On the eve of talks in Saudi Arabia, President Trump’s chief negotiator, Steve Witkoff, echoed some of the Kremlin’s main talking points on the Ukraine war, while advocating for future U.S.-Russian relations based on shared business interests.
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Trump Adviser Draws Ire for Saying He Takes Putin 'at His Word'
https://www.newsweek.com/steve-witkoff-ire-takes-vladimir-putin-word-2049307
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff drew ire online for his comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin—chiefly that he would "take him at his word" as talks for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine continue in their ongoing war.
"I just don't see that he [Putin] wants to take all of Europe...I take him at his word in this sense, and I believe the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too," he said.
When pressed on Putin's characterization as a tyrant or "someone whose political opponents often die," Witkoff countered that he's "never, ever seen a situation where there isn't two sides to a story, it's just never as black and white as people want to portray, so there are grievances on both sides."
Yaroslav Trofimov, the Wall Street Journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday: "It's clear from this that the only difference between Steve Witkoff's and Vladmir Putin's views on the war in Ukraine is that Putin actually knows the names of all the five Ukrainian regions he wants to keep."
Former State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X on Sunday: "In summary, Witkoff doesn't know the names of all the Ukrainian provinces occupied by Russia, but somehow knows the people there want to join Russia...and believes Putin doesn't want the rest of Ukraine despite him repeatedly saying he does. Ok."
Republicans Take Stand Against Reported Trump Admin Plan
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-warned-top-republicans-over-possible-nato-move-2048065
The top two Republican lawmakers overseeing the Pentagon in Congress issued a rare joint statement Wednesday, voicing concern over a potential shake-up in U.S. military leadership by the Trump administration.
The pair issued a joint-statement on Wednesday, referencing media reports suggesting the administration is considering changes such as relinquishing the U.S. role as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe and cancelling plans to modernize U.S. Forces Japan to try and meet its goals.
Trump exaggerates trade deficits, his 2024 vote total, Ukraine aid, border crossings and fentanyl deaths
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/21/politics/fact-check-trump-oval-office-remarks/index.html
President Donald Trump made at least nine false claims in his Friday remarks to reporters in the Oval Office – including a series of wildly exaggerated statistics on a variety of topics.
Trump used inaccurate figures for the number of votes he received in the 2024 presidential election, US aid to Ukraine, the number of migrants who entered the US during the Biden administration, the US trade deficits with China and Canada, and annual US fentanyl deaths.
He also wrongly declared, again, that Honda announced it is building a new factory in Indiana. He repeated his years-old baseless claim that NATO would no longer have existed if not for his first presidency. He told his familiar unsubstantiated story about large numbers of migrants having come from jails in “the Congo” and elsewhere. And he once more discussed Canada’s dairy tariffs without mentioning a critical fact about them.
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Law firm Paul Weiss agrees to deal with Trump, prompting criticism - Mob tactics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/21/paul-weiss-trump-executive-action/
Paul Weiss, a prominent law firm that has often represented Democratic clients and causes, is facing widespread criticism online from the legal community after agreeing to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to the Trump administration to avoid a retaliatory executive order targeting its lawyers and clients
Trump said he didn’t sign the Alien Enemies Act proclamation. So who — or what — did?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/22/trump-deportations-autopen/
President Donald Trump told reporters Friday evening that he did not sign the controversial proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport migrants his administration says are violent gang members from Venezuela.
So what did happen? Did Trump misspeak? Is he trying to deflect responsibility for a decision under heavy legal scrutiny by suggesting he was merely following through on an idea proposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio? And if he didn’t sign it, who — or what — did?
“I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,” Trump said on the South Lawn of the White House as he prepared to leave for his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “Other people handled it. But Marco Rubio’s done a great job. And he wanted them out, and we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.”
Trump’s signature appears on the digital image of the proclamation available for viewing with the Federal Register, the government repository of official documents. And White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said late Friday that Trump did personally sign the proclamation.
Missile from Yemen intercepted outside Israeli territory
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/405737
Sirens were sounded on Friday evening, just after 10:30 p.m., in localities across central Israel, Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Shfela regions, following a launch from Yemen.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed that a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF prior to crossing into Israeli territory.
Trump Takes Cold Revenge by Stripping Security Clearance From Biden, Harris, and Clinton
President Donald Trump has stripped security clearance from a group that includes former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Joe Biden, and “any other member of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s family.”
The removals—an act of revenge against a broad swath of Trump’s most dire enemies—were made official in a memo signed by the president late on Friday night, according to The New York Times.
Trump Claims He Didn’t Sign Deportation Order He Definitely Signed
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-claims-he-didnt-sign-deportation-order-he-definitely-signed/
President Donald Trump is pointing fingers again.
This time, he’s claiming he didn’t actually sign an order on Friday invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without questioning.
“I don’t know when it was signed because I didn’t sign it,” Trump told reporters Friday, according to The Hill. “Other people handled it.”
Hours after Trump made his remarks, the White House released a statement saying that the president “was obviously referring to the original Alien Enemies Act that was signed back in 1798.”
But they said the “recent Executive Order was personally signed by President Trump” to deport “these heinous criminals.”
Trump deflects on deportation order invoking Alien Enemies Act: ‘Other people handled it’
President Trump on Friday deflected when asked if he signed the order to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelan migrants allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua gang.
“We want to get criminals out of our country number one. I don’t know when it was signed, because I didn’t sign it,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House on Friday. “Other people handled it.”
Trump Toys With the Supreme Court
Taunting John Roberts is a lousy strategy to persuade the Justices.
President Trump downplayed Chief Justice John Roberts’s statement Tuesday in defense of the judiciary, but the President had better be careful. The White House strategy of bashing judges and jamming the Supreme Court could backfire in spectacular fashion.
Guessing the thinking at the High Court is a fraught exercise. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the Chief Justice in his nearly two decades at the Court it’s that he hates being dragged into political fights. He prizes the reputation of the Court as a neutral arbiter of the law and protector of the Constitution.
For Vladimir Putin, Russia’s position in the world is personal. Here’s what he really wants
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/22/europe/russia-putin-ultimate-goals-ukraine-intl-cmd/index.html
US President Donald Trump said he thinks Vladimir Putin wants peace. Ukraine and its European allies don’t believe he does, while the Russian leader himself said he wants peace but then refused to sign up to it when presented with the option.
What Putin really wants, though, is much, much bigger.
The Russian president has made no secret of the fact that he believes Ukraine should not exist as an independent state and he has repeatedly said he wants NATO to shrink back to its Cold War-era size.
But more than anything, he wants to see a new global order — and he wants Russia to play the starring role in it.
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