Fore-closure

Today’s notice: Trump continues to play his own personal game of SimCity in D.C. Two tales of the world’s greatest deliberative body deliberating. TrumpRx is finally live. Plus: How Trump is alienating part of his blue-collar base.

THE LATEST

A tale from the D.C. makeover: The National Links Trust, which ran three public golf courses in Washington, says discussions for a partnership with the Trump administration to renovate the courses came to an abrupt end as Donald Trump took an interest in transforming the East Potomac Golf Links on Hains Point. NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports on the chaotic discussions behind the scenes that led to the trust having its lease terminated.

The NLT founders had a vision: They wanted assurances from the Trump administration that their organization’s commitment to affordable and accessible golf would be maintained.

The Trump vision: A PGA-level, 7,500-plus-yard 18-hole course that includes a nine-hole par-3 course, called the Washington National Golf Course.

In one proposal, the trust asked to maintain some control, and shortly thereafter was informed it was in breach of its lease contract and owed millions to the government. “They didn’t make the proper rent payments, and we’re still looking at that full situation, but there’s just no doubt about it. They didn’t hit any of the development targets,” an administration official told Reese.

Or, it got punished for standing in the way. “Fundamentally in disagreement with the administration’s characterization of NLT as being in default under the lease,” is how the National Links Trust puts it.

The fate of the courses are now in limbo. “It’s shocking, it’s saddening, it’s maddening,” Damian Cosby, the executive director of the NLT, told Reese.

Little will stop Trump from remaking D.C.’s public spaces in his image. “The President and his extraordinary team will redevelop these decrepit golf courses in our nation’s capital to restore glamour and prestige,” a White House spox said.

Open tabs: Trump promised Schumer funding for NY tunnel project — if Penn Station and Dulles Airport are renamed after him (CNN); Maryland man facing attempted murder charges after showing up at Russ Vought’s home (CBS); Second judge blocks IRS from sharing taxpayer information with ICE (Politico); U.S. Automakers’ Foreign Troubles Now Extend to Canada (NYT)

From the White House

TrumpRx, open for business: “You’re going to save tremendous amounts of money,” Trump promised Americans at a White House event last night announcing the launch of his administration’s prescription-drug portal. The name is catchy, but a bit of a misnomer, NOTUS’ Margaret Manto reports. The site will not directly sell drugs. Instead, it offers links to drugmakers’ websites, where the companies have promised discount prices.

Only 43 medications are currently available through TrumpRx, Margaret writes. GoodRx, a popular website that works virtually identically to the White House site, offers access to discounted prices for thousands of medications.

From the Hill

Well, this is going well: It still looks like DHS might go unfunded this Valentine’s Day. Both sides of the Senate claim they’re standing by their phones like jilted dates.

It’s all very “he said, she said.” John Thune yesterday dismissed Democrats’ demands as “totally unrealistic” and a ploy to satisfy “left-wing special-interest groups” like MoveOn. He said Republicans are still “trying to get Democrats to engage.”

Senate Democrats insist it’s the Republicans not picking up. Sen. Chris Murphy, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, said it’s unclear to him who is even leading the talks for Republicans. He added that the White House has been MIA, too.

The view from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: White House officials ultimately view the negotiations as between Democrats and Trump — but they’re empowering Republicans in Congress to get the ball rolling, a source familiar with their thinking told us. The Trump administration is watching closely and will decide later how much it’s willing to reform.

P.S. Actually, MoveOn does want a say. “Our members will not support another dime going to ICE until there is real accountability for their terrorizing of our communities,” a spox told us. “If John Thune thinks standing up for people being murdered in the streets by the government is a ‘special interest,’ he needs to reevaluate what he is even doing in Congress and who he works for.”

Also going well over here: Both sides agree that negotiations over renewing the expired Affordable Care Act subsidies have effectively fizzled out for good, NOTUS’ Avani Kalra reports. No one can agree who did the fizzling, however. But they all have thoughts, and, boy, did they share them.

From the campaign trail

Trump’s war on wind is alienating his blue-collar base: “A lot of my members voted for President Trump in the last election, and they completely turned around on him,” Patrick Crowley, the president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, told NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak. His union represents thousands of workers who build renewable-energy projects like Revolution Wind, the offshore development the Trump administration halted twice before a federal judge last month allowed construction to resume.

NEW ON NOTUS

So much for ‘better science’: The Department of Health and Human Services keeps citing a paper that hasn’t been peer-reviewed, and NOTUS’ Margaret Manto had a hard time finding any experts who agreed with the report’s suggestions. “I worry that they will jump on whatever they find as truth when it’s not reliable,” said Susan Ellenberg, a professor emerita of biostatistics, medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

More: Virginia Democrats Unveil New Congressional Map Favoring Their Party, by Christa Duton and Manuela Silva

NOTUS PERSPECTIVES

The Coming Conservative Turn Against Israel Goes Much Deeper Than You Realize: It’s not just about politics. It’s also about theology. And, writes John B. Judis, it’s going to have a massive impact on Zionism, American foreign policy — and even the place of Jews in America.

What is the Democrats’ single biggest weakness heading into the midterms, and how can it be overcome? A NOTUS forum featuring Nick Beauchamp, Reed Galen, Celinda Lake, Maurice Mitchell, Alexandra Rojas and Neera Tanden.

NOT US

• The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP, by Laura K. Field for The Atlantic
  
• The G.O.P. Senator Who Can’t Stop Thinking About the Boy ICE Detained, by Caroline Kitchener for The New York Times
  
• New York’s CEOs Are Gearing Up for a Battle With Mamdani, by David Freedlander for New York
  
• Trump’s deportation push is scrambling New York’s suburban politics, by Nick Reisman for Politico
  

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