Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will cut about one-third his department’s full-time jobs as part of President Trump’s wider federal government overhaul (per USA Today). HHS oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Medicare and Medicaid services.
FRIDAY 3/28/25
Teaming Up – President Trump participates in the swearing in ceremony of Alina Habba, his White House counselor and often described as his favorite attorney, to be US attorney for New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reports. The president then flies on Air Force One to spend the weekend at the Southern White House at Mar-a-Lago.
Habba began working for Trump after the January 6th Capitol insurrection, most prominently representing him in E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump in which the president-to-be was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. (Carroll was awarded $83.3 million in damages, but the case is under appeal.)
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Taking One for the Team – President Trump has pulled his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as his United Nations ambassador in order to maintain the GOP’s wafer-thin majority of between one and two votes in the House (per NPR’s Morning Edition). Of two special elections in Florida one, the seat of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s withdrawn pick for US attorney general, is reliably red. The second, to replace national security advisor Mike Waltz is in a dead heat between Republican Randy Fine and Democrat Josh Weil, according to a survey of polls by St. Johns Polls, for Florida International University’s Florida Politics.
The Great Democratic Hope … All politics is local, and this is a local story. Specifically, it is the story of a special election for the 36th state senate district for Pennsylvania serving suburban and farming sections of Lancaster County, in the south-central portion of the commonwealth.
The Democratic mayor of East Petersburg, James Malone, beat Republican Josh Parsons, chairman of the Lancaster County board of commissioners, Tuesday, by 482 votes, LNP/Lancaster Online reports. When Christa Miller, chief county elections clerk, said just 146 more provisional ballots were yet to be counted, Parsons conceded to Malone, who becomes the first Democrat elected to the seat since … 1889.
Canary in a clean-coal mine?
The special election was called after Republican state Sen. Ryan Aument (R) stepped down after last November’s elections to take a job as state office director for US Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), who beat incumbent Democrat Bob Casey November 5.
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How Greenland is Not Our Valley – Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance were on their way to Greenland Friday, to visit the Pittufik US Space Force base in Thule, on the northwest coast of the world’s largest island. Original plans for Usha Vance to tour cultural attractions and attend the audience of the National Dog Sled Race, described by visitgreenland.com as the country’s most prestigious such event, were called off when Greenland’s leaders called it a “provocative and unwelcome” visit, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.
--TL
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THURSDAY 3/27/25
[President Trump continues to defend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding Signalgate, while accepting his national security advisor, Mike Waltz acceptance of responsibility, Politico reports. “Mike Waltz, I guess he said, he claimed responsibility,” Trump said. Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay discusses the security breach in the right column.]
‘Liberation Day’ Means 25% Tariffs on Foreign Autos – President Trump announced in the Oval Office he will impose tariffs on all import autos beginning next week, The Wall Street Journal reports. While Trump has long referred to Tuesday, April 2 as “Liberation Day,” threatened tariffs have been on, off and delayed since he took office in January. This time, he appears to be serious.
“What we’re going to be doing is a 25% tariff on all cars not made in the US,” Trump said.
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Europe to Coordinate Military Aid for Ukraine – Leaders from 31 countries are meeting Thursday in Paris to coordinate military aid for Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent reports, where they will discuss steps toward a “just and lasting peace” and prospects for a truce with Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer are at the center of efforts to sustain military aid to Ukraine.
Starmer told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you have our full support as long as it takes.”
Zelenskyy once again warned that “Russia doesn’t want any kind of peace.”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa