STOCK TRADING: The president on Wednesday lashed out at Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and members of Congress who are advancing efforts to ban stock trades by lawmakers, presidents and vice presidents, even though the latest iteration won't apply to Trump's current investments.
"The Democrats, because of our tremendous ACHIEVEMENTS and SUCCESS, have been trying to 'Target' me for a long period of time, and they're using Josh Hawley, who I got elected TWICE, as a pawn to help them," Trump wrote in a scathing Truth Social post. "I wonder why Hawley would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats."
Trump used the message to send a warning to others in the GOP who may get on board: "I don't think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the 'whims' of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!"
Earlier in the day Trump had said he liked the ban "conceptually" before launching into an attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over unfounded claims of insider trading.
A Senate committee advanced the stock trading ban on Wednesday, despite opposition from all Republicans on the panel but Hawley. A key component of the proposal requiring divestments would only take effect at the start of a new elected term — essentially exempting Trump.
The proposed legislation, which has been mulled for years, would prohibit members of Congress, the president and vice president from buying stocks, and would ban them from selling stocks for 90 days after enactment.
"We have an opportunity here today to do something that the public has wanted to do for decades," Hawley said during a hearing on the bill. "And that is to ban members of Congress from profiting on information that frankly only members of Congress have on the buying and selling of stock."
Pelosi said Wednesday that, while she has been cited by Republicans as a target of the ban, she's on board with the latest effort. She also blasted Trump over his objections to the bill.
"Not that I think anybody's doing anything wrong — if they are, they are prosecuted and they go to jail — but because of the confidence it instills in the American people," she told CNN's Jake Tapper. "The president has his own exposure, so he's projecting. He's always projecting."
Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who has been a staunch Trump ally, is vowing to file a discharge petition to try to force a vote on the stock trading ban in the House.
"Even if no laws are broken, the appearance of profiting from this access fuels distrust among Americans," Luna said. "The American people do not trust the US government, and this is a step forward to building that trust."
GRASSLEY: Republican senators were appalled by the personal attack the president lobbed at 91-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this week over a long-standing procedure known as the Senate "blue slip."
Trump suggested on Truth Social on Tuesday that Grassley, who chairs the powerful Judiciary Committee, could single-handedly "solve the 'Blue Slip' problem" that has held up the president's judicial appointees in some blue states.
"Chuck, I know you have the Courage to do this, DO IT!" Trump wrote in the lengthy post, claiming credit for Grassley's two most recent successful reelection bids.
The president also pointed out Grassley's age and tenure in the Senate, reposting a list calling for term limits. Grassley, the longest-serving member in the upper chamber, has been in the Senate for more than four decades.
"I think it was a bad — No. 1, Chuck is beloved in our conference. No. 2, the blue-slip policy helps the president. He's got staff giving him bad advice," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said.
NAVIGATING ISRAEL: Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza is testing the long-standing Republican regard for the U.S.'s close ally and creating new headaches for GOP leaders.
The Hill's Mike Lillis reports that while a vast majority of congressional Republicans still support Israel's war effort, the party's united front has cracked in recent weeks as members of a small but vocal isolationist wing have pushed to slash U.S. military aid.
▪ The Hill: Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), the new Main Street Caucus chair, is gearing up for a funding showdown.
EPSTEIN QUESTIONS: Democrats are ramping up pressure on Republicans over the Jeffrey Epstein files, turning to an arcane rule to attempt to force the release of documents and highlight an issue that has become a sore subject for the Trump administration and Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is leading the charge to force the release by using the "rule of five," a relic of a 1928 law that requires government agencies to hand over information if any five lawmakers on a Senate or House panel — in this case the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — request them.
"This is not complicated," Schumer said at a press conference Wednesday. "Every single time Trump, his administration [and] Republican leaders have had a chance to be transparent about the Epstein files, they've chosen to hide."
ADMINISTRATION ROUNDUP:
▪ The Hill: Trump's battle with The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch is being closely watched as a test of the power dynamic between two of the most influential figures on the right over the last several decades.
▪ CBS News: Brown University cut a deal with the White House to restore research grant funding in exchange for commitments on women's sports, antisemitism and admissions practices.
▪ The Hill: Trump is considering whether to allow retirement funds to invest in private equity firms, a financial sector that's hungry for capital after contracting last year for the first time in decades.
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