Good morning. Paul Atkins, President Trump’s nominee to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, says his “top priority” in that role would be establishing a new framework for cryptocurrency regulation, according to Barron’s.

• His concerns: “I’ve seen how ambiguous and nonexistent regulation of digital assets create uncertainty in the market and inhibit innovation,” Atkins said Thursday in his opening statement at his confirmation hearing before a Senate committee.
   
• Crypto goals: “The top priority of my chairmanship will be to work with my fellow commissioners and Congress to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach,” he said.
   
• Views on private funds: Atkins offered no major regulatory proposals to address market deficiencies, and seemed resistant to calls to increase oversight of private funds when asked whether he was concerned about those vehicles gaining greater exposure to retail investors through exchange-traded funds, potentially coming with higher fees, limited disclosures, and managers’ conflicts of interest.
   
• More on his approach: Atkins also endorsed the spirit of the long-running Republican campaign to stamp out considerations from the investing process that critics say are extraneous and politically motivated, such as a company’s environmental risks or the social impact of its activities.

The Trump administration has put a high priority on stopping drug cartels and transnational crime groups, including pivoting its anti-bribery efforts to focus on these groups.

Join us on April 1 to discuss the implications for risk & compliance programs with Gem Conn, vice-president of Risk & Compliance Research at Dow Jones, Alexander Kramer, a partner at Crowell & Moring, and Louis Milione, president of global investigations and regulatory compliance at Guidepost Solutions. The event will be hosted by Nicholas Elliott, head of communities at Dow Jones Risk & Research. You can register here.

Beijing slams U.S. adding dozens of Chinese firms to entity list.

The Chinese government has described the addition by the U.S. Commerce Department of 80 entities to its Entity List as “typical hegemonism” and threatened countermeasures.

The Bureau of Industry and Security additions announced March 25 include entities from China, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Iran and Taiwan.

The action specifically targets 11 China-based and one Taiwan-based entity “for engaging in the development of advanced AI, supercomputers, and high-performance AI chips for China-based end-users with close ties to the country’s military-industrial complex.”

Trump targets Robert Mueller’s former law firm in executive order.

President Trump on Thursday targeted another major law firm with an executive order, going after WilmerHale over its ties to former special counsel Robert Mueller.

It is the latest in a wave of moves against elite law firms connected to individuals perceived as political enemies by the president. Trump’s order directs government agencies to remove the firm’s government security clearances, restrict its access to federal buildings and strip government contracts from companies it represents.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren and four other Democrats warned U.S. financial regulators they might soon confront “an extraordinary conflict of interest”: overseeing a cryptocurrency entity controlled by the sitting U.S. president and his family.
   
• Disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried has been removed from the federal jail in New York City where he has been held since August 2023, after officials started the process of transferring him to a prison where he will continue serving his fraud sentence.
   
• The Securities and Exchange Commission will stop defending a controversial rule requiring companies to report on their carbon emissions and climate risks, the agency said. After Trump’s election, the SEC had been expected to drop the rule, which was a signature initiative under the chairmanship of Gary Gensler during the Biden administration.
   
• Much of official Washington wants answers about senior Trump administration officials discussing an imminent military attack in an unsecured text group. One player isn’t figuring prominently in the discussions: the Justice Department.
   
• Flying is safe. False collision warnings were the result of improper testing of antidrone technology. The Federal Aviation Administration overlooked risks. These are some of the takeaways from a sometimes testy Senate hearing on Thursday about the fatal Jan. 29 midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Auto tariffs expected to raise vehicle prices, slash car-maker earnings.

The auto industry is headed for a new reality of higher prices and tighter margins if President Trump follows through on a proposed 25% tariff for cars and auto parts made overseas.

The president’s latest proposal, set to take effect early next month, is expected to increase car prices by thousands of dollars starting this summer as automakers look to pass some of their new import costs on to consumers, analysts said Thursday.

• European and U.K. Trade Groups Call for Solution to Avert U.S. Auto Tariffs
• Canada PM Carney: 25% Auto Tariffs ‘Will Hurt Us’
• Trump Warned U.S. Automakers Not to Raise Prices in Response to Tariffs

Russia’s new sanctions demands signal trouble for Trump’s goal of quick end to Ukraine war.

To see how difficult negotiating a quick peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will be, look no further than this week’s effort to reach an agreement on the Black Sea.

Washington had reason to hope for a faster Black Sea deal between Russia and Ukraine. The two sides, after all, had held extensive discussions on the topic in the first year of the war. But the U.S. and Russia issued sharply different statements at the end of the talks this week, with Moscow making demands for sanctions relief that Washington alone can’t satisfy.

• European leaders had hoped that Vice President JD Vance’s antagonism was a political show to build domestic support. Now, after Vance expressed disdain for Europe in a private text chat about Yemen attack details, officials are coming to terms with a vocal vice president whose antipathy for Europe appears to run deep.
   
• The Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Ukraine with a fresh draft of an economic deal that demands greater concessions from Kyiv just as Washington’s efforts to get Russia to agree to a cease-fire have stalled.
   
• Gross domestic product grew at a slightly faster pace in the last three months of 2024 than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
   
• The U.S. has deployed heavy, radar-evading B-2 bombers to the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, a warning to Iran and Yemen’s Houthi militia that American airstrikes could become more intense if Houthi attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping don’t stop.

• Pat Gelsinger was ousted as Intel CEO after the board lost confidence in his turnaround plan for the legacy chip maker. Now he’s planning a few more technology long shots.
   
• A broad cross-section of American business is dialing up its opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to impose steep fees on Chinese ships calling at American ports.
   
• Southwest, an outlier in the airline industry for its fuel hedging, is ditching the program because it has gotten too costly and hasn’t paid off for much of the past decade.
   
• SEC Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce would like to see big changes to how the agency creates, and enforces, its rules.

• Israel provided sensitive intelligence from a human source in Yemen on a key Houthi military operative targeted in an attack described by national security adviser Mike Waltz in a Signal chat with senior Trump officials, two U.S. officials said.
   
• Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would significantly cut the size of the department he leads, reshaping the nation’s health agencies and closing regional offices.
   
• Hired. Fired. Now back on the job. Sort of. Thousands of federal workers who were laid off by the Trump administration have been reinstated with pay after court orders. Their futures are hardly assured.
   
• Raging wildfires have killed dozens of people, destroyed centuries-old temples and displaced tens of thousands from their homes in South Korea’s southeast.

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