Peter Baker: “Mr. Trump has long been unfettered by truth when it comes to boasting about his record and tearing down his enemies. But what were dubbed ‘alternative facts’ in his first term have quickly become a whole alternative reality in his second to lay the groundwork for radical change as he moves to aggressively reshape America and the world.”
The Death of Competition in American Elections
New York Times: “After decades of gerrymandering and political polarization, a vast majority of members of Congress and state legislatures did not face competitive general elections last year.”
“Instead, they were effectively elected through low-turnout or otherwise meaningless primary contests. Vanishingly few voters cast a ballot in those races, according to a New York Times analysis of more than 9,000 congressional and state legislative primary elections held last year. On average, just 57,000 people voted for politicians in U.S. House primaries who went on to win the general election — a small fraction of the more than 700,000 Americans each of those winners now represents.”
“Increasingly, members of Congress are not even facing primary challenges.”
Chris Murphy Emerges as a Clear Voice for Democrats
New York Times: “Mr. Murphy, a career politician who rose to national prominence as a gun safety advocate after the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., has emerged in the opening weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term as one of the most effective Democratic communicators pushing back against a president unbound.”
“In two-minute videos on social media, which he records from his office on Capitol Hill; an almost constant stream of posts on X; passionate floor speeches; and essays he writes on his Substack, Mr. Murphy is attempting to explain in digestible sound bites that what is happening in Washington is very simple: It’s a billionaire takeover of American democracy.”
“He is also seizing a political opportunity to position himself as a future national leader for Democrats who find themselves deep in the wilderness as they seek a strategy for simultaneously rebuilding their party and resisting Mr. Trump.”
Melania Trump Returns to Washington
“After a four-week absence from Washington, first lady Melania Trump returned to the White House on Saturday for an annual dinner and reception with the nation’s governors,” CNN reports.
Germans Head to the Polls
“Germans headed to the polls on Sunday to vote in the 2025 federal election, which is all but guaranteed to result in a new chancellor taking over from Olaf Scholz to lead Europe’s largest economy,” CNBC reports.
“The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its affiliate the Christian Social Union (CSU) have been polling in first place in the lead-up to the election, putting their lead candidate Friedrich Merz in line for chancellorship.”
“The far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) is expected to come second in line, ahead of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens, which have also been part of the most recent ruling coalition that collapsed late last year.”
Trump Thrusts Military Into Uncharted Territory
“President Donald Trump’s Friday night purge of the Pentagon’s top officer and five other senior officials has thrust the institution into uncharted territory, with a retired general plucked from obscurity to serve as the commander in chief’s next senior military adviser and growing alarm among Trump’s critics about the encroachment of political warfare on an organization bound by the Constitution to remain nonpartisan,” the Washington Post reports.
Kennedy Center Ticket Sales Plummet
Washington Post: “In the week following Trump’s announcement, ticket sales dropped by roughly 50 percent compared to the previous week, a stunning aberration.”
Kash Patel to Head Up ATF
“Kash Patel, the newly sworn-in director of the FBI, is expected to also be named acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,” CBS News reports.
Trump Says His Goal Is a ‘Lasting’ Republican Majority
“President Donald Trump expressed optimism about negotiations in Congress to push forward his agenda on taxes and immigration, declaring that his party’s political movement will have lasting staying power in Washington,” Bloomberg reports.
“Trump reprised many measures of his first month back in the White House in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, telling the friendly audience he’s confident the Republican Party will beat the historical odds and avoid a voter backlash in next year’s midterm elections.”
Trump Revels in His Political Payback
“President Trump made a triumphant return to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, gleefully recounting his acts of retribution against the Biden administration to a crowd of loyal supporters that included people he had pardoned for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “I ended Joe Biden’s weaponization as soon as I got in. I said, ‘I’m going to hit him with the same stuff.’”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“Lots of people have terrible debates…Usually, the party doesn’t lose its mind and that’s what happened here. It melted down.”
— Biden adviser Mike Donilon, speaking at Harvard, adding that pushing Joe Biden out of the presidential race was “insane.”
Hedge Fund Manager Says Trump Is Hurting the Economy
“Billionaire investor Steve Cohen doubled down on his negative view of the U.S. economy due to a backdrop of punitive tariffs, immigration crackdown and federal spending cuts spearheaded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency,” NBC News reports.
Said Cohen: “Tariffs cannot be positive, okay? I mean, it’s a tax. On top of that, we have slowing immigration, which means the labor force will not grow as rapidly as the last five years and so.”
Flashback Quote of the Day
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work.”
— Trump budget director Russell Vought, in a private speech delivered in 2023.
Paternity Suit Filed Against Elon Musk
Ashley St. Clair filed a paternity suit against Elon Musk and is also seeking sole legal custody of her newborn son, the New York Post reports.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Consistent with President Trump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
— Elon Musk, on X.
Trump Moves with Light Speed and Brute Force
“President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad. He likes the ring of calling himself king,” the AP reports.
“No one can absorb it all. By the time you try to process one big thing — he covets Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and Gaza; he turns away from historic alliances and Ukraine; fires many thousands of federal workers, then brings some right back; raises doubts whether he will obey laws he doesn’t like; orders an about-face in the missions of department after department; declares there are only two genders, which federal documents will henceforth call sexes; announces heavy tariffs, suspends them, then imposes some — three more big things have happened…”
“What’s undeniable is that Trump has ushered in the sharpest change of direction for the country at least since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Great Depression. But the long-term implications of Trump’s national reset, and by extension his own legacy, cannot yet be determined.”
Quote of the Day
“It was kind of fun actually. I learned that the Democrats can’t sell worth shit. And they’re so, you know, persnickety about every little detail and that’s why the Republicans at the presidential level — I don’t want to say kicked their ass because it wasn’t a runaway, but like I said, Donald Trump can sell. If you gave the Democrats a dollar bill and said, you can sell these for 50 cents, they would hire 50 people to decide how to do it and then would not know how to sell a dollar bill for 50 cents.”
— Mark Cuban, speaking about what he learned campaigning for Kamala Harris in 2024.
Texas Measles Outbreak Grows
The measles outbreak in Texas has grown to at least 90 cases, reaching the worst level in 30 years, The Guardian reports.
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