Two hugely important questions about Trump's trade war  —  Donald Trump's long-threatened trade war has finally begun.  —  The Trump administration slapped big new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China on Tuesday, spurring retaliation from other countries, a market sell-off, and new fears about the future of the US economy.

Democrats Plan to Protest Trump's Speech by Wearing Pink  —  Pink for the rights of women and families, black to meet the somberness of the political moment, yellow and blue in support of Ukraine: Democratic lawmakers are expected to communicate their opposition to Donald Trump during …

People Are Paying Millions to Dine With Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago  —  Business leaders are paying as much as $5,000,000 to meet one-on-one with the president at his Florida compound, sources tell WIRED, while others are paying $1,000,000 apiece to dine with him in a group setting.

The IRS is drafting plans to cut as much as half of its 90,000-person workforce, AP sources say  —  The IRS is drafting plans to cut its workforce by as much as half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries  —  Engineers and executives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing healthy taxpayer-funded salaries—sometimes from the very agencies they are cutting.  —  Some staffers at Elon Musk's so-called Department …

MAGA Newspaper Owner's AI Bot Defends KKK  —  An AI-generated summary tried to offer “different views” on the hate group.

Non-core property list  —  We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties for disposal.  Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces.  Disposing of these assets helps …

Trump Abruptly Walks Back His Directive To Fire Thousands Of Federal Employees  —  His administration is suddenly reversing course after a federal judge ruled that the mass firings of probationary workers were probably illegal.  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday abruptly walked …

As Measles Spreads, Kennedy Embraces Remedies Like Cod Liver Oil  —  In an interview, the H.H.S. secretary claimed that unconventional treatments were helping patients but did not mention vaccination.  —  As a measles outbreak expands in West Texas, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. …

Trump, Ukraine, and the Meme-ing of Marco Rubio  —  Why the Secretary of State's stone-like posture during the Zelenskyy meltdown might have been exactly as telling as observed.  —  Even as it was happening on Friday, the Oval Office blowup between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance …

U.S. Embassies Halt Air Quality Monitoring Abroad  —  Since 2008, embassies and other diplomatic posts had been publishing data about local air quality.  In many countries, it was the only reliable source of such information.  —  What's the air quality in New Delhi, Jakarta or Buenos Aires?

The Post's Beacon of Inspiration  —  As Jeff Bezos pushes The Washington Post to the right, publisher Will Lewis quietly met with a conservative editor last month, Status has learned.  —  Last month, Will Lewis, the embattled publisher and chief executive of The Washington Post, sat down for a curious off-the-record meeting.

Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)  —  While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recognizable plan unfold — a playbook we're all too familiar with.

The L.A. Times adds AI-generated counterpoints to its opinion pieces and guess what, there are problems  —  The hope: The L.A. Times will appear more “objective” if it presents both sides of an issue, even if one side's written by a human and the other side is generated by AI.  The reality: Kind of a mess.

Trump admin moves to drop fight over emergency abortions, reversing Biden admin stance  —  An Idaho hospital is stepping in to argue that the state's near-total abortion ban violates patients' rights.  —  The Trump administration is dropping a yearslong legal battle with Idaho over the right …

EXCLUSIVE: A Hitler-quoting ‘Aryan’ has the attention of JD Vance and Elon Musk—who is @captivedreamer7?  —  The account, followed by JD Vance, previously boasted of being a white supremacist.  —  Days after the 2024 election, Vice President JD Vance followed @capitivedreamer7 …

AG Bondi faces heat from White House, Trump allies over Epstein files release  —  The release, which was trumpeted by the AG, revealed almost no new information.  —  Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2025 at National Harbor, Maryland, Feb. 20, 2025.

Ethical Concerns Surround Sen. Joni Ernst's Relationships With Top Military Officials Who Lobbied Her Committee  —  Earlier this year, the Air Force revealed that the general who oversaw its lobbying before Congress had inappropriate romantic relationships with five women, including three who worked on Capitol Hill.

Bowser signals D.C. will paint over BLM Plaza after GOP threatens funding  —  The mayor's announcement represents a remarkable retreat from her defiant posture toward President Donald Trump during his first term.  —  D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) signaled Tuesday that the city would paint …

Zelensky Offers Terms to Stop Fighting, Assuring U.S. That Ukraine Wants Peace  —  “We are working on all possible scenarios to protect Ukraine,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country was looking to European allies for support.  —  President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine …

Vengeance Is His  —  With Trump back in the White House, each new week produces an onslaught of radical policy initiatives.  —  In an essay posted on Substack, Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown, described a sequence — running from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27 …

Watchdog seeks to halt more than 5,000 Trump administration firings at USDA  —  The watchdog — who is himself fighting to save his own job — says the mass terminations at the Department of Agriculture violated civil service protections.  —  A federal watchdog for government workers is trying …

Commerce to Overhaul ‘Internet for All’ Plan, Expanding Starlink Funding Prospects  —  Agency plans changes that will make Elon Musk's satellite-internet service eligible for more rural broadband funding  —  The Commerce Department is examining changes to a $42.5 billion Biden-era program aimed …

Economic growth is slowing — so Trump wants to redefine “economic growth”  —  The government produces many of America's most important economic indicators.  And that data influences the media's coverage of the economy, which likely colors voters' views of the president.

I Followed Three Women Who Wanted to Divorce Their Trump-Supporting Husbands.  I Can't Believe Where They Ended Up.  —  This fall, I followed three women who had been thinking about divorce.  What happened when Donald Trump won again?  —  Marriage is hardly a new invention.