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The Senate voted to confirm Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) as Homeland Security secretary, Punchbowl News reports.
The vote was 54-45. Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) crossed party lines in supporting Mullin. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted against the nomination.
“I don’t think we can just walk away from this and say we won. We’re in a tough spot and I can’t identify a lot of options.”
— Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, quoted by the Financial Times, arguing a retreat from the Strait of Hormuz would embolden Iran.
“Taxpayers shelled out more than $200,000 in production costs for an ad featuring fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem riding around Mount Rushmore on horseback,” the New York Post reports.
“A partial invoice… showed The Strategy Group Company spent $20,000 on horse rentals for the ad; $3,781 on hair and makeup; $52,599 on videography, photography and production vendors; $41,852 on other vendors.”
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Rachel Bade: “While the left’s irritation with Schumer may be genuine, the idea that he’s on the brink is more fantasy than fact. Having covered internal grumblings against party leaders for years, I can tell you these musings against leadership surface every cycle — and rarely go anywhere.”
“At any given moment, a handful of senators are disgruntled. But turning that into an actual leadership coup? That’s a whole other ballgame.”
Isaac Stanley-Becker: “A decade ago, Trump’s election seemed to open a trapdoor in democracy and reveal a realistic path to power for populist movements all over the world. Globalization was showing its ugly side, and voters were noticing. International institutions were creaking under the weight of mass migration; in their place, nationalism seemed poised for a comeback. People like Messerschmidt, but also Marine Le Pen in France and Alice Weidel in Germany, looked at America and thought, It can happen here. To speed the process, they even adopted Trump’s language: woke, witch hunt, fake news.”
“These same politicians are now distancing themselves from Trump.”
New York Times: “President Trump said on Monday that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown and instead focus on passing voting legislation, even as Transportation Security Administration agents work without paychecks and lines at some airports stretch for hours.”
Wall Street Journal: “President Trump has criticized Europe for staying on the sidelines in the Iran war. But many European countries are quietly playing a crucial supporting role.”
“While many European leaders have publicly decried the U.S. attacks on Iran, behind the scenes their military bases are facilitating one of the most logistically complex operations the U.S. military has been involved in for decades.”
New York Times: “The Trump administration escalated its pressure campaign on Harvard University with two new investigations into antisemitism on campus and the school’s admissions policies, issues the federal government has repeatedly scrutinized on the Ivy League campus.”
Rahm Emanuel said he wants to ban federal employees from betting in the extremely popular prediction markets, taking a shot at the Trump administration, which he said has “normalized corruption,” USA Today reports.
The Atlantic: “Strolling through the capital these days, you can’t go far without encountering an image of the president’s face. It drapes down over the front of the Department of Labor building, and peeks out from behind the trees that cluster at the entrance to the Department of Justice. What is the expression playing out on his lips, magnified to a hundred times their actual size?”
“There is something of a Mona Lisa quality to this particular photo of Donald Trump. He could be scowling, or maybe slyly smiling. His glowering eyes, though, are less enigmatic; they seem to follow the pedestrians scurrying around the city from above.”
“The rollout of these banners, and the placement of Trump’s name in front of those of institutions such as the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace, continue the president’s long history of shameless branding (see: products as varied as Trump steaks and Trump University). Except in this case the brand is being emblazoned on federal institutions that Trump himself does not own—for example, the Department of Agriculture.”
Bloomberg: “Among the myriad ideas floated to the administration for consideration are asking Congress to suspend the federal gas tax; releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve once the current release is finished and fast-tracking drilling permits… A White House official said while there are many options on the table, the administration at this time isn’t pursuing a gas tax holiday or an additional SPR release.”
“One Trump ally acknowledged a lot of this was ‘gimmicky’ but said the White House has to show it’s taking action before the midterms, which inevitably will turn on the economy.”
Wall Street Journal: “Thousands of U.S. Marines are slated to arrive in the Middle East on Friday, the day President Trump has set as the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”
CNN: “An already massive gap between Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee finances widened in February, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.”
“The RNC out-raised the DNC in February, $18.5 million to $10.3 million. And entering March, the RNC reported nearly seven times as much cash on hand, $109 million to $15.9 million.”
NOTUS: “The Trump administration is paying nearly $1 billion to get a French energy company to cancel two planned offshore wind projects.”
“The Interior Department said TotalEnergies will invest the same amount of money it is receiving from Interior into oil production and liquefied natural gas facilities in Texas.”
Washington Post: “Judges in New Jersey appointed a new top federal prosecutor for the state on Monday in a move that drew swift support from the Justice Department, signaling an apparent end to a standoff that has roiled courts there for much of the past year.”
Financial Times: “Iran has for years threatened to shut down the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes. And now they have done so, Iranian officials have indicated, it will no longer be business as usual.”
“Tehran’s ability to slow the flow of traffic to a near halt through attacks and threats has been its main point of leverage over Trump and the global economy, pushing energy prices to multiyear highs.”
“Ship owners and masters are no longer willing to risk using the strait. At least one tanker has reportedly paid $2mn for safe passage through the waterway. An Iranian MP said that would be the new normal, suggesting Iran would extract a toll from vessels.”
CBS News: Strait of Hormuz dotted with about a dozen Iranian mines.
Lakshya Jain: “Trump’s numbers on the economy are radioactive. Every major demographic group of voters disapproves of his economic stewardship, including supermajorities of young and nonwhite voters. He’s even underwater on this issue with white, non-college voters, a group he won in 2024 by more than 20 percentage points.”
“Perhaps the most dangerous warning flag for Trump? A majority of voters expect that the economy will get even worse over the next year…”
“This data also comes with sharp implications for the midterm elections. By this point, it is difficult to see a way in which an aging Trump can escape the death spiral that has enveloped his presidency.”
“What’s more, the loss of trust the Republican Party has experienced on the economy has been nothing short of staggering. In fact, in our latest survey, Democrats actually had a slight edge when it came to the economy, which marked a shocking reversal from the 14-point edge Republicans enjoyed during the Biden years.”
New York Times: “Senior military officials are weighing a possible deployment of a combat brigade from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and some elements of the division’s headquarters staff to support U.S. military operations in Iran, defense officials said.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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