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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 robust security guarantees in any future agreement. “The reason it went sideways is because the two sides had different ideas of what the meeting was about,” Bob Hamilton, the head of Eurasia research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told TMD in a phone interview from Ukraine.
From there, Zelensky alternately held his tongue and attempted to interject as Trump repeated oft-debunked falsehoods, including the claim that Europe had contributed “much less” to the Ukrainian war effort, and placed implicit blame on Kyiv for the war’s start. “I’m here as an arbitrator, as a mediator to a certain extent, between two parties that have been very hostile, to put it mildly,” Trump said. He continued to draw a moral equivalence between the two countries when asked by a reporter whether he was between Russia and Ukraine or on Ukraine’s side: “I’m in the middle. I want to solve this thing. I’m for both.”
At one point, a Trump-friendly reporter berated Zelensky—who was sporting a black tactical sweater with the Ukrainian coat of arms—for his choice of attire. “Why don’t you wear a suit?” Brian Glenn, a journalist for the right-wing outlet Real America’s Voice, asked the Ukrainian leader. “You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Just want to see if—do you own a suit?” Zelensky typically wears military uniforms to high-level meetings in a show of solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers.
In another odd moment, a journalist from the far-right One America News Network asked Trump what gave him the “moral courage” to find a pathway to peace by engaging Russia when “previous leaders lacked the conviction” to do so. “I love this guy,” the president responded.
But Trump began to bristle as the questions turned more serious. After a CNN reporter asked him how a minerals deal would apply to Ukrainian territory currently under Russian occupation, the president told her to “focus on survival” in a dig at the channel’s ratings. When told by a Polish reporter that his country worries about Washington’s alignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump went on the offense to explain his diplomatic overtures to Moscow: “You see the hatred he’s got for Putin,” he said, gesturing at Zelensky. “It’s very tough for me to make a deal with that tremendous hatred.”
It was at this point that Vance went from being a spectator to an active participant in the press conference. “We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions,” he said in response to the reporter’s query. “What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy; that’s what President Trump is doing.”
Zelensky chimed in, reminding the vice president that Russia had broken multiple ceasefires, failed to honor prisoner exchanges, and engaged in combat along the contact line between Ukrainian and Russian forces ever since its invasion of Crimea in 2014—a string of failed attempts at diplomatic outreach spanning three subsequent presidential administrations. “What kind of diplomacy you are [sic] speaking about, J.D.?” the Ukrainian leader asked. “What do you mean?”
Then, the conversation went off the rails.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance shot back. “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.” He went on to accuse the Zelensky of “forcing conscripts to the front lines,” offering “propaganda tours” to Western politicians who visit the embattled country, and campaigning on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, referencing the Ukrainian leader’s visit to a munitions factory in Pennsylvania in October. “Have you said thank you once this entire meeting?” he asked. (“Thank you so much, Mr. President,” were some of the first words out of Zelensky’s mouth at the conference.)
Trump also got in some shots at his Ukrainian counterpart. “Right now, you don’t have the cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III,” he said. “If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.”
By the time a Polish reporter asked Vance “what if” Russia breaks the ceasefire again, Trump had already dispensed with any diplomatic pretenses. “What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now?” he retorted, before highlighting his unique rapport with Putin in the aftermath of the “phony witch hunt” investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. “Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.”
Trump concluded the press conference with a prediction—“This is going to be great television”—and an ultimatum: “You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll [Ukraine and Russia] will fight it out.”
Zelensky departed the White House early, with a planned lunch canceled and no minerals deal in sight, while Trump took to Truth Social to write that the Ukrainian president is “not ready for Peace” because “he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.” The White House is reportedly considering halting all weapons shipments to Ukraine in light of the developments.
Much of the following press coverage has focused on whether the stunning exchange, which took a wrecking ball to a longtime U.S. partnership in a matter of minutes, was premeditated or spontaneous. That question is impossible for TMD to adjudicate, but some analysts believe language gaps played at least some role in the communication breakdown. “There was a language barrier,” Hamilton of the Foreign Policy Research Institute said, arguing that Zelensky—who speaks English as his third language—was simply unable to maintain the proper verbal tone or keep pace with Vance and Trump’s attacks.
Asked by Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview Friday evening whether his relationship with Trump was salvageable after the meeting, Zelensky said “of course.” “It’s relations more than two presidents,” he continued. “It’s the historical relations, strong relations between our people. … I just want to be honest, and I just want our partners to understand the situation correctly, and I want to understand everything correctly. That’s about us not to lose our friendship.”
And 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.
But it’s unclear if that possibility is still on the table. “We’ll be ready to re-engage when they’re ready to make peace, which is clearly what the president’s goal is here,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ABC News on Sunday. “He’s trying to get Russia to the table to bring about—to see if there’s a way to bring about an end to this conflict.”
Friday’s meeting marked the dramatic culmination of long-simmering tensions between the Trump team and Zelensky. In response, European countries sprung into damage control mode over the weekend.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted representatives from Europe and Canada for an emergency conference in London on Sunday, declaring that Britain, France, and Ukraine would work together on a peace plan to present to Washington. “We have agreed that the UK, France and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting,” Starmer said at a press conference announcing the formation of a “coalition of the willing” to enforce a ceasefire. But “to succeed, this effort must have strong U.S. backing,” Starmer added.
Others argued that it’s time to pursue a security architecture independent of the United States. French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called for “hundreds of billions” of common European defense investment, labeling the White House confrontation “Europe’s strategic wake-up moment.”
But Europe’s military-industrial base is also years away from being able to support a fully independent defense policy, Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, told TMD. “It’s too fast for Europeans to say, ‘From now on, we take on our own security,’” she said. “Just the mere facts of the physics of military power require that Ukraine and Europe still try to work with the Trump administration,” she added, pointing out that European armed forces, while capable, are often highly specialized and rely on the U.S. for critical capabilities, such as air transport.
Within Ukraine, meanwhile, politicians and civilians have rallied around their leader. The spat “instilled a sense of unity, determination, and purpose that had been under a little strain,” Hamilton said.
And while some of Trump’s analysis of the country’s difficult predicament was correct, his terminal prognosis—“You’re not winning this”—has hardened Ukrainian resolve and brought renewed attention to Russia’s recent battlefield losses. Moscow’s incremental territorial gains come at the expense of increasingly large numbers of casualties per offensive push, while the country’s economy struggles to overcome persistently high inflation and soaring interest rates.
“Nobody seriously believes that Russia is destined to win this war and that Ukraine is destined to lose,” Hamilton said. “Russia can’t fight indefinitely.”
Today’s Featured Story
The Last Good Place on the Internet
Toeing the Company Line
Dishonor and Incompetence in the Oval Office
The New Era of Religion and Politics
Toward Good Art, and Art Itself
The Dream That Was America
Religious Persecution is Part of Russia’s Battle Plan
The Monthly Mailbag With James P. Sutton
The Once and Future Debate Over Public Broadcasting
Zelensky Never Had a Chance
Details Scant on Trump’s IVF Executive Order—for Now
A New Paradigm of Faith in Politics
The German Firewall Is Coming Down
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.
Let Us Know
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