MONDAY 2/3/25

UPDATE -- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday morning she has reached a deal with the Trump administration to delay tariffs against her country, The New York Times reports. The 25% tariff on Canada and the 10% tariff on China are still on, so far.

Son of Smoot-Hawley – Tariffs threatened, tariffs delivered. They will be delivered on Tuesday and it looks like they are not to be dismissed as negotiable. Nor is President Trump about to be talked out of them by the more rational of his aides. 

“This will be the Golden Age of America! Will there be some pain? Yes and maybe (maybe not). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social (per The Hill) Sunday. “We are a country that is now being run with common sense – and the results will be spectacular!”

Tariff Tuesday will impose a 25% tax on goods from Mexico and Canada, including, for example, auto parts and components that typically cross borders several times before being put together in US-assembled cars and trucks. 

Chinese goods face a 10% tariff Tuesday.

Except… The tariff on sour, heavy crude oil from Canada, refined primarily in the Midwest, will be 10%. Trump certainly doesn’t want to turn off Michigan and Wisconsin’s swing voters who swung for MAGA last November. 

Canadian retribution … Our northern neighbor will impose a 25% tariff Tuesday on US orange juice, peanut butter, wines, spirits, beer, coffee, appliances, apparel, footwear, motorcycles, cosmetics, pulp and paper, Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joy announced Saturday.

“A detailed list of these goods will be made available shortly,” according to the Government of Canada -- as if the above list is lacking in detail.

Mexican retribution … Our southern neighbor will impose tariffs of 5% to 20% on pork, cheese, fresh produce, manufactured steel and aluminum,” The Guardian reports, citing various sources.

Chamber of doom … US Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President and Head of International (his full title) John Murphy said in part in a release: “The President is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs under IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) is unprecedented, won’t solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains.”

Bipartisan oppo … In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), a non-resident senior fellow at The American Enterprise Institute, and Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, now a Harvard University professor and president-emeritus, called out what they see as the folly of the Trump tariffs and compared it with the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs of 1930, which most economists then – and now – blame for triggering the Great Depression. 

Gramm and Summers wrote that “tariffs don’t have a predictable effect of reducing trade deficits, and trade deficits aren’t necessarily an adverse economic development. Indeed, trade deficits often arise as foreign investors choose the US as a preferred destination for their capital.”

DOGE grabs purse strings … While everyone’s attention was focused on the impending tariffs, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent late Friday handed over full access of the federal payment system to lieutenants of the quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief/SpaceX/Tesla CEO/X-Twitter-owner and World’s Richest Man Elon Musk. This hands Musk and DOGE a “powerful tool” to monitor and potentially limit government, according to The New York Times.

Before Bessent handed Treasury’s combination code to Musk, top Treasury official and career civil servant David Lebryk had resisted handing access over to DOGE. Lebryk was put on leave, and then suddenly retired last Friday, sources told the NYT.

So, yes, this does appear to be a significant maneuver by the Trump White House in trying to fulfill its quest of replacing non-partisan career civil servants with acolytes of the president. 

But wait, there’s more … If nothing else, the Trump White House earns kudos for its efficiency in making its grab for maximum power with minimum checks and balances. Also on Friday evening, the new administration forced out “dozens” of FBI officials, including chiefs of several field offices as well as agents who worked on the investigations of Trump’s federal criminal cases, according to The Hill, which reported earlier Friday that five executive assistant FBI directors were told they were being demoted. 

“It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration appears to be purging the most experienced agents who are our nation’s first line of defense,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 2/3/25

Bipartisan Pushback – Physician and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined Democrats in heavy grilling over anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (pictured) on the second day of confirmation hearings for President Trump's nominee for HHS secretary (NYT). Cassidy, who could provide a crucial fourth Republican vote against RFK Jr.'s nomination, did not indicate how he would vote. Senate hearings also were held for controversial nominees Tulsi Gabbard, for director of National Intelligence and Kash Patel, for FBI director.

FRIDAY 1/31/25

President’s Favorite Word – On Saturday we could find out just how beautiful President Trump’s favorite word, tariff, is. That’s when the White House will, or maybe will not, impose tariffs of 25% on goods crossing the border from Canada and Mexico (per NPR’s Morning Edition). 

These tariffs may very well turn out to be yet another The Art of the Deal-style negotiating tactic Trump is using to call out what he says is unfair trade, as well as illegal drugs and immigrants crossing the border, even after his first administration negotiated the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) from the 1990s. 

That's what US businesses are hoping. Describing negotiations as a “fluid” situation, Trump aides are working on “several offramps” to avoid enacting such tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources.

If the tariffs are triggered, they will raise prices on everything from guacamole to gasoline, NPR notes. Automobiles, even if built in US plants have parts and components that come from Mexico and Canada, and typically cross the borders several times before final assembly, also will be hard-hit. Speaking to Wall Street analysts Tuesday for General Motors’ fourth-quarter and full year earnings report, CEO Mary Barra said that plant flexibility allows the automaker to shift production of its highly profitable full-size trucks between Mexican, Canadian and US plants.

“What we won’t do is spend large amounts of capital without clarity,” Barra told analysts. 

If nothing else, we should get some clarity on tariffs this weekend.

--TL

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THURSDAY 1/30/25

Trump Blames DEI for Crash – Less than 15 hours after an American Airlines flight carrying 64 passengers and crew from Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River as it approached Reagan National Airport, President Trump was ready to call out cause of the tragic accident. 

“We don’t know what caused this crash, but we have some pretty strong opinions,” he told reporters in his first appearance in the White House briefing room since his return to office.

“I changed the Obama standards from mediocre at best, to extraordinary,” during his first administration, Trump said, referring to standards for hiring air traffic controllers. After Trump left office in 2021, “Biden changed them back to lower than before.” But among Trump’s myriad executive orders since returning to the White House last week was an EO that would once again raise those standards, he said.

How?

Trump was referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs for all federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration “eliminated” by one of his first EOs. Such DEI policies, Trump suggested, allowed the FAA to hire air traffic controllers with hearing, vision and even psychological disabilities. 

New administrator … Meanwhile, Trump has named Chris Rocheleau as interim FAA administrator, according to The Wall Street Journal, filling a vacancy opened when Mike Whitaker, who had served in the position for less than a year, stepped down just prior to Trump’s inauguration.

History lesson … The FAA has dealt with air traffic control staffing issues for over 43 years. Barely half a year into his first term, the president for whom Reagan National Airport is named fired air traffic controllers en masse over a dispute with their labor union. Prior to the dispute, air traffic controllers in the US were hired in staggered years. But with the need to hire replacements for 11,345 striking Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization members all at once in August 1981 came the end of the staggered retirements. 

•••

More Hearings – Two more Trump White House nominees, like RFK Jr., face perhaps the toughest Senate hearings since Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Defense secretary last week. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is nominated to become President Trump’s National Intelligence director, so she appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, while Kash Patel, nominee to become FBI director, answers to the Judiciary Committee.

•••

Chaos is Working – The Trump White House’s executive order that would have clawed back up to $2 trillion in funding for programs the administration does not like, since rescinded following a federal judge’s temporary suspension issued Tuesday, has set Washington back on its heels. But the Democratic Party appears to be on top of Trump’s unconstitutional executive order, despite all the ensuing chaos. 

“It’s called impoundment, and it is illegal,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition Thursday. The president cannot single out certain allocations passed by Congress, though it has been tried in the past, she said. But instead of fighting it in court, the Trump administration is trying to stoke confusion.

“His administration has made it clear they don’t think the (impoundment) law should be there,” Murray said. “So instead of fighting it in court, what they’re doing is saying ‘we’re just going to – we don’t believe it’s a good law, so we’re not going to do it.’”

•••

Menendez Gets 11 Years – Bob Menendez, Democratic senator for New Jersey from 2006 to 2024, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his conviction last year on bribery, fraud and illegal foreign-agent charges, The Wall Street Journal reports. The 71-year-old career politician told a packed New York federal courtroom Wednesday; “I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions, but I believe in my half-century of public service I have done far more good than bad.” --TL

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WEDNESDAY 1/29/25

UPDATE – President Trump has reversed his controversial order that froze federal funding assistance for programs already approved by Congress in a memo released Wednesday, signed by acting Office of Management and Budget Director Matthew Vaeth. The reversal came after behind-the-scenes pushback from congressional Republicans, according to The Hill. (Scroll down to "Frozen funds.")

Trump Offers Federal Employees Buyouts – The Trump White House offered a buyout for nearly all federal employees, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The art of this deal is that career bureaucrats will get paid through September if they resign now. President Trump is looking to replace non-partisan federal bureaucrats, many with years to decades of experience, with workers who agree with his vision for the country. 

Frozen funds … The buyout offer comes hours after Judge Loren AliKhan, a Washington-based federal judge appointed by President Biden, issued an emergency administrative stay to block President Trump’s temporary freeze of about $3 trillion worth of federal funds, grants and loan disbursements that was to take effect at 5 pm Eastern time Tuesday. The judge’s order blocks the freeze until Monday, February 3. The Democracy Fund had filed a lawsuit to stop the executive order.

As with the federal buyouts, the president appears to lack the authority for such moves.

Trump’s federal funding freeze was aimed specifically at DEI programs, “woke gender identity” and the Green New Deal according to The New York Times, though opponents feared it would block state health agencies from Medicaid reimbursement. State officials believed pre-school community health centers, food for low-income families, housing assistance and disaster relief were at-risk, according to the report.

Just prior to Judge AliKhan’s ruling, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller appeared on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper and said the order would not affect any government services, entitlements or individual benefits, but was directed at left-wing chiefs of non-governmental agencies (NGOs) who were funneling such funds into immigration and “child trafficking.” 

“Either Donald Trump gets political control over this government and ends waste, abuse and fraud on the American people,” Miller told Tapper, “or, we let bureaucrats autopilot federal spending.”

What does this mean? … Every Republican and Democrat knew going into last November’s presidential election that a second Trump term would mean 1.) A better-organized White House full of cabinet secretaries and aids happy to carry out whatever policies Trump thought reasonable; and 2.) Far greater presidential authority at the expense of the legislative and judiciary branches. 

All anyone can remember from the weeks after Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 is his “Muslim ban” of travel into the US by certain foreign nationals. 

In The Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire writes that the strategy for a flurry of Trump EOs was determined at an early January gathering at Mar-a-Lago, where incoming Chief of Staff Susie Wiles suggested staggering the orders out over the first few weeks in office. 

A unanimous source who had attended the meeting said Trump responded: “No. I want to sign as many as possible as soon as we show up. Day One.”

Trump was a very green political novice when he became president eight years ago, but he learned a lot about the way the federal government runs from his first administration’s seasoned Washington aides, advisors and cabinet secretaries – the ones who were to keep Trump’s authoritarian tendencies in-check. 

Last year, he won his non-consecutive re-election by promising to blow up the federal government, and now with a flailing, leaderless Democratic Party warning of a constitutional crisis, Trump prevails. His political victory is certain even if just a couple of these executive orders survive federal courts.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 1/29/25

80 Years – World leaders including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish President Andrzej Duda gathered Monday with survivors for the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of the World War II concentration camp in Auschwitz/Burkenau, where Nazis killed 1 million Jews. Politicians have not been invited to speak, (per Newsweek) as organizers instead chose to focus on the observance and testimonies of the survivors, youngest of whom are in their 80s.

TUESDAY 1/28/25

Retribution On – Acting Attorney Gen. James McHenry has issued letters firing more than a dozen Justice Department officials who investigated Donald J. Trump during the Biden administration, Fox News reports. 

“Today, Acting Attorney Gen. James McHenry terminated the employment of a number of DOJ officials who played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump,” a Justice Department official told Fox News Digital. “In light of their actions, the Acting attorney general does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.”

The sackings are “consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,” the official told Fox News Digital.

NPR reports there is no known precedent for such action and that as longtime civil servants the sacked DOJ officials could sue the federal government.

--TL

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MONDAY 1/27/25

[Read our (free) Substack newsletter here.]

One Week Closer to Authoritarianism? --President Trump was not, despite what he had quipped he would be in a conversation with Sean Hannity more than a year ago, a “dictator” for Day One. But he spent the first week of his second term consolidating his power, perhaps most acutely with his late-Friday firing of up to 17 inspectors general who investigate waste, fraud and abuse, including for the Pentagon, State Department, Veterans Affairs and the Interior, USA Today reports.

So much for draining the swamp.

Friday night usually is when such news is made to be lost in a weekend of NFL games and movie premiers, but this time it was simply part of the Trump firehose-full of executive orders and presidential comments, including the comment in which he called into question the future of the Federal Emergency Management Administration. 

Lest firing inspectors general or killing off FEMA could become the lead issues for Sunday morning shows, Trump on Saturday floated a proposal that in light of the ceasefire just begun, Palestinians should vacate Gaza. The president suggested the move could be “temporary or long term,” according to The Wall Street Journal, though it’s a good bet that his close ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would much prefer the long-term solution.

“It’s literally a demolition site right now,” Trump said of Gaza. “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”

Meanwhile in Colombia, left-wing President Gustavo Petro turned back two US military airplanes from Washington carrying deported immigrants, calling the action “degrading.” Trump immediately retaliated by threatening 25% “emergency” tariffs and a travel ban aimed at Colombian officials, Semafor reports. Such a tariff would have affected 11,000 Colombian imports, including coffee and flowers, but Petro has since capitulated to The Art of the Deal and now will allow US airplanes full of deported immigrants to land, NPR’s Morning Edition reported Monday.

In his analysis of Trump’s first week back behind the Resolute Desk, The New York Times’ Peter Baker suggests that Trump’s policy U-turns do not necessarily violate presidential standards. 

“Any time a president from one party takes over from one of the other,” Baker writes, “the shifts in policies can be head-snapping, and Mr. Trump has been particularly aggressive in reversing the country’s direction ideologically and politically.”

For populist-conservatives looking to make America great again, Trump in his second term has made quick work reaching toward the goal. For progressives, the “one step forward, one step back” of Obama-Trump-Biden-Trump amounts to the sort of zero-sum gain Democrats could find themselves making for decades to come.

Appointees are a go … In case you missed it, the Trump White House began its weekend late last Friday confident it would get the cabinet it wants. Most important was the Senate’s 51-50 confirmation of former Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary, with Vice President Vance casting the tiebreaker. In addition to Sens. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) and Susan Collins’ (R-ME) “nay” votes, one other Republican senator indicated he won’t fall in line with every party line vote: Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, who stepped down as minority leader last year and has not indicated whether he will run for re-election again in 2026. 

That’s probably what it takes for the former Senate majority leader who paved the way for Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments, then accused Trump of provoking the January 6^th Capitol attack to deal with likely MAGA retribution in Kentucky’s 2026 midterm primary election.

Saturday the Senate confirmed South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of Homeland Security by a 59-34 vote.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 1/27/25

Democrats are taking a hard line on President Trump’s near-blanket pardon of more than 1,500 rioters convicted for the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, including Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Republican reactions are mixed, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) asserting that it’s the president’s right to sign clemencies and deflecting toward former President Biden’s last-minute pardons of family members The Hill reports.

In this edition, contributors Sharon Lintner and Rich Corbett offer their opinions on this controversial issue, in the left and right columns, respectively. To submit your COMMENTS email editors@thehustings.news and please use the subject line to indicate whether you lean left or right, so we may post those comments in the proper column.

Polls on the pardons … Latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds 62% disapprove of Trump’s pardons of January 6^th rioters, though 64% of Republicans in the poll approve. A Fabrizio, Lee & Associates/GBAO poll for The Wall Street Journal reports that 57% are opposed to the pardons.

While Trump’s actions have a substantial list of Republican supporters in the House, it’s far from unanimous. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) said he does not agree “with the pardons of people that committed violence or even damage to property. If you climbed in through a window, I think probably you knew what you were doing was against the law. And I don’t think it was appropriate to pardon them.” (Per The Hill.)

NPR interviewed Pamela Hemphill, 71, who was an ardent Trump supporter in 2020 when she participated in the insurrection. But she has turned down clemency for her conviction in storming the halls of Congress that day. 

“I broke the law that day, period,” she told All Things Considered. “Black and white. I’m not a victim. I’m a volunteer.” Hemphill added that accepting Trump’s pardon “would be a slap in the face to Capitol police officers, to the rule of law and to our whole nation.”

•••

It’s the Constitution, Stupid – In other Week 1 Trump 47 news, Federal District Judge John C. Coughenour signed a restraining order to block for 14 days President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for babies born on US soil. Ruling by the judge, who was appointed to the bench by President Reagan, sides with a lawsuit by Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon to block the EO (per The New York Times). 

“This is blatantly an unconstitutional order,” Coughenour said in his ruling. Directed to Trump administration attorneys, the judge continued; “Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a Constitutional order. It just boggles the mind.”

•••

Hegseth Rising – Former Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth appears headed for confirmation as President Trump’s pick for defense secretary after the Senate voted 51-49 Thursday to end debate on his nomination, according to The Hill. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) joined all Democrats in voting against the procedural move, and Murkowski, at least, has vowed to oppose Hegseth in the full Senate vote.

Trump can afford to lose three Republicans in the vote, expected Friday.

The canary will live … Hegseth was considered the test-case among Trump’s most controversial cabinet member choices, meaning that if he can win Senate confirmation, pretty much anyone else can. But hold on -- both Republicans and Democrats appear skeptical about the president’s nomination of former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be Health and Human Services secretary, The Hill reports. 

Some Republicans are concerned about RFK Jr.’s support of abortion rights, while Democrats do not want an anti-vax, anti-fluoride HHS secretary (per The Hill). Meanwhile, there is some bi-partisan opposition to Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) to become director of national intelligence, Semafor reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 1/24/25

Whatever DOGE chief Elon Musk intended with his ‘salute’ at a speech Monday at the Capital One Arena, right-wing extremists are embracing it, The Associated Press reports. Musk gave the “straight-arm gesture” after telling the crowd, “I just want to say ‘thank you’ for making it happen,” referring to Donald J. Trump’s election as president.

‘Golden Age’ Without Musk? – DOGE chief/Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink CEO Elon Musk reacted Wednesday to his snub as not being part of the announcement of a “$500 billion” investment in “artificial superintelligence” in US factories that would create 100,000 jobs for Americans by posting on his $44-billion X/Twitter investment, “They don’t actually have the money.”

Fair enough: The announcement took place at the White House with President Trump along with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son – he of the “artificial superintelligence” quip – with Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Open AI’s Sam Altman. Politico’s afternoon newsletter, Digital Future Daily sorted out this story of how the technoligopoly has decided AI (and not coincidentally, crypto currency) is so very good for our future. 

It’s that Altman appearance that must have Musk most vexed. 

Musk was an early investor in OpenAI and alleges in a suit filed last summer that he had secured an agreement with the company and founders Altman and Greg Brockman, also named in the suit, that the company would remain a non-profit with an open code. Musk pulled out of OpenAI in 2018 claiming potential conflict-of-interest with Tesla and its self-driving technology. OpenAI last month announced a new structure to become a for-profit company, according to The Verge.

Early in the last administration, Musk was said to break from the Democratic Party because then-President Biden held an electric vehicle “summit” with new EVs from General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis (ex-Fiat Chrysler), but not Tesla. 

But Musk’s skepticism about the $500-billion AI deal is not unfounded. Shortly after Trump 45 took office in 2017, he touted a Foxconn plan to build an LCD screen-making plant in Racine County, Wisconsin that would create 50,000 jobs. Accompanied by then-Gov. Scott Walker (R) and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Trump called it “the eighth wonder of the world.” (Foxconn had promised a $10-billion investment and 10,000 jobs.) 

Five years on, Wisconsin incentives have been cut to $80 million from an initial $2.85 billion, and it produces no phone screens, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

But tech/internet-business journalist Kara Swisher said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday that Musk lashed out against the half-trillion-dollar announcement (coincidentally, just a few billion bucks more than his personal wealth) because “he is not part of it” and said the technoligopolists who appeared at the White House without him could raise that cash “in about four seconds.”

•••

Forty-six House Democrats joined Republicans Wednesday to pass the Laken Riley Act, 263-156, to impose more severe penalties on undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the US. It is the first bill to come up for President Trump’s signature, CQ Roll Call reports. The Senate passed the bill last week.

The bill is named for Laken Riley, who at 22 was murdered last year by an undocumented immigrant who had been released after an arrest. After it is signed by the president, the bill will require the secretary of Homeland Security to issue detention for undocumented immigrants arrested or convicted for burglary, theft or shoplifting. An amendment by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) added assault of a police officer to that list of crimes.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 1/22/25

Keeping Up With Trump 47 – President Trump issued 26 executive orders in the first 24 hours according to Marketplace, in launching his agenda and reversing Biden administration policies as quickly as possible. Yes, it is difficult to keep up, but we will try as we remind you that you are invited to comment, whether as a conservative for the right column, or a liberal for the left column, with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

First up … Trump’s EO ending birthright citizenship has drawn lawsuits from Democratic attorneys general in 18 states, plus San Francisco and Washington, D.C., according to NPR’s Morning Edition. 

The AGs site Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

“We’re the only country in the world that does it, you know,” Trump has countered. “And it’s just absolutely ridiculous. We’ll see. We think we have very good grounds.”

Not on Trump’s assertion that we’re the only country that does it. World Population Review cites 33 countries including the US, plus two territories that have jus soli, or birthright citizenship. Another 32 nations have some form of restricted birthright citizenship, the website says.

Ending DEI … Trump issued a memo placing employees in federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs on paid leave until 5 pm Wednesday, per NPR’s Morning Edition. Agencies have to noon Thursday Eastern time to report on their compliance to the Office of Personnel Management. Agencies must develop a “reduction-in-force action” against the employees, according to Trump’s memo.

Wait for the tariffs … Not so fast, but quickly enough for the president’s favorite word.

“We’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada. Probably February 1 is the date we’re looking at. For Mexico and China we’re talking about approximately, approximately, 25%,” Trump told a press conference Tuesday, Politico reports.

•••

WHO’s Out First – About eight hours after President Trump was sworn in, he issued an executive order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization, which will make it harder to fight the pandemic and undermine US standing as a global health leader, critics of Trump’s move told The New York Times. 

Trump cited WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms” and a expensive membership payments, higher than what China pays. 

The withdrawal will leave the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention without access to global data such as the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus China handed over to WHO in 2020. 

The upshot … So, continue to blame Trump 45’s problems dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which certainly helped him lose re-election that year, on the WHO, which Trump 47 will likely need if/when there is another pandemic in the next four years?

•••

Meanwhile, in the Boardrooms – Business leaders are “scrambling” to sort out sweeping changes to tax, immigration, trade and energy policies brought on by President Trump’s flurry of executive orders, The Wall Street Journal reports. Among the scramble, JPMorganChase has set up a war room, law firm Fisher Phillips has created an immigration hotline to help its clients deal with potential workplace immigration raids and manufacturers and retailers have teams working to mitigate potential new tariffs. 

•••

Meanwhile, on the Pulpit – The inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral is not normally a political event. But on Tuesday morning, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, leader of the Episcopal Diocese in Washington said, “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

As President Trump, Vice President Vance and family members looked on, Budde said, “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some of who fear for their lives.”

Per The New York Times Budde continued that “the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

Later, from the White House, Trump told reporters, “I didn’t think it was a good service, no.”

•••

Replacing Vance – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has appointed Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to replace Sen. JD Vance now that he is vice president, The Columbus Dispatch reports. Elon Musk’s junior partner in the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was reportedly interested in the appointment, but dropped out of contention and will run for Ohio governor in 2026, instead. 

Husted is expected to run for the Senate seat in the November 2026 elections, winner of which would serve the rest of Vance’s term, to 2028.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 1/22/25