“President Donald Trump on Friday said he would be announcing tariffs next week that match the duties imposed by other countries, in an apparent shift from his previous threat to impose an across-the-board tariff on all imports from across the world,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “They charge us, we charge them. It’s the same thing, and I seem to be going in that line as opposed to a flat fee tariff.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) may have improperly allowed another House member to cast two votes for him on Friday morning, a serious violation of chamber’ ethics rules, Punchbowl News reports.
“A federal judge said Friday he will temporarily bar the U.S. Agency for International Development from putting 2,200 workers on paid leave as planned by the end of the day after employee groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s authority to shut down the agency,” the Washington Post reports.
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“The Trump bump in consumer confidence is already over,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Tariff threats, stock market swings and rapidly reversing executive orders are causing Americans across the political spectrum to feel considerably more pessimistic about the economy than they did before President Trump took office.”
“Consumer sentiment fell about 5% in the University of Michigan’s preliminary February survey of consumers to its lowest reading since July 2024. Expectations of inflation in the year ahead jumped from 3.3% in January to 4.3%, the second month in a row of large increases and highest reading since November 2023.”
“Constituents have flooded the phone lines at the U.S. Capitol this week, many of them asking questions about billionaire Elon Musk ‘feeding USAID into the wood chipper’ and his access to government systems,” the Washington Post reports.
“Senators’ phone systems have been overloaded, lawmakers said, with some voters unable to get through to leave a message. The outpouring of complaints and confusion has put pressure on lawmakers to find out more about Musk’s project, heightening tensions between the billionaire tech mogul and the government.”
“Senate Republicans unveiled a plan to fund President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, proposing to spend close to $350 billion on immigrant detention facilities, deportation raids and national security priorities,” the Washington Post reports.
“Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will put the package before his committee on Wednesday. Its approval would begin the budget reconciliation process, steps that would head off a Democratic filibuster and allow Republicans to approve the legislation with narrow majorities in both the Senate and House.”
“But the proposal is at odds with a far more sweeping bill that House Republicans have negotiated for the better part of a year.”
“President Trump said on Friday that Elon Musk would soon turn his cost-cutting attention to the Pentagon, a vast bureaucracy that has billions of dollars in contracts with Mr. Musk through SpaceX and other companies he owns,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “He will be looking at education pretty quickly, and he will be looking at military. At military, too.”
“The president expressed no concern about the conflict of interest. The Defense Department relies on Mr. Musk to get most of its satellites into orbit. His companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts last year with 17 federal agencies.”
“Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s squad that’s criss-crossing U.S. government agencies, was fired from an internship after he was accused of sharing information with a competitor,” Bloomberg reports.
Vice President J.D. Vance said a former DOGE staffer who resigned this week after social media posts of him advocating for racism and eugenics were brought to the White House’s attention should be reinstated in his role, USA Today reports.
Said Vance: “I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
“A group of centrist House Democrats met privately with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and asked him to give them room to vote for GOP messaging bills,” Axios reports.
“Democrats see an opportunity to win back the House majority in 2026, but the swing-district lawmakers who are key to that effort feel they need to be able to break away from their party at times to secure reelection.”
“The Trump administration has agreed to keep private a list of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases unless it first provides a two-day head start for the employees to seek a court’s intervention,” Politico reports.
“The agreement between the FBI Agents Association and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department deescalates, for now, a showdown between the bureau and DOJ after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sought the list.”
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Friday morning that Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries “seemed to be trying to set up some sort of a government shutdown,” Politico reports.
Said Johnson: “We have been negotiating in good faith, trying to get a top-line number. But so far as I know, they’ve been unresponsive the past two days or so.”
For his part, Jeffries shot back that Johnson’s comment was just “projection,” since Republicans hold all the power.
President Trump is considering allowing Japan’s Nippon Steel to complete its $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, CBS News reports.
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told business leaders at the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit in Toronto that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada ‘is a real thing,'” CBC reports.
Said Trudeau: “Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing. In my conversations with him on…”
Then his microphone cut out.
“A vandal targeted a Texas mural depicting X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk by scrawling the words ‘deny, defend, depose’ across his face,” The Independent reports.
“The words scribbled on the mural — ‘deny, defend, depose’ — are the same ones that were carved into the casings of the bullets Luigi Mangione allegedly used to murder UnitedHealth Care CEO Brian Thompson.”
Jonathan Last: “Don’t ever do this again.”
“Chuck Schumer should not be the face of your party. Leading chants is imbecilic. Showing up outside a building is nonsensical. People don’t care about buildings. They care about stories.”
“Further: You are not winning and have no chance to win anything for 21 months. Your message is absurd on its face.”
“Your job as Democrats is to lead the opposition to Trump, which means making Trump unpopular. Right now there are only two engine governors on Trumpism: The courts and his popularity. You can’t influence the courts, but you do have input on public opinion. Stop wasting it.”
“President Donald Trump is considering nominating former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who served eight years in prison on corruption charges, to be U.S. ambassador to Serbia,” Politico reports.
“Blagojevich, whose sentence was commuted by Trump in 2020, is also a former Democratic member of Congress.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency staffers are set to gain access to data at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Wired 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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