House Democrats are homing in on a new attack against DOGE at their annual retreat: That they don't even get a heads up about cuts that will clobber their constituents.
Why it matters: Republicans have been able to work back-channels to get cuts in their districts rolled back, but Democrats don't have the same privilege, as Axios previously reported.
The big picture: The move comes after the Trump administration last week pulled some $400 million in federal grants and contracts from the university over allegations of antisemitism and after federal agents arrested a Columbia protest leader.
Senate Democrats are prepared to vote Friday to keep the government open, with not much to show for it.
Why it matters: The outcome will spark the fury of many Democrats and the grassroots of the party, who have lobbied this week for the lawmakers to block the short-term funding bill.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), an icon of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, died Thursday due to complications from his cancer treatment, his office announced. He was 77.
What they're saying: "Rep. Grijalva fought a long and brave battle. He passed away this morning due to complications of his cancer treatments," the Arizona Democrat's staff said in a statement.
Nearly 100 people were arrested after protesters gathered at Trump Tower in Manhattan Thursday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University alumnus who was detained by immigration authorities on Saturday.
The big picture: The protest, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, featured signs such as "Free Mahmoud Khalil," "Fight Nazis not students" and "You can't deport a movement."
Christie Roberts, the former director of Senate Democrats' campaign arm, is launching a political media firm dedicated to helping Democratic candidates and initiatives, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Roberts oversaw some of the party's most important campaign victories in recent years, including critical Senate wins in Georgia and Nevada.
House Democrats are finally finding a way to flash their anger when Republicans purposefully refer to Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender woman in Congress, as a man.
Why it matters: McBride herself has since November advised fellow Democrats not to get baited into fights over her identity and to instead shift the conversation to issues of substance — housing, health care, inflation.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered six government agencies to offer fired probationary federal workers their jobs back.
Why it matters: At least 30,000 probationary workers have been fired in DOGE's sweeping remaking of the government. A few federal agencies have called their people back, but most are still not working.
Elon Musk visited the National Security Agency on Wednesday and met with NSA chief Gen. Timothy Haugh, an agency spokesperson confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: This is Musk's first recorded visit to an intelligence agency as a special adviser to the president. The visit came a week after Musk called for an overhaul at the agency.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Thursday to overturn lower court orders blocking the president's day-one executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.
The big picture: In the three separate cases — for which the administration filed three different petitions to the high court — judges issued nationwide injunctions blocking the order, which faces significant constitutional hurdles.
The Senate Banking Committee voted Thursday to advance legislation seeking to strike "reputational risk" from the toolkit of U.S. regulators considering vulnerabilities at financial institutions.
Why it matters: Supporters of the FIRM Act argue that it removes a subjective standard open to abuse by administrations looking to target disfavored industries.
Wholesale egg prices are starting to drift lower amid signs that the bird flu is easing, but don't expect to find lower prices at grocery stores yet.
Why it matters: Even as President Trump is claiming victory, his administration is acknowledging that the upcoming Easter holiday could cause prices to jump again.
A new documentary on the Columbia University student Palestinian rights movement featuring now-detained graduate Mahmoud Khalil will be released at a film festival later this month.
Why it matters: The film, months in the making, gives more insight into the plight of Khalil's family from Palestine during the 1948 Nakba to decades in refugee camps in Syria and his role in 2024 encampment protests.
Ronald Johnson, President Trump's pick for Mexican ambassador, said during a confirmation hearing Thursday that U.S. military strikes on cartels — even without Mexico's knowledge — are an option.
The big picture: Trump on his first day in office signed an executive order naming eight drug cartels — including six in Mexico — as foreign terrorist organizations, a move administration ally Elon Musk contended made them "eligible for drone strikes."
The Senate Banking Committee Thursday voted to send a stablecoin bill to the full chamber for debate.
Why it matters: The committee markup on the GENIUS Act was a key step in advancing a stablecoin bill, one of the top digital asset-related priorities for Republican lawmakers in the new Congress.
A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
Why it matters: President Trump's Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, confirmed the mass layoffs this week were the first step toward shuttering the department.
Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Thursday that he will not run in Michigan's gubernatorial or Senate races next year.
Why it matters: Buttigieg, who said he strongly considered bids in both races, has also been floated as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.
Mega-tariffs! Mass government layoffs! Slashed federal spending! Those have been the headlines, but if you get your information from the Treasury Department's monthly accounting of its revenue and spending, things don't look nearly so dramatic — at least, for now.
Why it matters: For the first full month of the Trump presidency, the government's cash flow statements provide precious little evidence of the sweeping economic policy change that the new administration seeks to deliver.
The Federal Trade Commission yesterday asked a court for extra time before proceeding on a case against Amazon, claiming its resources are too constrained, before reversing course just hours later.
Why it matters: This suggests that the FTC may struggle to meet its responsibilities, including enforcing antitrust law, or at least could become more selective.
Catch up quick: The FTC in 2023 sued Amazon for allegedly enrolling customers in its Prime program without consent and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions. In short, a deceptive practices case, as Axios' Ashley Gold and I report.
Yesterday, an FTC attorney named Jonathan Cohen told the judge overseeing the case: "Our resource constraints are severe and really unique to this moment. We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on the case team."
Later in the case, after media coverage of Cohen's request for a trial delay, he fell on his sword, saying: "The commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case."
Behind the scenes: A senior FTC official tells Axios that Cohen was "going rogue," and that his supervisors were unaware of his delay request before it was made. The agency is said to be investigating what happened.
At the same time, however, the FTC — which already had a reputation for being under-resourced — has lost some personnel from DOGE's "fork in the road" resignation offer and cut a dozen staffers on its own.
It's unclear if DOGE itself has been inside the FTC, but Elon Musk has directed FTC staff to soon move into USAID offices, while also rendering government-issued credit cards ineffective.
The bottom line: Trump's FTC is widely expected to keep Big Tech's feet to the fire, including by continuing to pursue its case against Microsoft, so this episode likely reflects internal strife more than a directional change.
Alcohol appears to be one of the earliest casualties of President Trump's trade war, one he escalated Thursday with a threat to impose massive levies on European wine and Champagne.
Why it matters: The alcohol industries may not have had the same influence in the tariff fight so far as automakers, but there's still billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs at stake.
The White House is withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), per a source close to Senate health committee and another source familiar.
Why it matters: The former Florida congressman was scheduled to appear before the committee this morning for a since-cancelled confirmation hearing. But his views questioning certain vaccines have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning.
Well-funded MAGA forces close to the White House are preparing a "100-year plan" to try to sustain Trumpism long after President Trump leaves office.
Why it matters: Top executives at the America First Policy Institute tell Axios that the group is scaling up as an incubator for the America First movement beyond Jan. 20, 2029 — promising to proselytize its policies for the next century.
DOGE is taking its wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration, the agency responsible for overseeing retirement and disability benefits for 73 million Americans.
Why it matters: The cuts underway could wind up breaking critical parts of a system that millions of the nation's most vulnerable citizens rely on, including nearly 90% of Americans over age 65.
David Solomon — Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO — said after President Trump's visit to the Business Roundtable this week that "the business community understands what the president is trying to do with tariffs."
"The business community is always going to want lower tariffs ... everywhere in the world," Solomon told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday. "At the moment, there is some uncertainty — the market is digesting that."
OpenAI's chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane told Axios in an interview this week that it's time to accelerate AI policy for the Trump era two years after ChatGPT exploded onto the scene.
Why it matters: For top AI companies, the policy message has shifted from begging for regulation and warning of dangers to projecting confidence about the policies needed to keep growing and beat China in the AI race.
President Trump's public intervention on behalf of Tesla marks the most extraordinary chapter yet in the partisan war over America's preeminent electric vehicle brand.
Why it matters: Elon Musk's assault on the federal government has supercharged Tesla's evolution from liberal status symbol to pride-of-MAGA protectorate. The company's stock has taken a beating along the way.
The number of migrants trying to travel through the dangerous jungles of the Darién Gap to get from Colombia into Panama has fallen dramatically in recent months to the lowest levels since the pandemic, new data show.
Why it matters: The decline is the latest sign that fewer migrants from South America are risking the treacherous, 2,600-mile journey north to the U.S. border in the early days of President Trump's immigration crackdown.
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is now in the custody of the International Criminal Court following his arrest in Manila in connection with his deadly war on drugs during his presidency, the ICC confirmed Wednesday.
The big picture: The ICC Office of the Prosecutor alleged in a statement "there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Duterte bears criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of murder" for the drugs crackdown.
A Texas megachurch founder and former spiritual adviser to President Trump was indicted in Oklahoma Wednesday for alleged child sexual abuse crimes dating back to the 1980s.
The big picture: Robert Preston Morris, 63, who founded the Gateway Church in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, faces five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, according to the indictment.
President Trump's tariffs that targeted Canada, Mexico and China before being expanded to all steel and aluminum imports have not only triggered trade wars, they're also leading to a "Boycott USA" global consumer backlash against U.S. goods.
The big picture: "Boycott USA" has spiked on Google in the past seven days, with four EU countries and Canada topping the search list and multiple countries have large Facebook groups dedicated to boycotting U.S. products.
President Trump is planning an unusual visit to the Justice Department on Friday to speak about his administration's plans on "restoring law and order," Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Trump's appearance will be the latest illustration of how he's taken a direct interest in the work of the DOJ, which he has stacked with allies while purging dozens of people who were deemed disloyal.
House Democrats are mounting a sudden push for a last-minute vote on an alternative to House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) bill to avert a federal government shutdown.
Why it matters: The effort dovetails with pressure some in the party are placing on key Senate Democrats to reject Johnson's 6-month stopgap bill and force Republicans to the table.
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