Today’s notice: Democrats say it’s not Rubio’s fault. Lindsey Graham does not love Trump’s new Middle East plan. 👀 “Mitch is not much of a factor one way or the other.” And a House comity update.
No Dem Buyer’s Remorse on Rubio… Yet
With Elon Musk pursuing an extraordinary power grab over the U.S. Agency for International Development, we thought Democrats may have an early report card for Marco Rubio’s leadership at the State Department, the agency that oversees USAID. Afterall, Rubio was confirmed to the post with unanimous support, only for him to turn around and seemingly give Musk the reins over a major arm of U.S. foreign policy.
Turns out, Democrats aren’t turning on Rubio yet, NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt and Helen Huiskes report.
To hear Democrats tell it, the problem isn’t that Rubio is secretary of state, but that Musk doesn’t care that Donald Trump appointed a secretary of state in the first place.
“Doesn’t seem to be much to do in the secretary of state’s job right now, seeing that some of the most important functions seem to be run by special envoys and Elon Musk,” Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters.
Democrats at least have an open line of communication to someone in Trumpworld. The top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said she has spoken with Rubio “several times” about the order to stop humanitarian assistance.
“Sadly,” she told NOTUS, “Elon Musk seems to be making decisions.”
McConnell in His ‘Antiquarian’ Era
Once upon a time, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the most powerful man in Congress. But as the 82-year-old senator, who has served since 1985, winds down his career, he’s taken on a new role in the upper chamber: “historian.”
At least that’s how his colleagues described him to NOTUS’ Ben T.N. Mause.
“Mitch is not really a factor one way or another,” one GOP senator told NOTUS. “There’s, I suppose, a certain antiquarian interest there.”
Though McConnell doesn’t have the political clout he wielded just months ago, his return to the rank and file has allowed him to buck the conference he once ran. For example, he voted against Pete Hegseth’s confirmation. But in the absence of influence, lawmakers are turning to their former leader for information.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we’re dealing with today that was done 30 years ago” that McConnell “literally” witnessed, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said. “Mitch is really good about just kind of like saying, ‘This was what was going on at the time, this is why we done what we did and this is the story behind it.’”
How the Gaza Idea Was Heard in Congress
Standing next to Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference Tuesday, Trump suggested the people living in the Gaza Strip should be moved to new homes in neighboring countries and the U.S. take “a long-term ownership position” over the strip in order to develop it.
It’s about as radical a shift in U.S. Middle East policy as could be floated in a single presser. NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal, Em Luetkemeyer and Emily Kennard asked senators what they thought.
Bernie Sanders laughed out loud, a response that encapsulated the general mood for Democrats not named John Fetterman, who called Trump’s idea “provocative” in a good way.
On the GOP side, Lindsey Graham called the idea “interesting,” but seemingly in a bad way.
“We’ll see what our Arab friends said about that, and I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza,” he said. “I think that might be problematic.”
Other Republicans steered away from criticizing Trump — but didn’t embrace the Gaza plan outright either.
Front Page
- Donald Trump Confirms White House Is Drawing Up Plans to Gut the Department of Education: Trump tells reporters he will work with Congress to dismantle the federal agency.
- Republicans Fell In Line to Back Tulsi Gabbard in the Intelligence Committee: The nominee for director of national intelligence passed through committee even though some Republicans had expressed reservations.
- RFK Jr. Advanced Out of the Senate Finance Committee, With Bill Cassidy’s Help: The Louisiana Republican said he had been swayed by assurances from Kennedy and the White House, especially over vaccine access.
ICYMI: The Lawsuits Are Rolling In
Every day is busy during Trump 2.0, but Tuesday was a particularly busy day on the nation’s court dockets. Here are some lawsuits worth following:
- NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery reports that nine anonymous FBI employees filed a class action lawsuit against the DOJ, hoping to stop the agency from firing them this week or otherwise putting a target on their backs. Another seven FBI employees and the FBI Agents Association filed a similar lawsuit.
- Seven families filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping Trump from ending federal funds for gender-affirming medical care through government insurance programs for transgender people under 19.
- Doctors for America sued the Trump administration over the removal of health information from Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration websites.
Brandon Gill Is Doubling Down
Texas Republican Rep. Brandon Gill called for Rep. Ilhan Omar to be deported in a post on X, retweeting a video of Omar informing Somali immigrants of their rights if they’re confronted by ICE.
Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 when she was 17 years old. A spokesperson for Gill doubled down on the comments when NOTUS’ Oriana González reached out, questioning how “loyal” she was to the U.S. — an attack that has percolated across the Republican Party since Omar first joined Congress, including from one member who ultimately apologized for suggesting she was a terrorist.
“Representative Gill simply stated that it is disgraceful for a sitting congresswoman and U.S. citizen to facilitate the invasion of our country by illegal alien Somalis,” the spokesperson said.
Oops, USAID Didn’t Actually Pay for That Opera After All
One poster child for the gutting of USAID was $47,000 the White House said the agency spent on a “transgender opera in Colombia.” There was, in fact, an opera, NOTUS’ Katherine Swartz reports, but USAID didn’t pay for it, and what federal support it did get — from the State Department — was just $25,000.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Inside Trump and Musk’s Clumsy, ‘Exhausting’ Hunt for Leakers by Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez for Rolling Stone
- The U.S. Military’s Recruiting Crisis by Dexter Filkins for The New Yorker
- RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaxx Group Paid Nearly $1 Million to Woman Who Accused Him of Sexual Misconduct by Diana Falzone at Mediaite
Thank you for reading! If you like this edition of the NOTUS newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please subscribe (it’s free!). Send your thoughts to newsletters@notus.org.