Trump vows Mexico, Canada tariffs to start Feb 1; Kash Patel grilled by senators

“We watched this goon try to overthrow the government on live tv four years ago,” one poster, whose comments have been upvoted tens of thousands of times on r/fednews, wrote. “Now, we are witnessing him try to overthrow it from within.”

Josh Marcus has the story.

Any regular readers of this blog know this to be true.

Here’s Andrew Georgeson’s report:

A military deportation flight to Guatemala ordered by Donald Trump likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant, according to data provided by US and Guatemalan officials.

That is more than five times the $853 cost of a first class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, the departure point for the flight, according to a review of publicly available airfares.

It is also significantly higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

With all 67 passengers and crew of the American Airlines flight and Black Hawk helicopter that collided over Ronald Reagan National Airport feared dead, Trump pointed the finger at his Democratic predecessors and DEI policies during an unhinged press conference on Thursday.

Justin Baragona has the story.

The hearing in the trans prisoner’s lawsuit targeting Trump’s gender executive order is over. The judge is now mulling whether to issue a temporary restraining order. There is no timeline for a decision.

Meanwhile, a brand new separate lawsuit was just filed in Washington, D.C. by another group of incarcerated trans women who are similarly trying to block Trump’s order.

They all risk losing access to their healthcare and being forced into men’s prisons.

Plaintiffs are at imminent risk of losing access to the medical care they each need to treat their gender dysphoria. [Trump’s executive order] singles out transgender people to deny them essential healthcare, including medications that [the Bureau of Prisons] may continue to provide to non-transgender people. The Order categorically bans transgender healthcare regardless of medical necessity. It prohibits prison medical providers from treating transgender patients’ gender dysphoria on an individual basis according to independent medical judgment. This blanket ban will deprive Plaintiffs of essential treatment, putting them at high risk of serious harm.

Here’s our earlier coverage of the impact of the order:

Gustaf Kilander watched the seemingly endless hearing, here’s his report:

The second day of the tumultuous confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., became emotional on Thursday when New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan brought up how autism vaccine studies had impacted her family and decried claims that concerns over his nomination were driven by partisan intent.

Julia Musto has the story.

Acting Assistant US Attorney General Brett Shumate comes out swinging against a temporary restraining order on Trump’s funding freeze.

He argues that the whole thing is moot after OMB yanked the memo yesterday. But even if OMB didn’t, Shumate claims that the plaintiffs in this case (a coalition of nonprofit aid groups) can’t trace the impacts of losing funds to the memo itself.

Shumate also argues that “the Government is allowed to choose what activities to fund without being subjected to heightened scrutiny” and “temporary pauses in funding are commonplace and accepted by the Legislative Branch.”

Sounds like they’re teeing up for a longer legal battle over the constitutionality of the appropriations clause and Congress’s power of the purse.

Even so, the following day, the speaker announced that he was forming a select subcommittee under the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the attack on the Capitol.