Thursday, May 29 | By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch |
|
|
| ▪ Musk throws curveball in Trump agenda debate ▪ U.S. Trade Court threatens Trump's tariffs ▪ Trump 'disappointed' by warring Russia ▪ Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar dead, Israel says |
| |
|
©️ Associated Press | Evan Vucci |
White House on defense over DOGE cuts; trade court halts tariffs |
Elon Musk's criticism of the "big, beautiful bill" budget winding its way through Congress is throwing a late curveball in the push to advance President Trump's legislative agenda. Trump secured a major win for his sweeping, signature bill when the House passed the measure — which included tax cuts, Medicaid reform and other GOP priorities — by a single vote before the Memorial Day recess. But the legislation faces a challenging path in the Senate. Centrist Republicans warn against deep benefits cuts, while fiscal conservatives are blasting the bill — which would increase the nation's borrowing authority by $4 trillion — as a debt bomb. "I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the [Department of Government Efficiency] team is doing," Musk said in a preview of an interview with "CBS Sunday Morning" that airs later this week. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion." Trump on Wednesday punted on a question about Musk's criticism, while noting the bill awaits changes in the Senate. "We will be negotiating that bill, and I'm not happy about certain aspects of it, but I'm thrilled by other aspects of it," Trump said. "That's the way it goes. It's very big, it's the big, beautiful [bill], but the beautiful is because of all the things that we have." But the comments from Musk, the outgoing champion of the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts, are further roiling debate over the bill's potential deficit impact and emboldening the fiscal hawks. Musk on Wednesday expressed gratitude to Trump in a message marking the end of his special government employee status, the latest sign of his declining involvement in the White House. An administration official confirmed his offboarding process has begun. Musk promised DOGE would save at least $1 trillion in federal spending. DOGE's website claims to have saved taxpayers an estimated $175 billion to date, though critics and fact checkers have cast doubt on the figures. Now, The Hill's Aris Folley reports that GOP leaders are in a tight bind as they try to balance their party's policy and political priorities. And frustrated conservatives are amping up the pressure. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) wrote on X on Saturday that, "Every DOGE cut targets waste, fraud, and abuse. Congress MUST codify them quickly. What's the holdup?!" "The Senate version will be more aggressive," Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote on social platform X after Musk's criticism of the megabill, warning that otherwise "it won't pass." White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller over the weekend took to X to clarify that the megabill was not the correct vehicle for the DOGE cuts. "DOGE cuts would have to be done through what is known as a rescissions package or an appropriations bill," Miller said. "The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill and does not fund the departments of government. It does not finance our agencies or federal programs." Meanwhile, the White House and congressional allies are signaling they want to race forward with a $9.4 billion slate of federal funding cuts spearheaded by DOGE. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is pledging to "act quickly" on codifying the cuts — headed to Congress next week — which will in part target the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which was largely dismantled by the administration earlier this year. Plans for the roughly $9 billion rescissions package were forecast weeks ago and originally projected to be transmitted from the White House by the end of April. But that was delayed as the House completed the megabill, which increases the debt limit by $4 trillion. "When the White House sends its rescissions package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts," Johnson said Wednesday, adding Congress would also use the regular appropriations process to implement Trump's 2026 budget. TARIFFS PAUSE: Trump does not possess unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country, the three-judge U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled Wednesday. The Justice Department said it will appeal, and The Associated Press explains what is likely to happen next. The court's decision to halt tariffs left financial markets cheering, but the president is expected to find a workaround. Tariffs imposed under a different legal authority called Section 232 — including on imports of autos, steel and aluminum — are unaffected by the ruling. |
|
|
Smart Take
with Blake Burman |
| Did one of California's biggest cities just see bipartisan consensus? The San Francisco Unified School District is postponing plans for its "grading for equity" initiative amid concerns that the proposal lowers academic standards. The city's mayor and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) both panned the idea. I spoke with San Francisco Voice writer John Trasviña, who brought the story into the national discussion. "There's really no support for it," he told me, adding the initiative sparked overwhelming opposition across the political spectrum, "uniting left, center and right." One thing from the 2024 campaign that still sits with me today is how education in this country barely rose into the political conversation. That's obviously been blown wide open with the Trump administration's recent focus on Harvard. But the San Francisco story is a reminder that many parents are focused on what's happening on their school boards. |
Burman hosts "The Hill" weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. |
|
|
- The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) canceled a major contract with Moderna to fund the development of a vaccine to combat bird flu while citing the company's use of messenger RNA, vaccine technology that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned.
- What to know about coronavirus vaccines for children and pregnant women following the government's Tuesday change in public guidance about who should get shots.
- Join The Hill's June 4 half-day summit, "Invest in America," at 8 a.m. EDT featuring titans from Washington and Wall Street. Participants share insights about economic developments, tariffs, artificial intelligence, crypto, taxes and more. RSVP HERE.
|
|
|
©️ Associated Press | Alexander Zemlianichenko |
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears unruffled by Trump's public handwringing and critiques as Russia continues waging a bloody war against Ukraine while dangling a possible pause in the fighting as part of a peace deal. After calling Putin "crazy" and warning that the Russian president is "playing with fire," Trump on Wednesday bemoaned Putin's assaults on Kyiv but gave Russia more time. "I'm very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation. I'm very disappointed by that," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. The president has not signaled his next move as weeks of futile negotiating with Putin have dragged on. Trump on Wednesday downplayed the prospect of new U.S. sanctions aimed at Moscow. "We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not, and if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently," Trump said. Reuters: Putin's conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards. On Wednesday, the Kremlin said the U.S. president was emotional. "This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions," Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about Trump's remarks about Putin. PEACE TALKS 2.0? Russia proposed a second round of peace talks with Ukraine next Monday in Istanbul in order to exchange written proposals for a ceasefire and ending the war. Ukrainian officials see the Russian proposal as a way to placate Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team are consulting about whether to accept the Russian proposal. ▪ CBS News: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday during a visit by Zelensky that Berlin will help Kyiv develop new long-range weapons that can hit targets in Russian territory. ▪ The Hill: Trump was ready to slap new sanctions on Russia, Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday while describing his April conversation with the president when the two met in Rome during Pope Francis's funeral. Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers suggest it will be up to Trump to get behind proposed tighter U.S. sanctions aimed at Russia. A pending Senate sanctions measure has more than 80 bipartisan cosponsors, but GOP senators are leery of putting that bill on the floor without the president's support, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports. |
- The House will convene briefly at 11 a.m.
- The Senate will hold a pro forma session on Friday at 7 a.m.
- The president will receive his intelligence briefing at 11 a.m. Trump will have lunch with the vice president at 12:30 p.m. He will participate in a swearing-in ceremony at 5 p.m. for the U.S. chief of protocol.
- The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m.
|
|
|
©️ Associated Press | Charles Krupa |
CONSERVATIVES VS. HARVARD: Republicans revel in Trump's confrontations with Harvard University, including the government's significant pullback in funding to the campus for research and other support. The clash fulfills a years-long desire to challenge Ivy League liberals while promoting a populist narrative with elites. At least 90 percent of last year's Harvard graduating class said they disapproved of Trump, according to survey results published by the Harvard Crimson. For conservatives, there are still political risks while targeting the university. ▪ The Hill: Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) told CNN on Wednesday that Trump seeks to destroy powerful U.S. institutions, such as Harvard, because they are the nation's "fabric." ▪ The New York Times: Seeking to save more than $1.4 billion in National Science Foundation grants routed through universities, 16 states on Wednesday sued the Trump administration. ▪ The New York Times, analysis: The Harvard fight illustrates Trump's worldview: If he attacks, it's your fault. The president makes examples of those who push back against his authority. ▪ Politico: Democrats seek to make gains in the South next year. It could be their last shot. ▪ The Hill: In Alabama, where GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville plans to run for governor, former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson, a Republican, said Wednesday he will compete for Tuberville's Senate seat. Mobile, Ala., native Kyle Sweetser says he will run as a Democrat in the race. Chronicling foreign policy: Trump in April fired every member of an advisory committee, which for decades tapped diverse scholars to ensure that America's history — especially classified and covert actions — is documented in an unbiased and thorough publication series called the Foreign Relations of the United States. Lawmakers since 1861 have turned to the historical accounts set out in bound, red volumes. Other nations consult the accounts, publicly available in major libraries and online. Presidential mercy: Trump signed off on a pardon for former Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY.), an ex-Marine who served in the FBI before his conviction in November 2014 on charges of tax fraud and other offenses before joining Congress. Grimm won reelection in 2014 despite his indictment, but he pleaded guilty a month later to one count of tax fraud. He resigned from Congress in January 2015 and served eight months in prison. … Trump also commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, who co-founded the Gangster Disciples and was sentenced to life in prison for murder in the 1970s and handed another life sentence in the 1990s for operating a criminal enterprise. … The president on Wednesday also pardoned former Army Lt. Mark Bashaw, found guilty by a military judge in 2022 of violating lawful orders for refusing to work remotely, reporting to office without submitting a COVID-19 test, and not wearing a face mask indoors. Techies: Vice President Vance told Bitcoin conference attendees in Las Vegas on Wednesday that artificial intelligence (AI) is a "communist technology" and cryptocurrency is a freedom-promoting counterweight. Then he walked back his description as a slight "overstatement" while describing a new political divide. "What I've noticed is that very smart right-wing people in tech tend to be attracted to Bitcoin and crypto, and very smart left-wing people in tech tend to be attracted to AI," he said. Trump signed an executive order this year creating what the president dubbed a federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve as well as a Digital Asset Stockpile containing other forms of digital currency. A cryptocurrency enthusiast, Vance owned between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of Bitcoin, according to an August 2024 financial disclosure. … Separately, the Labor Department on Wednesday said it withdrew previous federal guidance discouraging crypto in 401(k) retirement plans. History Watch: Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of John Tyler, the 10th president, died last week at age 96, just three generations distant from 1841, when his father's father led the nation. Harrison Tyler was a preservationist, chemical engineer and longtime Virginia resident who lived in the 21st century and managed to be the grandson of a man born in the 18th century. |
|
|
©️ Associated Press | Ronen Zvulun, Reuters |
ISRAEL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israeli forces killed Hamas leader in Gaza Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in October. Meanwhile, the United Nations denounced the new Israeli-backed aid operation in southern Gaza, a day after the chaotic launch of the initiative. Israel had instituted a weeks-long aid blockade on the enclave. Thousands of hungry Palestinians flooded a food distribution site, prompting Israeli forces to fire warning shots. Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official, said nearly 50 people had reportedly been injured in the chaotic fray, and called the Israeli attempt to seize control of the humanitarian aid for Palestinians part of "an assault on their human dignity." ▪ Reuters: Israel on Thursday rejected a report in the New York Times that Netanyahu has been threatening to disrupt talks on a nuclear deal in Iran in favor of a strike. ▪ France24: Israel on Thursday announced it would create 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, accelerating its ongoing expansion into the Palestinian territory. The move comes with the risk of international sanctions. VISA RESTRICTIONS: Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new restrictions on visas on Wednesday, targeting foreign nationals who are deemed "responsible for censorship of protected expression" in the U.S. The Washington Post: Rubio said the State and Homeland Security departments will work to "aggressively revoke" visas of Chinese students in the U.S., "including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields." |
|
|
- Children in Gaza are starving. Let the U.N. do its job, by Catherine Russell, guest essayist, The New York Times.
- Trump has let allies and supporters avoid centuries of prison time, by Philip Bump, columnist, The Washington Post.
|
|
|
©️ Associated Press | Dennis Cook |
Take Our Morning Report Quiz And finally … It's Thursday, which means it's time for this week's Morning Report Quiz! America's debate about elderly officials inspired a puzzle question: What's age got to do with it? Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add "Quiz" to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday. When the youngest current member of the House, Florida Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D), was born in Orlando, the Oval Office occupant was Bill Clinton. Who was governor of the Sunshine State? 1. Bob Graham
2. Bob Martinez
3. Lawton Chiles
4. Jeb Bush In what setting was former President Reagan, then 73 and the oldest president in history, when he famously said he would not "exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience"? 1. Campaign debate
2. State of the Union address
3. White House Correspondents' Association dinner
4. News conference in the East Room In 1967, a series of U.S. events led to the ratification of a constitutional amendment spelling out how a vice president can take over for a president who is unable to perform his/her official duties. What is that amendment? 1. First Amendment
2. 14th Amendment
3. 17th Amendment
4. 25th Amendment On June 14, Trump's birthday cake will have at least one candle. How old will the president be? 1. Age 76
2. Age 78
3. Age 79
4. Age 80 |
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment