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Friday, February 28, 2025

CNN Analysts Claim the Bureaucracy Exists to Check the President

I thought that is what the other two branches of government were for. HotAir: The current hot idea among liberals is that the permanent bureaucracy exists to restrain and provide a check on elected officials, who if they were allowed to exercise their powers, would just screw up a well-oiled machine (HotAir). Scott Jennings: I spend most of my time repeating back to liberals their own words and ideas, only to have them – seconds later – deny ever saying them. It’s truly astonishing (X).

Chief Justice Roberts Stays Lower Court Ruling Trump Must Pay $2 Billion in Foreign Aid

New York Post: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts pumped the brakes on a lower court order that gave the Trump administration a midnight deadline Wednesday into Thursday to unfreeze $2 billion worth of foreign aid. Roberts paused the order Wednesday until further notice and gave plaintiffs suing the Trump administration until noon Friday to respond, marking the first time the Supreme Court has dealt with a case involving the president’s push to overhaul the federal government. The question at hand is the Trump administration’s 90-day freeze on US Agency for International Development spending amid a review to ensure the outlays were aligned with the president’s policies. District Judge Amir Ali, who was appointed to the bench by former President Joe Biden, temporarily mandated that the funds continue flowing while considering the case (New York Post). National Review: On February 13, however, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Judge Ali issued what he called a “temporary restraining order” (TRO) blocking the president from halting aid that was already in the pipeline when Trump assumed office. In Ali’s considered opinion, a blanket pause was not the most rational way to review foreign aid spending. The judge thus presumed not only to order an end to the president’s blanket pause but also to direct that the Trump administration pay all invoices and any similar reimbursement requests for work completed up to February 13. Clearly, this was not a mere TRO but a directive that the administration make payments, including to entities that were not parties to the lawsuit. For Ali, if Congress has approved the spending, the president must spend it, end of story (National Review).

Governor JB Pritzker’s $1.6 Billion Program to Give Healthcare to Illegals Fails Audit

Chicago Tribune: Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration vastly underestimated the cost and attraction of a pair of controversial programs that provide state-funded health insurance for immigrants who are not citizens, according to an audit report released Wednesday. The programs have cost the state more than $1.6 billion since the initiative began in late 2020 and also have been plagued by improper enrollments and a failure to move some recipients who were eligible into Medicaid, the traditional health insurance program for the poor that is jointly funded by the federal government, according to the report from Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino’s office. The audit’s release comes a week after the governor proposed eliminating funding beginning July 1 for the program that insures people younger than 65, a move his administration estimates would save $330 million and help erase a state budget deficit for the coming year it once estimated at more than $3 billion. The cost overruns were particularly pronounced in the program meant for recipients ages 42 to 64, with the actual expenditure of $485 million through the three years ending June 30, 2023, the period covered by the audit, coming in at nearly four times the initially estimated cost of $126 million, according to the report. During the same period, the actual cost of the program for those 65 and older was $412 million, nearly double the original projection of $224 million (Chicago Tribune). Ed Morrissey: First question: why did it take five years to do an audit? Bear in mind that the original program was aimed only at senior-age immigrants who couldn’t qualify for Medicaid based on federal rules for eligibility. That made at least some sense as long as costs could be controlled, especially in the context of the pandemic in 2020… Pritzker expanded the program twice since then to include more immigrant non-citizens. Instead of just covering senior-age immigrants during an emergency, it now uses taxpayer funds to cover health costs from people as young as 42 years of age. Why would they need such benefits rather than do what taxpayers do — work and pay for their coverage on their own. Plus, the pandemic has been over for at least three years, and arguably four. Shouldn’t Pritzker’s administration have been auditing this program all along? And failing that, why did they not audit the program before expanding it? Twice (HotAir)?

Israel Declines to Relinquish the Philadelphi Corridor as Part of Ceasefire Agreement

ABC: Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor — the border separating Egypt and Gaza — as stipulated by the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel. “We will not allow Hamas murderers to once again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rebuild strength from smuggling,” an Israeli official said. Delegations from Israel and Qatar arrived in Cairo on Thursday for negotiations on the Gaza ceasefire deal. The talks, mediated by Egyptian officials, will also be attended by U.S. representatives. The Philadelphi corridor was one of the main sticking points in negotiations between Israel and Hamas for months before the current ceasefire deal was reached. This refusal could lead to a crisis with both Hamas and Egypt (ABC). HotAir: Releasing the Philadelphi Corridor while Hamas controls Gaza guarantees another war. It also guarantees a continuing shower of rockets and missiles from Gaza even apart from an all-out war, and eventually would lead to another October 7, perhaps on an even greater scale than the last one. Egypt has proven inept at closing that border to arms trafficking, if they even really bothered to try at all. Allowing that flow to restart with Hamas still controlling Gaza is akin to signing a death warrant for its citizens in southern Israel, no matter how good the Iron Dome operates or how prepared the IDF could be (HotAir).

Democrat Claims We Cannot Trust Elon Musk Because He is an Immigrant

Townhall: Democrats have found an immigrant they don’t like, and that would be Elon Musk, who dared to support President Donald Trump during the campaign and now works with him to get to the bottom of government waste and fraud. One Democrat, though, Rep. Marcy Katpur of Ohio, had a particularly ugly moment using Musk’s immigration status as a means to question his “loyalty.” “Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years,” Kaptur said, as she complained about how he has citizenship with multiple countries. The congresswoman completely missed the point when it comes to how he is a citizen of the United States, and has been since 2002 (Townhall). Breaking 911: Rep. Marcy Kaptur claims Elon Musk cannot be loyal to America because he’s an immigrant. “Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years” (X)!

Trump Rolls Back Light Sanctions Biden Placed on Venezuela

Daily Wire: President Donald Trump said this week that his administration is reversing President Joe Biden’s decision to ease sanctions against the government of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. Trump posted on social media: “We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022, and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime” (Daily Wire). Reuters: Oil prices rose more than 2% on Thursday as supply concerns resurfaced after U.S. President Donald Trump revoked a license granted to U.S. oil major Chevron opens new tab to operate in Venezuela (Reuters). Secretary Marco Rubio: Today, pursuant to POTUS directive, I am providing foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime (X).

Attorney General Pam Bondi Uncovers FBI Concealed Jeffrey Epstein Documents From Investigators

Townhall: Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday instructing him to look into allegations that FBI agents are concealing documents related to pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. This development comes as the Justice Department released the first tranche of documents revealing Epstein’s alleged associates to conservative online influencers. In the letter, Bondi notes that she “repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents.” The attorney general indicated that she found out that “the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.” However, the Bureau “never disclosed the existence of these files” even though she had repeatedly requested them (Townhall). Charlie Kirk: AG Pam Bondi has ordered newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel to conduct an immediate investigation into why the FBI Field Office of New York failed or refused to follow her directive to hand over ALL information and evidence related to the Epstein case. Bondi has discovered that the New York Field Office is in possession of thousands of additional pages of documents related to Epstein, which Bondi says will be on her desk by 8am tomorrow (X).

Anti-Israel Activists Break Into School Building, Injure Employee

HotAir: Earlier this week, Barnard College, the women’s college associated with Columbia University, expelled two students who had disrupted a classroom to spread their pro-Hamas propaganda. CUAD, the group which organized that classroom disruption, immediately demanded that the school reverse the decision and reinstate the two students. As of Monday, Columbia was refusing to do that and stating that classroom disruptions would not be tolerated. So yesterday, masked CUAD members shoved their way inside a Barnard administration building to hold a sit-in (HotAir). Townhall: Video footage circulating on social media shows a mob of activists pushing their way into the building before assaulting the school employee… These violent protests have been going on since Hamas started the current war in Gaza by launching a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Unfortunately, these incidents will continue happening as long as the authorities and people on the ground allow it. These people are nothing more than cowardly Jew-hating thugs who believe they can bully communities into supporting their cause (Townhall). Vivid: Why do Jewish students need to be terrorized and live in fear? Why are they not expelled and arrested (X)?

Pentagon Deems Trans Military Members to Be Ineligible for Military Service

OANN: The Pentagon has ordered all transgender military service members to be removed from the military, unless they are granted a waiver showing they’re fit for “warfighting capabilities.” According to a new memo filed on Wednesday evening, it was revealed that all service members who have “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria” are no longer eligible for military service (OANN). Conservative Brief: Department of Defense issues a sweeping memorandum last night, declaring transgenders in the military will discharged within 30 days – it states that those with gender dysphoria are “incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service” (X).

10.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Visits Trump in White House Ahead of President Zelensky’s Visit

Hill: King Charles III has invited President Trump for a state visit to the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the president during their meeting Thursday in Washington. Starmer brought a letter from Charles to their meeting in the Oval Office, during which Trump touted Charles as a “beautiful man, a wonderful man” (Hill). Rapid Response 47: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to President Trump: “You’ve created a moment of tremendous opportunity to reach a historic peace deal” between Russia and Ukraine (X). Johnny Maga: The UK Prime Minister just thanked Trump for his leadership on achieving peace in Ukraine (X).

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