Wednesday, March 19 | By Jonathan Easley

©  Greg Nash

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) is set to headline town hall events in Western states with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) beginning Thursday, as progressives outline a strategy for a “populist revolt” to fight back against President Trump.

Sanders’s rallies across the Midwest have drawn huge crowds, with thousands of supporters in small towns and rural parts of the country gathering to hear his message on lifting the working class.

Those events have been among the few bright spots for Democrats, who have largely struggled to land on a consistent message or united front against Trump during his second term. Polls show the Democratic Party’s brand is at a historical low point, while Trump’s approval rating is hovering near all-time highs.

Sanders adviser Faiz Shakir said he’s received countless questions from Democrats about how the 83-year-old is able to marshal such intense enthusiasm in surprising parts of the country.

“We’re living in an intensely populist moment right now: it’s not ‘left versus right,’ it’s 'very top versus everyone else’,” Shakir wrote in a new memo titled "The Populist Revolt Is Happening."

“Trump continues to outperform the Democratic brand because even while chaotically pursuing regressive policies and gradually sinking in the polls, he retains some populist appeal by showing open confrontation with political elites," the Sanders adviser writes.

"The Democratic brand is struggling because voters do not see Party leaders as 'top 1 percent versus bottom 99 percent' warriors; instead it is too often understood as focusing on anything but core economic issues.”

Shakir said he expects “more and more working class voters will become disillusioned” with Trump’s policies and that Democrats can recapture that support if they adopt Sanders’s “class-based economic fights that both decry the corruption of our political and economic systems and combine that with bold action.”

“Only then will the Party be given governing authority and popular mandate to do something about it,” Shakir wrote.

Sanders’s step back into the spotlight has predictably ignited questions about a possible third presidential run. But he told The New York Times earlier this year: “I am 83 years old. I do not think I’m going to be running for president.”

The first Democratic lawmaker has publicly called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to step aside following his vote to advance the GOP’s stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.

“I respect Chuck Schumer. I think he had a great, long-standing career,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) told constituents at a forum in his district. “But I’m afraid it may be time for Senate Democrats to choose a new leader."

Ivey at times faced anger from Democratic constituents who attended the town hall and demanded the party do more to stand up to Trump.

“You are too calm," one attendee said. "Show some fire like you’re trying to fight for the American people."

Schumer has been widely criticized by Democrats, who were spoiling for a shutdown fight.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) backed Schumer’s leadership, but made a cutting remark about his handling of the funding battle:

“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” she said.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), a billionaire and potential 2028 presidential candidate, called Schumer’s funding strategy “wrong,” but he urged Democrats against descending into a civil war.

“I do not think that Democrats should be jumping into internecine warfare,” he said in an interview with Semafor.

Democrats are making billionaire Elon Musk and his efforts to scale back the federal workforce a focus of their attacks, but a troubling rise in vandalism against Tesla vehicles and dealerships could complicate those efforts.

Tesla vehicles and showrooms have been set on fire or hit with bullets and molotov cocktails, The Associated Press reports, as vandals take out their anger at Musk through his flagship company.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this week that attacks on Tesla property will be investigated as “domestic terrorism.” 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the "despicable violence."

"We would like Democrats to also come out and condemn this heinous violence that we have seen," she said.

Musk is a prime target for Democrats on the trail as they seek to harness anger at a billionaire provocateur who is one of Trump’s top advisers.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who has been conducting town hall events across the country, joked at a recent event that he looks at the Tesla stock slide on his phone every time he “needs a little boost during the day.”

“$225 and dropping!” he said to big cheers.

Musk responded in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.”

“They basically want to kill me because I’m stopping their fraud,” he said.

Tesla’s stock has declined for eight weeks in a row as the brand has become more politicized.

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: Trump voters are starting to get burned by DOGE’s chainsaw.

• The Hill: No one wants a Gavin Newsom podcast — not even Democrats .

• The Nation: Democratic donors packed the house for an “actual billionaire.”

• Salon: Trump is still obsessed with losing to Biden.

• Planet Earth & Beyond: This is how Tesla will die.

Read more: 

• Distrust dogs Democrats as they prepare for battles with Trump.

• Democrats step up town halls amid rowdy GOP forums.

• Voters boo Nebraska Republican over Musk, Ukraine, tariffs.

• Democrats see lines of attack form against Trump on economy.

• Fight brews over Trump’s million-dollar campaign war chest.

• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell declined to lower interest rates after a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Powell warned that President Trump’s new tariffs will likely make it harder for the central bank to bring prices down.
  
  

• A judge said that Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University alum and green-card holder who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will have his case transferred to New Jersey.  

   

• Colorado regulators are issuing licenses for psychedelic mushrooms and plan to authorize the state's first "healing centers" later this year.

©  Evan Vucci, Associated Press

President Trump is escalating his feuds with the federal judges who have constrained his executive actions, as a flood of new court rulings block his agenda and new legal challenges hit the courts every day.

Trump doubled down Wednesday on his attacks against U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who temporarily paused his deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!," Trump posted on Truth Social.

And White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lambasted Boasberg during a press briefing.

“It’s very, very clear that this [is] an activist judge who is trying to usurp the president’s authority,” Leavitt said. “Under the Alien Enemies Act, the president has this power, and that’s why this deportation campaign has continued. And this judge, Judge Boasberg, is a Democrat activist.”

This comes despite Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebuking Trump a day earlier for calling on Boasberg to be impeached and removed.

Boasberg has accused the Trump administration of ignoring his order to return alleged Venezuelan gang members that were deported to El Salvador.

The Trump administration says the order came too late to stop deportations.

That fight will come to a head Thursday, with Boasberg extending a deadline for the Trump administration to turn over information about deportation flights.

The government is signaling it will not share the information with the judge, claiming state secrets privilege.

In an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Trump said he would not defy court orders.

“No, you can’t do that,” Trump said. “However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to look at what do you do when you have a rogue judge.”

The Trump administration has suffered a handful of other legal setbacks over the past 24 hours:

• A federal judge ruled that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) likely exercised unconstitutional authority “in multiple ways” in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development.

• A federal judge told the Trump administration that fired probationary workers must be returned to their old jobs, not just placed on administrative leave, as many departments have been doing.

• The U.S. Institute of Peace asked a court to block DOGE from dismantling the agency, saying it experienced a “literal trespass and takeover by force” by its personnel. 

• A federal judge indefinitely blocked implementation of Trump’s executive order barring transgender people from serving openly in the military.

• A federal judge temporarily barred the Environmental Protection Agency from clawing back billions of dollars given out under the Biden administration to help finance climate friendly projects.

• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sued Kari Lake and the Trump administration over efforts to defund the organization. 

• The American Federation of Teachers sued the Department of Education over the removal online of income-driven repayment student loan applications.  

💡Perspectives:

• The Liberal Patriot: Citizenship without partisanship.

• The Free Press: The illegal immigrants who love Trump.

• The Washington Examiner: Restraining judicial tyranny.

• The American Spectator: Chief Justice Roberts made a mess.

Read more: 

• Roberts rebukes Trump in latest twist of White House battle with judiciary.

• GOP lawmakers conflicted over Trump’s clash with judiciary.

• Colorado politicians decry arrest of Mexican immigration activist.

• Trump revisits playbook for taking down the judiciary.

• Pentagon aims to cut up to 60,000 civilian jobs through buyouts, attrition.

©  Greg Nash

President Trump said he had a “very good” talk with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and that a ceasefire deal with Russia is “on track.”

“We have never been closer to peace than we are today,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Zelensky agreed to a limited ceasefire that would put infrastructure and energy pipelines off limits for further attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Trump spoke with a day earlier, also agreed to those terms.

“One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it,” Zelensky said in a post on X.

However, Zelensky says Russia conducted an air strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure Tuesday that left thousands without power in Slovyansk after Putin had agreed to the limited ceasefire.

Ukraine has agreed to a full 30-day ceasefire, which Russia has so far rejected. Moscow says it wants the U.S. to stop sharing military equipment and intelligence with Ukraine before further talks take place.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz said they agreed to “share information closely” with Ukraine and would consider Zelensky’s request for Patriot missile systems and “additional air defense systems to protect his civilians.”

Rubio and Walz added that Trump raised the prospect of U.S. ownership of Ukrainian nuclear power plants as a means of deterring future Russian aggression. 

And Trump expressed interest in finding children who had been abducted or went missing during the war "to help make sure those children were returned home."

💡Perspectives:

• The Bulwark: The art of the bogus peace deal.

• The Hill: Sadly, Trump is right on Ukraine.

• Foreign Policy: America must rediscover the practice of statecraft.

• The Hill: No, Trump can’t void Biden’s pardons.

• The Wall Street Journal: Putin rejects the Trump cease-fire.

Read more: 

• Trump turns to deadly force in Middle East peace push.

• EU signals a new drive to break its security dependency on the U.S.

Someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up to get your own copy: TheHill.com/Evening. Did I miss a story? Drop me a line. See you next time!