WTF Just Happened Today? Day 1513

This is a newsletter I subscribe to and I share parts of it here.
I think it's a good summary of the day that is fairly well sourced.
One can subscribe here: http://wtfjht.com

Welcome to Day 1513.

Today in one sentence: The House passed a Republican spending bill to fund the government through September and avoid a shutdown; Senate Democrats are divided and face a Friday deadline on whether to oppose the bill and risk a shutdown or allow Trump broad control over federal funds; Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports; Canada and the EU responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods; Trump doubled down and threatened but backed off his plans to raise Canadian metal tariffs to 50% after Ontario withdrew an electricity surcharge; inflation eased in February, but economists warn that Trump’s escalating trade war could undermine that progress; the Education Department laid off over 1,300 employees – nearly half its workforce – as Trump pushes to dismantle the agency; the Social Security Administration is considering eliminating phone services for claims processing and direct deposit transactions, potentially cutting off millions of elderly and disabled Americans from accessing their benefits; Trump bought an $80,000 Tesla to support Elon Musk, falsely claiming that boycotts against the company were "illegal"; a federal judge ruled that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency must comply with public records requests, citing its “unprecedented” power and secrecy; 56% disapprove of Trump’s economic handling; 47% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, while 45% disapprove; and 69% of voters say Democrats are “too focused on being politically correct,” 56% believe Democrats don’t look out for working people, and only 39% think the party values work.

-Matt, current mood: ???

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/house-stopgap-funding-bill-vote-government-shutdown.html

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/gop-house-spending-bill-vote-shutdown-a73f7f14

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-11/house-gop-passes-stopgap-daring-senate-democrats-on-shutdown

https://apnews.com/article/congress-budget-funding-government-shutdown-e027a644af4152377b8cf99f6a91102f

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/government-shutdown-democrats-funding-deadline-bcb67826

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/12/government-shutdown-democrats-senate/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-12/senate-democrats-wobble-as-republicans-dare-them-on-us-shutdown

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/12/congress/senate-democrats-continuing-resolution-00226028

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/11/nx-s1-5324612/house-spending-vote

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/12/senate-democrats-government-shutdown

https://apnews.com/article/education-department-layoffs-job-cuts-linda-mcmahon-ce9f6a8a63972aede0d8fbdf057ab788

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/trump-education-department-firings.html

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/education-department-cuts-nearly-half-its-workforce-amid-effort-to-close-the-agency-8742bdd1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/12/social-security-phone-doge-elderly-disabled/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-cuts-social-security-medicaid-medicare-1235293407/

https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-donald-trump-doge-b21b74f56f30012a6450a629e7232a1a

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/12/politics/cnn-poll-trump-economy/

Poll data: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25558091/cnn-poll-trumps-performance-and-economy.pdf

____________________________

https://emersoncollegepolling.com/national-poll-at-50-days-trumps-honeymoon-fades-as-economy-becomes-key-vulnerability/

Poll data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_w-nEV73k-lKW4mQax1xVuoXqGZjPGjT/htmlview

____________________________

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/11/poll-democrats-jobs-economy-00222988

One can read the expanded version of each topic and its sources here: http://wtfjht.com