Happy Thursday! There will be fewer elephants in the room at the annual GOP retreat this year, as more than 100 House Republicans will reportedly skip the trip. The reason? They just really don’t want to be together.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced plans Wednesday to increase defense spending by 40 billion kroner—roughly $6 billion—over the next five years in order to meet NATO targets and in response to Russia’s increased aggression on the continent. “We are not rearming in Denmark because we want war, destruction, or suffering,” Frederiksen told reporters. “We are rearming right now to avoid war and in a world where the international order is being challenged.” The new budget sets military spending at 2.4 percent of the Nordic country’s GDP when including this year’s military aid sent to Ukraine, and next year will be at 2 percent without such contributions. The plan also introduces military conscription for women starting in 2026. 
• Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom won parliamentary elections in November, announced on Wednesday that he would forgo the prime ministership after failing to build a governing majority. “I can only become Prime Minister if ALL parties in the coalition support it,” he tweeted yesterday. “That was not the case. … The love for my country and voters is great and more important than my own position.” The Party for Freedom is now in talks with three other major parties—the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the New Social Contract, and the Farmer-Citizen Movement—to form a coalition cabinet.
• The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would require Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of social media platform TikTok or face a ban from U.S. app stores. The legislation passed by a 352-65 vote along broadly bipartisan lines. The bill heads to the Senate next, and though it faces an uncertain future in the upper chamber, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio—the chairman and vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, respectively—have voiced their support for the measure. “We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok—a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party,” the senators said in a joint statement released Wednesday. “We were encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.”
• The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia threw out six of the 41 charges included in the indictment Wednesday, ruling that the state was not specific enough in its allegations. Three of the dismissed charges pertained to Trump; the remainder were leveled against co-conspirators Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Mark Meadows. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee left open the opportunity for prosecutors to appeal the decision or refile the charges with greater detail. The six dismissed charges involved accusations that the former president and his co-conspirators solicited public officers to violate their oaths.
• Hunter Biden on Wednesday rejected House Republicans’ request to testify publicly as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. “Your latest step—this March 6 invitation—is not a serious oversight proceeding,” Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell wrote in a letter responding to the invitation. “It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.” Lawyers for the president’s son suggested the younger Biden would appear if “relatives of former President Trump” were also required to testify. Biden’s rejection follows a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee in late February, and represents a reversal of his previous insistence on testifying only publicly.

Wither the Narrative Goes

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last week presented both an opportunity to outline a policy vision for the country and to boost his reelection bid. “Turning setback into comeback, that’s what America does,” he quipped, and as the night ended, Democrats hoped the speech would do the same for the president’s campaign … 

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,244-word story on President Joe Biden’s attempt to get his campaign back on track is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• In the early 2010s, mental health plummeted among adolescents as loneliness increased—and as these individuals began to enter the workforce, their struggles continued. Writing for The Atlantic, New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt pointed to the smartphone as one of the greatest roadblocks to human development—especially during childhood. “Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board,” he wrote. “Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity—all were affected.” Haidt argued that this phone-based childhood robbed kids of vital learning experiences, like discovering independence through playtime. “The main reason why the phone-based childhood is so harmful is because it pushes aside everything else. Smartphones are experience blockers. Our ultimate goal should not be to remove screens entirely, nor should it be to return childhood to exactly the way it was in 1960. Rather, it should be to create a version of childhood and adolescence that keeps young people anchored in the real world while flourishing in the digital age.”

Presented Without Comment

Financial Times: U.S. Held Secret Talks with Iran Over Red Sea Attacks

Also Presented Without Comment

Axios: Trump Says Biden Is “Not Too Old” to Be President

Former President Trump said in an interview airing Thursday that President Biden is “not too old” to be president—but that he’s “incompetent.” … “Age is interesting because some people are very sharp and some people do lose it, but you lose it at 40 and 50, also,” Trump said on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show. “But no, he’s not too old at all. He’s grossly incompetent.”

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics team takes a look at former President Donald Trump’s Senate GOP endorsements, Scott explains (🔒) the limits placed on entrepreneurship by ‘cottage food’ restrictions, Jonah analyzes (🔒) special counsel Robert Hur’s testimony from a political angle, and Nick shared (🔒) a few thoughts on the now-formalized 2024 presidential candidates.
• On the podcasts: Sarah and David react to Robert Hur’s congressional testimony on the latest Advisory Opinions, and Jonah speaks with Dan Senor about Israel’s war against Hamas as the IDF begins to move into Rafah for The Remnant.
• On the site: David Drucker shows the difference between GOP base voters, who really think Trump is a good guy, and the tepid endorsements from elected Republicans.