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In these days’s factor:
A Cupboard in Musk’s shadow
Inside of Congress: bully pulpits to budgeting
Trump: Ukraine will have to flip to Europe for safety
USDA leader pitches egg costs plan
The Cupboard and Congress, a minimum of in the intervening time, squirm in Elon Musk’s shadow.
President Trump interjected to provide an explanation for Musk’s movements all through his Cupboard assembly Wednesday, as did Musk himself. On Capitol Hill, the White Area leader of team of workers defined Musk’s strikes to a gaggle of uneasy Senate Republicans, a few of whom overtly query the billionaire adviser’s bulldozer strategies.
The Hill: GOP senators voice frustrations about Musk.
Trump stated the tensions, pronouncing one of the most Cupboard secretaries seated round him “disagree a little bit” with Musk — who joined in. The presidential adviser wore a T-shirt with the phrases “tech support” and a “Make America Great Again” cap.
Musk ostensibly makes tips to the president and a crew within the Division of Govt Potency (DOGE), performing best on Trump’s orders, consistent with the White Area, which insists the SpaceX CEO has no unbiased federal authority.
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chair Jerry Moran (Kan.), some of the Republican lawmakers involved in DOGE-sparked turmoil, advised The Hill he’s looking for out from the chief department whether or not the firing of two,400 probationary VA staff will affect products and services for veterans.
“We want to know [what] positions [are affected]. We’ve been reassured that it doesn’t affect direct care, but we’re looking for more information. … We haven’t gotten everything that we’ve wanted,” he mentioned.
Moran mentioned he desires to listen to from the Administrative center of Control and Funds (OMB) and the Administrative center of Body of workers Control (OPM) about which positions are being eradicated and the way federal products and services and advantages can be impacted.
The Related Press: The management briefly paused billions of greenbacks in VA contract cancellations lauded by way of Musk as lawmakers and veterans decry lack of essential care.
DOGE has received get entry to to delicate federal knowledge programs, shuttered businesses, terminated hundreds of staff around the executive, and issued a complicated barrage of communications the usage of e mail and thru Musk’s social media account to threaten to fireside civil servants who failed to reply with a abstract of duties they carried out remaining week. Federal staff have described the outcome as “chaos.”
Musk on Wednesday stood within the Cupboard room to argue that staff mistook the weekend e mail call for that went to two.3 million staff as a “performance review.” Some departments intervened to mention responses had been voluntary. Trump defended Musk and mentioned the 1 million staff who didn’t reply by way of e mail “are on the bubble,” including, “maybe they’re gonna be gone.”
The president assures the general public and lawmakers who’re hanging his schedule in price range law that “hundreds of billions” in financial savings will outcome from DOGE’s hunt for “waste, fraud and abuse.” Trump describes the federal government as “bloated” and “sloppy.”
Management legal professionals are time and again pressed to provide an explanation for Musk’s function in courtrooms the place firings and frozen federal contracts have ended in court cases. On Wednesday, federal businesses and departments had been steered by way of OPM and OMB to arrange inner restructuring plans, get set for geographic relocations by way of spring of a few company and division operations and wait for really extensive further federal layoffs.
SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN:
“We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way.”
That is the message from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins within the remaining line of her new Wall Side road Magazine op-ed. The U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) leader laid out a five-point plan on how one can handle the avian flu and decrease egg costs.
Some Democrats have hammered President Trump for the upward thrust in egg costs, which are actually soaring round $8 a dozen, given he promised to decrease costs on Day 1. The USDA additionally predicts egg costs may just upward push greater than 40 % this 12 months.
The management is making an attempt to get forward of this, and is aware of that if and when costs subside, they are able to make the argument: We heard you, we fought for you and lend a hand got here.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:
▪ Trump on Wednesday described any other month-long pause on price lists on imports from Mexico and Canada, pronouncing they may take impact on April 2. He additionally floated a 25 % “reciprocal” tariff on Eu automobiles and different items.
▪ The president is closely concerned with midterm election strategizing, pledging to exert his affect and spend marketing campaign reserves he tallies at greater than $500 million. “He understands the importance of keeping the House majority for his agenda to be able to move forward,” Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who leads the Area GOP marketing campaign arm, advised CNN.
▪ Lunar lander Athena will have to arrive at the moon’s floor in every week to seek for water following Intuitive Machines’ release of a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on Wednesday.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Related Press | J. Scott Applewhite
DEMOCRATS ARE PUSHING BACK in opposition to the Trump management’s efforts to slender down the government, slashing jobs and businesses within the procedure. Lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia — in whose districts many federal staff live — advised WTOP they had been inspired by way of some early criminal victories within the combat to forestall firings as they paintings intently with primary unions that constitute federal staff.
Maryland Democrats, led by way of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, met on the Capitol with union leaders to replace one any other at the DOGE cuts. Van Hollen mentioned Maryland lawmakers are “the tip of the spear” in pushing again at the Trump management’s sweeping cuts.
“We’ve just seen a wave of lawbreaking,” he mentioned.
▪ The Hill: Leader Justice John Roberts briefly behind schedule a middle of the night closing date for the Trump management to unfreeze just about $2 billion in overseas support bills, imposed by way of a decrease pass judgement on who discovered the management had flouted his ruling. Attorneys for the Trump management on Wednesday mentioned that it used to be finishing just about 10,000 U.S. Company for Global Construction and State Division contracts and grants.
▪ The Hill: Rep. Derek Tran (D-Calif.) is introducing law that will require the federal government to rehire veterans who had been terminated with out explanation why below the Trump management’s mass layoffs throughout federal departments and businesses.
▪ The Hill: Greater than 80 Area Democrats are calling on Trump to revoke an govt order to extensively limit get entry to to gender-affirming well being take care of transgender younger other folks, alleging the directive is unconstitutional and places lives in peril.
▪ NBC Information: Two extra staffers hand over Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) place of work because the senator carves his personal lane with Trump.
NOW THE HARD PART: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los angeles.) notched a vital win Tuesday night time when he muscled the Area GOP’s price range solution during the chamber in a shocking vote. Now the exhausting section starts. Johnson has to reconcile the Area’s one-bill solution with the Senate’s two-track framework, get without equal compromise thru his slender majority, then craft the real Trump schedule invoice in some way that appeases all corners of the ideologically numerous GOP convention — a trio of heavy lifts which can be forecasting stormy days forward for the Speaker.
“As little as possible,” Johnson mentioned when requested what number of adjustments the Area will have the ability to abdomen. “We have a very small needle to thread here, and we have sort of an equilibrium point amongst people with competing priorities, and [if] we deviate from that too much, we have a problem.”
In the meantime, the Senate is staring down a significant combat to overtake the Area’s price range solution as a lot of individuals are crying foul that it would not make any tax cuts everlasting, and be concerned about the potential for deep Medicaid cuts that the Area invoice opened the door to. Previous this month, the Senate, bored stiff with the Area’s loss of motion on its plan to advance Trump’s unmarried “big, beautiful bill,” moved its personal price range solution for the primary a part of a two-pronged manner.
The Area’s vote on Tuesday, then again, has put the onus again on Senate Republicans, leaving them looking to insert a few of their best priorities into one gargantuan package deal.
White Area leader of team of workers Susie Wiles, who met with Republican senators Wednesday, didn’t get into the main points of the price range blueprint and how one can reconcile the Area and Senate Republicans’ sharply divergent approaches.
“It’s complicated. It’s hard. Nothing about this is going to be easy,” mentioned Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.). “There are some things that we need to work with the House package to expand upon.”
▪ NPR: After the GOP handed its price range solution, Congress’s to-do checklist best will get more difficult.
▪ The Hill: Most sensible Republicans are digging of their heels in opposition to proscribing Trump’s powers in investment negotiations with Democrats, as either side combat to strike a deal to avert a central authority shutdown subsequent month.
▪ The Hill: American citizens for Prosperity is also within the doghouse with Trump, however it’s expanding its footprint on Capitol Hill because it advocates to increase the president’s 2017 tax cuts.
WHERE AND WHEN
The Area will meet at 9 a.m. The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.
The president will obtain an intelligence briefing at 11:15 a.m.within the Oval Administrative center. Trump will welcome British Top Minister Keir Starmer on the White Area at 12:15 p.m. for a gathering, operating lunch and joint press convention at 2 p.m. within the East Room.
Financial indicator: The Bureau of Financial Research at 8:30 a.m. will record fourth-quarter gross home product and 2024’s GDP.
ZOOM IN
© The Related Press | AP Photograph
DECIMAL POINTS: The Musk crew quietly revised downward its flawed math with some contract cancellations after information accounts of its mistakes. Billions of greenbacks reported as financial savings by way of DOGE had been revised to hundreds of thousands on its public tally.
USDA HATCHES FALLBACKS AIMED AT EGGS: Secretary Brooke Rollins mentioned Wednesday the U.S. is thinking about uploading eggs to decrease shopper costs. In a Wall Side road Magazine op-ed, she additionally wrote, “The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again. We are working with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending. We will repurpose some of those dollars by investing in long-term solutions to avian flu, which has resulted in about 166 million laying hens being culled since 2022.”
U.S. TAXPAYERS AIDED THE WORLD’S RICHEST PERSON: Musk’s trade empire is constructed on $38 billion in executive investment, together with federal contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credit, continuously arriving at essential moments for his corporations, consistent with a Washington Submit particular record.
IRATE WITH FOURTH ESTATE: The president threatened on Wednesday to sue newshounds and writers at the back of books and information accounts revealed “with the so-called ‘anonymous,’ or ‘off the record,’ quotes,” Trump wrote on Reality Social, “At some point I am going to sue some of these dishonest authors and book publishers, or even media in general, to find out whether or not these ‘anonymous sources’ even exist.” Trump mentioned he may even search a legislation in opposition to nameless sourcing. “They are made up, defamatory fiction, and a big price should be paid for this blatant dishonesty. I’ll do it as a service to our Country. Who knows, maybe we will create some NICE NEW LAW!!!” he wrote. Courts have various at the query of blanket protections for newshounds’ confidential assets. Washington, D.C., and just about all states have defend rules protective newshounds. In The Memo, The Hill’s Niall Stanage explains how the inside track media grapple with the demanding situations of protecting Trump.
PHARMACY MIDDLEMEN: Area Democrats choose a stand-alone invoice to rein within the practices of the drugstore get advantages supervisor business (PBMs). A listening to on Wednesday used to be an indication that Republicans stay all in favour of the problem, reviews The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel. However with heavy lifts at the price range and taxes, and Democrats’ center of attention carefully on imaginable Medicaid cuts, timing of separate law is a query mark. The Republican-led Area Oversight and Govt Reform Committee accused PBMs of inflating pharmaceutical costs remaining summer time, undermining affected person care and lining “their own pockets.”
ABORTION: Right here’s how Well being and Human Products and services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may just try to restrict who can take the abortion drugs mifepristone, consistent with mavens. Kennedy advised the Senate he’s open to proscribing get entry to to the country’s number one means getting used to terminate pregnancies.
ELSEWHERE
© The Related Press | Ohad Zwigenberg
MINERAL PACT BUT NO SECURITY PLEDGE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, forward of a gathering on the White Area on Friday, introduced {that a} framework handle america on Ukraine’s essential uncooked fabrics is nearing final touch. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday mentioned Trump is “very close” to an settlement as he pushes to finish the warfare with Russia. The U.S. will make no pledge to offer protection to Ukraine from Russia, Trump advised journalists on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to provide security guarantees beyond very much,” he mentioned within the Cupboard room. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”
Trump mentioned he’s assured about achieving an settlement with Russia that would finish the war and famous with out main points that Russian President Vladimir Putin should make concessions. Zelensky has mentioned Western safety promises are essential for a ceasefire.
After French President Emmanuel Macron navigated his rocky assembly with Trump on Monday, British Top Minister Keir Starmer will get his flip these days to fulfill with the president within the Oval Administrative center and plead for strengthen for Ukraine. Starmer will arrive with a pledge to extend his nation’s army spending to two.5 % of gross home product by way of 2027, and to a few % inside of a decade — addressing a core Trump fear that Europe is based too closely on American safety.
▪ BBC: What’s within the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal?
▪ The Kyiv Unbiased: Learn the overall textual content of the deal, as equipped by way of the Ukrainian executive.
▪ The Atlantic: Did Russia invade Ukraine? Is Putin a dictator? We requested each and every Republican member of Congress.
GAZA CEASEFIRE: Israel and Hamas mentioned they have got agreed at the go back of 4 our bodies of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the discharge of masses of Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by way of Israel, retaining a delicate ceasefire alive. However with the primary section of the truce set to run out Saturday, either side are operating to continue to the second one, decisive section. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s particular envoy for the Heart East, might go back and forth to the area on Sunday if oblique talks between Israel and Hamas on a 2nd section of a ceasefire deal display development this week.
The most important query within the impasse: May just Hamas be persuaded to go away Gaza, as Israeli Top Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded? Or will Netanyahu be prepared to compromise — and pay a political value?
CNN: Israel prepares for extra warfare.
OPINION
■ Elon Musk is the arena’s richest guy. Why is he drowsing on an place of work flooring? by way of Erik Baker, visitor essayist, The New York Occasions.
■ CBS should shield our loose press, now not settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit, by way of Jeffrey M. McCall, opinion contributor, The Hill.
THE CLOSER
© The Related Press | Aaron Doster
Take Our Morning File Quiz
And in the end… It’s Thursday, because of this it’s time for this week’s Morning File Quiz! Impressed by way of patriotic appetites, we’re longing for some good guesses about meals names.
You should definitely e mail your responses to [email protected] and [email protected] — please upload “Quiz” for your matter line. Winners who put up right kind solutions will revel in some genuinely-earned publication status on Friday.
As Canadians brace for Trump’s 25 % price lists on their items, they’re turning towards native corporations and merchandise. One espresso store goes additional, bobbing up with what patriotic drink identify?
Flat purple and white
Canadiano
Moose mocha
Maplecchino
Which, amongst exact previous patriotic renaming of meals, is the selection we invented?
Freedom fries (French fries)
Liberty lettuce (sauerkraut)
Liberty steaks (hamburgers)
Ohio chocolate cake (German chocolate cake)
Which of the next is NOT a meals or drink named for a U.S. president?
Trumptini
Apricots with rice à los angeles Jefferson
Hoover Steak
Washington Pie
Cereals named Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains had been launched all through the 2008 presidential race to peer which used to be the actual breakfast of champions.
True
False
Keep Engaged
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Author : donald-trump
Publish date : 2025-02-27 12:12:53
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