Today’s notice: What’s on lawmakers’ bullet point lists. The politics of the FBI. Supreme Court speculation. 141.5 tweets a day. Enjoying firing people. But first: Coming soon to a school near you.
A Question for the Last Week of Black History Month
What exactly is it that Donald Trump thinks is fair for schools to say about race and American history? The anti-diversity, equity and inclusion rhetoric is clear, but education lawyers and other officials making daily decisions about how schools work say the administration’s orders are not.
That could be a big problem in just a few days. The Department of Education gave school leaders until March 1 to end DEI-based programs and policies, without spelling out exactly what that means. Failure to comply could put federal funding at risk.
That’s a big could, to be sure. But New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin tells NOTUS that in his state alone, hundreds of millions of dollars in funds aimed at low-income schools and special education students are now vulnerable. Platkin said a literal reading of the Trump administration’s directives suggest celebrations like those common during Black History Month would open a school up to federal investigation.
“I do take what they say at face value. I think you have to,” he said.
The administration told NOTUS its letter is clear, and reiterated that further guidance is coming for school leaders. “This isn’t complicated,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant education secretary for civil rights, said.
It really does seem to be somewhat complicated, however! NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak reports that Defense Department orders to end DEI programs led military academies to pause sexual assault prevention trainings (some have restarted, some remain paused). Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said things like Black History Month are “dead” in the military. The White House, meanwhile, hosted a Black History Month celebration.
Imagine the chaotic situation that’s been produced for American families by hundreds of separate school leaders trying to figure out what tweaks to make in the hopes of keeping investigators at bay.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro | Read Platkin’s warnings. | Read Shifra’s story.
How Will the Legal Fights End?
It’s the question of the era, one that Trump critics ask in private constantly, creating running tallies of how the justices on the Supreme Court would rule. Take birthright citizenship, for example. Adam Winkler, a UCLA School of Law professor and constitutional law expert, explained that it would have been “crystal clear” how the court would rule just 10 to 15 years ago. Now?
“I don’t think that we can take that for granted today,” he told NOTUS’ Casey Murray and Shifra Dayak.
John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett are widely seen as the swingiest on these executive power issues, Casey and Shifra write.
Front Page
- Elon Musk’s Slash-and-Burn Tactics Are Beginning to Unnerve Republicans: “Did not look very well coordinated,” said Sen. James Lankford.
- Vivek Ramaswamy Is Running for Governor in Ohio: He was originally tapped to help lead DOGE, but stepped down at the start of the Trump administration.
- Donald Trump Won’t Commit to Ukraine Reconstruction Efforts: “I think it’s a pretty big contribution,” the president said on Monday, referring to past U.S. aid.
Johnson’s Big, Beautiful Mess
Mike Johnson’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill is looking more like big trouble.
The crux of Johnson’s problem: the resolution’s proposed $2 trillion in spending cuts. Moderates worry the cuts threaten programs like Medicaid, while some conservatives say they don’t go far enough.
By Monday evening, and after another meeting with leadership, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said folks were “getting to a place where we feel a little more comfortable.”
But even if moderates get on board, two conservative holdouts — Reps. Victoria Spartz and Tim Burchett — are enough to sink the resolution. Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Massie has been openly critical of it.
—Riley Rogerson | Read the story.
TV Cabinet Update: The FBI Show
Kash Patel and his new deputy — and multi-platform pundit — Dan Bongino have jarred more than a few. When the new deputy director was announced, a former FBI agent told NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery, “You asked me to flag when alarms were going off,” and shared a video of Bongino laughing off the system of checks and balances.
“The FBI’s leadership should be laser-focused on protecting the American people and upholding our laws, not undercutting that life-and-death work by targeting Americans who disagree with Donald Trump’s politics,” former Biden White House official Andrew Bates told NOTUS in his capacity as adviser to the group Unlikely Allies, a group highlighting bipartisan concerns over Trump’s national security nominees like Tulsi Gabbard.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro
Number You Should Know
4,246
That’s the number of times Elon Musk posted on X in the last 30 days, averaging around 141.5 tweets a day, according to Social Blade, a social media analytics company. Last week was Musk’s most active on X since Trump’s inauguration, with an eye-watering 1,314 posts on the platform he owns — an impressive endeavor for someone who claims DOGE works 120 hours a week.
—Emily Kennard
Dear OPM, Last Week I Fought a Wildfire
The OPM’s email on federal workforce productivity even reached the country’s most elite teams of wildland firefighters, called hotshot crews.
One crew, which has been dealing with active fires nearly every weekend in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona, got a text from their supervisor that said: “EVERYBODY needs to come in by Monday to reply to this email. Word is if you don’t reply by Monday, it’s taken as a resignation.”
Later on Monday, the OPM clarified that workers did not, in fact, need to respond to the email. The fire burning in Tonto National Forest is now 75% contained.
—Anna Kramer
Lawmakers Don’t Seem to Understand the Assignment
NOTUS’ Casey Murray asked lawmakers how they’d respond to the OPM email. They addressed the question with varying levels of seriousness…
Rep. Jared Moskowitz: “If I say I went to bed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, does that count?”
Sen. Roger Marshall said he’d send over his list. Sen. Josh Hawley cited the 27 amendments the Senate voted on during Thursday’s budget resolution vote-a-rama.
Sen. John Kennedy said: “I voted on bills, I went to several committees, I talked to a bunch of constituents. I read The Economist. I tried to read the NOTUS, but it was behind a paywall.” (Editor’s Note: NOTUS is not paywalled.)
Quotable: Bernie Moreno’s Lay-Off Logic
“When you get rid of shitty employees, you get a lot better employees coming in because nobody wants to work around shitty people.”
That was freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno to NOTUS’ Em Luetkemeyer and Torrence Banks. Em and Torrence caught some nervousness among senators around cuts at the Federal Aviation Administration. Moreno, however, was not one of the worriers.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- As Facebook Abandons Fact-Checking, It’s Also Offering Bonuses for Viral Content by Craig Silverman at ProPublica
- Much of the Black middle class was built by federal jobs. That may change. By Curtis Bunn at NBC News
- At CPAC, the World’s Populists Parrot the Leader Who Inspired Them by Ben Jacobs at Politico
Be Social
Ever heard of it?
Me telling Macron about this hidden little gem called Le Diplomate pic.twitter.com/tTV3E9mQOr
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) February 24, 2025
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