Trump ends Columbia River deal years in the making
President Donald Trump's decision to exit a major settlement agreement in the legal battle over Pacific Northwest hydropower facilities and their impacts on endangered fish populations — and upend efforts to breach several dams in the region — drew praise from GOP lawmakers, but environmental groups, state officials and Democrats on Capitol Hill vowed not to abandon the deal's ambitions.
Trump signed a memorandum Thursday ordering his administration to withdraw from the $1 billion 'Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement' reached in late 2023 with the Nez Perce, Yakama, Warm Springs and Umatilla tribal nations, as well as the states of Oregon and Washington.
'It is essential to protect Americans' ability to take full advantage of our vast natural resources to ensure human flourishing across our country,' Trump wrote in the memo titled 'Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Generate Power for the Columbia River Basin.'
Advertisement
The legal agreement adopted by the Biden administration halted a long-running legal battle over 14 dams in the Pacific Northwest, putting the lawsuit on hold for up to a decade while the federal government and plaintiffs weighed options for boosting imperiled salmon and steelhead trout populations, potentially including the removal of some dams.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
7 minutes ago
- CNBC
Weather, war and protests threaten to rain on Trump's military parade
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's military parade here on Saturday — a celebration of the Army's 250th birthday that happens to coincide with the commander in chief's 79th birthday — comes at a time when American forces are supporting domestic deportation efforts and Israel's defense against Iranian missiles. The first such parade since Washington welcomed victorious U.S. troops home from the first Gulf War in 1991 — and an echo of similar extravaganzas following the Civil War and World Wars I and II — Saturday's affair will feature more than 6,000 troops, a procession of various types of armored vehicles alongside the National Mall on Constitution Avenue, and dozens of military aircraft cruising overhead. Trump, who relishes pomp, will have his own reviewing stand. But he runs the risk, literally and metaphorically, of watching rain drench his parade. Weather forecasts show a significant chance of precipitation and the possibility of evening thunderstorms. More substantively, the demonstrative show of American force will play out against the backdrop of Trump's inability to leverage U.S. power to fulfill campaign promises to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In a twist of timing, the long-planned exercises come the day after the U.S. began providing aid to Israel in shooting down Iranian missiles and days after Trump deployed National Guard and Marine troops to southern California to quell protests against immigration raids. Military parades have a long history in the United States, both at the national level and in local communities, said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia's Miller Center. "Humans are drawn to pageantry," Perry said, but she noted a difference between traditional military expositions and Trump's birthday version. "It's usually about the personnel," she said. "Now we know that this president has political issues all around the world, and wanting to show off the might. And if he views it, as in his first term, 'his generals,' and, if he views it as 'his military,' then you tie it to your personal special day of your birthday — that's what's different." Trump critics say he is exploiting the military to nurture his own ego — at a cost of as much as $45 million to taxpayers — and, as he claims sweeping executive powers, presenting himself in the manner of a dictator. For decades, Americans have associated heavily armed military parades with Cold War-era authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union and other countries. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also made that comparison this week and said he didn't think the parade was the best idea. "I wouldn't have done it," Paul said Tuesday. "The images you saw in the Soviet Union and North Korea, we were proud not to be that." That may help explain why most American adults are sour on the idea. New NBC News Decision Desk polling, released Saturday morning, shows that 64% of adults surveyed say they disapprove of the parade. Protests are planned in Washington and across the country, organized under the slogan "No kings." Trump, who promised to meet protesters with "very big force," has sought to rebut the notion that he is celebrating himself. "It will be a parade like we haven't had in many, many decades here," he said this week. "And it's a celebration of our country. It's a celebration of the Army, actually." Democratic lawmakers pushed back on Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was on Capitol Hill for a round of hearings this week, over their choices in how to use the military. "You are deploying the American military to police the American people. Sending the National Guard into California without the governor's request. Sending the Marines — not after foreign threats, but after American protesters," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told Hegseth. "And now President Trump is promising heavy force against peaceful protesters at his D.C. military parade," she said. "Those sorts of actions, and that sort of rhetoric from the president, should stop every one of us cold. Threatening to use our own troops — on our own citizens — at such scale is unprecedented, it is unconstitutional, and it is downright un-American." Ken Carodine, a retired Navy rear admiral, said in a telephone interview with NBC News that the parade is not just "a terrible idea" but one that many of the servicemembers may not be excited about. "Most of the guys that are involved in either organizing or participating in this thing, it's the last thing they want to be doing. But they can't say anything," he said, explaining that they must follow the orders of their superiors, right up to the commander in chief. "It's a stupid order," Carodine said. "But it's a legal order." Some Republican lawmakers, including those who routinely back the president's actions, said this week that they are not enamored of the idea of the display. "The United States of America is the most powerful country in all of human history," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Tuesday. "We're a lion, and a lion doesn't have to tell you it's a lion. Everybody else in the jungle knows. And we're a lion." Federal officials held discussions Friday afternoon about whether to move the start of the parade, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. after a day of festivities around the National Mall, to try to avoid the dangers and discomfort of possible thunderstorms. They ultimately decided to move ahead as planned. For Trump, it promises to be another moment of triumph, an exclamation point on the 2024 election victory that brought him back to the helm of the most powerful nation on the planet. But while the U.S. military has executed many successful missions in the years since Operation Desert Storm pushed Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991, the more memorable wars for most Americans are the drawn out engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. is not fighting any war abroad right now, and it is not coming off of any recent victory. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars, once supported by the American public, became unpopular over time as they cost the nation dearly in blood and treasure. The U.S. retreated from Afghanistan in 2021 — after 20 years — under an agreement negotiated by Trump and fulfilled by President Joe Biden. "Nobody had a parade for the kids coming back from Afghanistan," Carodine said. "That would have made a lot more sense than what we're doing tomorrow."
Time Magazine
11 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
31 Nobel Laureates Warn: The Signs of Fascism are Here
On June 14, President Donald Trump will hold a military parade to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. The Parade is also marking Flag Day, and his 79th birthday. The symbolism is undeniable. Critics have noted that the parade's unmistakably authoritarian flavor evokes Soviet theatrics more than democratic celebration, and accuse Trump of acting more like a monarch than a president. Trump's parade will also occur on the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Letter of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, published in Italy after Benito Mussolini seized power. The letter posed great personal risk for the signatories, which included scientists, philosophers, writers, and artists. Today, scholars from more than 30 countries, including 28 Nobel Laureates, are taking on the similar risks by signing a modern version of this letter which offers a similar warning: The signs of authoritarianism, and its more militaristic sibling fascism, are here. This is not hyperbole. We are once again witnessing the coordinated rise of authoritarian forces in global democracies. According to the V-Dem Institute's 2025 Democracy Report, 72% of the world's population now live under autocratic rule—nearly 3 out of 4 people. The world is lurching toward autocracy, with alarming speed. And this trend is not just occurring in the United States. Israel —long described as the only democracy in the Middle East—has recently seized humanitarian flotillas in international waters. Palestinians in Gaza are being bombed, displaced, and starved. In Hungary, freedom of the press and civil rights have been fundamentally denied for years. In India, religious minorities are experiencing rising violence and a sustained clampdown on dissent under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele is defying constitutional, political, and legal constraints. And in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is 'purging the judiciary, cracking down on the media, and jailing political opponents.' Across the U.S., masked officers are conducting immigration raids, detaining people of color in churches and workplaces. Protesters for migrants' rights in Los Angeles were met with Marines and National Guard troops. These scenes bear disturbing similarities to those from a century ago, and they should alarm us all. History offers a powerful warning In 1925, when Mussolini was solidifying his power grip on Italy, the philosopher Benedetto Croce authored the Letter of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, signed by cultural figures such as Luigi Einaudi, and Eugenio Montale. By then, it was already dangerous to dissent publicly. Yet Croce and his peers knew that silence in the face of tyranny is not prudence. It is surrender. As Italian citizens, we feel the responsibility of that legacy. Italy, which has yet to fully reckon with its fascist past, has served and continues to serve as a laboratory for the far right. That history compels us to speak up. So we wrote A Renewed Open Letter Against the Return of Fascism. In one month, it has been signed by more than 400 scholars who understand that being silent is to be complicit. The letter emerged as a response to the events of early 2025, when multiple authoritarian tactics were brutally deployed in the U.S. and beyond in a ' flood the zone ' approach, designed to overwhelm resistance. Prestigious universities, law firms, trade unions, and even elements of the political opposition capitulated or sought accommodation with power. Many clung to the illusion that silence might spare them. But we must reject the false promise of compromise. The pulsion of authoritarianism is to accumulate power, not to come to terms with the opposition. Ultimately, complying leads to complicity. Instead, we must name political aggression clearly: this new authoritarian wave bears clear fascist traits. These movements share essential elements: disdain for pluralism and diversity, fetishization of leadership, order and aggression, dismissal of the rule of law, and aversion to accountability. They thrive on our fear of calling them out. We must not sleepwalk towards the collapse of democracy The over 400 scholars who signed the letter do not agree on everything. In fact, they often debate theories, methods, and ideologies. But they are united in their commitment to democracy: the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the press, the autonomy of scientific and cultural institutions, and the dignity of every human being. They also agree on this: we are sleepwalking towards the collapse of democracy. We must convince people of conscience that masked agents abducting civilians without due process, the neutering of legislatures, the dismissal of international human rights law, and the erosion of judicial independence cannot be accepted. History teaches us that tyrants typically consolidate their power by mocking intellectuals. Then, they escalate through violence. However, we are optimistic that once we acknowledge the signs of fascism, we can defeat it again. Silence does not always stem from ignorance. Often, it grows from fear: of repression, of losing status, of standing alone. And beneath that fear lies a corrosive belief that resistance is futile. That we are outnumbered. That we cannot win. This is the lie that allows authoritarianism to spread, one silenced voice at a time. But history tells a different story. Authoritarianism can be defeated. Not by waiting it out, but through bold and united mobilization that speaks truth to power. When hundreds of scholars—many who have dedicated their lives to studying the fall of democracies—warn that fascism is returning, they are not being dramatic. They are being precise. We know what fascism looks like. We have seen it before. And we know we must all act now to stop it.
Washington Post
23 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Democrats engage in ‘treacherous' fight with Trump on immigration, protests
Democrats are trying to strike a careful balance as tensions escalate with President Donald Trump over immigration and street protests, issues on which Republicans have held a political advantage in recent years. Party leaders are anxious to tamp down scenes of unrest — dismayed at photos of Mexican flags being waved around burning cars that seem ready-made for attack ads — but also eager to tap into growing outrage over the Trump administration's deportation raids, deployment of the military on U.S. soil, and threats to arrest demonstrators and elected officials.
