Things Musk (and Trump) Did... 04-13-25 | Blog#42
Captain Chaos and his mouthpieces
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The Week’s News Worth Repeating
Xi says China ‘not afraid’ as Beijing raises tariffs on US goods to 125% in latest escalation of trade war
Hong Kong (CNN) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said his nation is “not afraid,” in his first public comments on the escalating trade war with the United States, as Beijing raised tariffs on US goods to 125%.
The tariff hike is the latest in a tit-for-tat battle between the world’s two largest economies, after Trump raised tariffs on China to 145%. However, China has indicated it does not intend to go higher than 125%, saying it would be meaningless to engage in further escalation.
“The successive imposition of excessively high tariffs on China by the US has become nothing more than a numbers game, with no real economic significance,” a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement Friday.
“It merely further exposes the US practice of weaponizing tariffs as a tool of bullying and coercion, turning itself into a joke,” the spokesperson added.
The trade war between the world’s two economic superpowers has tanked international markets and fueled fears of a global recession. As other countries scrambled to negotiate with Trump, China has stood firm against what it calls “unilateral bullying” by the US.
Speaking to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing on Friday before the announcement of the new levies, Xi said: “There are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation.”
“For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and it is not afraid of any unjust suppression,” Xi was quoted as saying by state broadcaster CCTV.
The Chinese leader had remained publicly silent on the tariff war until now, but struck a defiant note in his first remarks – doubling down on messages of strength and resilience already broadcast by Chinese officials and state media.
“Regardless of how the external environment changes, China will remain confident, stay focused, and concentrate on managing its own affairs well,” Xi said according to CCTV.
On Wednesday, Trump moved to give the rest of the world, with the exception of China, a 90-day pause on his tariffs. Beijing appeared to take some credit for that decision on Friday.
“We have noticed that, under pressure from China and other parties, the US has temporarily postponed the imposition of high reciprocal tariffs on certain trading partners. This is merely a symbolic and minor step, but it does not change the fundamental nature of the US’s use of trade coercion to pursue its own interests,” the Commerce Ministry spokesperson said.
Continue reading at CNN.com
France 24: What if no one blinks?
Note from Rima: In the background, are the things JD Vance said last week about China.
Forget tariffs — Beijing is already choking off US exports on the sly
China juices trade war with nontariff barriers targeting MAGA-friendly U.S. export sectors.
Beijing is showing the Trump administration that tariffs aren’t the only weapon in a trade war.
Long before President Donald Trump fired the opening shots of a new U.S.-China trade war from the White House Rose Garden last week, Beijing had been working to perfect its stealth campaign blocking key U.S. agriculture and energy exports. The Chinese government over the past four months has halted or significantly curtailed direct exports of major U.S. commodities including beef, poultry and liquified natural gas through an array of bureaucratic blocks and tricky third-party sales deals.
The so-called nontariff barriers to trade are even stickier than the escalating tariffs rippling across the global economy, analysts said. All together, the moves are an escalation of the curbs China has been honing since its bans on genetically modified foods a decade ago. And they provide Beijing added firepower in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war by targeting exports from Trump-friendly, deep-red states — think Iowa and Nebraska — with restrictions immune to possible workarounds for tariff barriers.
“A tariff, you can just pay it, and things just get more costly,” said Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “But this is a full restriction on your ability to send product to that country.”
The Chinese government knows where it can pinch U.S. exporters hardest. It has already declined to renew export licenses for hundreds of meatpacking plants, alleged that some U.S. chicken products contain unwanted drugs and stopped importing U.S. natural gas. Those industry targets also happen to be some of the president’s most ardent political supporters.
Such tactics underscore the dexterity of Beijing’s response to rising U.S.-China trade tensions — and its years of preparation for a new trade war. What began as an additional 50 percent tariff that raised levies on Chinese imports to north of 104 percent Wednesday turned into a 145 percent tariff level a little over 12 hours later. That second increase came after Beijing upped its own tariffs on U.S. goods to a total levy of 84 percent. Beijing’s counter-tariff reprisal pushed levies on U.S. imports to 125 percent Friday.
Continue reading at Politico
Fareed Zakaria for added context
China condemns JD Vance’s ‘peasants’ jibe
Beijing hammers US vice president as lacking “knowledge and respect” in escalating feud.
China on Tuesday branded U.S. Vice President JD Vance ignorant and disrespectful after he claimed that America was borrowing money from “Chinese peasants.”
Beijing “has made its position perfectly clear on its trade relations with the U.S.,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a press conference. “To hear words that lack knowledge and respect like those uttered by this vice president is both surprising and kind of lamentable,” he added.
Vance made the comments during an interview on Fox News last Thursday, while defending U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff measures. In his remarks, he used the term “peasants” to refer to some Chinese people.
“I think it’s useful for all of us to take a step back and ask ourselves, what has the globalized economy gotten the United States of America?” Vance said.
“Fundamentally, it’s based on two principles, incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things other countries make for us … We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things that Chinese peasants manufacture,” he added.
Continue reading at Politico Europe
DOGE takes over federal grants website, wresting control of billions
A DOGE engineer removed users’ access to grants.gov, threatening to further slow the process of awarding thousands of federal grants per year.
U.S. DOGE Service employees have inserted themselves into the government’s long-established process to alert the public about potential federal grants and allow organizations to apply for funds, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive situation.
The changes to the process — which will allow DOGE to review and approve proposed grant opportunities across the federal government — threaten to further delay or even halt billions of dollars that agencies usually make in federal awards, the people said. The moves come amid the Trump administration’s broader push to cut federal spending and crack down on grants that DOGE and other officials say conflict with White House priorities.
DOGE employees have made changes to grants.gov, a federal website that has traditionally served as a clearinghouse for more than $500 billion in annual awards and is used by thousands of outside organizations, the people said. Federal agencies including the Defense, State and Interior departments have historically have posted their grant opportunities directly to the site. Nonprofits, universities and local governments respond to these grant opportunities with applications to receive federal funding for activities that include cancer research, cybersecurity, highway construction and wastewater management.
But a DOGE engineer recently deleted many federal officials’ permissions to post grant opportunities, without informing them that their permissions had been removed, the people said. Now the responsibility of posting these grant opportunities is poised to rest with DOGE — and if its employees delay those postings or stop them altogether, “it could effectively shut down federal-grant making,” said one federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal operations.
Continue reading at the Washington Post
Military contractors pitch unprecedented prison plan for detained immigrants
Erik Prince wants to cut a deal to skirt immigration laws and transport detainees from the US to El Salvador
Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America.
The proposal, exclusively obtained by POLITICO, says it would target “criminal illegal aliens” and would attempt to skirt U.S. immigration laws by designating part of the prison — which has drawn accusations of violence and overcrowding from human rights groups — as American territory.
It’s unclear how seriously the White House is considering the plan by Prince, who has drawn scrutiny for his firm’s role in a deadly massacre in Iraq two decades ago. But it would give Prince’s group an unprecedented and potentially highly lucrative role in an expanded version of a transnational operation that has elicited its own web of controversies, in part because it has swept up immigrants who do not have criminal records in the United States.
Continue reading at Politico
CNN investigates the rise of extremism in the United States
State tells employees to report on one another for ‘anti-Christian bias’
“It’s very ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-esque,” one official said.
The Trump administration has ordered State Department employees to report on any instances of coworkers displaying “anti-Christian bias” as part of its effort to implement a sweeping new executive order on supporting employees of Christian faith working in the federal government.
The department, according to a copy of an internal cable obtained by POLITICO, will work with an administration-wide task force to collect information “involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration” and will collect examples of anti-Christian bias through anonymous employee report forms.
The cable was sent out to embassies around the world under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name. The instructions also were released in a department-wide notice.
The document says the task force, which was established by the executive order, will meet around April 22 to discuss its initial findings.
The cable encourages State Department employees to report on one another through a tip form that can be anonymous. “Reports should be as detailed as possible, including names, dates, locations (e.g. post or domestic office where the incident occurred,” the cable reads.
Continue reading at Politico
Musk goes where no other Trump adviser can: publicly disagreeing with the president
The Trump adviser appears uninhibited in sharing his opinions — and that seems to be just fine with the president.
President Donald Trump is notorious for selecting advisers who closely follow his command — and firing those who don’t. But Elon Musk seems to be the exception to that rule.
Musk has gotten increasingly bold in his open dissent in the past week on matters ranging from Trump’s political messaging to the president’s other advisers. And he has made a habit of getting out in front of the president, both before and after he joined the White House.
Democrats have tried to drive a wedge between the pair, mockingly referring to Musk as “President Elon” in a bid to try to anger the president who famously hates sharing the spotlight.
But by all accounts, Trump — who was notorious for firing officials at the drop of a hat under his previous administration — has remained happy with Musk, despite his fellow billionaire drawing a disproportionate amount of attention compared to other senior White House aides, and even members of the president’s Cabinet.
Spokespeople for the White House and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday about the pair’s relationship. But Trump has laughed off the co-president needling, saying in a joint interview with Musk on Fox News in February that “it’s just so obvious. They’re so bad at it.”
In fact, the president has continued to praise his adviser, even as he says he will leave soon. At a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Trump extolled Musk and his DOGE team, saying: “Your people are fantastic. Hopefully they will stay around for the long haul, we’d like to keep as many as we can.”
With no messaging from Trump otherwise, Musk has continued making known his opinions on administration affairs. Here are five times that Musk has gone well beyond any other presidential adviser:
Tariff tussle
Musk has taken aim at Trump’s trade counselor, Peter Navarro, one of the public faces of the administration’s signature aggressive tariff policies.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: “In fact, the president has continued to praise his adviser, even as he says he will leave soon.”
Musk put out a quarter billion dollars in cold hard cash to get Trump elected, showing us all that not even a president, when in someone else’s debt, can bluntly repudiate his lord and liege. That said, make no mistake, when Trump says he’ll leave soon, he means he’s working on freeing himself from the yoke of the shadow president.
Today's news
Democratic News Corner
New image shows Whitmer hiding face at surprise Trump photo-op
A new photo of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D-Mich.) surprise visit to the Oval Office emerged in a Saturday New York Times report showcasing the lawmaker covering her face while President Trump spoke to the press.
The Michigan Democrat said she was unexpectedly whisked into the room for the president’s order signing on Wednesday ahead of a scheduled closed door meeting. The two were set to discuss tariffs and opportunities to invest in Michigan’s defense assets, including the Selfridge Air National Guard Base.
“The governor was surprised that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Trump’s press conference without any notice of the subject matter,” Whitmer’s spokesperson told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister outlet, earlier this week.
“Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event,” her office added.
Whitmer, in the Wednesday photo captured by Times photographer Eric Lee, can be seen standing under portraits of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in the Oval Office with two blue folders shielding her face.
Continue reading at The Hill
Trump tariffs bring Democrat disagreements to surface
President Trump’s tariffs are putting Democrats in a challenging political position as they decide how strongly to denounce his trade policy.
Democrats have pounced on Trump’s tariffs in recent weeks as only boosting prices for consumers and causing international chaos, but much of the labor movement, a key part of the party’s coalition, supports tariffs to some extent to protect their industries from foreign competition.
Reflecting this reality, some Democrats in key battleground states — including, most recently, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) — have treaded more carefully on the issue, underscoring the divisions in the party.
One of those divisions appeared to come to light on Thursday when Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) criticized Whitmer’s comments from a speech she made in Washington earlier that week. In her remarks, Whitmer said she understood “the motivation behind the tariffs” and that she is “not against tariffs outright,” but warned against Trump’s strategy.
“You can’t just bust out the tariff hammer to swing at every problem without a clearly defined end-goal,” she said.
Whitmer expressed concern for the state’s automobile industry in an interview with journalist Gretchen Carlson shortly after her remarks, arguing the tariffs are not good for auto workers in Michigan.
“I would argue that all of this uncertainty is going to cost everyone of us but especially autoworkers,” she said. “I think we’re already seeing the immediate impact. The longer term, it could be a lot worse.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Sanders/AOC rally in Los Angeles April 12, 2025
KTLA reports that 36,000 people attended the unannounced rally
Shapiro says ‘arsonist set fire’ to Pennsylvania governor’s house
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said an “arsonist set fire” to the governor’s residence early Sunday morning, prompting his family to evacuate.
The governor and his family were present in a separate part of the house, and they were “evacuated safely and were not injured,” according to a statement from the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP).
“Last night at about 2AM, my family and I woke up to bangs on the door from the Pennsylvania State Police after an arsonist set fire to the Governor’s Residence in Harrisburg,” Shapiro wrote in a post on the social platform X.
The Harrisburg Bureau of Fire “successfully extinguished” the fire, but “it caused a significant amount of damage to a portion of the residence,” the PSP said.
The PSP, which is leading a “multi-agency investigation” into the incident, said it “is prepared to say at this time that this was an act of arson.”
The PSP is offering a reward of up to $10,000 through PSP Tips “for the arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible.” Those with information are encouraged to call 1-800-4PA TIPS (1-800-472-8477).
Continue reading at The Hill
News Alert: Suspect arrested after arson fire at Pennsylvania governor's house forced Shapiro and family to evacuate
A 38-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an arson fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s house as the governor and his family slept inside.
Pennsylvania State Police are investigating an arson at the governor’s residence overnight, which left the building with a “significant amount of damage.”
Colonel Christopher Paris, state police commissioner, said at a Sunday news conference Cody Balmer of Harrisburg had been arrested.
Continue reading at CNN.com
Khanna on Trump White House: ‘They need to have a 21st century understanding of the economy’
The Silicon Valley Democrat said the president’s tariff policies are “chaotic” and will hike prices without reestablishing manufacturing jobs.
The California Democrat said the White House’s plan to revive domestic manufacturing is already unraveling, pointing to the Trump administration’s decision to exempt smartphones and computers from his tariff regime after financial markets spiraled into chaos last week over his sweeping global tariffs announcement.
“They were chaotic and they were totally haphazard,” Khanna said. “So you had Howard Lutnick on, saying that we were going to bring manufacturing back, and electronics manufacturing back, to the United States, and they realized suddenly that that wasn’t going to happen.”
“Actually, the iPhone price would go up to 1,700 or 2,000 dollars,” he continued. “And by the way, if that manufacturing moved, it would probably move to Malaysia or Vietnam.”
Khanna, whose district includes Silicon Valley, argued that if the U.S. really wants to compete with China and rebuild advanced manufacturing, it needs investment — not tariffs.
“If you want to bring back the manufacturing to the United States, you have to invest in the workforce, you have to have some investment tax credit for the facilities, and you have to be able to buy the things we make in the United States,” he said.
Khanna’s remarks come ahead of a speech he is expected to give on Monday in Ohio — Vice President JD Vance’s home state — where he plans to cast Vance and Trump as “stubbornly cling[ing] to 19th-century dogma in a 21st-century world” with their approach to foreign and domestic policy. The speech also is part of a broader push led by Khanna to position himself as a counterweight to Vance.
Continue reading at Politico
National Security
Nothing to see here, yet
Economics
Apple has few incentives to start making iPhones in US, despite Trump’s trade war with China
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has been predicting its barrage of tariffs targeting China will push Apple into manufacturing the iPhone in the United States for the first time.
But that’s an unlikely scenario even with U.S tariffs now standing at 145% on products made in China — the country where Apple has manufactured most of its iPhones since the first model hit the market 18 years ago.
The disincentives for Apple shifting its production domestically include a complex supply chain that it began building in China during the 1990s. It would take several years and cost billions of dollars to build new plants in the U.S., and then confront Apple with economic forces that could triple the price of an iPhone, threatening to torpedo sales of its marquee product.
They might get a reprieve. The Trump administration said late Friday it was excluding electronics, including smartphones, from the current reciprocal tariffs. But it still could levy new or different tariffs on electronics at a later date.
“The concept of making iPhones in the U.S. is a non-starter,” asserted Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, reflecting a widely held view in the investment community that tracks Apple’s every move. He estimated that the current $1,000 price tag for an iPhone made in China, or India, would soar to more than $3,000 if production shifted to the U.S. And he believes that moving production domestically likely couldn’t be done until, at the earliest, 2028. “Price points would move so dramatically, it’s hard to comprehend.”
Continue reading at the AP
Tariff exemptions for electronics may not last, Commerce secretary says
“This is not, like, a permanent sort of exemption. He’s just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries,” Howard Lutnick said.
The tariff exemptions on smartphones and other electronics that cheered investors and consumers after being announced Friday may only be temporary — with President Donald Trump continuing to implement his vision to re-center global production in the U.S., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday.
“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick told Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week.” “So these are coming soon.”
The president jolted the global economy in early April when he launched sweeping 10 percent tariffs on nearly every country in the world, with much higher rates imposed on the countries whose trade surpluses with the U.S. he cast as exceedingly egregious. Amid continued market turmoil, Trump paused many of the tariffs for 90 days last week. The administration is now working on trade deals with select allies — and has just roughly three months for talks with countries around the world to make complicated deals.
While many of Trump’s tariffs are negotiable, Lutnick said the technology levies were temporarily removed Friday precisely because they aren’t.
“So this is not, like, a permanent sort of exemption. He’s just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries,” Lutnick told Karl on Sunday.
Continue reading at Politico
Note from Rima: You can watch clips of Lutnick’s appearance below
Commerce to launch Section 232 semiconductor probe
The investigation could lead to new tariffs on semiconductors in a move that would have sweeping implications for Asian countries and the tech sector.
The action sets the stage for more friction between the U.S. and major economies in East Asia, where the U.S. gets most of its chips, such as Taiwan, and would have sweeping implications for major U.S. technology companies that rely on chip imports.
South Korea, Malaysia and Japan are also key players in the semiconductor supply chain, including in chip assembly, testing and production. China is the world’s largest semiconductor market in terms of consumption.
The investigation will be launched under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to restrict imports deemed a threat to national security, the official said, who was granted anonymity to discuss developing plans. The official added that the purpose of the investigation is to “revive U.S. manufacturing in critical technologies.”
Commerce currently plans to allow a public comment period, they said. Those types of probes usually take up to 270 days to complete, although the White House has signaled the investigation could follow a faster timeline.
Trump has already launched Section 232 investigations into the copper and timber industries over the past two months and used the findings of a Section 232 investigation from his first term to justify expanding steel and aluminum tariffs in March.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump goes with his gut and the world goes along for the ride
WASHINGTON (AP) — After President Donald Trump reversed course on his tariffs and announced he would pursue trade negotiations, he had a simple explanation for how he would make decisions in the coming weeks.
“Instinctively, more than anything else,” he told reporters this past week. “You almost can’t take a pencil to paper, it’s really more of an instinct than anything else.”
It was the latest example of how Trump loves to keep everyone on edge for his next move. Trump has not only expansively flexed the powers of the presidency by declaring emergencies and shredding political norms, he has eschewed traditional deliberative procedures for making decisions. The result is that more of life around the country and the world is subject to the president’s desires, moods and grievances than ever before.
“We have a democratic leader who seems to have the authority to act as whimsically as a 19th century European autocrat,” said Tim Naftali, a historian and senior research scholar at Columbia University. “He sneezes and everyone catches a cold.”
The White House rejects criticism that Trump is overstepping his authority or improperly consolidating power. Administration officials frequently emphasize that the Republican president won a clear election victory and is now pursuing the agenda that he campaigned on. In this view, resisting his will, such as when courts block his executive orders, is the real threat to democracy.
Continue reading at the AP
Bridgewater founder: ‘We are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession’
Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor and founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said on Sunday the United States is “very close to a recession.”
In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Dalio expressed concern about a confluence of different economic and political factors that he said could send the U.S. economy into “something worse than a recession.”
“I think that right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession. And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well,” Dalio said when asked whether he thinks the U.S. will likely dip into a recession “because of President Trump’s tariffs.”
Dalio said he’s particularly concerned about U.S. debt and urged lawmakers to pledge to get the budget deficit down to 3 percent.
“If they don’t, we’re going to have a supply/demand problem for debt at the same time as we have these other problems. And the results of that will be worse than a normal recession,” he added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Neel Kashkari: Fast resolution with countries over tariffs will ease recession fear
Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said a fast resolution between the Trump administration and countries with tariffs will help ease the fear of a recession.
Kashkari joined CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where he was asked about the increasing odds of a recession after the administration slapped reciprocal tariffs on allies and adversaries alike.
“JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the odds of a recession are to 50-50, Goldman Sachs says 45 percent chance of recession, is the risk that high in your estimate?” host Margaret Brennan asked.
“It’s really going to be determined by, are there quick resolutions?” Kashkari replied, adding, “Are there quick resolutions to these trade uncertainties with our major trading partners?”
“The fast those resolutions come, I think more that confidence can be restored and hopefully those odds can be brought down,” he continued.
Still, Kashkari warned that it’s a “serious situation” that he said was volatile.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Also see Jamie Dimon on Fox News above
US trade representative defends administration’s tariff plan amid changes
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended the Trump administration’s tariff plan amid the changes to the original agenda.
Greer joined CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where host Margaret Brennan asked if the administration has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping after slapping a 125 percent tariff on the country and heightening tensions.
“Right now, we don’t have any plans on that. This issue is truly at the leaders’ level,” Greer replied.
Greer said he spoke to his Chinese counterpart before April 2, which President Trump had dubbed “Liberation Day.” He recently was pressed by a bipartisan group of senators in a testimony.
He said he expects that “at some point” the administration will have a conversation with China.
Greer’s remarks come after China announced last Wednesday it would be placing a new 50 percent tariff on U.S. exports, bringing China’s total on the U.S. to 84 percent.
After China retaliated with that tariff, Trump doubled down and said the country would be facing a more than 100 percent tariff.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: Greer’s appearance on CBS’ Face The Nation can be found in the Sunday News Shows section below
How bad is California’s housing crisis? A first-in-the nation bill would let students live in cars.
The Democratic proposal comes as the party looks to focus on cost-of-living issues.
SACRAMENTO, California — A progressive Democratic lawmaker is seeking a simple but jarring remedy of last resort for California’s college students navigating the state’s housing crisis: Let them sleep in their cars.
While roughly half a dozen state legislative proposals this year seek to fund student or faculty housing or loosen building regulations, the benefits would come far too late for current students struggling to stay afloat. With one in four California community college students experiencing homelessness in the past year, Democrats — who have a supermajority in the statehouse — face increasing pressure to deliver on affordability issues.
Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Southern California Democrat who has a doctorate in social work, said lawmakers can build long-term solutions while offering an immediate stopgap for a “worst case scenario.” His proposal, which cleared its first committee last month, would require community colleges and the California State University system to plan for an overnight parking program for students.
Without a sanctioned, on-campus parking program, students are left with no other option but to sleep in their cars somewhere off-campus where they might not be welcome, according to Jackson.
Supporters make clear the measure is not intended to be a permanent solution to the affordability crisis, but with rent in California more than 30 percent higher than the national average, the situation is dire.
“This just deals with the harsh realities that we find ourselves in,” Jackson said during a recent hearing.
Both the CSU and community college systems are opposed to Jackson’s effort, citing a lack of funding and a mandate that doesn’t address long-term housing solutions. Jackson, in an interview, argued the colleges aren’t taking a “very moral position.” He said they’ve remained opposed even after he has offered to waive liability and delay implementation until funding is available.
Continue reading at Politico California
Trump defends tariff exemptions for electronics: Nobody getting ‘off the hook’
President Trump defended his move on Friday to exempt some electronics from the escalating tariff war with China.
He denied the announcement amounted to an “exception,” arguing instead the products were moved to a different tariff “bucket,” and suggested his administration could still impose separate tariffs for the semiconductor industry and broader electronics supply chain.
“There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”
“We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations,” he added.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which collects duties on imports, issued updated guidance on Friday indicating roughly 20 products — including smartphones, computers, routers and semiconductor chips — would be excluded from the “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on countries including China.
Continue reading at The Hill
Health and Science News
HHS officials did not know how many people have been fired
Department of Health and Human Services officials during a closed-door briefing could not give a full accounting of the number of people who have been fired from the agency, a Democratic aide for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Friday.
HHS officials insisted to committee staff that the agency’s massive staffing cuts had been performed “with a scalpel” and “with nuance” but they did not have any numbers of who had been laid off, the aide told reporters.
“There did not seem to be a function level understanding of who had been terminated,” they added.
The briefing was held because members from both parties have indicated they were caught off guard by the sudden decision to cut as many as 10,000 workers from the health agency and have been asking for answers about the full scope of the effort.
Democrats on the committee are demanding HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. answer their questions in person at a hearing. They are concerned the agency’s core functions are being put at risk by the sweeping layoffs.
A Democratic aide on Friday said Kennedy may testify by June about the agency’s budget proposal, but they were told by HHS officials he would not be able to answer questions about the staffing reductions for 60 days, due to an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) statute.
Continue reading at The Hill
‘We are flying blind’: RFK Jr.’s cuts halt data collection on abortion, cancer, HIV and more
Fired workers and outside experts say the cuts leave the nation more vulnerable to health threats.
The federal teams that count public health problems are disappearing — putting efforts to solve those problems in jeopardy.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s purge of tens of thousands of federal workers has halted efforts to collect data on everything from cancer rates in firefighters to mother-to-baby transmission of HIV and syphilis to outbreaks of drug-resistant gonorrhea to cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The cuts threaten to obscure the severity of pressing health threats and whether they’re getting better or worse, leaving officials clueless on how to respond. They could also make it difficult, if not impossible, to assess the impact of the administration’s spending and policies. Both outside experts and impacted employees argue the layoffs will cost the government more money in the long run by eliminating information on whether programs are effective or wasteful, and by allowing preventable problems to fester.
“Surveillance capabilities are crucial for identifying emerging health issues, directing resources efficiently, and evaluating the effectiveness of existing policies,” said Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the first Trump’s administration. “Without robust data and surveillance systems, we cannot accurately assess whether we are truly making America healthier.”
The offices that ran the Sickle Cell Data Collection Program, the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System and the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer were scrapped. So were teams that reported how many abortions are performed nationwide, the levels of lead in childrens’ blood, alcohol-related deaths, asthma rates, exposures to radon and other dangerous chemicals, how many people with HIV are taking medication to suppress the virus, and how many people who use injectable drugs contract infectious diseases.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump in "excellent health," his physician says
White House physician Capt. Sean Barbabella released a memo Sunday providing a rare snapshot of President Trump's health.
The big picture: The results from Trump's first physical of his second term say there are no significant changes and that the president "remains in excellent health."
Trump, 78, and the oldest president ever inaugurated, refused calls during his first term and on the campaign trail to release medical records demonstrating his physical and cognitive well-being.
The findings from Friday's exam were only allowed to be shared publicly with his consent.
Driving the news: The three-page memo from Barababella lists multiple test results from what the president said was a five-hour trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The results shared with the public include the results of Trump's physical exam, which said his eyesight is normal, his lungs are clear and his thyroid and lymph nodes were normal.
The physical exam also documented that the president has a scar on his right ear from a gunshot wound, sustained in July 2024 during an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The memo also listed Trump as having normal heart function, and shared that he had a colonoscopy last July that found the president has diverticulitis and a benign polyp was removed.
Continue reading at Axios
Measles exploded in Texas after stagnant vaccine funding. New cuts threaten the same across the US
The measles outbreak in West Texas didn’t happen just by chance.
The easily preventable disease, declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, ripped through communities sprawling across more than 20 Texas counties in part because health departments were starved of the funding needed to run vaccine programs, officials say.
“We haven’t had a strong immunization program that can really do a lot of boots-on-the-ground work for years,” said Katherine Wells, the health director in Lubbock, a 90-minute drive from the outbreak’s epicenter.
Immunization programs nationwide have been left brittle by years of stagnant funding by federal, state and local governments. In Texas and elsewhere, this helped set the stage for the measles outbreak and fueled its spread. Now cuts to federal funding threaten efforts to prevent more cases and outbreaks.
Health departments got an influx of cash to deal with COVID-19, but it wasn’t enough to make up for years of neglect. On top of that, trust in vaccines has eroded. Health officials warn the situation is primed to get worse.
Recent cuts by the Trump administration have pulled billions of dollars in COVID-19 related funding — $2 billion of it slated for immunization programs for various diseases. Overseeing the cuts is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who rose to prominence leading an anti-vaccine movement. While Kennedy has said he wants his agency to prevent future outbreaks, he’s also declined to deliver a consistent and forceful message that would help do so — encouraging people to vaccinate their children against measles while reminding them it is safe.
Continue reading at the AP
Polling- Surveys
Most believe Trump tariffs benefit wealthy, corporations: Poll
Most Americans in a new poll say the wealthy and large corporations will benefit the most from President Trump’s tariffs on various imports and trade policies.
In the latest CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, 74 percent said that Trump’s tariffs and trade policies will benefit wealthy people, and 71 percent said they will benefit large corporations. Half of the Americans polled said they would benefit the U.S. auto industry.
Still, 42 percent of respondents said they see the working and middle class benefitting from the tariffs as well, with 45 percent saying they will benefit labor unions. Thirty-nine percent said the tariffs will benefit small businesses.
[…]
An increasing number of respondents say that Trump’s policies are making them financially worse off. The latest poll found that 49 percent said they are worse off, a seven-point increase since March, while 30 percent said they are the same, a five-point decrease. Twenty-three percent said Trump’s policies are making them better off financially, a two-point decrease since March.
The downward trend continues in Trump’s rating on his handling of the economy. The poll found that 44 percent approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, a seven-point drop since the beginning of March, while 56 percent say they disapprove of Trump’s handling, a seven-point increase.
Continue reading at The Hill
CBS News poll finds 75% of Americans are concerned tariffs will raise prices in short term
As the tariff standoff continues, a CBS News poll conducted from April 8-11 found that 75% of Americans are concerned tariffs will raise prices, at least in the short term. CBS News director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto discusses the results.
Trump says tariffs are a "beautiful thing," but some Americans aren't buying it
The big picture: Trump has paused many of his steepest levies, but the global economy took a historic blow. And while the White House says Trump's dizzying trade policy has been a masterclass in negotiation, polling suggests many Americans aren't enjoying the lesson.
Baseline 10% levies remain in place, on top of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
The White House did not immediately respond Sunday to Axios' request for comment.
Driving the news: 75% of Americans said in a new CBS News/YouGov poll of 2,410 U.S. adults that Trump's new tariffs would increase prices in the short term.
In the long term, 48% said prices would be higher, compared to 22% who said there would be no impact or they were unsure and 30% who predicted prices would fall.
More Americans (49%) in the poll, taken April 8 to 11, said that Trump's policies were making them financially worse off than they did in March (42%).
Zoom out: A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,027 adults similarly found that most Americans believe prices will increase on electronics and phones (77%), automobiles (73%), everyday items (73%) and other goods over the next six months.
Republicans, the survey found, were less likely than Democrats or independents to say prices would increase.
But Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to say that short-term economic pain is worth it to make the U.S. stronger in the long term, a sentiment 49% of Americans in the poll shared.
One stunning stat: The poll also revealed a broad misunderstanding of how tariffs, work: Overall, only 32% of Americans correctly answered that the statement "[t]ariffs are taxes paid by the country exporting goods" is false.
Continue reading at Axios
The Courts
Trump redefines fraud in quest to crush "Deep State"
Bruised by years of civil suits, criminal charges and a historic felony fraud conviction, President Trump is using his second term to delegitimize the very concept of white-collar crime.
Why it matters: Trump's belief that he was a victim of "lawfare" has tainted his view of the justice system. Paired with his crusade to crush the "Deep State" regulatory complex, Trump could enable a golden age of financial fraud, ethics watchdogs fear.
The big picture: At an institutional level, Trump's administration has moved swiftly in its first 80 days to narrow the government's mandate for enforcing fraud.
In early February, Trump and Elon Musk's DOGE team effectively shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the post-recession agency created to protect Americans from predatory financial practices.
Trump then paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, claiming the 1977 anti-bribery statute had been "stretched beyond proper bounds" and was hurting U.S. companies' ability to compete overseas.
In March, Trump fired two Democrats from the Federal Trade Commission, taking aim at one of the government's top watchdogs for corporate fraud, consumer deception and antitrust violations.
By the numbers: The administration has paused, dropped or withdrawn enforcement actions against at least 100 corporations accused of misconduct, according to the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen.
Zoom in: On an individual level, Trump has used his clemency powers and influence to rehabilitate disgraced businessmen and politicians — turning fraud convictions and indictments into badges of loyalty.
Continue reading at Axios
Mistakenly deported man's attorneys demand his return using Trump's own words
Driving the news: Trump on Friday told reporters that if "the Supreme Court said bring somebody back I would do that."
He added, "I respect the Supreme Court"
Abrego Garcia's lawyers characterized the president's statement as an acknowledgment that the U.S. "has the power to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from prison and return to the United States" in a Saturday motion for additional relief from the judge overseeing the case.
Despite the president's acknowledgment, the attorneys argued, "the Department of Justice and other Government agencies continue to resist this Court and the Supreme Court."
They're asking the court to order the government to take specific steps by the end of the day on Monday to comply with the injunction in the case and order expedited discovery of the government's actions to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.
They further asked the court to order the administration show cause by Monday morning as to why it should not be held in contempt.
Yes, but: In a Saturday Truth Social post, the president applauded Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele for having "graciously accepted into his Nation's custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World."
Continue reading at Axios
Video shows confrontation after Homeland Security agent arrives at 19-year-old green card applicant’s house
Lawyer James Rivera shared video confronting a Homeland Security agent who showed up unexpectedly for what he said was a welfare check on Rivera's client, a 19-year-old green card applicant.
Anti-DEI-Whitewashing
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Navarro says ‘Elon and I are great’ after Musk calls him ‘moron’
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Sunday his relationship with tech billionaire Elon Musk is “great” after the Tesla CEO called him a “moron” amid a public disagreement over President Trump’s tariff strategy.
In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Navarro insisted there is no issue with Musk, who has pushed for a “zero tariff situation” with Europe and has publicly dissed Navarro’s pro-tariff position.
“So, first of all, Elon and I are great. It’s not an issue,” Navarro told moderator Kristen Welker when asked whether Musk “won” their public tiff because of Trump’s 90-day pause on announcements of some exclusions on his tariffs.
When Welker noted Musk called the trade adviser a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks,” Navarro said, “I’ve been called worse.”
“Everything’s fine with Elon,” he continued. “And look, Elon is doing a very good job with his team, with waste, fraud and abuse. That’s a tremendous contribution to America. And no man doing that kind of thing should be subject to having his cars fire bombed by crazies.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Russian missile strike on Ukrainian city kills over 30 people
Over 30 people were killed in a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian city on Sunday, officials said.
The strikes hit the heart of the city of Sumy around 10:15 a.m. when people were gathering for Palm Sunday, The Associated Press reported.
“As of now, 31 people are known to have been killed in Sumy by the Russian ballistic missile strike. Among those killed were two children,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a post on X.
Zelensky said there were more than 84 people, including 10 children, who were wounded and receiving care.
Continue reading at The Hill
Note from Rima: The attack took place immediately after Trump envoy, Steve Witkoff, left his meeting with Putin in Moscow.
Someone set fire to Pennsylvania governor’s residence, police say
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Police say they evacuated Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family from the official governor’s residence after someone set fire to the building.
No one was injured.
The fire broke out overnight on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover, which Shapiro and his family had celebrated at the governor’s official residence in the state capital of Harrisburg. State Police said in a statement that, while the investigation was ongoing, they were “prepared to say at this time that this was an act of arson.”
Police gave no other details about the cause.
Continue reading at Politico
JB Pritzker doubts Republican promises on Medicaid
“Medicaid is where most of us think they will go,” he said.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Sunday challenged House Speaker Mike Johnson’s vow to protect Medicaid in the GOP’s mission to reduce the budget deficit, arguing that Republicans cannot make their proposed cuts without striking benefits.
“Medicaid is where most of us think they will go after because Republicans have been attacking Medicaid for years and years,” Pritzker said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” “Where will you find $880 billion? That’s the big question and the rest of us can see through it.”
In the GOP campaign to enact President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” House Republicans approved a budget framework last week that tasks the House Energy and Commerce Committee with finding $880 billion in budget cuts over 10 years. Democrats argue that the only pathway for Republicans to make the cuts is through gutting funding for benefit programs, like Medicaid.
Continue reading at Politico
Trump’s education agenda leaves ‘a political void’ for Democrats to fill
“That is where the politics are: ‘We made a mistake during Covid, and we’re going to fix it,’” former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said of Democrats on education policy.
Democrats think Donald Trump’s DEI-slashing, money-cutting education agenda is an unpopular stance the party can use to reconnect with voters they turned off during the pandemic. They just need to agree on a strategy.
Democratic lawmakers, teacher union leaders and fired agency employees have rallied outside Education Department headquarters and filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s moves to cull the agency’s staff and billions of dollars in spending. The maneuvers feed a progressive base demanding to fight the president on every front.
Their next steps are up for debate.
Some in the party believe lengthy pandemic school closures, fights about gender and race, and lackluster national test scores helped create a political opening for Trump. Others are pressing for specific policies to address school choice and dwindling test scores, while casting the demolition of the Education Department as perilous for students. Where Democrats settle could pay electoral dividends or keep them in the political wilderness.
“There is a political void being left by the Republicans and Donald Trump. That is an opportunity. Go fill it,” said Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor who clashed with the city’s teachers union. “In the past, we’ve had a standing on this issue — and a politically better position on this issue — than Republicans. We’ve frittered it away on secondary issues.”
Continue reading at Politico
Social Security is now an immigration enforcement tool
The agency responsible for managing the country's retirement system is now in the immigration enforcement business.
Why it matters: President Trump's aggressive deportation push is fast becoming a whole-of-government campaign.
Driving the news: There are hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. with "temporary parole" status — granted through various Biden-era programs. They received Social Security numbers in order to work.
A White House official tells Axios the Department of Homeland Security identified more than 6,300 of these folks who, they say, are on the FBI terrorist watch list, or with FBI criminal records.
The Social Security agency moved their names into its "Death Master File," a database of dead people. They have since renamed the file the "Ineligible Master File."
Zoom in: Inside the Social Security Administration, officials worry that people will be mistakenly added to the list, upending their lives.
Continue reading at Axios
How much federal money your state gets
Federal funding makes up 40% or more of overall revenue in nearly half of U.S. states, per the latest available data.
Why it matters: The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are looking for ways to cut federal spending, and some states may be more vulnerable than others to major decreases.
By the numbers: As of 2022, federal funding accounts for the greatest shares of state revenue in Louisiana (50.5%), Alaska (50.2%) and Arizona (49.7%).
It accounts for the smallest shares in North Dakota (22.2%), Hawai'i (25.9%) and Virginia (27.6%).
That's according to a Pew Charitable Trusts analysis of the latest available census data.
Stunning stat: Total federal grants exceeded $1 trillion in 2022 for the first time, per Pew.
Context: Federal funding's share of overall revenue in any given state can fluctuate from year-to-year depending on overall federal spending levels, state tax collections and more.
Continue reading at Axios
Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts threaten to roll back global maternal mortality progress
Maternal mortality rates have declined significantly across the world since the turn of the century, but global health experts fear that progress could be rolled back as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid.
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births dropped by about 40 percent worldwide between 2000 and 2023, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO said women today are more likely to survive childbirth than ever but warned that cuts to foreign aid pose a “threat of major backsliding” in that progress.
“The report comes as humanitarian funding cuts are having severe impacts on essential health care in many parts of the world, forcing countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health,” the United Nations health agency said in a release accompanying the report.
“These cuts have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths.”
President Trump and his administration have taken a series of actions to slash foreign aid since his return to the White House in January.
On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order freezing all foreign aid for 90 days. Shortly thereafter, the Trump administration issued a stop-work order on foreign assistance awards and then announced the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) would be placed under review and reorganized. Senior agency officials were placed on leave and hundreds of staffers were fired.
Continue reading at The Hill
Hegseth on countering China: ‘We’ve been sort of asleep at the wheel’
Fresh off a midweek trip to Panama, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday accused China of seeking to take the country’s famed Canal.
“The communist Chinese want to control politicians,” Hegseth said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.” “They’re building infrastructure projects. They want to surveil. They want to take that canal. President Trump says, not on our watch, and we’re fighting back.”
The United States, Hegseth said, had been “asleep at the wheel.” No longer.
The Defense Department last week touted several key victories Hegseth extracted in Panama, including agreeing on a joint declaration that will allow U.S. warships and auxiliary ships to proceed “first and free” along the canal. The two countries also signed an agreement on cooperative security activities.
“The Chinese didn’t like what happened in Panama this week, not at all, because this is a return of U.S. leadership, peace through strength and the course was charted by President Trump,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth’s tune on Panama is decidedly different from the rhetoric employed by Trump following his November election victory. Trump himself has floated plans to take the canal, refusing to rule out military force. The United States had ceded the canal to Panama following agreements negotiated by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
Continue reading at Politico
Some top tech leaders have embraced Trump. That’s created a political divide in Silicon Valley
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Like many in the tech industry, Jeremy Lyons used to think of himself as a relatively apolitical guy.
The only time he had participated in a demonstration before now was in the opening days of Donald Trump’s first presidential term, when he joined fellow Google workers walking out of the company’s Silicon Valley campus to protest immigration restrictions. Google’s co-founder and its chief executive officer joined them.
Last weekend was Lyons’ second, also against Trump, but it had a very different feel.
The man directing thousands of marchers with a bullhorn in downtown San Jose on April 5 was another tech worker who would not give his full name for fear of being identified by Trump backers. Marchers were urged not to harass drivers of Tesla vehicles, which have gone from a symbol of Silicon Valley’s environmental futurism to a pro-Trump icon. And no tech executives were anywhere to be seen, only months after several had joined Trump at his January inauguration.
To Lyons, 54, the change says as much about what’s happened to Silicon Valley over the past quarter-century as it does about the atmosphere of fear surrounding many Trump critics nowadays.
“One of the things I’ve seen over that time is a shift from a nerdy utopia to a money first, move fast and break things,” Lyons said.
Continue reading at the AP
Will Meta survive Judge Boasberg? The drama starts Monday.
A breakup of Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire is on the table — or it was, before Trump. Here’s what to watch when the trial kicks off.
After a nearly six-year investigation and legal battle, on Monday the Federal Trade Commission faces off against Meta in an antitrust trial that could decide whether the tech giant lives or dies.
If the FTC successfully convinces U.S. District Judge James Boasberg (yes, that Boasberg) that Meta used its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp to lock in an illegal social media monopoly, the agency would next look to unwind Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s carefully assembled social media empire.
That would break up a $1.4 trillion company — a process that hasn’t been attempted at such a scale since telephone monopoly AT&T was broken up 40 years ago, marking a historic pushback on excessive corporate power.
But the whole case was launched before Zuckerberg had cultivated a friendly new relationship with President Donald Trump.
Andrew Ferguson, Trump’s newly installed pick to lead the FTC, said earlier this month that his lawyers are “raring to go” against Meta. But concerns are growing that the president could weigh in on the social media giant’s behalf. Zuckerberg met with Trump in the Oval Office earlier this month, reportedly to ask for a settlement in the antitrust case ahead of trial.
The case has bipartisan roots: It was initially filed during the first Trump administration, then aggressively advanced by former President Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcers and is at last going to trial under the leadership of Ferguson.
Continue reading at Politico
Johnson: US must ‘eliminate people on Medicaid’ who are not ‘eligible to be there’
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday that Republicans would protect entitlement programs as they press ahead with deep cuts to federal spending, but added the government must “eliminate people on Medicaid” who are not “eligible to be there.”
“The President has made absolutely clear many times, as we have as well, that we’re going to protect Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, for people who are legally beneficiaries of those programs,” Johnson told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“There are a lot of Americans who rely upon those — those programs, and we’ve got to ensure that they’re safeguarded,” he said.
“At the same time, we have to root out fraud, waste and abuse, we have to eliminate on, for example, on Medicaid who are not actually eligible to be there. Able-bodied workers, for example, young men, who are — who should never be on the program at all,” he added.
“And…when you have people on the program that are draining the resources, it takes it away from the people that are actually needing it the most and are intended to receive it. You’re talking about young single mothers down on their fortunes at the moment, the people with the real disabilities, the elderly.”
Continue reading at The Hill
Playbook
Playbook: A rumble in the Rust Belt
Democrats have a JD Vance problem, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is on it.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Democrats have a JD Vance problem, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is on it.
Tomorrow at the City Club of Cleveland in Ohio — Vance’s home state — the Silicon Valley representative will frame Vance and Trump as “stubbornly cling[ing] to 19th-century dogma in a 21st-century world.” Khanna will also hit the president and vice president for “indiscriminate tariffs” in the beating heart of the Rust Belt.
The speech, shared exclusively with Playbook, amounts to one of the most intellectually rigorous framings of the Trump 2.0 era so far. But it’s also part of a monthslong effort by Khanna to get under Vance’s skin and fashion himself as a foil.
Khanna will accuse Vance of “making his own story — that of having it rough as a kid but getting a credential at Yale — less likely for those growing up here today,” according to the prepared remarks. “Vance may be young, but his ideas are old as they come.”
Khanna clearly sees Vance as the Republican Party’s future, and is seeking to establish himself as a counterweight. On Tuesday, he’s heading to Vance’s alma mater, Yale Law School, where he is expected to take on the topic of the courts, rule of law and Vance’s so-called “attack on free speech,” according to a person familiar.
Vance has already stirred 2028 talk in interviews — Trump will, of course, be constitutionally barred from election to a third term — and last month, became the first sitting vice president to serve as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair, a perch which will allow him to expand his national fundraising network. He’s sought to carve a space for himself as something of Trump’s attack dog on foreign policy, and his biggest flashpoints in office have centered on foreign policy, including his fiery February speech at the Munich Security Conference, in which he railed against the EU, and his remarkable Oval Office meeting with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But in Cleveland tomorrow, Khanna is set to hit Vance on domestic policy.
Khanna — who grew up in the Rust Belt as a son of Pennsylvania, and is meeting with laid off Ohio workers as you read this — will acknowledge that Trump and Vance campaigned against a system that Khanna agrees is “broken.” “They spoke about the hole in the hull of our economic ship,” he’ll say, according to prepared remarks. “But they offer no hopeful vision for the future.”
Here’s a look at some of the lines Khanna is expected to deliver (you can read the full prepared remarks here):
“Vance wants to slash Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, food stamps, and education to pay for even more giveaways. He’s ripping away the means of living — a final insult — from the very factory towns where good jobs were already shipped overseas.”
Continue reading at Politico Playbook newsletter
Iran nuclear talks expected to continue Saturday in Rome
A second round of nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran is expected to take place in Rome on Saturday, two sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios.
Why it matters: The Trump administration was satisfied with the first round of talks in Oman, which went according to plan and achieved their objective of shifting the format from indirect —handled through intermediaries — to direct, with officials conversing directly.
The Trump administration wants that to be the format in Rome, a venue switch suggested by the U.S. side.
Behind the scenes: The two lead negotiators, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, spoke for around 45 minutes on Saturday — longer than was revealed publicly, a source with knowledge told Axios.
The source described that conversation, the highest-level dialogue between U.S. and Iranian officials in eight years, as "substantive, serious and excellent."
Yes, but: The talks clearly started with a sense of distrust. The Iranians raised the fact that President Trump withdrew from the previous Iran deal and expressed concern that the U.S. could walk away again, the two sources say.
The U.S. side raised its own doubts about Iran's intentions regarding it nuclear program.
Continue reading at Axios
Rubio says another 10 people have been sent to El Salvador
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that another 10 people have been sent to El Salvador amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador. The alliance between @POTUS and President @nayibbukele has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere,” Rubio said in a post on the social platform X.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is going to the White House on Monday for an “official working visit,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously said. In the first few months of the second Trump presidency, the United States has sent deported migrants they have said are gang members to a large prison in El Salvador.
“Looking forward to seeing President Bukele, of El Salvador, on Monday! Our Nations are working closely together to eradicate terrorist organizations, and build a future of Prosperity. President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” President Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday.
“These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government. They will never threaten or menace our Citizens again!” the president added.
Continue reading at The Hill
Kellogg condemns Russia’s attack on Palm Sunday gathering in Ukraine
Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, condemned Russia’s attack on a Palm Sunday gathering in Ukraine.
“Today’s Palm Sunday attack by Russian forces on civilian targets in Sumy crosses any line of decency,” Kellogg said in a post on the social platform X.
“There are scores of civilians dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war,” Kellogg added.
Officials said that more than 30 people died in a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian city on Sunday. The Russian attacks struck the heart of Sumy on Sunday morning, when people were gathering for Palm Sunday.
“As of now, 31 people are known to have been killed in Sumy by the Russian ballistic missile strike. Among those killed were two children,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday on X.
Continue reading at The Hill
Zelensky accuses Vance of "somehow justifying Putin's actions"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited President Trump to Ukraine during a "60 Minutes" interview broadcast Sunday in which he addressed his fiery White House meeting in February.
The big picture: Zelensky said through an interpreter there had not only been "a shift in tone" in the U.S., but also "a shift in reality" as he suggested Russian leader Vladimir Putin's narrative had cut through to the Trump administration and singled out Vice President JD Vance.
What they're saying: "I don't want to engage in the altered reality that is being presented to me," Zelensky told CBS' Scott Pelley during the interview that was filmed in his hometown of Kryvyi Rih,, where 10 adults and nine children were last week killed in a Russian missile attack near a playground.
"First and foremost, we did not launch an attack," said Zelensky, addressing Trump's false claims in February that Ukraine had started the three-year-old war.
"It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin's actions," Zelensky said of Vance, who accused him during their White House meeting of showing disrespect and of misleading visitors by taking them on "propaganda tours."
"I tried to explain, "You can't look for something in the middle. There is an aggressor and there is a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim," added Zelensky in the interview that was filmed on Friday, the day White House envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Russia.
Representatives for the White House and Vance did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.
What we're watching: Zelensky spoke English when he appealed directly to Trump during the interview, saying Ukrainians "want you to come" and see for himself.
Continue reading at Axios
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The Federal Reserve vs. the Tariff Shock: What If It Isn’t Transitory?
As global supply chains fray and the economy veers towards recession, the Federal Reserve faces a different spin on a recent problem — one it can’t fully fix.
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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.