Trump's press conference Friday on SCOTUS ruling striking down some of his tariffs [The White House].
TUESDAY 2/24/26
Four Years of War in Ukraine – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and leaders from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Norway and Sweden arrived in Kyiv Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The leaders have scheduled high-level meetings aimed at reinforcing Western support, The Kyiv Independent reports, and coincides with meetings of the Coalition of the Willing and the Ukraine-Nordic-Baltic summit.
Meanwhile, the Independent reports, the European Union has failed to approve its 20th sanction package on Russia after Kremlin-ally Hungary vetoed the measure.
“Unfortunately, we did not reach an agreement on the 20th sanction package,” EU Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas said. “This is a setback and a message we didn’t want to send today, but the work continues.”
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Missing Epstein Files – An NPR investigation reviewing the latest tranche of Epstein Files released in January finds the Department of Justice has withheld more than 50 pages of FBI interviews and notes that include a conversation with a woman who accused Donald J. Trump of sexual abuse decades ago, when she was a minor. The documents were categorized by the Justice Department but not shared publicly, NPR reported Tuesday on Morning Edition.
The radio network’s investigation reviewed multiple sets of unique serial numbers appearing before and after the pages in question, stamped onto documents in the Epstein Files database, FBI case records, emails and discovery documents in the January release. Listen to NPR’s report HERE.
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What the Puck – Everyone to the left of MAGA is criticizing, and MAGA is celebrating, FBI Director Kash Patel’s celebration of the US men’s hockey team overtime win against Canada for Olympic gold in Milan Sunday. Patel, an avowed hockey fan, watched the game from the stadium, then joined the US squad in the locker room for celebration, where he chugged and sprayed beer and sang and danced with members of the team, according to The Sporting News.
CBS News reports that Patel arrived in Milan, Italy, last Thursday on a $60 million government jet. There, he conducted meetings with various officials and law enforcement partners, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson tweeted on X-Twitter.
After the win, President Trump invited the men’s hockey team to visit him in the White House and added he would have to invite the US women’s hockey team – who also beat Canada for the gold in Milan – “or I’d be impeached.” —TL
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Tariffs Off? -- MONDAY 2/23/26
SCOTUS Keeps It – For now. The most positive takeaway from Friday’s Supreme Court ruling is that six of the nine justices chose to remind President Trump that Congress determines tariff policy, not the White House.
The upshot is that importers want their tariff payments back. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the US collected $289 billion in tariffs in 2025 and another $35 billion this year up to February 18. Trump has floated the idea of rebating those billions in tax rebates of some sort to the American public, but that won’t happen any tax season soon.
There’s also the question of what happens to special deals Trump made with other countries on tariffs.
In his press conference hours after SCOTUS handed down its decision Friday morning, Trump lamented the court spent months to come to its decision and still failed to weigh in on refunds. Instead, lower courts that punted Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump up to SCOTUS will have to figure that out.
“Wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying, ‘keep the money’ or ‘don’t keep the money,’ right?” Trump told reporters, per Politico. “I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.”
Trump accused the six-justice SCOTUS majority of being “afraid of doing the right thing” and said they are motivated by foreign interests. The president said he is “ashamed” of them and singled out the two of his three appointees that voted with the majority.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” the president said.
On Saturday, Trump announced an increase in global tariffs from 10% up to 15%, under Section 122 of the Trade Acts of 1974, which allows the president to set tariffs up to that amount for 150 days, according to The Wall Street Journal. Afterward, Trump says, Section 301 of the Trade Act requires new trade investigations before allowing long-term tariffs.
On Morning Edition, Neal Katyal, attorney for the plaintiffs, told Steve Inskeep the federal government already has told his clients they would get a refund for tariffs paid, plus interest.
“I do” think refunds, plus interest, applies to the rest of the country, he said. “I think basically there’s a common-sense principle, if, you know, you’ve collected a bunch of money illegally, and the court says it’s illegal, then you’ve got to give it back.”
Katyal calls out Trump appointee Gorsuch for picking up on, in his concurrence with the majority opinion, “the long, long tradition going all the way back to the Federalist Papers of why our founders divided power and why they insisted Congress be in the driver’s seat.”
Every American should read the conclusion in Gorsuch’s concurrence, he said. You can read it in The Gray Area HERE. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa