Foreign Powers Buy Influence At [liberal] Think Tanks

Axios: “Trump is flexing his vast new powers to target what he’s described as “the enemies from within” — enforcing loyalty tests, purging career officials and attempting to rewrite the history of the last eight years.” “Trump has at times downplayed his thirst for revenge — but his first moves back in office suggest resentment against Democrats, former allies, prosecutors and the media will be a driving force in his second term.”

Wall Street Journal: “Tensions and philosophical differences between the two billionaires, who first met in 2023 when Ramaswamy was still challenging Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, didn’t take long to emerge.” “People familiar with the situation said Trump’s inner circle of aides had become annoyed with Ramaswamy’s outspokenness on virtually any topic, a tendency that had also aggravated the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive.”

New York Times: “More than 200 diversity officers, some from Fortune 500 companies and some from nonprofits, gathered last summer at N. Y. U. School of Law and on video to talk about the future of their diversity, equity and inclusion, or D. E. I., programs, which had become a legal and social target.

“The Justice Department has ordered an immediate halt to all new civil rights cases or investigations — and signaled that it might back out of Biden-era agreements with police departments that engaged in discrimination or violence,“ the New York Times reports. “The actions represent an about-face for a department that had been aggressively investigating instances of violence and systemic discrimination in local law enforcement and government agencies.”

New York Times: “The bigger challenge for Republican leaders is trying to figure out what can pass Congress and be signed by President Trump. With slim majorities in both chambers, they are searching for the right mix of policy changes that could offset some of the costs of Mr. Trump’s most expensive proposals, placating spending hard-liners who are concerned about ballooning the government’s debt, while also maintaining the support of more centrist members who are loath to slash popular programs.” “Complicating their task is a political challenge: Many of the cuts Republicans are contemplating target programs aimed at helping low-income Americans, all in the service of paying for the extension of tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.”

“Tulsi Gabbard’s bid to become Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence is on shaky ground, with Republican lawmakers raising private concerns and the president urging her to get aggressive,” Semafor reports. “Republicans are particularly hesitant about her past statements that some have read as too warm toward Vladimir Putin and former Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad, whom Gabbard met with in 2017.