 | By Ian Ward | | 
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) speaks to the press outside the Capitol after the House passed legislation to fund the government through September 30. Massie was the only Republican to vote against passing the legislation. | Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images | MAGA NON GRATA — Republicans today narrowly passed a continuing resolution to fund the government, averting a March 14 shutdown deadline. But the one Republican vote against the CR exposed an unexpected test of President Donald Trump’s control over his party. And this test has a name: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie — an idiosyncratic, libertarian-minded conservative from Northern Kentucky’s 4th District — has long been a thorn in the Trump administration side, having refused to fall in line behind Trump on several key votes during Trump’s first term. Just last month, Massie was also the only Republican to vote against the “big, beautiful” budget bill that the White House was pushing through the House. But on Sunday, Massie raised the stakes of that conflict when he announced that he would vote against a Trump-backed continuing resolution to fund the government through September, arguing that the CR is a “UNIPARTY deal” that doesn’t go far enough to curtail government spending or defund Democratic-backed initiatives. (House Republicans can only afford to lose one vote on the bill.) Trump responded on Monday evening with a post on Truth Social accusing Massie of being a “automatic ‘NO’ vote on just about everything” and calling for him to be primaried by a more loyal Republican. “He’s just another GRANDSTANDER, who’s too much trouble, and not worth the fight,” wrote Trump. “He reminds me of Liz Chaney [sic] before her historic, record breaking fall.” Shortly thereafter, Trump’s former campaign manager Chris LaCivita joined the fight, seemingly taunting Massie in a series of posts on X. But then, something unexpected happened: Republicans and the MAGA grassroots came to Massie’s defense. “I have nothing but profound respect for [Rep. Thomas Massie], who has worked harder than perhaps any member of Congress to bring federal spending under control,” wrote Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah in a post on X. “He might vote differently on this matter than most, but if he does so he’ll have a really good reason. I’m a huge fan.” High-profile members of the MAGA mediasphere also stepped in to echo Lee’s defense. “Thomas Massie is a great American and by far and away one of our best congressmen,” wrote the conservative influencer and Daily Wire host Matt Walsh on X. “Massie ain’t gonna lose no primary,” added the conservative activist Mike Cernovich . “Getting into fights you can’t win helps no one.” It was a rare display of conservative push-back to one of Trump’s pronouncements — and one that speaks both to the limits of Trump’s power over congressional Republicans and the unique space that Massie occupies within Trump’s GOP. First elected in 2012, Massie entered the House as a libertarian in the mold of Ron and Rand Paul, championing gun rights, civil liberties and free markets, while opposing increased government spending on the welfare and national security state. Over time, though, Massie’s unusual positions — and unconventional lifestyle for a national lawmaker— have set him apart from more typical tea party Republicans. Massie and his family live off the grid in a house that Massie built himself on a sustainable farm in Kentucky, and he was an early champion of several health-related positions that have since been embraced by the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, like the legalization of hemp production and the relaxation on the restriction on the sale of raw milk . He opposes most Democratic-backed climate policy but has called himself “the greenest member of Congress ,” arguing that Americans should rethink their relationship to the land to allow them to become less reliant on large corporations for things like food, fuel and shelter. Together with his vocal opposition to government restrictions during the COVID pandemic, these positions have turned Massie into something of a cult favorite among the more populist members of the MAGA movement, who see his libertarianism and localism as a kind of foil to the deracinated globalism that Trump and his populist allies had come to rail against. “I absolutely love Massie,” then-Sen. J.D. Vance told The New York Times in 2023. (“Breaking news: The Vice President said something nice about a congressman two years ago,” a spokesperson for Vance told Nightly when asked if the vice president had changed his mind, adding that Vance agreed with Trump that Massie should have supported the CR.) By 2024, Massie’s popularity had reached the point that, following Trump’s victory in November, parts of the MAGA coalition quietly agitated for Trump to choose Massie to run the Department of Agriculture, though Massie ultimately lost out to longtime Trump aide Brooke Rollins. Meanwhile, Massie won supporters on the right’s growing non-inventionist wing for his persistent criticism of America’s “forever wars” and his refusal to take money from foreign interest groups, including the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC. All of which is to say that Massie has cultivated an independent base of support on the right that isn’t grounded exclusively — or even primarily — in his fidelity to Trump. But now, with Trump setting Massie directly in his political crosshairs, Massie’s supporters will have to decide where their loyalties really lie: with Massie or with Trump. There are some indications that Massie will be able to weather the storm. In March 2020, Trump publicly criticized Massie as a “third rate Grandstander” and called for him to be thrown out of the GOP after Massie threatened to vote against a Trump-backed bill. Yet Trump’s invective had little effect on Massie’s electoral prospects: Massie sailed to reelection that year, having trounced his Republican primary challenger by over 60 points. Massie appears to be banking on similar levels of support this time around. On Monday, he clapped back at LaCivita , and earlier today, his campaign posted a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post to X alongside a request for campaign donations. But Massie’s prospects could change if Trump and his team double down on their criticism, as Trump did in a second Truth Social post this afternoon. In that case, Massie’s fate could become a revealing test of whether even the smallest — and most popular — pockets of political independence can survive within Trump’s Republican Party. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at iward@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ianwardreports .
| | ****BRAIN DEAD PRESIDENT FLIP-FLOPS AGAIN WHEN CANADA THREATENS ELECTRICITY! THERE IS NO BENEFIT TO TARIFFS & IRRESPONSIBLE TRADE WARS!***
— U.S., Canada walk back tariff escalation: The U.S. and Canada have reached a mini-détente in their trade war , after a furious round of finger pointing Tuesday between President Donald Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. After speaking with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Ford announced Tuesday afternoon that he would suspend the 25 percent tariffs on electricity exports Ontario had levied on three U.S. states just a day before. “Secretary Lutnick agreed to officially meet with Premier Ford in Washington on Thursday, March 13 alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA,” Ford and Lutnick said in a joint statement, using an acronym to refer to the North American trade pact known as the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement. “In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.” In response, Trump told reporters at the White House that he would “probably” rescind his threat to double — from 25 to 50 percent — tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum that are scheduled to go into effect first thing Wednesday. White House spokesman Kush Desai later confirmed in a statement that the tariffs would not be doubled. ****THERE'S NOT ENOUGH DETAIL TO DETERMINE HOW PUNITIVE THIS MAGA GOP BILL IS: The stopgap would fund government operations through the remainder of this fiscal year. It would slash non-defense funding by roughly $13 billion and increase defense spending by about $6 billion over current budgets — including billions for deportations, veterans’ health care and the military. — House approves stopgap funding bill days before government shutdown : The House passed a seven-month funding patch Tuesday that aims to avoid a shutdown in three days’ time. It’s a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, who largely kept his conference together with few defections and no help from Democrats. The 217-213 vote went almost entirely along party lines. One Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted “yes,” while Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, voted “no.” The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republicans will need at least eight Democrats to cross the aisle to clear it for President Donald Trump’s signature. ****UKRAINE! **** — U.S. to reinstate aid to Ukraine after Saudi cease-fire talks: The United States will immediately lift the pause in intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine , according to a joint statement issued after a meeting of the Ukrainian and U.S. delegations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia today. In return, Ukraine agreed to accept a U.S. proposal for the immediate introduction of a temporary 30-day cease-fire that can be extended by mutual agreement, subject to acceptance and simultaneous implementation by Russia. Speaking in Jeddah, Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked Saudi Arabia for hosting the talks and said it now falls on Russia to accept the cease-fire terms outlined by the U.S. and Ukraine and to move toward "real negotiations" that actually end the war. ****TRUMP DOESN'T DRIVE!**** — White House prepares high-profile purchase of Tesla auto: The White House announced a plan today to promote President Donald Trump’s potential purchase of a Tesla , the car produced by Elon Musk, a major campaign donor who now wields significant power over the federal government. “He’s definitely going to buy one,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that aides were arranging to have a Tesla on site at the White House within the next few hours. “A Tesla is on its way here now, and we’ll see if the president likes it.” ****BRAIN DEAD MAGA GOP EMBRACE TRUMP LIES! **** — House Republicans move to block vote on Trump’s tariffs: House Republicans are moving to block Democrats from forcing a vote on President Donald Trump’s controversial tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. GOP leadership slipped language into a House rule on their stopgap funding bill that would prevent any member of Congress from bringing up a resolution terminating Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over fentanyl and undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. The president has used that emergency declaration to justify his tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. — Kennedy gives food company CEOs an ultimatum on artificial dyes: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a stark ultimatum to major food company CEOs in a closed-door meeting this week: Ban certain artificial dyes from your products or the government will do it for you. Kennedy today pressed leaders of companies like PepsiCo, General Mills, Tyson Foods, Smucker’s, Kraft Heinz and Kellogg’s for commitments to reduce food additives, according to a readout of the meeting sent to industry stakeholders and viewed by POLITICO. It was the Health and Human Services secretary’s first major meeting with the very executives he’d spent months accusing of making Americans sick. — Education Department will close Washington offices tonight for ‘security reasons’: The Education Department will close its Washington-area offices beginning this evening for unspecified “security reasons,” according to a notice sent to agency employees. Department employees must vacate the building by 6 p.m., according to the notice, and have been allowed to work from home on Wednesday if they have approved telework agreements. “Employees will not be permitted in any ED facility on Wednesday, March 12th”, for any reason,” the message said. All offices were set to reopen to in-person work on March 13th, according to the notice.
excerpt: The Education Department will begin cutting more than 1,300 people from its workforce and terminating some of its office leases across the country this week, as part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to cull the size of the U.S. government’s smallest Cabinet agency. An agency official told reporters Tuesday that the job cuts being finalized over the coming weeks are expected to affect roughly half of the agency’s workforce. The official said the department, which employs about 4,130 people, focused on cutting teams whose operations are redundant or not necessary to serve its core functions. But they also cast the announcement as another step in remaking the agency ahead of the president’s still-unreleased executive order to dismantle it.
“Today’s RIF reflects our commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement about the reduction in force posted to social media. “I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department,” she said. “This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.” The agency said the cuts would not affect the work of its Federal Student Aid office and civil rights investigators, or how the department distributes federal funding for low-income and disabled students. “We have a department now that exists largely to oversee contractors, add strings, and in many cases, do duplicative efforts across the department,” the official said. Employees affected by Tuesday’s announced force reduction will have 90 days until they are actually terminated and will receive full pay and benefits during this time, in addition to severance pay. Tuesday’s announced job cuts come atop approximately 259 employees who have already accepted a “deferred resignation” from the Trump administration that’s intended to cover their pay and benefits through September. An additional 313 workers accepted a buyout offer that promised the equivalent of severance pay or $25,000, whichever was less. The department said approximately 2,200 employees will be left once Tuesday’s force reduction take effect atop the resignations and buyouts. Department employees were told to vacate the building by 6 p.m., according to the Tuesday notice, and have been allowed to work from home on Wednesday if they have approved telework agreements. “Employees will not be permitted in any ED facility on Wednesday, March 12th, for any reason,” the message said. All offices were set to reopen to in-person work on March 13th, according to the notice. The department official said the 1,315 employees affected by Tuesday’s job cuts will work remotely until next week, when they will be placed on administrative leave until their formal termination in 90 days. The department also plans to consolidate its Washington operations into one building — instead of three — in the capital, the official said. Tuesday’s telework plans sparked significant confusion ahead of the planned staff cuts. The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing the agency’s rank and file, told staffers that supervisors have likely already terminated remote and telework arrangements for many employees when complying with Trump’s return-to-work order from earlier this year. “If you are within the commuting area and not on an active telework agreement, we recommend informing your supervisor that you do not have an active telework agreement and requesting clarification on how to code your administrative leave for tomorrow,” the union said in an email. Tuesday’s announcement also arrived hours after a group of former agency employees, union and political leaders assembled outside the department’s headquarters to protest staff cuts and Trump’s pending executive order. “Every student will feel the impact of a decision to dismantle the department,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a member of the House education and workforce committee, said during Tuesday’s protest. “Rural students will feel it. Students in poor communities will feel it. LGBTQ+ students and students of color will feel it. College students who rely on Pell Grants and Federal Student Aid will feel it. And students in special education all will be locked out.” Hand-written signs could be seen in the agency headquarters building windows above Tuesday’s demonstration as officials spoke. “We miss you,” read one. “SOS,” said another. “Save ED.” But Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Trump’s education agenda aligns with “where we conservatives and most of America have always been.” “The Department of Education has got a bunch of bureaucrats here in DC. Do they really make a difference for a sixth-grader in Champaign County going to a local school? No,” Jordan told POLITICO on Tuesday. “They probably make life more difficult for the teacher who’s actually interacting with the kid on a daily basis. You’ll see buy-in from Republicans on his goals with the department.”
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Calin Georgescu speaks to the media in Izvorani, Romania, on Nov. 26, 2024. | Vadim Ghirda/AP | NO ROMANIAN RERUN — Romania’s Constitutional Court today barred far-right front-runner candidate Călin Georgescu from competing in a May rerun of the country’s presidential election , despite protests and accusations of tyranny from Georgescu and his supporters. The country’s Central Electoral Bureau rejected his candidacy Sunday, saying Georgescu had violated Romania’s election rules while coming out of nowhere to win the first round of the presidential vote last November, partly on the back of a wildly successful TikTok campaign. Georgescu appealed the decision at the Constitutional Court, where all nine justices voted to reject it this evening, making the authorities’ decision to keep him from the presidential race final. The Constitutional Court was also the one that annulled Georgescu’s victory last year, flagging undeclared campaign financing and fraudulent use of digital technologies, with an alleged Russian operation seen as having influenced the result. Moscow has denied any links to Georgescu. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said today any election that doesn’t involve Georgescu was illegitimate. LIGNE ROUGE — Will France’s defense-spending boost threaten the country’s beloved welfare state? French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to build up public approval on spending more on the French military to face the threat posed by Russia as the United States disengages from Europe. But, crucially, he hasn’t explained where the money will come from. Macron merely set a red line: Taxes, he said, should not be raised to fund the spending boost. Those comments have triggered fears among opposition parties and unions that social spending will be sacrificed on the altar of the defense effort, and that warmongering will be used as a pretext to push through unpopular austerity measures. While the French president has great power over defense policy, the legislature controls the purse strings — and Macron has no majority there. There’s some cross-party consensus on raising defense spending. But who should contribute what is sure to become a heated debate, and in France’s fractured parliament, where no single party or coalition holds a majority of seats, it risks ending in deadlock.
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| | | AGE IS JUST A NUMBER — A study that was first conducted in the 1980s is getting renewed attention as a potential skeleton key to exercise late in life. Maria Fiatarone exposed multiple residents of a senior living facility in Massachusetts — many of them with a history of falls — to a high intensity weight training program . Conventional wisdom at the time was that older people shouldn’t lift heavy weights, for fear of cardiac events. But the participants in Fiatarone’s study excelled and got into better shape quickly. As the study concluded, though, many of the participants returned to a sedentary lifestyle. As Fiatarone’s work has been revisited and studied over the years, it has become clear that this kind of weight training can work — as long as there’s a clear incentive to sustain success and health. Michael Joseph Gross reports in The Guardian.
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On this date in 2004: Rescue workers cover up bodies near a bomb damaged passenger train following a number of explosions on trains in Madrid, Spain. The explosions happened just three days before Spain's general elections, killing more than 170 rush-hour commuters and wounding more than 500. | Paul White/AP | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here . | |
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