Thursday Morning Minute: Play Ball

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Good morning, and welcome to RedState's "Morning Minute" — a brief glimpse at which stories are trending at the moment and a look ahead at what the day may bring. Consider this your one-stop shop for news to kickstart your day.

TOP O' THE MORNIN'

Red-Hot at RedState

More Tea Is Spilled on Biden White House's Press Access Rules, and It's Worse Than You Think

This is one of many reasons why the howling from the MSM and their defenders about Trump's standoffs with certain news outlets like the Associated Press are mostly falling on deaf ears outside of the Acela Media cocktail circuit. It's called reaping and sowing.

Watch: Kristi Noem Films Wild PSA About Illegal Immigration in Front of Tren De Aragua Prisoners

A senior Trump administration official told Fox News that 261 illegal immigrants were deported to El Salvador in mid-March. Most were expelled under the Alien Enemies Act.

Moving Target: Kash Patel Says Chinese, Russians Are Now Exploiting a Different Border—'The Enemy Adapts'

The Trump administration’s wins at the southern border are absolutely stunning, but that doesn't mean that our security challenges have suddenly disappeared.

Trending Across Townhall Media

NSSF Cautiously Pleased With How New Mexico Legislative Session Ended

This was a complete and total failure of every system already in place in New Mexico. That means it's not remotely justifiable to use this as a prompt for more gun control that would also do nothing to prevent a repeat of his event.

Obama Appointed Judge: Maybe I Lack the Power to Overrule the White House Nationwide?

With two rulings that conflict on which agencies and potentially on which states are impacted, this seems like an issue the Supreme Court might want to take up eventually. We'll have to wait and see if they do that now or decide to wait.

Jeffrey Goldberg Accidentally Proved His ‘Signalgate’ Narrative Is a Hoax

After this weekend, this non-story will be just a memory, and Goldberg will move on to making other false accusations against the Trump administration.

Secretary Collins Goes Off on CNN Host After Getting Asked This Question

After being pressed on the Signal chat again, Collins had enough, attacking the network for accusing a Navy veteran, Zachary Young, of exploiting desperate Afghans trying to flee the country when the Taliban retook the country.

Organized Offensive! Dem Party’s Potty Mouth Strategy Fails as Poll Numbers Remain in the Toilet

It looks like this new salty strategy began three to four weeks ago. In that time the Dem Party’s popularity has dropped to 26% according to polling by Rasmussen. Maybe Dems should focus on their party's policies, not so much on their potty mouth.

WHAT'S ON TAP?

Today on Capitol Hill...

There were some lively hearings on the Hill on Wednesday, as we reported.

PBS and NPR CEOs Feel the Heat As Marjorie Taylor Greene Comes Loaded for Bear at DOGE Hearing

On Thursday, there aren't quite so many hearings, but they include:

Senate Armed Services — Hearings to examine the nominations of Troy Meink, of Virginia, to be Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Duffy, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment, Emil Michael, of Florida, to be Under Secretary for Research and Engineering, and Keith Bass, of Texas, to be an Assistant Secretary, all of the Department of Defense.
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation — Hearings to examine the National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report, focusing on the DCA midair collision.
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions — Hearings to examine ensuring safe learning environments for all students, focusing on protests on campus.
House Foreign Affairs, Western Hemisphere Subcommittee — INL Should Fight Crime, Not Fight Conservatives
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation — Hearings to examine the nomination of Arielle Roth, of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information.

Meanwhile, GOP leaders in the House and Senate are working to come up with a compromise budget resolution that will help push President Donald Trump's agenda.

White House What's Up

On Thursday, President Trump is set to receive his intelligence briefing late morning. He'll sign executive orders in the afternoon and, later, participate in the White House Iftar Dinner.

Vice President JD Vance had a great visit to Quantico on Wednesday. Second Lady Usha Vance leaves for Greenland on Thursday and will be joined Friday by the VP. The nature of the trip has changed somewhat, with more focus on visiting "the U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland, instead of Usha Vance’s previously announced solo trip to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut."

Full Court Press...

Several court rulings came down on Wednesday, including a Supreme Court ruling on ghost guns.

Meanwhile, there were several appellate rulings declining the Trump administration's motions to stay district court TROs, including the D.C. Circuit's denial of the motion to stay Judge Boasberg's ruling in the Tren de Aragua/Alien Enemies Act case.

The D.C. Circuit (the same panel that denied the motion to stay in the TdA/AEA case) did issue a stay of Judge Chutkan's ruling ordering discovery in a case against DOGE and said she needs to rule on the government's motion to dismiss first.

But the Ninth Circuit declined to issue a stay in the case involving the Office of Personnel Management's firing of probationary employees in six federal departments.

And the First Circuit declined to issue a stay of an order blocking the Trump administration's freeze on most federal spending.

It's important to note again that all of these appellate rulings are procedural — i.e., whether or not to stay the lower court's order — not on the merits. Expect to see multiple rulings (some favorable, some not) on these procedural issues, some of which are going to land before the Supreme Court before too long.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

As noted above, the Vances will be in Greenland for the next couple of days.

We could see movement on the budget resolution process as early as next week.

MORNING MUSING

It's Opening Day once again, and, while my Cardinals haven't fared as well in recent seasons, I still can't help but be jazzed about it. I've shared my thoughts on Opening Day here before, but will offer an abbreviated version in the interest of keeping the Morning Minute still, arguably, an appropriate name for this daily column:

I say I was raised on a love of the game — my folks were both serious sports fans. Loved football (particularly of the MIZZOU variety, variable successes, notwithstanding), college hoops, and, more than anything else, Cardinals baseball. I can’t remember a time as a kid during baseball season when the radio (or TV) wasn’t tuned to the game. As long as I am on this earth, I will always hear Jack Buck’s voice in my head. And Mike Shannon’s. But mostly Buck’s.
There’s a comfort in that — like the whirring sound of the furnace blower in my folks’ house at night that lulled us to sleep. Long before I understood or truly came to appreciate the game, listening to Buck call the game was, at times riveting, but always reassuring. Whether the Cards were winning or losing, all seemed right with the world when baseball was on.

LIGHTER FARE

Hi, Meatball!

This is Meatball. He’s finally found his furrever home with a human of his very own 🥰 pic.twitter.com/bCOZG8jzSw
— Dog Lovers (@DogLovers03) March 26, 2025