Karoline Leavitt
Karoline Leavitt

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt survived her first briefing with the jackals of the DC press corps on Jan 28.

Unfortunately, that won’t be the highlight of the week for the 27-year-old pride of New Hampshire.

That came when she fired off a post on X, implying that Donald Trump’s plan to cut $3T in federal spending was going full steam ahead.

The release of the Office of Management and Budget memo that called for “a temporary pause of agency grant, loan and other financial assistance programs” triggered a public outcry and confusion about what programs were going to be cut.

OMB rescinded the memo on Jan. 29 to calm the situation.

That's when Leavitt dropped her X bomb: “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.

It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.

Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injunction.

The President's EO's on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

US district judge John McConnell took notice. He granted a request by 22 state attorneys general to stop the Trump administration from withholding essential federal spending.

He said OMB’s rescission of the spending pause memo was "hugely ambiguous” and irrelevant due to comments by the White House press secretary. "I can't believe I am saying this, but that's my read of a tweet,” said McConnell.

The X post is a rookie mistake by Leavitt. She has to understand that you can’t spin every loss into a face-saving victory. You gotta pick your fights.

Throwing Elon a big bone… Donald Trump has revived Ronald Reagan’s dream of a Star Wars missile defense system.

He points to Israel’s Iron Dome system that shoots down anything fired at Israel by Iran.

That’s a lousy comparison. The United States is 450 times the size of Israel, and the Iron Dome is incapable of handling ntercontinental ballistic missiles launched by Russia, China and North Korea.

Even if technically feasible, a US system would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The National Academy of Science in 2012 projected that “an austere and limited capability” space-based defense system would cost $300B.

That’s peanuts. Trump wants to go big.

Elon Musk’s Space X would head the line that would be feeding on the federal Star Wars trough. Space X currently has $20B worth of federal contracts.

Is Trump touting Iron Dome USA to rid the White House of the ever-present Musk? Could be.

There would be a lot of engineering field work beyond Washington for Musk in building Star Wars. That would keep him busy for the next four years.

Three years and counting. As the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, Physicians for Human Rights has documented the war on the healthcare sector.

PHR says Russia has made 1,582 attacks on healthcare facilities, infrastructure and workers since February 2022.

More that nine out of ten (92 percent) healthcare workers said their facilities have experienced power outages due to attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid.

That has forced surgeons to operate by flashlights, led to failure of life support systems, disrupted water flows, triggered patient panic attacks, and impeded maternal care.

The Russian destruction of the healthcare sector is designed to sap the morale of Ukrainians who are weary of the never-ending war, and to cement control over the civilian population in occupied Ukraine.

Trump’s plan to stop the war can’t come soon enough.

Quakers to the barricades… The nation’s oldest and perhaps the most prestigious congregations are taking on the Dept. of Homeland Security for its new policy of raiding places of worship in pursuit of illegal immigrants.

They filed a suit in Maryland federal court to stop the raids, contending they have sown fear within migrant-friendly congregations, cancelled services and violated First Amendment rights.

The plaintiffs include the New England Yearly Meeting, which is the world’s first formal association of Quakers, founded in 1661; and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, which traces in origin to 1682.

DHS chief Kristi Noem has been leading highly choreographed round-ups of migrants. She better stay away from Quaker meeting houses.