Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: Trump's negotiator-in-chief

Trump's negotiator-in-chief

Mar 13, 2025

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THE CATCH-UP

DEVELOPING: “A federal judge on Thursday ordered federal agencies to rehire tens of thousands of probationary employees who were fired amid President Donald Trump’s turbulent effort to drastically shrink the federal bureaucracy,” POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. “U.S. District Judge William Alsup described the mass firings as a ‘sham’ strategy by the government’s central human resources office to sidestep legal requirements for reducing the federal workforce.”

Probationary employees across DOD, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and the VA must be brought back on “immediately,” according to Alsup’s ruling: “The Office of Personnel Management, the judge said, had made an ‘unlawful’ decision to terminate them. … Alsup also lashed out at the Justice Department over its handling of the case, saying he believes that Trump administration lawyers were hiding the facts about who directed the mass firings.”

But but but: This may only be a temporary victory for the federal employees who lost their jobs, since the ruling “is almost certain to be appealed,” Josh and Kyle write.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff attends an interview.

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff landed in Moscow today to kick off negotiations on a ceasefire agreement. | Pool photo by Evelyn Hockstein

ALL EYES ON MOSCOW: Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow today ahead of a planned meeting tonight with Russian President Vladimir Putin “as the White House pushes the Kremlin to accept a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine,” POLITICO’s Csongor Körömi reports.

But even before the talks, Putin today “placed burdensome conditions” on any proposals, POLITICO’s Dato Parulava and Csongor Körömi report.

Said Putin: “We agree with the proposals to stop military actions, but we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of the crisis.”

That’s a not-so-veiled reference to “Moscow’s opposition to Ukraine’s NATO integration and Kyiv’s Western political orientation,” Dato and Csongor write, and risks being a real hurdle to a deal.

Though Trump has threatened severe sanctions against Russia if they do not comply with a proposed ceasefire, the Kremlin appears unmoved. In Russia’s first public response to the proposal, Putin’s top policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, announced on Russian television this morning that a 30-day ceasefire “is nothing other than a temporary time-out for Ukrainian soldiers,” WSJ’s Matthew Luxmoore reports.

Ushakov, who’s part of the Kremlin’s negotiating team, also said he’d “outlined Moscow’s opposition to a 30-day ceasefire to national security adviser Michael Waltz in a phone call Wednesday,” WaPo’s Robyn Dixon and Lizzie Johnson report.

The battlefield context: The comments from the Kremlin aide come as Russian officials claimed they had retaken a key town in their Kursk border region that has been occupied by Ukrainian soldiers for months, Reuters’ Mark Trevelyan and Lucy Papachristou report. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters today “there is no doubt the Kursk region will be liberated soon” from Ukraine.

About that other deal: Earlier this week, Witkoff was around 3,000 miles away in Doha, where he presented a revamped proposal to Hamas that would extend the fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire in return for more hostage releases and the restoration of aid to the Gaza strip, Axios’ Barak Ravid scoops. The proposal would push the ceasefire “until after Ramadan and Passover, which ends on April 20.” Qatari and Egyptian mediators are now waiting on a response from Hamas officials: “Hamas had rejected similar proposals before but they also want to avoid going back to fighting during Ramadan," one source said.

MISSED HIS SHOT: Just two hours before former Rep. Dave Weldon’s (R-Fla.) planned Senate HELP hearing this morning for confirmation as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House abruptly withdrew his nomination, Axios’ Caitlin Owens scooped.

Weldon’s withdrawal comes after several senators signaled concerns about his history of “anti-vaccine views, including an extensive record during his time in Congress of raising questions about the safety of vaccines and their potential links to autism,” POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn reports. And though the Florida Republican's views seemed relatively aligned with those of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, “Kennedy himself said Weldon wasn't ready” for the hearing, Owens reports.

In a lengthy statement, Weldon said that he was informed last night by a White House aide that his nomination would be withdrawn because he lacked the votes to be confirmed. The former lawmaker blamed the lack of support on the pharmaceutical industry: “The concern of many people is that big Pharma was behind this which is probably true,” he wrote. “The president is a busy man doing good work for our nation and the last thing he needs is a controversy about CDC … Hopefully they can find someone for CDC who can survive the confirmation process and get past pharma and find some answers.”

Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at birvine@politico.com.

A message from the American Bankers Association:

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ICYMI: At today's POLITICO Playbook's "First 100 Days" breakfast series on agriculture, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said that “with all of the chaos — chaos up, corruption up, costs up — I think it does create headwinds that make it very hard to work on a farm bill.” More from POLITICO’s Grace Yarrow

7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

John Thune is seen during a hearing.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters today that Republicans and Democrats have made initial contact about a possible way out of a shutdown. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP

1. SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN: With the threat of a full government shutdown looming at the end of the day tomorrow, “Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday morning that Republicans and Democrats have made initial contact about a possible way out,” POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney report. “Thune said in a subsequent interview that Democrats had not yet made a formal offer and that he had not spoken directly to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. ‘I think they're still trying to figure out what their plan is, what their path forward is,’ he added.”

2. POUR ONE OUT: In response to the EU’s retaliatory 50 percent tariff on American-made whiskey — which was itself a response to new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum — Trump this morning threatened a 200 percent tariff on all alcoholic products from EU member states, calling the organization “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World,” in a post on Truth Social.

Though Trump suggested that his tariffs “will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.,” NBC News reports that the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents alcohol makers in the U.S., called on Trump to come to an agreement with the EU over the impasse. “We want toasts, not tariffs,” said Council chief Chris Swonger.

Markets react: “After some early gyrations Thursday morning, the major U.S. stock indexes settled firmly in the red, with the S&P 500 approaching correction territory, almost 10% down from its all-time high in February. The tech-focused Nasdaq index was down 1.4%, now down more than 14% from is February high.”

3. SURVEY SAYS: Almost three-quarters of Americans view the current economic conditions in the U.S. as poor, 51 percent of the public “say they think Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions and just 28% that they have improved things,” CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta reports, citing a new CNN/SSRS poll. More numbers:

Then vs. now: The share of Americans “saying they expect the economy to be in bad shape a year from now is up 7 points since January, just before Trump took office,” CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta reports.

On the impact of federal government cuts: Fifty-five percent of Americans surveyed say they fear Trump’s cuts to federal programs will negatively impact the economy, and just over 50 percent say that they will negatively impact their own families or local communities.

4. PARDON ME?: “Representatives of President Trump’s family have held talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of crypto exchange Binance, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would put Trump in business with the firm that pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money-laundering requirements,” WSJ’s Rebecca Ballhaus, Patricia Kowsmann, Angus Berwick, Josh Dawsey and Caitlin Ostroff scoop. “At the same time, Binance’s billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao — who served four months in prison after pleading guilty to a related charge — has been pushing for the Trump administration to grant him a pardon, people familiar with the matter said.”

Among the people said to be involved in the talks for a potential deal is Steve Witkoff, though an “administration official denied Witkoff’s involvement and said he is in the process of divesting from his business interests. … Witkoff could also be a beneficiary if the deal goes through World Liberty Financial: Witkoff and his two sons are co-founders of the business, along with the Trumps.”

5. 2026 WATCH: A few different developments worth watching on the Senate campaign trail today …

In Illinois: Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, “who first took office in 2019, is quietly positioning herself for a Senate bid if [Sen. Dick] Durbin bows out, calling key Democratic figures to ask for support,” POLITICO’s Ally Mutnick and Shia Kapos report. “She and her team have made clear she expects [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker to be heavily involved financially.”

In Michigan: The news that Pete Buttigieg is forgoing a Senate bid in Michigan (scooped in this morning’s Playbook by Adam Wren) has set off a fresh round of maneuvering among Great Lakes State Democrats, with both Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow both heavily hinting at campaigns.

Meanwhile, on the GOP side, in a hypothetical race for the Republican nomination in Michigan, Tudor Dixon holds a 4-point lead over former Rep. and 2024 Senate nominee Mike Rogers, 40 percent to 36 percent, with 24 percent undecided, according to a poll out today by Donald Trump's pollster Tony Fabrizio. Her lead increases by 17 points among Republican voters who have a firm opinion. The full memo

6. OFFICE SPACE: Trump’s push to get federal workers to return to in-person office work isn’t going as smoothly as planned. WaPo’s Aaron Wiener and Hannah Natanson report that a new government-wide program that tries connect federal employees with offices where they can work has been full of glitches: “When [one CDC] employee entered her home address to find nearby offices, she was surprised to receive suggestions for a closed Subway sandwich shop and a self-storage facility … Another member of the team was directed to a post office.”

And more major space issues: With IRS workers expected to return to the office at the height of tax season, Wiener and Natanson report the agency is facing some major challenges to accommodate staff. In a new memo, IRS officials note they have “a shortage of more than 11,000 seats for returning workers, and it will cost more than $206 million to accommodate everyone. That’s in addition to the $88 million the IT department estimates is needed for upgrades across about 450 buildings.”

7. SCHOOL DAZE: “Democratic Attorneys General Sue Over Gutting of Education Department,” by NYT’s Hurubie Meko and Troy Closson: “The group, led by New York’s Letitia James, sued the administration in a Massachusetts federal court, saying that the dismissals were ‘illegal and unconstitutional.’”

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TALK OF THE TOWN

Markwayne Mullin is testing the Senate dress code rule on wearing hats.

PLAYBOOK LOCAL SECTION — Hundreds of D.C.-area teachers, parents and union members piled into Senate office buildings today for a “Recess at the Capitol” protest against the spending bill’s provision that would cut more than $1 billion from D.C.’s local budget, per WUSA 9’s Jess Arnold: “District leaders have warned that this would result in immediate layoffs and cuts to critical services like public safety, schools, and transportation.” A view of the crow crowd, per Martin Austermuhle.

NEWS FROM THE HOME FRONT: Felicia Schwartz is joining POLITICO as our new diplomatic correspondent with a focus on international security, defense and trade. She is currently a U.S. foreign affairs and defense correspondent for the Financial Times and is a Wall Street Journal and CNN alum. Full release

TRANSITION — Alex Cisneros is now a director at Invariant. He previously was a legislative director for Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) and is an Anthony Gonzalez and Carlos Curbelo alum.

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Norway Ambassador Anniken Huitfeldt's Arctic Cool party at the Embassy of Norway with a rock concert by Suspicious Package: President of the Norwegian Parliament Masud Gharahkhani, Polish Ambassador Bogdan Klich, Slovenian Ambassador Iztok Mirosic, Jeff Zeleny, Tim Burger, Josh Meyer, Christina Sevilla, Bryan Greene, Bob Hagemann, Steve Rochlin, Kevin Baron, Sharon Stirling, Clara Brillembourg, Stephanie Penn, Artur Orkisz, Maggie Dougherty, Gideon Lett, Chris Socha, Sarakshi Rai, Sissel Bakken, Evelyn Farkas, Riikka Hietajärvi, Glenn Simpson and Michael Mucchetti.

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