Happy Monday! Paying Dispatch members may notice that a new feature popped up over the weekend: You can now have articles and newsletters read to you, by clicking the “Listen” button at the top of the page.
We’re not saying the voice behind it is the ever-mysterious Nick Catoggio, but we’re not not saying that, either.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- An Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, grew heated on Friday as the two leaders—joined by Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—traded barbs over Washington’s efforts to push Kyiv toward a ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The on-camera visit devolved as Trump and Vance directed a series of attacks at Zelensky, accusing him of “gambling with World War III” and disrespecting the United States. The Ukrainian leader departed the White House early, forgoing the planned signing of a minerals deal between the two countries, and Trump released a statement on Truth Social claiming that Zelensky was “not ready for Peace if America is involved.” On Sunday, Zelensky told the BBC Ukraine is still “ready to sign” the minerals deal and that he would return to the White House if invited.
- Israel and Hamas have begun negotiating to reach the next stage of their U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, Egyptian officials said on Monday, after the first phase of the three-phase agreement expired over the weekend. Under the deal’s framework, the second phase is supposed to include a permanent end to the war and the return of all remaining living hostages in Gaza—a total of 24 people, according to Israel’s assessment. The ceasefire is expected to hold as long as negotiations toward the next phase continue.
- The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—a militant group behind scores of attacks in Turkey since 1984, including the deadly takeover of a state-run aerospace company headquarters in Ankara in October—declared a ceasefire on Saturday. In a statement, the pro-Kurdish independence fighters also called for the release of the PKK’s leader and founder—Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in Turkish prison for more than 25 years—to oversee the organization’s disarmament. A truce would end the PKK’s ongoing insurgency against Turkey, which has left more than 40,000 people dead over the last four decades.
- A federal judge ruled on Saturday that President Trump had unlawfully attempted to remove the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger, setting up yet another legal battle for the Trump administration. Federal law states that the special counsel can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” but the Justice Department argued that the law was unconstitutional after Trump fired Dellinger over email last month without stating a reason. Judge Amy Berman Jackson upheld the statute and affirmed that the special counsel’s independence was the “essential feature” of the office that works to expose unlawful and unethical practices in the government. The Trump administration has signaled it will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the deployment of some 3,000 additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, a Pentagon spokesman announced Saturday. The forces—which, according to U.S. Northern Command, will include soldiers from a Stryker Brigade Combat Team and a support aviation battalion—are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. The troops will “reinforce and expand current border security operations to seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States,” the Pentagon said.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation returned boxes of documents to President Trump that had been seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, the White House said on Friday. The search recovered files that were used as evidence in the Justice Department’s case investigating Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, which was dismissed last year. Trump stated on Truth Social that he was bringing the boxes to Florida and that their contents would someday be “part of the Trump Presidential Library.” It was not immediately clear whether classified information was included in the documents.
- President Trump signed an executive order on Saturday designating English as the official language of the United States. The move—which marks the first time that the country has had a federally recognized language—overturned former President Bill Clinton’s 2000 order requiring agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, but it did not mandate any changes to current accommodation policies. “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society,” the order reads. “This order recognizes and celebrates the long tradition of multilingual American citizens who have learned English and passed it to their children for generations to come.”
- The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, increased 2.5 percent year-over-year in January, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday—down slightly from a 2.6 percent annual rate one month earlier. After stripping out more volatile food and energy prices, core PCE increased at a 2.6 percent annual rate in January, matching economists’ expectations. Consumer spending, meanwhile, dropped 0.2 percent in January—the first decrease in almost two years.
- Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that he is running for mayor of New York City, joining a crowded field of candidates running to unseat Mayor Eric Adams in the June Democratic primary. Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 after New York Attorney General Letitia James found the governor had sexually harassed multiple women—charges he denies to this day. In a video announcing his run, Cuomo described New York City as “in crisis” and blamed “failed Democratic leadership” for the problems facing the city.
An Oval Office Altercation
Asked about his recent characterization of President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator” ahead of the Ukrainian leader’s planned visit to the White House, President Donald Trump experienced a bout of amnesia: “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question.”
But any goodwill between the two men was short-lived. On Friday, a visit intended to finalize a minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine devolved into a three-way shouting match between Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance as growing divides between the new administration and Kyiv came to the fore. Washington’s European allies are now fearful that the clash, which pitted Trump’s blind determination to “make a deal” against Zelensky’s efforts to preserve his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, may have done irreversible damage to the continent’s security architecture.
The heated exchange came toward the end of a 50-minute press conference in the Oval Office, but it was clear early on that Trump and Zelensky had arrived at the meeting with opposing views on how the Russia-Ukraine war should end—and the United States’ role in bringing such an end about. While Trump reiterated his belief that a deal in itself would be sufficient to ward off future Russian attacks, Zelensky highlighted Moscow’s repeated violations of previous ceasefires to make the case for ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. You can read our 1,738-word item on Trump and Zelensky’s White House clash in the members-only version of TMD.
Today’s Featured Story
The YouTube comments section is characterized by a sense of solidarity, a sense that we have all found ourselves here together in this space, impelled by common affections directed at our common or differing objects, enjoying familiar sweetnesses and discovering new ones—but always with a touch of melancholy. It’s the melancholy of those laboring under the yoke of time. We are all here, watching the songs of our different youths become dated irrelevance or ossified canon, returning again and again to the same videos, watching the little “Posted 4 months ago” tag become a year, then two, then five, then ten.
Toeing the Company Line
Dishonor and Incompetence in the Oval Office
A 50-minute debacle of Trumpist foreign policy.
The Show Must Go On
On the Epstein files rug-pull.
The New Era of Religion and Politics
Plus: Why faith matters in Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Toward Good Art, and Art Itself
Will Timothée Chalamet go down in history as a great actor, or a meme?
The Dream That Was America
This year’s Oscar nominees want to burn it all down.
Religious Persecution is Part of Russia’s Battle Plan
A delegation of Ukrainian pastors plead for continued U.S. support.
The Monthly Mailbag With James P. Sutton
It’s our TMD reporter’s turn to answer your questions.
The Once and Future Debate Over Public Broadcasting
Grousing over liberal bias in public media isn’t new, but the FCC and Congress are applying fresh scrutiny.
Zelensky Never Had a Chance
The Oval Office blowup gives cowardly Republicans another excuse to abandon Ukraine.
Details Scant on Trump’s IVF Executive Order—for Now
A look at the range of actions the White House could take on in vitro fertilization.
A New Paradigm of Faith in Politics
The future of American democracy is closely tied to the role of religion.
The Delicious Lamentations of Priests
The barbarians are inside the house.
Bonus: The Oval Office Ambush
Feeling shame for the actions of our country.
The German Firewall Is Coming Down
The AfD’s recent electoral performance marks a new era for far-right politics in Germany.
Worth Your Time
- On Friday, seven New York Times reporters—Jonathan Swan, Theodore Schleifer, Maggie Haberman, Ryan Mac, Kate Conger, Nicholas Nehamas, and Madeleine Ngo—published a lengthy investigation into how Elon Musk’s plan to gut the federal government materialized. “Wouldn’t it be great, Mr. Musk offered, if he could have access to the computers of the federal government? Just give him the passwords, he said jocularly, and he would make the government fit and trim,” they wrote. “What started as musings at a dinner party evolved into a radical takeover of the federal bureaucracy. It was driven with a frenetic focus by Mr. Musk, who channeled his libertarian impulses and resentment of regulatory oversight of his vast business holdings into a singular position of influence.”
- In The Economist’s 1843 magazine, John Phipps profiled George Mason economist Tyler Cowen, the man who wants to know everything. “Whether they know it or not, many tech gurus now subscribe to an economic analysis that Cowen first proposed in the 2010s, when he argued that technology could rescue America from a ‘great stagnation’ that had been keeping its growth rates depressed for almost half a century,” Phipps wrote. “It was this argument, amplified by his relentless publication schedule, that helped find Cowen an audience in Silicon Valley and its downstream subcultures. Today, his readers are doge staffers. Yet among acolytes, Cowen is famous not for a single theory but for the broad scope of his intellect. Put simply, he seems to know something about everything: machine learning, Icelandic sagas and where to eat in Bergen, Norway. ‘You can have a specific and detailed discussion with him about 17th-century Irish economic thinkers, or trends in African music, or the history of nominal gdp targeting,’ said Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe, an online-payments company. ‘I don’t know anyone who can engage in so many domains at the depth that he does.’”
Presented Without Comment
Reuters: Trump Names Cryptocurrencies in Strategic Reserve, Sending Prices Up
Also Presented Without Comment
Axios: RFK Jr. Urges People To Get Vaccinated Amid Deadly Texas Outbreak
Also Also Presented Without Comment
The White House: Support Pours In for President Trump, VP Vance’s America First Strength
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”
Sen. Lindsey Graham: “I’ve never been more proud of President Trump for showing the American people — and the world — you don’t trifle with this man … He wanted to get a ceasefire. He wants to end the war and Zelenskyy felt like he needed to bait Trump in the Oval Office.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: “I am so proud of our Commander-in-Chief. Thank you President @RealDonaldTrump and @VP for standing up for America. We will not tolerate the political games and disrespect of America. America is back.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “Amen, Mr. President.”
In the Zeitgeist
Anora—an independent comedy about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch—swept the Academy Awards last night, taking home the Oscars for best picture, best actress, best editing, best original screenplay, and best director.
