The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: Blake News

Today in 5 Lines

• White House Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly encouraged President Trump to fire Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt last week, but Trump resisted.

• China’s government vowed to “counterattack with great strength” if Trump proceeds with plans to raise tariffs on an additional $100 billion worth of Chinese goods.

• The Trump administration imposed sanctions against several Russian government officials, oligarchs, and companies connected to them.

• Republican Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas, who announced in December that he would not seek reelection, abruptly resigned amid misconduct allegations.

• The U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1 percent.

Today on The Atlantic

• Don’t Forget About Police Shootings: Emphasizing policing as a way to address the problem of gun violence in America will only hurt the people suffering the most, argues Vann R. Newkirk II.

• ‘An Anomaly Among the Anomalies’: The vast majority of mass shooters are male, but Tuesday’s attack at YouTube headquarters was perpetrated by a woman. What do we know about female killers? (Tori Telfer)

• A Curious Paradox: Donald Trump is a historically dishonest president, writes David A. Graham, but when it comes to his core campaign promises, he’s continued to stay the course.

• ‘Speak Loudly and Carry a Big Stick’: The recent reshuffling of President Trump’s foreign-policy advisers in conjunction with the looming trade conflict with China, the deployment of the National Guard to the border, and the threat of the U.S. withdrawing from NAFTA suggest the start of a new era. (Uri Friedman)

Snapshot

What We’re Reading

Meet Charlie Kirk: Who is the young activist and founder of Turning Point USA, a youth organization promoting conservative ideals, and what does he want? (Joseph Guinto, Politico)

‘The ISIS Files’: During several trips to Iraq, New York Times reporters scoured abandoned ISIS offices and gathered thousands of internal documents. Here’s what they learned. (Rukmini Callimachi)

Take Me to Church: Evangelical leaders are planning to sit down with President Trump in June to discuss the upcoming midterms. “It is a concern of ours that 2018 could be very detrimental to some of the other issues that we hold dear,” said one faith leader. (Sarah McCammon, NPR)

‘Rallying Nation’: A new poll from The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation shows that one in five Americans have participated in political rallies or protests since the beginning of 2016. (Mary Jordan and Scott Clement)

Visualized

‘The Hell No Caucus’: These five Senate Democrats have emerged as the stiffest opponents of Trump’s nominees. (Elana Schor and Jeremy C.F. Lin, Politico)

-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey)