NOT A GOOD DAY FOR TRUMP:
1. HE HAD TO PULL HIS NOMINEE FOR THE CDC AN HOUR BEFORE THE SENATE CONFIRMATION HEARINGS. HE DIDN'T HAVE THE GOP VOTES.
2. A JUDGE RULED HE HAS TO REINSTATE - IMMEDIATELY! - TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS MUSK'S DOGE FIRED.
3. A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN LOOMS AS GOP SENATE FAILS TO GET DEMOCRATS TO SUPPORT DEEP CUTS
4. TRUMP"S FORMER SPIRITUAL ADVISER WAS CHARGED WITH CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
5. PUTIN SAYS HE IS "FOR" A CEASEFIRE, BUT "THERE IS A NUANCE" - HE WANTS TO "ELIMINATE THE INITIAL CAUSE OF THIS CRISIS" - IN OTHER WORDS - UKRAINE SHOULD JUST SURRENDER THE TERRRITORY RUSSIA WANTS.
6. OH - AND THE STOCK MARKET IS TANKING OVER HIS TARIFFS
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1. (BARRONS) A Senate committee on Thursday morning cancelled a nomination hearing for Dave Weldon, the former congressman with a history of vaccine skepticism who President Trump had named to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cancellation came less than an hour before the meeting was set to start. Axios reported shortly before 9 a.m. that the White House was withdrawing Weldon’s nomination.
Weldon, a Florida Republican who served seven terms in Congress beginning in 1995, was a relative unknown when Trump named him as his nominee to lead the CDC last fall. A report in STAT published Wednesday found that he had a long history of vaccine skepticism. STAT reported that allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the Secretary of Health and Human Services, had pushed Weldon as a CDC nominee.
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2. USA TODAY ― Tens of thousands of federal government probationary workers fired in recent weeks as part of President Donald Trump's sweeping cuts to the federal workforce must be reinstated immediately, a California judge ordered Thursday.
The decision from U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco is one of the most far-reaching court defeats so far in the Trump administration's efforts, led by top White House adviser Elon Musk, to gut the federal bureaucracy.
The judge ordered six federal agencies ‒ the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior and Treasury ‒ to reinstate recently hired or promoted probationary employees who were terminated by the Trump administration.
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3. ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) — A day before a shutdown deadline, Senate Democrats are mounting a last-ditch protest over a Republican-led government funding bill that already passed the House but failed to slap any limits on President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to gut federal operations.
With his party united, Schumer said the Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority, lack the support needed to reach the 60-vote threshold, which is required to overcome a filibuster.
Democrats are pushing a stopgap 30-day funding bill as an alternative. But its prospects are dim in the Congress controlled by Republicans. And it's unlikely the Democrats would allow a government shutdown, worried about the further chaos they say Trump and Musk could cause.
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4. The Guardian - The Texas Gateway megachurch founder and pastor Robert Morris has been indicted on five criminal counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, from incidents that occurred in Oklahoma in the 1980s.
A multi-county grand jury issued an indictment on 12 March, which alleges Morris was a traveling evangelist visiting in Hominy, Oklahoma, with the family of the alleged victim in December 1982. The indictment alleges Morris’s sexual misconduct began that Christmas and continued over four years. The alleged victim was 12 years old at the time
Morris was a member of Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory committee and Evangelical Executive Advisory Board during his first presidential term and part of an effort to mobilize conservatives and evangelicals in support of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid. He also hosted an appearance by Trump at Gateway church in June 2020.
Moriris was tapped by Texas governor Greg Abbott in 2017 to support a so-called “bathroom bill” that sought to ban transgender people from using their preferred bathroom.
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5. ABC News: In his first public remarks on the proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Russia is "for it" but that he wants his own security guarantees.
Putin raised questions regarding a 30-day ceasefire during a press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, as President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff landed in the city to discuss the proposal.
"It seems to me, it would be very good for the Ukrainian side to reach a truce for at least 30 days. And we are for it. But there is a nuance," Putin said.
"If we stop the hostilities for 30 days, what does it mean? Does it mean that everyone who is there will leave without a fight?" Putin said. "Or the Ukrainian leadership will give them an order to lay down their arms and just surrender? How will it be? It is not clear."
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6. The Washington Post - The S&P 500 sank into correction territory Thursday afternoon after Trump threatened to escalate a trade war with the European Union by enacting a 200 percent tariff on the EU’s wine, champagne and other alcoholic beverages after the bloc announced it would place a 50 percent tariff on U.S. whisky in response to Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Trump administration officials have defended his aggressive use of tariffs despite recent market volatility and continued fears of an economic slowdown.
Positive economic data this week hasn’t eased market concerns. The producer price index, which measures the cost of producing consumer goods, was flat in February, according to data released Thursday.
The outlook for inflation depends on “tariffs, deportations and DOGE” more than backward-looking economic data for February, said Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Investment Bank.
“In short, the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet in the economic statistics,” Adams said. “Financial markets are paying more attention to announcements from the White House about tariffs and job cuts than the hard numbers.”
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