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In today’s issue:
- Trump embarks on first domestic travel of second term
- Hegseth weathers accusations in march to Pentagon
- Trump guts DEI programs
- Addressing Davos, Trump threatens tariffs
President Trump spent a dizzying first week on offense, but this morning he is reminded that the courts and states, including California, where he’ll be today, are willing to test his agenda and his clout.
Just days after Trump used his executive authority to try to end birthright citizenship, a federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked his efforts Thursday at the request of four Democratic-led states, including California.
U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour, appointed by former President Reagan, called the president’s order “blatantly unconstitutional,” adding, “I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that is a constitutional order. It boggles my mind.”
Trump told reporters, “Obviously we’ll appeal it.”
The president is set to be in the Golden State today to survey wildfire damage near Los Angeles. Trump also is complaining that California’s Democratic leaders and former President Biden have been “incompetent” in handling natural disasters and immigration policies.
Trump says he may withhold federal funds for fire-ravaged California, adding Wednesday that he’s mulling possible changes at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Homeland Security Department.
Trump and some Republican lawmakers want to attach strings to any federal recovery assistance shared with California.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a Trump critic, has been accused by the president of mismanaging his state’s water supply, environmental rules, anti-wildfire forestry practices and border security. Newsom invited Trump to visit the disaster region. The governor said Thursday he’d had no contact from the White House but planned to greet the president’s arrival on the tarmac.
The Hill: Trump faces a pivotal moment with his California trip.
The Guardian: Explainer: Trump revives California water wars as experts warn of turmoil.
Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and two cities, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., this week sued Trump over his executive attempt to reinterpret the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. Trump faces a handful of individual lawsuits over his order questioning whether children born in this country to parents without legal status are U.S. citizens.
Here is what the amendment says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
It’s the first major legal battle of Trump’s second term, and opponents of key executive actions this week predict there will be even more court challenges ahead. That bet appears to be part of conservatives’ playbook.
Trump and his allies are eager to kick immigration challenges up to the Supreme Court, where they believe a majority of conservative justices would uphold a reinterpretation of the Framers’ intent when it comes to citizenship. Amending the 14th Amendment legislatively in the current narrowly divided Congress is seen as a near impossibility. It would require two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate and ratification by three-fourths of the states.
“We appreciate and wanted the challenges to this so we can get it into the Supreme Court of the United States,” Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) told reporters Thursday while unveiling a House GOP measure that would restrict birthright citizenship. “This thing could take up to three years before it winds up on the high court. Let’s see how they [rule].”
The Hill: FEMA tensions pose an early test for Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota. She’s on track to be confirmed as early as next week to lead the massive department.
The Hill: Trump’s plans to militarize the southern border take shape.
SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN
We are hearing President Trump and congressional Republicans simultaneously float major changes to FEMA and potentially attaching stipulations for federal aid to California in the wake of the disastrous fires.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told me that “what we shouldn’t be doing is putting the taxpayers on the hook for negligence, and California has been negligent on managing their forests.”
What if stipulations are added? Would California try to challenge that, and could it?
Putting “any conditions on aid to a state that’s suffering from a natural disaster” would “be a great mistake,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) told me.
“We will, of course, as always, assess all of our different options based on the facts and the actions that are taken,” Bonta added.
Trump’s first domestic trip is to assess emergency disasters he inherited on opposite coasts. How they are handled could set (or reset) how the country responds to many types of disasters going forward.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. The Hill & NewsNation are owned by Nexstar Media Group.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY
Purdue Pharma, Sackler family members who own the company and lawyers representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin announced a new settlement of $7.4 billion Thursday.
In a surprise, U.S. colleges experienced a surge of 4.5 percent in enrollment last fall, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Interesting stat: A rise of 5.5 percent in the 2024 freshman incoming class came primarily from “older” first-year students.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday announced the Oscar nominations ahead of the March 2 awards program.
LEADING THE DAY
CABINET APPOINTMENTS: Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to head the Pentagon, cleared a big hurdle Thursday when Republicans voted to advance him on the Senate floor on a largely party-line vote. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) were the only Senate Republicans to vote against him after Democrats accused the nominee of being unfit and unqualified for the job. The 51-49 vote to end debate on Hegseth’s nomination sets the stage for a final confirmation vote today, when he is expected to secure the majority support he needs to join Trump’s Cabinet.
Trump has touted Hegseth as someone who would bring a fresh perspective to the leadership of the Pentagon, writes The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. Democrats, however, panned Hegseth as completely unqualified and unfit to lead the nation’s armed forces given his lack of managerial experience and multiple allegations of misbehavior.
Murkowski, who joined Democrats in voting against Hegseth on Thursday, said in a statement that managing the Pentagon “requires vast experience and expertise” and that Hegseth’s prior career roles “do not demonstrate to me that he is prepared for such immense responsibility.”
“While the allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking do nothing to quiet my concerns, the past behaviors Mr. Hegseth has admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces,” Murkowski said. “These behaviors starkly contrast the values and discipline expected of servicemembers.”
The Senate on Thursday confirmed John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, 74-25. Twenty-one members who caucus with Democrats voted with every present Republican. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) did not vote.
Ratcliffe was largely able to assuage a number of Democrats on multiple fronts, with members voting “aye” viewing him as a serious nominee due to his stint as director of national intelligence and his national security background. During his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe told Democrats he would keep the CIA apolitical and would not fire any agency employees on the basis of political leanings or opposition to the president.
DEBT AND BUDGET: GOP leaders face tough choices to make as they face a looming debt ceiling and demands from Trump to not allow Democrats to use the borrowing limit as a leverage point, writes The Hill’s Emily Brooks. All the while, they’re juggling demands from fiscal hawks in their own party who could make any party-line debt limit bump impossible. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Tuesday after a meeting with Trump that Republicans have not yet decided whether to raise the debt limit in reconciliation, or try to pass it with the help of Democrats by attaching it to some other must-pass measure.
“We haven’t made a final decision on the debt ceiling,” Scalise said. “Obviously, you’re looking at government funding as well, and there’s possibly an avenue where we would have the debt ceiling in the government funding bill.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday that he wants to finalize the plans for a “blueprint” for the GOP’s party-line reconciliation bill at a House Republican retreat in Florida next week — where Trump is scheduled to make an appearance. Johnson said the House Budget Committee, which handles writing instructions on the bill, is set to meet the week following the retreat.
The New York Times: Trump wants a massive tax cut and immigration crackdown bill. Now Republicans must decide what to cut to help pay for it.
The Hill: A Tennessee Republican proposed an amendment to the Constitution to allow Trump to serve a third term.
Axios: On the eve of the March for Life rally, Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters convicted of illegally blockading a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C.
Trump’s blanket pardons for roughly 1,500 Jan. 6, 2021, rioters shook Washington, with many surprised that the president issued a sweeping reprieve rather than assessing the rioters on a case-by-case basis, which many of the president’s allies, including Vice President Vance, suggested he would do. Many House GOP lawmakers nonetheless defended Trump this week. But a growing number of Republicans in the lower chamber are criticizing the move, wishing that Trump excluded the violent protesters from the pardons. They claim that it is an insult to the police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and argue that such a move contrasts with the GOP’s core principle of being a champion for law enforcement.
“[I] don’t agree with the pardoning of people that committed violence or even damage to property,” said Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.). “If you climbed in through a window, I think probably you knew what you were doing was against the law, and I don’t think it was appropriate to pardon them.”
WHERE AND WHEN
- The House convenes at 9 a.m. The Senate meets at 10 a.m. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) are scheduled to address a March for Life rally in Washington at 1 p.m.
- The president will travel this morning to Asheville, N.C., arrive in Los Angeles this afternoon and remain tonight in Las Vegas. He will survey recovery progress in North Carolina in the aftermath of September’s Hurricane Helene, inspect ongoing wildfire destruction in California and travel to Nevada in the evening. He will make remarks in Las Vegas on Saturday morning before traveling to Miami to participate in a retreat held by House Republicans at Trump National Doral resort.
- Vice President Vance will address this afternoon’s March for Life rally. It will be his first public appearance since being sworn in.
- The Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington will put giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao on public display beginning today. Information about entry is HERE.
ZOOM IN
TRUMP VS. DEI: Trump is taking full aim at diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, apparently making the calculation that the peak for such initiatives has passed and that they are viewed with growing skepticism by the public. There is little doubt the Trump base is opposed to DEI, given his voters are customarily set against anything that has a whiff of cultural liberalism or “wokeness.”
But, as The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes in The Memo, there is a bigger question about whether the extent of Trump’s push against such measures will draw any kind of pushback.
In the first days of his second term, Trump moved to eviscerate the remnants of affirmative action, swiftly upending decades of policy. Experts say his actions will likely touch every aspect of American life. On Monday, Trump issued an executive order terminating “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
A second executive order issued Tuesday revokes numerous executive actions from past administrations. One issued by former President Clinton required federal agencies to address environmental justice for low-income and minority populations. And an order signed in 1965 by President Johnson required government contractors to adopt nondiscriminatory practices in hiring and employment.
Federal workers in DEI positions were told Wednesday that they would be forced to take paid leave. By Jan. 31, federal agencies must submit a written plan to dismiss those employees. A woman of color who is a federal worker told NBC News she had been preparing well before Election Day to lose her job.
“When you decide to become a civil employee, your goal is to really help the American people. And anyone who’s in this line of work knows that the goal is to always help all people,” she said. “It’s disheartening that we’ve become pawns in this grapple for control. But, again, this is what the American people voted for.”
Axios: Trump’s order mandates that federal agencies identify companies, foundations and schools that have diversity programs, and target them for civil enforcement actions. The result: telling corporate America that DEI efforts now stand on shaky legal ground.
Reuters: Explainer: Trump says corporate diversity efforts are illegal — but are they?
The New York Times: Civil rights lawyers believe that the DEI programs that are most legally vulnerable are those that give employment benefits to specific groups on the basis of their race.
ELSEWHERE
DAVOS: Trump on Thursday addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by video. In his address, he criticized the Biden administration as an “inept group of people,” drawing gasps from the audience. He was dismissive of initiatives on diversity and climate change, and took aim at the European Union, saying it had treated the United States “very unfairly, very badly” in trade matters. Trump also made clear he intends to follow through on his “America First” campaign promises, spurning allies in the process if necessary
“My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth,” Trump said. “But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”
WAR IN UKRAINE: Trump said Thursday he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to push for the end of the war in Ukraine.
“I really would like to meet with President Putin soon and get that war ended,” he said in virtual remarks to the World Economic Forum. When asked by the panel if there would be a peace deal by this time next year, the president said, “You’re going to have to ask Russia. Ukraine is ready to make a deal.”
He has called for a ceasefire in Ukraine for months, urging both sides to negotiate. Trump said he doesn’t think the war needs to end from an economic standpoint, but because of the ongoing casualties. Both sides have sustained heavy losses. Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions on Russia if there is no deal to stop the fighting.
In Moscow, Trump’s threats have been met with what essentially amounts to a shrug. “We don’t see anything new here,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
NBC News: Trump suggested in a Fox News interview that Ukraine shouldn’t have fought back against Russia.
The New York Times: Russia has lost about twice as many soldiers to death and serious injury as Ukraine. But the trends favor the Kremlin.
SAUDI INVESTMENT: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Trump on Wednesday that he plans to invest $600 billion or more in the United States over the next four years. The pledge came days after Trump suggested that he could be willing to visit the kingdom for his first official trip abroad in return for substantial investments.
“I’ll be asking the Crown Prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round [the investment] out to around 1 trillion,” Trump said Thursday. Trump’s first trip abroad in his first term was to Saudi Arabia, and throughout those four years, he prioritized Saudi Arabia in his foreign policy mission, vetoing efforts by Congress to halt arms sales to the country.
Trump also said he will ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down oil prices.
“You got to bring it down, which, frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t do before the election,” he said. “That didn’t show a lot of love by them not doing it. I was a little surprised by that.”
The Hill: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is preparing to travel to Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and other Central American and Caribbean nations in the coming weeks.
The New York Times: American security contractors have been enlisted to help handle the return of displaced Palestinians to Gaza devastated north, the next step in the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The Washington Post: Thousands of aid trucks have entered Gaza now that the fighting has stopped. But organized gangs have fired on convoys, leading to pitched battles with Hamas.
OPINION
The real reason Trump wants to end birthright citizenship, by Eugene Robinson, columnist, The Washington Post.
President Trump and the civil service: Day 1 (analysis), by Nick Bednar, Lawfare. “Judicial review may invite sympathetic judges to reshape the Constitution in a way that expands Trump’s control over the federal workforce.”
What California’s response to Trump’s threatened mass deportations is missing, by Cyn Yamashiro, opinion contributor, Los Angeles Times.
THE CLOSER
And finally … Bravo to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners who knew or guessed when we asked about naming in the news.
Here are the triumphant puzzlers who went 4/4: Chuck Schoenenberger, Jenessa Wagner, Mark Roeddiger, Mark Williamson, Brian Hogan, Lou Tisler, Pam Manges, Peter Sprofera, Stan Wasser, Jess Elger, Rick Schmidtke, Don Swanson, Carmine Petracca, Richard E. Baznik, John Trombetti, Carmine Petracca, Savannah Petracca, William D. Moore, Steve James, Paul Quillen, Linda L. Field and Robert Bradley.
They knew that California wildfires receive names such as “Nuns,” “Lilac” and “Friars” from fire officials first on the scene, who quickly identify blazes based on nearby locations, such as roads or streets.
The gargantuan Gulf of Mexico is to receive a U.S. name change, based on a presidential order this week.
UGG recently won a legal battle with an Australian company involving the popular brand name.
A new independent company of cable networks drawn from Comcast’s NBCUniversal is now called SpinCo.
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