The Washington Roundtable discusses the fallout of the White House releasing, and then rescinding, a memo intended to freeze trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans. The incident, as well as this week’s Senate confirmation hearings for controversial Cabinet nominees such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Kash Patel, offers Democrats an opportunity to seize control of the narrative—if they can get organized, Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator from Rhode Island, says. “If what Democrats are doing is running around calling them chaotic and incompetent, that’s not going to win the day unless those charges are connected to actual harms happening to regular people.”

This week’s reading:

“Donald Trump’s Cabinet of Revenge,” by Susan B. Glasser
“Trump’s Orders Sow Chaos Inside the Nation’s Enforcer of Equal Opportunity,” by E. Tammy Kim
“Kash Patel’s Political-Persecution Fantasies,” by Tess Owen
“Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal Assistance,” by Atul Gawande
“The Junk Science of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,” by Clare Malone
“How Donald Trump Seizes the Primal Power of Naming,” by Jessica Winter
“Trump’s Attempt to Redefine America,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells

Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.

To discover more podcasts from The New Yorker, visit newyorker.com/podcasts. To send in feedback on this episode, write to themail@newyorker.com with “The Political Scene” in the subject line.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on What Democrats Should Do Next

The Political Scene | The New Yorker