to be reasonably necessary to carry out the authorities of the Bureau under Federal consumer financial law, taking into account such other sums made available to the Bureau from the preceding year (or quarter of such year)." The draw request is a final disposition of a matter that isn't a rulemaking, so it is an "order" for purposes of the Administrative Procedures Act. Agency orders have to have a reasoned basis; they cannot be arbitrary and capricious, and they can be challenged by affected parties.
Read the rest at the Credit Slips blog
House GOP continues to squabble over tax cuts as lawmakers enter a critical week
Hardliners are squaring off against their top tax writer as Republicans try to assemble a package President Donald Trump’s priorities.
Prominent House Republicans are privately warring over how to advance tax cuts that are expiring and President Donald Trump’s long list of other tax demands — with Budget Chair Jodey Arrington and deficit hard-liner Rep. Chip Roy locked in a struggle against Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and other senior Republicans.
The dispute is hindering Speaker Mike Johnson ’s plan to advance a budget blueprint this week, as different GOP factions continue to squabble over the costs of the tax plan, how to offset them to reduce their deficit impact and possible cost-saving changes to programs including Medicare and assistance for low-income Americans.
Johnson confirmed Sunday that Republicans were continuing to work through several issues, again delaying his ambitious timeline.
Continue reading at Politico
Kim Jong Un slams US-South Korea-Japan partnership and vows to boost his nuclear program
The North Korean leader said the partnership poses a grave threat to his country and vowed to further bolster his nuclear weapons program.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said an elevated U.S. security partnership with South Korea and Japan poses a grave threat to his country and vowed to further bolster his nuclear weapons program, state media reported Sunday.
Kim has previously made similar warnings, but his latest statement implies again that the North Korean leader won’t likely embrace President Donald Trump’s overture to meet him and revive diplomacy anytime soon.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump says he’s in ‘no rush’ to develop Gaza
President Trump on Sunday said that he is not rushed to develop Gaza, arguing that building there will bring Middle East stability after he announced a plan for an American takeover of the war-torn region.
“Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it, and will slowly, very slowly, we’re in no rush, in development. We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East,” Trump told reporters.
The president’s controversial proposal stands to upend decades of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and leaders of regional Arab nations and even some of Trump’s Republican allies appeared lukewarm to it.
Trump on Sunday called Gaza “a demolition site.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Court grants request to block detained Venezuelan immigrants from being sent to Guantanamo
A federal court on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba as part of the president’s immigration crackdown.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — A federal court on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba as part of the president’s immigration crackdown.
In a legal filing earlier in the day, lawyers for the men said the detainees “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantanamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.”
Continue reading at Politico
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to shut down for a week: Reports
The CFPB’s Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez said in a Sunday email that there would be a Monday to Friday closure of the headquarters of the CFPB in Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reported.
The Office of Management and Budget’s Director, Russell Vought, has been recently attempting to crack down on the CFPB’s activities. In a social media post late Saturday night, he said he had “notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out its duties.”
“The Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment. This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” Vought added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Von der Leyen to host CEOs after unveiling EU’s economic plan
Leaders from the bloc’s biggest companies will convene in Antwerp for the Feb. 26 event.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present her plan to revive the European Union’s flagging economy to over 300 industry leaders in Antwerp on Feb. 26, multiple attendees confirmed to POLITICO.
The afternoon will feature several back-to-back sessions and occur shortly after von der Leyen officially releases the Clean Industrial Deal — her overarching plan to ensure EU industries remain competitive with the United States and China.
For von der Leyen, the event will offer a chance to convince prominent European executives that Brussels can address their complaints about excessive, overlapping and confusing regulations — not to mention the high energy prices manufacturers say are crippling their business models.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Inside the new plan to seize Russia’s shadow fleet
European countries are pushing for new powers to squeeze Moscow’s shadow fleet after a spate of incidents in the Baltic Sea.
PORVOO, Finland — Secluded in a Finnish bay and barely visible between snow-flecked trees, a creaky tanker the length of two football fields quietly bobs up and down — a surprisingly tranquil scene considering the waves it has sent across Europe.
Finnish authorities seized the Eagle S ship in December in an all-guns-blazing operation, suspecting it had sabotaged a subsea power link connecting Estonia to Finland. The detention of the ship — which was carrying 100,000 barrels of oil from St. Petersburg — was a galvanizing moment, and appeared to be a new front in a clandestine war between Russia and the West.
Now, European countries are holding behind-the-scenes talks on large-scale seizures of Moscow’s oil-exporting tankers in the Baltic Sea, according to two European Union diplomats and two government officials. They are also currently drafting new legislation to add legal heft to those efforts.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Justin Trudeau’s not the only Canadian pushing for a UK trade deal
Pierre Poilievre — frontrunner to be the next Canadian PM — is also on board with push to reboot stalled talks amid Trump’s trade war.
LONDON — Pierre Poilievre — the frontrunner to be the next Canadian prime minister — is keen to revive trade talks with the U.K. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, which is surging in Canada’s polls, is eager for London to return to the negotiating table after talks broke down last year.
Poilievre’s Tories have “long supported opening up more overseas markets for our products and that includes supporting trade agreement talks with our close friends and allies in the U.K.,” Shadow Trade Minister Ryan Williams told POLITICO.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Protests in Los Angeles
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Sunday Musical Interlude
Rudolf The Cat