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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Monday that Ukrainian troops were fighting in the Belgorod region of Russia, which borders Ukraine. “We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory,” he said, adding that the operations were aimed at easing pressure on other parts of the front line. Zelensky’s statement marked his first public acknowledgment of the limited offensive, which began in late March. Russian state sources had previously claimed that attempted Ukrainian advances in the region had been repelled. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had captured two Chinese nationals fighting on behalf of Russia in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
- Stocks continued to fall Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.8 percent, the S&P 5oo declining by 1.6 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropping 2.2 percent. Short-lived gains in the morning were dashed as the administration doubled down on its tariff rollout. Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the duties would take effect Wednesday despite ongoing negotiations with trading partners. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed plans to impose 104 percent levies on all Chinese goods effective today.
- President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed four executive orders aimed at reviving coal production in the United States. The orders directed the federal government to allow coal leasing on public land, keep some coal plants that had been set for retirement open, and order agencies to assess how coal could be used to meet rising energy demands from artificial intelligence data centers. As a percentage of U.S. power generation, coal—the most polluting fossil fuel—has declined from nearly 50 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2024.
- The Trump administration froze $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell University and $790 million to Northwestern University on Tuesday, a month after launching civil rights investigations into both schools. Speaking to the New York Times, two unnamed U.S. officials said the pause comes mostly from grants and contracts with the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, and Agriculture. The Justice Department is investigating both universities—along with several other schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Brown—over allegations of widespread antisemitism on campus.
- U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled Tuesday that the White House must fully reinstate the Associated Press to its press pool. The Trump administration began barring AP reporters from press events in February, after the news agency refused to change its style guide to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” In a 41-page decision, McFadden wrote that the AP’s ban constituted a “brazen” violation of the First Amendment: “Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.”
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted an order from U.S. District Judge William Alsup that would have required the White House to reinstate 16,000 probationary workers fired across multiple federal agencies. In an unsigned order, seven justices said that the environmental groups and nonprofits that brought the lawsuit lacked the legal standing to sue. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor declined to join in the order, which did not address the broader legal questions surrounding the Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced plans to launch a primary challenge against Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who has served in the upper chamber since 2002. Paxton was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives in 2023 but later acquitted by the state Senate. A securities fraud case against him was dismissed in 2024 after he agreed to pay restitution and perform community service. “I’m announcing that I’m running for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn, who apparently is running again for his fifth term, which would put him there three decades,” he told Fox News Tuesday. “It’s definitely time for a change in Texas.”
The markets have continued to sour on President Donald Trump’s tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States. Major stock indices have been on successive roller coasters of daily trading, reacting positively to indications the president might relent but then quickly falling after Trump signals he plans to stay his course. Wall Street CEOs have begun publicly voicing criticisms. Even Elon Musk reportedly urged Trump over the weekend to reverse the duties, and he’s begun using Peter Navarro—the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to the president—as an online punching bag.
But the president has forged ahead with a tariff regime that, if continued, could constitute the largest tax increase in more than 40 years. Trump threatened Monday to bring tariffs on imports from China up to a whopping 104 percent, a threat the White House followed through on as of 12:01 this morning. During a speech at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner last night, the president also said he would soon levy additional tariffs on pharmaceuticals. Now, court challenges backed by some conservative legal groups are gaining steam.
On Thursday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonprofit legal advocacy group supported by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, filed a lawsuit on ...
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Today’s Must-Read
When Gavin Newsom was waging his primary bid to be California’s governor, he promised voters on the campaign trail in December 2017: “You’re going to have the opportunity to elect the next head of the resistance.” After steamrolling his Democratic and Republican opponents in 2018, Newsom governed with exactly that vision in mind.
Toeing the Company Line
The Worst Job in Washington
Chris Sununu and 2028.
Kharkiv: Under Fire but Out of the Spotlight
USAID cuts hinder Ukrainian efforts to facilitate media coverage and counter propaganda.
It’s Time for Republicans to Listen to the Markets, Not Trump
The markets don’t lie.
Tariff Terrorism
That Scott Lincicome is so hot right now!
🚨 Trump (Kind Of) Wins On Alien Enemies Act
Plus: Can the president fire federal probationary employees?
Worth Your Time
- Writing for The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait took Democrats to task for their reluctance to attack President Donald Trump’s tariff policies head-on. “At some point, Trump might backtrack on his trade war or pivot to a completely different set of policy obsessions. Perhaps by 2028, Democratic voters will be focused on bringing back Social Security or ending the war in Greenland. But to the extent that the tariffs define Trump’s economic mismanagement, a modulated stance on tariffs is going to become awkward for Democrats,” he wrote. “Not long ago, the political logic of rejecting free trade made a certain degree of sense for Democrats. But events have a way of changing political logic. A trade-skeptical message that worked perfectly well five or 10 years ago is going to sound awfully out of touch after Trump is done turning tariffs into a synonym for catastrophic ineptitude.”
- The Economist examined the emerging face-off between Israel and Turkey in Syria, as the two powers seek to expand their influence in the war-shattered country: “Israel is worried by the scale of Turkey’s involvement in Syria, including its plans to set up military bases and supply the new government’s fledgling army with weapons. Turkey fears that Israel wants to see Syria implode, or break apart. Each accuses the other of preparing to wage war by proxy. … Israel and Turkey also disagree about governance. Israeli officials have openly suggested a federal model for Syria, whereby different minorities, including the Kurds and the Alawites (a Muslim sect from which the Assads hail), would enjoy extensive autonomy. The recent massacres of hundreds of Alawite civilians by armed groups loyal to Syria’s new rulers, they argue, show that [Ahmed al-Sharaa] cannot be trusted. Mr Sharaa and his Turkish allies have had a wholly different system in mind: a strong central government headed by a president with sweeping executive powers.”
Presented Without Comment
New York Times: Chinese Intelligence May Be Trying to Recruit Fired U.S. Officials
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned on Tuesday that China’s intelligence services were using deceptive efforts to recruit current and former U.S. government employees.
…
The American government has long said that China uses social networks to secretly recruit people. But former U.S. officials say China now sees an opportunity as the Trump administration shuts down agencies, fires probationary employees and pushes out people who had worked on diversity issues.
Also Presented Without Comment
NewsNation: Stephen A. Smith Considering 2028 Presidential Run
In the Zeitgeist
Florida beat Houston in the NCAA Championship Monday night in an instant classic, ending with the heartbreaking conclusion we’ve come to expect from March Madness. Gators fans went to bed happy. Cougars fans? Well, you can probably guess from that last possession.
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