WASHINGTON — Clean energy manufacturers and advocates say they’re perplexed how the repeal of tax credits in President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” will keep their domestic production lines humming across the United States, particularly in states that elected him to the Oval Office.

While some Republicans have labeled the billions in tax credits a “green new scam,” statistics reviewed by State Newsroom show the jobs and benefits would boost predominantly GOP-leaning states and congressional districts. Now the industry is already slowing amid Trump’s back-and-forth tariff policy and mixed messaging on energy and manufacturing.

Trump vowed in early April to “supercharge our domestic industrial base.”

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back to our country, and you see it happening already,” he told a crowd in the White House Rose Garden while unveiling his new trade policy.

But as a way to pay for the $3.9 trillion price tag of extending and expanding the 2017 corporate and individual tax cuts, U.S. House Republicans found billions of dollars in savings by slashing over a dozen clean energy tax credits enacted in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under President Joe Biden.

Critics say the mega-bill, which passed the GOP-led House on May 22 in a 215-214 vote, would effectively strip away the Advanced Manufacturing and Production Credit and other incentives.

They have bolstered the production of batteries and solar components in numerous states — top among them North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada, Illinois and Oklahoma, according to the Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project by the Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

U.S. senators are now negotiating the massive budget reconciliation legislation.

Kevin Doffling, CEO and founder of Project Vanguard, an organization that connects veterans to clean energy jobs, warned pulling the plug on the clean energy tax credits will stifle progress the U.S. has made against other countries, namely China.

“We’re just going to see a huge pullback from investments inside of advanced manufacturing here in the U.S., and then we’ll go source it from other places, instead of doing it here,” Doffling said on a May 28 press call pressing for senators to protect the tax credits.

Doffling’s organization works in several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, Washington and Utah.

Moving away from fossil fuels

The suite of tax credits enacted under the IRA incentivized homeowners, car buyers, energy producers and manufacturers to invest in types of energy beyond fossil fuels, with the aim of a reduction in the effects of climate change.

For example, the IRA’s Advanced Manufacturing and Production Credit is awarded per unit produced and sold, and in some cases the capacity of energy output.

Battery cell manufacturers can earn up to $35 per battery cell multiplied by potential kilowatt hours. In the case of solar, the credit offers producers 7 cents per solar module multiplied by wattage output. For mining operations extracting critical minerals, such as lithium, companies can receive a 10% tax break on the costs of production.

Most credits phase out by 2032 under the Biden-era law, except those for critical mineral mining, which continue.

A group of House Republicans, who have dubbed the tax credits the “green new scam” — echoing Trump’s rhetoric — pushed to accelerate the expiration in the final version of the mega-bill, even for critical mineral mining and production. The federal government classifies critical minerals as crucial to national security.

The House-passed bill also severely tightens language around foreign components, titled “foreign entities of concern,” making the credit practically unusable as many parts of the clean energy manufacturing supply chain are global, industry professionals say.

The legislation also repeals “transferability,” which allows companies with little or no tax liability to sell the credits.

For example, a critical mineral mining company would not turn a profit during an initial phase and could sell the credits to offset the cost of operations.

Schneider Electric, a global corporation with a U.S. base in Massachusetts, has facilitated 18 transfer deals worth $1.7 billion in tax credits for U.S. companies since 2023. In a statement, Schneider said the deals “reflect growing market interest in flexible financing mechanisms that directly fund renewable projects.”

Silfab Solar, which recently built a solar cell manufacturing and module assembly plant in Fort Mill, South Carolina, announced in mid-May the sale of $110 million in Advanced Manufacturing and Production Credits to help fund its expansion. The company already runs a solar manufacturing site in Burlington, Washington.

Investment soared

Spurred by the Advanced Manufacturing and Production Credit, known as 45X, actual investment in clean energy manufacturing since August 2022 reached $115 billion in April, up from $21 billion over the same length of time prior to the IRA, the Clean Investment Monitor found.

Of the 380 clean technology production facilities announced since the third quarter of 2022, 161 are now operational, according to CIM data.

The credit spurred a “sea change” in U.S. clean energy manufacturing, said Mike Williams, senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress and former deputy director of the BlueGreen Alliance, which advocates for the joining of labor and environmental organizations.

Despite solar technology’s roots in the U.S., the nation “didn’t even have a toe” in solar manufacturing, Williams said. Other countries, most notably Germany and then China, have dominated the industry.

“But after the Inflation Reduction Act passed, all of a sudden we see panel manufacturing, we see parts and components manufacturing, absolutely exploding. Plants have announced and started construction in Georgia, in Oklahoma,” Williams said in an interview with States Newsroom.

Active manufacturing of solar components, advanced batteries and wind turbines and vessels is concentrated in rural areas. Most are located in states that went red in the 2024 presidential election, according to the Clean Power America Association’s May 2025 State of Clean Energy Manufacturing in America report.

The renewable energy policy group estimated the industry supports 122,000 full-time manufacturing jobs across the U.S.

Active solar manufacturing sites and expansions are clustered in Texas, Ohio and Alabama, according to data from the association. Should major project announcements in Georgia pull through, the state would surpass Alabama for third place.

Advanced battery manufacturing spans 38 states, with the largest concentrations in California, Michigan and North Carolina.

But various parts of the battery production process stretch throughout the country — for example, battery cell production in Nevada and Tennessee and module production in Utah. Other supporting hardware is made in South Carolina, Arizona and Texas.

Lithium, a critical mineral for battery production, is currently mined in Nevada and California. And investors are eyeing other spots in the U.S., namely Alaska, to mine and produce graphite, another critical mineral.

China largely dominates the world’s critical mineral supply chain, according to U.S. Geological Survey data for 2024.

When accounting for the full suite of clean energy tax credits that were enacted in 2022 — including residential, electric vehicles and clean electricity credits — just over 312,900 new jobs are linked to the industry, the bulk in Republican-led congressional districts, according to the advocacy group Climate Power’s 2024 report on clean energy employment.

Troy Van Beek, CEO and founder of the Iowa-based solar company Ideal Energy, said his business weathered the pandemic and has been able to add jobs, but is now facing uncertainty again.

“We’re getting our feet under us and really starting to operate. I went from 20-some jobs to over 60 jobs, and those are good-paying jobs for people and their families. So we need that stability in the industry,” said Van Beek, who spoke on the call with Doffling.

“What troubles me is the rocking of the boat to such a degree that we can’t get anything done, and that’s been very difficult to deal with,” he said.

Industry slowdown

The industry has seen a pullback since January and the beginning of the Trump presidency.

Six announced projects representing $6.9 billion in investment were canceled in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Clean Investment Monitor’s latest State of U.S. Clean Energy Supply Chains report. While investment in clean energy overall continues to grow, the beginning of 2025 shows a slowdown from where the industry was a year ago.

Van Beek, whose solar company provides construction and installation among others services, said recent talks to strike a deal with a solar manufacturer collapsed after threats to the tax credits.

“We had worked an entire year on putting together (a deal) with one of the leading manufacturers in the world that has U.S. manufacturing to actually have joint ventures and work with them on projects,” Van Beek said. “And when this came up, that deal came to a screeching halt.”

Van Beek did not name the company on the call and did not respond to a request for a follow-up interview.

Several companies declined States Newsroom’s requests for comment while senators negotiate the bill.

Spencer Pederson of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association said the unpredictability is interrupting how operators are planning for the coming years.

“Whether large or small, just the business certainty and the ability to plan out your business is disrupted when you have any type of tax mechanism that is abruptly halted when you’re doing business planning at five- or 10-year intervals,” said Pederson, the association’s senior vice president of public affairs.

Too expensive, Republicans say

Some House Republicans, led by Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia, urged party colleagues to protect the clean energy tax credits — for example by removing the “overly prescriptive” restrictions on foreign entities of concern and keeping in place transferability of tax credits.

Kiggans wrote to House Republican tax writers in mid-May that “the last thing any of us want is to provoke an energy crisis or cause higher energy bills for working families.”

Her co-signers included Don Bacon of Nebraska, Mark Amodei of Nevada, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd of Colorado, Dave Joyce of Ohio and Dan Newhouse of Washington, who all eventually voted for the final bill.

Far-right House members won on not only shortening the lifespan of the credits, but also on keeping the restrictive foreign entity language and on repealing a company’s ability to transfer credits.

The right-leaning National Taxpayers Union hailed the “commonsense changes” championed by the far-right House Freedom Caucus, under the leadership of Maryland Rep. Andy Harris.

The organization, which favors cutting government spending and lowering taxes, pointed to the cost. According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, the credits as of 2022 were valued at roughly $384.9 billion over ten years.

“The longer these subsidies remain in law, the more expensive they will become and the harder it will be for Congress to remove them. Now it’s up to the Senate to support the Green New Deal Rollbacks,” Thomas Aiello, NTU’s senior director of government affairs, wrote in the days following the House vote.

Hope in the Senate?

But representatives from multinational corporations to mid-size businesses and sizable trade associations are now looking to the U.S. Senate to restore measures that they say created a boom time for investment, production and new energy on the grid.

Jeannie Salo, chief public policy officer at Schneider Electric, said in a statement to States Newsroom that “The Senate should restore and extend the timelines for key energy and manufacturing credits and their transferability to ensure the nation continues to attract key investments and projects that will power the U.S. economy and help make energy more affordable.”

Pederson said the restrictions on foreign components and company ties are “particularly restrictive coming out of the House.”

“So we’re hoping to work with the Senate Finance Committee and some of the members of the Senate who have indicated some willingness to make the foreign entity of concern language a little bit more workable,” Pederson said.

Doffling believes senators have a “longer term vision” of the nation’s energy strategy than House members who face reelection every two years.

“They see what’s happening not just in their district, but in the entire state that they represent,” Doffling said.

The House bill just sets the U.S. “further behind,” he added. “This bill is all about going backwards in time and hoping for the best.”

“I wish they could look at the numbers and understand the economic impacts it’s gonna have. … But somehow we’re talking about the fact of hamstringing a whole entire industry itself over verbiage of the word ‘clean.’”

Last updated 5:27 p.m., Jun. 6, 2025

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — Veterans and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday protested the Trump administration’s planned cuts for the Department of Veterans Affairs that include slashing some 80,000 jobs, which many worry will affect the massive agency’s delivery of medical care and benefits.

The group rallied outside the U.S. Capitol shortly after VA Secretary Doug Collins finished lengthy questioning before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, where he defended the cuts as necessary to improve the department’s efficiency.

Holding signs that read “Veterans Healthcare Not For Sale,” a crowd of former service members joined by senators and representatives decried that argument as “nonsensical,” as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, put it.

“We’re not going to allow veterans to be betrayed by this administration,” Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said. “I’ve just come from a hearing with the VA secretary, and to say it was a disappointment is a huge understatement. That hearing was a disgrace.”

‘Non-stop smear campaign’

Jose Vasquez, executive director of Common Defense, the advocacy group that organized the press conference, said, “They call this efficiency, but we call it betrayal.”

Vasquez, an Army veteran who recently received care from the VA in New York for a cancerous tumor on his pancreas, said, “Millions of veterans depend on VA every day — survivors of cancer, toxic exposure, traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress.”

He contends the agency’s workers, many of whom are veterans, have been the target of a “non-stop smear campaign.”

“Why? Simple. Because a small group of greedy billionaires would rather get tax cuts than pay for the true cost of war,” Vasquez.

Trump’s temporary DOGE organization, led by top campaign donor Elon Musk, cut roughly 2,400 VA jobs in early March.

Collins, a former Georgia congressman who still serves in the Air Force Reserve, unveiled a plan in early March to return VA staffing to 2019 levels of 398,000, down from the current approximately 470,000 positions.

The lawmaker told senators Tuesday that he’s “conducting a thorough review of the department’s structure and staffing across the enterprise.”

“We’re going to maintain VA’s mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors, while phasing out non-mission-essential roles like interior designers and DEI officers. The savings we achieve will be redirected to veteran health care and benefits,” Collins said.

Collins drew pushback during the hearing, including from Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who told the secretary “there’s no way that all those 80,000 are in those job fields,” referring to his comment about DEI and interior designers.

“I’m having a problem understanding how the veterans in Michigan are going to get the same or better care, which is what we want,” said Slotkin, who served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst.

GOP says VA must change

Many Republicans on the panel maintained the VA, as Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said, “is not working.”

“If we just say everything has to stay the same and you just gotta add more money and more people, then you’re looking at it the wrong way,” Tillis said, adding that he’s “open to any suggestions” and will review the proposal for workforce reductions.

Collins criticized the increase in hiring under former President Joe Biden, who signed into law the PACT Act, the largest expansion of VA benefits in decades.

The law opened care to roughly 1 million veterans who developed certain conditions and cancers following exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange.

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said Collins was being “battered” about the possible 80,000 cuts. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe there were 52,000 new positions added between 2021 and 2024. … That 52,000, has that saved the day for our veterans?

“I don’t think so,” Collins responded.

But at the rally afterward, Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio, a former Navy officer who served in Iraq, defended the PACT Act expansion.

“At this moment when so many toxic-exposed veterans of my generation, Agent Orange-exposed veterans from the Vietnam era, are finally getting the benefits they’ve earned because of the PACT Act, we should be investing in the resources for the VA, and Donald Trump and his team are doing the opposite,” said Deluzio, who represents Pennsylvania.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump claimed in a social media post late Sunday night that former President Joe Biden’s eleventh hour pardons for numerous officials are no longer valid — a power not granted to Trump in the Constitution.

Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social that Biden’s sweeping preemptive pardons are “are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”

Without citing any evidence, Trump also alleged Biden “did not know anything about” the pardons.

Just hours before leaving office, Biden pardoned lawmakers who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as former high-ranking health official Dr. Anthony Fauci, who steered the United States through the COVID-19 pandemic, and retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Biden also pardoned several members of his own family just before his term expired. The White House released Biden’s statements regarding his Jan. 20 pardons.

Autopen used before

The Autopen is a device that replicates signatures and was used by former President Barack Obama in 2011 to sign an extension of the Patriot Act.

Experts say the debate over the use of the Autopen was settled in a 2005 opinion from the White House Office of Legal Counsel that stated a president may direct a subordinate to affix his or her signature to a bill using the mechanism.

David Super, who focuses on constitutional and administrative law at Georgetown University, said Trump’s Autopen argument is “absurd.”

“But even if it wasn’t, the Constitution does not require signatures for pardons. It simply says the president has the power to pardon,” Super said.

“So if President Biden wanted to simply verbally tell someone they’re pardoned, he could do that. It wouldn’t have to be in writing at all. Administratively, of course, we want things in writing. It makes things a lot simpler, but there’s no constitutional requirement,” he said.

The right-wing Heritage Foundation posted a graphic on the social media platform X on March 10 and 11, claiming the foundation’s “Project Oversight” uncovered the exact same signature on a number of Biden’s pardons.

Fox News also claimed on March 9 that Biden’s exact same signature was found by Heritage on numerous documents from 2022 and 2024 that were published in the Federal Register.

The National Archives said in a statement that all signatures on official documents published in the Federal Register come from “one graphic file,” according to Snopes.

Press secretary defends ‘raising the point’

Kermit Roosevelt, constitutional law expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said the Autopen argument is a “red herring.” Trump’s other suggestion, that Biden didn’t know about the pardons, would essentially make them invalid.

“If the president doesn’t know that something was done, then it’s not a valid official act,” Roosevelt said. “But I highly doubt that that happened. I know of no reason to think that that did happen.”

“I mean, it is sort of characteristic of Trump to make insinuations and raise questions without any evidence, and then the White House says he’s just asking questions,” Roosevelt said. “I don’t think that’s a great way to govern.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that Trump was “raising the point that did the president even know about these pardons? Was his legal signature used without his consent or knowledge?”

“I think it’s a question that everybody in this room should be looking into,” Leavitt said, citing the New York Post as a source.

The White House did not immediately respond to a question about the Trump administration’s use of the Autopen.

Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

Last updated 6:35 p.m., Mar. 17, 2025

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate thousands of jobs for probationary federal workers fired as part of billionaire Elon Musk’s campaign to slash the federal workforce.

Judge William Alsup ruled Thursday morning that tens of thousands of workers must be rehired across numerous federal agencies, including the departments of Defense, Energy, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, extending his previous temporary emergency order issued Feb. 28.

Alsup, appointed in 1999 by former President Bill Clinton to the Northern District of California, ruled in favor of numerous plaintiffs that brought the suit against the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management.

The plaintiffs, which include the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO and other unions representing thousands of federal workers, sued in February over OPM’s “illegal program” terminating employees who are within the first year of their positions or recently promoted to new ones.

Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, said in statement Thursday that the union is “pleased with Judge Alsup’s order to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public.”

“We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do, and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back,” Everett said.

The White House did not immediately respond for comment.

The unions argued in a Feb. 19 complaint that OPM “certainly has no authority to require agencies to perpetrate a massive fraud on the federal workforce by lying about federal workers’ ‘performance,’ to detriment of those workers, their families, and all those in the public and private sectors who rely upon those workers for important services.”

Musk, a Trump special adviser, has publicly and repeatedly touted the firings as a means to cut federal spending.

This is a breaking news report and will be updated.

Last updated 12:50 p.m., Mar. 13, 2025

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, claims American taxpayers could receive a $5,000 refund from the federal government — despite no apparent support in Congress, which controls the nation’s purse strings.

Soon after Musk began floating the idea, President Donald Trump told investors at a conference in Miami on Feb. 19: “There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% goes to paying down debt, because the numbers are incredible, Elon.”

Musk and Trump’s statements excited Trump supporters on social media. “That would be a great START,” one X user under the moniker “MAGAmom” wrote.

Others online dismissed the claim as a “bad idea” and a “steaming pile of horses–t.”

Right-wing media outlet Newsmax wrote that the proposal is “meant to incentivize the public to report government waste.”

The U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, established by Trump via executive order, was born out of Trump and Musk’s campaign promise to establish a Department of Government Efficiency with the goal of slashing up to $2 trillion in federal spending — an almost certainly unattainable figure that Musk has since walked back.

Who first talked about DOGE refund checks?

Musk, a senior White House adviser and Trump’s top reelection campaign donor, posted on Feb. 18 to his social media platform X that he would “check with the president” about returning government savings directly to taxpayers.

The proposal for a “DOGE Dividend” was suggested on X by an investment firm CEO who reportedly has advised Musk’s government savings project.

James Fishback, of the firm Azoria, shared a four-page plan, calculating that Musk and Trump could divide up 20% of $2 trillion in government savings for the roughly 79 million U.S. taxpaying households, ultimately sending about $5,000 to each one. The proposal only includes “net payers of federal income tax” in 2025, meaning that lower-income Americans would not see a refund.

Can Musk and Trump even find $2 trillion in savings?

“Not even close,” Matt Dallek, presidential and political historian at George Washington University, told States Newsroom during an interview Tuesday.

“You can save some money, but relative to the overall federal budget, you’re talking about a relative pittance,” Dallek said.

The Trump administration has so far fired thousands of federal workers, most probationary employees, though the exact figure is unclear. The White House, under Musk’s guidance, slashed any positions and contracts related to diversity initiatives, largely dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and all but shut down the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau.

DOGE and the Trump administration have been met with protests and lawsuits for the temporary organization’s access to sensitive data and employment records that ultimately led to the firing of thousands of federal employees.

“These are kind of ideological targets that are not really designed to achieve real cost savings,” Dallek said.

The majority of federal spending goes to Social Security, Medicare and defense, areas that Trump and lawmakers are reluctant to touch.

Democrats contend House Republicans’ latest budget proposal also targets Medicaid, a federal-state program that provides health care for low-income Americans. Trump has said he does not want to touch Medicaid benefits.

DOGE touts questionable savings

DOGE, which is not a federal department but rather an 18-month executive office project, claims on its website to have saved the government an estimated $65 billion through “fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”

The New York Times reported Tuesday that DOGE deleted five of the biggest “savings” on the original list even as the sum climbed to $65 billion.

DOGE.gov features a “wall of receipts,” or entries that must be individually viewed to reveal claims, and sometimes screenshots, of what the temporary service organization claims to have slashed.

Entries purport DOGE cancelled access to news subscriptions and other resources for federal employees, nixed numerous contracts, and terminated leases for federal office spaces around the country.

“A lot of it is smoke and mirrors,” Dallek said.

“If you’re really trying to save the government money, why would you fire 7,000 IRS employees as tax season is approaching, which, you know, is going to hinder the ability of the IRS to collect the taxes that every year go unpaid?” he added.

An NPR analysis of more than 1,100 entries on the DOGE website found that the temporary organization fell way short of its savings claims. The analysis, published Feb. 19, calculated only $2 billion in actual savings.

Twenty-one employees resigned in protest from the U.S. DOGE Service Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. The department was previously the U.S. Digital Service, which handles government technology, before Trump renamed the agency.

Can Trump cut checks without Congress?

Americans have received refund or stimulus checks in recent history.

Both the first Trump administration and former President Joe Biden signed laws that included direct payments to households as part of the COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts.

Former President George W. Bush sent rebate checks to taxpayers as part of his tax plan, passed by Congress in 2001. And, as part of legislation to address the economic slowdown in 2008, Bush sent a round of stimulus checks.

While experts argue about the nuances of whether presidents can unilaterally direct spending via executive order, the Oval Office most likely cannot send direct payments to Americans without Congress appropriating the money, as it did in these previous cases.

“Trump and Musk are doing a lot of things that are likely illegal and or unconstitutional, and they’re still doing them. But if we live in the constitutional realities of what the Constitution says and what Congress’ power is, sending checks to people is not something (the administration) can do by fiat,” Dallek said.

The White House did not respond to a request for further details about sending direct payments to taxpayers.

Last updated 7:32 p.m., Feb. 26, 2025

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked a resolution condemning pardons for supporters of President Donald Trump who violently attacked and injured police officers when they broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray requested unanimous consent for the resolution on the floor but was met with opposition from Majority Whip John Barrasso.

Unanimous consent is a common route senators take for simple resolutions, military nominations and other actions, but adoption can be blocked by just one senator.

Hours after his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump commuted the prison sentences for 14 of the most serious offenders on Jan. 6, including leaders of the paramilitary groups the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. Simultaneously he granted a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to the rest of the approximately 1,560 defendants.

Murray, who represents Washington state, said Trump’s decision to pardon the violent defendants is “truly an unthinkable attempt to erase the facts of that day.”

“It is a betrayal of the law enforcement that protected all of us that day and a dangerous endorsement of political violence, telling criminals that you can beat cops within an inch of their lives as long as it’s in service to Donald Trump,” Murray said.

All 47 Democratic and independent senators co-sponsored the 19-word resolution that “disapproves of any pardons for individuals who were found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police officers.”

Biden also issued pardons

Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, blocked the measure. He argued that “Democrats do not want a serious debate here about the use of presidential pardon power” because former President Joe Biden had granted thousands of pardons and commutations before leaving office.

“If they did want a serious conversation, they would talk about Joe Biden’s pardons, over 8,000 of them,” Barrasso said. “The previous president used his final days in office to grant clemency to 37 of 40 of the worst killers on death row.”

Biden set the record for the most pardons and commutations, granting clemency to thousands of nonviolent drug offenders. The former president, whose opposition to capital punishment is well documented, commuted the death sentences for 37 federal inmates, who will now serve life sentences instead. He left three inmates on death row.

Just before leaving the White House, Biden granted preemptive pardons to all members who sat on the congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, as well as the four police officers who testified before the panel.

He also preemptively pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci and retired Gen. Mark Milley, both of whom have been the target of Trump’s threats for retribution and threats from the general public.

Biden drew criticism in early December for pardoning his son, Hunter, who was convicted on federal gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax violations. In his final moments in office, Biden granted preemptive pardons to five members of his family.

Assaults on police

Over 140 U.S. Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police officers were injured that day, according to the Department of Justice.

Several other Democratic senators spoke on the floor about specific assaults on law enforcement on Jan. 6, and the four officers who died by suicide in the days following the attack.

“How does this line up with backing the blue? I don’t get it,” said Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

States Newsroom approached nearly two dozen Republican senators the day after Trump issued the pardons for comment about clemency for the violent offenders.

With just a few exceptions, nearly all either refused to talk, deflected to criticize Biden’s pardons or said they hadn’t read Trump’s 334-word order to free the defendants from their punishments.

Of all the defendants, 608 were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, including 174 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Nearly a third pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement, and 69 pleaded guilty to doing so with a blatant or improvised weapon, including pieces of furniture the rioters destroyed inside the Capitol and police officers’ own riot shields.

Last updated 6:24 p.m., Jan. 28, 2025

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump rallied a packed arena Sunday in the nation’s capital ahead of his inauguration Monday, heralding an era of “the Trump effect” and vowing to “act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country.”

Shortly after his swearing-in, Trump is expected to issue pardons for rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, who he said are “J6 hostages.” Trump also plans a barrage of executive orders curtailing immigration and undoing President Joe Biden’s energy policies.

The victory rally, streamed live on C-SPAN from the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., featured live music from Kid Rock, Lee Greenwood and, at the conclusion, a surreal performance of the 1978 disco hit “YMCA” by the Village People, as Trump danced along with them. Trump often played the song at his campaign rallies.

Assorted incoming administration officials and celebrities delivered speeches that railed against transgender people, DEI initiatives and immigration at the U.S. southern border. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance was not among the speakers.

Trump spoke for just over an hour, repeating his campaign trail themes about fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter, SpaceX rockets, an “invasion” of migrants and “transgender insanity.”

He also promised to declassify records related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, and claimed that Apple CEO Tim Cook told him Sunday about “a massive investment in the United States because of our big election win.”

“I’m thrilled to be back with so many friends, supporters and true American patriots on the eve of taking back our country,” Trump told a cheering crowd in the arena, which has a capacity of about 20,000.

On Monday it will also host Trump supporters who held tickets to sit in the audience at the Capitol before the ceremony was moved inside due to forecasts of low temperatures, as well as an inauguration parade on Monday afternoon.

Trump touted the return Sunday of the popular app TikTok and the “epic ceasefire agreement” between Israel and Hamas.

The incoming president said war in the Middle East would not have happened had the 2020 election not been “rigged” — a false claim he’s repeated over the last four years.

Trump and Vance will be sworn in Monday indoors in the Capitol rotunda. The four-year term for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris ends at noon, as stipulated in the Constitution’s 20th Amendment.

Emergency declaration

Among the executive orders Trump plans will be an emergency declaration on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

“You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy, lots of them,” he told rallygoers. “By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt.”

Trump later told the crowd: “Somebody said yesterday, ‘Sir, don’t sign so many in one day. Let’s do it over a period of weeks.’ I said, ‘Like hell we’re going to do it over weeks.’”

Also on his list of day-one executive orders is extending the deadline for TikTok to find a new owner, a mandate set forth in a bipartisan law last year. Without an extension, companies that distribute or maintain TikTok will face fines up to $5,000 per user on the popular video platform app.

The order will “confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform hours ahead of the rally.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was expected to sit on the dais Monday during Trump’s inauguration, but seating arrangements for the indoor ceremony remained unclear.

Trump invited tech billionaire Elon Musk to the stage with him Sunday. The mogul he’s tasked with making recommendations to cut trillions in federal spending told the crowd “we’re looking forward to making a lot of changes.”

Speakers vilify ‘radical left,’ Harris

A parade of speakers introduced the president-elect. Trump’s son Eric, standing alongside his wife Lara and their two children, declared “The bulls--- ends right now.”

Stephen Miller, incoming White House deputy chief of staff for policy, touted “ending the border invasion, sending the illegals home and taking America back,” and ridding children’s playgrounds of “piles of needles.”

Miller denied the very existence of transgender people.

“We’re not going to let the radical left indoctrinate our children into believing there’s 435 genders because President Trump knows there are men and there are women, and it is not up to you whether you’re a man or a woman. That’s a decision that’s made by God, and it can’t be changed,” Miller said.

There are an estimated 2 million transgender people in the U.S., according to the Human Rights Campaign. Gender dysphoria — defined as psychological distress resulting from incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and current gender identity — is widely recognized by the medical community. Transgender youth experience disparate health outcomes and increased stigmatization and suicidal behavior, according to a 2024 report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Right-wing media personality Megyn Kelly delivered remarks during which for several minutes she slammed singer and actress Jennifer Lopez and media magnate Oprah Winfrey for their support of Harris during the 2024 election.

“But of course the fakest person involved on that side of the aisle was the woman at the top, Kamala Harris herself,” Kelly said.

The former Fox News host said the vice president used a “fake Jamaican accent, her fake Eastern European accent, her fake Spanish accent. It was like spending the day at Joe Biden’s southern border nonstop, right?”

Similar criticisms were made repeatedly by Republicans during the campaign and a Fox News reporter in September pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Harris’ accent. “The question is just insane,” said Jean-Pierre, saying Americans cared more about the economy, health care and lowering costs, HuffPost reported.

Jab at media

The rally kicked off with a prayer from a duo dubbed “Girls Gone Bible” followed moments later by a musical set from Kid Rock.

In a video message to his “rock ‘n roll patriots,” Trump told the crowd “Let’s make America rock again” as Kid Rock launched into his new song “We the People” that featured the chorus line “Let’s Go Brandon.” “Brandon” was the name used by Trump supporters to insult Biden.

While performing his 1999 hit “Bawitdaba,” Kid Rock ad-libbed “The mainstream media can suck my” — without finishing the sentence.

Prior to the rally, Trump and Vance participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. They also visited three graves of servicemembers who were killed in the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees attended the ceremony, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who’s been tapped as secretary of state; Fox News TV host Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense; and current and former U.S. representatives Elise Stefanik and Tulsi Gabbard, nominees for ambassador to the United Nations and director of national intelligence.

Last updated 9:13 p.m., Jan. 19, 2025

New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday denied President-elect Donald Trump’s eleventh-hour attempt to stop his sentencing in his New York hush money trial from going forward Friday morning.

Trump appealed to the court’s emergency docket late Tuesday to intervene in his forthcoming sentencing for 34 felony convictions, arguing that presidential immunity should protect him in the days before he takes the oath of office, and, as he has in the past, that evidence introduced at trial violated the immunity doctrine.

The court denied Trump’s request, in part, because his concerns over evidence introduced in state trial court can be dealt with on a state-level appeal, and because the burden the sentencing will place on him as a president-elect amounts to “a brief virtual hearing,” according to an unsigned order entered on the docket Thursday evening.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “would grant the application,” according to the order.

Trump spoke by phone with Alito just hours before Trump submitted his request to the court, ABC News first reported early Thursday. Alito told the network the two spoke about a different topic.

New York Justice Juan Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 10 a.m. Friday, making clear that he would not seek jail time or fines for the president-elect. Rather, Trump will receive an “unconditional discharge,” meaning he’ll retain a criminal record in New York but face no other punishment. Merchan also agreed to give Trump the option for a virtual sentencing.

Immunity ruling

A jury convicted Trump in May after a weeks-long trial focusing on his bookkeeping maneuvers to hide a $130,000 payment made by his personal lawyer ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence a porn star about a past sexual encounter. The conviction cemented Trump’s place in history as the first American president to become a convicted felon.

Trump fought the conviction after a Supreme Court ruling last summer that former presidents enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution for official duties, and presumptive immunity for duties on the outer limits of the office.

Merchan last month denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case based on presidential immunity, writing that the evidence introduced was “related entirely to unofficial conduct entitled to no immunity protection.”

Manhattan DA slams Trump’s request

In his response to Trump’s request to the Supreme Court, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued the high court lacks jurisdiction because Trump has not exhausted his appeals at the state level. Jurisdiction aside, he argued, neither of Trump’s claims “comes close to justifying a stay of the forthcoming sentencing.”

In the application to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, Trump’s lawyers argued that New York state committed a “grave error” in holding that a president-elect is not protected by immunity.

Bragg called this argument “extraordinary” and “unsupported by any decision from any court.”

“It is axiomatic that there is only one President at a time. Non-employees of the government do not exercise any official function that would be impaired by the conclusion of a criminal case against a private citizen for private conduct,” Bragg wrote.

He also wrote that the trial court has taken “extraordinary steps to minimize any burdens” on Trump. Bragg wrote that Trump “has provided no record support for his claim that his duties as President-elect foreclose him from virtually attending a sentencing that will likely take no more than an hour.”

“The current schedule is also entirely a function of defendant’s repeated requests to adjourn a sentencing date that was originally set for July 11, 2024,” Bragg wrote.

Trump’s lawyers rebutted Bragg in a reply Thursday, saying that the Manhattan district attorney “downplays the importance of the Presidential transition and the need for an energetic executive.”

Trump reaction

In a post on his online platform Truth Social Thursday night, Trump criticized Merchan as “highly political and corrupt” and said he plans to continue to fight the conviction.

“For the sake and sanctity of the Presidency, I will be appealing this case, and am confident that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL. The pathetic, dying remnants of the Witch Hunts against me will not distract us as we unite and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” he wrote.

Last updated 6:53 p.m., Jan. 9, 2025

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday urged Americans to demand President-elect Donald Trump justify each Jan. 6 defendant pardon if he issues them on his “first day” in office, as promised.

The Maryland congressman, who sat on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, said it would be an “extraordinary event in the history of the republic to have a president pardon more than 1,000 criminal convicts who were in jail for having engaged in a violent insurrection incited by that very president.”

“And if it is actually going to happen, people should demand a very specific accounting of how there is contrition and repentance on part of each of the people being pardoned,” said Raskin, who will be the top Democrat this Congress on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Raskin spoke alongside other panelists for a virtual event hosted by the State Democracy Defenders Action, a nonpartisan advocacy group that describes its mission as fighting against “election sabotage and autocracy.”

Trump promised on the campaign trail to pardon those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a violent effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. Trump has repeatedly characterized the rioters as “patriots,” “warriors” and “hostages.”

The president-elect, who will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, said during a December interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” that he will act “very quickly” to pardon the defendants on day one — though he indicated he might make exceptions “if somebody was radical, crazy.”

More than 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack, and the rioters caused roughly $2.8 million in damage to the Capitol.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged approximately 1,572 people in connection with the attack, including charging 171 defendants for using a deadly or dangerous weapon to inflict serious bodily harm on a law enforcement officer.

Raskin highlighted the case of a 56-year-old New York man who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting an officer during the riot. Thomas Webster, a former Marine and police officer, tackled and choked a Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer while other rioters kicked him.

“That’s just one example,” Raskin said. “The press has gotten to know several police officers who’ve been outspoken about the outrageous, medieval-style violence that was trained on them.”

According to the latest Justice Department figures, approximately 996 defendants have pleaded guilty — 321 to felony charges and 675 to misdemeanors.

About 215 defendants have been found guilty at contested trials in federal court, including 10 who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Last updated 7:38 p.m., Jan. 2, 2025

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — A Kansas City, Missouri, man who pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and expects a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump will be allowed to attend Trump’s inauguration, a federal judge ordered Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presided over Trump’s election subversion case in the District of Columbia, granted Eric Lee Peterson’s request to attend the president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., as well as a request to expand his local travel restrictions while on bond.

Peterson’s attorney Michael Bullotta argued in a motion filed Tuesday that his client deserved the exceptions because he does not have a criminal record and “(h)is offense was entering and remaining in the Capitol for about 8 minutes without proper authorization.”

“Apart from being reasonable on their face, these two modification requests are even more appropriate in light of the incoming Trump administration’s confirmations that President Trump will fully pardon those in Mr. Peterson’s position on his first day in office on January 20, 2025. Thus, his scheduled sentencing hearing before this Court on January 27, 2025 will likely be rendered moot,” Bullotta wrote.

Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, whom he exalted as “patriots,” “warriors” and “hostages.”

The president-elect said during a Dec. 8 interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” that he’s “going to be acting very quickly” to pardon the defendants on day one — though he indicated he might make exceptions “if somebody was radical, crazy.”

During that interview, Trump also threatened imprisonment for former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and current Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who together oversaw the congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Peterson pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, for which he faces up to one year in prison, plus a fine.

As part of the plea, he agreed to pay $500 in restitution toward the estimated $2.8 million in damages to the Capitol, according to court filings. Peterson also agreed to hand over to authorities access to all of his social media communication on and around the date of the riot.

Approximately 1,572 people faced federal charges following the attack on the Capitol that stopped Congress for hours from certifying the 2020 presidential election victory for Joe Biden.

Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence evacuated to secured locations within the Capitol as rioters assaulted roughly 140 police officers and vandalized several parts of the building, including lawmakers’ offices.

Peterson is among the 996 defendants who pleaded guilty to charges, according to the latest Department of Justice data.

Peterson appeared on both surveillance video from inside the Capitol and publicly available third-party video taken outside the building during the riot, according to a statement of offense signed by Peterson on Oct. 29.

Peterson, in a pink t-shirt over a dark hooded sweatshirt, stood among the crowd of rioters outside the locked Rotunda doors “as the building alarm audibly blared from within the Capitol building,” according to the statement.

Further, the court filing states Peterson entered the building at 3:03 p.m. Eastern and “walked right by a police officer posted at the doors.”

While inside the Rotunda, where several U.S. Capitol Police were present, Peterson took cell phone photos. He exited the building at 3:11 p.m., but remained on the Capitol’s restricted Upper West Terrace afterward, according to the statement.

Peterson was arrested in early August and originally faced a total of four charges that included disorderly conduct and parading, picketing and demonstrating inside the Capitol.

Last updated 4:39 p.m., Dec. 19, 2024

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

WASHINGTON — Consequences for President-elect Donald Trump’s guilty conviction in a New York state case will be years away, as prosecutors signaled they will not oppose suspending the lawsuit while the incoming 47th president carries out his four years in the Oval Office.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote Tuesday that he will fight Trump’s request to toss the case altogether. But Bragg said he will not get in the way of a stay, or pause, on the proceedings.

“Given the need to balance competing constitutional interests, consideration must be given to various non-dismissal options that may address any concerns raised by the pendency of a post-trial criminal proceeding during the presidency, such as deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term,” Bragg wrote in a memo that had been due Tuesday to New York Judge Juan Merchan.

Bragg requested that motions be due Dec. 9. Trump still has a criminal sentencing date on the calendar for Nov. 26, unless Merchan orders otherwise.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung declared “a total and definitive victory” in a statement issued shortly after Bragg’s letter became public.

“The Manhattan DA has conceded that this Witch Hunt cannot continue. The lawless case is now stayed, and President Trump’s legal team is moving to get it dismissed once and for all,” said Cheung.

History-making conviction

Trump, the first former president to become a convicted felon, was found guilty in May of 34 felonies for falsifying business records related to paying off porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election to hide a decade-old sexual encounter with her at a Lake Tahoe golf club.

The likely delay of Trump’s sentencing while he serves as president brings to a close, if temporarily, the only one of Trump’s criminal cases that went to trial.

The case, brought by Bragg’s office, was among four criminal cases the then-former president faced as he campaigned to again occupy the Oval Office. Trump also faced several civil lawsuits and now stares down roughly half a billion dollars in damages for committing fraud, defamation and sexual abuse.

As Trump readies to take the oath of office in just two months, U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith’s office is also winding down its two federal cases against Trump, as the department does not prosecute sitting presidents.

The federal cases include fraud and obstruction charges stemming from Trump’s actions to undermine his 2020 election loss, which culminated in a violent attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The other case, appealed by Smith after a federal judge tossed it, revolved around charges that the then-former president unlawfully took and stockpiled classified documents at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate upon leaving the White House.

Not the first delay in NY

Each of the 34 class E felonies Trump is convicted of carries a penalty of up to four years, according to the New York penal code.

Trump’s sentencing date was twice delayed. Merchan granted Trump’s request in September to delay the criminal sentencing until after November’s presidential election.

Merchan had already delayed Trump’s initial July sentencing date following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ordering that former presidents are immune from criminal charges for core constitutional duties, and presumed immune for other actions while in office. The court’s opinion also brought into question what types of evidence can be admitted in criminal cases against former presidents.

Trump asked Merchan to “set aside” the guilty verdict almost immediately after the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. Merchan has yet to rule on the motion.

New York prosecutors and Trump’s defense team on Nov. 12 jointly asked Merchan to delay all proceedings while the prosecutors decide if and how their case would proceed following Trump’s election victory.

Last updated 1:39 p.m., Nov. 19, 2024

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.

WASHINGTON — Two days before a key meeting with President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump has not yet signed the necessary paperwork to unlock resources for a smooth transfer of power from one presidential administration to another.

Trump’s transition spokesperson Brian Hughes told States Newsroom Monday that “The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act.”

“We will update you once a decision is made,” Hughes said in a statement.

Biden will host Trump at the White House late Wednesday morning, according to his public schedule.

One of the agreements in question includes a memorandum of understanding between the Trump-Vance transition and the U.S. General Services Administration for office space, information technology services, and staff assistance, as outlined in the 2010 update to the Presidential Transition Act of 1963.

The services are available to the president-elect, and to major presidential candidates following nominating conventions, but come with financial disclosure requirements and a contribution cap of $5,000 on transition-related donations from any one person or organization.

The other is an MOU with the White House, negotiated by the incumbent and president-elect, to establish an ethics plan pertaining to members of the transition team and information sharing, including national security matters. The due date was Oct. 1.

‘Peaceful and orderly’ transition urged

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team’s co-chairs Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, both major campaign donors.

“So we’re going to leave that line of communications open. We’re going to be helpful here. We want to have an effective, efficient transition of power,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden said Thursday from the White House Rose Garden that a “peaceful and orderly transition” is what “the American people deserve.”

The transition memoranda are available online, and the public can view the agreements filed in September by Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee who ultimately lost to Trump.

Raskin calls on Trump to act

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, called on Trump’s campaign in October to complete the paperwork.

“Breaking the precedent set by every other presidential candidate since 2010, you have rejected these resources and refused to commit to a smooth transition,” Raskin wrote in an Oct. 23 letter.

The Maryland Democrat surmised in the letter that the Trump team’s paperwork delinquency “may be at least partially driven” by an attempt to skirt the financial disclosure and limit rules.

“With fewer than three weeks left until an election in which the American people will select a new President of the United States, I urge you to put the public’s interest in maintaining a properly functioning government above any personal financial or political interests you may perceive in boycotting the official transition law and process,” Raskin wrote.

In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration filed a 1,021-page transition-related donation and expense disclosure.

Last updated 5:25 p.m., Nov. 11, 2024

New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and X.

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump promised “America’s new golden age” of closed borders and world peace as he rallied a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden in his home city in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential contest against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump headlined the over six-hour rally that featured nearly 30 speakers, some of whom insulted Latinos and attacked Democratic nominee Harris over her race, and he vowed “to make America great again, and it’s going to happen fast.”

“It is called America first, and it is going to happen as no one has ever seen before,” Trump said, adding “We will not be overrun, we will not be conquered. We will be a free and proud nation once again. Everyone will prosper.”

But the event also generated intense criticism from Democrats for remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke during the afternoon hours ahead of Trump and called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.”

The joke could prove politically problematic for Republicans, who have been courting the Latino vote, and particularly in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans live.

The United States is home to 5.6 million Puerto Ricans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data, and about 8% of them live in Pennsylvania.

Hinchcliffe, who hosts a podcast called “Kill Tony,” also said Latinos “love making babies” and made a lewd joke about them.

Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, whose state is also home to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans, on X wrote, “It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”

Democrats brought in U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is Puerto Rican, and the vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, to blast the joke. “When you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico floating garbage … that’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them,” she said.

Harris on Sunday in Philadelphia laid out a new policy proposal focused on Puerto Rico.

The former president’s 80-minute speech mostly featured his standard campaign promises and stories, though he added a proposal to his list of tax breaks — a benefit for those caring for sick or aging relatives in their homes. Harris also introduced a policy for at-home care for seniors earlier in October.

Trump repeated his popular pledges to “get transgender insanity the hell out of our schools,” “stop the invasion” at the border and restore peace to Ukraine and the Middle East, which he claims would have never become war-torn had he been in office.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told the crowd his time campaigning around the country for Trump has revealed “something very powerful out there happening among the base.”

“I’m telling you, there’s an energy out there that we have not seen before,” Johnson said.

NYC stop a detour

Trump held the rally nine days before polls close on Nov. 5. Nearly 42 million Americans have already voted early, in person or by mail, in more than two dozen states, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early voting tracker.

Trump’s New York stop detoured from the seven battleground states in this election’s spotlight — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. His campaign also announced on Sunday two upcoming stops in New Mexico and Virginia during the contest’s final week.

Still, both candidates once again hit Pennsylvania over the weekend, with Trump delivering remarks Saturday at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, and Harris spending Sunday rallying a crowd in Philadelphia.

Harris spoke to the press in Philadelphia, a city she described as “a very important part of our path to victory.”

“I’m feeling very optimistic about the enthusiasm that is here and the commitment that folks of every background have to vote and to really invest in the future of our country,” Harris told reporters.

The vice president criticized Trump for using “dark and divisive language,” including his comments this week that America is the “garbage can of the world.”

“I think people are ready to turn the page,” she said.

Tucker Carlson goes after Harris

Numerous speakers attacked Harris’ record — a standard feature of political rallies — but some comments invoked her race. Trump’s childhood best friend, David Rem, clutched a crucifix and told the crowd Harris is the “antichrist.”

Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson described Harris as a “Somoan Malaysian low IQ former California prosecutor” as he was spinning a scenario in which the Democrats reflect on their candidate post-election.

“Donald Trump has made it possible for the rest of us to tell the truth about the world around us,” Carlson said earlier in his speech.

Harris’ mother was Indian, and her father is Jamaican. Trump has previously questioned her race during his interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.

Carlson, who was fired by Fox News in April 2023, accused Democrats of telling “lies,” and said in a mocking voice, “Jan. 6 was an insurrection, they were unarmed, but it was very insurrection-y.”

The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 by thousands of Trump supporters came after months of the former president refusing to concede the 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden won.

Twenty-eight speakers preceded Trump, beginning at just after 2 p.m. and holding court until the former president took the stage at 7:13 p.m. Trump’s wife, Melania, in a rare campaign rally appearance, introduced him and spoke briefly.

The lineup included the founder of Death Row Records, TV personality Dr. Phil and pro wrestling’s Hulk Hogan and Dana White — some of whom spoke at July’s four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose super PAC has flooded more than $75 million into the campaign, was among the cast of speakers.

Musk told the crowd to vote early and that he wants to see a “massive crushing victory.”

“Make the margin of victory so big that you know what can’t happen,” he said, referring to debunked claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Focus on NYC

The day was heavy on the mystique of New York and Trump’s ties to it. New York City is not only where Trump grew up and followed his father’s path into real estate, but now also where he was convicted in May in a Manhattan court on 34 state felony counts for a hush money scheme involving a porn star.

A vendor hawking campaign gear to supporters waiting to enter Madison Square Garden Sunday morning advertised a hat that read “I’m voting for the convicted felon.”

Several speakers credited Trump with changing the New York City skyline. The 58-story Trump Tower stands on 5th Avenue in midtown Manhattan, among his other real estate holdings on the island.

“New York City made Donald Trump, but Donald Trump also made New York City,” said Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Howard Lutnick, chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of the Trump campaign’s “transition team,” told the story of losing just over 650 of his employees in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001 masterminded by known terrorist Osama bin Laden.

“We must elect Donald J. Trump president because we must crush jihad,” Lutnick said.

Lutnick bantered with Musk on stage, estimating the pair could possibly cut $2 trillion in federal spending under a second Trump administration. Trump has chosen the duo to lead a commission on government efficiency if elected.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who took a leading role in spreading Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, received a standing ovation from the full arena.

He accused Biden and Harris of spreading “socialism, fascism and communism.”

Giuliani, a major player in Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election, appeared at the rally just days after a federal judge in New York ordered him to surrender his apartment and valuables to election workers in Georgia whom he was found guilty of defaming.

Giuliani, along with a handful of other speakers, also implied that Democrats are responsible for the two assassination attempts on Trump.

“I’m not gonna do conspiracy,” Giuliani said, “but it’s funny that they tried to do everything else, and now they’re trying to kill him.”

The accusation was a theme throughout the daylong event. Speaker after speaker implied or outright blamed Democrats for the two attempts on Trump’s life, never mentioning the perpetrators. The gunman in the first attempt was killed by law enforcement, and the second, who never fired at Trump, has been charged in Florida; neither has been found to have ties to Democrats.

Trump focused some of his comments on New York City, referencing his childhood and adding that he felt sympathy for the city’s indicted Mayor Eric Adams.

The rally ended, not with Trump’s signature closer “YMCA” by the Village People, but with a live rendition of “New York, New York” by Christopher Macchio.

New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and X.

WASHINGTON — As an exceedingly bitter, tight and dark campaign for the presidency moves into its last moments, apprehensive election officials and experts warn Election Day is only the first step.

The closing of the polls and end of mail-in voting kick off a nearly three-month process before the next president of the United States is sworn in on Inauguration Day in January. New guardrails were enacted by Congress in 2022 to more fully protect the presidential transition, following the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters and a failed scheme to install fake electors.

But even before that shift to a new chief executive begins, a presidential victor is unlikely to be announced election night or even the following day.

It’s a result that will possibly take days to determine, given tight margins expected in seven swing states. Officials needed four days to count all the votes to determine President Joe Biden the victor of the 2020 presidential election.

In states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the law does not allow that process to begin for millions of mail-in ballots until Election Day. Other states allow pre-processing of ballots.

Trey Grayson, Kentucky’s former Republican secretary of state, said ballot authentication could be on different timelines across the country after voting ends on Election Day.

“We have 50 states, plus D.C., that pretty much all do it differently,” Grayson, who served as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, told reporters Friday on a call of bipartisan former state election officials who are working to explain the process to the public.

It could mean “in a very close election that we don’t know on election night who the president is or who controls the House or the Senate, but we should feel confident over the next couple of days, as we work through that, that we’re going to get there,” he said.

Lawsuits and potential recounts

Those delays, which former President Donald Trump seized on to spread the baseless lie that the election was stolen from him, are expected again in November, especially as all eyes will be on the battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Additionally, there already are hundreds of pre-election lawsuits, mainly filed by Republicans, ranging from election integrity challenges to accusations of noncitizens allowed to vote in federal elections — something that rarely happens and is already illegal. The legal challenges could further spark delays.

“We will not have a winner on election night most likely and so we need to be able to prepare the public for this,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the president and CEO of the democracy watchdog group Common Cause, during a Tuesday briefing.

She added that her organization will focus on combating misinformation and disinformation on election night and beyond.

“There is the potential that somebody could claim the win before … all of the votes have been counted,” she said.

In the early morning hours after Election Day in 2020, before results from key states were determined, Trump falsely claimed he won in an address at the White House.

On top of that, experts say this year could see election denial erupting in countless courtrooms and meeting rooms in localities and the states, as well as across social media, if doubts are sown about the results.

Recounts could also delay an official election result, and the laws vary from state to state.

For example, in Pennsylvania, if a candidate demands a recount, three voters from each of the over 9,000 precincts have to petition for a recount.

“We’ve never seen that happen actually in Pennsylvania,” Kathy Boockvar, the commonwealth’s former Democratic secretary of state, said on Friday’s call with reporters.

An automatic statewide recount is triggered in Pennsylvania if there’s a difference of a half percent of all votes cast for the winner and loser. The final recount results, by law, are due to the secretary of state by Nov. 26, and results would be announced on Nov. 27, Boockvar said.

The margin in Pennsylvania’s 2020 results for the presidential election was between 1.1% and 1.2%, not enough to trigger the automatic recount, Boockvar said.

Taking out the shrubs

State election officials have been preparing for the past year to train poll workers to not only run the voting booths but for possible violence — a precaution put in place after the 2020 election — and have beefed up security around polling locations.

On Friday, Trump posted on X that the election “will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

A reporter asked Grayson about the possibility of aggression from poll watchers. The Republican National Committee announced in April a “historic move to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process,” establishing party-led trainings for poll watchers.

Poll watchers are not a new concept, and Grayson said clear “safeguards” are in place.

“If you’re intimidating, you’re gone. There’s clear laws in every state on that,” he said.

Celestine Jeffreys, the city clerk in Green Bay, Wisconsin, said during a Wednesday roundtable with election workers that the city has an Election Day protocol in place that includes everything from blocking off streets to City Hall to getting rid of shrubbery.

“We have actually removed bushes in front of City Hall” to ensure no one can be concealed behind them, she said. In the second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this year, a gunman hid in bushes outside Trump’s private golf course.

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said during a Tuesday briefing she is focused on the physical safety of election officials.

During the event with the National Association of Secretaries of State, she said such safety is not only a priority during voting but when officials move to certify the state’s election results in December.

“We have all been spending a lot more time on physical security and making sure that our election officials at all levels are more physically secure this year,” Toulouse Oliver said. “And of course, you know when our electors meet in our states, you know, ensuring for the physical security of that process and those individuals as well.”

On Dec. 17, each state’s electors will meet to vote for the president and vice president. Congress will vote to certify the results on Jan. 6.

“We are thinking a lot more about this in 2024 than we did in 2020, but I think that each one of us… have a playbook in mind for how to handle any unanticipated eventualities in the certification process,” she said.

It’s a security precaution that the U.S. Secret Service is also taking.

For the first time, Congress’ certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6 has been designated a National Special Security Event, something that is usually reserved for Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

The 2020 experience

In 2020, The Associated Press did not call the presidential election for Biden until 11:26 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 — roughly three-and-a-half days after polls closed. The AP, as well as other media organizations, project election winners after local officials make initial tabulations public.

Those tallies are then canvassed, audited and certified, according to each state’s legal timeline. Recounts may also extend the timeline before final certification.

The vote totals reported in Pennsylvania — a state that carried 20 Electoral College votes in 2020 — put Biden over the top for the 270 needed to win the presidency.

Trump refused to concede the race, and instead promised to take his fight to court.

For the next two months, Trump and his surrogates filed just over 60 lawsuits challenging the results in numerous states. Ultimately none of the judges found evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The next step was for Congress to count each state’s certified slate of electors, which by law, it must do on the Jan. 6 following a presidential election.

However, in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, Trump and his private lawyers worked to replace legitimate slates of electors with fake ones, according to hundreds of pages of records compiled by a special congressional investigation, and by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to block ratification of the Electoral College’s vote at the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, because the vice president’s role in the certification of electoral votes was not exactly clear in the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

Pence ultimately refused.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 following a “Stop the Steal” rally at The Ellipse park, south of the White House, where Trump told the crowd “We will never concede.”

The mob assaulted police officers, broke windows to climb inside and hurled violent threats aimed at elected officials, including the desire to “hang” Pence. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged by the Department of Justice.

Congress stopped its process of reviewing the state electors in the 2 p.m. Eastern hour as police ushered the lawmakers to safety. The joint session resumed at roughly 11:30 p.m., and Pence called the majority of electoral votes for Biden at nearly 4 a.m. on Jan. 7.

New law on presidential transition

To deter another Jan. 6 insurrection, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transitional Improvement Act of 2022 as part of a massive appropriations bill.

The Electoral Count Reform Act codifies into law that the vice president, who also serves as the president of the U.S. Senate, only ceremoniously reads aloud a roll call of the votes.

Most notably, the provision raises the threshold for lawmakers to make an objection to electors. Previously, only one U.S. House representative and one U.S. senator would need to make an objection to an elector or slate of electors.

But under the new law, it would take one-fifth of members to lodge an objection and under very specific standards — 87 House members and 20 senators.

The Electoral Count Reform Act also identifies that each state’s governor is the official responsible for submitting the state’s official document that identifies the state’s appointed electors, and says that Congress cannot accept that document from any official besides the governor, unless otherwise specified by the state’s law.

Trump and his allies tried to replace legitimate slates of electors in several states with fake electors who would cast ballots for Trump.

The Presidential Transitional Improvement Act provides candidates with funding and resources for transitional planning, even if a candidate has not conceded after the election.

There are already issues with the transition of power. The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, sent a Wednesday letter to Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, urging them to sign documents to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

“With fewer than three weeks left until an election in which the American people will select a new President of the United States, I urge you to put the public’s interest in maintaining a properly functioning government above any personal financial or political interests you may perceive in boycotting the official transition law and process,” Raskin wrote.

Denial expected at all levels of government

Experts warn the effort to delay certification of the vote is largely being fought at the local and state levels, and that several groups are gearing up to sow doubt in the election outcome.

Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, said on a press call Wednesday that since 2020, “election denial has shifted away from the capital to county election commission meetings, courtrooms, cyber symposiums and countless conspiracies in preparation for a repeat this November.”

“This time, the baseless claim that undocumented immigrants are somehow swamping the polls has fueled the ‘big lie’ machine,” Burghart said.

Boockvar said the noncitizen topic is not new.

“I’d like to level set and remind everyone that it’s been illegal at the federal level since 1996 and you know, when you think back on 2002 the Help America Vote Act basically required voters to provide ID when they register, which is usually a driver’s license or a Social Security number, and states are checking that data against the DMV database. And these protections are enormously successful,” Boockvar said.

In two high-profile cases, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Republican-led efforts in Alabama and Virginia to purge voter rolls after alleging thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote. Both states were ordered to stop the programs and reinstate voters – though Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin promised Friday to appeal and even escalate to the Supreme Court.

In Georgia, the state’s Supreme Court delayed new rules until after this election that would have required three poll workers at every precinct to count ballots by hand once the polls closed — essentially delaying unofficial election results.

More than 165 electoral process lawsuits across 37 states have been filed by both parties since 2023 leading up to the 2024 presidential election, according to a survey by Bloomberg of pre-election cases. The journalists found that more than half the cases have been filed in swing states, and challenge almost every facet of the voting process, from absentee voting, to voter roll management, voter eligibility and vote certification.

Republican and conservative groups have filed roughly 55% of the lawsuits, mostly aimed at narrowing who can vote, and overall most of the cases were filed in August and September, according to the analysis.

Courts threw out dozens of lawsuits claiming voter fraud in 2020.

Mai Ratakonda, senior counsel at States United Democracy Center, said anti-democracy groups have used litigation “to legitimize their efforts to sow doubt in our election system.”

“We’ve unfortunately continued to see this trend of filing lawsuits to bolster and legitimize narratives that our elections are insecure and laying the groundwork to contest results later,” Ratakonda told reporters on a press call Wednesday hosted by the organization, whose stated mission is to protect nonpartisan election administration.

Timeline of key presidential election dates

Nov. 5, 2024—Election Day

The voters in each state choose electors to serve in the Electoral College.By Dec. 11, 2024—Electors appointed

The executive of each state signs the Certificate of Ascertainment to appoint the electors chosen in the general election.Dec. 17, 2024—Electors vote

The electors in each state meet to select the president and vice president of the United States.Jan. 6, 2025—Congress counts the vote

Congress meets in joint session to count the electoral votes.Jan. 20, 2025—Inauguration Day

The president-elect is sworn in as president of the United States.

Source: The National Archives and Records Administration

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on Facebook and X.

WASHINGTON — Economists across the ideological spectrum raised doubts about the cost and workability of former President Donald Trump’s proposal over the weekend to exempt tips from federal taxes if he wins in November.

During a campaign rally Sunday in Las Vegas, where hundreds of thousands work in the hospitality industry, Trump promised service workers that they would no longer have to pay federal taxes on tipped income if the presumptive Republican nominee wins a second term.

The roughly 6 million tipped workers in the U.S., as of the latest data available from 2018, make up a small fraction of the country’s 150 million taxpayers, but campaigning on tax cuts for certain demographics is increasingly a top issue leading up to November’s presidential election.

“This is the first time I’ve said this, and for those who work at hotels and people that get tips, you’re gonna be very happy because when I get to office we are going to not charge taxes on tips, on people making tips,” Trump said to cheers at the rally.

Trump said he will “do that right away, first thing in office,” though changing the tax code would require an act of Congress.

Tax code due for update

Large portions of the sweeping 2017 tax law that Congress passed along party lines during the Trump administration are set to expire at the end of 2025, and lawmakers and advocates are already trotting out their priorities.

Tipped workers made an average $6,000 on top of their base wages in 2018, and together they paid about $38 billion in taxes on tips, according to the latest Internal Revenue Service figures. In 2018, the IRS collected about $7 trillion in overall taxes.

“In terms of the macroeconomic impact, it’s pretty small,” said Erica York, senior economist and research director at the right-leaning Tax Foundation.

“If you think of it in terms of what Congress is going to be debating next year, one of the big challenges that lawmakers are going to face is the revenue impact. Every dollar of tax revenue for one type of tax cut is $1 less for another type of tax cut. So it’s going to be a real exercise in prioritizing trade-offs across different policies,” York said.

Trump has vowed to extend all tax cuts enacted under his watch, but the cost of extending them over the next decade would reach $4.6 trillion, according to estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation and nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Trump’s proposal to tipped workers “smells more of campaign politics than a really well thought out and principled tax policy proposal,” York added. “And I think the elephant in the room for both candidates is that they haven’t fully addressed ‘what are you going to do about these huge expirations that are scheduled to happen next year?’”

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for further detail.

Incentivizing tipped work

Andrew Lautz, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center, said while tipped workers are a “small slice” of the tax base, “you’re talking about a potentially large chunk of revenue that you’re giving up on an annual basis,” depending on how the policy would be rolled out.

“Our current tax system is certainly not designed to treat all income equally, but this proposal, if it were enacted into law, would sort of add a new category of income that is not subject to tax,” Lautz said. “And you know what economic theory would say is that, all else equal, making that change would incentivize people to have tips which are not taxed under this proposal versus regular wage income.”

There is also the potential for “misuse,” he added.

“If Donald Trump is president again next year, and even if he’s not, but this proposal sort of catches interest from policymakers in Congress, it’s very well possible that this could be on the table,” Lautz added.

Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow at the left-leaning Tax Policy Center run by the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, said Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips is “unusual.”

“Because tips are a substitute for the wages and salaries that the rest of us get, and if you don’t tax tips, you’re basically not taxing tip workers (on) their wages, making it a tax advantage on their earnings. Those of us who don’t work in industries where tips are paid, we would not get the same tax advantage,” Holtzblatt said.

Minimum wage

Several localities’ wage laws allow employers to pay service workers hourly rates well below the federal minimum wage.

Holtzblatt said the “solution” is for localities to raise the minimum wage for service workers for multiple reasons.

“Tips are not always a predictable form of income,” she said. “And there’s a great deal of variation, the tips that the server gets at the top-notch restaurant are going to be very different than the tips the person in the diner gets.”

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign responded to Trump’s “wild campaign promise” by saying that Biden supports increasing the minimum wage and eliminating the tipped minimum wage, “a much bigger deal” than Trump’s proposal, a campaign spokesman wrote in a Monday email to States Newsroom.

Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has 60,000 members in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, said the organization has for decades “fought for tipped workers’ rights and against unfair taxation.”

“Relief is definitely needed for tip earners,” Pappageorge said in a statement over the weekend. “But Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and wild campaign promises from a convicted felon.”

North Dakota Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is expected to head to trial later this month after House Republicans impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday in a historic move against a sitting Cabinet member.

A special core set of impeachment rules that were last revised in the 1980s requires the body to consider resolutions containing impeachment articles that arrive from the House. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office said Tuesday night the Democratic-controlled chamber will take action when it returns from recess on Feb. 26.

Senators will be sworn in as jurors the day after House impeachment managers deliver the articles of impeachment, Schumer’s office said, and Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, will preside.

The House voted 214-213 to impeach Mayorkas on two articles of impeachment, on a second try after an earlier vote on Feb. 6 failed 214-216.

What does the Senate do first?

According to the rules currently on the books, the Senate must act in some way when the articles of impeachment are presented.

For example, senators can follow the already established rules, vote to make new rules or even take a procedural step to dispose of the impeachment resolution.

But just like the Senate’s regular standing rules, the body’s impeachment trial rules are not “self-enforcing.”

“That means that if the Senate doesn’t move to consider the impeachment resolution and have a trial, if they just ignore it, a senator could raise a point of order to enforce them and then the Senate would have a vote on that point of order to decide whether or not they were going to honor their rules,” said James Wallner, senior fellow at the R Street Institute and and political science lecturer at Clemson University in South Carolina.

“But if a senator didn’t raise a point of order, and they all just ignored it, then the Senate could just ignore the rules. Of course, in a situation like this, that’s unlikely to happen,” said Wallner, who writes a helpful blog on what happens inside the halls of Congress.

Wallner was the executive director of the Senate Steering Committee during the chairmanships of GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and the now retired Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

“The takeaway is … they have to act in some way,” Wallner said.

The House lawmakers appointed by Republicans as their impeachment managers for the Mayorkas trial include GOP Reps. Mark Green of Tennessee, Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Ben Cline of Virginia, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, August Pfluger of Texas, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming and Laurel Lee of Florida.

What will the trial look like?

Schumer has already put to rest the question of the Senate’s initial steps on the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

However, because the core set of Senate impeachment rules leave a lot of unanswered questions, senators can chart their own course on the once rare but now more common impeachment trials — for example, how witnesses will be called, when motions are due, and so forth.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The body came up with specific supplementary rules for how to govern the 1999 impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton, and for the two impeachment trials of former President Donald Trump, in 2019 and 2021, Wallner said.

As long as the Senate waits until the trial is formally underway, any supplementary rules can be adopted by a simple majority.

That will be key for the Democrats who only hold the majority by a slim margin in the upper chamber.

During the first Trump impeachment in 2019, Republicans in the Senate crafted “extremely detailed” rules for the trial, said Matt Glassman, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute, a Georgetown University-run program that offers courses about congressional proceedings to executive branch personnel and others.

The Republican majority decided “when the House would file their motions, when Trump’s team would respond to them, what dates this would happen, what times would this happen, when arguments would happen for these things, and then how much time would there be for questions, how much time was presentations by the House managers and by Trump’s team,” he said.

“And so it very tightly structured the trial, right. And it did not actually leave a lot of room for senators to sort of freelance and make motions,” Glassman said.

“The Democrats tried to amend this, to allow fresh witnesses to be brought in to be deposed or questioned, right, because they wanted additional evidence brought to bear, and the Republicans blocked those amendments,” Glassman said.

The option for a motion to dismiss can be included in the supplementary rules as a way to “short circuit” the trial, Glassman said.

What are Senate Democrats saying?

While Senate Democrats have not yet decided on their supplementary trial rules, Schumer’s office released a statement Tuesday night calling the impeachment vote a “sham” and a “new low for House Republicans.”

“This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans. The one and only reason for this impeachment is for Speaker Johnson to further appease Donald Trump,” Schumer said, referring to Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

As for a timeline, once the trial is underway the Senate’s core impeachment rules state that the chamber remains in session “from day to day … after the trial shall commence (unless otherwise ordered by the Senate) until final judgment shall be rendered.”

Glassman points out that the Senate “has routinely used unanimous consent to conduct all sorts of other business during impeachment trials.” The Senate can also structure its rules to make time for other legislative business, as needed, he adds.

A conviction in a Senate impeachment trial requires a two-thirds vote.

How rare is this?

The last Cabinet secretary to be impeached was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876. The secretary, a former Iowa state legislator, was known for throwing lavish parties on a meager government salary and was eventually found out for his corrupt behavior, which involved taking kickbacks.

According to Senate records, Belknap relinquished his post just before the House voted to impeach him, which technically makes Mayorkas the first sitting Cabinet member to be impeached.

Despite Belknap’s exit, the Senate proceeded with a trial.

Belknap’s unique situation of no longer serving in government but being on trial in the Senate anyhow was a topic of discussion as the Senate in 2021 conducted its impeachment trial of Trump after he left office.

Circumstances aside, impeachment and Senate trials are overall rare, Wallner said.

“They’ve only impeached a handful of people in the House. They’ve only had trials for a handful of people in the Senate. It’s just this is a rare power to begin with,” Wallner said.

“… And I mean, I think to the extent that it is becoming more common today, I think that’s the more interesting story, not so much (that it’s happening) to a Cabinet official, but more to how we conduct our politics.”

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.