Today’s notice: Liberal groups, beware. The appropriations process feels stalled. A surprisingly active Iowa Democratic Senate primary. NOTUS investigates confusing travel disclosures at DHS. And: Airlines win in Trump 2.0.
THE LATEST
Government action on political rhetoric was the promise from JD Vance and other top officials in Donald Trump’s administration who stopped by Monday when Vance guest-hosted his late friend Charlie Kirk’s livestream.
“We’re not always going to get it right. We will sometimes move more slowly than you would like. We will sometimes move more slowly than I want us to, but I promise you that we will explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say,” the vice president said on air, promising a broad crackdown on liberal advocacy groups and media organizations.
The targets: Vance specifically mentioned groups funded by George Soros and the Ford Foundation as potential targets for government investigation. (“The Ford Foundation has not provided any funding to ‘The Nation’ since 2019,” the group told NOTUS after Vance took issue with one of the magazine’s articles on Kirk.) Top admin officials are working to identify people and organizations to go after, The New York Times reported, with the goal to “categorize left-wing activity that led to violence as domestic terrorism.”
“Enough is enough,” the press office for Rep. Chip Roy wrote on X. The Texas Republican has been pushing for a select committee “to investigate Left-wing groups undermining the rule of law,” and says at least 34 other members are ready to sign on. Soros, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Wren Collective were all on Roy’s list of potential targets.
Picking a side: Vance echoed Trump’s comments condemning “the left” as responsible for the recent rise in political violence. “This is not a ‘both sides’ problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told,” Vance said.
Open tabs: Washington Post columnist says she was fired for Kirk posts (Politico); Pentagon Barred Senior House Staffers From Briefing on Venezuela Boat Strike (The Intercept); Appeals court rules Fed governor Cook can continue to serve (Axios); Five new members named to vaccine committee ahead of key meeting (CNN)
From the White House
Take two: The U.S. military launched an air strike yesterday in international waters on what it alleges was another Venezuelan drug boat, killing three people, Trump announced. It was the second strike on a speedboat hailing from the South American nation this month, and comes after Trump escalated tensions by moving eight warships to the Caribbean.
When asked by a reporter what proof he had that the vessel was carrying drugs, Trump replied, “We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean — big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place.”
The view from Caracas: President Nicolás Maduro, just minutes before Trump announced yesterday’s strike, said the first attack was a “heinous crime” carried out against “civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country.”
“Regime change for oil” is how Maduro described Trump’s goal — not fighting drug traffickers.
From the Hill
Appropriations gut check: “The president just said, ‘I don’t care to deal with Democrats.’ He’s just essentially said that he wants a shutdown,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin told reporters yesterday, NOTUS’ Hill team reports.
What “clean CR?” “I don’t know what that is,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro said of the thing Trump urged Republicans to support in a Truth Social post.
Democrats say they have not been heard and what concerns have gotten through have been ignored. On Monday, Mike Johnson told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman there would be no ACA subsidy extensions — a key Democratic demand — in the continuing resolution House Republicans put forward.
From K Street
Cruising altitude: The major airlines appear to have played the politics of Trump 2.0 exactly right. Industry giants have hired Trump-tied firms, including Ballard Partners and BGR Group (where Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy used to work), to lobby for them, NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports.
Former Trump officials now lobbying for airlines include Joseph Lai, a former White House legislative affairs aide, and Patrick Clifton, a former White House operations aide.
No agency has claimed more “deregulatory” actions than DOT, according to the American Action Forum, like dropping the plan requiring airlines to compensate passengers for excessive delays.
From the campaign trail
Exclusive: A GOP primary battle for the anti-trans vote. A sharp-elbowed new TV ad from Charles McCall, the former speaker of the Oklahoma House, not-so-subtly accuses state AG Gentner Drummond, the front-runner in the Oklahoma gubernatorial race, of not pushing hard enough for limitations on youth sports participation, NOTUS’ Em Luetkemeyer reports.
Iowa…Democrats? Several exist, apparently, and many of them seem to be running in a bitterly contested Senate primary. NOTUS’ Alex Roarty has a look at second-term state lawmaker Josh Turek’s entrance, which has shaken up the race. “He’s awesome, but I have never seen a primary like this before, at least on the Democratic side,” state Democratic strategist Matt Sinovic told Alex.
NOTUS INVESTIGATION
‘Critical’ is as critical does? NOTUS’ Emily Kennard found more than 130 instances this year in which the Department of Homeland Security and its subagencies have justified official trips and trainings designated as “non-mission critical” with language also asserting the very same trip is, in fact, “mission critical.”
Say what? This all appears to be the vestigial tail of DOGE. Following a February executive order, every month DHS posts expense reports publicly on a web page called “Transparency for Non-Essential Travel.”
“They’re a little bit confusing, right?” Demian Brady of the National Taxpayers Union said, significantly understating the experience of reading these reports.
A DHS spokesperson acknowledged that “phrasing may vary,” adding that “there are currently efforts to make sure this data is correct, consistent, and accurately represents the travel of DHS components and their justification for travel.”
NEW ON NOTUS
FEMA’s top lawyer resigns: “Now I believe I can more effectively advance and advocate for our work from beyond government service,” Colt Hagmaier, FEMA’s acting chief counsel, wrote in a note to staff obtained by NOTUS’ Anna Kramer. He is the third chief counsel to leave the agency since Trump took office in January.
More: White House Touts Rural Health Funding as Tax Cuts Threaten to Hit Hospitals, by Violet Jira
NOT US
- Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches. By Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Bradley Hope, Tripp Mickle and Paul Mozur for The New York Times
- Black communities, shaken by Trump cuts, feel ‘left behind again,’ by Anumita Kaur and Emmanuel Felton for The Washington Post
- Does a Generational Change Campaign Work for Democrats Without the Socialism? By Calder McHugh for Politico
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