1. THE LOYAL OPPOSITION: Democrats are facing mounting pressure from constituents to ramp up their efforts against Trump and Musk despite their limited political leverage in the Republican-controlled Congress. In the Senate: “Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to his caucus on Monday that detailed four strategies to counter Trump: investigations, litigation through the courts, legislation and party messaging,” POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reports. Not on the table: A shutdown fight. “Schumer pushed back against recent rumblings that Democrats might walk away from the negotiating table on spending bills, saying his party wants to avoid a ‘Trump shutdown’ and supports bipartisan negotiations to try to find a funding deal,” Jordain writes. Read Schumer’s “Dear Colleague” letter Seeding the clouds: Senate Democrats today launched an online portal for federal workers to submit any reports of what they see as unlawful activities in their respective agencies,” WaPo’s Mariana Alfaro reports. In the House: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced the launch of the “Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group" in a letter to his colleagues today, POLITICO’s Nicholas Wu reports. The task force is part of a “multifaceted struggle to protect and defend everyday Americans from the harm being inflicted by this administration," Jeffries wrote. 2. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Hamas announced today that it’s delaying the hostage release that is scheduled for this Saturday until further notice, claiming Israel violated the terms of the fragile cease-fire agreement multiple times over the last three weeks, per the AP. Both sides have carried out five separate prisoner swaps since the deal went into place last month, with a planned upcoming Saturday release that would exchange “three Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.” A Hamas spokesman did not specify the length of the delay, but said Israel’s violations include “delays in allowing displaced Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, targeting them with airstrikes and gunfire across various areas of the Strip, and failing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid as agreed.” Hamas’ statement comes just hours after Fox News released part of an interview with the president in which he said that Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his “takeover” proposal, despite officials claiming he was calling for the temporary relocation. 3. IMMIGRATION FILES: An estimated 1,000 migrant families that were separated under the first Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy have yet to be reunited. And though the second Trump administration is required by a 2023 court decision to continue reunification efforts, the president’s team “is still debating how to abide by that settlement — and whether it will at all,” WSJ’s Elizabeth Findell reports. Hours into office, Trump eliminated the task force designed to reunite and provide benefits for separated families. For the families that have yet to be reunited, hope is fading. And even for those that have been, anxiety is high as they wait “to see how Trump will handle settlement provisions to allow them to keep living in the U.S.,” while attorneys “are waiting for DHS to outline its process for carrying out the settlement requirements without the task force.” Meanwhile, as Trump’s crackdown on immigration and Mexican drug smuggling continues, U.S. spy planes have drastically increased their surveillance efforts in recent weeks, “flying at least 18 missions over the southwestern US and in international airspace around the Baja peninsula,” CNN’s Avery Schmitz, Katie Bo Lillis, Priscilla Alvarez and Natasha Bertrand report. And another legal challenge for Trump … “Third judge blocks Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for kids of people in US illegally,” by AP’s Lindsay Whitehurst And Kathy McCormack 4. TRAINING TROUBLES: “They trained on diversity under Trump. Now he’s punishing them for it,” by WaPo’s Laura Meckler and Hannah Natanson: “[D]ozens of employees who attended [an Education Department] diversity program — many during Trump’s first term — have been placed on leave because of it … [DOGE staff] had combed through employees’ files to uncover and target staffers who had taken single diversity trainings, sometimes years before.” 5. KNOWING EMIL BOVE: Former federal prosecutor Emil Bove’s stalled career in private practice was revived after he joined Trump’s defense team in 2023. Now, the “normally reserved” acting deputy AG has been shoved “to the center of Trump’s combative agenda” as he upends the DOJ, WSJ’s Corinne Ramey writes in a new profile. In the past, Bove’s “relentlessness helped him prosecute terrorists, build high-level narcotics cases and earn top marks at the annual athletic competition at his local CrossFit gym. But in New York, his brusque, fist-pounding approach at times stymied his career.” Now, he’s Trump’s enforcer at DOJ. “He sent FBI leaders packing. He ordered agents to work immigration cases. And when the feds conducted their first immigration raid of the new Trump era, he flew to Chicago to watch the arrests himself.” 6. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: Among the lesser-publicized casualties of the early Trump 2.0 era is a “first-of-its-kind assessment of nature across the United States,” which was nearly ready for submission before Trump abruptly ended the Biden-era effort via executive order, NYT’s Catrin Einhorn reports. Now, the team of more than 150 researchers behind the National Nature Assessment are looking into ways to finish the report and publish it without federal funding. What it is: “The study was intended to measure how the nation’s lands, water and wildlife are faring,” with volunteers outside the federal workforce making up the majority of the authors. One big hurdle: Now they face “perhaps the trickiest question: How can the report maintain the stature and the influence of a government assessment now that it won’t be released by the government?”
| 
