Monday Morning Minute: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Monday, April 7, 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

Obama Sounds Both Jealous and Regretful at What Trump Is Accomplishing

For President Obama to be this irrelevant, this soon after his administration, it has to leave him with enormous regret.

Bondi Suspends Attorney Who Threw the Trump Administration Under the Bus at Deportation Hearing

It seems like the bad old ways in the DOJ went underground for a while but are now reemerging, and Reuveni was in the wrong place at the wrong time, saying the wrong thing.

'Pour Encourager Les Autres'

They intend to stay here and think that defiance of a basic tenet of U.S. law makes them 'bold and beautiful" enough to demand that other such entitled nobles jump the fence and run to the racist, homophobic and xenophobic place called America.

Trending Across Townhall Media

DC Cop Getting a Pass for Drugs, Guns Should Raise Major Questions

What happened here should raise a lot of questions, including why laws that are supposedly so essential aren't applied to everyone equally.

Study: Liberals Claim to Value Empathy, But Have None For Conservatives

I know a ton of people who think of themselves as Mother Teresa because they are "happy to pay taxes" to deal with some problem, even though the taxes never seem to make a dent in improving that problem.

REVEALED: How Jeffrey Goldberg Got In the Signal Group Chat

While the media clamored for a dramatic firing, Trump understood that removing a valuable team member over a technical error would only play into the left’s narrative.

Someone Made Another Peculiar Observation About These Anti-Trump/Elon Protests

There were also young people at these rallies, but yes, there are a lot of old weird fogeys out there protesting an initiative to expose and stomp out government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Here's Another 'Grassroots' Anti-Trump/Musk Protester Who Has 'No Clue Why They Are There'

We're hardly surprised, but the lefty organizers of this stuff know that the legacy media outlets won't bother to follow the money and prove these aren't organic, grassroots protests.

WHAT'S ON TAP?

Today on Capitol Hill...

It appears that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna may have reached a deal on voting for expectant/new mothers, which would allow for vote pairing rather than proxy or remote voting. The House Rules Committee meets Monday afternoon to prepare bills to rein in judges (H.R. 1526 – No Rogue Rulings Act of 2025) and require proof of citizenship to vote (H.R. 22 – Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) for a floor vote.

The Senate passed a budget plan in the wee hours of Saturday morning, but it remains to be seen whether House Republicans will be able to get behind it. They'll hold a conference call on it later Monday afternoon.

White House What's Up

President Donald Trump is set to host the 2024 World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, late Monday morning at the White House. He'll then meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the two will host a press conference mid-afternoon.

Keeping Up With the Cabinet

Sec. State - Marco Rubio — Rubio has revoked all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders "due to the failure of South Sudan's transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner."

Sec. Treasury - Scott Bessent — Bessent has been making the rounds on cable news defending Trump's tariff strategy.

Attorney General - Pam Bondi — Bondi took swift action and suspended the attorney (and his supervisor) who essentially threw the administration under the bus in last week's hearing regarding the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

Sec. Agriculture - Brooke Rollins — Rollins shared a list of USDA accomplishments from the past week.

Sec. Commerce - Howard Lutnick — Lutnick explained the administration's rationale for including the Heard and McDonald Islands in the tariff list on "Face the Nation."

Sec. Health & Human Services - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Kennedy traveled to Texas to meet with families affected by the measles outbreak.

Sec. Transportation - Sean Duffy — Duffy addressed the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and shared his vision for rebuilding it.

Sec. Homeland Security - Kristi Noem — Noem thanked the Border Patrol for their hard work and noted their encounters for the month of March were down under 7,200 compared to the 160,000 per month averaged during the Biden administration.

Admin. Environmental Protection Agency - Lee Zeldin — Zeldin has been out in the field in Colorado and Utah.

Full Court Press...

The battle between the Executive and Judiciary rolls on as we continue to see district court judges attempt to exert their authority — but also are beginning to see the appellate courts clip their wings. Don't be surprised if there's another Supreme Court decision related to the TROs/injunctions being issued by the lower courts against the Trump administration.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals just issued a ruling in the cases involving the firing of National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board members that sets up a visit to the Supreme Court on that issue as well.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Of course, one of the big stories this week will be the continuing reaction to the tariffs rolled out by the Trump administration last week.

We'll also be keeping an eye on what comes from the Trump-Netanyahu presser Monday afternoon as we mark 18 months since the horrific attack of October 7.

MORNING MUSING

Do you ever find yourself moved to tears by music? I don't mean a sad song that reminds you of past heartache. I mean just the music itself — eliciting something visceral. I happened upon a video Sunday night due to Facebook's autoplay feature. I will say that the song itself (Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") always strikes a somber, reflective chord no matter who's performing it. (And yes, I'm aware that it's not actually a worship song. It's still powerful and evocative.)

But this...this was something different. I'll let you listen/watch and decide for yourselves whether it moves you, but for me, this was one of those moments when I was intensely reminded that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of all.