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Morning Report — Trump, Musk defend a month of DOGE
In today’s issue:
- Trump, Musk defend DOGE
- Senate to vote on budget goals this week
- Embattled New York mayor vows to stay put
- Trump blames Ukraine as U.S. revives Russia ties
President Trump, appearing Tuesday on Fox News alongside billionaire adviser Elon Musk, defended his rush to gain control of the federal bureaucracy, bashed former President Biden and hailed the SpaceX CEO for implementing change.
“You write a beautiful executive [order] and you sign it, you assume it’s going to be done but it’s not,” the president told host Sean Hannity at the White House during a pre-taped discussion. “He gets it done. He’s a leader. He gets it done.”
The Hill: Trump said he ordered the firings of Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys within the Justice Department.
Trump, who was in Florida as the interview aired, said he believes Musk ultimately will find $1 trillion in federal savings after he and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team estimated reductions of $55 billion to date in the pursuit of what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The original target, publicly pared down in early January, had been $2 trillion in savings.
“If the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the president — the president — from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy,” Musk added.
A month into his frenetic second term, the president also cheered his decision to rebuild U.S. ties with Moscow while distancing the U.S. from Ukraine’s defenses in a war that started with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022.
Trump said little about his promise to voters to lower prices, but he added details to his tariff policy by floating 25 percent on autos, computer chips and pharmaceuticals, suggesting that levies might rise over time.
Musk, whose influence and impact has sparked protests and demonstrations in several cities, was identified this week by the administration in a court filing as a White House adviser without authority to order federal action on his own. Critics have described Musk’s involvement in purging employees and gaining access to information in Treasury, IRS and Office of Personnel Management databases as a risk and potentially illegal.
The tech guru’s decisions with DOGE, chronicled from his perspective on his social platform X, are largely opaque. And White House Office employees under the executive cloak of the West Wing are not covered by the transparency requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. An assertion by DOGE on a website this week that it saved $8 billion while terminating one federal contract appears to refer to an $8 million contract and lacked documentation.
▪ The Hill: Senate Republicans say access to private IRS data by Musk’s team is acceptable, but they urge guardrails.
▪ The Hill: The president’s whirlwind first month leaves heads spinning.
▪ The Hill: Four takeaways from the Trump-Musk interview.
Trump, who anticipated in January that some of his executive orders and directives would be swiftly challenged in court, found support in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.
Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request from 14 Democratic state attorneys general to immediately impose wide-ranging restrictions on Musk’s DOGE.
The states, led by New Mexico, asserted that Musk’s non-Senate-confirmed role is unconstitutional, and his team’s access should be blocked in seven federal agencies.
Chutkan acknowledged the “unpredictable” actions taken by Musk’s team but said the 14 states failed to provide specific examples of how the DOGE efforts would cause imminent or irreparable harm to the states or their residents. The mere possibility that “defendants may take actions that irreparably harm plaintiffs” was not enough to grant emergency relief, she said.
The administration, however, was ordered by a different federal judge on Tuesday to temporarily reinstate Cathy Harris, who chaired the Merit Systems Protection Board until being fired as part of the DOGE downsizing.
And there have been mistakes, the administration concedes. The Agriculture Department is trying to reverse the firing over the weekend of federal officials who had worked on avian flu response.
THE ULTIMATE SAY: Working to expand his reach over federal agencies, Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order giving his political appointees power over agencies that have long functioned independently from the White House. The order does not affect the Federal Reserve’s sway over interest rate policy but impacts its other functions, such as regulations, bank supervision and its budget. The order is expected to apply to the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
Among the turmoil posed by Musk’s access to sensitive federal databases, civil servants purged by email notifications and the dismantling of several agencies are a rising number of protest resignations.
U.S. prosecutor Denise Cheung abruptly resigned on Tuesday after she declined a request from administration officials to freeze the assets of a government contractor, saying she had insufficient evidence to do so.
The Food and Drug Administration’s chief of food safety resigned Monday, saying the loss of key employees overseeing the nation’s food supply made his work impossible. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to gut the division.
During his first address as secretary to HHS employees Tuesday, Kennedy said “nothing is going to be off limits” within the overhaul he envisions. He said a new presidential commission would scrutinize childhood vaccine schedules, psychiatric medications and other frequent targets of focus on chronic disease.
The Hill: $1 billion in Department of Education contract cuts spurred “chaos and confusion.”
SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN
A little more than 80 percent of the federal workforce lives outside of the Washington, D.C., area, which means as DOGE carries out its plan to slim down government payrolls you will start to see headlines like these: “'There is no one left': Custer Gallatin National Forest workers are reeling from job losses.”
So how will pro-DOGE lawmakers respond when job losses occur in or near their districts?
“The bottom line is this,” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.)told me. “If the job is important, you'll keep it. If the job is on the line, it'll be looked at. And if the job is unnecessary, it'll be cut.”
Zinke represents parts of Montana that include portions of Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. He is also the former Interior secretary, which means he’s seen an agency from the inside out. Other congressional members will have to answer for themselves.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:
▪ Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, was charged Tuesday with overseeing a coup attempt — including a plan to poison current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — to undermine his nation’s trust in the 2022 elections and then overturn that vote.
▪ Trump’s governmentwide firing of probationary employees led the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston to close temporarily on Tuesday. Presidential libraries are part of the National Archives and Records Administration but receive additional support from private donors and public ticket sales. The president last week fired the board of the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington and installed his own board, including his White House chief of staff.
▪ Pope Francis, 88, ate a hospital breakfast in Rome this morning, the Vatican said. He has pneumonia in both lungs after being diagnosed with bronchitis last week.
LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press | J. Scott Applewhite
BUDGET BATTLES: Senate Republicans are set to vote on their budget resolution this week as the chamber makes its move toward enacting a big chunk of Trump’s agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday announced plans for the chamber to take up the measure that the Senate Budget Committee, under Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), advanced last week, putting it on track to hit the floor this week as the chamber puts pressure on the House to act.
Congressional leaders have until March 14 to fund the government, and the House’s and Senate’s plans to do so while enacting the president’s agenda differ broadly. The House’s approach — “one big, beautiful bill” — has run into roadblocks among a divided GOP conference, while the Senate pushes ahead with two bills.
The two chambers have been duking it out for months over which avenue is the best way to enact Trump’s agenda. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) have forcefully backed the one-bill approach, as they may only have one bite at the apple in the House given their slim majority.
The upper chamber’s budget resolution would tee up a package of roughly $325 billion to bolster border operations, allow Trump’s deportation plans to be executed, boost defense spending and green-light energy plans. Graham touted the bill, pointing out that it would allow $175 billion to be spent on border security and $150 billion on military capabilities as he instructed committees to find offsets to cut mandatory spending outside of Social Security.
From the time the resolution is filed, 50 hours of debate will take place, followed by a vote-a-rama — an hours-long period where the chamber will vote on myriad amendments. Many of those amendments will be brought forth by Democrats, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to force votes on the floor that could not happen otherwise. Many of those amendments could be used to make GOP members take what could be politically perilous votes.
Democrats are expected to take full advantage of their scarce opportunity to exert power on Capitol Hill, writes The Hill’s Mike Lillis, going out of their way to make the budget process as painful as possible for vulnerable Republicans. In the House this week, the Democrats’ top super PAC announced a new campaign to highlight the Medicaid cuts that are all but inevitable as part of the Republicans’ nascent effort to pay for an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. In the Senate, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is urging his troops to push amendments to amplify the Democrats’ charges that GOP leaders want to slash working-class benefits to help the wealthiest taxpayers.
“Republicans’ budget proposal is a betrayal of American families — slashing Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security to finance $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires,” said Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.). “Budgets reflect values — and theirs puts working people last.”
Both efforts come on the heels of a choreographed tactic by Democrats on the House Budget Committee to offer a long series of policy riders to the GOP’s budget resolution aimed at preventing steep cuts to federal nutrition, healthcare and other programs benefiting low-income families in every district in the country. The Democrats’ message is clear: They may be in the minority in both chambers, but any Republican who supports Trump’s cost-cutting agenda will have to answer for its effects on middle-class families on the campaign trail.
CABINET: The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Howard Lutnick to serve as Commerce secretary, approving in a 51-45 vote a key member of Trump’s economic team amid rising trade tensions.
The Senate on Tuesday voted to advance the nomination of Kash Patel to be the director of the FBI, putting a staunch Trump ally and bureau critic on track to run the most prominent U.S. law enforcement agency. His final confirmation vote will take place later this week.
WHERE AND WHEN
- The House will convene briefly at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
- The Senate meets at 10 a.m.
- The president begins his day in Florida. He will travel from Palm Beach to Miami and participate in an afternoon at an FII Priority event hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Trump will depart Miami and sign executive orders en route on Air Force One at approximately 7:30 p.m. before arriving at the White House at 9:10 p.m.
- The secretary of State is in Abu Dhabi where he met United Arab Emirates President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
ZOOM IN
© The Associated Press | Seth Wenig
New York Democrats are grappling with how best to handle New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) as calls mount for his resignation amid fallout from the Justice Department moving to drop corruption charges against him. On Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) met with the city leaders to discuss a “path forward” for the city’s leadership amid the growing scandal and resignations of four of the city’s deputy mayors, The Hill’s Jared Gans and Julia Manchester report. The developments have piled onto the expectation that Adams’s ouster is inevitable, whether it takes place before or after the city’s mayoral primary in June.
“The die appears to have been cast for months now, though he is Trumpy in his tenacity,” said Jon Reinish, a New York-based Democratic strategist, referring to Adams, who has vowed not to resign.
Louisiana’s attorney general is seeking to extradite a New York doctor who prescribed and sent abortion medication through the mail to a resident of her state, escalating a legal battle that could test the limits of state abortion laws. The move is the latest in two simultaneous legal battles against the doctor, Margaret Carpenter. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) previously sued her for allegedly prescribing and sending abortion pills to a woman, and a grand jury in Louisiana indicted her for the same reason last month.
The future of the legal battles remains unclear, but experts told The Hill’s Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech that New York will likely not have to extradite Carpenter.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, which begins Thursday in Maryland, will offer something of a victory lap for Trump and the GOP and put the energized Republican Party on display. But The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports fault lines around key issues including foreign policy and some Trump nominees could mar the message of unity.
The New York Times: A lonely holdout where Republicans still resist Trump: Utah. Bolstered by Mormon voters’ distaste for MAGA politics, the center-right is trying to reassert itself in a ruby-red state.
ELSEWHERE
© The Associated Press | Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters
UKRAINE TALKS: Trump on Tuesday appeared to blame Ukraine’s leaders for the three-year war with Russia, arguing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “should have never started it.” Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after amassing troops on the border and demanding a ban on Ukraine ever joining the NATO alliance.
“I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it’s going very well,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago on the heels of the meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, which did not include a Ukrainian delegation. “But today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should’ve ended it in three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way.”
Zelensky on Wednesday accused Trump of living in a Russian "disinformaton space." Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelensky said “we have seen this disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia.”
The president’s comments come after Russia and the U.S. officially reengaged on Tuesday for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago. The upshot in Saudi Arabia was the end of U.S. isolation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government.
Delegations from the two countries met to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine, but the talks expanded beyond that scope. After more than four hours of talks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both sides had agreed to work on a peace settlement for Ukraine and to explore “the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians,” both politically and economically. The U.S. delegation also agreed to further meetings with Russian officials.
“We weren’t just listening to each other, but we heard each other,” said Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister. “I have reason to believe that the American side started to better understand our positions.”
CNN analysis: Trump delivers another blow to Ukraine and a new boost to Putin.
The about-face in the U.S.-Russia relationship comes after Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end the war in Ukraine within the first 100 days of his second term. But in bringing Russia to the negotiating table, the U.S. did not invite a delegation from Ukraine. Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, will negotiate with Kyiv and Europe on a settlement in Ukraine. He arrived in Ukraine's capital city on Wednesday. Zelensky warned Kyiv would not accept the results of talks that were held “behind Ukraine’s back” on Tuesday.
“It feels like the U.S. is now discussing the ultimatum that Putin set at the start of the full-scale war,” he said after a meeting with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Zelensky also announced that he had postponed a visit to Saudi Arabia, originally expected on Wednesday.
The Hill’s Laura Kelly rounded up five key takeaways from the talks.
NBC News: The U.S. and Russia agreed to restore embassy staffing in high-level talks on the Ukraine war.
BBC: Russia won't accept NATO troops in Ukraine, Lavrov said after talks with the U.S.
NPR: Who is Steve Witkoff, the American playing a key role in the U.S.-Russia talks about Ukraine?
GAZA CEASEFIRE: Israel and Hamas will begin indirect negotiations on a second stage of the Gaza ceasefire deal as the Palestinian militant group said it would hand over more hostages this weekend. The future of the ceasefire remains shaky as each side accused the other of violating the truce agreement and want to be sure both parties get what they consider the most important parts of the agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is appointing a close political ally to lead talks over phase two of the current ceasefire in Gaza, replacing Israel’s previous chief negotiator.
PBS NewsHour: Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza, a counter to Trump's call for depopulating the territory.
OPINION
■ A U.S. betrayal is surreal for Europeans, by Farah Stockman, columnist, The New York Times.
■ America is sick. Healthier food can help patients in recovery, by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) and Mark Hyman, opinion contributors, The Hill.
THE CLOSER
© The Associated Press | Seth Wenig
And finally … People around the globe are having fewer babies, and Harvard University economist Claudia Goldin set out to know why. Her conclusion: In places where men do more around the house, fertility rates are higher; where they do less, rates are lower, writes Washington Post columnist Heather Long.
Goldin’s trailblazing research, which won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2023, looked at women’s roles in the workplace and found answers woven into history and evolving societal expectations about how much men should do at home. In academic speak, “swift economic change may lead to both generational and gendered conflicts that result in a rapid decrease in the total fertility rate,” Goldin wrote.
The intersection of economic booms, babies and women in the labor force is still being debated. “Childless cat lady” launched a thousand T-shirts. And Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order supporting access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Stay Engaged
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