🌊 RIP, Department of Education

Plus: Gavin Newsom shifts, Trump pauses tariffs, & 20 Questions!

March 07, 2025

Happy Charlie Sheen Day.

One of the highest-profile meltdowns in Hollywood history culminated 14 years ago today when CBS fired Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men. At the time, Sheen was the highest-paid actor on TV, raking in ~$2M per episode. But, unfortunately, his “tiger blood” got the best of him. His partying run that Sheen said made Sinatra and Jagger “look like droopy-eyed armless children” derailed his personal life and landed him in the hospital multiple times. CBS suspended the show, and after he challenged his boss to a fight and called him a "stupid, stupid little man" on the radio, they fired him. Sheen truly had done enough drugs to kill Two and a Half Men.

Celebrate the day with his iconic ABC interview.

❌ Department of Education to be eliminated?

đŸ€” Gavin Newsom's big shift

💰 How Anora really won Best Picture?

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Education To Be Eliminated?

President Trump is set to sign an order eliminating the Department of Education (ED)

  • Conservatives have targeted the ED since its establishment in 1977, considering it an example of federal overreach. Lately, they’ve said that declining education outcomes and rising costs prove it doesn’t work

  • Per the WSJ, Trump is planning to sign an order that instructs the education secretary to “take
steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department”

  • However, fully eliminating the department would require a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and many of the major programs it oversees are codified in law

Dig Deeper

  • The order, which is labeled “pre-decisional,” states: “The experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars
has failed our children, our teachers, and our families”

  • After her confirmation on Monday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon emailed Education Department staff saying she would “send education back to the states”

KEY STORY

Gavin Newsom’s Shift

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) broke from his party to call trans athletes in women’s sports “unfair”

  • This week, Newsom, often floated as a next presidential candidate, launched a podcast. He’s been trying to moderate his progressive image and expand his base. To do so, he had on MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk as his debut guest

  • Kirk asked Newsom if he thought trans women should be allowed to play in women’s sports

  • Newsom replied, “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness – it’s deeply unfair.” He added, “How can we address this issue with [decency]...and at the same time deal with the unfairness”

Dig Deeper

  • Newsom’s statements drew criticism from LGBTQ advocates in California, with one saying trans youth “are facing unprecedented attacks” and “need leaders who will unequivocally fight for them”

  • Some Democrats have said the party needs to give up this issue, given that polls show around 70% of Democrats and 94% of Republicans agree that trans athletes should not be allowed to compete with the gender they identify as

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KEY STORY

Tariffs Paused

President Trump delayed 25% tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican imports, two days after they took effect

  • In January, Trump delayed 25% tariffs on the two countries by one month after they agreed to crack down on fentanyl trafficking into the US

  • The tariffs took effect earlier this week, sparking retaliatory tariffs by Canada and Mexico. On Thursday, though, Trump held calls with the two countries’ leaders and them paused them again

  • Trump said Canada and Mexico “will not have a tariff
until April 2,” meaning this may only amount to another month-long pause

Dig Deeper 

  • The tariff exemption applies to all goods under the USMCA, the updated NAFTA trade agreement that the US, Mexico, and Canada brokered during Trump’s his first term, meaning trade is mostly back to its pre-2025 status quo

  • However, Trump said the USMCA-compliant goods “will not have a tariff
until April 2,” leaving open the possibility that he will re-impose 25% tariffs next month

  • The uncertainty pushed the US stock market down further, with the Nasdaq ending down 2.61% and the S&P 500 down 1.78%

KEY STORY

Trump: Make Cuts Before Musk

President Trump urged cabinet officials to make cuts before Elon Musk has to

  • On Thursday, Trump said, “If [cabinet officials] can cut, it’s better
and if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting”

  • Trump elaborated by saying the officials should “go first, keep all the people you want, everybody that you need.” Musk would then see who is left and recommend further cuts if needed

  • In the same press briefing, Trump said, “I also want to keep the good people
[but] want to get rid of the people that aren’t working, that aren’t showing up and have a lot of problems

Dig Deeper

  • Trump made the statements a day after an internal memo showed that the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) plans to cut 80,000 staff. That would reduce the agency to its 2019 size of roughly 390,000 employees

  • News of the cuts – described as an agency-wide reorganization intended to “resize and tailor the workforce to the mission and revised structure” – immediately sparked a political battle, with Republicans saying they would lead to better service for veterans and Democrats saying the opposite

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

đŸ‡ș🇩 Trump Administration officials secretly met with Ukrainian opposition party leaders to discuss holding quick elections, something that Ukraine’s constitution prohibits during martial law

⚕ Novo Nordisk announced it would begin selling the GLP-1 weight-loss drug Wegovy at a discounted price of $499 per month to patients paying cash

đŸ’Č Several Democratic senators urged the Justice Department to investigate if Elon Musk is using his influence in the Trump Administration to pressure advertisers to spend more on ads on X. It comes after a report that alleged Musk threatened a major ad agency to boost spending or have a $13B merger blocked

đŸ‡ș🇾 The House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Al Green (D-TX) after the congressman was removed from President Trump’s address to Congress for protesting

đŸ€ Walgreens struck a deal with a private equity firm to be taken private after nearly a century as a publicly traded company

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: Have comedians gained too much political influence? Or do you prefer them covering political issues to legacy media?

If you base your political opinions and values on the subjective (and sometimes paid) testimony of any celebrity (athlete, musician, comedian, etc) you are a pawn. Politics provide comedians ample material because so much of what occurs daily is disconnected from the common citizens' reality or sphere of influence. It's helpful for transparency when comedians call attention to the more outlandish actions of our public traders... I mean servants. Comedians are finally free once again to joke about widely known political events without fearing cancel culture, which makes me think their influence hasn't increased, but the number of ideas/jokes has increased. Form your own opinions based on a variety of sources and think deeply about your beliefs, regardless of if those ideas come from the Comedy Cellar, the wine cellar, or the Roca smart fellers. Cheers.

Josh from Pittsburgh

Jester's Privilege is the right of a comedian to freely and openly mock, criticise, and ridicule powerful figures without fear of punishment. With this role they can convey uncomfortable truths and provide honest advice.

These comedians have a pulse on real people; their needs, thoughts, and feelings, unlike legacy media that has the agenda of billionaires. If they have too much political influence at this point, it's because we truly live in a clown world. Susan from Tennessee

Danny from Maine

Comedians have always enjoyed the fruits provided by politics. And they are entitled to share their opinions like everyone else. The problem is that many fans conflate celebrity with knowledge. Statements made by so many celebrities show their lack of any deep knowledge about the subject on which they comment. Their knowledge is wide but shallow and use their popularity to promote opinions as facts. It is up to their fans to discern fact from opinion and educate themselves but, sadly, most don’t make the effort.

Jamie from Undisclosed

20 Questions!

week's Roca IMDB movie ratings edition of 20 Questions. That surprised us -- in fact, neither of us cinephiles is a huge Shawshank fan. On the contrary, we have more sophisticated tastes. Our favorite movie gently swirls chardonnay in red solo cup is Troll 2... with French subtitles.

This week, we're going to ditch movies and do a Roca Billboard song ratings edition. We legitimately have no idea where this one will go. 1-10 scale, 10 being the best. Let's ride.

Last Week’s Responses

Average ratings from last week’s movie ratings edition, on a scale of 1-10.

The Dark Knight - 7.6
La La Land - 6.0
Jaws - 7.9
Parasite - 6.0
Forrest Gump - 7.6
Empire Strikes Back - 8.1
Goodfellas - 8.1
The Godfather Pt. I - 8.5
The Godfather Pt. II - 8.0
Interstellar - 7.2
Pulp Fiction - 7.2
There Will Be Blood - 6.4
Whiplash - 6.4
Oppenheimer - 7.4
Barbie - 5.8
Shawshank Redemption - 8.9
Braveheart - 8.1
Schindler’s List - 8.7
Toy Story 3 - 7.0
Casablanca - 8.0

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🚙 Speaker's Right Hand Takes Wrong Turn: House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) chief of staff was arrested for driving under the influence after crashing into a Capitol Police vehicle following President Trump's address to Congress

🌉 $21M Bridge to Nowhere: A British town council’s new $21M bridge has been labeled "pointless" and "a bridge to nowhere" by residents after it left users facing mud bogs on either side

🎈 Border Balloon Goes AWOL: A US Customs and Border Protection surveillance balloon broke free from its tether in Texas during "severe wind" conditions, traveling 600 miles north before crashing east of Dallas

đŸ“± Premier's Phone Plea: Ontario, Canada’s Premier Doug Ford has begged people to stop texting him, revealing he has over 4,000 unread messages and receives "hundreds, if not a thousand a day"

💰 The New Oscar Playbook: Neon, the distributor of Oscar-winning indie movie Anora, spent $18M on marketing – three times the film's $6M production budget

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Not a lot of love for the recent movies in last week’s 20 Questions. 6.4 for Whiplash and 6.0 for Parasite? Wow
 what’s next a 6.2 for Nacho Libre?

We hope you have a great weekend. Thank you for reading Roca. As we often say, we don’t take your faith in us lightly — we consider it a privilege and a responsibility. As the Roca wave continues to grow, the privilege and responsibility grow with it.

–Max and Max