The EPA is rolling back car emissions standards introduced during the Obama administration that would’ve required cars sold in the U.S. to average over 50 miles per gallon by 2025. Under the Clean Air Act, California has set its own, stricter emissions standards, which 12 other states adhere to, and has threatened to sue if it’s not allowed to impose those targets. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt made this decision at the request of the auto industry, perhaps on his way to drop off the Starbucks gift card he uses to pay “rent” to his lobbyist landlord. Today we also learned that clients of this same lobbyist landlord had a project approved by Pruitt last March. Now the White House has reportedly opened an inquiry into this townhouse situation of his.
Vladimir Putin scored an invitation to the White House from Trump during the infamous March 20 DO NOT CONGRATULATE phone call. Trump also called today to congratulate Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on his re-election victory, which he won with 97 percent of the vote. Obviously not the primary concern, but 97 percent is a strange choice. Either make it look closer, or go for 100 percent, you know? Anyway, Trump likes to praise the winners of rigged elections. Something to keep an eye on.
Teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky marched on their respective state capitals today. Chief among their complaints: teacher pay, pension changes, class sizes, teacher shortages, and funding for school supplies (that hopefully aren’t guns).
China announced retaliatory tariffs on $3 billion worth of American goods—many of which are produced in regions of the country that voted for Trump.
The Department of Justice is now evaluating immigration judges based on how quickly they can close cases. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ DOJ has set these quotas for the first time in an effort to speed up deportations.
Trump “cherishes” Fox Business personality Lou Dobbs so much that he puts him on speakerphone during high-level White House meetings to get his input. No good decision in the history of planet earth has ever been made with Lou Dobbs on speaker.
The Wall Street Journal obtained an email from Roger Stone to Sam Nunberg, both Trump advisers, in which Stone claimed he had dined with Julian Assange in August 2016. The next day Stone praised Assange on Twitter. Now, however, Stone is claiming “this was said in jest,” which explains why it’s so funny…
Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the Russia investigation, will be the first person sentenced in the probe, tomorrow morning. Pretty solid hit rate for a witch hunt.
Anti-apartheid leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died at 81.
Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) isn’t running for re-election, after news that she kept her chief of staff on the payroll for three months after he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. Esty becomes the eighth lawmaker to resign or announce retirement in the #MeToo moment.
