• Epstein Files are coming: Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated last night that today will be the day for at least a partial release of the records of the, ahem, suicidal pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. She said there’s good reason for the delay — namely, that there are more than 250 victims, and their privacy rights must be protected. Still, she said, “What you’re going to see … is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information, but it’s pretty sick what that man did.” Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn has long led the charge for transparency, calling for the complete release of the files, including videos from Epstein’s Florida residence, the flight logs from his private aircraft, and the records of his partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell.

• SCOTUS sides with Trump: Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse have met with furious legal challenges from the Big Government Left. Still, Trump got some good news yesterday in one of those legal battles when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ruled on an emergency appeal from the administration that USAID could at least temporarily hold off on paying around $2 billion in aid work that’s already been completed. Roberts’s reprieve comes after a Trump executive order putting a 90-day freeze on foreign aid disbursements was ruled unlawful by U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, a Biden appointee.

• State Dept. finds 15,000 grants and $60B to be cut: Following an “exhaustive review” of the State Department’s grant program initiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, roughly 15,000 grants totaling $60 billion have been identified for elimination. The majority of these grants were found under USAID and were aimed at advancing leftist ideological agendas around the world. A State Department memo noted, “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safe? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” The Biden administration used taxpayer dollars to push DEI across the globe. That will now end.

• Pentagon spent millions on non-defense DEI: Say what you will about those $1,300 reheatable coffee mugs used on KC-10 aircraft — at least the money was being flushed down the toilet on behalf of our warriors. But as the Heritage Foundation’s Wilson Beaver reports, “Research and development spending in the Department of Defense contains large sums of money being spent on non-defense spending, ‘centers of excellence’ sponsored as pork spending by congressmen never requested by the Pentagon, and politicized initiatives like DEI and climate change.” On the bright side, with waste like this, it should be easy for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to cut 8% of its budget in each of the next five years.

• Healthcare price transparency: One of the most frustrating aspects of healthcare is the lack of clarity regarding costs. To address this problem, Donald Trump has signed an executive order mandating pricing transparency for healthcare. Unsurprisingly, hospitals and insurers oppose the rule, which Trump first issued during his first term. This new order directs the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services Departments to enforce his original order mandating that hospitals post their prices for common procedures. Trump stated that it is “one of the biggest things that can happen” to reduce the cost of healthcare.

• Illegal alien registry: Exactly how many illegal aliens are living in the U.S.? To answer that question, the Trump administration is looking to create an illegal alien registry. Anyone over 14 years old living in the country illegally has one month to submit their fingerprints and home address for the registry. Those who refuse to comply will face criminal charges, which could include up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The planned registry would not include migrants who have work permits or have applied for asylum.

• Shameless Tapper writes the book on Biden’s decline and cover-up: After having spent four years covering for the cognitively addled Joe Biden, CNN’s Jake Tapper now wants you to cough up $32 to buy his book about “President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” The book is titled “Original Sin,” but let’s be honest: The original sin was the lockstep refusal of Tapper and his MSM fellow travelers to report on what anybody could see as plain as day back in August 2020: Joe Biden was being propped up by the Democrats purely because he polled better against Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders did.

• A massive increase in China cyberattacks: The cyber firm CrowdStrike recently warned that it saw a massive increase in China-linked cyberattacks and digital espionage this past year. “The scariest statement that I’ve ever uttered, before Congress or any place else, is that after decades of investment into China’s offensive capabilities, they’re now on par with other world powers,” said Senior Vice President Adam Meyers. CrowdStrike’s annual report noted, “Decades of government investment into China’s cyber workforce and programs have yielded matured capabilities and efficiencies as well as an increasing number of new, specialized China-nexus adversaries.” Furthermore, the firm predicts that detecting and defeating China’s cyberattacks will get more difficult.

Headlines

• Trump administration orders agencies to plan for sweeping layoffs (National Review)

• Trump says Mexico, Canada tariffs will start March 4, plus additional 10% on China (CNBC)

• Trump reverses Biden-era agreement allowing oil giant to operate in Venezuela (Fox Business)

• House votes to cancel Biden EPA methane emission fee (Washington Examiner)

• Eric Swalwell discusses Capitol Hill sex parties, Ivanka Trump’s looks during lobbyist dinner (RedState)

• Pro-Hamas protesters seize control of Barnard academic building and assault college employee (NY Post)

• First phase of Israel-Hamas ceasefire concludes (Daily Wire)

• Humor: Here is the federal employee unions’ list of 10 demands to the Trump administration (Babylon Bee)

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