memeorandum: Finance Committee to vote on RFK Jr. Tuesday (Daniel Payne/Politico)

11:20 AM ET, February 2, 2025

Top Items:

‘Make them pay’: Canada puts Trump's ‘first friend’ Elon Musk's Tesla in the crosshairs of tariff war — Canada's EV adoption rate is outpacing that of the U.S., with nearly 17% of new cars sold in the third quarter of 2024 being fully electric, compared to just 8% in the US. — Business Today Desk

Discussion: Townhall, Crooks and Liars and Bloomberg

New York Times:

Elon Musk's team has gotten access to the Treasury Department's payments system. — Trump tariffs: The Canadian government has been notified by the United States government that goods exported to the United States will be subject to a 25 percent tariff, with a lower rate for Canadian oil …

Discussion: DNyuz, Atlantic Council, The Texas Tribune, TechCrunch, The Guardian, Sun-Sentinel, The Post Millennial, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Lawyers, Guns & Money and CNN

Jeanne Whalen / Wall Street Journal:

Tariffs Are Here. The Price Hikes Coming for These Items May Surprise You. — Now might be a good time to buy a car. You might grab some tomatoes, toy trucks or tequila along the way. — The Trump administration said Saturday it will levy 25% import tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Fortune, Associated Press, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Hill and CBS News, more at Techmeme »

CBC News:

B.C. premier announces countermeasures against U.S. tariffs, including ban on ‘red-state’ liquor — U.S. President Donald Trump will impose 25% tariff on most Canadian imports beginning Tuesday — B.C. Premier David Eby has announced immediate countermeasures in response to incoming U.S. tariffs …

New York Times:

Elon Musk's Team Now Has Access to Treasury's Payments System — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Mr. Musk's representatives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. — 1.4k

Discussion: New York Magazine, Digby's Hullabaloo, Politico, The Handbasket, DNyuz, Reuters, MM Press, The Gateway Pundit and The United States …

Washington Post:

Trump signs order imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — It's the first official action of the president's second-term trade war. — President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the nation's three largest trading partners …

Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Trump says potential pain caused by tariffs ‘worth the price that must be paid’

Discussion: New York Times, DCReport.org, DNyuz, Bloomberg and Washington Examiner

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Trump Favors Blunt Force in Dealing With Foreign Allies and Enemies Alike

Discussion: The Guardian and Raw Story

Reuters:
Mexican president orders retaliatory tariffs against U.S.

Discussion: NBC News, HuffPost, CNN, Forbes, CNBC, Al Jazeera, API, Daily Mail, Fox Business, USA Today, DNyuz, The Independent, Business Insider, Quartz and UPI

Colby Smith / New York Times: Trump's Tariffs May Complicate Efforts to Tame Inflation

Zachary B. Wolf / CNN:
We do not know what exactly Elon Musk is doing to the federal government

Discussion: NBC News, Twitchy and The Daily Signal

Zia Weise / Politico:
China to retaliate after Trump fires first salvo in trade war

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Hill, Politico, Agence France-Presse, Tax Foundation, Reuters, DNyuz, Bloomberg, Kyodo News+, The Verge, The Post Millennial, Paul Krugman and The Independent

William Eltherington / CTV News:
Hockey fans boo U.S. national anthem at Ottawa Senators game after Trump imposes tariffs

Discussion: TMZ.com and Fox News

Wall Street Journal: DOGE Gains Access to Payment System Doling Out Trillions to Americans

Jeff Stein / Washington Post:
Musk aides gain access to sensitive Treasury Department payment system

Discussion: Mediaite

U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
U.S. Chamber: Tariffs Are Not the Answer

Discussion: The Business of Fashion

Bloomberg:
‘Complete Betrayal’: Canada Reels as Trump Tariff Rattles Major Trading Relationship

Discussion: ABC News, New York Post, The Business of Fashion, NBC News, Noahpinion and Forbes

Fox News:
Trump imposes tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China: ‘National emergency’

Discussion: Fox Business, RedState, Congressman Greg Stanton, New York Post, DNyuz, Associated Press and The Hill

Fatima Hussein / Associated Press:
Elon Musk's DOGE commission gains access to sensitive Treasury payment systems: AP sources

Discussion: Reuters, FedScoop, DNyuz, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit and New York Times

New York Times:

‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump — More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Althouse, Raw Story, Semafor and Twitchy

Dan Balz / Washington Post: Democrats are in trouble, and a provocative analysis offers ideas to repair the party

New York Times: Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities

Jessie Yeung / CNN:

Critical FAA warning system outage could cause ‘residual’ flight delays today — Flights across the US could experience “residual delays” Sunday morning as the Federal Aviation Administration works to restore a critical warning system that experienced an outage Saturday night, according to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

Discussion: Reuters, Axios and New York Post

Mike Ives / New York Times:

F.A.A.'s Main Warning System for Pilots Is Down, U.S. Official Says — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration was using a backup system while it worked to address the problem. — The Federal Aviation Administration was using a backup system to send real …

Discussion: Fox News, The Gateway Pundit and Fortune

David Bauder / Associated Press:

The power of independent journalism: From her Brooklyn apartment, she ‘scooped’ the nation's media — First word of the Trump administration's since-rescinded order to freeze spending on federal loans and grants came not from a major news organization, but from a woman working alone in her Brooklyn apartment.

Washington Post:

Donald Trump and the incredible shrinking Congress — The framers of the Constitution imagined Congress as the preeminent branch of government. But many Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem content to play second fiddle. — Republican lawmakers spent the last two weeks deferring …

Aaron Zitner / Wall Street Journal:

Trump Kicks Aside Congress With Sweeping Claims of Presidential Power — With aggressive reading of Constitution, president aims to upend balance of power in Washington — WASHINGTON—In laying out the checks and balances of democracy, authors of the U.S. Constitution imagined that the president …

Discussion: The Bulwark

Timothy Snyder / Thinking about:

The Logic of Destruction — What is a country? The way its people govern themselves. America exists because its people elect those who make and execute laws. The assumption of a democracy is that individuals have dignity and rights that they realize and protect by acting together.

NBC News:

Senior FBI official forcefully resisted Trump administration firings — Brian Driscoll pushed back so aggressively that some feared he would be dismissed. Driscoll has so far not handed over the names of thousands of FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6th cases.

Discussion: Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo, Associated Press, DNyuz and The Guardian

New York Times:

Education Officials Placed on Leave in Trump's Sprawling Effort to Curb D.E.I. — The Education Department told employees of the suspensions in letters on Friday. Some of those put on leave said they had only a minimal connection to diversity or equity efforts.

Bianca Quilantan / Politico:
Education Department employees placed on leave for attending diversity training

Discussion: Saywhat Politics

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

NTSB forces reporters to get plane crash updates on X — The agency says it will no longer notify reporters about plane crash press briefings via email. — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Saturday said it will stop e-mailing news organizations and reporters with updates …

Discussion: The Verge and The Gateway Pundit, more at Mediagazer »

David McAfee / Raw Story: ‘This is not right’: Outrage as major government agency accused of ‘breaking the law’

Jeremy Faust / Inside Medicine:

BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed. — I believe we are breaking news some news here. To help sustain independent journalism and analysis, please support Inside Medicine.

Discussion: Transgender World

Gary Fineout / Politico:

Florida Republicans just declared war on each other — So far neither side is backing down, and there's a chance that the fight will drag on through the regular session that starts in early March and beyond. — TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida's Republican era of good feelings appears over.

Discussion: Honolulu Civil Beat