Today’s notice: Foreign money. Texas politics. The rush for Hill jobs. The White House legal strategy. But first: The Dinner.
What Are We Doing Here?
It’s another White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend in Donald Trump’s administration. The normal parties are plentiful; there’s even some of the normal invite-FOMO from reporters ready to catch their breath at an open bar.
But the main event, the dinner itself, seems to be barely registering in the conversation. Per usual, President Trump won’t be there. But this year, neither will a comedian. In conversations I had this week at meals and in a network greenroom, media types shrugged about the dinner. What even is it this year? they said. What is it for?
The president stayed away from the dinner during his first term, but organizers managed to keep the event in the conversation. In 2017, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein gave a speech criticizing Trump’s “fake news” claims. In 2018, comedian Michelle Wolf called out White House “lies.” In 2019, there was no comedian but historian Ron Chernow gave a speech on how presidents often try to control the press but usually can’t.
But this president kind of can. The White House has blown up the pool-reporting system. It continues to make life difficult for the Associated Press. This week, the executive producer of CBS’s “60 Minutes” quit amid reports the corporate side is trying to make a legal settlement with the president over his claims of bias at the show. And Semafor reported that The Hill fired a reporter as part of another legal settlement related to claims of bias from Trump allies. The White House Correspondents’ Association even canceled its choice of comedian, Amber Ruffin, after the White House attacked her act. (Tradition dictates the press corps attacks the comedian it hires to do comedy after the comedy has been performed, not before.)
The dinner is usually a subject of endless argument: Should it happen? Is it worth it? Is it embarrassing, or serious, or fun, or vital to democracy? The entirely new and sort of chilling thing this year is that hardly anyone is arguing about it at all.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro
The Library Loophole
The president signed executive actions this week targeting foreign money in American universities and elections. But he hasn’t addressed another way foreign money makes its way into politics — and it’s one that benefits Trump and prior presidents directly, NOTUS’ Claire Heddles writes.
“Donating to presidential libraries is one of the few options foreign individuals or companies have to donate directly to presidents,” she writes. Presidential library donors do not legally have to be disclosed.
Members of Congress for years have filed bills to make presidential library donors public, Claire reports. But the bills have gone nowhere. Trump’s library fund started up in December, and “the largest known donation is from an ABC News settlement with Trump promising $15 million to the new organization.”
Front Page
- Democrats Are Already Lining Up to Replace Dick Durbin in the Senate: One Democratic candidate already declared. Others are expected to jump in. And a leadership race will soon be underway.
- Trump’s New Tariffs Are Placing Huge Administrative Burden on Customs Agents: CBP is already facing an enormous workload, as the president keeps changing his mind about tariff policies.
- The Trump Administration’s Anti-DEI Push for Schools Hit a Big Speed Bump: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Education Department from revoking funding over anti-DEI orders.
Everything’s Nastier in Texas
The Senate primary fight in Texas between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton is fixing to be a corker, NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz and Casey Murray report.
“I think it’s gonna get very nasty,” John Jackson, Cornyn’s 2020 campaign manager, told them.
Expect a lot of fighting over who is the true Texas-style conservative (including from some of the less-prominent challengers). But, the main event is Trump’s endorsement. “That’s the 800-pound gorilla,” a GOP strategist said.
Wanted: A Democratic Hill Staffer Job
It’s a bad time to be a Democrat with aspirations of working on Capitol Hill. Staffers and unemployed former staffers told NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson that the Senate majority flipping, an influx of laid-off federal workers and plenty of Biden and Harris staffers still looking for work are all contributing factors.
“It’s like, honestly, having all these fish in the aquarium trying to swim in like a koi pond,” a former Harris staffer said.
Department of ‘Just Stall Forever’
Stalling, vague updates and appeals at every possibility: Trump’s Department of Justice seems to be employing many of the same tactics his lawyers have used in his personal cases for years, NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery reports. The playbook is already getting plenty of mileage in the myriad of cases being litigated against the administration.
This strategy is coming as Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, two of Trump’s personal lawyers, have taken prominent roles at the DOJ.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Polygraph Threats, Leaks and Infighting: The Chaos Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon, by Nancy A. Youssef, Alexander Ward and Vera Bergengruen for The Wall Street Journal
- Wrong turn leads to hundreds of immigrant arrests at the Detroit-Canada border bridge, by Jasmine Garsd for NPR
- Medicaid Work Requirements Are Back. What You Need to Know, by Ryan Levi for Tradeoffs
Be Social
Tonight, the Meridian International Center is the place to be. Kicking off #WHCD with @NOTUSreports. pic.twitter.com/fDx7RaVbmJ
— Justin Peligri (@JustinPeligri) April 25, 2025
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