The New York Times put out a statement this afternoon defending itself against President Trump’s latest threat to go after the publication in court for reporting on information in ways that he does not like. It is difficult to put into words how bizarre and out of touch with the basic principles and processes of journalism his beef is. The Times published a piece on Tuesday headlined: Paramount Board Clears Possible Path for Settling Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit. The story details the competing factors at play in the ongoing legal saga and CBS News’ parent company’s decision to work out a settlement with Trump, who sued CBS claiming it selectively edited a “60 Minutes” interview that Kamala Harris gave the network in the lead up to the election. The Times’ story explains that Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone favors settling with Trump because the upcoming sale of Paramount to Skydance will require approval from the Trump administration. The Times’ piece cites unnamed legal experts who “have called the suit baseless and an easy victory for CBS. But Paramount is entering the talks prepared to make a deal.” If you read the Times or any other form of journalistic writing consistently, you’ll recognize that kind of context from experts is a standard building block of a news story. It’s apparently what set Trump off too. In a Truth Social screed on Wednesday morning, Trump went after the Times and appeared to suggest the publication should be held liable for “interference” in his legal standoff with CBS News. He also said his legal team was looking into whether the Times’ had engaged in election interference as well. It’s hard to say what he is getting at here, but here’s the Truth Social quote: The Failing New York Times, which is Fake News both in writing and polling, claims that ‘people’ said that the case is baseless. They don’t mean that, they just have a non curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, possibly to the point where the Times’ interjection makes them liable for tortious interference, including in Elections, which we are intently studying. The Times should also be on the hook for their likely unlawful behavior. A spokesperson for the Times responded with a statement on Twitter shortly after Trump’s post, diminishing the latest threat to just another attempt to intimidate the press by the Trump administration. https://t.co/VhfssZdRjF pic.twitter.com/mRW6lrKu59— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) April 30, 2025 RonJohn’s With The House Hardliners As my colleague Josh Marshall noted, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Punchbowl this afternoon that he doesn’t think he can support the work Republicans in the House are doing to address the deficit, claiming that the federal spending cuts that the House is planning to make don’t go far enough for his taste. He has not spoken of this before. Trump and Republican leadership were able to convince a handful of House Republican holdouts to support the budget blueprint that ultimately passed the House, unlocking the reconciliation process, by telling them that the text of the resolution didn’t actually matter and that, essentially, they would find ways to reduce the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, maybe $2 trillion. Johnson told Punchbowl today that he needs to see that number expanded to $5 trillion: There are enough senators here that are insisting on returning to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending, which we’re not even coming close to in terms of what the House is working on. That will go nowhere here in the Senate. The administration has to understand that. Senate Dems Still Pushing For Ed Martin Confirmation Hearing Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin (D-IL) is still pushing for a confirmation hearing on President Donald Trump’s nominee for D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, who has continued his work this week in trying to distance himself from past extreme remarks and white supremacist allies. In an email to TPM, a spokesperson for Durbin’s office confirmed that the push for a confirmation hearing is ongoing. “Sen. Durbin continues to push for one,” the spokesperson said. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) also told reporters on Wednesday, citing his past remarks on January 6, that he is not comfortable voting for Martin. In a questionnaire from the Senate Judiciary Committee, reviewed by CNN, Martin once again distanced himself from his past remarks, saying that he did not “recall doing so” in response to a question about whether or not he compared a politician to Adolf Hitler, according to CNN. In a podcast episode from 2022, however, he called President Joe Biden “Hitler.” “There’s only one character on the world stage right now who actually is utilizing some of the techniques, maybe many of them that were used by people like Hitler and by Hitler himself, and that’s Joe Biden,” he said during that episode. This isn’t the first time Martin has tried to do some clean-up work in the wake of Democratic (and some Republican) opposition to his appointment as head of the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office, which he has already used in his interim capacity to threaten Trump’s perceived political enemies. He also recently failed to disclose almost 200 far-right media appearances he’s made in the last two years. Martin has also attempted to distance himself from his former praise of convicted January 6 rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who federal prosecutors described as a “white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.” — Khaya Himmelman In Case You Missed It New episode of the Josh Marshall Podcast: Ep. 371: 100 Days Of Suffer Yesterday’s Most Read Story What We Are Reading House Republicans block vote to probe Hegseth’s Signal use Jeffries Wants Dems to Put an End to the El Salvador Trips