After a Senate Democratic lunch today, it’s become increasingly clear that Democratic lawmakers remain opposed to a Republican-led funding bill that would fund the government at current levels until September, but not without debate behind closed doors.
The discussion this afternoon was so animated that standing outside the lunch, reporters could hear Sen. Kyrsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., screaming inside the room about the devastating impacts of a shutdown.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., summed up the debate this way: “I think what everyone is wrestling with is that this is like — either outcome is terrible, right? This President has put us in a position where, in either direction, lots of people’s constituents are going to get hurt and hurt badly. So people are wrestling with what is the least, worst outcome.”
Trump and congressional republicans have sought to tie Democrats to a potential shutdown in a bid to goad lawmakers into supporting their funding resolution. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., expressed frustration when asked about Democrats being blamed for a shutdown, should it occur.
“Jiminy Christmas! Republicans control the House, Senate and White House,” Lujan said.
Democratic leadership has instead called for a 30-day continuing resolution to give Congress more time to negotiate a bipartisan bill.
“We should get a vote on the 30-day CR,” Lujan said. “I think Republicans are scared to give a vote on the 30-day because they have Republican colleagues in the Senate that would vote for it.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), may have “significantly” underpaid Medicare and Social Security taxes in recent years, according to a memo from Democratic staff on the Senate Finance Committee obtained by NBC News.
According to the memo, which outlined a review of Oz’s tax returns from 2021, 2022 and 2023, Oz paid no Medicare or Social Security taxes in 2023 and “negligible” amounts in 2022. The review from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, which is overseeing Oz’s nomination, alleges that Oz underpaid his “SECA” taxes, a tax on net earnings from self-employment, from income through his media entity Oz Property Holdings LLC.
Overall, Democratic committee staff said that Oz underpaid Social Security and Medicare taxes by roughly $440,000.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court today to narrow nationwide injunctions that have blocked the president’s plan to end automatic birthright citizenship.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris said in three concurrently filed emergency applications in different cases that it was a “modest” request.
Notably, she is not asking the court to issue a decision on the merits of the plan that would apply nationwide. Instead, the government wants to the court to limit lower court injunctions to individuals or groups that sued over President Donald Trump’s order, and potentially to people who live in the Democratic-led states that challenged it.
She also asked that the court allow agencies to be able to work on how the executive order issued by Trump on his first day in office could be implemented, if it ever does go into effect.
If the request is granted, the administration could move forward with developing its policy and try to implement it in some form.
Elon Musk visited the National Security Agency today and met with its chief, an NSA spokesperson says, days after the tech billionaire called for “an overhaul” of the country’s top cyberespionage service.
During his visit to the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade in Maryland, Musk held talks with Gen. Timothy Haugh, who oversees the agency, as well as the military’s Cyber Command, the spokesperson said.
Musk is leading Trump’s drive to shrink the size of the federal government and posted on his social media platform X last week: “The NSA needs an overhaul.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported Musk’s visit.
The NSA and U.S. Cyber Command are focused on priorities outlined by the president, the defense secretary and the director of national intelligence, and “meetings with key advisors ensure we are aligned,” the NSA spokesperson said in an email.
The NSA is one of the country’s most valuable tools to collect intelligence, overseeing a vast eavesdropping operation as well as sophisticated cybersecurity capabilities.
Musk was given a tour of the NSA’s Remote Operations Center, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
To try to meet the administration’s orders to reduce its workforce, the NSA is looking at offering early retirement or other buyout options to employees, the source said.
Other intelligence agencies also are grappling with how to reduce the number of employees without damaging their mission.
The CIA has started to fire some employees who were hired in the past two years, NBC News previously reported.
Trump said in lengthy remarks in the Oval Office while meeting with the NATO secretary-general that he won’t back down from tariffs he’s ordered on Canada.
“Look, we’ve been ripped off for years, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore,” he said. “No, I’m not going to bend at all aluminum or steel or cars. We’re not going to bend. We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years. We’ve been subjected to costs that we shouldn’t be subjected to.”
Trump again suggested that Canada could become the 51st state of the United States and said that the border between the two countries now is “an artificial line.”
“Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago, and makes no sense,” he said.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from Canada took effect this week, and in response, Canada announced new retaliatory trade duties on some $21 billion worth of U.S. goods.
Trump said in remarks in the Oval Office during a meeting with the NATO secretary-general that he thinks the U.S. will be successful in his quest to take control of Greenland.
“I think it’ll happen,” Trump said when asked what his vision is for the potential annexation of the country. “I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental.”
“We need that international security,” Trump said, adding that Greenland just had an election that he said was “good” for the U.S.
Trump said that the U.S. is in the process of ordering 48 icebreakers and said that Russia currently has 40 of them. “We have one big icebreaker,” he said.
“That whole area is becoming very important, and for a lot of reasons, the resources are, you know, very direct to Asia, to Russia, and you have ships all over the place, and we have to have protection so we’re going to make a deal on that,” added Trump, who predicted that NATO might have to get involved in the U.S. taking over Greenland.
At one point he said, “Denmark is very far away, and really has nothing to do … a boat landed there 200 years ago or something, and they say they have rights to it. I don’t know if that’s true. I’m not. I don’t think it is, actually.” Greenland joined the Danish colonial empire in 1721.
The president has been saying for months that he’s interested in the U.S. taking over the autonomous territory, which is owned by Denmark. The party that won the recent election has sharply criticized Trump’s threat to take over the territory and other top officials have also rejected his comments.
Trump, while speaking about progress on the ceasefire negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, said that he would “love to meet with or talk to” Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russia’s conditions for agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire.
“We’re getting word that things are going okay in Russia, and it doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is,” Trump said, noting his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow for “very serious discussions” with Russia about the U.S.-backed 30-day ceasefire proposal that would pause fighting for a month and allow for long-term peace discussions.
Witkoff’s visit comes on the heels of Putin voicing that he is open to a 30-day ceasefire deal this morning, but only if it meets key Russian security demands. Putin also said he wants to speak with Trump directly to voice his concerns with the deal.
“He did say that today, it was a very promising statement,” Trump said while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon. “He put out a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete. And, yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him. We have to get it over with fast.”
Trump added that his administration has preemptively been in discussions about “all of the elements” of a final ceasefire agreement with Ukraine and noted he instructed Witkoff to discuss “concepts of land, concepts of power plants,” with Russia. Trump pointed to land and energy rights and Ukraine’s potential NATO membership as key points of negotiation for a permanent ceasefire.
Though Trump did not explicitly outline plans for what Ukraine’s sovereign borders would look like, he baselessly blamed the Biden administration for starting the war and said, “If this didn’t happen… I don’t know if they would have to give anything back.”
The Trump administration has indicated in past months that it would support a permanent peace deal between Ukraine and Russia in which Ukraine cedes territory that’s already been seized by the Kremlin.
“A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed. Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia is there, and if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world,” Trump said.
Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s presiding over the Senate floor this morning was business as usual, except for the bright white cowboy hat that sat atop Mullin’s head as he conducted legislative business.
Mullin wore the hat, an unusual though not outright prohibited choice, to “make a point” about the Senate dress code after his Republican colleague, Jim Banks of Indiana, was barred from voting on the floor of the upper chamber earlier this week for wearing sneakers.
“Nothing in the rules says I can’t wear my hat to preside on the floor,” Mullin posted on X this morning. The senator, according to the dress code passed unanimously by the chamber in 2023 after Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., presided over the floor in shorts and a button-down, is correct.
The code defines “a requirement that business attire be worn on the floor of the Senate, which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants,” but excludes any mention of shoes or hats.
Both Mullin and Banks said they harbor no intention of introducing a new Senate dress code that would explicitly allow for sneakers and hats. “If you’re talking to my granny, she would take my hat a long time ago, right?” Mullin told NBC News, acknowledging there are times when cowboy hats could be deemed inappropriate.
This morning, Senate Democrats criticized the six-month government funding bill Republicans wrote and passed through the House earlier this week. The key test vote for the bill in the Senate is scheduled for Friday, just hours before a potential shutdown.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., called the bill “a license to destroy” and advocated for bipartisanship in crafting a shorter-term continuing resolution or CR.
“For us to just surrender to a partisan, destructive piece of legislation that would last for six months is unacceptable. This should be a bipartisan process,” Booker said.
Democrats want to hold a vote on a 30-day funding stopgap that their top House and Senate appropriators have proposed. But Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said that’s a nonstarter.
“That’s not gonna happen. So it’s shutdown or we pass the funding measure,” Hawley said.
More than a dozen Democratic Hispanic Caucus members lined up at their news conference to rail at Trump’s spending cuts, tariffs and harsh immigration policies. But the last speaker, Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., offered the most direct message about Trump.
“What we do know right now is Trump lied to those who voted for him. And I know that those in my district who voted for Trump did not vote for this s—storm,” Salinas told reporters at House Democrats’ three-day policy retreat in Leesburg, Virginia.
Lawmakers here are participating in closed-door panels with experts on policy, polling and messaging following Trump’s rout in November.
“We are pointing out, I think, in every panel where we do differentiate ourselves from what is going on right now. We are saying these tariffs aren’t working for our farmers, for the farm workers, for local economies,” said Salinas, who represents Salem, suburbs southwest of Portland and rural areas.
“I represent an area that has wine. These are small businesses. This is not some bougie woman who’s drinking her wine on a Tuesday afternoon,” she said. “These are people who have local economies. They’re small businesses. We export 50% of our wine in Oregon to Canada,” as well as blueberries and hazelnuts.
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was ready for a ceasefire, provided that it offered lasting peace that addressed the root causes of the conflict.
“We agree with the proposals to stop the hostilities,” the Russian leader said at a news conference today. While Russia would support a pause in the fighting, “there are issues that need to be discussed,” he said, adding that he may need to “have a phone call with Trump.”
Three leading Democratic governors and potential 2028 presidential candidates — Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Andy Beshear of Kentucky — will address House Democrats tonight at their annual policy retreat.
The trio of popular Democratic governors will be the headlining act, jointly appearing on stage together to discuss winning and governing in states that Trump won. The event is closed to the press.
The focus on Trump states is partly why other 2028 prospects, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, do not appear on the agenda.
Other notable speakers here at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia, are Linda Thomas-Greenfield, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Democratic strategist James Carville; Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark; Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO; and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Two days after a Republican chairman misgendered Rep. Sarah McBride, the Delaware Democrat said today it seems she lives “rent free” in the minds of Republicans.
Her remarks came at the end of a lengthy news conference at House Democrats’ annual policy retreat featuring a dozen freshman House Democratic women. McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, has been perhaps the freshman class’ highest-profile member.
“We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection. I appear to live rent free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues,” McBride told reporters here in Leesburg, Virginia. “I wish that they would spend even a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, thinking about how to lower the costs for American families.
“I wish they would spend a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, figuring out how to make government actually work better, rather than making it work worse in order to prove that government can’t work,” she continued.
“They are obsessed with culture war issues. The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues. It is weird and it is bizarre,” McBride added. “And the American people deserve serious legislators, serious elected officials who are focused on bringing people together to deliver real results for the American people, not to play games and not to engage in schoolyard taunts.”
Her comments came in response to a question about how Democratic leadership is handling conduct issues among their rank-and-file members, including the interruption of Trump’s address to Congress last week by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.
This week, Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, misgendered McBride at a Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing that he was presiding over.
“I now recognize the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride,” he said.
Without missing a beat, McBride responded by thanking Self and referring to him as “madam chair.”
After some back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, Self promptly adjourned the hearing.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced today that he would not run for the U.S. Senate or for governor in Michigan next year.
“I care deeply about who Michigan will elect as Governor and send to the U.S. Senate next year, but I have decided against competing in either race,” Buttigieg wrote in a post on X this morning.
“While my own plans don’t include running for office in 2026, I remain intensely focused on consolidating, communicating, and supporting a vision for this alternative,” he wrote in a subsequent post.
In a post on Substack, Buttigieg wrote more about his decision-making process, saying he “seriously” considered running for Michigan’s open Senate seat and governorship, but adding: “My party has a deep and talented bench here in Michigan, and I am certain that we will nominate an outstanding candidate for each office.”
A coalition of 21 Democratic state attorneys general filed suit today in Massachusetts federal court alleging the administration’s planned cuts to the Education Department are “unlawful.”
“This massive reduction in force (RIF) is equivalent to incapacitating key, statutorily-mandated functions of the Department, causing immense damage to Plaintiff States and their educational systems,” the suit says.
It says the cuts are a first step toward dismantling the agency, which Trump has said should be shut down. The president’s “directive to eliminate the Department of Education — including through the March 11 decimation of the Department’s workforce and any other agency implementation — is an unlawful violation of the separation of powers, and the Executive’s obligation to take care that the law be faithfully executed,” says the suit, which seeks a court order blocking efforts to shutter the agency.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who’s leading the suit, said in a statement: “Firing half of the Department of Education’s workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation, especially low-income students and those with disabilities who rely on federal funding. This outrageous effort to leave students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal.”
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement responding to the lawsuit that Trump’s executive actions “are lawful, constitutional, and intended to deliver on the promises he made to the American people. Partisan elected officials and judicial activists who seek to legally obstruct President Trump’s agenda are defying the will of 77 million Americans who overwhelmingly re-elected President Trump, and their efforts will fail.”
The White House has directed the U.S. military to draw up options for increasing the American troop presence in Panama to achieve Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning.
During a joint address to Congress last week, Trump said that “to further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal.” Since then, administration officials have not said what “reclaiming” means.
U.S. Southern Command is developing potential plans that vary from partnering more closely with the Panamanian military to the less likely option of U.S. troops seizing the Panama Canal by force, the officials said. Whether military force is used, the officials added, depends on how much the Panamanian military agrees to partner with the U.S.
The Trump administration’s goal is to increase the U.S. military presence in Panama to diminish China’s influence there, particularly access to the canal, the officials said.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted this morning to advance Trump’s nominees to lead the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
The committee advanced Jay Bhattacharya to serve as NIH director in a 12-11 vote and Marty Makary to serve as FDA commissioner in a 14-9 vote.
The nominees, who are both medical doctors, raised the concerns of some Democratic senators about their positions on certain health issues. Bhattacharya opposed lockdowns during the Covid pandemic and pushed for herd immunity by allowing the disease to spread among young people.
Makary testified at his confirmation hearing that he would review a Biden-era rule that allowed patients to obtain mifepristone, part of a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion, through telehealth visits.
A group of more than 80 Afghan women who fled the Taliban regime to study in Oman say they are at risk of imminent deportation to Afghanistan after their U.S.-funded scholarship was canceled as part of the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid.
The female students received an email Feb. 28 informing them that the scholarship program administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development at the Middle East College of Oman had been terminated along with thousands of other foreign aid initiatives, according to the email obtained by NBC News.
In a letter to aid groups, the Afghan women are appealing for urgent help to allow them to continue their studies abroad and avoid returning to a country where, they say, they will face certain persecution and life-threatening risks.
“The situation is catastrophic,” the letter says. “Being sent back to Afghanistan would mean the permanent loss of our education and exposure to severe risks, including oppression, insecurity, and a future without opportunities. This is a life-or-death situation for many of us.”
Four Democratic senators are calling for an ethics investigation and possible disciplinary action in response to Trump and Elon Musk using their official public roles and resources to promote Tesla at the White House.
The group of Senate Democrats sent a letter to the acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Doug Collins, who also serves as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Mr. Musk appears to have violated federal ethics laws by using his official position to promote his company. As a Special Government Employee (SGE), Mr. Musk is subject to [ethics office] regulations governing the conduct of executive branch employees,” said the letter, signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
“By promoting Tesla during an official press conference with the President while using the White House as a backdrop, Mr. Musk appeared to leverage his senior role in the government and the authority associated with the presidency to recommend Tesla and to imply that the Trump Administration endorses Tesla vehicles,” they wrote.
The senators argued that Musk may have violated ethics laws or standards of conduct, which they said could result in disciplinary action such as suspension or removal.
They asked Collins to recommend that the White House’s designated agency ethics officials investigate what happened and determine if Musk violated federal ethics laws.
“President Trump made the personal decision to buy a Tesla, at a market rate,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement.
The Office of Government Ethics declined to comment.
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of former Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., whom Trump had chosen to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a senior administration official said.
The development came just before Weldon was set to testify at his Senate confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. ET before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Axios was the first to report the news, citing sources on Capitol Hill.
It wasn’t immediately clear why his nomination was pulled, but Weldon has held some anti-vaccine views similar to those of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump took to Truth Social this morning to threaten 200% tariffs on all alcohol from countries that are in the European Union, citing the E.U.’s plan to place a new tariff on U.S. whiskey.
“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote. “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
He railed against the E.U. in the post, falsely saying that the union was “formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States.”
The Education Department cut half its workforce amid Trump’s effort to abolish the agency. The president touted the cuts, saying they shift responsibilities away from the federal bureaucracy and back to the states, but critics said the moves will have a devastating impact. NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell reports.
Dave Weldon, a former congressman from Florida and physician, is set to appear at a Senate confirmation hearing today for his nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unknown to many in the general public, he’s well-known in anti-vaccine circles.
As director, experts say Weldon, 71, could serve as a key ally to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC and appears to share similar views, particularly on vaccines.
Weldon is expected to face questions today from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about how he would manage an agency with a $9 billion budget and a staff of more than 13,000, before the Trump administration job cuts.
Weldon served 14 years in the House until 2009, largely staying out of the public spotlight. During that time, however, he attracted the attention of anti-vaccine groups because of his criticisms of the CDC and questions about vaccine safety.
Trump’s full-speed-ahead approach to making radical change has forced his allies to fight from a defensive posture — explaining his plans after they have been executed — and raised alarms in his Republican Party that it could all end in a wreck.
The concerns are particularly acute when it comes to the economy, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average having lost about 7% of its value this month and many economists projecting either slower growth or a coming recession. Those fears haven’t deterred Trump from continuing to impose tariffs on foes and friends — which figure to raise prices on U.S. consumers — and slash federal government jobs, grants and contracts.
“There are worries,” said a person who has been involved in discussions about the economy with White House officials. Those effects on the markets and the economy are felt immediately, while policies aimed at spurring growth — including cutting taxes and regulations — will take much longer to implement, this person said.
Privately, officials at the White House’s National Economic Council have indicated fears that it could be difficult to rebound quickly from a downturn, two people familiar with internal White House discussions said.
