The Conversation -- March 31, 2025

Brianna Tucker of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Sunday declined to rule out seeking a third presidential term — an unconstitutional act explicitly barred under the 22nd Amendment — saying that 'there are methods which you could do it.' In a phone interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker, Trump suggested that multiple plans have begun to circulate for him to run for a third term. He pointed to unspecified polling as an indicator of his popularity and claimed he had the 'highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.' 'A lot of people want me to do it,' Trump said. 'But we have — my thinking is, we have a long way to go. I’m focused on the current.'... 'I’m not joking,' Trump said. 'But, I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.' Pressed again by Welker on the toll of the presidency..., Trump, who would be 82 years old in 2028, said, 'Well, I like working.' Trump reiterated his sentiments about his popularity and the prospect of a third term when speaking to reporters Sunday evening aboard Air Force One. 'We have almost four years to go and that’s a long time but despite that, so many people are saying “You’ve got to run again.” They love the job we’re doing,' Trump told reporters. Despite the assertion, several recent polls have found that Americans are unhappy with many of the executive actions and the cost-cutting Trump has directed in his second term.” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: He's "focused on the current"? Does that mean he's finally taken an interest in climate change? Or is he merely thinking of taking up sailing? If Trump is planning a third term, he obviously has abandoned the Constitution. ~~~

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler: “I think it a colossal waste of time that the punditocracy spent much of Sunday talking about Kristen Welker’s 'report' that Trump says he wants a third term. You don’t say? Rather than spending the day discussing Trump’s Executive Order presuming to dictate to states how they — with the involvement of DOGE!! — must start suppressing the vote over the next months, we talked about something that might happen in 2028. Rather than spending the day talking about how Trump is already using federal funding and immigration law to silence speech protected by the First Amendment, we discussed what gimmick Trump might use in the future to evade the 22nd Amendment. Almost no one even tried to use Trump’s comments about a third term as a way to explain the end goal of assaults on civil society, speech, and voting — to connect the actions Trump took in the last week to what he says he’ll do in 2028....” Wheeler goes on to knock Welker & NBC News AND to suggest how journalists -- instead of allowing Trump to use them, as Welker does -- use Trump's own words “for example..., as a way to raise the stakes for his daily assault on democracy.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Truth is that we already know that. I view Trump's musings about a third term -- reveries he has been indulging since his first term -- as just one more potential assault on the Constitution and our flimsy democracy in general. Wheeler's proposed lesson is an important one to deliver to low-information voters (and to deliver again and again because lo-info folks have very short attention spans -- see Krugman, linked below), but we need no convincing. In fact, the main reason I link many of the opinion pieces I do link is to say -- "look, look, here's somebody who gets it."

Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said Sunday he was 'angry' at Russian President Vladimir Putin and added that the White House would consider more tariffs on Russian oil if he believed Putin was stalling on a peace agreement with Ukraine. 'You could say that I was very angry, pissed off, when Putin said yesterday that — you know, when Putin started getting into [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s credibility, because that’s not going in the right location, you understand?' Trump said during a phone interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday morning. Trump said he would consider putting secondary tariffs on Russian oil — or penalties on other countries that buy oil from Russia — if he and Putin couldn’t come to terms 'on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine' and 'if I think it was Russia’s fault.' ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IF Putin is stalling??? Even the WashPo's most-right-wing, Trump-butt-kissing columnist Marc Thiessen acknowledges that Putin is stalling.

Tariff Time. Doom. Jeff Cox of CNBC: “... Goldman Sachs expects aggressive duties from the White House to raise inflation and unemployment and drag economic growth to a near-standstill. The investment bank now expects that tariff rates will jump 15 percentage points, its previous 'risk-case' scenario that now appears more likely when Trump announces reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday. However, Goldman did note that product and country exclusions eventually will pull that increase down to 9 percentage points. When the new trade moves are enacted, the Goldman economic team led by head of global investment research Jan Hatzius sees a broad, negative impact on the economy. In a note published on Sunday, the firm said 'we continue to believe the risk from April 2 tariffs is greater than many market participants have previously assumed.'”

Tariff Time. And Gloom. Paul Krugman: “... businesspeople, especially small business owners, always [seem] to believe that they will do better under Republicans, even though history shows that business does better under Democrats. Small business owners supported Trump in the last election.... And now they’re getting a rude awakening.... Under Trump..., policy ... will ... change with his perception of personal advantage, his temper tantrums, his whims and his malignant narcisissim.... MAGA will be very bad for business. Most immediately, it seems as if Trump doesn’t care that his tariffs will raise business costs in addition to raising prices for consumers. We’ll get a better sense of how much costs will rise after 'Liberation Day,' the big announcement of new tariffs planned for Wednesday.... The increase has already begun.... Thanks to tariffs already in effect the U.S. economy is already getting unscrewed.... You see, steep tariffs on steel and aluminum were the opening salvo in Trump’s trade war, and they are being applied not just to the metals themselves but to anything made from the metals, including screws, nuts and bolts. And foreign producers are not absorbing the tariffs; they are sharply raising prices.... In a world where many of the goods we import are productive inputs like screws — or auto parts — tariffs directly raise the cost of manufacturing in the United States. Yet Trump’s threats against automakers suggests that he thinks he can control inflation through intimidation.”

Damien Cave of the New York Times: “The F-35, a fifth-generation fighter, was developed in partnership with eight countries, making it a model of international cooperation. When ... [Donald] Trump introduced its successor, the F-47 [last week], he ... said the version sold to allies would be deliberately downgraded ... 'because someday, maybe they’re not our allies.' For many countries wedded to the United States, his remark confirmed a related conclusion: that America can no longer be trusted. Even nations not yet directly affected can see where things are heading, as Mr. Trump threatens allies’ economies, their defense partnerships and even their sovereignty. For now, they are negotiating to minimize the pain from blow after blow, including a broad round of tariffs expected in April. But at the same time, they are pulling back. Preparing for intimidation to be a lasting feature of U.S. relations, they are trying to go their own way.”

You know, they love me in the Netherlands. -- Donald Trump, reacting to the role of the Dutch in the global slave trade, on a visit to the National Museum of African American History in 2017

There's the key to Trump's soul. Six words, in context, tell you all you need to know. -- Marie Burns

What is written in that order sounds almost Orwellian in the way Trump thinks he can mandate a mythic conception of American history that’s almost Disney-esque with only happy endings, only heroic figures, no attention at all to the complexity of American history and the struggles to have a more perfect union.... It’s like the barbarian sack of Rome in the level of ignorance and ill-will and anti-intellectualism. -- Historian Raymond Arsenault, on Trump's order to control Smithsonian programs 

It’s what the Nazis did. It’s what Spain did. It’s what Mussolini tried. This is like the Soviets: they revised the Soviet encyclopedia every year to update the official history. -- David Blight, President of the Organization of American Historians ~~~

~~~ David Smith of the Guardian: “In an executive order entitled [titled!] 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History', [Donald Trump] directed the removal of 'improper, divisive or anti-American ideology' from its storied [Smithsonian Institution] museums. The move was met with dismay from historians who saw it as an attempt to whitewash the past and suppress discussions of systemic racism and social justice. With Trump having also taken over the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, there are fears that, in authoritarian fashion, he is aiming to control the future by controlling the past.... [Trump's order] is in line with his administration’s efforts to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in government, universities and corporations. The Smithsonian shut its diversity office soon after the president signed a January executive order banning DEI programmes at organisations that receive federal money.”

“The Great Grovel.” John Harris & Staff of Politico: “One after another, a parade of the wealthiest and most elite institutions in American life since last November have found themselves confronted by unprecedented demands from ... Donald Trump and his team of retribution-seekers. One after another, these establishment pillars have met these demands with the same response: capitulation and compliance.... Two themes are consistent. The first is an effort — far more organized and disciplined than any precedent from Trump’s first term — to bring institutions who have earned the president’s ire to heel. The second theme is even more surprising: The swiftness with which supposedly powerful and supposedly independent institutions have responded — with something akin to the trembling acquiescence of a child surrendering his lunch money to a big kid.... Cumulatively, the cases represent an astonishing new chapter in the history of the American establishment: The Great Grovel.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While Harris is a both-sider extraordinaire, he strikes me as being quite conservative, so I suppose it's nice that he notices that Trump has so easily overpowered the supposed masters of the universe. Perhaps Harris doesn't consider billionaire techies to be part of an institution, because he really doesn't mention the Great Tech Capitulation -- Musk, Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sam Altman, etc. (Harris does mention Jeff Bezos, but mostly in connection with his media ownership.)

He who saves his Country violates no Law. -- Norwegian Neo-Nazi anti-immigrant Anders Breivik, from the manifesto he published before he massacred 77 people 

He who saves his Country does not violate any Law. -- Donald Trump, 2015 ~~~

~~~ Christopher Mathias in an MSNBC opinion piece: “It barely triggers a 24-hour news cycle anymore when the vice president and his boss..., Donald Trump, use the same language as fascist mass murderers. I’ve witnessed this process of normalization over the last eight years as a reporter covering the far right, seeing neo-Nazi talking points, especially around immigration, enter the mainstream discourse with horrifying, accelerating speed.... The extreme actions and rhetoric being taken by the administration are not dissimilar from those deployed in the early stages of some of the worst regimes of the 20th century.... Trump, Vance and the GOP, of course, have spent years demonizing immigrants, the rhetoric reaching a fever pitch during the 2024 election, with Trump saying immigrants were 'poisoning the blood of the country' — a phrasing that bore an unnerving resemblance to wording in Adolf Hitler’s 'Mein Kampf' — and with Vance spreading the vicious lie that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets.... The last couple of weeks have offered a preview of some of the horrors to come.”

Яacists Я Us. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Almost immediately after taking office, ... [Donald] Trump began shutting down refugee resettlement programs, slashing billions of dollars in funding and making it all but impossible for people from scores of countries to seek haven in the United States. With one exception. The Trump administration has thrown open the doors to white Afrikaners from South Africa, establishing a program called 'Mission South Africa' to help them come to the United States as refugees.... The administration’s focus on white Afrikaners comes as it effectively bans the entry of other refugees — including about 20,000 people from countries like Afghanistan, Congo and Syria who were ready to travel to the United States before Mr. Trump took office.” Oh, read on. This is a gift link. Besides, maybe it's a reciprocal things; after all, as we now know, the Dutch love Trump. Especially the slaver Dutch, I reckon.

Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: “Elon Musk ... handed out $1 million checks to two Wisconsin voters Sunday as he tries to help conservatives take control of the swing state’s top court in an election this week. For the evening, Musk put a spotlight on what has become the most expensive court race in U.S. history — in part because Musk and groups affiliated with him have pumped about $20 million into it. Musk stepped onto the stage wearing a foam cheesehead popularized at Green Bay Packers games, and he spoke about an hour after the state Supreme Court declined to accept a lawsuit challenging his payments to registered voters.” The AP report is here.

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France. Aurelien Breeden & Roger Cohen of the Washington Post: “Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, was found guilty of embezzlement by a criminal court in Paris on Monday and immediately barred from running for public office for five years, jeopardizing her plans to compete in France’s 2027 presidential election. The verdict was a major blow to the perennial presidential ambitions of Ms. Le Pen, an anti-immigrant, nationalist politician who has already mounted three failed bids. Looking grim and murmuring 'incredible,' she walked briskly out of the courtroom before the judges had completed reading her sentence.” MB: Ah, I'll bet this is what she said: ~~~

The Conversation -- March 30, 2025

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Adam Entous of New York Times: Two months after the Russian army invaded Ukraine in 2022, U.S. Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, “proposed a partnership [to top Ukrainian generals]. Its evolution and inner workings visible to only a small circle of American and allied officials, that partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology would become the secret weapon in what the Biden administration framed as its effort to both rescue Ukraine and protect the threatened post-World War II order. Today that order — along with Ukraine’s defense of its land — teeters on a knife edge, as ... [Donald] Trump seeks rapprochement with Mr. Putin and vows to bring the war to a close.... Now, with negotiations beginning..., [Mr. Trump] has baselessly blamed the Ukrainians for starting the war, pressured them to forfeit much of their mineral wealth and asked the Ukrainians to agree to a cease-fire without a promise of concrete American security guarantees — a peace with no certainty of continued peace.... Mr. Trump has already begun to wind down elements of the partnership sealed in Wiesbaden that day in the spring of 2022.

“Yet to trace its history is to better understand how the Ukrainians were able to survive across three long years of war, in the face of a far larger, far more powerful enemy.... A New York Times investigation reveals that America was woven into the war far more intimately and broadly than previously understood. At critical moments, the partnership was the backbone of Ukrainian military operations that, by U.S. counts, have killed or wounded more than 700,000 Russian soldiers." MB: The page is a slow-loader. It took several minutes to come up on my computer & I have pretty fast Internet service.” ~~~

~~~ Entous has a “takeaways" report here: “... for nearly three years before Mr. Trump’s return to power, the United States and Ukraine were joined in an extraordinary partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology whose evolution and inner workings have been known only to a small circle of American and allied officials.... A New York Times investigation reveals that America’s involvement in the war was far deeper than previously understood. The secret partnership both guided big-picture battle strategy and funneled precise targeting information down to Ukrainian soldiers in the field.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I am not one to follow the intricacies of warmaking, I didn't think U.S. involvement in Ukraine's war effort was especially secret. I've seen numerous stories about how much U.S. & allied intelligence sources were helping Ukraine fight the war against the Russian invaders. And one would assume that the planning and strategy and all have been kept secret. Or at least one would have assumed. If Entous' story contains new information about how the ops worked, then I suppose Mike Waltz accidentally read him in on some of Drunk Pete's Signal chats. And speaking of Pete, looks like he's been cribbing his not-so-secret war plans off a Heritage Foundation doc ~~~

~~~ Alex Horton & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reoriented the U.S. military to prioritize deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defense by 'assuming risk' in Europe and other parts of the world, according to a secret internal guidance memo that bears the fingerprints of the conservative Heritage Foundation, including some passages that are nearly word-for-word duplications of text published by the think tank last year.... The first Trump administration and the Biden administration characterized China as the greatest threat to the U.S. and postured the force to prepare for and deter conflict in the Pacific region. But Hegseth’s guidance is extraordinary in its description of the potential invasion of Taiwan as the exclusive animating scenario that must be prioritized over other potential dangers — reorienting the vast U.S. military architecture toward the Indo-Pacific region beyond its homeland defense mission.... Senior U.S. military officials have directly tied Heritage’s vision to Hegseth’s guidance.”

Maggie Haberman & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “For much of this week..., [Donald] Trump was consumed by a single question. What should he do about his national security adviser, Michael Waltz? 'Should I fire him?' he asked aides and allies as the fallout continued over the stunning leak of a Signal group chat set up by Mr. Waltz.... In public, Mr. Trump’s default position has been to defend Mr. Waltz and attack the media.... [However,] he told allies ... that he did not want to be seen as caving to a media swarm.... And he said he was reluctant to fire people in the senior ranks so early in his second term.... He has wanted to avoid comparisons to the chaotic staffing of his first term, which had the highest turnover of top aides of any presidential administration in modern history.... But for Mr. Trump, the real problem ... was that Mr. Waltz may have had some kind of connection to [Jeffrey] Goldberg, a Washington journalist whom Mr. Trump loathes. The president expressed displeasure about how Mr. Waltz had Mr. Goldberg’s number in his phone.... [Also,] Mr. Trump  Even before the Signal leak, Mr. Waltz was on shaky footing, viewed as too hawkish by some of the president’s advisers and too eager to advocate for military action against Iran....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This report is in line with a Politico report by Rachel Bade & Dasha Burns, linked here yesterday.

Dan Diamond & Dan Keating of the Washington Post: “In his presidential campaign last year, Donald Trump vowed to supercharge U.S. scientific research efforts, pledging to 'unleash the power of American innovation' to combat cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. But Trump has instead unleashed cuts and chaos that are paralyzing ongoing research, prompting layoffs and threatening America’s perch as a global scientific leader, researchers and scientists warn. The brunt of the pain stems from changes at the National Institutes of Health, which provides the bulk of biomedical research funding in the United States and supports more than 300,000 researchers across the country. Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, NIH funding has dropped by more than $3 billion compared with grants issued during the same period last year....” MB: Sorry, but “science” and “RFKJ” do not belong in the same sentence.

Marie: If you live in the United States, unless your sole place of residence is New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston or Philadelphia, you probably can't get by without a car. Not only that, transportation is one of your biggest expenses. Donald Trump “couldn’t care less”: ~~~

~~~ Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said on Saturday that he 'couldn’t care less' if car prices spike because of his 25 percent tariffs on auto imports, saying the levies will prompt more people to buy American cars. 'I couldn’t care less. I hope [foreign automakers] raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty,' he said in the interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that aired Saturday.... On the campaign trail, Trump vowed that prices would begin to come down on the first day of his presidency, but they remain stubbornly high, with potentially more economic pain in coming days as more tariffs take effect.... Economists have warned that tariffs amount to a tax on U.S. consumers and could tip the country into a recession....” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein & Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump is pushing senior advisers to go bigger on tariff policy as they prepare for what the White House has called 'Liberation Day,' the April 2 date he has set for a major escalation in his global trade war.... Although many of his allies on Wall Street and Capitol Hill have urged the White House to take a more conciliatory approach, Trump has continued to press for aggressive measures to fundamentally transform the U.S. economy.... Trump’s advisers are in intensive deliberations about the exact scope of the import duties to be imposed, which officials have described as affecting trillions of dollars’ worth of trade.” MB: Obviously, “senior advisors” aren't what they used to be. And not one of these cowards, of course, his willing to fall on his sword and say, “Mr. President,* this is the dumbest idea you have ever had. And you've had lots of remarkably dumb ones. Sir.”

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: “Federal worker unions have sought over the past two months to lead the resistance to... [Donald] Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency, filing lawsuits, organizing protests and signing up new members by the thousands. This week, Mr. Trump struck back with a potentially crippling blow. In a sweeping executive order denouncing the unions as 'hostile' to his agenda, the president cited national security concerns to remove some one million civil servants across more than a dozen agencies from the reach of organized labor, eliminating the unions’ power to represent those workers at the bargaining table or in court.... [Dueling lawsuits followed.] The move added to the list of actions by Mr. Trump to use the levers of the presidency to weaken perceived enemies....With his order, Mr. Trump ... [claimed] many workers in the Veterans Affairs, Treasury and Energy Departments as well as the E.P.A., among others. Huge portions of the Department of Health and Human Services were also designated as vital to national security, in addition to 'most components' of the Justice Department. The order was clear in its purpose: to neutralize groups that have been able 'to obstruct agency management.'”

Gary Fields & Chris Megerian of the AP: “Most employees at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a congressionally created and funded think tank now taken over by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, received email notices of their mass firing, the latest step in the Trump administration’s government downsizing. The emails, sent to personal accounts because most staff members had lost access to the organization’s system, began going out about 9 p.m. Friday....”

Here's another group of young people Trump has stranded: ~~~

~~~ Aryn Baker of the New York Times: “Students at the American University of Afghanistan in Qatar fear having to return to their Taliban-ruled homeland after aid and visa cutoffs by the Trump administration.... The U.S. government had promised refugee status for [the students. But] on Jan. 20..., [Donald] Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee resettlement.... A month later, [the] university lost most of its funding when Mr. Trump dismantled American foreign aid programs, to reorient spending in line with the administration’s foreign policy goals.... On March 15, [came] word that Mr. Trump was considering putting Afghanistan on a list of countries whose citizens would be barred from entering the United States.... The American University of Afghanistan was established in 2006 as a coed liberal arts college, with instruction in English. It was designed to educate the next generation of Afghan leaders and innovators, imbued with Western ideals of justice, freedom and democracy.... The U.S. government has invested more than $100 million in the university, and until last month, funding from the United States Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., covered more than half of its operating costs.”

Adam Geller of the AP: “A right-wing Jewish group said some [protesters] identified with [its facial-recognition] tool were on a list of names it submitted to ... Donald Trump’s administration, urging that they be deported in accordance with his call for the expulsion of foreign students who participated in [what it deemed to be] 'pro-jihadist' protests. Other pro-Israel groups have enlisted help from supporters on campuses, urging them to report foreign students who participated in protests against the war in Gaza to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.The push to identify masked protesters using facial recognition and turn them in is blurring the line between public law enforcement and private groups.” MB: The article refers to Mahmoud Khalil as a person who “helped lead demonstrations against Israel’s conduct of the war.” I'm not sure if that's true, as numerous articles have described him as someone who helped negotiate between protesters and authorities. That's different.

Ted Johnson of Deadline: "The White House Correspondents’ Association has dropped plans to feature a comedian at its April 26 dinner. Amber Ruffin had been announced as the featured entertainer. WHCA President Eugene Daniels wrote in a letter to members today that “the WHCA board has unanimously decided we are no longer featuring a comedic performance this year.... The White House has been critical of the choice of Ruffin, citing her past humor at the expense of Donald Trump. Trump is not expected to attend, and there are reports that his supporters are planning a competing event." Thanks to RAS for the link. Do see RAS's commentary near the end of yesterday's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ Angie Hernandez of the Washington Post: “Comedian Amber Ruffin’s headlining performance at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner was canceled Saturday, a day after a member of the Trump administration [-- Taylor Budowich --] accused her of being 'hate-filled' and took aim at the association that puts on the event for booking her.... The dinner will .. take place amid tense relations between the WCHA and the White House after the Trump administration took unprecedented control over the makeup of press pool, stripped the Associated Press’s access to White House events ... and ordered government entities to cancel news subscriptions around the world.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For decades, the White House correspondents, with some exceptions, have showed themselves to be lame excuses for journalists. After failing to boycott the White House when it kicked out the AP for not changing their style guide to reflect Donnie's preference for "Gulf of America," the entire corps was on life support, in my book. (Johnson does point out that "The WHCA ... has supported the Associated Press in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.") But dumping the comedian because she might tell mean jokes on the president*? That's it. It is astonishing that an organization of self-identified journalists would cede its own First-Amendment prerogatives to a lackey for the authoritarian president* from whom that very group is supposed to protect us. The WHCA is dead. Vive la Résistance!

The Conversation -- March 29, 2025

Trump and his mob had their day in court Friday. For the most part, it did not go well.

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Federal judges dealt twin blows to ... [Donald] Trump’s retaliation campaign on Friday by issuing temporary restraining orders blocking much of his executive orders targeting two major law firms that participated in investigations of him, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. The rulings barred the administration from carrying out punishments described in the executive orders, like banning their lawyers from government buildings, meetings, or jobs. Mr. Trump went after Jenner & Block because the firm once employed a lawyer [MB: -- Andrew Weissmann --] who became part of the special counsel team that investigated Mr. Trump in his first term. But Judge John Bates of Federal District Court in the District of Columbia took issue with Mr. Trump’s order because it also punished the firm for its pro bono work.... Judge Bates said he found that action 'disturbing' and 'troubling.'... Another judge in the same courthouse, Richard Leon, issued a similar temporary restraining order against a Trump executive order targeting a different firm, WilmerHale, where Robert S. Mueller III worked before and after he served as special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation. The judges let stand the parts of the president’s orders stripping security clearances from lawyers at the firms.” CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Donald Trump's retribution campaign against his perceived enemies is not entirely about retribution. David Enrich explains: ~~~

     ~~~ David Enrich of the New York Times: “... the barrage of at least 150 lawsuits against the second Trump administration, challenging many of its policies and personnel decisions, is perhaps unmatched in U.S. history. And in dozens of cases, judges have ordered the administration to pause or reverse actions at the heart of ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda. Mr. Trump and his administration’s lawyers are fighting in court, but they are also pursuing a much more ambitious and consequential goal: deterring lawyers from suing his administration in the first place.... Mr. Trump’s moves have the potential — and perhaps the goal — to undermine people’s ability to challenge their government.... There are parallels between Mr. Trump’s attacks on the legal industry and his campaign to constrain or weaken other pillars of civic society. Mr. Trump and his aides are suing or investigating media outlets that have produced critical coverage. And his administration is threatening to withhold huge sums of federal money from universities that don’t hew to his demands.”

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “A federal judge in Boston [-- Brian E. Murphy --] issued a temporary emergency order blocking the Trump administration from sending anyone with a final deportation order to a country where they are not a citizen without first giving them a 'meaningful opportunity' to seek humanitarian protection in the United States.... The decision ... follows threats from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem this week that anyone in the United States illegally could be swept away to El Salvador and imprisoned in one of the nation’s sprawling prisons. In a two-page decision following a hearing, Murphy wrote that officials may not deport someone to a so-called third country 'unless and until' they provide the deportee and their lawyer written notice of the country to which they are being sent. Then..., officials must let them apply in immigration court for protection to stay in the U.S. under the Convention Against Torture, which ... prohibit[s] the government from sending immigrants to a country where they might be tortured. After that..., the agency must await a final decision from an immigration judge before sending someone to another country.... Murphy’s decision does not affect alleged gang members deported this month under the Alien Enemies Act without a hearing, but it could protect other immigrants who are at risk of being removed to El Salvador....”

Mattathias Schwartz & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s efforts to deport migrants to places other than their country of origin hit a new roadblock on Friday, when a federal judge issued a temporary order requiring the administration to give migrants an opportunity to contest their removal on the grounds that they might be at risk of persecution or torture. U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy, who sits in Boston, ordered the government to give migrants a chance to contest their removal to a so-called third country under a federal law that limits deportations to places where the deportees’ 'life or freedom would be threatened.' He also cited a United Nations treaty against torture. The Trump administration has struck deals with Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador as part of its efforts to remove people who are difficult to deport to their home countries. Hundreds of migrants from countries in Africa and Asia, for instance, have been deported to Panama, a country those migrants had no ties to.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Savador Rizzo & Teo Armus of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a Venezuelan couple who were detained by immigration authorities this month despite having legal authorization to live and work in the United States, calling their apprehensions baseless and unlawful. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted a petition for release filed by the couple, who received temporary protected status after crossing the border illegally in October 2022. Brinkema rebuked government officials for claiming in court that the couple posed a public threat and ordered both of them released straight from the courthouse.... Addressing a government lawyer, Brinkema said, 'If this was a criminal case … I’d throw you out of my chambers.'... Another judge in the District of Columbia previously ordered [the couple's] release after they were first arrested March 10 as they arrived home from their jobs as hotel custodians, with their young children watching.... The Trump administration as soon as next week is terminating all grants of temporary protected status for the approximately 348,000 Venezuelans who have received it. Brinkema said as she issued her ruling Friday that 'this may be a very temporary release.'”

Michael Sisak of the AP: “A federal judge on Friday halted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the [Voice of America, the] eight-decade-old U.S. government-funded international news service, calling the move a 'classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.' Judge James Paul Oetken blocked the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which runs Voice of America, from firing more than 1,200 journalists, engineers and other staff that it sidelined two weeks ago in the wake of ... Donald Trump ordering its funding slashed. Oetken issued a temporary restraining order barring the agency from 'any further attempt to terminate, reduce-in-force, place on leave, or furlough' employees or contractors, and from closing any offices or requiring overseas employees to return to the U.S. The order also bars the Agency for Global Media from terminating grant funding for its other broadcast outlets, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Afghanistan. The agency said Thursday it was restoring Radio Free Europe’s funding after a judge in Washington, D.C. ordered it to do so.”

Michael Kunzelman of the AP: “A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that was targeted for mass firings before the court’s intervention. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency. The judge said the court 'can and must act' to save the agency from being shuttered. Jackson ruled that, without a court order..., Donald Trump’s administration would move quickly to shut down the agency that Congress created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

BUT -- and this is quite bad news -- it appears the administration is doing better when it gets to the appellate courts: ~~~

Hassan Kanu & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to resume their efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower-court judge’s injunction that had temporarily blocked Musk and DOGE from playing any role in dismantling USAID. The decision comes just as the Trump administration is making a final push to effectively dissolve the agency....” Related NYT story by Karoun Demirjian linked below.

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal appeals court has cleared the way for ... Donald Trump to fire members of executive branch boards that oversee federal employee grievances and labor disputes across the nation. The ruling Friday is a victory for Trump’s effort to exert control over regulatory agencies that Congress intended to operate with some degree of independence from the president. Federal laws limit the president’s ability to remove the board members who oversee those agencies, but the Trump administration has argued those limits are unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to allow Trump to remove members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. The two board members in the case — Gwynne Wilcox of the NLRB and Cathy Harris of the MSPB — were appointed by President Joe Biden. Lower-court judges had issued injunctions preventing Trump from firing the two board members, but Friday’s appeals court ruling lifts those injunctions for now while the litigation proceeds.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to use a rarely invoked wartime law to continue to deport Venezuelans with little to no due process. The emergency application arrived at the court after a federal appeals court kept in place a temporary block on the deportations. In its application to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the administration argued that the matter was too urgent to wait for the case to wind its way through the lower courts.” (Also linked yesterday.)

This Is Horrifying. Ella Lee of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Friday announced a deal with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services [on issues Trump supports, according to Devlin Barrett's report, linked above] 'during the Trump administration and beyond.' The agreement comes as Trump has signed executive orders targeting Big Law firms tied to his critics and perceived political enemies, restricting the work they can do with the federal government.... Under the deal, Trump said Skadden won’t deny representation to clients from 'politically disenfranchised groups, who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms.' The firm’s assistance will include a focus on assisting veterans and other public servants, the president said, including 'members of the military, law enforcement and on and on.'” MB: If lawyers won't stand up for the Constitution & the rule of law, who will? (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow said last night that she thinks Skadden Arps, as well as Paul, Weiss -- another firm that caved to Trump -- just put themselves out of business. I hope she's right.

David Bauder of the AP: “A lawyer for The Associated Press asked a federal judge Thursday to reinstate the agency’s access to the White House press pool and other official events, saying the Trump administration’s ban is a fundamental attack on freedom of speech and should be overturned. The government insisted there was no evidence that AP had been harmed irreparably.... The White House retaliated against the news outlet last month for not following ... Donald Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.... The notion of banning a news agency for what it says — and for not using the words that a government demands — is extraordinarily unusual in a country whose Constitution guarantees free speech without official interference.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you need to be reminded of how awful the White House reporters are (make [decisions], announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home), then think about this: The White House Correspondents Associationis ready-made to stick together, back the AP and boycott the White House. It has done nothing, leaving the AP to stand alone.

Nobody Loves Us, Everybody Hates Us ...

Jeffrey Gettleman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance landed in Greenland on Friday afternoon as part of a contentious trip pushed by the Trump administration and angrily opposed by Greenlanders. His group, which includes his wife, Usha, and the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was set to tour the Pituffik Space Base, an American missile defense station and one of the most remote military installations in the world.... The White House’s original plan was for Ms. Vance ... to attend a famous dog sled race this weekend and see other cultural sites, in an effort to bring the United States and Greenland closer. But the plan backfired. Protesters were gearing up to line the road from the airport into town. The island’s government blasted the visit as unwanted and 'highly aggressive.' Even the organizers of the dog sled race released a pointed statement saying they had never asked Ms. Vance to attend in the first place.... On Friday, during an overcast day in Nuuk, ordinary Greenlanders said they were not happy about Mr. Vance coming.... Foreign policy analysts said the revised trip was a watered-down version of what the White House wanted. 'It’s a tactical retreat — a repositioning to strike harder later,' said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based in Copenhagen.... This January, Mr. Trump resurrected the idea [of acquiring Greenland] for 'national security purposes' and refused to rule out using force to take Greenland from Denmark. Just this week, Mr. Trump said again: 'We need it. We have to have it.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has been less than subtle in his insistence that the United States will 'get' Greenland one way or another, reiterating on Friday that the United States cannot “live without it.' By the time he uttered those words in the Oval Office, the highest-level American political expeditionary force ever to step foot on the vast territory had already landed to inspect the real estate prospects. But they were confined inside the fence of a remote, frozen American air base, the only place protesters could not show up.... The trip was simultaneously a reconnaissance mission and a passive-aggressive reminder of Mr. Trump’s determination to fulfill his territorial ambitions, no matter what the obstacles. As if to drive home the point, Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday: 'We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of “Do you think we can do without it.” We can’t.'... Not since the days of William McKinley, who engaged in the Spanish-American War in the late 19th century and ended up with U.S. control of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, has an American president-elect so blatantly threatened the use of force to expand the country’s territorial boundaries. And the visit on Friday appeared designed to make that clear, without quite repeating the threat.” (Also linked yesterday.) A CBS News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “'The president said we have to have Greenland, and I think we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland,' [JD Vance] he said during visit to Pituffik Space Base.... 'We cannot just ignore this place. We cannot just ignore the president’s desires.'... His remarks on Friday were notable for his harsh condemnations of Denmark’s management of the mineral rich and strategically important territory — and his declaration that 'Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe.'... But he also tempered some of the rhetoric about a takeover.... Vance downplayed any notion that the United States would attempt to use military action or otherwise forcefully acquire Greenland, outlining instead a sequence of events in which it would voluntarily become independent from Denmark and forge a new alliance. 'If the people of Greenland were willing to partner with the United States, and I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States, we could make them much more secure,' he said.” A Guardian story is here. ~~~

~~~ Seb Starcevic of Politico: “Denmark’s foreign minister dressed down the United States for its disrespect, hours after Vice President JD Vance visited an American military base in Greenland. Speaking in a two-minute video message on Friday night, in which he addressed Americans directly, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen appealed for an end to the hostile messaging from Washington.... 'We all acted on the assumption that the Arctic was and should be a low-tension area. But that time is over.'” ~~~

~~~ In the segment below, listen to the Instagram video of former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford (appointed by Barack Obama) react to JayDee's ignorant, arrogant assertion that Denmark is not a good ally of the U.S.:

Max Saltman of CNN: “Canada will have to 'dramatically reduce' its reliance on the United States as the two countries’ relationship darkens, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned on Thursday, adding that the old bilateral relationship was 'over.' After holding a cabinet meeting to discuss Canada’s response to ... Donald Trump’s tariffs threats, Carney told reporters in Ottawa that he foresaw the coming of a 'fundamentally different relationship' between the two countries. 'The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,' he said. 'It’s clear the US is no longer a reliable partner. It is possible that with comprehensive negotiations, we could reestablish an element of confidence but there will be no going backwards,' the Canadian leader said, adding that future governments would have to grapple with the same changed dynamic. 'There’s even more to do, and that’s why I chose to go to France and the United Kingdom, two long-standing and reliable partners, friends and allies of Canada,' Carney said, referring to his first international trip as prime minister.” (Also linked yesterday.)

A Trumpy Bait-and-Switch Stunt Against Ukraine. Siobhán O'Grady & Lizzie Johnson of the Washington Post: “A new U.S. proposal for a minerals deal with Ukraine dramatically changes the last terms Kyiv proposed to Washington and does not provide security guarantees, according to Ukrainian officials and a draft of the document, setting the stage for potential further tension between the two countries as the White House pushes for access to Ukraine’s natural resources. President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Thursday that lawyers were studying the new proposal, which was different from the previous framework that had been agreed on.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: Trump keeps claiming he is taking aggressive actions against (former) allies in the interest of U.S. national security, but the fact is that nothing could be more dangerous to our national security than Trump's and his Cabinet members' bellicose language and threats and actions against our friends (and their arrogance and incompetence). A few have tried, but no one has done so much in so little time to turn the U.S. into an international pariah.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “We have seen entirely too much cowering and capitulation in the face of Trump’s threats: by the Paul Weiss law firm and Columbia University, by Meta and much of Silicon Valley, by Big Pharma and other industries, by mostly supine congressional Republicans, by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (in the eyes of many on the left), and by media outlets. But in a crisis, courage can be found in unexpected places. This is why it’s heartening to see some on the right (beyond the usual never-Trumpers) beginning to speak out about Trump’s overreach. We might be seeing the first cracks in MAGA unity, which Trump has maintained by threats and fear.” Milbank recites the crux of numerous (right-wing, Murdoch-owned) Wall Street Journal editorials knocking Trump's policies. And Milbank gets in a few of his own jabs at the Trump crew. This is a gift link as there's lots of useful content in this opinion column. (Also linked yesterday.)

Warren Strobel, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Yemen attack timeline that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted to a Signal chat group would have been so highly classified, under Pentagon guidelines, that the details should have been restricted to a special, compartmented channel with its own code word and with access tightly limited, according to former Defense Department officials. Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials have denied that the data they shared in a Signal group ... was classified.... Current and former U.S. defense and intelligence officials described the lack of operational security ... as a potentially grievous espionage vulnerability.”

All in the Family. Wherein Drunk Pete Shows Off to His Wife & Brother How He Takes Top-secret Meetings. ~~~

~~~ Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "... a new report said [Pete Hegseth] brought his wife, former Fox News producer, to a pair of meetings with foreign military counterparts in which sensitive information was discussed. Jennifer Hegseth attended two such meetings with foreign officials, the Wall Street Journal reported. One occurred at the Pentagon on March 6 between Pete Hegseth and U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey a day after the United States announced it would no longer share military intelligence with Ukraine.... In that meeting, officials ... discussed future military plans between the two nations.... Jennifer Hegseth also attended a meeting in February at NATO's headquarters in Brussels in which defense officials talked about their support for Ukraine.... Additionally, Pete Hegseth’s brother Philip Hegseth has also tagged along on official visits, the report said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was able to read the whole WSJ article using this link, which looks like a freebie. It's worth reading.

Rachel Bade & Dasha Burns of Politico: “On Wednesday evening — following a brutal day of headlines surrounding the now-infamous Signal chat — Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and top personnel official Sergio Gor ... [suggested to] Donald Trump ... [that he fire National Security Advisor Mike Waltz].... The president agreed that Waltz had messed up, according to [two] people, but Trump ultimately decided not to fire him for one reason — for now: Like hell he’d give the liberal media and pearl-clutching Democrats a win. 'They don’t want to give the press a scalp,' said one of the people, a White House ally close with the team.... One of them offered this prediction: 'They’ll stick by him for now, but he’ll be gone in a couple of weeks.'”

Karoun Demirjian, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Friday detailed its plans to put the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government’s main agency for distributing foreign aid, fully under the State Department and reduce its staff to some 15 positions. An email to U.S.A.I.D. employees informing them of the impending layoffs, titled 'U.S.A.I.D.’s Final Mission' and sent just after noon, detailed an elimination in all but name that the administration had long signaled was coming. It arrived over protests from lawmakers who argued that efforts to downsize the agency were illegal, and from staff members and unions who sued to stop them.”

Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “[Elon] Musk ... has returned to the tactic [he used during the presidential election cycle] as he tries to elect a conservative judge, Brad Schimel, in a major race for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The billionaire has offered a chance to earn $1 million to signers of a petition opposing 'activist judges.' Early Friday, Mr. Musk ... told his 219 million followers on X that when he visited Wisconsin on Sunday, he would hand out two $1 million checks to people who had already voted in the election 'in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.' The offer was open only to those who had already voted, he said. But later on Friday, Mr. Musk quietly deleted his post on X. About 12 hours after that initial post, he said he had to 'clarify a previous post.' He wrote that 'entrance is limited to those who have signed the petition in opposition to activist judges,' adding, 'I will also hand over checks for a million dollars to 2 people to be spokesmen for the petition.'... The state’s Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, on Friday sued to block Mr. Musk’s payments. (In a curious twist of fate, the case was randomly assigned to Susan Crawford, the liberal judge whom Mr. Musk is trying to defeat. She quickly recused herself.)” (Also linked yesterday.)

Christina Jewitt, et al., of the New York Times: “The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, resigned under pressure Friday and said that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s aggressive stance on vaccines was irresponsible and posed a danger to the public. 'It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,' Dr. Marks wrote to Sara Brenner, the agency’s acting commissioner. He reiterated the sentiments in an interview, saying: 'This man doesn’t care about the truth. He cares about what is making him followers.' Dr. Marks resigned after he was summoned to the Department of Health and Human Services Friday afternoon and told that he could either quit or be fired, according to a person familiar with the matter.... [Dr. Marks'] continued oversight of the F.D.A.’s vaccine program clearly put him at odds with the new health secretary.... 'Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at F.D.A. is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security,' Dr. Marks wrote.” ~~~

     ~~~ David Lim, et al., of Politico: “Marks was pushed out under pressure from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said two people familiar with the matter granted anonymity to discuss the resignation — a development that sent shockwaves across the nation’s capital and prompted concern among some pharmaceutical companies”

Patricia Callahan of ProPublica: “Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica. In an aborted plan to roll out the news, the agency would have emphasized the importance of vaccinating people against the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that has spread to 19 states, the records show. A CDC spokesperson told ProPublica in a written statement that the agency decided against releasing the assessment 'because it does not say anything that the public doesn’t already know.' She added that the CDC continues to recommend vaccines as 'the best way to protect against measles.'... 'The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,' [her] statement said, echoing a line from a column Kennedy wrote for the Fox News website. 'People should consult with their healthcare provider to understand their options to get a vaccine and should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The spokeswoman's statement could not be more self-contradictory. She may think she & RFKJ are walking a fine line, but in fact that are telling Americans that they should decide whether or not their children are vaccinated against one of the most contagious diseases on earth. Withholding the CDC assessment was unconscionable. And here's what's happening in real life as a result of their B.S. ~~~

~~~ Devi Shastri of the AP: “At least five states have active measles outbreaks as of Friday, and Texas’ is the largest with 400 cases. Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Other states with outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Since February, two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes. The new outbreaks confirm health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said this week cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The entire staff of the federal government's Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off.... The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.... Much of the government's efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide have been run through OIDP.... Other initiatives overseen by OIDP include the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. program, which was launched by ... [Donald] Trump during his first term. The Office of Minority Health has also been informed that it should expect to be dissolved, sources said."

Emily Wax Thibodeaux & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “A 30-year-old Harvard researcher from Russia has been held for more than a month at a private detention center in Louisiana.... Kseniia Petrova ... was pulled aside as she returned from Paris after failing to tell customs agents at Boston’s Logan International Airport that she was bringing back frog embryos for scientific work her mentor is pursuing. Should she lose her fight to retain her visa and stay in this country, her mentor, friends and lawyer worry that she would be deported back to Russia. Given her past involvement in protests against that country’s invasion of Ukraine, they fear she could be imprisoned for years.... Petrova arrived at Harvard in 2023 by way of Europe, where she had fled after Russian authorities arrested her for speaking out against the war in Ukraine and criticizing President Vladimir Putin online.” The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suspect Trump is deporting Petrova as a favor to Putin, so Putin's "legal" system can try her, convict her and send her to Siberia. That is, ICE is doing not only Trump's dirty work but Putin's too.

Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: “The interim president of Columbia University abruptly left her post Friday evening as the school confronted the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and the Trump administration’s mounting skepticism about its leadership. The move came one week after Columbia bowed to a series of demands from the federal government, which had canceled approximately $400 million in essential federal funding, and it made way for Columbia’s third leader since August. Claire Shipman, who had been the co-chair of the university’s board of trustees, was named the acting president and replaced Dr. Katrina Armstrong.” Perhaps contributing to her ouster/resignation, Armstrong led a faculty meeting last weekend in which she “seemed to downplay the effects of the university’s agreement with the government.” The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Shipman's name rings a bell, that's because she was formerly a top ABC News reporter and is married to Jay Carney, President Obama's press secretary. Anyhow, so long, Dr. Armstrong. Any number of people could have told you that any association with Donald Trump would not end well. One cannot be obsequious enough to Trump to appease his need for flattery.

Vimal Patel of the New York Times: “Two of the leaders of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the director and associate director, will be leaving their positions.... The department had been under criticism from alumni that it had an anti-Israel bias, and the university more broadly has been under intense pressure from the federal government to address accusations of antisemitism on campus. The director, Cemal Kafadar, a professor of Turkish studies, and the associate director, Rosie Bsheer, a historian of the Middle East, did not respond to messages seeking comment on Friday. The news was first reported by The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper.... Faculty members who have spoken with both professors say each believe they were forced out of their posts.”

Ernesto Londoño & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a graduate student attending the University of Minnesota earlier this week, the school said Friday in a statement that called the situation 'deeply concerning.' The student was taken into custody on Thursday at an off-campus residence, the school’s president, Rebecca Cunningham, said in the statement. 'The university had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities before it occurred,' the statement said.”

Marie: Here is a HUGE story I missed, and I learned about it from -- OMG -- Tommy Tuberville, one of the most ignorant people in the Senate. I will never live it down. (Admittedly, that was an extremely busy news day. But still, but still...): ~~~

     ~~~ Peter Eavis & Maureen Farrell of the New York Times (March 4): “An investment group led by BlackRock, a giant American asset manager, said it had agreed to buy two ports in Panama owned by a Hong Kong company that had become the focus of the tensions between Panama and Mr. Trump. BlackRock will buy the ports, which sit at either end of the canal, and over 40 others from the Hong Kong conglomerate, CK Hutchison, for about $19 billion. Though Mr. Trump has other complaints about the canal — it charges too much, he contends — the deal greatly relieves pressure on Panama, political analysts said.... The deal is also an indication of the spoils available to American companies as the Trump administration pursues its America First foreign policy. And for some historians, it brings up memories of the outsize power that Wall Street banks have had in Latin America. 'Where are the Panamanian voices here?' said Peter James Hudson..., of the University of British Columbia.... 'They are completely lost in this larger story of Trump’s efforts.'”

~~~~~~~~~~~