“Amazon has put in a last-minute bid to acquire all of TikTok, the popular video app, as it approaches an April deadline to be separated from its Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States,” the New York Times reports.
“Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.”
“Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, is getting ready to challenge Senator John Cornyn in what could be the nastiest and most expensive Republican Party showdown of the 2026 election,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man,” Politico reports.
“The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role.”
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Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) wants President Trump to use tariffs as a cudgel to get other nations to pull back their own, Politico reports.
Said Kennedy: “In the long run, it will probably work. The problem is that in the long run, we’re all dead. And so the short run matters.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Republicans say they’re “nervous about the lasting repercussions if Trump keeps the tariffs in place for longer than a month.”
Michael Bloomberg: “Amid all the blaring headlines coming out of Washington, here’s a piece of news that is getting far too little attention: The U.S. is on course for fiscal breakdown. That’s the unambiguous message from the Congressional Budget Office’s newly updated long-term projections. Unless Congress changes course, there’ll be a reckoning, and it will be grim…”
“The federal government is currently spending roughly $7 trillion and collecting only $5 trillion in taxes annually. The resulting deficit is a little over 6% of gross domestic product, a disturbingly high number for an economy around full employment.”
“Emails show that the Social Security Administration canceled contracts with the state of Maine as political payback against its Democratic governor,” the HuffPost reports.
“A week after Maine Gov. Janet Mills clashed publicly with President Donald Trump at the White House over transgender athletes in girls’ sports, Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of Social Security, asked his staff about what contracts Maine had with the Social Security Administration.”
“Jonathan Braun has repeatedly been in legal trouble since President Trump commuted his federal prison sentence more than four years ago as part of a rushed, last-minute process of granting clemency to allies and well-connected special pleaders before leaving office,” the New York Times reports.
“On Saturday, Mr. Braun, a major player in the predatory lending business, was arrested on Long Island on charges of assaulting an acquaintance and his 3-year-old child, according to court documents. It was the fourth time he has been arrested since Mr. Trump freed him.”
Donald Trump is number 700 on the Forbes Billionaires List.
Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos are the top three, in that order.
“Elon Musk appeared to boast of advance knowledge of a planned arrest related to alleged Social Security fraud during an appearance on a live stream Monday night promoted to his more than 200 million social media followers, frustrating top law enforcement officials,” ABC News reports.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, a former president of Costa Rica, says the Trump administration has revoked his visa after his public comments critical of President Trump, Reuters reports.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has placed an indefinite hold on the nomination of Ed Martin to be U.S. attorney in Washington, DC, CBS News reports.
“The Trump administration is pursuing agreements with several more countries to take migrants deported from the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Immigration officials are seeking more destinations where they can send immigrants the U.S. wants to deport, but whose countries are slow to take them back or refuse to.”
“Donald Trump’s social media company on Monday filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange commission that could allow the president’s trust to sell more than $2 billion of shares,” ABC News reports.
The White House yielded to investors’ pleas that President Trump hold his much-anticipated tariff announcement until after markets close, Semafor reports.
Trump is slated to lay out the details at a White House Rose Garden event at 4 p.m. ET.
Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) was on his way to an elevator when confronted by Mack Schroeder, a former employee of the Department of Health and Human Services:
SCHROEDER: Hi, I was a worker at HHS. I was fired illegally on Feb. 14. There are many people who are not getting social service programs, especially people with disabilities. Are you going to do anything to stop what’s happening?
BANKS: You probably deserved it.
SCHROEDER: I deserved it?
BANKS: You seem like a clown.
The Bulwark: “We were frankly a little gobsmacked, both at the physical feat involved and at the rhetorical one: He seemed to strengthen as he went on, and the last hour was a soaring call for the nation to rise to meet the present moral moment.”
“Democrats are out of power all over Washington; their options for countering the Trump program are grievously limited. But anti-MAGA Americans have been dismayed by how complacent many elected Democrats appear to be about that state of affairs. They’re clamoring for leaders who—to borrow a phrase—know what time it is. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has become a real party figurehead in recent days just by being willing to show a little fight and fire.”
“Booker’s historic speech puts him right up there with her among the Democrats who are proving they’ve got something to bring in the current moment. Who knows how broadly it will resonate outside the Democratic base—but the base desperately needs leaders to steer their rudderless party right now. At a minimum, he gave them that.”
For members: A Stunt Worth Doing
“As I mentioned several years ago, it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence.”
— Elon Musk, on X.
“A federal judge on Wednesday permanently dismissed the sweeping public corruption charges against Mayor Adams — denying an effort by Trump’s Justice Department to have them, tossed ‘without prejudice,’ or keeping open the possibility of bringing them again,” the New York Daily News reports.
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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