• Trump lowers some grocery tariffs: President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are being rolled back on some products. On Friday, the administration announced that certain imported grocery items, including coffee, beef, tomatoes, and specific spices, will no longer be subject to tariffs. Many of the tariffed items, like coffee, cannot be produced in the U.S. in sufficient quantities to meet demand. Framework trade agreements have recently been reached with Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina, which produce many of the tariffed items, possibly influencing Trump’s decision to drop them. Even the president was forced to admit that his tariffs likely increased the domestic price of these items, although he maintains that tariffs have been “borne by other countries” to a large extent. Democrats and the Leftmedia were quick to use the rollbacks to declare victory, though Trump supporters might say the tariffs served their purpose.

• Trump backs Epstein resolution: For months, Team Trump has played coy with the Jeffrey Epstein files, going from a promised big reveal by Attorney General Pam Bondi that revealed no new information to the Kash Patel-led FBI saying there are effectively no relevant files to Trump objecting to a Democrat House-led “hoax” to get all the remaining files publicly released. However, now that Democrats have gained the last vote needed to pass the petition, Trump has suddenly changed his tune. “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax,” Trump posted on social media over the weekend. It appears he may be engaged in a bit of rope-a-dope with the Democrats, getting them to back a move that may ultimately benefit himself.

• House attempting to repeal Arctic Frost provision: Contained in the Senate’s continuing resolution to end the government shutdown was a controversial measure that would allow Republican senators targeted in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation to sue the federal government for up to $500,000. When the House voted to pass the Senate’s new funding deal, Speaker Mike Johnson promised to fast-track a vote to repeal that measure after he and other House lawmakers raised objections. While a number of House Republicans agree with their Senate counterparts’ motivation to sue, they do not support doing so at the expense of taxpayers. Meanwhile, most of the eight GOP senators targeted by Arctic Frost did not know the provision would be included; furthermore, they do not plan to sue, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who said she “will support the effort to reverse it.”

• Immigration crackdown in Charlotte: Charlotte, North Carolina, was the latest Democrat-run city to be the focus of an immigration crackdown on Saturday. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin explained that violent criminal illegal aliens were the focus and that DHS law enforcement was surging to the Charlotte area. Mayor Vi Lyles said in a statement that the city stands with residents “who simply want to go about their lives.” The city is home to more than 150,000 immigrant residents. Nearly 100 arrests were made on Saturday, with the enforcement surge continuing. The next target for a DHS surge is likely to be New Orleans, Louisiana, in what may be called operation “Catahoula Crunch.”

• Trump administration ramps up pressure on Venezuela: Another drug boat carrying three narco-terrorists was destroyed on Saturday, with more than 20 such vessels now having been struck. On Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Cartel de los Soles, which Rubio claims is headed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, will be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. President Trump commented, “We may be having some discussions with Maduro,” adding, “They would like to talk.” If Maduro needs an incentive to talk, the massive force the U.S. has assembled in the Caribbean, including the largest and most advanced aircraft carrier ever built, the USS Gerald R. Ford, may provide it. Maduro does seem to be feeling the pressure, as evidenced by him bizarrely singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at a rally on Sunday.

• Exits from The Heritage Foundation grow: On Friday, another member of The Heritage Foundation cut ties with the conservative think tank over the ongoing fallout from Heritage President Kevin Roberts’s defense of Tucker Carlson and his having labeled conservatives critical of Carlson as a “venomous coalition.” Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason University, resigned his six-year-long visiting fellowship at Heritage’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. In his resignation letter, Mossoff wrote, “Instead of the truth, you have chosen a false friend of the American ideals that Heritage has represented.” Roberts has rebuffed calls to step down, even as the number of individuals and organizations cutting ties with Heritage continues to grow. The list includes longtime fellow Chris DeMuth, economist Stephen Moore, author David Bernstein, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, and seven member organizations of Heritage’s anti-Semitism task force.

• UVA’s woke land acknowledgment: The University of Virginia (UVA) removed a statue of Revolutionary War General George Rogers Clark in 2021. Brother to the famous William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, George Rogers was nicknamed the “Conqueror of the Northwest” and played a pivotal role in securing the territory that later became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a significant portion of Minnesota. Now, the park that will occupy the space formerly given to his statue will celebrate “indigenous stewardship practices,” the university has announced. Essentially, the park will serve as a “land acknowledgement” to the Monacan Indian tribe. UVA bowed to DOJ pressure in October and ended its race-based admissions policies, leading Americans to hope the historic university was done bowing to woke leftism. Apparently not.

• Princeton hit with data breach: A week after the University of Pennsylvania acknowledged that it had been hit by a cyberattack that gained access to its “vast, wonderfully wealthy donor database,” Princeton University confirmed that it too had been hit with a data breach. The Ivy League school noted that the exposed database “does not generally contain” sensitive information such as Social Security Numbers, passwords, or financial information, but it does contain personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, names, donation histories, and home addresses. “The database does not contain detailed student records covered by federal privacy laws or data about staff employees unless they are donors,” the school added. Princeton doesn’t know what information within the database was viewed or accessed. In UPenn’s cyberattack, hackers sent an email from the school’s account to roughly 700,000 recipients, criticizing the university and urging recipients to stop donating.

• An “Arsenal of Freedom”: Revolutionizing military contracting could be one of the biggest achievements of President Trump’s second term, if War Secretary Pete Hegseth can pull it off. Hegseth aims to “rebuild the arsenal of freedom,” noting the problems of overregulation, diffused accountability, and insufficient competition. “Every process, every board, and every review must justify its existence,” the secretary said. The Pentagon seeks to make faster, more flexible contracting the norm rather than the exception, and to give private companies priority in solving military problems. Hegseth admitted that part of the problem is the Pentagon’s unpredictable buying behavior, stating, “We will stabilize demand signals. We will award companies bigger, longer contracts for proven systems.” This will assure companies that expanding production lines will pay off. If this capitalizes on the recent influx of venture capital into the industry while also making the Pentagon more efficient, it’s a win-win.

Headlines

• FAA lifts order slashing flights (NY Post)

• New prosecutor takes on Trump’s Georgia election case after Fani Willis disqualified (Fox News)

• Hunter Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell settles $20M defamation case brought by IRS whistleblowers (NY Post)

• Massachusetts appoints trans activist to women’s commission (Daily Signal)

• U.S. approves potential $330 million arms sale to Taiwan (Reuters)

• China reports largest gold discovery in more than seven decades (Euro News)

• Chile vote positions country for right turn (WSJ)

• Humor: Scientific algorithm determines most oppressed person in history is Michelle Obama (Babylon Bee)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here.