Damian Paletta

The Commerce Department took a major step to loosen its restrictions on the controversial Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp., signing an escrow agreement that paves the way for the firm to continue doing business with U.S. companies. The move came under pressure from President Donald Trump, who had told Chinese leader Xi Jinping he would help ZTE after the company was met with severe restrictions for violating U.S. sanctions.

President Donald Trump broke with decades of protocol and commented publicly about the highly anticipated jobs report data 69 minutes before they were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Treasury yields moved sharply higher within seconds of a tweet from President Trump that said he was “looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.” He had never issued such a tweet before. A federal rule from 1985 prohibits any federal worker from commenting on the jobs report for at least one hour after its release, though the Trump administration has breached that standar

Apparently, President Donald Trump has personally pushed US Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms to ship packages, a dramatic move that probably would cost these companies billions of dollars. Brennan has so far resisted Trump’s demand, explaining in multiple conversations occurring in 2018 and last that these arrangements are bound by contracts and must be reviewed by a regulatory commission, apparently.

President Donald Trump pledged  to help Chinese telecom giant ZTE return to business, days after the company said it would cease “major operating activities” because of the US government’s recent trade restrictions, a dramatic shift in tone for a president who has long accused China of stealing US jobs. “President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast,” President Trump tweeted. “Too many jobs in China lost.

President Donald Trump unveiled a budget plan that calls for a sharp increase in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens of long-standing federal programs that assist the poor, fund scientific research and aid America’s allies abroad. Trump’s first budget proposal, which he named “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” would increase defense spending by $54 billion and then offset that by stripping money from more than 18 other agencies.

While there are major cuts in President Donald Trump's "America first" budget, including a 16% cut in funds for the Department of Commerce, the document says the White House will continue to support the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), at least as far as "representing the United States interest at multi-stakeholder forums on internet governance and digital commerce." The budget also says it "supports the commercial sector’s development of next generation wireless services by funding NTIA’s mission of evaluating and ensuring the efficient use of spectrum by Government users." The budget did not break out cuts for the Federal Communications Commission, but they are part of a category that averages close to a 10% hit.

The budget would propose eliminating future federal support for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney outlined the President's budget in a conference call with reporters. Asked whether CPB's funding [$421 million] would be eliminated, Mulvaney shot back "yes" immediately, then finessed his answer a bit, but essentially only on a technicality. "No, I'm, sorry, I was too quick with that," he added. "We propose ending funding, but technically what you will see is it's elimination, but you'll see an amount of money in the budget necessary for us to unwind our involvement in CPB, but it will see a zero next to it; the policy is we're ending federal involvement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, met with a senior Time Warner executive in recent weeks and expressed the administration’s deep concerns about CNN’s news coverage, apparently. In a meeting at the White House, Kushner complained to Gary Ginsberg, executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications at CNN’s parent Time Warner, about what Kushner feels is unfair coverage slanted against the president.

The Trump administration’s hostile posture toward the news media, especially CNN, has been evident in the president’s own statements and those of his press secretary and top aides. While the administration is battling a large swath of the media, the fight with CNN has special intrigue because its parent company has a massive piece of business awaiting government approval: a proposed $85.4 billion sale to AT&T. Kushner and Ginsberg, who have been friends for a decade and whose discussion covered a variety of issues including Israel and the economy, didn’t discuss the merger in their recent meeting, apparently.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) had a rough time after he stirred a backlash among conservative Republicans with his quest to revamp the country’s immigration laws.

As if to make up for lost time, the freshman senator is now speaking out on foreign policy, education and the consolidation of poverty funding , among a range of other policy proposals he has floated in recent months.

He will lay out an expansive economic platform in a Washington speech hosted by Google and the Jack Kemp Foundation, which includes a wireless agenda of reallocating wireless spectrum currently controlled by the federal government and distributing it to private companies. This would be done through expanded federal auctions, with new incentives for agencies to participate. Sen Rubio says this will spur innovation, keeps wireless costs from rising, prevent dropped calls, and keep networks from becoming overwhelmed from growing Internet traffic.

[March 10]