Attorneys General Fight Back

4.23.25

Happy Wednesday evening and welcome back to Common Sense, your source for news and analysis on the circus that is American politics and entertainment.

Trump upset Zelensky won’t surrender Ukrainian territory despite U.S. signing treaty to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity… Trump may not be aware of this, but the U.S. signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 promising to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for the then-newly freed former Soviet republic giving up its nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Trump went on a rant today in which he called for the opposite of what the U.S. signed. CNN reports, “President Donald Trump slammed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday for his comments that Ukraine wouldn’t recognize Russian control of Crimea, calling the remarks ‘very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia,’ …he posted on Truth Social. His comments came a few hours after a meeting in London aimed at bringing about an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine had been downgraded after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he wouldn’t attend.”

Trump’s words blasting unions that don’t support him come to focus before federal judge likely to reject his union-busting executive order… Politico reports, “U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman appeared skeptical during a hearing Wednesday of the administration’s arguments that a little-known provision in federal labor law allows it to exclude several agencies from unionization rights because their work is primarily focused on national security… President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month purporting to end union contracts and public workers’ rights to collectively bargain with the federal government over their job terms and conditions. But the order relied on the obscure provision to strip rights from workers at a slew of agencies that aren’t typically engaged in military defense, intelligence or diplomacy. Trump’s order covers the departments of Agriculture, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services, among other agencies. Friedman, a Clinton appointee, added that Trump’s own words suggest that the true motivation was retaliation…”

Democratic attorneys general sue Trump over tariffs… NBC News reports, “Twelve states filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the legality of President Donald Trump's broad tariff agenda, arguing it unlawfully undermines Congress' constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce. The legal challenge, led by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, seeks to halt the enforcement of the global tariffs Trump levied that invoked a wartime law granting presidents the power to oversee trade if the United States is in a state of emergency. ‘By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,’ said the complaint Democratic attorneys general filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.” Question: Where is the Republican congress… The folks who have supported free trade their entire careers until Trump took office, now just letting the economy suffer. They have the authority to stop these tariffs but they’re afraid of MAGA’s wrath, so they do nothing.

Once a grifter, always a grifter: Trump’s MAGA worshippers freely give their money away for chance to have dinner with Trump… CBS News reports, “President Trump's meme coin, which had slumped 88% from its most recent high, got a boost Wednesday after its website invited the top 220 holders of the digital token to an ‘intimate private dinner’ with the president. After the dinner offer was posted on the $TRUMP meme coin website and X account, the value of the meme coin surged as much as $5.32, or 58%, to $14.32 on Wednesday afternoon. That gain only partially erased the meme coin's decline in value, which hit a peak of $75.35 on January 19 the day before Mr. Trump's inauguration. The dinner offer promises $TRUMP coin investors the opportunity to ‘Hear close-up, from President Trump, about the future of Crypto!’ Mr. Trump, who has vowed to turn the U.S. into the cryptocurrency capital of the world, has also pushed his own ventures into the realm of digital products, issuing everything from NFTs billed as "Trump digital trading cards" to a cryptocurrency platform called World Liberty Financial. RELATED: FBI says online scams on the rise… also per CBS.

Today’s Furry Friend

Ginger took a while to trust a human offering help. She gave her trust just in time for her 10 puppies to be born…

Today’s Buzz

Hunger Games is returning with ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ prequel – here are the lead cast members… The Hollywood Reporter writes, “Joseph Zada will play Haymitch Abernathy, with Whitney Peak playing Haymitch’s girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird. The prequel story is focused on fan favorite Haymitch, who later acted as a mentor in the Hunger Games to heroine Katniss Everdeen. (Woody Harrelson played Haymitch in the original Hunger Games films.) Francis Lawrence is back in the director’s chair for the film, while screenwriter Bill Ray is back to pen the story. The bestselling book of the same name (1.2 million copies sold in the U.S. during the first week of release) takes place in Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, when Haymitch competes.” The release is tentatively set for November 20 of this year.

Thank you for reading. Check back in tomorrow evening for the next edition of Common Sense.