Thursday, April 3, 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 

Former TDS Survivor Goes on Epic Rant About Tariffs on 'Piers Morgan,' Leaves Lefties Shellshocked

Trump’s tariffs are a complicated issue, and much is unknown about the effect they will have. Ungar-Sargon, however, laid out one of the best arguments I have seen on the matter.

Dems Held a Press Conference Outside the Education Department, So Linda McMahon Decided to Crash It

"He's (Trump) taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states," she said. "Better education is closest to the kids, with parents, with the local superintendents, with local school boards."

Treasury Secretary Has Blunt Warning for Countries Upset Over Trump Tariffs: 'Take It In'

As Bessent advised, we’re all probably going to need to “sit back [and] take a deep breath” because most of us have never seen anything like this before. It’s a round of high-stakes poker—but Americans didn’t vote for Trump because they wanted more of the same.

Trending Across Townhall Media

Minnesota Teen's Arrest Shatters Gun Control Myths

If you can't keep pistols out of kids hands, much less eight of them, then how are you going to stop anyone from getting them?

The NGO Complex Is Irredeemably Corrupt

NGOs don't exist to do the things they advertise, although they often do some of the work they say as a cover for their real purpose. That purpose is to skim off the top and employ politically connected people.

Is She Drunk? Kamala's Latest Public Appearance Was… Yikes…

Kamala Harris, whose public appearances have become increasingly erratic, posted a TikTok video that left many wondering if she'd hit the sauce before hitting the record button.

The Globalist Authoritarians Are Playing With Fire

In the end, the elite probably would have been better off not messing with Caesar and addressing the concerns of the plebs who adored him.

Cause and Effect: Canada Ready to Eliminate Tariffs as Long as the US is Reciprocal

Trump has bet big on tariffs, and if he succeeds, 'Liberation Day' could become the cornerstone of his presidential legacy. If he fails, he could be caught in a quagmire of divided government for the last two years of his term.

WHAT'S ON TAP?

Today on Capitol Hill...

Only a handful of meetings/hearings on the Hill today. (Tomorrow is Friday, after all.) Those meetings/hearings (whose titles/descriptions are all extraordinarily wordy today) would be: 

• Senate Armed Services — Hearings to examine the posture of the United States European Command and United States Africa Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for fiscal year 2026 and the Future Years Defense Program; to be immediately followed by a closed hearing in SVC-217
• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — Hearings to examine the nominations of Scott Kupor, of California, to be Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and Eric Matthew Ueland, of Virginia, to be Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget
• Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs — Business meeting to consider the nominations of Paul Atkins, of Virginia, to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jonathan Gould, of Virginia, to be Comptroller of the Currency, and Luke Pettit, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary, both of the Department of the Treasury, and Marcus Molinaro, of New York, to be Federal Transit Administrator, Department of Transportation
• Senate Judiciary — Business meeting to consider S.527, to require the Federal Trade Commission to study the role of intermediaries in the pharmaceutical supply chain and provide Congress with appropriate policy recommendations, S.1040, to amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to prohibit product hopping, S.1041, to amend title 35, United States Code, to address the infringement of patents that claim biological products, S.1097, to amend title 35, United States Code, to establish an interagency task force between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Food and Drug Administration for purposes of sharing information and providing technical assistance with respect to patents, S.1095, to enable the Federal Trade Commission to deter filing of sham citizen petitions to cover an attempt to interfere with approval of a competing generic drug or biosimilar, to foster competition, and facilitate the efficient review of petitions filed in good faith to raise legitimate public health concerns, and S.1096, to prohibit brand name drug companies from compensating generic drug companies to delay the entry of a generic drug into the market, and to prohibit biological product manufacturers from compensating biosimilar and interchangeable companies to delay the entry of biosimilar biological products and interchangeable biological products, and the nomination of Patrick David Davis, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice
• Senate Foreign Relations — Business meeting to consider pending nominations; to be immediately followed by hearings to examine the nominations of David Perdue, of Georgia, to be Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, and Monica Crowley, of New York, to be Chief of Protocol, and to have the rank of Ambassador during her tenure of service, both of the Department of State.

White House What's Up

President Donald Trump is set to receive an intelligence briefing at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, after which he'll depart the White House and head to Miami, where he'll attend the LIV Dinner at Trump National Doral Golf Club before then heading to Mar-a-Lago. 

Vice President JD Vance joined "Fox and Friends" Thursday morning to discuss tariffs and deportations, among other topics. 

Keeping Up With the Cabinet

All of the Cabinet secretaries were in attendance at Wednesday afternoon's "Liberation Day" event in the Rose Garden. 

Sec. State - Marco Rubio — Rubio is headed to Brussels for the NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Sec. Treasury - Scott Bessent — Bessent made the cable news rounds following Trump's Make America Wealthy Again event in the Rose Garden on Wednesday with a blunt warning for countries contemplating retaliation against the newly announced tariffs. 

Sec. Defense - Pete Hegseth — Hegseth reiterated the need for high standards "to maintain the greatest fighting force the world has ever known."

Attorney General - Pam Bondi — Bondi attended Matt Whitaker's swearing-in as U.S. Ambassador to NATO. 

Sec. Agriculture - Brooke Rollins — Rollins joined Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business to discuss the tariffs and Trump's dealmaking prowess. 

Sec. Commerce - Howard Lutnick — Lutnick helped Trump display the tariff chart during the Rose Garden event. 

Sec. Health & Human Services - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Kennedy met with SecDef Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon "to explore all the options to safeguard the health of America's warriors."

Sec. Housing & Urban Development - Scott Turner — Turner visited with his predecessor and friend, Dr. Ben Carson. 

Sec. Transportation - Sean Duffy — Duffy testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the importance of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill.

Sec. Education - Linda McMahon — McMahon paid a visit to the press conference Dems held outside the Education Department. 

Sec. Veterans Affairs - Doug Collins — Collins shared more savings the Dept. of Veterans Affairs has identified with the assistance of DOGE. 

Sec. Homeland Security - Kristi Noem — Noem touted the phenomenal border crossing numbers resulting from the Trump administration's efforts. 

Dir. Federal Bureau of Investigations - Kash Patel — Patel announced the arrest of another high-ranking MS-13 member.

U.S. Trade Rep. - Jamieson Greer — Greer shared info about the methodology behind President Trump's reciprocal tariff calculations.

Full Court Press...

On Wednesday, federal district court Judge Dale Ho dismissed the criminal charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams with prejudice. 

We also learned that the would-be assassin of Justice Brett Kavanaugh will plead guilty to the charge of attempted assassination. 

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Look for movement on the budget resolution. After a meeting between Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), and other Senate Republicans, things appear to be on track and an initial procedural vote could come as early as today. 

MORNING MUSING

We're back to Twister Season, and, tornado/weather junkie that I am, I'm back to watching storm chasing — and keeping an eye on the skies where I am as well. My neck of the woods scraped by Wednesday with just some wind and a thunderstorm, but parts south and east of here weren't so lucky. I watched this one near Lake City, Arkansas, unfold as it happened. Brandon Copic, whose footage this is, was live-streaming as he watched this monster develop and then narrowly escaped it. I've watched hundreds of these streams (as I said, I'm a tornado/weather junkie), and I've never been as scared for a chaser as I was watching this one. Copic, thankfully, managed to stay ahead of the storm and even warn some semi-truck drivers to turn around before heading into it. Sadly, there are communities throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys that were hit very hard — and are due for more such storms today. Prayers up for all of those affected.

LIVE ON FOX WEATHER: A very large and dangerous tornado just crossed the road right in front of FOX Weather Exclusive Storm Tracker @BrandonCopicWx
Download the FOX Weather app to watch live video. pic.twitter.com/3jpgXCD15v

— FOX Weather (@foxweather) April 2, 2025

LIGHTER FARE 

I'm just wondering what it must be like to have a dog that actually sits still like that.

pic.twitter.com/jwQdMYM4aZ

— out of context dogs (@contextdogs) April 2, 2025

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