| President Donald Trump’s visit to the Justice Department today carries a heavy load of symbolism. The chief US law enforcement agency was once, in Trump’s eyes, the heart of the “deep state” that had “weaponized” the law to prosecute him. Now it’s Trump territory. The prosecutors who had worked with Special Counsel Jack Smith investigating Trump over his actions following the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents have been fired. Senior officials at the FBI also were ousted. Trump used the occasion to deliver a campaign-style speech that included his list of longtime grievances and a vow that his purge isn’t over. He claimed a mandate from voters for a “far-reaching investigation” of what he called “the corruption of our system.” Some of those who opposed him “should go to jail,” he said. Led by Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, the department — along with other arms of the government — has been assigned with aggressively forging ahead on key tenants of the president’s priorities, including arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants and some legal residents as well as going after drug traffickers.  Bondi and Trump arrive at the Department of Justice. Photographer: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images Some of Trump’s decisions are testing the bounds of the law and are already, or are expected to, head to the courts. Officials in Democratic-run states and cities have formed some of the key pushback on his immigration policies. “These liberal mayors and governors can resist all they want, but we’re not tolerating it,” Bondi told Fox Business today. The Justice Department’s mission statement on its website lists among its values independence and impartiality. But it’s rarely been fully free of politics. Politics, though, is increasingly becoming a fixture. Other developments this week: - Tax pressure: As the president and his team warn of short-term pain from his bid to drastically overhaul trade policy and government spending, pressure is mounting on Trump to speed up action on his proposal for sweeping tax-cut legislation to juice the economy, my colleague Nancy Cook reports. Unlike tariffs, which have sent financial markets into a tailspin, Trump needs Congress to act on taxes. But passing the legislation by early summer may prove harder than the president and congressional Republicans would like.
- Going to Court: Trump is asking the Supreme Court to limit the reach of three federal court rulings that blocked his executive order seeking to restrict automatic birthright citizenship, Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr reports. Filings by Trump’s lawyers don’t ask the court to directly consider the constitutionality of his action, which would jettison what until recently was the widespread understanding that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment confers citizenship on virtually everyone born on US soil. Instead it focuses on the power of judges to issue so-called universal injunctions.
- Energy power: Trump is able to exert US geopolitical leverage over allies and adversaries through the nation’s growing output of liquefied natural gas, an increasingly critical commodity, Kevin Crowley and Ruth Liao reported for Bloomberg Businessweek. The US has become over a span of about seven years the world’s largest supplier of LNG, and production capacity is on track to expand by 60% in the next two years.
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