©  Matthias Schrader, Associated Press

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S NATIONAL SECURITY TEAM sent a warning shot to global allies Friday, bringing their disruptive and confrontational style to the world stage.

In a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Vance scolded U.S. allies in the European Union while announcing that the status quo won’t hold under Trump.

“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Vance said to light applause.

Vance seethed at what he described as a crackdown on free speech in Europe, citing a man who was arrested for silently praying near an abortion clinic.

“In Britain and across Europe, I fear free speech is in retreat,” he said.

Vance took aim at what he described as a mass migration crisis in Europe.

“No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,” he said.

And he blasted global concerns about the influence of Elon Musk, saying:

“If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

Earlier in the week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned NATO that the U.S. would be pulling back and Europe would be responsible for its own security.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius rebuffed Vance back in a Friday speech at the Munich conference:

“This democracy that was just called into question by the U.S. vice president … he compares the condition of Europe with the condition that prevails in some authoritarian regimes,” Pistorius sad. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is not acceptable. This is not the Europe, not the democracy where I live … this is not the democracy I witness every day.”

Trump’s national security team is in Munich to begin deliberations on how to end the nearly three-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

Vance met Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“We want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road,” Vance said.

Zelensky posted on social media after the meeting:

“We are ready to move as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace. We deeply value President Trump’s determination, which can help stop the war and secure justice and security guarantees for Ukraine.”

It’s been a bumpy ride so far, both literally and figuratively.

The Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Munich had to return to Washington when its cockpit windshield cracked. Rubio got on a different plane.

• Meanwhile, Hegseth elicited bipartisan outrage for announcing that Ukraine would not gain entrance to NATO or return to its 2014 borders as part of any peace deal with Russia.

Hegseth initially defended the remarks, saying he was only being realistic.

Many saw that as a concession to Russia before negotiations officially got underway.

“A rookie mistake,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told Politico, adding that he was “puzzled and disturbed” by the remarks.

Hegseth later walked back the remarks, saying “everything is on the table.”

Zelensky later conceded:

“The United States never saw us in NATO, they just spoke about it, but they really didn’t want us in NATO.”

• Trump has spoken warmly about the potential for a working relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, unnerving some Senate Republicans.

Vance on Friday took a harder line, warning the U.S. could hit Russia with more sanctions if they believe Putin isn’t negotiating in good faith.

Trump has been shooting from the hip, injecting all manner of new concepts into the mix.

The president wants Russia back in the Group of Seven (G7) major economies, saying their exclusion may have led to the conflict with Ukraine.

Trump also mused about a potential trilateral deal between the U.S., Russia and China, wherein all three countries agree to cut their defense spending in half.

And Trump said he talked to Putin about both countries putting a halt on building new nuclear weapons.

“We were talking about de-nuking…President Putin and I agreed we are going to do it in a very big way,” Trump said.

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: How Trump can achieve lasting peace with Russia and Ukraine. 

• The Atlantic: Listen closely to what Hegseth is saying.

• The Hill: Is there a foreign policy ‘Trump Doctrine’?

• New York Post: Trump wants peace and an end to the war in Ukraine.

• Marco Rubio: The Americas’ Golden Age begins now.

Read more: 

• Trump’s Russia-Ukraine moves unnerve Senate GOP.

• Russia says US ‘our main counterpart’ in peace talks, sidelining Ukraine.

• Vance says Trump has ‘broad’ range of options in Russia-Ukraine talks.

• President Trump signed an executive order stripping funds from schools requiring COVID-19 vaccines.

   

• Wholesale prices jumped 3.5 percent annually. Retail sales made their biggest drop in almost two years. Chris Stirewalt writes for Whole Hog Politics on how inflation clouds hang over the budget battle.

   

• TikTok is back on the Apple and Google app stores after President Trump delayed a ban on the social media company.

©  Ed Reed, Office of the New York Mayor via Associated Press

The controversy surrounding the Department of Justice (DOJ) decision to end a corruption investigation into New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has blown up on the Trump administration.

At least a half-dozen federal prosecutors have resigned over the Justice Department’s directive that the investigation into Adams be shut down. Some of those who resigned have strong conservative bona fides.

Danielle Sassoon, the former acting attorney overseeing Adams’s case, alleged that attorneys for the mayor had pushed for a “quid pro quo” before the DOJ ordered the case be dropped.

Adams called the quid pro quo allegations “silly.”

Sassoon resigned her post instead of dropping the charges, writing in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi:

“I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful. I cannot fulfill my obligations, effectively lead my office in carrying out the Department’s priorities, or credibly represent the Government before the courts, if I seek to dismiss the Adams case on this record.”

Sassoon was appointed by Trump in January to be interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District in New York. She had previously clerked for conservative former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Read her full letter to Bondi here.

The top prosecutor on the Adams case, Hagan Scotten, also resigned in a blistering letter to DOJ official Emil Bove, stating:

“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion [to dismiss charges]. But it was never going to be me.”

Scotten earned two Bronze stars over the course of three combat tours in Iraq.

Here’s a rundown on all of the DOJ officials who have resigned so far.

The Trump administration is pressing Adams to implement its immigration policies, as Bondi sues Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and others for failing to enforce the Trump administration’s immigration laws.

Adams agreed to allow federal immigration officials to use Rikers Island as a detention center.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told Fox News:

“If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we will be sitting on the couch … I’ll be in his office saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to? We’re going to deliver for the safety of the people of this city.’”

Democrats believe Adams has been compromised and is in Trump’s pocket after the order to end the investigation.

“Adams must be removed,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Adams says he’ll seek the Democratic nomination for a second term in June. He ruled out running as a Republican amid speculation he might switch parties.

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: Where’s the outrage? ‘Trump World Inc.’s’ many conflicts of interest.

• The Hill: Democrats need a new message: ‘Blame Republicans.’ 

• MSNBC: Trump’s ‘lawfare’ attack on the courts could backfire.

• RealClearPolitics: The judicial ‘resistance’ set up for an epic smackdown.

• The Hill: Don’t let the loophole lobby decide the tax debate.

©  SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

• The White House says it will ban The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force 1 because the outlet continues to use the “Gulf of Mexico” after President Trump renamed it the “Gulf of America.”

The White House Correspondents Association slammed the retaliation against the AP after its reporters were banned from other recent events:

“The White House is seeking to curtail the press freedoms enshrined in our Constitution, and has admitted publicly they are restricting access to events to punish a news outlet for not advancing the government’s preferred language.”

• The Interior Department fired 2,300 employees after a directive from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). OPM directed agencies to fire government workers who are still in their probationary period.

• Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he has a list of staffers who “need to be moved.”

• A judge ordered the government to temporarily cease efforts to terminate foreign aid contracts and grants.

• Fourteen states are suing Trump and Elon Musk, calling the billionaire’s role in gutting federal agencies unconstitutional.

• Government watchdogs launched audits into the new Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to a sensitive federal payment system located at the Treasury Department. 

💡Perspectives:

• Racket: The EPA’s $20 billion caper.

• The Hill: Shouldn’t everyone be against waste? 

• USA Today: Trump is doing what Americans want.

• The Guardian: Resistance 2.0 is growing.

• The American Prospect: Laying off empiricists.

Read more: 

• Republicans put healthcare cuts front and center to advance agenda.

• Democrats call out Trump actions on Tesla, Musk.

• Supreme Court approval above 50 percent for first time in years: Survey.

Here’s who’s talking…

NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.); author and historian Richard Brookhiser.

Fox News Channel’s “Fox News Sunday”: National security adviser Mike Waltz; Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

CNN’s “State of the Union”: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

ABC’s “This Week”: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.); Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). 

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