Morning Report — From Cabinet to Capitol, Musk’s role questioned

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In today’s issue:

A Cabinet in Musk’s shadow
Inside Congress: bully pulpits to budgeting
Trump: Ukraine should turn to Europe for security
USDA chief pitches egg prices plan

The Cabinet and Congress, at least for the time being, squirm in Elon Musk’s shadow.

President Trump interjected to explain Musk’s actions during his Cabinet meeting Wednesday, as did Musk himself. On Capitol Hill, the White House chief of staff outlined Musk’s moves to a group of uneasy Senate Republicans, some of whom openly question the billionaire adviser’s bulldozer methods.

The Hill: GOP senators voice frustrations about Musk.

Trump acknowledged the tensions, saying some of the Cabinet secretaries seated around him “disagree a little bit” with Musk — who joined in. The presidential adviser wore a T-shirt with the words “tech support” and a “Make America Great Again” cap.

Musk ostensibly makes suggestions to the president and a team in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), acting only on Trump’s orders, according to the White House, which insists the SpaceX CEO has no independent federal authority.

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chair Jerry Moran (Kan.), one of the Republican lawmakers concerned about DOGE-sparked turmoil, told The Hill he’s trying to find out from the executive branch whether the firing of 2,400 probationary VA employees will impact services for veterans.

“We want to know [what] positions [are affected]. We’ve been reassured that it doesn’t affect direct care, but we’re looking for more information. … We haven’t gotten everything that we’ve wanted,” he said.

Moran said he wants to hear from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) about which positions are being eliminated and how federal services and benefits will be impacted.

The Associated Press: The administration temporarily paused billions of dollars in VA contract cancellations lauded by Musk as lawmakers and veterans decry loss of critical care.

DOGE has gained access to sensitive federal data systems, shuttered agencies, terminated thousands of employees across the government, and issued a confusing barrage of communications using email and through Musk’s social media account to threaten to fire civil servants who failed to respond with a summary of tasks they performed last week. Federal employees have described the result as “chaos.”

Musk on Wednesday stood in the Cabinet room to argue that employees mistook the weekend email demand that went to 2.3 million workers as a “performance review.” Some departments intervened to say responses were voluntary. Trump defended Musk and said the 1 million workers who did not respond by email "are on the bubble," adding, "maybe they're gonna be gone."

The president assures the public and lawmakers who are putting his agenda in budget legislation that “hundreds of billions” in savings will result from DOGE’s hunt for “waste, fraud and abuse.” Trump describes the government as “bloated” and “sloppy.”

Administration lawyers are repeatedly pressed to explain Musk’s role in courtrooms where firings and frozen federal contracts have led to lawsuits. On Wednesday, federal agencies and departments were instructed by OPM and OMB to prepare internal restructuring plans, get set for geographic relocations by spring of some agency and department operations and anticipate substantial additional federal layoffs.

SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN:

“We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way.”

That's the message from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in the last line of her new Wall Street Journal op-ed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief laid out a five-point plan on how to deal with the avian flu and lower egg prices.

Some Democrats have hammered President Trump for the rise in egg prices, which are now hovering around $8 a dozen, given he promised to lower prices on Day 1. The USDA also predicts egg prices could rise more than 40 percent this year.

The administration is trying to get ahead of this, and knows that if and when prices subside, they can make the argument: We heard you, we fought for you and help came.

Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ Trump on Wednesday described another month-long pause on tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, saying they could take effect on April 2. He also floated a 25 percent "reciprocal" tariff on European cars and other goods.

▪ The president is heavily involved in midterm election strategizing, pledging to exert his influence and spend campaign reserves he tallies at more than $500 million. “He understands the importance of keeping the House majority for his agenda to be able to move forward,” Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who leads the House GOP campaign arm, told CNN.

▪ Lunar lander Athena should arrive on the moon’s surface in a week to search for water following Intuitive Machines’ launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on Wednesday.

LEADING THE DAY

© The Associated Press | J. Scott Applewhite

DEMOCRATS ARE PUSHING BACK against the Trump administration’s efforts to slim down the federal government, slashing jobs and agencies in the process. Lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia — in whose districts many federal workers reside — told WTOP they were encouraged by some early legal victories in the fight to prevent firings as they work closely with major unions that represent federal employees.

Maryland Democrats, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, met at the Capitol with union leaders to update one another on the DOGE cuts. Van Hollen said Maryland lawmakers are “the tip of the spear” in pushing back on the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts.

“We’ve just seen a wave of lawbreaking,” he said.

▪ The Hill: Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily delayed a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments, imposed by a lower judge who found the administration had flouted his ruling. Lawyers for the Trump administration on Wednesday said that it was ending nearly 10,000 U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department contracts and grants.

▪ The Hill: Rep. Derek Tran (D-Calif.) is introducing legislation that would require the government to rehire veterans who were terminated without reason under the Trump administration’s mass layoffs across federal departments and agencies.

▪ The Hill: More than 80 House Democrats are calling on Trump to revoke an executive order to broadly restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender young people, alleging the directive is unconstitutional and puts lives at risk.

▪ NBC News: Two more staffers quit Sen. John Fetterman's (D-Pa.) office as the senator carves his own lane with Trump.

NOW THE HARD PART: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) notched a significant win Tuesday night when he muscled the House GOP’s budget resolution through the chamber in a stunning vote. Now the hard part begins. Johnson has to reconcile the House’s one-bill resolution with the Senate’s two-track framework, get the ultimate compromise through his slim majority, then craft the actual Trump agenda bill in a way that appeases all corners of the ideologically diverse GOP conference — a trio of heavy lifts that are forecasting stormy days ahead for the Speaker.

“As little as possible,” Johnson said when asked how many changes the House will be able to stomach. “We have a very small needle to thread here, and we have sort of an equilibrium point amongst people with competing priorities, and [if] we deviate from that too much, we have a problem.”

Meanwhile, the Senate is staring down a major fight to overhaul the House's budget resolution as a number of members are crying foul that it wouldn't make any tax cuts permanent, and fret about the possibility of deep Medicaid cuts that the House bill opened the door to. Earlier this month, the Senate, fed up with the House’s lack of action on its plan to advance Trump’s single “big, beautiful bill,” moved its own budget resolution for the first part of a two-pronged approach.

The House’s vote on Tuesday, however, has put the onus back on Senate Republicans, leaving them trying to insert some of their top priorities into one gargantuan package.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who met with Republican senators Wednesday, did not get into the details of the budget blueprint and how to reconcile the House and Senate Republicans’ sharply divergent approaches.

“It’s complicated. It’s hard. Nothing about this is going to be easy,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). “There are some things that we need to work with the House package to expand upon.”

▪ NPR: After the GOP passed its budget resolution, Congress’s to-do list only gets tougher.

▪ The Hill: Top Republicans are digging in their heels against restricting Trump’s powers in funding negotiations with Democrats, as both sides struggle to strike a deal to avert a government shutdown next month.

▪ The Hill: Americans for Prosperity may be in the doghouse with Trump, but it is increasing its footprint on Capitol Hill as it advocates to extend the president’s 2017 tax cuts.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 9 a.m. The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.
The president will receive an intelligence briefing at 11:15 a.m.in the Oval Office. Trump will welcome British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House at 12:15 p.m. for a meeting, working lunch and joint press conference at 2 p.m. in the East Room.
Economic indicator: The Bureau of Economic Analysis at 8:30 a.m. will report fourth-quarter gross domestic product and 2024’s GDP.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press | AP Photo

DECIMAL POINTS: The Musk team quietly revised downward its mistaken math with some contract cancellations after news accounts of its errors. Billions of dollars reported as savings by DOGE were revised to millions on its public tally.

USDA HATCHES FALLBACKS AIMED AT EGGS: Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday the U.S. is pondering importing eggs to lower consumer prices. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, she also wrote, “The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again. We are working with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending. We will repurpose some of those dollars by investing in long-term solutions to avian flu, which has resulted in about 166 million laying hens being culled since 2022.”

U.S. TAXPAYERS AIDED THE WORLD’S RICHEST PERSON: Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding, including federal contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often arriving at critical moments for his companies, according to a Washington Post special report.

IRATE WITH FOURTH ESTATE: The president threatened on Wednesday to sue journalists and writers behind books and news accounts published “with the so-called ‘anonymous,’ or ‘off the record,’ quotes,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “At some point I am going to sue some of these dishonest authors and book publishers, or even media in general, to find out whether or not these ‘anonymous sources’ even exist.” Trump said he might even seek a law against anonymous sourcing. “They are made up, defamatory fiction, and a big price should be paid for this blatant dishonesty. I’ll do it as a service to our Country. Who knows, maybe we will create some NICE NEW LAW!!!” he wrote. Courts have varied on the question of blanket protections for journalists’ confidential sources. Washington, D.C., and nearly all states have shield laws protecting journalists. In The Memo, The Hill’s Niall Stanage explains how the news media grapple with the challenges of covering Trump.

PHARMACY MIDDLEMEN: House Democrats favor a stand-alone bill to rein in the practices of the pharmacy benefit manager industry (PBMs). A hearing on Wednesday was a sign that Republicans remain interested in the issue, reports The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel. But with heavy lifts on the budget and taxes, and Democrats’ focus intently on possible Medicaid cuts, timing of separate legislation is a question mark. The Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee accused PBMs of inflating pharmaceutical prices last summer, undermining patient care and lining “their own pockets.”

ABORTION: Here’s how Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could attempt to limit who can take the abortion medication mifepristone, according to experts. Kennedy told the Senate he’s open to restricting access to the nation’s primary method being used to terminate pregnancies.

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press | Ohad Zwigenberg

MINERAL PACT BUT NO SECURITY PLEDGE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, ahead of a meeting at the White House on Friday, announced that a framework deal with the United States on Ukraine's critical raw materials is nearing completion. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said Trump is “very close” to an agreement as he pushes to end the war with Russia. The U.S. will make no pledge to protect Ukraine from Russia, Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to provide security guarantees beyond very much,” he said in the Cabinet room. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”

Trump said he’s confident about reaching an agreement with Russia that could end the conflict and noted without details that Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to make concessions. Zelensky has said Western security guarantees are necessary for a ceasefire.

After French President Emmanuel Macron navigated his rocky meeting with Trump on Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gets his turn today to meet with the president in the Oval Office and plead for support for Ukraine. Starmer will arrive with a pledge to increase his country’s military spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2027, and to 3 percent within a decade — addressing a core Trump concern that Europe relies too heavily on American security.

▪ BBC: What’s in the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal?

▪ The Kyiv Independent: Read the full text of the deal, as provided by the Ukrainian government.

▪ The Atlantic: Did Russia invade Ukraine? Is Putin a dictator? We asked every Republican member of Congress.

GAZA CEASEFIRE: Israel and Hamas said they have agreed on the return of four bodies of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel, keeping a fragile ceasefire alive. But with the first phase of the truce set to expire Saturday, both sides are working to proceed to the second, decisive phase. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, may travel to the region on Sunday if indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a second phase of a ceasefire deal show progress this week.

The biggest question in the deadlock: Could Hamas be persuaded to leave Gaza, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded? Or will Netanyahu be willing to compromise — and pay a political price?

CNN: Israel prepares for more war.

OPINION

■ Elon Musk is the world’s richest man. Why is he sleeping on an office floor? by Erik Baker, guest essayist, The New York Times.

■ CBS must defend our free press, not settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit, by Jeffrey M. McCall, opinion contributor, The Hill.

THE CLOSER

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally… It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by patriotic appetites, we’re eager for some smart guesses about food names.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

As Canadians brace for Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on their goods, they’re turning toward local companies and products. One coffee shop is going further, coming up with what patriotic drink name?

Flat red and white
Canadiano
Moose mocha
Maplecchino

Which, among actual past patriotic renaming of foods, is the choice we invented?

Freedom fries (French fries)
Liberty lettuce (sauerkraut)
Liberty steaks (hamburgers)
Ohio chocolate cake (German chocolate cake)

Which of the following is NOT a food or drink named for a U.S. president?

Trumptini
Apricots with rice à la Jefferson
Hoover Steak
Washington Pie

Cereals named Obama O's and Cap'n McCains were released during the 2008 presidential race to see which was the real breakfast of champions.

True
False

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger (asimendinger@thehill.com) and Kristina Karisch (kkarisch@thehill.com). Follow us on social platform X: (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends.

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