Today in Politics, Bulletin 90. 3/13/25

… Judge William Alsup ordered the Trump admin to immediately rehire tens of thousands of federal employees from the Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments who were terminated by Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts: “You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross examination would reveal the truth.”

… The Judge continued with his scathing ruling: “I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth. I’m tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth. It is a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employees and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie.”

… The Senate is expected to vote on the House CR tomorrow, with Senate Democrats and Chuck Schumer holding meetings for the past two days on the best strategy to take. Most Democrats are dug in to vote against it because it contains some poison pills, while some fear they will be blamed if there is a government shutdown on Saturday.

… It is likely that at least 7 Democrats, including Schumer, are going to vote for the CR to fund the government until September. Schumer initially tried to make a gimmicky counter-offer to Sen. Majority Leader John Thune that he would vote for cloture in exchange for a 30 day delay on the CR to “negotiate.” Thune quickly rejected it.

… This was an obvious ploy that I immediately denounced on social media yesterday because this was being floated by Schumer as fake resistance to try and placate what he knew was going to be an angry base. I posted that we just want honesty, not games. Let the Senators who were going to vote for it just go ahead and do it and let them deal with the fallout of that vote - but don’t try and fool us.

… AOC later agreed with me: “I hope Senate Democrats understand there is nothing clever about setting up a fake failed 30 day CR first just to turn around and vote for cloture on the GOP spending bill. Those games won’t fool anyone. It won’t trick voters, it won’t trick House members. People will not forget it.”

… Sen. John Fetterman was the first Democrat to announce he is voting for the CR, and said what Schumer proposed wasn’t serious: “Shut the government down, plunge the country into chaos, risk a recession or exchange cloture for a 30 day CR that 100% fails? The House GOP CR will then pass the Senate because it only needs 51 votes. Total theater is neither honest with constituents nor a winning argument.”

… Sen. Tommy Tuberville: "John Fetterman has come a long way. He is the only Democrat leader out there that's speaking common sense."

… Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “For the Democrats saying, ‘we can’t let the govt shut down’ - you’ve already lost. It’s not on you. Republicans control everything, they didn’t come to you for anything except your vote. Where else can you force changes? You can’t, so now you’re a willing participant in the Republican majority.”

… Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) to Punchbowl on CR: “I can't imagine a scenario how I could support something that's a billion dollar cut to veterans, $300 million cuts to FEMA, water projects. If Republicans needed my vote on this, then they should have talked to me before they just cut all of that.”

… A New Quinnipiac poll asked who voters would blame most if there was a shutdown: Republicans: 31%. Democrats: 32%. Trump: 22%. No opinion: 15%. So a combined 53% would blame Trump and Republicans, while only 32% will blame Democrats, but that does not seem persuasive to some Senate Dems who are afraid to vote against it.

… Robert Morris, the Dallas-area Gateway megachurch pastor who was Trump’s spiritual advisor, was indicted in Oklahoma for 5 counts of lewd and indecent acts with a child. In 2020, Morris hosted Trump for a “Roundtable on Transition to Greatness” that was also attended by several other Republican officials including then-AG Bill Barr.

… At the conference, Trump said this about Morris: “I want to thank Pastor Robert Morris. He’s great people with a great reputation.” Morris was also involved in mobilizing grass roots evangelicals for Trump in 2024.

… Trump woke up this morning enraged by the EU’s reciprocal tariffs, and posted new ones on Truth Social: “The EU, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the US, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky. If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

… Trump owns a winery in the US, so this would directly benefit his company.

… And piss off millions of people who drink European wine and whisky.

… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump's new threat of 200% tariffs on alcoholic beverages from Europe is no big deal: "One or two items with one trading bloc - I'm not sure why that's a big deal for the markets."

… Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY): "I just heard them use fancy words to say, 'Oh, people are uncertain right now.' No, we are certain. These tariffs are disastrous for the bourbon industry. This is jobs for my state."

… When asked how he would feel if his policies ended up causing a recession, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded: "These policies are the most important thing America has ever had. It's worth it."

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told NBC that Trump’s “dramatic tariffs” could devastate the US economy and his state: "There are stories coming out talking about cars costing $10,000 more. And, of course, we’re worried about bourbon. We want to sell our bourbon. The Canadians are going to block our bourbon. Now that you add lumber costs to that and steel with tariffs, nobody at home is coming up to me and saying please put tariffs on.”

… Tuberville was asked if he was worried that Trump’s tariffs could cause a recession: "No pain, no gain. That's what we used to tell our football players. There's gonna be some pain with tariffs. Democrats need to just get out of the way and shut up."

… Tim Walz said Trump is raging about a trade deal that he negotiated: “If trade is so bad with Canada - he was the guy who signed the deal. I think this is how he ran his businesses - he stiffed contractors, he stiffed workers. He doesn't pay his bills. He declares bankruptcy. The one thing is his claim that he's the business president. He is the worst possible business executive that I have ever witnessed.”

… Scott Bessent was asked on CNBC if he’s starting to get concerned about the stock market tanking: “We're focused on the real economy. I'm not concerned about a little bit of volatility over three weeks. I can't tell you the market is gonna go up today, tomorrow, or next week.”

… The Dow was down another 537 points today.

… A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 57% of Americans think Trump’s handling of the economy has been “too erratic.” 70% said they think Trump’s tariffs will cause prices to rise, while only 31% believe that American workers will benefit from them.

… New CNN poll: How Have Trump’s Policies Affected US Economic Conditions? Worsened conditions - 51%. Improved conditions - 28%. Had no effect - 21%

… NYT reported that after Elon Musk’s DOGE website was busted repeatedly for posting false info on the amount of cuts and various other things, he has now made changes to the site to make it more difficult to fact-check: “Previously when it posted new claims, DOGE had included identifying details about the cuts it took credit for. That allowed the public to fact-check its work by comparing its figures with federal spending databases and talking to the groups whose funding had been cut. This time, it did not include those details. A WH official said that was done for ‘security purposes’.”

… It now nearly impossible to fact-check many of his claims on the website, after he promised that DOGE was going to be “maximally transparent.”

… NBC reported that a family with a 10-year-old girl who recently underwent brain cancer surgery was detained and deported on their way to a doctor’s appointment in Houston, TX. The girl and her siblings are US citizens, but their parents are not. The mother told NBC that she tried to explain the medical situation to officers but “they weren’t interested in hearing that.”

… After doctors removed the brain tumor, the mother says they “practically gave me no hope of life for her, but thank God she’s a miracle.” The girl still has swelling on the brain from the surgery when they were arrested and deported: “It’s a very difficult thing. I don’t wish anyone to go through this situation.”

… Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project: “What is happening to this family is an absolute tragedy and it is something that is not isolated to just them. This is part of a pattern in practice that we’ve seen in the Trump administration.”

… Tesla’s largest market outside the US is China, and their sales have been getting crushed by domestic competitors - but unlike boycotts in Europe and the US it has more to do with his cars than his politics. NYT reports that Tesla dominated sales of EVs in China for years, but “now that market is a bloodbath of competition from Chinese rivals. Chinese drivers that once flocked to Tesla are turning more and more to local brands that offer more efficient cars with better technology, sometimes at half the price.”

We have had a lot of great articles written about MeidasTouch recently, but the one that came out today in Vanity Fair I thought was the best because it really captured who we are, how we came together, and our entire philosophy and approach to this. If you want to check it out, it’s really great. Link here.

Also, if you missed my podcast Uncovered yesterday, I took a deep dive into the biggest stories of the week with lots of new info on items that appeared in this column. You can check it out here.

… Tesla’s biggest competitor in China is BYD. So far this year, BYD’s sales are up 75% over this time last year, while’s Tesla’s are down 14%. Buyers in China said that BYD makes basically the same car at half the price. Chen Jiaming, who is in sales for