Senate reportedly makes progress on DHS funding deal
According to Punchbowl News, Senate majority leader John Thune has said he believes that DHS funding talks are beginning to make progress again, as the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security enters its sixth week.
The Democrats are in possession of “what I think is our last and final” offer, the reporter quotes Thune as saying, giving no further details.
It signifies a more optimistic tone than the leader took yesterday on the prospects of striking a deal, when he balked at a Democratic counteroffer to reopen the department, telling reporters there was “no point” in the GOP even issuing a response to it.
Minority leader Chuck Schumer had called the offer a “reasonable, good faith proposal”.
A reminder that lawmakers have been in an impasse as they scramble to reach an agreement before the two-week recess for spring break and Easter that begins on Friday, with Democrats demanding significant changes and oversight for ICE and its operations.
Amid the partial DHS shutdown airports across the country are experiencing the “highest wait times in TSA history”, the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday, with sprawling security lines and the transfer of ICE agents to some airports.
Key events
Trump says Iran’s ‘present’ to US was allowing 10 oil tankers through strait of Hormuz
Trump also told the cabinet meeting that Iran was letting 10 oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz as an apparent goodwill gesture in the supposed negotiations.
They said, to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil. I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they were Pakistani-flagged … It ended up being 10 boats.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for more details on the vessels.
The president on Tuesday had baffled some observers when he said that Iran had given the United States an expensive, energy-related concession. At the time, he declined to elaborate on exactly what he meant, telling reporters:
They gave us a present and the present arrived today, and it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money.
My colleague Tom Ambrose is covering all the latest from the Middle East here:
‘Iran is begging to make a deal, not me,’ Trump claims
Tom Ambrose
During the cabinet meeting earlier, Donald Trump repeated his earlier remarks that Iran is “begging to make a deal”.
Just so we set the record straight, because I’ve been watching the Wall Street Journal’s fake news and all these stories that get printed like, oh, I want to make a deal. They are begging to make a deal. Not me. They’re begging to make a deal.
Iran were “lousy fighters but great negotiators”, he added.
They are begging to work out a deal. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that. I don’t know if we’re willing to do that. They should have done that four weeks ago. They should have done it two years ago.
Senate reportedly makes progress on DHS funding deal
According to Punchbowl News, Senate majority leader John Thune has said he believes that DHS funding talks are beginning to make progress again, as the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security enters its sixth week.
The Democrats are in possession of “what I think is our last and final” offer, the reporter quotes Thune as saying, giving no further details.
It signifies a more optimistic tone than the leader took yesterday on the prospects of striking a deal, when he balked at a Democratic counteroffer to reopen the department, telling reporters there was “no point” in the GOP even issuing a response to it.
Minority leader Chuck Schumer had called the offer a “reasonable, good faith proposal”.
A reminder that lawmakers have been in an impasse as they scramble to reach an agreement before the two-week recess for spring break and Easter that begins on Friday, with Democrats demanding significant changes and oversight for ICE and its operations.
Amid the partial DHS shutdown airports across the country are experiencing the “highest wait times in TSA history”, the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday, with sprawling security lines and the transfer of ICE agents to some airports.
More than an hour and 20 minutes into the meeting, Trump makes reference to the 25th amendment – the constitutional implement for declaring a president unfit to remain in office.
The context is refusing to be transparent about his plans are with Iran. “I can’t say what we’re going to because if I did, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here for long. They probably – what is it called, the 25th amendment.”
But he quickly connects it to his predecessor, Joe Biden. “They didn’t do it with Biden, which is shocking enough.”
Trump says he voted by mail ballot despite trying to dismantle it
The president addressed the revelations that he had voted by mail ballot despite trying to all-but abolish the practice, which he has said is an agent of mass voter fraud.
“I was going to vote by mail in ballot because I couldn’t be there because I had a lot of different things. But, you know, we have exceptions for mail in ballots.
“You do know that, right? So if you’re away, you have an exception. If you’re in the military, we have an exception. If you are on a business trip, we have an exception. If you’re disabled, we have an exception. And if you’re ill, if you’re not feeling good when.
So I was away mostly in Washington DC, so I used a mail ballot. But I appreciate the question because I know it was so well meaning.”
Trump has given a clue on what the cryptic “present” is he referred to earlier this week.
He said: “We’re going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil. This was two days ago. And they’ll sail up tomorrow. That was three days ago. And I didn’t think much about it. And then I watched the news and they said, a very good anchor actually happened to be Fox. But I watched it and they said, something’s unusual happening. There are eight boats that are going right up the middle of the strait. Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through.
“And I said, well, I guess they were right. And they were real. And I think they were Pakistani flagged. And, I said, well, I guess we’re dealing with the right people.
“And actually they then apologized for something they said, and they said, we’re going to send two more boats. And we ended up being ten boats. And I hope I haven’t screwed up your negotiations, but I thought it was appropriate to say, because I did talk to you the other day by saying they’re going to give us a present.”
Confusing, but the nearest thing yet we have to clarity about what Trump was talking about.
Sadly, Trump has returned to his appallingly racist depictions of Somalians in Minnesota. “They come to our country, low IQs and they rob us blind, stupid people.”
It is worth reminding ourselves that these words are being spoken from the cabinet room of the White House.
Trump’s grievance with Nato carries over into comments about the war in Ukraine, which he once promised to end within the first day of his presidency.
“I think we have a chance of getting it done, but it doesn’t affect us thoussnds of miles away. That’s why when I heard the head of Germany [chancellor Friedrich Merz] say “this is not our war” about Iran, I said, ‘well Ukraine’s not our war.’”
In the question and answer session, Trump is asked if he will “go in for the uranium” – stockpiles of which Iran is known to still known to possess.
“Why would I answer a question [like that]. Am I going to go in tomorrow at three o’clock. How could you possibly ask a question and expect an answer.”
Trump has now embarked on an interminable, barely comprehensible rant about buildings, the Federal Reserve and sharpies. An enigma encryption device might be useful to discern a meaning.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, is then introduced and says: “Sir, as always, you are a tough act to follow.”
Trump has pivoted to talk – luridly – about domestic matters.
“It would be great if people like the Mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois would say, please come in and stop the crime,” he says, depicting the windy city in darkly dystopian terms, that he later extends to other cities, including San Francisco.
“Because we would have the National Guard in Chicago and in New York and in other places. And they love doing it. It’s like training .
Referring to the presence of national guard troops in Washington, where they have been on patrol since last August, he said, “I never want to take them out of DC.”
Witkoff confirms US presented Iran with 15-point action list after White House denial
Steve Wifkoff, Trump’s chief negotiator, earlier announced to the cabinet: “I can report to you today that we have, along with your foreign policy team, presented a 15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal. This has been circulated through the Pakistani government, acting as the mediator, and this has resulted in strong and positive messaging and talks, as you just indicated to the press.”
This comes after Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt castigated reporters for asking about the 15-point plan: “I saw a 15-point plan that was floated in the media. I would caution reporters in this room from reporting about speculative points, speculative plans from anonymous sources. The White House never confirmed that plan.”