Scroll down with the near-right trackbar for our wrap-up of President Trump's tour of the Arab Gulf. See the left column for info on how to comment.
Committee Fail – Fiscal conservatives blocked the Trump-based Big Beautiful Bill from making it out of the House Budget Committee, 16-21, over their push for more Medicaid cuts and faster wind-down of clean energy tax incentives, The Wall Street Journal reports. Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said lawmakers were close to agreement on changes that would win over the necessary votes.
Republican Reps. Chip Roy (TX), Ralph Norman (SC), Josh Brescheen (OK) and Andrew Clyde (GA) joined Democrats on the committee who want neither Medicaid cuts nor a clean energy incentive wind-down. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) also joined in on the committee’s procedural defeat.
Smucker supports B3 but said he voted “no” for his own procedural reasons, so he can call for a revote later, according to the WSJ.
The committee is scheduled to return to session 10 pm Sunday and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hopes to pass the bill on to the Senate by Memorial Day, which with Friday’s committee vote has become a bit less likely than before.
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Trump Returns – Israel has killed nearly 100 residents of Gaza during the huge military offensive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised if Hamas did not hand over remaining October 7 hostages before President Trump returned from his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, the BBC reports.
The president’s trip was all about business deals, and at a business roundtable in Doha Trump reiterated his interest in taking over Gaza, perhaps paving the way for a Trump hotel or two.
“I think I’d be proud to have the United States have it,” he said. “Take it. Make it a freedom zone. Let some good things happen. Put people in houses where they can be safe. And, uh, Hamas is going to have to be dealt with.”
It’s an idea that Arab nations, including his hosts this week, “strongly oppose” NPR’s Franco Ordonez told Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition.
Qatar’s offer of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 and Qatar Airways’ contract to purchase 210 wide-bodied jets from Boeing come amidst Donald Jr. and Eric Trump’s recent tour of the region to build up business for The Trump Organization. As the president returned from the tour to see his daughter, Tiffany’s, new baby, he made another pitch for Qatar’s “gift” of a 747 (TANSTAAFLA – There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Luxury Airplane, the late economist Milton Friedman would have said).
“I’ve been doing this for four days. I leave now and get into a 42-year-old … Boeing. But new ones are coming. New ones are coming,” he told reporters at his departure.
No Turkey stop … Trump did not divert Air Force One from Qatar to Turkey because Russian President Vladimir Putin did not drop in for peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, because Trump was not there, if you can follow the president’s logic. Trump said he will meet with Putin as soon as a time can be set up, NPR reports.
Zelenskyy left Ankara Airport Thursday and sent a lower-level contingent to the talks in Istanbul, matching the not-senior officials Putin sent to the conference, with the result that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each side, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile… Pope Leo XIV says he wants to host Ukrainian war peace talks at the Vatican, after the Istanbul summit failure, Politico reports.
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Not So Fast, Birthright Citizenship – Supreme Court justices centered on the issue of “universal” injunctions hearing oral arguments Thursday on Trump v. CASA, rather than challenges to the Trump White House’s executive order ending birthright citizenship established by the 14th Amendment. In other words, should an injunction against the Trump EO by federal judges in single districts apply to the nation as a whole?
There was “no clear decision” signaled by the justices, according to SCOTUSblog, though there was some pointed questioning of Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer by Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Together with Chief Justice John Roberts they constitute the current swing votes in SCOTUS, with justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito very likely siding with Trump and justices Elena Kagen, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson almost guaranteed to side with SACA. Trump’s third appointee, Neil Gorsuch, is typically one of the more vocal opponents of universal injunctions, according to SCOTUSblog.
A ruling is expected in June.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa