Today’s notice: Jimmy Kimmel recounts his long, strange trip. Trump meets the U.N. Trump does not meet with Democrats. Who’s lobbying against animal welfare bills? And: How liberal nonprofits expect the White House to come after them.
THE LATEST
The other side of the crackdown: Democratic strategists and progressive-leaning nonprofits see two ways Donald Trump’s White House could go after them in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
- Terrorism designation. The vague executive order designating antifa as a domestic terror group could be used to designate nonprofits the same way, potentially cutting off their access to banking and other services.
- Challenging nonprofit status is the more likely move left-leaning groups are expecting to see. Challenging the administration in court would be expensive, and could effectively sideline smaller groups that lack the resources to pay.
The left and center-left are currently bracing for federal action against them, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty and Taylor Giorno report. “What once sounded like theoretical warnings about ‘government weaponization’ has become a reality for organizations across the country,” nonprofit umbrella group Americans Against Government Censorship wrote in a memo last week.
This week’s designation of the largely undefined “antifa” as a domestic terrorist group is causing some groups to worry that they’ll be targeted because they publicly condemn fascism. “I wouldn’t put it past them to try and contort and twist that into somehow being supportive of terrorism,” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight said.
The White House said the designation was “just the beginning.” Spox Abigail Jackson told NOTUS: “While addressing radical left-wing violence has long been a priority for President Trump, Charlie’s horrific assassination committed by a radical leftist has only further underscored the need to address this scourge on society.”
Open tabs: Trump Says Ukraine Can Reclaim All Territory Taken by Russia (NOTUS); Trump Cancels Grants Deemed ‘Hostile’ to Cars (Bloomberg); Scientist behind Trump’s Tylenol claims was paid $150K to give evidence against drug maker (The Times); DOD Delays Cleanup of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Nationwide (NYT)
From Burbank
Jimmy Kimmel struck a serious note in his return to late night: “Our freedom to speak is what I admire most about this country. And that’s something I’m embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen (Colbert) off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air.”
He did not directly apologize for his comments about Kirk’s killing that got him into hot water in the first place, but appeared to strike a contrite note when speaking about the backlash to last week’s monologue.
“It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” Kimmel said. “For those who think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset.”
From New York
“I’ve been right about everything” was a line Trump directed specifically at Europe during his speech at the U.N. yesterday. But it essentially summarized his entire address.
The president touted his “America First” foreign policy, and largely dismissed the body he spoke to. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential,” Trump said. “But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential for the most part.”
From the Hill
This email could have been a meeting! Democrats are angry that Trump canceled an appropriations meeting set for Thursday between himself and party leadership. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Democrats’ demands for a bipartisan spending bill were “unserious and ridiculous.”
Democrats had some takes of their own. “Donald Trump will own the shutdown,” Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Hakeem Jeffries: “Donald Trump and House Republicans and Senate Republicans are running scared, which is why they refuse to even sit down and have a conversation to discuss the Republican government shutdown and the health care crisis that is going to cause people in the United States of America to die,” the House minority leader said at a press conference yesterday.
THE BIG ONE
Must love (purebred) dogs: A slate of bipartisan animal welfare bills working their way through Congress have been met with a lobbying campaign run by the American Kennel Club, NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports.
AKC’s bulldogs include Mike Williams Capitol Strategies, which it’s paying $30K a quarter. The nonprofit contributed $67,800 to federal candidates last year, more than in previous cycles. Sen. John Boozman and Rep. Glenn Thompson, chairs of their respective chambers’ agriculture committees, were the two top recipients of AKC PAC money. If AKC can stop these bills, those men would be the ones to facilitate it.
Animal welfare advocates are flummoxed by the level of pushback from AKC. “If we want to address the issue of animal abuse, we need to have laws that have real teeth in them,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a sponsor of two of the bills, told NOTUS.
“Everything we do, we do for dogs, and whether it’s an owner, enthusiast or a breeder, we want to make sure that they have the freedom to take the best possible care for their animals,” top AKC official Sheila Goffe told NOTUS.
NEW ON NOTUS
Cassidy vs. MAHA, again: “The preponderance of evidence shows that this is not the case,” Sen. Bill Cassidy posted Monday on X after the press conference where Trump said pregnant women should not take Tylenol.
Pretty please, Mr. President? Ron DeSantis is proposing that Trump build his presidential library in Miami. He’s eyeing a site on two-and-a-half acres of land next to the city’s historic Freedom Tower that is currently being utilized as a parking lot for Miami Dade College.
More: Man Convicted in Trump Assassination Attempt Tries to Stab Himself With a Pen, by Amelia Benavides-Colón
Rep. Tom Tiffany Jumps Into a Packed Wisconsin Governor’s Race, by Amelia Benavides-Colón
NOT US
- White House bullish after a long string of Supreme Court victories, by Lawrence Hurley and Katherine Doyle for NBC News
- How Arizona voters are set to put Mike Johnson in a corner, by Meredith Lee Hill for Politico
- Even without formal charges, Trump’s DOJ can punish critics, by Perry Stein and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez for The Washington Post
- Larry Ellison, a Media Mogul Like No Other, by David Streitfeld and Theodore Schleifer for The New York Times
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