Things Musk (and Trump) Did... Day 74 | Blog#42
As our war dead come home, Trump goes golfing.
Yesterday’s post
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Yesterday’s news worth repeating
Fed’s Powell warns on tariffs: Fallout likely to be ‘significantly larger than expected.’
The Fed chief’s words will be taken as a particularly important signal as financial markets continue their convulsions over the new tariffs.
In his first remarks since Trump announced new duties on countries around the globe, the Fed chief said there is a high risk of both greater unemployment and more inflation.
“While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected,” Powell said at an event hosted by the business journalism group SABEW. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”
Those simultaneous risks are dangerous territory for the central bank, which doesn’t have tools to fight both of them simultaneously: A slowing economy would call for lower interest rates, while rising prices could call for rates to stay high — or go higher. They also heighten the political risk for Powell himself, as Trump has said on multiple occasions this year that rates should go lower.
Powell’s assessment will be taken as a particularly important signal as financial markets continue their convulsions over the ripple effects of the new tariffs, which begin to take effect Saturday. His words matter both because investors are listening closely for signs of how and when the Fed might intervene to help the economy, and because the central bank takes a technocratic rather than partisan approach to assessing the outlook.
Powell, a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, underscored that he doesn’t see the central bank’s role as commenting on administration policies, but to assess their effects and respond appropriately.
Trump does not hesitate to comment on Fed policy. He did so again Friday morning, saying in a post on Truth Social that it would be a “PERFECT time” for Powell to cut rates.
“He is always ‘late’, but he could now change his image, and quickly,” Trump wrote. “CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS.”
Continue reading at Politico
Vance: I thought market reaction to Trump tariffs ‘could be worse’
Vice President Vance said he thought the market reaction to President Trump’s tariff plan would have been worse, saying that the White House team is feeling good about the rollout.
“We’re feeling good. Look, I frankly thought, in some ways, it could be worse on the markets, because this is a big transition,” Vance told Newsmax in an interview on Thursday.
“You saw the president said earlier today, it’s like a patient who was very sick. We did the operation and now it’s time to make the patient better, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he added. “We have to remember that for 40 years, American economic policy has rewarded people who ship jobs overseas. It’s taxed our workers, it’s made our supply chains more brittle and it’s made our country less prosperous, less free and less secure.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened with a loss of more than 1,100 points on Friday after a nearly 1,700 point decline on the day prior.
Continue reading at The Hill
K-File: ‘The policy may very well fail’: JD Vance doubted Trump’s first-term trade policies, previously bashed tariffs
(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance applauded in the front row of the Rose Garden as President Donald Trump announced a massive new round of tariffs on Wednesday – an economy-rattling policy he promised would bring back manufacturing jobs.
But for years before joining Trump’s ticket, Vance argued the opposite.
Between 2016 and 2019, Vance said repeatedly that American manufacturing jobs were lost for good, and that “protectionist” trade policies would do little to bring them back.
Vance’s comments are another example of his transformation from a self-described “Never Trump guy” to a full-fledged MAGA backer in the Senate and on Trump’s ticket, a change he has attributed to seeing the successes of Trump’s policies in his first term.
“Vice President Vance has been crystal clear in his unwavering support for revitalizing the American economy by bringing back manufacturing jobs and sticking up for middle class workers and families since before he launched his U.S. Senate race, and that is a large part of why he was elected to public office in the first place,” said Taylor Van Kirk, spokesperson for the vice president.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Trump tells investors to buy low: ‘This is a great time to get rich’
President Trump on Friday called on investors to buy low as markets plunge in response to an escalating trade war that intensified Thursday, one day after Trump imposed massive tariffs on much of the world.
Markets fell on the news, but Trump said that represented an opportunity for people on Friday.
“TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE. THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” Trump said on Truth Social.
On Friday morning, investors did not appear to be responding positively to Trump’s message.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘Everyone is terrified’: Business and government officials are afraid to cross Trump on tariffs
While lobbyists, business leaders, and lawmakers are worried about Donald Trump’s tariffs, there’s a culture of fear in Washington preventing many from speaking out.
Republican lawmakers are signaling they’re willing to tolerate the pain for now, despite the economic fallout back home. Lobbyists, who are quietly prodding the same lawmakers to defend their interests, don’t want to have a target on their back — or their clients’. Even some Trump world confidantes, alarmed about the tariffs’ impact, are hoping someone else intervenes.
“There is zero incentive for any company or brand to be remotely critical of this administration,” said a public affairs operative, who, like others interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. “It destroys your ability to work with the White House and advance your policies, period.”
An official in the energy industry echoed that sense of fear. “Hearing angst and frustration from all quarters,” the official said via text message, “but no one wants to be first out of the box saying anything negative about Trump’s decision-making.”
The paralysis reflects the broader mood of Trump’s second administration, in which he’s targeted and threatened to destroy institutions that cross him, including law firms, universities, and more. With his tight grip on Washington, Trump has faced no meaningful resistance to policies that are upending the global economy, tearing up America’s relationships with its closest allies and making deep, unilateral cuts to the federal government. Leaders have quickly learned that however harmful they think a Trump policy might be, publicly contradicting the president could be worse. Now with the Trump administration doubling down on tariffs and trying to sell the country on short-term pain for long-term gain, it’s unclear what the breaking point will be for officials and lobbyists representing the most-impacted constituencies.
“There is absolutely a sense that the administration is keeping a list, and no one on K Street wants to be on it,” said one executive at a trade group downtown.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump admin won't let Medicare cover anti-obesity drugs
The Trump administration on Friday scrapped a Biden administration proposal to have Medicare cover anti-obesity drugs, including GLP-1s.
Why it matters: The decision sidelines a politically popular idea that had big implications for the program's finances.
Driving the news: A Medicare payment rule issued Friday would maintain a long-standing prohibition on covering drugs for weight loss.
The Biden administration argued that reinterpreting the existing policy would have made the drugs more accessible to millions of Americans and potentially lower the prevalence of obesity-related illnesses.
Medicare administrators may revisit the policy in the future, according to a fact sheet on the rule.
Catch up quick: Requiring Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1s like Wegovy for weight loss would have cost the government nearly $40 billion over 10 years.
Continue reading at Axios
Today’s news
Democratic News Corner
Democrats look to push into GOP turf with buzzy candidate recruits for the midterms
“This puts a lot more on the field,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), a co-chair tasked with recruitment for the party campaign arm.
Democrats are getting ready to push deeper into Republican-held turf next November.
Emboldened by the special elections last Tuesday, the GOP’s adversaries are sensing opportunity. Three buzzy Senate candidates announced bids this week — the same week that Democratic turnout powered them to a decisive win in the swing state of Wisconsin and two long-shot Democrats overperformed in a pair of deep-red Florida districts. Now, party recruiters are reporting an uptick in interest from candidates in tough-to-win territory.
“This puts a lot more on the field. That puts Democrats on offense. That is us saying — if you’re in a Trump plus-15 district, we’re playing there,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), a co-chair tasked with recruitment for the party campaign arm. “We’re seeing right now a lot of interest from people all over the country in stepping up for their country to run for office.”
In Iowa, two state lawmakers are considering runs against Rep. Zach Nunn in a district sure to be impacted by tariffs. Two prospective candidates in Pennsylvania and Michigan lost or left jobs thanks to the Trump administration, giving them a powerful story on the campaign trail. A pair of former representatives are considering comeback bids for battleground districts in the Rust Belt.
And Democrats think at least two districts in Virginia, held by GOP Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans, are increasingly in play thanks to backlash to Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting frenzy — both have significant military populations. A possible top recruit is emerging: Pamela Northam, the former first lady of Virginia, has been approached to run for Kiggans’ seat in the Hampton Roads area, according to two people familiar with those efforts, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Continue reading at Politico
Senate Dems blast GOP over late-night passage of blueprint to protect Trump agenda
Senate Democrats on Saturday blasted their GOP colleagues after the upper chamber advanced a budget blueprint overnight seeking to protect President Trump’s legislative agenda.
The resolution passed in the upper chamber early Saturday morning by a 51-48 vote, after the upper chamber held an hours-long “vote-a-rama” on a series of amendments. The blueprint outlines plans to beef up border security, extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, expand oil and gas drilling and increase defense spending.
Democrats took to social media to rail against the resolution.
“Just left the Senate after voting a hard NO on the ‘one big, beautiful bill,’” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), wrote on social platform X, referring to the president’s portrayal of the blueprint.
“I will never support a bill that uses Medicare, Medicaid or SNAP cuts to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” Fetterman, who notably backed Republican’s continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown earlier this year, added.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) echoed the sentiment, calling the resolution a “terrible budget plan.”
Continue reading at The Hill
New York’s push to restrict masks is dividing Democrats
Following masked pro-Palestinian demonstrations, New York’s governor is pushing to create a new offense for those who wear masks while harassing others.
NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to crack down on face masks is dividing her fellow Democrats as they weigh concerns about pro-Palestinian demonstrators, aggressive policing and basic freedoms.
Civil rights advocates say the proposed restriction would interfere with peoples’ right to mask up. Black lawmakers in Albany worry about race-based enforcement, and many Democrats are voicing concerns about creating hostile conditions for protesters, particularly as the Trump administration targets them. Those concerned with the rise in acts of antisemitism argue they need to curtail the use of face masks to protect Jewish New Yorkers amid anti-Israel protests.
The split is playing out during the final days of state budget negotiations, upending what had been a relatively peaceful process in a state Capitol known for last-minute battles. The budget is five days past due, and Hochul’s mask proposal is among a few final sticking points.
“A lot of members who represent the Jewish community, this is important to them, and the members understand that,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters last week. “But we also have [Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative] caucus members who feel that anytime you introduce another thing, this oftentimes could allow people of color another reason to be potentially over targeted and over policed.”
There is also little support within the state Senate for the measure, three people involved in the matter say.
Continue reading at Politico
National Security
NSA names acting director after top officials ousted
The Trump administration named Lt. Gen. William J. Hartman as acting director of the National Security Agency (NSA) late Thursday, just hours after dismissing top officials, an agency spokesperson told The Hill.
Hartman will also serve as acting commander for the U.S. Cyber Command and acting chief for the Central Security Service. Sheila Thomas was designated as acting deputy director, according to the official.
The lieutenant is a distinguished military graduate of the University of South Alabama, where he received his commission through the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps as an Infantry Officer according to his profile on the NSA website.
Throughout his career, Hartman has worked in infantry, military intelligence and as a Cyberspace Operations Officer with assignments in the U.S., Italy, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump’s firing of NSA chief is ‘rolling out the red carpet” for cyber attacks
Gen. Timothy Haugh’s firing as head of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command has left lawmakers worried about the future of the nation’s cyber defenses.
Lawmakers and national security veterans reacted with shock on Friday to President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the head of one of the country’s most powerful intelligence agencies, describing it as a “chilling” action that would damage America’s cyber defenses and “roll out the red carpet” for attacks on critical networks by foreign adversaries.
Gen. Timothy Haugh, a four-star general who served as head of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, was largely seen as an apolitical and uncontroversial appointee. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2023 under then-President Joe Biden and had worked in signals intelligence for three decades.
Haugh’s firing on Thursday evening leaves two of the nation’s top cyber and intelligence agencies without Senate-confirmed leadership and suggests that Trump is prioritizing loyalty over experience as he continues to fill senior roles in his administration. It also follows a massive breach of U.S. telecommunications networks by China-backed hacking group Salt Typhoon that allowed hackers to spy on the phones of senior U.S. officials, including Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
“We’re under attack, and the president just irresponsibly removed our most important general from the field,” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a member of both the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees. “This is an outrageous decision.”
The Washington Post first reported on Haugh’s firing, which was detailed on X by far-right activist Laura Loomer. According to The New York Times, she met with Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday and presented him with materials critical of several national security staff.
NSA Deputy Director Wendy Noble, who the Post reported been reassigned to a position in the Pentagon, was also fired, along with multiple members of the White House National Security Council.
Loomer, in an X post, suggested the firings were politically motivated. “NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump,” she said. “That is why they have been fired.”
Continue reading at Politico
Economics
Trump touts "economic revolution" as economists warn of recession
President Trump on Saturday touted his tariff regime as an "economic revolution" and told businesses to "hang tough" in the face of widespread market panic.
Why it matters: Economists say a recession is highly likely, potentially even a dire stagflation scenario, as Trump fundamentally re-orders the global economy.
Catch up quick: Trump took to social media early Saturday to defend his tariffs, after one of the worst two-day routs in stock market history.
"THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic," the president wrote.
That followed a post Friday night in which he said big businesses were "not worried about the tariffs" because of the sweeping budget and tax bill being negotiated.
Yes, but: Investors lost more than $6 trillion the last two days, just in the U.S. stock market, because of fears about the impact of those tariffs.
What they're saying: "What these tariffs are going to do is make the cost of production much more expensive," University of Rhode Island economist Nina Eichacker wrote in a Saturday blog post.
"Workers are going to take this on the chin as their employers try to cut costs."
Between the lines: The full reciprocal tariffs don't start until April 9, but the economic impacts are already kicking in.
Reuters reported a key supplier to both Airbus and Boeing may stop shipping parts if they are hit by tariffs.
Some car makers have already started suspending shipments to the U.S.
Continue reading at Axios
Exclusive: Aircraft supplier Howmet may halt orders if hit by Trump tariffs, letter says
April 4 (Reuters) - Howmet Aerospace (HWM.N), opens new tab, which supplies parts for planes built by Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab and Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab, may halt some shipments if they are impacted by tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Pittsburgh-based Howmet said in the letter to customers that it has declared a force majeure event, a legal practice that allows parties to a contract to avoid their obligations if hit by unavoidable and unpredictable external circumstances.
"Howmet will be excused from supplying any products or services that are impacted by this declared national emergency and/or the tariff executive order," Howmet wrote in the letter.
Howmet declined to comment.
Howmet is a supplier of critical metal components used across the $150 billion jetliner industry.
Continue reading at Reuters
America the victim
President Trump's tariff revolution is rooted in a simple thesis: America has been humiliated and exploited by foreign nations for decades, and only he has the guts to make them pay.
Why it matters: Trump's personal victim complex has powered much of its political career. Now it's going global — with the entire world, not just Trump's domestic enemies, feeling the weight of retribution.
The big picture: Never mind that the U.S. boasts the world's largest economy, most powerful military, record household wealth, and historically low unemployment.
Trump has been remarkably consistent in casting America as a global pushover, including in a 1988 interview with Oprah that resurfaced in the wake of this week's tariff announcement.
"For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike," Trump declared in his "Liberation Day" speech Wednesday. "But now it's our turn to prosper."
Zoom in: From uninhabited islands to impoverished enclaves, no country is too small, too irrelevant, or too loyal to escape the wrath of a president who believes America has been cheated for decades.
That includes Israel, where officials were shocked to face a 17% reciprocal tariff despite removing their own tariffs on the U.S. a day prior.
It includes Lesotho, a tiny African nation where most people are too poor to import American goods, and which is now facing an existential crisis because of Trump's 50% tariff.
It even includes the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands, whose population of mostly penguins was punished with a 10% tariff.
Continue reading at Axios
Tariffs bring overnight economic chaos
In one 48-minute speech, President Trump scrambled every American's budget, every U.S. company's balance sheet and every global alliance.
Tariffs, a sometimes obscure economic tool, have massive power, especially when enacted this expansively.
Why it matters: Think fundamental re-ordering of the economy. Americans are staring down a disruption to their standard of living. Companies are about to find out how bad bad can get. The ripple effects may be felt for years to come.
Zoom out: Trump is right that plenty of countries engage in unfair trade practices, and that globalization has hollowed out key parts of America's industrial base, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.
But this historic tariff barrage isn't about targeted leverage or negotiated fixes. It's about unwinding decades of perceived injustices through blunt force — even against uninhabited islands and impoverished enclaves, incapable of "victimizing" the U.S.
Trump believes the American people share his grievances, and he's willing to radically remake the global economic order, no matter the cost.
Reality check: That cost will likely be steep.
Continue reading at Axios
Stock market's two-day tariff rout
Chart: Change in S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Russell 2000
The party's ending for stock investors.
The big picture: With the historic two-day rout Thursday and Friday, the major indices — the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 — are all lower now than they were a year ago.
The market capitalization of the S&P stocks fell $4 trillion just this week — that's your 401k, your kids' 529 college savings, your nest egg, all a lot smaller than they were three days ago.
Zoom out: All three touched all-time highs in the last six months.
Then came the tariffs.
Now, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the small-cap Russell are in a "bear market," 20% off their highs and poised to fall further.
The S&P isn't far off, down 17.4% from the new record it just set in mid-February.
What to watch: If the market can rally next week, or if the uncertainty remains too much.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump defends tariffs after markets plunge for second straight day: ‘Economic revolution’
President Trump on Saturday took a victory lap over the sweeping new tariffs he levied on nearly all foreign trading partners, claiming the end result will serve as an “economic revolution.”
“We have been the dumb and helpless ‘whipping post,’ but not any longer,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before. Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast!”
“THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN,” he added. “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
The president pointed to China specifically, who received a 34 percent reciprocal tariff on top of the existing 20 percent. Beijing responded in kind, levying a 34 percent duty on goods imported from the U.S.
Trump pushed back on claims China was hit “much harder” in his Saturday post, saying it was “not even close.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Social Security 2025: Who will receive payments April 9?
Amid increasing outrage over proposed changes to Social Security benefit access, staff reduction and recent website outages, some may be monitoring their payments with a little extra scrutiny in April.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) said Tuesday that it is investigating the root cause of online outages that have affected the “my Social Security” portal where recipients access their benefits.
Notably, individuals who receive Supplemental Security Income, including disabled seniors and low-income adults and children, have reported receiving a notice that said they were “not receiving benefits.” The agency said that notice was a mistake.
Roughly 7.4 million seniors, adults and children receive SSI benefits, according to an internal 2023 report. It is unclear how many people received the mistaken message on their portal.
April Social Security payment schedule
For those who want to monitor their payments closely this month, or just need a good way to structure their budget, the regular Social Security retirement benefit schedule for 2025 and 2026 can be found online.
The SSA staggers retirement payments by birth date, so the breakdown will be as follows:
Continue reading at The Hill
US consumers rush to buy big-ticket items before Trump’s tariffs kick in
John Gutierrez had been thinking about buying a new laptop for the past year. The Austin, Texas, resident needed a computer with faster processing and increased storage for his photography work and had his sights set on a product from a Taiwanese brand.
Then President Donald Trump announced expansive new import tariffs Wednesday, including a 32% tax on imports from Taiwan. That same day, Gutierrez ordered the laptop, with a base price of $2,400, from a retailer in New York specializing in photo and video gear.
“I thought I’d bite the bullet, buy it now, and then that way I’ll have the latest technology on my laptop and don’t have to worry about the tariffs,” he said.
Gutierrez was among the U.S. consumers rushing to buy big-ticket items before the tariffs take effect. Economists say the tariffs are expected to increase prices for everyday items, warning of potentially weakened U.S. economic growth.
The White House hopes the tariffs prod countries to open their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that could reduce tariffs, or that companies increase their production in the U.S. to avoid higher import taxes.
Continue reading at the AP
This Economic Paradox Nearly Took Down Three Presidents. Is Donald Trump Next?
The economic crisis of the 1970s was a disaster for multiple presidents. It could be worse for Trump.
In the leadup to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on Wednesday — when he announced sweeping new tariffs on all the United States’ international trading partners — economists and financial analysts started using a word that will give hives to those of you over the age of 60.
Stagflation — “the s-word rippling through Wall Street and Main Street,” as Axios put it earlier this week — is a calamitous anomaly whereby the economy manifests low growth and high inflation at the same time. Anyone who remembers the 1970s will recall that it caused an economic crisis in the United States, ushering in a turbulent era of high prices, interest rates and unemployment — and considerable instability and pain.
Today, experts are worried that Trump’s new tariff regime — which is all but certain to raise prices — coupled with a tight labor market could return us to that era. As a researcher at Deutsche Bank recently observed, “The data is continuing to support the narrative of weaker growth and higher inflation, with market-based inflation expectations continuing to rise.” And on Sunday, Richard Clarida, a former vice chair of the Federal Reserve who now advises the Pacific Investment Management Company, told Bloomberg that he already sees a “whiff of stagflation” in the economy.
That’s not just a financial risk for the American people — history indicates it’s also a potentially existential political problem for Trump.
Those who remember the 1970s may also recall that stagflation arguably unraveled two presidencies — Gerald Ford’s and Jimmy Carter’s — and nearly destroyed another: Ronald Reagan’s. “Whipping” inflation, driving down interest rates and reversing job losses in a period of industrial decline became a central obsession of all three administrations, and as each president found, it was a game of whack-a-mole: Each solution seemed to deliver unintended consequences that only rendered the problem more vexing.
But Trump might be in an even more dire position. What made Ford, Carter and Reagan so similar was that stagflation was a problem that was visited upon them, owing largely to exogenous or structural developments they had scant ability to control. Trump’s looming stagflation crisis, on the other hand, is one of his own making. The public was hard enough on past presidents who failed to fix the problem. Time will tell how just harshly voters will appraise Trump for potentially creating it.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
Jaguar Land Rover suspends shipments to US after Trump tariffs
The company, which exports almost a quarter of its production to the U.S., is pausing shipments in April as it works out longer-term solutions.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), U.K.-based luxury automaker, said it will "pause" shipments of vehicles to the United States this month, after U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of hefty tariffs on foreign-made cars.
The company, which exports almost a quarter of its annual production to the U.S., is suspending shipments as a “short-term action” until longer-term solutions are worked out, according to a statement sent to media outlets.
"As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions, including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans," JLR said in a statement to the BBC and other outlets.
JLR generates more of its revenue in the U.S. than in any other market, making the British car maker particularly vulnerable to Trump’s trade war, according to The Times, which reported the suspension earlier Saturday.
Overall, one in eight U.K.-built cars are exported to the U.S. The new trade rules imposed this week by Trump put more than 25,000 direct jobs in the automobile-manufacturing industry at risk, with JLR and the Cowley Mini being the most exposed, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Health and Science News
Ousted FDA vaccine chief makes plea to families to vaccinate children
Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine official who resigned last week amid pressure from the Trump administration, urged families to continue vaccinating their children.
Marks, who previously led the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, pointed to concerns around Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his anti-vaccine rhetoric in his decision to ultimately leave the post.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do, and I can’t make him do anything, but I can tell you, as a viewer, please consider getting your child vaccinated,” Marks said Friday evening in an interview with CNN, specifically calling out the deadly measles outbreak.
“If they’re not vaccinated, it’s easy to ignore measles because we haven’t seen it,” he added.
Marks told the public to take heed of medical standards.
Continue reading at The Hill
RFK Jr. said HHS would rehire thousands of fired workers. That wasn’t true.
The health department has no plan to mass reinstate employees it cut earlier this week.
When HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that he planned to rehire 20 percent of the employees he’d just terminated, he insisted such a move was “always the plan.”
Turns out, it wasn’t the plan at all.
HHS has no intention of reinstating any significant number of the staffers fired as part of a mass reduction-in-force on Tuesday, despite Kennedy’s assertion that some had been mistakenly cut, a person familiar with the department’s plans told POLITICO.
The layoffs eliminated roughly 10,000 jobs across HHS, gutting several public health offices and purging prominent senior scientists from the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. They came after the department had already jettisoned 10,000 people who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers encouraged by the Trump administration.
Kennedy at the time called the cuts necessary to refocus and improve HHS, even as he acknowledged it was a “difficult moment.” Yet on Thursday, he appeared to signal that some of those firings would be walked back.
“Personnel that should not have been cut were cut — we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan,” Kennedy said, indicating that CDC officials focused on monitoring lead exposure levels among children would be among those brought back. “The part of that, DOGE — we talked about this from the beginning — is we’re going to do 80 percent cuts but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled because we’ll make mistakes.”
But contrary to Kennedy’s vow, his team had no expectation of reinstating anywhere near 20 percent of the fired workers.
“No such plan is in the works,” said the person familiar, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
An HHS spokesperson declined to comment.
Continue reading at Politico
Inside RFK Jr.’s MAHA agenda with Calley Means | Playbook Deep Dive
Trump's tariffs are a nightmare for companies big and small
When everything gets more expensive everywhere because of tariffs, that starts a cycle for businesses, too — one that might end with layoffs, bankruptcies, and higher prices for the survivors' customers.
Why it matters: The cycle is just starting now, but the pain is immediate.
From clothing retailers who get all of their production from heavily tariffed Asian countries, to bakers whose pastries depend on newly levied imported vanilla, to the tech companies whose batteries need the minerals China just cut off in retaliation, this weekend will be a scramble to figure out how to survive the new world order.
The big picture: The stock market is not the economy, but if you want a decent proxy for Main Street businesses, look at the Russell 2000, a broad measure of the stock market's small companies across industries.
It's down almost 20% this year alone.
That in and of itself doesn't make a business turn the lights off, but it says something about public confidence in their prospects.
"The market is like a real time poll ... this is going to impact all businesses in one way or another undoubtedly," Ken Mahoney of Mahoney Asset Management wrote Friday.
Zoom out: The early signs are everywhere, large and small.
Electronics trade group IPC estimates the cost of critical components coming from overseas will rise 30% to 50%. Even if you're already manufacturing domestically, the parts you need from somewhere will get expensive, quickly.
Automaker Stellantis paused production at multiple factories and laid off hundreds of people.
Continue reading at Axios
Tariffs 101
The big picture: Tariffs were once the primary way the United States collected tax revenue, but over time elected leaders and economists alike have rejected them for their many downsides.
President Trump is seeking to reverse that long tide.
The basics: A tariff is a tax on imported goods. When a ship full of bananas or T-shirts or Toyotas arrives at a U.S. port, part of the paperwork for crossing the border is paying the applicable tariff, also known as an import duty.
In recent years, those taxes have been relatively low — down to 1.5% in 2017, after decades of bipartisan efforts to craft global trade deals.
President Trump then pushed those upward to around 3% in his previous term (which President Biden mostly maintained).
The policies announced so far in Trump's current term are on track to push the average tariff to 22.5%, per the Yale Budget Lab.
Flashback: From the colonial era through the early 1900s, tariffs were the predominant source of the federal government's revenue.
Taxes on imports were relatively easy to enforce even in the days before computers, Social Security numbers, and the like. When a ship arrived at a port, customs officers could inspect the goods, charge the appropriate tariff, and ensure tax compliance.
The Constitution limited the federal government's taxing authority, so that a modern income tax was not legally permissible until the enactment of the 16th Amendment in 1913.
Politicians sought to protect domestic industry from European competition as it matured. (There are echoes in how Japan and South Korea used protectionist policies in the latter half of the 20th century to allow their countries to catch up to world leaders).
Yes, but: This reliance on tariffs had deep-seated problems, which is why their use has been mostly in retreat over the last century.
Continue reading at Axios
Americans will have less money to spend in high-tariff world
The fallout of high tariffs on most Americans is simple and painful: They'll have less money to spend.
Why it matters: The tariffs will likely increase the prices of necessities like food, clothing and cars, and leave folks with less disposable income to spend on other things.
State of play: That's the view of the Federal Reserve chair, and most economists, even ones on the right.
"The Trump tariffs will shrink the amount of money in Americans' wallets," says Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page agrees: "There will certainly be higher costs for American consumers and businesses," they write. "Tariffs are taxes, and when you tax something you get less of it."
By the numbers: The tariffs hit to earning power amounts to an average 2.3% "pay cut," or decrease in disposable income, for every American household, according to a widely cited estimate from the Yale Budget Lab.
That translates to $3,800 a year.
Stunning stat: Lower earners can't afford to lose much. The bottom 20% of earners spent a third of their after-tax income just on food in 2023, per the USDA.
Continue reading at Axios
A manufacturer's up-close view of Trump's tariffs
This is the hard truth for American manufacturers: Trump's tariffs are all but inescapable unless the global supply chain — the decades-long backbone of domestic manufacturing — is replicated stateside.
Why it matters: It won't happen overnight. For now, many businesses in the sector Trump hopes to revitalize face the prospect of higher costs and withering demand from foreign buyers.
What they're saying: "There isn't the capacity, knowledge, nor the facilities to have American manufacturing compete on this scale over a ten-year horizon, let alone one," says Megan Murphy, who owns La Crosse Milling Company, a which processes grains for food ingredients and animal feed at a plant in Cochrane, Wis. (outside of Buffalo City).
"I don't think there's a single small U.S.-based agricultural company that thinks this is a good long-term strategy for building manufacturing competitiveness," Murphy tells Axios.
The intrigue: Many U.S. factories, including Murphy's, run with machinery with foreign-made parts.
Domestic manufacturers may assemble the finished product in America, but key inputs are sourced globally.
Take World Emblem, a Florida-based company that manufacturers half a million clothing patches each day, and which sources thread from Europe.
The company ships raw materials to its factory in Mexico for early-stage manufacturing. It comes back to the states for final assembly before being shipped out to its customers.
"You can't pick up 500,000 square feet and 1,000 jobs and just drop it in the middle of the United States," says World Emblem CEO Randy Carr.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump goes all in with bet that the heavy price of tariffs will pay off for Americans
Trump’s move on Wednesday to place stiff new tariffs on imports from nearly all U.S. trading partners marks an all-in bet by the Republican that his once-fringe economic vision will pay off for Americans. It was the realization of his four decades of advocacy for a protectionist foreign policy and the belief that free trade was forcing the United States into decline as its economy shifted from manufacturing to services.
The tariff announcement was the latest and perhaps boldest manifestation of Trump’s second-term freedom to lead with his instincts after feeling his first turn in the Oval Office was restrained by aides who did not share his worldview. How it shakes out will be a defining judgment on his presidency.
The early reviews have been worrisome.
Financial markets had their worst week since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign trade partners retaliated and economists warned that the import taxes may boost inflation and potentially send the U.S. into a recession. It’s now Republican lawmakers who are fretting about their party’s future while Democrats feel newly buoyant over what they see as Trump’s overreach.
Democratic activists planned to participate in rallies across the country Saturday in what was shaping up as the largest demonstrations since Trump returned to office in January. “The winds are changing,” said Rahna Epting, who leads MoveOn, one of many organizing groups.
Trump is unbowed.
Continue reading at the AP
Polling- Surveys
Poll: AOC leads Schumer in head-to-head New York primary matchup by double digits
The liberal group Data for Progress conducted the survey of likely Democratic voters.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading Chuck Schumer by double digits in a new head-to-head poll of the 2028 New York primary.
The survey by the liberal firm Data for Progress, first shared with POLITICO, found that 55 percent of Democratic likely voters said they supported or leaned toward supporting Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, while 36 percent backed or leaned toward backing Sen. Schumer. Nine percent were undecided.
The poll is the latest sign that Schumer’s standing among the Democratic base has taken a hit since he voted to advance a GOP funding bill last month that avoided a government shutdown. The fact that Data for Progress conducted and released the poll also underscores that liberal organizations are continuing to look for ways to prod Schumer to take a tougher stance against President Donald Trump.
“This poll really does show that Democrats are united in just wanting to stand up, wanting to fight, wanting to see someone taking a stand for them,” said Danielle Deiseroth, executive director of Data for Progress.
Deiseroth added that her firm “has a long tradition of wanting to challenge the status quo of Democratic Party leadership” and released polling in 2021 showing then-Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was vulnerable to a primary challenge. Sinema later registered as an independent and declined to run for reelection.
Continue reading at Politico
Democrats’ patriotism dips as pessimism about future rises: Survey
The amount of Democrats who say they are proud to be an American has decreased by 8 percentage points in the last year, according to survey results published Friday.
Just 58 percent of Democrats still say they are proud patriots — compared to 66 percent who said the same in April 2024, YouGov’s latest poll found.
The Democrats’ pessimism comes as the party confronts a downward trend in its approval as well as a general lack of unity following the 2024 presidential election.
The Friday survey also reflects the left’s drastic contrast with GOP voters, revealing that a vast majority of Republicans, 96 percent, said they were happy to be Americans.
Twenty-two percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans said they believe the country’s best days are in its future while 3 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of Republicans think the country’s best days are happening right now.
More than half of Democrats, 51 percent, said America’s best days are in the past. Thirty-six percent of independents and 17 percent of Republicans agreed with the sentiment.
Less than a quarter of Democrats, 19 percent, said prospects for the nation’s future are better off than most other countries compared to 38 percent of independents and 73 percent of Republicans who said the same.
Continue reading at The Hill
Anti-DEI-Whitewashing Movement
Black veterans sound the alarm over military DEI purge
The Pentagon has faced backlash in recent weeks after efforts to comply with President Trump’s executive order banning DEI in the military resulted in the removal of webpages dedicated to Jackie Robinson; Colin Powell; Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, a Black recipient of the Medal of Honor; the Navajo Code Talkers and Japanese Americans.
Though the military later restored the pages and said the removals were a mistake, veterans like Richard Brookshire said there is a message being sent.
“There’s executive orders that actually do things, and then there’s executive orders that are made to send a message, and that message was very clear. Their intent is to try and resegregate as much of this society as possible that they think they can get away with. If they can’t do it through legal means, they’re going to try and do it by making Black people feel that we are unwelcome or unsafe in these spaces,” Brookshire, co-CEO and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project, told The Hill.
“The President does not put forward an executive order like that, and then also have his Secretary of Defense strip all of this Black history from these websites without this being an aligned effort. These are not isolated things that are occurring in a vacuum.”
Brookshire added that the idea of DEI is not new to the military, but it wasn’t always known as DEI. Rather, it was equal opportunity. Learning about other service members’ history and culture was also a natural occurrence.
“We come from a massive, diverse country and because of that, we need to make sure that we’re creating a unit where people from all different walks of life can thrive, work together and accomplish the mission,” he said. “They have to take people from all walks of life and create a cohesive unit, and that means understanding how people are diverse and how to create an inclusive environment.”
Continue reading at The Hill
General News
‘Hands Off!’ protests against Trump and Musk are planned across the US
WASHINGTON (AP) — Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk plan to rally across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.
More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations have been planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and fair-elections activists. The protests are planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.
The White House did not return an email message seeking comment about the protests. Trump has promoted his policies as being in the best interest of the U.S.
Protesters are assailing the Trump administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.
Continue reading at the AP
Republicans pass budget bill amendment aimed at protecting Medicaid, Medicare
The amendment, which passed 51-48 and was proposed by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska.), was the first brought forward as part of the vote-a-rama ahead of a final vote on the bill that will serve as a blueprint for President Trump’s domestic agenda, including extending his tax cuts.
The Sullivan amendment calls for actions related to Medicaid, specifically, that “may include strengthening and improving” the program “for the most vulnerable populations.”
Republicans have been accused of trying to use the budget resolution to gut entitlement programs, headlined by Medicaid, in order to fund the tax cut push and to potentially make them permanent.
The resolution instructs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to reduce the deficit by $880 billion, a target experts say can’t be met without slashing Medicaid.
Some Republicans have maintained that any cuts to the programs would be in the name of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse,” rather than touching benefits themselves.
But moderate Republicans and those from states where a lot of constituents rely on Medicaid have been nervous.
Continue reading at The Hill
Democrats peel away some Republicans on Trump budget bill amendment votes
Several Republicans have broken with their party and voted for Democratic amendments are part of a marathon series of votes Friday night.
None of the Democratic amendments have passed, but Democrats went into the vote series, known as a vote-a-rama, with the goal of putting GOP lawmakers in a bind on tough issues.
The amendment votes are happening as part of the leadup to the Senate passing a budget resolution early Saturday morning. The resolution will serve as a blueprint to draft a bill containing President Trump’s top domestic priorities.
In the opening batch of amendment, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) broke with the GOP to back Democratic proposals.
Collins and Murkowski voted alongside each other on four of the amendments, all brought forward by Democrats. The proposals were aimed at protecting government employees’ ability to collectively bargain amid attacks by the Trump administration, preventing cuts to food stamps and to show support for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Ukraine, respectively.
Continue reading at The Hill
Senate passes budget, setting up showdown with House over Trump agenda
The Senate voted 51-48 to pass the measure after a holding a long series of votes on amendments, which kept senators pacing around the chamber for hours.
Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine) were the only Republican to vote against it.
The resolution, which serves as a blueprint to a final measure, still needs to be adopted by the House before both chambers can begin a difficult negotiation on the bill to beef up border security, expand oil and gas drilling, increase defense spending and extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Once both chambers agree to a joint budget resolution, it will unlock the reconciliation process that allows Senate Republicans to pass Trump’s agenda with a simple-majority vote and avoid a Democratic filibuster.
Continue reading at The Hill
IRS nixing 25 percent of staff, starting with civil rights office: Reports
The Internal Revenue Services (IRS) terminated staff members in the Office of Civil Rights and Compliance on Friday ahead of a larger slated reduction in force according to multiple reports.
IRS officials announced they would be eliminating the office dedicated to preventing discrimination in an email to staff after firing roughly 130 of its employees, as reported by the Washington Post.
Those remaining were moved to the Office of Chief Counsel according to an email reviewed by Bloomberg Tax, which first reported the cuts.
Since President Trump returned to Washington, mass layoffs and firings have been encouraged by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which urged the IRS to slash 20 percent of its workforce by May 15 as reported by the publication.
Thousands of terminations have gone out ahead of the tax filing deadline on April 15, which is less than two weeks away.
Continue reading at The Hill
Majority of Americans uneasy over Trump’s economic plan: WSJ poll
Over half of Americans, 52 percent, disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the economy, marking a 12 percent uptick from his approval in October 2024.
In a survey a published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, just a quarter of people said they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy during his first 100 days in office.
Although the survey was conducted prior to Trump’s announcement of a 10-percent base tax on all goods coming into the U.S. earlier this week, the president has promised to implement sweeping tariffs since his presidential campaign.
Fifty-four percent of voters, per the survey, said they are against the president’s levies on imported goods while 42 percent of survey respondents said they supported the measure.
Friday marked the second day of serious losses on the stock market since Trump announced the tariffs on Wednesday. The Dow plunged more than 2,100 points on Friday alone.
Thirty-five percent of survey participants said short-term strain will lead to financial gains in the long run in contrast.
But more Americans, 48 percent, say consumers will feel little economic pain before seeing improvements from tariffs.
Continue reading at The Hill
Senate GOP adopts budget blueprint for Trump agenda — but hurdles loom
House fiscal hawks are already vowing to change the resolution that Speaker Mike Johnson wants to move next week.
Senate Republicans adopted a budget blueprint Saturday for President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.” What comes next is anyone’s guess.
The Senate voted 51-48 on a budget resolution that unlocks their ability to pass a party-line bill later this year that will combine an overhaul of the tax code with border, energy and defense policies. GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky joined all Democrats in opposing the resolution — though other Republicans still have concerns that will need to be addressed before the final bill.
Now the resolution needs approval in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose three Republicans without having the entire effort unravel. House fiscal hawks are displeased with the Senate’s framework and are threatening revolt.
“We’re not going to do this for a third time,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said after a deep breath, asked about the House threatening to change the budget plan. “I assume it will pass.”
Asked what he would say to House Republicans, Majority Leader John Thune added: “The more this drags on — the sooner we get to reconciliation the better.”
Continue reading at Politico
Are Trump’s tariffs a negotiating tool? Depends on whom you ask
Some Trump allies touted the tariffs — which have led to a massive stock market selloff and heightened fears of a recession — as the latest move from a master dealmaker. The tariffs, they argue, will force other countries to change their practices in search of leniency from the U.S.
The president himself told reporters the tariffs “give us great power to negotiate,” and he said Friday he’d had a “productive” conversation with the leader of Vietnam about tariff rates.
“I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump,” Eric Trump, the president’s son, posted on the social platform X. “The first to negotiate will win – the last will absolutely lose.”
At the same time, President Trump on Friday declared in a Truth Social post that his policies “will never change.”
Meanwhile, multiple top administration officials were adamant that the tariffs were not meant as a negotiating tool, but as a way to rebalance global trade and revitalize American manufacturing.
“I don’t think there’s any chance they’re going to — that President Trump’s going to back off his tariffs. This is the reordering of global trade, right? That’s what’s going to happen,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday on CNN.
Peter Navarro, a vocal trade hawk, said around the rollout of the tariffs that it was “not a negotiation” but a “national emergency” related to trade deficits.
The mixed messaging is a reflection of how some in the administration are true believers in tariffs as an economic tool, but also how Trump sees nearly everything as being up for negotiation under the right circumstances.
Continue reading at The Hill
The Memo: Musk’s risks to Trump become starkerPut simply, the question is whether Musk is an asset or liability to Trump.
Speculation is rife once again that Musk could leave his role at the quasi-official Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) soon.
And questions are sharper than ever about the pluses and minuses of the billionaire’s broader political role after conservative candidate Brad Schimel was comfortably defeated by his liberal opponent Susan Crawford in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
Musk and his affiliated groups had spent about $20 million on the race, hoping to lift Schimel’s candidacy. His political action committee offered $100 per person to signers of a petition opposing “activist judges.” It also awarded two $1 million checks to individuals who had done so — one of whom was the chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans. Musk presented the checks himself amid meandering remarks at a public event in Green Bay last Sunday.
But Musk’s involvement in Wisconsin also became a rallying point for liberals and Democrats who accused him of trying to buy an election.
Musk’s political assets and liabilities in that case appeared to cancel each other out, with Crawford’s 10-point margin of victory almost identical to the last election to the court, in 2023, when another liberal candidate prevailed by 11 points.
Continue reading at The Hill
Canada says its friendship with the US is ‘over.’ Now what?
Trump’s aggressive trade policies have rocked an alliance that seemed unshakeable.
It’s over.
After a century and a half of building an economic and military partnership that survived two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks, the United States and Canada are breaking up.
So said Prime Minister Mark Carney in a national television address to 41 million Canadian citizens from Parliament Hill last week. And it is almost all because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“The old relationship we had with the United States, based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over,” Carney declared on March 27. “We must fundamentally reimagine our economy. We will need to ensure that Canada can succeed in a drastically different world.”
The striking messaging, some of which Carney’s Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre has also begun to adopt, underlines the degree to which anger at the U.S. has taken over the current Canadian federal election campaign. In the wake of repeated threats from Trump to make Canada the “51st state,” followed by the wholesale implosion of the countries’ economic ties, there seems to be very little appetite among voters for gentle reassurance.
Carney deliberately repeated the “O” word again several times on Thursday as he gave Canada’s response to Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement from the previous afternoon. That included 25 percent counter tariffs on U.S. auto imports to Canada to counter Trump’s imposition of levies on Canadian automobiles, steel and aluminum to punish what Trump sees as a lack of progress in stopping a minuscule amount of fentanyl from illegally crossing America’s northern border.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump’s tariffs could face more than one legal challenge
At issue is a nearly-50-year-old law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, that Trump is citing to impose tariffs.
Lawyers and representatives for various business groups are mulling similar challenges to the new duties the president unveiled Wednesday, which cited a national emergency due to the trade deficit, according to two people familiar with the discussions, granted anonymity to discuss strategies that have not yet been finalized.
“All options are being considered,” one of those people, a senior trade association executive, said.
At issue is a nearly-50-year-old law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, that Trump is citing to impose both the duties on China and the global “reciprocal tariffs” he announced this week. The 1977 law gives the president broad authority to respond to a national emergency. But Trump is the first president to use it to impose tariffs, which is a power the U.S. Constitution assigned to Congress. And legal scholars say it’s possible a judge would find such a move illegal, unraveling the White House’s bid to hit trading partners with duties not seen in a century.
“IEEPA has a long list of things that the president can do and nowhere does it say ‘tariffs,’” said Liza Goitein, senior director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. “There is absolutely a basis on which to challenge the use of IEEPA for tariffs based on the Supreme Court’s own jurisprudence,” Goitein added, and “there’s some likelihood of success on this lawsuit on that grounds.”
John Vecchione, a lawyer for NCLA, which filed the lawsuit against the China tariffs on behalf of Emily Ley Paper Inc, elaborated. “If this was ‘Red Dawn’ and the enemy was coming across the border and the president invoked IEEPA, he still can’t put in tariffs,” Vecchione said.
“It’s not what it’s for. He can embargo [our enemies]. He can cut off their banking. He can do a lot under IEEPA, but tariffs are not in it.”
Continue reading at Politico
Canada’s Conservatives reeling from Trump’s impact
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign is struggling to get its footing amid backlash to President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada.
TORONTO — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is still attracting crowds to his rallies, but supporters and allies are having doubts about his once buoyant campaign to become Canada’s next prime minister.
With just over three weeks until Election Day, the Conservative Party is faltering in the polls and struggling to find campaign volunteers in some districts — with a few candidates pleading for votes from friends and relatives.
“We really need you,” Lionel Loganathan, an MP candidate for a seat north of Toronto, told supporters. “Find your nephews, find your nieces, find your kids, send them to help us.”
Even a member of Poilievre’s inner circle, incumbent MP Melissa Lantsman, admits the outlook has darkened. “This election is going to be won on the ground, and it’s going to be close in a lot of places,” she said at a recent campaign event.
Their comments reflect a sense among Conservatives that the party has experienced a remarkably rapid turnaround in the final weeks of the campaign after consistently leading in the polls in recent years amid widespread dissatisfaction over the cost of living, high immigration and the performance of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
President Donald Trump, however, has transformed the race and energized the campaign of Prime Minister Mark Carney. The U.S. leader’s imposition of punishing tariffs and talk of annexing Canada has put the populist Poilievre on the defensive.
Now, disorder is emerging as Poilievre’s team struggles to get its footing.
Continue reading at Politico
How Trump cost America the world
Friend and foe alike will start piecing together a different global trade order that the U.S. might like a lot less than the one it trashed.
Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.
“America is lost!” a distressed King George III had noted, reviewing the causes and consequences of the American Revolution. But will today’s would-be monarch in Washington one day similarly regret having lost the world?
Unlikely. U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t a man to admit mistakes — nor is he one to express regret.
And as U.S. stock markets plunged following his announcement of sweeping tariffs on 180 countries this week, Trump beamed that all would soon rebound and boom. America’s heading to glory days. Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, complained critics were taking far too short-term a view: “We’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America,” he said.
But the heavy-handedness Trump displayed, all based on cockamamie calculations and deeply flawed economics, is as maddening as King George’s restrictive trade practices toward the American colonies — and at least the British monarch had the mitigating excuse of episodes of clinical madness.
Trump’s declaration of economic independence and embrace of 19th-century protectionism amounts to slamming the door on the rest of the world — and it will likely have the unintended consequence of the rest of the world deciding, albeit painfully and slowly, to remake a new global trade order to replace the one America shaped, prospered from and has now abandoned.
It will also have geopolitical consequences, as many countries are already exploring new bilateral trade deals or examining how to expand regional trading blocs. U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, for example, are seeking to bolster trade ties with China and are talking about accelerating negotiations on their trilateral free trade agreement. And the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are now looking to integrate faster.
In the meantime, for Americans and much of the world, Trump’s self-styled “Liberation Day” is bound to deliver a severe economic shock — one more likely than not to trigger a global recession.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
How Kyiv’s effort to lure Trump with rare earths backfired
Ukraine potentially has large deposits of crucial minerals, but it will take peace and billions of dollars to unlock them.
It was a pitch used to entice the transactional U.S. President Donald Trump into continuing his country’s support for Kyiv, and it worked. Trump is keen on Ukraine — but only when it comes to squeezing it for money, not for helping it secure a stable post-war peace.
“The critical minerals offer was a clear security moment for Ukraine. It has critically important resources like titanium, uranium and others. And if Russia gets its hands on those resources, it will be a disaster for Kyiv’s allies,” said a top official familiar with negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But the minerals gambit has since turned into a political disaster, and Ukraine may not even have all of the vast resource wealth it promised. Added to that, getting any minerals out of the ground will cost billions and could take decades — not close to the timeline Trump seemed to envision.
Originally, minerals were part of a peace deal pushed last year by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The package also included an invitation to join NATO and a commitment by the West to continue arming Ukraine.
Only the minerals are left from that effort, and they’re turning into an existential problem for Ukraine.
Kyiv was dumbfounded when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent showed up in Ukraine in February with a draft agreement to hand over half of the country’s rare earth minerals to American companies. Zelenskyy reacted with outrage.
After Ukraine’s pushback, the two sides negotiated a more equitable agreement that Zelenskyy was supposed to sign in the White House Feb. 28. But that meeting turned into a disaster as Trump and Vice President JD Vance attacked the Ukrainian president, who was kicked out of the Oval Office with no deal.
The U.S. then came back with another proposal that returns to most of the most toxic elements of the first draft.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
Iran’s currency falls to record low against the dollar as tensions run high
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran ’s rial currency traded Saturday at a record low against the U.S. dollar as the country returned to work after a long holiday, costing over 1 million rials for a single greenback as tensions between Tehran and Washington likely will push it even lower.
The exchange rate had plunged to over 1 million rials during the Persian New Year, Nowruz, as currency shops closed and only informal trading took place on the streets, creating additional pressure on the market. But as traders resumed work Saturday, the rate fell even further to 1,043,000 to the dollar, signaling the new low appeared here to stay.
On Ferdowsi Street in Iran’s capital, Tehran, the heart of the country’s money exchanges, some traders even switched off their electronic signs showing the going rate as uncertainty loomed over how much further the rial could drop.
[…]
Tensions with US squeeze the rial
Iran’s economy has been severely affected by international sanctions, particularly after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. At the time of the 2015 deal, which saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment and stockpiling of uranium in exchange for lifting of international sanctions, the rial traded at 32,000 to the dollar.
Continue reading at the AP
Hegseth is to travel to Panama for meetings following Trump’s demands for the canal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Panama next week to meet with leaders of the Central American country following recent Trump administration allegations of Chinese interference in the operations of the critical Panama Canal shipping lane.
President Donald Trump has complained about the U.S. relinquishing control of the waterway to Panama more than 20 years ago and has threatened to retake it, arguing that the U.S. was being overcharged for using it. Panama’s government has denied Trump’s assertion that China exerts influence over the canal.
Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, said Friday that Hegseth will participate in the 2025 Central American Security Conference. He said Hegseth will take part in meetings that “will drive ongoing efforts to strengthen our partnerships with Panama and other Central American nations toward our shared vision for a peaceful and secure Western Hemisphere.”
He did not mention the canal, which was built by the U.S. in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington turned control over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. Trump has claimed that Carter “foolishly” gave the canal away.
Continue reading at the AP
The frenzied 24 hours when Venezuelan migrants in the US were shipped to an El Salvador prison
It was just a few sentences in a meandering, hourlong presidential speech on a Friday afternoon.
Along with talk about falling egg prices and a vow to expel “corrupt forces” from the U.S. government, President Donald Trump noted that hundreds of members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had been arrested.
“You’ll be reading a lot of stories tomorrow about what we’ve done with them,” he said at the Justice Department on March 14. “These are tough people and bad people and we’re getting them out of our country.”
“You’ll be very impressed,” he added.
Trump was previewing drama to come that would involve clandestine flights to another continent, a notorious prison, innocents among criminals and a dramatic confrontation between his assertions of presidential power and a federal judge who Trump said had overreached.
The president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify deporting more than 130 Venezuelan men, some of them gang members and others who claim to have been in the United States legally and were seemingly expelled because of their ordinary tattoos, played out over a frenetic 24 hours.
By the time Trump had spoken, hundreds of detained immigrants had been quietly shuttled from across the U.S. to South Texas. Planes had been chartered to take them to their ultimate destination, El Salvador, under a deal with President Nayib Bukele, who proudly calls himself “world’s coolest dictator.”
Continue reading at the AP
‘The Terror Is Real’: An Appalled Tech Industry Is Scared to Criticize Elon Musk
A huge swath of Silicon Valley is horrified by what Elon Musk is doing — but they’re increasingly afraid to say so.
Mark was poking around in an online forum for tech-company founders recently when he spotted a fawning post about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
As the founder of a tech company himself, Mark is part of a community of startup types in the Bay Area and considers his politics to be pretty middle of the road. He understands the instinct to want to modernize government. But Musk’s approach at DOGE — which he saw as a slash-and-burn rampage through the federal workforce — seemed, to him, “absurd.”
He typed up a reply saying as much, arguing that DOGE is a front for purging political opponents, and he figured at least some of the other founders on the forum would agree.
Instead, Mark — who we allowed to use a pseudonym to avoid retaliation — was mobbed. “I was just amazed by the amount of virulence that came back to me,” he said.
Then something else happened: Direct messages started pouring in from people thanking him for saying what they were too fearful to say themselves. One even asked to talk by phone, so long as Mark agreed never to mention his name to anyone or even enter their conversation in his Google Calendar.
In both Washington and in California, a narrative has quickly emerged about Musk’s assault on the federal government: This is what happens when you bring the Silicon Valley playbook to D.C. As Musk’s young lackeys rifle through sensitive databases, conk out in makeshift bedrooms set up in government buildings and gut entire agencies, the implication seems to be that this is how it’s done in tech. And there is obviously a very loud corner of the tech sector that agrees.
Continue reading at Politico Magazine
From India to US detention: Trump's campus crackdown sends warning to foreign students
Indian academic Badar Khan Suri met his Palestinian wife during a humanitarian mission to Gaza in 2011. More than a decade later, his lawyers say his wife’s identity led to his arrest, part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on anti-Gaza war protesters on US campuses. It sends a chilling message to international students eyeing US university degrees.
She was a translator in Gaza. He was an academic from New Delhi on a humanitarian visit to the Palestinian enclave. Their meeting and marriage made headlines in India, where newspapers described the “Indo-Palestinian love story” as “the stuff of Bollywood movies”.
But the narrative took a bad turn in the USA last month. This time, the headlines were terrifying. The Indian academic, Badar Khan Suri, now a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University in Washington DC, was arrested on March 17 outside his home in Virginia. His wife, Mapheze Saleh, a US national of Palestinian origin, was in their apartment when she received a call from Suri around 9pm, asking her to come outside because he was being arrested.
“When I came downstairs, I saw three uniformed, masked agents who were in the process of handcuffing Badar and placing him in a large black SUV,” Saleh told a Washington DC local radio station.
Suri’s detention came a week after Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist at Columbia University, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in New York, part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on international students in US universities.
In a post on X three days after Suri’s arrest, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, said the Georgetown scholar was detained for his "close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, a senior adviser to Hamas".
Suri denies the allegations. In a Virginia district court filing, his lawyer stated that Suri was targeted because of his wife's Palestinian identity and “the constitutionally protected speech of his wife on behalf of Palestinian human rights".
Continue reading at France 24
‘Hands Off!’ protests against Trump and Musk are planned across the US
More than 1,200 demonstrations are planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, LBGTQ+ advocates and veterans.
Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rallied across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.
More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protests are planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.
Protesters are assailing the Trump administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.
Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
Speaking at the Washington protest, Paul Osadebe, a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a labor union steward, criticized Trump, Musk and others in the administration for not valuing the work federal employees do in creating “a baseline of economic security and power for working people.”
“Billionaires and oligarchs don’t value anything other than profit and power, and they sure as hell don’t value you or your life or your community,” he said. “And we’re seeing that they don’t care who they have to destroy or who they have to hurt to get what they want.”
Continue reading at Politico
Republicans look to blunt Dems’ advantage on family tax credit
Some GOP lawmakers want to boost the Child Tax Credit to appeal to working-class voters and answer Democrats’ attacks on their broader tax plan.
Republicans may steal Democrats’ thunder on one of their favorite issues: the Child Tax Credit.
Lawmakers, including Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), are eyeing an increase in the hugely popular $2,000-per-child credit as part of the GOP’s sweeping tax legislation, with some also pushing for a big hike in a related break dubbed the babysitter credit.
Picking up the issue now would help Republicans appeal to working class voters who powered their electoral sweep in November. At the same time, it would help rebut complaints from Democrats that the broader tax plan they are assembling — which would extend dozens of expiring tax cuts and add others — caters too much to the wealthy.
The family tax credits are usually associated with Democrats, and they were key parts of the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic. But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who wants a bigger Child Tax Credit focused on low-income people, says his colleagues need to come up with more for working-class voters.
“Renewing the tax cuts is great, but there’s no tax relief for working people in that,” he said. “It’s working people that I’m concerned about, and more of them should be getting more of the credit.”
Continue reading at Politico
McConnell calls out Trump for hiring ‘amateur isolationists’ at Pentagon, firing NSA director
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is questioning President Trump’s decisions to pick “amateur isolationists” for senior policy jobs at the Pentagon and to fire Gen. Timothy Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, without explanation.
“If decades of experience in uniform isn’t enough to lead the N.S.A. but amateur isolationists can hold senior policy jobs at the Pentagon, then what exactly are the criteria for working on this administration’s national security staff,” McConnell said in comments to The New York Times.
“I can’t figure it out,” he said.
McConnell and other Senate Republican defense hawks have signaled their concern about the Trump administration’s decisions to hire Michael DiMino to serve as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East and Andrew Byers to serve as deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia.
DiMino has come under scrutiny by pro-Israel advocates because of his past statements that the U.S. doesn’t face vital or existential threats in the Middle East.
Continue reading at The Hill
Stellantis joins Ford in offering employee discounts to public
Multinational auto manufacturer Stellantis said Friday it would begin offering employee discounts to the public in an effort to cushion the blow from President Trump’s new tariffs.
The move follows in the steps of Ford Motor Company, which announced a similar bargain earlier this week. Auto tariffs went into effect on April 3, the day after Trump announced sprawling taxes on almost all U.S. trading partners.
A Stellantis spokesperson told The Hill that the new program, called “America’s Freedom of Choice,” offers customers a chance to buy vehicles at “employee price or current cash incentives.”
“We will direct customers to see their local dealer to determine the best offer that works for them,” the person added.
The program will remain in effect until April 30.
Continue reading at The Hill
House budget chair blasts Senate resolution as ‘unserious and disappointing’
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) on Saturday blasted the Senate’s budget resolution, passed by the upper chamber only hours before, as “unserious and disappointing.”
Arrington criticized the budget plan for “creating $5.8 trillion in new costs and a mere $4 billion in enforceable cuts” or “less than one day’s worth of borrowing by the federal government.”
The Texas lawmaker also took a shot at Senate Budget Committee Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) plan to score the cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts as not adding future federal deficits, something Graham would achieve by judging an extension of those cuts on a “current policy” baseline.
He said the blueprint “sets a dangerous precedent by direct scoring tax policy without including enforceable offsets.”
“We are at a fiscal inflection point and failure to rein in our runaway deficit spending and unsustainable debt could prove catastrophic for our economy, security and global leadership,” Arrington added in his statement.
Continue reading at The Hill
Musk slams key Trump adviser Navarro as tariffs bite
Elon Musk blasted top Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro overnight, calling out his education and lack of corporate credentials.
Why it matters: The two-day rout in the stock market this week, after Trump announced sweeping new tariffs backed by Navarro, cost Musk nearly $18 billion just on his Tesla stock.
Catch up quick: Friday morning, a user on Musk's social media platform X defended the controversial Navarro as a skilled voice on tariffs, citing his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard.
Musk, in a reply in the early hours of Saturday morning, disagreed.
"A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing," he wrote, suggesting it resulted in having more ego than brains.
Another user stepped in to defend Navarro as right on trade, to which Musk replied "He ain't built s--t."
For the record: The White House did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Musk's posts.
Besides Navarro, other top Trump officials with Harvard Ph.D.'s in economics include Council of Economic Advisers chair Stephen Miran.
Continue reading at Axios
Democrats look to make a play for GOP turf with surge of new candidates
“This puts a lot more on the field,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), a co-chair tasked with recruitment for the party campaign arm.
Democrats are getting ready to push deeper into Republican-held turf next November.
Emboldened by the special elections last Tuesday, the GOP’s adversaries are sensing opportunity. Three buzzy Senate candidates announced bids this week — the same week that Democratic turnout powered them to a decisive win in the swing state of Wisconsin and two long-shot Democrats overperformed in a pair of deep-red Florida districts. Now, party recruiters are reporting an uptick in interest from candidates in tough-to-win territory.
“This puts a lot more on the field. That puts Democrats on offense. That is us saying — if you’re in a Trump plus-15 district, we’re playing there,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), a co-chair tasked with recruitment for the party campaign arm. “We’re seeing right now a lot of interest from people all over the country in stepping up for their country to run for office.”
In Iowa, two state lawmakers are considering runs against Rep. Zach Nunn in a district sure to be impacted by tariffs. Two prospective candidates in Pennsylvania and Michigan lost or left jobs thanks to the Trump administration, giving them a powerful story on the campaign trail. A pair of former representatives are considering comeback bids for battleground districts in the Rust Belt.
And Democrats think at least two districts in Virginia, held by GOP Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans, are increasingly in play thanks to backlash to Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting frenzy — both have significant military populations. A possible top recruit is emerging: Pamela Northam, the former first lady of Virginia, has been approached to run for Kiggans’ seat in the Hampton Roads area, according to two people familiar with those efforts, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
All this comes amid a punishing week for Republicans that saw the stock market crater after President Donald Trump rolled out tariffs and as his officials continue to face tough questions on the “Signalgate” debacle. Democrats are sensing an opening, and hoping to extend the momentum by recruiting candidates who might be newly energized to run.
Continue reading at Politico
What to know about Saturday's nationwide "Hands Off!" anti-Trump protests
A nationwide anti-President Trump movement on Saturday, "Hands Off!," is expected to be the largest single-day protest since he entered office.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's wide-reaching and ground-shaking policies have mobilized a varied cross section of Americans affected by political, economic, social and legal changes.
"This is not just corruption," the Hands Off! website said. "This is not just mismanagement. This is a hostile takeover."
By the numbers: More than 1,100 rallies, visibility events and meetings were scheduled in all 50 states as of Wednesday afternoon.
Organizers said they had more than 500,000 RSVPs as of Friday night.
The latest: White House garden tours scheduled for Saturday were postponed to Sunday in anticipation of D.C. protests, first lady Melania Trump said on Thursday.
State of play: Protesters are rallying against several Trump administration policies, including its handling of Social Security benefits, layoffs across the federal workforce, attacks on consumer protections and anti-immigrant policies and attacks on transgender people.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump administration cancels more than a dozen international student visas at University of California, Stanford
The Trump administration has canceled more than a dozen international student visas at California campuses, including UCLA, UC San Diego and Stanford.
“The federal government has not explained the reasons behind these terminations,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla.
The California cancellations came as universities across the country reported similar actions. Last month, the government canceled visas of several foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests that it accused of supporting terrorism. Those students say their free speech rights in support of Palestinians are being trampled.
Continue reading at the Los Angeles Times
New York public schools reject Trump DEI orders
The New York State Education Department officials said Friday, “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’
“But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of D.E.I.,” Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner of New York’s Department of Education, said in a Friday letter to the DOE that was obtained by The Hill.
Morton-Bentley wrote in the letter that state education officials are “unaware” of any jurisdiction DEO has to ax funding with an administrative process taking place.
The Hill has reached out to the DOE for comment.
Continue reading at The Hill
Doug Emhoff publicly criticizes his law firm for coming to agreement with Trump administration
(CNN) — Speaking at a charity gala dinner Friday night in Los Angeles, former second gentleman Doug Emhoff condemned the decision by his law firm to preemptively come to an arrangement with the Trump administration to avoid an executive order targeting the firm, sources tell CNN.
Emhoff is a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, which this week agreed to a deal with President Donald Trump, which the president said includes the firm providing at least $100 million in pro bono legal services throughout his second term.
It’s the third example of a high-profile firm cutting a deal with the White House as Trump has targeted firms that have done work with his perceived political enemies.
Emhoff told the crowd at the Annual Dinner Gala for the legal aid group Bet Tzedek he had told the firm he wanted to fight the threat of an executive order he found unconstitutional but had been overruled, the sources said.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Elon Musk Suggests Getting Rid Of All Regulations In Midnight Call
"If it's not possible now, it'll never be possible," Musk said of his proposal to simply ignore all federal regulation as a baseline.
President Donald Trump’s “government efficiency” cheerleader Elon Musk proposed simply ignoring all federal regulations during a public call shortly after midnight Monday morning.
Musk, whose newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency” team has in recent days executed a dramatic power grab at several government agencies, called for “wholesale removal of regulations.”
The public call was hosted on his website X, formerly Twitter, and included two senators and the Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Regulations, basically, should be default gone,” Musk said. “Not default there, default gone. And if it turns out that we missed the mark on a regulation, we can always add it back in.”
“These regulations are added willy-nilly all the time. So we’ve just got to do a wholesale, spring cleaning of regulation and get the government off the backs of everyday Americans so people can get things done,” Musk said, adding later: “If the government has millions of regulations holding everyone back, well, it’s not freedom. We’ve got to restore freedom.”
Continue reading at the Huffington Post
Justice Department lawyer who argued deportation case is put on paid leave
Erez Reuveni expressed misgivings about the government’s unwillingness to seek the return of a man who was erroneously deported.
A Justice Department attorney who publicly expressed misgivings about the government’s response to the erroneous deportation of a Maryland man to a high-security prison in El Salvador has been put on administrative leave, a DOJ official said Saturday.
Erez Reuveni represented the Trump administration Friday at a federal court hearing where lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia successfully obtained an order requiring the government to secure his return to the U.S. after he was deported last month in what immigration officials described as a clerical error.
Reuveni was noticeably unenthusiastic about the government’s position in the case, telling U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that he had urged his “clients” to take steps to bring Abrego Garcia back. The lawyer also said he’d been rebuffed in his attempts to get more information to offer the court about why officials deemed him to be a member of MS-13.
Abrego Garcia entered the United States illegally in 2012, authorities say. An immigration judge ordered in 2019 that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador, his home country, because he faced a legitimate risk of persecution there. That judge’s order remained in effect when the Trump administration sent him there last month.
Toward the end of Friday’s hearing, Reuveni pleaded with Xinis to hold off her ruling for 24 hours so he could beseech the government to change its position. The White House has argued that the judge lacks the authority to order Abrego Garcia’s return.
“I would ask the court to give us, the defendants, one more chance to do this,” Reuveni said. “That’s my recommendation to my client, but so far that hasn’t happened.”
Continue reading at Politico
Bessent seeks tax cut as big summer win
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's tax-cut negotiators say big progress has been made on Capitol Hill, and are optimistic about final passage by summer despite the measure's complexity, Treasury officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: With markets plunging after President Trump's tariffs, top administration officials see the extension of Trump's first-term tax cuts — set to expire at year's end — as a chance to show consumers and businesses that he has a broad growth and affordability agenda to benefit them.
State of play: Bessent on Saturday tweeted praise for the Senate's early-morning adoption of a "mega-MAGA" budget plan — which includes tax cuts and raising the debt ceiling — as "a major step toward pro-growth tax certainty and economic strength."
"Making ... Trump Tax Cuts permanent will reward work, drive investment, and give families room to grow. Now it's time for the House to finish the job," Bessent added.
Trump posted on Truth Social Friday night: "Big business is not worried about the Tariffs, because they know they are here to stay, but they are focused on the BIG, BEAUTIFUL DEAL, which will SUPERCHARGE our Economy. Very important. Going on right now!!!"
Behind the scenes: Trump and Bessent have both signaled urgency on the tax cuts. Administration negotiators say they've learned from Trump's 2017 tax-cut fight to get it done as quickly as possible.
Continue reading at Axios
Zelensky hits US embassy over ‘surprisingly disappointing’ response to Russian strike
Zelensky, in a lengthy Saturday post on X, accused the U.S. embassy in Ukraine of being afraid to mention Russia when commenting on the Friday attack that killed at least 19 people and injured nearly 70 more.
“Unfortunately, the response from the U.S. Embassy is surprisingly disappointing – such a strong country, such a strong people, and yet such a weak reaction,” Zelensky wrote. “They are afraid to even say the word ‘Russian’ when speaking about the missile that murdered children.”
Following the deadly Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said she was “horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih. More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.”
Zelensky, in the Saturday morning post, agreed that the three-year war in Eastern Europe “must end.”
“But to end it, we must not be afraid to call things by their names. We must not be afraid to pressure the one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it,” Zelensky said.
Continue reading at The Hill
Virginia’s bellwether governor race is set
The off-year contest has long been seen as a referendum on the party in power in Washington.
The race for Virginia governor is set, teeing up what is expected to be a competitive contest in the blue-leaning swing state.
The Virginia GOP announced Saturday that Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, a Marine Corps veteran, will be the Republican Party’s nominee after no other candidate qualified to run.
Like all Virginia governors, outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is barred from serving back-to-back terms, and he endorsed Earle-Sears as his successor early in the process.
“Over the past four years, Lt. Gov. Sears has been a fierce advocate for Virginians’ individual liberties and worked hard to put money back into the pockets of Virginia families,” the announcement on X said. “Winsome Sears will be a governor for all Virginians, and the Republican Party of Virginia congratulates her on becoming our nominee.”
That sets up Earle-Sears to go up against the Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, who was also the lone candidate to qualify on her side. The former member of Congress and one-time CIA officer was confirmed by the Democratic Party of Virginia earlier this week.
Continue reading at Politico
US markets have spiraled. Americans had doubts about Trump’s tariffs before that.
Recent polls showed Americans were wary of tariffs, even before the president launched his plan to realign the global trade order.
In several recent polls — all conducted before Trump’s announcement this week, which sent markets into a spiral and brought the U.S. to the brink of an international trade war — a majority of respondents disapproved of the then-theoretical sweeping tariffs the president promised to implement, and indicated unease about the president’s steering of the economy.
The global tariffs went into effect Saturday morning, with an additional levy on trading partners the administration has deemed bad actors set to trigger next week.
It represents what could become a significant vulnerability for Trump, who has made economic strength a key part of his political brand. Throughout much of his first term and the 2024 election, Trump broadly received positive marks for his handling of the economy — and he spent much of his 2024 campaign hammering then-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their stewardship of the economy.
A Wall Street Journal survey released Friday and conducted between March 27 and April 1 showed 54 percent of voters expressing disapproval over Trump’s tariff strategy and three quarters of voters saying they expected tariffs to result in price hikes on goods they buy. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they disapproved of the president’s overall handling of the economy, 8 percent more than those who said they approved of it.
The numbers marked a significant shift from October, when voters in a Journal survey said they had a favorable view of then-candidate Trump’s economic plans by a 10-point margin over those who opposed them.
Continue reading at Politico
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That work wardrobe you need? Fuhget it for the next four years | Blog#42
If you’re a white collar worker, one of the costs of working is having to maintain a work-appropriate wardrobe, and pencilling in time at your favorite department store at your local upscale mall. No matter what kind of work you do, if you have children, you pencil in a trip to the local mall to buy children’s clothing, with time at their favorite restaurant for a burger and dessert.